Winner, Winner. Chicken Dinner! (or earrings, rather)

Kissingtoast! Come on down! 

(email me your address and I'll put these sparklies in the mail! ershyn@gmail.com) 

And if you didn't win, you should know I'm like 8 away from 600 now, so I'll be doing this again in a matter of days with some other piece of jewelry! 

Two Milestones and a Giveaway!

This past week kicked off a crazy busy, fun, fun, May.  Last weekend I participated in the 10th Annual Violet Crown Festival at Brentwood Park north of downtown and it was Hot!  97 degrees in the shade hot!  But I had shade, in my sweet new tent.  Which brings me to my first milestone.  Unrepeatables caused its first temper tantrum by someone other than myself!  For Realz! A little girl had to be dragged out of the tent by her overheated mommas as she clutched the leg of the tent and screamed for a ring.  I knew how she felt.

Bigger, better, milestone?  My Facebook Page just hit 500 fans!  I'm doing a giveaway, and at the same time, revitalizing a blog that I haven't used for a year!  Eesh!  That's so bad!

Here's what you've got to do.  "Like" my facebook page and follow my blog, and then comment below that you've done that and I'll enter your name into my nifty mason jar and on May the 21st I'll draw a winner.  What do you get?  Oh-ho!  TWO pairs of sparkly, neon, awesome in stud earring form.

Already "Like" Unrepeatables?  Yes, of course you can still enter!  Just post below and I'll add you, too!

Yeah, they will see you coming from a mile, and when you get there, they'll want your earrings! 

Advertising to your Niche. (on Facebook)

I love my nail polish rings, but primarily because I love nail polish.  I am the niche I am looking for.  Women who love nail polish, who know which brands are limited edition and the names of their favorite polishes.  Who read blogs and look at swatches online before they decide what to get.  Who read reviews of the latest collections and who worry about formula and ease of application.  A little group - but we know what we like!

With that little niche in mind...

I made an ad! 

I'm trying something new for the next five days.  I'm running an ad on Facebook with a very specific target market.  My ad is running for a targeted group of 35,020 people.  I made decisions about age, location and interests.  Four countries, 23 year age range, one interest.

Also for the first time ever I've decided to go the cost per impression (CPM) route rather than cost per click (CPC).  I'm hoping that my chosen business name is unique enough to be remembered with a glance instead of necessitating clicking an ad.  With that in mind I've repeated "Unrepeatables.com" twice in the ad, once in the headline, once in the body.

I don't want to go crazy with my spending just now so I've set a low per-day maximum. ($10.00)  

Here's a screenshot of my progress last night, roughly 3 hours into the experiment.

With my main goal being exposure then three hours to get 5,073 impressions/views is pretty good, I think! 

In those same 3 hours I got 3 new "likes" on my facebook page and 10 direct visitors to my etsy store.  I'm a little sheepish about being excited about, and even noticing, 10 additional visitors, but that's where I am right now, counting my numbers by the tens.  And that's why I'm doing this.  Because we've got to start somewhere! 

(I'll post a recap of how things went at the end of the run.)

Oh No! I'm a visual schizophrenic!

Watch this amazing video from Mayi Carles. It's brilliant, enthusiastic, a little scary and a lot enlightening! I've got a lot of work to do!

Help Your Market Interpret Your Brand from Mayi Carles on Vimeo.

Setting Goals- how not to fail. (with Awesome Resources!!)

Ok- here we are in May.  5 months into the year and my goals are falling apart.  I read three excellent, and reasonable blog posts recently about that very thing!  It's never too late to adjust your game plan!

First from Handmadeology (which is an awesome site that you should definitely subscribe to if you don't already!)  An article called "How to Properly Set Your Goals"

A goal should be achievable. Some people say you should set your goals high so that you achieve greater success. Instead you should set your goals realistically so that that you can achieve them. It builds confidence to meet a goal or surpass it. If it was easy, set the next one harder. If it was too hard or you missed it, set the next one easier to attain.

and Next from MeShe Designs Blog - she's doing a One Month Challenge and May 3rd's blog entry was all about using Google Calendar to set, and keep track of business goals!

Finally, also on May 3rd, Create Hype  sent out an email entitled "3 Crafty Income Streams To Add Right Now."  This morning I took one stream idea to heart and launched my own Nail Polish Ring of the Month Club! 

there's no place for fear!

I read this quote again yesterday:

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do” 

             ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Could chasing down Rachael Ray and giving her this ring be considered guerilla marketing?

I'm trying, this year, and hopefully forever after, to confront head on the things that scare me.  I've always used generalities "Artists create, we don't like to put ourselves out there"  which may be true of some, but at Shop Crafty a week ago I learned it's not true of all.  My neighbors were social masters!  (and they sold accordingly!)  

So, yesterday Mrs. Eleanor reminded me that I must do the thing I think I cannot do.  Which in this case is introduce myself to shops.  I actually felt a little bit nauseous just thinking about it, still do, but also yesterday I got an email from one of the crafty business momma sites I follow The Mogul Mom, offering a two day e-course on Pitch Marketing from Justine Smith.   I'm not suggesting you take the course too, I'm just marveling at the direction the universe takes.  For $47.00 though, I'll take it, even if it tells me things I already know it's going to be like a shot of information courage, which is really what I need right now.

Also, I love Etsy and I plan to have a presence there forever, but I'm not going to make it as a not-getting-a-real-job Crafty Mastermind without wholesale contracts.  

Pantone Spring 2011 Color Forecast. Not an ugly color in the bunch!

Seriously, some years... you know, it's all burnt sienna and meconium, not this year!

This year, love every color!   And while we're two months from summer you've got plenty of time to work these colors into your spring and summer designs, unless you're way more organized than I am and you have your stock made months in advance.

I don't know about you but I'm going nail polish shopping!