i shall blame these on PMS, yes..??

i'm such a grouch today..

1. early in the morning my maid discovered that the auto-gate was opened without us knowing it, and instead of being alarmed about it, she continued feeding my young son breakfast at the side-veranda before nonchalantly informed me that the gate could be faulty. i scolded her briefly for not treating this as something important for the sake of my family's safety. what if some vagrants, robbers, rapists or abductors just easily walked into our compound..??? and take away my young son..??? i continued fuming and grumbling to myself as i went upstairs whilst imagining all the what-ifs..

2. then my hubby's driver arrived for work and started all the car-engines as part of his morning-routines. but this time i took note that he left the auto-gate wide open whilst he went in and out of the store room at the side of the porch leaving the car-engines running and the car-doors wide open as well..!! i was observing and hoping from inside the house that he could be just a few seconds slacking.. but he continued on and on and even after i told him to at least close the gate first!! what if some daring thieves can so conveniently drive away with the cars..?? i was grumbling to myself yet again, and it was only 8.30am..

3. soon after, i was already checking my mails and doing some work upstairs when my young son came over to sit on my lap, sucking his thumb and holding his barney, and then started fidgeting with my papers and keyboard. told him to stop doing that but he persisted and persisted even after i threatened to 'pok' him on the butt. when i eventually slapped his little butt, he scurried away downstairs but not before showing me his hurt face. i felt so bad about turning him away, so 10min later i said sorry to him and he replied 'mama, jangan buat lagi ya'...

4. chicken has been scarce in our household due to the recent chicken-price increase. not that we can't afford the more expensive chickens.. it's just that i cannot find nice, clean and edible-looking chickens in the shops and supermarkets that i frequently go to because their chicken-stocks have been inconsistent and not-so-fresh-looking. so around 10am this morning i decided to go to the wet-market to get my fresh-supplies.. and on my way there somebody suddenly cut into my lane!! i honked at him, and yes, the driver then purposely slowed down just to make me angrier.. and i took his bait by overtaking him like a mad makcik on the loose!! by the time i reached the wet-market less than 5min away, i was still high and mighty...

5. dear hubby was still hanging around the house by the time i got back around 10.30am, so i told him of my morning misadventures and my current upswing moods.. and then requested that he should leave the house soonest possible before i turn grouchy on him too!! after a few permissible puasa-month banters and very brief pouring-my-heart-out sessions, he finally left for work, and i went up to our room, and started crying..

so are these really Pre-Menstrual Syndroms..?? i'm not exactly sure coz my menses haven't been regular the past 2yrs.. only tomorrow or the few days after would i know should these really are PMS.. it's much easier to blame my grouchiness to PMS for now, huh??!!

or i'm under plenty of stress...?? too much readings, too much information, too many things still to do, too many new scopes revealed, too many unwelcome hiccups and distractions...??

i think i may do my acupressure body massage now..

i'm a domain-parker..??

I purchased these two domain names from GoDaddy.com yesterday, just in case I might need them in the future.. or as JohnChow was writing recently: to sell them at a greater profit later!! But these names are closely and very personally related to me.. so why would I want to sell them later...???

What is a domain-parker or a domainer, by the way?? Yeah, yeah, yeah.. I read fully what JohnChow was writing.. but it doesn't interest me at this time. The names I requested were available for sale and I just clinched them before they'd become unavailable later.

www.rosmahyaakub.com SHOULD belong to me right?? Except for najib's wife rosmah mansor marrying her daughter off to some singer fazley bin yaakub.. no other rosmah yaakub was displayed at the top portion of my google searches..

ceramicdesigner.com was already taken up, so I requested and bought www.theceramicdesigner.com and by a nice coincidence it matches my updated blogger-identity here in blogspot!! Not many people know RosmahYaakub.. so I thought TheCeramicDesigner would be more user-friendly, keywords-friendly, google-friendly, etc-friendly..

I'm not building the websites for a while to come.. but with some freebies given during the purchases, I've been able to write very brief introductions which include my emails and website addresses there. Good enough for me at this time!!

This morning I went browsing and printed the web-pages: a little note underneath my address say: this .com domain is parked free, courtesy of GoDaddy.com... I'm unsure what it means, but I'm happier, regardless... ;)

aarrgghh.. those technical glitches!!

Registered myself with 2checkout.com last sept 12, but till now still unable to sell online from my first website keceramics.com. I expected to automatically see their logo in my e-shopping section a few hours after setting up my account.. but after some enquiries with them, I was told that some things in my existing set-up need to be adjusted and integrated with their systems!!

These are what I don't like.. coz I don't understand anything about technical systems or integrations!! aaarrgghh.. but I immediately forwarded their responses & advices to my web-designer to follow up on this, but it's been more than a week.. mmm.. another thing that I dislike: dependency on others who cannot respond as fast as I wanted them to!! :(


Hey Rosmah? what are you rushing for?? I'm just worried that these little glitches would dampen my spirits and I may take less and less interest to pursue and complete my IT-goals.. I've actually set a time-limit: by the end of 2007 these issues would be resolved and I can start seeing real (sale) results:

1. online selling of my 40-items direct from keceramics.com via 2checkout.com
2. online selling of same products (if I'm allowed to?) through eBay.com (USD-markets)
3. online selling of ke-kualalumpur-GIFTS (giftpack sizes) through eBay.com
4. online selling of ke-FACTORY (bulkier stocks) through eBay.com
5. finally set-up my eBay store after accumulating enough positive feedbacks from eBayers who bought my products from above 2, 3, 4 exercises!! yaayyy..
6. online selling of ke-FACTORY (bulkier stocks) locally through lelong.com.my should these items become problematic to send overseas..

Simple goals, huh?? but not-so-simple setting-up processes.. at least for IT-cluts like me.. :(

I've been an 'alammaya' in eBay since 3rd sept 2007 but I only attempted to list my products for sale last Monday 17th sept. Yes, if you'd like to be a seller to the whole wide world.. you'd have to put your credit card on storage/record with eBay.. which took me a few hours to finalise! Then you'd have to list your product by filling in their product forms whick took me almost one day to complete because I checked out all their guidelines to make sure I'd do everything correctly!!

And as I was about to publish my first listing.. another page came up to suggest that I should also apply for PayPal.. which I agreed to do.. but as I clicked on PayPal.. zoom!! evrything went blank!! I back-paged to find my almost-completed first product listing which I spent almost one day to fill in.. but it was nowhere to be seen!! My streamyx connection suddenly went kaput?? Oh my.. the internet connection did go kaput on me!!!

I was sooo frustrated and disheartened.. and started sms-ing dear hubby to get that former school-friend of him who is now TM's big bos Datuk Abdul Wahid Omar (yes, I'm dropping big names now) to improve and enhance streamyx connection in Bukit Beruntung!! Then almost immediately after that, I went to sleep for 2 straight hours.. merajuk lorr.. :(

These setbacks are draining my energy.. I know these are just small hiccups, but they still drain up my spirits.. When people merajuk.. they'd ignore the issues that are bothering them for a while, a few days.. so yes, I avoided eBay listing for the whole week!! Tak mau kawan with you.. :((((

The truth is: I'm angry with myself!! Where is my patience? my perseverance? Aarrgghh..

i'm rosmah.. Rosmah Yaakub..

Yes, yes, yes.. that really is my real name!! Been blogging incognito the past two months or so.. but only now is courageous enough to reveal my real identity!! You see.. I wasn't completely sure where/how/what my blogging would get/affect/do to me or my business.. I was concerned that I'd sound too self-indulgent or not-so-professional to my existing and potential customers.. ;)

I was a lost-soul when I started blogging.. and being lost happens quite often throughout my life, haha.. But 2mths of blogging have cleared many things in my head therefore I'm very thankful that I've discovered blogging eventhough a close friend of mine smirked her face when I mentioned to her of my latest hobby. And I'm also very glad that those things that have gotten clearer in my little head are work-related issues that have been bugging me the past 3 years..

Yes!! Blogging has made me clearer about embarking on my internet business, yaaayyy..

So what business do I (occassionally) do?? ;))

I wanted to doodle, sketch and play around with colours and create my own brand-name.. therefore I accidentally started a business back in 1993 with all passion, guts & gusto without realizing that I needed a business to back my so-called brand!! That's why I'm still amazed how I have survived and perservered since then, coz having a business was never my intention!! With some It-basics, little internet exposure and a web-designer.. I completed www.keceramics.com last sept2004, and yaay.. we are now on the net!! mmm.. nice!!

Then as immediately as the website was a-live, I reckoned that I should make my life simpler as I wasn't getting any younger and the stresses of running around, employees resignations and other mundane issues of business operations were taking a toll on my mental happiness. I reduced my staff, my orders, my productions and yes, I shrunk everything!! I simplified my production line and focus on www.handmadeceramictiles.com

And now I'm blogging..?! And embarking on online-selling of my ceramic products..?! And making stupid mistake of my affiliate link? How 'simpler' can my life be...???? For an IT-novice like me.. it is NOT exactly that simpler!! :(

Plenty more things that I'd have to learn in blogosphere but I WILL learn this, in good time..

Yes, I'm Rosmah.. the IT-novice cum the ceramic designer.. I'm now naked to my bone.. ;)

have you heard of DealDotCom ?

Yesterday was Saturday.. hubby took the day off and slept in till 11am and right after he woke up, he spent most of his time reading the papers, watching tv and playing playstation. My eldest brought down some of her books and stayed all day in the guestroom studying and revising for her soon-to-come PMR-exams. My second daughter was strangely not so active coaching her brother to play this and that, infact when I came down checking on them she was fast asleep on the sofa. And my dear son was busy following my maid around watering the garden, chasing after the cats and making a mess wherever he went. It's fasting month.. nothing else to do when we cannot eat, huh..??



And me...?? I was checking my emails, then tried to finish off my last blog-post but somehow my brain wasn't working right.. It was approx. 3pm.. past our normal lunch time and maybe my empty tummy was blocking my train of thoughts..?? So i started reading other blogs by simply clicking the 'next blog' on top of the blogger's page and suddenly came across Vancouver-based http://www.johnchow.com/ , one of the world's (?) 50 most highly-paid bloggers. Too much to read on his site but I noted his August monthly earnings, the bulk of which came from affiliate-programmes. But remember? My initial interest to blog and make some money was shelved a few weeks ago as the harsh reality struck me: I still have my products to sell.. so girl, stay focused on selling your own products!!



But then JohnChow was writing about DealDotCom a soon-to-be-launched internet company selling IT-related stuff. I was bored and was just browsing killing my time and continued clicking on the website.. and suddenly i was laughing and laughing as I read their introductory page and subsequent pages!! Those people behind the new set-up really have very good sense of humour, thus I found myself instantly drawn and attracted to be a part of their set-up, by hook or by crook..



DealDotCom will be selling IT-related items at great deal prices to help you grow and manage your internet-business. One different item to be sold at a great deal price for each day of the year, 365days per year. Yes, I may need these items!! And they also have affiliate-programmes!? Mmm.. me thinks I should register for this programme so that I could learn more about how to run my business and earn some money as well, right?? I could even learn how to offer my own affiliate-programmes to sell my products later, ehh??

As immediately as I signed up as an affiliate partner, I contacted my net-guru Irfan Khairi, azwanhadzree the awesome blogger and some other contacts in my list. I was still unsure what I was supposed to do next but I proceeded to provide them my links and was eagerly anticipating the amount of sales commission that I'd get coz these people, compared to small me, are really connected to much bigger masses of potential buyers.

I stayed till 3am doing my 'invites'.. and continued the next day as soon as I got up.. and by the time I checked up with DealDotcom approximately 24hrs after signing up with them.. I discovered that the 'invites' that I had sent out consisted of the wrong 'link'..!!! Aaaaaarrrggghh...!!!!! How stupid can I be??

DealDotCom is my very first affiliate-partner, therefore I expected to make some grave and stupid judgements.. but to make it so soon after I started...??!! When I was all pumped up, passionate to my core, with strings of adrenalin rushes all over my body, excited to explode...???

I'm so much sober now.. it's not my rezeki yet, so let it be.. let it be.. unless irfan, azwan and others are still not signed up but reading my blog instead by chance..?? Can you guys just click on my real link, here..??? Haha.. just trying my luck.. ;)

By the way.. DealDotCom is to be launched soon on tuesday 18th september 2007.. hurry, hurry guys.. early birds would get the most benefit.. yes?

overnite stay at Penang's Shangri-la Rasa Sayang

I've been planning to go to this newly refurbished resort & spa since the past one year.. infact eversince i completed my deliveries of 14,000 pc of handmade decorative tiles to them, errr, to their renovation contractor..

But other things have kept me away, and as months passed by it was put way back behind my little brain until i decided to focus on completing my new website about handmade tiles. Yes, the website is now live but still needing a few little sprucing up here and there, that includes some nice photos taken at this resort. Yes, my overnite stay at Penang's Shangri-la Rasa Sayang Resorts & Spa last monday was solely to take nice photos of my tiles over there.

But for the price of the cheapest room (RM695).. i've had to re-think whether i should check-in into another hotel instead.. i wasn't planning to do any relaxing holidays and get all those personalized attention and pampering treatments. I just wanted to snap some photos of my tiles in their quality finished environment and ambience, that was all..

After much deliberations which included spicing up my trip by asking a gal-fren to accompany me, i proceeded with a one-nite booking with a special request to view all the different types of room recently renovated and bearing my tiles in certain sections of their development. Hence, approximately 10am last Monday morning, we started our drive up to Penang Island..


An afterthought:

I re-wrote the above 4 paragraphs 3-4times since the past 5days.. but can't seem to finish the story. Mental block, huh?? But i think more to trying hard not to say what i really think incase i may offend certain people.. as though i have plenty of readers in this blog!! ;))

Can i just summarise that we had great fun and succeeded in getting done what we were supposed to do? We took plenty of photos of my tiles which were put in all (except the RM5000+ per nite Presidential suite) their 115 rooms in Rasa-wing. My handmade tiles can be found in all their Rasa Deluxe and Hillview bathrooms and their Rasa Premier Room & Suite open-air bath-tubs. Infact, the open-air bath-tubs facing the garden/swimmingpool/sea can be readily visible from all over the hotel's public places and my gal-fren was having a ball telling the hotel-staff that i did all those tiles, hehe.. And after all that photo-takings.. only two will be shown in my new website!! Now i suddenly feel like a photo-journalist!! But no photos are included here in this blog ya.. tak pandai lagi nak upload laa.. :(

Who may i offend, you ask...?? My potential customer, the operators of Penang's Shangri-la Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa, to whom i had introduced myself and exchanged cards with.. Why..?? For the price of the cheapest room at RM695++.. i've enjoyed all the little extra treatments and complimentaries they bestowed upon us including the cleaning of my car (very nice touch).

But we had 3 not-so-nice observations: compared to their old Garden-Wing, the landscaping design of their renovated Rasa-Wing is not 'professional' at all. Plenty of small garden pots bearing small bougainvillas of various colours lining the gardens, that instantly reminded us of my makwan-in-law's house in Kg Ampang Tinggi in Kuala Pilah.. I'm a garden-lover married to a gardener that prefers his lawn to be carpetry, smooth, very-green, no dead-patches and well-maintained.. therefore I'm very passionate about anything garden-ny!! But.. maybe the landscape designer did that on purpose? To get the kampung-feel...?? mmm..

Another 'garden-ny' observation was the view we had from the first floor Feringghi Bar&Grill Restaurant of the Chi The Spa Boutique. Plenty of overgrown bamboo trees all over the spa to the extend of hiding the beauty of the spa huts/structures/rooftops.. made us think of a derelict and abandoned development!! We were wishing we could see more spaced-out frangipanis instead.. but those few that we saw were all overwhelmed by the bamboos. Yes, yes just blame it on my gardener-husband ok?? I enjoy well-mainted gardens with frangis, pucuk paku gajahs, large leaves and minimal flowers ya..

Our third and final 'dislike' was the celebrated Feringghi Bar&Grill itself.. very quiet(dead?), very sparse/minimal breakfast selections (i'm used to malaysian buffets offering varieties, maybe??) and bland-tasted foods (i missed my sambal belacan you think??).. Should i ever come back to visit.. I'd certainly have my breakfast/lunch/dinner at the Spice Market Cafe in their old Garden-Wing instead!! That place is more lively with better food-choices, nicer decor, and yes, more to my taste-buds and styles..

Hope my comments and observations will be viewed as positive feedbacks by the resort..

internet-presence vs. internet-business

When my first business website was launched 3 years ago, my business suddenly started to have an internet-presence. My existing and potential clients can now browse and go through my product lists and experiences and should they be interested to do business with us, they'd call or mail us direct.. and after a few more correspondences and interactions, we'd get customers without having to go looking for them in the first place. They'd found us first instead by browsing the internet looking for what we can provide them..

Jalex International, a distinguished Malaysian interior contractor, was our first confirmed-client over the internet. Jim Thompson Restaurant at Starhill Gallery was being completed then, and they were urgently looking for 1000pc of mini-bowls, of celadon-green glazed-finishes that come with holes in the middle of each bowl. 1000pc in two weeks, no later. Celadon-glazing was something new to us then, but we promised and committed ourself to delivering all within the stipulated tight time-frame. And we succeeded!! Our client was happy, yaayy!! We were thrilled too being of service to those distinguished names: Jalex, Jim Thompson, Starhill Gallery..

And barely six months later, Jalex came back again looking for 14,000pc of rustic-looking 4x4" handmade tiles of floral-motive for this 6-star resort hotel in Penang: Shangrilla Rasa Sayang Resorts & Spa!!! Wowww... this internet-presence has certainly benefitted us multiple times over, eh..??!

We wanted to combine internet-business at the same time by creating an e-shopping section with the listing of 40-items in that website, and was hoping that we could sell and deliver the products direct to the buyers upon receiving their payment online.. but for the past three years, our e-shopping section has been just a product/pricing list that comes with photos. No online shopping or money-transactions have been carried out because we never linked it up to any payment counters or procedures..

We had many jitters of both the IT and non-IT kinds then.. but the major stumbling block was our concern: if we used the most reliable courier-agents, their charges would be so exorbitant to the extent that the courier-charges would be 3x than the actual price of the product..?!! would buyers willing to pay for that...?? so in the end, we just left the 40-items as they are listed and stopped pursuing e-shopping or online-shopping.. ie. internet-business from our website..

I'm unsure whether my perceptions and usage of terms are correct, but these are what i understand about the differences between having an internet-presence and an internet business.. we already have an internet-presence and have benefitted greatly from it, but we still haven't got an internet-business..

mmm...???

roger, over and out..

i woke up 5am today to bersahur for my puasa ganti.. and after watching some light-programmes and sembahyang subuh.. i've been surfing, checking, researching, registering, data-updating the past 10 hours non-stop!! i'm very impressed with my new-found IT-passions coz they make me work without feeling like working.. but now as the day is ending, i'm also confused and inundated with the many information running through my little head that is housing my (getting) old and rusty mind..

mmm.. what have i got myself into lately...?? the deeper i go, the more i know now.. the more complicated the processes seem to have become.. or is it just my tummy lacking nutrients to service my brains...??? is it then true that puasa makes us less able to think and focus therefore less productive...???

naaahh.. let's not blame it on that shall we?? it's sun-setting in another hour and i'm still un-bathed and unwashed.. 'yeeoouuii' my young son said whilst wriggling his nose when he came to hug me just now.. ;)) i may just need a break!!!

but before that, i'm listing and taking note of these for further research and action:
1. ebay.com
2. ebay.com.my
3. lelong.com.my
4. paypal.com
5. 2checkout.com
6. cimb-virtual-card
7. new-celcom-number

yes!! boardroom meeting is now over!! brainstorming session will resume later later later..
roger, over and out..

ebay, here i come..

I've registered myself yet again into ebay..!! The first time I did it was three years ago, but that account was never activated.. I had goosebumps of the IT-kind then.. I'm still jittery though, but I'm planning to face this head-on!!

I was planning to be known as the 'CeramicDesigner' in my ebay community, but that name was already taken, therefore I've settled for 'AlamMaya' as my ebay user-ID.. Yes, if you bloggers are ebayers as well, and happen to come across 'AlamMaya'.. yes, that'd be me the ceramic designer and manufacturer from Malaysia trying to sell her wares to the rest of the world.. haha.. ;)

I'm nervous, yet very excited.. with my recent jutawan-internet and ebay-business readings that i've shared in my previous posts, you'd think that I'm very money-oriented and aggressively ambitious to make it to the top.. ehh??? But please remember that I'm mostly sanguine and passionate in my ventures, my dears.. I've been sleeping and complacent long enough the past few years, and the important fact of my matter is: I still have my products to sell!!! I'm tied to my products, so to speak.. :(

That's my problem of wanting to be a designer first, instead of a business owner.. I'm still not so business-minded even after having survived this business for 15 years!!! My simple business goals now are to self-sufficiently (and automatically?) maintain the employment of my few loyal staff and our tiny production set-up through the most convenient ways known to me!!! If my products can be sold to the rest of the world by touches of the buttons while I'm still dressed or undressed.. yes please God, make me very, very passionate about these simple goals..

Yes dear God.. please also make me very patient with all the IT-technical glitches I may encounter in these few weeks to come as I set up my ebay-presence..

irfan khairi says..

Ahh yes, i'm still on the subject of irfan khairi.. on what my net-guru says i should do and what i shouldn't do.. to learn more about internet business or whatever-internet-y, you'd have to look up to the youngsters, right?? mmm..

I'd just simply summarise all the 36 internet secrets that he's listed down, and here goes..

1. sell a product/service based on: your knowledge, experience and passion.. local/international.. flexibility.. market demands..
2. focus on market niche/s..
3. focus one product/service for one website..
4. selling products more profitable long-term, selling services more pofitable short-term..
5. changing your services into products (info products the most net-saleable)..
6. Unique Selling Point: be the first in your category..
7. short, easy to spell/remember, unconfusing, impactful domain name with relevant keywords..
8. choosing the right keywords..
9. save start-up costs..
10. small simple logo gives greater impact..
11. minimal graphics for maximum effects..
12. 3-clicks easy web-navigation..
13. avoid shopping carts to make buying easy..
14. your web-visitors spread the news..
15. reveal your talents & expertise via newsletters..
16. focus on providing values for web-visitors..
17. a selling website..
18. plenty of information and free articles..
19. running an automated business with 'canned emails', FAQ's, CGI..
20. getting sales commissions by becoming affiliated partners..
21. having multiple salespersons by starting your own affiliated programs..
22. creating a banner that would get the click..
23. Par Per Click to get on 4th, 5th ranking instead of 1st..
24. getting the most out of successful sales via upselling, auto-responding, back-ending..
25. writing effective emails to avoid spamming..
26. focus on customer service..
27. reduce costs but increase services..
28. auto-responder to continue communications with your customers..
29. follow the techniques of successful leaders eg. affiliates, info/contents, communities, free offers..
30. selling without a website through eg. ebay/products, e-lance/services..
31. regular spying on your competitors and industry leaders..
32. pricing accordingly to product-value and market-value..
33. check and spruce-up your website..
34. probability formula of turning visitors into customers..
35. back-up your work against virus attacks..
36. multiple e-businesses at one time ie. putting your eggs into many baskets..

Ahh yes, yes, yes.. forgot to take note of the basics.. the all-most-important things that i should have set-up already!!! or i havent...??

basic 1: identify your business
basic 2: create you website
basic 3: accepting payment via merchant bank
basic 4: promoting your website

oh my.. still plenty and plenty more to do..!!!
or dear irfan.. can you be my personal trainer...?? ;))