|
|
|
|
08/10/08 |
    
|
NoraJean's Page
When faced with the task of writing a welcome letter for this web section I thought, hey, I wrote a welcome and an overview of what's going on with me on my first post to CCBA. Why not use that? Those who are already part of CCBA before I posted will have seen it. Those who come later will most likely stumble over it. ----- Forwarded Message ----
I want to welcome the 14 new list members who came on board in the
last 24 hours. Some of you are in the same situation I am, wanting to
sell and not knowing the first thing about it.
What I think would be nice is for all of us to introduce ourselves to each other. What sort of crafts are you wanting to sell? Have you had experience in the past and are re-entering the vendor's world? Are you toying with the idea of setting up an online selling space instead of going "brick and mortar"? Ok, I'll start: My name is NoraJean and I am a polymer clay artist and teacher at CITY-o-Clay. I've been giving my creations away for free or for hella cheap for years. Pricing is difficult for me. It has come to the time where I either have to make money at what I do or I got to put all this "art stuff" on the back burner, again, and go get an office job. Beings that I'm pushing 60 I'm not marketable in the San Francisco corporate world. I'm no longer a "perky administrative assistant". So it looks like I got to make this art pay for itself and I have one year to do this. I am now separated from my husband and that's the deal we struck in April. Yeah, yeah. It's ok, I've come this far in my life and survived worse, so I'm not crying in my coffee. I'm determined to succeed in this venture. I have installed and uninstalled an "instant noodle" sales space on my website three times over the last few years. It's called OScommerce and here is what the default package looks like with me tweaking things in the back ground. http://norajean.com/Mall/catalog/index.php I realized when tweaking the settings in the background of this thing that I didn't know squat about what I was doing. I didn't even know if I wanted to go forward with this software supplied by my web host or go for something like Karen at ClayAlley uses - http://www.mals-e.com/home.php, which is also free. http://www.clayalley.com check out her website, she's been using this free shopping cart for years and does her own web changes. Then Debbie tells me about ZenCart, another "open source" software. http://www.zencart.com/ She and Randy swear by this and Debbie says she is doing her own edits. So that's where I am right now. If you are thinking of setting up a website but haven't yet, remember we have CITY-Computer, where we hold each other's hands when dealing with technology online. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/CITY-Computer/ What else... Oh the new web section for CCBA http://city-lists.com/CCBA/ It's still getting the last minute tweaking, like Debbie is writing the opening welcome message on the home page and we need some photos. On that web section is a space for links to our websites. On that web section is where we can feature/spotlight new vendors who are holding their virtual grand opening. On that web section good information that flows through this list will be posted there as articles, new links, and "whaddaboutdat" sort of editorials, so the general public can benefit from what we discover amongst ourselves. What do you need to do now? Introduce yourself, even if you think everyone knows you from elsewhere. Tell us what lead you to this point of taking the first step to selling, or getting into selling again. What are your hopes? What are your fears? Have you been bit once and are now twice shy? As for me, I've always had this dream, a little dream, of building my "noodle shack", like the movie TamPoPo. I'm just a granny with no 401K, no savings, and no knight in shining armor to save my butt. I got to make money doing what I love the most because I believe with all my heart that if we do what we love... the money will follow. We just got to find the trick of it, that's all. Together we will find out faster, get less frustrated, have good fellowship, and share our successes. That's the hope I have for myself, this list, and all y'all. So... your turn now xoxo NJ http://www.norajean.com
|
This site was last updated 02/08/08