Hello World~

My name is Donna aka Beadseller.

I started browsing the internet with my service provider, Prodigy... about 10 or so years ago... no...not before the dinosaurs roamed the earth! *geez*

Back then, the internet was limited in what it had to offer. I would also like to mention that every page opened instantly. I used the internet as a venue for research. I still use it for research, but more for shopping and selling.

Hey! Don't laugh... I had an Adam Computer too! *humpf*

In mid January 2005, I found Overstock... not by chance mind you. A dear friend of mine had tried for months to talk me into trying Overstock. Beadwitched. Was I being stubborn? Naaa...I had a store on eBay and wanted to finish out the month before I took the leap... besides, eBay's fees were on the rise and I was on the run.

It's January.... I would love to say that I sell more than I buy, however, that doesn't seem to be the case. So there I was, sitting on over $20,000 worth of beads and beading supplies selling them at about $2 per pack on Overstock... not taking into consideration the listing fees or the paypal fees....making about 20 cents per pack. WOW.... Talk about a get rich quick scheme!

I started listing even more... still not adjusting my prices... that was what people wanted to pay... so either make the nickel or not.... January reaped just over $500 in sales... February jumped to $1,500... March jumped even further... $2,400... April hit an all time $3K in sales....

Then I joined the buySAFE bonding service. I thought that since I had so many valued customers, I would return some of that value to them and bond my products. Fortunately.... the service was free through September 2005. But it did NOTHING... absolutely NOTHING for my sales!

In reality... my sales plummeted! By the end of May... I felt doomed! I picked up two new customers.... and heard barely a dribble from the rest.... my sales for May were a whopping $382! Where did all my customers go?!?!? What was I doing wrong?!?!?

With all this in mind... back in March of this year, I decided to give my own ecommerce site a try. Don't get me wrong... at first I thought it was merely a pipe dream. After all.... I paid for three years of webhosting back in March and it took until the middle of August to finally have a website up and running!

In February, 2005, I started out with shopping around to find the least expensive hosting site. Alas, I found Ace-host.net with 5,000 MB of Disk Space, 50 GB Monthly Bandwidth, (which has been expanded to 100 GB), Unlimited MySQL Databases, eMail Accounts, FTP Accounts, Sub-Domains, and a Static IP Address included. All for only $139.50 for three years.

If you asked me to explain the above, all I would say is, I haven't a clue what any of that really means, but I can tell you that my site never crashes. *laughing*

Next came the HTML HELL. The last time I actually wrote any HTML was about 8 years ago, when HTML was just that.... HTML. Nothing fancy. Actually, it was pretty easy to learn. I was self taught then but the book was ohhhhhh so much thinner than the newer models!

So, I read and researched and read and researched and read some more. I didn't get very far when I decided to see just what having someone else create this monster would cost! Needless to say, I proceeded again with reading and researching and alas....learning everything I could to find a way to produce my own site.

Well...If you haven't looked...my site is BEADSELLER. I purchased a template for $49 and proceeded from there. What I didn't know when I purchased the template was that it was not written in language compatible with my host. So, I managed to extract what I could from it, mainly the pretty pink bars, and forged ahead with creating my store.

Creating a webstore really wasn't that bad... NOT!!! It was a NIGHTMARE! But again... I forged ahead. Sometime in late March I realized that I had far more products than I really wanted considering that each product had to have its own product number and be listed individually.

Needless to say, prior to this endeavor I had considered expanding on my product line, but reconsidered. Looking at the walls of drawers of beads, I should probably try to sell what I have before I drive myself out of shop/office and HOME!

Speaking of Late March.... Well... after working with the same attorney for 7 years... she called me into her office to say that things were just not working out. WHAT?!? What does that mean???? How could it possibly take someone SEVEN YEARS to decide that THINGS ARE JUST NOT WORKING OUT?!?!? You would think that if things were JUST NOT WORKING OUT... that would have happened say... WEEK ONE!

This could not have happened at a worse time! I had just taken out a mortgage on my home two months before so I could purchase beads and beading supplies! The beads and beading supplies were and are still sitting here staring at me!

Back to the store... so... I worked diligently, day and night trying to create my webstore. I would complete umteen pages and then notice that I didn't correct the font color on the previous 10 or so pages. So... edit...edit...edit....

Then while on my way to a special employment seminar, June 2, 2005, some crazy driver plowed into the side of my car, 2002 Hyundai Elantra. I was sitting in the passenger seat that fateful day and she hit directly behind my seat and continued until she managed to take out the rear axle.

What was she thinking??? Or better still... what was she on??? Three days later, GEICO completed the estimate of damages totaling over $4,000. I didn't even see the damages as I was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

I am still undergoing treatment and under my doctor's care. I don't think that my neck will ever be the same. My right shoulder still hurts. I require an operation on my right knee. Fifty now feels more like seventy!

The accident put a halt to website work. I couldn't sit for very long without severe pain. My lower back and neck were hurting all the time. I would wake up at times with very little feeling in my arms or legs. I was not fairing well at all!

In mid July, I once again returned to working diligently on the site. I was determined to get it up and running before August 1st.

NOTE: Determination does not necessarily mean one is going to accomplish what one sets out to accomplish!

I still needed to install a shopping cart. I chose Paypal. This required more reading and more research... some more reading and research... some crying... and more reading and more crying and more research... The word PAL in Paypal has nothing to do with the setting up of its shopping cart! I was becoming more and more frustrated... but again.... I forged ahead.

After much deliberation and many failed attempts.... I finally weeded through the poorly written instructions and managed to get the cart to work... on ONE item. WOW.... only about 1,000 more to go! *HA* After reading and researching this phenomena, I realized that I had used the wrong cart set up and somehow managed to hook up over 100 items in much the same fashion. WRONG!

So... after crying some more and relieving my scalp of a few swatches of hair, I once again forged ahead. I re-programmed all of the wrong items with what I hoped was the corrected shopping cart programming.

ALAS! Low and behold... they were working! WOOOOO HOOOOO! Halleluia...Halleluia...Halleluia...Halleluia...Hall... leeee...eeee...eeee...Luuuu...ia~ Thank you... please... don't applaud... what I really need you to do is THROW MONEY!

Now I was cruising... hooking up each and every individual item to this shopping cart contraption... MY PAL... my buddy... my GOD! I sent out my mass mailing to almost 350 of my regular customers announcing the GRAND OPENING OF... BEADSELLER on August 18, 2005. FREE SHIPPING offered to the first 10 completed orders!

I picked this particular day to open because first... it was the soonest I could get the site done... and second... it happened to be my son's 29th birthday and I wanted the date to be something I would remember.

Here I am open for business... sitting at my computer... email open... sitting... watching... sitting... watching.... watching... sitting... NOTHING.

Three days go by.... still...NOTHING. I feel a distinctive sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach... or maybe this feeling came from the fact that I had not moved from my chair in three days! Finally... on the fourth day... a sale!!! I might add... the shipping on this sale cost me almost as much as what was purchased! Well... not making money is why I do this right? *HA*

Day Five... still NOTHING... then it occurs to me... hmm... maybe I should review my html and see whether I bothered to enter any keywords and meta stuff.... NOTHING... *waaaaaa*

So... I start researching again... and reading...researching and reading again... which brings me to this blog... Top Ten What? Web Site Submission....

There are very few places that allow you to submit your website for FREE! One place I did manage to find was SUBMIT EXPRESS. Keep in mind...it is VERY TRUE that NOTHING is FREE! But at least their required link was not nearly as unsightly as some!

One of the things I have been reading about and found to be VERY TRUE.... unless you pay for the service to submit your site... don't expect to have much traffic! Which in turn means... yet another NOT RICH QUICK scheme!

Yahoo will let you submit an url for free... but to be listed in their directory... if I remember correctly... a mere $299 a year.... WOW... only $299 a year?!?!?!? Even MSN let me submit my site for FREE! And being penny poor..... who needs to pay for the misery of increasing one's sales!?!? If I had the money....if I won the lottery... if I were independently wealthy.... ifa.... woulda.... coulda... *UGHHHH*

Not all is lost though.

One of the most interesting and fun things I happened upon were WebRings. WOW... these are fantastic resources. You see... after all the reading and research... everyone selling the website submission service tells you that the more places you are linked to, the more you move up in rank. Well.... while reviewing all of the webrings.... I forgot the rank issue and became extremely interested in the fact that there are literally a gillion WebRings! I was amazed with all of the RINGS that actually revolved around what I sell and what I love.... BEADS and ARTISAN JEWELRY! WOOO HOOO!

So... even if I don't sell much... I have found that there are literally thousands of others out there in cyberspace who have huge shoulders available to cry upon. Gotta love those webring heroes and heroins!

Well... that's quite enough for now.... if you should be reading this and happen to buy beads and beading supplies.... give me a try. Beadseller... That's me!

Hi~ I'm Donna aka Beadseller~ I have been working with beads and jewelry making supplies for nearly 20 years. It took me that long to finally open my own ecommerce store. In my free time I like to write about some of the things I have learned since opening my store. Hope you enjoy my schpeal on Search Engines.