About 2 years ago I had the idea that it would be good and possibly good fun to pull together a group of people to meet regularly face-to-face and share information, ideas and success around selling online, especially on sites like eBay and Amazon. It took me about 6 months to finally take the steps to get the first meeting off the ground. That meeting was held in January 2003 and the core group that met then still attends every month with an auxiliary crowd that shows up from time to time.
The original inspiration came from meeting other online sellers at the local Post Office. We'd end up standing around talking for another half hour after the chores were done, and I always came away from those encounters smarter and smiling. So in December of 2002, I put a small ad in the personals section of the local newspaper's classifieds, wrote up a handout for the "club" section of the same publications and sent off some emails to folks I knew who worked online.
I also set up a small Web site to explain the purpose of the meeting....which was and is basically to meet once a month and share ideas, experiences and ask questions about working successfully online. It was also easy to use that small site as a larger ad that I could reference in emails and advertisements and publicity handouts that referred to it. You can find free Web space online that will work fine, and there are several providers that have special services just for clubs. I had my own hook up and still use it for the club we have. That link is http://www.sellersconnection.com and we keep it up to date about when the next meeting will be and anything special that we learned or want to pass along.
You'll also see on that site that we have a simple format for each meeting based on three pieces of information that everybody brings: A burning question, a tip, and a brag. These keep the conversation focused and moving, and we usually end up talking about people's contributions for about 3 hours or so.
I arranged for the first meeting to be at a well known, very safe, public restaurant that had a private meeting room as part of their facilities. They were kind enough to give me the space because we were just getting started. Everyone who came purchased a beverage, and a few ate dinner there ahead of time. In the first meeting I simply explained why I thought such a club was a good idea and asked everyone to introduce themselves, give a small review of what they did online, and asked for their opinion about how such an organization might work for them. A number of the people who came to that meeting were just starting, some had no experience online and some were old hands. And it is still that way, but some of the newbies in January 2003 are now very successful online and the club had a hand in helping that happen.
Generally, we decided that a loose, conversational format was better than a more formal set up of officers, rules, programs and such. We don't have any dues, and for most of the first year we met in the private homes of several of the members and in a bookstore after hours. We now meet in a small room at a local Mexican restaurant and it is a dinner meeting. But we keep things flexible, and if and when that doesn't work any more, there are other options such as public meeting rooms, and we've even discussed field trips.
There are about 10 people who come regularly and really are the core of the club, and the mailing list is about 50, and many of them show up from time to time. About 5 days before each meeting I send a group email as a reminder.
There's something new every time, and it is really valuable to sit in a pleasant atmosphere and talk through some of the issues and possibilities of online business. If you think you would like to do this, just go to our club's site and send me an email through the link there and I'll be glad to help you if I can. It's not difficult to have this kind of club in your area, and it is definitely worthwhile.
