Here is your chance to win a block of land in Australia. It is a campaign run through the crowdfunding website Indiegogo.com.
The land is 20 acres (a nice big block - build a castle on it!). It is located in Victoria's 'Golden Triangle' - an area renown for gold mining and regular gold discoveries.
You can ride motor bikes on it, horses, go carts, go hunting and fishing and camping and lots more. Lots of native Australian wildlife including kanagaroos, koalas, wombats, echidnas and more.
Here is the link:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/land-raffle/x/1595480#share
Oohyey.com
Buy online at oohyey
Monday 10 March 2014
Monday 27 January 2014
Isolation of Working from Home
Working from Home has Advantages and Disadvantages.
Since I moved to a remote country location more than two years ago, the internet has pretty much been my sole source of income. And not that things have been going well for the last year, but when you are in remote areas job prospects are very thin. In a world where it seems jobs are drying up, industries are dying and opportunities for business are slim, the internet might be the best work from home model for many.
But I have been working from home for many years now. Firstly as an accountant, marketing professional and business consultant. Then I started Value Equipment Rentals, a small business leasing notebook computers and laserjet printers. That was put on the backburner with the GFC increasing default and credit risk.
In years past I started boatplace.com.au (currently on hiatus as I try to find better server solutions after a deadbeat Russian hacker kept stalking me) to try and live out my passion for boating and sailing. Time-wise it couldn't have been worse. The GFC nearly destroyed the boating industry and I have not even been able to find good employment opportunities in that industry. So boatplace is starting afresh on a wix.com website base and will have a completely revamped look.
In more recent times I also started adgreement.com, a business focusing on buying and selling advertising space worldwide. This is something I really wanted to get off the ground, but as with everything else when you start from nothing it's difficult to build anything. It's still there but getting people to become involved is extrenuously difficult. Unless you know the right people, you get ignored - or so it seems.
Having started up chixfashionz, an online jewellery reatil business which predominantly ran from eBay and Quicksales in Australia, I built up an online store and then sold it. This was something I should not have done, because I managed to build it up successfully thinking I could repeat that success easily with other types of stores. But now eBay impose seller limitations, meaning it would possibly take years before I could build up what I developed with chixfashionz!!! What's done is done.
My latest pet project is Oohyey.com which is another online retail store that sells pretty much anything and everything. I wanted to learn about multi-channel selling and different selling platforms and especially alternatives to Feebay. In marketing this I use a lot of social media and resources such as Selltag. I'm also learning about setting up a Facebook store, which is more complex than I thought (and certainly not free!).
Now I love working online. I absolutely love researching, finding new resources, new tools, new suppliers and doing all the day-to-day stuff that you need to do fast and efficiently - e-mails, paying bills, ordering products, downloading software updates and music. But isolation and quite frankly, the lack of business, is beginning to take a toll on me. At best, severe anxiety and at worst depression, chronic fatigue and even sleep apnea. Desk jobs are not healthy. But we are in tough times and there are many people like me struggling to make ends meet.
From a certain point of view I am unemployable. I have worked for myself for the best part of 14 or 15 years. In that time I have had a number of small business, done research or started others and helped countless other business owners with everything from accounting, taxation, business planning, to succession planning, marketing, advertising, website design and online marketing. But what I don't have on my resume is big-name experience in recent years with corporates. That's what recruitment agencies want.
The worst thing is that as depression has slowly eaten away at me, it has affected my enthusiasm and energy levels and really shot me in terms of spirit, goal setting and my ability to resolve problems and come up with my own solutions. I spent so much of my time helping others solve their problems but now I don't have the solutions to my own! And that really hurts. Working from home has many benefits. To me, I don't have to travel into the city everyday and lose 3 hours of unpaid travel time (1.5 hours each way for me!). I'm accountable to me. I decide what my time is worth, not someone else. I can set up the work environment to suit me...sounds great!
But on the downside you have to consider that when you work from home and are starting a business from nothing, the bills don't stop and living costs are going up! This is increasingly making it difficult for people to start their own business, because they need to cover more and more expenditure and at an increasing rate. The ability to save to start a business is getting harder. Then there are some who lose their jobs and are forced into starting a business, often with little or no available capital and a family to feed. It's tough going!
Talking about depression is also incredibly difficult. It has taken a long time for me to be honest with myself and say, "things aren't going well and I really am not the same person I was one or two years ago." That's the nice way to say it. Now I don't blame the isolation of working from home or the fact that I chose to work from home. But I know it doesn't help. Every day I make an effort to walk away from the computer every few hours and go and see people. Three times a week I go to gym and I walk every day to get exercise. A healthy body helps keep a healthy mind.
The problem is that for most guys, it's a difficult thing to grasp and deal with. Depression has negative connotations and we are taught to always be positive and deal with our problems. Which is what I am trying to do. I'm not necessarily winning this battle yet, but I am trying to turn the tide on what is a tough scenario. One which I have not yet encountered in my 37 years. But I am in a remote rural area, lacking employment and business opportunities and dealing with GFC carry-over and a stuffed-up relationship! Quite a combination and a good breeding ground for depression.
If you are working from home, or deciding whether to do it you need to consider some issues that might confront you in your journey. Starting your own business is a wonderful goal and worthwhile alone in terms of what you learn and whom you can meet. But be aware that when times are tough, it might impact you in ways you did not envisage you were susceptible. Being young, fit, strong and always able to produce my own results, I never thought I would be hit with depression!
Since I moved to a remote country location more than two years ago, the internet has pretty much been my sole source of income. And not that things have been going well for the last year, but when you are in remote areas job prospects are very thin. In a world where it seems jobs are drying up, industries are dying and opportunities for business are slim, the internet might be the best work from home model for many.
But I have been working from home for many years now. Firstly as an accountant, marketing professional and business consultant. Then I started Value Equipment Rentals, a small business leasing notebook computers and laserjet printers. That was put on the backburner with the GFC increasing default and credit risk.
In years past I started boatplace.com.au (currently on hiatus as I try to find better server solutions after a deadbeat Russian hacker kept stalking me) to try and live out my passion for boating and sailing. Time-wise it couldn't have been worse. The GFC nearly destroyed the boating industry and I have not even been able to find good employment opportunities in that industry. So boatplace is starting afresh on a wix.com website base and will have a completely revamped look.
In more recent times I also started adgreement.com, a business focusing on buying and selling advertising space worldwide. This is something I really wanted to get off the ground, but as with everything else when you start from nothing it's difficult to build anything. It's still there but getting people to become involved is extrenuously difficult. Unless you know the right people, you get ignored - or so it seems.
Having started up chixfashionz, an online jewellery reatil business which predominantly ran from eBay and Quicksales in Australia, I built up an online store and then sold it. This was something I should not have done, because I managed to build it up successfully thinking I could repeat that success easily with other types of stores. But now eBay impose seller limitations, meaning it would possibly take years before I could build up what I developed with chixfashionz!!! What's done is done.
My latest pet project is Oohyey.com which is another online retail store that sells pretty much anything and everything. I wanted to learn about multi-channel selling and different selling platforms and especially alternatives to Feebay. In marketing this I use a lot of social media and resources such as Selltag. I'm also learning about setting up a Facebook store, which is more complex than I thought (and certainly not free!).
Now I love working online. I absolutely love researching, finding new resources, new tools, new suppliers and doing all the day-to-day stuff that you need to do fast and efficiently - e-mails, paying bills, ordering products, downloading software updates and music. But isolation and quite frankly, the lack of business, is beginning to take a toll on me. At best, severe anxiety and at worst depression, chronic fatigue and even sleep apnea. Desk jobs are not healthy. But we are in tough times and there are many people like me struggling to make ends meet.
From a certain point of view I am unemployable. I have worked for myself for the best part of 14 or 15 years. In that time I have had a number of small business, done research or started others and helped countless other business owners with everything from accounting, taxation, business planning, to succession planning, marketing, advertising, website design and online marketing. But what I don't have on my resume is big-name experience in recent years with corporates. That's what recruitment agencies want.
The worst thing is that as depression has slowly eaten away at me, it has affected my enthusiasm and energy levels and really shot me in terms of spirit, goal setting and my ability to resolve problems and come up with my own solutions. I spent so much of my time helping others solve their problems but now I don't have the solutions to my own! And that really hurts. Working from home has many benefits. To me, I don't have to travel into the city everyday and lose 3 hours of unpaid travel time (1.5 hours each way for me!). I'm accountable to me. I decide what my time is worth, not someone else. I can set up the work environment to suit me...sounds great!
But on the downside you have to consider that when you work from home and are starting a business from nothing, the bills don't stop and living costs are going up! This is increasingly making it difficult for people to start their own business, because they need to cover more and more expenditure and at an increasing rate. The ability to save to start a business is getting harder. Then there are some who lose their jobs and are forced into starting a business, often with little or no available capital and a family to feed. It's tough going!
Talking about depression is also incredibly difficult. It has taken a long time for me to be honest with myself and say, "things aren't going well and I really am not the same person I was one or two years ago." That's the nice way to say it. Now I don't blame the isolation of working from home or the fact that I chose to work from home. But I know it doesn't help. Every day I make an effort to walk away from the computer every few hours and go and see people. Three times a week I go to gym and I walk every day to get exercise. A healthy body helps keep a healthy mind.
The problem is that for most guys, it's a difficult thing to grasp and deal with. Depression has negative connotations and we are taught to always be positive and deal with our problems. Which is what I am trying to do. I'm not necessarily winning this battle yet, but I am trying to turn the tide on what is a tough scenario. One which I have not yet encountered in my 37 years. But I am in a remote rural area, lacking employment and business opportunities and dealing with GFC carry-over and a stuffed-up relationship! Quite a combination and a good breeding ground for depression.
If you are working from home, or deciding whether to do it you need to consider some issues that might confront you in your journey. Starting your own business is a wonderful goal and worthwhile alone in terms of what you learn and whom you can meet. But be aware that when times are tough, it might impact you in ways you did not envisage you were susceptible. Being young, fit, strong and always able to produce my own results, I never thought I would be hit with depression!
Monday 20 January 2014
Addoway and Bonanza Both Excellent Marketplace Alternatives
With eBay busily destroying their reputation and driving sellers away
from their platform, it is becoming increasingly competitive for
marketplaces such as Addoway and Bonanza to fill the void. One huge
benefit of both Addoway and Bonanza (and eBid) is that they do not
impose ridiculous seller account limitations. This means you can work
hard to produce a large online store and not be dictated to in terms of
the number of items you list for sale.
Bonanza and Addoway are also conscious of the importance of social media and have done well to allow store owners the opportunity to promote their booths using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Stumbleupon and Digg. This is also a fun aspect of selling and lets you learn more about how to engage your target markets. With oohyey.com I use as much social media to demonstrate new and unique items on a daily basis.
Both Bonanza and Addoway are easy to use. They have great user interfaces and both have demonstrated to me good customer service levels with all inquiries handled quickly and efficiently. Their listing import tools are very useful and save a lot of energy and time, which is really important for store owners. The only thing lacking according to reviews of both websites is the lack of promotion by both marketplaces.
Given the number of online tools these days, all shop owners should be busy promoting their stores and products! There is no excuse for lacklustre efforts in this department and you cannot lay idly by and expect Addoway and Bonanza to do all the work for you! Marketing is something you should be constatly working on, adjusting, improving, learning about and trialling new resources at every available opportunity!
As for which marketplace is best, I have no preference. Both Addoway.com and Bonanza.com are equally good and I think more and more online buyers and sellers will take up accounts with them over time. But we sellers also need to be aware of the need for continual and consistent effort to promote these alternative marketplaces, as well as our own accounts! Tell friends and family to list and or buy product from these venues, as they are excellent viable alternatives to you-know-who!
Bonanza and Addoway are also conscious of the importance of social media and have done well to allow store owners the opportunity to promote their booths using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Stumbleupon and Digg. This is also a fun aspect of selling and lets you learn more about how to engage your target markets. With oohyey.com I use as much social media to demonstrate new and unique items on a daily basis.
Both Bonanza and Addoway are easy to use. They have great user interfaces and both have demonstrated to me good customer service levels with all inquiries handled quickly and efficiently. Their listing import tools are very useful and save a lot of energy and time, which is really important for store owners. The only thing lacking according to reviews of both websites is the lack of promotion by both marketplaces.
Given the number of online tools these days, all shop owners should be busy promoting their stores and products! There is no excuse for lacklustre efforts in this department and you cannot lay idly by and expect Addoway and Bonanza to do all the work for you! Marketing is something you should be constatly working on, adjusting, improving, learning about and trialling new resources at every available opportunity!
As for which marketplace is best, I have no preference. Both Addoway.com and Bonanza.com are equally good and I think more and more online buyers and sellers will take up accounts with them over time. But we sellers also need to be aware of the need for continual and consistent effort to promote these alternative marketplaces, as well as our own accounts! Tell friends and family to list and or buy product from these venues, as they are excellent viable alternatives to you-know-who!
Friday 17 January 2014
Bonanza, Addoway and eBid
Contenders as Alternatives to eBay
There are many part-time and professional online sellers sick and tired of 'Feebay.' Not just because of increasing fees, but because of constant change and increasing complexity in policies (and subsequent violations of them!) and that the company seems to be punishing sellers and rewarding bad buyer behaviors and attitudes.
Three alternatives to eBay are Bonanza, eBid and Addoway. All three have really great user interfaces, are easy to use and have a 'kinder' fee structure. They all encourage using and linking social media accounts to member stores and helping promote your listings. They are fighting a tough battle to draw in buyers and sellers. But unless enough of us give them a go and KEEP WORKING at promoting them, they will never grow.
Online buyers and sellers deserve better than the status quo scraped up by Feebay. People deserve to be treated better and unless they demand that level of respect, the global monolith will never show it. It's high time we started to reward the little guys. Just look at Etsy. With a strong focus on hand-crafted items it has become a brand all of its own and people have flocked to it. To this extent, we need also to keep working at buying and selling on Addoway, Bonanza and eBid and give them support. Use social media to promote the items we like and see on those sites and actively use them where ever possible.
The market needs a level playing field and eBay no longer provides this: or even cares about it. If you can speak to someone there who has a firm grasp of the English language, consider yourself fortunate. Their tech support is becoming worse and worse and so too is the general attitude towards sellers. If you want to start a new business with lots of listings, you should definitely consider any or all of eBid, Bonanza and Addoway.com. They do not impose utterly ridiculous "seller limitations," which effectively dictate your rate of growth!!!!
Oohyey.com is currently directing to our Bonanza store. We have also set up oohyey on Addoway and have been working feverishly on an eBid store. Our eBid.com store is facing difficulty because the categorization is more complex and their listing policies much more stringent, which makes it difficult for bulk uploads of hundreds or more products. You will get pulled up if even one listing is miscategorized, which is easy when dealing with thousands of product data files!
There are many part-time and professional online sellers sick and tired of 'Feebay.' Not just because of increasing fees, but because of constant change and increasing complexity in policies (and subsequent violations of them!) and that the company seems to be punishing sellers and rewarding bad buyer behaviors and attitudes.
Three alternatives to eBay are Bonanza, eBid and Addoway. All three have really great user interfaces, are easy to use and have a 'kinder' fee structure. They all encourage using and linking social media accounts to member stores and helping promote your listings. They are fighting a tough battle to draw in buyers and sellers. But unless enough of us give them a go and KEEP WORKING at promoting them, they will never grow.
Online buyers and sellers deserve better than the status quo scraped up by Feebay. People deserve to be treated better and unless they demand that level of respect, the global monolith will never show it. It's high time we started to reward the little guys. Just look at Etsy. With a strong focus on hand-crafted items it has become a brand all of its own and people have flocked to it. To this extent, we need also to keep working at buying and selling on Addoway, Bonanza and eBid and give them support. Use social media to promote the items we like and see on those sites and actively use them where ever possible.
The market needs a level playing field and eBay no longer provides this: or even cares about it. If you can speak to someone there who has a firm grasp of the English language, consider yourself fortunate. Their tech support is becoming worse and worse and so too is the general attitude towards sellers. If you want to start a new business with lots of listings, you should definitely consider any or all of eBid, Bonanza and Addoway.com. They do not impose utterly ridiculous "seller limitations," which effectively dictate your rate of growth!!!!
Oohyey.com is currently directing to our Bonanza store. We have also set up oohyey on Addoway and have been working feverishly on an eBid store. Our eBid.com store is facing difficulty because the categorization is more complex and their listing policies much more stringent, which makes it difficult for bulk uploads of hundreds or more products. You will get pulled up if even one listing is miscategorized, which is easy when dealing with thousands of product data files!
Wednesday 15 January 2014
Australian Open Tennis
It's been fantastic watching the 2014 Aussie Open tennis. As I am working online from home and by myself (save for the occasional coffee visitation of friends), it's great to have tv coverage both day and night. I'm a tennis fan and bit player/weekend warrior myself, so I enjoy watching the sport. The weather in Melbourne has been furiously hot, so the players are really being made to earn their money this year.
The main players like Roger Federer, Raphael Nadal and Serena Williams are starting to age or wear. They're still red-hot favorites, but there are some great up and coming players emerging who are no doubt hungry for Grand Slam success. The Australian Open is played in the warmer part of the Aussie summer and many players get caught out for not being able to handle the heat after a short Christmas layoff or coming from the cooler European climes.
The first four days of the tennis tournament are my favorite days and I used to go to the event every year on each of those days. You get to see all the players, all the different nationalities, their fans and support teams, all the world's media and tourists who follow the tennis circuit. There's a real humdrum of excitement and activity and everyone is happy and full of hope for their favorite players. The tickets are also cheaper on these days and you get to pick from lots of matches to go and see on the main stadium courts and outside courts as well.
This year I won't be going to the Australian Open! I'm 3 hours away and working diligently to get oohyey.com up and running. It's fun working from home and listening and watching the tennis. I'm so glad I don't have to commute to the city these days. The best part of 3 hours every day traveling by train, not being paid for that time! I'm not being paid for my time right now, but at least I am on MY TIME. Juggling Bonanza, eBid and Addoway is fun and I'm learning a lot from trying to set up different online stores.
I'm not one for having the tv or radio going as I work throughout the day, but the tennis is a welcome exception. There have already been some epic four and five set matches and I really enjoy Jim Courier's commentary during the men's matches. I'm hopeful Pam Shriver might be around to commentate some of the ladies matches. When I was in school, we used to dread and make fun of Wendy Turnbull doing it and reminiscing about the 'good old days!'
The main players like Roger Federer, Raphael Nadal and Serena Williams are starting to age or wear. They're still red-hot favorites, but there are some great up and coming players emerging who are no doubt hungry for Grand Slam success. The Australian Open is played in the warmer part of the Aussie summer and many players get caught out for not being able to handle the heat after a short Christmas layoff or coming from the cooler European climes.
The first four days of the tennis tournament are my favorite days and I used to go to the event every year on each of those days. You get to see all the players, all the different nationalities, their fans and support teams, all the world's media and tourists who follow the tennis circuit. There's a real humdrum of excitement and activity and everyone is happy and full of hope for their favorite players. The tickets are also cheaper on these days and you get to pick from lots of matches to go and see on the main stadium courts and outside courts as well.
This year I won't be going to the Australian Open! I'm 3 hours away and working diligently to get oohyey.com up and running. It's fun working from home and listening and watching the tennis. I'm so glad I don't have to commute to the city these days. The best part of 3 hours every day traveling by train, not being paid for that time! I'm not being paid for my time right now, but at least I am on MY TIME. Juggling Bonanza, eBid and Addoway is fun and I'm learning a lot from trying to set up different online stores.
I'm not one for having the tv or radio going as I work throughout the day, but the tennis is a welcome exception. There have already been some epic four and five set matches and I really enjoy Jim Courier's commentary during the men's matches. I'm hopeful Pam Shriver might be around to commentate some of the ladies matches. When I was in school, we used to dread and make fun of Wendy Turnbull doing it and reminiscing about the 'good old days!'
Monday 13 January 2014
Age-old Problem for Multi-channel Sellers, so it seems!
Gee man, it's hard to get a break sometimes!!!
I am having fun learning about multichannel selling. In an ideal world I can have a huge superstore with millions of products, selling across Bonanza, eBid, iOffer, Addoway, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, Facebook and more. Each day I could edit one store and all the others would update automatically. All stores would be dynamic and continually strive to offer sellers more flexibility, advanced features and better options.
The reality is something else. Feebay now insist on having ridiculous seller limitations, meaning I need to live to the age of 8,789 to get a store open with more than 200 listings. That pretty well eliminates a selling marketplace that as of yesterday was ranked 20 on Alexa's Page Rank. Nice. As I explained to the people at eBid, if only they would combine with Bonanza, Addoway and iOffer to make ALL their categories uniform then listings could be better managed and interchanged between those sites.
So now we have a bevy of multichannel selling service providers such as Highwire, ChannelAdvisor, Volution, Vendio, Magento, Linnworks, eSeller Pro, Seller Express and many more to do just that. Except that they all do something slightly different and when you trial their services you realize they all have shortcomings and niggly aspects that disappoint you. Recently I toyed with Highwire and I really liked it. Except the part where I realized I can't import all my listings because of seller limitations on eBay. But it is still great if you want to sell on Facebook....I think.
There is I am sure a consensus that product data feeds a nuisance to deal with and primarily because the major players do not want to play ball and make feed layout and selling categorization uniform. That would mean you can import and export data feeds with no mess and no fuss - a dream really. My most recent project involved using a guy I sourced from elance.com to reconfigure CSV data files from Bonanza and make them importable into eBid. This has been achieved, to some extent at least. Once again what is causing a headache is the selling categories - something like a thousand of them on eBid.
How many buyers genuinely use categories to drill down to find products these days??? When I want something I type it into Bonanza, Google or eBay or Amazon (or all of them) and analyze my options from there. I don't want to sit around like a clown clicking category after category only to get "0 results" from a search. It seems like the major marketplaces don't want to encourage us to sell anywhere else than their site! Anti-competition I say and about time regulators looked at it.
What is really required is one system that can take a CSV file and produce output feeds for the tope ten or twenty marketplaces. And it doesn't appear there are any who can do this for an affordable price. Not that it is impossible, but certainly it is well out the the reach of the average small business trying to get a foothold in the retail market.
http://www.oohyey.com
I am having fun learning about multichannel selling. In an ideal world I can have a huge superstore with millions of products, selling across Bonanza, eBid, iOffer, Addoway, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, Facebook and more. Each day I could edit one store and all the others would update automatically. All stores would be dynamic and continually strive to offer sellers more flexibility, advanced features and better options.
The reality is something else. Feebay now insist on having ridiculous seller limitations, meaning I need to live to the age of 8,789 to get a store open with more than 200 listings. That pretty well eliminates a selling marketplace that as of yesterday was ranked 20 on Alexa's Page Rank. Nice. As I explained to the people at eBid, if only they would combine with Bonanza, Addoway and iOffer to make ALL their categories uniform then listings could be better managed and interchanged between those sites.
So now we have a bevy of multichannel selling service providers such as Highwire, ChannelAdvisor, Volution, Vendio, Magento, Linnworks, eSeller Pro, Seller Express and many more to do just that. Except that they all do something slightly different and when you trial their services you realize they all have shortcomings and niggly aspects that disappoint you. Recently I toyed with Highwire and I really liked it. Except the part where I realized I can't import all my listings because of seller limitations on eBay. But it is still great if you want to sell on Facebook....I think.
There is I am sure a consensus that product data feeds a nuisance to deal with and primarily because the major players do not want to play ball and make feed layout and selling categorization uniform. That would mean you can import and export data feeds with no mess and no fuss - a dream really. My most recent project involved using a guy I sourced from elance.com to reconfigure CSV data files from Bonanza and make them importable into eBid. This has been achieved, to some extent at least. Once again what is causing a headache is the selling categories - something like a thousand of them on eBid.
How many buyers genuinely use categories to drill down to find products these days??? When I want something I type it into Bonanza, Google or eBay or Amazon (or all of them) and analyze my options from there. I don't want to sit around like a clown clicking category after category only to get "0 results" from a search. It seems like the major marketplaces don't want to encourage us to sell anywhere else than their site! Anti-competition I say and about time regulators looked at it.
What is really required is one system that can take a CSV file and produce output feeds for the tope ten or twenty marketplaces. And it doesn't appear there are any who can do this for an affordable price. Not that it is impossible, but certainly it is well out the the reach of the average small business trying to get a foothold in the retail market.
http://www.oohyey.com
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