More Online Selling Venues

Okay - I've finally started setting up shop on Artfire.com and I am impressed in many ways. I cannot even count the number of times my eyebrows have lifted as features jump out at me. Hello - its FREE to artists! FREE. seriously.

And they are not joking around - this is a seriously powerful and playful platform. There are so many features that Etsy lacks, soooo many that I have to use EtsyHacks to get the job done (oh how I love you GreaseMonkey and EtsyHacks). So as I am setting up this Artfire Studio I am amazed at all the little things - like the ability to have a sale! OMG. Seriously, one click, in fact I could have different types of sales and coupons - yes coupons! Why does Etsy deprave us of such staples of retail. Sheesh. Oooh - get this - customers can mark my work so it appears on their Amazon Wishlist - wha?! Thats awesome. They give you statistics and they let you know when your products have been submitted to Google data bases. Okay, have I mentioned it FREE. Yeah, thats the best part. You can pay $12/month flat fee if you like, and get even more options and features... but you can list and sell unlimited products for an unlimited amount of time for free. damn.

Oh and I just found a button that I could simply push and wham - all my Etsy items are imported into Artfire at the click of this button. This blows my mind and is so simple and beautiful. I hesitate to push it. I had thought I'd use this opportunity to clean up my listings and freshin' things up a bit. But I do have a lot to list, and then I saw this button,"Item Importer" and it is incredibly tempting.

So far I can't say enough good things about Artfire. Although I really have just barely gotten started and I rarely meet people who know of this platform. I just had to share - all my fellow crafty peeps out there - if you aren't already listing on Artfire - why not?! Its free!

Stand out Stampin'

I love when new shipments of boxes arrive at my doorstep. Mostly because it means I get to stamp them!

12 Days of Christmas Give-Away on Meylah!

Check out this website Meylah if you are an artist learning how to promote your work online, or a crafty person considering selling your work, or simply a shopper looking to get your holiday shop on and want to win a gift for FREE!


Each day for 12 days there has been a FREE GIFT given away on Meylah by an artist to one of their readers who has left a comment on their featured post.

Today the featured artist is ME! If you post a comment on the Meylah interview you can win a free little miniature mobile to give away this season (or keep it for yourself!!!)

Interview with Me on Meylah

I was interviewed for this fantastic site - check it out!

Better Portland and Me!

Tomorrow at 1pm on FOX channel 12 here in Portland I will be on TV. Or that is, sometime between 1 and 2pm. I filmed with the crew from Better Portland a few weeks ago... we talked about my business at the Portland Saturday Market and they filmed a little glass torchworking. I made the host Brooke a ring.

The segment will air tomorrow... I'll try and catch some video of it... maybe they'll put it on their website

What Am I Doing Monday Morning? Filming for local Fox TV show!

I am going to be on KPTV Fox channel 12 sometime soon... filming is this coming Monday at the Aquila Glass School featuring me - local Portland Saturday Market vendor, glass artist, torchworking teacher, crafty-lady... so sometime soon a small segment will air on the show BETTER (I will update with video when its available)

This TV appearance has been organized by Reid Decker, the advertising coordinator for the Portland Saturday Market - thanx Reid.

Hope it's fun... I've never worked with "Better" before, the show airs at 1pm on weekdays. I gather its sorta like a locally oriented daytime news show. I am all about advertising in any way I can!

Sticker Fun

This morning was so beautiful at the Portland Saturday Market. It was already warm and super sunny. In my booth on the waterfront I could hear boaters on the river. As I was setting up I passed this quartet playing in front of the Ankeny Fountain (sorry the volume of the people talking is louder thru the camera than the quartet)

Later in the hot afternoon I noticed this cute girl noticing my business cards and I asked her is she likes stickers. Who doesn't like stickers :) ?! So she and her friend each got a sticker, they stuck em' to their shirts. I love that! Excellent advertising :) I asked the girl if she would like to have her picture taken (because she was just Awesome!) and she gleefully said yes. I'd just like to say Thanks for all the nice people that stopped by my booth to collect my work and help my little business. I am truly appreciative. It means so much to me to share my work with good people. It was a fun weekend, hot and hot, which is sorta nap inducing but I couldn't nap in my booth, I had to stay awake. Sheesh. But honestly, it was a nice weekend. Thanks!

Portland Saturday Market in the News

This is a picture of the media frenzy that was out on the waterfront park yesterday in Portland Oregon. They were all set up with their cameras pointed at my booth! Sam Adams, Mayor here in the city of Portland, came and welcomed us to the new site and said a few words.
The city commissioner and also the head of the Portland Developement Committee also said a few words and expressed their welcome to the artists and neighbors. It was fun to hear about the history of the site and wonderful to be reminded of the bonds that make this city so wonderful. Good neighbors, unique art, delicious food and amazing scenery all come together to make Portland the best city in the country to live in. The new Portland Saturday Market site honors the history waterfront park (as they dug up the site they found old stone balasts that the ships used to use for weights back in the days of the original Portland harbor) and the site showcases our art in a way that truly honors the artists. I couldn't be happier.

I was interviewed by KATU channel 2 news, my enthusiam for the new site was shared with the whole city this morning via the local news. :) I still haven't seen it, but friends told me it aired this morning and I did well. In the picture below you can see Paul (the head of our market) being interviewed as well.

7 Days of Color

Thanks Amy for this blog coverage!

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Decor that is Easy on the Eyes (and the Earth!)

Check it out! A little LeahGlass press in the Oregonian Homes+Gardens NW

3000 Hearts on Etsy

I have received over 3000 hearts on Etsy! Thank you to all the lovely people out there in the cyber world who have marked my shop as a favorite of theirs on Etsy (for anyone reading this who is wondering "what is a heart on Etsy mean?" - its when someone marks your shop as a "favorite" in their Etsy profile)

Common back and shop! In fact, if you happen to be reading this, and happen to have marked me with a heart over the years (or do it today and reap the benefits!) I will give you 25% off any purchase from my shop (purchase must be made before March 1, 2009) Just leave a note to seller in the invoice and I will discount your purchase.

My way of saying thank you to internet shoppers!

FREE Google Product Search

I have been fiddling around with the newly available Etsy statistical data and spending a bit o' time on the Etsy forums getting tips and tricks (and sharing complaints). I stumbled across a web-programmer/Etsy-shopper who said that she found Etsy thru an "organic search engine". Basically what she meant was that she doesn't pay attention to the paid adverts, she prefers the search engine results. She was giving her 2cents on whether Etsy shop owners should pay for Google Ad-Words (Pay-Per-Click). Her good advice was to sign up for the Google Product Search - its FREE and she said that her clients had experienced more sales with this campaign than with their Ad-Words efforts.

So I had to check it out. You should too! Heres a link.

Basically all you have to do (unless you are more savy, so far I have done the minimum) is set up a spreadsheet in Excell to create your "Data Feed". Save this spread sheet as a .txt file and go about setting up your Google Product account (be sure to put your website in the setting, the data feed won't work without this)

The help info was great and I've got my first feed running.

Here is the info plucked right from their site to explain how it works to your advantage to do this (did I mention its FREE - so why not! - common, go make a spreadsheet!)

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Increase traffic to your store with Google Product Search – for free

Google Product Search helps shoppers find and buy products across the web. As a seller, you can submit your products to Google Product Search, allowing shoppers to quickly and easily find your site.

Increase traffic and sales

Product Search connects your products to the shoppers searching for them, helping you drive traffic and sales to your store. Your products will appear on Google Product Search and may even be displayed on Google.com, depending on your items' relevance.

Submit products for free

Inclusion of your products is completely free. There are no charges for uploading your items or the additional traffic you receive.

Reach qualified shoppers

Reach shoppers precisely when they are searching for items to buy on Google.

Blogged

http://www.purplepinkandorange.com/blog/?p=4117

Thanks!

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A Reward for Procrastinators

Its snowing here in Portland, have you heard? :)

Here's my pitch - to any shopping procrastinators out there: buy from me online :) Many of the mobiles I made for the holiday season still remain in my inventory! The weather (and the economy) has put the smack-down on the end of my business year. I am ever so grateful for all the orders I have filled this year - I am so glad many many people will be receiving mobiles as gifts this year - but the fact remains that I still have many more to share... wanna help :)

Anyone who still needs gifts this year - buy online from me and I'll throw in a free ornament! (offer good thru noon Dec 22nd 2008 or until I run out of ornaments) Oh yeah - free ornament anyone?! I will be shipping out this weekend, USPS Priority Mail, which takes only 2 days, so everything should arrive by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.

Any last minute gift needs - I can help! I am happy to reward the shopping procrastinators with a free handmade glass ornament!

Stay Home for Black Friday Shopping !

Oleo the cat liked Thanksgiving this year a lot, until I swatted her away from the bird and told her that turkey was not for kitties!

If you are tempted to stay home and do a little "Black Friday" shopping - go to Etsy! My shop offers FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING on all small purchases. How sweet is that. Why bother with the crowds and lines in stores, with free shipping, I am saving you gas money!! Give everyone you know the gift of smiles for years to come with a little dancing mobile! How 'bout those geeky computer people in your family - give them a computer mobile! They will love the touch of handmade goodness.

For realz. Ditch the car, forget the crazy shopping out in the rain and cold. Go to Etsy. I'll see you there.

If you would like to see more pictures of my Thanksgiving dinner, click here

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Etsy

Well this is a pick-me-up! I just logged onto Etsy and saw one of my favorite wee mini mobiles dancing around the center of the Front Page. Yeah! Thats good for a few hundred clicks and hopefully it will make me some sales. Its been a long time since I saw myself on the front page of Etsy. The front page switches out so often now, my mobile will probably be up there for maybe 20 minutes or so. I am so glad I happened to log onto Etsy and see it while I could! It bugs me that the artist gets no alert or notification of your front page status, so its really random to actually see yourself there. Most of the time the only way to tell is by noticing that suddenly you have short upsurge of visitors to your shop and perhaps a small rush of sales (then you can log onto flickr where some awesome Etsy users post pictures of the front pages and you can check to see if indeed something in your shop was featured... its kinda elaborate and round-about, but hey, curiosity killed the cat, and Etsy users are crafty like that!)

So today was such a pleasure! Thanks Kimiko611!

Reservations

Today I reserved my spot for next years Portland Saturday Market site! Check it out - this is a digital rendering of where I will be!!! Right in front on the waterfront! All these years of volunteering a lot of time and effort at the market have finally paid off. (I help clean the office every week and I am a member of the product review committee) I will have a really good spot, right in front. In this picture you would be facing the Burnside bridge , standing in the new park that PDC is building, looking at my booth. :)

The picture below is the digi rendering of what the new park will look like during the week. On the weekends the market will take over this park (it is even plumbed with electricity and gas and water for the food vendors) and my booth will be right in the center of the picture, on the edge of the market where people enter. Wowza. Makes me shakey thinking about it. Felt like a balzy move. I am hoping it will lead to photography that will get my business publicity. New site = site photography, and my red Leah Glass.com sign will be in those pictures! (I hope)

the Sampler - Portland City Shout Out

Today I received a little Google Alert to show me that CraftZine Blog gave me a little shout out as one of samples in the Portland City Sampler. The Sampler is a wonderful company that serves to promote and advertise small businesses to relevant publications and stores. Here is their words to describe themselves:

The Sampler is a super fun marketing & promotional tool for indie businesses. Each month, independent crafters, artists, shops, zines and record labels who run web-based businesses send samples and promotional materials to a contribution pool. All the samples are photographed, posted to the site and then are portioned out, put in little packages and sent off to Sampler Subscribers, other Sampler Contributors and members of the Media all over the world!

I've participated twice, I like the business model, as I'm all about gorilla marketing. The cost of advertising with this company is the cost of the samples you submit and the shipping to get them all to the Sampler in time. If you are curious about submitting, here is a link with FAQs.

This second time I have submitted some samples specifically for the Portland City Sampler, which was organized through the Portland Independant Artist Cooperative. I submitted small little glass bits on wire stapled to a card and put in a cello bag with a sticker and a flier for Aquila. The last time I submitted full on little mini mobiles, I think 30 of them. This second time I knew there were 100 Portland Sampler boxes that would be made total, so I wanted to be in every single one, thus the small easily made in super bulk sample :)

Shout out on Cookie

check me out - good company inthis roundup of handcrafted mobiles!

shout out on Scoutie Girl