I discovered LibraryThing a couple of weeks ago, and I’m in book lover’s heaven! I could instantly see major potential here, and I’ve already started to get a couple of long-term goals accomplished. Ever since I started writing at Quilt Epiphany, I’ve wanted to make a Library page, showing all the quilt books in my collection, and either linking to my review of the book (if there was one) or to the book at Amazon.com, or both.

I do have a Worpress plugin called Amazon Media Manager (AMM) which makes it possible to insert a pretty picture of a book or product into my posts and have it linked directly to Amazon where readers can buy it. Oh, and the veritable river of cash that flows from the Amazon Associates account into my wallet is staggering, as well. However, while AMM works great for one at a time inserts, or lists of two or three books or CD’s in the sidebar, I just couldn’t see spending the amount of time it would take to input 140 quilt books into my AMM list, and then program the thing to display them on a separate page. Never mind.

Here’s why LibraryThing is such a killer app. I made a free account at LibraryThing (a one step, two word process, believe it or not), and added a couple of books to my Library. It’s a simple process, since you can either enter the ISBN of the book, or search by title or author, and then select from a list to add the book to your Library. You can see the contents of your library, add tags, write reviews, share your profile with other users, see what other users are reading, etc. This is social networking for book lovers, Read the rest of this entry »

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**Warning: what follows is ranting, but with substance.**

I’ve just spent the last hour and then some shopping online for quilt supplies; specifically, a marker from Clover Notions called White Marking Pen (Fine), pictured at right. Why should something as simple as this take an hour to find? Actually the first question might be: why should I have to look online at all, since the local quilt shop should carry it, right? Well, no, the local quilt shop didn’t have it, despite the fact that I asked them to order it months ago when I saw that they were out of it. Obviously, it didn’t happen at the quilt shop, so I came home and searched online.

What’s the big deal?

Most of the quilt supply sites I usually shop didn’t have this notion at all, which surprised me. This pen is the greatest thing since sliced bread when used properly. I say “when used properly” because I can well imagine that there has been some negative feedback from quilters who had trouble removing the markings from fabric due to not following the instructions, just like happens with the washout blue markers that people are scared of. Anyway, none of that says anything about why this sucker is so hard to find, unless quilt shops don’t want to carry it because people complained about it. *shrug* This white marker has always worked for me, so I want to order more.

How to lose business online

If an ecommerce site has no page that says where they are located, with a phone number where I can reach the company, I don’t place an order. (This personal policy of mine holds for everything but Amazon.com. Amazon doesn’t have a phone number—that I know of—but it gets my money anyway because it’s a giant in the ecommerce business, and it’s never let me down shipping wise) Why would I give my credit card out to a company I can’t reach by phone? Ecommerce sites that don’t have a page to tell me about shipping methods and how to reach customer service or track an order don’t get my business either.

I’ve been to sites in the past where I’ve placed an order and haven’t heard a thing from the company: no order confirm, no email, no shipping confirm, nothing. When I call the company, I get a message that says they’re on vacation and no orders will go out until they get back, which causes me to cancel my order. Read the rest of this entry »

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