Earn money while Social Networking-new Facebook Marketplace Guide!

Facebook first introduced the Marketplace application in mid 2007 as a way for people to post classified listings on the site. Now Facebook has launched its new, updated Marketplace. This time the Marketplace is powered by a company with a funny name, Oodle. Despite the name they are a big online classifieds company founded by former Excite and eBay executives. Oodle has built a completely new version of the Marketplace focused on giving people a place to buy, sell or give things away to the people they know.

This Facebook Marketplace Guide is a practical Step-By-Step Guide for all of you who want to learn how to sell your items effectively on the new Facebook Marketplace. Using the Facebook Marketplace you can sell, give away, buy, ask or search for anything you want. You can also use the Marketplace to support your favourite charities by selling your unwanted goods for a good cause. Additionally, you can see what your friends are buying and/or selling.

Facebook users can post their Marketplace listings free of charge. Your listings will be viewable to millions of Facebook Marketplace users worldwide. If you have previously used the old Facebook Marketplace, you should see it bookmarked in the lower left hand corner of your monitor. And, if you had active listings in the old Marketplace, you should be given the option to transfer them to the new Facebook Marketplace. If you have not used the Facebook Marketplace application before, you can find it here: Facebook.com/marketplace.

Ok, let's get down to business. As I mentioned, this is a

Step-By-Step Guide how to sell in the Facebook Marketplace effectively

So, here we go:

Step 1 - Take a Photo

Grab your digital camera and take a nice close-up picture of the item that you wish to sell. It is best to shoot against a light, solid background. Transfer your photo to your computer as a JPG-file. If your item is something that can't be presented with a photo, don't worry, you can still get it listed.

Step 2 - Log On

Log on to your Facebook account and fire up the Marketplace application. Just click the Applications menu in the lower left hand corner of your screen and choose Marketplace. You are greeted with the Marketplace welcome screen.

You have four main options at your disposal:

Sell It Sell for a Cause Give It Away and Ask for It

In this guide we are concentrating on the Selling-for-Money side of things, so you may leave the screen as it is and write a short description of your item in the box where it says "Sell something to make extra cash." When you click the box it will change into "Yourname" is selling. Write your main headline for the listing here. After writing your headline description, click the blue Post-button.

Step 3 - Write Your Advertisement

After you have written your headline for the listing you are presented with a new screen with more options related to your listing. Write a punch line type of a description in the box "Why are you selling it". You could write "I need money to buy more stuff." but, even though it might be the case, I don't think it would get your listing noticed. Consider this space as your sub headline for the ad. Write this description like you were working in an advertising company. Or, if you feel more conservative, just describe your item as funky as possible. You have two lines to hit the point.

Next, state your asking price in the Price-box. You know what its worth.

Write your location. This is a must. Just write in your city.

Choose a category for your item. At the time of writing this book, there are only the following 13 categories available:

Baby & Kid Stuff Books & Magazines Cars & Vehicles Clothes & Accessories Collectibles Computers & Accessories Electronics Furniture Home and Garden Musical Instruments Sporting Goods, Bicycles & Equipment Tickets Everything Else

If you can't find a suitable category for your item, you can always choose Everything Else, however it is not a very good category to be listed under.

In the next box you can provide a wider description of your item. Here you have more room than just two lines. Describe your item with as much detail as you can. You know, size, colour, condition,.. those sort of things. But, don't stress yourself too much with this; you can always change it later. Once you have created the best advertising text ever, hit the Browse-button to locate your photo from your computer, USB stick or where ever you think you saved it in Step 1. Yes, I know, I can never find my images either. Don't panic though, you have time to locate it; the screen isn't going anywhere.

You found it? Good! Actually, you can upload two photos if you wish. For instance if you are selling a book, it is a good idea to upload both front and back covers. You can upload even more images later on, but for the sake of this exercise, one is enough.

Tick the Terms of Use-box and click the Submit-button.

Step 4 - Rather Unnecessary Step

The next screen has your details on it and your only option is to click the Continue-button. I really don't know why this screen exists, but since it does all we can do is click the button.

Step 5 - Publishing

Next you will get a screen asking if you want to publish this listing in your own Facebook profile. This is a good idea. You will get a choice for a Full, Short or a One Line description. I would recommend you'd choose the Short-option. You may tick the Always do this for Marketplace-box if you wish to use this same option every time you list something. So, if you wish to publish this listing on your profile, click the Publish-button, but if you only want it to appear in the Facebook Marketplace, choose the No, Thanks-button.

Step 6 - Promotion

This step is your first chance to advertise your new listing. This is also a good idea. You can Recruit Friends to Promote your Listing in their News Feed. You can add up to 5 of your friends by clicking on their pictures. You can also choose them by writing their names in the Find Friends-box. Once you have chosen your friends who might be interested in promoting your listing, click the Send Request-button; or if you don't want to bother your friends this time, choose Skip.

Step 7 - Personal Marketing Message

You will be presented a confirmation screen with your details. You can add a personal message to this post by clicking the blue Add Personal Message-hotlink. If you don't want to add your personal message, just click the Send-button. You also can cancel this message altogether by clicking Cancel.

Step 8 - Done!

Congratulations! You have listed your first item on the Facebook Marketplace. Listings take approximately 30 minutes to be included in the search index.

You will be presented with the screen titled "Manage My Listing: Active". Here you can review your listing and, if you wish to make any changes click the Edit Details-hotlink in the light green bar. You can also delete your listing as well as promote your listing with a Facebook Ad. I will not get into details how to produce Facebook Ads in this book. That topic, among many other good ones, will be fully covered in my Facebook Advertising Guide.

That's it, you've done it! Good work! Thank you for reading so far.

Additional, Good to Know Stuff:

Editing Your Listing

You can easily edit your listings after you have published them. Just click the Edit Details-hotlink on the screen mentioned in the Manage My Listing -page, and you will get pretty much the same screen as when you were writing the listing in the first place. You can change every detail of your listing here as well as upload more images if you wish. It is a good idea to show as many images as you can.

After you have made your changes in this panel click the Submit-button to get your listing updated. You will again be presented with a useless confirmation screen as seen. Just ignore it, and click the Continue-button.

Next, you will be asked if you wish to publish this updated listing on your Facebook profile as in Step 6. You may choose to publish again, or you may just click the No, Thanks-button.

Finally, you will see your updated listing on the "Manage My Listing"- screen.

Managing Your Facebook Marketplace Listings

You can easily manage all of your Facebook Marketplace listings in one convenient location. If you click the My Listings-hotlink in the Marketplace menu, you will see your current listings. This is your place to manage all your listings. You can add more listings, edit them and after you have sold your items you can delete them.

As I mentioned earlier, you can also sell your items for a cause or you can give them away for free (don't know why, but you can). You can also find something you need for yourself. These functions are not covered in this book, but I'm sure you'll manage them with the principles covered here.

Ok, I hope you enjoyed this Facebook Marketplace Guide. I wish you luck in selling your stuff through Facebook. I sold my first item, an awesome Jimi Hendrix Wah-Wah guitar pedal in just 3 days.

Best regards,

Kris Olin, MscBa, marketing

This Facebook Marketplace Guide is also available as a fully illustrated PDF-version

You can download it FREE: http://www.facebook-advertising-marketing.com

Kris Olin is a Web Designer from Brisbane, Australia specialised in Web 2.0, SEO, Digital Publishing, Social Media Marketing and Internet Promotion Strategies. Kris also does company consultations, training and provides website hosting solutions. Website: http://www.krisolin.com

Has Business on the Internet Gone Social?

I've been banging around in the halls of Internet Marketing for quite a few years, and I've seen a lot of concepts come and go. Recently, it looks like e-commerce businesses are trying harder every day to cash in on the profits of the social networking scene.

Not too long ago, social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace were a forum and meeting place for the very technically talented young people of our world. They shared everything from funny stories to even funnier videos. The business world didn't give it much thought until everything started taking on a Web 2.0 flavor.

Little by little, savvy entrepreneurs started realizing the scope of ones reach within these friendship portals and began figuring out ways to market their wares to the masses of socialites hanging out on the web. It wasn't difficult to draw the connection from socialite to prospective customer and, check this out, there's a barrel of them just waiting for something new to read or watch.

Once business started jumping on the social networking bandwagon, the really attentive Internet marketers saw the opportunity for social networks that cater to Internet businesses. Now you don't have to look very far to find a half dozen or so business-specific social networks that allow you to market to a community to your heart's content.

I like this idea, however, I must admit I'd like to see it segmented a bit more. The typical model today allows an Internet Marketer to sign-up and market to everyone who will accept your message. This could mean that you get quite a few offers that you're not interested in. Of course, it also means you're probably sending messages to members of the community who are not interested in your offer as well.

It certainly isn't the perfect system yet, but it's a step in the right direction. For those of us who are trying to market to as many prospects as possible while seriously attempting to target our market as precisely as possible, it's not quite there.

In what is currently a fairly young market segment and concept, my hope is that it will mature in such a manner as to NOT become the "New SPAM Platform." I truly hope that we can nurture this great idea to become the free, open marketing and communications channel that we online business owners have been looking for.

My name is Don Resh and I've been helping people create and improve their Home Based Business web sites for years. My goal is to help you by providing valuable information and software tools that give you an edge with your Internet Marketing efforts. Please visit our blog for more tools and information.

BizBuildSoftware Internet Marketing Blog

Social Media for your Home Business!

Do you think that only large companies benefit from using social networks? Well think again. Marketing for home business via social media, your customers will find and meet your competitors head on The Internet levels the playing field., so you can watch as the big boys.

You're not alone

If you're new to social marketing, don't panic. Everyone was once a rookie and you can easily start without injured along the way. The key is to focus on only a few of platforms or networks, and then expand after you become more familiar with the social world.

My main online marketing social media networks are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I dabble in some others such as Digg, DisQus and Delicious (just a coincidence that they all begin with'd '), but the more platforms you use, the more time you invest. Depending on your business objectives or a special marketing campaigns, you may want to leave, but initially, keep it simple.

Get busy

You can only learn by trying. I used to read obsessively about social media, social marketing, and social networking, but I don't really understand all of them, until I popped up Twitter and started using Facebook pages. It takes a while to ' get it ', but you will.

Twitter -sometimes called a micro blog, because you can post only 140 characters at the same time. The idea, as with all social networks, to connect with people and information or experiences to share. People want to share articles, blogs, reports, news, photos, and funny stories, etc. Finding people to start after (many will follow you back), and at first, just listen to what they say. If you don't like it, or not interested in what you hear, you can unfollow them. It is so easy. Find someone else and just continue to grow your network. When you're ready, start tweeting. Do it, and yourself. Nobody will slap your wrist if you say something wrong.
Link Shorteners -used shrink for a long, rambling URL (website address) in a shorter that may fit better in a Twitter post (called a Tweet). When you have only 140 spaces, can share a link to a story to last the whole box. Link shorteners to the rescue! There are many services out there, like Goo.GL, Hootsuite, TinyURL. Do a search and try different ones. I use a service to "Bit.ly.com". It takes a long url, with loads of coded characters and figures-you know the ones, and them shortened to 12 or 13 characters. In addition to shortening your bit.LY link, also tracked how many people click on your links so you can analyze what types of articles or stories, people want to read.
Facebook -the biggest social network with more than 600 millions of users, mostly people like you and me. I assume that you have a personal Facebook account, but if you don't, get one. The best way to tap into that huge audience is to promote your business by creating a Facebook page. It's like having a mini Web site. Do you have a personal account to create a page, and I would strongly suggest your personal friends and family on your own personal account, and keeping your business messages on your page. You really don't want your customers to know what you had for dinner, or that you are playing Farmville.

The 3-1-1 rule

There are certain rules, etiquette and the expected behavior in the social media playground, and you'll want to make sure that you promote your online business professional. You must show that you are an expert in your field, a leader, and not just to sell your stuff.

The basic rule for posting to each social platform is the three-one-one line. If you're going to post information five times in a day (as an example), three of them need adding value, share something. Must be something about you, or anything that shows that you are a person. The latter can be about your company, an offer, a promotion, etc. If you post a sales conversation four times per day, will people stop following you and find someone else.

You've probably heard of this before, but social media is about engaging people and have conversations. Be friendly and authentic. Nobody wants to hear from someone that sounds like a company. People buy from people, but people want to be helped. They want to find solutions. They don't want a hard sales pitch. Give them something entertaining, enlightening, or educational.

Help is everywhere

There are so many training materials to more tips. Do a search for things like Facebook 101, getting started with Twitter, or Social Media Bootcamp. These are just some ideas. Some websites will ask you to sign up for a free course and you will receive an email daily or weekly to guide you through how to get started with different architectures. But remember, not just read them, take action and diving.

Jump into social media, spread your wings and have fun. Be assured that your competitors are.

Social Media, online marketing, and writing are my speciality and I love helping and teaching people how to use them to make a success of their home or Office.

I am a career marketer and communicator who left the corporate world working at home and inheritance of my income, my career and my lifestyle. Now, I am an Internet entrepreneur, and I coach and develop the same people. I am connected to a unique online marketing education and leadership community that helped me in my home business become successful.

If you're looking for a chance to take control of your financial destiny, check out this opportunity and join my community. http://CreatingaBusiness.net or visit my website at http://buildingabusiness.co/