The Authentic Life: Think Twice Before you call it Quits (relationships, marriage, babies, jobs and calling quits on my website. Don't throw in the towel yet.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Think Twice Before you call it Quits (relationships, marriage, babies, jobs and calling quits on my website. Don't throw in the towel yet.

Think twice before you call it quits. This would apply to almost anything. A relationship, a job, an opportunity, a business, a website, a marriage and just about anything else that applies.

When it is a relationship or a marriage, you really have to think hard about all the options. Think about all the things that are good and all the bad. Which outweighs the other? Is one worse and you just can't deal with it?

Perhaps make a list of all the positive things and then all the bad things that you can't stand. Then examine them and decide which is worse. Explore all the things that could happen if you decide to throw in the towel. Think really hard. Is the relationship for you? Can you work out all the kinks? Will you be satisfied and most of all will you be happy with the outcome? Or is it the change that is going to make things better.

Think really hard. Can you really walk away from her or him? Or aren't they the perfect fit? Or perhaps is it something in the relationship that you want to change. A fault. A compromise. A change in a situation. A move. A big step? Moving in together. Tying the knot. Having a baby. Having more than one. Moving to a new house. Change in a job.

Whatever it is, you both need to sit down and talk about it. And as a relationship moves on to something more serious, naturally one or both of you are going to want to decide on making a move in the relationship. Are you ready yet to begin your life under one roof? Moving in together can be a big deal. But usually it is something at least one or both of you would want. Usually this is the girl hoping for it. Or the girl hoping for marriage. Lets face it, the girl wants to change her address.

Make sure you are both ready for either moving in together or getting hitched. Either way, if it ends up being a really long time before it is talked about, one of the two of you is going to question the relationship and want more. Or leave.

So that is relationships. Then there is babies. That is another huge step in life. Make sure you are ready to play russian roulette, because once that egg is planted, there is no turning back. And believe me, they will change your life whether you want it to or not. But they are great. I love my four. But at this point in my life, I wouldn't want any more. If I ever ended up pregnant by some fluke, I surely would love it to death anyway, but I have reached the age where I am done. I was a breeder, but four is my limit.

Spend time together before you have kids. Then your time is cut in half.

So that is babies.

The other things when you want to call it quits is your job. Maybe you want a change. Tired of your current place of work. The hours aren't that great, the pay is bad or you aren't happy working where you are at. Weigh out all the options. Can you live on less money? Can you find a different job? Do you want to do what you really love?

So that's the job.

Now there is the website that you have created for your new business. This is where I am at. Well, there are things I would like in my relationship too, but this present thought today has been my website.

My paper doll website has only been up and fully running for the last three months. It's seen 2030 visitors, but no emails, comments or sales. I've been kind of bummed out. This morning, I was almost seriously thinking of calling Vistaprint and pulling the plug. I called a few other places that I needed to get a hold of, found out I had a credit on one of my utilities so I don't have to pay it for a few months. That was nice to hear. Then I was almost ready to call and cancel the website.

Then I got online to my site, went in to edit the website for a minute and add a share button for twitter tweets. I should go in and do that on every page. As I was doing that and looking at my stuff and my account, I had a slight change of heart. I called them up anyway. I wanted some questions answered and was kind of ready to cancel if I felt like it.

Then, I thought of my old websites that I had created last year in the beginning of the year. I only gave those two months at the most and I was told by lots of people that I gave up too soon. And those sites were more expensive and I didn't realize I was locked into a contract for a year and I had to fork over more money to them for quitting early. And I made nothing. I was really bummed out by no sales.

So when I was on the phone, I thought back to that time. And I talked with the girl about calling it quits too early. I told her I really did want to stick it out for a year. But I started to ask her some questions about advertising and all the info about google ranks and getting found. I told her I really couldn't afford to pay for all kinds of advertising. But we talked about free advertising and different ways of advertising. Getting the word out.

Of course, all along I have been using my blogs, facebook (which is friends and family and your friends and family usually don't buy your stuff. They would rather have it for nothing)., twitter, digg (which I have been told is a wasteland), stumbleupon, delicious, buzzfeed, linkedin, myspace, igoogle, blogher, and any other type of social bookmarking site.

I am considering getting my paperdolls on one of the blogs to have for sale on the blogs. And Blogger is free.

While I was on the phone with her today, she mentioned googling free advertising, which I started to do. Then she mentioned googling paper doll groups and joining and doing some free advertising with people that are into the same thing. I thought that was a very good idea and tried to join two places so far.

Then I started looking at free advertising. I started with Yelt and discovered I was sent to a section where I was supposed to pay. Not free. Backed out of there. Then I went to Manta. I was able to get my website on there for free. Of course they want you to pay if you want more exposure. But I called to verify my listing and told them I couldn't afford to pay and could just do the free advertising.

Then, I discovered another place. Intuit. I thought, "Oh great, now I am back to my other old website service." I really liked their website builder though. It was my favorite site out of the three places I created a website with. I had one with GoDaddy.com but never really got that one started. I had one with web.com but I didn't like their website builder as well.

So, today as I started to sign up for Intuit, I read very carefully the plan. You can have a free website with them for up to a year and then they charge you $4.99 a month. Which that isn't that bad. Especially if by then I'm getting some orders. Which I really hope. So today, I have signed up for the free plan for a year. What you get is a domain, 3 pages and I'm forgetting the other part. Maybe the memory space?

Which for what I want it for, 3 pages is fine. So I have published the first page today. It hasn't been registered yet, but I imagine by tomorrow it will be. I basically got my first page, with business, address, all the important information. A big introduction which also refers them to my writing sites and my blogs. Might as well advertise for them too. Then at the bottom of the first page I had added a few of the paper doll pictures with some details. I think my second page will have lots of other pictures and then my third page will be an order form with all the details for them to order. I haven't decided if I'm going to add paypal buttons. I don't want to suddenly have two websites where I am paying.

But what it will be basically for is to direct them to the full blown website. Where they can order paper dolls.

So, I'm not calling it quits on my website yet. I should give it a good year. If I was to quit now, I would always be wondering, "What if I had given it a year? Maybe I would be getting sales."

Paper dolls aren't a neccessity. It is a specialty. But people are buying them. I go to look at the OPDAG paperdoll magazine and I see all these popular new paper doll artists that seem to be making money at what they do. And I wonder to myself, "How are they doing it?" I probably should ask the editor to have an article from one of them about the secrets to success and having a successful paper doll website. That would be really helpful to read.

I once was told by another artist that I had something really unique that could take off and become a business. I have always remembered that, and now I think, "REALLY? How do I attempt to do that? With luck?"

And another person said it takes a lot of advertising.

Well anyway the new advertising website is going to be: http://www.jennyjopaperdoll.com/ That's the domain name. But I'm not sure if it will work until I get it registered.

jenniferjofaypaperdolls.net My paper doll website.

I would really appreciate it if anyone would leave a comment with some possible suggestions. I will take anything. I feel like I'm just grasping at straws right now.

Which seems to be the same with the writing sites and earning money writing online. That's more fun than anything. And it's kind of fun to see a little bit of money trickle in. I've actually had enough to buy a dunkin donuts pound of coffee and then some. And with the writing sites we are getting practice and connecting with a community of writers. Which is always a good thing.

And selling on ebay is great. But I would love it even more if my paper doll website could just take flight. I don't want to throw in the towel just yet. What if someday I got found? That would be great. And if not, I have the paperdolls anyway to pass down to my kids. But I would love to see it become something else.
Money in my pocket.

So anyway, any suggestions would be helpful. Maybe there are some things I haven't thought of.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted January 31, 2012