Free from 9 to 5

(Disclaimer: Affiliate links throughout this post, but I have actually bought, used and like these products. I shouldn’t have to mention this fact, but some people get uptight that I may possibly make a buck off their clicks without telling them.)

Why did I buy the Yahoo Store Profits eBook when I’m not using Yahoo Store? 2 reasons:

1. It contains a lot more information than just how to use Yahoo Stores; a lot of the information pertains to any online store. I couldn’t have known this for certain before buying it, but the description on their sales page along with their 90 day, 100% money back guarantee convinced me to give them a try.
2. Chris Malta, the owner of the Drop Ship Source Directory, recommended it. I already saw how useful his drop ship directory was, so I took his word that Yahoo Store Profits was worth it. After my purchase, I did come across a questionable you-rub-my-back-i-rub-your-back agreement in that Yahoo Store Profits eBook mentions using the Drop Ship Source Directory, and the Drop Ship Source Directory website recommends Yahoo Store Profits, but in the end, I feel the products are worth the money spent despite this perception of backroom bartering.

A lot of the information contained in Yahoo Store Profits can be gleaned from various sources on the web for free. I knew about even some of the more advanced techniques mentioned in this eBook through my own independent research, but having everything in one place does save a lot of time and doubt. It saves doubt because although I knew about the techniques, I didn’t know if they were effective or not. Yahoo Store Profits casts away some of that doubt. And it would have saved me hours of research if I had bought and read it from the start.

I’ll mention a very basic technique for finding the right product to sell online (mentioned in Yahoo Store Profits, but can also be found elsewhere):

1. With a product in mind, gauge the demand for the product by going to inventory.overture.com to see how many people searched for it last month.
2. Gauge the supply of the product by looking at number of Google AdWords ads, Google results, Overture bid prices, etc.
3. Determine the demand/supply ratio for the product. Some products have too much supply for you to easily sell well; others have no supply to be seen, but no demand either.

You want to find a product with decent demand and not too much supply. I know… very obvious, very vague and it’s easier said than done. But this is where it gets tricky because there is no right or surefire way to decide this.

Chris Malta’s Market Research Wizard tries to automate this process for you, but in the end, to my inexperienced eyes, it comes down to educated guessing, constant re-evaluation and a dash of luck. Yahoo Store Profits gives you techniques to quickly eliminate hard to sell products and contains hints and tips for advertising, but, just like in the offline world of retail, you still have to do your homework and legwork.

Once you think you’ve identified the right product(s) to sell, there’s really only one way to find out, and that’s to give it a go. With drop shipping suppliers and eBay/Zencart/Paypal, your start-up costs are minimal, so if you decide to go down this route of selling online, there really are no excuses for not trying. With its wealth of information, Yahoo Store Profits is a good place to start.

Business models that depend on hostage taking really irk me.

Last week, my fiance and I took studio portraits for our wedding later this year. I got a package that contained 2 portraits, a big album, 2 small albums and various other sundries, but I could only choose 30 photos out of the 150+ that were actually taken that day. All the photographs were great; it was hard to choose 30. After 90 minutes, we got it down to the final 30 that would be professionally touched up and used in our package.

We felt these 30 were the best. But I still would have liked digital copies of all the others, but the studio charged up the nose for each additional shot. $40! To get the other 120 would cost $4800! Granted, that would have included professional touch-up, but the studio refused to consider releasing them to me untouched-up. I asked for low resolution copies, so that I would have to come back to them for the high resolution originals in order to print them out properly. Refused, as well. I asked for a proof sheet where each photo is a tiny 1″x2″ on regular white paper. Refused again.

I understood the package I signed up for, but what are they going to do with the other photographs of me and my fiance? Annoying your customers like this is apparently the status quo among photography studios. But as Dan Sherman has also experienced and written about before, there is a business opportunity here.

Update: I totally agree I should have negotiated more upfront to get the original digital copies of all the photos. Lesson learned.

A post by Dori Smith about lack of women in the IT workplace and lack of interest in working in IT by women. But in the comments, there is also an underlying theme of companies not hiring anyone who’s not male, 18-25, and willing to work insane hours for beans, not just females.

This just makes more timely and relevant the “Moving on to post-corporate life” series that David St. Lawrence at Ripples has been writing recently.

In addition, for me, IT work environments are particularly hostile in terms of intellectual one-upsmanship and verbal sparring. The need to always defend oneself against egotistical know-it-alls grows tiring, as is the inevitable deathmarch when a deadline approaches. If I wanted to argue or work insane hours, I would be a lawyer. At least the pay’s better. I can understand and don’t blame women for not wanting to work in IT.

In researching drop shippers for my wedding accessories website, I paid $69.95 for access to Chris Malta’s Drop Ship Source Directory (Disclaimer: this is an affiliate link). This directory is amazing. It contains listings of drop shippers for almost any product you might want to sell. This is where I found drop shippers for the wedding accessories you see on www.elegantweddingshoppe.com.

I can imagine using this directory to create multiple retail storefronts for multiple streams of income. Even if each site only earns $500 a month, with 10 sites, that’s $5,000 a month! Almost enough for me to quit the 9 to 5 job.

I’ve learned how to use Zencart to the point where I can get a storefront up and running in less than a day. So between this directory, Zencart and PayPal, it is almost trivial to get an Internet storefront up and running. In fact, I already have another retail website in the works.

The hard part, though, is choosing products that sell and the marketing of the website. That I still have to work on. I bought an eBook, Yahoo Store Profits, that addresses this issue (Disclaimer: also an affiliate link). This eBook is also excellent and although I’m not using Yahoo Store, I will write about it and why I bought this particular eBook in another posting shortly.

Day job is still as tedious as always, but at least the pressure crunch of a looming deadline has passed. As I mentioned before, we were late, but it’s over. I’ve moved on to another project and the cycle begins again.

The software I’m writing is real close to official release now. (Those who want a sneak preview, please email me!) Just putting on the finishing touches to the website and affiliate program and working on the marketing plan. I probably should have the marketing plan finished first, but what can I say? This is my first time doing this and I’m a techie at heart.

This past week, I also opened accounts with several wholesale suppliers of wedding accessories. I’m in the midst of adding their products to Elegant Wedding Shoppe, along with my fiance’s hand-crafted products. You may notice that I ported the website over to Zencart. I was using a home grown system before, but with the addition of more products, it was necessary to use a database-backed website. My home grown system was adequate for half a dozen products or so, but did not scale well to dozens or hundreds of products. Zencart makes it very easy to add products to the site, change pricing and, with its shopping cart, I no longer have to use Paypal’s shopping cart which made for an awkward user experience anyway.

Between Zencart and drop shipping suppliers, it is so easy to open up a retail shop on the Internet with no need for inventory that I’m considering other retail niches. As Mark Cuban said, “You only have to be right once!”

I use Yahoo Mail and one thing that always bugs me is, when my session expires, they show me a page explaining why my session expired with a link that I have to click on to re-login. Why can’t the login form be on that very page? Yes, it’s just one click, but I’m lazy and it seems to make for better usability, no? So I send them feedback suggesting this and I get a canned response that doesn’t address the issue. Thinking maybe I wasn’t clear enough, I sent the following feedback again, reworded to make my point clearer:

Right now, when my mail session expires, I have to click a link to login again. It would be nice to be able to login again from that very page that is telling me why my session expired.

Please note that I understand the need for expiring sessions. I’m not complaining about this safeguard. I’m just suggesting that a login form be added on the page that explains session expirations so that users don’t have to click a link to login again.

But I got the exact same canned response. I would prefer a simple “No thanks, we don’t want to do this” to this gobbletygook that doesn’t address the issue at all, especially after I made it a point to clarify that I understand session expirations and have no problems with that:

Hello Eric,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Mail.

You will see the message “Your login session has expired” if it has been
more than eight hours since you last signed in to Yahoo! Mail and you
did not click the “Sign Out” or link at the end of your session. We
display this message and request password verification as a safeguard
for Yahoo! Mail users who use public or shared computers.

You may also want to check your Account Information. If you have chosen
to be prompted for a password more frequently than every eight hours,
your session will expire after the specified amount of time. To change
this, please follow these steps:

1. Sign In to your Yahoo! Mail account.
2. Click the “My Yahoo!” link, located at the top right-hand corner
of the page.
3. On the password verification page, enter your password in the
field provided.
4. Once you are at your “My Yahoo!” page, click the “Account
Information” link.
5. On the Yahoo! Account Information screen, click on the “Edit”
button next to the Member Information section.
6. Under “General Preferences”, change your Password Prompt to
whichever time you wish.
7. Click the “Finish” button to activate your changes.

Please note that opening another browser window and signing in to a
second Yahoo! Mail account will automatically sign you out of the first.
When you return to the first account, clicking on any link will give you
the “Your login session has expired” message.

If you repeatedly receive the message “Your login session has expired”
or are repeatedly cycled back to the “Sign In” screen with no error
message after entering your ID and password, your user cookie is
probably not being set properly.

There are a number of reasons why your cookie may not be set properly.
We have listed these reasons in order from easiest to hardest in order
to save you from taking unnecessary steps:

I. The date on your computer is set incorrectly. Since cookies rely
on dates, a computer with an incorrect date may “mislead” your browser
into forgetting about your cookie. To fix this, simply set the correct
time and date on your computer.

II. You have installed an application that monitors/blocks cookies
from being sent. These include virus protection software, etc. To remedy
this, simply disable the monitoring application before signing in.

III. You are behind a firewall that doesn’t allow you to receive
cookies. This is sometimes the case for users connecting from a business
intranet that limits cookie acceptance for security reasons. To check if
this is a factor, contact your Systems Administrator.

IV. Your browser is not set to accept cookies. Most browsers have the
option of either accepting all cookies, showing an alert before
accepting a cookie, or not accepting cookies at all. In order to use
Yahoo! Mail, your browser must be set to accept all cookies without
alerts. If your browser gives you the option to accept all cookies, you
should choose it. If your browser gives you the option to show an alert
before accepting a cookie, you should not select it. Below are the
setting instructions for several popular browser types.

When making these adjustments, be sure to confirm any changes you make
by clicking the “OK” button in the Options window.

Netscape versions 7.x:

1. Click the “Edit” menu and select “Preferences”.
2. Click “Privacy & Security” in the left-hand column then “Cookies”.
2. Check “Enable cookies based on privacy settings”. Clicking the “View”
button will allow you to set your privacy settings. Be sure these are
set to Medium or Low.

Netscape 6.x:

1. Click the “Edit” menu and select “Preferences”.
2. Click “Privacy & Security” in the left-hand column then “Cookies”.
2. Check “Enable cookies based on privacy settings”. Clicking the “View”
button will allow you to set your privacy settings. Be sure these are
set to Medium or Low.

Netscape versions 4.x:

1. Click Options/Network Preferences/Protocols
2. Un-check the option “Show an alert before accepting a cookie”

Internet Explorer 6.x for Windows:

1. Click the “Tools” menu and select “Internet Options”
2. Click on the “Security” tab
3. Make sure the security level is at either Medium or Low

Internet Explorer 5.x for Windows:

1. Click the “Tools” menu and select “Internet Options”
2. Click on the “Security” tab
3. Make sure the security level is at either Medium or Low

* Other:
If you are running a browser other than those listed above and would
like more information on whether your browser supports cookies, please
refer to your browser’s help file.

V. Your browser’s cookie files are corrupted. Corrupted cookie files
sometimes cease to support Yahoo! Mail. Try shutting all of your
browser’s windows, and then deleting the cookie files in your browser’s
directories. Usually, these files will be called simply “Cookies”. As
always, be sure that you have selected the proper files before actually
deleting them.

VI. Your browser is corrupted. If the above suggestions have not
helped you to solve the problem, it may be that your browser itself is
corrupted. The easiest solution may be to try another browser (if you
have one) on your computer. You may wish to reinstall your current
browser as well by finding the original installation file and repeating
the install process. As a last resort, you can download a new browser,
or an updated version of your present browser, from the web. Note that
this may take a while, depending on the speed of your Internet
connection.

The Netscape browser can be found at:

http://home.netscape.com/download/

The Internet Explorer browser can be found at:

http://www.microsoft.com/ie/download/

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Sigh. Never mind. It’s free, what can I expect? But I would hope that even if my businesses grow, I don’t acquire a faceless drone image that Corporate America is infamous for.

I think there’s currently a mini-meme going on in the blogosphere about networking:
Ripples - Wake up call! Time to build a support network!
Soul in the Sky - Your relationships, your future

My project at the Corporation is over. It was completed about a week and a half late but the bigwigs still seemed satisfied that it is done. I move on to a new project next week, and look forward to having new fodder to blog about. I can already tell I will be dealing with a micromanager, albeit an affable one. I have already put out feelers in my network for job openings and have my resume circulating out there.

My network is not as strong or wide as it can be though, because I’m just not a very sociable person. My saving grace is that I am connected to 2 or 3 people who do have strong and wide network of contacts that I can draw upon. That’s how I’ve gotten my past 2 jobs, but I know I should develop a better network of my own. ( Does anyone in my blogging network need some programming work done? ) And simply sending out a resume is one of the most ineffective ways to find a new job.

Besides networking and resume sending, what else is there? You can try to make your own living, which is what I’m trying to do with my microISV and wedding accessories website. One other tactic I can see is becoming a known expert on a subject matter through blogging. People like Robert Scoble, Dan Gillmor and Jeremy Zawodny seem to have solidified their expertise on a subject matter through blogging, and would have no trouble finding a job ever. Something to consider.

Update: Coincidently, after publishing this post, I ran across this post over at Slacker Manager describing how he applied for (and got) a job in an industry he didn’t have much experience in. A very creative first. Congratulations!

I haven’t had time to write many new blog entries the past 2 weeks due to 2 reasons:

1. Extra hours at the Corporation
2. Buying a house

I’m getting married at the end of this year and have been looking for a house for the past year. Home prices in Southern California are absolutely ridiculous. I refuse to pay 450K for a 900 sq. ft. home. But I recently came across an 1800 sq. ft. house that seems like a great value given this market. I made an offer, it was accepted, and I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. Perhaps the house inspection will turn up why the house is priced so reasonably.

My other concern is that the housing bubble will pop shortly after I close on this house. The bubble is suppose to have popped every year for the past 3 years now, but still hasn’t popped yet. But I want a place of my own and I’m buying for the long term, so even if housing prices take a nosedive, I figure I can wait it out. The house is in a great neighborhood as well, so hopefully the local effects of the bubble popping will be minimal.

The house is not mine yet, but taking on this new huge expense would make my day job less of a safety net. I already feel an extra surge of motivation to get my software released (really close now!), as well as to look into offering more products for sale on my fiance’s wedding accessories side business. I’ve determined that drop shipping suppliers are the way to go for that right now and will be doing research into that area in the near future.

In a previous post, I talked about my refusal to work overtime and how that probably won’t be an option as deadline approaches. The deadline is here and I was right. The lack of posting the past week has been due to working late hours at the Corporation. My group isn’t going to meet its deadline, so the usual finger pointing game is about to begin. Had I agreed to work overtime back then, I probably would have met the deadline for my tasks, but the group as a whole still wouldn’t have. This just means I join the firing line as the manager questions why the deadline slipped.

I can say that this is the first time in my professional career I missed a deadline and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I don’t like missing deadlines. I feel like I let people down (why these people care is another topic). On the other hand, I’m not inclined to work 50-60 hour weeks for weeks on end, even if paid for it. My job isn’t my life, and my choices are starting to reflect that. But I mostly feel numb. It doesn’t bother me a whole lot that I missed the deadline. And other than working a few extra hours, I’m not making any heroic efforts like I would have in my youth. Is this from growing older or from growing more cynical? Is there a difference when you work for Corporate America?