Sunshine and SEO

So it feels like it's been forever since I posted last.  Sorry for slacking my dear readers.  It's just that the weather here in Vermont has been so nice and sunny and I've kinda thrown myself into this whole SEO project...I know, I'm terrible.  Naturally you've all been wondering where the heck I've been and why I haven't updated (at least that's how the story goes in my head, so hush).

Since my last post, I've been doing a lot, and I do mean A LOT of work on search engine optimization (SEO).  That's the thing where you work on titles, tags, keywords, item descriptions and so on, making them more relevant and easier for search engines like Google to find and rank. 

Honestly, if they offered a class locally on this sort of stuff, I'd totally sign up, because it seems like there are about a billion million things to consider.  And if I had the money, I'd probably pay someone else to do it for me, because even after you think everything is just right, you're supposed to go back and tweak things every now and then to see if small changes make any difference.

You know, I say that, but the truth is I wouldn't want someone else to do it for me.  I feel this awesome sense of accomplishment after I've tweaked an item top to bottom and I see it show up better in searches and it gets more views.  I like knowing that I'm the one putting in the work, and that my hard work actually makes an impact.  It really is a great feeling seeing things improve and knowing that I did that.

This SEO stuff has taken up a ton of my time lately, but fear not, I haven't completely abandoned my right brain activities.  I've made a few fun new pieces for my summer line like these bracelets:

Natural Agate and Smoky Quartz Chainmaille Bracelet

Rainbow Fluorite Gemstone and Chainmaille Bracelet

Both these items will be available in my shop  starting June 1st.  Which is fast approaching.  I have so many more pieces I wanted to have ready for the "launch" of my summer 2012 line.  Guess that means I have a bunch more work to do :)

In other news, I've also been working on some promotional/branding material.  First up, the earrings cards.  Ones that I designed and printed and folded and punched.  The only way I could have been more involved in the process is if I made the paper myself and hand printed each card.  Which I would never do, because i totally don't have the patience for that. Here's a picture of the finished cards:

Homemade Earrings Cards

Oh, the earrings are a new design as well.  I think I really like the leaf and the font I used here--pretty sure that's officially my logo.

I also took advantage of a promotion through Etsy to get some free "mini moo" business cards from Moo.com.  They're smaller than regular business cards, thus the name, but they're just the right size for a simple picture on one side and the basic info on the other.  Check out the ones I got:

Mini Moo Business Cards

Sorry for the slightly out of focus photo--but you get the idea, right?  And I mean, how cute are these things?  They got here wicked fast too, I wasn't expecting them until June 4th, but the arrived first thing this morning (May 26th).  Pretty great.  And hey, if this inspires you to go out and get some Mini Moo cards of your own, or anything from Moo.com--please, pretty please click here 10% off first purchase

I earn points for referring people and you get 10% off your purchase.  Everybody wins!  :)

I think that's all for now.  Oh, it looks like I won't be doing the local farmer's market this year--they're all full up, and apparently have been since like, February.  I had no idea people signed up so early, so while I'm a bit bummed that I don't get to participate, I figure oh well--I'll know better for next year.  I think I'm going to do Art in the Park though.  At least I'm going to try...it's a juried event, so I'm at least going to submit an application.  We'll see how it goes.  It'd be so very cool to be accepted.  It's one of the premier craft shows in Vermont and people come from all over to shop and browse and meet local artists.  Even if all I did was make some great new contacts and pass out a whole bunch of business cards, I'd feel like I was a success.

I think that's all for now.  It's super hot here today, and the sun is shining.  I think I'll spend some time outside enjoying the beautiful weather.  Hope everyone has a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend!!

As always, thanks for reading :)

Thoughtful Thursday

So this week marked the end of my first 30 days on Etsy.  I think for my first month I did fairly well--I had 3 sales in total.  I'm told that's pretty good.  Honestly, I'm excited I even had one, so I think things are going great.

Purple Crystal Anklet--new in my Etsy Shop

I'm working hard on my summer line that I'm going to make available in my shop starting June 1st.  At least that's the plan.  I can't wait to see what people think.  I've really had a lot of fun pushing myself outside my normal design/comfort zone to create these pieces.  When I first started making jewelry, I was kind of obsessed with wire and metal work, but shied away from it because I really had no idea what I was doing.  Even after I bought and read some books on the subject, both concepts stayed firmly in the "I want to try that...someday" category.  Because of this, it's been pretty interesting watching these new pieces take shape.

I'm using a lot of hammered metals, a whole lot of copper, some freshwater pearls and the occasional gemstone.  I think the designs still have a similar feel to them as other pieces that I have available in my shop, but they're a step up from what I've been working on.  I finally got brave enough to break into the sterling silver and 14K golf filled wire I bought way back when.  I was so afraid to use it, I mean it's sort of expensive and I was scared that I would mess it up and waste it.  But it turns out a solid design plan and PRACTICE really make life easier and I haven't wasted any pricy materials yet (knocks on wood).

Wire Wrapped Gold and Pearl Ring--Now available in my Shop

This week I was featured in my first ever Treasury over on Etsy.  For those of you who don't know what a Treasury is, it's basically a user curated display of other people's work.  An Etsy user goes on and picks up to 16 pieces to feature, then publishes their choice in a section of the site dedicated to Treasuries.  Being featured is a great way to gain exposure and draw in potential customers.  I was really excited to get the little note telling me someone had chosen me for the Treasury.

Being featured actually inspired me to create my own.  I haven't spent much time on Etsy exploring other shops, at least not just to browse.  Most of the time I've spent on there has been working on my shop, or promoting my shop, or interacting in the Teams and such.  Well last night, I spent some time poking around.  I put together a Treasury of other jewelry artists, mostly people who's look and materials were different from mine.  I'm actually pretty pleased with it.  It's not something I think I'll do a lot of, because it kinda takes some time, but it's definitely something I'll do again.

One last thing--I've been using Facebook and Twitter a lot, I mean they say that social networking is a great way to promote your work, but I didn't really think I would garner a sale FROM either place.  I kind of thought both places were a great way to build a relationship with customers and to do a little advertising, but last week I got a custom order from someone I'm friends with on Facebook.  She saw a ring I made, asked if I could make one for her in silver, and said she'd pay whatever I was asking because it was so beautiful.  How awesome is that?

I feel like things are on the right track, and I really can't wait to see where they go from here.  Hope everyone is having a great week!  Thanks for reading :)

First Sale!!

I'm super excited to announce that I got my first sale in my Etsy shop yesterday.  I sold this bracelet:

Kinda bummed that the matching earrings didn't go at the same time, but I'm so excited about my first sale that I don't mind.

I learned a lot from my first sale, like that I need to remember that Etsy AND PayPal assess transaction fees and that I need to account for those in my pricing.  I some how missed that PayPal would be snagging 2.5% plus $0.30 for each transaction.  My pricing formula was pretty basic, and it most definitely didn't take the transaction fees into account.  I was going to try and figure out how to adjust my prices so that I would net the prices I had already figured out.  Does that make sense? 

For example, I had an item listed at $25.  That number is what I want to walk away from the sale with, so my challenge is trying to figure out at what price I should list the item so fees are covered and I put $25 in my pocket.  That seems like an awful lot of math though.  It's been suggested that I just adjust my prices upwards by 10% across the board, which would easily cover the transaction fees. 

I'll probably hold off on making adjustments until after I attend the Etsy lab Etsy Success: The Basics of Pricing with Danielle and Michelle on May 10, 2012 from 3:00pm to 3:30pm.  I'll see what I can learn there and then sit down and re-work things.

In the mean time, I'm going to get back to designing and creating pieces.  I feel like I've been spending a huge chunk of my time promoting my shop and fooling around on social networking sites and what not.  And while it seems to be paying off, I mean I actually got a SALE (!!!), I would much rather be making pretty new pieces for my summer line. 

That's all for now.  Hope everyone's having a great week!

New Projects

So the other day, I promised I'd post some pictures of the projects I have in the works.  I really meant to post sooner, but the camera I prefer to use to take pictures of my jewelry some how made its way to Washington D.C. with my parents.  Not one to be deterred however, I dug out my old, clunky digital camera and snapped a few photos.  Actually I took a lot of pictures, but I really only ended up with a handful worth saving, and none that I feel like are good enough to use in my shop.

I usually only use this camera for taking pictures of landscapes and oceans and nature-y like stuff.  It has a fairly low pixel count and I've yet to take an up close picture that didn't come out all blurry.  Don't get me wrong, it's a good solid camera, but, if I'm remembering right, it's about 8 years old.  Practically ancient by technology standards.  But I have a hard time letting it go.  It's been pretty faithful all these years, captured some great memories.  And it has a lithium ion rechargeable battery, which I'm pretty sure has saved me a fortune in battery costs over the years.  It has lots of great setting and it works wonderfully outdoors, just not so much when it comes to taking pictures of fine detail.

So dear readers, a promise is a promise, and I said I'd share some pictures by week's end.  Well here it is Friday night, so I suppose I best post a few pictures.  Please forgive the quality.

These are a pair of earrings I made for the woman who won one of my gradient pendants in the contest I ran over on Facebook.  I sent her a coupon for my Etsy shop along with her prize, and she wrote to tell me she was very much interested in a coordinating pair of earrings.  These are one of the options I've come up with.

And these are another pair of earrings kind of along the same lines that could be paired with the black gradient pendant 

Now, neither of these earrings are outside of my design comfort zone.  Despite my photo taking difficulties, these earrings were relatively easy to make and came together quickly.  They aren't the exciting new projects I've been talking about.  The pendant to the left and below are however examples of my latest adventures in designing.

It consists of some hammered copper wire bits, with a fresh water pearl attached to the wrap wires, and it all hangs from a length of brown satin cord.

I really like this pendant.  It reminds me a little of coral and the beach and by default, summer time.  I like th earthy look of the copper contrasted by the pale delicacy of the pearl.  I've got a few similar pendants in the works, one in sterling silver and the other in a combination of sterling silver and 12K gold.  I think I'll be hanging both of those on black satin cord.  I'll be making earrings to match, and as soon as i can, I'll be picking up some soldering supplies to I can make some rings.  And all of these things should be available in my shop by mid-June.

Of course, if I don't make a sale in my shop before then, I might skip listing them and take them to the craft fair instead.  I don't know, it's something I'll have to think about.

I'm working on a few other projects too, one involving some wire work, another mostly bead weaving.  I get on these bead weaving kicks and get super enthralled with one specific weave.  Last month it was right angle weave, and led to the creation of my gradient pendants.  This month, it seems to be the herringbone stitch.  It's been a lot of fun learning and exploring.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  Until next time, thanks for reading :)

Next Steps in Social Networking

Just a really quick post, I promise. 

I've finally taken the next step in my social networking to promote my jewelry and Etsy shop.  I have officially just joined Twitter.  I now tweet.  I keep hearing great stories about how Twitter has brought a lot of attention to other Etsians so I went ahead and signed up.  I avoided it for a long time, cuz it seemed kind of like an exercise in narcissism.  But now I'm on board.  I've been doing the Facebook thing for awhile, I figured it couldn't hurt to branch out.  If you'd care to follow me, please do.  I'll return the favor, naturally.  To find me, I suppose you can just follow this link or type www.twitter.com/jewelry_gal25 into your address bar.

Oh oh and before I forget!  If you haven't already gone over and "Liked" my Facebook page, you should.  I just posted a special Mother's Day coupon for my Etsy shop, available to all my fans on Facebook

That's all for now.  Hope everyone had a great first day of May!!