Archive for July 2006
Scammers are using bots to create bogus eBay accounts that boast trustworthy profiles in a new scheme to rip off buyers, a security company said Monday.The scam, said Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Fortinet, is a new twist on an old con where criminals set up bogus auctions, rake in the proceeds, and then scram, never intending to [...]
EBay Stock Forcast Still Negative
I started writing about eBay for Blogging Stocks in mid-June, only a month and half ago, when eBay was still over $30 a share. It’s now trading under $24.I kept noticing this downtrend, aware of investors concerns, but never 100% sure why the sentiment was so negative. Especially after Q2 earnings report. I thought that [...]
EBay Cracks Down on Policy Violators
EBay’s enforcers cracked down last month on Julie Ann Brown, a marketing professor who sells prayer cards and Victorian paper in her spare time.She had violated a policy against bidding on one of her own items, or “shill bidding,” an incident she acknowledges took place but said was an accident that should be outweighed by [...]
How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
Rhonda Abrams at Gannett News Service: This year, millions of Americans will start businesses or become self-employed. Many will have run their own businesses before, but for the majority, it will be their first time owning a business. So they have to learn how to think like an entrepreneur. I’ve run my own businesses for [...]
Six Figure Business Setting up Pajama Parties
Unusual Businesses Ideas That Work Blog: Women want to network with other women while wearing pajamas, getting spa services and shopping—at least this is what Melody Biringer, 41, found out when she founded Crave Party. Inspired by a pajama party at a friend’s home, Biringer got the idea to create fun business networking events for [...]
New Canadian Small Business Blog
D&B Canada (formerly Dun & Bradstreet) and Creative Weblogging today announced the launch of a new blog to serve Canadian small business owners. The blog, Small Biz Unplugged at www.smallbizunplugged.ca, is dedicated to supporting the Canadian small business owner with information on everything a small business owner in Canada would be dealing with. Topics include [...]
EBay opens up 15 Million Share Tied to Skype
 EasyBourse Friday registered about 15 million shares of common stock for sale from time to time by certain selling stockholders. The shares were originally issued to the selling stockholders in connection with eBay’s acquisition of Skype Technologies SA, a Luxembourg-based Internet phone service company, last October. The online auction company said it won’t receive any [...]
PayPal and eBay Are Targeted 75% of the Time
 Money Control Tech Blog Sophos has revealed that over 75% of all phishing emails are targeting users of PayPal or eBay. Experts at SophosLabs scanned all phishing email messages received in the company’s global network of spam traps during 2006, and have revealed that 54.3% were attempting to steal information from users of PayPal. The [...]
This week’s Carnival of Personal Finance is up at AllFinancialMatters.
This week’s Carnival of Marketing is up at Coolz0r – Marketing Thoughts.
This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is up at Selling to Small Business.
5 Habits of Successful Beggars
Money Matador: Keep your voice down Be “honest� Be clean and nicely dressed Remember a sucker Learn to love rejection
Business Week: “Barbara Boxer, a practicing attorney in Milwaukee, knows just how difficult it can be for women entrepreneurs to raise money. She ran her own mail-order medical supply company for 20 years before selling it in 1990, and now many of her clients are women who own businesses. After participating in a conference for [...]
A Little Money Goes a Long Way
Business Week: Ann Brown and Maria Martinez have never met, but last March Brown loaned Martinez $50. It was part of a $400 loan Martinez needed to get her clothing store up and running in Danli, Honduras. She used the cash to buy colorful hairbands, bright shirts, frilly button-downs, and baby onesies. Sales have picked [...]
Craigslist Adds Self Employment Forum
Chuck Huckaby: Craigslist is offering a self employment forum on their site now. When you go to the “jobs� forum, you can then click on a link to the “self-employment forum�. I’ve just started browsing it but it seems like an interesting place to make content and learn things to say the least. The Amway [...]
Settlement Paid out By Kazaa & Skype
 Reuters  Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the billionaire Internet entrepreneurs who created Kazaa and Skype, have reached into their own pockets to help settle a lawsuit brought by the music and movie industries. Australia’s Sharman Networks, the lead defendant in a lawsuit by the movie and music industries which was settled on Thursday, confirmed that [...]
Niche market research the cheap, fast and easy way » Slacker Manager (tags: bizopblog business freelance internet marketing marketresearch productivity research niche) Padgett Business Services Small Business Accounting & Tax Services and Franchising opportunities Offers Small Business Accounting & Tax Services and Franchising opportunities. (tags: bizopblog accounting franchising taxes)
Big Corporations Snatch Small-Business Contracts
Inc.: A new report claims more than 2,500 large companies received money earmarked for small businesses. Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and Coca Cola are just a few of the corporate giants that received small-business contracts by the federal government last year, Democratic lawmakers said on Wednesday. In all, more than 2,500 large companies received federal cash set aside [...]
Episode two of the Business Opportunities Weblog Podcast is up: You’re going to love this week’s episode. Our guest is Rick Roberge, an expert salesman that works with Dave Curlan & Associates and shares some great tips at The RainMaker Maker blog. He shares some great tips and advice for entrepreneurs and we talk through [...]
Interviewed by Business Opportunity Radio
Chris Murch with Business Opportunity Radio interviewed me today. Have a listen. Sounds like I might be a regular guest.
CNET News: Google-powered ads, which have become a mainstay on Web sites, are now being played on at least one radio station in Detroit. And like so many other Motor City radio products, it won’t be long before they go global. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a conference call with analysts last week [...]
DNA, Your Ancestry and a Great Business Idea
Unusual Businesses Ideas That Work: As an African-American, Dr. Rick Kittles wanted to know who his ancestors were and their countries of origin. So the geneticist decided to create a database of African lineages. After working on this database for several years, Kittles, 38, who holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology, joined forces with businesswoman [...]
Creating Passionate Users: I’m so tired of seeing so many products with the same features that nobody wants. It’s bad enough to let feature requests from users get out of control, but when we start adding features just because our competitors have them, we’re all screwed.
10 Things I Have Leaned About Entrepreneurial Business
Andrew Baron and his video business RocketBoom have been the talk of the blogosphere recently. In this post, he shares the lesson’s he learned running RocketBoom: Always work with people who are better than you. Treat everyone with the highest regards and pay the people who work for you greater than their value. Do everything [...]
A Simple Way to Estimate Projects
Scott Allen: Most entrepreneurs tend to underestimate the time and effort required for projects (come on – fess up – when was the last time you overestimated a project?). Why is that? I believe that one reason is because entrepreneurs are, by nature, optimistic. You almost have to be an optimist to be an entrepreneur. [...]
Unwired eBay Shopper- Don’ Be Out Bid
 KXAN News  Do you ever place a bet on eBay, only to miss the final moments of the auction and lose the item? Well, now you’ll never have to miss out in the final bidding process. Whether you’re bidding on computers or Star Wars toys, the best way to win your eBay auction is [...]
JournalStar The Nebraska treasurer’s first foray into selling unclaimed property on eBay was an enormous success, bringing in more than twice the estimated value. The items —  jewelry, coins and an antique pocket watch, all left in forgotten or abandoned safety deposit boxes — were valued at just more than $800. They brought in just [...]
 cNet News The new version, 1.5, of the voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) client boasts a new, more streamlined look. However, much of the functionality in the new Mac beta involves the sort of features that Skype’s Windows users have enjoyed for some time, such as menu-selectable dialing codes and easy importation of address book [...]
Why eBay and the other Top 4 are Struggling
Slate  From the ashes of the 2001-2002 crash there emerged four horsemen of the dot-com apocalypse: Amazon.com, Yahoo!, eBay, and AOL. This quartet of iconic companies, wounded but not destroyed in the crash, survived the plague years and flourished when the market recovered. But in recent weeks, at a time when online advertising and e-commerce are [...]
Jason Friend : Out of everything that was said, one thing really stuck with me. When Lucas was asked how he deals with the heated competition in the web hosting space, he said, and I’m partially-paraphrasing, “We just do what we do best. We focus on our business, our customers, and our vision. Most businesses [...]
Top 10 Dumbest Online Business Ideas That Made It Big Time
WeirdTechNewsHub: Million Dollar Homepage – 1000000 pixels, charge a dollar per pixel – that’s perhaps the dumbest idea for online business anyone could have possible come up with. Still, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old who came up with the idea, is now a millionaire. SantaMail – Ok, how’s that for a brilliant idea. Get a postal [...]
Ditching the Daily Grind – 5 Who Did It
Jessica Seid at CNN Money: Some suits are finding greater satisfaction working for themselves. And there are a growing number of business-to-business franchises that are well “suited” for former executives who want to put their experience to work, but on their own terms. Although starting a new business can be risky, here are some examples [...]
Become a ‘Chicken Entrepreneur’
CNN Money: No, you won’t have to work on a farm or do a funny dance. It just means starting your own business on the side while keeping your day job. Always dreamed of starting your own business but too chicken to quit your day job? Don’t worry, that’s not such a bad thing; in [...]
PayPal Hits Highest Level to Date
 Cardweb  PayPal has neared the 114 million account milestone at mid-year, a 44% increase from one-year ago. Total payment volume rose 37% to a record $8.9 billion which includes payments initiated through the PayPal system but excludes its payment gateway business. The number of active accounts hit 29.5 million as of June 30th, its [...]
Getting Funding for a Not-Yet-a-Business Idea
Entrepreneur: The truth of the matter is, ideas don’t get funded; businesses get funded. That became the mantra of the professional investor community after the dotcom bust of the late 90s. However, for most entrepreneurs, getting from the idea stage to the business stage requires capital, and it has to come from somewhere. The following [...]
Mother of Invention Inspires Studio for Kids
Los Angeles Times: When her daughter was a toddler, Leeanna Gantt started looking for arts-and-crafts studios where Riley could experiment without having to be enrolled in a class. But the Sherman Oaks resident couldn’t find one. “There wasn’t an unstructured place for little kids to do art,” Gantt said. So for years, the Gantt dining [...]
Barry bonds 715th Home Run Ball on eBay
 Newsday Andrew Morbitzer, the San Francisco Giants fan who caught Barry Bonds’ 715th home run ball on May 28, put it up for auction on eBay yesterday afternoon. The bidding opened at $10,000, but nothing more during the first six hours of the 10-day auction. The auction has an undisclosed reserve price, but the ball [...]
 FORBES The pendulum of negative sentiment has swung too far on shares of eBay, as investors are now exaggerating the stock’s risk, according to a Tuesday report from Bear Stearns. The research firm currently has an “outperform” rating on eBay (nasdaq: EBAY – news – people ) with a $33 target price. “With the stock [...]
 Corante eBay, despite doing business in more than 20 countries, still earns the bulk of its revenues from US sellers, folks who have been increasingly unhappy about steadily increasing listing fees. When eBay North America president Bill Cobb confirmed recently that eBay wasn’t charging transaction fees to sellers in China, sellers in the US were [...]
St. Petersburg Times: Connie Bova was looking for “something entrepreneurial” to do until she went shopping for clothes for her 33-year-old husband, Jeff, who’s a slim, trim 5 feet 7. “I went to every men’s department in two Tampa malls and couldn’t find anything in his size”, said Connie, 28, a recent Stetson Law School [...]
Springwise reports: Mesh Tennis is a new social networking site just for tennis players, connecting the tennis community online. The website lets tennis players find other players of their own skill level, in their own area. It also lets players record scores and matches, review tennis gear, schedule events and read the latest tennis news. [...]
10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job
Steve Pavlina: Here are some reasons you should do everything in your power to avoid getting a job: Income for dummies. Limited experience. Lifelong domestication. Too many mouths to feed. Way too risky. Having an evil bovine master. ging for money. An inbred social life. Loss of freedom. Becoming a coward. Photo by Big Fat [...]
All eBay Sellers in UK & US Mad Over Fees
AuctionBytes eBay sellers in Australia and the UK were as unhappy as those in North America over eBay hikes in Store fees. And while eBay is charging sellers higher fees for Store listings, they are at the same time decreasing Store listings visibility to potential buyers by rolling back Stores in Search effective August 1. [...]
Depends on What Your Definition of “Is” Is
ReveNews: Google respondsto the buzz created by Eric Schmidt’s March comments on click fraud today (finally). Most everyone suspected that the comments (“let clickfraud happen”) were taken somewhat out of context, but I hope that they pursue fraud faster than they pursued making an official post about this statement. Granted, the comments have only recently [...]
Play Money: or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot
Kottke: During the depths of the dot com bust, Julian Dibbell looked online for a job and found one as a commodities trader in the Ultima Online virtual world. During one particularly productive month, he made almost US$4000. Dibbell has a book coming out about the experience, Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day [...]
Ebay COO Not Leaving Empty Handed
Mercury News EBay Chief Operating Officer Maynard Webb, who has pocketed more than $90 million exercising and selling eBay option shares since joining the company in 1999, will retire from the company in August. In his most recent trade on June 30, he spent $484,688 exercising his option to buy 25,000 shares for $19.39 each, [...]
 GigaOM EBay customers are upset over San Jose, Calif.-based auction giant’s decision to stop charging users in China transaction fees, mostly because of intensified competition from Taobao (Alibaba) and Tencent, at a time when they are being hit by price hikes as high as 400%. During a recent earnings conference call, eBay CEO Meg Whitman [...]
How Can I Earn a Living by Online Bookselling?
Chuck Huckaby: I found this interesting as someone who purchases dozens of used books on Amazon.com and to a lesser extent Half.com. I find that many of the books can be purchased for the price of media mail shipping $3.49 + a few bucks making my average book purchase $6 to $10 and most of [...]
With Zimmerman PayPal Integrates Text Messaging
 Cheap Hosting Directory PayPal is working with Zimmerman Advertising (formerly Zimmerman Partners), to help brand marketers integrate text message-based service, PayPal Mobile into advertising and marketing campaigns. PayPal Mobile is a text message-based service that allows consumers in the US and Canada to send money anytime, from anywhere, using mobile telephones. PayPal Mobile allows users [...]
Forbes: We’ve all heard about the wonders of the broadband Web. You can stream video, surf at lightning speeds, search for God-knows-what, get your e-mail in a blink. Here’s what you may not know: It can let you live far richer than you probably live now. Let me explain: For most of us, our biggest [...]
