Earplugs By JenGen made the UChic 2007 holiday gift guide!

Add another technical difficulty to the list. Ecrater stores can't accept Google Checkout payments from international customers. Google Checkout can't fix the problem. Ecrater is working on the solution. They hope to have it fixed soon. Until then I will send invoices to international customers directly from Google Checkout.

I lurk around a lot of forums to gather information and ideas. Most questions I ask have already been answered. Some posters are helpful. Some are not. I try to keep in mind that tone online is misinterpreted half of the time. Sometimes I'm tempted to post this.

What I'm reading this month.

The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR
by Al & Laura Ries

Don't Think Pink - What Really Makes Women Buy and How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market
by Lisa Johnson and Andrea Learned

Positioning - How to be Seen and Heard in the Overcrowded Marketplace
by Al Ries and Jack Trout

The new United States Postal Service rates are now in effect. I had estimated that my increase would be small. In reality it more than doubled. Delivery confirmation is up to 18 cents with PayPal printing. I had been told most of the rate increase was in oversized packages. I ship 1 oz bubble mailers. Sigh. I'm going to revisit my shipping and packaging options. Shipping and handling charges may have to change.

Blink - The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell is my latest reading. I got it from the library yesterday and couldn't put it down. It's all about first reactions. It explores the Coke vs Pepsi taste tests. Elaborates on the power of packaging to make things taste better. This book is a great eye opener into the way we see and think about things. It's highly recommended reading. I'm going to check out his other books soon.

Earplugs By JenGen is flourishing. I've sold out of the top 3 earplugs, all blue tassel styles. My tassel supplier takes several weeks to deliver. The blue tassel earplugs will be back online in 2 weeks. Supplies had already been ordered before running out. The two largest orders I've had yet came this month. So I freaked out and ordered LOTS of supplies. Now I'm thinking that might not be enough. I've had customers email me to put dibs on Holly Golightly earplugs when they are ready. I am a victim of my own success. Exponential growth is messing with my projections! Now I'm spending time looking for alternate suppliers, so far no luck. I'm sad when I have to say "Sorry your item is back ordered." I'm very glad business is booming.

I closed the eBay store. All non piercing body jewelry is now located at www.jengenway.com. When eBay raised their fees the last time I made a mental pack. I will pay the excessive store fees as long as eBay drives customers. Also I will get 50% or more of profits. But eBay has other plans. My last bill exceeded the 50% profit requirements and I didn't hesitate to shut down the store. I doubt I'll be doing any auctions until fall, if then at all.

Ebay is getting a new feedback system. Customers will rate sellers separately on different factors such as Shipping Time and Item as Described. As I understand it, the old system of positive, neutral, and negative will still come first followed by the detailed method.

Here's a hilarious spoof of eBay. There's a little game at the end too! It's good fun for frustrated eBay sellers.

http://www.ioffer.com/info/parody_feepay

Same as always, busy! I'm getting a lot of UK customers on eBay. Can't print international postage from home. I've been to the post office a lot lately.

I lost my camera on a snowboarding trip in February. It's been 3 weeks now and I have little hope it will come back. Can't photograph and list any new items until I get a new camera. I'll be shopping for a new one over the weekend. Too bad the carrying case, memory cards, and batteries all were lost with it.

Earplugs By JenGen now has it's own domain name! www.EarplugsByJenGen.com. The location is still an eCrater store for now. I'm working on improving product packaging and display. I'd like to make handmade envelopes to hold the earplugs. Handmade paper would be awesome, but may not be strong enough.

I've been working on getting JenGen financials in order. Making better worksheets and databases. Organizing and looking at new software. Doing taxes has made me realize I can be better organizing and maintaining data. I've been reading about many accounting methods. It's good to be small sometimes. Small leaves a lot of room for growth. To that end I've been revisiting the Earplugs By JenGen business plan. Writing business plans are the hardest part of being prepared.

Earplugs By JenGen has 50 pairs of earplugs in stock! There's a new section for Flower Earplugs and new colors of tassel earplugs. Also there are new cute animal earplugs, Ladybugs! Now that the shipping center is larger I'm ordering larger stocks! And I've tackled several technical issues that will make site use easier. Earplugs By JenGen is off to a great New Year!

January Cleaning! I ordered another box of mailers and realized there's nowhere to put it. I've been thinking to expand the JenGen Shipping Center and now it's happening. The Shipping Center is in my closet. I'm cleaning off more shelf space and reorganizing drawers. The overflow seems impossible! At least Goodwill got a donation out of it. And probably another one tomorrow.

The New Year is off to a great start. I've signed up for a Yahoo Marketing account. I'll mimic what's working with my Google AdWords account. More advertising to grow my business.

Second, I switched jengenway.com domain name to go to Beautiful Nature Photos at CafePress. Before it was pointing at JenGen Way eCrater store. I have more control over the HTML and organization of my CafePress pages. It’s more beautiful too.

Now I’m going to work on a long To Do list. I have many new items needing listing. Especially earplugs at Earplugs By JenGen. I went flower crazy and will be making a new category for Flower Ear Plugs.

I'm back after a great week in Florida! Off to a slow start. Spent most of my day flying back. Followed by 6 hours of printer troubleshooting. HP 5610 has a long reinstall. It works now, but I'm too tired to do more. All orders will be mailed tomorrow.

New Black Fake Nose Rings! Getting non piercing body jewelry in more colors is a priority of mine. Now JenGen Way has black!



Currently available only in my eBay store JenGen Way. Soon they will be up on my other sites as well. These are already selling fast. I don't think I have enough!

Problems at the bank. JenGen has a free checking account with Washington Mutual. A customer bounced a check for $4.98. First, WAMU couldn't say which item had received a $2 RDI fee. Second, there was no way to stop it from being redeposited again. I was told (after speaking to 4 people) that fees would total $4, being taken in 2 $2 increments. Nope, it's $8. ($2 + $6.) I went in again (pissed off that I was misled) and now they offer up paper work to stop redeposit. This is paperwork that 5 bank employees didn't know about even when I asked. I only got a real answer, and a fee schedule, from banker #6.

So 1 in 5 bankers knows what’s going on. You get what you pay for with WAMU free checking. Of course other banks charge much more in returned check fees. I won't be accepting checks from now on. Just PayPal and Google Checkout. Seems like the best solution.

Putting up vacation notices today. I'll be gone from Dec 22 to Jan 1. Doubt that many people will be doing online shopping between Christmas and New Years. In any case I'm leaving my stores open. It's only a week I'll be gone vacationing in Florida. Christmas is on the other coast this year.

New eBay Star! My feedback is over 100 and 100% positive! My nice blue star turned turquoise. It will stay turquoise until I reach 500 feedback. Thanks to everyone on eBay that leaves feedback. I appreciate it.



Ebay's Feedback System
The feedback system is easy to understand. Feedback Stars are awarded to eBay members for achieving 10 or more Feedback points.

You receive:

* +1 point to your feedback score for each positive comment and rating left for you.
* 0 points to your feedback score for each neutral comment and rating left for you.
* -1 point to your feedback score for each negative comment and rating left for you.
* A feedback star once you have 10 or more comments and ratings left for you.

Here's what the different stars mean:
Yellow Star = 10 to 49 points
Blue Star = 50 to 99 points
Turquoise Star = 100 to 499 points
Purple Star = 500 to 999 points
Red Star = 1,000 to 4,999 points
Green Star = 5,000 to 9,999 points
Yellow Shooting Star = 10,000 to 24,999 points
Turquoise Shooting Star () = 25,000 to 49,999 points
Purple Shooting Star = 50,000 to 99,999 points
Red Shooting Star = 100,000 or higher

Google Checkout payments have been rolling in. Notification is working now. I get all the notices. I may switch completely to online payments. Today my first check bounced. I took a customer's personal check and it couldn't clear $4.98. The saga on that will continue for a few weeks while it gets worked out. My bank fees will be $4 tops.

Today I received my first payment with Google Checkout! Google is paying my processing fees in December. That's very nice. Didn't get an email notification from Google when the order was placed. Didn't get an email from the managing website (eCrater) either. I’ll look through the forums and get an idea of what I can and can’t do with orders. Get more familiar with the program.

Earplugs By JenGen is on fire! The whole revamp I did a few weeks ago is indexed now. I've had several orders in the last 3 days. Ran out of Gold Tassel Earplugs again. I'm going on a supplies run today for more. Cross your fingers I can restock!

December is here. I haven’t made any Christmas purchases yet. Focusing on making my stores better for the holidays. JenGen Way eBay is bare bones this season. Only a handful of body jewelry is left on the shelves. These are the most popular items that survived eBay rebalancing. I'll be listing extra auctions until Christmas.

This year for Christmas I'll be traveling to Florida to be with my family. I won't be able to ship items from Saturday the 23rd until the New Year. This will affect eBay, Etsy, JenGen Way and Earplugs By JenGen.

Home Office Accidents

Today I accidentally cut myself off from the world. Actually, my snowboard did. I was taking a break and gathering my snowboard gear. I put the snowboard against the wall. It fell. It's newly sharpened edge sliced through the DSL filter cord. I didn't know what happened at first. I kept trying to get online and got no answer. When I picked up the dead phone I knew what went wrong. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I found spare phone filters in my setup kit. Now I’m up and running!

Today is Cyber Monday. I’ve noticed no bump in traffic yet. The day is young and rainy here.