Activities

I've been using my down-time working on the paper jewelry, and just finished a large, bib-style necklace. I wore it out in public (I like to give each piece a trial run to see how it holds up to an entire day of wear, and whether it garners any reaction from peeps) and I think it scored a 10 out of 10. I have more to make before I would consider approaching any craft galleries or putting them online to sell.

I'm also slowing working through a pile of treasures to add to the website. I've had a couple of sales and it definitely helps, no question, to list several items a week to keep the Google attribute feeds current and fresh when the public does product searches.

The other rather major project I'm considering to learn is how to use a soldering iron in order to use my vast collection of real sea glass pieces, in order to incorporate them in to my jewelry pieces. It's more of an investment than I thought it would be, so I'm pondering. Me, commit to following through on an investment in myself? It's a tough one, and doesn't happen without a lot of angst!!

First Sale at eCrater!

We opened shop at eCrater on May 30th, and today we got our first sale. Processing the transaction through Google Checkout was a breeze - the address was verified without my having to do anything, and they automatically sent the customer a confirming email. Once I processed the transaction (again with a click of a button), had the item boxed up and ready to take to the post office, Google sent another email confirming the shipment to the customer. I fiddled a little bit with the eCrater screen in order to print out a packing slip to put in with the item - I just didn't want to send something out without any documentation. Google doesn't seem to have the option of printing out a packing slip, or it's possible in my excitement and rush to get the order to the post office before it closed (today's Saturday) I just couldn't find it.

Then I looked at Google Analytics to see exactly how the customer had found us - we had been Googled. So that stuff is all working well for us - we show up on targeted searches there and on Google Shopping, with a thumbnail photo right from the website. Every item in our inventory has Google attributes associated with it, basically descriptors that identify the brand, product type, material, and country of origin - this helps items get picked up by the search engines.

I also noticed that the message boards I've posted at, for collectors, have resulted in some hits. So that's nice so see, that some of the work I've been doing is starting to pay off. And all this, so far, without having to pay for advertising, or listing. It takes my time and effort - but it's so satisfying to now see the reward.

Mostly, I must say that I am impressed with the comprehensive help that's available at the online forum at eCrater. What a motherlode of information, ideas, guidelines, out-of-the-box and inventive bunch of individuals that have collected there. Although I found it mind-boggling at first, and overwhelming, if you tackle the building of the store according to the simple instructions available to dealers, it's pretty hard to go wrong.

Google Attributes

Yesterday I logged on to the eCrater account and saw a new button next to all the items in our inventory - the unmistakable G of Google. eCrater supports a certain number of Google Attributes, which are like keywords that describe your stuff that's for sale, and that the Goggle search engine will look through first when someone types in a search.

Here's a great article from the Search Engine Journal, from February 2007, that explains them really well. The upshot is that the more attributes you assign to describe something, the more particular you can get about your search, and the easier it becomes for your potential customer to find their exact match with your product.

I must admit that when I first started to read about attributes and how to assign them, my heart fell - I had already put 53 things into my store without knowing what an attribute was or that it was a good idea to assign them to each one! And it wasn't a matter of doing one record, and copying and pasting it into the rest of them; I had to go into each record individually and put the criteria that described that particular item itself. I tried to take plenty of breaks to give my eyeballs a rest (I tend to not blink often enough when looking at the screen), and also to stretch my back out. After about a day's work, I'm all caught up. And from here on in, when I add anything else to the store, I can select a similar item, copy that record, and the attributes will also be copied, for me to fine tune as necessary.

Once again, I am learning so much by doing this all myself. I guess there are plenty of people out there who hand over the running of their internet stores to a Web Master - and also hand over the money to do it - but this way I am gaining a real sense of ownership, and a depth of knowledge that I never would have imagined acquiring a year ago. Such a richness! And there's still room in my brain for more stuff!

The Google Help Base Center - a place that's dry as burnt toast, highly technical, crammed with information but not exactly geared for low-tech klutzes like myself, is also a good bookmark to have, because every single attribute that Google supports is listed, explained, and an example given.

Now I'm feeling slightly more in control of how the website is developing. I did write a Squidoo lens, though ya got me as to how those really work (maybe I'll have to do another one to get the hang of it?).

Today's picture is of another piece of Wedgwood Jasperware. This one is a commemorative pin dish made to celebrate Canada's centennial, in 1967. The applied white relief is a stylized maple leaf - no mention of Canada or the year anywhere on the piece. If you didn't know what it was or what it represented, you'd think it was a Star of David gone wrong! But in our house, mom had even made a needlepoint chair cushion using this motif. When I spotted this piece at the estate sale last week, I got all excited (that's a Canadian living in the United States for you!). Enjoy - and look forward to many more souvenirs celebrating that year in history.