Well Heellooooooooooooooooooo!

Hi Everyone!  I've been away for quite some time and I'm so happy to be back.

I've started a new blog called Handmade Mojo.  I would love it if you would come on over and follow me just like old times.   I plan to be keeping up with Handmade news, tips, interviews with artisans..and much more.

My first post is Etsy vs. Artfire.  I'd love to hear what you think about the two.  Is it worth is to list on both.  Have you had experience with posting on both?  Tell us about it.  Come on over to The Mojo and let's discuss.

A picture is worth a 1000 sales!

Things have been up and down with sales lately.  I can't complain, I'm selling more than I have in the past but sometimes there is a lul and I play around with my shop to see if I can make improvements to get more item views.  I've noticed that if I switch out photos on low visited items, I usually get more views.  So, I thought I would give some tips that I learned for taking photos.  I am by no means a proffesional photographer and I know my photos can be better, but they are much better than when I started and there are a few things I've learned that I'd like to share.

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  Camera - I use a simple HP digital camera ($100). I wish I had a better camera, but I just can't afford to buy one.  The one I am using seems to be working fine with some restrictions.  I can't take photos with a black background, and I have to make sure my camera setting is in "close up" mode.  It's doing the trick for me now, so I'm happy.
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  Light - I don't use a light box, and when I started I only took pictures in the sun.  Then I found a lamp at WalMart called a SunLight lamp that has light similar to sunlight.  I use that for all my photo taking now and it seems to work really well.  It also allows me to take photos at night.
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  Backgrounds - I experimenting in the very beginning with a lot of different backgrounds, different props for each item and different settings.  This became a big time sucker for sure.  Having to come up with different items was exhausting.  I went to Michaels and bought about 20 scrapbooking background paper sheets. These have worked very well.  I choose a design and color that compliments my piece and put it in the back either in a horizontal or vertical shot.  Now my picture taking time has decreased a lot.
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  Props - I purchased a smaller bust-like necklace display in white and I use that for displaying the items up-right.  Again, the black display just does something to my camera that makes the jewelry compete with the background and it looks horrible. 
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  Editing - I'm a graphic designer, so I do use Photoshop to edit the image sizes and contrast. I save my files at around 1000px width.  I've noticed as I get better at shooting the photos I do less editing, which is a time save for sure.
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  Files - I save my image files by date and numeric identifiers.  I used to name all my images by stone type or style, but I make so many similar pieces, that became a problem.  Now, dating them makes it a lot easier to find them when I upload them to the shop.  And... if I need to go back and find something I look for the date it was listed and have a good frame of reference for where the file will be based on the date.

Those are just a few of the things I've learned about taking product photos that have helped me along the way. 

Anyone else have any tips... please, let us know. 

News Flash - www.foundhandmade.com 10 FREE LISTINGS!

You get guaranteed on the home page if you take advantage of the free listings.!!!

Dude, this is sooo cool!

So, I mentioned below about the www.etsyhacks.com site and the tools that were created to make maintaining your shop easier..., well, I tried them out.  Specifically the Greasemonkey add ons.  Honestly, it was so easy even a Greasemonkey could do it and they are sooo awesome.  They are saving me a ton of time in updating my site.  Really, if you haven't, try them out. All you need to do is get the FireFox browser, an easy download. Then follow the steps on etsyhacks.com.  You won't believe how easy and cool this is.  DO IT, I TELL YOU, DO IT!

Etsy Web Tools

There is a special group of people, who as a web designer I consider my guardian angels.  These people are Web Developers.  They are the ones that can figure out all the cody, scripty, geeky stuff that sends all of us right brainers running for the hills.  A very generous developer, the husband of an Etsian, has created a really neat blog with all kinds of "etsy apps" and info on tools to make our shops easier to update and maintain. It's called http://www.etsyhacks.com/ . I highly recommend you check it out.  I plan on implementing some of these tools and will report back on my experiences with them.  If you are familiar with this site and some of the tools mentioned, please do tell...

If you know of any other cool Etsy Apps, feel free to share.

Happy New Year

Well here we are in 2010.  A lot has traspired since my site launch on March of 2009.  I've learned a lot, and made a bunch of new DList friends.  I'm happy and proud to say that that DList forum is up to 60 members.  (Thanks Christy - http://www.etsy.com/shop/HippieChickBoutique... you rock).   We've had DListers on the front page, in treasuries, and most of all really doing what they do best, helping each other and shining on. 

I'm taking this slow time, after the holidays to re-evalutate my shop, buy some nice gemstones and work on getting my shop to the point of regular sales. I had a lot of fun over the black friday-cyber monday week, but now it's time to get back to putting in time and effort to improve my shop. 

Happy New Year to you all and I wish you much success in the 2010 year!  And... as I've still not made it to the Etsy front page... I trudge on and hold my DList flag high.  Maybe this year will be the year!

So, what are your Etsy New Year resolutions?  hmmmm???

WHAT A WEEKEND!

Wow, what a weekend.  I've sold 10 items since Wednesday, had several inquiries for modifications and a few custom order requests!  I have to tell you, I'm loving this BlackFriday, CyberMonday sale thing!!   I went away for the Thanksgiving weekend and was only able to check my shop once in a while.  Every time I did, there was another sale. I really hope this keeps up for the holiday shopping season. This rocks!  Congrats to FiberPuppy who can no longer call herself a D-Lister since she made the front page on Friday!  I'm so proud ;-)

I'm wondering if this weekend successes will help  my shop positioning overall?  Will the traffic cause my shop to rank higher on the searches?  Will the sales that show on my shop help entice buyers?  This all remains to be seen.  Can't wait!

So, how did you all do?  Any big successes?...