You have lots of valuable stuff laying around that your are not using anymore and you need to sell it fast and for a good price.   What do you do?   List it on Craigslist of course!  Don’t bother taking out an article in the local newspaper, that’s old school and no where near as effective.

Step 1: Clean up your items and make them presentable.  Tighten any loose screws or part and lubricate any squeaky parts if applicable to your item.  Find the original packaging if possible.   If you have something that’s broken and it will only take a small amount of your time or dollars to fix it, buy the part and make it whole again.   You can sell a damaged or broken item but you will get significantly less than an item that’s in good working condition.

Step 2: After your items are all cleaned up take some good digital photos.  One of the most important things to have in your ad is good photos.  It will sell you product faster and make your ad more credible.   Take the photos on a light contrasting background in a well lit area or setup additional lighting, it makes a huge difference in the quality of your photos.   Take your photos as close as possible (don’t use zoom) to include the entire product or sections of the product you are wanting to show potential buyers.  Make sure the images are clear if not retake them or take multiple shots to choose the best from.   If you have multiple parts or manuals that are included take one clean photo of all the items together laid out on a light or preferably white background.  Remember Craigslist only allows 4 photos per item.  Make sure you have 4 good photos that represent your product.  Take different angles or positions of the item.  Visualize yourself as the buyer and think what you would most likely want to see when taking the photos.

Step 3: Resize your photos to a size that Craigslist will accept.  Today’s digital cameras take very large highly detailed photos most are too large to upload to craigslist.  Do this by using your favorite Photo editor.   If you don’t have one download Google Picasa for free, it’s a great photo manager that can help you resize your images and do a ton of other cool neat stuff too!  ( I will write a article on Picasa soon!)   Another great free program to download is Paint.net, read about it here on AbundanceTips.com.   You could even download a photo resizer utility like this free one called FastStone photo resizer.   Each program takes a little practice but read the help sections then practice and before long you will be an expert.     A good file size to shoot for to upload on craigslist is around 1024×768  stick with sizes in that area.  You sizes will vary based on your original photos dimensions.  Too large and craigslist doesn’t like it.  Craigslist will always resize images automatically to about 300×300 or somewhere close within those dimensions.   Another resize option would be to set your camera to take a much smaller sized images if that option is available.  But remember to set it back to it’s original high resolution when you are finished or you will have low quality images the next time you use your camera for regular photos.

Step 4: Write a good description.  Be sure to list everything that is included with your item for sale.  Search on Google for a good description of the options and features of the product you are selling, you could also search on the manufacturers website, Ebay, Craigslist, or other websites that are selling similar products.  Make sure however you have the same model and features they are describing.   This will save you time since you can cut and paste some of the info. and even save photos.  (It’s better to take your own photos for a better representation of the condition your item is in).  I like to write my description in a Word Processor (MS Word, Works, OpenOffice etc.) that has spell check.   Do not use underline or bold just use plain text.  Once you have a good clean description written, go to You “Edit ” menu and “select all” then copy (Ctrl-C) and paste (Ctrl-V) the text into your Craigslist Item description.

Step 5: Creating the actual posting on Craigslist.  Go to Craiglist.org in your web browser and sign into Craigslist (or signup for a new account, new accounts have a waiting period) then once signed in go to the top right of the screen and select the area where you will be posting your ad and hit go.    Now select the “for sale” Category then select the sub-category your item(s) best fit into.

Step 6: The Posting Title.   Carefully create your items title using keywords people will search for and be specific.  Example:   “Sony LCD HDTV 26″ Bravia L Series Model: KDL-26L5000 720P – Great Value / slightly used / 3 months old” .   This will help people find you items better and also make them click on your item to actually read it and look at the photos.  Also add in other key words that describe the condition of your item and value.  Titles can be up to 70 characters long.

Step 7: “The Price”.   Setting the price is one of the main factors and getting your product to sell.    Set it too high and you will no get any buyers.   If you want to sell it fast and just get rid of  an item sell it for less than other people are asking.   One of the best ways to gauge a price on an item is to search other similar items  that are selling online.  Two good places are Craigslist itself and Ebay.  If you have an Ebay account you can sign in and when you search check off the box that says “show only completed listings”  then you will see what items have sold for.   Don’t be greedy,  set a fair price similar to what others are selling for or slightly less.    If you item is in perfect condition you can set you price at the higher end of the scale.  If your item has been used a good amount and you had received your monies worth out of it set the price lower and let someone take it off you hands who could really use it for a good deal.  The price is ultimately up to you, don’t give an item away unless you really want to.

Step 8:  ”Specific Location”.  You should always put in the location of the item.  I usually put the section of town I am in.      You can type anything in this field.   Example:   “West side – Portland” .  Don’t leave this field blank.  People who do a keyword search and type say for this example “West Portland” will still find your “West side – Portland” listing in their seach results.

Step 9: Now the “Posting Description”.   Do your research first as described in Step 4 above.   Take that information and write a clear description of your item.    Short and sweet is nice, just make sure you include all the info about your item.   Don’t say for example:  “100 baseball cards for sale. call xxx-xxxx”.  Instead say  “100  Tops baseball cards for sale, excellent condition, no bent edges.  Stored in dry sealed containers in a heated space.   An assortment of various cards purchased during the late 1980’s.   Mostly Met’s, Yankee’s, and Dodgers.  Multiple rookie cards.  Could be valued well over $500 if sold individually.  First $100 takes it.  Call xxx-xxxx if you are interested” Be very descriptive, hit key points that show the value of the item and all the options it has.   Look at other ads to get ideas of what to write.

Should you include your phone number or not.  You should if you are really serious about selling an item especially a higher priced one.   Posting your phone number shows credibility right out front.  Someone might call your ad immediately over another that doesn’t have a phone number and you would have a better chance of showing your item and closing the sale quicker.    You could opt to give your number out only after an email from an interested party.  This way you would not have posted your number publicly and only email to those people interested.     The choice is up to you.

Step 10: Upload your photos ,review your article and make any corrections then submit it!   To upload your photos you need to click on the “add/edit images button” and then 4 areas with a red X will appear.   Now click on the choose a file for each area and upload the saved resized version of the photos you have chosen to be in your article.   It will take a few seconds and a thumbnail of your images will appear.   Now read over your article to check for errors and hit “Continue” at the bottom.   You will have one more time to review it and do a final submit and verification.  Your article should then go live shortly!  You can always sign on and edit your article again if you need to update it.

Step 11: What to do when people start emailing you and calling you about your item.    Respond back quickly to the person’s inquiry and be clear and honest.     Make sure a person is really interested and set a clear time you can show the item to them.

Step 12: Before showing the item make sure you have a clear minimum price you will take.   Many people will try to haggle you down on price.  If you listed your item for a screaming deal or just a really good price and have multiple calls or emails on it, stick with that price.   You will sell it.      On the other hand if you list something that can sell for a range and someone asks just slightly lower and it would be no skin off your back then sell it to them for that price.    If the item has issues brought up by the potential buyer that could reduce the price, consider taking less and moving on.  The buyer will be happy they made a great deal and you will have cash in your pocket and one less item taking up space.   Don’t forget to delete you item immediately off of Craigslist once it is sold, do this by signing in, clicking on the article and then deleting it.  This will stop people from continuing to email and call you about it.

Another thing to be wary of is payment methods.    CASH IS KING!   I wouldn’t take a check unless I know the person very closely.   You should specify cash only in your ad to avoid problems with bounced checks etc.   Most serious seasoned Craigslist buyers understand this and will bring cash to pay for the item without asking.

Craigslist.org is not necessarily the best place to sell all types of items that’s where Ebay comes in and fills in the gaps, you will find a much broader potential buyer base on Ebay to get the best price for your item.  The downside is that you will pay an Ebay posting fee and most likely have to ship your item out to the buyer and charge shipping.  You can find tons of free and pay guides on Ebay online.  Ebay itself also offers some of the best help in posting on their site.

It’s takes a little effort to do it right but after your first few ads you will breeze through it, getting faster each time.

Good Luck!

LM

“Looking back at 2009, we can say that it was the most interesting times for the web technology despite the harsh economy. The year 2009 boosted the potential of mobile gadgets and exhibited the value of mobile devices in today’s networked society. We can call it the rise of social awareness towards the value of connecting and communicating.

So when we look ahead in 2010, we can see that the innovation have just begun. So here is the list of technologies, which I think, will make its breakthrough in the industry in the year 2010. Most of these technologies are related to online media and the Internet.

1. Apple’s Tablet
The noise and speculation are too loud to ignore the presence of Apple’s Tablet.”

Read the rest of this article at: http://technology.globalthoughtz.com

“Forty years after it was invented, the Internet is straining under the weight of cyber attacks, multimedia content and new mobile applications. In response, U.S. computer scientists arefrom IP addresses to routing tables. There are many views about how to fix the Internet’s architecture, but there’s widespread agreement about many aspects of the future Internet. Here’s our list of 10 surefire bets for what the Internet will look like in a decade.”

Read the rest of this article at: http://www.pcworld.com

Have you tried or read about the Google Chrome web browser yet?   I have been testing it since it’s first beta release and just finally switch over to it from Firefox as my main browser last week.

First off its really really fast!   It’s designed from the ground up to run as efficiently as possible and take advantage of all the current and many future web technologies.   It now has loads of free third party extensions available that enhance it capabilities and fine tunes your experience even further.   I have been a Firefox fan for many years, Firefox extensions, its speed, efficiency and safety were the main reasons I used it.   I have found Chrome extensions that replace 95% of the Firefox extensions I used.  Many are from the same developer just redesigned for Chrome.

Now there is no excuse to give Chrome a try, make the switch and increase your web efficiency almost exponentially!  Get Google Chrome here: http://www.google.com/chrome

You will not be disappointed.

Some of my favorite Chrome extensions are:

Xmarks -  The best bookmark sync out there.   It syncs and backs up all your bookmarks and various broswer settings between multiple computers and different browsers!  I all the same bookmarks on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome and they are always up to date with each other.   I can add a bookmark in chrome and it will be in my Internet Explorer browser the next time I go in it to test a website.   If you ask me its one of the best things that has happened to bookmarks and Xmarks does it best!

IE Tab – If you have a stubborn website that only load in Internet Explorer this extension basically loads IE in a chrome tab.  Very useful and works great!

Toodledoo – Incorporates Toodledoo  Todo lists into the Chrome Browser.     I love Toodledoo, my todo list are always synced between my desktop and iPhone, It’s free and works great!

Session Manager –  Give’s you more advanced control of you current session and lets you save sessions.  For example say you are researching a home and you have 20 tabs open on various web sites you can then save a session on this real estate search and all the tabs will reload.

Cooliris – Cooliris is the fastest and most stunning way to browse photos and videos. Effortlessly scroll through media on an infinite 3D Wall.

Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer - Automatically previews pdfs, powerpoint presentations, and other documents in Google Docs Viewer.

Here is a great article I found on PCWorld.com  about fixing some common printer problems.

“Printers: Can’t live with them, can’t nuke them. You could always toss a misbehaving inkjet or laser out the window, but where would that leave you? Truth be told, we need our printers, despite their maddening quirks. Here’s a saner idea: Take a deep breath, channel your inner tech support rep, and repair that which has failed you. (Cue sitar.)

We’ve listed the 10 biggest printer annoyances — of course, your Top 10 list may vary — and ways to fix them.”

Read the full article at: http://www.pcworld.com

I have been defragging my hard disks with MyDefrag for sometime now, when it used to be called JKdefrag.   It’s now even easier to use, it’s fast, safe and really works.   Works just as good or better than all the pay defrag programs out there.   You can even schedule it to defrag routinely.   Download it today and defrag you hard drive, if you haven’t defragged in a while you will notice a speed up in you computer and program load times, things should feel snappier and that’s good!

Download it at:  http://www.mydefrag.com or http://filehippo.com/download_mydefrag

Quoted from MyDefrag.com and FileHippo.com:

“MyDefrag is a disk defragmenter and optimizer (a maintenance utility to make your harddisk faster) for Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, 2008, Win7, and for X64. It is freeware, no time limit, fully functional, no advertisements. Fast, low overhead, with many optimization strategies, can handle floppies, USB disks, memory sticks, and anything else that looks like a disk to Windows.”

“

Why use this defragger instead of the standard Windows defragger?

• Much faster.
• Totally automatic, extremely easy to use.
• Optimized for daily use.
• Disk optimization, several strategies.
• Directories are moved to the beginning of the disk.
• Reclaims MFT reserved space after disk-full.
• Maintains free spaces for temporary files.
• Can defragment very full harddisks.
• Can defragment very large files.
• Can defragment individual directories and files.
• Can be run automatically with the Windows Scheduler.
• Can be used from the commandline.
• Can be used as a screen saver.
• Can be run from cdrom or memory stick.
• Sources available, can be customized.

Want to edit Images like a Pro but don’t have the cash to pay for Photoshop?   If you have never heard of GIMP you should download it and give it a try.  GIMP is available for Windows, MAC and Linux.   It is a little complicated like Photoshop but after you invest a small amount of time to get the basics down you will be well on your way to accessing it full potential.   The GIMP website has some great tutorials, you will also find many support communities on the web that will have their own free video tutorial to do just about everything you can imagine with it.  Do a Google search on what you are trying to accomplish and you will be surprised with the amount of results.    All documentation is online via the GIMP website.   GIMP also supports and has a large base of PLUG-INS that enhance its features even further.  Plugins can do an endless variety of things like enhance brushes,  create new effects, ad new features, provide shortcuts that save hours or even days of work, ad additional file support and much more.   Do another Google search on plugins and you will find an endless supply.   So if your ready to take your image editing to new heights download GIMP, go through a few tutorials, be patient, take the time to learn it and you will be well on your way to professional quality results!

The GIMP website is: http://www.gimp.org (Download the newest Stable version from the download area (currently 2.6.7) , Don’t use the BETA versions)

If you find GIMP is a little too complicated for you or just want another simpler program for some quick edits check out Paint.net, its a great little image editing program that’s quick and easy.  http://www.getpaint.net/

Computer running slow?  Want to throw it out the window?  Well there is hope. I have been tweaking computers for years on end and have tried numerous programs and manual tweaks to achieve the slightest speed increase.  After using AutoMz Ultimate Tweaker it was like giving my PC and all the other PCs I tried it on a boost of adrenaline.    AutoMz is very simple to use and really works.   It’s loaded with the latest tweaks for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.   I have used it on all three operating system.   It gave my old laptop new life I never knew it had! My already screaming fast Window 7 desktop got even more snappier.   My mom and dad’s PC running XP is so fast they can’t keep up with it!  It’s a fast download and easy install, make sure you do a backup in the beginning when it asks you just in case you never know.   I haven’t had any major problems or messed up any PC I used AutoMZ UT on yet, when testing it I did find that if you choose the “powerful option” your network sharing will stop working because it turns off some services so make sure you leave it at the default “Safe Optimization” if you have network shares with other computers in your home or office.    You will be more than happy with safe optimization, but if you have a stand alone PC that doesn’t share files over a local network Powerful should be good.  But be warned if you are not tech savvy turning on those services again is another challenge.   AutoMZ has other tweakers and programs,  I have tried them all and they work but AutoMZ UT is and easy, quick, no Brainer.  With any freeware program if it really helped you out donate at least a few bucks to the author.  They put in endless hours of hard work to create their programs and only get paid by donations.

After installing MZ Ultimate Tweak make sure you have no other programs running or just reboot your PC just in case and run it after your PC has completely finished loading.

For settings just choose your Operating Sytem, Then Modem type (if you have a router choose local area network, Computer Usage – PC with internet connection, Safe Optimization, then check all the boxes in the optional section (This will do a little helpful cleanup).  Click Start Boost.  After it’s completely done, reboot your computer.  You will notice a definate speed increase, after the second reboot it will get even faster, since the first reboot will do boot file optimization.

Good Luck and post you comments to let everyone know how it worked for you.

Click here to go the the AutoMZ UT website: http://www.mztweak.com/AutoMz.html

Download it from their SkyDrive Link (Its the safest and fastest):   Just go to their website click the SkyDrive link and then click on the word Download in the upper left of the skydrive screen.

Quoted from the AutoMZ Ultimate Website:

“It is a powerful automatic system tweaker, for Windows Xp, Vista & 7.
It contains more tweaks than Mz Ultimate Tweaker and it applies the best values for over 60 powerful tweaks!

AutoMz Ultimate Tweaker features:

• Scan engine (Software-Hardware)
• Cpu Tweaks
• HDD Tweaks
• Memory Tweaks
• Graphic Card Tweaks
• CD/DVD Tweaks
• Modem Tweaks
• Internet Tweaks
• Windows Tweaks
• Boot Files Optimization
• Registry Optimization
• Temporary Files Clean
• Backup – Restore Service
• and much more…”

Paint.net is a free fast loading, full featured image editor that is very refined and easy to use.    It’s not as rubust as GIMP, but it has most of the features you would need most of the time.   It even has layer now!  It has some great tools, filters and effects.    I use it for a quick edit here and there as a companion to GIMP.    Download Paint.net and you will not be disappointed.

Their homepage is: http://www.getpaint.net

To download it quickly just go to: http://filehippo.com/download_paint.net they always have the newest version available for fast download.

CCleaner is one of the best combo Windows registry, temp file and privacy cleaning tools out there that I have ever used.    I have been using it for year to safely clean my registry and speed up my computer.    It’s one of the first tools I use when cleaning up a slow computer.   It also has a built in tools for editing your startup files, removing old programs and managing your systems restore files.  I use it on my computers at least one a month to keep them nice and tidy and running smoothly.    Spyware and adware free, you do have the option to install the Yahoo toolbar during the installation process but it’s not need to use CCleaner.   It also has a neat feature where when you right click on your trash can you have the options to run it or open it!   Works on all version of windows starting with 3.1 all the way to windows 7.     The newest release is optimized for windows 7 also.   http://www.ccleaner.com/