5 sets of Studio Hummel Ornaments

FleaPirates Plunder is bringing her blog back to life with a test. (Yes, I know, it's been months since I've had something to say!) You all know that I am an OLA gal. Actually I've been exclusively listing at OLA for over 4 years now! Wow! But I read an interesting article the other day, about the competition, eBay. In this article, (or what I call a bundle of fluff), the author is attempting to convince the reader that it is feasible to earn $10,000 in a year, selling your treasures on eBay. Really?

The comments section is the most telling. There you will find a score of folks who have been there, done that and disagree with the author vehemently. So I thought, "Why not give it a try?" I'm in possession of 5 sets of Studio Hummel Ornaments, which are in like-new condition and highly collectible. This is the perfect opportunity to see if eBay still has a buying audience.

The ornaments are made by Berta Hummel. All the boxes are dated 2004, although 2 sets have ornaments which are signed 2003. With the exception of a single ornament, all come with COA's and original boxing and packaging.

I've researched these ornaments extensively. Some sell as complete sets, which I prefer, keeping the set intact. Others sell individually, with select ornaments fetching some mighty impressive values, I might add! Taking all this information into account, I settled on an opening bid of $34.65 for each set, with a shipping cost of $5.35, bringing a total investment, for one set, to $40. (Combined shipping is available at FleaPirates, of course!)

Now for those of you who are saying, What the heck is she thinking?, I must admit this fact... I paid absolutely zero in listing fees. I was shocked, never expecting that small windfall. Apparently, if you are listing in Classic Auction formats, eBay now allows you to list 50 items, (without "the extras"), at no cost to you. If they sell, I must pay a Final Value Fee.

If they don't sell, they'll eventually arrive at my standby, and favorite listing place, FleaPirates Plunder at OLA. I've got lots of great items listed there already... you should go take a peek!

In the meantime, I'd really love to have tons of folks browse those Studio Hummel Ornaments at eBay. It would sure be fun to find out just what the Final Value Fees have become since I left in 2008. Just click on the Set # below to visit the auction... the ornaments are real treasures!

Set #26
Dolly and Me
Hold Me Tight
A Helping Hand

Set #27
Holiday Errand
Wrapped with Love
Bundles of Holiday Cheer

Set #28
Special Christmas Greetings
Sneaking Christmas Treats
Christmas Lullaby

Set #29
Quiet Thoughts
A Shiny Christmas Apple
Holiday Anticipation

Set #30
Christmas Prayers
Christmas Train
A Story for Christmas

How to Dress Up Your Site Without Scaring Away Customers

Just recently, my friend Jaswood and I learned a valuable lesson. Jas and I are frequent creative decorators, and since coming to OnlineAuction.com, we've both come to love adding new techniques to our budding knowledge of HTML and CSS. What recent lesson did we learn, (the hard way)? How to Dress Up Your Site Without Scaring Away Customers!

It all began during the annual Halloween Store Decorating Contest at OLA. I only own stores at OLA, so I do not know how many similar venues allow you to customize your pages... do any of you sell at communities where you can add backgrounds, graphics, colors, and HTML to your listings and storefront? If you own your own website, or manage a blog, then this would certainly apply to you, as well.

Flea's Field, (my Sports Collectibles and Trading Card store), was used as an example of our blunder. I posted about this in our chat forum at OLA, but wanted to share the experience with my blog readers, too. I know, I know... I promised to continue my previous blog post with a post about owning your own domain for blogging purposes. I'll get back to that soon. This post needed to be written, however, as we are entering the holidays, and people are getting excited about decorating for the seasons! Here's something to remember before you decorate.

Some codes may limit the functionality of your store links:


We found a really fun site called 123mycodes.com. This site caters to the MySpace crowd, but in honesty, you can use the codes to dress up almost any site. You can even tweak the codes with your own graphic images, for real personalization. Look for fun ideas like custom cursors, glitter text, backgrounds and icons! The one that I tried at Flea's Field was falling objects.

Below is a screenshot of my Flea's Field Home Page during the test. The leaves fall beautifully, although you cannot see them float about on this screenshot.

"What's the problem?", you ask.

See those links, to my Free Shipping Challenge, my blogs and Fleapirates Plunder? Well, my customer cannot successfully click those links if they are viewing my page with a FireFox browser! Internet Explorer, amazingly, seems to work fine. Opera, which came standard on my android phone, does not work. But what about the other browsers? There are many and you cannot guarantee that your visitor will be using a specific browser, so be sure that any code you add works on all of them! If it doesn't, you might lose a customer.

Now let's talk about load times. Another friend, DraggonTagger, was kind enough to check the load time on the Flea's Field storefront during my test, as she has slower internet access than my high-speed DSL. Guess what? It took so long to load that she gave up! Do you want your customers giving up and backing out? Thought not! So be sure to check the speed of your page.

Another friend I know has a slight case of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Objects that flash brightly, or have fast, repeated animation, or vivid contrasting colors seem to bother her immensely. She will vacate any page that seems to "jump out of the screen" at her. There are millions of internet users who are affected by similar disorders... one just may be your next customer. Make them feel welcome!

So what can you do?

• Customers today have the luxury of transparency in the online marketplace. They want to know who you are and why they should buy from you. I've got profiles at OLA, my blog, Twitter, Facebook, and other link directories. Do you? If not, add them.
• Decorating with color and images can add a personal feel to your site. Let them see the real you and bring some creativity to your site. Just remember to keep your users' experience in mind.
• Spelling and grammatical errors are one of the biggest turn-offs to customers and blog audiences. Use tools like Spell Check to eliminate any typos!

Another tip I can offer is a tool I found in the Photobucket photo editing software. Under the Decorate tab, you'll find the Color Grabber. This tool will tell you the exact color code of a color in an image. Use it to match or coordinate a color scheme for your background, borders or fonts.

And lastly, exclusively for Online Auction Founding Members, Jaswood has written a Tutorial For Decorating Your OLA Store / House. I encourage you to give it a try! Be sure to ask questions, if you have them... someone is always willing to lend a hand. There's a new contest coming up! (Hint, hint!) With all these tips and tricks, you will certainly know how to dress up your site without scaring away customers! Have fun decorating!

Here Come The Seasons!

 Can you believe it is October 1st already? The annual decorating and celebrating has gotten into full swing at my house... even our trees are finally starting to cooperate and are slowly evolving into beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow! It's one of my favorite times of year. As autumn leaves tumble to the ground, we plunge into Fall. Here come The Seasons!

The local brick-and-mortar businesses are overflowing with festive fall treats and sparkly autumn trimmings, along with lavish amounts of candy that you know we'll all buy, in anticipation of trick or treaters to come. Are you ready?

Online Sellers can get into the spirit, as well! There is already a thread in the OnlineAuction.com Forum, dedicated to showcasing our members' Fall finery. And did you hear about the latest contest at OLA? It's a store decorating contest! Announced only one day ago, and accepting entries until October 30th, this contest has already captured the attention of 6 stores, and will certainly tempt others to join in the merriment.

Start your season off right, by visiting the houses of these stylish sellers!
Jaswood 2
DraggonTagger
Fleapirates
FleasField
Aesthetics48
DebsVarietyShop

Which one gets your vote?
(No, you don't have to pick mine... hehe! They're all grand!)

All of the fine sellers at OnlineAuction.com are opening their doors to Holiday and Halloween sales! You'll find hundreds of wickedly great deals, on a variety of seasonal merchandise, using phrases like Halloween, Fall, Autumn, Witch, Ghost, and Costume in the search box at OLA. Scary decorations, spooky frills, cute accessories, and downright beautiful accents await you. To entice you, here are a couple auctions that I believe are worth sharing...

This Halloween Candle House with Ghosts, Skeleton and Mummy is featured at my house, (Fleapirates), for a starting bid of only $4.99! Set the mood for Halloween Haunting with a single tealight candle!

This Infant Toddler Pumpkin Hat Stocking Cap Fall Winter Baby is the latest handmade offering from my friend DraggonTagger! While this one is infant sized, look for larger sizes in her store, and be sure to check for other designs, like strawberries and blueberries! Prices start at only $4.

A Sinister Skull With Lantern Halloween is one of my favorite offers from YawningDawg! Attractively priced at $26.95, this is sure to add just the right spirit this Halloween season!

Yes, we've got enchanting jewelry, too! This Vintage Jewelry Charm GHOST Goldtone Halloween can be found at BlueHanahCottage! At only .99 cents, how can you resist?








Here come The Seasons! Happy Fall ~ Happy Halloween ~ Happy Hunting, from all of us at OLA! We hope you'll keep your eye on us, on these treasures, and on all the bargains at OLA, this season and beyond!

Fleapirates is promoting Classic Auctions!

Today I moved 10 of my items for sale into the Sellers Specials category of Fleapirates Plunder. Each and every auction in that category is a Classic Auction, and all 10 of these fabulous finds are currently starting at just a quarter!

Fleapirates is promoting Classic Auctions!

I miss the bidding days, don't you? So I grabbed 10 things, dropped the price down to .25 cents, and we'll see what happens. At the very least, I'll be moving some product, and making room for all the things I've not taken time to list yet! LOL!

This link will take you to my Sellers Specials offers.

Please take a moment to see if something there peaks your interest! And keep checking back, because I believe I will try to keep this category stocked. Values will vary, and my aim is to keep a variety of products offered, so that collectors of many different genres may find a bargain or two. Happy shopping!

Celebrating The Collector at OnlineAuction.com

Celebrating The Collector

People have been collecting stuff for centuries. That stuff can range from everyday items, like pottery and glass, to commemorative issues, like stamps, to monetary assets, like gold, silver and coins, and more. The possibilities are endless, and if you revere a particular item, chances are someone else does, too. In today's internet savvy world, it's easy to find other like-minded folks who are willing to barter, trade, sell, and buy, often with reckless abandon. The joy is in the hunt... and the thirst to amass a collection worthy of acclaim can last years.

Jane Withers, the famous child star of the 1930's and 1940's, was a planganologist, or a doll collector. In 2004, Jane sold her entire collection at auction. What a collector's dream, to own a doll that belonged to the child who gave Walt Disney the line, "It's a small world, after all!"

People who collect autographs are called philographists. One example is Praful Thakkar, who has been collecting for over 50 years and boasts a collection of over 6,000 autographs! He even maintains an online gallery.

It is rumored that coin collecting became popular in medieval times, where coins were hoarded for both artistic and historical value. Those first coin collectors became what are known today as numismatists.

Philatelists collect stamps, and it is estimated that over 22 million people in the U.S. today enjoy this hobby! England's King George V had one of the most famous, and possibly the largest, stamp collection in the world. That collection, further developed by his ancestors, is entitled The Royal Philatelic Collection.

Rock collectors are termed petrologists, and may further divide their collections into specific kinds of rocks. They include igneous, meaning granite or volcanic rock, sedimentary, like sandstone or shale, and metamorphic, like slate or marble. People who specialize in sedimentary rock collections, may also be avid collectors of fossils.

Vladimir Nabokov, a multi-lingual Russian-American novelist and short story writer, was also a famed lepidopterist, or butterfly collector. Nabokov wrote Lolita while traveling on one of his annual butterfly collection trips in the western United States.

Although entomology is considered to be the study of insects, collectors are also referred to as entomologists. Many colleges today offer entomology courses, which are widely popular. One famous collector was prominent scientist, Charles Darwin.

Clock collectors are called horophiles, and antique collectors are, at times, called antiquists. You'll even discover collectors of beer related incidentals, like labels, (a labologist), and beermats, or coasters, (a tegestologist).

What do you collect? How did your infatuation begin? What is your greatest, or funniest, find? Frequently the stories behind the collection are as enthralling as the collection itself!

Indulge me with your story...
and you may appear in a future Fleapirates Plunder Blog Post!

Send your story to: Fleapirates@att.net today!  

Using Feed Readers to Stay Connected

For many of us, being on the internet today means staying connected to friends, family and peers, as well as accounts, passions, and interests. The net is teeming with ways to stay connected! In the past, we've discussed several social networking options, like Facebook and Twitter, and connections like HootSuite, but I wonder... which programs are my readers actually utilizing? And which one(s) are the most invaluable to you? For diversity, in this post, I am focusing upon Using Feed Readers to Stay Connected.

RSS Button

Let's begin with RSS. Do you know what it stands for? Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a web feed that is used to publish frequently updated content, like blogs, news, audio, and video. To view these feeds, users must employ a feed reader. (Also known as an Aggregator or an RSS Reader.) Basically, the feed reader gathers, condenses and retains information, that you specify, into a single source. Each reader has a user interface, to monitor and read all the feeds you subscribe to, which then compiles the information into an easy-to-read format, tailored to suit your needs. In addition, these readers are now available on mobile devices!

There are two easy ways to add feeds to your feed reader.

1. You may enter the url of the feed into your reader by hand.
2. You may click on the RSS button in a website, to directly subscribe to that feed.

Two popular readers are from Google and Yahoo. Other popular readers include BlogLines and FeedDemon, but I would urge people to investigate the multitude of readers available, as each reader has it's own perks and pitfalls.

I've been engaging with my Google Reader more and more lately. Because I have my blog with Blogger, I am able to see recent posts from all the Blogs I'm Following on my Google Reader. I can also choose to follow people, like ThriftyVault, (who I follow on Facebook), and ColderIce, (who I follow on Twitter).

Google will also give you recommendations, which I've already put to good use. Just last week, I browsed their recommendations, and found an interesting blogger, CollectingVintageJewelry, who had a timely post about an upcoming Mosaic Workshop in Chicago which I may be interested in attending! Who knew? Not me! But now that I am frequently visiting my Google Reader, I am certainly more well-informed.

Another aspect of Google Reader that I enjoy is the Note in Reader button. It is a bookmarklet that you can drag and drop into your browser toolbar, instantly providing you with a way to share news, articles and just about anything on the web. Fast and easy... that works for me!

Want to connect with me? Find my profile here.

Let me take a moment to speak directly to my comrades at OnlineAuction.com. Did you know that there are RSS Feeds available at OLA? Find the OLA feeds here. To see feeds to your own items, sign into your OLA account before you visit the feed page. Once you've signed in, the following feeds are available to you:

• Featured Auctions
• Ending Auctions
• What's Sold
• What's New
• User's Auctions (Your own items.)
• User's Feedback Ratings (Your own current status.)
• User's Feedback Comments (What did your customers say about you today?)

OnlineAuction also provides you with links to feed readers. Personally, I like Google. You, on the other hand, may prefer a different reader. The point is, this information is available to you, on your desktop, your laptop and even your smartphone... how will you use it to your advantage?

Christmas in July at OnlineAuction.com

Now that the U.S. temperatures have left us sweltering, and the heat indexes are rising, the thought occurred to me this week that it was the perfect time to remember cooler, refreshing and jollier pursuits. Unseasonal? Perhaps, but how about Christmas?  So, unofficially, of course, I am declaring it Christmas in July at OnlineAuction.com! 





Close your eyes, smell the cookies baking, the scent of fresh pine boughs, feel the sprinkling of snowflakes on your face and the goosebumps sending shivers up your spine from the first winter chill. Recall the magic, the excitement of family and friends during the holidays. Feel better? Thought so. Now it's time to shop.


Valerie Fain mentioned the word sleepers on Facebook this week. Sleepers, for antiquists, are those rare finds that you stumble upon at a flea market, an antique shop, or an estate sale... you know the ones. They're under-priced and over-looked, and you just know that snapping up that treasure is your coup d'etat for the week! Let me tell you, the off-season is when sleepers prevail.

I spoke of Christmas in July on Twitter this week. I admit it... I love Twitter! Where else can you talk randomly, (in 140 characters or less), and have people listen, not to mention, respond? My Twitter habit during the work week has become to choose a theme for the day, usually pertaining to an item I've got in my store. Then I expand on that, by featuring items from other sellers in the same genre. It's been really fun browsing OLA every morning! Boy, have I come across some interesting auctions and some sleepers.

For sure, I try to retweet some of the people I follow, and give credit to newsletters I receive which have interesting content. You have to mix it up at Twitter. Send personal greetings - comment on the news - talk sports. Shoot, you're probably all tired of hearing me rave about the Chicago White Sox by now, but just wait until the Green Bay Packers gear up for the season! The point is, variety is the spice of Twitter, and this week I featured a spicy variety of holiday related items. Care to join me for a few more?

At Supergranny's, you can find this New Box of 18 Christmas Cards Santa in Pool Reindeer on Golf Course. So cute, and priced at only $1.50! Very reasonable shipping costs make this a real bargain! (And she's one of my favorite sellers!)

This beautiful set is from NightWings! A never used set of Lenox Winter Greetings Everday 16 Piece Set Dinnerware NIB Plates/Salad plates/Bowls/Mugs, valued at $300! Can be yours for only $160, plus shipping and handling.

This is a JIM SHORE SANTA-NORTH STAR EXPRESS CHRISTMAS TRAIN #4011073, offered at auction by Linman. Bidding starts at an incredibly low price of $59.99!

Boy, is he cute! This FITZ AND FLOYD CHRISTMAS CANDY JAR is available at the store of PWittsStuff, for only $24.99. And guess what? Free shipping! What a deal!

And this lovely Bing and Grondahl Denmark 1980 Christmas in the Woods Bell can be found in Spock100's store. This seller has over 200 holiday items listed in their very well stocked store. I feature this store on Twitter quite a bit - love their merchandise!







Have I tempted you enough? Go to OnlineAuction.com and type the word Christmas into the search bar. As of this writing, there are 1660 Classic and Fixed Price listings for your browsing pleasure! And while you're there, don't forget to stop by and check out the holiday items at Fleapirates Plunder, too!

How To Take A Good Photo!

How To Take A Good Photo, the newest video release from Fleapirates, has hit YouTube! Inspired by our friendly OnlineAuction.com Customer Support Representative, Renee, this video touches upon basic tips, such as using the macro setting on your camera for detailed close-ups and including plain backgrounds for image quality.

In the past, I've relied heavily on my daughter, Emily, for inspiration, technical advice and video creation when preparing videos related to sales events and OLA. I'm a PC... and proud to admit that past videos were all created using Windows Movie Maker for XP. I loved 'em!

Today, however, Emily was able to film, create and edit this video using her new MacBook and iMovie software. She was pleasantly surprised to find out how easy, fast and fun making videos on iMovie is! Seems like there are even more fun tools! Yep, I'm jealous...

These tips are for everyone, not just folks taking auction photos, so please take a moment, watch and learn, and let my theater-student entertain you!

Albert Belle AUTOGRAPHED 1997 Collectors Choice Teams # CW7 Baseball Trading Card

Albert Belle

AUTOGRAPHED

1997 Collectors Choice Teams # CW7

 This Albert Belle trading card is autographed!

It is a 1997 Collectors Choice Teams trading card,

#CW7, from the Chicago White Sox.

They're "my" team... and I collected a lot of

Albert Belle memorabilia while he was with

our club in 1997 and 1998.

Much of the memorabilia was obtained

at Comiskey Park, (now US Cellular Field.)

This card was autographed

during a "meet and greet"

which the White Sox offered on

one of their regularly scheduled "Kids' Days".

We stood in line for quite some time

to meet Albert and get his autograph!

So there is no COA - sorry!

The card was immediately put into a hard plastic sleeve,

and transferred to an album upon our return home that day.

It has remained in the album ever since.

Great condition!

Standing at 6'2 and weighing in at 225 lbs,
Albert was one of the leading sluggers of his time,
and in 1995 he became the first player to hit
50 doubles and 50 home runs in a single season.

  ~  Wikipedia

I can't believe I am getting rid of my Albert Belle memorabilia!
Those of you who know me know how much time was spent collecting.

But it's time,
so head on over to OLA, look for Flea's Field,
and check out this Autographed Albert Belle card!

SEO Is An Investment

Today I'd like to tell you about another fantastic presentation that I attended at the ECMTA Summit in Las Vegas. It was entitled Being Found in the Search Engines, and was presented by Dave Cook, who is the Senior Director of Marketing at TheFind.com. TheFind is the vertical search engine for shopping that puts every product, every store, every sale, coupon and discount, right at your fingertips. (Quoted from their About Us page.) Dave's been with TheFind since it's launch in 2006. Before that, he shared his SEO, SEM and Marketing expertise with other online venues, such as Buy.com. Those of you who know me well will understand why this particular presentation captivated me... the assimilation of SEO knowledge has remained a rousing quest for me! Dave said it best: SEO is an investment. Are you ready?


Analytics was the basis of the presentation. Dave's advice? Set up and use accounts at both Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. Let the analytics run for 2 weeks before you start a SWOT analysis. SWOT = Strengths - Weaknesses - Opportunities - Threats

STRENGTHS

• Where is your traffic coming from? 
• How are users interacting with you? 
• Make a spreadsheet of your keywords. Analyze the word(s), the source, the traffic potential, and competitiveness. Which are the keywords that make sense for you?

WEAKNESSES

• Do you have enough ranking power to compete?
  This is important... be honest! And analyze your competitors, too!  Where do they get their sales? Look at keywords, backlinks, partner sites, social sites, and press releases.
  If they're outranking you, try alternatives, like changing word order, using plural / singular keywords and keyword modifiers.
• Here is a list of some websites that may be useful to you:
  1. Spyfu
  2. Open Site Explorer
  3. Majestic SEO (They have free and paid subscriptions.)
  4. SEOBook (Keyword Density) 
  5. Site Analytics Complete

OPPORTUNITIES
Here's the good news! eCommerce today offers merchants of all sizes numerous opportunities to compete successfully. Let's look at some ideas that you may choose to incorporate into your plan:

• Add quality, relevant content! Simply put, search engines base their results on relevancy. Use alternative keywords and phrases to cast a wider net. 
• Add your store to directories. Don't use Link Farms... just reputable directories. This creates backlinks for you. 
• Submit everywhere! Take advantage of places like the Chamber of Commerce, the Better Business Bureau, Yelp, and ResellerRatings.
• When linking, anchor text matters! Be sure to use keywords in the anchor text. As an example for prom dresses, to optimize your anchor text, link the words Prom Dresses, as opposed to Click Here. 
• Use keywords in your image ALT tags, too. (See my post on Picasa!)
• Internal links are links leading to other information on your own site. These pay huge dividends! Use them, and make sure your anchor text is optimized.
• External links are backlinks. You can get them from blogs, (either in content or on a blogroll), from social sites, like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, from content sites, like YouTube, and from Community Forums. Use these sources yourself, and also ask your friends and colleagues to link to you.
• On social sites, find the Thought Leaders, follow them, and follow their followers! Build your network.
• Use the Google Blog Search to follow and comment on relevant blogs. Interact!
• If you have a data feed, submit it often to the various search engines. Fresh data is rewarded.
• Set up Google Alerts.

THREATS
Threats to your company success include such diversions as competing projects, technical limitations, subject expertise, overly aggressive optimization, and your time, not to mention your competitors! Keep an eye on those competitors! And DO NOT fall for these common misconceptions:

• A few keywords are all that matter. Wrong! Content is king. Keywords are your best tool.
• It doesn't matter what they do, as long as they get to my site. Nope! Watch out for a high bounce rate... irrelevant traffic does you no good.
• Meta keywords matter. Well, sort of. Actually, your meta description is more important, so be sure to include relevant keywords AND optimize your meta description to relate to your products.
  *** I found an interesting article on this! It's not from Dave Cook, but I enjoyed the read. Check it out! How To Use HTML Meta Tags

In closing, Dave also talked about site speed. This is how fast your page(s) are loading for the average user. Be careful not to use an over-abundance of fancy graphics and code that may slow down your load time! (I know... I love the fun stuff, too! Just use it in moderation.) Site speed affects how often and how deep you are indexed. Just announced, Google says that site speed is affecting rank, too!

You can find and follow TheFind.com at Twitter and on Facebook. I'd like to thank Dave for being one of my favorite presenters! If anyone is interested, I have his entire presentation, and you are welcome to contact me for a copy via email.

Heading to the eCommerce Summit in Las Vegas

The 2010 eCommerce Summit kicks off in Las Vegas next week! Opening Tuesday evening, April 13th, with a reception at the Harley Davidson Cafe, this year's event promises to be an exciting learning experience.

I am fortunate to be representing Online Auction at the Summit! OLA is my home, and I am looking forward to not only promoting the site, but gathering information on all the current advancements and opportunities in eCommerce that I will be able to share with OLA members.

Joining me at the Summit is MetzyMom. I am really grateful to have a friend in tow... someone who exudes a positive attitude, a quest for learning, an adventurous spirit, and shares the same unwavering belief in OLA that I do.

Did you hear that we get to meet 3 more OLA friends in Las Vegas? How fun! It turns out that Curiocache will be vacationing in Las Vegas during the same time, and DustyCorners is close enough to drive over for a luncheon. We decided to meet up at Rio, where we'll find BlafStore, who is arranging to have lunch with us before he has to start work for the day. Go team! We'd love to welcome other members to our little OLA party, so if you're near Las Vegas on April 13th, be sure to contact one of us and meet us for lunch!

My store remains open during my trip... the Fleapirate Princess, as my daughter, Emily, is known, will be ready to invoice, fill and ship any orders that may come in during my absence, so don't hesitate to shop at Fleapirates Plunder next week! She's a great helper, and committed to Customer Service, so stop by and say hello!

Look for real time event updates on my Facebook profile, and more news and information when we return! Until then, happy selling, happy shopping and best wishes for a fantastic week!

Online Merchants : The Power of Picasa

If you are an Online Merchant, one of your priorities is certainly focused upon placing your product advantageously in the various search engines. We've talked a lot about Search Engine Optimization, and ways to improve the titles, subtitles and descriptions of your products to appeal to the search engines. Another way to promote your product is through Image Optimization. Today's post is about harnessing The Power of Picasa.

We believe that Picasa will meet the demands of those sellers who do not wish to utilize outside photo hosting resources. Instead, these sellers may opt to download this Google program, and benefit from perks such as photo enhancement, resizing, titling, and tagging, right from the comfort of their own hard drive. Yes, Picasa offers a photo hosting service, entitled Web Albums, but we have found that it is not necessary to use the uploaded images in order to receive the full benefit of Picasa.

ou are invited to join us this Monday evening, April 5, 2010, for a Webinar about The Power of Picasa! You'll find us in the LIVE CHAT area of the Ola Team Blog, on Monday, at 8:00pm CST. We encourage anyone who is interested in using Picasa to download the program and try it out on your own. Then, visit with us Monday evening for a quick walk-through of the features and a group question and answer session. Mind you, no one is claiming to be Picasa experts... but we've been using Picasa for several weeks now, and are familiar enough with the features to assist those wishing to take their photos to the next level.

Fleapirates Plunder One Day Sale - Tue March 30, 2010!

  Fleapirates Plunder One Day Sale!

TODAY!
March 30, 2010

Today I am participating in the OLA Terrific Tuesday 12 Hour Sale,

but thought I would offer my special to anyone and everyone who visits my store(s) today!

Fleapirates Plunder
Save 30% on orders totaling $10 or more!
Shipping is not included in the discount, and may not be used towards $10 limit.
You may, however, combine products to reach that limit,
and I will gladly save you money on shipping by combined packaging.

Flea's Field
Buy one trading card at full price,
and get one trading card of equal or lower value FREE!
Standard shipping fees apply.

Discussing Photo Hosting and Image Optimization

Last week I was honored to be asked to co-host the Seller Buzz Radio Show with MetzyMom, because our regular co-host, Jan Bradshaw, is on assignment, and could not attend. While I missed Jan, I must say that being on the show with Metzy was quite a treat!

Previously, I had joined the Seller Buzz team as a correspondent of sorts. I've been working on a blog series about Photo Hosting and Image Optimization, which we had planned to debut on the site as it began to take shape. The timing was perfect... and we were able to use my blog series as part of the show!

If you missed last Thursday's episode, you can listen to the archived show by clicking this TalkShoe link. We talked about how there are numerous choices for sellers today, as far as hosting and optimizing images. (Did you know that according to Wikipedia there are 62 sites to Share Photos and 32 sites to Host Photos?) We stressed that each seller needs to research their options, read the Terms of Service, test the features, and choose which site meets their needs, as each choice may or may not be the right choice for you. What you expect from a service such as a photo hosting site may differ slightly from the expectations of your peers, and it may certainly depend upon what features are provided, or not provided, by your venue. In my research, I investigated the pros and cons of popular sites, like Photobucket, Flickr and Picasa for photo hosting, as well as the editing software offered at IrfanView. Last week's show covered both Photobucket and Flickr, while next week's show will include Picasa and Irfanview.

To summarize, I must first say that I normally like to look at both the good and the bad when critiquing a site. I like to join, use it and comment based upon experience. Flickr, however, has Terms of Service that state precisely what you can and cannot do, and it seems quite clear to me that using them for commercial purposes would be a violation of their terms. I did not test their image hosting. So I will caution any seller who chooses to disregard those terms... do so at your own risk. I will say though, that I think Flickr has most of the popular features that the other sites do, and users rave about how great their service is, so I would recommend it as a site for personal use.

Photobucket has long been my image hosting site. Obviously I am biased, but with good reason. You can upload your titled photos quickly and easily, add titles within the site for advanced album organization, add tags for photo optimization, and Photobucket hands you coded tags for use in websites, blogs, chat rooms and email. Making a slideshow is a breeze, as is loading and sharing video. Their editing software is as good as any other I have used, and they offer perks like glitter text, borders and watermarking. Users from OnlineAuction.com who are just starting out at Photobucket should know that you can pre-set your sizing when uploading, and size 320 x 240 is perfect for both the OLA auctions and the OLA chat room.

As a sneak peek into next week, I'll tell you that Picasa is fast becoming another favorite of mine. As a loyal Photobucket user, I balked at change, but thanks to our OLA programmer, I decided to give Picasa a try. Sure enough, Picasa does everything that Photobucket does, without needing to upload my photos to a hosting site! You can use the Picasa Web Albums, of course, but to use this great service, with the tags that are so important to image optimization, you only need to download the program to your desktop. I've been using this for several weeks now, and am familiar with the features, so please, stop by the radio show next Thursday, listen to our review, and look forward to an upcoming Webinar on how to use Picasa. (Stay tuned to the OLA chat forums for more info!)

Lastly, I know a lot of you are wondering... why was IrfanView included in this series? Well, simply put, IrfanView, while not a photo hosting site, has features that some of our OLA users may enjoy. (Ok, anyone can enjoy!) It is the resizing options that I like. They're simple. The program loads onto your desktop, you open a photo in the Irfanview editor, click on resize, and viola! More advanced users may benefit from the feature rich options, which include video and sound effects, as well as images. We'll talk about this next Thursday, too, so I hope to see you in the chat room at Seller Buzz during the show!

Until then, stop by Fleapirates Plunder and take a peek at some of the new items I've added!

It's Splurge Week at OLA!

The OLA Six Week Stimulus Extravaganza

continues Mar 7th to Mar 13th

enticing items you'll want to splurge on!

Don't miss out on these great deals!  

WEEK 6 CATEGORIES:

Automotive and OLA Motors
Business and Industrial
Construction
Firearms
Livestock
OLA Cares
Real Estate and Multiple Dwellings
Surveying and Scientific Equipment
Tools and Equipment
Travel
 and Everything Else, including Seller's Specials!




To search the event, please visit OnlineAuction.com
and enter W6 into the search box.

Here is just a small sample of the specials
 available from Week 6 participating vendors...
(just click on the title to visit the page)

From AdirondackArts:
ANTIQUE 1953 PLYMOUTH AUTOMOBILE PARTS CAR W6

From Fleapirates:
Keystonewear EPNS Teapot Sugar and Creamer Set W6

From DustyCorners:
Shawn the Leprechaun mini doll pattern and Clover shamrock fabric w6

From Bedding4me:
Melissa and Doug Plush Monster Bowling Game W6

From Curiocache:
Shrimp Sushi Egg Sushi and Fatty Tuna Wind Up W6

From LFWoodworking:
Rose Kleenex Tissue Holder Solid Oak Hand Scrolled W6

From Goldi:
Vintage Door Lock Springs For 31-32 Chry,Dodge, Desoto, Plymouth Nos.. W6

From Annimae:
Poly Mailer Combo 5 Ct 7.5 x 10.5 and 5 Ct 9 x 12 W6

From IceColdSales:
Hello Kitty Desk Calendar 2010 W6

From StubsInc:
St. Saint Patricks Day Flashing Light-Up Pin 4 Leaf Clover Pin Green Bracelet W6

From MetzyMom:
Designer Goats Milk Soap Trio Red Goddess Poison W6

From Gabbydanie:
BRAND NEW FOLDABLE STRAWBERRY BAGS - W6

Enjoy our sneak peek video!

Thanks for supporting our sellers!
Happy shopping!

Hobby Week Specials From Curiocache!

The OLA Six Week Stimulus Extravaganza launched Hobby Week today, with great deals in categories like Toys and Hobbies, Crafts, Memorabilia, Dolls and Bears, Handmade Items, and Pets and Supplies. I've already peeked at the auctions, and I am really looking forward to shopping this week!

As coordinator, I accept the entries and write the blog post(s). It can get a little confusing, with the amount of sellers and auction numbers, but we've all enjoyed the extra oomph that our blog audiences bring by reading and browsing our auctions. For the first time in our event, someone was forgotten! Oh no!

So, to make it up to our good friend Curiocache, I will be listing all 10 of her specials right here... with images and links. Please take a moment to check out her auctions! As a repeat buyer, I can guarantee the great customer service that you'll get in Curiocache's store and the quality of her products. Clicking on her name above will allow you to scan all the uniquities in her store, while clicking on the various titles below will take you directly to her specials for Hobby Week.

Thanks for supporting our sellers in The OLA Six Week Stimulus Extravaganza - Have fun shopping!

Pokemon Charizard Plush Nintendo with tag W5

Handcrafted tissue box cover Plastic Canvas Sylvester & Tweety W5

World of Springfield Interactive Bart Simpson W5

Making Dolls' Houses in 1/12 Scale Book W5

Jewelry Making Schools Tradesmen Craftsmen Book Horseshoe Nails Crafts W5

Mother Goose Words of Wit and Wisdom Cross Stitch Book W5

Wreath Making Basics Book and Kit W5

Dried Flowers for All Seasons Floral Arrangement Book W5

Electronic Plush Pikachu Pokemon Talks Moves W5

3 Sealed Yard Art Patterns Snowmen Candy Canes W5

It's Hobby Week at OLA!

 Hobby Week!

The OLA Six Week Stimulus Extravaganza
continues Feb 28th to Mar 6th
with your favorite hobby items!

Don't miss out on these great deals!  

WEEK 5 CATEGORIES:
Crafts and Hobbies
Dolls and Bears
Entertainment Memorabilia
Handmade Items
Memorabilia
Movie and TV Memorabilia
Pets and Supplies
Toys and Hobbies

To search the event, please visit OnlineAuction.com
and enter W5 into the search box.

Here is just a small sample of the fantastic products
 available from Week 5 participating sellers...
(just click on the title to visit the page)

From AdirondackArts:
VOGART 6 GEOMETRIC QUILT BLOCKS FOR EMBROIDERY KIT W5

From Annimae:
Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd Paint Kit 6 Tubes W5

From Bedding4me:
Plush White Heaven Lee Bear 7.5 Inches Sitting W5

From Supergranny:
Vintage 15 cent Simplicity Big Little Sister Cloth Doll Pattern No 7328 1947 W5

From Goldi:
Lot of Doll Making Supplies Heads Hands and Body Parts W5

From LFWoodworking:
1909 Packard Tie or Key hanger plaque W5

From Aphrodite:
Gift Box Clam Shell Comes with Pearl Necklace W5

From Fleapirates:
VTECH Finding Nemo Create A Story Disney NIP W5

From Tjintx:
Coca Cola Tray Vintage 10 x 13 inch Tin W5

From DustyCorners:
The Great TV and Movie Quiz trivia memorabilia television film stars w5

From YawningDawg:
Movie Poster Shower Curtain Classic Movies W5

From GabbyDanie:
BRAND NEW IN PACK 3 PCS GLITTERED PUFF STICKERS FOR SCRAPBOOKS - W5

From StubsInc:
Piltz Exposition Auditorium Civic Center Postcard Linen Unused 1932 W5

From IceColdSales:
Creatology 3D Wooden Puzzle Tower Bridge Extra Large W5

From Maggiemaybecrafty:
Environmentally Friendly Re-Cycled Sea Glass Substitute #1 W5

From Davendeb1178:
Custom Walnut wood Night stand Table lamp frosted hurricane shade W5

From MetzyMom:
Organic Oatmeal Goats Milk Soap Homemade Soap W5

Please click here to view
our YouTube video for Week 5!

Thanks for supporting our sellers!
Enjoy shopping...