A few weeks ago I won a sweepstakes and got a $200 gift certificate. The man who sent me the certificate noticed that I have my own blog/website and asked to interview me for his blog about market research! I happily agreed and the result of that interview is here: Face to Face With Gen Y.
Aside from an awesome interview, I also was able to buy a whole bunch of beauty products, christmas presents, and clothes, soooooo I'm going to call this entire episode a huge WIN in my book.
How are everyone's Christmas sales doing? Mine are going so well, they're actually interfering with studying for finals. I'm not at all upset about that.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Black Friday Weekend at OmgLia.com!
Novemer 28 Through December 1!
This Black Friday weekend, http://omglia.com is offering tons of awesome bonus deals! Pick a coupon from the following list and enter it during checkout to redeem! (if you cannot find where to enter it, just email it to me!)
Free Shipping on Domestic Orders: BLACKFRIDAYSHIPPING
Free Gift Box + Gift Packaging: BLACKFRIDAYGIFTWRAP
Free Pair of Holiday Earrings With Purchase: BLACKFRIDAYEARRINGS
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Holiday Planning
Indie Shopping is featuring an article about Omg! Lia? Be sure to check it out! There will also be a sponsored newsletter going out to subscribers (it's a great newsletter, by the way!)
In other news, I'm ridiculously busy, hence the lack of updating. I've been working on an Access databse for Omg Lia:
which is quite time-consuming, which on top of schoolwork (ahhhhh) and social life-having is putting a real cramp on my time management :(
I do have plans for the Holidays though - hopefully I'll get them all up and running during my Thanksgiving break in time to have a Black Friday sale! - which so far can be seen at http://omglia.com in the form of a new layout (still working on it though) and Gift Idea categories. I've got gift packaging in the mail and new items to post as well as new advertisements to make (ahhhh! head exploding!) anyway, I'll try to keep posted on what's new with me!
In other news, I'm ridiculously busy, hence the lack of updating. I've been working on an Access databse for Omg Lia:
which is quite time-consuming, which on top of schoolwork (ahhhhh) and social life-having is putting a real cramp on my time management :(
I do have plans for the Holidays though - hopefully I'll get them all up and running during my Thanksgiving break in time to have a Black Friday sale! - which so far can be seen at http://omglia.com in the form of a new layout (still working on it though) and Gift Idea categories. I've got gift packaging in the mail and new items to post as well as new advertisements to make (ahhhh! head exploding!) anyway, I'll try to keep posted on what's new with me!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Halloween Costume Thoughts
I SHALL BE:
EXCEPT FACEBOOK. OLD FACEBOOK. With a space for people to write on my wall!!! It's brilliant!! :D yayyyyy.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Halloween jewelry at Omg! Lia?
It's that time of year again! Fall, which is my favorite season (don't forget about my autumn button earrings which are perfect autumn-wear!) and Halloween, which is a wonderful time for people who are into things like free candy, dressing up, and wearing lots of makeup, (um, sign me up for all of the above, please, thanks). And on Halloween you get to all of those things AT ONCE. Amazing. What a great holiday. I am also intrigued by spooky shit, so that gets an A+ in my opinion too. I'm really hoping I'll see a ghost one of these days - my friends see them all the time and I always miss out.
But anyway, we all know the real purpose of those post is (what else) to promote me. Yay, me! I'd like everyone to go and take a look at my Halloween Section (the Etsy has one too) and pick out something pretty and buy it. And I'm going to give you free shipping on it too! Cuz you are great!
Here is one of the new necklaces in the shop:
What's everyone dressing up as for Halloween? I don't know if I can top my last few year's costumes, which were respectively a lamp (age 14, I wore a lampshade) sperm (age 15, I wore a pillowcase that said SPERM on it) a janitor (age 16, I borrowed the school custodian's outfit) and trash (age 17, I sewed that one by hand out of trash bags, and it was super NOT skanky at all.) Ideas?
But anyway, we all know the real purpose of those post is (what else) to promote me. Yay, me! I'd like everyone to go and take a look at my Halloween Section (the Etsy has one too) and pick out something pretty and buy it. And I'm going to give you free shipping on it too! Cuz you are great!
Here is one of the new necklaces in the shop:
What's everyone dressing up as for Halloween? I don't know if I can top my last few year's costumes, which were respectively a lamp (age 14, I wore a lampshade) sperm (age 15, I wore a pillowcase that said SPERM on it) a janitor (age 16, I borrowed the school custodian's outfit) and trash (age 17, I sewed that one by hand out of trash bags, and it was super NOT skanky at all.) Ideas?
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Ways to Drive Free Traffic
Selling on the internet is all about getting hits. I know it sounds like something involving drugs and alleys, but hits just means traffic, which means the amount of people looking at your site. The more exposure, the more likely someone will buy something, so hits are a vital part of owning an online shop! I thought I'd share where most of OmgLia's hits come from. Now I personally haven't done much in the way of paid advertising - which I imagine would be FAR more rewarding - but I'm offering my advice for getting FREE hits specifically because those benefit everyone!
1. Project Wonderful, which tracks referrers, unique users and pageviews on every page where its ad boxes are displayed
2. Site Meter, an excellent free counter that also tracks referrals
3. Google Analytics which tracks very efficiently but is difficult to place on every page of a domain - much more effective for a blogspot blog or etsy shop.
2. Topsites Listings and Directories. If you've never seen a topsites listing, go and run a search for "topsites [use a keyword from your site here]. A topsites list is a big list of sites with banner ads that you can add your site to for free. Here is one example. Its order is ranked by the amount of "votes" you get, or people clicking from the topsites link on your site to visit the topsites list. There are top sites for everything and the more you join, the more traffic you'll get from them. Just make sure you have a place to link back to the site from - like a myspace or a blog - so that you can keep your link on the front page! Directories are similiar to topsites listings, except without the whole voting/rank thing (which I personally find is useful if you have enough traffic to generate a lot of votes, because then you stay on the front page.) Some good free directories I use are The Handmade Product Directory and Indie Collective.
3. Google Search and Google Image Search, as well as other misc. search engines. I know, big DUH there. But why is it that I'm getting so many targetted google hits for specific items (like, "cute funky jewelry" or "handmade wallets" - things that are definetly on my site)? Google ranks the results of its queries based on a few different items: one is the amount of links back to the site that exist on the web (see above 2 ideas to raise that number significantly), and the other is keywords and tags. Etsy users already know how to use tags properly, but if you have your own site or blog, it can be trickier. First make sure your TITLE is descriptive enough to pop up as relevant to Google and relevant to the person searching: if you sell knit scarves and your blog is called "Katie's World," for example, then you might get far less hits than if your blog was called "Katie's World: Knitted Scarves and Other Crafts" or something more descriptive and specific. You'll notice that my blog title is "colorful plastic jewelry". Secondly, make sure that you use keywords and tags in the BODY of your posts. If you have a domain, make a little opening statement that has a few key words (for an example, see http://omglia.com and read the opening paragraph). If you blog, make sure you're using descriptive terms that will show up as relevant to google. And use lots of images. I get tons of hits because I once posted an entry about making jewelry displays, and included pictures, and that image links back right to this blog.
4. Links from other sites. This refers to link exchanges, links on blogrolls, anywhere someone posted a link back to omglia from their personal site. A lot of the time these are voluntary links that I had nothing to do with, but there are 2 ways to get more links to your site up on other people's sites:
a) Link Exchanging. you post their link, they post yours, everybody wins. With Etsy, this can be great for other shops because the only link that works on an Etsy announcement or profile is another Etsy shop, so consider offering a section called "Shops I Love" and putting link exchanges there. Approach blogs and other domains that you think might mutually benefit from an exchange - more often than not, they're looking for ways to get more links out there too (Remember, more linkbacks = more google results!).
b) Make it easy to link back to your site. I have a Link Back page with all of my advertisement banners plus a simple copy-paste HTML code for immediate postage to a myspace, blog, etc. If people like my site, they can share it with friends without having to do anything but copy and paste. For blogs, this might mean an "add to your blogroll" or "share with friends" link somewhere to a site like Google Reader or Digg. The easier it is, the more likely people will use it.
5. StumbleUpon I think many Etsy users have already discovered the joys of StumbleUpon, but I'll reiterate. Stumble EVERY new item you post, EVERY blog you write, EVERYTHING. And USE KEYWORDS/TAGS like your traffic depends on it! (Newsflash: It does!)
6. Forums and Message Boards. This includes Etsy forums, Crafster, Diyscene, even your World of Warcraft message board or your Motherhood forum. My random MB that gets me hits is HoboWars -- shameful, but effective! Make sure EVERY signature contains a link to your site, and if possible use a universal username or avatar for brand recognition and familiarity (mine, predictably, is omglia.).
7. Misc: Myspace, Flickr, LinkReferral, etc. These are the ones that everyone has heard of that always get tossed around as good places to get hits. I know I've left of several that you can probably list from the top of your head (Twitter, Facebook, etc etc). I don't get a bulk amount of traffic from any one of them in particular, but combined they are definitely invalueable. Have as many profiles in as many places as you can, and if you happen to maintain them, even better (I'm kind of a fan of leaving my link and moving on, personally). Remember, the amount of time spent on customizing and editing your profile (and then keeping it updated) will result in a greater amount of traffic. The more you put in, the more you get out of it, as is true with most things. You can use a URL shortener like Bit.Ly to track the number of clicks you receive on any specific link.
So there you have it. Remember, I excluded paid advertising! That's another HUGE way to get hits. ProjectWonderful is a good way to dip your toes into paid advertising, but if you're looking for places to advertise the best place is to search for keywords relevant to your site and then from those results, find as many blogs or domains offering advertising as possible. Also, if you need banner advertisements (which I find vital in attracting my target market, personally) I sell them at very reasonable prices. *Wink*
One last thing. If you have the abilities to keep track of where your hits are coming from, CONCENTRATE your efforts on the places that seem successful! For me, that's Livejournal - those mass advertisement posts take hours, but they're so worth it! If you start to see a lot of hits coming from topsites or message boards, find more of those and join them! Whatever you're doing right, keep doing it! Good luck! And please feel free to comment with some suggestions of your own!
Traffic Buttons by Buttered Parsnips
First, how do I know where I get my hits, you ask? I use 3 traffic trackers to get a well-rounded idea of my traffic and referall sites:1. Project Wonderful, which tracks referrers, unique users and pageviews on every page where its ad boxes are displayed
2. Site Meter, an excellent free counter that also tracks referrals
3. Google Analytics which tracks very efficiently but is difficult to place on every page of a domain - much more effective for a blogspot blog or etsy shop.
Now onto the sites. In order of most referalls to least, here are the places that OmgLia gets it's hits:
Traffic Light Decal by Elephannie
1. LiveJournal Communities is a HUGE place for hits. It's a very targeted blogging site that mostly caters to the under-25 crowd, and happens to have a wonderful community for selling in particular. There are livejournal selling journals, selling communities, and advertising communities. Each community has around 500+ members looking at any given day, and although there are often many posts per day (think the Promotions section of the Etsy forums) one well-designed advertisement posted to about 30 communities (again, at 500+ members each) usually gets me TONS of hits when I take the time to mass-post. This is a VERY time-consuming but VERY rewarding way to get hits. First you have to find and join the communities, then you have to make your banner ad, then you have to copy and paste it 30 TIMES. But my traffic skyrockets every time I do this which definetly makes it worth it to me! Feel free to add me on LJ and join the communities I'm already in!Traffic Light Decal by Elephannie2. Topsites Listings and Directories. If you've never seen a topsites listing, go and run a search for "topsites [use a keyword from your site here]. A topsites list is a big list of sites with banner ads that you can add your site to for free. Here is one example. Its order is ranked by the amount of "votes" you get, or people clicking from the topsites link on your site to visit the topsites list. There are top sites for everything and the more you join, the more traffic you'll get from them. Just make sure you have a place to link back to the site from - like a myspace or a blog - so that you can keep your link on the front page! Directories are similiar to topsites listings, except without the whole voting/rank thing (which I personally find is useful if you have enough traffic to generate a lot of votes, because then you stay on the front page.) Some good free directories I use are The Handmade Product Directory and Indie Collective.
3. Google Search and Google Image Search, as well as other misc. search engines. I know, big DUH there. But why is it that I'm getting so many targetted google hits for specific items (like, "cute funky jewelry" or "handmade wallets" - things that are definetly on my site)? Google ranks the results of its queries based on a few different items: one is the amount of links back to the site that exist on the web (see above 2 ideas to raise that number significantly), and the other is keywords and tags. Etsy users already know how to use tags properly, but if you have your own site or blog, it can be trickier. First make sure your TITLE is descriptive enough to pop up as relevant to Google and relevant to the person searching: if you sell knit scarves and your blog is called "Katie's World," for example, then you might get far less hits than if your blog was called "Katie's World: Knitted Scarves and Other Crafts" or something more descriptive and specific. You'll notice that my blog title is "colorful plastic jewelry". Secondly, make sure that you use keywords and tags in the BODY of your posts. If you have a domain, make a little opening statement that has a few key words (for an example, see http://omglia.com and read the opening paragraph). If you blog, make sure you're using descriptive terms that will show up as relevant to google. And use lots of images. I get tons of hits because I once posted an entry about making jewelry displays, and included pictures, and that image links back right to this blog.
4. Links from other sites. This refers to link exchanges, links on blogrolls, anywhere someone posted a link back to omglia from their personal site. A lot of the time these are voluntary links that I had nothing to do with, but there are 2 ways to get more links to your site up on other people's sites:
a) Link Exchanging. you post their link, they post yours, everybody wins. With Etsy, this can be great for other shops because the only link that works on an Etsy announcement or profile is another Etsy shop, so consider offering a section called "Shops I Love" and putting link exchanges there. Approach blogs and other domains that you think might mutually benefit from an exchange - more often than not, they're looking for ways to get more links out there too (Remember, more linkbacks = more google results!).
b) Make it easy to link back to your site. I have a Link Back page with all of my advertisement banners plus a simple copy-paste HTML code for immediate postage to a myspace, blog, etc. If people like my site, they can share it with friends without having to do anything but copy and paste. For blogs, this might mean an "add to your blogroll" or "share with friends" link somewhere to a site like Google Reader or Digg. The easier it is, the more likely people will use it.
5. StumbleUpon I think many Etsy users have already discovered the joys of StumbleUpon, but I'll reiterate. Stumble EVERY new item you post, EVERY blog you write, EVERYTHING. And USE KEYWORDS/TAGS like your traffic depends on it! (Newsflash: It does!)
6. Forums and Message Boards. This includes Etsy forums, Crafster, Diyscene, even your World of Warcraft message board or your Motherhood forum. My random MB that gets me hits is HoboWars -- shameful, but effective! Make sure EVERY signature contains a link to your site, and if possible use a universal username or avatar for brand recognition and familiarity (mine, predictably, is omglia.).
7. Misc: Myspace, Flickr, LinkReferral, etc. These are the ones that everyone has heard of that always get tossed around as good places to get hits. I know I've left of several that you can probably list from the top of your head (Twitter, Facebook, etc etc). I don't get a bulk amount of traffic from any one of them in particular, but combined they are definitely invalueable. Have as many profiles in as many places as you can, and if you happen to maintain them, even better (I'm kind of a fan of leaving my link and moving on, personally). Remember, the amount of time spent on customizing and editing your profile (and then keeping it updated) will result in a greater amount of traffic. The more you put in, the more you get out of it, as is true with most things. You can use a URL shortener like Bit.Ly to track the number of clicks you receive on any specific link.
So there you have it. Remember, I excluded paid advertising! That's another HUGE way to get hits. ProjectWonderful is a good way to dip your toes into paid advertising, but if you're looking for places to advertise the best place is to search for keywords relevant to your site and then from those results, find as many blogs or domains offering advertising as possible. Also, if you need banner advertisements (which I find vital in attracting my target market, personally) I sell them at very reasonable prices. *Wink*
One last thing. If you have the abilities to keep track of where your hits are coming from, CONCENTRATE your efforts on the places that seem successful! For me, that's Livejournal - those mass advertisement posts take hours, but they're so worth it! If you start to see a lot of hits coming from topsites or message boards, find more of those and join them! Whatever you're doing right, keep doing it! Good luck! And please feel free to comment with some suggestions of your own!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Featured!
Several of my rings are appearing in Ring O Blog!
Elektrosawruslove blogged about me.
A pair of my earrings were featured at Cuteable.
Elektrosawruslove blogged about me.
A pair of my earrings were featured at Cuteable.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
I Want This!
So, I'm going to let the cat out of the bag .... I, the plastic jewelry designer/creater/connoseuier, do not actually wear very much plastic jewelry. In fact, I don't really wear very much jewelry of any kind. I used to be really into chandelier earrings when I was 16 and I just never bothered to update my style, so, yeah.
That said, I do have a kind of necklace that I prefer and want to own and, of course, wear. And *GASP* the style looks nothing like that ones that I create! Anyway to give you an example, here is one such gorgeous necklace that I am lusting after from a fellow Kentuckian's shop:
NOBODY BUY IT, IT'S MINE IN THE FUTURE.
That said, I do have a kind of necklace that I prefer and want to own and, of course, wear. And *GASP* the style looks nothing like that ones that I create! Anyway to give you an example, here is one such gorgeous necklace that I am lusting after from a fellow Kentuckian's shop:
NOBODY BUY IT, IT'S MINE IN THE FUTURE.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Renegade Craft Fair
Did I mention that I took a road trip up to Chicago to see Renegade this past weekend? Here is what it looked like:
All the vendors were amazing, and there was still a surprising amount of traffic despite all the rain!
Speaking of traffic, we were stuck in it for 11 hours on the way back. It's a 4 hour drive, but all the highways were closed due to flooding. Ah, lengthy car rides with college mates I barely know. Gotta love it!
PS I applied for the Holiday fair, wish me luck!
All the vendors were amazing, and there was still a surprising amount of traffic despite all the rain!
Speaking of traffic, we were stuck in it for 11 hours on the way back. It's a 4 hour drive, but all the highways were closed due to flooding. Ah, lengthy car rides with college mates I barely know. Gotta love it!
PS I applied for the Holiday fair, wish me luck!
Monday, September 8, 2008
Update from my life
Hello! Wow have I been busy lately! What with all the (ex)boyfriend drama (yeah, we're still broken up, and neither of us are handling it very well) and then the whole leaving for college and making new friends thing, I've hardly had any time for my business! I did manage to create and list a few new things at http://omglia.com including a bunch of rings, and some new Halloween merch like a necklace, a bead/charm lot and a charm bracelet. But more on that later - for now I just want to post pics of my dorm room!! That first pic is my computer area. Yes my TV says RELAX on it, I got that in a swap on Crafster :D
And this pic on the right is my bed. And by bed I mean workstation and by workstation I mean where I make jewelry. My sewing machine is tucked away in my closet and my beading supplies are all shelved in that little bookcase there, and all of my packaging materials are in boxes under my bed haha. Anyway that's the update from me, I'll be posting more soon with all my new Halloween products! Until then, please admire this beautiful picture of me. *fans self* Hehe.
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