The site

Why is it despite my efforts to work on a way to become self sufficient that part of me tries to sabotage myself? Is it because I’m too lazy or is it something else? For example, when I first moved into my new place, I thought to myself ”cool, now I can swim in the pool and use the work out room to help get myself in shape”. Well guess what, I’ve been in the building for 6 months now and I’ve yet to go into the workout room. I tried to go into the pool once, but it was closed. So is faith conspiring against me?

The thing lately is the website. I’ve had weeks where I’ve worked on it, and other weeks that I’ve left it alone. I know that I need to be doing stuff like a, b, and c, but for some reason when it’s something new that I haven’t done before, I need to push myself to do it. I’m not going to bore you all with the specific details, because I hate having people’s eyes glaze over when I talk or write about something, but its stuff I need to do. Stuff to get traffic to my site to get people to buy stuff.

The thing that is really pissing me off is that Google usually takes a year to fully include a website into their search, and I only submitted the site to Google in August. Now I’ve been doing other things to promote the site and some people have been nice to link it to their own blogs, and I’ve very thankful for that, but I want it NOW.

I’ve try not to blog about Space Station Anime on purpose because I figure that my regulars would get sick of it. They’d be going, “aww shit, he’s going on about the damn e-store again”, but dammit I’m overdue.I've recently purchased a second domain, animedvdcentral.com and that's going to be a e-commerce site, but I don't really want start on this one until Space Station is getting traffic, and when that happens, I'll be twice as not busy.

I've also found another way to promote the site, but I only do it when someone pisses me off. Sometimes when I'm playing City of Heroes, I will receive a tell, which is a message, from a stranger telling me to go to their site so i can buy ... Now this really pisses me off and it has come to the point that the makers of the game have made it really easy to report these guys because they're not suppose to be doing this. Anyway what I do when I get their tell spam, is send the following reply “Love Anime?, Then come to www.spacestationanime for all your Anime DVD needs”. Yes I spam the spammer and everyone in my SG (or Super Group, or Clan for players of other games) thinks its priceless, until I spam the team, but they all know it's in good fun.

Now your wondering why I'm playing an online game when I should be working on “the store”, my answer. I need to relax sometimes.

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Not quite there

Another bump in the road. So I’m not launching today, but hopefully tomorrow. It has something to do with my site’s ability to accept credit cards. I’ve filled the application out (online), but they need to check on me before they let me accept credit cards. I guess they want to make sure that I’m not a criminal or anything like that. It makes sense but it’s another roadblock. So my website won’t go live today.

I have solved other issues like setting up shipping and how to give discounts, how to put certain titles in specific categories, so things are looking good. I’m still very positive about things, I’m just sick of getting dinged by all they setup fee’s. It’s really starting to add up.

While a lot of this stuff is no big deal to me, other things like filling out banking and business forms are not one of my favorite things. To be honest, I absolutely hate it. I know bullshit makes the world go around, but I don’t want to be the one adding to it. I guess this is why I hate paperwork. I hate having to deal with some weasel who wants to know why I didn’t properly fill out form EDFG-33-5, or whatever. This stuff gives me a headache. I’m just glad that I have a bottle of ibuprofen in my backpack. Too bad that it’s going to take an hour for the drugs to kick in because I’m in pain now.

I just need to keep focused on going live. I’m sure that will happen on Monday now, which sucks, but it will give me time to add more product.

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The final hours before going live.

If the reaction to my logo is a sign of how well my website will do, then I’m going to make a SHITLOAD of money. The reaction by some people over my logo has blown me away. I’ve had requests for copies from six people, AND THAT’S JUST THE LOGO!!!

I should make one thing clear. I did not design the logo, not really. I came up with the initial concept. I knew that I wanted the face of a girl done in anime but I paid a company to create it for me. I’ll be honest, that I think they did a fantastic job, and once I’m at the point where I’ve achieved success, I’m going to get some shirts made up with it. I’ll probably get some coats done as well, and give them to my friends and family.

Something just occurred to me. She doesn’t have a name. Should I name her? It’s just a logo but do other characters in logos have names? How about you, the readers, let me know. Then you’ll have an excuse to write a comment.

I’ll be honest, I’m really excited by this website. While I’m not happy with everything with the site, the main problem is inventory. I need to ad more titles, and soon I’ll have to divide my products into categories. Did I mention that I’m REALLY excited? The other stuff is almost done, and I’m aiming to go live TOMORROW!!! Then the real work, of promoting the site starts. Don’t worry; I have a plan for that as well. Anyone can put up a website, but it takes a plan to get you sited listed on the front page of Google.

I keep thinking that the site could lead me to owning my own life. No more working for someone else. No more daily commutes to an industrial. Instead, I can wake up when I want to, take the elevator downstairs and enjoy the pool and take it easy.

Though I’m not going to spend all my time loafing. Once I’m happy with the success of the first site, I see myself starting a second site, and a third and… well you get the idea.

I also see myself doing some other projects in the future for other people. I once made a promise to myself that I would everything in my power to help a friend in need. I intend to keep that promise.

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The Secret Project Revealed

Some people have already seen the logo and some know what I’m up to, but I thought I would let EVERYONE know. Well everyone who reads my blog anyway. I’m getting into the e-commerce racket. Specifically I’m going to start selling Anime DVD’s online.

I’m not going to go into the details, except that I’ve been working on this for a bit and I’m ready to go live…almost. I was actually planning to go live with the site today, BUT I had a few pitfalls and I’ve pushing the launch back to Wednesday or Thursday., at the latest.

My main roadblock is getting the products on the site right now. I have about 400 imported titles listed but I need to get some of the domestic titles on as well. Domestic, meaning that it was translated here; the still is all from Japan. The way I figure it though I can still go live and add product on a daily basis until I’m happy with the selection and then add as new titles get released.

One cool thing about all this is that I started buy anime magazines and keeping the receipts since I can deduct them as a business expense; market research. Also since I’ll be running the business from my home, I get to deduct…yea yea move on.

Now I haven’t quit my job yet. I’m not planning on doing that until I’ve made a certain amount of money, which I’m hoping to do by the time the snow starts falling again, (the problem with that is that sometimes the weather is extremely chaotic and the snow could start falling in July).

Now I also know that simply having a site isn’t enough, I need to generate traffic, the right kind of traffic. I’ve been working with some people on this. They are going to help me get to the top of the search engines (and that included Google).

I’m not going to give out the address yet since there’s nothing to see, but I look forward to getting everyone’s opinions when I launch, and hopefully you’ll wish me luck.

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