My first thoughts about Merchant Resource

I've published the introduction and two chapters, and the third chapter of Merchant Resource is about to be published. It's taken longer than I'd like, but I had a lot of work to do at home (the garden), still have a lot more to do, and holidays is always the best moment for that.

I hope it's being useful to those reading it. I admit it's not light material at some points. There are so many things to keep in mind, I know this.

Personally, I'm liking when I sit down and start writing this series. You may think that I already do all the things I write about... And you would be wrong. I've never thought I know everything about anything. I've never thought I know a topic so in detail that I could never learn anything new on it, or that I could not be corrected of past mistakes.

That is happening while I write this. As I research and write, I realize of things I could also do better, things I should change. I'm in fact reviewing my own store, my own procedures. Some things will take me some time to fix. Others I'm changing them as I write them down for this guide.

For example, I will correct and improve some of my naming conventions for items I sell; they were okay for full permissions mesh, books and poses, sort of okay for scripts, and they could be a lot better for animations and home and garden. When did I realize? When I was writing the previous chapter and thought of analyzing your sales data. You would think I've done this before. Well, I haven't. The reason is my memory; my recollections of my own sales were pretty accurate about the data I gathered once I thought "data analysis - of course!" and checked it. But neither I can trust my memory 100% nor I should suggest methods that rely in something so subjective and easy to mold as memory.

Another example is the store policies: I'll be strengthening mine after having written about the topic. Why? Because I studied policies of several stores, remembered many complaints from merchants in Plurk that could have had an easy solution had clever store policies been set in place, and decided that I have to review mine and clarify some of the points I've written about. As I write the next chapters, I'm sure I'll change more things in the way I do my own work.

The other thing I'm liking is that by writing this series and talking of scripts that could be helpful, I'm also forcing myself to write some scripts that it's ages since I told myself I have to write this script. The quickest example I can give is the set of unpacker scripts: I've started using them for the blogger packs I sent out for my first round at Enchantment.

If you're following the series, would you share in comments what are you finding useful? Have you changed the way you're doing some things?

Have a great day :-)

IMAGE: Dancing on the sea, in Flickr

PHOTO CREDITS

Mesh body: Lara, from Maitreya
Mesh hands: Lara's hands, from Maitreya
Mesh feet: Lara's feet, from Maitreya

Skin: Lulu 02 C, Jamaica, from Glam Affair
Freckles: Cassiopea Cosmetics, A (tn), from Glam Affair
Hair: Astralia, Garnet, from D!va

Wings: Virtuous Wings, from *NW* (NeverWish - Mystik Ruby)
Belt: Enola Belt, Copper-Black, from Keystone (Aymee Monk)

Pose: Snow Dancer #14, Black Tulip (mine)

WL Sky: Raymond's Night
WL Water: Phototools- Gallery Water 01