I've been working my butt off trying to get ready for tomorrow's sale. We have a spiffy new e-commerce site that's all ours, and I can't wait to show it off! (I figured we were going to need a Web shop eventually if we're going to publish books.) But of course I can't send you there and let you see it until the sale starts at noon tomorrow. But I'm very interested to (eventually) hear what people think.
Things are only easy for you if they are. Setting up this site would be child's play for some people—but for me it's very, very hard. It's like algebra. I'm not good at it. Don't have the gene.
I learned something from a friend a few years ago. She's great at organization and detail, and she told me she was in her late twenties before she finally realized those abilities were an asset. Prior to that, when she was younger, she thought she was picky, particular, and "obsessive-compulsive," and she considered it a character flaw. Finally she realized that being hyper-organized was an ability that not everybody possessed. Since then, she's looked for jobs that emphasize a need for organizational ability and detail management, and she's started at least one successful business deliberately based on those skills.
She's at the high end of organizational aptitude. I'm at the low end. The very low end.
On the other hand, I have an aptitude for seeing the big picture. I'm right at home discerning overall patterns, getting to the root of things, and, especially, applying systematic fixes. I had a boss once whose ability in that area was very poor—when faced with any kind of global decision, his tendency was to zero in on a few manageable details and dive into those. Drove me crazy. Then again, when I had my second and final appointment with the counselor who's been helping me set up our e-commerce portal, I didn't even have a list prepared of things to ask her about. Really, Mike? Even I can see that that's incredibly lame. Then again, I try and fail to shop using a simple grocery list, so what would I expect?
But I think we're going to get there. Naturally, of course, the cultural backdrop at the moment would have to be the botched rollout of the healthcare.gov site. So I'm doubly worried about the rollout of our storefront tomorrow.
If you encounter any problems or get frustrated tomorrow, do me a favor, will you? Don't assume there are teams of experts who have neglected their responsibilities and ought to be castigated. It's just little old me. Ain't nobody here but us chickens, as the hoary old joke put it.
The sales site will accept credit cards (we have our own Merchant Account), PayPal (including currency conversion for International customers), and you'll be able to send a check in the mail if that's what you prefer.
I'm sure I'm not all of the way up the learning curve yet. I just hope I'm closer to the top than the bottom. Guess we'll find out soon enough....
Mike
Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
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Featured Comments from:
Patch: "Very best of luck Mike. Find myself nervous on your behalf."
Best of luck, Mike. You are an inspiration to all of us that have gotten off the escalator of corporate America and are making our own way in this crazy digital world.
BTW, looks like "I'm bad at math" may be a myth...
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/the-myth-of-im-bad-at-math/280914/
Posted by: JohnMFlores | Tuesday, 29 October 2013 at 12:26 PM
A fine example of working to one's strengths is my wife Cathryn's current sculptural installation in the Saskatchewan Craft Council's gallery:
http://www.saskcraftcouncil.org/gallery/2013/word-view.php
The 71-foot-long line control cord entitled Language Barrier is constructed with approximately 37,000 paper beads individually hand-made from a discarded library edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases. One of Cathryn's early art instructors criticized her for works that were too fiddly and detailed. Cathryn says proudly of this exhibition, "I have taken a bug and turned it into a feature!"
Obsession is not necessarily unproductive.
Posted by: David Miller | Tuesday, 29 October 2013 at 12:43 PM
I hope everything goes smoothly and the sale is a smashing success.
Posted by: Gordon Lewis | Tuesday, 29 October 2013 at 12:55 PM
Obviously I don't know what it's actually like, but I like your concept already in supporting multiple (non-PayPal) payment methods. It's a constant problem I have with online payment sites not supporting the traveller or someone who lives in out of the way places. So, big thumbs up from me before you've started.
Posted by: Martin Doonan | Tuesday, 29 October 2013 at 12:55 PM
Look at it this way, Mike. The healthcare.gov site has set the bar so low, people will be happy if your site works at all.
Posted by: Jon Bloom | Tuesday, 29 October 2013 at 02:23 PM
Good luck with all this Mike.
Posted by: Patrick Dodds | Tuesday, 29 October 2013 at 02:30 PM
Best of luck!
At least you won't have millions of people desperately needing the thing you're selling, and the national news media all primed for it to be the big story.
On the other hand, you didn't have 600 million dollars and over a year to develop the site, either :-) . (Yeah, what you've done is *much* simpler.)
Your own merchant account is a good move, and still supporting PayPal is a good move; you'll make more people happy that way, of course.
Posted by: David Dyer-Bennet | Tuesday, 29 October 2013 at 02:47 PM
Mike,
Have you considered opening up the site with one thing for sale for $0, and letting people try to complete the transaction, to see if it works?
Will
Posted by: Will Frostmill | Tuesday, 29 October 2013 at 03:22 PM
Wait a sec!! If you are good at discerning overall patterns, getting to the root of things and working at 'system' level, then you could have also been very good at algebra - if you had wanted to be. "-) Those qualities are very important in mathematics research where new ideas come from seeing the big picture first - and working out the details later.
But I empathize with all algebra haters and flunkees for many reasons too numerous to get into here. Some other time, perhaps.
Meanwhile, it is great to see another step towards making the TOP Photo Publishing a reality.
Posted by: Andrea B. | Tuesday, 29 October 2013 at 06:03 PM
That should have been TOP Photobook Publishing.
Posted by: Andrea B. | Tuesday, 29 October 2013 at 06:04 PM