How companies such as L. L. Bean and Sun Microsystems are using online auctions to help boost their bottom lines From liquidating excess inventory to B2B materials procurement, corporate America has discovered online auctions as a catalyst for redefining old supply-chain relationships and business practices. Most analysts consider them the next big business opportunity. The Auction App details the tools and tactics employed by Sun Microsystems, Coca-Cola, and companies of any size and virtually every industry for creating, conducting, managing, and executing online auctions. Greater numbers of businesses will be able to discover the numerous profitable advantages of utilizing online auctions. The Auction App shows them how to: Liquidate excess inventory Acquire new customers cost-effectively Conduct real-time market research Provide new avenues of cooperation between sellers and suppliers

Offers a systematic approach to the examination of online procurement auctions. Growth in online auctions reinforces the need for understanding the factors important in auctions and the caveats that both researchers and practitioners need to know in order to effectively study and use the auction tool.

Transform fundraising events into long-term revenue with expert auction advice A Higher Bid is the nonprofit school and organization guide to planning and executing more exciting, more lucrative special event fundraisers. In this book, award-winning consultant, fundraiser, speaker, and professional auctioneer Kathy Kingston shares her proprietary and proven approaches to audience development, board empowerment, leadership succession, guest cultivation and engagement, and donor development. You'll learn how live auctions, special appeals, innovative icebreakers, silent auctions, and new technologies can help increase revenue, and how to execute these events in a way that translates to a stronger donor base for long-term giving. Kingston describes how to match the guest list and catalog for better results, and reveals the strategies professional auctioneers use to curate the right auction items and discover the right people to generate optimum revenue and engage donors. This book offers a fresh approach to fundraising, showing you how charity benefit auctions can be made a centerpiece of fundraising special events to drive both short- and long-term fundraising goals while providing a fun and inspiring opportunity to generate awareness and keep supporters excited about the mission. Using Kingston's proven framework, you'll learn effective ways to: Strategically increase high-profit revenue streams Increase your organization's donor base Empower the board toward efficiency and productivity Engage supporters more deeply and keep them invested Donors are the lifeblood of any nonprofit organization, and sustainable revenue depends upon their high engagement and willingness to give. Well-executed benefit and charity auctions have proven to be effective fundraisers for nonprofits, associations, and schools of all types, and A Higher Bid is the expert guide to optimizing these special events for maximum impact.

In an age of overwhelming Internet competition and rampant takeovers, marketers face the very real challenge of understanding how to engage customers online. Leland Harden and Bob Heyman, online marketing pioneers and authors of the popular book Net Results, team up again to teach marketers how to use search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, and all of the Web 2.0 tools they need to compete in the digital marketplace. Filled with up-to-date information on the best venues for online marketing, as well as explanations of social networking, virtual worlds, widgets, wikis, and emerging media, Digital Engagement shows marketers how to: stop burning money on web advertising campaigns that don't deliver • tweak websites to improve conversions and traffic flow • master proven strategies for consumer-generated media to generate buzz and improve brand recognition Featuring case studies from companies like Toyota and Tommy Hilfiger as well as lists of key vendors for online marketing software, this is the only book that offers a truly comprehensive guide to all of the new online marketing tools.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.