Revisions: It seems that the video chat feature that is on our live readings page does not work properly. How do I always seem to find these great sounding features, then find out that they glitch constantly. After thorough beta testing on multiple computers, I am ditching the previous video chat interface and integrating a global interface, (one that has been used by millions of people *1.8 million*). I hope that in doing so it can make the services I offer easier to use and access, for customers and friends. While I do revise the interfaces that are used on my webpage, my services have remained, and will remain, the same. I still offer live readings, free if you become a friend on Facebook, etc. Altering: This blog is my effort to remain transparent about my website and CommonFaith in general. I know that I appreciate being updated on what my favorite sites are doing, and possible changes that might be happening. I understand that it can be distressing to have a website changed around so much, which is what has been happening with our webpage.
In altering the way that my webpage is set up, and the way that I interact with customers, I feel that it will make my webpage easier to use, (which is why I made the changes). Altering anything takes careful consideration, planning, and preparation. My goal for the end result is an easy to navigate webpage which has information, store items and sold goods, paranormal team information, and communications all in their own sections. At the end of altering our website, I want someone to visit our landing page and see that we offer live readings every Wednesday and occasionally Friday. I want a visitor to notice these things within the first 5 seconds of reviewing out webpage, instead of hunting through menus.
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I've been trying for a long time to develop my business. I started it in 2009 doing free readings, offering my witching services free, and making potions for free. I also tried offering free classes, attending fairs and events, and getting people on board with my free services.
Three years later, I am no longer offering free services. I charge for readings, investigations, and witching services. The only service that I don't charge for now is the classes, and I am debating about if I should charge admission to cover the cost of books and supplies. Customers were okay with the free readings, but would not order them through my website. I thought that this was odd at first, but shrugged it off. Then my usual clients from Unexplained Mysteries, stopped ordering readings, which was also odd. I have tried putting on events for Halloween, Easter, and other holidays using my business name. I attempted advertising these events, but I admit that I may not have advertised to my full potential. Perhaps it is because I am "new" or because I am "young", but there are only so many events that I can put on that people don't show up to. I thought offering events online would be a good idea, and it was, until the technology failed me and the API graphs glitched. Well, the API graphs and coding has been fixed. I now have two physical locations to do business, events, and gatherings. I am hoping that the psychic classes I have planned for this Fall have a good turnout, and the psychic tea time I am throwing for my psychic friends will also have a good turnout. There are only so many events I can do before I have to throw in the towel. There is a lot of planning and work that goes into each event, a lot of time too. The video chat feature for classes took me an hour to correctly code and beta test. The tea and food will take me two days to plan, buy, and prepare, not to mention cleaning the apartment, making invitations, and doing spell checking without a spell checking application. People tell me to stay positive and don't look back. Not to complain or whine about not having attendees or about how much work I put into an event. While I am grateful that some people have showed up in the past, and I appreciate this, I have to wonder where the business interest has gone that I saw three years ago. Classes I have finally found a HTML coding that agrees with Weebly, the hosting domain. The last time I tried opening up classes, I was embarrassed because the chat bar would not work. Long story short, a few people tried to show up, but were unable to find any way to chat. I feel that video chatting will be better than typing, because it will give student a real time perspective of classes. Typing is so impersonal, while talking face-to-face is more intimate. I do prefer to type out my thoughts, rather than articulate them out loud but, this should be an easy feat to overcome. I'm not good at public speaking. Classes are set to begin August 31st, 2012 at 6:30 pm. It isn't that far away, which means I will need to kick my planning efforts into high gear. My biggest fear is this: the night of the class will arrive and I won't have any students to teach. Paranormal Team The idea for forming a paranormal team came from the simple aspect of, what can I offer to people? I realized that I have done paranormal investigations in the past and thought it would be cool to form a team. There are many haunted, or supposedly haunted, buildings in the Rumford/Mexico area. The team could even investigate as far down as Augusta. Getting the applications, team page tab, and information together only took a few hours. What is worrying me is that I won't be able to get a team together. I feel like maybe people won't take this seriously, or will think because it is new it won't be effective. The next thing for me to be working on is advertising. There are a number of ways that I could advertise, all of which have varying costs. The two most popular ways, for me, are to use Google and Facebook. These methods would reach a large number of people, with relatively little expense. I have found it to be difficult to rely of Facebook friends to spread the word, but nothing against them. My Facebook friends just aren't as enthusiastic about this as I am. Witches' Way It is a small shop, with a small selection of items. I don't expect there to be many, if any, orders placed until I start advertising. I am waiting to put money into advertising, so that I can expand my selection. But see, it is a vicious cycle: I can't expand my selection without money, but I can't make money without having good advertisement, but I can't advertise without any money.
Which is another reason I came up with the idea to offer psychic readings, paranormal investigations, and other non-material services that can be rendered. The next service that I would like to offer would be healing, but I would need a physical location to do the healing at. I have a partnership program set up at No-View Farm and Bakery. I can use a select amount of space for my business, as long as I advertise on my webpage and spread good word of mouth. They have amazing bread, high quality cloth diapers, and superb veggies and greens. I think I just got myself 30 minutes of space. On a more serious note, there have been some questions about who is actually running the shop? Who owns CommonFaith? This guy, me, owns CommonFaith. Paranormal Investigations, now offered: Despite my previous hesitation to offer paranormal investigative services, it seems that the inevitable change has occurred. I feel that it is a good move to offer investigative services. My initial hesitation was that I would encounter a ghost, spirit, or energy, which has harmful intentions. It seems silly that a person who is good a cleansing and doing readings would be afraid of ghosts, but isn't everyone to some degree. My fear is healthy, in its aspect, which is why I decided to offer paranormal investigative services. Wellness Fair The recent wellness fair that I attended a booth at, was less than a success. There weren't many people there, because the turnout was small. The booth fees were reasonable though, but the earnings that I made went directly to paying the booth fee. It is my hope that next year more people will attend, and that advertisement for the event will be better; however, the fair was on Mother's Day weekend. Possibly next year it could be on the weekend of the 18th? I will continue to offer readings, jewelry, and oils at the next fair. The prices will remain the same, and I will still offer free water. I just hope that there is another fair next year. Future Plans If money was no object, I would be living in Portland, Maine, have a shop opened, and live in a nice house. My future plans though, are limited because money is an object, a scarce one at that. I will continue to shape and develop the services that this organization offers, fine tune the website, and save up for advertising.
My personal plans are to continue attending college, to get a part-time job next Fall, and continue to search for a house. I will be getting married in the Fall, November, so that is something for me to look forward to. More specific business plans are: to organize my storage shelves so that I can store the products I have, to expand my products and sell them at No-View Farm and Bakery, and to design flyers to place around town. Yesterday was the Easter celebration but, I think that people were so busy that they didn't show up. I have to admit, I didn't do very good advertising for it. The celebration is going to be rescheduled, under a different name.
I am thinking about calling it a psychic fair, or a psychic gathering. It will still be online but, it will be all about doing readings and playing psychic games. I got a card reader in the mail a few days ago. My lovely wife bought me an iPod for Easter, so now I have a card reader and the iPod to make transactions on. The reader itself is an intuit gopayment reader. So far it works well but, when I go to fairs it will allow people to pay with their credit cards. I just hope that there is wireless, because it only works with a wireless connection. If I had the iPhone it wouldn't matter but, I don't. The Witches Way opening has been put on a hiatus. I need more time to get the online store together, organize supplies, and order supplies. I've been thinking about taking out a small loan to help buy some of the supplies and pay for advertising. The only problem is, will people come to the shop? I suppose the adage: if you build it, they will come should be an inspiration... Currently the online bookstore offers books under the category of witchcraft. If you would like to see other genres, categories, or specific books, please comment below. Or, if you prefer, you can fill out our feedback form.
Throughout the next 6 months, we will be adding information to the site concering: psychic phenomena, magic, wicca, spirituality, and much more. All the information that you will need will be at your fingertips. With the search bar, you can easily find what you are looking for, fast.
Want to know something specifically? Be sure request it below, and we will do a little research then, post it to the site. Or, you can ask a question in our forum and start a discussion. I am looking forward to seeing this project come to fruition. I know that having this information will help many people. I remember that when I was younger, I wanted to know about a psychic's perspective but, there were no valid sources of information. Books were too expensive, most sites on the internet were unreilable or of poor quality, and all the psychic's I knew were busy with their own things. Thanks for reading, Jeff. With the anticipated opening of Witches' Way this Summer, there will be numerous changes to
this site. Overall, the looks and feel of the site will become more stream-lined. News feed, site changes, and promotional items will all have their own page; while important site information will be posted on the welcome page. Pricing, product views and information, and retail development will be the main focus of CommonFaith in the coming months. We are anticipating all site changes to be completed by Late-April. We wish you all a great week, Thank you for reading. Sincerely, CommonFaith Team Join CommonFaith for a spooky celebration online at 6:30. The party is being held on October 31st and there will be readings, psychic games, true ghost strories, and a guest speaker. Go to http://commonfaith.weebly.com and click on the chat bar at the bottom of the screen to join the fun!
Use your name when you sign in as a guest, click 'Halloween Celebration'. If it asks you for a password, or shows an error message, click on lobby then, click on 'Halloween Celebration' from there. We hope to see every boy and ghoul there! Here is the sixth status of site updates and changes.
-Spelling error on admission page fixed 'frequenty' to 'frequently' -Dates of enrollment updated -Home page updated to reflect more recent information -Forum updated with new thread -Games page deleted -Removed chat with admin, chat table -Removed Navigator bar at top of page -Removed Facebook apps page -Renamed 'blog' page to 'The Haunted Blog' -Updated class information on the 'Classes' page -Removed like bar and description from 'Links' page |
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