IZANIA MARKET.com Featured on BLACK ENTERPRISE.com

If You Build It, Will They Come?
Black online auction community makes bid for growth
http://www.blackenterprise.com/ExclusivesEKOpen.asp?id=1477
By Cliff HockerIt’s miles from eBay, but iZaniaMarket (www.izaniamarket.com ) is on its way to becoming the online auction destination for consumers who want a little ethnicity in their purchase options. With only a little more than 250 unique visitors on Black Friday, iZaniaMarket has a long way to go before it can compete with eBay, which had 9.5 million unique visitors the day after Thanksgiving. But that was iZaniaMarket’s first day in business. The Columbus, Ohio-based Internet auction site is a recent addition to the iZania.com online community, which launched in 2003.

Like eBay, the founders of iZaniaMarket hope the e-commerce site will be a great shopping location as well as a great place for people to realize their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs. Most iZaniaMarket sellers are black retailers, says CEO Roger Madison Jr. who was inspired to create iZania after a three-year stay in South Africa following that nation’s 1994 democratic elections. Madison says the experience showed him the power of black people working together for their own self-interest.

At iZaniaMarket, anyone can sell virtually anything to anyone who logs on, so merchandise runs the gamut from home electronics, books, and clothing to video games, computers, and software. The marketplace also includes Afrocentric items that are hard to find in suburban malls. Artist Annie Lee’s figurines stand with arts and collectibles, and Negro League baseball jackets can be found among unique apparel selections. Hair and beauty products are available, as are calendars.

The site accepts all major credit cards and also offers payment options through PayPal. In the site’s first week, merchants opened 16 stores at iZaniaMarket, each paying only $10 per month for rent and can list up to 1,000 items. Through the end of November, early sellers and buyers had posted 628 listings, with 284 auctions still active. Madison says fees that iZaniaMarket charges for listings and other auction transactions are generally 30% to 40% less than traditional auction sites. The site has grown to more than 3,000 subscribers.

The inevitable comparison to eBay, says Madison, stops at iZaniaMarket being an auction site. “What’s similar is the functionality of having auctions, fixed-price items, buy-now options, and opportunities to open an iZaniaMarket store. The difference is that, while eBay’s auctioneering success incidentally spawned a network of users, iZania built the community first, and then offered an auction site within that,” says Madison.

Ghana Wants Once-Enslaved Diaspora to Come Home

released on 12/27/05 at 09:40:28

CAPE COAST, Ghana For centuries, Africans walked through the infamous “door of no return” at Cape Coast castle directly into slave ships, never to set foot in their homelands again.

These days, the portal of this massive and fearsome edifice has a new name, hung for all to see on a sign on the side leading in from the roaring Atlantic Ocean back into the slave fort: “The door of return.”

Ghana, through whose ports millions of Africans passed on their way to plantations in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, wants its descendants to come back.

Taking Israel as its model, Ghana hopes to persuade the descendants of enslaved Africans to think of Africa as their homeland, to visit, invest, send their children to be educated here and even retire here.

To encourage more to come, or at least visit, Ghana plans to offer a special lifetime visa for members of the diaspora and will relax citizenship requirements so that descendants of slaves can receive Ghanaian passports. On the home front, Ghana is starting an advertising campaign to persuade Ghanaians to treat African-Americans more like long-lost relatives than rich tourists. That is harder than it sounds. Full Article

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/26/news/ghana.php

Fw: Friends open local tax firm

Friends open local tax firm – http://www.cjonline.com/stories/122205/bus_taxfirm.shtml

‘Our goal is to help people make money’

By Michael Hooper
The Capital-Journal

Five friends have opened Compro-Tax in Topeka to help people file their taxes and provide bookkeeping services.

Compro-Tax conducted a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday at 3707 S.W. Plaza Drive. The office is in a commercial building east of the south Topeka Wal-Mart.

The five owners/tax preparers are Shantel Downing, George Murray, Louise Jones, Denise Bailey and Sydni Holland. Each person took a 12-week course and passed a test this month, authorized by the Internal Revenue Service, to fill out tax returns, Murray said.

Jones said she has been helping people file taxes for about 12 years. She has had a home-based business and said she has filed more than 100 income tax returns every year for more than 10 years. She is bringing those clients with her to Compro-Tax.

She said she likes Compro-Tax because it is a national tax preparation firm that keeps abreast of yearly changes in tax law and helps affiliate offices comply.

Compro-Tax, of Beaumont, Texas, has more than 100 offices in more than 16 states. It was founded in 1982 with the mission of empowering the community from the bottom, according to its Web site, www.compro tax.com.

“Our goal is to help people make money and do the best we can,” Bailey said.

The new Topeka office has six computers, Internet access, telephone and fax machine. Wichita has had a Compro-Tax office for a year.

Murray said he likes the location of the Topeka office because there is so much traffic from White Lakes Center, Wal-Mart and workers at the Target Distribution Center, Frito-Lay and Forbes Field.

Mayor Bill Bunten said opening a business is always an adventure with highs and lows.

“It’s America at its finest,” Bunten said. “You take a chance. Some businesses make it, some don’t. But I have a feeling this will make it.

“What a good time, too. We’re proud of you, and we’re pleased you’re starting your business here. We wish you well.”

Marilyn Evan, an ambassador for the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce, handed the owners their first dollar of profit before they cut the ribbon.

COMPRO-TAX

Address: 3707 S.W. Plaza Drive, Topeka

Phone: (785) 266-0040

Services: Tax preparation, refund anticipation loans, electronic filing, bookkeeping and computerized financial services.

Michael Hooper can be reached at (785) 295-1293 or michael.hooper@cjonline.com.

Anthony S. Bush/The Capital-Journal

Compro-Tax owners, from left, Shantel Downing, Denise Bailey, Sydni Holland, Louise Jones and George Murray, cut the ribbon at their new office, 3707 S.W. Plaza Drive, with Mayor Bill Bunten and Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce ambassador Ed Carmona.

Click here to check for reprint availability.

ebay giving – missionfish

Great Way For Nonprofits To Raise Money Via ebay!!

	Nonprofits sign up with MissionFish.
	eBay sellers pick a nonprofit and a percentage to share for each sale.
	Once the item is listed, bidding begins on eBay. (Nonprofits reserve the right to cancel items listed on their behalf.)
	If the item sells, the seller gets paid by the buyer and ships the item – same as always.
	MissionFish collects the donation from the seller, pays the nonprofit and provides a tax receipt. (Does not apply to Nonprofit Direct Sellers.)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> http://www.missionfish.org/About/howitworks.jsp

eBay Giving Works Fee Donation Policy

eBay Giving Works is the dedicated program for charity listings on eBay. Since 2000, the eBay Community has raised more than $54 million for a number of worthy causes from listings sold on eBay worldwide. To further support your generosity, eBay enacted the eBay Giving Works Fee Donation Policy, effective January 1, 2005 and amended to include more eligible listings September 9, 2005.

When a seller elects to donate at least 90% of an eBay Giving Works listing’s final sale price to a certified nonprofit in the program and the item sells, eBay will donate the Insertion and Final Value Fees paid by the seller to the organization designated within the listing, up to a total of $2 million per year.

Example:

Seller Lists Camera on eBay Starting Price Final Sale Price $10.00 $100.00 Donation Percentage Benefiting Nonprofit 95% IBSA, Inc. Insertion Fee Final Value Fee $25 X 5.25% $75 X 2.75% Total Final Value Fee $0.60 $1.31 $2.06 $3.37 eBay Fee Donation to IBSA, Inc. $3.97

Additional Information:

• Reserve fees and optional feature fees are not included in the fee donation.

• An item must sell in order to prompt a fee donation

• Qualified listings include the eBay Giving Works feature (all non-eBay Giving Works charity listings must comply with eBay’s Charity Listing Policy but will not be eligible).

• Store Inventory items are eligible.

• Both Community Selling and Direct Selling listings are eligible.

• A seller must elect to donate at least 90% of an item’s final sale price to qualify for the fee donation beginning September 9, 2005 – for listings which closed between January 1 and September 8, 2005, only 100% contributions were eligible.

At the close of each quarter, eBay aggregates the Insertion Fees and Final Value Fees paid by sellers for eligible eBay Giving Works listings that ended within that quarter. eBay then forwards the funds for the fee donations to MissionFish, the dedicated solution provider for eBay Giving Works. MissionFish disburses 100% of the donated fees to the applicable nonprofit beneficiaries according to the schedule below. The nonprofit receives an EFT to the bank account on file with MissionFish (note, sometimes banks can take a few days to record receipt).

Fee Donation Schedule
Selling Period	Disbursement Date
January – March	May 10th
April – June	August 10th
July – September	November 10th
October – December	February 10th

If the scheduled disbursement date occurs on a Saturday, Sunday, or observed holiday, the donation will be disbursed on the next business day.

Related Help topics

• eBay Giving Works: Selling to Benefit Nonprofit Organizations

• eBay Giving Works: Buying to Benefit Nonprofit Organizations

• eBay Giving Works: Information for Nonprofits

• eBay Giving Works Homepage

• Charity Listing Policy

If you have an additional question about this subject, email us at Customer Support.
If you would like to ask a question on another subject, please use the Contact Us page.

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Fw: The original debraider makes great stocking stuffers try them out for yourself