Sparky's View From Behind the Mic

It’s Saturday and it’s 10am we’re LIVE

sparkyfelix — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:56:47 +0000

Good Morning,

It’s 10amET so join both Dave and myself Sparky for another episode of ebay and Beyond Basics to Business as we talk with the mover and shakers of e-commence you can join in by using the toll free number 866-357-7746 or use the chat line which is open NOW……

Sparky

OLA-RADIO

sparkyfelix — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:01:44 +0000

Hey Guys,

Well last night was the first of (I hope) many Thursday nights with OLA-Radio and a whole lot of really nice folks. Our first show was a winner even with Dave and myselfworking the buttons and as it would happen we had a power serge, outage, hicup, etc and was knocked off the air for a moment but with Dave McButtons quick action everything was back up within minutes, so if you missed any of the OLA-Radio Show with owner Chris Fain please go to our archived page on the web site and listen. We will put all of our show on the archived page so that you may listen at your convenience as always.

Now for those that did listen the opening music was not what I planed and we sounded like the 6PM news Sorry… but if you would like to have a piece of original music 60 sec long considered for the opening please contact me at Sparky@basicstobusiness.com and Dave and Iwill look at it. And if we have a lot of entries we will but up a poll or something to judge the winner.

Well I do hope that you enjoyed the show as much as we did doing it and will tune in next Thursday at 9pmET for more of the fun.

Remember “Its better to live on the air than dead in the ground”

Thanks Again

Sparky

Vaction is over….

sparkyfelix — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:10:38 +0000

Wow, back to the grind… can I do it?. I am sure I can, we all have. But its hard to be motivated, You know that don’t you ?

Here goes……….

I am along with Dave starting a new venture OLA-Radio every Thursday nite at 9pmET to 10pmET thats 6pmPT to 7pmPT and if your somewhere in between you can figure it out.. Just think OLA‘s very own show just so we can talk about OLA and it’s new and up coming growth.

WOW…..I’m getting wound up….

How about you?

Are you ready for this?

Chris Fain will be our first guest, which is a great way to get the new show up and running. We’ll be putting it on the archived page as well.

So don’t miss a single show of OLA-radio.com with both Dave and myself Sparky as we start this new adventure….

Oh by the way…… We’re still on every Saturday at www.basicstobusiness.com at 10amET-Noon so please join us live……..

July is here and things are getting busy…….

sparkyfelix — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:33:40 +0000

OK, your right Scott I need to get back to bloging and trying to stay focused

…….oh yeah focus, Its the month of July and for the ones that have been following Dave and I for the past few months and longer, the month of July is quite busy for us as we have commitments that take us away from the mic for 3 Saturdays in the month and we will air 3 best of shows in those time slots 10amET till Noon. The first one was this past Saturday I hope you liked it, so for the other 2, the next will be Saturday July 19 and the third one will be the following Saturday July 26 so I’m sorry that were not live as normal enjoy the best of shows.

Now this Saturday July 12 will be LIVE 10amET till Noon at www.basicstobusiness.com for ebay & Beyond Basics to Business both Dave White and myself will be interveiwing several controversial guests that you might find entertaining……..

In the mean time for more on the ecommerce news and veiws check out some of my favorites Randy Smythe, Scott Pooler, Richard Breyer-Hayes, Chris Dawson,

Now were was I… yeah focus….

Sparky

www.basicstobusiness.com

Hope You Didn’t Miss This One..

sparkyfelix — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:28:16 +0000

Yes that’s right… Hope you didn’t miss this weeks show Izea.com talking about monetizing your blogs, web sites..Jay Berkowitz of The Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing giving up his tips on how to improve your web appearance, onlineauction.com ‘s news of possible systems/chat outages starting Monday Morning June 30th and all of it was LIVE on www.Basicstobusiness.com

So if you missed it just go to our home page and click the archived shows to download it or itune’s

It’s on the loop as well.

Thank You For Your Support

Sparky

PS Don’t forget to subcribe to our RSS Feed also.

My Perspective On The State Of Online Auctions

sparkyfelix — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:59:34 +0000

This is an email I received the other day and I’ve given it some thought, and I’ll do my best to answer it….

Hi, Sparky.
Lots of us sellers are very interested in your perspective on the inter net auction outlook in general.Was wondering if you have the time to start a thread here on OLA about what you personally saw and heard at Ebay live and what you think will happen there and here at OLA. And why!
I guess I mean more like an informative editorial.

Just an idea. Thanks for your consideration

Internet auctions in general still have a place in the online maketplace. People have stuff to sell and people want to buy stuff, so internet auctions do have a place and there’s money to make. Where this is going to happen is the million dollar question. With social blogs and blogging becoming an increasing part of online marketing, they are an effective way to get your product message to a wide audience. On the other hand, the research says more things are selling at a fixed price. The online consumer is tending to like the instant gratification of a quick transaction rather than the auction type format.

One thing to keep in mind in todays green movemnet is that there is a distinct marketplace for serviceable used items, to help the environment and these are perfect items for an auction format.

If you have a good supplier and want into the market place it looks good but you will need to be able to ramp up the business as it gets busier, quickly. You will need to work with company’s like Channeladvisor, Infopia, MerchantAdvantage and several other multi channel people as there are over literally thousands of different online sales platforms and they all are differently structured and these providers have an edge for the small seller because they have the knowledge of each and which best suits the items that your selling. But they cost and prices vary.

Now it seem like eBay is moving into the fixed, new items only and not own the inventory, and compete with Amazon. Yahoo might make sense with their Yahoo Stores platform. The small seller is now being disadvantaged by the large seller who has new stuff and lots of it and wants on the largest online site, can’t blame them they got stuff and people want stuff.

eBay has gotten so large it’s tough to deal with all the little guys and the problems they bring.

Fights over shipping cost, listing fees, FV fees, feedback, and the list continues so why deal with it, the big guys money is good, he has deals with the shippers because of volume, they pay on time Hmmm…why other than it was built by dealing with all of this should eBay keep auctions? They have no loyalty to you the seller it was the eBay name that was used to find what people wanted and will continue to return to eBay so why keep the little guy around causing more problems, the large seller wants on the platform to sell there items.

So move on, start looking at what you have and where it might find more costumers like I said before there are thousands of selling venues on the internet.

Thats the main reason Dave and I started talking about doing the Radio show about 2 yrs ago in his office. We were looking for a product, supplier, shipper all the things that everyone who has the urge to sell on internet does and realized that the information was so widely scattered it was hard to keep track. No central place to look or listen to. Dave with his knowledge of internet marketing and his connections while working for eBay, started the show ebay & Beyond:Basics to Business after a few solo shows Dave asked me to join to add in some color and so here I am trying to be honest with you. But it’s still your choice as to what to use what works for one doesn’t always work for the other it seems. I only hope we have given people a better outlook as to what is available to them. If there was one magic answer I haven’t heard it

I think onlineauction.com is a very energetic crowd, some of the things that have been promised do come but are slow, you feel left out, but again I’m told that will improve, we’ll see. As far as a place to list yes onlineauction.com is a smart choice but shouldn’t be your only place just one of your choices there are so many.

We are sponsored in part by them and thats says to me that they want to grow. Because I know we’re growing and they are trying to be apart of it, as are several other folks.

I dont know if that answered your questions but I tried.

Just another day in paradise…

sparkyfelix — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:59:59 +0000

Good morning all,

Well it back to the grind been editing the shows from our trip for you to hear on the archived tab on our web page, checking up on emails, scheduling for the coming shows, bloging, remember to feed the SEO Spiders and update,update update, keep the faith we’re going places and you sure want to be in the know so tune in, turn on, and enjoy…www.basicstobusiness.com

While your at sign up for the RSS feed to get your information when it’s posted from all of us atebay & Beyond Basics to Business also don’t forget to see what Scott Pooler has to say….

Sparky

www.basicstobusiness.com

We’re Home from ebayLive 2008.. and alive….

sparkyfelix — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:57:34 +0000

Wow… what an event! Small crowds, ebay employees standing around talking among themselves not to the attendees( no one to talk to), Tight and I do mean tight uniformed security along with eBay’s t-shirt security at one time I counted 27 security type people from our broadcasting table to the front doors I thought that was a bit much, but considering that when Dave and I went to set up our equipment the uniformed guys would not let us into the exhibit hall without an eBay employee escort hummm….I was not present when the youtube video was made it was talked about on the floor abit..kept hushed up, it seemed. Did see a women with a wrapped up baby doll with a bums mask like the type at Halloween she told me it was the CEO of ebay cigar and all, funny… Heard of a guy who didn’t have kind words for eBay and was over heard by an ebay employee and was not allowed in to the key note speech and escorted away which by the way was a rah,rah, speech for what seemed to me Mr. Donohoe’s family and children which were in the front seats. I do think that there was some good there they handed out special awards to 5 people which have made a difference in the world some way…There were some nice after the show party’s one by alibaba.com at a very plush restaurant, frooition.com which by the way is from England held there’s in an English pub and the accents were way cool and right on…The people I met from all over the world that was great ! for that I think it was worth it. I know that the one thing that seem to me to be on everyone mind was… where do we go and what do we do…. well they now know there’s another place to look… onlineauction.com yes we told them all, gave them cards, stickers and lots of advise.. ola is the way.. so hold on I know we got the word out.. I know I’ll remember something later and have more to say but make sure you look at Dave’s, Scott Pooler’s, Randy Smythe’s, Chris Dawson’s and Richard Brewer-Hay’s Blog to name a few that will have more and a different veiw from eBay Live 2008…also were putting the past 12 hour more or less in the archives for you to listen to from the floor of the show.. some great interview’s and funny moments.. so don’t miss a moment and this past regular Saturday’s show will be on the 24 hr loop as well.

Thanks again for your support……

Sparky

We’re Home finally

sparkyfelix — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:11:40 +0000

Well we made it and gee what an experience. I’m home and more confused about whats going on than ever, a lot of unhappy people for the size which seemed small to me, surprisingly some people were happy about what has happened and a whole lot of everyone looking for what to do next…But don’t dis pare. We will have all of the 12 hours and more, up on the web site soon and you can hear for yourself what was happening at ebay Live 2008……

Sparky

www.basicstobusiness.com

Wow what a great time in Chicago

sparkyfelix — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:11:19 +0000

You wont belive this yes I will be telling more as it happens we’re here at the key note and seting up front so hang on I’m try ing something new whooHooo….