Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Working on websites
I hate my business web site
(not BeadingHelpWeb.com - I love the way that one looks!).After much consideration, I decided I had to carve out some time last weekend to work on a new one. I purchased a new domain and set it up to be hosted...no going back.
Staring at a blank page doesn't do much good, but that's about what I did for a good couple of hours. Finally, an idea started forming, and then taking shape.
I'm not an HTML-queen, but I know enough to be dangerous. So between my minimal coding abilities, PhotoShop, and Adobe PageMill, I put together what I thought was a pretty good prototype.
I wanted minimalistic and clean. I wanted a shopping cart and the ability to update things myself. Most of all, I wanted something that reflected my personality and work.
While it's not perfect (I'd like to have a cart of my "own" but for now, I'm sufficing with linking to sections in my Etsy shop), I'm pretty happy with what I've got.
I'd love to hear your thoughts - take a peek at
C-My Designs, revisited.
Labels: adobe pagemill, etsy, jewelry business, jewelry sales, photoshop, web site development
Monday, April 07, 2008
Omaha Bead Show, Drusy, Fun and Friends!
Over the weekend, I had the good fortune to have some girlfriend time with fellow jewelry makers
Lynn Bowes and
Jan Addison. We met up at the Omaha Bead Show, and spent lots of time shopping, chatting and comparing ideas.
One of my favorite finds of the day was a nice little oval chunk of pink drusy. Now, I'm not a "pink" girl, but I fell in love with this little stone, and couldn't stop plotting what to do with it! I've had a few folks asking "What's drusy?", so I thought I'd share. :-)
Drusy is any crystal quartz formation occurring on quartz or occurring on any other stone. Essentially, it's the inside of a geode. Here's a photo from Wikipedia:
Drusy (or as it's sometimes spelled "druzy") can be found in many colors, shapes and sizes. I love the sections of tiny, tiny crystals that are so small, they look velvety. The stone can be treated using titanium or dyed...we're suspicious that titanium was used to created my pink stone.
At the show, we also got to meet Tera Belinsky-Yoder, aka
BeadyGirl Beads on
Etsy. I instantly recognized Tera's beads and stopped to chat with her - she was fun and easy to talk to and creates colorful, ecclectic beads that look as great in person as they do in her online shop!
Overall, it was a great little get away...I'll share what I did with the drusy soon!!!
Labels: bead show, crystal, drusy, etsy, omaha, quartz
Monday, February 18, 2008
Etsy Treasuries
I've blogged about
Etsy before - the Etsy folks have built their site on being "the place" to buy handcrafted items, and jewelry shops are huge on Etsy. Do you have an Etsy shop?
One of the unique things about Etsy is how they set up different ways to shop: click on a bubble in a color chart and you'll find all kinds of suggestions of items that are that color. Search on a specific word, and you'll find items that use that word in the description or accompanying text. Treasuries are lists created by artists of their "favorite" items, and there are only a limited number of Treasuries available at any given time.
So when I saw that a Treasury was available, I grabbed it quickly...and filled it with items from some of my favorite sellers. True to the marketing ploy of "title your Treasury with something that will grab people's attention" I called it Chocolate Lovers, stating that while I'm not a big chocoholic, I know those artists are.
So while being noticed on Etsy is a little like being a tiny little guppy in the big ocean, everything you can do to promote your shop is good. If you're a seller on Etsy, try getting a Treasury, and nab some PR for your own shop as well as for your friends. :-)
Labels: chocolate, etsy, etsy treasury, treasury
