"Every little deal is a big deal."
all around celebrity #4 (kick off your shoes and relax.) Interview with China Tea, of the delightful shop drops dot com
about the father's business - Fishes Interviews
Candid interviews with web site builders & designers "A series of interviews with online shop owners, artists, musicians and business owners, all are celebrities in my book. Level of web design, W3C Validation or CSS and HTML expertise is not as important as their hopes, dreams, struggles and accomplishments. "
Look it up!
Welcome to the Fishes Candid Interviews | design by atfb, web design and custom graphics, photograph restoration, photograph enhancement and logo creation.
China, if you agree to accept this mission........ I can't remember the rest of that line? Thanks for participating!
QUESTION: By now you are familiar with the fish image and the history, so China, if you would identify yourself with a fish in the image and tell us why you did so.
Answer: I am that small yellow fish just below that big leader shark whose head is out of the water (left-hand side of the picture). I tend to go under the wing of somebody powerful and strong and sit under his/her shadow. Did you notice that other shark behind my fish who looks about to gobble my fish up? Yes, sharks of all kinds tend to look at me as an easy prey ---- unsuspecting, too trusting, naive, ignorant and foolish --- until I bite them where it hurts them most- I see you as the little yellow fish with the newly acquired big chompers. See yourself, there in the front meeting the W3C boat head on, just anticipating when to sink those newly acquired teeth into it. I can see it!
QUESTION: If you don't mind, what do you do in "real life". I mean besides working and manning the internet. We'd like to know what you like to do besides that.
Answer: I am a Buyer/Planner for the Water Division of Pentair, Inc. Off work I like to laze and watch tv, read, play the piano. I like dining-out , going to movies, shopping - just ordinary things most people do.
QUESTION: What site domains or sub domains constitute your site(s)? Are these personal site (s) or business site (s)? Please included links. I have a nice screenshot of your site, so you don't have to worry about making one.
Answer: I have only one business site - www.shopdrops.com that I tend to 24/7. Then I have some "I came, I built and left" personal pages and oh, god, blogs, that I visit and touch once in a while, i.e.
Back Office
Shoppers' Blog
China Tea' S Pot
Through This Cat's Eyes
Coming Home
Tsinita's Life as a Guard Cat
and some other free pages that were started and abandoned.
QUESTION: Where are you located? You don't have to provide me with details, just a overview, like country.
Answer: Chino Hills in sunny California of USA
QUESTION: China Tea, how did you settle on your domain name (s)?
Answer: The products I sell are all drop shipped straight from the manufacturer, hence, the name SHOP DROPs.
QUESTION: What prompted you to build a web sites?
Answer: I have always wanted a small business I can run from home. An on-line store is the cheapest and most interesting business I can get. Of course, the time factor - long hours of work building, editing , validating and maintaining the site was not anticipated.
QUESTION: China, may I ask what was the "dumbest" question you've ever asked concerning website design or implementation? Feel free to elaborate if you need to.
Answer: You and Christina were one day helping me with a code/script - - -:
Christina said:
The whole thing that CT has goes into the body of the page, into the particular spot where she wants the date to appear. The date script contents can be saved as a file by itself (minus the ) and used as your first script example shows instead of the other one. Still it goes into the same spot.
Oh, and deprecated doesn't mean invalid The language parameter in the script tag is only invalid for XHTML Strict doctype. But then so would the entire page be if there are font tags and all that.
Don't look for troubles where there aren't any, ladies
You(Sharron answered):
The code I pasted was a different code than the one China posted. The one I posted had two parts, one goes at the top, and one in the body.
How the heck would I know..............deprecated from deceased.
Then I asked:
Who the heck died?
We are talking about deprecated and diseased and I am no relation to any of them.
QUESTION: Do you feel your site is finished or do you still have grander goals? Elaboration is expected.
Answer: It will never be finished - and that's the smartest thing to say when you know that your site is 1000 miles away from being error-free. I look at site building as a post graduate school that I should go to (and pay tuition fees for) even if I know I will never get a mastery of. My immediate goal is to have more traffic that I can translate into sales . . . My long term goal and I guess, on a grander scale, is to be an Amazon.com
QUESTION: Your site is so massive! How do you manage to keep your files in order? Do you make lists and notes as to your web site plans? Just how many pages make up your online store? Elaborate if you will.
Answer: I never made a list and a plan/outline in writing.(A lack of business plan? . . . but I did not know that that was needed then) Everything was just in my head. I had this picture in my mind of a department store with its neat rows/sections of of grouped products, and that was what I focused on. I was just in a hurry to get my site out there. I created files as I went along depending on whether I can get manufacturers and OMs to dropship their products to my potential customers.
QUESTION: I cannot fathom all the work that must be involved. Forget about sales, do you derive a sense of satisfaction from all that you've accomplished with shopdrops dot com? If you're not proud, you should be.
Answer: Yes, yes, yes. I am so proud of my work (however amateurish it is, compared to other online stores) I often find myself bragging about it to family and friends and showing it to my co-workers.
QUESTION: Miss China, what was your most glorious moment as it relates to your web site (s)? And if you can, what was the most disastrous moment?
Answer: When I made my second sale. The first sale was coerced from a family member)
QUESTION: China as a online store owner, what do you most wish you could convey to perspective shoppers?
Answer: That my store is just close by, easily accessible and orders will be delivered to their doorsteps the fastest way possible. I also emphasize the TRUST factor - that they can trust me to keep their personal information safe. I also assure them of PRODUCT AUTHENTICITY, COMPETITIVE PRICING, ORDER COMPLETION AND ALLOWANCES FOR RETURNS.
QUESTION: What, China, are your dreams and aspirations? They don't have to relate to your website.
Answer: I want to be able to retire very early in the tropics (maybe the Philippines?) and enjoy the rest of my life traveling, club-hopping, shopping, and being attended to 24/7. Is it gonna happen? Maybe not, but I can dream, can't I?
QUESTION: What would you say was the most difficult part of building your site (s)? What would you say were the easiest parts? If you have more then one site, which is your favorite?
Answer: The hardest for me was putting up my navigation menu . . . The Yahoo Store Editor restrains me a lot and I still have issues about my navigation bar to date. The easiest was putting up images using the Store Editor. Lining them up in a row/tables is a little more challenging and tedious. That I learned three months ago.
QUESTION: How do you feel about following the W3C validation recommendations?
Answer: I would like to but I need a lot of time to do it and to understand any of it. In other words, it will be a slow and learning process for me.
QUESTION: How much attention do you feel you pay attention to web standards and accessibility issues?
Answer: I am not a real webmaster nor do I claim to be one so I cannot do what should be done accordingly to accommodate web standards and accessibility issues. Web standards to me is a combination of web ethics and user/visitor considerations. So I will concentrate on being able to adhere (in my limited capabilities) to SE requirements and making my site user-friendlier.
QUESTION: What China would you say was the most frustrating about being a online store owner. Why?
Answer: Most frustrating is whenever I cannot fulfill a customer's order because my supplier ran out of that stock, discontinued that item without letting me know or just closed his business and went into hiding
QUESTION: If you had one bit of advice or a tidbit of knowledge to impart, what would it be?
Answer: Do not be afraid to be the star of your show.
QUESTION: If you could post two links to websites, that you consider to be outstanding sites what would they be? They don't have to be outstanding due to validation, css or web standards just outstanding in that they are interesting, helpful and or contribute to the over all betterment of the web wide world.
Answer: MapQuest and StatForum
QUESTION: Some know you only from the Statcounter forum, the China we know is what you share there, is there a portion of China Tea that we are not aware of that you'd like to share? Feel free to say NO if you want to! (Inside joke)
Answer: The China persona that you know at the Forum is a real person and definitely ME. However, there is a huge portion of ME and my personal life that I try to keep private.
QUESTION: I asked others and would like to ask you, some think everyone is born with natural born talents and or gifts, what are yours?
Answer: Answer: Hmmm. . . I think I have the gift of being able to make people smile. . . and I am truly grateful for this gift.
QUESTION: Are there any questions you would have liked me to ask but I didn't? If so please do elaborate.
Answer: Do you miss your home country? I do, I do so much. I love my life here in California BUT there's really nothing better place than HOME. I miss my country, my people, my friends, my ancestral home, my traditions, my memories, my childhood, my past life.
QUESTION: How do you feel about this interview and the process? Do you have any recommendations or suggestions to make?
Answer: I fee like a celebrity! It is better than a session with Dr. Phil! I recommend this activity to site builders who are wanting a "look back" into their website building career/hobby; to those others looking for inspiration, style, design, strategy and still to those others who are burnt out from
editing/correcting/validating their sites. This interview process will definitely put a new wind into you.
This interview also touches the interviewee personally - makes one turn and look back, look up and look forward. Congrats to Sharron for thinking of this.
Aww Shucks, I'm glad you feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle things. You are really such an expressive person, and I would agree that your natural talent lies in making others happy. You certainly always have a kind word to say, well unless it's to google. :)
