A new definition of "Buyer Beware".

by: Jesse S. Somer

"Who's Suzie?" My wife Katrina had been acting strangely ever since I had returned home from my Native American cultural class, not to mention the weird phone call I received just before I left, full of little pauses instead of our usual fast-paced communication. Now that I was home she had been pretty much ignoring me completely, then comes this strange question. Katrina was calm but I could tell there was something under her skin as she chopped up the vegetables for the night's dinner. "I don't know anyone named Suzie." I replied. "Well come to think of it, there's my old friend Peter's wife Suzie." My wife remained calm, " Do you want to tell me anything?" she replied. "There is nothing to tell Kat." Katrina was heating up; her trademark rosy cheeks had evolved to boiling teapot. Still however, no steam or whistle had been emitted from her pretty spout. She looked at me thoughtfully, "Well, I looked at your cell phone today. It seems you've been sending text messages to a woman named Suzie. I've read around thirty of her texts in the archive; they're all like "I love you heaps" and "Thinking of you right now". Who is she Tom?" A strange feeling overcame me. Katrina seemed absolutely sure that I was guilty of something. Accused yet innocent, her eyes spoke of the obvious evidence that was piled against me. The thing is, we were really having serious relationship problems at the time, with many arguments and rarely seeing eye-to-eye. Katrina was on the brink of tears and I simply didn't know what she was talking about. Looking down I could see the cell phone gripped tightly in her hands. Funny, I hadn't thought about the fact that I own two phones and she was holding the one that I rarely use. A few months back I bought it off eBay as it is extremely small and I don't want to have to carry my big expensive "computer" phone on me when I am riding my mountain bike. It was actually my second 'extra' phone as my wife had killed the first when she had put it through the washing machine. "Are you talking about that phone Kat? Give me a look at it." She handed the phone over reluctantly, as if it were evidence in a murder trial. I looked at the messages and sure enough there were a whole bunch from someone named Suzie. Some of the messages were quite raunchy indeed. Straight away I started to search for the dates of the archived messages, as they would surely prove my innocence. "Look Kat, the dates of these messages were several months ago. I've only had the phone for a couple months. They are obviously someone else's." Her look of disbelief was starting to rattle me. It is a really horrible feeling when somebody you love so much doesn't have trust in you. I then searched and found the receipt from eBay for when I bought the phone. After showing the date on the form to her I could tell she was starting to see that I was telling the truth, but the wall of disbelief still hung over, clouds covering her bright face. Finally I decided to search for the guy who sold me the phone. If this didn't prove my case nothing would save me from eternally sleeping in the doghouse. Using the email address he had used in the sale proved fruitless as my message kept coming back 'Return to sender.' Let me tell you I was really beginning to panic! Then, bang! The sound of the gun rang in my ears...just joking. It didn't get that serious! No, the bang was the sound of the flash of inspiration that suddenly entered my mind. I went back on the Internet and eBay and searched for the guy's name. I found it with a different email address, as he must have changed his Internet Service provider. A huge feeling of calmness rushed over me like the first wave at the beach when you have been in the heat all day. Next I sent him a message asking him about the archived messages to 'Suzie' and asked him to 'Carbon Copy' (Cc) his response to my wife's email address so she would see that it was authentic. The man then replied with a message that said he was very embarrassed about not deleting the messages on the cell phone. All right, pay dirt! He also went on to say that his wife was named Suzie and gave her address so Kat could then contact her if necessary. He seemed especially nervous about the content of the messages and said that he hoped nothing too x-rated was there as he and his wife often used risquι language to keep their relationship's fire 'stoked up! O.K. So there's my story. My main message to you from the whole experience is that if you are buying or selling a product on eBay, make sure you clean up any unwanted information. It can really cause problems! Let me also tell you that now I am back searching on eBay as my new phone has also been sent on a mission back to the creator as it too has been on the 'Quest for the spin cycle'! About the author: Jesse S. Somer M6.Net http://www.m6.net *This story is based on a true story of someone (not the author) with names changed. Jesse S. Somer is a creative writer working at M6.Net: 'The web-hosting company for humans.' M6.Net is working hard to help humanity experience the power and freedom to develop their own part of the Internet, to share their information and connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Circulated by The Widow Web

An Ebay Seller’s Checklist.

by: Kirsten Hawkins

Being a seller is a lot of responsibility, and sometimes you might feel like you’re not doing everything you should be. This simple checklist will help you keep on top of things. Have you found out everything you possibly could about your items? Try typing their names into a search engine – you might find out something you didn’t know. If someone else is selling the same thing as you, then always try to provide more information about it than they do. Do you monitor the competition? Always keep an eye on how much other items the same as or similar to yours are selling, and what prices they’re being offered at. There’s usually little point in starting a fixed price auction for $100 when someone else is selling the item for $90. Have you got pictures of the items? It’s worth taking the time to photograph your items, especially if you have a digital camera. If you get serious about eBay but don’t have a camera, then you will probably want to invest in one at some point. Are you emailing your sellers? It’s worth sending a brief email when transactions go through: something like a simple “Thank you for buying my item, please let me know when you have sent the payment”. Follow this up with “Thanks for your payment, I have posted your [item name] today”. You will be surprised how many problems you will avoid just by communicating this way. Also, are you checking your emails? Remember that potential buyers can send you email about anything at any time, and not answering these emails will just make them go somewhere else instead of buying from you. Do your item description pages have everything that buyers need to know? If you’re planning to offer international delivery, then it’s good to make a list of the charges to different counties and display it on each auction. If you have any special terms and conditions (for example, if you will give a refund on any item as long as it hasn’t been opened), then you should make sure these are displayed too. Have you been wrapping your items correctly? Your wrapping should be professional for the best impression: use appropriately sized envelopes or parcels, wrap the item in bubble wrap to stop it from getting damaged, and print labels instead of hand-writing addresses. Oh, and always use first class post – don’t be cheap. Do you follow up? It is worth sending out an email a few days after you post an item, saying “Is everything alright with your purchase? I hope you received it and it was as you expected.” This might sound like giving the customer an opportunity to complain, but you should be trying to help your customers, not take their money and run. Being a really good eBay seller, more than anything else, is about providing genuinely good and honest customer service. That’s the only foolproof way to protect your reputation. Of course, you might be wondering by now whether it’s really worth all the hassle to get a good reputation on eBay. Won’t people buy from you anyway, and couldn’t you just open a new account if it really comes down to that? Our next email will set you straight. About the author: Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visithttp://www.auctionseller411.com/for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions. Circulated by The Widow Web

Anatomy Of A Reciprocal Linking Campaign

by: John Taylor

Reciprocal linking means forming partnerships with other sites who place a link from their Web pages to yours. You then give them a similar link in return. When you look for people to swap links with, make sure that you don't reduce the quality or content of your own site. You don't want users to click straight through without reading your content; you want them to take action on your own site rather than have them leave empty handed. One way to stop them from running away too quickly is to create a "Webmasters Resource Page" and link to that page from your homepage. This doesn't take away from the content on your homepage and the links are just one click away rather than being buried deep within the site, giving value to your partners. In any case, you want to be sure that your site is more than just a page full of links. If your site contains more links than content, it will look like a link farm and it will certainly not be attractive to webmasters, search engines or users. Picking your partner Your link partners should be sites your target market will visit. Think about your product and its subject area and brainstorm to determine where people interested in your product might be looking online. For example, if you're trying to shift your book about blackjack strategy, it makes sense that the people visiting online casinos would make great customers. Online casinos then could be good partners. Identify top-ranked, high quality casino sites and find the email address, telephone number and snail mail address of their webmasters. You can also identify your competitors and see where they trade links. After all why reinvent the wheel when you can use your competitors hard work! Seven Top Tips For Requesting reciprocal Links... 1. Before you contact webmasters, place a link to their site on your resource page to assure them that you will actually provide a quality link. 2. Create a subject line that will encourage them to read your message rather than deleting it - you don't want them to think you're spamming them. (Something about their site or product is sure to capture their attention; they will open it, thinking you're a potential customer.) Hint - subscribe to their ezine and then reply using the ezine subject line as the subject of your reply. 3. Begin your message by talking about your visit to their site and what you found interesting about it. Detail your product or service in one line and ask them to exchange links with you. 4. Tell them in detail where you have placed their link, include the precise URL, tell them where to find their link on the page and emphasize that it is only one click away from your homepage. 5. Tell them that if you don't hear back from them in a specific number of days, you will consider that to a negative response and that you will remove their link from your site. Give them enough time to respond but don't leave it open ended. 6. Sending a reciprocal link request by email is becoming less and less effective due to Spam filters and the high volume of email traffic received by webmasters of busy sites. Try sending your request on a postcard or better still make a phone call. 7. Tell the webmaster how they will benefit from the reciprocal linking arrangement - explain what's in it for them and use your selling and persuasion skills! Copyright John Taylor PhD August 2008 - All rights reserved. About the author: To learn more information about Reciprocal linking I strongly recommend that you visithttp://www.Link-Advantage.com Circulated by The Widow Web

Amazing Explosive Ways To Turbo-Boost Your Sales

by: Massimo D Amico

Oh yes...One of the top questions arrived into my email-box is related about "sales". You can explode your orders by following some easy steps...Why not to write them down? Entice people to link to your web site by giving them something free in return. This'll increase your ranking in some search engines. Trigger your reader's emotions in your ad copy. Example, if you sell a book on gambling tips, tell them the feelings they'll get when they win money. Add a chat room or message board to your web site. People want to interact with other people that have they same interests as them. Offer something that is really free. If people go to your site and what you said was free really isn't, you'll lose their trust and they won't buy anything. Ask people questions in your ad copy that make them think about their problems. For example: Do you want to be free of your debts? Magnify the size of your prospects problem in your ad; show how your product can solve it. The bigger the problem, the more sales you'll have. Make sure your site looks good in all browsers. You could be losing sales because it looks distorted in some web browsers. Increase your sales by e-mailing full page ads to your e-zine subscribers. Remember to tell people before they subscribe or they may consider it spam. Right, right my friend. Be sure to put your best efforts into your site and products. Results will arrive soon! About the author: Massimo D'Amico is an Italian computer teacher. He has invented a way for any website owner to get unlimited massive traffic. http://www.thebesttrafficofyourlife.com Circulated by The Widow Web

A Look At Third Party Ebay Tools.

by: Kirsten Hawkins

There are plenty of companies out there offering third party eBay tools. Most of them are web-based instead of downloadable, so you pay a monthly fee instead of just buying the software. But do you know what these sites can do for you? It can be hard to get to grips with what’s out there using a search engine, so here’s a quick rundown of the key players. Andale (http://www.andale.com). Andale offer lots of small products instead of one solution that does everything: you can take your pick from a lister, image hosting, counters, analysers, a gallery, a checkout and an email manager. The price plans are a bit of a maze, but quite reasonable as long as you don’t go and use everything. Andale’s real claim to fame is that they’ve been doing it for so long – they’re not some fly-by-night organisation, and many eBay sellers have been using their free counters for absolutely years. They also have a reputation for being very responsive to customers, and will often talk to you directly on their forums and implement any suggestions you might have for improving their software. Vendio (http://www.vendio.com). Vendio offer two editions of their software, Sales Manager: a Merchandising edition and an Inventory edition. The difference between the two is that the Merchandising edition is designed to make it easier to list individual auctions, while the Inventory edition is for sellers who sell many of the same item. They offer a pay-as-you go price of 10c per auction. They also offer software called Tickets Manager, special software for people who sell lots of tickets on eBay – an odd product to have, but useful if you happen to sell tickets. Other services offered by Vendio include web and image hosting, fancy Flash galleries of your products for your listings, and stores. ChannelAdvisor (http://www.channeladvisor.com). ChannelAdvisor offer their software in three versions: Enterprise, Merchant and Pro. Enterprise and Merchant are both designed for very big businesses, though, and the chances are that the Pro version does everything you’d want. ChannelAdvisor is popular among sellers who want a solution that they know is used and trusted on a very large scale by enterprise-level customers. It offers all the standard bulk listing and inventory features, as well as the unique feature of being able to create auctions from an Excel spreadsheet of your inventory. The cost is high, though, at $29.95 per month. And Many, Many More… eBay maintain a comprehensive directory of third-party software, which you can browse through anytime you have a few days to kill. You can look either for complete solutions or for each part of what you want individually – the choice is so daunting that there’s bound to be something out there for you. You can look at their directory at http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SolutionsDirectory. Once your items have sold and you’re about to ship them, you might be a little nervous about whether you can trust your buyer. Our next email will give you a few tips for spotting problem buyers before you send them anything. About the author: Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visithttp://www.auctionseller411.com/for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions. Circulated by The Widow Web

A Look at IT Help Desk Software -

by: Kent Pinkerton

IT help desk software can be a valuable resource for technicians to manage and resolve troubleshooting tickets. Most companies realize the benefits of purchasing help desk software since it is a reliable way to manage customer inquiries and complaints. IT help desk software is preferred by both companies and clients over a traditional call center. In traditional call centers, customers often complain of long hold times and unreturned voicemails. Other times, the less-than-technically-savvy customer may become frustrated in his or her attempt to explain the problem. Help desk software allows an IT department to effectively manage and direct certain issues to the appropriate personnel. Many IT help desk software programs offer the convenience of a user-friendly menu and easy-to-manage files. Customers can choose from a variety of help topics and even copy and paste error messages to send to IT. For those customers who are not technically advanced, menus can be set up to offer a variety of common questions. HelpDesks.com is an excellent resource for extensive IT help desk software reviews and information. This site allows you to compare the leading providers of the products to find the right program for your needs. Convenient charts allow you to see various amenities offered such as whether or not the program is web-based, costs associated with purchase and upgrades and the number of users allowed for each program. One of the most popular IT help desk software programs, according to consumer reviews, is FootPrints. On a scale of one to ten, it has a rating of 9.2 and has multiple consumer reviews. This is a web-based program, and the initial cost is around $6,000. FootPrints offers unlimited user capabilities and free upgrades with their annual maintenance contract. This program is compatible with Linux, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Unix operating systems. It also offers searchable databases, assignment of reference numbers, F.A.Q databases, billing databases and much, much more. About the author: Help Desk Software Info provides detailed information on help desk software solutions, including IT help desk software, web-based help desk software, free help desk software, help desk tracking, help desk support software, and reviews of help desk software programs. Help Desk Software Info is the sister site of Recruiting Software Web. Circulated by The Widow Web

All About Spam

by: Kara Glover

Feel free to reprint this article in newsletters and on websites, with resource box included. If you use this article, please send a brief message to let me know where it appeared: kara333@earthlink.net Word Count = 375 Word Wrapped to 60 characters per line URL: http://www.karathecomputertutor.com author photo: http://www.karathecomputertutor.com date of copyright: March 2008 All About Spam by Kara Glover kara333@earthlink.net Spam is annoying. Period. Why people would want to send all of us stupid messages about buying prescription drugs or getting some outrageously good mortgage rate is beyond me. Well, not really. You might ignore those emails. But not everyone does. And that's why they're sent. Emails cost so little (or nothing) to send. So sending out a million of them could be a cakewalk. Let's say one out of every 1,000 recipients falls for their ploy. Someone just got 1,000 new customers! How in the heck did those spammers get your address in the first place? Well, they actually use a variety of techniques. They use programs called spambots to search the web and pick up any email addresses that could be listed on websites. They use what's called the "Dictionary" technique, where they take a well-known email extension (earthlink.net, for instance), and make up all kinds of possible user names to go with it. For example, with me they could try the usernames "kara", "kara1", "kara2" and so on, until they can confirm one of those connected to an earthlink.net extension is a valid email address. Kinda like going page by page through the dictionary. Ever fill out a registration form on a website and find a little checkbox, probably near the bottom, asking if you want to receive additional information, newsletters, or something of that nature? Often the box is checked, and in order NOT to receive the info, you have to UNCHECK it (or else). Well if you miss those types of boxes on the wrong kinds of sites, your email addresses may be handed to spammers on a silver platter. Well, almost. Often a zillion email addresses are sold for next to nothing to spammers on CDs. (Couldn't you almost call those silver platters?) Many internet service providers (those guys that keep you connected to the internet so you can send and receive email) use a variety of methods to block spam before it ever gets to you. Nevertheless, we all know that some spam inevitably gets through to our inboxes. That's when we need to take a proactive stance and install some sort of software to filter it out! © 2008 by Kara Glover About the author: For help on installing anti-spam software, check out this article on Kara Glover’s website:http://www.karathecomputertutor.comYou can also find more articles, tips and tutorials on topics such as Microsoft Word., Excel, and PowerPoint there. Kara is a Computer Tutor and Troubleshooter. Circulated by The Widow Web