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Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Hurt wrist!
Sorry I haven't posted much lately. I'm dealing with some carpal tunnel syndrome over here. I'm trying to avoid surgery and letting my chiropractor work on it. So I'll try to post and keep up as much as I can. I have alot to write about so it's frustrating. LOL! I'm okay though. Hopefully I'll be back to normal again soon!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Why handmade items are so wonderful...
Handmade items are a great choice for holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, just because, to treat yourself to something new, any reason at all really. Handmade items are just better! The special attention each item and product is given, really shows through in all the attention to detail. It's also a relief to know that when buying a gift for someone that the gift is not going to be a repeat gift, it will be one of a kind. Same goes for when shopping for yourself. Have you been to the mall and seen the same purse being carried around by multiple women? Well, when you buy handmade you nearly eliminate the risk of that ever happening to you. Make a statement, get noticed, and be proud to show off how unique and wonderful your items are!
Here you can see just a few fabulous handmade Etsy finds:
Here you can see just a few fabulous handmade Etsy finds:
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
How And Where To Advertise Your Handmade Items!
I know this post is a bit long, but it has a ton of great resources! I urge you to read thru it when you have some time. I know you'll find some helpfull information here. :)
There are many ways that you can get word out about your product. I'm going to assume that you have at least a website as your home base. If not, you should get a web page up and running. It doesn't have to be a shop or merchant account, but at the very least something that people can go to online and look at your work and get your contact information from. Now that we have that covered, lets get into a few different ways that you can advertise your products or your shop. Remember to always leave your URL in the ad.
* Craigslist.org is a popular place for beginners to advertise. It's free and you can reach a large audience.
* USfreeads.com is another free site that you can list your products on. All you need to do is sign up and your set!
* Webclassifieds.us is another free site to list your products on. Again all you have to do is sign up!
* Some pay-per-click advertising companies are adwords and projectwonderful.com Just be sure you stay within your budget when choosing one of these options.
* Stumblehere.com is growing more and more popular and is a good option to get yourself noticed.
* Blogs: Blogs are becoming increasingly popular for small business to reach a target group. Button and banner type ads are most popular. When buying space on a blog consider the traffic the blog generates, page views, comments left, and the date of the last post made. This way you can tell if the blog is active or not. Most blogs have very competitive rates so look around!
* Blogs.... again! When you find blogs targeted to your audience look around and see if there is a "Feature" section. Most blogs love to have guest posts. If your not sure don't hesitate to contact the owner of the blog. When your write for a blog you not only get attention to your product and name, you also will get a link back at the end of the post that will send readers directly to your site or shop.
* Blogs one more time! Again to these targeted blogs...... Product reviews and give aways are great to get your name out there! You can host a give away on someones blog to reach their audience, but you will usually need to "donate" 2 sets of your product to them. One for the blogger to try and to review and one for the blogger to give away. This is fine with sample sets or inexpensive items, but I really do not recommend that you do this with some of your more expensive items! Even if you do not generate a lot of sales to start with from the campain, you have gotten your name out there and have gained some much needed exposure!
Now get on out there, open up some web pages, and get ADVERTISING!!!
*Don't forget your local newspaper as well!!!
Just some ending tips to think about with blogs: What are you selling? Who does it appeal to? Where can you find this targeted audience?
Ex. Selling hair bows? You might want to target a mother/baby blog
Ex. Selling candles? You might want to target any blog that has a huge female audience (no offense guys! we know you love your candles to!)
There are many ways that you can get word out about your product. I'm going to assume that you have at least a website as your home base. If not, you should get a web page up and running. It doesn't have to be a shop or merchant account, but at the very least something that people can go to online and look at your work and get your contact information from. Now that we have that covered, lets get into a few different ways that you can advertise your products or your shop. Remember to always leave your URL in the ad.
* Craigslist.org is a popular place for beginners to advertise. It's free and you can reach a large audience.
* USfreeads.com is another free site that you can list your products on. All you need to do is sign up and your set!
* Webclassifieds.us is another free site to list your products on. Again all you have to do is sign up!
* Some pay-per-click advertising companies are adwords and projectwonderful.com Just be sure you stay within your budget when choosing one of these options.
* Stumblehere.com is growing more and more popular and is a good option to get yourself noticed.
* Blogs: Blogs are becoming increasingly popular for small business to reach a target group. Button and banner type ads are most popular. When buying space on a blog consider the traffic the blog generates, page views, comments left, and the date of the last post made. This way you can tell if the blog is active or not. Most blogs have very competitive rates so look around!
* Blogs.... again! When you find blogs targeted to your audience look around and see if there is a "Feature" section. Most blogs love to have guest posts. If your not sure don't hesitate to contact the owner of the blog. When your write for a blog you not only get attention to your product and name, you also will get a link back at the end of the post that will send readers directly to your site or shop.
* Blogs one more time! Again to these targeted blogs...... Product reviews and give aways are great to get your name out there! You can host a give away on someones blog to reach their audience, but you will usually need to "donate" 2 sets of your product to them. One for the blogger to try and to review and one for the blogger to give away. This is fine with sample sets or inexpensive items, but I really do not recommend that you do this with some of your more expensive items! Even if you do not generate a lot of sales to start with from the campain, you have gotten your name out there and have gained some much needed exposure!
Now get on out there, open up some web pages, and get ADVERTISING!!!
*Don't forget your local newspaper as well!!!
Just some ending tips to think about with blogs: What are you selling? Who does it appeal to? Where can you find this targeted audience?
Ex. Selling hair bows? You might want to target a mother/baby blog
Ex. Selling candles? You might want to target any blog that has a huge female audience (no offense guys! we know you love your candles to!)
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
AVON Giveaway valued at over $100!!
Hi everyone! I am hosting a giveaway for my sister. This is an amazing giveaway worth over $100 and I'm so excited to host this giveaway for her! I'll let her tell you more about it. Take it away Jenny!
Hi everyone! I want to celebrate the opening of my new Avon online store! I've been with Avon for many years and I'm excited to share Avon with you. This giveaway for all my customers new and old. Now anyone can order Avon online and have then have it shipped directly to your door! So you can now do all your Avon shopping in your jammies if you want!!! Use code "FS30REP" to get free shipping on orders over $30! Shop Now!
Here is what's up for grabs:
93% of women saw more LIFTED SKIN*
IN 3 DAYS
97% of women agree, visible sagging is greatly improved.*
OVER TIME
Visibly restores youthful firmness to skin while providing a dramatically lifted look.
TO ENTER YOU MUST BE A FOLLOWER OF HANDMADE WITH LOVE. HERE IS HOW TO ENTER:
*One entry for making a purchase on my online shop. Leave a comment that you've ordered & what name it is under. Shop Now!
*FOUR entries for orders over $50!! Leave a comment that you've ordered & what name it is under. Shop Now!
Remember you can still get personal consultation if you need it and you can still ask me any questions you have about our products. Just email me at jenjamsam@yahoo.com subject line "AVON" and I'll get back to you ASAP.
Winner will be choosen Feb. 1st. Good luck! I can't wait to meet new customers and see familiar faces!
Hi everyone! I want to celebrate the opening of my new Avon online store! I've been with Avon for many years and I'm excited to share Avon with you. This giveaway for all my customers new and old. Now anyone can order Avon online and have then have it shipped directly to your door! So you can now do all your Avon shopping in your jammies if you want!!! Use code "FS30REP" to get free shipping on orders over $30! Shop Now!
Here is what's up for grabs:
93% of women saw more LIFTED SKIN*
IN 3 DAYS
97% of women agree, visible sagging is greatly improved.*
OVER TIME
Visibly restores youthful firmness to skin while providing a dramatically lifted look.
TO ENTER YOU MUST BE A FOLLOWER OF HANDMADE WITH LOVE. HERE IS HOW TO ENTER:
*One entry for making a purchase on my online shop. Leave a comment that you've ordered & what name it is under. Shop Now!
*FOUR entries for orders over $50!! Leave a comment that you've ordered & what name it is under. Shop Now!
Remember you can still get personal consultation if you need it and you can still ask me any questions you have about our products. Just email me at jenjamsam@yahoo.com subject line "AVON" and I'll get back to you ASAP.
Winner will be choosen Feb. 1st. Good luck! I can't wait to meet new customers and see familiar faces!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Selling your handmade items...
There are many options out there for selling your handmade items. It can be very overwhelming in the beginning. Starting out you should narrow your choices down to one or two different places to sell. The main place that will be discussed on this blog is Etsy, but we'll try to touch base on others as well.
So today lets take a brief look at Etsy. What is Etsy? Etsy is sometimes compared to Ebay. You have listing fees, commission fees, and you also have the option of using Paypal. I highly recommend using Paypal for your transactions. It is the safest way to send and receive money on the Internet. Etsy houses a large volume of handmade items as well as vintage items. For an item to be considered vintage it must be at least 20 years old. Etsy is also well known for the seller community that it offers. There are so many resources to be found and most of them are all user friendly. You have numerous help guides, success guides, chat rooms, forums, and much more! Etsy even holds "classes" in the form of a virtual lab. This is a very good feature, especially for newbees, to learn the ins and outs of selling and to get direct information for administrators. The videos and classes in the virtual labs are all free and done live in real time.
The main downfall that many people complain about on Etsy is the fact that your items can easily get "lost" among all the other items being sold. There are several things that you can do to help combat this problem. The first most important thing for you do in any business is advertise. I highly suggest that you find resources and ways to advertise your business from day one. (We'll get more into advertising on another post.) This way you are bringing in traffic from many areas at the same time and gain yourself much needed exposure. Another thing that you can do, and not very liked among many Etsy sellers, is to renew at least one item per day. Items on Etsy are listed in their categories in the order that sellers list them, so renewing your item will bump it up to the top of the category for all to see. This is okay to do, but realize that there is a .20 fee associated with renewing items. If your not careful you can really run your bill up hitting that renew button! So do at least one, then whatever your budget allows thereafter. You may also choose to do run a showcase for a specific category of your store. These will usually run you about $7 a day. Running a showcase will allow one of your items to be shown at the top of the on of the main subcategory pages. This is great advertisement and a good way to get your shop noticed. Again be careful when choosing to do showcases and be sure that you stay within your budget.
So today lets take a brief look at Etsy. What is Etsy? Etsy is sometimes compared to Ebay. You have listing fees, commission fees, and you also have the option of using Paypal. I highly recommend using Paypal for your transactions. It is the safest way to send and receive money on the Internet. Etsy houses a large volume of handmade items as well as vintage items. For an item to be considered vintage it must be at least 20 years old. Etsy is also well known for the seller community that it offers. There are so many resources to be found and most of them are all user friendly. You have numerous help guides, success guides, chat rooms, forums, and much more! Etsy even holds "classes" in the form of a virtual lab. This is a very good feature, especially for newbees, to learn the ins and outs of selling and to get direct information for administrators. The videos and classes in the virtual labs are all free and done live in real time.
The main downfall that many people complain about on Etsy is the fact that your items can easily get "lost" among all the other items being sold. There are several things that you can do to help combat this problem. The first most important thing for you do in any business is advertise. I highly suggest that you find resources and ways to advertise your business from day one. (We'll get more into advertising on another post.) This way you are bringing in traffic from many areas at the same time and gain yourself much needed exposure. Another thing that you can do, and not very liked among many Etsy sellers, is to renew at least one item per day. Items on Etsy are listed in their categories in the order that sellers list them, so renewing your item will bump it up to the top of the category for all to see. This is okay to do, but realize that there is a .20 fee associated with renewing items. If your not careful you can really run your bill up hitting that renew button! So do at least one, then whatever your budget allows thereafter. You may also choose to do run a showcase for a specific category of your store. These will usually run you about $7 a day. Running a showcase will allow one of your items to be shown at the top of the on of the main subcategory pages. This is great advertisement and a good way to get your shop noticed. Again be careful when choosing to do showcases and be sure that you stay within your budget.
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