Archive for July, 2007
Proud To Call My Own
Now this is a real adventure.
The church I attend does mission work all over the world. One of the yearly locations they do work in is Mexico.
A couple of month’s ago my son Steven tells me, out of the blue, he wants to go on this year’s mission trip. I’m “thinkin”; OK, yea sure…..that’s nice. You know, kinda not really believing he means it. Finally I can sense he does mean it. Steven tells me the trip is going to cost $1,300 and that he will earn whatever he can in order to go.
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Chicago Merchandise Mart
Our trip to the Chicago Merchandise Mart went as planned. Walking around Chicago was great, walking around the Chicago Merchandise Mart was less great.
We arrived at the Living & Giving Trade Show about 1:00PM on Sunday. I was ready to go home about 2:00PM Sunday. Most of the items at the show I would categorize under the “knick-knack-patty-whack-give-the-dog-a-bone” category, and this old man he wanted to roll-on home.
But trooper that I am, I went to most of the shops and collected manufacturer’s catalogs anyway. I only stopped collecting catalogs when I started to carry them like a girl.
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Chicago Merchandise Mart
Well I’m off for a pre-arranged appointment with the opposite sex in Chicago. The “Wifey Poo” and I are attending the “Living & Giving” Trade Show at the Chicago Merchandise Mart this weekend.
But the heck with the trade show, the truth is I’m mostly looking forward to spending some quality time with the “Wifey Poo” and catching some “real blues” in some back-alley Chicago Bar at 3:00AM. Well….would-you-believe….some “fake blues” in the hotel lobby at 9:00PM……. I gotta make sure I brush my teeth, get on my “feety-pajamas”, and get in bed with a warm glass of milk by 10:30PM sharp or I’ll be toast all the next day 
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Humble Pie
Excuse me while I practise breaking free from the crust of the humble pie I’ve allowed myself to bake in for the last year, but I guess telling everyone how great I am is something I have to get use too if I want to start being a successful Internet Marketer. 
I get enough of these compliments from my eBay customers that I think I’ll start sharing more of them when they come in. These came in yesterday. What they hey, it’s my blog.
First Customer:
Hi Mark,
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When I Look At The World
What would the world look like if all the focused energy of the thousands of millions of hours spent in the panicked pursuit of what we know will someday pass away, was invested with the same amount of dedicated urgency, unto the service of Him, whose still small voice, patiently calls to us from the other side of eternity.
It’s so much easier to work for what we see than for what we don’t.
“When I Look At The World”
U2
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Customer Service Tip: Enjoy Your Customers
I’m still not financially rich yet. I’m paying the bills and not growing my debt load, but I’ll tell ya what, each day’s journey brings a deep fresh joy, that piles of cash will never bring.
It really is fun to please people. To read between the lines of their emails and engage each customer on a personal level. It’s what I enjoy most about living my dream.
I receive many emails from satisfied customers and respond to each one.
Here’s an example from this morning.
Customer’s Email:
Good morning Mark:
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Positive eBay Feedback
I’m doing some boring behind the scenes work on my blog to make it “Search Engine Friendly”, which is forcing me to re-read some of my older blog posts, change some blog titles and Wordpress “Post Slugs”.
While re-reading the old posts I ran across this one from March 10th 2006:
What I Hate About eBay Feedback
Here’s a short quote from that blog post regarding my pondering whether to leave positive eBay feedback before my buyer leaves positive feedback for me.
Will eBay sellers continue building this current of “less respect for good customers and more respect for cruds who take advantage of the good eBay customers?
Man I hope not, I for one am going to think long and hard about paying the price that comes with doing what is right for my good customers, instead of what is right for the bad ones.
Almost a year and half later I feel confident from my experience selling full-time on eBay that leaving positive eBay feedback BEFORE my customer leaves positive feedback for me is the right way to do business on eBay.
I have received many emails from customers telling me they appreciated me leaving them positive feedback immediately after they made payment.
Regardless……
