In August I mentioned that my friends Brad Fallon, Andy Jenkins, Todd Taylor and I were hosting a seminar in Atlanta that would teach folks how to sell physical products on the Internet. Do we know how to do this? Well, last month Brad sold the amazing amount of $700,000. Yes, that's one month. Most people would be thrilled to have that kind of sales in one year - or even five years.

We had originally scheduled the seminar for November, but we decided to postpone it until January. The reason was that two of our speakers are going on a trip to South Africa and would hardly be back before the seminar.

WHO: Brad Fallon, Andy Jenkins, Sydney Johnston, Todd Taylor, Robin Cowie, Ken Giddens

WHAT: The knowledge and power to efficiently and professionally sell physical products on the Internet

WHEN: January 20-22. We begin at 5:00 PM on Friday, January 20 and conclude at 5:00 PM on Sunday night, January 22 .

WHERE: The Georgia Tech Conference Center in Atlanta, GA.

http://sell-physical-products.com

If you would like to sign up for a series of no cost teleseminars with the speakers, you can find them here:

http://sell-physical-products.com/teleseminar.shtml

There has never been a bootcamp specifically on how to sell physical products. There may never be another one.

---

1. The Effects Of Katrina & Rita On Your Internet Business (Continued)

Some ezine issues bring in some ... interesting ... responses. Three from the last issue are noteworthy. In fact, one of them is our Feature story.

---

If you missed that issue, you can read it here:

http://auctionknowhow.com/AG/100305.shtml

---

Last time I wrote about hurricanes and Internet businesses and received this response from a reader name Mahaki in New Zealand:

---

USA ...deserves everything it gets from NATURE,
USA....will not be DEFEATED from sources outwardly
but, will be DEFEATED from the "ROT" that lies within...

Where will the great USA, be when China comes on the scene
cowering within its decadence....

---

I guess I'm always shocked when anyone takes joy in the suffering of others, no matter who they are ... Americans, Chinese or New Zealanders. Too bad for this hate-filled loser that he lives in such an angry and violent world.

---

2. Does Rudeness Damage An Online Business?

In the last issue I wrote an article about a new program called eBay Secret Interviews and included links from several eBay auctions. I received a lot of mail about that article, but two were especially interesting since I received them right next to each other.

#1: Mr. Rude.

This email did not have any saluation and it was not signed. It was one curt sentence about how the story was a waste because none of the "stupid" links worked.

My response: I deleted this email without replying - right after I deleted his information from our company database.

#2: A lovely reader.

This very nice lady had the same comment - that she couldn't get the links to work. But what a difference! She addressed me by name and signed her email. She asked about the links and thanked me for writing the story.

In her case, I explained that sometimes when we copy a URL off two lines and paste it into our browser, there is a space or two between the two lines. I asked her to try again and see if there was a space. She wrote back and said that was indeed what was happening and that she was pleased to learn something new.

Nobody wants to deal with rude and nasty people. So does being courteous pay off? Yes, most of the time. One thing is for sure - I don't respond to rude and nasty people and I hope you don't either.

---

Feature Article: Response To Armand Morin Tactics

Auction Genius student Ross Parker was intrigued with the way Armand Morin does business on eBay and sent this intelligent and researched response.

---

Wow, interesting what you posted in your newsletter about the "Web Sites for Sale" category frequented by Armand Morin. I looked at several listings in this category. Ever since I studied Stomping The Search Engines, I always look at Google Page Rank. I just can't help it. Hehe. So here are some thoughts.

Very few, I mean VERY FEW of these sites had any Google page rank. Most were 0/10. Zero, Zilch, Nada. According to what I've studied in Stomping, this usually means one (or more) of three things.

1) The site was established around or after the last Google Dance Page Rank update (which I think was around early July or thereabouts).

2) The owner has never done any linking SEO work on the site.

3) The site was established, but has been blacklisted by Google. None of these are terribly positive aspects when considering buying a "going concern". There were a few notable exceptions and some of them took great care to advertise the fact they had page rank,

example: http://cgi.ebay.com/PR6-CREDIT-WEBSITE-NO-RSV-INC-PROOF-Avg-5-000- hits_W0QQitemZ7551316160QQcategoryZ46687QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://www.CreditCards1by1.com/ Google Page Rank 6 mmm-mmm Good!

So anyway, that is my 2 cents. I suppose I would pay a few bucks for some of these PR0 sites, because you get the design and presumably functionality already in place but I probably would need to determine why there is no page rank (would not want a Blacklisted site!)

---

Ross is 100% right in his assessment of the sites above. If you're not familiar with "Page Rank" (PR), it's Google's assessment of the importance of your site. It ranges from 0 - 10. Naturally, the higher the PR, the more valuable the site. There is absolutely no way anyone will ever purchase a high PR site for a few bucks on eBay or anywhere else. Just a link from a high PR site can cost hundreds of dollars a month.

Anyone who owns a high PR site definitely understands marketing - or else they've just been on the Net so long, and have so much content on their site, that they've sort of "lucked" into a high Page Rank.

What Armand is looking for is a site or business whose owner doesn't understand marketing at all. Actually, that's at least 95% of the net! On of the classic business books is "The eMyth". It describes a woman who learned to bake as a little girl. By the time she is an adult she is so capable that friends constantly tell her, "Your pies and cakes are so fantastic that you ought to start your own bakery." She follows their advice and quickly learns that the skills required for baking are quite different from the skills necessary for running a business that involves baking.

So - it costs me from $250-$500 to have an ebook written on a specific subject. When I run across people selling their ebook for a small sum, I will buy the rights. Why would they be selling an ebook? Simply because they don't have a clue about how to market it and make money. I do, though, and so does Armand.

Sadly, lots of people spend a good deal of time and money building sites and products - and then never earn any income. This is the story of the majority of the hopeful folks who set out to make their living on the Net. When they giveup, perhaps you can take over their product and do something with it.

http://auction-secret-interviews.com

You can listen to a 15 minute recording of Armand being interviewed on the page above.

---

Get $50 Off eBay Secret Interviews:

If you would like to get $50 off the price of the program, use the code below when you are checking out.

sei-ag

---

October Special: Get A FREE Copy of eBay Secret Interviews

If you want an even better deal on the eBay Secret Interviews, consider our October special.

Anybody buying the CD of our Auction Genius Course, complete with bonuses, gets a free copy of eBay Secrets Interview. If you've ever considered buying our CD, now it the time. You can find the details here:

http://auction-genius-course.com/october.shtml

---

Overstock Auctions Celebrates Its First Birthday

Did you forget to send Overstock Auctions a birthday card? :-)

You should have, because it's a year old and its first year is quite impressive. It has sold almost $30 million through 11+ million unique listings.

Overstock points out that they have "40 times the listings and 16 times the users that eBay had at this age”. Of course, when eBay began 10 years ago the Internet was so different that it's hard to remember it, plus nobody had even thought of an auction on the Web. So, the comparison is really meaningless.

Here are a few facts furnished by Overstock (especially note the highest number of bids.)

* Number of registered users: 660,000

* Number of unique items listed: 11.6 million

* Fastest increase in listings: surged from 50,000 to 121,000 in February when eBay raised its fees and Overstock lowered its fees

* Highest number of bids on a single item: 403 on a 40GB iPod

* Greatest number of winning bids by one user: 3,246

* Final bid for two VIP tickets to JLO boutique opening on 9/22: $6,936

* Other high-profile/celebrity auctions: a rare, 23-carat natural yellow diamond; the 2005 Chrysler Crossfire Roadster won by “The Apprentice” Bill Rancic; classic rock star memorabilia donated for Earth Day; and NASCAR memorabilia donated for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

I'm really rooting for Overstock Auctions. eBay needs competition and they are a feisty company. I wish them every success.