On/around June 1st I'm going to be completely re-vamping the shop. I've got some more jewelry made up that I would like to post, I just haven't gotten around to it quite yet. I'm also going to edit all the listing that I have up -- better pictures, better descriptions, etc.
I FINALLY have my promotional box put together, and I'll send that out to octarine tomorrow so my name can get out there. I included 15 pairs of earrings, and 15 business cards with a 10% off coupon on the back.

In other recent news, I got featured in a blog by Pistol & Stigma -- check it out and read the good things she had to say about my cute little owl earrings!

Things are still going fairly well for me. My bedroom is sort of a disaster with bead stuff and shipping supplies all over, but I'm slowly cleaning that up and organizing it :)

I have had a few more sales, and am keeping up with shipping. The new shipping rates are a bit of a pain, as some of my packages are costing nearly twice as much as they used to. I haven't raised my rates yet on Etsy, because I know people hate to pay really high shipping costs. I think I may just start "eating" the costs of my shipping materials, or maybe just cut down to the bare essentials. I do like having things nicely and cutely packaged though...

Other news... I am trying to clear out my current inventory so I can sort of "start fresh" and fill up my inventory with all sorts of new stuff. I am having a big sale today where all customers get tons of random free stuff when they buy things from my shop -- you can read my forum post about it here.

I'm also trying to get some sample packs/promotions put together to send out to various sellers. Some of them will include them with their orders (like the All Things Etsy sample packs) and/or put them out on their tables at craft shows. My big thing now is that I need to do a bit more promoting/marketing so I can get more business to my shop...

That's it for now... I'm trying to figure out stuff with actually registering my business name and such, but I will put together a post about that later this week.

MN Street Team, and grants!

Well, I discovered the MN Etsy Street Team today. I joined the yahoo group, and I've read the blog and the thread on Etsy forums. I sent a few messages to people, so I'll see what I hear back from people. I would love to get involved with some other MN area Etsyians. I'd also like to try my luck at a craft show, and it seems like they know a bit about all of that stuff.

Related to the craft shows... I found out that I can get art grants from the state for stuff... I'd love to go to a craft show, but as of right now I can't really afford one, and I don't think I would make enough at one to pay for the cost of being there. But if I got a grant to cover the costs, THAT would be pretty amazing... The one I found though, had a deadline of May 15... today. And since it's already midnight, there's no way that I could get it filled out and postmarked by today... That sort of sucks, but I can look for other opportunities...

Anyway, that's everything for now. I'm working on some random jewelry projects, but I'm still adjusting to my new work schedule so I haven't had a chance to post pictures in my shop. I have some stuff that I need to ship out tomorrow though, and I'm currently features in 3 Etsy treasuries, so I hope I sell some more stuff :)

I added a nifty little "Etsy Mini" so visitors to the site can see some of my favorites and/or the newest additions to my shop. Enjoy!

A little pick-up

Sales have been going pretty well the past 2 weeks or so -- I think I've made about 5 sales in the past two weeks, which is quite a few considering I had two in the entire first month I was on Etsy.... I've also been spending a small chunk of change on more beads, more organizers, shipping supplies, all that fun stuff. I made a banner for my esty site, check it out if you have the time.... I've also been making quite a bit of new stuff. My goal for this week is to post at least 2 new things on my etsy store each day. With classes almost over (it's finals week!) I'm going to have a lot more free time for making jewelry :)

I've been really in to pendants lately, so I think I'm going to learn how to make pendants. I'm not really sure how, but it will be a fun venture, right?

Another sale :)

I has another sale, one of my other pairs of coin earrings. They're a pretty popular style! I actually really liked these ones a lot, and am a little sad to be parting with them. I'll probably end up making another pair for myself!

As far as shipping goes, I have bubble wrap now, so things should work out a lot better for shipping. Hopefully nothing breaks again :(

I'm a little upset, because I had my first ever complaint a few days ago... Apparently one of the pairs of earrings I sent out was broken during shipping, so when it arrived to the buyer one of the earrings was broken. I corrected the problem immediately though, and sent her a replacement. I'm pretty sure that was the best way to deal with the situation, other than maybe a refund. But in her email to me she asked for a replacement, so it seemed like a good idea.

Other than that not much has been happening in my jewelry world... I've listed a few more things on etsy, but I have been REALLY busy with classes (only 2 more weeks left, so there's a lot going on). I will definitely have more time to devote to the jewelry business after the first week of May.

Just wanted to keep everyone updated...

My first etsy sale!

I made my first sale at my Etsy store, a pair of dragon coin earrings that sold for $3. They were pretty cute, the same ones that I sent to a friend in Milwaukee so she could help me promote. So anyway, YAY! The girl that bought them has a brand new Etsy profile that was started the day she bought my earrings, so I'm assuming (hoping) that one of my business cards, or links somewhere, referred her to my stuff, she liked them, and set up and account to buy them.

Now I feel a little bit more confident about my stuff :) Also, I bought a light tent/box on ebay last week that should be arriving soon -- it will help me take better pictures of my stuff, which should translate into better sales (which is what I've heard from other people)

Well, here's to hopefully more sales to come!

myLot User Profile

Finally, some sales!

I found a new site today call PoshPoints, which is sort an online trading site, similar to ebay except that you don't use real money, just points. You get 15 points when you sign up, which you can use to buy anything on the site. You can also sell your own stuff for any amount of points that you want. The seller pays for the shipping of the items, and the buyer doesn't have to worry about anything other than having enough points. Anyway, I listed a bit of my jewelry on there, and within the first hour I sold 3 pairs of my devil ducky earrings! Yay! I also bought 3 different packs of beads with my sign-up points. So I am going to ship them all out tomorrow, and of course I will include a few Tangerine Sunshine business cards in each -- 1 for them, and 2 or 3 that they can hand out to friends, family, etc. (hopefully)

Frustration

My motivation for jewelry making is really low right now.... My roommate opened up an etsy store and sold two things in her first day -- how come I can't do that? I suppose I ought to try harder, but sometimes it's just so frustrating... I always end up making things that I would like, which is apparently much different than what most people would like, ya know?

On another note... I made up a flier to hang on campus, but I am having some printer problems right now. Hopefully I'll get that all taken care of soon, so I can hang the fliers up early next week, and HOPEFULLY make a sale or maybe even two ;) I have the beads and stuff in a baggy for this necklace that I want to make, I might take it with me to work tomorrow and finish it. I currently have 8 things listed in my store, and I would like to have about a dozen or so when I put the fliers up.

Some new jewelry, and my business cards!

My business cards showed up earlier this week!!! I was really excited, because I wasn't really expecting them this soon. They look very nice, and they will be VERY handy for marketing, etc. I can start passing them out to friends, family, and people on campus. I will also be able to put them in my orders when I ship them out. (that is, when I finally make a sale...)

But on another note, I made two new pairs of earrings, and I'm going to make another necklace and maybe some other things tonight. I have a cute idea for a necklace that I want to put together, and I also bought a wire jig at the store the other day, so I want to make some sort of cool wire necklace.

* If anyone has tips on how I can take better quality pictures of my stuff, that would be greatly appreciated.

New Link

Thanks to Mike for stopping by and leaving his link, I've added it to my favorite links ---->
http://mikesmoneyrants.blogspot.com/

Some more jewelry

I've made a few more pairs of earrings and a necklace, but of course I have been too busy/lazy to take pictures. I want to get 10 or so things up in my store before I start putting signs up on campus to have people go there. I know that things are always slow for people starting out, but I'm so desperate to get a sale.... I just want to have a feeling of accomplishment, a feeling that people like my stuff enough to pay for it. Is that silly? I would just feel a lot more confident about my stuff if I knew people liked it...

In other news... I also picked up the paperwork today to start an organization on campus. That way my roommate and I can find some other people that are interested in making jewelry and get together all the time. And if we're able to set up a table in the student union to sell stuff, we'll get a lot more "coverage" because hundreds of students walk through there every day. And people tend to make purchases on impulse a lot more when they can actually see something and have it in their hands, right?

Slacking Off...

I got sick over the weekend, so I've been slacking off terribly... I haven't gotten a chance to look for a template, nor have I worked on any new pieces. I do have some ideas for a few cute pairs of earrings though, and I' m hoping to work on those tomorrow after I get done with work and class, so we'll see how that goes.
So far nothing has sold in my site... I'm waiting for my business cards to get here, because having something tangible that I can hand out to people will be helpful. I'm also going to make some signs with my email and website address on it to hang up on the bulletin boards on campus. Every bit of advertisement will help, right?

Layout

I have received a few comments from people saying that I should search for a template to change my layout a bit. This is something I have been considering, I'm just not sure what I am looking for yet. I want the basic color scheme/design for this site to go along somewhat with the logo that I make for my jewelry biz. I have been playing around with a few ideas, but haven't gotten anything cool yet.

If anyone has any ideas, feel free to share them with me. I promise to give you credit for your work, and a free jewelry item from my store if I end up using your design.
Thanks all!

New Bracelet

I ended up having to stay longer than expected at work last night, so I didn't get a chance to work on jewelry as much as I would have liked. I did make a really cute bracelet though. I listed it on Tangerine Sunshine. It's so fun though, I think I want to make another to keep for myself!

Thanks!

I would like to thank everydaywear for reviewing this new blog in her blog. It's great to have a little bit of support getting started! Thanks!!

A little bit of business.

Well, between last night and today I've gotten some of the business out of the way. I came up with the name last night -- after debating over several ideas, I ended up with "Tangerine Sunshine"

I heard about a site called Etsy from a fellow poster on myLot, so I thought I would give it a shot. I originally created an account with my default username, then realized I ought to make on that goes along with my shop title. Deleting the old account and starting up a new one took a bit, and I did give out the old link to a few people so I have to notify them of the change, but I think this one works much better. My shop can be found at www.tangerinesunshine.etsy.com :) I also set up a new email account to be used for this blog and my shop -- tangerinesunshine@gmail.com. After deciding on a name, setting up and email account, and creating the store, I ordered a few free business cards from VistaPrint. So now I have something to mail out with any orders that I might get, and also to hand out to people at craft fairs, coffee shops, or anywhere people might be interested. Every little bit of marketing will help, right?

Today I put a few listings in my shop. My camera is on the fritz, so some of them aren't the best quality, but I now officially have stuff in my shop! I also signed up for Google Adsense, filled out my profile, and started putting some links up in this blog. I think that's enough of the technical stuff for one day, now it's time to have some fun creating jewelry!

A little introduction...

My post yesterday didn't say all that much about me, so before I "get down to business" I would like to introduce myself a little bit more. I am 20 years old, currently going to school for a double major in Anthropology and Ethnic Studies, with a minor in Spanish. I work about 25 hours a week in an on-campus office and at a Cold Stone Creamery. When I'm not in class or working, I'm usually playing video games, cooking, or, of course, making jewelry! I did a lot of jewelry making when I was younger, including buying all of those Lisa Frank jewelry kits (I was a huge LF fan!). Last fall I finally got back into jewelry making when I realized how much fun it it is to create funky pieces of jewelry for myself that I can't buy anywhere else. Once my collection got a little too big for just me to wear, I started giving stuff to friends and family for birthdays, Christmas, etc. At some point last month I realized that this little "hobby" of mine was getting a bit expensive, and I realized that I needed a way to finance myself, so I decided to sell a few things. I put a few listings up on ebay. Only one sold, but hey, at least I had sold something! I got a little frustrated with my lack of success, so I searched around to figure out other outlets for selling my growing pile. And this, my friends, is where the journey begins...