Ads, Prizes, and Design Challenges

I know, I know, I promised that I'd update Wednesday, and while it's well after midnight, I haven't been to bed yet.  So in my little corner of the world, it's still Wednesday :P

In my last post, I mentioned that I had paid a bit for some advertising space over on Etsy.  Nothing huge, just a few bucks to see my work listed at the top of the Pendants page.  I was hoping that it would bring in more views and maybe even a sale or two, but alas, no such luck.  I actually saw less shop/item views on Tuesday than I have in almost 2 weeks.  I purposefully didn't do any other promoting that day so I could see how effective (or ineffective) the feature was, and, well...the drop in views was pretty telling.  I'm not sure I'll use that option again any time soon.

But it was kind of exciting to see my work at the top of a page.  I took a screen shot just to share it on here...

Whew!  That was a process and a half, uploading that picture lol. Anyway, there I am, my Black Gradient Pendant featured in a sort of obscure section.  The more research I do, the more it sounds like searches on Etsy are more text based rather than clicking through sections, so in the future, this whole being featured in the "Sponsored" section probably isn't something I'll try again.

In other news...Sarah, the lucky winner of my Facebook contest, sent me a message to let me know she'd received her prize today.  Now, I did a sneaky little bit of self-promotion and tucked a little note with a coupon code for my Etsy shop in with her necklace.  I couldn't decide if it was a good idea or not, but it turns out that it paid off, because in her "thank you" email today, she asked if I would make a pair of earrings to go with her necklace, and that if I could, she'd absolutely buy them from me. Of course I sent her back a message saying I would get on making a pair of earrings just for her.  I'm so excited! This is the necklace I sent her:

I have another one really similar to this one, except it's strung on chain rather than organza ribbon.  You can find it here

I hope I'm able to come up with something great for her.  Today was a little frustrating for me on the design front.  I have a really great idea for a pair of earrings that I've spent some time sketching out and considering, and I started working on them today.  I've got all the separate component pieces figured out and most of them made, but I have no idea how to bring them all together.  I know I just have to keep working at it and I'll figure it out eventually, so I'm not worried.  But it's super frustrating to be able to see what I want the end piece to look like, and not know how to get there.

Oh well.  It's all part of pushing myself out of my comfort zone.  I might be frustrated right now, but that just means when I finally finish the project, I'll feel like I really accomplished something awesome.  Creating something beautiful from is really rewarding, and it seems like it's doubly rewarding when I have to work for it.

I suppose that's all for now.  Hope everyone's having a great week!

Quick Post

I just wanted to write a quick little post this dreary Monday afternoon.  I spent the weekend sketching (or attempting to anyway) some ideas that have been floating around in my head for awhile.  I've been really focused on beadwork lately and have kind of moved away from what got me interested in jewelry making to begin with: Metals.  So now I have some really great concepts in mind for a "summer line" of jewelry that's a little different than the stuff I've been working on lately.  It's more organic, more earthy.  Think hammered metals, pearls, and sea glass.  I'm really excited. 

The things I have in mind are a little bit outside my comfort zone, which is kind of thrilling in itself.  I figure I've got a pretty good grasp on the basics, and I've been designing a lot more on my own...it's about time I start to push myself and see what develops.  So stay tuned!

In other news, I made kind of an impulsive decision late last night and purchased a Showcase on Etsy.  For those of you who don't know what that is, Etsy offers some really great advertising opportunities, one of them being something called a Showcase.  For a small fee, you can purchase a space at the top of a specific category page for 24 hours.  I bought myself a space in the Jewelry>Pendants section.  Starting tomorrow and running for 24 hours, the pieces I selected will show up at the top of the Pendants page.

I've had some fairly good traffic in my shop in the week I've had it up, but I wanted to see what I could do to increase traffic and maybe even get a sale or two.  How exciting would that be?  I can't wait to see what happens.

And that'll do it for today's quick post.  Be sure to check back on Wednesday when I'll post about the success (or lack of) resulting from my impulsive advertising purchase.  And maybe I'll share a photo or two of some of my newest ideas (:

Until next time...

A Week of Progress and Surprise

This past week has been super productive for me.  I'm excited that things are coming along like they are.  On Monday, I announced the opening of my Etsy shop.  I have been working hard all week to photograph items and get items listed, and while I still have a good deal of work to do, things are really moving forward.

A few things this past week have kind of surprised me.  The biggest being how time consuming listing an item has been.  It's actually not difficult at all to list an item on Etsy, you just upload a few pictures, come up with a great title for the piece and provide an accurate, engaging description for your customers.  Then you set a price, input shipping costs, click a few more places and you're all set.  Easy, right?  Except I find myself stumbling at a few points in that process.

I have the hardest time writing item descriptions.  I don't know if I over think it, or if I'm obsessing or what, but it takes me a few tries to write out a description I'm happy with.  You would think that with my writing skills, it would be really easy to just describe the item in the picture.  But I feel like I need to do more than that.  Want to really.  It's important to me that my descriptions are a bland recitation of facts.  I really like the idea of engaging a prospective customer.  I start of with a solid description, but it never feels like enough.  So I've been adding in a short little blurb about how I relate to the piece.

For example, with this Pink Puffy Heart Pendant, this is what I wrote:

This heart shaped pendant is made using 4mm Swarovski crystals and teeny tiny silver colored seed beads. The heart is actually made up of three different sections. If you look closely, you can see the overlapping flower shape that makes up each one. The heart has a pretty unique texture and it's puffy, like a little crystal pillow. This pendant is strung on a silver plated chain that measures 18 inches. The chain IS included with this item.

All my pieces are really fun to make, but this one really stands out for me. I was still really new to jewelry making when I first made this, and I didn't have a lot of experience with bead weaving. I found this cute little pattern on a blog and decided to jump in head first. I used the pattern as a guide as I created my own unique piece, modifying as I went to adapt the pattern to my vision. This adorable little heart shaped pendant was the result. Now that I have more experience under my belt, this isn't as challenging of a piece to put together, but it marks a milestone for me; moving away from following a pattern and into designing on my own.

I like the idea of letting potential buyers in on the back story of a given piece.  When I'm reading item descriptions, I'm always looking for the part that tells me what is so special about the item, what separates it from other, similar items?  I feel like sharing a "fun fact" about the item adds that little something special.  Maybe I'm crazy (:

Anyway, adding that little personal touch is what takes the most time and is the biggest challenge for me, which surprised me.

The other thing that's surprised me this past week was the support from other sellers on Etsy.  If you're unfamiliar with Etsy, you should really check it out because there are some really great people selling some really great stuff on the site.  There is a whole community of sellers, sellers in direct competition for business, but there is no "dog eat dog" mentality.  Instead, a lot of sellers reach out to other sellers to offer help, advice, and friendship.  It's a very "help thy neighbor" atmosphere. 

Within the Etsy community, there is something called Teams that people can join.  There are teams for everything from Etsy Success to Shop Help to a Made in Vermont Etsy Street team.  I've joined a couple of these teams, and I'm really excited to see the support going on within each of them.  At first I was really skeptical about these groups, I mean it's so contrary to business practices I've witnessed in real life.  Competition is fierce yes, but not in a "my stuff is better than theirs" way.  People just work really hard to create really outstanding things, and let the work stand on its own merit without tearing others down.  It's madness, right?  But it works!  It really works.  And in case you can't, that really surprised me :)

Anyway, I think I've carried on enough for now.  If you haven't had the chance yet, head on over to my shop and check it out.  You can find me here or just type Little Hill Jewelry into the search bar on Etsy.com

I still haven't come up with a pithy way to end these entries, so for now, you'll just have to pretend I said something clever and funny.  Thanks for reading!

Contest Winner and Etsy Shop Update

Well I officially held my drawing last night for my little Facebook contest.  34 people entered the contest, and the combined total of entries was 116.  For my first time out, I thought that was a pretty decent reach.  A lot of the contestants were people I know personally, but I did have a handful of entries from people from all over the country.  The winner is actually from New Mexico.  It was really neat to see the reach of the internet play out right in front of me.  I never really thought I'd be able to reach and interact with someone from clear across the country this early in the game.

I've sent a message to the winner letting her know that she's won and asking if I can mention her in my blog.  Since I haven't heard back from her yet, I'm going to withhold her name for now.  I decided on one of the gradient pendants as the prize, but I did tell her if she really had her heart set on something else, I'd consider it.  Naturally, I want her to win something she'll actually wear and enjoy :)

Now that my contest is over, I am doubling down on my efforts to get my Etsy shop up and running.  I've listed an item or two thus far, and over the next few days I plan on adding a good deal more.  I want to spend some quality time taking some new, fresh photographs to really showcase my work.  It was funny, last night when I was going through all the pictures I've already taken, I could really clearly see the progression in my photography skills.  My goodness, I was terrible when I started out.  Check out one of my early pictures:

I guess it's passable, but it's also terribly plain and it doesn't even begin to convey the exciting sparkle of these earrings.  Now check out a more recent picture.  This one was taken with a better camera, in natural afternoon light.

This picture has some depth and the colors are really bright, crisp and clear.  If you look really closely, you can see the reflection of me and my camera on each of the pearls, which I think is pretty funny.  This is one of my favorite pictures because I feel like the lighting really accentuates the design and the photo as a whole conveys the feel of the piece really well.  If I saw this on the home page of Etsy, I would be drawn to it and I'd probably click it just to check it out.  I think that's called "clickability"  and it's a trait I want all my photos to have.

So over the next day or two, I plan on spending a lot of quality time taking new photos of my jewelry.  I think I've got a pretty good feel for what I want my photos to look like, so I don't think it will be too difficult.  And once I've got a good portfolio of images, I think it'll be easier to figure out what I want my shop banner to look like.

If you want to check out my Etsy shop, here is the link Little Hill Jewelry on Etsy  Just keep in mind it's still a work in progress :)

As always, thanks for reading.  Stay tuned...as soon as I have a working number of items in my shop I'm going to post a coupon code for all my blog readers (cuz I know you're out there, some where).

Until next time :)

Final Hours--Call for Last Minute Entries

Just a reminder, today is the last day to enter my End of Tax Season Jewelry Giveaway contest.  The drawing is tonight at midnight, and I will announce the winner at some point tomorrow.

If you haven't entered yet, but would like to, head on over to my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Jewelrygal26.  Every "like,"  "share,"  and comment will get you an entry.  I'm already amazed at how many entries there are...over 100 so far!!

Anyway, today's you're last chance to enter.  And who doesn't like free stuff, right?  I think the piece I'm giving away will be one of my gradient crystal pendants.

Creating a Storefront...online

So back in March I listed a few items on E-bay to sort of test the waters.  My chief complaint at the time was that E-bay really isn't set up for selling things like handmade jewelry, or really any handcrafted work.  The bidding system is essentially a gamble as there's no real way to ensure the final bid will be enough to allow you to break even.  I mean, yes you can set a minimum bid, and I might experiment with that later, but when I look at minimum bids that are over $5, I tend to avoid the item.  Maybe that's just me.  Anyway, I knew when I signed up for selling on E-bay that it would likely not be the ideal venue for me.

Which brings me to my next adventure in online sales: Etsy.  You may already know of this site.  It's a great resource for crafters and artisans to get connected with potential buyers.  It's main focus is handmade, and it has a reputation on the whole as being a safe, reliable place for customers to spend their money.  Using an established "front" like Etsy and E-bay are, in my opinion, an excellent way to make a name for one's self.  So I'm officially working on setting up an Etsy store front.

I think I've finally settled on a name for my business.  Little Hill Jewelry.  Sort of a play on Hillside (the street I grew up on) and the Green Mountains that all my friends from out west refer to as little hills (in comparison to the Rocky Mountain Range).  I think it's cute, easy to remember (and spell), and it means something to me.  Now I just need to work on creating graphics and what not to go with the name.  For my Etsy storefront, I get to create a banner for people to see when they first come into the shop, and this is what I've come up with so far:

 

I think I like the top one the best, but there's something missing.  I've also not been able to come up with that catchy little marketing phrase that so many companies have.  I thought about "Little Hill Jewelry...Uniquely Yours"  but I think it sounds stupid.  So I'll be doing more brainstorming on that front.  Everything else aside, I'm really happy with my color scheme :)

I'm also working my way through the process of setting up a Business Tax Account with the state so that I can legally fulfill my tax obligation.  I debated briefly not bothering to collect sales tax, I mean as a primarily online business, I didn't really think it was necessary.  But after doing a lot of reading and considering all the potential venues I might want to participate in locally (at which I would need to collect sales tax) I decided I may as well get it done and out of the way.

Now I just have to decide what items I want to list on Etsy, because once they're listed there I think I have to sell them through Etsy or wait for the listing period to expire.  I also really need to work on focusing the style of my jewelry.  I have quite the eclectic collection, and while it can be broken down into groups (like pearl jewelry, wire work and bead weaving)  there really is no unifying theme.  I think a lot of my stuff has a sort of organic feel to it, like this wrap bracelet:

and this silver and gemstone drop bracelet:

 

 Even my pearl jewelry has a kind of alternative, organic feel.  Like this bracelet and these earrings:

 I suppose it will all work itself out in the end.  I think I kind of shy away from defining my style "boundaries" because I find it limiting.  I'd rather just create and see what I come up with.  I'll worry about organizing the finished product into acceptable categories later.  (Lol, yes I'm aware that that's just avoiding dealing with the issue at hand, but I'm too excited about setting up a storefront to mind).

I suppose that's all for now.  Oh!  My little promo contest over on Facebook is almost over with.  It worked out pretty well.  I got a lot of new likes, and my weekly reach for the past few weeks has been in the triple digits!  People are talking about my work and sharing it with their friends, which is really SO awesome!!  I'll be doing my drawing on Sunday at midnight, so stay tuned, I'll announce the winner first thing Monday morning.

I still haven't come up with a pithy way to end these entries.  So for now, thanks for reading.