Click ‘Leave a Comment’ and share your favorites about Boston & eBay Live!
Did you take a really cool class? Meet a fabulous other eBayer? Got to a game at Fenway? Find THE vendor that will take your business to the next level? Go to a secret party? Stay in a great hotel? Meet Meg? Seth? Andy? Suze? John?
Can’t wait to hear all!!
For those of you who may have not caught the incredible announcements made during eBay Live, here are the ones from the eBay Store’s team:
…Did you read about all the great news we had to share at eBay Live! in Boston? If not, we encourage you to read the full Announcement Board Post for details by going to: http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200706151437112.html.
Here is a small recap:
- eBay Stores will be added to the Global header in the next 30 days
- More Value for Featured and Anchor eBay Store Subscribers: Featured and Anchor Stores are our top-of-the-line offerings, and we’ve been working to make them even more valuable. Beginning in September, we’re going to include more business tools and resources for these tiers.
- Showcase your Store with eBay Stores To Go: We’ve just launched eBay Stores To Go! It lets you share your eBay Stores listings, as well as your Store’s look-and-feel beyond eBay.
- Spruce up your Store at the eBay Stores Design Center: Find design Do’s and Don’ts, as well as FREE eBay Stores design templates and much much more.
- New Educational Resources: Check out this valuable information by visiting our new and improved Store Tutorials as well as the new Success Stories.
We hope you’re as excited as we are about these new improvements.
Sincerely, eBay Stores Team
Do our eBay Live RollCall by hitting ‘Leave A Comment’ and letting us know you are coming (and any tips you might have!)
Heading to eBay Live? Here are some last minute tips and tricks on getting the most out of your trip to
Please post YOUR tips and tricks on Boston for your fellow eBayers in the comments section.
Weather
Some of you flying in Tuesday and Wednesday may be in for some thunderstorms, just fyi. Rest of the week looks fabulous (especially if you are going to see the Red Sox play). Here is the weather link so you can keep tabs: http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/USMA0046?from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_undeclared
Tips
Bring an extra suitcase – trust me on this one. The airlines always look at me like I am a lunatic for checking an empty bag to Live…but with all of the stuff you get, plus the stuff you’ll buy, you’ll need one. (& it’s cheaper than buying one there). Remember, you can only have 50 lbs in each checked bag before they’ll start charging you…
Download the OSI classes you missed – The plane is a great time to catch up on the remarkable podcasts you might have missed. Go to the Online Success Institute and click on Podcast under Categories to pull up all of the podcasts. You can then download them into your ipod or other mp3 player (or your computer if you are taking one).
Save the toiletries from the room – I never go through a whole bottle of those little shampoos each day…so I save them in one of the dry cleaning bags from the hotel room’s closet, throw them in my suitcase, and when I get home donate them to a shelter.
My Favorite Tip on getting a great room at your hotel – Walk up to the agent with a smile on your face. “Ahhh, I see your name is Phil. Hi Phil. I’m writing a blog on traveling…you know, good service, bad service, fabulous rooms, rooms you should never stay in. So I thought I would ask you which room you would recommend for me to stay in.” Write something down as he does this. Then look up and say, “I just want to make sure I get your name spelled write when I talk about how helpful you have been.”
1. Yes, I can say this with a straight face and have numerous times
2. Yes, it has worked 100% of the time
3. Yes, I really do have a travel blog
4. If you use my favorite tip I SO want to hear the story!
If you are traveling on
Still picking a seat? – my favorite site for getting the best one – www.seatguru.com (thanks Michael!)
At The Show Itself Tips
· Comfortable shoes are a must
· So are your business cards at the very least
· Bring your camera
· I have a backpack to carry all of my stuff around (& you’ll be handed a lot of STUFF)
· Remember, after talking to someone, stop for a moment and write a few notes on the back of their bc.
· Get to the classes I told you about early – fair warning
· Keep to your goal sheet – make sure you are accomplishing what you want to get out of Live
· Bring in your travel suitcase power bars, nuts, fruit roll-ups and other things like this…you’ll love having them during the show when you see the long food lines.
· Include in your backpack each day water. Pick this up at a convenience store – don’t use the $5 ones from your room. (yep, they charge for that too now)
· If you are first timer at Live…pins are the things – collectible pins (more details below)…you will be stopped constantly to ‘trade’ pins. You don’t have to if you don’t want to – especially if you have one of the limited edition ones! Plus, if you have pins for your business, bring them to hand out. People collect not just the eBay Live pins, but many of the vendors will have them as well.
· Most important HAVE FUN!!
PINS
Special pins and offers from the Hard Rock Café
eBay has worked with the Hard Rock Café, and co-branded Hard Rock Café and eBay Live! pins will be available for purchase at the Hard Rock in
Can you spell B-O-S-T-O-N?
This year, eBay will also be giving away a series of coins minted especially for this event. Each one features a letter, and put together they spell “
Listen
Every year the eBay staff has a lot of fun with secret ‘hand out pin’ locations…listen for where these will be this year!
Stuff to Do
Boston
– good luck getting tickets. eBay is going to be your best bet…
Or StubHub (thanks Phil)
Music - check out June 22nd and 23rd
River Festival - June 16th, Noon to 6pm
Food
Incredible food abounds in
And another blog on inexpensive food
and here are the hidden ones
Here are some favorites:
We Should Start with the Chawdah (that’s the white type)
Breakfast
Mike’s City Diner
A United Nations of diners happily waits in line for the best breakfast in the South End.
Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe
429
A true
Fast Grabs
Tucked inside an outdoor food court, Chacarero is the hands-down favorite of Downtown Crossing shoppers, tourists and business types eager to grab a reliably delicious, cheap bite on the run. A metal counter and a couple of grills are all this food stand has to offer, so customers take their food to go. During warmer months, happy patrons devour their sandwiches on nearby public benches.
The Food
The stand is named after a traditional Chilean sandwich, which the stand serves exclusively. The sandwich starts with light, puffy, cake-like bread, made fresh daily on premises and stuffed with tender grilled chicken or steak. It’s completed with steamed green beans, jalapenos, Muenster cheese, tomatoes, avocado spread, salt and pepper and a secret hot sauce. Fans of the warm homemade bread often order it by itself. Soft drinks, water and juices round out the small menu.
Seafood
Zebra’s Bistro and Wine Bar
21 North St ,
East Coast Grill
Dinner
37 Bowdoin St
– Huge portions
Dessert
Deluxe Chocolate Bar Buffet at Café Fleuri – ok, whatever you do, DO NOT click on the Chocolate Bar Menu on the website. I would make reservations for this one FAST. 617-956-8751 (& I thought this type of restaurant only existed in my bestest of dreams!)
Christina’s Ice Cream – (from a review site)…Yeah, yeah, we all scream for ice cream, but we go nuts over the creativity and whimsy of Christina’s. Owner Ray Ford draws inspiration from exotic spices, fruits, even vegetables, to come up with more than 45 flavors of ice cream. We get pleasure not only from eating it, but also from drooling over the selection—green tea, coconut, ginger-molasses—before finally settling on khulfi, a cardamom-infused pistachio ice cream. No, wait! Make that the blood peach sorbet.
Singles Scene
Harvard Gardens
A lively bar scene and extensive, inviting menu of comforting faves make for an ideal all-purpose hangout on
Cactus Club
939
Hong Kong at Faneuil Hall
Popular nightlife destination provides Quincy Market with a lively, frenetic scene and sociable scorpion bowls.
Nightclubs
Can’t wait to see all of you at eBay Live…remember, you can check out the previous eBay Live tips & tricks posts by going to http://onlinesuccessinstitute.com/?cat=10
We had SO much fun on OSI today with living eBay legend, Uncle Griff. What great questions you guys asked!
Now, I know Griff is used to interviewing people on WSRadio.com, but we had SO much fun turning the tables on him today…with questions like:
eBay Live Schedule:
You can catch Griff at quite a few places during eBay Live…but definitely he will be at:
Orientation – Thursday, 8am – 210A and 205A
Better Descriptions – Friday, 11:30am – 206A
BookSigning – Friday, 4:30pm – Bookstore
Remember, he hinted that you should definitely be at the KeyNote Speech on Thursday night at 6pm with Meg…he said especially the first hour…and bring something to video record…and put it up on YouTube!! (& perhaps I know what it is…and I would have to agree with him 
)
Griff also shared some fabulous, intricate, and hysterical tales about the start of eBay, eBay Live, Meg, Pierre, and much more. Click below to listen to this amazing podcast with living eBay legend Jim “Uncle Griff” Griffith.
Websites we talked about:
to listen to this podcast click here
Hope you guys are starting to put together your ‘eBay Live Plan’. Before I head to Live each year, I put together the following ‘must haves’ for making the MOST out of eBay Live:
A Vendor List
The Vendor floor is probably one of the most profitable areas of eBay Live for you to see…these companies can truly make your business happen! However, the #1 question I get each year at Live is…’I only have so much time…who should I talk to?’ Below is the answer to that question.
There are a lot of vendors this year at eBay Live. To be truthful, I wasn’t that impressed with the list. A lot of big names trying to get their branding in front of you. Which I realize eBay needs to help underwrite the enormous cost of Live. But my favorite vendors are the new hot little guys…that will one day be the big guys!
There are some good niche companies on the vendor list…helping you with inventory managements, taxes, shipping and even selling books. I will leave it up to you individually to figure out the specific vendors you want to ‘interrogate’ this year. (my personal list only has 10 new companies on it to talk to!! I was very surprised.)
The following list is made up of the ‘must see and get to know on a first name basis’ companies. Some of these I met at the first eBay Live 6 years ago, and still use their product to this day. I can pick up the phone (or email) the top executives of these companies because of having met them at Live.
First, here is the complete list of the exhibitors: http://pages.ebay.com/ebaylive/exhibitors.html
And more importantly, here is a link to the map for the exhibitors: http://pages.ebay.com/ebaylive/maps.html - click on the PDF version and print it out…make a plan of who you are going to visit and where they are located.
Vendor tips:
eBay Live Merchant List – here is my recommended ‘must see’ list for eBay Live. Where noted, the merchants have supplied you, readers of OSI, with a running start for the HOT promotions that happen on the floor!
Entrepreneur – 
Rieva Lesonsky (editorial director of Entrepreneur Magazine) will be at eBay Live this year roaming the floors. You can meet her in person at:
· Trend Spotting: How Keeping Up on Trends Can Boost Your Business’s Bottom Line – Thursday, June 14th, at Noon in Room 107B
· Trend Spotting: How Keeping Up on Trends Can Boost Your Business’s Bottom Line – Friday, June 15th at 9am in Room 107B
· Book Signing for“Start Your Own Business”
Auction 123 – Booth 255 – for eBay Motors people
Auction Sound – Booth 128 - eBay Trading Assistant/consignment Software
Auctiva – Booth 1032 – Management Tool - We are giving away t-shirts, commemorative pins, and coupons for custom design work. To get a t-shirt people need to stop by the booth and swipe their badge (1 per person) and if they are seen wearing the t-shirt on the conference floor by a member of the Auctiva team, they get a pin (again 1 per person). Anyone who stops by the booth can take a coupon for a free listing evaluation and a special on our custom design work.
As the largest third part seller solution, Auctiva would like people to know that we have what they are looking for when it comes to listing faster, easier AND cheaper. We are reliable, user-friendly and still 100% free!
BizFilings – Booth 757 – Incorporate your business - Our larger give-aways will be an iPod Nano and a digital camera. The iPod will be given away during the BizFilings eBay Radio interview with Griff (date and time TBD). Barbara Weltman, who may be pretty well-known to many eBayers will be the interviewee for our segment. (One of Barbara’s books is “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting an eBay Business.”)
We have not yet determined the date and time of the camera giveaway, but should have details in our booth at the start of the show. All attendees can sign up for both give-aways.
The tote bags the attendees receive will include an insert from BizFilings that offers the following discounts on business formation services.
The above discounts can be used for corporation or LLC formation in any state.
Lastly, and maybe even the most “fun,” is our theme of “Stop by BizFilings’ ‘tee party’.” We’ll be capitalizing on the rich history of
ChannelAdvisor – Booth 423 – management software
CityMax – Booth 1241 – e-commerce website creation…so easy, so fast
Constant Contact – Booth 1029 – email/newsletter program (not sure why 1shoppingcart isn’t at Live…they are the ones I use and love them!!)
Endicia – Booth 1017 – online postage – I would be lost without Endicia…ask about their deal with Dymo while you are there. We will be offering at least 2 specials. One will be one year of Premium for $150 (normally $15.95/month) and the other is one year of Professional for $350 (normally $34.95/month). We may have tape giveaways (measure those dimensions)…..
Free411.com – Booth 430 – free directory assistance – not sure what they are doing at Live, but fun to have them. Fabulous service!
HammerTap – Booth 933 - Special Offer: Those who sign up at our booth get both our desktop and web-based research tools for just $17.95/month.
Description: With HammerTap, you can remove all the guesswork to increase your sales and maximize your profits. Find out what sells and how to sell it, including the best ending day and listing duration, starting price, title keywords and much more. Get HammerTap today and get the Power to Profit!
Skip McGrath - We decided not to exhibit this year (wanted to actually see eBay Live for a change), but I was just told that my books will be carried in the eBay Live store. I will be making several appearances at the HammerTap Booth to do book signings and to promote our co-branded, low cost web-based eBay research tool, Skip McGrath’s power Web. Here is the link for more information: https://secure.hammertap.com/skip/
MarketWorks – Booth 823 - We have show specials on our various creative packages (eBay listing templates and web store designs) and a whitepaper on the top 10 ways for eBay sellers to grow their business.
PayPal – Booth 1045 – we LOVE Paypal – stop by and ask them how they can help YOUR business grow this year
Prosper – Booth 1133 – peer-to-peer lending – this was one of only two of the ‘new kids’ from my HOT list last year who has made it a whole 12 months!! We love them!
PowerU (eBay Education Program) – Booth 123 - PowerU – eBay Education Specialist - Giving away a free t-shirt (One-Size Only : XL White with short sleeves) to the first 50 paying Program Signups.
SageFire – Booth 833 – Accounting program, great guys…go chat with them
Squidoo – Booth 1132 – 
LOVE Squidoo…phenomenal web 2.0 social networking site with incredible seo ranking results on Google – this is a MUST
Tax Loopholes – Booth 928 – Stop by and say hi to my co-author Diane Kennedy of Tax Loopholes for eBay Sellers (people pay gazillions of dollars to go to
Terapeak – Booth 532 – (I know Denise…so if she says this will be good…this is going to be REALLY good)
I cannot say at this time what our special promotions will be - we’re keeping our cards close to our chest at this point. 
I promise it will be good though!
Really good!!
We’re just really excited about getting to
It will be so much fun to see people in person.
Take care, I look forward to seeing you in a few weeks!
denise hogue
uShip – Booth 333
Promotions:
· uShip will be running its annual promotion – wear the uShip t-shirt (you can get one at the booth) and if you are “spotted” by the secret spotter, you can win $50 cash! So, wear those shirts with pride!
· We will also be promoting the uShip experience — Real Stories, Real Saving, Real Easy.
· Finally, we will have information on uShip referral and affiliate programs so eBayer’s can make money
USPS – Booth 613 – putting this one in so you can give them an earful at Live. They need to know what we are going through so they can figure out ways to better help our businesses
VistaPrint – Booth 126 – www.TellEveryoneAboutYou.com
WorldWideBrands – Booth 751 - Worldwide Brands Inc., creators of OneSource™
Looking for quality wholesale products to sell on eBay? Visit Worldwide Brands and see why OneSource™ is the only source you’ll ever need for DropShippers, Bulk Wholesalers, Liquidators, Importers and more!
Must-Have Freebie! Visit their booth early to make sure you get one of their FREE pocket booklets featuring 40 Genuine Wholesalers, eBay Business Resources and tips to help you avoid wholesale scams. Over 50 pages of great information and it’s FREE!
Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider and creators of OneSource™ the World’s Largest Source of Wholesalers for online sellers!
Coming up next…deciding on your Classes!
Deciding on Classes
Ok, so the most important thing to realize…ok, the two most important things to realize…
1. All of the class slide presentations at eBay Live are on the CD you get upon check-in – woohoo
2. If you miss a class, can’t get to a class, the class is full and you couldn’t get in, or you were out too late the night before (Michael…) and slept in….then amazingly we can cover it at OSI when you get back home…deal?
So I was going to go through and tell you all of the classes that were a ‘must’…but this year almost all of them are fabulous…you aren’t going to go wrong with throwing darts at the class schedules to help you pick.
Speaking of…here are the 3 days of classes:
http://pages.ebay.com/ebaylive/pdf/day1_agenda.pdf
http://pages.ebay.com/ebaylive/pdf/day2_agenda.pdf
http://pages.ebay.com/ebaylive/pdf/day3_agenda.pdf
Print these out…yes, you’ll get another copy at Live…but you want to have somewhat of an idea of what classes interest you.
Now, eBay has a few staffed areas around the convention center that can help you decide on classes if you get stuck. The staff is from eBay’s educational department, eBay Education Specialist, and a few eBay U instructors thrown in for the heck of it. You will see the desks on Level 1 and Level 2.
There are some things to consider in picking your classes:
Q: How can I get a special-edition Education Pin?
A: That’s easy! After you register, be sure to use our online Agenda Builder. This will help you plan your schedule at eBay Live! so you can make the most of your time. When you’re done, print out your agenda and bring it to eBay Live! 2007. Once you arrive at the
Here is my recommended list - almost all of these will be sold out classes – get there early to get a seat! (I get teased about my eBay Live classes all the time…’Janelle’s classes are so hot that the Fire Marshall has to come – true story!):
8-9am – eBay Live Orientation – I always love the ‘start’ of eBay Live
10-11:30am – eBay Stores 101 – have a Store? Don’t have a Store – this a MUST TAKE class for you. (and not just because I am teaching it either – lol). This class is always packed…make sure you get there early.
12:30 – 2pm – Andy Sernovitz “Word of Mouth Marketing: Beyond the Grilled Cheese Madonna” This phenomenal event will fill this room SO fast – get to this one super early. Stay after for Andy’s booksigning (how cool!!) – probably will be down by the eBay Live Store
3-4:30pm – Seth Godin (woohoo!) Flipping the Funnel and the Best in the World… How to Break Through at eBay – definitely get to this one super early!! He has a booksigning right afterwards.
3-4:30pm – if you can’t get into Seth’s presentation…Go Global Lab – another one that ‘sells out’…get here early
6pm - Keynote Address with Meg Whitman, eBay President and CEO – probably one of my favoritest parts of every eBay Live – there will be some fun surprises for this one!!
9-10:30am – Best Stores Practices
11:30 – Noon – Book Signing with ME! But this year I’m not signing any body parts…just so we are clear – LOL
2-3:30 – Turbo Lister Lab – we always have so much fun in this class…but it does ‘sell out’ each year
4:30 – 6pm – eBay Stores 101 – in case you couldn’t make the first one
9-10:30am – John Jantsch- Inside Your Marketing Mind—How to Use
Marketing to Propel Your Business & Your Life – HOT class…will sell out.
John will be doing a book signing right afterwards for his amazing book, “Duct Tape Marketing”.
11-Noon - TOWN HALL MEETING
11-1pm –
6:30 – 9pm – Closing Gala with Kool and the Gang
Howdy eBayers,
We are 1 month and 1 week away from eBay Live Boston – 2007!! I cannot wait. I have been to every single eBay Live so far, and they just keep getting better and better. This one is going to be insane!! (Next years will be phenomenal too…especially since a rather handsome bird fessed up as to where it was being held in 2008…and no I am not telling you – lol. You get to learn at the gala like everyone else!) But, I will fill you in every Sunday on other tips, tricks and secrets for going to Live this year…let’s get started.
Since we are just 5 weeks away, I wanted to get you started on things you might need to purchase well in advance of your trip to take with you. And, we are going to start with marketing materials.
Probably one of THE most important things you can do at Live, besides learn, learn, learn…is to network with the amazing group of eBayers (there will be over 15,000!!). These people turn into incredible buyers, networkers, investors, think tanks, and fabulous friends. You have heard me say a million times at least, ‘who are you going to be on eBay’. Well, now ‘who are you going to be at eBay Live?’ Branding YOU and your business is one of the smartest things you can do at Live. I am always amused at people wearing t-shirts and jeans. Where is your business name, where is your URL, where is the tv & press? Nowhere close to you because you aren’t standing out. The press swarms eBay Live and the more outlandish you can be, the more you & your business are going to end up in the papers, on radio & tv, and podcasts. Put your website on your shirt, make matching outfits for you & your s.o. in your company colors, add your logo to a baseball cap (bonus points if it a Red Sox one). The bigger, brighter, and more sparkly – the better. Some ideas on where to have your garments customized:
eBay – well, duh!! They have amazing products including zip-up jackets, t-shirts, caps, totes, and even a onesie for the wee one.
Costco- head to your local Costco and check out the TON of personalization products they have!!
Bling Baby Bling – if you