First Sale at CafePress

I was surprised to receive an email last week saying I had sold a couple of t-shirts from my Albanian Designs t-shirt shop. I'm not convinced the designs are particularly good (I'm not a designer) and was surprised anyone would spend money on them! Still, I'm not complaining.

Since then I've added another 10 or so designs. I'm not sure they are very good either but I'm doing my best. Hopefully someone will like them.

I Rented a Studio in Paris

The last 2 weeks have been extremely stressful. Finding an apartment in Paris has been more difficult than I expected. No one would rent to me. About a week ago a landlord in Boulogne said I could rent his tiny apartment for 890 euros per month. It's ridiculously expensive, even for Paris, but in the end I accepted his offer. I had no other choice. It's in a nice area, it has new flooring and paint, a storeroom, and a car bay. It is too expensive but I'm relieved to finally have a place.

The landlord is very nice and really laid back. I showed him my documents and he accepted them on face value. He trusts me to pay each month and he happily signed the contract. Why couldn't other landlords be like that? I understand that they are worried the apartment will be damaged or the tenant won't pay the rent but surely that only happens in a small percentage of cases.

The next step is to organise the move from Montpellier to Paris. I think we'll do it ourselves because we don't have too much stuff. I'll have to rent a van. I hope we can move everything in one trip. We'll see.

Difficult to Rent an Apartment in Paris

The apartment hunt has been very difficult. No real estate agency will accept me as a tenant as I don't have someone in France to act as guarantor, someone who will pay my rent if I can't. I don't understand why this is so important and surely most people wouldn't have someone who can do this. How do foreigners rent apartments here, what about French people who don't have any family or aren't on good terms with them or whose family are not financially able to guarantee the rent? Do people in their 30s or 40s have to have a guarantor? I can understand for a young student but for anyone else it sounds absurd.

The other option is to pay a 'caution' which is kind of like a bond but it is for between 6 and 12 months rent and the money stays in your own bank account. The bank prevents you from accessing that money for the period of the caution. The landlord then has access to this money if the tenant doesn't pay the rent. I also find this to be absurd. If the rent is 1000 per month then I'm supposed the leave 12,000 euros sitting in the bank for 12 months gaining minimal interest, if any? There are plenty of other things I would rather do with my money than letting it sit in the bank. Are the French not bothered that they can't invest that money? What a waste.

If you can't provide either of these then the only option is to rent directly with the landlord, although they can have the same requirements. You just have to get lucky and find a landlord who is willing to be flexible. The best place to find landlords looking to rent apartments is in the weekly paper Particulier a Particulier which comes out every Thursday. You can also try Fusac which has mainly furnished apartments.

Blind Men Can See

I saw something strange today. I saw a blind man wearing dark sunglasses and walking with a cane. Nothing unusual there. It was quite a busy street and everyone was getting out of his way. The strange thing was when I saw him look at his watch to see the time. Obviously he might have only had impaired vision rather than being completely blind but surely even then it would be difficult to read the time. Plus if he can see well enough to see the time on a small watch face surely he wouldn't need a cane to find his way around. I don't know, seemed odd to me.

Paris Apartments

The apartment hunt is starting to pick up. I was offered the apartment I saw in Boulogne but at 890 euros per month for a small studio I decided not to accept it. I'm sure I can find a nice 1 bed in Levallois for that price.

Today is a public holiday and Ferbent is working so I'm not doing too much. I went to an Italian art exhibition at the Grand Palais which was probably not worth the 10 euro entrance fee. It's not the kind of thing I would normally see. It was interesting but there wasn't enough to see. I then saw La Doublure, a French comedy. I like Daniel Autueil and although it was very light hearted, to say the least, I enjoyed it.

I'm now checking my email and websites but am struggling with the French keyboard (I'm in an internet cafe). It's driving me crazy!

I have a couple of possiblities for an apartment tomorrow so I hope to get one of them. Fingers crossed - again.

Problems in Paris

The 'renovated' apartment I saw yesterday was pretty mediocre but I've decided to take it, if they accept my dossier. It's only 720 euros per month which isn't too bad for a 1 bed apartment in Paris. It's not as nice as I'd hoped but it's within budget which is the main thing. I won't find out until Tuesday if they are willing to accept it due the long weekend for Easter.

Real estate agents generally require that your income is 3 times the amount of the monthly rent. The problem is that they won't accept my Australian income even though I earn around 5 times the monthly rent. I've got plenty of proof that I have that income but they're not interested.

I'm trying to find something direct with the landlord as they can be more flexible but it's a slow process. Today is Friday and I have some appointments for Tuesday and Wednesday next week. This normally wouldn't be a problem but I'm paying for a hotel and need to find something quickly.

I'm moving hotels today because after spending 5 nights in a single room with my husband they've now decided it's not allowed for safety reasons. They've booked us a room in Levallois where Ferbent works but he doesn't know it yet. I'll have to wait until he comes back from work because I can't move our luggage alone. All these things waste more time and it's getting frustrating.

Fingers crossed the agent I saw today will accept my dossier and we can get moving.

The Hunt Begins

I've been in Paris for a few days looking for a new apartment. I'm on a limited budget of 800 euros a month and so I'm finding it difficult to find what I want. I definitely want a one bed apartment which has been recently renovated. Floorboards and a separate kitchen are preferable and a parking space would be fantastic.

I've been looking in the weekly magazine Particulier a Particulier but there is not much for 800, not the areas I want anyway. I'm looking in the centre of Paris, Levallois, and Boulogne Billancourt as this is where Ferbent is working (in 3 different hotels). I've also been going to real estate agents in these areas but to no avail. The people managing the rentals are often not there and I'm supposed to call them later. I don't understand why they don't take my number and call me. Why do they just let customers walk out the door? It doesn't make sense to me and I never call these people.

I do have one appointment this afternoon in Levallois, one street from Ferbent's hotel. It's a very small one bed at only 32 sqm but it is supposedly renovated. Renovated seems to mean different things to real estate agents and landlords and to me so we'll see. If its clean and fairly new I'll take it.

'The Dossier'

I've spent most of the morning preparing my 'dossier' so I'll be prepared for my house hunting in Paris tomorrow. It was difficult to find an apartment here in Montpellier because neither of us had an income in France. I have an income in Australia but most agencies wouldn't accept that income. I eventually found an excellent agent who was very helpful and accepted it, although I did have to prove that I had a house in my name. This wasn't essential but it helped things along a bit.

Things are different now because Ferbent has a job here and a decent income. I still need to prove my income but hopefully it won't be so much of an issue this time.

The documents I need to show are:

Proof of income in France (copy of Ferbent's work contract).
Proof of income in Australia (letter from my employer).
Bank statements. I only have Australian statements so I hope that will be sufficient.
RIB. This is my French bank account number, although I don't use that account and therefore don't have any money in that account.
Proof I own a house in Australia.
Reference from current real estate agent.
Contents insurance.
Copy of both our passports.

I think that's everything. I hope that's everything.

Wish me luck.

First Sale on Buy Organic

I had my first sale on my Buy Organic website today. Someone bought some organic cotton baby clothes. The sale was for $80 so I got an $8 commission. Not a lot, I know, but at least now I can see that people are willing to buy online if they find what they are looking for. I now need to focus on building more pages with a lot more products and some relevant organic articles.

Poor Service at CafePress

The customer service people at CafePress are useless. I've been having some trouble with my Albanian Designs shop at CafePress lately. About half of the designs aren't coming up in their Market Place search engine. I was really annoyed because they are all correctly tagged (the means by which their search engine finds designs) and they were showing up when I first designed them.

There was no help from the CafePress forums so I emailed the customer service department. They were unbelievable, unbelievably useless that is. The first response took 24 hours and they guy just cut and pasted info from online FAQs. I clearly stated in my email that I had followed these guidelines and the problem was with their system. It looked like he didn't even bother to read my email.

I then replied, sarcastically thanking them for their HELP and asked them to actually read my email and do something about the problem. I then had to wait another 24 hours because my email went back to the end of the cue rather than straight back to the guy who was 'helping' me.

The next email from them wasn't even from the same useless guy, it was from another useless guy. He apologised profusely for the delay in replying and suggested next time, if I need an urgent reply, that I should call their customer service number in the US. As if I would waste my money on a long distance call to, probably, be left on hold for an eternity. After all his apologies he didn't bother to answer my query. He just said, sorry for the delay, call us next time. What??? What happened to helping me?

I then sent a nasty email and it's been 24 hours and still no reply.

I've actually now found out what the problem is but I'm going to continue to annoy them with nasty emails. The problem is with their system, it is a BUG in their system. I'm going to tell them but I'm sure they won't believe me or won't bother to do anything about it.

It's a shame I already paid for a premium shop, otherwise I'd just drop them. Seeing I've paid for the shop I'll have to fix the problem. This involves removing all my images and putting them all back up again. It'll only take a couple of hours. Should be fun.

My Websites Are Ranking

I just noticed that 2 of my websites now have a page rank. PageRank is shown on the Google toolbar if you have it. This doesn't really mean too much as far as the positioning of my site in the search engine results but it does mean that there is a bit of action going on with my sites. They both have a page rank of 3 which I think is fairly standard for a small site. I only started them a couple of months ago so I'm fairly happy with that.

Hopefully with the next Google update I'll be up to 4 on the page rank. I'll have to add a lot of pages and content to get that as well as more inbound links but I think I can do it.

Good Day Today

Everything is working out with the move to Paris. The real estate agent has agreed to one months notice rather than the 3 stated in the contract. I was really pleased with this as it was quite unexpected. Just goes to show it pays to be friendly with everyone because you never know when they might help you out. They've also said that if I don't find an apartment within the one month notice period, I can continue to stay in the apartment, even if they find tenants who are ready to move in.

I've also arranged for my contents insurance to be transferred to Paris. Both apartments will be insured for the few weeks when we'll have 2 apartments. That's another thing I don't have to worry about.

I sold another web template today and had an inquiry about another purchase. Hopefully that will go through tomorrow. I'm currently make a small loss on my templates adwords campaign but I made some changes today which will hopefully bring my costs down.

Ferbent is going well with his job. He works in 3 different hotels and so has to work with 3 different managers. It's early days, obviously, but so far they seem really nice. It was his first day in one of the hotels today and he finished everything by 3pm so the manager let him go home early. That would never have happened when he was working at Ibis in London. Things are looking good for him in Paris.

Not much luck with the Albanian t-shirt designs though. I thought I'd have some sales by now. I'm getting plenty of hits but no sales which makes me think the designs aren't very good or there's just not enough to choose from. I'm going to make a real effort over the next week or so to add more designs.

I'm Moving House (Apartment)

I gave notice on my Montpellier apartment today. According to the contract I have to give 3 months notice or 1 months notice in exceptional circumstances. I tried to convince the real estate agent that my husband getting a job in Paris is one of those exceptional circumstances but they didn't buy it. I'm going to go back tomorrow and speak to the lady I normally see and ask her. She's always been really friendly with me so it's worth a try.

If I have to give 3 months notice then we will use this place on the weekends. Ferbent loves the warm weather here and the beaches so we'll come here and enjoy the summer. A lot of Parisiens leave Paris on the weekend so we may as well do the same thing. It seems they often have houses in the country or their families do and they like to get out of the city. I don't really understand because I always think there are so many things to do in Paris on the weekends. I guess it's just another of those cultural differences.

Beautiful Day in Montpellier

It was warm and sunny today, Spring is definitely here. How am I going to get used to the colder, wetter, more humid weather in Paris? It's not so much that I like the heat but that I like the dry heat. In Paris I'll have to used my hair straightener a LOT more often. I hate straightening my hair, it takes forever, but I like my hair straight.

I got all my work done by lunch time so I headed out for a walk. I went to Carrefour, one of the big supermarkets here. I only go there occasionally because they have a much bigger range than the little supermarket I go to in the centre of Montpellier. They have a lot more organic products also, which is what I usually buy. It's also much cheaper than my usual supermarket. I could get the bus there but I don't see the point of trying to save some money by going there and then spending $5 on this bus.

So I decided to walk. It's wasn't the first time for me to walk there. I did it a couple of weeks ago. Both times it took exactly an hour of brisk walking. So one hour to walk there and one hour to do my shopping and then I was exhausted. Don't ask me why it takes and hour to do my shopping there but it always does. I did let the moths out of the purse to get the bus back though. Only because I bought some milk and cheese, otherwise I would have walked back for sure.

It's always quite an event to go to Carrefour, it seems to take half the day. I wish I had a car to get it over with quicker but at least I got some badly needed exercise.

It's Official!

Ferbent got the job in Paris. He signed the contract today so it's official. He's even started work already. We thought he might just sign the contract and then maybe start the next day but he got there at 9am and started work right away. He was really tired at the end of the day because he hasn't worked a full day for so long. He's really happy now and I'm happy for him.

I'm now going to give notice on our apartment in Montpellier, they require 3 months notice, and then head to Paris to start our new apartment search. Obviously I'd like to stay in the centre but it might be best to start in the suburbs close to Paris. That way we can pay off our debts and then start saving to buy an apartment.

I have to get all my financial documents and references together and then I'll be off to Paris. One of the benefits of him working for a large hotel group is that they've allowed us to stay in one of the hotel rooms for only 16 euros per night. Not at the hotel where he's working but at one in the centre of Paris, near the Opera Garnier.

Ferbent Heads Back To Paris

I just got back from walking Ferbent to the train station. He's heading back to Paris and will, hopefully, be signing his work contract tomorrow morning. I don't know if he'll be starting work straight away or if he'll have a few days to find an apartment. I hope the manager will let him stay a week or two in the hotel, for free would nice but even if she only discounted the rate, that would be ok. Otherwise he'll have to stay in a hostel, go to work in the morning and then look for apartments in the evening. It's going to be a busy next few weeks.

Unlucky With Pizza, Again

I thought I'd give the local pizza place a go, after the miserable pizza I had last week. I love pizza so really want to find something nice, without paying a fortune, but again no luck. It tasted like bread with some tomato sauce and cheese. I know this is essentially what pizza is but it just wasn't right. Maybe once I'm in Paris there will be more options and I will be able to find some Italians making real Italian pizza.

I also keep trying the kebab shops here but they're all rubbish. I love kebabs even more than pizza but it's really difficult to find a nice place. Not to mention a clean place. I had the best kebab I've ever had in Bordeaux. Really, really tasty. There is also a nice Greek place and a Lebanese place where I used to live in the 7th in Paris. I'll definitely be heading back to those places.

Speaking of Bordeaux, I also had the best hot chocolate of my life there. It was so thick and creamy, not too rich like most hot chocolate in France. Maybe I'll have the head back to that little city soon.

My First Sale!

I just got my first sale of a web template. I'm so happy. My Adwords campaign has been going for 3 days and it's working already. I was really surprised when I logged into my account this morning.

I thought maybe no one would buy the templates because the purchase process is more difficult than you usually encounter on the internet. Instead of just entering your credit card details and then receiving an email with download instructions, you have to send the head office, in the US, a copy of your credit card. This is obviously to reduce fraud but I don't understand why they need to do that and no one else does. So to complete a purchase you have to scan your credit card, black out the credit card number using a program like Photoshop, and then email it to the customer service. Or if you don't have a scanner you can fax the card details. There must be plenty of people who don't have a scanner of fax so you'd have to really want the template to go ahead and buy it.

I received a US$12 commission which about equals the amount I spent on advertising. All I need to do now is to work out how to reduce my advertising costs and I will be in business.