Boston Beanies Hits 100

Snow is pounding various parts of the nation, but it seems to be skipping my city, and Bostonians are sniffing the air and thinking of Spring. This week I hit 100 sales in my Boston Beanies shop. A nice milestone since I opened up under this name less than a year ago. It was a hard decision to do so, but I am glad I did, and it is nice to know that returning customers can find me and new one too!

Oh, and the hat that made 100? The bunny, very seasonal. Hop, hop, hop

Picture Perfect

One of the suprising things I discovered about being a hat seller is that photographers love knitted hats. Knitted hats make great photo props on babies. Which probably explains why I often get asked for free hats in return for pictures. This sounds good on paper, except photographers often want 10-15 specific hats in specific sizes and this takes me some time to make, and then I am at their mercy for the images.

Because I was receiving so many requests, I started a photographer's rate, my wholesale price with no minimun requirement. But I got burned on this too, with no images from the person, but at least I got some monetary compensation.

Out of all the inquiries from photographers I have only had one positive experience, a woman from France www.butterflymoments.fr/en/ she buys at my photographer's rate, tells me what she would like, I ship them out, and she then sends me these wonderful photographs and I give her credit on my hat listings. A great relationship.

So now I am excited for a new partnership with Boston-based photographer http://www.dianasechrist.com/. She found me on Etsy and I am very excited to be working with a local photographer who has experience photographing children.

For all the photographers out there who are wondering, how do I get a deal like that, keep asking, and try local, it worked for me.

From Caroline Shimanek, photographer, Lyon, France:

Sing it Dean!

Continuing with my music theme, with all this rain we are having here in New England, I can't tell if it is Spring or Summer, regardless, these fun items from EtsyBaby and NaturalKids remind me of summer, enjoy this treasury.

Treasurypalooza!

Somehow I managed to snag another treasury in the early morning! But I seem to be stuck in 80's song themes...

And an hour later I got another one!

A Little Advice

A while back there was this amazing thread on Etsy with a huge list compiled by VieleraDesign with places to sell, promote, network, craft fairs all online. It's amazing! I added a few more and put it in alphabetical order (the librarian coming out in me:-)
Here are my thoughts on the places I have tried.

Places to Sell Online:
I have a few requirements that should be noted. Since traffic is uncertain at a new place, I like the joining to be free, and the listing to be free or cheap. The site also has to be easy to navigate, otherwise what is the point, I don't want to fuss to hard to figure out how to get a banner up, get a listing up and register.

http://www.artfire.com/ Just opened a shop here. Apparently they went through a face-lift upgrade and things are much nicer now. But it is free to set up a shop for a certain number of items, so I did that. They upload to Google Base, which is excellent and puts you at the top of the search in Google and lists you in Google shopping searches. Their prices for a monthly account are going up soon though, I just have the free one.

ArtFire Referral Use my referral if you want/can!

http://www.bigcartel.com/

http://www.cafepress.com/

http://www.canduru.com/

http://cosaverde.com/ Just joined. An eco-friendly marketing venue, it is really isn't a selling venue as you have to have other selling venues that you link to. But it has a clean interface, it is juried, and user-friendly. You can upload items through RSS feeds as well, and their admin responded to my suggestions within HOURS, I was stunned and impressed. And there are many promotional codes out there to get a few months free and use me as a referral if you wish:)

Cosa Verde Referral Use my referral if you want/can!

http://www.crowsoup.com/

http://www.dawanda.com/ Closed my shop down, had sold only one hat and it was really clunky to use the website. Every time I wanted to edit a page the HTML kept getting in the way. And items must be listed in euros.

http://www.ecrater.com/ Could never figure this website out. And there did not seem to be enough traffic to be worth the headache or time. Yes, I am demanding, I want to understand something FAST!

http://www.elsewares.com/

http://www.erayo.com/

http://www.etsy.com/ Have sold on here for years and was my first step into selling at handmade specific markets post eBay. Last summers"keyword stuffing" scandal" took a while to clear up, and it slowed my sales and views. However, Etsy corrected the tag situation now I am listed in google automatically so I will continue to sell here, as this is my shop that get by far the most views of all my shops. There also promises to be many positive changes on the horizen, which I am excited to see.

http://www.girlshopspot.com/

http://www.gozabo.com/

http://www.handmadecatalog.com/

http://www.handmadefusion.com/index.php?

http://www.icraft.com/ Based in Canada. Paid a one-time fee. Had a shop, ignored it, but it got views, no sales. So now I have updated it and revamped it. Best part about it, you can change your shopname/URL without changing your username, they are not attached. So when I changed names I did not lose any views or anything. Wish other sites could implement this. However, this is the only site that I know that does this, though Etsy clims this change is in the works.

http://www.imagekind.com/

http://www.lollishops.com/ This is a juried site that I joined during frantic opening days. I kept getting kicked off and reasked to join that I decided I would let them work out the kinks before I signed on. Then I saw the listing tier pricing system and thought it was a bit steep for a very limited market. But the site seems to be doing ok. There is no feedback system though, a bit strange.

http://lov.li/

http://www.mintd.com/

http://www.pinkpoodle.com/ Just closed my site to this one too. No traffic and now they charge to list. Sorry no way.

http://www.seekingdesigners.com/

http://www.shopify.com/

http://www.shophandmade.com/

http://www.silkfair.com/

http://www.skydowntown.com/

http://www.supermarkethq.com/

http://www.winkelf.com/

http://www.yessy.com/

http://www.youcraft.org/

http://www.zibbet.com/

http://1000markets.com/ I opened a free shop, the site looked beautiful, very easy to search. What I don't like, it is not international friendly, and in this global world that is a setback. I understand they are working with Amazon on that though. And payments are made through Amazon, which is odd why not PayPal like many other sites? However it was pointed out this eliminates Non Paying Buyers, so that should be a plus, but I wonder if it will be a turn off to some buyers. But it is a free juried site, and I liked the exposure, but I could not maintain it through the holidays, put it on vacation, and they kicked me off. Oh well. I think I still have an account there, so my name is parked, which is good.


Places to Advertise Online:
Most people find me, who tell me how they found me anyway, is through a Google search or by searching the site. So tags are more vital than ever to be kept accurate.

http://www.thelittleblackboxes.com/ She reviewed me! I was very excited to see this and I never sent her anything. I felt like a chosen one!

http://www.craigslist.org/ I have done this, I can't say if it helped or not, I didn't see a change in my vews or sales. And no one has ever said they found me on Craigslist.

http://www.webbcatalog.com/

http://www.usfreeads.com/

http://www.oodle.com/http://modish.typepad.com/

http://www.theindiego.com/

http://www.craftster.org/advertise

http://www.webclassifieds.us/

http://www.linkrefferal.com/

http://www.projectwonderful.com/

http://www.diyscene.com/

http://www.stumblehere.com/

http://lunacraft.com/help_promote



Social Networking Sites:
Social networking for me is still a way to connest with friends family and buyers, and I like it to be free.

http://www.artbistro.com/

http://www.cafemom.com/

http://www.thecreativespirit.ning.com/

http://www.creativestem.com/

http://www.deviantart.com/

http://www.entrecard.com/

http://www.facebook.com/ I have a facebook page, and a fanpage. I linked my blog to my fanpage so I don't have to double post and it is one more way to be seen, I don't know if I have made any sales through there, but it is a good free marketing tool that people have heard of.

http://www.flickr.com/ I have a flickr site, but I am very careful to not post anything about Etsy, they will shut you down and you will lose everything. I try to include other photos as well so it is not just my hats. You can see a few of my magical kitty Gryffin!

http://www.indiepublic.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/ My friend keeps asking me to join this, hmmmm.

http://www.mylot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/

http://www.stumbleupon.com/

http://www.smidge.ca/

http://www.squidoo.com/

http://www.stylehive.com/

http://www.twitter.com/ I have a Twitter account, I have no idea what to do with it, and honestly, it seems like one more thing I have to do and can't keep up with.

http://www.thedb.com/

http://www.weloveetsy.com/


Find Craft Shows/Fairs:
Typically for craft fairs when I am driving around and I see a show advertised I pull over and write down the date. Also I search the net for surrounding town names and craft fairs and hits come up. I like to scope out a fair the year before to see if it will be a good fit for me.

http://www.artandcraftshows.net/

http://www.artfaircalendar.com/

http://www.bazaarbizarre.org/

http://www.craftconnection.net/

http://www.craftlister.com/

http://www.craftmasternews.com/

http://craftersbuzz.com/craftshows.html

http://www.craftsreport.com/showfinder

http://eventlister.com/

http://www.hpifestivals.com/

http://www.fairsandfestivals.net/

http://www.festivaldirectory.comfestivalnet.com/

http://www.juriedartservices.com/

http://www.indiecraftfairguide.com/

http://www.indiecraftshows.com/

http://www.sunshineartist.com/

http://zapplication.org/

Free Web Design: I am excited to try building my own website, as I have my own URL. But I need it to be easy clean, preferbly free for now, and quick to make changes on.

http://www.yola.com/

http://www.wix.com/