Circling on Etsy / My Sister

Building a presence on the internet is a necessity if you are going to have a successful online business.   The same is true on Etsy.

One of the ways to help build a presence on Etsy is to build up your circles.   When someone chooses to add your shop to their circle, then your activity shows up in their activity feed - such as when you favorite an item, or a shop or a treasury, or add someone to your circle.   Essentially, they are saying that they like some of the same things that you like and would like to see more of what you like in the future.

It really is quite easy to build your circles simply by adding shops or people to your circle.   Often, but not always, they will circle you back - and your circle count grows!

My method for choosing shops to add to my circle is to go to my Favorites - either Favorite Items or Favorite Shops.   I select a shop or item that I like - one either with similar items as those that I carry, or with a similar style (even if the item or items or totally different) to items that I carry.   Then, I go to the list of those that have Favorited the item or shop.   There you will find a list of shops and people who have favorited the item or shop.   You will also find a count of how many circles each one is in, as well as how many items they have favorited and pictures of the last four items they favorited.

Now, you have to determine what your criteria will be for including a shop or person in your circle.   I NEVER include a "Secret Admirer".   They keep their favorites private, so that their favorites never hit the activity feed.   Generally, I choose shops that have at least 50 members in their circles, indicating that they have been around for at least a little while.   I also look for those that have at least as many items favorited as the number of circles they are in.   This tells me that they will be involved in getting items into the activity feed for their circle members to see.   All of this helps to get items seen.  

The reason for choosing shops or people that like the same styles that I sell is that some of those will also favorite my shop, which serves as an added bonus!

New Addition to My Shop !

This week, my sister joined my shop.  She will be bringing her creativity in the form of things that she sews and jewelry that she makes.  The first of her items added to the shop are three handmade Christmas Tree Skirts.  Generally going beyond just sewing the skirt together, she also adds details such as paint, glitter, sequins, ruffles, gemstones and crystals.  These are truly heirloom quality!  Be sure to check them out -

Have a great day and Thank you for joining me here today! 

Please leave a comment - I love to hear from my followers.

Shop Feature and Just a Few Treasuries

PromoFrenzy Featured Shop of the Week: NewCreatioNZ
  Jocelyn of NewCreatioNZ is a Photographer and Painter.  She users her artistic abilities to create a number of beautiful and unique pieces of art.  Be sure to stop by her shop!  You will be glad that you did!

Now, just a few Treasuries -

Christmas In July

Etsy is having a "Christmas in July" Celebration / Sale and a lot of shops are participating.  My shop, RomanticThoughts, will be extending its Christmas in July Sale for the entire month. (* Discount is not valid on Custom Orders).  You can look for shop announcements to see if your favorite shops are participating, as well as to see what specials each participating shop is having.  Also, you can do a search on Etsy for "CIJ" or "christmasinjuly" to find items from shops that are included in the sale. 

Here are some of the latest additions to my shop:

Hope you have a chance to visit RomanticThoughts.etsy.com or some of the many other shops participating in Christmas In July.  The Official dates are July 12 - 22, but many shops, like my own are having an extended sale for the entire month!

Thanks for stopping by.  I would enjoy reading your comments and I always appreciate my followers!  Have a great day  :-)

Social Media : Pinterest

One of the teams I belong to on Etsy is the Promotional Frenzy Team.  There are a number of requirements for participation on this team - all of which are there to assist members in building their Etsy businesses.  Among the requirements is participation in various Social Media avenues, such as Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, etc.

At one time, there was some encouragement to start using Pinterest.  As I started using it, I found that this was one that I could really get into.  Pinterest can be very addictive,  I mean FUN!  Over time, some concerns were expressed about the Terms of Service on Pinterest.  Apparently, the Terms stated that Pinterest would have the right to sell any content posted there.  Finally, within the last week, Pinterest announced changes to their Terms, which go into effect on April 6, 2012.

In their announcement, they state -

Our original Terms stated that by posting content to

Pinterest you grant Pinterest the right for to sell your content.

Selling content was never our intention and

we removed this from our updated Terms.

This should address some of the concerns about using Pinterest.  Phew!  I wasn't terribly concerned about using it, since, although I am often posting photographs of my work, I am not a professional photographer, so it is doubtful that anyone would want to buy the pictures. 

Anyway, I hope that the changes in the Terms will make others more comfortable in using Pinterest.  This is where I have focused more of my efforts than any other Social Media.  While I currently have 772 followers following all of my boards, many of my boards have twice that.  My Jewelry Board has 1561 followers.  My Etsy Finds and Faves Board has 1529 followers and the Bath and Body Board has 1543 followers.  And it is always gratifying to get the string of emails notifying me of followers that have "liked" or "repinned" the things I have posted!

I hope you will join me on Pinterest.  You can find me at http://pinterest.com/sharonintexas/.  If you need an invitation to join, just leave a note in the comments.  I just need an email address so they can send you the invitation to join.  Hope to see you there.

Always Looking for a Deal

Today, I am just doing a quick post about something many of us do and some of us even enjoy - shopping!  A week or so ago, I got an email from my sister recommending that I check out a website that supposedly had great deals - new deals every day.  It took a while for me to get around to it, but it does look interesting, so I thought I would share it.  Here is the link:  NOMORERACK

Of course, when I first looked at the link, I couldn't imagine what on earth Nomo Rerack could possibly be.  I have since learned that it is actually No More Rack.  It appears that they have 8 or 10 deals every day on some high ticket items at up to 90% off.  Don't know how they do it, but I'll be checking it out on a regular basis.  I have seen some very tempting things.  For example, today they had the Kindle Touch 3G for $15.87, retail was $150.  Of course, they sold out before I got there.  Otherwise, I would have scooped up one of those!

Just thought I would share.

Have a great day!

Something New and Different

One of the dangers of Etsy is stumbling across something unexpected that you absolutely have to have! In the course of doing my daily tasks, I stumbled across such an item - some polymer clay flowers created by BeeTreebyMe .  I knew I could create something lovely with them that would fit well with my collection.  Yet, it would be something different, too.

It took a number of attempts to find just the right way to display the flower - putting something together, seeing if it works, and then taking it apart when I decided it isn't just the look I was wanting to create.  Finally, I woke up one morning with an idea of just the design that would work.  So, here I present to you my very first design using polymer beads...

You can find this creation in my shop at Blue Flower Necklace at RomanticThoughts on Etsy

Have a great day!