I think it’s probably safe to say that a very large percentage of computer users have, at some point, either purchased or sold something on eBay. And the same percentage of users who have bought or sold have seen the either extremely brief product descriptions or the descriptions that are so long that you could never possibly weed out the “real” info.

Enter audio. With the debut of services like Odeo, it’s easier than ever to publish audio content on the web. So what is being suggested here? Podcast your eBay auction! Simply record your product description and then link to the audio on your eBay auction. You’d still want to include a written description for obvious reasons, but using an audio description sure would set your auction apart.

Tip: Auction Bytes

My friends over at Firewheel Design have launched a great new Web based tool that any small business owner should check out. It’s called Blinksale, and it’s a great, easy to use and learn tool for sending and managing invoices online. From the site:

Blinksale is perfect for anyone who needs to invoice customers and clients for services or products sold. As a design company, we created Blinksale with professional service industries in mind. Additionally, with time-billing invoices and product invoices, Blinksale is an excellent choice for attorneys, accountants, IT professionals, software developers, journalists, contractors, engineers, architects, videographers, and more. Basically, if you need to send invoices, Blinksale can work for you.

I’ve spent a bit of time with it and I’ve found it to live up to the hype. If you’ve wanted to have a simple yet powerful tool to help you with your invoicing, Blinksale might be right up your alley.

As a very visual learner, I love these kinds of diagrams. They’ll often really help me get my mind around something and more importanly, keep it there.

The 8-page kit includes the following diagrams, both on odd pages (”fronts”) and even pages (”backs”), so you can choose how you want to print them:

* The original Getting Things Done diagram from the ubiquitous David Allen book (simply resized for your convenience from the original diagram available here), henceforth called GTD-DA
* The GTD advanced workflow diagram by Scott Moehring (scaled from the original available here), henceforth GTD-SM
* My new version of the GTD diagram, including prompts for mind sweeps and the weekly review, which I call GTD-DJ
* My version of a Covey Quick Reference, a summary of the methods from First Things First, which I call Covey-DJ

(Hat tip to Lifehack.org)

I’ve had so much great feedback on my “Be a more productive blogger” post that I’ve decided to dedicate a Web site (and blog) to the concept. Way back I did a series of posts over at Asterisk on how to design, build and maintain a successful blog. Those posts were very popular and seemed to help quite a few people. After that I’d write on a fairly regular basis about tips, tricks and techniques for bloggers and, again, those posts seemed to be helpful for many people.

I thought about writing a book, and still may explore that idea, but for now, I figured I’d blog about it. So I give you Successful Blog where you’ll get tips, tricks, techniques and proven know-how to get the best from your blog. It’s still a baby, so if you want, you can just grab the feed and I’ll have some good, helpful, content your way soon!

Via Wired comes news of a great resource for DIYers: wikiHow.

What you’ll find on wikiHow are all sorts of how-tos. Everything from making martinis to how to construct a septic system. How-tos are submitted by users and are fairly detailed in the main. The search feature is pretty good as well, and a few random searches can really show you how many how-tos they’ve got.

Merlin Mann (who’s 43 Folders is a great resource in of itself) has provided the ultimate introduction to the world of personal productivity and Getting Things Done (GTD). This was as close to a formal introduction as I had to the whole idea that there was any sort of community resources for GTD and was one of the things that got me sold on the idea that; as productive as I felt I was, I could still learn a thing or three.

It really is a great place to start if you want to take the leap and try to be more productive, less stressed and get more things done.

These easy to follow, yet amazingly complete, notes can be very helpful for those just who are either new to “getting things done” or who might need a quick refresher. I don’t recommend these as a substitute for reading the book, but if you’d like to print something out and keep around when you need a quick reference or just want to quickly refresh your memory to the core points of GTD.

Resource: The Getting Things Done Public Forum

Last night I spent some time over at David Allen’s Getting Things Done Forum. I found lots of great stuff there, from fairly active discussions on GTD to a pointer to the “original” GTD workflow chart.

You’ve got to register to begin a thread, but it’s pretty painless and could open you up to a great support system.