eBay's bidding tool Average price to compare your bid

I have been doing some shopping for some DVDs for my daughter. Lately she has been enjoying singing and I don't know many songs so I'm buying up musicals and cartoon movies that have good songs. So, I discovered something kinda cool today during my bidding spree

I have no idea if this is a new tool or just something that I have never noticed before. Regardless..... I like it. It tells me where my bid stands compared to the average selling price of similar items. As you can see, I'm kinda low in comparison, so, if I win, I know that I truly am getting a great bargain!
It comes up on the bid confirmation screen so look for it after your next bid.

Practical Dreamers never quit

Yet again, I heard a line in a podcast that I had to re-wind and listen to twice so that I would make sure to remember it.

"Practical dreamers never quit"

I think I'm going to paint this on a plaque and hang it in my studio.
This line is from Napolean Hill's Think and Grow Rich. I don't know if it is a direct quote because I am listening to it on audiobook. I was running when I heard this line and once I returned home, I jumped on eBay and found a Buy It Now to purchase a copy of the physical book.
Can't wait to read it even though I've already heard it.

"Success principles are highly transferable"

"success principles are highly transferable" that is a quote from Dan Miller in a recent podcast. If you know me, or have been reading my blog for awhile you know that I'm training for the Race for the Cure in October. (I'm not trying to win it or anything, just beat my personal best time) And, you'll also know that I absolutely love podcasts.
I listen to all sorts of podcasts and radio programs. eBay radio is one of my favorites of course and just recently another one of my favorites "Justice Talking" has just gone off the air (boo!)
Most of the things I listen to are for a purpose. I'm hoping to gain something from it. Either enrich my life, keep me up to date on the news or help my business in some way. It is kinda a funny thing, if you think about it, why Dan Miller's podcast is one of my favorites, but it really is. If you don't already know who Dan Miller is, he is the author of 48 Days to the Work you Love and No More Mondays. I absolutely love what I do and am obnoxiously happy doing it. I have found the work that is totally fulfilling to me. Dan Miller teaches people how to find that. I continue to listen to his podcast because there is something about his voice that I find soothing and I love the fact that he is such a positive thinker. He is inspiring.
I just loved that line up there at the title. It is totally true too. I listened to this podcast twice just so that I would remember it. After he said it, I paused my ipod and ran about a half-mile just pondering over it. It is so true. I used to joke about how I used some of the same techniques for crowd control when I was a bartender as I did when I was teaching eigth graders. It is also the reason that you see entrepreneurs succeed in one venture after another. "Success principles are highly transferable".
Or, maybe I just like saying it over and over.

In the interest of full disclosure, I've never read his books. Not that I wouldn't, I just haven't yet. I found his podcast by accident a few months back and have gotten hooked. And yes, I do get a teeny tiny commission if you click from this blog to his site and buy his books.

More about eBay Live, solutions floor, shipping to Canada & Poloroid pictures

Found another pic. This one was taken by the folks at the booth promoting shipping to Canadians. I really loved the solutions center and loved being able to talk to the vendors. At times I just had to get away though because I'm a sucker for salespeople. I think it is because I am so positive about my business that it doesn't take much to get me super excited about ramping up my business and how easy things will be if I just signed up for this service or that product. Shipping to Canada... I didn't need to be sold on that. They were preaching to the choir. I LOVE to ship international!
Funny thing is that they took this photo of me with a poloroid. Did you know that they aren't going to be making poloroids anymore? So sad. What a fun camera. I guess the reality of the digital age finally caught up to them. Digital pics just aren't the same. No fun fanning and watching as the picture develops right before your eyes. I guess I'll just have to chalk this one up to nostalgia and tell my grandkids about it.
Wonder how the poloroid market is on eBay?

Pictures from eBay Live!

I'm such a doh-doh. I took my camera with me to eBay live and only took 7 pictures. How in the heck did I spend 5 days in Chicago and only get 7 pictures? Anyhoo.... here they are.

This is the dinner for the Education Specialists the night before eBay Live!



The next one here is my room. I was so excited about a free hotel room that I had to get a picture of it.


Not too bad for the money is it? And they say "you get what you pay for" ... I'm pretty sure I got WAY more than I paid for. Free Wi-Fi too.


The drawback to my free hotel room was that it was WAY across town. I took the subway because I'm cheap and I think that subways are the coolest thing considering that I've never lived in a city that had one. This is where I got off the train, Chinatown.


This is from the train platform. See that building in the distance? That is the Hyatt at McCormick place where all the cool people stayed, right next door to eBay Live. Lucky for me, I like to walk and the weather was nice because this is the closest that the subway will get you.

This was my lunch one day. I took a picture of it to show my dad how much $6.08 will get you at McCormick place.


These guys sang to us in the line for the Gala. They were awesome and funny too. I got a kick out of their eBay color jackets.

My first eBay Live! oh boy, I've got so much to blog about

Ok, so I haven't completely made it back yet, but I'm close. I got stuck because of weather and now am only about 300 miles from home. One more night and I'll be able to sleep in my own bed again!
I've got so much to blog about from my first eBay Live! I don't even know where to start. Also, I've been reading a book recently that I just finished this morning that I'm going to want to blog about too.
The day before eBay Live all the Education Specialists were invited for an extra day of training and a dinner. This was awesome. I couldn't get travel arrangements to afford me to get there for the beginning so I got there just before lunch, right in the middle of a seminar by Jeffery Gittomer. WOW. I am so upset that I didn't get to hear the whole thing because he was fabulous. He was inspiring, energetic and insightful. To make things even cooler, he gave us all a signed copy of his book The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way
(I'm not selling mine, but of course you can get one of your own on eBay)
Yet another thing on my to-do list. Read this book. The trouble with being so excited about how much I want to learn and do is that there is no time to do it all. I filled an entire notebook with things that I want to do and read and learn. Gotta go get started.

What the heck is a Google PageRank and why should I care?

I know I've mentioned before that my ipod has very little music and tons of podcasts. Well, I'm totally loving it for two reasons.
1. I'm training because I'm going to run the Race for the Cure in October and I my goal is to beat my best time. My best time was when I was 26 years old and now, at 32 I plan to shave off a full minute. Listening to podcasts helps me zone out and not realize how extremely hot it is here in south Florida and how much my legs ache when I run. Makes time fly.
2. I am learning so much. I got a ton of great tips from some recent podcasts on SEO (search engine optimization). I'm pretty sure that there are tons of people out there that will just say 'Duh' to themselves as they read this, but because I had no idea, maybe it will be useful to some, so I'm posting what I learned this week.
The podcast that I found to be most useful this week is one called "Internet Marketing" that I found on itunes. It is from a UK company and these guys have the cutest accents so not only did I learn alot, I was impressed with the pleasant sounds too.
They talked about some stuff that was WAY over my head but I was able to glean a few nuggets of worthy info about Google PageRank. I'd heard internet folks talk about this before but never really understood. I just kept thinking it was about how close you are to the top of the page when someone does a search. Well, that is not it. I kept thinking that it was a dumb judgement because if I typed in exactly the right words, I could manipulate just about any site to come up at the top!
It is a ranking that google gives your site from zero to 10. Zero being bad and 10 being great. I've been searching for two days and the only 10 I've found was google themselves! This blog is a zero. eBay is an 8.
The way to find out a site's PageRank is to add it to your google toolbar. If you don't already have one just go get the toolbar (it is free) by searching "google toolbar" and when you are setting it up, click to include "PageRank". Voila, once the toolbar is there you can see the rank of any site you visit. If you already have a google toolbar you can add the page rank feature by going into the settings.
For your convenience (and my profit) I have a google searchbox right here on this page :)

Another cool feature of the PageRank button on the toolbar is that you can check backward links on any site. It is a dropdown next to the PageRank button and is pretty cool. I checked my site Addicted to Rockabilly, and found a couple of people that were linking to me that I was completely unaware of. I was also surprised to find that none of my blogs show up as linking to my site. Hmmmm? I have links all over anything I have control of, maybe they aren't there because they are all zero page ranks. :(
The long way to find backward links is to type link:http:// then the site you want to check into the google search engine.

Ok, so the reason that you want to know about your backward links is because that is exactly how google ranks you! So, if lots of good sites (meaning not the zero ranks) have non-advertising links to you than you will rank higher. Advertising links and reciprocal links don't count.

Now, I need to go figure out a way to get folks to link to my sites. :)