Expanding My Horizons

Also known as not putting all of my eggs in one basket. Please don't get me wrong, I am a die hard etsy fan, I love the community, I have no issues with the way they run things and really believe that they do listen to their sellers and implement many of the things that we have asked for. Etsy will most likely remain my main squeeze so to speak. Having said all of that I have to say that selling jewelry on Etsy is a bit like drowning. There are sooooo many jewelry sellers there. And many of them are very under priced. (I know, now everyone is off to etsy to find great, under priced jewelry lol). And the numbers just continue to grow. I don't mind competition and I love a challenge but I have come to learn some things since I started this whole venture in July. In order to be successful you have to be seen as often as possible. And not just in one venue. I am coming to realize that I need to be seen all over the net as often as possible. Silver River Jewelry needs to come up often in the search engines from a variety of places. (I know this is not a new thought by any means but some of us are slow learners or are just intimidated by the whole thing). So with that in mind I have branched out just a bit.

I have just opened up shop on a beta site called Icraftca.com.

http://www.icraft.ca/silver_river_jewelry

If you open up shop there before March 31st you can list unlimited items free for 1 year. Here are their terms that applies after March 31st.

Registration Fee	$25.00 CAD This is a small, non-refundable one-time fee each seller pays when setting up their "Creator Exhibit". It is required in order to verify the seller's identity, ensure credit card validity and to encourage honest transactions. This preventative measure will give buyers confidence that they are dealing with serious, honest sellers.
Subscription Fee	Three available packages allow you to customize the amount of products your Creator Exhibit displays. You can add, delete or rotate your products any time you want. If your business is seasonal, you can put your subscription on hold and resume it at any time. The subscription fee is not refundable if you choose to un-list a product from your inventory. 1 to 5 Items (interchangeable) – ALWAYS FREE! Starter 5 to 20 Items (interchangeable) - $15.00 CAD/month. Every additional item is $2.50 CAD/month. Professional 5 to 30 Items (interchangeable) - $25.00 CAD/month. Every additional item is $1.50 CAD/month. Elite 5 to 40 Items (interchangeable) - $35.00 CAD/month. Every additional item is $1.00 CAD/month. If you happen to reach the maximum amount of items in your package, iCraft.ca will give you the option of adding an additional item at a set cost, or upgrading to the next available package. The choice will always be yours.
The Details	Limited Time Offer Sellers who submit inventory to their Creator Exhibit by March 31, 2008 will not be charged ANY registration or subscription fees for an entire year. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of all the great iCraft.ca benefits for absolutely NO COST. 5 Free Items When posting your products, the first 5 items are always FREE! And if you sell one, you can replace it with another right away at no extra cost. As long as you keep your listings to 5, you won't be charged. Interchangeable Items When we say that items are "interchangeable", that means you have complete flexibly to change / update what is displayed. For example, say you have 5 "summer" items in your inventory in July. When October arrives, you decide you want to update your 5 items to reflect your "winter" collection. You can do so at no additional charge, as long as you place your "summer" items on hold. "On hold" items are not included in your active inventory, and will not be counted as part of your package - only items which you flag as "live" are. It's About Quality, Not Quantity Unlike most other arts & craft ecommerce sites, iCraft.ca does not charge creators per quantity of a listing. For example, if you have a product page showcasing your knitted scarf, and you have 5 of them available for sale, feel free to list the "Availability" quantity as 5! We will not charge you any additional fees. Pricing Policy was last updated on January 24, 2008 Questions? Please feel free to Contact Us.

This is an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new hand crafted site which I find quite intriguing. Also it is a win win situation since it costs nothing to try them for a year. I think this is a superb opportunity for anyone thinking about expanding their horizons. They will be going public sometime in the next several weeks I believe and will begin advertising the site at that point. (It will be nice to have someone helping out with the advertising). So, for those of you who want to try another venue in addition to where you are this is a great place to try with no risk to you or your pocket book.

I will be posting about another site that I am trying sometime it the next couple of weeks.

Etsy Artist of the Week

PENGIES

I ran across this shop in the forums and just couldn't resist. These are little penguins made of fimo clay in an assortment of poses and colors. Her is what Caitlin says in her profile about her "pengies".

Pengies are little model penguins, made of a special clay called fimo. Each little critter has it's own personality, with a name & message to suit. They are bright & colorful, and they all need a loving home, so take a look & maybe take one home...

Now these are also customizable as far as names, colors, personality and sayings go. They come in two sizes. You can also request a holiday themed pengie by using the "convo" feature on Etsy.

What can I say?! These just caught my eye as being really cute and colorful and some of the expressions on their faces are great. Go check out her shop and take some home.

Last Update on the Puppies

I wanted everyone to know that the final two puppies Lizzie (Elizabeth) and Alex have gone to their new homes. I am very glad but also very sad. I am surprised at how much I miss them already and Alex just left yesterday. On the other hand it is really nice to have my house back. No more hopping the gate (and we were to the point where we had to double gate one on top of the other you can imagine what a pain this was since the access to the basement where the laundry and my workbench are is thru the kitchen lol). No more newspaper to clean up and all of the stuff that was temporarily dumped in my dining room to avoid teething puppies is now back in the kitchen where it belongs! Of course we keep walking into the dining room to throw stuff in the trash can and have to turn around and go back into the kitchen.

I got a text from Lizzie's owner that said everyone already loves her even the cats. And by the way she is a bed hog. Haha! I can see that she will be quite spoiled.

Zeke's owners have sent me pictures and he looks really happy (and also spoiled).

Alex went to a couple from my church that are good friends. I will be able to visit him and be regularly updated which is great because he is just such a sweet puppy. And Elna is home all day so he will have company most of the time.

I will be posting my next edition of the Etsy artist of the week in a couple of days, hopefully by
Thursday night. I know I am behind but I am still recovering from pneumonia and still tire easily. And since I can't afford to take off extended time from work I am just sucking it up and going in. And then I come home and pass out lol!