Two Items Sold, One Almost Sold

So I managed to sell off both of my illusion necklace sets. The gal who purchased them said she fell in love with them while visiting my shop. :) I sent them off to her today, so she should have them in the next 3-4 business days. :)

I also have a request for one of the illusion sets in a bigger size and with sterling components. :) I'm going to be working on that pretty soon here - I'm just waiting for Artbeads.com to ship out the sterling components I purchased to use for the set. :)

So I finally sold some items. Hopefully this will be just the beginning! :)

Clarity Counts

I will say this - when looking into new forms of advertising your shop, always make sure you understand how it works before you agree to it.

I had contacted a website once asking about getting in on their advertising gig, but realized that I couldn't afford to do it as they asked you to pay them (fair enough). This had included a shop credit that you contacted the owner of the site you were advertising on to get paid for your items. I couldn't afford to do it, so I declined. A couple of weeks later, the game had changed. You didn't have to pay anymore, you just provided a store credit. What hadn't been made clear was that you would not be reimbursed for your items. That's right - you provided a store credit and if the person who won the credit spent more than the credit was worth - you PayPal invoiced them for the balance. Otherwise you just send out your items - with no actual payment for them at all!

Now had this advertising method generated any actual sales - I wouldn't have had a problem with it, because I'd have had the money to do what I needed to do. But it didn't. I did not get a single sale from this except for the sales from the credit.

Now the gal who runs the site I was advertising on offered to pay me the money for the store credit I'd provided because it wasn't made totally clear that there was no more reimbursement. And that's cool. Now I know and I'll be prepared next time I decide to advertise there. 

But lesson learned - always make sure you know what is going on - especially if the format has changed since you last looked into it!

GIVEAWAY TIME

Interested in a little giveaway? Want to win a pair of super cute Christmas Light Earrings? Well, you can if you enter my giveaway through my Facebook page! You are not required to "like" my page, but if you do, you'll get updates on what is going on with Eternal Stardust Jewelry, as well as the option for special coupons that are Facebook fans only!

When you go to my page, just click on the giveaway link on the left hand side, click the Enter Giveaway button, and you're done!

You get your choice of one (1) of the following pairs of earrings:

1. Blue Christmas Lights w/ Aquamarine crystals
2. Green Christmas Lights w/ Emerald crystals (only 1 pair available)
3. Green Christmas Lights w/ Opan crystals
4. Purple Christmas Lights w/ purple confetti bead
5. Red Christmas Lights w/ Garnet crystals
6. Yellow Christmas Lights w/ Crystal crystals (only 1 pair available)
7. Yellow Christmas Lights w/ Fire Opal crystals (only 1 pair available)

The Christmas lights are plastic charms. Earrings are on nickel-based fish hook ear wires. If you enter the contest and share it with someone who enters through the link you shared (use the share links provided on the giveaway page), both you and your friend win a pair of the earrings! Please note that some pairs only have 1 available, so they are first-come-first-serve!

Good luck!! :)

Just A Bit of Fun

I thought I'd check out Stylish Home and have a bit of fun with their idea files. I liked the look of a particular room, then I found a color scheme I preferred, and then I picked a few products I liked as well. If you want you can look at it below:


Removed due to it breaking my blog layout, sorry!

Custom Order for a Friend

A friend of mine asked me to make a necklace, bracelet, and earring set for her a few months ago. I didn't start it until the other day because I wanted to make sure she knew what type of necklace and bracelet she was going to be getting. When I showed her the set that I was going to use as the "pattern" for the set, she liked it a lot, with the exception of asking that the necklace be made longer, which I obliged her with.

She also requested that I shorten a bracelet that she liked & switch the  matching earrings from pierced to clip-on as she doesn't have pierced ears. I used an old pair of really neat clip-on earrings that had a little hold at the bottoms to make the earrings for that bracelet and they turned out really cool - and one of a kind. :)

These are the earrings that I made to match the bracelet. I think they came out really well.

This is the bracelet that I shortened for my friend. I just took two of the turquoise/quartz blend beads off and two of the obsidian beads off.

This is the bookmark that my friend requested. She wanted the December birthstone crystals with a butterfly on the end.

These are the earrings to the set I made for her. Tiger Eye on the bottom, Turquoise dyed Jasper in the middle, and Lt. Colorado Brilliance crystals on clip-on earrings.

Same beads as above, only for the bracelet.

The necklace - same beads as the bracelet and earrings. I had to loop the necklace around the stand twice because it was too long otherwise! :)

So that is my custom order that I will be delivering to my friend tomorrow at lunch.
Any custom orders come your way recently?

Autumn & Winter Wear

So Autumn is here and Winter approaches. Time to start thinking of cool items for keeping warm. When I think of cool items to keep warm I think of cool scarves & awesome looking hats. Any hat that is stylish and can keep your head warm at the same time is a great idea in my book.

For instance this newsboy cap I made:

This cap can keep your head warm while allowing you to stay stylish at the same time. I think it's a really cute hat anyways. :)

Scarves can be cool as well. You can have pockets on them to allow you to warm your hands or stash stuff if you want, or they can be plain. You can have them in stripes or solids. I love a good scarf in Winter. I don't have any pictures of cool scarves right now, but I plan to make some soon! :)

The above pictured cap comes in 3 sizes - 22" head circumference, 24" head circumference, or 26" head circumference. If you happen to be larger than that, I can make it bigger as well. You can have your choice of colors too - the hat is only $15.00 - it is not currently available in any of my shops, but you can convo me to order one if you like! :) Just let me know your head size & what color you want! :)

Just Give Up Already

This is what my brain has been telling me for the last three or four days. Ever since I posted the clearance section of my jewelry shop, hoping that what is there would finally sell. It hasn't, and even though I just created the section on the 20th or 21st of September, my mind is telling me that no one wants this jewelry, it is junk, and just get rid of the shop and be done with it.

Unfortunately, since this particular nagging does not want to leave, I am wondering if it isn't time to just pack it in and forget trying to have my own business. I know, I know, I shouldn't give up or quit. But...it's been almost 3 years. It will be 3 years in December that I've been trying to make a go of this.

Of course, I get the same advice from everyone I ask about it on Etsy - keep digging, work on my photos, advertise more. Buy more slots in showcases, buy the new search ads, buy Google AdWords ads, become an advertiser on Facebook. Use Project Wonderful. Buy ad space on BlogAds. Try purchasing ad space on other blogs. Been there, done that, no sales. I'm tired of getting the same old advice that does *not* work. I'm tired of being told my pictures aren't good enough when I see shops with *worse* pictures that are selling items like mad. I'm tired of spending money I *do not* have to advertise my shop.

I'm just...tired. The entire time I was in Colorado at the beginning of the year my shops were on vacation mode.   The sad thing? I didn't think about them once until I got home. I didn't care that I didn't have sales, I didn't care that no one could see or buy my products, I just didn't care. Now that I'm home? I worry constantly - am I going to get a sale today? Am I going to have to relist items that I can't afford to relist? Am I going to have to spend more money on advertisement that gets me absolutely nothing?

So now I am wondering - should I give in to my mind and just give up already? Or should I keep plugging away at it, go through the Etsy Holiday Boot Camp and see if sales increase? If they don't increase should I pack it in then? Or should I keep going even beyond the holiday rush and see what happens?

I have no idea what I want to do - but I do know this - my best friend, who owns Baby Bratz Designs, seems to have a better grip on this business thing than I do - and she's not willing to give up yet. Maybe I shouldn't be either.