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October 2009 Newsletter
It seems that as hard as I try, I cannot get my newsletter on a regular schedule.
The most important thing that has happened recently in our lives is the birth of our sixth grandchild and second grandson. Little Austin was born to Happy, our middle daughter, and Scott, one of my three son-in-laws, on July 17. Austin was 10 weeks premature and weighed only 2 pounds. He had a twin sister, but she died. Austin now weighs a little over 7 pounds and is doing extremely well. The dollar bill in the photo is to show you his relative size at 2 months - the day he got home. His two months in the hospital cost an incredible $200,000+ - not including the physician's or ambulance bills.
My Blog...
The economy and the present political environment has resulted in my making a lot of entries on my blog. I've gotten a huge number of compliments from conservatives and a few liberals have attempted to destroy me. I love it...
Skype...
If you are not familiar with SKYPE, you need to get familiar with it. Skype is wonderful. It is a free way to talk to people all over the world. Go to http://skype.com/ and register. It's free. I use Skype to talk to my partner in Germany daily as well as to other friends across the country and around the world. If you both have webcams, you can see each other while you are talking. My Skype username is "lufkincy."
Place Favorite URL Shortcuts on Your Desktop ...
There are a number of websites that I visit several times a day. Rather than using a bookmark, I find it much faster to place a shortcut to that site on my desktop. It is very easy to do.
Open the website you want then copy the URL from the address bar. Now right click on desktop and select New>Shortcut. In the box that asks you to type the location of the item, paste your copied URL. In the next box, give it any name you like.
My website is my home page because that is where I spend most of my time. The types I placed on my desktop are ones like PayPal, the various auction sites I post on, and my eTrade account.
My Updates...
I have done a huge amount of work on my website recently. In the past I have had numerous catalogs - many duplicating each other. In the past they have been large Acrobat pdf files. What I am in the progress of doing is to create a page for each type of item. As an example, I now have all of my German Knights Cross autographs in one list on one page, with pictures linked to each entry. You can see this by clicking here. I have also done the same with my Allied Aces, Doolittle Raiders, and Navajo Code Talkers. Once I get the pictures linked to these, I will do the same for my Medal of Honor signed items, Civil War relics, Fossils & Minerals, and Miscellaneous items. I will then have everything on 8-10 pages that previously took about 20 pages and a half dozen large pdf files.
As I make these updates they will be listed and linked to on my "recent update" page.
Check Your Website for Broken Links...
If you have your own website, you will want to check it for broken links. When the search engine spiders read your site any broken links will have a negative placement on your site. I had never checked mine until last week. I was amazed to find I had around 250 broken links. It took all morning to fix them, but I finally got all except for one fixed. That one was a voice2page.com link that I was unable to find.
Extra Income Tips...
Online auctions and your own website can produce a very nice extra income and even a great primary income. The one question everyone wants to know is "what are the best selling items?" Great question but very difficult to answer. No sooner than you find a great selling item, you will find hundreds of others jumping on the bandwagon. After a few years I stopped looking for what was selling best and started selling things I could acquire for pennies on the dollar and starting them for at least double what I paid for the item. A few items always have done well for me. Nice children's and baby clothes, toys, and accessories always do well. You can find these at garage sales. My daughter recently bought a very large box of extremely nice (some never worn) infant clothes for $5. After her baby outgrows those clothes, she will be able to turn them into several hundred dollars when she auctions them. I also do well with books, but you must be selective. The best places I have found to buy books is at Friends of the Library book sales and garage sales. I look for books that are in good condition and have a nice dust jacket. I check the copyright page to see if it might be a first edition, if it was written by a well-known author, etc. The maximum I will pay is $.25 unless it is a first edition, then I will go as high as $.50. If the author is still alive, I will attempt to get his or her contact info, let them know I am a small bookseller, and ask that they sign the 10 bookplates I have enclosed. If they respond, I affix the bookplate to the half title page or blank leaf and now I have a much more valuable "signed copy." I will check with www.abe.com to see what other booksellers are selling the book for and will list my copy for a little less than the lowest price offered. I will list it on my website for the average price other booksellers are selling it for and I will start it at auction for a little less than my abe.com listing. I always add $2 as a handling charge to my actual shipping charge. This covers my shipping material, insurance (I self insure), etc.
In addition to garage sales, there are other outstanding places to look for items to sell. Periodically your local law enforcement office will have sales of confiscated items. The post office will have regular sales of lost items and, if you are located anywhere close to a military base, contact their property disposal officer to see what they might have for sale or when their next sale will be.
If you spend a couple of hours each evening scanning and taking pictures of your items, writing good and detailed descriptions, and pricing, that will be time well spent. Then, if the auction site you are using offers 10-day auctions, start listing your items at around 6pm on Thursday. If only 7-day auctions are offered, start your listings on Sunday afternoon. Sunday is the best day for sales. I like the 10-day auctions because that gives me two weekends exposure.
Bottom line is don't worry about what items are the best selling items today. Pick up any nice items that hit your hot button and items you can get for very little money. It takes a while to build a successful website and auction business, but after you have paid that price and you become pretty good at picking up inexpensive items, you will see your profits grow.
Some items you may have to list several times and they still do not sell. What I do with those is after 3-4 times listing them they still do not sell, I will throw them in a large box. When the box is full I will empty the box, spread the items out on the floor and take a picture of them. I will then list the box as "wholesale clearance" and start my auction for that box at $1. On one occasion one of these boxes filled with computer cables and parts that did not sell when auctioned individually, my first bid was for $1 and the box sold for just under $150 - far more than I originally paid for everything that was in the box.
Good luck...
eBooks...
eBooks are a great way to make a little extra income and to increase traffic and sales. All of the details would be far too lengthy to cover in this newsletter, but you can Google "ebook creator" and find a wealth of information. There is a lot of eBook creating software that is free. Personally I use Adobe Acrobat, but that is not a free application.
Your eBook can cover virtually anything. It can be anything from a newsletter to a comprehensive piece on an area you have some expertise.
Another way to turn eBooks into profit is to convert them to hard copy booklets. Many people had much rather read a hard copy or listen to someone else read the copy rather than reading it on their computer.
There are literally tens of thousands of un-copyrighted or copyright free or public domain items available. I have created audio books of the works of Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs' works.
I also search the Internet to find general interest copyright free eBooks that are not too lengthy. When I find one that I can print on 48-pages or less plus cover, I will format it to 8.5" x 5.5" and print one copy on my laser printer. It takes 12 sheets plus the cover. I will design a nice front cover and on the inside and outside back cover I will have a list of my other similar items and print it in color on my inkjet printer. I fold the 12 sheets and cover in half, put two staples in it using an inexpensive table top saddle stapler like a $25 Stanley Long Reach Stapler, and scan the cover and index. I then save the file so when I get an order I can easily print on demand. Other than my time, I have turned less than one dollar into $9.95.
My audio books are priced by the number of CDs they take. I charge $5 per CD. My inkjet printer has an attachment to print CDs, so I will create a nice looking image and print that on a printable CD - turning about $.25 into $5.00
This is not a huge profit center, but it does generate some nice extra income. As my collection of eBooks, booklets, and audio books increase, so do my sales.
Alternatives to eBay...
If you are active selling on the internet and wished there was an option other than eBay, there are other options. Richard Bilderberg's excellent piece on eBay lists a few. I have tried several of these and intend to try them all. The downside is that none yet have the volume of users that eBay has. The upside is that most have no listing fees and their commission is much less. As an example, if you list 100 items on eBay starting at $19.99 each, the listing fee is $.55 each or $55.00. Depending on the starting price, those fees can go as high as $20 per listing.
Assuming you listed 100 items at $19.99 and sold 25% of what you listed or 25 items. You have added $41.25 to your operating cost. You still have to pay eBay the commission on the 25 you sold.
On many of the other sites there is no listing fee, so if you list 100 items at $19.99 you are automatically ahead $55.00. The downside is because of the number of people on eBay rather than selling 25% of what you list, you may only sell 5% of what you list. But, the more sites you list on and the longer you list, the more you will sell.
Some of the sites as top contenders listed are: iOffer .com, ebid.com, ola.com, onlineauctions.com, oztion.com.au, cqout.com and bidville.com. However, you can Google "auction sites" and find many, many more. Most of these sites do not have a listing fee and have small final sale commission. Some offer a very low flat monthly fee.
Of Military Interest...
As we all know, those heroes of what is called "the greatest generation" are leaving us at an alarming rate...some say as many as 1,000 per day. On the 4th of October, Gunther Rall, WWII Germany's third top Luftwaffe ace died October 4, 2009. Rall achieved 275 aerial victories in 621 combat sorties and was one of only three living of the original 160 recipients of the Knights Cross with Oakleaves and Swords He died at the age of 91.
So far this year we have lost 4 U.S. Medal of Honor recipients - With the recent passing of George Whalen, Russell Dunham James Swett and Everett Pope this year there are only 95 living recipients - 21 from WWII, 14 from Korean War, and 60 from Vietnam. Since December 7, 1941 there have been 851 awards. 523 were posthumous, 233 have passed away since they were decorated, and 95 are still living. The oldest living recipient is John Finn. John had his 100th birthday in July 2009 and is the only one surviving of the 15 recipients from December 7, 1941
If You Need Help Fixing Your Computer Problems...
Have you ever had a major problem with your computer and not been able to troubleshoot or fix it. I've had excellent results from http://plumchoice.com/ You buy half hour packages of support and their experts log onto your computer and quickly fix the problem. I've got an excellent local tech support company, but have found that PlumbChoice is faster and less expensive even though their hourly rate is more than my local service company.
Internet Spoofs...
I'm sure you receive as many email announcements of incredible things as I do. Most generally end with something like asking you to forward the message to everyone in your mailbox. There are a couple of sites that I have found most helpful. They are http://www.snopes.com/ and http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/internet/u/current_netlore.htm. In addition to being excellent places to check out email before you get egg on your face and forward it to everyone you know, both sites are full of fascinating information, photos and videos.
Fantastic Prices For Prescription Eyeglasses...
I went to sleep reading in bed a few weeks ago and broke the earpiece of my only pair of glasses. Since I am diabetic and my prescription changes fairly often I decided that before I had my present lenses put in a new frame I would see if I needed a new prescription. I did. I remembered that my physician had told me some time back about a an online company that had good prices. I had forgotten the name, but I called him to get it again. It was www.greateyeglasses.com. I found them on the web and called them to get prices. I could not believe the prices I got. The local optometrist I have used in the past needed to get $190 for the glasses - including the frame. When greateyeglasses.com gave me the price, I decided to order both a pair of bifocals and a pair of reading glasses with my prescription. Total, including shipping - $54.00. My hopes were not high. But when they arrived about two weeks later. I got a huge surprise. The frames were high quality and I could not find anything wrong with the lenses. An incredible buy. greateyeglasses.com has lots of add-ons you can get for an additional price. Next time I think I will likely get my lenses tinted and order a third pair of prescription sunglasses. I can highly recommend these people. Re-orders, by the way, get a 10% discount.
Our Ancestors...
With the recent on the scientific report on Ardi, we may be a step closer to finding out just how old the human race is. Ardi was first discovered in 1994 when several fragments of a hand were discovered in Africa. Over the years nearly a complete skeleton was put together. Ardi is about 1 million years older than the much publicized Lucy, which was found about 45 miles from where Ardi was found. Scientists estimate that it will take about 15 years to extract all of the knowledge they can from Ardi. It should be interesting.
Personal Stuff...
With the economy the way it has become and the fact that the value of our retirement investments have plummeted, I've decided to go back on the job market. I was quite surprised to find that jobs are available - though the pay leaves a lot to be desired. Our local community college is talking to me about teaching several classes in their Community Service department (non-credit classes where the student just wants to learn something new)-$20 per hour for 12-15 hours a week; a big box office supply store has offered me a part-time (20-25 hours a week) working in their copy and print department-$8.90 per hour, a local industrial company is about to make an offer for a position as an inside salesperson to handle incoming calls-?, but salary plus commission, and there is always WalMart as a greeter-$7.25 per hour. I feel pretty good about that, since I am 75-years old and have not had a job since my retirement in 1995. None of these opportunities approach the high 5 to low 6 figure income I had when we owned our printing company, but this is a strong indication to me that opportunities are still available for those who make a concerted effort. The opportunities may not even approach what your top choices would be and the income might be minimal, but even flipping hamburgers at MacDonalds for minimum wage is better than sitting at home and wishing something would happen.
Holiday Specials...
With the holiday season approaching I'm going to again offer my "holiday special." I will offer free giftwrapping and drop shipping to your recipient at no charge. All you need to do is to let me know it is a gift and you would like it wrapped, and give me the address to ship it to. You will receive the tracking number if you include your email address. In addition, I will have some discount specials. These will be spelled out on the individual pages.
Do You Need Printing...
Finally, after being retired from the printing industry since 1995 I have started selling printing again. I am not actually producing any of the services in-house other than creating the artwork where it is required. I am a salesman for Cajun Printing in Louisiana. Cajun Printing is a full-service company with outstanding capabilities. I am not a broker or middle man who gets a price and then marks that price up. I am actually a commissioned salesperson. When I get an order I turn it in to Cajun. They produce, bill, and ship the order, then once a month they pay me a small commission on my sales. If you have any printing requirements, I would much appreciate your giving me the opportunity to offer a quote.
Till next time.
Cy