This cat is taking summer college and just aint gettin' it. Yes, I'm taking a foreign language w/ a crazy prof. and believe me, it's the hardest course that I'll take yet. Beginning French, isn't as easy as all has made it out to be. Think I'll get that language thing that they advertise on TV if it's supposed to be as good as everyone says.

I've made note cards, I study on weekends, I do the work, yet it just isn't sinking in. I bet I have over 700 notecards w/ french adverbs, adj's, prepositions, nouns, etc... on them. I even have a classification for time.

Did these take time to make? heck yes, but I did them in a week. Seven chapters worth in a week. Including the rules of french.

Y can't I just understand what I'm doing? Two days from now, we are going to start reviewing for our test. (mind you, that it's going to be the only test.) I'd swear that I'm dreaming about french class and dreaming about it means that I'm obsessing over it. Is this good or bad?

I don't know, all I know is that after these two days, our nutty prof. will go over what's going to be on the test, then whammo. Test!!!

I'm scared to death.

I'm trying, i really am. I'm doing all this extra work, and studying and still feeling like I'm getting nowhere.

Please help me dear lord.

Well, of course it's customers, but be a little more specific... take a look at your merchandise. Are you aiming at, Consumers in general, Businesses, Vertical Markets, or very specific, very small markets?

Now your thinking. Who is my customer base? Which is it? What are some of those btw...?

ok, i'll explain:

consumers in general, is where you have a product that would be bought by a teacher as well as by a business.
Businessses is where your products are portrayed to be just centered as supplies for another business.
Vertical Markets are the markets for one specific area. Beads could be the market for vertical markets, as they only market just that one specific thing and sell that one specific thing.
Then there is the small, specific market,... do you have that particular niche that targets an age group, an occupation, or a locale? then you have that small specific market.

It's always good to think about who your product is aimed. Sometimes, it's clear as day, other times, it's not so clear and you have to really think about it.

Take my shop for example, it's targeting almost all the above because of my diversity. With my local ad and flyers, I'm doing the locale, and the age group varies according to taste, I'm doing the vertical market w/ plates, and businesses w/ supplies, and then there's the general consumer w/ the rest. This could possibly be bad on my part as I am not able to center my promotions on one thing. But with my diversity, I cover the area and am able to reach more consumer base. It's a give and take.

Who are you aiming for? What does your shop promote? How can you turn your target into an advantage for you?

Something else to think about.... more to come.

Ok... Rock actually come up w/ this and I agree w/ him totally. There are many spread out sites that everyone is using. We need a site outside of silkfair to help spread the word. that was why I created the Ning and indiepublic sites.

He's come up w/ a fab idea that needs full recognition towards himself.

All it would take if 15 minutes out of each persons day, to do what You ask? To post to Probably the ning site, and blog about the member of silkfair of the week. This would give them recognition, publicity, and plausible sells. Also, each member would be greatly rewarded in e-mailing their friends and inviting them to CrazyforSilkfair.

If you dont' want to do it on Crazy,... what about doing it on Cre8Buzz? Give me some suggestions. We need someplace outside of silkfair to promote and to let people know of us, and to showcase our shops. If at least 1/3 of our members does this, think of the possible traffic that it will create.

Post it as Go to ning or cre8buzz, which ever we decide,
in the left column is a group of sellers and their stores on ning and indiepublic,
Visit one and if you like what you see, recommend that store
Blog about that store, Comment on that store on silkfair, Rate that store, and recommend that store on silkfair.

If only a few do this than think of the possibilities.

We all have questions about what to do and how, Beleive me, I have done the same thing. The worst thing that you can do is expect your site to sit and wait without you doing anything. If you create, you must get out there and tell people about it. After all, no one knows about you or your product or service as much as you do. No one cares as much about you or your product or service as you do. And unfortunately, that's the way it should be.

Thus we promote on the web. Why? Because it's cheap and easy to set up business than in a "brick and morter". We can change it's style a lot easier than if we were in such type of business and do it a lot cheaper, we can use any format we want instead of having to be bound to four walls, and it's been foretold to us that if we set up business on the web that customers will flock to us like birds to food. Not true. We must work for what we want.

To quote the book, 'Poor Richard Internet marketing and Promotions', he says, "The term marketing has been used for more than 400 yrs. It's variously defined as the process of selling a product or service; as the process of promoting, selling, and distribution a product or service and as the entire process of moving goods and services from a producer to a consumer, So promotion is a subset of marketing; it's the process of encouraging people to accept or buy your goods or services."

The key is to set up a site, register it with search engines, then promote, promote, promote and lot of other things too. Promotion takes a lot of time and effort. You want to get the product or the idea of buying into peoples heads and keep it there.Not to mention that the net isn't just limited to your area, it's global. And you have to think global meaning more competition in your field of product or service. Finally, you must brand yourself. (say what?) In other words, create yourself as a unique identity that stands out amongst the rest.

That's something to think about for now. More to come. Please feel free to ask questions. Happy hunting.

As we head into a depression, times are getting even harder to keep your head above water. I know that it's getting tougher in this home. With gas prices, the price of food, and everything else going sky high just to have things around the home serviced. OMGoodness, Where are we going to be in just a couple months?

My husband drives a bus for a local company. They are having to practically hire people left and right to keep up with the demand. Local Cab companies have gone out of business and those that haven't are having problems keeping up with clients and gas demand.

I don't drive, but when we go out, there are less and less vehicles on the road these days. Yes, gas may be up to $4.00 a gallon, but what if we lived in another country? Some locations are charging $8 - $9 a gallon. If you ask me, I think that we are getting off easy. I know of the rumors that gas could still rise to $7/gallon, but ya know what, think of what it would be costing at these other places if it goes up to that here? We've had it too easy. We have lived too cushy of lives and are too pampered.

Yes, I said it, too pampered. Y? Because I see on some of the selling sites wanting everyone wanting us marketers to have our prices to be Wal-Mart prices and us tradesmen just cannot sell our stuff at that, with what time and effort we put into our products. It's not machine made and mass produced. It's handmade and one of a kind. Why don't they consider that? Because they are used to buying nothing for the dollar and getting nothing for the dollar.

All I can say, is that if we want to survive this, we better harden our core, tighten the buckle, and start buying quality that will last. The better the item, the better the dollar spent. Do you agree? I always thought so at least.

Get out the snorkel if you don't think so, cause the waters are rising fast.