Integrity

As you know from reading about my booth design, I do not like the idea of hiding my work behind glass. The benefit to having it out is that people can touch the work and try it on. Many marketing studies show that being able to touch an item is far more likely to lead to a sale. Plus I want people to be able to interact with my work. The downside, however, should be clear: shoplifting. "Shoplifting" sounds too innocent though, so lets just call it what it is: theft!

Surprisingly, I have not had much of a problem with theft. A few bracelets a year, and very rarely, a pair of earrings. 2008 was the worst year (several bracelets gone - usually the expensive woven ones) and I expected an uptick in theft this year due to the bad economy but it was down by quite a bit. By October I had only lost one braided bracelet and one pair of earrings. At the Historic Shaw Art Fair, however, all that ended as I had one bracelet and three pendants taken, all in quick succession. When you see the empty spots it is very disheartening, and there is not much you can do about it. I try not to let the disappointment and anger affect how I interact with patrons, but I must admit that sometimes the shock of the adrenalin rush is hard to overcome.

Now imagine my surprise a few weeks ago when one of the organizers of the Shaw Art Fair left me a voice mail about receiving (anonymously) two envelopes, one with what felt like jewelry and one with money. They were forwarded to me and I just received them this week. It appears from the notes written on the envelopes that a young child took the pendants and this was discovered later by a parent. The parent apologized and returned one pendant in an envelope. The other envelope had a scrawled apology from the child (clearly not very old and still learning to write!) with money for another pendant. I really am very heartened by this and am sure that this is being used as a teaching moment for the child. I never expected to have items returned or paid for and applaud the parent.

If the parent in St. Louis reads this, know that I appreciate having my stolen items returned and hope the child learns a lesson from this. You have integrity I am grateful that people like you are out there. Thank you!! I will certainly come back to Shaw, if I can.

Excluding your IP Address from Google Analytics

While working on promoting my etsy shop I took a look at my Google Analytics page and noted, with some satisfaction, that the activity at my shop had increased right around the time that I began listing more items earlier this week. Then I began to wonder if any of that activity was actually ME, looking at my own shop and listings as I made changes. I recalled reading once that you could exclude your own IP address from the Analytics, so I decided to find out how to do that.

I will share how I did it here for anyone else interested in doing this for their own website or etsy shop. For the purposes of this post, I am going to assume that you already have a Google account and have the Analytics product already set up and tracking activity to your site or shop.

1. Log into your Google account.

2. Click on Analytics.

3. In the lower right-hand corner of the screen, click on Filter Manager.

4. On the next screen, click on Add Filter, and give your filter a name.

5. Choose Filter Type=Exclude IP Address from the menu.

6. Enter the IP address for your own home computer. Find this number by going to MyIPAddress.com. Keep in mind that this IP address is for the network you are using at the time you visit the site. If you take your laptop to a coffeeshop and use their wifi, their IP address is different so visits to your own site will be logged. I'm guessing this won't be too big of an issue for anyone. If you really want to, you can add another filter to exclude all your favorite wifi hotspots! Just visit MyIPAddress.com again to get the address.

7. Select which profiles you want the filter applied to and add them.

8. Click Save Changes. Done!!

Now you can visit your own site all you want and not mess up the statistics on how many people visit your site!

Promoting my etsy Shop

I have had an etsy shop for a few years, but haven't paid much attention to it. Recently I decided that I should pay more attention to it, and after my most recent indoor craft shows (during which I had way too much time to think, unfortunately) realized that I could think of my etsy shop as a type of art show. Considering that the jury/application fee for a typical art show is $30, I could afford to list a lot of items at 20¢ apiece over the next month. By working hard at promoting my shop, I can hopefully generate enough sales to help me through the winter months.

SO! That is what I have spent the majority of this week doing: taking photos, adjusting them, uploading photos to etsy, and creating listings for items. I have also been reading a lot of material online about marketing and promotion. It is quite nice to finally have time to sit back and assess the business!! I have been participating more in my local etsy Street Team: Handmade MN. I've gotten some great information and leads from the great membership of my Minnesota team, and hopefully have been able to give them some useful leads as well.

Another website that has taken up a lot of my time this week is ArtFairInsiders.com. I don't remember, now, how I stumbled upon this site but I am VERY glad that I found it! It is a networking site by and for artists who display their work at art fairs. It is full of great information and I have been spending many hours reading posts and discussions from the past year. And I have been actively participating, too. This is such a great resource; if you are an artist who participates in art shows (or wants to!), then do yourself a favor and check this site out!

Diving into Facebook

As part of my general marketing strategy, I have been trying out various forums and places to get involved. Up until recently I have been keeping this more-or-less confined to jewelry and arts-related sites. I have accounts with Wire Wrapped Jewelry (a Yahoo group) and it's sister groups, Lampworkers Etc., the Guild of Wire Jewelry Artists, Art Jewelry Magazine, Step-by-Step Wire, the Orchid Forum (by Ganoksin), JewelryLessons.com, JewelryGeeks.com, etsy, MN Artists, Creative Wire Jewelry, Sunshine Artist, Twitter, LinkedIn, and possibly a few more. Not surprisingly, it is not possible to keep up with every outlet. I am active in some forums, a regular lurker in others, an occasional visitor to a few, and the rest, well, I just don't have time for everything!

Now enter Facebook. I have been reluctant to join, but finally did so a few weeks ago, almost on a whim. The first weeks were frustrating because Facebook is complex and rich, but there isn't really a user-guide, per se, and for something that complicated, I need a guide! There is a "Help" section, but it is only vaguely helpful. I finally discovered that books written by third parties DO exist, such as Facebook for Dummies and The Missing Manual. I haven't looked at those, but I did get a copy of I'm on Facebook - Now What?. This is a slim volume, and I had to grit my teeth through a few grammatical and editing errors on the first page, but overall, this is a useful little book if you want some input into promoting your business on Facebook.

I found that not only is Facebook a great way to stay in touch with friends near and far, but it might be a useful way to increase my own exposure in ways I hadn't imagined. Today I put together a Page for my business, JanRa Jewelry Designs. I will be exploring how to promote this page in the coming weeks. My hope is that increased exposure will result in increased sales through my website, or people searching me out when I travel to art shows over the summer. This year promises to be more challenging than last year, in terms of sales, and I am determined to do everything I can to make sure my business survives.

If you are on Facebook, visit my Page and write on my Wall! Send me links to your Page as well!