December 12, 2009, 10:45 pm : New Years Resolutions

Filed Under: personal
Discussion: Comments

It is the end of the year and I am trying to figure out where my life needs to go. Once again I am at a turning point in my life. Craziness and madness has ruled for the last few years. I barely made it out of a bad marriage, bad business deals and generally bad behavior with minor scratches.

Now I am on the verge of doing what I did a few years ago. A meteoric rise with next to no expectations. This time I am by myself and not married. But I know that I am engaging in questionable behavior. I find myself asking myself all types of questions and having no one to bounce them off of.

Instead of resolutions, I will create a list of things to work on and post them here relatively soon. Let’s see how things go.

December 3, 2009, 8:03 pm : Make sure to have a Happy Holiday

Filed Under: personal
Discussion: Comments

This has been a pretty tough year for everyone. The economy has been very, very rough and many people out there are hurting but there is hope out there. I believe that this adversity will bring out the best in the people out there. The hardy will not only survive this but thrive. The same goes for companies and the government.

We have been retooling and making changes around here also. Many people have done many things in order to make our sites a success. We have had to scale back and slow things down a bit. We had to redouble our efforts, tighten our belts and eat hot dogs on a monthly basis but we have done other things also.

We have been sure to spend time with our families. We have reconnected with many of our friends. We have spent long walks with those that we care about and let them know how much we care about them. Although, we do not have the money we had before we do have stronger bonds and those bonds are what will get us through this holiday season. More importantly, it will allow us to come through this better, leaner and stronger.

What about you?

September 19, 2009, 8:03 pm : New Jewelry Auction Site and others

Filed Under: New Websites, SeannLewis.com, Virtual Gems Emporium
Discussion: Comments

Summer is gone and we are hard at work. Things are coming along rather smoothly. We have moved Virtual Gems Emporium to it’s new home at The Jewel Auction. We are continuing our tradition of providing our customers with the very best auction environment out there. We are also hard at work creating two new sites for you. They are Seann’s Electronics Store and Omni646.

Seann’s Electronics Store will offer the very best bargains available on electronics and computer supplies. Omni646 will be an online interactive TV network that allows independent artists to network and show off their wares. It will also allow them to sell their wares.

The hard work goes on but it is very rewarding. I am looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.

April 26, 2009, 12:26 pm : Busy, Busy Busy

Filed Under: SeannLewis.com, Virtual Gems Emporium, Virtual Shops, personal
Discussion: Comments

It is Spring and I find myself very,very busy. I have been trying to keep momentum going for some time now but I can’t help but want to stop and smell the flowers. The weather has warmed up quite a bit and I am trying to enjoy myself.

But there is work to be done. We are almost finished with the changes that need to be made to the various sites and I have been able to convince a few more bulk listers to join the auction sites. SeannLewiscom will start selling templates, computers and other products. I will soon open another new store also. We haven’t come up with a name yet though.

We will be giving all of our customers on the auction sites $1000 in listing fee credits. WE are doing this as a thank you for their continued support of us. Our PR / Marketing campaign will begin in earnest in May also. I suspect that there will be a huge increase in traffic and that is why our servers are being upgraded.

All auction shops that are within the SeannLewiscom umbrella will soon be searchable within Virtual Shops. We will exteend this to other shops as time goes on. Those sites are:

Virtual Gems Emporium

Virtual Collectible Shoppe

Virtual Art Auction

On a personal note, I am buying a new truck. I am pretty happy about it. In order to get the truck I want I have to put down a large down payment thoguh so I won’t be doing too much in the short term but at least I am not walking. So I am happy.

BTW, Thanks for pointing out the error in the mailing that VGE sent out. I didn’t realize that one of the links was wrong. We will make sure to double chekc and then triple check next time. Also thanks for letting us know about the confusing emails that is being sent out by those over at Vintage Gems Emporium. We will be sure to send out an email lettin everyone know about what is going on.

 

Thank you,

Seann Lewis

February 14, 2009, 8:51 pm : Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

Filed Under: SeannLewis.com, Virtual Shops
Discussion: Comments

I hope everyone is having a good Valentine’s Day. Be sure to enjoy all of those chocolates and teddy bears. I am spending mine working but that is not all bad. Business has increased and I am making necessary changes to each of my sites so I am pretty happy. With money coming in I can pay back money owed to people and get things done. That is a lot better than many other people can say with the economy the way it is.

SeannLewis.com will become more SEO friendly by having two sites. One site will be flash-based and the other PHP driven. Both will have access to the same content but I think that with the new back-end and front-end many of my client’s will be happier.

Virtual Shops will have many changes in it as well and I hope that everyone likes them. The changes have been implemented due to input from our user base and I believe that they will be pleased with what they see.

Later on I will find a friend to go to the movies and eat dinner with. I’ll probably clean the house up too. Anyway, I hope that you and yours can enjoy yourself.

 

Have a good one,

 

-Seann

February 3, 2009, 1:40 pm : Virtual Gems Emporium heeds the President’s call

Filed Under: Uncategorized
Discussion: Comments

January has been an exciting month and February seems as though it will also. We have a new President and many believed that it could not be done. He is already starting to fulfill many of the promises that he swore to and that has inspired many Americans including those here at Virtual Gems Emporium. I think that with history being made Black History Month has taken on a new meaning. We have decided to celebrate it by answering the President’s call to service to our fellow man

In an effort to do our part to help the economy we are offering everyone 50% off of all fees. That’s right, 50%. We already have thousands of products to choose from and our traffic is off the charts. By helping you with your bottom line we are doing our part to help the economy and spur growth.

We will also be out there getting involved in youth programs, environmental activity and other charitable work and we invite you to do the same . Next month, we will post picture of that work and we ask that you send us your pictures so that we can post those also. Send your pictures to admin@virtualgemsemporium.com.

Thank you.

February 3, 2009, 1:40 pm : Virtual Gems Emporium heeds the President’s call

Filed Under: Virtual Gems Emporium
Discussion: Comments

January has been an exciting month and February seems as though it will also. We have a new President and many believed that it could not be done. He is already starting to fulfill many of the promises that he swore to and that has inspired many Americans including those here at Virtual Gems Emporium. I think that with history being made Black History Month has taken on a new meaning. We have decided to celebrate it by answering the President’s call to service to our fellow man.

In an effort to do our part to help the economy we are offering everyone 50% off of all fees. That’s right, 50%. We already have thousands of products to choose from and our traffic is off the charts. By helping you with your bottom line we are doing our part to help the economy and spur growth.

We will also be out there getting involved in youth programs, environmental activity and other charitable work and we invite you to do the same . Next month, we will post picture of that work and we ask that you send us your pictures so that we can post those also. Send your pictures to admin@virtualgemsemporium.com.

Thank you.

January 21, 2009, 4:01 pm : Post – Inauguration Thoughts

Filed Under: Politics
Discussion: Comments

I was very moved yesterday when I watched the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. The election of a black president is something that I thought that I would never see. The fact that he acknowledged the past while expressing hope and optimism for the future was powerful.

I believe that he will be a good president. Many of those on his team left somewhat early to work on the issues affecting our nation. From what I understand of his economic policies, he is looking at ways to help small business and tax payers. He is also looking to bolster America’s image overseas by pulling out of Iraq and closing down Guantanamo Bay. This positive approach to nation building will serve us well.

It will take time though. Everyone is feeling the pinch and I hope and him and his team can have us back on the right track by 2010. An era of prosperity and peace is ahead but we must make it through these tough times first.

And we will!

January 15, 2009, 6:22 pm : Happy New Year!!!

Filed Under: SeannLewis.com, Virtual Shops, cats
Discussion: Comments

I hope that you are all having a happy new year. Mine got off to a rocky start but it is progressing well. If you read the last post then you know all about the ‘bruhaha’ that was started and I won’t go over that again. Let’s move on to the good news…

 

Many of the changes that have been necessary over Virtual Gems is almost complete. We have several vendors whose products we still need to list and there are some bugs still but we will have them all ironed out soon.

SeannLewis.com is doing very well also. I am looking to change the name though. I think that too many people associate a dot-com with websites and that is not the only thing that we do. I am looking at many of the opportunities coming up and I see us in a very good position for the future.

My cats are doing well. For those that don’t know I have 4 cats. Their names are Gregory P. Bigglesworth or Mr. Bigglesworth, Fuzzy Wuzzles a.k.a. Mr. Fuzzles, Lizzie D. Kat and Snowbell. Snowbell is the one in the picture and the other three pictures will be coming soon. I used to have a fifth cat Dave but he is gone now.

My birthday was yesterday. I spent it alone mostly but finally my girl came by and we hung out for a bit. I have been consumed with work and I haven’t gotten out much lately. I did receive a lot of calls lately though and I appreciate the well wishers.

That’s all for now. I hope that everyone out there is having a good one. Keep an eye on this blog. It may prove interesting.

 

-Seann

December 18, 2008, 2:29 pm : Virtual Gems Emporium vs Vintage Gems Emporium

Filed Under: New Websites, Vintage Gems Emporium, Virtual Gems Emporium
Discussion: Comments

My name is Seann Lewis and I am the sole remaining owner of Virtual Gems Emporium. Yesterday, emails were sent out and posts made that attacked my character and the character of Virtual Gems Emporium. It was sent out by Candace Daugherty in an attempt to try and get control of Virtual Gems Emporium. These attacks are completely baseless. They show the desperate nature of the woman. When things did not do as planned instead of owning up to mistakes and mis-steps she decided to blame me and try to take control of the site by illegal means.

When we started this site it was because we had seen a unique opportunity developing. Ebay was changing many of their business practices and was in the process of alienating many of their sellers. Since Candace already had experience with selling jewelry I decided to give it a go. A business plan was drawn up and theboth of us used our funds to get the site started. I also went out on a limb and put most of the company’s financials in my name and gave personal guarantees.

We thought it best to move fast becuase the opportunity may take a while to present itself. That was the first mistake. Since I didn’t know much about how Ebay auctions should work I submitted software packages to Candy and asked her to evaluate them. That was my second mistake. Candy really didn’t look at them and we decided on a package that didn’t work out too well for us. I took full control of the customer service packages and have been very pleased with those.

After a few months and as we were struggling along we realized that we would need some help. That is when we brought in Mark Romness and Donna Canan. Both were friends of Candace and seemed like nice people. At this point I gave very explicit instructions on how to make the site more visible. I relied on others to get the job done because I have another business. That was the third mistake. A lot of the work went undone.

The software package did not work out so well. It was full of bugs and didn’t look nice. After months of trying to get it to work and lots of money spent, we went to the current software package. That was the first real breakthrough. This package is very easy to modify and the user community and customer service is great. Finally, we had an easy to manage product with great customer service. I was happy with the project and hoped that we could focus on the marketing aspect.

Marketing stalled. Honestly, nobody was looking at the site. The business plan called for us to be profitable within months and earning six figures within a year. I know that sounds outrageous but we thought that it might be possible given the climate. So in October we redoubled our efforts.

It was a disaster. The collapsing economy, coupled with Candace’s mistakes kept our numbers down. Also my own business was suffering due to the fact that Virtual Gems was taking up more and more of my time. So I started refocusing my efforts in November on my primary business SeannLewis.com. Candace wasn’t happy about that. She also was not happy with the work of some of the other members of Virtual Gems. She wanted to lock Donna out but I didn’t because we hadn’t talked to her yet.

Now around this time I got into some trouble with some bounced checks that I thought were taken care of. I didn’t do anything wrong and since Mark and I were already working together he helped me out. Also I got into a working relationship with Intel through JDMI. Things were going slowly but well.

Apparently I was the only one to think so. In November, the other members of the organization conspired behind my back to get rid of me. They setup another holdings company and stole information from ours. They asked me to make backups and used that to start the other site. I had no reason to feel that anything was amiss. I didn’t see any reason why we wouldn’t have backups in more than one location so I agreed. Now the first thing that they did was cancel the merchants account with Humboldt. According to them Mark Romness called and said tat it was decided that it was not needed and that we were going through . I am not clear as to who he said had decided that but they closed the account. Then they setup a hosting account with a local vendor in Candace’s name. They setup a whole other site and decided it was time to strike.

On the 19th of November, Godaddy sent me an email telling me that my settings had changed. I called and tried to access my account with my PIN. They said that it was invalid. I hadn’t changed my PIN since I started and couldn’t believe it. We then went through their authentication process and it failed. I panicked. I tried to access the website and couldn’t. I was almost completely locked out. Fearing the worst I accessed the database and took a look at who was listed as the  admins. t was Candace’s husband and one of her employees. I then tried to reset my my password with the email account and found that the response email was going to a Comcast account. I have Time Warner and I use hotmail for personal stuff.

I wiped the database and had to prove my case to Godaddy. That was easy enough since I had papers showing that I owned everything. They returned control to me the next day and I locked them out and canceled their email accounts. I tried talking to Candy and she gave me some BS sob story and some crap about the FBI. She asked me to give her control of the domain names. I followed up and none of it panned out. It didn’t make sense anyway. Unfortunately they did have time to backup the database and take the information. They may have also put in place malicious code to defraud customers.

Since they were not acting for the best interests of the company I asked them to simply remove my name from their site and links to the Virtual Shops sites and Virtual Gems. They asked for the domain names and decided to tell people that Virtual Shops does not exist. I asked them to recant  and when they didn’t I posted information stating theat we are still here and that the we are in no way associated with Vintage Gems. They asked me to disassociate with Virtual Gems and I gave them a price that I though th was fair. THey wanted to give me 5% of ther profits for a year but that would be stupid. They are operating under Vintage Gems Emporium, LLC and I wouldn’t make anything. 5% of nothing is nothing. The smears didn’t come until they decided to try and bully me in the court of public opinion.

There are some interesting points to ponder. The site’s traffic is steadily increasing. Our hits from search engines go up everyday. People are selling and Candy has not deleted her auctions. I could ban her but I am interested to see what their next move is. Their sites traffic i not that good and they are using software that I setup to run a rogue site and smear me. Their site informs me as to their traffic and other stats and it is not where it needs to be. A Lot of their site still links to Virtual Gems. To be honest I am a bit worn out but I will keep this thing moving. The New Year is approaching. Sales are going up and I managed to convince some jewelry stores to post their merchandise. I have some good people that I am working with and will run the site and all Virtual Store sites.

Had they just disassociated themselves I would have been fine. I don’t mind that they go off and do something else but don’t try to cut me out of what is rightfully mine.

I hope this clears up,

Seann Lewis