Marketing has to penetrate all that a business does. And it doesn't have to seem obvious to the shopper... marketing can be seamless in just doing business. Last night, I built the database for the shopping cart on the ArtByBrett.com web site. In the next two weeks, I'll create the pages for the cart. PayPal will inherit the transaction details and process the payment, and then will send the payment approval information back to my site so that I will know to process the order. One of the reasons I want to develop my own cart is to allow for some of the marketing options, such as coupons and affiliate sales. Why not allow bloggers and other web masters get some credit for redirecting someone to a completed sale on my site and make some money for themselves, or allow them to build credit and get cards for free in exchange for the link? I spent time with my mom yesterday teaching her to paint. Prior to yesterday, she would tell you that she couldn't draw a stick figure. Not so now. She knows that she can, and she understands what I say when I tell her that drawing and painting are all about how you see things. She successfully painted a picture of a complicated porcelain dish. Lesson Two in the week after Christmas... She and I talked about different strategies for selling the cards. I have a few counterintuitive angles that I want to try and I bounced those off her. Mom's a smart woman, and her feedback is always valuable. I'll need some people to try the shopping cart features after I get them built. If you'd like to give it a trial run when I'm ready, send me an email and let me know. | 
