Sunforged Studios- A portrait of the artist

2010-05-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

2010-05-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

2010-05-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

Random moments in my life

2010-05-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

2009-12-22T16:23:00.000-08:00

Make a Blog: GoDaddy vs HostGator

2009-11-06T14:10:00.000-08:00

Make a Blog: GoDaddy vs HostGator

Must reads
Make money with your Art Intro Guide

Make money with your Writing Intro Guide

Wipple Surgery Whipple Procedures

2009-08-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

Wipple Surgery Whipple Procedures

Must readMake money with your Intro Guide

Join the Artist Interview Series

2009-08-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

Join the Artist Interview Series

Best Wordpress Themes Thesis

2009-05-06T13:13:00.000-07:00

Best Wordpress Themes Thesis

Make Money Creating Garden Art

2009-04-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

A burden many of us fine artists struggle under, is a belief that Art has to merely be decorative. Although we are blessed with such creativity in regards to our visual compositions and creation many of us forget to extend that vision towards how we market or merchandise our artwork.

A very real and fresh market one could attempt to tap is fine art and custom lawn sculptures. With just a minor upfront cost for your concrete you could be casting your own permanent works of art that people will showcase for you prominently in their front yard and pay a pretty penny for it too

Remember to think outside the box!

What kind of molds to get for my Garden Art business?

I hate the new facebook layout and home page

2009-03-18T07:20:00.000-07:00

I hate the new facebook layout and home page

Sunforged Network

2009-03-17T22:31:00.001-07:00

Books that impacted my life Top 10 Ten Best Books

2009-03-17T05:04:00.000-07:00

Books that impacted my life Top 10 Ten Best Books

Paypal Postage Label Printers Printer Printing eBay Sellers secrets

2009-03-05T00:16:00.000-08:00

Paypal Postage Label Printers Printer Printing eBay Sellers secrets

Post Hub Pages An Internet Marketing Lexicon

2009-03-04T14:09:00.000-08:00

Post Hub Pages An Internet Marketing Lexicon

Pinching your Pennies- free pinch your pennies

2009-02-27T13:13:00.000-08:00

Pinching your Pennies- free pinch your pennies

2009-02-26T18:24:00.000-08:00

Pinching your Pennies- free pinch your pennies

Post Hubpages making money from your own web sites with affiliate marketing Pepperjam network

2009-02-25T12:26:00.000-08:00

Post Hubpages making money from your own web sites with affiliate marketing Pepperjam network

Maximizing the Potential of Firefox a noob guide for internet marketers and the efficient minded

2009-02-22T21:28:00.000-08:00

Maximizing the Potential of Firefox a noob guide for internet marketers and the efficient minded

ebayforless.com

2008-12-04T20:26:00.000-08:00

ebayforless.com - ebay secrets and tips, ebay items for less, wholesalers and partners dropshippers

New ebay page with links to dropshippers and wholesalers

2008-11-18T23:50:00.001-08:00

http://ping.fm/IV8m1

2008-11-18T23:49:00.001-08:00

http://ping.fm/YV33q

new ebay and humor entry

Having Fun with with eBay Feedback plus suggested formats for buyers and sellers

2008-11-18T13:56:00.000-08:00

Having Fun with with eBay Feedback plus suggested formats for buyers and sellers

2008-11-17T05:29:00.001-08:00

new blog post -efficient monetized blogging
http://ping.fm/oFg44

10 indispensable resources for efficient promoting and publi

2008-11-17T05:17:00.001-08:00

I am my own boss. Make my own hours answer to nobody work as little or as much as I want work from the comfort of my own home sleep in, stay up late get rich quick profit from my creativity and... these tool help me try to attain these goals, firefox plug ins, digg tools, seo tricks for laymen and art

read more | digg story

Go back to MySpace Profile 1.0, Profile 2.0 Sucks Profile 2.0 templates

2008-11-16T20:29:00.000-08:00

After yesterdays announcement many Myspacers are attempting to create their profiles in 2.0.

But, many of us have spent hours if not days using the previous format to get exactly the design we wanted. Worried that you may have lost your old space? Dont be, after selecting "upgrade to profile 2.0" the myspace server will still save your old page for 90 days.

While in the new edit module, viewable in the screenshot below select "Go Back" this probably confuses all of us as we are used to "going back" a page, but in this case selecting that will bring up
the next screenshot

You will see a link that says "switch back to 1.0"

Thats it!

According to Myspace:

* Profile 2.0 gives you granular control over privacy, and enhanced customization options.
* Hide your comments, friends, age, last login, and more.
* Make parts of your profile visible to specific groups of friends (friend categories).
* New themes to style your page without any knowledge of HTML or pasting codes.
* Profile 2.0 loads faster and has a sleeker, more modern look.

Remember, you can always go back to your current profile if you don't like it. Enjoy!

Here is an alternative page that has screenshots detailing the process.

http://abrax.us/bbz/MyspaceProfile2Undo.php

So dont worry, here is a screenshot of the new design module in case you havent tried it yet.

Its only been out a couple of hours at the time of this post, it seems at this time to be a great tool for those who never took the time to learn the html and css required for the old Profile 1.0 but with a perfunctory inspection, I still havent figured out where to enter my html and content and quite frankly the layout and theme generator is no better than the third party ones we are already used to.

Anyone familiar with facebook will be completely accustomed to the add module features and the drag and drop ordering.

You can enter your own CSS and the layout generator allows you enter a background and place it also features for text color and the like, but how do I insert my flash video or ebay widgets and other code?

Well that was a mystery to me until I gave up, apparently the new dashboard you see after first upgrading isnt your only edit view. After you publish your new layout and go back to your home page (not your profile page) the edit profile link leads to the exact same 5 box - about me, who id like to meet, music etc. So there still is a location for entering html (A question Ive seen on the net already)

But remember you can not enter CSS (Cascading style sheets) anywhere except for the module called CSS

In my case Ill keep 1.0 as I have learned to edit and design it any way I please, the screenshots I posted come from my test page that I use to display clients designs before they are approved

Ill keep you posted.

feel free to add my personal myspace page:

Joshua Sunforged on Myspace

or read my other blogs:
Boondock Saints 2
Ebay Buyers Tips, The Beginning

Contact me with your thoughts. The first ten people to send a link of their newly designed Profile 2.0 myspace pages will be showcased here via screenshots and links. Either post a comment or contact me at sunforged@hotmail.com

If you still need help here is a video tutorial on how to roll back to Myspace Profile 1.0

http://www.howcast.com/videos/75076-How-To-Undo-MySpace-Profile-20-in-30-Seconds

In conclusion my advice is breath! Yes its different but its still myspace after 10-20 minutes of fooling around with the options, you will understand.

In case you do decide to keep your Myspace 2.0 profile, pre-made layouts do already exist here are some examples

http://www.all4myspace.com/layouts-2.0/

http:
//www.pyzam.com/myspace2layouts/category/dark/newest/10/6

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Below is a link for professional designers and CSS professionals to explore and share ideas about the new Profile 2.0 style. This should be a great resource after some time passes allowing them to work and learn the new style

http://myspacelayoutsremixed.com/

Not specifically for 2.0 but the best layout styles and codes your going to find regardless of edition, div and flash based templates and resources

http://www.designvitality.com/blog/2007/09/myspace-layout-design/

3,800,000 hits for Assassinate Obama-Death threats and hate

2008-11-15T11:20:00.001-08:00

Death threats and idle talk about assassination attempts should not be taken likely by popular culture, media and society. A Quick History: Presidents slain while in office: Abraham Lincoln James A....

read more | digg story

Trying out a new dropshipper

2008-11-14T06:29:00.001-08:00

With the Christmas season coming, My eBay business faces a potential bottleneck, with money to invest into product I could easily see thousands of dollars this season in profit, but with the need to buy presents, multiple birthdays and holiday travel its hard to imagine having any substantial funds collected at once.

How will I solve this issue, Im going to finally try a drop shipper, now DOBA is a pretty well known resource but I figured it would be to well known to make a decent return on, Im hoping my better than average design, communication and marketing skills will give me the leg up on other DOBA users.

Also, if I found the appropriate niche that isnt over saturated I might make a good steady income... any thoughts on how I can find that niche?

Previously my skills have been in finding already hot products for low prices and maximizing my turnaround with careful timing, good communication etc.

Basically, Im a great salesman, but sourcing has been an up and down journey.

Why now, well DOBA is offering a free 7 day trial, ideally I would have started on a Thursday, tested with a bunch of three day auctions, and then canceled by Wednesday, but Im hoping that I wont have to cancel.

So give it a shot with me, 7 days free, mark your calender cancel on the 6th day, unlike most offers this should be easy to remember since you will be tracking your non existent items daily in your eBay.

At least I know I will.

Getting started on eBay Buyers Tips and Tricks

2008-11-13T01:10:00.003-08:00

So you want to get started on eBay. You have heard about it, maybe you even have browsed around as a guest. But you never opened your own account. You have researched eBay, you have had no problem finding...

read more | digg story

Boondock Saints 2 being made by original Director Troy Duffy

2008-11-13T01:10:00.001-08:00

After literally years of false starts and promises, Director Troy Duffy will be making his much anticipated sequel to his 1999 Cult Classic, The Boondock Saints. Filming has begun as of October 20th,...

read more | digg story

The Sunforged Experience

2008-11-13T00:59:00.001-08:00

a different way at looking at ebay - some very shrewd deductions, im going to keep watching

read more | digg story

eBay PowerSeller secrets and tricks

2008-10-28T01:49:00.000-07:00

eBay has opened up a new venue for small businesses across the world to expand their sales, markets and exposure. Depending on ones prior experiences the tasks needed to expand successfully into this venue are either seen as dauntingly complex or misleadingly simple.

I recently purchased a rather expensive book that was marketed as exposing PowerSeller secrets, unfortunately I did not discover any new information from this source so I have decided to share my apparently uncommon knowledge with cyberspace.

In truth, PowerSellers jealously guard their secrets in hopes of keeping competition out.

My eBay businesses are focused on passions of mine and involve high ticket items as a result I am less worried about loss of volume that the competition may create.

For this first installment I will share links to many seller resources that I have found helpful in my sales, research and consultations. Once this series is completely composed and organized I will be moving it to a members area of my website.

www.sunforged.com

Links you will find useful in your growth:

1. Never sell an item without knowing its approximate worth

Terapeak Price Report

2. Know your target market, close your items when your customers are shopping.

Know when to sell on eBay using research

3. Use research tools to take advantage of sellers who fail to follow appropriate scheduling and BIN pricing and use eBay as a sourcing tool for inventory.

4. In order to accept payments you must have a Payment Processing Service, ie Paypal. As of October 20, 2008 eBay will no longer allow checks or money orders as payment options, Fortunately, they will not enforce this rule until January 2009. Other payment solution companys are expected to be named in the next few months. As of this time the only other solution is ProPay

5. If your monthly sales are good and consistent you will save money in listing fees by opening an eBay Store.

6. Or you may want to weave your eBay inventory with an e-commerce solution that integrates your pre-existing merchant account with Paypal and has a recognizable interface

7. Your success continues to grow? You may want to consider purchasing your own domain and cross marketing your online presence.

GoDaddy is the service for web hosting and domain registration, all of their interfaces are easy to understand, There FAQ sections are thorough and customer service is easily accessed, easily understood and quick to answer.

Customer Service was able to easily walk me through a domain transfer and setting up the free hosting account that comes with all domains. This is the number one most important aspect in selecting a host when you are not an experienced guru yourself, you will have lots of questions, GoDaddy actually answers them !

8. You will become uncomfortable with the fact that PayPal is constantly connected to your accounts, and has the power to hold, take and refund payments if you lose any bidder arbitration.

Be sure to have a seperate seller and buyer account, use a prepaid debit card as your funding source, paypal will never be able to seize or hold assets against your will, that simply do not exist.

Keep your connected seller account starved of funds and only connect a pre-paid debit to your buyers account.

Keep in mind that I suggest only the most honest and professional conduct as a seller on eBay, but I do not trust Paypal and eBays arbitration system to make any decisions for me regarding returns, refunds and problem buyers. So a back up plan is proper.

9. Try to personalize yourself to the buyers, print up thank you cards or coupons to include with every shipment, promote your brand and encourage repeat customers.

It is also about time to have a presentable business card to present possible suppliers, customers and to prove legitimacy to those who think "Oh, he sells stuff on ebay, "

What makes Vistaprint stand out is their Free business card offer, they of course sneak in a handling fee, but for about 8 dollars you can get your first set of business cards.

These business cards are watermarked with a small vistaprints logo on the back.

As your business grows, you can continue to use the free business card offer to print your thank you cards and coupons.

Take advantage of seasonal deals like free shipping to continue to purchase your business cards, if your not constantly reordering them, you are doing something wrong. Spread your cards around at every opportunity.

10. Continue to search for sourcing. Many eBay sellers buy larger lots here and then resell on ebay.

Buy at Liquidation.com and Sell on eBay

This is the first rough blog of PowerSeller Secrets and Tips.