Listing new inventory can take some major time out of our days but it doesn’t have to.  With some time and ingenuity I’ve managed to speed up the process dramatically in Monsoon and using this method you can too!  WARNING: Technical jargon and steps ahead.  Proceed with caution. As many of you know I moved over to Monsoon almost a year ago now to take over my listing, inventory management and order fulfillment.  I really like the product even though it’s a little pricey but you get what you pay for, right?  I might do a proper review one of these days.  In any case, I decided to see what could be done about getting inventory into Monsoon a little bit faster.  This post is what I came up with. For anyone that is not using Monsoon this post may not be too relevant to you but it may give you some ideas on how Monsoon works if you’re looking into the product.  Also, if you want to use this method you also need to have Microsoft Excel installed on your computer. Monsoon allows you two different options for inputting new inventory; the inventory receiving tab or via data import.  The majority of the time I used to use the inventory receiving tab.  This allowed me to scan an ISBN, set everything I wanted and be done.  I assume this is how most scan in inventory in Monsoon.  However, I doubt that most people are constantly looking for automated methods to make tasks quicker like me. Monsoon also gives you the option to do a data import.  Monsoon, like many other applications, stores all of it’s information into a database.  When you use the inventory receiving tab to put in books one at a time it’s just putting single records into the database.  However, with the data import method this allows you to create a spreadsheet ahead of time with many different books and bring them all in at one time.  Pretty sweet, right?  This is the way to go if you have lots to list at once which I generally do. I’ve chosen to create a custom Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with a macro that is as automated and fool-proof as possible.  For the techies out there, it uses data validation in some cells so that it’s harder for me to make a typo and also provides drop-down boxes so that I don’t have to memorize my Monsoon classifications and type out conditions all the time.  This means when the spreadsheet is done it will always be saved in the way Monsoon needs it. There are a few steps we need to do to get this accomplished:

1. Download my Monsoon listing template.
2. Fill in all the information about the books you want to list.
3. Use my Excel macro to save it in the format Monsoon can import.
4. Import the file into Monsoon.

Here’s what you’ll see when you first open up the template.  Not too much to look at, right? However, take a look at some of the drop-downs I’ve created.  This is so I don’t have to remember them all! You can customize those lists by going to the second worksheet.  There you’ll see the classification and condition lists which are easily modifiable. The rest is pretty simple.  Just follow through putting in the ASIN, Locator Code, Classification (if any) and Condition one row at a time.  You’ll notice there is no price.  This is because Monsoon automatically assigns a price based on my pricing rules. Once you have everything added, you’ll now use an Excel macro. If you take a look at the first screenshot you’ll see a yellow smiley face icon.  This is what I click to run this macro.  This macro essentially just saves the file to a tab-separated file to import into Monsoon.  It will save the spreadsheet into this type of file and name it the current date with “-Monsoon Listing.txt” on the end.  It’s currently saving it to C:\Documents and Settings\administrator\desktop\Monsoon Imports but if you’re going to use this I can show you where to change that at. To run the macro, you can create the custom button to click or go to Tools..Macro..Macros. Click on Macros and then click Run when you have it selected. The spreadsheet will then go away and you’ll have a nice .txt file ready to be imported into Monsoon called CURRENTDATE-MonsoonListings.txt. We’ll now go into Monsoon and bring up our data import window.  You can find this by going to File…Import Inventory in Monsoon. Browse to your .txt file that was created and Monsoon will bring up a informational box telling you it’s going to auto-generate a SKU which is fine.  Hit OK, wait a few minutes and you’re done! You’ll now notice that every book that you had entered into the spreadsheet is now in your Monsoon inventory!  This may sound complicated at first if you’re not real tech savvy but I was able to cut down the time it took me to list a book considerably.  Once you get it setup initially and get used to the process you’ll find yourself using this to list batches of books all the time! P.S. If you see the potential is automating processes like this and you’d like streamline things in your online business contact me.  I might be able to help you out pretty cheaply.

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The Only Way to List Batches of Books in Monsoon [ 5:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (126)

When I first started selling books on the Internet I had no idea where it would go.  I sold a few here and there from my shelf at home and that first big group of  books that I bought from a local FOL sale was kind of like a shot in the dark.  My wife nearly killed me because, at the time, I had no idea where I was going to even put them all let alone know how to sell all of them.  This is how I’ve been and always will be.  I guess it’s just a personality trait of mine.  I don’t typically plan a whole lot.  If I want to try something new I’ll jump and then ask questions later even if it means throwing some cash at it.

This is what I’ve done with Monsoon.  If you’re new to this blog you can find my first post on this huge change in business that I’ve done at the post Making the Leap into the Unknown.  To summarize that post if you’re too lazy to go look at it I basically explain that sometimes you just have to take the leap and do it.  No amount of planning in the world is going to be enough and eventually you’ll just have to just do it.  This can be applied to the situation I’m in now or even if you’re never sold a book in your life!  Doing days upon days of research and more research, deciding on exactly what type of book scouting setup you need, knowing exactly which books to buy before you even start is ridiculous.  This might work if you’re going to invest in a franchise that would cost you $50K to get started but it’s used books!  Used books are a dime a dozen and if they’re not that cheap the most you’d be out for a few dozen books to try out is $20 or less.  There is no excuse for not trying because if you don’t try you’ll never succeed.  Want to know a good starting point?  My eBook!

I’m interrupting my regularly scheduled book scouting series post this week.  I wanted to take this time to update everyone on why I haven’t been too active posting as well as not living up to my promise of getting the Amazon Sales Spreadsheet out much, much sooner.  Sometimes, it’s very hard to balance a full-time traditional 9-5 job, successful online bookselling business as well as writing about it but I’m doing my best!

OK, that’s about enough of my pity party.  This post is all about my experience getting started with Monsoon.  This post will most likely not apply to new sellers as Monsoon can be very pricey and is geared towards sellers in the likes of Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc.  I don’t pretend to even be close to their sales volume but this is the first step of achieving that goal!

Here is how things have been going for me for the past few weeks.

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