Etsy Team Columbus Secret Pal Swap

My Etsy Street team, Etsy Team Columbus, does lots of fun social activities.  Check out our Crafting Challenge, and be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

But here I want to share about our recent Secret Pal Swap.  Its sort of like a secret santa exchange, but much more crafty.  You sign up and get assigned to two secret pals: one who you give stuff to, and one you get stuff from.

I just got my stash from my secret pal, Lenny of lcabanerodesigns.etsy.com just today.  Here is all of the coolness.

	First, look at how bright and fun these fabrics are!  There was some really pretty red velvet and lots of great cotton prints.
	There was a whole box of buttons in the package.  Some of these buttons may become pendants for necklaces.  The vintage ones with the seahorses?  Very awesome.
	This is very cool little art box that I can keep in my purse.
	The funniest bit was this set of "vintage" Kellogg's cereal cards.  I might have to frame them.  Seriously.  Sugar Smacks is my favorite cereal of all time.  I have a bowl of it every morning.

Thanks Lenny!

"New World" camera bag featured at Etsy Stalker

-----------------
Sent by CuratorBeatrice on April 13, 2009:

Hi there,

I just wanted to let you know that we have featured your "New World"
camera bag in our latest (map-themed) exhibit at Etsy Stalker. Please
take a look and I hope you don't mind that we've included you and used
your photos. (http://etsystalker.com/?p=381)

Congratulations on such wonderful work!

Warmly,
Beatrice
www.etsystalker.com

Etsy Team Columbus: Punk Rock Challenge

VOTE FOR MEEEE!

One of my teams has started doing a monthly challenge to inspire our creative muses and generate interest in our group. This month's challenge is entitled "Punk Rock". Check it out.

http://etsyteamcolumbus.blogspot.com/2009/04/punk-rock-challenge-team-submissions.html

The ballot is on the right. Vote for your favorite item (which is "Artsi Bitsi's skull IPOD cozy", of course!).

HandmadeMarketing.org

I have learned so much from this site (formerly called EtsyMarketing), so I'm pretty pleased that today's blog post features one of my tips.

http://handmademarketing.org/how-to-read-google-analytics-reports/

:-)

Monstrous Video

Monsters bags and backpacks are coming to your planet. You must take them to your leader. And also to the mall. And to your school. And to your office.

Get yours at http://artsibitsi.etsy.com

More Analytics

In case you missed it, Etsy has enhanced their Google analytics
service. You can now see what search terms people used to reach your
store. Now, from a business perspective, this is only half useful.
While its good to know about the successful search terms, I'd really
like to know about the searches terms that people use that don't find
me, and should. I mean, maybe people are looking for cigarette cases,
and my little bags would be perfect for that. But I don't know if
people even look for that. Maybe that feature is next.

You have to set it up, so read the directions carefully. But it can
be done. I turned it on at about 9pm last night and had results
already this morning.

http://www.etsy.com/storque/etsy-news/tech-update-etsy-web-analytics-enhancements-3350/

Introducing Monster Nanos!

Aren't these cute?  I had a ball making them this week.

I've been wanting a smaller monster that I could wear like a  charm.  These are the first generation of (what I hope will be) a new line of monsters for my etsy store.   If these do well, I will be eventually adding pins and other types of personal ornaments.

Another reason for adding these to my store is to make it easier for first-time customers to check me out.  The economy being what it is, folks are not going to be as eager to take a risk on an artist.  Key chains and fobs are relatively inexpensive items -- between $5 and $10 on Etsy.  My idea is, that  over time, one thing will lead to another, and I'll be able to generate some repeat business.

By the numbers

So I woke up this morning and checked my email and lo! and behold, someone bought a Monster Mini in the middle of the night.  As I was pondering the 2:15am timestamp on the order, I got to thinking, 'I wonder how many of my customers shop in the middle of the night?'  I mean, it could be a lot, considering that most of my customers are ordering items off of the Geekery catagory on Etsy.  And geeks are well known for their eccentric hours.

But it could also be important for me to have a better handle on my

 customers habits, so that I can tailor the timing of my listings to come up when they're shopping.

So, I started pulling data down and organizing it.  I pulled out the time of day and also the day of week from all of my orders for the past six months.  You can see the charts that I was able to create below.  (spreadsheets are excellent!)

You can see a couple things from these charts.  First, about a third of my sales come on the weekend (33%), and more than a third come when customers are at home in the evening, from about 5:30pm til 10pm.  Tuesdays and afternoons at work are also good times.  Mornings and the end of the week are slow.

I think that this is pretty interesting, but it's only a few months of data.  There are a few big gaps in sales (end of December and when my store was getting started), that might skew my data.  I'll keep an eye on it for a while and see if there are any shifts.

But I'll also try to do more listings on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings when my customers are in a buying mood.  :-)

Another Distribution Channel

When I started selling online, I originally stocked my Etsy store with paintings.  Like my purses, my watercolors and oils are popular with friends and family, and I thought that there'd be a good market for originals on Etsy.  (do a search on Etsy for ACEO - Art Card, Editions & Originals - and you'll see what I mean.)

Well, the art world was not exactly taken by storm.  More like, they were taken by apathy.  

On the other hand, there was even less enthusiasm on the home front.  Surprisingly my family was dismayed to see "their" paintings put up for sale in the coarse and crass public marketplace.  Who knew that they felt so proprietary?  It was kind of sweet.

Ultimately, it turned out happily for all concerned.  The coarse and crass public didn't buy my original watercolors after all.  So I was able to give them to my daughter and husband, which made them (relieved and) happy.  My Monster Bags are doing very well on my Etsy store, so I'm happy.  

And just in case someone out there in the interwebs missed the opportunity to acquire an ArtsiBitsi painting, I set up a store on Cafepress to sell reproductions and prints.  Check it out, and if you see something there that you'd like changed a bit (a certain painting on a different t-shirt, for example), just let me know.

Something New from the ArtsiBitsi Monster Lab

Lately I've been wondering if I could make a drawstring bag small enough for personal electronics (particularly an iPhone), and still have enough space for a cute monster face.

Yes.  Yes, I can.  Check 'em out on Etsy.

mwahahahahahah.

Safety in Numbers

Have you ever noticed that all of the shoe stores in the mall are all clustered together in one spot?  All the trendy, hip clothing stores are located in the same part of town.  And there's a Starbucks on every corner.

Seems weird, right?  Shouldn't these businesses be more concerned about their competition stealing their customers?

Well, it's not that they don't understand about competition, its that they understand that consumers do 'destination' shopping.  Take fast-food restaurants, for example.  They are almost always in groups.  You'll see KFC, Burger King, Taco Bell and McDonalds, all in a row.  The Taco Bell might even be selling Pizza Hut items.  My local KFC sells Long John Silvers fish.   

So what happens is, when someone is hungry, they start instinctively moving toward this area.  Usually I start moving before I even decide where I want to eat.  Co-locating is good for everyone's business in this case.  When a new fast-food place opens up, they find a ready-made customer base already in place and expectant.

Consequently I'm pretty happy to be a part of a crafty consortium.  Not only does it make the business of selling online less lonely, its a great way to help my customer do 'destination' shopping.

The group that I joined is Etsy Team Columbus.  This is a large, broadly and deeply talented group of artisans, who have shops on Etsy, all located in the Columbus, Ohio area.  If you live in the Central Ohio area, you can go to the ETC group to "buy handmade, buy local".  The ETC group is growing rapidly, and gets involved in lots of shows and arty activities.

 

Click this logo to see the ETC blog and links to all of the ETC member shops.

Itsy Bitsy ArtsiBitsi Bag

So its been kind of slow around the ArtsiBitsi studio lately, and I decided to try out some ideas that have been rattling around the past few weeks.

First, I love this micro-suede material.  It's got a great finish; it comes in lots of easy-to-coordinate shades of brown and black.  It's also wonderful to sew.  It has a nice stretch to it

 (polyester back), and a medium weight that doesn't require a heavy duty sewing machine, but is still sturdy enough for purses.  I get it for about $7/yard at Walmart.  (I've been trying to stock up, because I heard a rumor that Walmart is going to discontinue fabric sales)

Anyway, I wanted to experiment with piecing together different colors in a patchwork style, like those popular Coach bags.  For this first attempt, I thought that I had better keep all of the patches to the same size.

So I sat down with my sketch book and planned it all out and started cutting little rectangles.  And here's where I messed up.  I didn't allow enough of a seam allowance in my calculations.  After I got all of the little pieces sewn together, I was about 1.5" short of my plan in both the x- and y- direction (width and height).  

In the end, after I squared off the bottom, the purse measured about 9"x7" instead of the 11"x9" that I had hoped for.  And that's why its an Itsy Bitsy ArtsiBitsi Bag.

But the story has a happy ending, because it turns out that all my critical stuff fits it in it just fine.  I probably even still have room for a receipt or post-it note. :-)  

And because I'm pretty itsy-bitsy myself, it looks proportional when I wear it.

Mini Smoochies - SWAK!

Did you (or a loved one) get some fun personal electronics as gifts? Are you wondering how to keep them safe and give them a fun place to hang out? 

SMOOCHIE MINI POUCHES are a new product that I developed for this spring.  I think that they'll be a popular alternative to the MONSTER MINIS (which I'll continue to make -- don't worry!).  And maybe even a fun Valentine's Day gift for your favorite geekette.  

Supplies are limited.  There are only two for sale on each of my online stores: Etsy and also on Artfire.  Go check 'em out.  

...

No SMOOCHIES for 1000markets.  Nyah! :-p