Welcome to 2012, a new year!

I am not one for making resolutions but if I were it would be to spend more time with family and friends.  I have spent a lot of time crafting this year - trying new techniques and exploring my own creativity.  This year, I would like to add the creativity of others to my work.  

I had the week off from work so I beaded.  I made 6 bracelets, three necklaces, a beaded tree ornament, and am working on another necklace.  For my last day of the holiday, I am planning on two more bracelets and working on a new necklace design I have been thinking about.  To the right is the beaded tree ornament that I made for my daughter for Christmas.  It was made with Czech fire polished crystal, Swarovski Crystals, Swarovski pearls, silver seed beads, and blue tube beads.  It took about 10 hours to make but thankfully didn`t cost that much in terms of the materials. 

During the week I also reviewed my postings and analyzed my stats to see where I can improve.  It is time to move some things around, as in any store.  On GLC Mall, I am keeping the holiday merchandise on my front page but will move it along in January to make way for Valentine's Day.  I made a list of what I wanted to promote for Valentine's Day in January on iCraft and have begun writing my Valentine's Day Ads for Facebook.  I also up-dated my main store pages, removing the reference to the holidays.  The new information should be ready to post on the main pages by next weekend.  I don`t want to move too fast after the holidays but with delivery times, I need to start the promotion early enough.

To make room for the new items for Valentine's Day, I also put my Christmas Stockings and Holiday Coasters on sale for an extended boxing week sale - 25% off until January 10.  I hope to have the new items photographed and ready for posting by next weekend. Lots of love to go around.

By tomorrow, I want to have my Valentine's Day promotion ready to put into effect.  Once it is on paper, it will be easy enough to implement in the coming weeks.  I can do alot with my Blackberry and can up-date or post items quickly and easily throughout the day with this handy little gadget.  I rarely talk on it but I sure spend a lot of time on the web with it.  It is invaluable when it comes to my business.  

It is also time to catch up on my blogs and forums and of course get back to my blog.  I took an  extended vacation and enjoyed the crafting.  However, I can tell that my visibility dropped without being involved in things on the web for the week.

Happy Crafting

CraftyLadyLiz

More about Etsy.  Did I mention it is a large and overwhelming site.  So much do to, so many things to fill in, lots to read.

I spent last weekend reading the Seller Handbook.  It is essentially a series of blogs full of great advice.  I made notes and then would go back to my site to up-date things, follow the advice.  Trying to find things is so hard.  There is so much on each screen and my logic again escaped me when I could't find the "Profile" page, thinking it might be with the Shop Settings.  Apparently it's not, but under the my account tab at the top.  Silly me, thinking that the profile, which is public on each page, would not be with shop settings, where everything else public is set up.  I wasted half an hour looking for it.

The Seller Handbook is a great resource for all things selling on the web.  The advice is nothing I don't already know and read elsewhere.  However, it is all in one place, and relates directly to the site.  It is also more involved and it includes the experience of others who have shops on Etsy. I really wanted to read to find out what a Treasury is and how it is set up and then what to do with it.  I haven't found out yet but I know that the majority of my product views have come from a Treasury.  I feel bad because I am on a couple of teams and haven't had much time to participate because of all the reading. Participation on the "Teams" is very important.  I think I might kicked off soon.  For someone knew to selling on-line, Etsy is a great place to go.  It has everything in one place, especially information.

I think I earlier mentioned that it was $.20 USD per item for four months.  Silly me, when I have read blogs were people complain about being nickle and dimed by Etsy.  It is $.20 per item per month, with the posting lasting four months.  I don't get that.  What is the point?  It is adding to the amount of work you have to do.  It helps you to be visible if you are constantly posting items.  If you were to post an item every few days, you would be spending the same number of days each month paying $.20.  To me it seems like a waste of time.  Pay once, pay for a long period of time, post at will.  There is enough you need to do on-line to aid in selling without having to constantly go in an pay your bill.

Etsy has its pros and cons, as with any other site, but for someone who knows very little about on-line selling, it is a great place to set up shop.

All the best for the Holiday Season.

Happy Crafting
CraftyLadyLiz

I have been busily teaching myself bead weaving and discovered I like it more than any other beading technique I have learned so far.  I copied this necklace from a Bead and Button Magazine book with great success.  As you can see I made two versions of it, one for my daughter - a red one, and one for my friend - the black and silver one. shown below  Both were for their holiday parties this year.  What I liked about it was its elegance and how simple it was to make.

I started working with beads and a needle and thread for my bookmarks.  I wanted a tassel at the end of the bookmark that wouldn't come apart easily.  I have since discovered that I really enjoy the process.  I have always been content working with a needle and thread.  I love to quilt and cross-stitch.  This has added a new element to the needle and thread.  I have also been combining cross-stitch and beading by adding beads to my cross-stitch, mostly for my stockings right now but I am making a key chain for my son for Christmas.  What guy wants cross-stitch on his key chain.  I am planning on keeping the colours muted and the design simple.  Possibly, only his initials.

I custom made the necklaces to suit each person, their colour choices and length.  It added to the quality of the product but also the price.  One was definitely more expensive to make than the other.  When doing custom orders, this should always be considered when pricing. Changes in length can add more to your material costs and the length of time it takes you to make the item.  Offering custom orders is worth the extra effort as customer satisfaction is higher.  You also get another collaborator. I would not have selected the colours that my daughter did but it really worked for her.

Last week was my big week for sales.  I had three through one site and two custom orders.  One of the custom orders was the black and silver necklace, the other was a Christmas Stocking.  Click here to see the stocking on my iCraft site https://icraft.ca/member_product_detail.php?fmRecKey=28730&fmReturnBack=https%3A%2F%2Ficraft.ca%2Fmember_products.php  It was all enough to keep me busy along with work.

I have also had a request for a private quilting lesson and asked to see if I can finish some partially made jewellery.  Looks like I am going to be a busy crafter.

With the holiday season upon us, I am going to take the time to make for my family and friends.  I am dismayed to say I haven't even sent out my Christmas cards.  They go in the mail on Monday but I don't think they will be delivered on time.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Holiday Season


Happy Crafing
CraftyLady Liz

I received an e-mail from PayPal the other day that my account was going to be suspended because of too many unsuccessful attempts to log in.  It gave me a link to click to log in and up-date my password.  I decided the best thing to do would be to log into PayPal separately.  I didn't trust the e-mail.  I wonder why, since I have not been able to find it again.

However, I did change my password and my security questions for further security.  I really wonder what my strange e-mails had from the oceanographer had to do with this.  All I know is that I feel safer now that my account cannot be compromised easily.

There has been a lot in the media recently about internet security and it cannot be taken lightly, even if you have a series of passwords that you use for the various places you need to log into.  For simplicity sake, it is so easy to just use a series of passwords over and over again, but it doesn't take much.  My daughter recently had herself locked out of her Google e-mail account in an attempt to get her passwords.  Thankfully, she is pretty determined and was able to wrestle control back after a couple of attempts by the other party and protect everything but I suspect that this was an attempt at PayPal as well.

The other scam I realized I was hit with was a phone call from someone, I don't even remember who it was or where they were calling from even though I asked again after they identified themselves.  The service they were offering was to be given access to my computer and they would go in and see if there was anything wrong with my computer and fix it.  I was stunned, and asked more than once:  "You really want me to give you access to my computer".  They were deadly serious.  I found out later that this was a scam.  They would be given access and go in and crash the computer and then you had to pay them to fix it.  Needless to say, I didn't give them access to my computer and only found out later it was a scam.

Both of my two experiences really showed me how good these people can be.  Both the phone call and the e-mail were deadly serious and had a very good and believable story.  I just am so skeptical that I don't believe much that people say and so didn't get caught.  I am not sure if this is a good thing or not but I think it saved me in both instances.

I can't stress the importance of having a secure password for your PayPal account or account for any site you buy from or sell from.  Change the password regularly and your security questions as well.  I am lucky to have a Blackberry with a password keeper in it so that I can store the password there or I wouldn't remember them most of the time; and that is the big problem with changing your passwords and security questions, remembering the passwords or answers.  Finding a secure place to put them is difficult, and as my daughter had her e-mail compromised, that is not a good place.

Happy and Safe Crafting
CraftyLadyLiz

I am busily working on-line today, my normal Sunday morning.  I try to get up fairly early to start work, and spend most of my day on-line, drumming up business.  It occurred to me today that I was beginning to find my balance.  Between reviewing sites and blogs, I started the laundry and tidied the kitchen.

I talked to my daughter about balance awhile ago, and she told me that for the entrepreneur, there is no balance.  I began thinking about that and decided that there had to be some sort of balance or the business wouldn't work.

I asked myself some basic questions:

What did I need
What time did I have
Who am I and how do I work
What were the priority of the needs.

It was a good place to start and I found that had to include personal needs as well as business needs.  The other thing I realized was that I should concentrate one one or two needs at a time.

I work is a busy college in Ontario coordinating the academic records area.  This encompasses a lot of different things from transcripts to graduation.  In my day to day work I see a lot of needs analysis and had to put the concept in to practice when staffing was short or changes elsewhere had an impact on our jobs.

I approached my business in the same way.  I took my business needs down to a basic level which also became my priority list

I need:

• To craft - this is my most basic need and is both business and personal.
• To sell

Who am I and how do I work:

• I am easily bored
• I can be incredibly focused  when engaged
• I am very detail oriented
• I demand the best from myself
• I am solitary

What time do I have:

• I have two days on the weekend
• I have about two hours each evening
• I have one hour for lunch
• I have a half an hour before I start work.

I set a schedule and wrote procedures - it was that simple.  I limited the tasks to less time than the scheduled allowed and did not overlap tasks within the schedule.  In other words, the same time of the day, regardless of the day, I do the same thing, and I kept a time sheet.  Each day before work, I focus on up-dating a website to enhance visibility.  I discovered that I could make some improvements to the site that generated visibility, by taking an analysis of the site and making targeted changes.  A quick spreadsheet (including calculations) of my products, the views I received, helped me to see what was being viewed, and how often.  I now had a target of what needed to be up-dated or enhanced.  I also keep a list beside me when I am doing the up-dates, of what products should have improved photographs, to help me keep track of what I need to do in the future.

I decided that I would spend all day Saturday crafting, whatever I wanted.  No schedule, no task list, I just craft.  The result has been two custom orders, one of which will appear for sale in the future.  I keep paper beside me for design ideas, as well as having at least two additional projects on the table that I don't necessarily work on but let ideas perk through as I am working.

I discovered that little I scheduled could be done at lunch during the week.  That time was for me will only do work on my business on a whim.

I constantly keep track of how much time it takes me to do something so that I can estimate how many hours I will need to complete a project.  I was able to complete a custom order this week in two evenings, and deliver it to the customer on time.  Keeping track of your time is important.  I was able to work stress free and come up with the finished product with time to spare.

I give up my Sundays to on-line work, search engine optimization, website maintenance, and analysis of the weeks efforts.  There are days I start and 7 am and end at 7 pm but it is worth it.

Knowing that I get bored easily means that I will have up to 7 sites open at the same time, bouncing back and forth between them, posting, analyzing and improving.  I write a lot of my blogs, and save them in draft for future posting, read blogs I am interested in and post responses when something catches my interest.  I look for craft shows, I add to forums, and gain and pass on knowledge.  In between, I take care of the personal side, doing laundry, dishes, tidying, cleaning, when I need to think of what I want to write.  I rarely get bored now.

I now create a meal plan for the week and double up the cooking in the evenings where possible.  What can be cooked ahead of time goes into the fridge and freezer, and I when I bake I double up on everything.

As I become more proficient at something and am able to reduce the time it takes, I add other things into the mix, and stop worrying.  I took the time to organize my computer, especially my bookmarks, to find things easier.  If I find a site that interests me, I will bookmark it under on-line leads for something to go back to.  I have found lately that I have extra time on Sundays to craft as well, although I think that I will turn this time into further research time and planning for craft shows.

Take the time to do the needs analysis.  If you think of something that will assist you, determine the expense, or the time it will take, and factor that into what your next step will be.  Sometimes, it is the little things that we keep putting off that will help us the most.  I realized that the the small portable external jump drive I wanted would really be better than the the large portable external drive that I hate carrying around for storing key data for when I was not at home.  I now do the occasional data analysis at lunch.  I just have to figure out how to transfer the data from one portable drive to the other on the ancient lap top that I have.

I used my ability to focus when engaged to accomplish this.

I would love to here about what you have done to help you achieve your balance as an entrepreneur.

Happy Crafting

Crafty Lady Liz

I have been a busy little crafter lately.  What I have been making is for gifts, mostly for my daughter.  I really want to show off what I have been making but my problem is that the connector to link my camera to my computer is broken and the only way to up-load the pictures right now is by taking the memory card out.  My laptop doesn't allow for that but my daughter's does.  So, I can't post any pictures until after Christmas or she will see the gifts ahead of time.

I have been working on a necklace for her for her Holiday party.  I will try to get that one up soon, as it turned out nicely, even if I had to make it twice.  I am hoping that someone at work has a laptop that will take my memory card so that I can up-load that way.

For now, check out my store at Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/elizanne1?ref=si_shop  It's not much yet.  I haven't even come up with a name or banner yet, although I have some ideas perking in my crafty brain.

My third attempt at Facebook ads were a little more successful, especially when what I want to increase my web presence, more than make a sale.  I received a lot more views on my site from the ad but my bounce rate was not great and the number of pages viewed was pretty low.  What I am really trying to do is determine how well I have set up my site, and are people going to look at it.  It looks like I found out my answers.


There are lots of things that can be done with hyperlinks, and how you can direct potential customers.  This time I directed prospective customers to a particular place on my site, based on the ad, rather than just my site alone.  For instance, I will open a specific Valentine's Day page on my site in January or I will create a catalogue category for Valentines day alone and move product there and the ad for Valentine's day will go to this page directly.  

Using any on-line site to promote your product takes a lot of reading and researching.  I have been into a craft forum which is very helpful.  It is a great place to ask questions.  It is also a great place to find products.  http://www.craftster.org/ is a great place to find answers.  As a crafter, become a member and you are able to post, and can ask questions.  I have been following a great discussion about Facebook, and have been able to add my insight from what I have learned using Facebook Ads.

I asked people through Craftster what they think of my site and took their suggestions to heart and made some changes to how things were organized.  I don't think that I am done, there are still some changes I want to make, but the Facebook Ad has confirmed that what I did do has been effective.  I also think that as I understand more about the Facebook Ads the better the bounce rate is.  I will make the further changes, and then test again using the ads to see how it is doing.  I will also start a thread on Craftster for those of us that have asked for advice, to have people go back in and up-date their opinion or critique our changes.

The biggest problem I have with using Facebook Ads, or any on-line advertising site or crafter mall is fitting my product into a category for searches or target market.  I find them restrictive.  For instance, I have bookmarks that are made with ribbon or wire and one site only offers bookmarks under paper products.  I am often not sure if I am hitting my target based on categories available.  Part of this is probably my logic, I am not following the logic of the site, or the customer, to find what they or I want.

I seem to be rambling today, yet everything seems to be interlinked, Craftster, asking questions, up-dating my site, Facebook Ads, testing the response, and hitting my target when testing.  They all swirl around the issue of research.  As a beginner in the world of selling crafts on-line, I don't have a lot of money to spend on professionals who can help with marketing, so its all up to me, and what tracking tools are at my disposal to determine the success.

I will definitely go into this topic further, as I have been analyizing lots of data recently.

Happy Crafting
CraftyLadyLiz