Digital Life: The Hidden Cost to Selling on eBay...Shipping

This great article from www.entrepreneur.com focuses on how to lower your shipping cost when selling on eBay. I can remember the early days of eBay when you could throw your sold item into any old box and every small store was dying to give you all their extra packing peanuts. Nowadays, packing peanuts and boxes have value and nothing is for free anymore.

The expectations of buyers have also gone up substantially with many expecting professional looking packaging and multiple shipping options. This article explores how to lower your shipping costs from purchasing supplies, shipping insurance, and various shipping methods.

Click here to see our Spring eBay workshop!

Business: 4th Place Ain't Bad for Washington

Whatcom County entrepreneurs are in a good state--both mentally and geographically. In Business Week's "Ranking States for the New Economy", the Kaufman Foundation has compiled a list of states that are most prepared for a soft skill, knowledge-based, entrepreneurial economy--the economy of the future.

While Massachusetts grabbed top honors, Washington came in at a very respectable 4th place, ranking highly in areas of export manufacturing and "job churning."

To read the full article, plus a slide show of the top ten states, click here.

Digital Life: Secret Searching By Google

Google has a secret website that very few people know about where they test new interfaces for their main website. Known as SearchMash, this site utilizes the newest web technologies as Google works to design the newest hottest interface. For those of you who have taken our Google class, this is a fascinating look at where Google may be going with search technology.

Behind the Scenes at Community Ed: Choosing Our Schedule Covers

Have you ever wondered where those happy images come from that you see on our printed schedule covers? Those heart-warming slices of life that make you want to look inside (we hope) and browse through all the fun and useful classes we offer each quarter? Well, we know how important our covers are and so we put a fair amount of time and effort into creating them.

It starts with Mitch, our graphics guy, who pores over hundreds and hundreds of images available online in the Getty collection of stock photos. He looks for images that convey energy and a positive feeling for the upcoming season. The images also need to cleanly fit the layout proportions and accommodate all the type that goes on the cover. From roughly 5 hours of searching he chooses 8 to 12 potential images and mocks them up as thumbnail layouts with the cover type.

Next our director, Greg, and staff members Linda, Shandeen, and Katie, who plan all the classes, get together with Mitch and discuss the choices. It's always a lively give and take as each person champions an image and tells the others why. Eventually we all seem to agree on THE ONE image that will best promote our classes for that quarter. And that is what you eventually see in your mailbox or in locations around town.

Computer: Kodak Set to Launch Printer Line with Cheap Ink!

Kodak is entering the home printer world with a brand new line of printers. These photo-quality printers most exciting feature is the ink cartridges which will be 50% less expensive than those from rival printer manufacturers.
Most manufacturers sell you the printer really cheap and make their money by charging a lot of money on the ink cartridge. Kodak is going to sell their ink cartridges for $10-$15 dollars. For those people looking for a new printer, this may be a great purchase this summer.
Click here for the full story.