Hillary DePiano's Blog, page 29

Synopsis & plot summary for Carlo Gozzi’s The Green Bird, as adapted by Hillary DePiano

There’s been a lot of traffic to this post, What’s different in Hillary DePiano’s adaptation of The Green Bird vs Carlo Gozzi’s commedia dell’arte original?, so I figured I’d do you one better and share the full synopsis. I had to write up a summary of the entire playanyway for theatre submissions and whatnot so it’s not any trouble to share thatrecap here. But would be student cheaters, be warned! Events don’t happen in the same order in the actual play and some things have been, well, overs...

Ebay’s either doubling down on the Selling Assistant business… or getting out of it entirely

I bear eBay Valet no ill will, particularly because it’s priced so high and excludes so many of the items that are the majority eBay Trading Assistants’ profit it’s not in competition with the average Selling Assistant. It certainly hasn’t hurt my business at all and I’ve heard the same from readers. But they’re still in the consignment selling business and, as it’s the heir apparently to eBay’s Trading Assistant program, I have a professional interest in it.

Our pros, of course, not the pros...

On corporate stubbornness, stupidity & how the expert knows better than the copycat

A while ago, I was working as a third party service provider for a big company. I was offering a pretty nifty (and very profitable) service through their services marketplace that I invented and was also teaching classes and doing some other freelance work for this company on the side. One day, they informed me that it was a conflict of interests for me to offer myservice alongside the other things I did for the company and I would have to stop.

While I could see their point, I was also annoy...

“You can get excited about the future. The past won’t mind.” -Hillary DePiano, New Year’s Thieve

I had some experience with a quote from The Love of Three Oranges going somewhat viral a few years ago but it was nothing like what happened with this line from my play, New Year’s Thieve. Shortly after the play was released last year, I was seeing it everywhere… and if you’re at all familiar with the internet, you know what happened next. The quote started showing up everywhere… often without attribution.… Read more

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Manage multiple writing projects & keep your word count on track with this writers yearly goal system

It’s no secret that I write A LOT, across a bunch of different genres, despite the fact that I have very little time for said writing and regular readers know that’s because I have a very involved writing system that involves setting a word count goal for the year, with mini goals for each month, to keep me on track.Every year, my Wrimosask to how they can keep the motivation and creative frenzy of NaNoWriMo going once November is over and if thekind of gamificationand deadlines of NaNoWriMo...

2015: Hillary’s Year in Writing Debriefed

I’ll be the first to admit that I have a pretty terrible concept of time. I talked at length in this postabout how having a poor sense of time can be damaging to your self-worth and harmful to your productivity. To combat those issues and more, this year I started a Project Timeline to track my writing projects and I plan to revamp and expand that in the new year using Aeon Timeline. But I thought it also might be nice to start doing a monthly debrief of my writing life not only to keep mysel...

Optimize the keywords in your eBay listings themselves for more sales & traffic

Once you know the best terms for your eBay items, it’s time to put that info to work.

Here’s what to do:

Photo by Ryan Fanshaw Photography

Take a close look at your items and store verbiage. Are you taking every opportunity to use the keywords your customers are most likely to be looking for? Keep in mind that your store name and item titles are weighted greater than your description, and make sure the most important terms are in those fields whenever possible. You’ll also want the most impo...

In defense of the narcissism of the selfie

I’ve never really been on board with selfies. If you’ve read my adaptation of The Green Bird, you know there’s a running gag with a narcissistic character doing the period equivalent version of a selfie. When my cousins were teens and they used to post hundreds and hundreds of selfies a day or spend hours in the bathroom taking pictures, I couldn’t even remotely relate. But while I don’t think I’ll ever be on board with the national selfie obsession (or the pictures of food, while we’re on th...

Collect your keywords: Exactly what is SEO & how do you take advantage of it?

You’ve probably heard the acronym “SEO” before, but you may not realize it’s just a fancy buzzwordy way of talking about the words your buyers put into their search engine to find you–commonly called “keywords.” Keywords aren’t just single words, they’re often two or three words or whole phrases. SEO itself stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” The more you optimize your web presence, the higher it will rank in search results for your specialties, and the more likely buyers are to find you...

Rethink your social & selling persona to increase sales by speaking directly to your ideal customer

A likable company has a personality that’s in line with what it sells. Your business’s personality, which is what’s meant when people refer to your brand, is simply this: What would your business be like as a person? Most of the time your brand’s personality will work best as an approximation of the personality of your ideal customer. For example, at the most basic level, a likable personality for someone selling cat toys on eBay would be one that celebrates cats and cat owners and that share...