eCommerce 1.4

So another thing I do to try and get organised and make things easier is every time I start a new project I create a new user account on my iMac. So this may be a bit extreme but when you have a few projects on the go and some of them are undoubtably doomed and destined for disaster.  Unfortunately this is a fact but we will learn from those failures and move on. But to keep all the logins, passwords, website links and branding images, banners and other assets separate and not all muddled together then a separate account is ideal

So a new user account not only allows me to setup a Mail client with the relevant account, footer and of course that email becomes the login t many other resources. From this email I can set, change and later jettison logins and accounts for the project. I can setup all the bookmarks, logins and saved passwords for easy access. I can save all the banners, logos and other assets into the Documents folder or a dedicated cloud storage area. I can setup the Dock and frequently used Apps to suit the project and generally keep it all separate and organised

Of course this takes a little time and when doing a few projects its repetitive and a little time consuming. But once setup I can use the ‘User Switching’ function within MacOS to quickly jump between projects and once done you’ll be glad you did. Its a lot better than just having separate folders of bookmark groups as that can become very messy very quick, and as stated it can keep all your passwords and login speared which may otherwise mess up your saved password area and lead to problems when trying to logout and back into websites as the right identity. It does also minimise errors, how many times have you replied to an email or posted to the wrong account by mixing up identities – this negates all of that. Of course shared assets can be troublesome but using either a shared area on the Mac or a shared cloud storage where common assets can be shared and repurposed takes care of that

Of course should a project fail you can then go into that user account, close all relevant websites, mail accounts, social media accounts and then delete the account. It’s then all taken care of and out of the way. You can choose to archive off the account and this may be the safest option as you never know. Plus sometimes its good to re-examine a project at the later date, go through the crash-log and once the rawness of the failure has passed look at it with less emotional involvement. You may find a core reason it failed, this may be you, the timing, resources or the market. As such a project may have a second life later when it is the correct timing so you can then resurrect it, you haven’t fully deleted it so de-clutter your usual account as you archived it off neatly

So currently I am setting up the new account. I’ll shortly create a new ETSY store for it, bookmark it, save the username and password into the browser or preferably the user keychain. I’ll create banners, logos, icons and all visual assets, use Pages or just TextEdit to create the bio. I’ll purchase a domain and add it to the unlimited web space I already have and pay for monthly. I usually then customise and create a Desktop wallpaper that suits the project, just something else that visually reminds me I’m in that projects account. Setup an email account for it and all the other bits so the project has its new home!