Monday, August 30, 2010

Swarovski Ring Giveaway Winner!!!

Thank you everyone who supported me, and participated in the Swarovski Ring Giveaway!!

Thank you Vegancraftastic for hosting the blog giveaway.  It was wonderful.
http://vegancraftastic.blogspot.com/



So here is the announcement of the winner:  Ana Belen - fisiwoman

CONGRATS on your win.  ;)



As a special thank you to everyone who participated, took the time to look, post, and promote I am going to offer a special!

If you want 2 rings, I will do a BOGO!  Buy 1 ring, get the 2nd ring of equal or lesser value at 50% off!!!  OR 20% off of your order!!

Just put "giveaway" in the notes to seller during the checkout.

Thanks so much.  Custom orders are welcome too.

Janet
http://www.galla15.etsy.com/
http://www.trinketsnwhatnots.com/

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Swarovski Ring Giveaway and Blog Feature!!

I was contacted by a wonderful Etsy shop:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/Vegancraftastic
Their shop specializes in handmade accessories for crafters, pins, notebooks, crafting patterns, and more!


They host Blog Giveaways and chose my shop as their giveaway this week!  I am so excited about this joint venture.  Vegancraftastic's work has been featured in both Knitty and Yarn Forward Magazine! 

Please give their blog some love and check out the giveaway they are hosting.  47 entries in the 1st few hours!

http://vegancraftastic.blogspot.com/

If you follow their blog leave a comment because that is one way to enter the giveaway.  There are 7 ways to enter this giveaway make sure you leave a comment on their blog with one of your entries to win a Swarovski Ring from my shop.

Thanks everyone.
Janet
http://www.galla15.etsy.com/
http://www.trinketsnwhatnots.com/

Sunday, August 22, 2010

New Handmade Registry Website - My Handmade Registry

I received a convo on Etsy today that I was featured on the front page of My Handmade Registry.  You can find the website at: http://www.myhandmaderegistry.com/

It is a wonderful concept.  Just like there are bridal/wedding registries and baby shower registries where you can create a wish list of items you want to receive... now there is a handmade registry.  Can you imagine how wonderful your birthdays, special occassions and holidays could be, now that you can share a list of the handmade items you want?  Now you can find that extra special gift for a loved one by seeing their handmade wish list!  I am so excited about this website.

This site also offers interactive features such as groups.  You can interact with others, and help find niches.  For instance there is a group for "My $5000 handmade Wedding".  The creator of the website Dorana had her wedding featured in an Etsy storque article from this!  http://www.etsy.com/storque/article/9297/

There are opportunities to be a sponsor, to advertise, and see other members.  Huge potential for fun and gift giving.

I hope you will check out this website. 
This is the necklace that made their front page.


Thank you so much for the feature. 
Janet
http://www.galla15.etsy.com/
http://www.trinketsnwhatnots.com/

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

How to Improve your Product Photo's Part 3 of 3!!

Staging and Styling Your Product


Backgrounds: Shoot against a background that will complement your item. I think one of the mistakes many make are having backgrounds that are too busy and distract from your product. The product should be the star. Go to the fabric store and just have fun searching for several options, consider different textures. Go to a scrapbooking store and try different patterns of pieces of paper.

Think about color: What color background will create the mood that you are going for? If you're going for a sophisticated look, a monotone look would be good . If your work has a more earthy feel, natural… then consider sand, or seashells and things of that nature. Simple white backgrounds can be great for just about any type of item as well, and this will put the focus on your item. Have fun, and experiment.

Think about unique props that could enhance your product. I have seen people use a sheet of music, to a book, the edge of a glass to hang earrings… take some time to search the internet and your favorite magazines to see what you like.

Consider including a photo that shows the item being used. This will give the potential customer important information, such as what the item is and how big it is. It will also allow them to envision the item on themselves or in their home.  I have eyeglass leashes in my shop where I show the leash on a pair of eyeglasses.



http://www.etsy.com/listing/39394168/eyeglass-lanyard-green-gray-pink


Angles: This really just requires you experimenting. Take a necklace and carefully place the chain in a snake design, then experiment with where your camera will sit. Play with the height of the camera by taking pics straight on, take some looking down onto your piece, take them from the side on an angle. Try to create movement in the piece.

Cropping: Photos that crop in interesting places create movement in the photo. If your item is symmetrical, cropping off 1/3 of the item will still show what the item is, create intrigue and show more details of the item.

Avoid crops that are too "tight” this will make it hard for a person to imagine the full object, and will make the picture feel squashed. Etsy will automatically crop your photos for the thumbnails when you upload them. Consider while you are taking your pictures that vertical shots will crop mostly from the top, and a bit from the sides, and vice versa for horizontal shots.



Another trick is to cross promote with your photos. For me I am planning on showing multiple rings in a shot. To show the variety, and choices and if the customer really likes a ring in the photo they can find it in my shop.

Additional photos: Your potential customer can't touch your item or try it on. Show them everything they want to know in the photos! USE all 5 slots on Etsy. Show a close up of the beads, show a cropped pic of the clasp, show the back of a piece, and sides. Show one shot of the entire piece as a whole.

Consider the 5 senses of humans. If you are selling soap or incense, that are strawberry… take a photo with a strawberry with a drop of water on it! Now that will get someone thinking of the smell and taste. When possible try to show the size, I see bead sellers place a coin in the shot to help convey size. Get creative though, and use any object that is very familiar, it doesn’t have to be an ugly coin.

Upselling: This is tricky. For jewelry if you are selling a necklace and have a separate listing for a matching bracelet use the photo’s to show both pieces together. And place a link in your listing to the other item. The tricky part is to be extremely clear in your description what a person gets in that listing. Showing both the necklace and bracelet could mislead a customer to think they get both for the one listing.

You can find the 1st part of this series here:
http://galla15.blogspot.com/2010/07/tips-on-how-to-improve-your-product.html

The 2nd part of this series can be found here:
http://galla15.blogspot.com/2010/07/tips-for-improving-your-product-photos.html

I hope this has helped some of you :)  Please come back and comment and share how these have helped.  Share your lastest ideas here in the comments!

Thanks.
Janet
http://www.galla15.etsy.com/
http://www.trinketsnwhatnots.com/

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Swarovski Ring Twitter Giveaway Winner!!!

Well I decided to do a giveaway on Twitter and had read about other giveaways..... I decided 1000 retweets would do it.  LOL  It took over a month to get there.

So this took longer than I thought it would, but it was a lot of fun.  I think it helped me connect to more of my twitter followers.  I appreciate all of you for helping, supporting and following. 

So the winner is:  http://twitter.com/wildflower00

Please contact me through my etsy shop - http://www.galla15.etsy.com/  so that we can work out the details.



Not to worry, if you didn't win.. because I saw that you were tweeting your little heart out I can't let you all go away empty handed.  I am going to offer 25% off to any of my twitter followers as a special thank you.
You have to put "Twitter giveaway" into the notes to seller at the checkout to get the 25% off.  I will refund the 25% off via paypal.   This special discount is good for one week.  Next Sunday the 22nd at midnight I will no longer offer the discount.

So if you saw something you just love, or that would make a perfect gift.... think ahead and get that holiday gift now!  1/4 of the price off!! 

Thanks to everyone for your support!  I hope to hold more of these, next time will be through facebook.  I have people complaining they don't use twitter and they want to win :)  So keep an eye out for my facebook contest.

Here is my facebook fan page if you want to follow:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=41217190843#!/pages/Lothian-MD/Trinkets-N-Whatnots/41217190843

Thanks everyone! 
Janet
http://www.trinketsnwhatnots.com/
http://www.galla15.etsy.com/