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Auctionwally's best 5 tools to brand your business
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My niche online is marrying the old school world model of the auction/antiques business with online applications which promote said antiques/auction interests.
To to this, I need to constantly review and polish the online applications I use.
Real quick, here are the best 5 that I am using, with a short example of how I use each.
1) iContact: An email client service that allows me to maintain my "houselist" efficiently & effectively. What is a houselist? It's simply the most important tool any business can have. It's a list of contact information from either current customers, OR people who've requested information about your products or services. There is no better prospect for business than a member of your house list. Period.
If you don't have a house list, you have a hobby, not a business. A house list does not have to be maintained online, it can be logged in something as low tech as an address book with a pencil, but I have a hunch this Internet thing is going to catch on.
2) Twitter.com It seems everyone is using this popular text message app these days. Twitter is a text messaging, social network application. Because you only get 160 characters at a time to state your case, it needs to be concise, interesting and informative. I think of my entries on Twitter as mini press releases.
To follow me on Twitter, go to, http://twitter.com/auctionwally Danger! Danger, Will Robinson, Twitter is addictive!
3) The Podcast: A podcast is online content, usually audio, but sometimes video, which you can record and publish online. In many cases it's taking the place of air wave radio. I use the Podcast format to publish the Auctionwally Show.
It certainly doesn't have the amount of people an air wave radio show does, but consider this: each of my podcasts are archived, so every time a new listener finds me, they can go back and listen to all of the past episodes! Therefore, every link I reference and everything I've talked about is accumulative and retains value!
Because people can download my Podcast on any mp3 player, anyone in the world can listen to it at any time. Oh, one more thing, because people who listen to my Podcasts are listeners who have found me via a Google search or a recommendation, they are more likely to have interest in what I'm saying than a listener who might randomly stumble across a show on a radio dial. Click here if your interested in listening to one of my Podcasts.
Click here if your interested in starting your own Podcast.
4) Ning: We all know how Facebook and MySpace has exploded in the past few years, but if you have a niche and an audience you'd like to reach, you can start your own social network on Ning.com.
I've launched one called The Auctionwally Network, because I had so many requests coming in for information on antiques that I wanted one consolidated place to answer them. So far Ning has really met my expectations for this challenge.
There is also a couple of other Ning networks I think are definitely worth joining, they are iAntiqueonline and Selling Beyond eBay.
5) PowersellersUnite.com This site was started by disgruntled eBay sellers during some controversial eBay changes, but it quickly grew into one of the busiest business forums on the internet. You don't have to be a Powerseller or even an eBayer to use it. All that is is required is that you post relevant, useful content to the topic your addressing. I am amazed at the amount of traffic I get to my other sites when I post a well planned response on PSU. My tips for the PSU forum is enter a user name that is going to help brand you, and keep your posts civil.
Thanks for reading,
AW
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