Welcome to all you wonderful Lynn Dralle Fans. I'm really pleased to have you join my newsletter list. Please remember, there's an unsubscribe link at the bottom of all my emails if you decide my style isn't for you.

This newsletter will update everyone on what happened at the eBay Radio Party, and also let you know about an incredible opportunity to have a CPA set up your QuickBooks at no charge.

The eBay Radio Party

The 6th Anniversary eBay Radio party happened last week - complete with speakers and a town hall meeting.

The Town Hall meeting was as interesting as they always are. While the phone lines were open to all - the questions came mainly from the Radio Party Attendees. Of course there were the never ending feedback questions and many great suggestions for tweaking the new View Item form.

The one question that particularly caught my attention was one about eBay's VeRO policies, the dashboard and lack of information for sellers to avoid being shut down, or blind sided by a policy violation. Brian Burke the Director of Seller Performance and Policy took this question on.

The problem, or question was twofold - 

One: Was about the seller dashboard and lowered rankings for a violation where your listing is closed down due to circumstances beyond the seller's control occurs. Often we feel like we're the innocent pawn in the struggle and to have our rankings lowered over it is harmful to our business. What's worse, is having a big red 'fail' mark greeting us on our dashboard daily. Brian agreed that eBay needs to do a better job at addressing this part of the dashboard. YEAH! 

Two: how to keep from receiving a policy violation and shutdown when there's not sufficient information on eBay to guide or direct sellers on how to avoid breaking the rules. The questioner had some perfume to sell - and to attract more buyers - he offered it Internationally. Quickly the listing was shut down under VeRO. 

Unknown to the seller, there is a trade policy many countries and companies enforce called "Parallel Imports" - and it appears that opening the item up for international sale caught this seller up in the policy. Brian agreed that providing enough information is difficult and reinforced the eBay policy that they shut down listings as soon as requested by rights owners - no questions asked. 

Wikipedia describes this trade policy: "A parallel import is a non-counterfeit product imported from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner."

This really highlights the complexity of a global selling platform - and shows how difficult it is for all sellers when it comes to understanding others counties' import/export laws. 

Parallel Imports is one of those policies you need to know about if you want to sell International on eBay. Unfortunately, you won't find any information on the eBay site!  

I'm in the process of creating a report about what Parallel Imports is and what you need to look out for - it'll be up on the Web Sellers Circle soon. 

If you'd like to see a video/photo montage of the eBay Radio event - I posted a video of the event on youtube here. 

BIG Sale On BlueHost Web Site Hosting Service

BlueHost, the company I use for my web hosting services, is having a sale $3.95 a month hosting -and no sign-up fees -if you sign up for two years. That's half off what their normal hosting fees are. Trust me, a two year contract for web hosting isn't that long. 

If you don't have a web hosting service - grab this deal. I've tried several companies and find BlueHost's service is very economical and they're very stable when it comes to downtime - in other words very little problems.

Best Web Hosting Plan! 300 GB Space, 3,000 GB Bandwidth (this is an affiliate link)

If you prefer to not click on my affiliate link go directly to bluehost.com and you'll receive the same offer. I think this is such a great deal I'd mention it even if I didn't receive a commission.

eBay Sellers Challenge - Your Chance to Win $25,000

For entrepreneurs who’ve dreamed of how they could expand their business online, eBay wants to help make that dream come true. The first ever Sellers Challenge calls for entrepreneurs to submit a business plan and video for a chance to win $25,000 to grow their business on eBay.

Watch a video on how to submit an entry and read all about the eBay Sellers Challenge at http://sellerschallenge.ebay.com

It's Official - The eBay Marketing Bible Is Shipping

The eBay Marketing Bible is shipping just in time for the eBay Radio Party. 


After months of seeing only the Word documents and photos plus countless Skype calls to Cliff -I'm relieved and delighted that this project is now a real live bound book. 

The books are for sale here

What's in the book:

  • build a successful marketing plan 

  • brand your eBay business 

  • develop strategies for individual auction listings and eBay stores 

  • combine online and offline strategies to build your businesses 

  • use email marketing, search engine listings, blogs, podcasts, YouTube, and more 

Here's Your Chance To Have Your QuickBooks Set-up FREE!
by a CPA 

Sheryl Schuff, MBA/CPA and I have been putting together a step-by-step guide to setting up your business accounting. Sheryl's doing all the hard accounting information, and Dany's doing the technical recording part. I get to do the graphics (so don't worry I won't be answering your tax questions - LOL).  It will be available on the Web Sellers Circle starting this week and when the course is completed it will be for sale as a CD. 

We decided the best way to teach people about navigating through QuickBooks is to show someone setting up and using their software. So, we're looking for a volunteer. If you'd like to have your account set-up for FREE - by a registered CPA - let us know. Yes, free and you get to ask all your questions about accounting to a Certified Public Accountant with over 30 years in the field. Sound good? 

Here's the information, in Sheryl's words:

I’m offering one lucky business owner the chance to get a free setup (or makeover) of their QuickBooks software.

Who’s this for? It’s for you if:

  • You’re using Quicken or Money or Excel because the thought of “double entry accounting” makes you break out in a rash

  • You bought QuickBooks 2009 this year because of the free rebate deal, but you haven’t even opened the box

  • You went through the QuickBooks set up wizard, but felt like most of your answers were just wild guesses

  • You’re losing sleep, worrying that you’re not keeping your books correctly and the IRS is gonna make you pay

  • Your accounting records consist entirely of a paper checkbook register and a shoe box full of receipts

  • Someone else has always kept your books, but now that it’s up to you, you want to streamline the process as much as possible

I’ll choose one (maybe two) entries, based on their answers to a few short questions. Yep, that’s the catch. You have to tell me a little about your business and why you’d like to be chosen. No, it won’t take hours of your time to fill out the entry—and yes, it will save you MANY HOURS of time to have your QuickBooks set up professionally.

For more details - click here to go to No More Bookkeeping Headaches

Deadline for entry is July 7th - so go now!

Amazon Conference - July 10-13

Colin Sebastian, Digital Media & Internet analyst at Wall Street firm Lazard Capital Markets, estimates that Amazon.com's third-party sellers will generate nearly $9 billion in gross merchandise sales in 2009. This is up from roughly $7 billion in 2008.

If you want to learn more about getting on board in this hotly growing sales venue, a great jumping off point is the Independent Sellers Conference.

This is the independent conference for entrepreneurs who utilize amazon.com as a sales platform.

Dates = July 10-13 2009
Place - Seattle Airport Marriott and Amazon HQ

This conference is presented to allow sellers to network, learn, and grow their online businesses. Executives from amazon.com will be on hand to lead sessions, answer questions and receive feedback. 

Website: http://www.scoe.biz
Location: SeaTac, WA

This year I'm leading a discussion on transitioning from eBay to the Amazon platform and have some fantastic panel members joining me. Here's the line-up:

Monsoon’s CEO, Kanth Gopalpur

Skip McGrath eBay PowerSeller, author and Amazon Seller

Alice Rudolph – eBay PowerSeller and Amazon Pro Merchant, from aliceinstitches

Michael Levit, EVP of Marketing and Business Development from Vendio

Cindy Shebley (me) – eBay PowerSeller and Amazon Pro Merchant/FBA seller

One Last Word

Don't forget our dollar offer!

Dany and I have a simple offer - please give The Web Sellers Circle a try for 21 days for $1.00. We're confident you'll find value with the material, the networking opportunities, and the forum discussions.

Here's the link to check it out: http://www.websellerscircle.com/public/10.cfm

That's it for now,

Cindy Shebley
eBay Certified Business Consultant
author eBay Marketing Bible
www.websellerscircle.com

theFlip MINO

Copyright 2009 Cindy L. Shebley Enterprises