Saturday, August 30, 2014

Website update

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learn more here
learn more here

Never Enough Time

With the changes in e-commerce over the last year, I find myself working harder than I ever have in my life. So many hours! With 6 selling platforms and countless important social networking sites to promote daily, there are just not enough hours in the day. I am hoping that a brilliant developer will come along and give us a site similar to stitchlabs where we can have all of our listings managed in one place. Stitchlabs does not support enough platforms, yet.
When something sells on one platform, it needs to be removed from all of the others. It would be amazing to write a listing and choose which sites to send it to with a click. Of course, we would need to change the title and description slightly for each venue or google will find the listings to be spammy.
And then, if I am going to continue to dream, I would want to be able to promote that listing directly from the software, with links to the platform of my choice.
Guess I am missing the days when I sold on one platform. I listed it and it sold. I shipped it, and wrote more listings. It was simple. Now that site (ebay) is swiftly declining and we sellers have dispersed to many websites to save our businesses. Why did things have to get so complicated anyway?
Well, enough whining and dreaming. Today, I am working on my website. See:
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Friday, August 29, 2014

Fresh Finds on Etsy

Here are a few of my fresh finds that I have listed on etsy. Taxco denim blue lapis lazuli cuff:
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Hopi-Style silver overlay bracelet:


Thursday, August 28, 2014

Just Arrived to One Kings Lane

I am still learning how to post links. This was just added to One Kings Lane.Check it out here

Elephants are HOT!

Elephants are in everything today. Fabric patterns, jewelry, home decor and media art. And why not? These highly intelligent animals should be honored and protected.

Practicing links

I am testing how to place a link into this blog.  I love this necklace in my Etsy shop. It actually came from my private collection. Should I take it back?
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More Of our Photo Shoot


Here are a few more shots from our weekend shoot.

One of my Favorite Things...

Sunset at the Ranch

Last night, it was fun to watch the sunset with my BFF, KhalaBlu.

Her nose is just snotty from running and rolling. The sunset color makes it look like a big 'ol bloody nose.

Earlier in the day, she learned to be a cowgirl.

A cool wagon wheel at on a buggy at the ranch.

The Way to Start Any Day!

THIS is the way to start any day. So glad that I did for it went to hell from there. First I got two etsy treasury teams confused and made a big mess of my treasury. Then the topiary trees.

Things are not going as planned. Thought I found the topiaries that I wanted and ordered these:

They were delivered and I got these:

They do not fit in the spaces that I have or them UGH!!! What will I do now? Damn it anyway.

Monday, August 25, 2014

A Photo Shoot and Where to Set Up Shop?

Yesterday, we started a series of photo shoots for all of my on line stores. A few of the photos are below. As we composed shots I got to thinking that this time last year, I had two stores, ebay and my new etsy store. Here I am one year later, with a declining ebay store due to a failed ebay search engine, google search dropping ebay and lose of customer confidence due to security breaches.

Boy have things changed! I now have 6 shops! My etsy stop is doing great and I have learned how to promote and be involved in many groups were we promote each other and help customers find us and make the transition from ebay to etsy. Etsy's treasuries are a brilliant thing and help so much getting the word out about your store and they help shoppers find what they are looking for.

One Kings Lane has been an amazing experience and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be a OKL vendor. I get to be more diverse in my buying trends, take more chances on very stylized pieces as well as show-pieces. This website is beyond beautiful and I love shopping for this store. As a shopper, you have to act fast though as items are only offered for 7 days and they go fast.

I am very excited about my 11Main shop. You will see a fully open site coming soon. It is beautiful and offers the buyer the chance to really get to know each seller. It will be a place where we can be friends and get to know each other, just like when I had a brick 'n mortar shop. Every seller and item is hand-picked and juried so you, as a buyer are protected and can buy in confidence.

My shopify website is my big challenge for the coming season. I am learning about SEO and how to help it show up when you are searching for what I have to offer. Google has yet again changed and there is so much to learn. It seems that it does not work as well as it used to. Just this week, I was looking for topiary trees for my yard. Looking for a nursery in my area that had them and could deliver. Google totally failed. I had to call the grower for a referral the old fashioned way.
I am also trying storeenvy and I love the pop-ups that storenvy is doing. Perhaps one day I will be doing a pop-up near you!

It is very clear that in 2014 and moving forward that selling online means selling on more than one platform. ebay is no longer the king and both sellers and buyers have dispersed to their nitch sites. It seems that when I ask random people about their concept about buying online, Amazon is for new and etsy is for vintage and handmade. This leaves a huge opportunity for growth on other platforms. Are you ready? I am preparing...Here's a sneak peek at some of our photo shoot.


****Update**** January 21,2015.  I have learned so much since this post was originally written.
Storenvy, no action. I did not do anything else with it. Great idea, not working for me and my customers.

11 Main, I have wonderful finds in that store and no traffic. As a buyer, I think that 11 Main has some work to do getting more diverse and quality sellers. So as a buyer, please be patient with 11 Main. They are working on it.

My Shopify website is doing very well.  I am working hard to get the inventory level filled back up and bring some low to mid-range priced items to the mix. Look for fresh finds and low prices on those finds soon.

 Ebay is still dying a slow death. I would rather offer my collections on a website that does not micro-manage me. They treat sellers terribly and attract mean customers who steal from sellers. It is stressful to sell on that website. I am over it...after 17 years.

Etsy is doing well. It is a great place to shop? YOU BET! Etsy has the more fabulous finds. Etsy has wonderful vintage, great handmade and a close community that makes buyer there a wonderful experience.  Etsy's smart phone app? Fantastic!! My daughter sells 100% from her iphone. Her photos, listing and shipping are all done from a phone. You can find her at "herroyalshyness17".

I also opened a new website called "The Vintage Jewely Chick". It is a fun experience and people are finding me now and we are still building the website. I am learning so much!





Reaching for the sky in 100% vintage jewelry. I spent a good amount of time at shopping malls over the summer. I saw a huge amount of new costume jewelry with high prices. I love Lucky Brand, wear their clothes all the time, but the costume "Indian" turquoise pieces are just that, copies. Why buy this when you can have the real, thing, vintage, one of a kind that has value?Thumbs up for vintage!!








Our model in a Brady Melville skirt and 100% vintage jewelry.







Turquoise as blue as the sea!