New Year's Resolutions

We all have them. Exercise more, lose weight, stop eating chocolate (that's one that has never been on my list), keep in touch more.....! This year I really wanted doable, motivating goals for Community Swap Shop and for me personally. First, I'm planning to simplify my life as much as possible. My husband and I are downsizing and getting rid of a lot of "stuff" and it feels great! Less to clean, less to maintain, less to move. We will have more time to concentrate on business, take long walks, visit with family and enjoy our hobbies. Hopefully we will save more money, grow another successful vegie and herb garden this year and maintain good health.

In the day to day life of building this website I have resolved to do more speaking engagements and encourage our mission of buying, selling and trading locally to minimize our footprint on the earth and support our friends and neighbors. I have come across a couple of important websites that I think will be helpful to all of us. One is www.myfootprint.org. Take their quiz and you'll be shocked at the drastic impact we all have on the Earth in our lifetime! Another that just came across my computer today is called Move Your Money. A group of well known writers got together over the holidays and wondered what the average person could do to help this financial crisis we're in and stop big banks from taking taxpayer money to pay for big bonuses. The answer is simple. Move your money, or at least some of it, away from the big banks and to local community banks. Check out their video on YouTube, http://moveyourmoney.info/, which compares the story of George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life to exactly what we are experiencing today. Not only will you support yet another local business but you maintain some control and bring power back to the people where it belongs.

I am determined this year to make other people's lives better in whatever way I can. So many people have helped me through the years--some I knew, some I did not. My family and friends have helped me through both profoundly happy and profoundly sad life events. A stranger once stopped on the side of the road and helped my family when the gas gauge broke on our car (we did not realize this) and we ran out of gas. This past spring and summer my neighbor helped me better understand the timing of my vegetables in my garden as he's 75 and been doing it a lot longer than me.

We cannot get along in this world without the help and support of others. It's that simple. So please help out these small businesses who struggle during this continuing tough economy. Wouldn't you rather know that your favorite local shoe store stayed in business instead of some big CEO getting yet another gazillion dollar bonus? Or doesn't a nice ripe red tomato from your own garden sound a lot more appetizing than the one shipped from Mexico ladened with pesticides? Every time we open our wallet and spend our money outside of our community we lose control. Try trading with your neighbors and using your own form of "exchange". We're pretty sure you'll have a much more "prosperous" New Year as a result.

From all of us at Community Swap Shop, Inc. we wish you all the best in 2010 and look forward to seeing you on the site as we continue to grow!

Terry E.

Winter Wonderlands

I was like a little kid this past Saturday when I was visiting family in the beautiful town of Frederick, Maryland and woke up to see snow falling. Living on the coast of NC we don't see snow very often and unless we head back to Massachusetts (where I grew up) for the holidays it's a rare event in our lives these days. The town of Frederick is really quaint-something straight out of Charles Dickens and the family we were visiting live in a row house in the center of town where everything is decorated and lit for the holidays. It really was like stepping back in time. That's part of what we try to do with this website. Step back in time a little bit and do things the way they used to be done. It's been really interesting to hear how local cobblers and seamstresses are doing a booming business as people are repairing shoes and clothes instead of going out and buying new ones. Consignment stores are also doing well whether they sell clothing or furniture and local mechanics are seeing a boost in business. We are finally repairing and recyling all these material things instead of replacing them. There are those that would argue that without mass production our economy will continue to stagger and faulter and yet without small business how will it do? There is room for both. I tend to lean towards the smaller more locally owned places with unique goods, in most cases higher quality goods and as is often the case, a relationship with the owner. Whatever your personal preferences there is bound to be something for you on our little "old fashioned 21st century" site that will interest you. If not now, later. I guarantee it.

Hope you are all getting through that holiday shopping, spending lots of time with loved ones and giving back in whatever way you can.

For now.

Terry

Cha Cha Cha Changes

Well we're having a really good time around here making things better. We've updated and redone our blog and will be adding more interesting and fun things to it on a regular basis. We'd love to add any thoughts or ideas you have for Community Swap Shop so feel free to email us if have something you'd like us to share. You can send us your Money Saving Tips, any good stories you have about trading with people, tell us about events going on in your area you think we should know about or send pictures of yourself with that great find! We'd love to hear from you and really get this site crankin'!

And even though we're small, I myself have made over $1000 already on the site just getting rid of "stuff" I don't need or want anymore. Actually some of it I didn't even remember I had. Since my husband and I will be moving in a few weeks I'm sure there will be plenty more (hint--I live in Wilmington if anyone is looking for some good deals). Need some really nice rocking chairs for your porch? They're only $25.00 a piece.

So have fun poking around and if you're interested in a Community Swap Shop in your area let us know. You can email your requests and anything you'd like us to consider posting on this blog to admin@communityswapshop.com.

Changes to Website/Thanksgiving

After lots of thought and consideration we have decided to make some exciting changes to our website. We are really listening to the input that our users give us and appreciate your thoughts and feedback. So we are very happy to let you know that real estate listings are now free to post. With the ongoing housing slump there's no doubt people need an extra boost in getting that property sold so we hope this helps. We have also decided not to have job listings posted on our site and wish we could do more in that regard to help with all the unemployment but it's a task beyond our current abilities. We have chosen instead to list Special Events going on in our various regions that we feel are important and helpful to local communities. That link will be up and running by the first of the year.

I personally want to tell you all how grateful I am, whether I know you personally or not, for all the support and enthusiasm surrounding the launch and growth of this website and it's mission. There is no doubt that we hope to make a living from it eventually but we also care very deeply about what's going on in the world and hope that somehow we can do something to put a little extra money in someone's pocket, help someone find that special "something" they've been looking for, bring new customers to small businesses and make our communities stronger. This economy has taken it's toll on many people including my own family and yet there are so many things to be grateful for. The wonderful people in our lives, the sunshine and rain and as my grandmother used to say, our memories. No matter what--no one can ever take away your memories. I myself keep a grateful journal and although I don't write it in as often as I should I am always amazed on what seem like the most difficult of days, how much I am able to put in that journal. It's all about perspective. So I hope this finds all of you who read this well and happy and grateful. From all of us at Community Swap Shop, Happy Thanksgiving and we wish everyday for Peace in the World.

Welcome Metro West, MA and New Reps.

We are again excited to announce another new region, Metro West, MA and Jodi Eldridge as our Community Rep. for that area. We are also really excited about Penny Kreysa who is our new Wilmington, NC rep. Both Jodi and Penny have tremendous backgrounds, strong commitments to their communities and genuinely understand our mission so again we are really excited to have them join our Community Swap Shop family. We will be adding a link on our website to all of our representatives contact information. If you would like more information about what's happening in your region, would like to advertise or would like to participate in our efforts in any way feel free to contact them. In the meantime you can find them here on our blog and in our newsletter.

Penny Kreysa, Wilmington, NC, penny@communityswapshop.com

Jodi Eldridge, Metro West, MA, jodi@communityswapshop.com

Stacy and Katie Woodard, statie4@communityswapshop.com

And on a final note, I personally want to thank all of the people who have helped us with this website from development to launch to the current growth. We have been fortunate to be surrounded by people who believe in our concept and consequently enormous support from an astounding number of people. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because I feel like it's the one holiday where we really understand the meaning of friends, family and of course, good healthy food to eat. Not everyone shares in those luxuries. So from us to all of you---thank you, thank you, thank you and may you have a wonderful and peaceful Thanksgiving.

Terry E.

President

Community Swap Shop, Inc.

Welcome Flagstaff/Sedona

Community Swap Shop is psyched to have a new region in Flagstaff/Sedona thanks to Stacy and Katie Woodard who are our reps. out there. The site just launched last week so things are moving along and we are looking forward to working with the Woodards to make it a great success. I personally can't wait to make a visit as Sedona has always been on my bucket list. Our Massachusetts sites are slow due to lack of community reps. in those areas but we continue to work on that and promise those sites will be beefed up soon. Wilmington, NC continues to flourish and we've had requests from three other cities in NC. We're really excited about all of the activity and look forward to the continued growth. Our grassroots efforts are paying off and hopefully people are making a little extra money and helping out their communities. We have some funky new ideas about marketing the site throughout the country--maybe even a little extreme so I'll report about that in another blog after we've made some decisions. In the meantime keep buying, selling and trading and enjoy the beautiful fall weather.

Blog Time???

Wow. We are so busy at Community Swap Shop, I forget how much time goes by before I'm keeping up with things. Thus this blog. It's been awhile and I'll try to be better. Besides our day to day responsibilities of making sure the site is operating well, our members and advertisers are happy and well represented, our site continues to grow, we meet and greet new prospective regions and community reps., we are busy facebooking, my spacing and twittering! A year ago if someone had told me I would be doing all of that in order to grow our business I would have been overwhelmed with the idea. On the contrary I have had the great joy of connecting with old friends through Facebook and even visiting with my friend Gloria over the summer who I had not seen in 28 years, finding discounts at my favorite spots through Twitter and well....still working on My Space. I'm meeting all kinds of amazing, community oriented, kind people who really understand our mission. I have the privilege of traveling to regions as we add them to our list and train them in our grassroots efforts. My goal now is to delegate more so that I can blog more and keep all of you who support us informed more often. I'll definitely put my best foot forward on that one. Our team at Community Swap Shop hopes you are doing well, prospering in these difficult times and that today is a good day for you.

Tech. Ed and Other Lessons in Life

I admit. I haven't been very good about keeping up with our blog but intend to do a much better job. Although our site is still small, it's growing everyday and there is a lot of work to do and so much to keep up with! Not that I'm complaining. This is all a good thing. And so now we Twitter, click here and we Facebook, click here and we're working on our My Space page. Besides being immersed in the learning curve of the social networking world, I've also heard from lots of old friends, actually meeting some in a week or so when I head to Cape Cod to reunite and catch up. They're excited about the site and hopefully we'll have a few more Massachusetts regions by the time I come back in a couple of weeks.

We are really excited to report that Austin's Tire and Auto in Wilmington has new customers thanks to the ad they have on our site and several other members report selling some stuff and making money. We're excited for them and have no doubt we'll continue to hear more and more stories like that. We have some great new local businesses advertising in Wilmington. Our thanks to Edgerton and Fisher dentistry and Comfortable Soles (great footwear!). And thanks to Matt Scomis, Business Account Executive with Comcast Communications for being our first advertiser in the Lowell area. If you've been keeping up with us you know that we are strong supporters of local businesses. So please frequent our advertisers and let them know you saw them on our site.

I am learning so much as we continue to grow this site and can't tell you how amazing our team is. I'm learning more about the tech. world thanks to Blake and Jeremy of Objective 3 in Carrboro, NC. I'm also learning about the enthusiasm of people despite a difficult economy, the creative ability of people to maintain a quality of life under challenging times and the absolute joy of the simplest things. Post your stuff! Make some money! Support your community. What are you waiting for?

Swap Shop

Hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July. Community Swap Shop is busy and growing everyday thanks to all of you. Our members are making money and our advertisers are getting some business. I myself made some money on some craft items I don't use anymore and we've heard rumors of deals on mountain bikes, air conditioners, antiques and boats. Those are just the items we've heard about so not bad for a brand new website. We are very excited to be adding Lowell, Massachusetts to our regions list thanks to the enthusiasm of people in that area. If you've made a deal let us know about it. We'd love to hear from our members via this blog.

You can now be a Community Swap Shop fan on Facebook, see us on My Space and soon follow us on Twitter. Thanks to my 20 something team (I'm only "slightly" older) I'm finding long lost friends, getting the word out and having a lot of fun.

We really hope that our members will have the opportunity to recycle some of their things in an easy, new fangled way with their neighbors and friends and contribute to their local communities. We keep driving this point home because we believe that everyone's quality of life starts in their own backyard and in their own community. Please visit our advertisers. They are the people who drive the economy in your area and the success of their business is important to all of us.

So have fun, keep spreading the word, keep in touch with us, make some good deals and support the locals!

Terry

Welcome to Community Swap Shop

Welcome to www.communityswapshop.com. We hope you will find the site a wonderful, one stop shop, safe and fun place to buy, sell and trade goods and services in your area. Our goal is to provide you with a place where you can focus on a particular area, find a house or apartment, find a job, buy that used dining room set from your neighbor down the street, call a local plumber and swap tomatoes for cucumbers with someone in your own community. We are committed to supporting local businesses and community members and your experience with us is important. Our site is newly launched so bear with us while we increase traffic, post more listings and add local businesses and additional features. Many of our members have already made some extra money and found some great deals and the site is getting rave reviews for it's ease of use and focus on local communities. The site is up and running in Wilmington, NC and will soon launch in Lowell, MA. It takes us only a few minutes to launch a site once we have a good fan base in that region so tell your friends, family, neighbors and colleagues! Email us at info@communityswapshop.com and let us know what region you would like to see us in.

Membership on the site is FREE and advertising rates are extremely reasonable. Community Swap Shop, Inc. will take a portion of our proceeds to fund charitable and non profit organizations on local levels that have some sort of global impact.

Please check out our links to websites such as localharvest.org to support your local farmers and farmer's markets and recyclingcenters.org to find recycling centers near you. Both sites require a zip code to find resources in your area. Real estate and job listings will be coming soon!

And finally, we know those big websites have way more stuff than we do right now. So go ahead and list your items on there but give us a try too. You just might find that your items are easier to find and therefore quicker to sell (or buy), you'll be supporting your local community and there's no shipping, surprises or hopefully safety issues to deal with. And please support our local advertisers. Small businesses are the heart of our communities and when they do well the greater economy does well.

Feel free to send comments or suggestions to us at support@communityswapshop.com. We look forward to keeping you updated and seeing you on our site.

All the best,
Terry E.
President
Community Swap Shop, Inc.