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Hello and welcome.

A particularly warm welcome to you if you're a new subscriber. It's good to have you as part of the family taking my eBay newsletter.

I've been struck by how many spoof emails I've received recently. I guess the fraudsters have worked out that the run-up to Christmas is probably a good time to increase their activities.

Take it from me, there's nothing worse than getting your personal information stolen by one of these people(!).

My own experience is that my credit card details were obtained fraudulently and used to buy a variety of items. Fortunately for me, my credit card company uses sophisticated software to help detect unusual purchase patterns. And it was they who contacted me to enquire if I had made certain purchases with my credit card. That contact was the first I knew that anything was wrong!

To this day, I don't know how my credit card details were stolen.

All I know is that it was a horrible time. We've never been physically burgled, but I would imagine the feeling is somewhat similar.

My episode didn't happen at Christmas time. I can only think it must be even worse to get caught at this time of year.

So, how about an Old Year's Resolution?

You and I will not get caught by any scam emails ever again!

If you go to this article from a previous newsletter of mine, you'll find a comprehensive guide to keeping safe on eBay. It is also relevant to other aspects of online trading.

If you're a regular reader you may have read this before. If you're new to the newsletter, you will find it helpful.

Keep safe.

Look forward to speaking with you again soon.

Brian
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1. eBay and the Christmas Effect

As shops shift into high gear for the Christmas shopping season, what about solo entrepreneurs who rely on eBay to earn some of their income?

Many eBayers will experience a spike in business over this period. How will we manage it?

eBay recently surveyed some of its 724,000 professional sellers in the US, and found that 13% of them plan to hire employees during the holidays.

During last year's holiday season, the sellers on average received 22 sales related e-mails each day and made 4.3 trips to the Post Office each week. 38% of them slept fewer than six hours a night.

84% of these sellers run their eBay business out of their home, and are using an average of two rooms for holiday orders. Most use either their garage or their office, but 6% said they use "all of the house" for their business.

So, if your house is a sea of boxes and packaging this Christmas, and none of it has been left by Santa, chances are you're an eBay seller!

2. A Clever Scam

Having mentioned scams in my Welcome message this time, I thought you might like to hear of one of the spoof emails I received recently which "appeared" to come from eBay.

Here is the wording:

"Dear Valued Member,

You have been chosen by the eBay online department to take part in our quick and easy 6 question survey. In return we will credit $20 to your account - Just for your time!

Helping us better understand how our customers feel benefits everyone. With the information collected we can decide to direct a number of changes to improve an expand our online service.

The information you provide us is all non-sensitive and anonymous - No part of it is handed down to any third party groups. it will be stored in our secure database for maximum of 7 days while we process the results of this nationwide survey. We kindly ask you to please spare two minutes of your time in taking
part with this unique offer!

To Continue click on the link below:

http://www.rewards-surveys.com/partners/ebay/?CustomerID=8972347&Secur
eID=xjskid893oe99280-2oeujdywhhhekwod0pqlwoe0

Many Thanks and Kind Regards -
eBay Customer Department"

Whenever I get an email from eBay, PayPal or my bank, I apply a very simple rule which will identify 99% of scam emails.

The simplest way to recognise a scam email is in the first line. In this case, you'll notice the email is addressed "Dear Valued Member".

Any email that says Dear Valued Customer, Dear Member, Dear Client, Dear anything like that(!), is a scam. You can delete it instantly. That includes Dear brian@workwinners.com, or any other email address.

eBay, PayPal and my bank will ALWAYS address an email to me by my NAME. If you receive an email which appears to be from eBay, PayPal or your bank which isn't addressed to you by NAME, delete it.

3. Making Sure Your PC is 'Clean'

I mentioned Spyzooka software in the last edition. It was gratifying to note that hundreds of you tried out the software.

The background is that I read a report recently which mentioned that those nasty people who produce spyware and key loggers have made advances. And that the products which previously were effective in detecting spyware and key loggers may no longer be so. The article mentioned that a product called Spyzooka was the new generation of detection systems. So I ran an experiment.

I ran Lavasoft's AdAware first, and this produced 52 nasties. I requested AdAware to delete these.

This meant that my PC was theoretically clear of spyware, key loggers etc.

I then ran Spyzooka.

Spyzooka found 101 more nasties!

This shocked me.

I recommend you run this kind of experiment on your own PC. You can download Spyzooka here.

Or, if you want to read about Spyzooka first, you can do so here.


4. On a Similar Theme...

I get lots of readers who ask me basic PC questions. If you're new to PCs, the internet, Windows, or you just want to move on to new aspects of home computing, this could be for you.

Using your computer doesn't have to be overwhelming or confusing. At last, there's a simple guide that shows you how to do all the basics with step-by-step illustrations.

• How To Download exe's, pictures, programs, PDF's and MP3 files
  
• How to use Email, attached files, and understand email terms
  
• How to use Windows Explorer
  
• How to cut, copy and paste, drag and drop, open multiple windows and use your program files
  
• How to use FTP Programs to put up your own web site
  
• How to take the mystery and frustration out of using Windows
  
• How to chat and instant message with friends all over the world -- for free!
  
• Music on the Internet. All about MP3's
  
• How to zip and unzip files like a pro
  
• How to make money from your website
  
• How to make your computer virtually virus proof. Never worry about all those virus warning emails again
  

If you think this might be helpful, you can get more information about the ultimate guide to help new users here.

This would make a great present for anyone getting a new PC this Christmas!


5. eBay Listing Offer

If you haven't noticed this, UK eBay are running a 5p listing day on Saturday, 10th December for Buy it Now items.

You can get all the details here.


6. eBay & Microsoft in Partnership

Microsoft and eBay UK have joined forces to stop the sale of pirate software on eBay.

According to Microsoft, more than 21,000 suspect software sales were removed from the UK eBay site
between August and October this year. Over half (52 %) were sales of counterfeit Microsoft Windows, while 36 % were fake copies of Microsoft Office.

A band of approximately 100 suspected illegal eBay traders accounted for more than 3,000 of the items.

I'm sure none of our readers are guilty in this area. If you know anyone who is, you might like to warn them!


7. A Free Report With An Excellent Idea For Your eBay Business

Have you heard people saying how simple ideas are often the best?

Well, here's a simple idea from which you can make more money out of your existing eBay business.

Everything is explained in a 12 page document called 'One Step To eBay Riches Power-Report'.

It's written by eBay expert Tuks Engineer, and it's definitely worth reading.

You can get your free copy here.


8. Now You See it - Again

I got quite a response to the optical illusion in the last newsletter.

I thought you might like to see some more.

Here's a whole web page containing loads of illusions....

Take a look.

Like any activity, eBay can become routine. You list, you monitor, you sell, you email, you pack, you ship, etc.

Indeed, selling on eBay can become so consuming that sometimes you don't have the time or energy to think about other options. Although you might begin to have thoughts in this direction if your profit margins reduce or your sell-through rates dip.

Instead of sticking slavishly to eBay alone, why not consider some additional marketing ideas? Here are a few thoughts...

Repeat Business
Businesses both off and online know that developing a clientele of regular customers can be responsible for producing more income. The more trading venues you have, the more opportunities you give those buyers to return to you for goods and services. One of the best ways of capitalising on loyal customers is by opening a website offering products which will be of interest to them.

Better Targeting
Some auction sites have a niche clientele of dedicated collectors who are willing to spend what it takes if you have the merchandise they want.

Cross-Marketing
When you add a website and other online storefronts to your eBay Store, you gain the ability to cross-market. Each site can link to the others, which gives you more attention and improves your search engine rankings.

Wider Range of Merchandise
Some auction sites let you sell things that are prohibited on eBay. LiveDeal.com lets owners sell animals, for instance.

Take a look at other auction opportunities. There's a good list here.

Some suggestions for additional options are presented below.

Direct selling through your own website
Many high-volume sellers regard eBay as a customer acquisition tool. Millions of prospects are drawn to the auction site each day. Once you hook them with a successful eBay sale, you can channel them to your personal pond.

Bargaining with your customers
iOffer provides a complement to eBay. If you aren't sure of the value of an item or if the item did not sell on eBay, this is a good place to turn. You can invite offers or sell merchandise at fixed price. A software tool called Mr. Grabber "grabs" your eBay unsold auction items so you can easily relist them on iOffer.

Specialty auctions
If you are a knowledgeable collector in a particular area or if you specialize in selling to a dedicated niche group of consumers, consider posting merchandise for sale on specialty sites like PenBid.com for fountain pens, LabX for lab equipment, or Just Beads enthusiasts. In addition to attracting buyers with well-focused interests, niche sites sometimes offer other perks: Just Beads does not charge for listing unsold items and provides members with free photo hosting, for instance. Listings on PenBid.com are free. PropertyRoom.com , Bid4Assets and uBid have stricter seller requirements, leading to reduced fraud, which can lead to higher bids from more confident shoppers.

Amazon.com
Amazon is worth a special mention. Suffice it to say that, while Amazon's auction site doesn't attract nearly as much attention as eBay, it's easy to sell books, CDs, and household merchandise in the Amazon marketplace. Search Amazon to see if your item is already described for sale. Click the button 'Sell Yours Here' to offer your new or used version of the same item for sale at a reduced price.

Overstock.com Auctions
Sometimes, you just need to liquidate a lot of merchandise at once. This well-known site attracts a primarily female clientele (as opposed to eBay, which reportedly attracts a 55 percent male to 45 percent female customer base). Overstock is a good place to sell women's jewelry and clothing. Volume sellers (those with 100 or more active listings) receive discounts on their listing fees.

eBay may be the king of the jungle in person-to-person sales, but it's not the only game in town. Don't wait until your business starts to break before you start to think about fixing it. By venturing into some other fields where the online auction sales game is played, you could end up with more sales.

Now for an excellent opportunity brought to you by a friend of mine.

Justin Ormerod is a relative rarity. He is an eBay Platinum PowerSeller who is based in the UK. He has achieved this status in a couple of years by selling digital products, primarily ebooks and software.

Justin has put together a superbly creative package which gives anyone the means to make some real money on eBay, but also via 3 other channels. By real money, he's talking about £2,000 plus per month.

Incidentally, he also guarantees that you will attain PowerSeller status in three months if you follow his instructions!

What Justin has done is to produce a package which offers all the resources, tools and products required to replicate what he is doing.

He provides everything for you to make money from these 4 income streams:

1. Digital product sales on eBay

2. Via your own ebook sales site

3. Via your own mobile phone sales site

4. Via affiliate schemes

I could go on, and describe everything for you.

But far better to read about this in Justin's own words .....

If you want to make more from eBay, and would also like to add other easy ways of earning income, I recommend you consider this special offer from Justin.

Have you heard of Google Base?

It's Google's new database. Get it? Google Base.

It went live in mid-November. Just in time for the Christmas holiday period.

What's interesting about Google Base is that you can upload just about any kind of information into it - for free.

Google database has categories, and creating an item for upload is much faster than generating your average eBay auction. If you have a lot of entries you'd like to upload, Google Base has a bulk listing capability.

Sound familiar?

The reaction to Google Base has been incredible among the PowerSeller community. Always seeking new selling channels, many PowerSellers have taken to this new opportunity like ducks to water.

Within hours, with the help of auction management services company ChannelAdvisor, PowerSellers uploaded tens of thousands of items.

As you probably know, you're not permitted to include a hyperlink to an off-eBay site within your eBay auctions. There's no such prohibition with Google Base listings. Link away! So within their product listings on Google Base, PowerSellers have included links to their web stores, where transactions could be completed.

What kind of traffic can you expect to drive to your stores (or your eBay auctions for that matter) through your Google Base listings? It's a little early to tell but the potential is tremendous.

Considering that in August, Internet users conducted 448 million local searches, and Google sites captured about 44 percent of those. That's a lot of people searching on Google. If Google Base listings show up on Google.com and Froogle, as is the plan, all those eyeballs can be yours.

QuikDrop International, the chain of eBay drop-off stores, started listing its sellers' items almost immediately on Google Base, and reported "Google Base and Froogle are driving several thousand new
potential buyers to our listings every hour." Given these early estimates and the tremendous potential, why wouldn't someone use Google Base to drive customers to their listings, whether they reside
on their own ecommerce sites, on eBay, or some other auction venue?

Whilst the potential is there, Google Base is not quite ready for prime time. There are some bugs to be worked out - porn showed up within hours and security breaches were reported too.

If Google is going to allow transactions right from Google Base, it's going to have to address trust and safety issues. PowerSellers wonder how Google sellers will be identified, verified, and vetted. Without vetting, PowerSeller Mowery said, "reputable sellers could be lost in a sea of frauds."

You can be assured that Google will resolve these weaknesses. And Google Base will prove to be a great way to drive traffic to your auction and/or websites.

Maybe even eBay will have to watch out! After all, why pay to list an item on eBay when you can advertise it for free on Google Base?

You may have heard of Adsense.

You may even be using Adsense.

If you are, or if you want to, here's an excellent new ebook about making the most out of Adsense.

The ebook by James Fraser is called "The Adsense Mint - A Licence to Print Money".

It's a very useful guide.

You can get your free copy here.

Nothing surprises me when it comes to internet auctions. Amuse yourself with some of these beauties.

Here's a contribution from newsletter reader Chris:

(Sir) Del Boy wouldn't be seen dead in this nowadays

And a few amusing auctions I've noticed in passing:

This must be the up-market version of tartan paint

The Dragon's Den would be impressed with this!

I guess this might see off that bird flu!

Just what you need to ship out those DVDs

Disclaimer - I have no association with any of the sellers of the above items.