Merry Christmas To All...And To All, A Good Night

Well it is that time of year again: a time to visit those long lost relatives (and some newly found ones as well); a time to celebrate; a time of joy; of reflection; and to honor our progenitors. Lastly and most importantly, it give us time to thank our Heavenly Father for the Birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ: who's name is the root of our named celebration. Because this holiday is, or at least should be centered on Christ: let us take time out of our busy day to remember the Reason For The Season.

I would like to take this time to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas. I pray that you will be given all that you require; and that you will be blessed with health, safety and happiness for you and your loved ones.

May peace reside with you always.

John A. Shachter
President & CEO
Black Cat Enterprises

Update 051203

So many things have been happening since my last writing, I hope that I can get it all down before my brain explodes. To start, let me let you know how my first ebay listing went. The listing closed at $41.00. Although I would have liked to have seen it go higher, I was happy to make the sale none the less. The sale auction closed on Tuesday, November 22...but I was unable to get the payment until Saturday the 26th. This was not due to the buyer, but because of a mistake I had apparently made when making the listing. It was found that I had transposed two of the letters in my e-mail address for PayPal (some how), and so I was never advised of the payment. Additionally, when I had tried to "force the payment", by going through the eBay site, I still had no luck. After 3 phone calls to PayPal, we came up with a "work-around". I created a new e-mail address to match the miss-entered address in PayPal. I then linked that address to PayPal, and whah-la...I got my money. By the time I got to this point, it was already late on Friday night (11/25), so first thing on Saturday morning (11/26), I shipped out the order via FedEx. The customer has received the order, but as yet, has not sent any feedback as promised in an earlier correspondence. I guess he wants to make sure it "works" before sending his feedback. I hope that will be soon, as I need all the feedback I can get (being new to eBay).

Since that sale, I have had three winning bids for items that I have purchased (have received 2 of the 3 already). I have started three more listings: a Stainless Steal Muffler; Road Side Emergency Kit; and a Gift Certificate to Grandma's Attic (by PayPal). The last thing (Gift Certificate) was created because I needed a way of marketing items with little or no overhead, but yet pure (or nearly pure) profit potential. I had "stumbled" on the gift certificate section when I was going through either the eBay or PayPal site (can't remember which). I was excited when I found this for not only my business directly: but also so that I could use the certificates for Christmas Gifts for this year; which will benefit my business also. Lastly, I have now opened my own eBay Store at http://stores.ebay.com/Grandmas-Bargain-Attic.

Now that I have my own eBay store, I have added a couple of items (mostly gift certificates), but I now have a few more things that I am going to add. In the same thought as the gift certificates, I was looking for something that I could sell (electronically), when I was thinking of e-books and perhaps computer programs and utilities. I have found several outlets for e-books, and have already purchase the rights to resell them. I will be adding these to my eBay store at Grandma's Bargain Attic, as well as my primary site at Grandma's Attic today. As time goes on, I will be adding more and more items to both my eBay and personal stores. Additionally, I will be starting shortly in developing my first of six other sites that I have purchased. Stay tuned for more information about that in the issues to follow.

eBay: ATI TV Wonder Pro Remote Control Edition (item 8722425481 end time Nov-22-05 01:03:13 PST)

Here is my 1st official eBay listing. Although I actually "tried" to sell something via eBay a year ago...it didn't work (the seller backed out of the sale). So this is the first listing that I am making in the name of my new business venture (Grandma's Attic) With less than 3 hours until this auction ends...I wonder if the listing will get any higher. It is now at $41...but come on...show me the money. LOL

Update 051121

Well…I took time off last week from updating this blog (actually, I was so busy, I didn’t get to it). So now in this weeks edition, I will cover all the things (as best as I can remember) of what I have been doing.

The site has now been running for about 3 months or so, and to my dismay, I have not had any customers. I know that people are visiting the site, but still no purchases or even listings. I guess that I have to be my own best customer…at least for the time being. I have been adding affiliates/sponsors to my site, and trying to keep it looking, well…not too busy. As I think I have said before (and will probably will say again): I believe in providing my visitors and customers with the best experience possible. If I don’t have what someone is looking for, then either I will find it, or try to refer them to someone who can. That is the main reason why I have affiliate relationships. Of course, I would be crazy not to try and get paid for my hard work. One of the best examples I have of this happened just today. I had added a Dish Network affiliate button link on my main (home) page a couple of days ago. Today I decided to check out the Dish Network site: as my wife and I had talked about switching to a satellite system (there is a particular station that is not available on cable that we want to get). So I placed my order for a two room package. This evening, when I had checked my stats…I had already been credited my “commission” for the sale/referral. Now let me make one thing perfectly clear: I am not trying to scam anybody. I truly do want the satellite system: in fact…I had to pay money up front to get it: but why not use my own site and be my own best customer. And hey…I get paid for it too. What can be better? Of course, I need to have other people use the site. I have told my family and friends to use my site and get the program as well.

I have also added the ability for my site visitors and customers to purchase gift certificates directly from my site. This is a promotion that is being offered by PayPal, and I jumped at the chance to offer this on my site. Denominations start at $5.00, and go all they way up to $1,000. The best thing is that they don’t expire. So the recipient doesn’t have to feel that they have to “use them up” by a certain date. I currently only have one link on my site (home page) where people can get these, but I will be adding them to select other pages in the next couple of days.

I noticed (just in case you are wondering), that when I moved my affiliate line from the top of the page, to the bottom; everything that was below is not a big white space. I will be looking into that as well…hopefully tonight. And thank you Rob, I have made the changes (hopefully all of them) that we discussed last night. I would also like to take this time to thank everybody (family and friends) who has helped, supported and encouraged me as I work to get have Grandma’s Attic making money.

On the brighter front: I have placed my first listing with eBay as of 11/12 (it expires at about 3am tomorrow). I had a ATI TV Wonder Pro that has been sitting around the house just collecting dust. I had never opened the box until I placed my listing (just to see what it looked like). I started the bidding out at $1…and now it is up to $26. I sure hope that it increases in the next few hours (only 9 hours to go). Thee purpose of this “experiment” was two fold: first, well…I NEED THE MONEY…Second: I wanted to see how this was going to work. I want to start selling more items on eBay…and I need to get to know it inside and out. I want to learn the best times to place listings; the best starting prices etc etc etc. I downloaded several free templates that I can use in Excel and Word for Invoices and Packing Slips. Once the listing expires, I will grab the winning bidders information, and shoot out an invoice to them immediately. Once payment has been made, I will immediately send it out via the shipping method chosen by the buyer.

Even though I am new to this…I want to be as professional as I can in helping my customers make the right buying decision. I even had an inquiry the other day. It was kind of funny (to me), but I answered the customers question quickly and efficiently. The question was: what will it cost to ship my product to Milan, Italy? I did the research via UPS and FedEx, and found that it would cost (at minimum) about $105.00. Before I could even get that information, I had to find the postal code for Milan. Thanks to the Internet and Google…within a minute, I found it to be 20100. I guess I found this funny (in a strange way and not comical), is because I never thought I would have to deal with international issues…at least not quite yet. I have always had aspirations to build an international business though…and perhaps this is the start.

Dummies::Dealing with Drop-Shippers in Your eBay Business

Here is some great information concerning drop shipping. Appearently from the "...For Dummies" people, has some great info as well as links to even more information.

New Banners Added

WELL…I DID IT!!  I spent the whole day yesterday creating some banners for Grandma’s Attic.  When I say some, I don’t mean 2,3,4 or even 5: but I have created a whopping 25…bringing my total library of BCE-GA Banners up to 27.  These files are animated GIF’s…so they are fun to watch as they are to click on…or at least that is what I am hoping for.  These banners will be used as a part of my marketing program.  I am also looking at getting some FLASH banners made too.  I’ll let you know when I get that done.  To see the banners that I currently have, sorted alphabetically by type, please go to http://www.buygrandmasattic.com/bce_ga_banners.html.  This page is “secured”, and you will need a pass code to get into it. (banner2005).  Please drop me a line to let me know what you thing of my latest creations.  -John

Grandma's Attic Member Services - Your Place To Expand Your Experience

Well...I have been at it again: hard at work trying to make this the best possible site for all. I have finally added MY first product; not to be confused with those items sold by or through BCE-GA for others. I had this little box that has been just lying around the house. What is it, you might ask? Well, it is an ATI TV Wonder PRO with Remote Control: an device that you install inside your computer so that you can watch TV on your computer, and do other neet tricks....but alas, I digress. I finally decided that although I had bought this within the last year, I probably will never get around to using it. Not that it is taking up allot of space; but rather that I need the money.

So I did my due dilligence. I "Googled" the product name, and found that it retails for about $99.00 (shipping included) on ATI's site. So I set my price at $59.99 plus shipping (I'm charging the customer $5.00). After getting it entered into my website; I additionally listed the item with eBay. Although when all is done and said, I am not sure if eBay received my listing. I went through my web site to post to eBay...and I got an error message. I will follow up on that a little later. So now that I did all that...what next?

Well, I did what I love doing...I created more pages for my site (he who dies with the most pages, wins...lol). I first created a links page for me (SHA7914_list.html) that will have links to all the products that I will be selling at any one time. When I get other listing customers, I will do the same for each of them as well. Then, I created another liniks page (one level up) that will have all sellers "listing pages" listed in order of Seller ID. And lastly, I linked this page to the top level page in Member Services.

Now, if you know of a particular seller and you want to see what other products or services they may have to offer: now you can do so fairly easily. I still need to create some "cross links" from other pages that relate to one particular seller (IE: Listing Seller's Information Page). I will be doing that next.

One thng I have been thinking of doing as a promotion to encourage listings, is to offfer a FREE basic listing on eBay. This would be the most basic listing, and doesn't include any extras such as bold, highlight, 10 day or any other item. This will only be offered for fully paid ads on Grandma's Attic. Any upgrades or additional fees will be the responcibility of the listing advertiser, and must be paid prior to insertion or upgrade. At this time, I will only be offfering this promotion to regular listing advertisers. If you wish to list as a consignment, this promotion will not apply to you. One exception: if the consignment advertiser wishes to participate in this program, they must pay for the cost of the listing in advance. If their item does sell, they I will refund the amount equal to the normal basic listing rate for their item.

Affiliates Added 051110

Just added 12 new affiliates to our affiliates page. I did this by first creating a table at 4x4 (Wide x High). I then inserted the code I was supplied by Commission Junction (CJ). For each affiliate that I have an agreement with, I had to choose an appropriate banner, image or text link back to the "producer's" home page. I chose to use graphical images at 125x125 pixels...so as not to take up too much space on this page. Even though I created the table at 4x4, I have only used 3 of the rows...perhaps I will add more later. I did also add one banner ad on the Electronics catalog page. I do plan on adding more banners, links and graphics on other parts of the site...but especially under the different catalog headings. I will try to balance this, with not making the site over crowded or an affilate site.

John's Personal Blog: A New Picture Of Me

John's Personal Blog: A New Picture Of Me

Weekly Update: 051108: A Revamped Grandma's Attic

Well hello again from the friendly confines of my mind. Sorry that I am "late" with this, but I hope you will agree that I had a good reason. When I first conceptualized what I wanted Grandma's Attic to look like, I had thought of all of the other sites that I had seen before, and wanted something simular in design (although different in contact and purpose). When I searched for the place to host my site, I knew two things: first, I knew that I didn't want one for those freebie web sites that anyone can get...as I didn't want to put my "professional" e-commerce site on their network, and be limited by their rules and regulations (not to mention the popups or banner ads that I wouldn't even get paid for on my site). Secondly, I wanted to have the (artistic) control, while not having to worry about the nitty gritty of HTML coding. I had came across CitiMax.com: a place where I could build and host my site for a very reasonable price.

As I started to build my site (they give you 10 days for free to try it out), I noticed right away that there were some limitations; but all in all for the money, I could work around most things. In order to get my site looking somewhat professional, I chose a design template, and started entering the text. I found a really cool header that "spoke to me", so I used it. In fact, I saved the image on my computer, and then added some text to more "personalize it". I then uploaded the modified file back to the citiMax site, and am still using the image to this day. But there were things that I didn't like, but didn't know enough of their system to make the modifications. Instead, I plowed forward, adding page after page after page; until I hade a good working knowledge of not only my site, but of their system as well.

Now that the site has been up for a while, I decided to make some much needed changes to the site. The first and most important change I wanted to make was on the home page. To my opinion, there was just too much info, in the form of text, on the page. Second, it was more cumbersom to navigate...and I feared that people wouldn't be sure where they wanted to go; as there were quite a few navigation buttons listed. Lastly, you didn't even know what this site was about until you started reading. To address these issues, the following changes have been made:

• I eliminated about 75% of the text on the page. Most of the information that was their eithor didn't need to be because it was elsewhere, or it just wasn't needed.
• I moved several new products onto the home page, entitled This Weeks Featured Products. In doing so, I eliminated the Featured Products page altogether. By doing so, I hope to encourage purchases right from the start page...instead of navigating to it. Also, by making this change, people now should know right away, that it is an e-commerce site, that sells products.
• I eliminated about 1/2 of the tabs on the Navigation bar. There are now only 10 tabs, instead of the 22-24 or so that were there before. In order to do so, I needed to create a couple of new pages, and then place links to the old tabs in the newly created pages. By consolidating the tabs into "tab families" (logical divisions of related information), I hoped to make the navigation bar less crowded and easier to read.
• I moved the tabs from the left side to the top. I also changed the font type, resized the text, and rezided the tabs themselves. By doing so, I felt that the site would have better symetry, and not look off balance (yes, I really do think of these things).

Lastly, besides all of this, and all the many "little" things that I did, I also created two additional pages that will be used down the road. The first is a FAQ's page (every site should have one), and the second was a Glossery of Terms page. We will blog these items as they become available.

After doing an all nighter from Sunday (11/6) to Monday (11/7) to get these changes made, I slept for about 4 1/2 hours, and then started work at the site again. This time, I had some help from the outside. Two people in particular have helped my: first my friend Katrina from TN, and second, my friend Deb from Iowa. Both gals have helped me in "beta testing" the site; but Katrina has really gone above and beyond the call of duty. Katrina actually went page by page, tyring to hit all the links, and checking for any bugs. With her help, we found a couple of benine bugs: including a typo in the sub-title of one page. Katrina even went as far as to help me run a test sale (using bogus info) to test my systems order handling process. I was given a green lite by both of these wonderful gals. You can read their comments in our Guest Book. If you discover a bug in our system (even a misspelled word) please let us know by writing to us NOW.

I guess if I am going to give any shout-outs, I shouldn't fail to metion my good friend and neighbor, Alvin. Alvin has been working behind the scenes in helping me promote my site by giving out my business cards to his family, friends and business contacts. If everyone did as Alvin has done, I know that this community we're creating would become bigger than any of could possibly imagine. And speaking of my business card: I have just reveived my reworked cards yesterday (11/7). That is the card that you can see at the beginning of this post.

Meta Tag Analyzer tool

Meta Tag Analyzer tool

OH MY GOSH: This site is so cool. Continuing with my "research" from my Googled "tag" query, I found this site on page 2. It is awsome. I did a test on my newly revamped home page (more about that later). It told me that my Title tag was too long: 90 charictors, instead of the maximum of 80. I made some quick changes, and now it is down to 79 charictors. All looked good when I ran the test again. I know that this is not the only tool, and it cannot guarentee any success...but it is more than I had ever expected to be out here...and it is Free.

Back to Basics: META Tags / WebDeveloper.com �

Back to Basics: META Tags / WebDeveloper.com �

Another useful site I found while checking out sites from my "Tag" keyword search. My daughter said she wanted to upload some pic's from Halloween to a site called "Tag", but I couldn't find it. Sounded a little suspicious to me...but then I found so much good info, that I will now be able to use for all of my sites: now and in the futere.

HTML Author's Guide to the Robots META tag

A usefull site I found for information concerning HTML Meta Tags: for Robots.

New Poll On Our Site 051030

 

The newest poll is now on our site and waiting for your opinion:

 

When you make a purchase online, what is your preferred method of payment?

 

Other poll on our site are as follows:

 

• Bargain Location Finds

Please take the time to give us your opinion.  YOUR OPINION COUNTS.

 

Successfully Yours,

 

John A. Shachter

President & CEO

Black Cat Enterprises-Grandma's Attic

 

 "Things May Come To Those Who Wait...

 ...But Only The Things Left By Those Who Hustle!!"

- Abraham Lincoln

        

E-Mail Blog Submission Update 051030

Just another beautiful day here in Grandma's Attic.  The sun is shinning through the window, and I am inspired to give an account of my latest work done with the site (www.buygrandmasattic.com).  I have been pretty busy this past week, and am working very hard to get our site known.  Before I talk about the improvements I have made to the site, let me first tell about some interesting things that happened this past week.

 

First, a couple of days ago, I received a call from a man asking if we sold clothes.  My response was that we sold for other people.  And although I have decided to expand our clothing and apparel section, I really don't have much there yet.  The man said okay, and then hung up.  Now, I am not sure what he was really looking for, as he hung up to quickly (before I had the chance to ask), but one thing is for sure: I am starting to see results (albeit slow) of my marketing endeavors.  What I did get from the call was this: it was a local call; he called my cell phone; he knew something about my business.  What I didn't know was where he heard of me or where he obtained my business card.  The reason I believe that it had to be from my business card is that it is only on my business cards that had my cell number.  Additionally, my cards have been passed out to many people by myself, as well as through other friends and at selected locations that I have placed card holders.  It is good to know that I am starting to see some results from my efforts of my work.

 

The next thing happened just yesterday (10/29).  I had gone in to pay the rent at one of my storage locations.  This is also one of the locations that I had permission to leave some of my business cards.  Although she (the manager) couldn't always keep my cards on the counter because of her boss, she had them on her desk to hand out.  We had started a conversation concerning a former tenant.  It would seem that this tenant had left behind several boxes of "mint condition" Playboy magazines from (starting in) the 1970's.  Apparently, many of the issues were also collectors editions, and she was looking to sell them.  She said that she may wish to use my services: particularly with the ability to list on eBay.  I suggested that probably the best method would be to create a consignment agreement (which I already have the form).  With this method, I told her that if the items(s) sold, great, but if they didn't, she would not have any out of pocket expenses: with exception of what ever the eBay charges were to list her sale.  I also told her that, being that it didn't cost her anything to procure the items(s) for sale, anything she made from the sale would be pure profit.  The only thing that is of issue is if I actually want to list the items on my site.  My opinion is not to, but I will have to give it some careful consideration.

 

Now getting back to some of what I have been doing for the site.  I have been working with getting an Affiliate program established for my site.  What this will be is and INBOUND program.  In another words, when a person or company include a link or banner on their web site, and a person clicks through to my site, they can earn money for referrals and sales that are generated because of their referral.  I am still in the process, of establishing this, and I have been stopped in my progress because of a coding issue (can't figure out where the code is supposed to go on my site).  I hope to have this done with in the next week or so, so watch out for our news release on our site, or here for more information.  In addition to my inbound affiliate program that I am in the works of, I have also been adding other affiliates to my site.  I have quite a few that I have been approved to place on my site, and will continue to do so as space permits.

 

The one big thing that I did this week that wasn't directly connected to the site, was the creation of my Advertisers Application and Agreement.  In this form, a person givers certain information about them self, their company (if appropriate) and what they would like to advertise on our site.  The document was created in MS Word, using tables and forms items (mostly text & check boxes).  This has been  (and will continue to be) a work in progress: as I am not very familiar with this aspect of Word, and I have been trying to learn as I go.  In addition to the application/agreement section" I have also included an addendum to the document (an optional section) for people who wish to also have their listing on eBay.  Once I completed the form to my satisfaction, I uploaded it to my site, so that people can download it.  At first, when you clicked on a link to download it, it actually opened up the form.  Although this is good, it wasn't what I wanted.  I just wanted people to download it, fill it out, and then attach a saved copy in an e-mail back to me.  So I contacted the host of my site (CityMax.com) and found out how I could create the download page to work as I wanted it to.  I created the appropriate pages, with a links page tying them together.  The next  problem that I noticed (subsequently) was that when you opened the file, and clicked on a form box, you couldn't enter any text.  I think that is because I had locked the form.  I will be making the change to that shortly.  You can now download any form or document that I have on the site from our Documents & Forms page (new).  This will be handy if you want to download say, our most current Privacy Policy, (which you can now download it in both .doc or .pdf format).  However, some of the files on this page may only be in one or the other format.  If you don't have a pdf reader, you can download a free version from our site (you will be taken to Adobe to do this).

Successfully Yours,

 

John A. Shachter

President & CEO

Black Cat Enterprises-Grandma's Attic

 

 "Things May Come To Those Who Wait...

 ...But Only The Things Left By Those Who Hustle!!"

- Abraham Lincoln

        

Ok...I think I Got It!

Sometimes, I am very busy in the day to day operations of my business.  And during those times, I may want or need to post an entry to my blog.  Up to now, I had to navigate to the site, log in, type in my blog, save, and then log out.  Now, I have the ability to post a blog entry just buy sending an e-mail.  I have now created a template that I can use right out of Outlook to post my entries.  If you look at the previous attempts, I had to make some changes to my "normal" e-mail format to incorporate the readability of the blog.  I first discovered that the VCard that is attached to all my e-mails, gave just too much information: taking up valuable space on the page.  Then I also noticed that my electronic business card was not displaying (although the link to my site behind it still seemed to work); so I took out the image, and just linked the site to my business name (see below). 

 

Now, when I am too busy to actually go to the site, but I want to get some information on the site, I now have this new tool.  Additionally, I can always go back into the system to edit the blog entry or append to it if necessary. 

Successfully Yours,

 

John A. Shachter

President & CEO

Black Cat Enterprises-Grandma's Attic

 

 "Things May Come To Those Who Wait...

 ...But Only The Things Left By Those Who Hustle!!"

- Abraham Lincoln

        

This is just another test...

Test Blog Submission: Removed electronic business card, and hyperlinked business name under my title.

Successfully Yours,

 

John A. Shachter

President & CEO

Black Cat Enterprises-Grandma's Attic

 

 "Things May Come To Those Who Wait...

 ...But Only The Things Left By Those Who Hustle!!"

- Abraham Lincoln

        

This is just another test...

Test Blog Submission without a VCard

Successfully Yours,

John A. Shachter

President & CEO

Black Cat Enterprises-Grandma's Attic

 

 

 

"Things May Come To Those Who Wait...

 ...But Only The Things Left By Those Who Hustle!!"

- Abraham Lincoln

        

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Shachter;John;A.;Mr.
FN:John A. Shachter
NICKNAME:el Gato Negro
ORG:Black Cat Enterprises;Sales & Marketing
TITLE:President & CEO
TEL;WORK;VOICE:+1 (847) 628-9543
TEL;WORK;VOICE:(866) 567-1514
TEL;HOME;VOICE:(847) 697-5672
TEL;CELL;VOICE:847-354-5315
TEL;WORK;FAX:84766280168
TEL;HOME;FAX:(847) 628-9548
ADR;WORK;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:;;980A Congdon Ave=0D=0A#8;Elgin;IL;60120;United States of America
LABEL;WORK;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:980A Congdon Ave=0D=0A#8=0D=0AElgin, IL 60120=0D=0AUnited States of America
ADR;HOME;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:;;980A Congdon Ave=0D=0A#8;Elgin;IL;60120;United States of America
LABEL;HOME;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:980A Congdon Ave=0D=0A#8=0D=0AElgin, IL 60120=0D=0AUnited States of America
X-WAB-GENDER:1
URL;HOME:http://www.geocities.com/elgatonegro_us/
URL;WORK:http://www.buygrandmasattic.com
BDAY:19580518
EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:info@buygrandmasattic.com
EMAIL;INTERNET:elgatonegro63@comcast.net
EMAIL;INTERNET:elgatonegro_us@yahoo.com
REV:20051026T133704Z
END:VCARD

This is test # 2 of the e-mail blog submission form.

Successfully Yours,

John A. Shachter

President & CEO

Black Cat Enterprises-Grandma's Attic

 

 

 

"Things May Come To Those Who Wait...

 ...But Only The Things Left By Those Who Hustle!!"

- Abraham Lincoln

        

Added A Press Release Section 10/25/05

We have now created a form on our site to dissimulate information to the public in the form of Press Releases. We have alrready put a press releases on the site earlier today, and will be adding more of them from time to time to address events, issues, new products and etc. Additionally, I (John) attended an online training this morning through an outside vendor with regards to the subject. Their company: WebEx & PR Web are dedicated to helping people and companies getting their newsworthy releases onto the web. We are looking at working with that company, and will let you know here when we have added any online press releases to our site or outside of it.

These Press Releases are ment for larger news worthy items, whereas the blogs concerns the more day to day operations, as well as the thoughts and feelings of the contributors.

Update 10/25/05

Well...things have been moving right along lately. You can tell when you have a real business: every one starts to call you to sell all of there B2B products and services. I received such a call yesterday from a company that is going to help me tighten up my site for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). They were referred to my by Discover Card: glad my information isn't being sold. One good thing about this relationship, is that they will bill my Discover account directly (my merchant account), so I don't have any out of pocket expenses. Now I just need to get enought customers through my site to user their Discover Cards, so I can pay for this service. The cost of what they do is almost $50.00/month.

On another note: I have been busy updating my site over the past few days. If you visit the site now, you will notice first that the home page looks somewhat different. All I have done there is take out some pictures: but I will be working to revamp the look and feel of the entire site; starting with the index.html. I have also been applying for acceptance with many companies with their affiliate programs. The main reason for this (outside of getting paid), is to offer my customers and visitors the ability to find what they are looking for: even if it didn't come from me (directly or indirectly). That concept was learned by me when I was much younger: after seeing the movie "Miricle On 31st Street": when the main charictor, Chris Kringle, who was working as the "Store Santa" for a major department store; would refer customers away from "his" store to another store, if they had what the customer wanted.

It is my personal belief that there is enough money to be made out here, that we can all share. I am not a greedy person, and all I want to do is make my own little bit. Additionally, I think that it is very important to put the customers needs before your own personal needs. If I provide you with the service that you want and need, you are more likely to use my service in ther future. Additionally, you will also be more likely to tell your family and friends: and THAT is the best kind of advertising that any one could ask for.

Although I have now been accepted by many companies in their affiliate programs, I will limit the number of ads on my pages, so as not to over-whelm you, our valuable customer. If I get over excited, and things start to look too crowded, please let us know. We want your experience with us to be a positive one.

One last thing concerning the pages. I have been going through all of the pages and adding "bread crumbs" at the top and bottom of each page. Bread crumbs are those text links that take you back to the previous pages in the chain. Generally, they would look something like this:

HOME >> CATALOGS >> COMPUTERS

In the above example, the links in blue (or purple if you had already used it), are links to the previous page(s). The web site starts at HOME (index.html), and progresses to the The CATALOGS page (where all of the catalogs are listed, and then ends on the COMPUTERS page, where all the products under that catagory are listed. As COMPUTERS is the current page, it is not a link. You can click on eithor of the other links (in any order), or of course, you can always use the tabs to the left. Eventually, we may be adding text links to all the tabbed sections that will be located on the bottom of the page in the following format:

[HOME] [PRODUCT OF THE WEEK] [CATALOGS] and etc. Of course, the type size will most likely be much smaller, to conserve on space, and make it less distracting from the rest of the page.

Time To Catsup

I guess I couldn't help myself with taking something from the last post to segue into this post.

Well, it is another beautiful day in Chicagoland, and I am finally getting back to the business of running my business full time. Now let me explain what I mean by that. Since about last Friday (10/14), I became very ill. I developed a high fever, soar throat, and a lot of congestion in my sinuses as well as in my lungs. It is now a week later, and I am still feeling the effects of this illness. For several days, try as I might, I really was unable to be at all productive, and slept for the greater part of the days (I needed this anyways as I had only been getting 1-3 hours of sleep per day in the preceding week). Then yesterday (10/20), I attended an all day Internet Cashflow seminar. I was unable to get anything done when I did finally get home last night, as it was almost midnight, and I was mentally and physically exhausted.

I learned so much from the seminar, and will be using much of it to better my web presence: not only with the site, but any other sites I develop. In fact, I signed up for another 6 sites, that I will be developing over the next few months. These sites will be much different from Grandma's Attic: as they will be limited in scope to just one product or service. It is my goal to make $500 a month in profit for each of these new sites; at least to get started. Eventually, I would like to have 100+ sites on the web. I would like to get the first 100 sites by December 2015. If each site can have a profit of $500/month...then I should do well: $600K/Year. This is, of course, keeping it very simple: imagine if I do more...much more. I guess my family won't need to worry about where their next meal is coming from, eh?

Pease, love & harmony be with you always. -John

One More...The Tomatoes

Tom Tomato, along with is wife Val, and their young daughter Cherrie were out for a walk in the paths around the hot house one fine summers day. Tom & Val were showing Cherrie, who had been off the vine for only a little while, her new neighborhood. Cherrie, being small and round, had trouble keeping up with her beefcake daddy, and the plumb that her mother was. Tom kept kept encouraging Cherrie to stay with them, but to no avail. After many attempts, Tom became red in his attempts. He stopped walking with Val, turned and walked the steps back to where Cherrie was lolly-gagging. Tom towered over her, and when she looked up, down came his big foot. "Now Catsup", was all he exclaimed.

Update 10/21/05 " The Matta"

A man was slowing walking down the street, mumbling the words:
The Matta, the matta, the matta. As I was walking directly behind him, and couldn't get around him due to the throng of oncoming pedestrians, I was made to wait for about a block before I found an opening to pass. The man kept repeating the phrase "the matta". Now I have to say, that although I don't usually "evesdrop" or get into other's business, I have to say that I was intrigued. As I started to pass this man, I noticed that he was an older man...about in his 60's, and his body looked beaten down.

Even though I was now walking right next to him, I still couldn't make out his face, as he was looking down, and away from my glance. Figuring that maybe something was wrong, and that perhaps I could help this elderly man, I placed my hand gently upon his shoulder and said "Excuse me sir. I've been walking behind you for the past block, and you keep mumbling about 'the matta'. Good sir, can you tell me what is THE MATTA?" The elderly man stopped dead in his tracks; turned towards me, looking up at me with his eyes shinning, and with the biggest grin on his face, said "Nothing is THE MATTA...What's the matta with you?!"

Update: 10/14/05: Our First Customer-Kind Of

Here is my latest entry to bring things up to date.

This past Wednesday (10/12/05), I baby sat for my youngest sister (Chrissy) and her husband (Joe). Appearently, Joe had tire problems on his souped up 2004 Mustang, and had to take it to get fixed or replaced. So when Joe came back to pick up the kids, he treated me out for some Mexican at this really nice restaurant her in Elgin (IL) called Azteca de Oro. He didn't have to do that, but it was nice all the same. He told me that he was looking to sell an upgrade body kit for his car. Appearently, the paint job didn't meet his expectations, and he had to get a new one. So now he has this extra kit, and he wants to sell it. As we had been working together on some other sites (giving my impressions), he said that he would like to sell it through my site, but mostly on Ebay. He said that all he wanted was a couple hundred dollars for it (retails new for almost $900), and I could keep the rest. I told him that what I would do is put it on my site for free, and list it on Ebay for whatever they charge. I would sell it for him on consignment, and charge him a flat % if and when it was sold.

And so the problem: I hadn't even created all of the necessary forms and applications that I need. This was my inputis. I have been working diligently the last four nites for this business, getting only about 16 hours of sleep, TOTAL!! Well, there will be plenty of time to sleep when I cross over, but for now, I need to get things pushed into high gear. I created the Advertising & Listing Application. I thought this would be fairly strait forward, and for the most part, it was. The problem I had was in creating the form entries. I had limited experience in the past with creating forms in MS Word...and that has been a long time. Additionally, I really never learned much other than how to place fields in their location. As I tend to be a perfectionist, I wanted the whole thing to be perfect before I sent it out: however, I realized that being that he is a realitive of mine, he probably wouldn't be to critical of my "1st draft". So I finished typing it out this afternoon, and sent it to him. Later this afternoon, I went back to continue refining the form, when I noticed that I had locked it, and he won't even be able to edit online (of course he could always print it out, fill it in and then fax it to me); but I want to make it as easy as posible for my customers (even family members).

It is now almost 1900, and I will finish making this entry, and then I have to create the Consignment Agreement. I have been doing my Due Dilligence with respect to Joe's car kit: researching the MSRP, as well as what other venders are selling it for. Additoinally, I will monitor ebay and other sites to see what this type of item is selling for, so I know how we should price it. I may actually do that first, prior to creating the Consignment Agreement.

Well, not much more to say at this time. Will write again when I have something to add.

This Is It...FINALLY

Hear Ye, Here Ye, The Black Cat Enterprises-Grandma's Attic blog is officially ready for business...

I am finally getting down to writing this entry. Actually, I had already wrote this several days ago, but my computer just "convieniently" decided to lock up just as I was posting my hard efforts. I guess I will go and systematically save as a draft until I am ready to post. This post is mainly about the inception, developing and continuation of my web site, Grandma's Attic, located at www.BuyGrandmasAttic.com.

So here goes...

On Thursday, August 18th, 2005 I had an idea; an epiphany if you will. The idea was to create a site where I could market items that I had for sale; as well as for my family and friends. I came up the the concept of Grandma's Attic: partially to honor my grandmothers, as well as my mother (a grandmother 17, soon to be 18), and my wife, a grandmother of 3. I thought that besides my own items that I wanted to get rid of, I could also seek out product that I could sell for other vendors, and have them "dropped shipped" to my "customers". Lastly, I thought I could seek out unique items that I would obtain at really low price, and to resell at a modest profit.

From that grew my determination in developing Grandma's Attic into not only a place for my family, friends and myself to sell our wares; but to become a community of like minded individuals who wish to Browse, Buy, and Sell items at Bargain prices. I had now started down the road to becoming a new web marketers. I did however, have another motivation. I had been suffering a debilitating condition that made it very difficult for me to work in a "traditional" work environment. I had just lost another position because of this condition, and so I decided to make the very most of this. I know, that with the grace of God above, this will become a success. My other motivator was and continues to be my wife, Barb. She is a professional truck driver for Waste Management, Inc. near our home. However, Barb's health is worstening and I want to not only do my part for our family, but to give Barb options for her future (she wants to go back to school, for instance).

So I did my due diligence (and continue in doing so), and started to develop the site. I already had a business PayPal & Ebay accounts, which I had set up a year prior: but I wanted more options for Grandma's Attic customers. So we now have a merchant account, and accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover & American Express, as well as checks and money orders for offline orders. I am still having some problems with the intragration with my shopping cart, but I will continue to work on that. People can still place orders with their cards: it is just that the information has to be manually transmitted through the system at this time.

I had recently added a way for people to contact me via the Yahoo! Instant Messenger (YIM) which is available on select pages of the site. On 10/10/05, I added this new feature as an added benefit for our visitors: THIS BLOG. Here is where I will post the most relevant changes to my site, as well as allowing our community to read, reply and post items as well. I will be looking at getting a more sophisticated system for visitors to contact us in an online support format: but that will need to wait until we can afford it and there is a need/demand for it. Until then, we have multiple avenues for visitors to contact us.

As I have been writing this blog for a couple of hours (while trying to babysat my sister's kids), I will not go into our plans for this site at this time. Also, I have been averaging 2.5 hours of sleep recently; so as soon as my brother-in-law gets here, I will be taking a short nap, before I start with my afternoon activities.

I hope and pray that you enjoy our site, this blog, and the community that I am so diligently trying to establish. May God's grace be with your every step. Please check back here often, as who knows what you will find here.

-John

This is my picture from my very first job as an Over-The-Road (OTR) truck driver. At the time (circa 1999), I was living in South Salt Lake, Ut with my wife Barb, and our teen son, Mack. We only ended up living in UT for about a year. Once I went on the road, Barb became "home sick" for her Chicago based family: so she decided that she wanted to move back there. I followed shortly thereafter when it was discovered that Barb had about 7 cysts in her uterus; and needed me to be there to help and support her while she underwent surgery. Actually, she had the proceedure while I was still on the road, but I came home for good soon after.
Posted By John "The Black Cat" Shachter

Okay...one even more silly than the other. I created this pic some years ago, using the previous image as the starting point. I adopted the name el Gato Negro (The Black Cat) because a woman that I was madly, truely deeply in love with (at the time); loved black cats. Well, needless to say, it didn't help my chances with her: but the name stuck. The image over me sitting on the sofa was taken in Jamacia (circa 1989) from the balcony of the hotel I was staying at when I had fist gotten married (wife #1). Hope you enjoy this one too.
Posted By John "The Black Cat" Shachter

This is an old photo of me back in about 1997, when I used to run a foster home for People with disabilities. I guess I never miss the chance to be silly, as is evident here.
Posted By John "The Black Cat" Shachter

And Introducing...Grandma's Attic

This is our new site, Grandma's Attic

Here is where you can Browse, Buy And Sell Items at Bargain Prices.

• Browse: You will have the chance to browse hundreds of items that are listed in our many online "catalogs".
• Buy: Once you have found something that you like, you can add it to your shopping cart. After you have added all the items you want to your cart, you will then have the ability to complete the purchase. We currently Accept the following methods of payment at Grandma's Attic: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, PayPal (preferred), as well as checks and money orders.
• Sell: In addition to making purchases from our site may now be an active participant in this virtual market place. For a Flat Fee, you can list your product or service with a full discription and up to 3 pictures, for up to 30 days at a time. Please refer to the site for more information.

We have many programs and services that we offer our different levels of clientel. Our most popular is our Rebate Program. Depending on several factors, we will rebate to you anywhere from 1-25% of your previous month's total retail purchases (not including tax or shipping) of items purchased from BCE-GA (not including other listing visitors, subscribers or members. Please see our site for more details at http://www.BuyGrandmasAttic.com
Posted By John "The Black Cat" Shachter