Yellow, Pink, Pyrite, and Polka-dots

{On the boardwalk at Sandgate}

Today was a journey of yellow, pink, pyrite, polka-dots… and business development? Hey, that last part might not sound so sexy, but I promise you, it was pretty damn awesome.

I kicked off this lovely Saturday with 2 hours hangin’ with my crafty peeps at the latest BrisStyle I *heart* Craft Info Session.

There were quite a number of us who gave short talks – I spoke for 15 minutes about the importance of having an engaged and vibrant mailing list for your business. I felt like I was SUPER-SPEEDY JESS as I talked a mile-a-minute to try and get across as much info as I could in that time.

A few lovely people came up to me afterwards and said I did a good job (thank you!) so hopefully I got a few people inspired to get out there and get going with a mailing list!

{image by @gita_ – it was lovely to meet you!}

Next stop was Peppertown Gemworld. If you live in Brisbane, like making jewellery, and have never been, you must go post-haste!!!

I buy quite a few of my tools from there, and today I picked up some new hammers – and, particularly excitingly, a rawhide hammer, which I haven’t gotten my hands on before! I use these hammers to shape and harden silver (especially rings) so my old ones have gotten quite the beating (literally) over the last few months since I released my wedding ring range.

The wedding rings have been selling so well that I’ve decimated my hammers much faster than normal!

Then, Nick and I did something unusual… we had an impromptu lunch date! We stopped at one of our fave places to relax, the Full Moon Hotel at Sandgate. I love the view over Moreton Bay.

I also now love that they’ve started serving their Rekorderlig ciders in these custom cider glasses. Yes, it looks like a vase! But that was just one bottle of Rekorderlig, promise! {Strawberry and Lime, my fave, in case you were wondering. Or you’d like to bribe me.}

Finally! I wanted to share some pics of this ADORBS new dress that I bought from Bess Georgette. I have dubbed it the ‘Gidget’ dress. I don’t know why, the name just seems to fit. And how about that bow, eh? That is what totally sold me on this dress. So cute.

I paired it up with a vintage jacket I bought in the UK last year, a belt from another polka-dot vintage dress I own, and some flowery shoes. Oh, and my currently ever-present Interrobang bag, of course!

Also – in case you were wondering – the pyrite necklace and earrings I’m wearing are from the Epheriell  A/W 2012 collection… which I am FINALLY ready to launch!! It’s been a long time in the planning, but all the pieces have finally come together.

You might have seen me instagramming and facebooking some rings last week that will be part of the collection – these are just a taste of the designs I have lined up for you all.

The collection is titled Raw Earth and features a range of rough-cut gemstone necklaces, earrings, and rings in a number of different hues, combined with the silver chevron motif and long v-shaped earwires.

If that sounds up your alley, make sure to sign up to the Awesome People List NOW so you don’t miss first dibs on the (mostly) limited edition collection. I’ll be sending out a Raw Earth launch email to the APL within the week before I release the collection publicly.

I have been having a blast creating the new range, so I hope you love it!

P.S. If you’re a Brissie crafter and want to come along to future I *heart* Craft Info Sessions, here’s the schedule! I’ll be giving the Social Networking talk on October 20th.

P.P.S. If you want to learn more about running a successful mailing list, you can check out my new ebook, or come and see me and a few other fabulous people share our knowledge about online creative business at the Artful Business Conference in early September.

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Want more Epheriell-y goodness? Subscribe to Epheriell Designs! Also, you can follow me on Twitter!



7 comments   Crafty Biz, epheriell, Fashion, Marketing, What I Wore

Introducing… the Epheriell Earring-of-the-Month Club!

If you’re on the mailing list, you already know all about the Epheriell Earring-of-the-Month Club… but if not, I’m so excited to share it with you!

I got such an overwhelming positive response to the Epheriell Earring-of-the-Month Club idea when I sent out a survey via email/twitter/facebook that I’ve made it a reality!

Over the weekend I put together a number of packages to suit every budget – from a monthly payment option right through to 12-month pre-paid membership.

So, just what is the Epheriell Earring-of-the-Month Club?

When you sign up to become a member, you will receive a new (mystery) pair of Epheriell earrings in the post each month. Every pair will be handcrafted by me from beautiful, recycled sterling silver.

Most months you will get a new Urban Candy or (occasionally) an Urban Eco design, but every 3 months you’ll receive one of my other (usually rather more expensive) earring designs, no matter what option you choose!

The longer you sign up for, the less each pair of earrings cost you. Those who sign up for 6 months end up getting one free pair, while those who sign up for 12 months get two free pairs!

Some designs will be EXCLUSIVE to club members only – there will be NO other way to get your hands on them. And no matter how long you sign up for, you’ll never get the same pair of earrings twice.

You have 2 options.

1. Sign up for a defined period - 3, 6, or 12 months. Perfect as a gift for a friend or loved one… or for yourself, of course! Look below this section to see those options. (If you’re buying a gift, you get a complementary gift tag sent with the first pair of earrings, along with a personalised note.)

2. Click here and use Paypal to subscribe on an ongoing basis. You’ll get a new pair of earrings in the mail every month for as long as you remain a club member – and you can cancel anytime.

The cost to become a recurring club member is just $26 AUD per month. There is no additional postage charge. Click to subscribe – it’ll be like getting a birthday present every month!

Like to sign up for a defined period instead – or purchase as a gift?

Click on your preferred time-frame below:

Got questions? Please visit this page and scroll down to read the FAQ’s - and if you still have questions that I haven’t answered, just hit reply on this email and ask away!

I can’t wait to start making lovely earrings for my super-special club members (and a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who’s already signed up – I’m so excited to get this thing underway!!)

Jess xx



2 comments   epheriell, Marketing

The numbers to look at when you’re buying blog advertising for your crafty biz

For many of us with small online creative businesses, blog ads are a big part of our advertising strategy.

Rarely can we afford magazine advertising, and since our customers are online, it make sense to advertise to them online, too.

There are a number of different options available – we can use google adwords or facebook ads (the latter I would recommend) – but the most popular choice seems to be buying sidebar ad space on crafty/lifestyle blogs.

There are so many out there – and so many that offer ad space – that it can be really tricky to decide where to spend your limited ad budget.

As someone who both buys blog ads and who has sold them for years now, I thought I’d share a little of what I’ve learnt about what makes for  a good blog to advertise on. Specifically – which statistics should you be focussing on when making your decision?

First…

Before you even look at the numbers, make sure the blog is somewhere you think your customers will hang out – not just your peers/colleagues. Of course, for many of us our peers are our customers, too – but make sure to think about that before you go any further.

Probably no point advertising your knitted scarf business on a blog that’s all about how to knit… because the majority of people who visit want to learn how to knit a scarf themselves rather than buy a finished product. You’re better off finding a lifestyle or more general handmade blog whose visitors like to look at (and buy!) lovely handmade things.

The numbers…

Let’s first outline the core numbers you may come across, and explain what they are:

  • Subscribers – this might be RSS/feed subscribers, google followers, email subscribers. Subscribers are people who receive the blog posts either in their feed reader of choice, or direct to email.
  • Social media subscribers – facebook, twitter, pinterest etc. These folks will find their way to the blog via links on social media – so when they read the blog post, they are actually coming to the blog to do so, as opposed to the rss/google followers who read the blog posts from their feed reader/dashboard.
  • Visitors. This is the number of individual people who visit the blog in a defined time period.
  • Pageviews. This is the number of times the blog is viewed by visitors in a defined time period. Some visitors might only visit once and view one page, whereas your regular readers will view many pages throughout the month.

So, which are most important to you?

Okay. I rank the above numbers in order from most important to least important as follows:

  • Visitors
  • Pageviews
  • Social media subscribers
  • RSS/Feed subscribers

But wait! Why am I putting blog subscriber numbers last?

Because – as I mentioned above – people who are subscribed via RSS do not come to the blog to read the blog posts. Unless they’re a weirdo like me, who always clicks over to the blog when I see a post in my feed that I like. Most folks read blog posts right in their reader.

That means they are not seeing your ad!

If you were doing a giveaway or had a feature on the blog, I would reverse those numbers. BUT when we’re talking a sidebar blog ad, you want to focus on how many people will be seeing the ad. And that equals visitors and pageviews.

The more eyeballs on your ad, the more clicks it’s going to get. So, contrary to what you might have thought in the past, make sure to focus on visitors and pageviews rather than subscribers.

Social media subscriber numbers are important too, especially if the blogger is really great at driving people back to their blog – but, of course, anyone coming through from social media will just show up in the visitor/pageview numbers, so they really are key.

How to choose?

This is the process I follow…

First, put together a spreadsheet (hang on, stay with me here!). In the spreadsheet, list the name of the blogger, their blog url, and the range of their blog ad prices (so, if you were listing me it would be – Jess | http://EpheriellDesigns.com | $20-$65 -).

This will not only help you decide between blogs, it means you now have a handy-dandy media list that you can keep coming back to! No more thinking “gee, what was that blog I advertised on that time?”

Now, go through the advertise/sponsor page on each blog and look for the numbers I spoke about above. If the blogger doesn’t list them publicly, just email them and ask for the numbers. If they are not willing to give them to you, run away. Any blogger who is offering advertising should be open and honest about what you will be getting for your money.

All other considerations aside (such as the blog is your fave, it has your perfect target audience, they are a friend of yours) you want to choose the blog that has the highest visitor/pageview number with the lowest advertising cost.

That way, you’ll be getting the most bang for your buck!

Of course, you also want to consider additional perks – like, if you buy the large ad do you get a sponsor post? That’s a huge perk as it not only will go out to those RSS subscribers who might never see your ad, but it stays on the blog forever, driving traffic to you.

One final tip – when I do blog advertising, I usually choose to advertise on a whole stack of blogs at the one time (in one month, for example) rather than advertising on one or two occasionally. Most folks who read blogs in our niche will travel in similar circles, and by advertising across a number of blogs with the same image, you’re more likely to capture their interest.

 If you have any further questions on this, please just leave them in the comments and I’ll reply!

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Want more Epheriell-y goodness? Subscribe to Epheriell Designs! Also, you can follow me on  Twitter!



8 comments   Crafty Biz, Marketing

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