Defining a clear subject theme

Another way of getting a high keyword ranking is having a clear subject
theme. If you’re selling kits to customize classic cars, keeping your Web site
streamlined and keeping all topics on the Web site relating exactly to classic
car customization not only makes it easier for users to navigate your site
and research or purchase what they need, but it also increases your chances
of having a high page rank when those search engine spiders come by. The
more similarly themed keywords you have on your pages, the better. It’s the
nature of a search engine to break up a site into subjects that add up to an
overall theme for easy categorization, and the more obvious your site theme
is, the higher your results will be.

It’s kind of like going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and deciding you want to
get a salad. You, the search engine, immediately go to the salad corner of
the buffet because it’s been clearly labeled, and from there, you can do your
breakdowns. You want romaine lettuce, croutons, parmesan cheese, and
Caesar dressing, so you go to where they keep the lettuce, the trimmings,
and the dressings in the salad bar section. It’s easy to find what you want if
everything is grouped accordingly. But if the restaurant stuck the dressing
over with the mashed potatoes, you’ll have trouble finding it because salad
dressing and mashed potatoes don’t normally go together. Similarly, when
you keep your Web site content organized with everything in its proper
place, the search engine views your content with clarity, understanding what
you’re about — which in turn increases your page ranking. Siloing is a way
of structuring your site and links in order to present a clear subject theme to
the search engines. For more on this technique, refer to Book II, Chapter 4 as
well as the entirety

Focusing on consistency
Methodical consistent implementation is the principle that, when you update
your Web site, you should do it the same way every time. Your site should
have a consistent look and feel over time without massive reorganizations at
every update. In order for a search engine to maintain efficiency, you need
to keep related content all placed in the same area. You also need to keep all
of your updating processes consistent. That way, if something goes wrong
during your next update, you can pinpoint what went wrong where without
too much hassle since you update things the same way every time. It is
confusing to customers to have things constantly changing around. Search
engines and visitors to your Web site face the same challenge as a restaurant
patron. Getting back to our salad bar analogy, the restaurant owner
shouldn’t scatter the salad dressings according to the whims of his salad bar
designer, and randomly change things every time he gets in a new dressing
or someone discontinues one of the old dressings.

Building for the long term
You need to consider your persistence for the long term. How long will your
Web site be sticking around? Ideally, like with any business, you want to
build it to last without letting it fall behind and look dated. Relevancy to the
current market is a big part of this, and if you are behind the times, you are
probably behind your competitors. The technology that you use to build
your Web site is inevitably going to change as the Internet advances, but
your approach to relevancy should remain the same, incorporating new
technologies as they arise. This is also a process you should develop over
time. In the early days of the Web, frames were used to build sites, but that
looks very outdated now. A few years ago, splash pages (introductory pages,
mostly built in Flash, that provided no content or value to the user) were
very popular. Today, they are discouraged. The Internet is an ever-changing
entity, and if you’re not persistent about keeping up with the times, you
might fall by the wayside.

Discovering the Necessary Elements for Getting High Keyword Rankings

If the mantra of real estate is location, location, location, and the very best
location on the Web is on the search engines, the mantra of SEO should be
keywords, keywords, keywords. Search engines use a process to categorize
and grade keywords in order to bring you the Web pages you’re looking for.
The more relevant your keywords are to the user’s query, the higher ranking
your page has in a search engine’s results. Keeping the keywords clear,
precise, and simple helps the search engines do their job a whole lot faster.
If you’re selling something like customized classic cars, you should probably
make sure your text includes keywords like classic cars, customized cars,
customized classic Mustangs, and so forth, as well as clarifying words like
antique, vintage, and restored. You can read more about how to choose your
keywords in Book II.

In this section, you get a broad, brief overview on how you get a higher rank
than the other guy who’s selling macadamia nut butter. You need to know
the basics, or you can’t do targeted SEO.

The advantage of an SEO-compliant site
Having an SEO-compliant Web site entails tailoring your Web site to have the
highest SERP ranking for a keyword search. This includes optimizing your
metadata and Title tag (for more on metadata, refer to Book IV, Chapter
3) so they are chock full (but not too full) of relevant keywords for your
industry. Also, make sure that your Web page contains searchable text as
opposed to lots of pretty Flash animations and images (search engines have
limited ability to understand non-text content), that all of your images contain
an Alt attribute (an alternative description of an image) with text that
describes the content of the image, and that you have keywords embedded
in your hyperlinks. You also need to be sure that all of your internal content
as well as your links are siloed. You want to be sure to optimize every single
one of these elements. Use this checklist to get yourself organized:

✦ Title tag
✦ Meta description tag
✦ Meta keywords tag
✦ Heading tag(s)
✦ Textual content
✦ Alt attributes on all images
✦ Strong/bold tags

✦ Fully-qualified links
✦ Site map
✦ Text navigation
✦ JavaScript/CSS externalized
✦ Robots text (.txt) file
✦ Web analytics
✦ Keyword research (technically a process — See Book II)
✦ Link development
✦ Image names
✦ Privacy statement
✦ Contact information
✦ Dedicated IP address

Entertainment

Research and shopping aren’t the only reasons to visit a search engine. The
Internet is a vast, addictive, reliable resource for consuming your entire
afternoon, and there are users out there who use the search engines as a
means of entertaining themselves. They look up things like videos, movie
trailers, games, and social networking sites. Technically, it’s also research,
but it’s research used strictly for entertainment purposes. A child of the
80s might want to download an old-school version of the Oregon Trail video
game onto her computer so she can recall the heady days of third grade. It’s
a quest made easy with a quick search on Google. Or if you want to find out
what those wacky young Hollywood starlets are up to, you can to turn to a
search engine to bring you what you need.

If you’re looking for a video, odds are it’s going to be something from
YouTube, much like your research results are going to come up with a
Wikipedia page. YouTube is another excellent example that achieves a high
listing on results pages. They’re an immensely popular video-sharing Web
site where anyone with a camera and a working e-mail address can upload
videos of themselves doing just about anything from talking about their
day to shaving their cats. But the videos themselves have keyword-rich
listings in order to be easily located, plus they have an option that also displays
other videos. Many major companies have jumped on the YouTube
bandwagon, creating channels for their companies (a YouTube channel is
a specific account). Record companies use channels to promote bands,
and production companies use them to unleash the official trailer for their
upcoming movie.

Shopping

A smaller percentage of people, but still very many, use a search engine in
order to shop. After the research cycle is over, search queries change to
terms that reflect a buying mindset. Terms like “best price” and “free shipping”
signal a searcher in need of a point of purchase. Optimizing a page to meet the needs of that type of visitor results in higher conversions (actions
taken by a user that meet a sales or business goal) for your site. As we
mentioned, global search engines such as Google tend to reward research
oriented sites, so your pages have to strike a balance between sales-oriented
terms and research-oriented terms.

This is where specialized engines come into the picture. Although you can
use a regular search engine to find what it is you’re shopping for, some
people find it more efficient to use a search engine geared directly towards
buying products. Some Web sites out there are actually search engines just
for shopping. Amazon, eBay, and Shopping.com are all examples of shopping-
only engines. The mainstream engines have their own shopping products
such as Google Product Search (formerly called Froogle) and Yahoo!
Shopping, where you type in the search term for the particular item you
are looking for and the engines return the actual item listed in the results
instead of the Web site where the item is sold. For example, say you’re
buying a book on Amazon.com. You type the title into the search bar, and
it returns a page of results. Now, you also have the option of either buying
it directly from Amazon, or, if you’re on a budget, you can click over to the
used book section. Booksellers provide Amazon.com with a list of their used
stock and Amazon handles all of the purchasing, shipping, and ordering info.
The same is true of Yahoo! Shopping and Google Product Search. And like all
things with the Internet, odds are that somebody, somewhere, has exactly
what you’re looking for. Figure 1-2 displays a results page from Google
Product Search.

Figuring Out Why People Use Search Engines

We’ve already established that a lot of people use search engines. But what
are people looking for when they use them? Are they doing research for
restoring their classic car? Do people use them to look for a place that sells
parts for classic cars? Or are they just looking to kill time with video that
shows custom cars racing? The answer is yes to all of the above. A search
engine is there to scour the billions on billions of Web sites out there in
order to get you where you need to go, whether it’s doing research, going
shopping, or just plain wasting time.

Research
Most people who are using a search engine are doing it for research purposes.
They are generally looking for answers or at least to data with which
to make a decision. They’re looking to find a site to fulfill a specific purpose.
Someone doing a term paper on classic cars for their Automotive History
101 class would use it to find statistics on the number of cars sold in the
United States, instructions for restoring and customizing old cars, and possibly
communities of classic car fanatics out there. Companies would use it in
order to find where their clients are, and who their competition is.

Search engines are naturally drawn to research-oriented sites and usually
consider them more relevant than shopping-oriented sites, which is why, a
lot of the time, the highest listing for the average query is a Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia is an open-source online reference site that has a lot of searchable
information, tightly cross-linked with millions of back links. Open source
means that anyone can have access to the text and edit it. Wikipedia is
practically guaranteed to have a high listing on the strength of its site architecture
alone. (We go over site architecture in much more depth later on in
Book IV.) Wikipedia is an open-source project, thus information should be
taken with a grain of salt as there is no guarantee of accuracy. This brings
us to an important lesson of search engines — they base “authority” on
perceived expertise. Accuracy of information is not one of their criteria:
Notability is.

In order to take advantage of research queries, you need to gear your site
content toward things that would be of interest to a researcher. “How to”
articles, product comparisons, reviews, and free information are all things
that attract researchers to your site.

Knowing your demographics

In order to get the most bang for your SEO buck, you need to know the
demographics for your Web visitors. You need to know who’s looking for
you, because you’ll need to know where best to advertise. For example, if
you’re selling dog sweaters, it’s probably not a great idea to advertise in
biker bars. Sure, there might be a few Billy Bob Skullcrushers with a cute
little Chihuahua in need of a cashmere shrug, but statistically, your ad would
probably do much better in a beauty salon. The same goes for your Web
site in a search engine. Gender, age, and income are just a few of the metrics
that you’ll want to track in terms of identifying your audience. Search
engine users are pretty evenly split between male and female search engine
users, with a few slight differences: 50.2 percent of Yahoo! users are female,
whereas 53.6 percent of Google users are male. In terms of age brackets, the
older set leans more towards using Ask.com, and the younger users wind up
on Yahoo! and MSN.com most often. In fact, Ask.com is changing their focus
in order to cater specifically to married women. Google reaps the highest
number of users with an income of $100,000 a year or more. Search engines
even feed their results into other search engines, as you can in see our
handy-dandy Search Engine Relationship Chart later in this chapter.
Table 1-1 breaks down user demographics across the search engines for
your reference.

You need to know who your search engine visitors are because this demographic
data helps you effectively target your market. This demographic
distribution is often associated with search query keywords, the words that
search engine visitors use to search for your products. For an in-depth look
at choosing keywords, you can check out Book II, Chapter 2, but a brief summary
is that keywords are what a search engine looks for when figuring out
what sites to show in the SERP. Basically your keywords are the words you
used in your search query — or what you typed into the little search window.
If you are searching for something like information on customizing classic
cars, for example, you would type [custom classic cars] into the search field.
(When we discuss search queries through the book, we use square brackets
to show the keywords. You wouldn’t actually type the brackets into the
search field.) Figure 1-1 displays a typical search engine results page for the
query [custom classic cars].

The search engine goes to work combing its index for Web pages containing
these specific keywords and returns to you with your results. That way, if
you have a product that’s geared towards a certain age bracket, or towards
women more than men, you can tailor your keywords accordingly. It may
seem inconsequential, but trust me, this is important if you want to be
ranked well for targeted searches.

Identifying Search Engine Users

Who is using search engines? Well, everyone. A significant amount of all Web
traffic to Web sites comes from search engines. Unless you are a household
name like eBay or Amazon, chances are people won’t know where you are
unless they turn to a search engine and hunt you down. In fact, even the big
brands get most of their traffic from search engines. Search engines are the
biggest driver of traffic on the Web and their influence only continues to
grow.

But although search engines drive traffic to Web sites, you have to remember
that your Web site is only one of several and a half trillion other Web
sites out there. Chances are, if someone does a search, even for a product
that you sell, your Web site won’t automatically pop up in the first page of
results. If you’re lucky and the query is targeted enough, you might end up
somewhere in the top 100 of the millions of results returned. That might be
okay if you’re only trying to share your vacation photos with your family,
but if you need to sell a product, you need to appear higher in the results. In
most cases, you want the number one spot on the first page because that’s
the site everyone looks at and that most people click.

In this section, you find out a bit more about the audience available to you
and how to narrow down how to reach them.

Figuring out how much people spend
The fact of the matter is that people spend money on the Internet. It’s frightfully
easy: All you need is a credit card, a computer with an Internet connection,
and something that you’ve been thinking about buying. E-commerce
in the United States reached $34.7 billion in the third quarter of 2007 alone.
Some project that e-commerce could reach $1 trillion a year by 2012.
Combine that with the fact that most Americans spend an average of 24
minutes a day shopping online, not including the time they spend actually
getting to the Web site (19 minutes), and you’re looking at a viable means of
moving your product. To put it simply, “There’s gold in them thar hills!”

So, now you need to get people to your Web site. In real estate, the most
important thing is location, location, location, and the same is true of the
Internet. On the Web, however, instead of having a prime piece of property,
you need a high listing on the search engine results page (SERP). Your placement
in these results is referred to as your ranking. You have a few options
when it comes to achieving that. One, you can make your page the best it
can be and hope that people will find you, or two, you can pay for one of the
few advertising slots. More than $12 billion was spent in 2007 on the North
American search marketing industry alone. Eighty-eight percent of that was
spent on pay per click (PPC) advertising, in which you pay to have search

engines display your ad. The other 12 percent goes to search engine optimization
(SEO). SEO, when properly done, helps you to design your Web site
in such a way that when a user is doing a search, your pages appear on the
first page of returned results, hopefully in the top spot. Your main focus in
this book is finding out about SEO, but because they overlap somewhat, you
pick up a bit of PPC knowledge here and there along the way.

How Search Engines Work

The Internet offers a world of information, both good and bad. Almost
anything a person could want is merely a few taps on the keyboard and
a couple clicks of a mouse away. A good rule of thumb for the Internet is if
you want to know about something or purchase something, there’s probably
already a Web site just for that. The catch is actually finding it. This is
what brings you to this book. You have a Web site. You have hired what you
hope is a crack team of designers and have unleashed your slick, shiny new
site upon the Web, ready to start making money. However, there is a bit of
a problem: Nobody knows that your site exists. How will people find your
Web site?

The most common way that new visitors will find your site is through a
search engine. A search engine is a Web application designed to hunt for
specific keywords and group them according to relevance. It used to be,
in the stone age of the 1990s, that most Web sites were found via directories
or word-of-mouth. Somebody linked to your Web site from their Web
site, or maybe somebody posted about it on one of their newsgroups, and
people found their way to you. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and
Microsoft Live were created to cut out the middleman and bring your user
to you with little hassle and fuss.

In this chapter, we show you how to find your audience by giving you the
tools to differentiate between types of users, teaching you to sort out
search engines, identifying the necessary elements for being prominent in
those engines, and giving you an insider look at how all the search engines
work together.

Assessing Your Spending Habits

Congratulations! You just took the most important step on the road to financial
recovery. To varying degrees, we all live in a self-imposed fog when it
comes to spending money. Spending becomes a comfortable habit — just the
way you go about your daily life — and habits are always hard to break. But
you’re on your way. Now that you’ve committed yourself to recovery, you
can take a closer look at where your money is going, consider the possibility
that overspending is a habit, and, if it is, examine ways to deal with it.

Okay, documenting your expenses has proven the obvious: You’ve wasted
money and probably made some lousy financial decisions. Who hasn’t? (If
you haven’t assessed your spending habits, see the section “Comparing
Spending and Income,” earlier in this chapter.) Now that you have a handle

on the problem, you’re in position to take control. With the right attitude,
eliminating unnecessary expenditures can be a little like a treasure hunt.
There’s extra money out there — you just have to find it!

Although we don’t presume to tell you how much to spend on any particular
item — that’s your call — here are a few things to zero in on:

Credit card payments: If a big chunk of your monthly income is going
to pay credit card bills (especially if you’re paying minimum payments),
bankruptcy may be the best solution by far (see Book III, Chapter 5).
If this is the case, you’re just spinning your wheels in the worst of all
worlds — paying interest without significantly reducing the principal
amount of the debts. For example, say you’ve got a fairly modest credit
card debt of $3,000. At 17 percent interest — and a lot of times the interest
rate is even higher — you’ll be indebted to the credit card company
for about 35 years if you just make minimum payments.
Daily dribbles: We all live our lives amid daily patterns that eventually
become habits. Many times, these habits include unnecessary spending
that provides no real benefit or enjoyment. What seems like small stuff
eventually adds up. Again, consider the latte on the way to work, the
buck you put in the soda machine, and the $2.50 you spend for an afternoon
snack — all without even thinking about it, right? Over the course
of a year, you’ve blown $1,430. If you invested this money for 20 years at
10 percent interest, you’d end up with more than $80,000!
Extravagances: True, one person’s luxury is another’s necessity, but
you really need to think long and hard before plopping down $100 at a
restaurant or $60 for a pay-per-view prize fight on TV. It’s sometimes
helpful — though painful — to figure out how much work you had to do
to pay for a particular treat. If a night on the town costs you a day and a
half of work, is it really a good return on your investment?
Impulse purchases: In the section “Cataloging What You Own,” later in
this chapter, we ask you to list all your belongings; for now, just make
a trip to your attic, basement, and garage. If you’re like most people —
and us — you’ll see tons of stuff you’ve bought but rarely, if ever, use.
Simplify. And go further: Sell.
Gifts: Studies show that many folks spend lavishly on gifts they would
never buy for themselves. Christmas, of course, is the granddaddy of
budget-busters. Scale back gifting.
Overwhelming mortgage payments: If you obtained your mortgage
recently, most of your monthly payment goes toward the interest. You
may not have much equity, and the home may not be worth keeping —
especially if it’s a second mortgage.
Killer car payments: New cars are awfully pricey these days. If you’re
struggling to maintain payments on a new car, you may want to consider
selling it and buying something more affordable. Plenty of reliable, moderately
priced used cars are on the market.

Totaling spending and earnings

Add up the numbers in each of the three spending categories in Table 1-1 to
get a subtotal for each category. Then add up the subtotals. The final number
represents the amount you are currently spending each year.

Next, add up all the income you received during the same 12-month period.
Take into account not just your net household income (your take-home pay,
which is gross income minus all deductions including taxes), but also any
other income you or your spouse or partner may receive: government benefits,
investments, royalties, child support or spousal support, income from a
family business, and so on. Record that total on your worksheet.

If you are entitled to child support and/or spousal support but the payments
rarely come, don’t include those amounts when you calculate total annual
income for your household. If it’s unreliable income, you can’t count on it to
help cover your spending.

Calculating your financial bottom line

When you have a total annual income amount and a total annual spending
amount, subtract your spending total from your income total.

If the final number you calculate is negative, you can probably guess what
that means: The amount you are spending is more than your annual household
income. You may be financing your lifestyle by using credit cards and
cash advances, and/or you may be falling behind on some of your obligations.
Furthermore, you may not be paying some of your bills at all, which
means that if you add the amount of those bills into your calculations, you
have an even bigger deficit.

If you ended up with a positive number, your finances may be in better shape
than you think. Or not. If the number is small, you may be just barely staying
ahead. And if your bottom line is positive only because you’re paying
just the minimum due on your credit cards each month or because you’ve
stopped paying some of your debts, you have no cause for celebration. If this
describes your situation, you are treading water, at best, and a financial setback
such as a job loss or expensive illness could be devastating.

Figuring out the fritter factor

It’s so easy to fritter money away, isn’t it? A latte here, a happy-hour drink
or two there, lunch out with friends or colleagues, new clothes. Before you
know it, it’s the end of the month and you don’t have any money left. Where
did it all go? Most likely, you unconsciously frittered it away on unnecessary,
miscellaneous items. Each purchase may not have cost much, but together
over a month’s time, frittering adds up to a significant amount. How much?

Let’s assume that every workday you spend $3 on a latte. In a month, you
spend $60, and in a year that small daily purchase adds up to $720! If you also
spend $2.50 per day for a bagel or pastry to go with the latte, you’re spending
$110 each month and more than $1,300 per year! Scary, huh?

If you’re like the vast majority of people, you get paid money much less often
than you spend it. You probably get paid every week, every two weeks, or
every month — but you spend money every day, don’t you? This leads to a
distortion in how you think about money and makes frittering all too easy.

To help you get a handle on how much you fritter away, for one month we want
you to write down everything you purchase with cash, a debit card, or a credit
card. Your spouse or partner should do the same. Carry a small notebook with
you whenever you leave the house so you can record every expenditure right
away instead of trying to remember it later. When the month is up, add up
everything you spent on nonessential items. We bet you’ll be shocked to see
how much it amounts to. Multiply this number by 12, and put that number in
your worksheet under “Other” in the “Variable Spending” section.

Comparing Spending and Income

Now comes the real measure of the state of your finances: figuring out how
your total spending compares to your total household income. You may be in
for a shock. Are you ready?

Gathering the necessary materials
To complete this exercise, you need a pad of paper, a pen or pencil, and a
calculator. You also need the following financial information:

Check registers
Bank statements
Receipts for major purchases not made with a credit card
Credit card account statements
Other expense records for the past 12 months

You also need records of your income for the past 12 months, such as pay
stubs and deposit slips or direct deposit information. If you’re self-employed,
you need your business records.

Your spouse or partner should gather the same information because the goal
of this exercise is to give you as complete a picture as possible of how your
household spending compares to your household income.

Categorizing your expenses
Creating a worksheet modeled after the one in Table 1-1 (at the end of this
section) will help you organize your spending and income information and
make sure that you don’t overlook anything. This worksheet will also come in
handy in blog I, Chapter 3, where we help you build a budget.

Some expenses listed as fixed on the worksheet may actually be periodic
expenses for you. For example, instead of paying your auto insurance every
month, you may pay it every quarter.

After you’ve calculated total annual amounts for each of your debts and for
all your living expenses, enter them on the appropriate worksheet lines.

Finding Out Your FICO Score

A growing number of creditors, as well as insurance companies, employers, and
landlords, use something called a FICO score together with (or even instead of)
your credit history to make decisions about you. Your FICO score is a numeric
representation of your creditworthiness and is derived from your credit history
information. Like your credit history, the score is a snapshot of how you’ve managed
credit in the past. As such, your FICO score is generally considered an indicator
of how well you are likely to manage credit in the future.

Actually, a variety of different credit scores exist. Equifax, Experian, and
TransUnion have developed their own credit scores. (Each credit-reporting
agency sells its credit score on its Web site.) But the FICO score has become
the industry standard. You can order your FICO score by going to www.
myfico.com.

Your FICO score can range from 300 to 850. The higher, the better: A score
of at least 720 is considered to be very good. If your score is well below 720,
you may still qualify for credit from some creditors, but you’ll be charged a
higher interest rate and you may not qualify for as much credit as you would
like. Likewise, insurance companies may be willing to sell you insurance, but
you’ll probably pay extra for the coverage and you may not be able to purchase
as much insurance as you would like. When you have a low FICO score,
some landlords will not rent to you, and you may not qualify for certain kinds
of jobs, especially those that involve handling money.

Knowing why your reports matter

The credit report you get is the same one that your current creditors and
potential future creditors use to make decisions about you. The more negative
information is in your credit histories (such as past-due accounts,
accounts in collection, accounts that your creditors have charged off as
uncollectible, tax liens, and so on), the worse your finances are.

Your existing creditors may use the information to decide whether to raise
the interest rates you are paying, lower your credit limits, or even cancel your
credit. And whenever you apply for new credit, the creditors review your
credit record information to decide whether to approve your application, how
much credit to give to you, the interest rate you must pay, and so on.

Many insurance companies, landlords, and employers also review your credit
record information. If they find a lot of negative information, insurance companies
may not agree to insure you or may charge you higher-than-normal
premiums; landlords may refuse to rent to you; and employers may not want
to hire you or to give you the promotion you applied for.

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act says that most negative information
remains in your credit reports for 7½ years and that a Chapter 7 liquidation
bankruptcy and a Chapter 13 reorganization of debt linger there for ten
years. However, the three credit reporting agencies have a policy of reporting
completed Chapter 13s for only seven years. A tax lien sticks around until
you pay it.

Checking Out Your Credit Reports

Three national credit-reporting companies operate in the United States:
Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Reviewing the information in your
credit report from each company is an excellent way to see your true financial
picture.

Getting copies of your credit reports
For a comprehensive survey of your creditworthiness, order a copy of your
credit report from each of the national credit-reporting agencies, not just
from one. Each report may contain slightly different information about you,
partly because not all creditors report all consumer account payment information
to all three agencies.

You are entitled to one free copy of each of your credit reports every year. To
order yours, go to www.annualcreditreport.com or call 877-FACT-ACT.
If you’ve already obtained free copies of your credit reports during the past
12 months, you must pay a fee to order additional copies. In most states, the
cost is $10 per report (and some states also charge a sales tax), although the
cost is less in some states. You can call your state attorney general’s office to
find out.

Also, you are always entitled to a free credit report if

You are unemployed and intend to apply for a job within 60 days.
You are receiving public welfare assistance.
You believe that you have been the victim of identity theft.
You have been denied credit, employment, insurance, or a place to rent
within the past 60 days because of information in your credit report.
To order additional copies of your credit reports after you’ve obtained your
free annual ones, you must contact each of the three credit-reporting agencies
individually. You can order the copies by mail, by phone, or online.
Equifax: www.equifax.com; 800-685-1111; Disclosure Department, P.O.
Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374
Experian: www.experian.com; 888-397-3742; P.O. Box 2104, Allen, TX 75013
TransUnion: www.transunion.com; 800-888-4213; P.O. Box 1000,
Chester, PA 19022
If you order additional copies by mail, put your request in a letter that
includes the following information, and be sure to sign it:
Your full name (including Jr., Sr., III, and so on)
Your Social Security number
Your date of birth
Your current address and previous addresses for the past five years
Your phone number, including area code
The name of your current employer

Your Relationship with Money

You may have the misconception that you are what you buy. You may
believe on some level that the more you spend, the more successful and
important you are. Developing that mindset is easy because all of us are constantly
bombarded with messages that equate money and stuff with success.
How often do you see ads promoting frugality, saving, or self-denial? If you’re
struggling to keep up with the Joneses, you may need to reevaluate your
friendships. The Joneses may be driving you straight to the poorhouse.

Recognizing emotional spending
Maybe you spend money for emotional reasons. For example, think about
what you do when you feel sad or disappointed, or when you want to celebrate
a success. Do you head to the mall? Do you click on your favorite retail
Web site? Do you treat yourself to an expensive meal or enjoy a weekend getaway
even though you really can’t afford it? If so, spending may have become
a sort of addiction. Everyone likes to reward themselves from time to time,
but doing so continually is a problem, and losing track of whether you can
afford to treat yourself is a cause for real concern.

If emotional spending describes your behavior to a T, you need to get a handle
on it fast. One option is to meet with a mental health professional; you may
qualify for help from a low-cost/no-cost clinic in your area. Or get involved
with Debtors Anonymous (www.debtorsanonymous.org or 781-453-2743).
DA uses the time-tested methods of Alcoholics Anonymous to help people
understand why they spend and to gain control over their spending.

Living for the moment
Maybe your problem is that you “live for today” and don’t think about tomorrow.
In some ways, living in the moment is great, sure — but not if you turn
a blind eye toward your future. How do you know if you’ve got this attitude
toward money? You probably

Use credit too much.
Don’t try to pay off your credit balances as quickly as possible, telling
yourself there will be plenty of time to do that later.
Save little, if anything.
Rarely, if ever, take time to balance your checkbook, check out your

credit reports and credit score, or maintain a household budget.
Such money attitudes are self-destructive, and they do catch up with you
eventually. Because you’re reading this book, they may already have.

Some Preliminary Questions

You can get a rough sense of your debt problem by honestly answering the
following questions. The more “yes” answers, the more work you have to do.

Are you clueless about how much you owe your creditors?
Over time, is a growing percentage of your household income going
toward paying your debts?
Do you ever pay your bills late because you don’t have enough money?
Have you stopped paying some of your debts?
Are you paying only the minimum due on some of your credit cards
because you can’t afford to pay more?
Are you using credit and/or credit card cash advances to help pay debts
and/or your basic living expenses, such as groceries, rent, or utilities?
Have you maxed out any of your credit cards, or have any of your cards
been cancelled for nonpayment?
Do you have little or nothing in savings?
Have you borrowed money from friends or relatives to pay your bills?
Have debt collectors begun calling you, and/or are you receiving threatening
notices from some of your creditors?
Are you having a hard time concentrating at work because you are worried
about money?
Are you losing sleep because of your finances?
Have you and your spouse or partner begun to fight about money?
Are you drinking more or using illegal drugs to try to cope with your
money worries?
Are you an overspender? According to Debtors Anonymous, most compulsive
spenders answer “yes” to at least 8 of 15 questions. Go to www.
debtorsanonymous.org/help/questions.htm and take the Debt Quiz.

Assessing Where You Are Financially

You’ve bought this blog, so we assume you’re probably at least a little
worried — maybe really worried — about your financial health. Perhaps
your debts have you biting your nails, and you’re not sure what to do about
them. We doubt you’re reading this blog for the fun of it! And you probably
don’t have a good handle on the true state of your finances. After all, it’s
human nature to try to avoid bad news.

We understand. Facing financial facts can be unsettling and even scary.
When you know the state of your finances, it becomes hard to ignore the
fact that improving your financial situation requires changing your lifestyle
and making some big sacrifices. But no matter how scary it is, confronting
the reality of your financial situation is essential — and the good news is that
seeking out this blog is a terrific first step to doing just that.

This chapter begins your next step: figuring out where you are so you know
where you need to go. Until you come face to face with the actual facts of
your finances, you may find it impossible to develop the resolve and selfdiscipline
you need to implement your plan of action. That’s why we begin
with this series of fact-finding exercises to get you going.

The more bad news you get as you complete these exercises, the more critical
it is that you get serious about dealing with your debts. The sooner you
do that, the quicker and easier it will be to improve your finances and the
less likely that your creditors will take some of your assets or that you’ll have
to file for bankruptcy. So let’s get going!

Picking a Pickproof Password

Choosing a good password is not as easy (but is twice as important) as it
may seem. Whoever has your password can (in effect) “be you” at eBay —
running auctions, bidding on auctions, and leaving possibly-litigious feedback
for others. Basically, such an impostor can ruin your eBay career — and
possibly cause you serious financial grief.

Many passwords can be cracked by the right person in a matter of seconds.
Your goal is to set a password that takes too much of the hackers’ time. With
the number of available users on eBay or PayPal, odds are they’ll go to the
next potential victim’s password rather than spend too many minutes (or
even hours) trying to crack yours.

As with any online password, you should follow these commonsense rules to
protect your privacy:

✦ Don’t choose anything too obvious, such as your birthday, your first
name, or (never use this) your Social Security number. (Hint: If it’s too
easy to remember, it’s probably too easy to crack.)
✦ Do make things tough on the bad guys — combine numbers and letters
(use uppercase and lowercase) or create nonsensical words.
✦ Don’t give out your password to anyone — it’s like giving away the keys
to the front door of your house.
✦ Do change your password immediately if you ever suspect someone has
it. You can change your password, by going to the Account Information
area of your My eBay page or to the following address:
signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.
dll?ChangePasswordAndCreateHint
✦ Do change your password every few months just to be on the safe side.

Selecting Your User ID

Making up a user ID is always a pleasant chore. If you’ve never liked your real
name or never had a nickname, here’s your chance to correct that situation.
Choose an ID that tells a little about you. Of course, if your interests change,
you may regret too narrow a user ID.
You can call yourself just about anything, but remember that this ID is how
other eBay users will know you. Here are some guidelines:
✦ Don’t use a name that would embarrass your mother.
✦ Don’t use a name with a negative connotation, such as scam-guy. If
people don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you.
✦ Don’t use a name that’s too weird, you know, something like babyvampire-
penguin. People may chuckle, but they may also question your
sanity.
✦ eBay doesn’t allow spaces in user IDs, so make sure that the ID makes
sense when putting two or more words together. A friend of mine
intended to register as “gang of one.” She forgot the hyphens, so her ID
reads gangofone.

Signing Up and Getting Started

The prospect of getting started on eBay is exciting — and daunting.
Perhaps you’ve visited the eBay Web site once or twice with the idea that
you might buy something. Maybe you’ve heard your friends talk about the
things they’ve bought. Did you look up something simple, such as a golf club?
Did eBay come up with several thousand listings? Or maybe you figured you’d
get smart and narrow the search down to a 3 iron, but you still got more than
a thousand listings?

Did you consider buying something and then just left the site, for fear you’d
get ripped off? eBay works much better for me than any quasi-convenient
TV shopping channel because there’s no overly made up huckster telling me
how great I’d look in the outfit on the screen (displayed on a size-4 model).
On eBay, you have the opportunity to give an item a leisurely once-over,
read the description and terms, and click a link to ask the seller a question
before you bid or buy. eBay’s as simple as that. If you don’t like the seller’s
response, you can just go on to the next seller. That’s the great thing about
eBay. There’s always another seller — and always another item.

Registering on eBay
You can browse eBay all you want without registering, but before you
transact any sort of business on eBay, you must register. I recommend
registering while you’re reading this blog.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to register at eBay. The only hardand-
fast rule is that you have to be 18 or older. Don’t worry; the Age Police
won’t come to your house to card you — they have other ways to discreetly
ensure that you’re at least 18 years old. (Hint: Credit cards do more than satisfy
account charges.)

If you’re having a momentary brain cramp and you’ve forgotten your age,
just think back to your childhood. If your first memory is watching The
Animaniacs and Chip ’n’ Dale Rescue Rangers on TV, you’re in. Head to the
eBay home page and register. The entire process takes only a few minutes.

During the early days of online trading, I was selling Star Trek memorabilia
on Auction Web (the initial eBay site) and doing quite well. I ran into William
Shatner (Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame) at a marketing meeting in mid-1997.
Anxious to let him know how well I was doing with my merchandise online, I
tried to explain Auction Web. Shatner scoffed, “No one will ever make any
money on the Internet.” (Really, I have witnesses — remember, this is the
future Mr. Priceline.com.) Ah, well.

Before you can sign up, you have to be connected to the Web, so now’s the
time to fire up your computer. After you open your Internet browser, you’re
ready to sign up. In the address box of your browser, type www.ebay.com
and press Enter.

Your next stop is the eBay home page. Right there, where you can’t miss it,
is the Register button — it’s “fast and free!” Click this button and let the signup
process begin. You can get to the Registration form also by clicking the
register link next to the eBay logo at the top of the page.

When you’re at the Registration form, you go through a four-step process.
Here’s an overview:

1. Enter the basic required info.
2. Read and accept the User Agreement.
3. Confirm your e-mail address.
4. Breeze through the optional information.

You register on eBay through an encrypted (supersecret) connection called
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). You can tell because the normal http at the
beginning of the Web address is now https and a small closed padlock
appears at the bottom-left (or bottom-right) corner of your screen.

The padlock icon means that eBay has moved you to a secure place on their
site that is safe from unauthorized people seeing or receiving your information.
Your information is treated with the highest security and you can fill
out these forms with the utmost level of confidence. I could tell you how SSL
works, but instead I’ll just give you the bottom line: It does work, so trust me
and use it. The more precautions eBay (and you) take, the harder it is for
some hyper-caffeinated high-school kid to get into your data.

Exploring Home Page Search Options

There’s an old Chinese expression that says, “Every journey begins with the
first eBay search.” Okay, so I updated the quote. They’re very wise words
nonetheless. You can start a search from the home page in one of two ways:
✦ Use the search box. It’s right there at the top of the home page (and
most eBay pages), and it’s a fast way of finding item listings.
✦ Use the Advanced Search link (which is next to the search box). This
link will take you to the sophisticated Search area, where you can do all
kinds of specialized searches.
To launch a title search from the home page, follow these steps:
1. In the search box, type no more than a few keywords that describe the
item you’re looking for.
Refer to Figure 2-1 to see the search box.

2. Click the Search button.
The results of your search appear in a matter of seconds.
You can type just about anything in the search box and get some information.
Say you’re looking for Star Trek memorabilia. If so, you’re not alone.

The original television show premiered on September 8, 1966, and even
though it was canceled in 1969 because of low ratings, Star Trek has become
one of the most successful science-fiction franchises in history. You can use
the search box on the eBay home page to find all sorts of Star Trek stuff. I
just ran a search and found around 13,762 items in numerous categories on
eBay with Star Trek in their titles.

Try the Advanced Search link under the search box to narrow down your
search. This link takes you to the basic search page, which has some powerful
features 

When you search for popular items at eBay (a classic example is Star Trek
memorabilia), you may get inundated with thousands of auctions that match
your search criteria. Even if you’re traveling at warp speed, you could spend
hours checking each auction individually. (“Scotty, we need more power
now!”) If you’re pressed for time like the rest of us, eBay has not-so-mysterious
ways for you to narrow down your search to make finding a specific item
much more manageable. Take a look at Figure 2-6 to see the way eBay helps
break things down in that Star Trek search. Also, turn for insider
techniques that can help you slim down those searches and beef up those
results.

Maneuvering the Categories

So how does eBay keep track of the millions of items up for sale at any given
moment? The brilliant minds at eBay decided to group items into nice, neat
little storage systems called categories. The home page lists most of the main
categories, but eBay also lists tens of thousands of subcategories, ranging
from Antiques to Weird Stuff. And don’t ask how many sub-subcategories
(categories within categories) eBay has — I can’t count that high.

Well, okay, I could list all the categories and subcategories currently available
on eBay — if you wouldn’t mind squinting at a dozen pages of really
small, eye-burning text. But a category browse is an adventure that’s unique
for each individual, and I wouldn’t think of depriving you of it. Suffice it
to say that if you like to hunt around for that perfect something, you’re in
browsing heaven now.

Here’s how to navigate around the categories:

1. From the drop-down menu, click the category that interests you, such
as Books or DVDs & Movies.
You’re transported to that category’s page. You see categories and subcategories
listed next to each heading. Happy hunting.
If you don’t find a category that interests you among those on the home
page, simply click the Buy button on the navigation bar, and you’re off
to the main Categories page. You get not only a pretty impressive page
of main categories and subcategories, but also a short list of featured
auctions — and links to them all.

If you really and truly want to see a list of all categories and subcategories
(see Figure 2-5), click See All Categories at the bottom of the
category list on the main Buy page. Or, if you want to make it easy on
yourself, go directly to the following:
listings.ebay.com/ /ListingCategoryList

2. After the category page appears, find a subcategory below the main
category title that interests you. Click the subcategory, and keep digging
through the sub-subcategories until you find what you want.
For example, if you’re looking for items honoring your favorite television
show, click the Entertainment Memorabilia category or the DVDs &
Movies category. Note that the Entertainment Memorabilia category has
many links, including the Television Memorabilia subcategory. Below

the Television Memorabilia link, you’ll see links to these subcategories:
Ads, Flyers, Apparel, Clippings, Photos, Pins, Buttons, Posters, Press
Kits, Props, Scripts, Wardrobe, and Other. Click the link that appeals to
you and you’re off on a shopping spree.

3. When you find an item that interests you, click the item and the full
listing page pops up on your screen.

Congratulations — you’ve just navigated through several million items
to find that one TV-collectible item that caught your attention. (Pardon
me while I bid on that Lily Munster — Yvonne DeCarlo — signed picture.)
You can instantly return to the home page by clicking its link at
the top of the page (or return to the listings page by repeatedly clicking
the Back button at the top of your browser).

Near the bottom of every subcategory or search-results page, you can see a
list of numbers. The numbers are page numbers, and you can use them to
fast-forward through all the items in that subcategory. So, if you feel like
browsing around page 8 without going through 8 pages individually, just
click number 8; you’re presented with the items on that page (their listings,
actually). Happy browsing.

If you’re a bargain hunter by habit, you may find some pretty weird stuff while
browsing the categories and subcategories of items at eBay — some of it
super-cheap and some of it just cheap. There’s even a Weird Stuff category —
no kidding! Remember that (as with any marketplace) you’re responsible
for finding out as much as possible about an item before you buy — and
definitely before you bid. So if you’re the type who sometimes can’t resist a
good deal, ask yourself what you plan to do with the pile of stuff you can get
for 15 cents — and ask yourself now, before it arrives on your doorstep.

Navigating eBay the Easy Way

The navigation bar is at the top of the eBay home page and lists five eBay
links that take you directly to different eBay areas. Using the navigation bar
is kind of like doing one-stop clicking. You can find this bar at the top of
every page on eBay. Hovering over some of the links reveals a subnavigation
list with links to other, related (and important) places.

Think of links as expressways to specific destinations. Click a link and, the
next thing you know, you’re right where you want to be. You don’t even have
to answer that annoying old question, “When are we gonna get there?” from
the kids in the backseat.

✦ Buy: Takes you to the page that lists the top-level eBay categories and
provides many buying-related links, links to the home page’s Featured
Items (see Book III), and a Search window, as shown in Figure 2-3. You’ll
find a mini-version of your My eBay page here, with drop-down links for
your favorite searches, sellers, and categories. From this page, you have
many ways of finding any one of the millions of items for sale on eBay.

You’ll find top-level categories on the Buy page. When you click to
browse a category (for example, Books), you’ll be brought to a category
hub page that lists the subcategories of that category. Click your desired
subcategory, and you arrive at the subcategory page, where you see
three yellow tabs at the top of the listings. These tabs offer you different
viewing options to browse:

• All Items is the default setting for the page. This option delivers on
its promise — you see all items, including auctions and those items
that can be purchased immediately using Buy It Now.

• Click the Auctions tab to see only the items that are up for auction.

• The Buy It Now tab isolates a view of all items listed with the Buy It
Now feature.

You can sort in these ways:

• Best Match is the default search option; it sorts the listings you see
by their relevance. A listing’s relevance is based, in part, on past
successful buyer behavior for similar items. The added reasoning
behind this search is to identify sellers who provide great buying
experiences and sellers who don’t, all gauged by the use of Detailed
Seller Ratings and feedback ratings.

• Time: ending soonest allows you to view the category listings in time
order, with the soonest to end on top. (This is the way I always sort
when I’m browsing.)

• Time: newly listed shows the items that have recently been listed in
the category.

• Time: ending today displays items that end in the next 24 hours and
are displayed with the item ending soonest listed first.

• Time: new today is where you can get the jump on other bargain
hunters and see the full listing of items launched within the past 24
hours.

• Price + Shipping: Lowest first sorting can be deceiving. Many sellers
list their items at an extremely low starting price to attract bidders.
You may have to wade through twenty pages of ninety-nine cent
items before you reach the dollar ones — a huge waste of time.

• Price: Highest first and Price + Shipping: Highest first are good
choices if you’re looking for high-ticket items in a category.

• Distance: nearest first. If you want to buy a large item (sofa? refrigerator?
car?) and would rather save on shipping or want to drop by
to inspect the item, this is the best search for you.

You can also search through the category. Type some keywords in the
search box to find, for example, a particular book. Because more than 20
million items are up for auction at any given time, finding just one (say, a
book on antique Vermont milk cans) is no easy task.

✦ Sell: Takes you to the first stop of the Sell Your Item form that you fill
out to start your listings. (More on how to sell in Book III.) You also see
a bunch of links that can take you to a zillion different places on eBay.
Stop by someday when you have a lot of time on your hands.

✦ My eBay: Takes you to your personal My eBay page, where you keep
track of your buying and selling activities, account information, and
favorite categories (more about My eBay 

✦ Community: Takes you to a page where you can find the latest news
and announcements, chat with fellow traders in the eBay community,
find charity auctions, and discover more about eBay. Several boxes in
the subnavigation bar correspond to the links on the page (more on the
eBay 

✦ Help: Opens the eBay Help Center overview page (which consists of a
search box in which you can type your query) and links for help topics.

Below the eBay navigation bar (on most eBay pages) are powerful links that
are just as important as the links on the navigation bar:

✦ eBay Logo: Takes you directly to the eBay home page. Use this link from
any other page when you need to get back to the home page right away.

✦ Categories: When you click here, there’s a drop-down menu for all
eBay’s top-level categories.

✦ Motors: Takes you to the eBay Motors site. Here, you can find links that
connect you to the largest vehicle sales site on the Web.

✦ Stores. To view or browse eBay stores you click here.

✦ Site map: Provides you with a bird’s-eye view of the eBay world. Every
top-level (or main) link available on eBay is listed here. If you’re ever
confused about finding a specific area, try the site map first. If a top-level
link isn’t listed here, it’s not on eBay — yet.

✦ Sign In/Sign Out: This link, which is below the navigation bar, toggles
between Sign In and Sign Out depending on your sign-in status. This is
an important link, and I remind you about it throughout the book. When
you’re signed in, it reads Hello, followed by your user ID.

Navigating through eBay

As I’ve said before, the writer Thomas Wolfe was wrong: You can go
home again — and again. At least with eBay you can! Day after day millions
of people land at eBay’s home page without wearing out the welcome
mat. The eBay home page is the front door to the most popular e-tailing site
on the Internet.

Everything you need to know about navigating eBay begins right here. In
this chapter, I give you the grand tour of the areas you can reach right from
the home page with the help of links.

Homing In on the Home Page

✦ A navigation bar at the top of the page with five eBay links that can zip
you straight to any of the many eBay areas, as well as a powerful link
right below the navigation bar
✦ An important link to eBay’s Live Help
✦ A list of links to auction categories
✦ Links to other eBay companies, and the 29 international eBay sites

At the top of almost every eBay page is a search box that helps you find
items by title keywords.

Do not adjust your computer monitor. You’re not going crazy. You may
notice that a link was on the eBay home page one day but gone the next day.
The links on the eBay home page change to reflect what’s going on — not
just on the site but also in the world.

Home-page links, the next generation
If you look carefully on the home page, you can see several other links
that give you express service to several key parts of the site. Here are the
highlights:

✦ From Our Sellers: Click the link to visit the featured items near the
bottom of the page. Here at eBay, money talks pretty loudly, so a seller
can pay extra to feature his or her listing and maybe it will land on the
home page sometime during its run. eBay rotates six featured items
throughout the day so that as many sellers as possible get a shot at
being in the spotlight. When you click the From Our Sellers See All
Featured Items link, you’re instantly beamed to eBay’s Featured Items
section.

You can find everything from Las Vegas vacations to Model-T Fords
to diet products in the Home Page Featured Items section. Home Page
Featured Items are not for mere mortals with small wallets. They’ve been lifted to the exalted featured status because sellers shelled out lots
of money to get them noticed. All you need to get your auction featured
is $39.95 ($79.95 for Multiple Item listings), plus a second or two to click
Home Page Featured Item on the Sell Your Item form.

Browsing for a Browser

When you get a computer, you get an Internet browser for free. A browser is
the software program that lets your computer talk to the Internet. It’s like
having your own private cyberchauffeur. Type the address (also known as
the URL, for Uniform Resource Locator) of the Web site you want to visit, and
boom, you’re there. For example, to get to eBay’s home page, type www.
ebay.com and press Enter. (It’s sort of a low-tech version of “Beam me up,
Scotty!” — and almost as fast.)

The two most popular browsers are Firefox (available both for MAC and the
PC) and Microsoft Internet Explorer. (They are what Coca-Cola and Pepsi are
to the cola wars.) Both programs are powerful and user-friendly. Figures 1-3
and 1-4 show you these browsers and how they show pages in the same way.
(Sit, browser! Now shake! Good browser!) The one you choose is a matter of
preference — I use them both!

You can get Microsoft Internet Explorer and Firefox for free. To find out
more information (or to make sure you’re using the most up-to-date version
of the software):

✦ Go to www.microsoft.com for Microsoft Internet Explorer
✦ Go to www.mozilla.com/firefox for Firefox

Have you ever wondered what all those buttons and drop-down lists at the top
of your browser do? In the following sections, I explain Explorer and Firefox
in more depth. According to my recent eBay statistics (from Sellathon), 70
percent of the hits on my listings come from people using Internet Explorer,
23 percent are from people using Firefox, and the balance come from users of
Safari, MSN, and AOL. Read on while we browse together.

Perusing the menus
At the top of almost all Microsoft-enabled programs are standard drop-down
lists that invoke various programs. Who’d ever think you’d need to use
menus, given all the colorful icons that Internet Explorer provides? Well, the
drop-down lists give you more in-depth access to the program’s capabilities.
Tables 1-1 and 1-2 give you an overview of the various tasks you can perform
from the menus.

Dabbling with the toolbar
Being a graphical interface, Explorer presents you with lots of colorful icons
that allow you to invoke programs or tasks with a click of the mouse. Table
1-3 gives you an introduction to these icons. You can customize which ones
you view from the Tools menu, or you can choose just to see words

Expert keyboard shortcuts
I’m all about using keystrokes instead of clicking! I also love the controls
available on my mouse. Table 1-4 and 1-5 give you a list of all the shortcuts
I could find. You’ll see that Microsoft Internet Explorer and Firefox share
many of the same shortcut keys. I hope they help cut down your desk time.

Accessing E-Mail

After you have access to the Internet, you need access to e-mail. If you have
your own computer and an ISP, you probably have e-mail access automatically.
But if you’re logging on to the Internet away from home, you might
want to look into setting up a free e-mail provider.

Most ISPs will allow you to check your e-mail from their Web sites, but
commonly, you’ll be using Microsoft’s Outlook Express to check your mail
on your home computer.

Google’s Gmail, Yahoo!, and Hotmail are the most popular Web-based, free
e-mail providers. They are free and secure, and signing up is a snap. I like
them because all have a Mail Alert feature, which allows you to instruct Gmail,
Yahoo!, or MSN Mobile to contact you through your Web-enabled cell phone
when you have new e-mail. You can join Gmail at www.gmail.com, Yahoo!
e-mail at www.yahoo.com, and Hotmail by going to www.hotmail.com.

Some commonsense rules can help you protect your account:

✦ Select a password that’s difficult to guess. Use letter-and-number
combinations or nonsensical words that nobody else knows. Don’t use
common names or words relating to you (such as the name of your
street).

✦ Keep passwords secret. If someone asks for your password online, you
can bet it’s a scam. Never give out your password.

✦ Don’t open an e-mail with an attachment from an unknown person.
The attachment (another file attached to your e-mail message) could
contain a virus.

✦ Don’t respond to spam e-mail. Spam is online slang for harassing,
offensive, or useless-but-widely-distributed messages or advertisements.
If you ignore and delete such junk without even opening it, the senders
will probably just go look for somebody else to bother.

Choosing an ISP

Okay, so you bought (or found a way to access) a computer, and you’re
ready to surf eBay. Hold on a minute — before you start surfing, you need
access to the Internet. (Details, details. . . .) The way to access the Internet
is through an ISP, or Internet service provider, such as Earthlink, MSN
(Microsoft Network), or RoadRunner. If you don’t already belong to one of
these, don’t worry; joining is easy.

Connecting to eBay without a Computer

Yes, sometimes life is a Catch-22 situation. Say your goal is to make some money on eBay so you can afford to buy a computer. Because you can’t log on to eBay without a computer, you can’t make money, right? Well, not exactly. Here’s how you can start selling and bringing in some cold hard cash for that shiny new (or not-so-shiny used) hardware.

Libraries: From Dewey Decimal to eBay If you haven’t been to your local library lately, you may be surprised to find that most libraries are fully wired with computers that connect to the Internet. The card catalog has been replaced by computers that keep the Dewey Decimal System (DDS) alive and connected to libraries all over the world. For example, you’ll find this book classified in 381.17, with the subject heading “Auctions — computer network resources.” Some libraries don’t even require you to have a library card if you want to use a computer. Others limit the amount of time you can spend online and the sites you can log on to (often only adult sites are blocked). eBay is considered fair game, and exploring it is even considered research.

The upside of using the library’s computer is that it’s free. The downside is that you may have to wait for some kid to finish doing research for a term paper on the ceremonial use of yak milk.

Commercial cyber-outlets and cafés
If you strike out at the public library (or you’re tired of the librarian shushing
you as you cheer your winning bids), your friend throws you out of the house, and your boss watches you like a hawk, you can use a commercial outlet to kick off your eBay career. There’s also the option of finding Internet cafés that have computers ready and waiting to use. National chains such as FedEx Kinko’s or your favorite local cybercafé offer computer usage at an hourly rate. FedEx Kinko’s offers computers (both PCs and Macs loaded with all the software you need) that can get you online for around $15 per hour or $.25 per minute. No restrictions apply: You get full access to the Internet and can enjoy all the elements of eBay. You can conduct your auctions by posting them and checking back regularly. You can also watch for great computer deals that you may want to bid on.

Cybercafés can be another way to go. If you live near a college, you’ll probably find some. Hourly rates are much cheaper because you end up ordering a cup of joe or a soda. I once checked on my auctions from a cybercafé in Peru; they charged only $1.50 an hour — what a deal! If you.

Upgrading your system with the help of eBay

You may think I’m putting the cart before the horse with this suggestion, but you can get a new or used computer system at a great price by signing on to eBay before you buy your computer. You can get online at a local library or ask to borrow a friend’s computer. I’ve seen eBay listings for workable, “vintage” PCs (a few years old), fully outfitted, for $400. Often such systems also come loaded with software. And when you have your new system in shape, why not auction off your old system on eBay?

You can also find on eBay all the bits and pieces you need to upgrade your computer. The items you may find most useful include

✦ Digital cameras and scanners
✦ Disk drives, including CD or DVD drives and memory cards
✦ Monitors
✦ Printers

Home wireless networks are becoming de rigueur; many people have them set up even if they don’t have a business at home. You can now buy Wi-Fi printers that allow you to send print jobs through your network at a printer located elsewhere in your home.

You may have to keep checking in and monitoring the different auctions that eBay has going on; listings change daily. Go put in your best bid, and check back later to see whether you’ve won! (If you want to find out about the fine art of sniping — bidding at the last minute — skip to Chapter 6. I won’t be insulted if you leave me for awhile now. Honest.)

Buying a used computer

If you don’t have a computer yet and don’t have much money to spend, you might want to investigate the used market. Thousands of perfectly good used machines are floating around looking for a caring home. You can pick up a model that’s a few years old for a few hundred dollars, and it will serve your budding eBay needs just fine. The same holds true for used Macs. Make sure a monitor is included in the purchase price. eBay’s sellers sell their old computers when they upgrade. You can get some great deals.

Buying a refurbished computer

If you don’t feel comfortable buying a used machine, you may want to consider a factory refurbished model. These are new machines that were returned to the manufacturer for one reason or another. The factory fixes them so they’re nice and spiffy, and then sweetens the deal with a terrific warranty. Some companies even offer optional, extended, on-site repairs. What you’re getting is a new computer at a deep discount because the machine can’t be resold legally as new.

For the most part, refurbished computers are defined as returns, units with blemishes (scratches, dents, and so on), or evaluation units. The factories rebuild them to the original working condition, using new parts (or sometimes used parts that meet or exceed performance specs for new parts). They come with 60- to 90-day warranties that cover repairs and returns. Warranty information is available on the manufacturers’ Web sites. Be sure to read it before you purchase a refurbished computer.

Major computer manufacturers such as Dell, IBM, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, and Apple provide refurbished computers. Check whether their Web site has an outlet store. (Their outlet stores may reside in eBay Stores.) I visit shopping. hp.com, www.sonystyle.com/outlet, and www.dell.com/outlet, and check the sites for closeouts and refurbished goods all the time — and I’ve never been burned!

Because the inventory of refurbished computers changes daily (as do the prices), there’s no way of telling exactly how much money you can save by buying refurbished instead of new. I suggest that you find a new computer system you like (and can afford) in a store or a catalog, and then compare it with refurbished systems. If you’re thinking about buying from the Web or a catalog, don’t forget to include the cost of shipping in the total price. Even with shipping costs, however, a refurbished computer may save you between 30 and 60 percent, depending on the deal you find.

eBay Basics

If the whole idea of technology gives you the creeps, don’t back out now. I feel your pain. Every tech-oriented bit of knowledge that’s entered my pea-sized brain has penetrated only after a great deal of mental whining. I suffered the pain so that you wouldn’t have to. Better yet, you don’t need to know much technology (in the true sense of the word) to run a successful online business.

Starting with the Right Computer
You don’t have to know a lot of fancy computer mumbo-jumbo to do well on eBay, but you must have a computer. If you’re in the market for a computer, you can buy or lease a new, used, or refurbished system, depending on your computing needs.

The absolute necessities
Although the following list is geared mainly toward the purchase of new PCs (which you can get for considerably under a thousand bucks), you should read this info even if you’re thinking of buying a used computer:

Look for a computer with a good memory. Remember that 1950s horror movie The Blob? The more time you spend using your computer, the more stuff you want to save on your hard drive. The more stuffed your hard drive, the more Blob-like it becomes. A hard drive with at least 60 gigabytes (GB) of storage space should keep your computer happy, but you can get hard drives as big as 300GB and more. I recommend you buy the biggest hard drive you can afford because no matter how large your hard drive is, you’ll find a way to fill it up.

Make sure you have a top-quality modem if you have a dial-up connection. Your modem connects your computer to the Internet using your telephone line. Even if you have a broadband connection (see later in this chapter), you should have a modem (usually built in to most computers) that can connect you on the off-chance that your high-speed service is down. (A modem transfers data over phone lines at a rate called kilobytes per second, or just plain K). A 56K modem is standard equipment, especially if you plan on using a lot of digital images (photographs) to help sell your items.

✦ Get a big screen. An LCD monitor that has at least a 17-inch screen can make a huge difference after several hours of rabid bidding or proofreading your auction item descriptions. Anything smaller and you’ll have a hard time actually seeing the listings and images.

✦ Make sure the computer’s central processing unit (CPU) is fast. A CPU (also known as a “chip”) is your computer’s brain. It should be the fastest you can afford. You can always opt for the top-of-the-line, but even a slower 900 MHz (megahertz) processor could suffice. One of my computers is an antique slowpoke, but it’s still fast enough that it won’t choke when I ask it to do some minor multitasking. If you want lightningfast speed (imagine a Daytona 500 race car with jet assist), you have to move up to at least 3 GHz (gigahertz).

✦ Get a CD-R/DVD-R drive. A disc burner is standard equipment. You use the drive to load new software programs into your computer from compact discs. You can also use the CDs or DVDs for your backups. Most models play and record DVD movies on your computer, but I think you’ll be so entertained by eBay that you can skip the frills and save the bucks.

✦ You must have a keyboard. No keyboard, no typing. The basic keyboard is fine. They do make funky ergonomic models that are split in the middle. But if the good old standard keyboard feels comfortable to you, stick with it. Different keyboards have different feels. I like a keyboard with “clicky” keys because my fingers know that the letters I type actually appear. Test out several keyboards and see which one suits your typing style.

✦ You need a pointing device, usually a mouse. Some laptops come with touchpads or trackballs designed to do the same thing — give you a quick way to move the pointer around the screen so you can select options by clicking.

Blogging success secrets

The preceding section tells you about the repercussions and negatives of blogging, but how can those very same things be turned around into the secrets of successful blogging? It’s simple! Take a look at the following list to see what I mean.

Successful bloggers . . .

✦ Write a lot: The best blogs are updated frequently with fresh, relevant, and interesting content.

✦ Are passionate: That passion and their unique personalities shines through in their writing styles.

✦ Love to read: The best bloggers spend a lot of time surfing the Web and reading (and commenting) about their blog topics.

✦ Are very social: The best bloggers care about their audience and take time to interact with them and show them that their opinions are truly valued.

✦ Are thick-skinned: Insults roll off the best bloggers’ backs and are forgotten quickly.

✦ Like to take risks: New technology means new opportunities, and the best bloggers dive right in.

✦ Love to learn: The best bloggers realize they don’t know it all.

✦ Are comfortable speaking their minds: The best blogs are written by people who are not afraid to express their opinions to the online audience and then discuss those opinions in an open and professional matter with both proponents and opponents.

Setting your goals
Now that you know the good, the bad, and the ugly about blogging, it’s time to think about what you want to get out of your blogging experience. Consider both the short- and long-term objectives for your blog because they can have a significant effect on the path you take in joining the blogosphere.

Start by creating a plan to get your blog up and running, but don’t try to do everything at once. Take your time, learn as you go, and in no time at all, you’ll be an active and welcome member of the blogosphere!

Deciding to Start a Blog

To many people, the decision of whether to start a blog is a difficult one because it seems like a daunting task and a big commitment. Truth be told, starting a blog is one of the easiest things you can do. Don’t think of the larger picture. Instead, start small, and you’ll be surprised how quickly you get up to speed, grow your blog, connect with new people, and start enjoying yourself.

The key is to define the reasons why you want to start a blog so you can then determine the best path to meet your goals. Read on to find out about the pros and cons of blogging before you decide to become a blogger.

Blogging benefits Ask any two bloggers what they think are the benefits to publishing their
blogs, and it’s highly likely that you’ll get two very different answers. That’s because all bloggers have their own reasons for blogging and derive their own benefits from it.

The following are ten ways blogging can benefit you, depending on your goals:

✦ Have fun and express yourself. If you have something you want to say, blogging is an enjoyable way to do it.

✦ Connect with people. Whether you want to communicate with family, friends, colleagues, or strangers, a blog can make it happen.

✦ Find people like you. Maybe you just want to find people who share your views on life or a specific subject. You’d be surprised how many other people are traveling across the blogosphere waiting to be found.

✦ Have a creative outlet. If you love painting, photography, architecture, or any other creative activity, a blog is a great place to share your work and ideas.

✦ Learn. A big part of blogging is reading other blogs, communicating with people, and publishing updated content. What better way is there to make the learning process fun and ongoing?

✦ Make a difference. If you feel strongly about a particular issue, then a blog is a great place to talk about it and gather people to rally around it with you.

✦ Help people. If you have specific knowledge on a topic, why not share it and help other people learn and grow?

✦ Promote yourself or your business. If you have a product, service, or business, a blog is a perfect place to talk about it directly or indirectly.

✦ Establish yourself as an expert. Blogging is a great way to share your knowledge in a field or industry in which you want to be known as an expert. Whether you’re looking for a career boost or trying to pick up speaking engagements, a blog offers a destination to share your expertise with the world.

✦ Make money. Many people blog simply to make some extra money through advertising, reviews, and more.