New enhancements are already in place for improved performance.

Hyperlink Your GoGoPin Ad

You can now choose to make your GoGoPin Ad ‘click-able’ and hyperlink it to any public URL you wish. You will encounter the same Save/Export Dialog as before (Title, Keywords, and a Description) with an additional place to include any public URL or Web Address you wish. Essentially your GoGoPin Ad becomes a free clickable Banner Ad.

Note: The link you enter will only work when you post your ad using  HTML code.  For help posting your ad in HTML click here.

Additional Clip Art

Fresh customized clip art include designations for Better Business Bureau, as well as new professional designations for Real Estate, and pet policy badges for Property Managers. See picture below or click here for samples.

Change Background Color

Select a background color from standard color selections, or use slide bars to exact RGB specifications. Adjust the length of your ad, and the background color extends as well. These options are adjustable in the lower right portion of the workspace.

Improved Text Editing

Sometimes the best improvements are ones that you don’t even notice. Rich text editing is cleaner, and more stable than ever now. Get what you want on the page with fewer clicks.

Refreshed Tour Page

If it has been a while since you last logged in, or if you wish to share GoGoPin with others then you’ll want to visit the GoGoPin Ad Tour. The Tour includes a video introduction, samples, and screenshots for your own reference, and for easy sharing without signing in.

Complementary Trial of GoGoPin Business is Underway!

Extend the reach of your online marketing efforts by building your own unique business website. Connect, book appointments, or simply sell items live from your home, office, or third place. To request an invitation code to begin a complementary trial of GoGoPin Business click here.

Thank You!

Please continue to let us know what you would like to see in terms of GoGoPin Ad enhancements and we will do our best to deliver:  support@gogopin.com . Until the next newsworthy announcement, we always remain available for help via
support@gogopin.com as well.

We invite you to follow us on Twitter, and join our group on Facebook.

Sincerely,

The GoGoPin Team

Using the latest technology and some tried and true rules, you’ll learn to create competitive ads and flyers from anywhere you have a compatible internet browser and an internet connection.

Fee:  

Free!

Location:

The Old Redmond Schoolhouse – Rm. 104
16600 NE 80th St.
Redmond, WA 98052

 Topics:  Real Estate and Entreprenurial Online Ads and Flyers

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Real Estate Workshop: 12:00pm – 1:30pm
Creating competitive and compelling Real Estate flyers both online and offline for entrepreneurial brokers and agents is the main topic of this engaging workshop. Ample space and lunch (provided) will enable brokers and agents, new and established to improve the flyers they use to communicate their properties and services to the community at large.Primarily for small brokerages and agents who create flyers for properties and self-promotion. Of course any ad and flyer creators are welcome.

OR

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Small Business and Entrepreneurs Workshop: 12:00pm – 1:30pm
Similar content, but primarily focused for small businesses or self-promoting marketers. Both online and offline promotional flyers will be demonstrated. Of course other ad and flyer creators are welcome.

Important Information:

Free Parking and Luncheon Provided. The maximum capacity of the room must be strictly maintained as per City of Redmond requirements, so please RSVP to adam (at) motioncloud (dot) net.

There is room for your notebook computer but no guarantee of WiFi connection – if you wish to upload photos to private Picasa or Flickr albums prior we’ll be demonstrating the use of those during the workshop from the podium.

Optional: Email a link to one of your current listings to adam (at) motioncloud (dot) net if you would like a customized sample to be part of the workshop.

Agenda

11:30 – 12:00 Sign-in and Networking
12:00 – 12:15 Luncheon – (continued during workshop)
12:15 – 12:45 Creating Competitive Flyers Online
12:45 – 1:30 Questions, Answers and continued Networking

You may also RSVP via Biznik:

Real Estate
http://biznik.com/members/adam-odnert/events/real-estate-workshop-create-competitive-flyers-online

Small Business and Entrepreneurs
http://biznik.com/events/free-marketing-for-small-biz-and-entrepreneurs-creating-competitive-flyers

The National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) includes consumer tips for back-to-school shopping. Why not take it a step further and sell what you no longer need – a Back-From-School Sale. The NFCC recommends: “Avoid the parking lot and shop online. Save time and money. Stores often put their best sales online and it’s a great way to compare prices”. [NFCC Consumer Tips] . Don’t depend solely on book-buy-back programs at the bookstore to get something back. There’s no end to the items in a dorm or apartment that can be resold to recoup some of the cost of the completed semester.

What Student Debt?

I couldn’t say it better than Michelle Singletary:

“The commencement speeches soon will be over, the graduation caps and gowns put away, the gift cards used. The one thing that won’t go away is the tens of thousands of dollars graduates owe in student loans. For most college graduates, the cost of their educations finally will be a reality. So now what?” [Consider Options for Student Debt]

Every semester ends and brings a new opportunity to take inventory and sell your unwanted stuff online for good reason – cold cash. The good news about converting stuff to cash is that a dollar gained today from unwanted items sold online can help to make the transition between student debtor and living on a cash basis – something everyone could aspire to, in school or out.

All Sold Out?

To suggest that selling your stuff online will quickly solve student debt problems would be tactless and insensitive – I am neither. The value in reselling unwanted items speaks for itself, and researching this post revealed a great deal more help for students and consumers in trouble:

National Foundation for Credit Counseling Tools

The NFCC Website provides a great list of interactive online tools to help with debt relief including:

• Budget Worksheet
• Calculators – (Home Ownership, Purchase Cost, Debt Payoff Scenarios)
• Consumer Tips (Thrift Actions, Credit Advice, Housing Info, etc.)
• Financial Fast Fact Videos – Short Clips with Long-term advice.

For most of us, living on a cash basis would be the ’Best of All Possible Worlds’ - out of reach for most.  The good news is that inventory can become cash with a little work online – and that little work online is what we are all about.

In following our own advice from “Linkedin – The Chain Gang of Profiles, Connections, and Groups” we have created a new Linkedin Group :  GoGoPin – Online Content Creation .

If you haven’t created a Linkedin profile, and choose to do so – now is the perfect opportunity. You can always return to flesh out your profile as you have the time to do so.  See more about Linkedin profiles directly from Linkedin.

GoGoPin specializes in providing online content creation. This group is intended as a forum for business people who use online content creation tools to make ads, flyers, and websites. Make the most of GoGoPin and join the discussion. You may begin discussions, post links, and as the group grows you will have a new venue to share links to the Ads and Flyers that you’ve created if you wish.

Discuss Among Other GoGoPin Ad Users and the GoGoPin Team

We decided against using email addresses to invite GoGoPin ad makers to the group from within Linkedin, as we do not wish to use your confidential email address via Linkedin. We will moderate and do our best to keep the membership as relevant to Online Content Creation as possible.

You may join the group using the link provided here, or anytime from the list of GoGoPin Social Networking links on the right-hand side of this blog. The group is not intended to serve as a classified site by any means, but rather a chance to network and share with other GoGoPin Ad makers. Posting links to classified sites isn’t prohibited, but the Linkedin Group audience will more likely be your colleagues as opposed to prospective buyers.

Setting Expectations and Until Next Time

The numbers may be small to begin with – but upon joining, you will have an opportunity to introduce yourself and link to your business if you wish, and as more people join, they will see your post.

Have you found a new place to post your GoGoPin Ads? Share it with the group!

Premiere Ads Online Advertising Service will design and distribute classified ads and webflyers for you. GoGoPin Ad is a free marketing tool that Premiere Ads has put to work for their clients. Premiere Ads reminds us that: “Getting the word out about what you do or what you sell is the key to your business’s success.”

GoGoPin Ad provides free online webflyer creation, but the designing is still up to the advertiser. Thats where Premiere Ads steps in, and uses GoGoPin Ad among other tools to create and distribute your flyers regionally or nationally.

In her own words, proprietor Patricia B. wrote:

“I have made several flyers and now am able to create one in a relatively short period of time. I love the many choices for background colors and how easy it is to move around your photos and text boxes. Photo upload is very easy as well. Once you export your finished product, it is so easy to copy and post it into websites that accpet HTML.

I am enjoying using GoGoPin and really appreciate your free service! I highly recommend it to any0ne wanting to make a professional looking webflyer!”

GoGoPin Ad is at your service, free as ever., and the GoGoPin Team wishes Premier Ads the best of luck.

Have a similar story? Email your testimonial to support@gogopin.com , and we’ll share your story, too.

Opinions about marketing by way of social networking are are all over, and yes, I have one too. The book of social networking etiquette is unbound and without a standard. Do’s and Don’ts are bounced about and as we recently implemented the ability to post directly to Facebook from GoGoPin Ad, I have been getting my feet wet with social networking toward business objectives. GoGoPin Ad’s  business objective is to provide online content creation tools to people who post items or promote their services online. Recently, Bernice Ross from Inman News wrote an article titled: “Do’s and Don’ts of Social Networking“. Ross is quite right in stating: “The younger your potential client is, the more likely he or she is to search you out on Google, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.” But internet adoption continues to rise across all age groups, and to reach them requires getting your feet wet with social networking (see previous post).

Personal and Professional Profiles: Who Are You?

GoGoPin’s business objective using social networking is becoming more effective with practice, and I haven’t lost any friends in the process. Navigating to the right audience is a challenge, as Jeremiah Owyang stated in his Web Strategist post entitled “The Future of the Social Web: In Five Eras” According to Owyang: “Today’s social experience is disjointed because consumers have separate identities in each social network they visit.” He goes on to describe a very useful model of social networking done by Forrester Research in April of 2009 called “Future of the Social Web in Five Eras” . Forrester has come up with a diagram of how social networking is changing the ecommerce landscape over time.  As seen in the following diagrams provided by Jessica Tsai in Social Media: The Five-Year Forecast:

Forrester April 2009

Commerce online moves in time from top to bottom in the diagram above, and the Eras overlap as seen below:

Forrester April 2009

 
The conceptual eras ring true. Social networking is not only changing the way we present ourselves as consumers, but the way that we actually transact – as buyers and sellers. It is not only consumers that have separate identities in each social network but companies as well. Agents, Brokers, and businesses of all kinds have depended on referrals from personal and professional networks prior to the Industrial Revolution and earlier. How does a small business present itself in a social network of individuals? Over time the Era of Social Commerce is nigh, where brands will remain strong, but only in as much as they are part of the social networking community at large. That is done by individual marketing professionals, and it is in this capacity GoGoPin will continue with the next post in this series: “Our Space and Phasebook”.

Years ago, I had the tremendous opportunity to fill two 19 foot moving vans with enough retail display cases, platforms, etc. to fill a department store. It was all free – I was saving this premium furniture from the landfill.

I should have left it where it lay at the time, because once I put what would fit in my small shop, I couldn’t GIVE the rest away! Craigslist did not seem to do the trick when I was selling used business to business stuff. It was nice too and in good condition – not unlike the display below.

I would love to have had a site like UsedBizStuff to post these items. I paid rent and provided shelter for these empty shelves until their final resting place at my expense. UsedBizStuff serves a specific niche for business owners and entrepreneurs that desire to buy and sell used business equipment in the areas of Office Equipment & Furniture, Store Fixtures & Retail Displays, Restaurant Equipment, Business Closings and Liquidation Sales. What’s more, they will accept HTML code from GoGoPin Ad!

Rick Hayden from UsedBizStuff said:

“After researching GoGoPin, we made the necessary changes so that your tools would be compatible with our site.  We also placed a sample GoGoPin ad on our site for advertisers to see how great their ads could look!”…and: “best wishes for your success with the multiple platforms that we have seen.”

We appreciate the effort to enable GoGoPin Ad makers to become Business to Business buyers and sellers on UsedBizStuff. I hope it helps retailers resell their multiple platforms to the best offer out there. Spare the landfill – we’re all better off.

Free Online Classified Ad Maker

Press Release: GoGoPin Ad Free Classified Ad Maker – Robust and Fast!

Immediately upon the above release there was a  subsequent article in SOA (Systems Oriented Architecture) Magazine: SOA Article .

Short and Sweet – sharing the news. We have more enhancements on the way!

Market Watch Journalist from the Wall St. Journal, Jennifer Openshaw, wrote: “Think about it: companies are selling assets right and left as a way to get cash and get rid of debt. So why not you?”. Well,  “Why Not” you ask but “Where?”.

Openshaw continues: “…Sites like Craigslist and Kijiji are great because they’re free, easy to use and post products, and they get a much larger reach while still being “local.”.

Craigslist or Kijiji?

Well, from GoGoPin’s perspective it’s a matter of the (drum roll…) format of your choice upon Exporting in GoGoPin Ad. We recommend the Search Engine functionality on Craigslist. Kijiji your favorite? Can do.

Choose keywords and descriptions your buyers will search for.

After you enter your Title (for your own reference) You must enter Keywords (we automatically offer words you’ve typed in your ad). Then you should enter a good Description of what you’re Ad is meant to communicate. So boast and dress your description with keywords that both readers and search engines will be attracted to. If you have done this with care – we recommend you post your ad on Craigslist, because your Keywords and Descriptions will help buyers find your ad by way of Search Engine Optimization. If you want to get started now – Click Here

Once you’ve completed this information you currently have three options (more soon – post to Facebook and share with friends)!

Craigslist, Kijiji, or Anywhere!

The three options are not mutually exclusive – you can use all three. But more to the point:

• HTML – Craigslist or eBay – Sites that accept pasting HTML.
• JPEG   – Kijiji or email your GoGoPin Ad as a single picture.
• PDF    -  Printable GoGoPin Ad.

Kijiji doesn’t accept HTML. No problem! Download your GoGoPin Ad as a JPEG and reproduce your Title and Description on Kijiji.

Get Started with a Free Classified Ad Now

Become A Fan on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Add to Technorati Favorites

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a big help to the success of your Classified Ad if you are copying and pasting the HTML code presented to you upon exporting your finished work (see the previous post about Keywords for more information).  There are three fields upon saving or exporting your Classified Ad:

• Title
• Keywords
• Description

SEO Enhancements

The Title here is for your own purposes, to distiguish your Ads and Flyers or work-in-progress from your other work.

The Keywords are any text that you may have entered into your Ad or Flyer. You may add more keywords.

The Description will appear in your ad when you post it using the  HTML code.

So suppose you’ve filled in the following information…

Make Your Classified SEO'd

When you paste the HTML Code your Keywords and Description will appear in your ad:

Your buyer is putting these words into a search box!

Description:
A Beautiful Apartment in Seattle…

Keywords:
Seattle, Apartments, Rentals

See the Keywords and Description text in the image above (click image to enlarge)?

Those words will now be searchable and most importantly findable by your buyers; A new enhancement to classified ads powered by GoGoPin.com. Under the Keywords field a link for more help appears in a new window without interrupting your work : More Help With Keywords.

If you missed it before, refer to our previous blog post “The Importance of Keywords“.

Multiple Photo Upload

Do you need to upload more than one picture from your computer ? Then you will love this enhancment to GoGoPin Ad.  Now you can upload up to 5 pictures at once and this means far less time and energy for you to upload the pictures. This is what you need to do:

1. Click the picture tab as you did before.
2. Double-click the picture object or click the Wrench and Upload.
3. Click Upload from Computer.
4. Choose multiple picture by the following methods – Remember it only allows up to 5 pictures for now.
   • Mouse Drag.
   • Press Shift key and Mouse Click.
   • Press CTRL key and Mouse Click.
5. Click the Open button when you’re done with selecting.
6. Then the pictures you choose will be uploaded automatically.
7. Enjoy! – Uploading time can vary depending on the file size and internet connection.

Multiple Photo Upload – Visual Aid

Select up to 5 photos at once.

All 5 selected photos in one upload