I wrote last time about the slump I was in for pretty much all of January and a lot of February. While I’m having spurts of activity and have done some real work on getting new listings to eBay and getting work done on the store and about me pages, there are still days of absolutely no progress.

One of the things I recognize as impeding my progress is my email. I’m on a lot of newsletter lists, ande most of them are geared more toward general internet marketing than to making money on eBay. While I’m trying to focus completely on growing the eBay business, other areas of IM certainly come into play if I’m to make this a real business: blogging (here we are!), building my websites (www.smilingpartners.com and www.chefjudi.com), getting traffic to those sites (besides any traffic generated from eBay), list building, etc. It’s also beneficial to know of the giveaways going on; at some point I hope to have products to offer myself, but in the meantime they offer opportunities to pick up products I can turn around and sell.

So, those are all my great rationales for staying on lists and reading the emails. The problem comes in managing my time. The other morning I started my day feeling full of energy and ready to get a lot of work done. For some reason I decided to see if there was something important in my email. Two hours later I was mad at myself for wasting so much time and completely exhausted and unmotivated about spending more time online.

I have found a good system for avoiding a lot of this time-wasting. I wait until evening, preferably after dinner, to look at my email. By then I’m tired and unwilling to spend any more than the absolute minimum time with my subscriptions. I begin with checking the visible subject line. If it references a seminar or call and is not from one of the eBay newsletters, I know I can toss it. I know there is a lot of information available in some of these calls, but frankly the information given is generally a prelude to the pitch for a product providing the rest of the good stuff. And by the time the interviewer gets through all the “how are doing” and “isn’t this marketer wonderful” stuff, I’ve wasted 5 or 10 minutes and been bored to tears.  So I delete those emails.

Then I look at references to “see this video.” Videos consistently jam up my machine, especially since most of them are set to begin as soon as you hit the site. I’m probably missing a bunch of good stuff, but having my machine crash and having to restart does me no good at all. Into the trash folder.

A reference to “get it now before the price goes up” can be a trigger if it doesn’t come from an eBay newsletter - and sometimes even then. I’m trying to stay committed to the plan of not spending any money for products that don’t further the eBay business.

These methods can oftentimes cut in half the emails left to read. If the subject line concerns something I just don’t feel like dealing with, the list gets even shorter.

So that’s how I’m trying to deal with information overload. There certainly are days when reading everything that comes in is appropriate. If I have some sort of niggling problem I can’t get my mind around, more often that not something in an email will directly address what I need or put my mind in the right direction.

And there are marketers whose email I read no matter what, just because I know I don’t hear from them unless they’ve found something of value. Jim Edwards (www.igottatellyou.com and a bunch of other sites) is one who comes to mind. His videos don’t start automatically so they don’t jam me up, and he’s an interesting and fun presenter. Even when he’s promoting a product, there’s a ton of very good information given before he gets to the pitch.

Another marketer I always read is Willie Crawford (http://williecrawford.com/blog/). He’s been incredibly successful online, has authored many, many guides, he hosts an online radio show about IM, and he put together the cookbook giveaway that was my first foray into the giveaway world. He also just seems like a guy you’d want to get to know. One of his projects is a membership called the InnerCircle, which I plan to join as soon as I have enough of a monthly income to support it.

I seem to be wandering a bit here, so it’s probably time to get to more lucrative endeavors. I’m working on getting back on track for my eBay listings. More about that and the eBay changes next time.

Be well.

It’s been a strange past month, and I’m not sure why. I seem to have one foot planted in the dirt and so am going in circles, unable to move forward.

Part of the reason is that I let myself get overwhelmed with all that I needed to do. I’ve written before about the process of actually getting my books listed on eBay: review, look at rights, plug in the thankyou/download page, write the sales page, write the headline, get everything into turbolister, input into both places of the digital delivery system, and make sure everything’s listed in my own databases. I’ve got all the processes in place and listed, and sometimes it’s just too much to think about.

So, instead of following my own good advice about taking each step as it comes and just DOING it, I let myself get overwhelmed by the process. A really stupid thing to do, but there it is, it happens.

I also let myself lose focus on the eBay line. I’ve been working and dinking on my websites, and I have added some good stuff. I’m just not so sure it was necessary right now to get that done. There is a satisfaction with being able to do the techie install stuff and having the web sites look like they’re actually somewhat professional. But I have been doing that stuff instead of buckling down and getting my eBay listings taken care of.

I’m still at the same pathetic 27 books listed. I’m recycling those into active listings, but the sales aren’t so hot, staying at one or two books purchased during the 7-day listing period. Not enough to pay my fees, and a long way off from getting to powerseller!

Even posting here seemed too much to deal with, and isn’t that silly?

I’ve signed up for a few new things - widgets and toys - for the web sites, but then I waited too long to do anything with them. I know they were good ideas and great little applications, but I put them away to do the implementing “later.” It’s later and I have to figure out what they are, how they work, and why I wanted them. More stupidity!

So, now I’m working hard at getting back on track. I am finding that the books about how to make money on eBay are generally the ones being sold (and I finally put together a spread sheet for what sells so I could actually keep track). I have a few new books to look at and get listed, and I’m going to figure out how make a promo box in my eBay store, so I can try listing a higher priced book. We’ll see how that works.

I got sidetracked today because of two new giveaway events, but they are worth it:

FREEPLR Giveaway Round 4, put together by a big who’s who list marketers, and

Odinn Sorenson’s DaddyGiveaway

It’s getting harder for me to find giveaways that offer books and software I haven’t picked up at another giveaway, but I found plenty of stuff to add to my collection (properly filed, of course).

There’s another I want you to know about, as well, although it doesn’t start until March 1. It’s a benefit for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. I’m already hearing a lot about it, so there’s a high probability that it will be a good event as well as a benefit for a cause close to my heart. They’re currently accepting participant signups. You can find out more here:

Gifts for MS Giveaway

That’s it for this time. Be well.