One thing I figured out real quick while working from home and that is I get a lot more done at night than during the day. When you work at home there are many distractions. the dogs, the kids, the family, the friends and even the peaceful, quiet of just being home can be a distraction because it makes you want to enjoy it. It is a challenge to stay motivated and on track with your daily responsibilities. If you do not make a list every day of the items that need to get completed then you will get side-tracked and wonder where your day went at the end of it. We all know what needs to be done each day but when you have so much that it can’t get done in one day then you have to prioritize and that is why you need the list.
Today I worked on my Wix.com website and Updated all the shipping and pricing in my eBay store. No sleep for the weary tonight! I decided to use my Wix site to explore Home decor products. The supplier list will have to be created as I add the Collections and styles of home decor products I want to sell. I don’t want to sell everything out there. I want a niche. I’m leaning towards the vintage but I do like the clean lines of the modern. I’m still up in the air on it. I think if I go with the more relaxed, country styles that come with the vintage then there will be more products. The modern style is clean and uncluttered. I like clutter. I like character. And I like vintage. Well, there you have it, I just made my decision. On to bigger and better things!
MORNING TIME: CREATING THE PICTURE PAGES FOR MY WEEKLY CHILDREN’S BOOK!
I researched self-publishing a couple of week ago and decided I want to create a children’s book. I have my first 6 kid’s books written. Now it’s time to create the pictures. Today I created the basic background pages and layouts for my book using the basic Windows Paint program. After I duplicated all the pages that have similar backgrounds, inserted the word boxes and added the story lines I saved these for further editing in my Adobe program. This task could not be completed today so I will schedule it in my week.
My goal is to create 1 book per week and upload it to Createspace.com every Friday. Once complete the book will be for sale on Amazon and my own website. I will purchase 10 copies for myself to have on hand. The e-books and the hard copy will be for sale on Amazon through their Kindle program. When a hard copy is sold, Createspace is contracted out to print each copy as it is sold and ship it directly to the customer. So far I like the process and hope to have more time to write books as my skills improve!
AFTERNOON: Updated the Pricing, Shipping, Weight and Size of over 500 listings using the bulk editor in eBay!
I had approximately 110 listings end that needed to have the pricing, weight, package size and the shipping policies updated. These were auctions that ended and needed to be converted to fixed price listings.
When relisting as fixed price your listings will only have your starting price from the auction pushed. Now that amount will be your Buy it Now price. These listings must manually be updated with new Buy it Now offer prices. This can be very time-consuming. My suggestion to you is to use the bulk editing option for this:
- Go to your UNSOLD Listings page.
- Select the products that you can price the same and have the same shipping cost and shipping envelope/box. (For example: select all the $15 items that ships in a 12x10x1 inch poly mailer and weigh less than 8 oz and will ship for $3 USPS First Class.)
- Once selected hit the Relist as Fixed Price icon at the top of the page.
- Then you can use the commands at the top of the screen to bulk edit these items. Select them by checking the boxes, go to top of screen and select the item you are updating from the pull down menu. NOTE: Don’t forget to Remove the Best Offer option on all listings that have been priced for a quick sale and have no room for offers.
- Once you have completed all the updates needed you just hit submit at the bottom of the screen and your revisions will be uploaded in bulk to eBay in less than 1 minute. It’s that easy.
If you have odd shapes, sizes and large differences in pricing than those you update individually. I select 10-50 at a time and pull them into the bulk editor but go through each one individually to make sure no mistakes are made. It is very easy to not charge enough shipping on an item and literally pay a buyer to buy your item before it is over with! So be careful, stay focused and if you need a break get up and walk around, get the blood flowing in your legs again then come back and knock it out.
My Sunday Night was wiping clean and rebuilding my Wix.com website – Judys-DSmiddleman.com
It may not look like I did much but I spent most of my night researching products and building an excel spreadsheet with my suppliers and products I’ve picked out to start building inventory levels.
Next I started to create my Home Page utilizing the pictures I saved while researching the products. Each pictures will link to that collection. There is a lot left to do but so far I like the layout.
Time to wake my teenager up for school and then get my 6 hours of sleep in before I start it all over again!
Thank you for stopping by!
Judy