Thursday, August 27, 2009
(harmony)
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Sol
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Blogging Again
However in my hiatus I was able to get some creativity done. I've sketched some new ideas-for Spring- and have started to work on some more creations for Fall and Winter. I've also applied to a couple of local shows that will occur in September, one of which is right in my neighborhood. I'll have pictures of my booth set-up soon☺
My website is coming along great and is still scheduled for August 20th. I've figured out a way to simplify the process and I may have it up and running before the 20th.
My two eldest children(17 and 16) are out camping for the week and I miss them very much. This is the first time they've ever been away for so long. They are in an area where a lot of natural gems and minerals are found-they promised to bring me back what they find so that I can use it in my work(I'm a lucky mom☺) I can't wait for Friday to come so that I can see them again♥
UPDATE: August 17th 2009
The kids got back over two weeks ago and they are still talking about what fun they had☺ My daughter learned how to crochet and my son caught 18 fish at the lake!
I may have to postpone my website premiere until early September due to a few minor setbacks
I'll know for certain by August 19th.
Monday, July 13, 2009
SCJ @ Trunkt.org
Here's my portfolio: www.trunkt.org/shannoncintron
I plan to use this opportunity as a way to network and get to know more artists as well as to further promote my work.
Yipee!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Almost There...
Friday, June 5, 2009
Designing my Website
The look that I wanted for SCJ is very simple, earthy and almost masculine. I've so far used a single backgound with a simple font design. If you go to my Etsy shop, you can check out my banner and see a sample of what I mean. The banner at Etsy shows up a little blurry (don't know why) but the NVU pages are incredibly crisp and sharp. I'm going to replace my 1000Markets and Ecrater banners and this blog banner with the same style soon.
I won't have an immediate checkout system in place at first, therefore I will direct my traffic to Etsy,Ecrater and 1000Markets for the time being. My next steps will be to choose a host and set up my site. I can't wait!!!
If you're interested...
Here is the link for NVU .
Here are some You Tube Vids to help get you started.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Reflections, growth and moving on...
Friday, March 27, 2009
Aphora
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Torso and Torture
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Reinventions and New Perspectives
The majority of my creative time has been spent making new items for SCJ and Emberseed my latest venture. Most of my supply orders have come in so I was able to create an entire line of fragrances oil perfumes for Emberseed. They included the Vintage Lilac, Milkpod and Moonberry. I'm am going to present these oils as monthly gift prizes for my blog ♥TreasuryTroll♥ in order to get them out their and to get people talking about them. You can view new creations and read postings that pertain to Emberseed here:
http://www.emberseed.blogspot.com/
And here's the store:
http://www.emberseed.etsy.com/
I've re-evaluated SCJ and have been able to streamline which creations will be offered at which stores. Ecrater, I now consider my "housing" shop while Etsy and 1000Markets are my "gallery" sites where people are free to purchase items and the pieces there are also a sample of the items offered at Ecrater. Each store will be stocked with what is listed. I'm listing new products on a weekly bases which goes according to my new scheduling program (I'll talk more about that in my next post☺).
My daughter and I are still waiting for a shipment of supplies for Baby Dragon so the re-opening of our shop will be postponed for another week.
I've been very active at ♥TreasuryTroll♥ and will be posting two new Treasury picks tonight. The Treasury winner of the month and a voter will be chosen in another week. Stay tuned...
Monday, February 9, 2009
♥TreasuryTroll♥
http://treasurytroll.blogspot.com/
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Since my last post, I've been able to come up with an efficient schedule that will allow me to focus on my shops and properly take care of home. However this schedule calls for some re-constructions. Therefore, I will be temporarily closing all of my shops (Etsy, Ecrater and 1000Markets) on 2/15/09-2/27/09. I'm doing a major overhaul (new material orders, re-shooting and taking new pics, listing new items, new banners, policy revisions, etc...) and since I want everything to be perfect, I'm allowing myself about two weeks to accomplish all of this.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Finding your Target Audience and Making it Work for You
With the arrival of Google Analytics for Etsy, I should be able to roughly tell where the traffic to my Etsy shops are coming from. I'm not very computer savvy so I've yet to implement this feature for my shops-I'm going to try to have it set up by the end of this week. 1000Markets carry in house stats that allow me to see how many visits total compared to how many unique visits which helps a little. Ecrater is also compatible with the GA system. However, all of this info does not "personalize" my visits. I still don't know why #412 visited my shop. Keywords from GA tells me what they searched under but it doesn't tell me if the "brown linen" that they were looking for was for a supply or for a component in one of my bracelets.
According to Wendy Rosen, once you've developed a customer profile it "should become a tool that you use daily". You should also try to expand your customer profile and try to find new directions for your work. Suggested reading: Crafting as a Business by Wendy Rosen pgs. 58-68
Because they are past customers,I would never spam them or send unsolicited material. I feel that opportunity to involve my old customers in that way has passed. Besides spam is yucky☺ However, I can do damage control. One great feature of Etsy is the ability to look through past customers profiles. There, you can find the person who purchased from you , their favorite materials(hint). On their min page you can look through their favorite(hint, hint) and even through all their past purchases(jackpot!) plus the feedback that they left for each purchase(bonus!!).
This information to me is gold-it gives me a detailed profile of my ideal customer. I can view their buying trends-the time of month or year when their purchases increase. I can get an age demographic as well as a demographic in location for my past customers to see in what area and which age group my items are most popular. From past purchases, I can come up with new creations based on a particular material or constant favorite color that is present in some of the items that they've already brought from other shops. No, I'm not talking about "copying" someones work-rather I'm suggesting an new interpretation based on popular material make-up, shape or composition. For example If I see that the majority of my customers tend to purchase items that have the color red in it then I would simply create an item of jewelry that has the color red in it. If the demand was high enough, I could even create an entire collection based around that color. I've come to realize that like my customers, I love natural materials, fabrics and beads so it isn't very hard to come up with items that are appealing to me and them.
With my soon to be new customers and repeat clients I have decided to send out either written or emailed option to receive announcements about my shops. With this option, I plan to send a quick survey to get the full picture about how they found me, what they were looking for and who they were shoping for. I may even offer a small incentive to get the ball rolling for this info.
Doing all of this research(and taking a lot of notes) is time consuming but I believe that it will pay off in the end.
This year I plan to dedicate a large portion of my time to reach out to both old and new customers. By immediately including the new customers and reaching out to past customers an ideal target audience can be established. If you have any other thoughts about this blogpost-please leave a comment below.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Oh oh!...now I've done it...
I've opened a third shop at Etsy by the name of Emberseed. The inspiration for this shop, comes from my interest in botany and the holistic lifestyle. My hopes for this new venture is to bring forth an awareness of natural living. I have not listed anything yet but some of the items in this shop will include scented oils, small home decorations and of course jewelry items. The style of this shop is simple with an hint of nostalgia.
At first I felt very intimidated about taking on another shop because of time and cost. However I thought about it and felt that this shop would allow me to become more creative with my use of available materials, display my other crafting talents and share my enthusiasm about natural living. Also, after a little research, I am convinced that there is a strong market for the items that I will be selling on Etsy.
Emberseed will officially make it's "debut" on January 21st. I will also have a blog dedicated to Emberseed coming soon. You can see pics of my preparations for Emberseed at my Flickr page on January 6.
On January 12 I will continue with my series on business building and will focus on finding your target audience.
Take care☺