You will find Christmas items:
Halloween items
Fall glass beads:
And a few goodies I moved there just for the sale! ;-)
It's a good time to stock up and prepare for the holidays!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Clearance Sale on Artfire
I'm hosting a glass bead clearance sale on Artfire until the 31st! 20% off everything in my Fall / Winter holidays category with coupon code Spooky11.
You will find Christmas items:
Halloween items
Fall glass beads:
And a few goodies I moved there just for the sale! ;-)
It's a good time to stock up and prepare for the holidays!
You will find Christmas items:
Halloween items
Fall glass beads:
And a few goodies I moved there just for the sale! ;-)
It's a good time to stock up and prepare for the holidays!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Analytics
This is the beginning of a new Wednesday marketing series I'm going to write for the small business person. What qualifies me to write this? I've worked in advertising for decades. And the last several years I have taken numerous classes devoted to web marketing and run my own experiments in SEO (That's Search Engine Optimization for you newbies). I've gotten an education by trial and error.
I was going to begin with the importance of a Facebook Fan page... but I quickly realized that is putting the cart before the horse. Before you can start implementing changes, you have to understand what people are searching for when they find you, which of those searches benefit you and your business and which don't.
And the most powerful tool to do that with is Google Analytics. It is excellent and FREE! If you have a blogger account, you already have a google account. If you have set up anaylitics, just hit the blue ACCESS button. If not, hit signup below the blue button and do the basic account set up. Once there, you want to scroll to the bottom and add a website profile. Enter the address and it will give you some code to paste into your website.
If you are an Etsy or Artfire seller, you will have to turn on Google analytics from within those apps. And even though you can check your stats on those websites, the analytics site is much more thorough in helping you understand what's going on and how people are finding you.
Why do you need to know how people are finding you?? To make it easier to find you! For that, you need to do a little research on what people search for...with another free google tool, called the Keyword Tool. (Did I mention?? Google ROCKS!)
Head over there and enter every possible search term for finding your business. Here's the one I did:
And even though I only typed in five search terms, Google gives me a whole page of suggestions...ones I've taken to heart (and action!).
The first thing I see is that glass beads is a far more common search term than lampwork beads...but still that 27,000 hits I have the potential to capitalize on... so I work BOTH terms into my keywords.
I also learned that many people are looking to buy them wholesale. And while I can't really do this on my Etsy / Artfire sites, I can offer wholesale glass beads on my glass beads website. Hey... did you notice how I just used top level key words in my two links??? That's how it's done! You should be blogging with your keywords as well!
Your homework this week is to get your anayltics set up and to snoop around keywords for your items. If you can, use those keyword suggestions in your listings titles, copy and tags.
One of the things I've learned from analytics is that people frequently look for cupcake glass beads so I always make sure I have some in every shop! .
I was going to begin with the importance of a Facebook Fan page... but I quickly realized that is putting the cart before the horse. Before you can start implementing changes, you have to understand what people are searching for when they find you, which of those searches benefit you and your business and which don't.
And the most powerful tool to do that with is Google Analytics. It is excellent and FREE! If you have a blogger account, you already have a google account. If you have set up anaylitics, just hit the blue ACCESS button. If not, hit signup below the blue button and do the basic account set up. Once there, you want to scroll to the bottom and add a website profile. Enter the address and it will give you some code to paste into your website.
If you are an Etsy or Artfire seller, you will have to turn on Google analytics from within those apps. And even though you can check your stats on those websites, the analytics site is much more thorough in helping you understand what's going on and how people are finding you.
Why do you need to know how people are finding you?? To make it easier to find you! For that, you need to do a little research on what people search for...with another free google tool, called the Keyword Tool. (Did I mention?? Google ROCKS!)
Head over there and enter every possible search term for finding your business. Here's the one I did:
The first thing I see is that glass beads is a far more common search term than lampwork beads...but still that 27,000 hits I have the potential to capitalize on... so I work BOTH terms into my keywords.
I also learned that many people are looking to buy them wholesale. And while I can't really do this on my Etsy / Artfire sites, I can offer wholesale glass beads on my glass beads website. Hey... did you notice how I just used top level key words in my two links??? That's how it's done! You should be blogging with your keywords as well!
Your homework this week is to get your anayltics set up and to snoop around keywords for your items. If you can, use those keyword suggestions in your listings titles, copy and tags.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Sludge
Glass workers always keep a cup of water on their work stations. You never know when you may have to douse a fire! Seriously...not too often...but, it is a handy place to dispose of unwanted bits of hot glass and many a wonky bead dies a fast death there.
Since it had been a few weeks since I torched, my water cup had dried up! When I picked it up to refill it, I was kinda shocked at how heavy it was. My 8" tall cup was over half full of glass and graphite sludge! So I poured it out on a metal pan and took a pic:
I can see the remnants of a couple of vessels, lots of cane pulls, half beads and bunches of glass!
Since it had been a few weeks since I torched, my water cup had dried up! When I picked it up to refill it, I was kinda shocked at how heavy it was. My 8" tall cup was over half full of glass and graphite sludge! So I poured it out on a metal pan and took a pic:
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Still Creating...Just Not with Beads!
Whew! What an absolutely nutty week last week was! I was busy and creating every day...just not always with beads!
Praying this week is just a little calmer!
- I had a large wholesale wood mounted stamp order that took THREE 12 - 18 hours days.
- This was interrupted by a product rollout at the restaurant chain that I make food safe rubber stamps for. Every day last week, my work -day was interrupted by overnight rush orders.
- My personal favorite head - shaker of the week: Shipping a $4 item overnight at a cost of 25 bucks! And I had shipped an overnight order to the same location the day before! If you wonder why corporate America is in the toilet... I would say it's lack of foresight and planning!
- Taught a crazy kumihimo class! I love watching people "get it!" Photos on that next week!
- Had a cookie class cancel and suddenly rebook when more people signed up. Had to cram three days of prep into ONE!
- In all the crazy hours I worked last week, I still got in one torch session...but only made boobies to fill custom orders... sigh!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Treasuries and Collections Galore!
I will say one thing for joining a more active promotions team: I've been in treasuries and collections A LOT lately!! Check some of them out:
'Black Halloween' by gbrosseau
 Dark Orange and Pea...
$25.00
|  Linocut PRINT - Bri...
$23.00
|  Needle Felted Acorn...
$30.00
|  Spider necklace Got...
$40.00
|
 Fringe Scarves Hall...
$19.95
|  Wings of Night
$20.00
|  ten vintage large b...
$199.00
|  Ornate Orange Black...
$27.00
|
 Halloween Orange Ca...
$10.00
|  Vintage Glamorous 1...
$120.00
|  Halloween orange bl...
$16.00
|  Web Cape Handmade B...
$65.00
|
 Raven Leather Mask
$75.00
|  Felt Bead Necklace ...
$25.00
|  Orange and Silver P...
$15.00
|  Gothic CHOKER Skele...
$39.00
|
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This collection was inspired by my favorite time of the year
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And you know I love my Divas!
'Fall is Here!' by overthemoongifts
This collection was inspired by my favorite time of the year
 Crocheted Bathroom ...
$27.99
|  Save the Boobies Ti...
$8.50
|  Goldstone & Crystal...
$20.00
|  Lotion, Shea Butter...
$5.00
|
 Scarf and Rose Chif...
$9.90
|  Pillow Covers 26x26...
$55.00
|  Pumpkin thank you n...
$3.50
|  Cocktail rim sugar ...
$3.75
|
 Trio of Pumpkins
$15.00
|  Newborn Pumpkin Hat
$20.00
|  Candy Corn Lampwork...
$15.00
|  Fall CHUBBY OWL - P...
$6.50
|
 Halloween Soap - Ca...
$6.00
|  Fall Wreath Autumn ...
$65.00
|  Autumn Inspired Boo...
$12.00
|  Fine Art Photograph...
$40.00
|
Please check these out and give them some clicky love and tweets!!! Believe me, handmade artisans so appreciate the attention!
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