Two years ago, I began a print broker business called Toasty Print. With tons of promoting, dropping off business cards, post cards, flyers and mass emails, I still got back a limited response for clientele. My largest client came by accident!

I enjoy watching MMA and I took my camera to the events to record the matches. I was contacted by the CEO directly to remove the videos from Youtube or else they would sue me. I went on to explain to him how it would boost search engine optimization if the videos were linked back to their site. So at the next bout, I had tickets to watch the event but this time I was recording video for the sole purpose to boost their SEO! Worked out great for them, worked out great for me. In addition, I promoted my printing company and they were my largest client for about a year or so.

The biggest downfall of the whole business is that I was paying $100 a month to be a part of this printing network. Some months I didn’t even make enough sales to justify the $100 being taken from my bank account. It wasn’t until the large account that I started to get in the positive. I broke away from the printing network, created my own site and started printing with a different printer but at this time, I had lost most of my clients and the printing network consistently emailed my clients to take their business.

It was my first real adventure in business and I will take the experiences and knowledge to apply this towards my next business endeavor.

Do you ever get the crazy feeling like, “I have to do that sometime in my life”? I get those feelings quite a bit and I would have to say the most bazaar one is the desire to learn Mandarin Chinese. Why? I don’t know yet.

I picked up The Pimsleur Program and have been going through it over and over. I keep losing my knowledge simply because I don’t have anyone to practice with.

My goal: to be beginner level fluent in Mandarin Chinese by the end of 2010.

Chinese (Mandarin), Basic: Learn to Speak and Understand Mandarin Chinese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster’s Pimsleur)

On March 30, 2010, eBay will be changing their fee structure around and it potentially can be a benefit to you depending on your listing style. If you are a casual lister without an eBay store subscription, you can list up to 100 auction style listings under $1.00 with no listing fee per month. After 100 listings, the fee is $0.10 for each. The Final Value Fee does go up from 8.75% to 9% though.

Here’s the kicker. This is probably about the only savings you’ll find on this fee change. If you are an avid eBay seller, you have to at least subscribe to the Basic eBay Store subscription at $16.99 a month. If you don’t, the Final Value Fees will come back to bite you.

For example, if you sell an item at $500, without the eBay Store subscription, FVFs are $45. With the store subscription, it is $22.38. The reason is eBay now will take a flat 9% on any sale if you do not have a subscription. With a subscription, it’s 8.75% up to $50, then 4% after that.

All this said, if you sell items under $50, there may not be a need for a subscription. If you plan on selling at least two items at $200 or more per month, it would make sense to get the store subscription.

Since the Renaissance Festival is back in Tampa once again, I figured I would showcase a few items on eBay medieval related!

Full Medieval Suit of Armor

Spanish XVI Medieval Priest Chest Box WITH Silver

Jousting Helmet King Henry II

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All I have to say is this: I’m glad I don’t live up north if people lose their minds like this guy!! Is this a reflection of what snow does to you? He should drink a cup of coffee and warm up a bit!

I love finding fun stuff on eBay. It shows just how any kind of unique item can be sold.

Seattle’s Best 8′ inflatable coffee cup
Mercedes SLR Race Car :: 1.8 Mil
Custom Built Chopper from ESPN2

Short list this week but cool finds though.

Valentines on a budget? Not a problem. Sellers on eBay know your financial situation and are giving reduced prices because of overstock! Guys, don’t miss these here:

Ruby and Diamond pendant :: $29.99

Ed Hardy Leather Boots :: $69.99

eBag Slim Laptop Pink Briefcase :: $22.99

GE Red 10MP Digital Camera :: $79.99

This story is going to be one of those, “he’s gotta be lyin” stories. Our dogs sleep in the laundry room which has a doggie door to a small outside patio that’s fenced in. Marlyse and I are seconds from going to sleep when we hear some crazy weird barking. I walk outside to see what I thought was a dog fight but I couldn’t really see because the outside light burnt out. I run up to Rhino and Ellie to see a small blob of something. They have a history with animals! It ends up being a neighborhood cat. I don’t know what it did to make the pups mad but now I’m trying to back 2 huge dogs off of this cat. I pulled them both back and what does the cat do…run inside my house.

Not only did this cat run inside my house, it runs into the kitchen and started making its way behind my refrigerator. I locked the dogs outside on the patio while Marlyse and I begin to talk softly and try to coax the cat out. The cat was so shaken up, it didn’t want anything to do with us. Marlyse puts on my snowboarding gloves and an extra sweater to try and feed it some tuna and pet it. That cat wanted us gone! It kept punching the wall to scare us and I gotta say that I did jump every time that cat punched the wall!

We tried coming up with any idea possible without calling Animal Control because we didn’t want the cat to be put down, just out of our house so we can go to sleep! Our idea of grabbing the cat wasn’t working. To further our options, I grabbed a suitcase and the laundry basket. Wasn’t sure how I was gonna get the cat in either but out of excitement I had them available. Then I thought how Animal control would catch animals (thinking back to the possum issue) and he had a long fiberglass pole with the line run inside. So, I created the next best thing. A piece from our old screen door with a rope in a slip knot. Oh yea, I’m also wearing two pair of leather gloves. Again, I didn’t want to hurt the cat, just get it out the door.

By my surprise, the cat was completely fine with this piece of metal around it while I was trying to slip this rope around it. After 10 minutes of diligent patience, success happened. I got the cat and began running backwards towards the front door that was open the whole time, hoping that maybe the cat would just book it. I got outside, the cat wiggled lose and away it went. Hopefully he’ll tell other cats of his stories and why they shouldn’t go in our yard!

After winding down, I had the thought of maybe the cat scratched up the dogs. So, we checked them over and I found that Rhino had jumped around on the concrete in a weird manner that he had 4 bloody paws. Ellie only had 1. We cleaned up the dogs, put neosporin on and bandaged him up. Now for the healing process.

ShelterBox is a disaster relief charity which provides aid in the form of ShelterBoxes. ShelterBox has responded to more than 75 disasters in almost 50 different countries, including the Boxing Day tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and the Pakistan and China earthquakes. ShelterBox also has an ongoing project named A Million in Africa, which aims to help one million people across the African continent.

Recently, Shelterbox sent 400 boxes to Haiti. Here’s the video link from the tents set up yesterday in Port au Prince :: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqQpMZUoirA

For those that don’t know what Shelterbox is all about, check out the video below.

I come across auctions and think, “I can’t believe this is actually on eBay” or I think, “other people should KNOW this is actually on eBay!”

When I support clients through the software, I usually check out their auctions too. Here’s my list for this week!
1999 NY Yankees World Series Ring

1762 King James Bible

1967 Shelby 427 Cobra for $1.35 Million

Famous Castle in Massachusetts for $12.5 mil

Michael Jackson signed 1952 Gibson guitar