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Retirement Tips and RV Stuff Newsletter
Issue 2008.03 Mar 2008
Publisher, Bob Hoffman - rjhoffman@yahoo.com
Back Issues at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html
PRIVACY STATEMENT: This newsletter's email addresses are never sold or otherwise made public.
If this is too long to read in the email, go read it at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html.
If you're receiving this by email and don't want it, just email me and I'll take you off my distribution list.
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TIPS FOR SELLING ONLINE
So, what does selling online have to do with RVing or retirement tips? Well, if you'll think about it, anything you can learn about selling online might help out in both areas. If you're RVing and want to earn a little extra as you travel, what better way than online. If you're retired and want to earn a little extra without driving to work every day, what better way than online?
You're next question might be "what does this guy know about selling online?" As evidenced by my December 2007 Newsletter (and related articles), my success at selling books online has been limited. Even my "I'm gonna quit" ultimatum didn't have much effect. I said I wanted to sell 50 books before I'd write online again. That did little. I then came up with a Valentine's Day Special, selling all 5 of my books as a discount package. That worked a little, but it's not a million-seller yet :) Most recently, I've come up with a St. Patrick's Day Special! Just like Valentine, only it's Green instead of Red. You can get all 5 books for $20! How can you resist? See details about the books and how to buy on my home page at RetirementTips.com.
Speaking of buying books, I want to THANK those who jumped up and bought a book, as your way of saying "keep on writing!". For those friends AND RELATIVES who didn't buy, I certainly understand that gas prices are up, taxes are just about due, yada-yada, and I'm sure that $10 is probably more than you can afford at this time :)
Since my "shut-down", however, I picked up some tips about selling online that have proven worthwhile. Won't help on my books, but might help elsewhere. One of my planned endeavors after I stopped "wasting time" in online writing was to learn more about making money selling online. I'd always heard how I could simply go to Ebay, look in their Help info, and learn everything I needed to know about selling online on Ebay (where thousands are making thousands every day!). I checked that out and learned ... that there are thousands who know a whole lot more than I do about how to sell on Ebay and I'd be in competition with them. Getting successful at that looked like a long, hard road. Also, I checked the price on some items I had in mind to sell, like some of my old coins, Apollo memorabilia, Joyce's art, etc. I discovered that some of the proof sets I'd bought back in the 1960s were selling for less than what I'd paid 40 years ago! How do they do that? I figure they must buy for peanuts at estate sales or whatever ... at any rate, I decided Ebay selling would take a lot more time and effort than I was willing to invest.
But the story doesn't end there. Every week, we get 3-4 ads inviting us to a free lunch or dinner seminar to learn about investing, retiring, or whatever. One of those was from storesonline.com, saying they can show me tricks for selling online, including how to get my website in the top of every search engine. Joyce and I went to the seminar, ate the rubber chicken, and heard a lot of promises. Basically, for $50 down and $20/month, I could get an online store website with access to a bunch of tools to simplify the process. Plus, I'd be invited to an all-day seminar the following week, in which they'd tell the secrets for success with search engines. It was this plus that intrigued me, so I signed up. I have several commmercial websites that I maintain and have had problems getting some of them to show up in search engines.
The $50 website was fine, except more money needed to be paid to get access to most of their better online tools. The seminar was primarily a pitch to get attendees to spend $6000 to really get the neat information, online tools, etc. But, I did learn some really great ways to work the search engines and some tricks to success with online stores, so it was well worth the $50. I cancelled my membership before the $20/month came due, so the $50 was the only expense. To see my results, go do a search on Yahoo or Google for "rockledge florida storage" or something similar. You'll see AllBrevardStorage.com near the top of the list! I've been trying to two years to get them up there, and some of those seminar techniques seemed to have actually worked.
The main thing I learned in that seminar was that there are millions of dollars to be made in helping people set up online stores! At that first free seminar, there were about 200 people, and this was just one of many such seminars that they were giving throughout Central Florida. At the subsequent $6000 pitch meeting, I'd guess there were about 50 or more that signed up. I would bet these guys are making millions, just helping people set up online stores, some of which might even turn out to be successful. They've got some good ideas, but nothing I'd pay $6000 for :) Their best idea is knowing how many people there are out there that think they can make a million online with very little effort.
So I've gained a little more knowledge in the areas of online stores and search engines that might be useful in the future, plus I've got another domain name that I'm not sure what to do with - www.HoffmanEmporium.com :)
Recent Travel: As planned, we went to Ft. Lauderdale for a New Years Day meal of hog jowls, black-eyed peas, cornbread, and much other good stuff. Great trip and great meal, plus we bumped into some old friends we hadn't seen for awhile.
Upcoming Travel: As every year, we're planning a trip sometime April-May, after taxes get done. We're thinking about Minnesota ... as always, plans are wishy-washy and subject to change up to the last minute.
Read on for notes on my latest site updates, some words about how I'd make some money if you guys would buy something off the website, IOTR News, Art News, and wrapping up with my RAMBLINGS on whatever occurs to me between now and then.
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LATEST SITE UPDATES
- Chapter 35: Cool and Unusual RVs & "Stuff" : How about an RV with the extra car stored in the basement?
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FEATURED WEBSITE
Every month, I pick up on a bunch of interesting websites from various sources. Some provide great information relative to RVing, retiring, or other topics, and others are just for entertainment. Instead of featuring one website here, I'm going to list those I've bumped into recently:
- callersmart.com/articles/19/ZIP-Code-Statistics - interesting Zip code information
- rv-time-machine : Some amazing vintage RVs.
- roadrunner : If you're like me and you simply like zooming down the highway, you'll enjoy this -- if not, don't waste your time.
- A380cockpit : An amazing 360-degree view of the inside of an A-380 AIRBUS passenger liner cockpit.
- 2008admeter : All of those great SuperBowl ads, in case you missed any.
- SeniorHumor : Great senior citizen humor.
- guessyournumber : Mystifying number game.
- reaction_version5 : And a game to check your reflexes.
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TRYING TO MAKE A FEW BUCKS
Here's a list of some interesting products, some of which will make me a few bucks if you need them and buy them here:
- Camp at Half of What Everyone Else is Paying! No home park, no monthly maintenance fees, no long-term obligation, just pay the small annual fee and camp for half-price. Check it out here.
- 50+ ways to get to the internet when you're on the road! Read'm at Internet On The Road.
- Amazon Books : Buy from Amazon through this link and I get a couple of bucks -- Click here to check them out.
- Earn Money While You Camp! Join WiFiRV as an affiliate, either a lead generator (tell us about campgrounds that need WiFi) or a sales representative (assist in the selling of WiFi systems). Go to my Internet On The Road (IOTR) / WiFiRV page http://www.wifirv.com/assoc/iotr/ to learn how you can earn up to $500 for a few hours work.
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ART NEWS
Joyce has been really busy the last few weeks. Last weekend, at the Cape Canaveral Art Show, she won a Merit Award for her Spring Fling painting (soon appearing on her website). This weekend, she's showing and helping out at the Splash! Art Show at the Eau Gallie Civic Center.
We try to update http://www.ArtbyJHoffman.com whenever we can. If you see anything on the site that you'd be interested in buying, email Joyce for info on size, price, etc. Some have that info included and some don't. Also, if you have a topic, pet, or whatever that you'd like an original painting of, just let her know.
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INTERNET ON THE ROAD (IOTR) NEWS
Seems like there's always something new coming up, when you're dealing with computers and the internet. I saw my first 802.11n system this past week. That's the proposed upgrade from 802.11b and 802.11g, the protocols currently in use for WiFi. The main difference I noticed was that it was broadcasting at 130Mbps, while the 802.11g shows 54Mbps and 802.11b shows 11Mbps. I also learned that if you mix 802.11b with 802.11g, the b drags the g down to its level. Now, wasn't that interesting? Just thought I'd show off my techie side.
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RAMBLINGS
While doing my "research" into the search engines, I discovered something very interesting. Do a search for "Robert Hoffman" and you get a bunch of hits on Roberts that are much more famous than I am. However, do "Robert Hoffman" and RV, and you get a bunch of hits about me! I was really surprised. But, the amazing thing was in the Google, I bumped into a reference at zoominfo.com, where they describe "ZoomInfo Business People Information". They have a whole page about me and my involvement with WiFiRV. Interesting ... makes me feel a little bit famous :)
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Email rjhoffman@yahoo.com to sign up for the next newsletter, coming whenever I'm in the mood again.
Permanent Mailing Address: R. Hoffman, 1033 Jacaranda Circle, Rockledge, Florida 32955.
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