If you read the AuctionBytes Blog, you know that eBay Live registration has opened. This year the event takes place in Boston on June 14-16. This eBay Live is likely to be the most expensive one for attendees. Some readers have already written, expressing "sticker shock" from hotel rates. If you want to save money and don't mind a morning commute along the Mass Pike, check out some of the hotels west of Boston - Newton, Waltham, Needham, even Natick (a 30-minute drive) - and find a few friends who can share rooms and carpool into the convention together. We'll be doing a future story about some of the places to see and, of course, eat while you're in Boston. If you are thinking of going, register by April 6 - the rates go up on April 7.
Two of my other recent blog posts generated a number of comments. The first addresses shill-bidding (http://digbig.com/4redf). The second is about eBay's ban on auction extenders
(http://digbig.com/4qwhd). Don't forget you can subscribe to the blog (and daily Newsflash news articles) via RSS feeds through services like Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com).
I've been on an organizing spree lately, and one of my targets is retirement planning. As small business owners, it's an area we should not neglect - we can't rely on social security and corporate pensions.
In today's issue, Barbara Weltman demonstrates the power of such plans by using an example of a business that funds $5,000 into a retirement plan while costing them $3,750 out-of-pocket (the numbers depend on business' net income and tax bracket). In the example, the government contributed $1,250 through the taxes saved by making the contribution!
Two organizations I've used to set up retirement funds over the years are Fidelity and Charles Schwab. They both have excellent customer service representatives who have expert advice for people who may know little about setting up an IRA account.
Also in today's issue, we take a look at Homestead. This company has been providing website hosting since 1998 and has figured out how to make it simple for people to create their own sites. We also have a new Critique My Site submission, IttyBittyBuddhaStore.com, and if you have a collection of your old computers that have been collecting dust in the corner, Michele Alice writes about their potential value in her Collector's Corner article.
Thanks for reading.
About the author:
Ina Steiner is Editor of AuctionBytes.com and author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). She has a background in marketing and research in the high-tech and publishing fields. If you have story ideas, comments or questions, send them to ina@auctionbytes.com.
