Archive for November 2006
DEFENCE bosses have banned troops from surfing eBay — because it’s distracting them from the nation’s defence. Military IT experts discovered that servicemen who had returned from overseas duty were busy spending a £2,240 bonus on the auction site. Top brass were worried it was too much of a distraction, so brought in the ban [...]
After a bit of a sticky start with the Korean authorities, Skype is now said tobe offering SkypeIn to South Korean users. The new service will be offered with local online auction site, appropriately called Auction. eBay, which owns Skype, also owns more than a 99-percent stake in the Korean site, Auction. Skype initially ran [...]
Jeff Cornwall: I heard a report on Wall Street Journal radio this morning about another example. It seems that many entrepreneurs with lawn service businesses are also getting into the professional Christmas decorating business. Those of you who live in America’s suburbs have seen the proliferation of ever expanding outdoor Christmas lights and decorations displays. [...]
Hot Idea: Party Planning for Teens
Entrepreneur: Blame MTV’s My Super Sweet 16 for showing teens nationwide the extremes the super-wealthy go to for a child’s coming-of-age soiree. American teens, who number more than 70 million, want what’s hot at their parties–from bar and bat mitzvahs to sweet 16s, quinceañeras and other coming-of-age rites. Whether you start a new specialty, add [...]
I just discovered a unique home-based opportunity, that’s really got me excited: They teach people to make money. Period! They don’t motivate or inspire. They teach motivated people how to make huge amounts of money so they can enjoy their life. You will learn: To use a powerful system already in place to produce a [...]
Micro Biz: Cardboard Construction
When Andrew McGrew was an elementary art teacher he wanted to build BIG cardboard sculptures with his students. He did a few projects, but there was a definite limit to the size of sculpture he could make using duct tape before it collapsed under it’s own weight, and duct tape didn’t hold up well to [...]
Entrepreneur.com: It’s an age-old conundrum that faces every entrepreneur planning their business: What do I pay myself? There are a lot of different theories when it comes to this issue, but the two most common for startups are: 1. Pay yourself enough to get by. At least during startup until you are operating in the [...]
Seth Godin: Make it easy for someone to bring up what you do (by changing the nature of the service or product). Give your best customers something of real value to offer to their friends (a secret menu, a significant gift certificate). Once you do that, not giving that gift to a friend feels selfish. [...]
Entrepreneur: Whether it’s a drip, a latte or a cappuccino, Americans are addicted to their coffee. According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, specialty coffee was an $11 billion industry in 2005, up from $9.6 billion in 2004. But some historians theorize that what Americans are really looking for in their cup of joe [...]
eBay Sales Numbers for Wii & PS3
The dust has settled on the first week of console-launch profiteering on eBay. Which way did your bank account go? Gamasutra reports that the numbers are in on exactly how many hotly-traded consoles made their way across the auction block during the first week of launch madness. According to eBay, 14,675 PS3s were traded between [...]
Committee Wants eBay to Report Seller Revenue to IRS
AuctionBytes.com: A United States IRS advisory committee recommended the IRS require Internet business sites to get tax identification numbers from all sellers, according to USA Today. It appears this non-governmental panel wants to put the burden on sites like eBay, requiring them to collect tax ID numbers and report sellers’ income to the IRS. Blame [...]
Scotsman.com: Priceyourmeal.com, which launched in Glasgow in March, now has more than 80 restaurants on board, taking in excess of 700 bookings a week. Registered users can use the site to bid for meals at top restaurants in auctions or haggle directly with the restaurants over meal prices. Sukhvir Dhillon said he saw a gap [...]
Credit Cards Fish For Small-Business Biz
USA Today: Small-business owners face an onslaught of choices as companies blitz them with new credit card offers. American Express just launched a cash-back card aimed at small companies. Visa this month is rolling out a card targeting small firms with big appetites, those spending $25,000 or more a year. Discover entered the market for [...]
StarTribune.com: Kristen Manolis has parlayed her love for social events into the launch of Decor-In-A-Box. The New York-based Web business delivers by mail the items you need to stage a party for eight, 12 or 25, in color schemes of red, white, green, silver, gold and chocolate. The basic box for eight starts at $250, [...]
College Graduates Finds Niche In World Of Online Retail
CharlotteObserver.com: Selling socks for diabetics and gifts for animal lovers might not seem a hip online business for two recent college graduates. But the Charlotte entrepreneurs hope brisk sales on what has become known as Cyber Monday are a good omen for their online future. Jon West, co-founder and president of operations for Charlotte-based 3tailer, [...]
Irish Entrepreneur Hits Pay Dirt
GlobeandMail.com: When an Irish businessman named Alan Jenkins visited the Irish Cultural Center in Queens last year exploring the possibility of shipping Irish earth to nostalgic expatriates in the United States, Father Colm Campbell gave Mr. Jenkins his hearty endorsement. “It’s an Irish tradition to sprinkle a little of the auld sod on the casket,” [...]
80% Of U.S. Web Users To Buy Gifts Online
Digital Trends News: A new poll conducted by AOL Shopping and Zogby International finds that ome 80 percent of U.S. Web users plan to do some of their holiday shopping online this year, while nearly a quarter of the (24 percent) plan to spent most of their holiday budget online. Looking at the top 20 [...]
Florida Mulls How To Regulate Ebay Businesses
Associated Press: The eBay community is thriving, and so are the businesses that sell stuff for people on the popular auction Web site. Now add Florida to the growing list of states deciding how to classify and regulate those enterprises. No one can seem to agree whether they are auctioneers, pawnbrokers, secondhand shops or something [...]
Web Catalog Offers Prison-Made Products
Associated Press: Internet shopping knows no boundaries, not even for products made behind bars. Maryland Correctional Enterprises, the manufacturing division of the state Division of Correction, has put its 182-page catalog online. Now anyone can see, if not buy, hundreds of items the agency offers for sale to government agencies and Maryland nonprofit organizations. The [...]
Web Sites Taking Place Of Teen Mags
The Mercury News: Ellegirl is just one in a line of major teen magazines that have recently closed. Celebrity-focused Teen People stopped publishing with its September issue and YM stopped printing in 2005. Do these closures reflect a shift in the way teens are getting the scoop on fashion and celebrities? “They get it instantly,” [...]
eBay Releases Results For Black Friday
eBay released data on how certain popular items fared on eBay.com on “Black Friday,” traditionally one of the busiest retail shopping days in the U.S. eBay said 2,537 TMX Elmo dolls sold for an average price of $70.10 each, and 73 Furreal Butterscotch Pony toys sold for an average price of $350.48 each. Four Samsung [...]
Companies Unsure How To Secure Skype
Enterprises are facing increased security and compliance risks due to the unmanaged use of Skype on corporate networks, according to a recent survey conducted by Akonix Systems, Inc., provider of the most deployed instant messaging (IM) security and compliance products in the world. In a September 2006 survey, nearly 43% of respondents claimed that Skype [...]
Google’s Checkout Expands for Holiday’s
Google on Monday launched a holiday site featuring retailers that use its Checkout payment service and unveiled money-back promotions to lure customers. Similar to eBay’s popular PayPal service, Google Checkout, which launched in June, provides a single avenue for making purchases on multiple retail sites, rather than inputting shipping addresses, credit card numbers, and other [...]
This week’s Carnival of Marketing is up at Digital Solid.
This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is up at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.
Notoriety Helps Product Take Off
Startup Journal: In September, the fortunes of Spirit Partners Inc. looked bleak. Sales of its only product — a device that vaporizes liquor, allowing it to be inhaled rather than drunk — had slowed nearly to a halt. And the company had no marketing budget. Then news broke of a Kentucky legislator’s effort to ban [...]
Community Outreach Through NationalSOS
Work at Home Chuck: Hey, do you market anything that ties in with your community somehow? Maybe you sell cellular phones, CB radios, or GPS systems. Perhaps you sell “family emergency kits�. Possibly you sell nutritional products and just want a punblic service project to get you city wide, county wide, or area wide free [...]
Entrepreneur Daily: Brian Jones, runs a rather unusual business venture–he sells lamps reminiscent of the one Ralphie’s father receives in A Christmas Story, with a base in the shape of a woman’s stocking-clad leg. Red Rider Leg Lamps, launched back in 2003, has generated sales of almost $700,000. But Jones didn’t stop there. He took [...]
Where To Park? Web Site Tips Drivers To Spaces
Associated Press: Looking for a parking space? Try cyberspace. Santa Monica California, well-known among locals for its lack of parking, is unveiling a new online service that alerts people every time a parking space opens up in its central shopping district. The system is believed to be among the first of its kind, said software [...]
Read/WriteWeb: Along with the increasing internationalization of the Web, comes the language challenge. China is obviously a key Web and business market going forward, so there is currently a lot of interest in learning Mandarin. As one solution to this, Ken Carroll recently contacted me to tell me about ChinesePod – the site he co-founded [...]
Student Entrepreneur Provides Mobile Laundry Service
Tuskegee University: Times haven’t changed much. Freshmen attend college miles away from home with little money, no transportation and using what little time they have after studies doing that dreaded laundry. Tuskegee University student Bernard Height, a junior sales and marketing major from Redlands, Calif., came up with a solution. Height, 20, made a dream [...]
Associated Press: When a Web site dies, it goes to Web heaven: Archive.org. The Internet generally has complete disregard for keeping records or charting its past. Once a Web site is gone, it seems to disappear into the digital ether. With its “Wayback Machine,” however, Archive.org seeks to bring posterity to the Web by archiving [...]
Wii Cable Available on eBay for a Price
The Wii is here, but getting a hold of the better-looking component cables is turning out to be a real pain in the neck. Nintendo’s official online store ran out of the $29 cables almost immediately, and now they’re showing up on eBay for more than five times the regular price. Sure they look better [...]
New Regulations Possible for eBay Drop-offs
- The eBay community is thriving, and so are the businesses that sell stuff for people on the popular auction Web site. Now add Florida to the growing list of states deciding how to classify and regulate those enterprises. No one can seem to agree whether they are auctioneers, pawnbrokers, secondhand shops or something else. [...]
Maybe Getting a PS3 on eBay is a Good Deal
If you’re planning to make lots of money by hawking your launch-day PS3 on eBay, please please make sure that you know how to use eBay. Some poor sucker (who obviously spent a lot of time out in the cold to get it), accidentally just sold his brand-new, unopened PS3 for the grand total of [...]
Can You Sell a Service on eBay?
Brian McGregor at Best Syndication: Most people think of eBay as a place where you sell physical items. They often start by selling unwanted bits and pieces from the attic, moving on to other things in the garage and, if it takes a hold, venturing into the market of buying items to sell. Not many [...]
Ten Part Mental Fitness Program
Kelly Huston at e-articles.info: There are ten mental exercises, or ways of thinking, that you can learn and practice every day to become a more positive, confident, and optimistic person. The more you think in these ways, the better you will feel, the more you will accomplish, and the faster and more easily you will [...]
Today Show: In 2004, Jason and Kimberly Graham-Nye bought the worldwide rights (excluding Australia and New Zealand) to manufacture, distribute and market the flushable diaper design first introduced in Australia in 1991. They discovered the design after the birth of their son, Fynn, prompted them to find a diapering option that worked for their baby, [...]
Pillow Invention Takes Wrinkles Out Of Sleeping
dailynews.com: Linda Randell kept waking up with pillow face and a stuffy nose. One morning, she woke up with her face on her hand in the shape of the letter C and realized she didn t have sleep lines because of that shape. That was the beginning. The Save My Face Pillow is shaped like [...]
ecommerce-guide.com: Connie Hallquist’s search for a well-designed, stylish, one-of-a-kind gift for her 87-year-old grandmother led her to start her first retail venture — Gold Violin, an online and catalog shop that specializes in products for older people. “My grandmother had mobility challenges and I wanted to get her a nice hand-painted cane,” said Hallquist. All [...]
OJ Simpson Book on eBay Upsets Brown Family
eBay is taking some heat over some auctions that claim to be offering copies of the O.J. Simpson book. Among those complaining is the lawyer representing relatives of Nicole Brown, Simpson’s dead ex-wife. Attorney Natasha Roit calls it “outrageous” that there are still copies up for grabs. An eBay spokesman says the online auction house [...]
Win a $25,000 Web Site Makeover
IdeaCatchers.com: Think you have an ugly e-commerce site? Do something about it! Idea Catchers Group is sponsoring the “Ugly E-commerce Contest” for a chance to win a custom e-commerce site — valued up to $25,000 — plus 90 days of online marketing support. Any independent retailer, online store, catalog or mail-order company with an existing [...]
ECommerce-Guide: If you want to attract gaggles of gift-givers to your site, remember these three words: Offer free shipping. Online holiday-gift shoppers overwhelmingly consider free shipping an important enticement in making purchases, with discounts and free return policies also key considerations, according to a survey released by Yahoo! Small Business and Harris Interactive. Ninety percent [...]
ABC News: Professionals who work in traditional positions are often too busy to plan properly for the holidays. They dream of an elf appearing to save the season. You can make money as that elf — the person who does the shopping, wrapping and shipping of gifts, especially when your client loathes crowded malls and [...]
Holiday Season Is Networking Season
Rhonda Abrams at Gannett News Service: The holiday season is a great time for networking. I’m talking about getting out there and meeting people who may be potential customers or referral sources. This is the season for holiday parties, end-of-year chamber of commerce mixers and trade and industry get-togethers. Don’t forget the parties to which [...]
U.S. Copyright Office Issues New Rights
Associated Press: Cell phone owners will be allowed to break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers under new copyright rules announced Wednesday. Other copyright exemptions approved by the Library of Congress will let film professors copy snippets from DVDs for educational compilations and let blind people use special [...]
Happy Thanksgiving from Dane Carlson and the Business Opportunities Weblog.
Trend Spotlight: Customization
Big Idea Scoop: Merchants are waking up to a new era of customer choice. Using mass efficiencies, some companies are offering mass customization—letting customers choose product/services features and design to suit themselves. Companies have found that individualized goods command a premium. Beyond that, they breed loyalty. Research firm Brand Keys has found that 30% of [...]
Starting a Post-Retirement Business
Matt Alderton at Work.com: Popular belief mandates that retirement be spent traveling, gardening and playing golf. Many “retirees,” however, crave more than that. According to AARP research, record numbers of men and women over the age of 50 — and even 60 and 70 — are starting their own businesses in search of a life, [...]
Holiday Biz: Christmas Light Installer
Entrepreneur.com: This is a great seasonal business that specializes in providing the labor for holiday decorations. Once a year an opportunity to make excellent extra money arrives–installing and then later removing decorative outdoor Christmas lights for people who just don’t have the time or the energy to do it for themselves. Start looking for customers [...]
