Of all things, I just can't believe it and I'm completely freaking out about a really cool discovery I've made this weekend. Here, in South Texas, mosquitos are a horrid plague. They ruin summer days and casual outings; even high-school football game nights can be a nightmare because of torturous biting, flying insects.

Today while putting the finishing touches on opening our pool for the season, I realized while others were being bothered by flying gnats and mosquitos; the pests weren't even coming near me. Normally I get eaten alive. And I was really worried about attracting mosquitos and bees because I had sprayed on a lot of perfume earlier in the day and thought the sweet smell would really set me up as a target. But nope, nothing all day. Even with bug spray, I normally will still have to swat pests away; they will still circle around. But nothing today.

And then I realized; the perfume instead of attracting the mosquitos was actually repelling them! The perfume I was wearing? Usher for women. It's advertised as mysterious and hypnotic. Wow, I think my discovery of Usher as a mosquito and bug repellent may just be bigger than when Avon became aware that their Skin So Soft product did the same.

I am quite excited to try this theory out again tomorrow. If I have stumbled upon a perfume that I absolutely love the scent of and if at the same time it happens to ward off mosquitos and outdoor flying bugs---I AM GOING TO COMPLETELY FLIP OUT!

I'll keep posting updates here as to how well this continues to work or if this was just a one-time fluke.

Here are a few things that have been funny to me lately. Two shows Nanny 911 and Super Nanny with Jo. Something strikes me so giggly when I see those out-of-control kids bonking the heck  out of each other. They slam each other so hard but they bounce right back up and if anyone's looking, THEN they start crying like they've been murdered or something.

All the kids running through the houses, flying off couches and bouncing off stairways, refusing to eat, telling their moms to shut-up and always the kicking, punching, hitting and slapping mom. What the???

Oh yeah, okay something else that's been funny is my dog who usually silently toots but lately he's been making noises that sound like duck calls. It's gross I know but I can't help but to laugh hysterically till I fall off the couch and get laughter-induced-asthma (which is pretty bad since I don't even have asthma). My poor doggie. What the???

Oh and here's an update on the pool: We began to fill last night at 10:00 pm and so the water ran all night. By late this afternoon it was it was almost half full. We believe it will be completely full my midnight tonight. 26 hours to fill. Nice, cold delicious water. Tomorrow I will be on my new alligator float, sipping juicy lemonade with about 20 layers of sun protection. It's supposed to be 100 degrees. Ahhhh---warmth bake my poor weary bones and heal them. Cold water refresh me. I need renewal and Mother's Day is the perfect time to start.

I'm so excited. The spring clean-up of the pool is finally finished. I climbed out of the depths of what seemed like the bowels of hell and got every last drop of water and green seepage from the drain. Why do pools look so much larger when they're empty? All I can still smell is algae. I think it's going to be permanently locked into my brain for awhile. I can't stand that smell--yuck, yuck, yuck.

But I'm so happy it's all done. The POOL IS OFFICIALLY FILLING! The water will run all night and all day tomorrow.

Sunday? I'll be floating on my new inflatable alligator! Woo-hoo!!! Never have I been this glad to open the summer season on the pool. For some reason, this year I'm just head over heels ecstatic.

The flowers are blooming everywhere; birds galore chirping and singing and flying from flower to flower with the bees chasing them from their sweet nectar spots. Sunday temperatures are supposed to reach 100! That cold water is going to be as delicious as the fresh squeezed lemonade I'll be serving up iced-down mugs of!  Summertime and the livin' is fine!

The day the music died: May 1, 2008!  Gerd Leonhard, CEO and founder of Sonific.com has decided to down his site due to the increasing red tape from the music industry who all want either a part of Leonhard's business shares or bizarre requirements in allowing legal licensing of music to be streamed through Sonific.com.

Sonific.com meant the wold to me as I used it's 2.0 user-friendly technology to imbed bubble-players on my eBay landing page and on store listing pages where my inventory was especially deep. Utilizing music on my listings increased my sales 6 to 1. Music set a tempo for my listings and moved my buyers to feel passionate about their purchases.

Brick-and-mortar stores have used the multi-sensory-modality approach to increasing retail sales forever. A trip to hard- trend stores these days will usually find you in a dimmed light setting, blasting music, visual displays that are appealing, and the alluring, intoxicating scents of either colognes, perfumes, oils or incense.  All of this sensory input gives messages to the buyer's brains and act as impetus for the 'shop till ya drop' consumerism.

Sonific.com allowed me to offer another dimension to my store and there is nothing that soothes the soul or revs the beast better than music. I could choose from a library of some 200,00+ songs and find just the right one to help me convey a message to my buyers about my product. We were a legion, some 80,000+ members strong---adding music to our blogs, or facebooks, auctions/store listings, or just for listening to on our pc's/laptops.

Sonific.com bubble players were awesome, set at default volume of 80% which users could set their own controls, including giving the option of having the music start automatically when a shopper or listener/blogger lands on the page or even letting the listener have the option of 'switching-on' the music themselves. You could let the song play just one time (which is what I preferred) or let a playlist play through repeatedly.

eBay allowed Sonific.com imbeds and I'm telling you the music really helps to drive sales.

I'm working with Gerd Leonhard currently on a petition I've drafted to bring back Sonific.com along with a series of t-shirts that will be designed by us, in-house and will soon be available for sale through our eBay store. If you're a fan of Sonific.com, be sure to watch for our store listings that support media futurist Gerd Leonhard; no one is working harder in this industry to bring web 3.0 as a standard.

The time is already upon us as old and new media collide and the convergence culture is the real currency. Cultural practices that are enabled by sharing tools will mean an end to communication limitations. Gerd Leonhard is simply amazing as he is making known around the world as he travels intensively serving as a keynote speaker, driving the message that you pull people in by attraction: Read, listen, watch, write, change. He wants the music industry to wake up and realize that, "Control of content is flat-lining." ..."Empower the users to create and share and success is inevitable."

To check out more about this media futurist and genius, please visit Gerdtube.com or TheEndofControl.com or mediafuturist.com. (As per eBay terms of service---these are not LIVE links that take you off-site.)   

Thank heaven it's Friday. But yeesh, what a few days it's been this week. We are finally caught up with all the shipping and it feels so amazingly freeing. Light, and all-skippy-fun. You would think having a line-up of orders to get out would be the most fun of all and IT IS; but there's nothing that beats knowing the shipments are complete and in the mail. Ahhhh yes!

It's been a tough week indeed. Getting the pool into shape for the season, especially for Mother's Day (thank me very much!) has been one tiny nightmare after another. The pool drained without a problem whatsoever, all the landscaping completed, all the lawn, deck, and patio furniture sparkling clean...but the scale is not appropriate on the gunite/concrete pool walls; our hands are blistered from scrubbing with wire brushes and power washers. Our water is so hard in Texas and contains so much lime and calcium and tons of other sediments. It just scales the walls of the pool terribly and that's even with using minerals and phosphates to keep the ph balanced and the water 'softer'.

It's never a good thing to drain a pool; they can heave or float right out of the ground. At least that's what we've read.

We almost finished last evening but then all of a sudden there is zero water. We couldn't finish cleaning or powerwashing so we went treking up to the front of the property and sure enough there were big rig city water repair trucks; a water main had busted down the street so they had turned off the water for the entire area!

They said it would be for only two hours which OF COURSE stretched into 7. We then were sitting around the dining room table having dinner when all of a sudden we hear a slight rumbling---we nod to each other, 'oh good, they're turning the water back on' and then we hear the air bubbles  as the water rushes through the pipes and then all of a sudden a "KABOOM!" We all looked at each other, like---'what the heck?' then sorta shrugged our shoulders and went back to eating.

The next morning---today---I walk out to get the newspaper and I see water and lots of it. Seems when they turned on the water from the main valve; the pressure was so great it actually blew out our old pipe that brings the water from the meter to the house.

Talk about huge fear for someone who needs to get their pool filled! It's a long story but we think we've got it pretty much under control. We have a long evening this night of finishing cleaning the pool and then to begin filling it. Thinking of all the huge complexities of this tremendous task before us--I am especially grateful the shipping is all out of the way.

After all, there's only so much a girl can take.

It becomes increasingly weary to transact within the eBay marketplace both as a buyer and seller. Three packages we've recently received had goods that were either so poorly prepared for shipment that the contents leaked all over the goods or were expired. One shipment we received were for dental products that we were to donate to an inner-city-youth program. When we contacted the seller about the expired products, the response was "listing only said items were new, but the expirations were not mentioned." No matter that it is illegal on eBay to sell expired products.

As sellers, we at Peppermint-Ice-Cream.com knock ourselves out trying to provide the best service we absolutely can. We spare no expense and treat our transactions with white-gloved-service. It repeatedly seems so very sad that the type of service we're providing never comes close to the type of service we get back, whether its from another seller or even from some buyers.

99.999999% of our customers are wonderful and a testament to the grand human race; so why does it always take less than a handful to make us think otherwise...

(If we experience one more buyer who believes their only 'obligation' is to pay--- I'm afraid our weariness will continue...)

1.) Buyers who think their only 'obligation' is to pay, yet who have the one-sided right to judge buyers on communication.

a.) We, as sellers, send out numerous emails to build on this DSR effort of providing full communication and I'll tell you, it's a lonely thing. Echo, echo, echo.

b.) It takes two parties to engage in successful communication. A buyer recently posed the question, 'What communication is needed?' This from a buyer who then turns around and rates sellers on what? Communication.  How about a response? That would be helpful, gracious and oh my goodness, yes EVEN kind. How about 'thanks, got the message' or 'thanks for keeping me updated' or 'thanks for the time you've taken to write me a personalized follow-up to see if I'm happy with the product/services/transaction'? Or how about a good old fashioned 'Wow, I got the package and can see how you've knocked yourself out putting together an awesome shipment, complete with amazingly generous freebies and thanks too, for the super fast shipping...'

c.) There is nothing that wears us out as sellers as quickly as buyers who simply refuse to engage reciprocally. It's amazing how many standards sellers are held to, while buyers believe all they need to do is click on their PayPal button.

d.) Buyers who believe they are 'responsibility-free' in a transaction are genuinely missing out on the basic human connection. Just how difficult is it to be responsive? To perhaps exhibit a trace of consideration? 

Just several random musings here today...

1. I wonder if the personalized emails that we send to buyers are ever read? No one ever responds to any of them, except one buyer did, to say that even though we had tried to contact her numerous ways over an important issue, she just never thought it was important to respond. That she figured we would know what she would want us to do.

Curious. Hmmm. Being rated by DSR stars over things like communication, we've tried to step up a program that corresponds with the buyer each step of the way: payment received, shipping notification, and various other personalized emails as necessary or warranted. But isn't communication supposed to be reciprocal? It often feels lonely to keep sending out bright, cheerful, positive, diplomatic, professional emails only to never receive a response. Which of course, is probably only natural. Buyers don't want to start a friendship or penpal program; they just want to get in and buy and get the merchandise and that's it. Still it's difficult to balance what buyer's want with what eBay is asking buyers to rate sellers by.

And curiouser. And on the other side of the market place...

Had a not-good-at-all experience with a seller recently. Got a Victoria's Secret PURSE filled with foaming bath wash. Hmmm. You would think maybe it's a good idea to put a bottle of bath wash in its own plastic bag, instead OF INSIDE THE PURSE. No tissue, no newspaper, no making sure the lid is on tight. Just throw a bunch of liquid items inside a purse, ship it off and to hell with it. You'd think I'd be mad as can be. Nope...just amazingly numb. Oh and then there was the delayed shipping. I waited and waited and finally contacted the seller for a tracking number. She bluntly responded, "USPS shows confirmed delivery."

Really? Because I don't have the package. And I didn't. Not for another full week. Seller responds, "USPS shows confirmed delivery." Not an email offered with an ounce of kindness or concern and certainly never EVER an apology. Purse full of foam? "Not her fault." "Not her problem." I read the feedback she leaves for buyers who dare to voice their concerns with their received goods.  The seller NEGS and butchers alive with words so venemous she might as well be a poisionous snake.

I would never dream of thinking, much less putting into print, the absolute lack of regard and contempt she apparently feels so free to spew.  

We knock ourselves out providing the best service we can for our buyers and would never dream of sending out merchandise like what I just got...How can we care so much and then come across a seller who absolutely cares NOT AT ALL. Some days it can really leave me feeling so worn out.

We continue here with the conclusion to Jennifer Perry's interview profile, Number Two in the Series of eBay Artist and Patron.

Getting ready for the upcoming holiday season is our store's top priority. We took a good, hard look at where we started and where we were just a few weeks ago and made the bold decision to completely revamp the entire system. We tossed over 270 listings from Peppermint-Ice-Cream and we feel that getting to start from scratch is what it's going to take to get things just right. With the USPS new postal rates that took effect some time around May, many of our listings were still not current with the increased rates. Plus we've learned so much in this long journey that we now know what's truly important. (And a lot of what's not!) 

However, we have grown too quickly and it's not like you can measure or even pace your growth across the board evenly. It's just like when a parent lovingly brags about his baby talking at 8 months and then another parent topping it with their walking baby at 10 months; as precious as both these timelines are, eventually most all babies grow into adults that talk and walk.

Same analogy with our store; sales may slow while we're drastically increasing inventory (and all the insanely hard work that it entails) and listing less but eventually the business grows into a talking, walking, adult-stage. It's the growing pains and lags that in the quiet moments leave me the most overwhelmed.

We feel most fortunate to be able to have the capital to scout, resource and secure products from all over the globe. But when your every waking moment is filled with processing that incoming stock and the merchandise starts oozing out of your ears---well, you either make more room or get taken over. Right now we're in the middle of  dodging toppling boxes. We are talking stacks and stack of boxes and inventory sheets and record-keeping forms. Not little stacks, but big stacks, like to the ceiling.

We've got a new core facility we've gutted and reconstructed. It's beautiful, what with all its matching lilac storage bins and lime green baskets. We even scrubbed every piece of gridwall and slatwall, including every last piece of slatwall/gridwall/pegboard hook. Our purpose is that we want the most perfect, pristine and sanitary foundation before we began stocking the shelves and bins with our prospective customer's orders.

But we're moving like sardines in the Core (that's what we call it; it's an acryonym for Care, Organization, Respect and Ethics--the basic principles on which Peppermint-Ice-Cream is built). That way every time we say, "Incoming Package for Core," or "Meet me at Core," or my favorite "Still working at Core," we have a small built in affirmation that encourages us to keep plugging away.

So anyway, we've accomplished a beautiful Core with a carefully planned color scheme to soothe and cheer the spirits. Throughout this year, we have secured merchandise that surely must be in the range of 10,000 unique pieces, if not more. We thought we would be listing evenly while doing all the other things we've done in our overhaul. 

But coordinating photography---and I mean careful, great photography for pictures that truly sell takes an exorbitant amount of time. Our props department alone has grown huge; as we add backdrops (which we sell the best of, by the way!) and merchandisers, displays, cabinents, stands, mannequins, heads, feet, hands. And I scared the heck out of my best friend last week when she opened a packed door at Core, only to find a butt/leg mannequin staring back at her torso-less and headless.

Ahhh, but this is no ordinary leg and butt mannequin; this beauty was advertised as a "Brazilian." Yes, my curiosity and sense of silliness got the best of me. I had to have her to show off our great lines of cheeky-peeky panties and hottie-naughties. (Like those names for panties? Yeah, I made them up. It's funny how much time goes into thinking up original new names for things like underwear!)

There have been one million details that we've noted, learned, assimilated or at least tried to observe. The learning process is similar to that of being Masters Prepared. Or heck, at this junction, I'd go one step further and say it's like struggling for your Doctorate. Just the amount of research that goes into learning deeply about vast eBay easily matches the amount of time, effort and commitment of higher learning pursuits.

Revising those 270 or so auctions seemed tempting, till we realized that they lacked a consistent look, a consistent message, and the elusive 'branding' that one always hears about when they first start selling while thinking, "What's the big fuss?" 

And in just scraping all those auctions; it left us free, TRULY FREE, to implement a super-focused, seriously-planned, extremely well thought-out execution in building our store categories. eBay says that categories are like the rows and aisles in on-line stores. We wanted to add to that 'shelves'. Our categories are three-deep and we planned our 'aisles and rows' as though we mapped out an actual retail store setting. This three-dimensional methodology is what helped us to capture a solid  categorical installation of our product 'shelves.'

We want our customers to have numerous ways to naviagate Peppermint-Ice-Cream and felt it very important early on to ascertain  our Domain name with forwarding to our eBay store. This makes driving traffic onto our eBay site much easier. We also learned how to set up ad campaigns with per click programs. It's not an easy thing to learn and can even be a bit mind-boggling  but it sure helps you with the whole process of knowing who your intended target market is and how specifically to draw from it.

Constructing custom store pages is important for us as well as there are so many things we wish to share with the eBay community, the eBay Art Marketplace and of course, our current valued customers in addition to our prospective clients. Custom store pages are seriously under-utilized by eBay Store operators and yet they hold such potential. 

 (Same as with categories and it blows me away how so many sellers never utilize their categories. Categories can FEED feeds! Categories are like having a ton of extra possible virtual auctions going on without having to 'pay for them'. Categories are keyword RICH. Not utilizing categories is like thumbing your nose at prospective customers.

In the meantime, the holiday season of 2007 is looming down hard upon us in the equivalent magnitude of a tornado! I feel it coming on and I'm shifting gears every hour on the hour to cohesively align all my timelines, projects and matching coordinates. I don't know if my biggest fear is getting slammed and not being ready or being ready and not getting slammed at all.

All I know is what I feel for certain in my bones and every fiber of my being, which is, that the inroads we've been making, inching along...now need to turn into giant strides with an eye on the finish line. Wrapping up and getting down to listing with a vengence is just what the "Doctorate" ordered.