OH NO another dissappointment.
UGGGG! I hate it when this happens!
But since it did I figured I would pass this info on to those of you would be business people.
If you are selling product HAVE A GOOD RELIABLE CART!
I found a great little site called Frantic Stamper Inc.
I found NO WAY to buy product except writing my order down and either calling or emailing it to them.
They had great sale items and other things I wanted (WAY TO MANY to write a list for) … at 11 pm I said NOPE no writing for me … I am done for the day.
A tip: most internet buying is by whim. Make it super simple for your customer and I guarantee you will have more sales.
There is a GREAT SHOPPING CART on the market.
It IS NOT FREE … but then what is life that is very good is?
The license costs $245 but YOU own the software and can put it wherever you choose.
I have worked, designed for and tested this software now for about 5 years.
Of all the carts on the market free or otherwise this is BAR NONE the best and most user friendly.
Test drive the Avactis Shopping cart yourself HERE
I just got a note from the developers that they are now partnered with PayPal for full service CC payments. This cart has a wonderful system for keeping not only your inventory but billing records.
Just more business tips for you small entrepreneurs 
The Value of ..
To realize
The value of a sister/brother
Ask someone
Who doesn’t have one.
To realize
The value of ten years:
Ask a newly
Divorced couple.
To realize
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.
To realize
The value of one year:
Ask a student who
Has failed a final exam.
To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.
To realize
The value of one month:
Ask a mother
Who has given birth to a premature baby..
To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize
The value of one minute:
Ask a person
Who has missed the train, bus or plane.
To realize
The value of one-second:
Ask a person
Who has survived an accident.
Time waits for no one.
Treasure every moment you have.
You will treasure it even more when
You can share it with someone special.
Web Developer tips for a new blog or domain.
Sheer frustration has made me write this post.
I visited a website to buy some Bo Bunny paper. It took me about an hour to sift through what they offered (I was buying multiples of single sheets). When I finished the price was $27. As I got to the total of my sale getting ready to pay the shipping was $71. I did give the courtesy of contacting the owner to tell her of the error (this is the 3rd time this has happened). The first time I just left after selecting close to $100 in the basket. 2nd time I wrote her and she wrote back saying the shipping should be priority for $5.95 and she would fix it. That time she lost a $45 sale. If she had not been so very nice with the one sale I did get through on I would NEVER GO BACK.
Small business can not afford to lose customers. If I had the problem 3 times imagine how many other customers she has lost that just did not bother to come back. So you lose one $50 sale oh well! Multiply that by 100 and it gets to be more than OH WELL!
So along with my arts and crafts over the years I started web development and design in 1995. I was lucky enough to get into it at the bottom when there were literally no development tools around. So we were all left to helping one another and the community was small. Because of that I have beta tested a lot of software from some of the biggest companies … the latest was Adobe CS5 (the best Photoshop so far).
Because of that opportunity I have formed some pretty firm opinions on what works and what does not and why. So I will post here for you the companies and software I use and you can at least save yourself some time without getting things that might no be quite as tried and true.
Here are the things I learned.
If you want to be found on the net you are interested in SEO or “search engine optimization”.
There are those out there more than willing to CHARGE YOU for promises they CAN NOT KEEP.
So I tell every client GET IN WRITING WITH A MONEYBACK PROMISE when they FAIL.
When there are a million people on the net doing the same thing you are doing, that have a website … logic tells you it will be close to impossible to get to the top of page one without paying. That paying can be pretty costly sometimes hundreds to thousands a month.
So what really counts?
Your domain name.
How long you have that name.
How many quality links you have to your domain (bad ones will drop your rank)
How many visitors you have.
HOW WELL YOU SPREAD YOURSELF AROUND AND MAKE FRIENDS (I do not mean FACEBOOK OR TWITTER)
The longer you keep your domain name (the older they get) the better they rank. Those of you who belong to a blogging network (like blogger, word press etc.) you might rank well through the network but not as well through your own domain name on the major search engines. Of the blog software out there I find WordPress to be the best (most user friendly … less proprietary). Super easy to install (click of a mouse) if you host at say Hostgator (my favorite or any host with CPanel). There are thousands of beautiful themes (FREE) for WordPress which is an OpenSource (public domain created) software.
I recommend even if you are not going to use your domain right now … buy it now and let it sit vacant (like a good piece of real-estate) until you are ready. I have a domain that is now 16 years old that ranks better vacant than my new developed paper craft site. Sucks but oh well … lol
One last thing if you want to register a domain my favorite registrar over the last 10 years is GoDaddy … look for a coupon (online) and you can register for about $7.50 a year. They are VERY RELIABLE. But DO NOT host your domain there. I have had to many clients unhappy with their servers and the functionality of them.
I will not even work with a client who hosts with them.
Several new toys arrived Monday!
Oh my gosh this is so much fun!
Better than Christmas and in a New Year when I have an expanse of time before me.
Is there anything more exciting that getting up in the morning and thinking OKAY what can I try out today. OKAY NEW TOYS! … get in line … ROFL
List of new toys:
1. The Teresa Collins clear stampmaker.
2. We R Memory Keepers SewEasy
This appeared to be a pretty neat little tool even though I do have a nice digital sewing machine. It came in a kit with 4 bobbins full of color cordinated floss (looks like embrodery floss to me) , 4 interchangable heads, the piercing tool, and a matt. I opted to get the extra 3 heads so I would have them all. Since at one phase of my sewing life I did counted cross stitch I have enough floss to last the rest of my days in every color DMC had … who ever thought I would embrodery on paper
3. Anna Griffin Corner paper punches … love those corner punches. Now let me see if they are as good as Martha Stewart punches. To date my favorite are from Martha.
4. Last but not least is the YourStory photo binder.
Yes I already have a GREAT book binder.
My Cinch will punch holes in whatever pattern I want … but then you need binder rings or the binding strips that come with it. So added to my studio I thought it would be nice for UNDER $30 including shipping I could get a hot glue (so to speak) system. If you have ever done that kind of binding it can be MESSY.
I will keep you posted on how these things work and if they are making a trip back to HSN should they not make me happy
My new toy is a Teresa Collins All-In-One Stampmaker
Okay everyone I am excited beyond belief.
I happened to be frozen on the sofa under 2 fur throws with TV remote in hand. Somehow (divine providence perhaps) scrapbooking on HSN appeared and they were selling a little machine to make clear stamps. Well I had to have it. According to my understanding you can make a negative using black paper and your cricut, a photograph or a black line drawing I guess to make clear rubber stamps.
This little (APPARENT) wonder is a: Teresa Collins All-In-One Stampmaker Kit UV Lightbox.
It was around midnite I think and its first appearance so I thought I better buy it before it hit normal day hours. Sure enough the showing next morning it was gone in a snap.
I think you can view it here:
http://crafts-sewing.hsn.com/teresa-collins-all-in-one-stampmaker-kit-uv-lightbox_pf-111802_xp.aspx
Anyone have one of these yet?
ATC an extra (Calico Cat)
While I was packaging up my swap cards I figured I would make a little note card with a simple stamp on the front.
That was this cat stamp. As I was adding little flowers to the cat neck with tiny streamers this ATC was born.
I first used the Tim Holtz Distress inks in a watercolor technique. Then stamped the cat. I have a calico Maine Coon named Muffy with a gorgeous black very fluffy tail. So the fun fur tail fluff for this little card was born.
Tiny layered punched flowers adorn her body and she has a rhinestone collar.
I love her!
ATC Project 3 (Wings)
For our project 3 we were suppose to use a large stamp that we could use only part of. Watercolor the background add a saying and cut a part of the stamped image and lift it with dots for a 3d effect. Use a little bit of shimmer.
The demo was a wonderful dragonfly.
I did have a group of winged creatures stamp so I started out with those. I could not really get raved about the backgrounds so these were not to be my final class project for the swap.
Here is the result:
