Folkart Sheep and Wedding Couple

Just got these in from mom.  I had to rush outside and snap pics as rain was coming and it was like a second before it came down with hail right after I got the pics whew!  They are up for sale in my artfire and Etsy shoppes and will be on my website by tomorrow :)

SEO Tips to Help Your Etsy Shoppe Prosper

I wanted to share these great links with you about Etsy and SEO. Tim Adam is the original poster and I am reposting for all of you :)
Original Post Tim Adam

TimothyAdamDesigns says:
Without traffic and views Etsy sellers would never make sales. Getting shoppers into your shop is the first step to making sales. There are many ways to get traffic but the best is free traffic from Google. There are millions of searches everyday and proper SEO (search engine optimization) can help you harness the power of Google. The great thing is Etsy has made it easy for sellers to maximize their SEO. Simple SEO is a easy to follow guide that can help any Etsy seller properly set up their shop for SEO.

How To Properly Place Keywords In Your Etsy Shop To Dominate Small Niches In The Google Search (part 1)

* 3 most important factors that determine a good key word
* How to properly use the Google keyword tool
* How to find the “real” competition for your keyword or phrase
* Why 1 million searches for a keyword is not necessarily good
http://www.handmadeology.com/how-to-properly-place-keywords-in-your-etsy-shop-to-dominate-small-niches-in-the-google-search/


How To Properly Place Keywords In Your Etsy Shop To Dominate Small Niches In The Google Search (part 2)

* Where to place keywords in your Etsy shop
* Why your shop announcement, sections and title can help your SEO

http://www.handmadeology.com/how-to-properly-place-keywords-in-your-etsy-shop-to-dominate-small-niches-in-the-google-search-part-2/

Quality Backlinks for Better SEO

* What is a backlink?
* How can they improve SEO?
* 5 tips for getting more quality backlinks
http://www.handmadeology.com/quality-backlinks-for-better-seo/

This is your time to ask questions about SEO. I would love to answer any questions that come up!

Timtohy

Banner Tips and Ideas

So I just read this post on Etsy success on how to create you banner and how the colors should go with the items for sale in your shoppe.  I also read about GIMP but I already have and use that now.  It is a cool easy way to make fun banners for your etsy shoppe.  Here is my latest banner I made'

Here is the article to read on:
http://www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/seller-how-to-banner-tips-6265/?utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Banner+and+Avatar+Tips&utm_content=etsy_success_sm_011111&utm_campaign=etsy_success_sm_011111

How to Round Up

Challenge yourself in 2011 with a new craft! You'll find ten of the finest How-Tuesday posts of the year in this round up blog post. 


Read on
http://www.etsy.com/storque/events/craft-nights-near-and-far-and-a-2010-how-to-round-up-11476/?utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Read+on...&utm_content=etsy_success_010610&utm_campaign=etsy_success_010610

Increased Item Views

How do you get your Etsy items found by many? Etsy seller shalanasuggests, "The more items in your shop, the more items that you have to be found on Etsy — that's my little theory!"  I have a few other little theories of my own.


Read on:
http://www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/etsy-success-tips-increasing-your-item-views-6806/?utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Increasing+Your+Item+Views&utm_content=etsy_success_010610&utm_campaign=etsy_success_010610

Is Busyness Your Mistress?

I read a great artcile about how habits and busyness can be a two-edged sword.  How it can control your life if you let it.  It made me really think about what I do and what I miss and I am going to rethink my priorities seriously.  To read this great article go here:
http://www.scoutiegirl.com/2011/01/seduction-of-busyness.html

How to Print on Fabric Tutorial

So you want to print on fabric?  Well here is a tutorial that will help you get started.  I like this better than transfer paper s it works and is more even.

Supplies needed:

Freezer paper
muslin
iron
scissors


Step 1:

Lay out a regular 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper onto a piece of freezer paper and cut around it to the same size as the paper.

Step 2:

Lay the 8.5 x 11 paper onto a single layer of muslin and cut around making it the same size also.

Step 3:

Lay the muslin on the shiny side of the freezer paper.

Step 4:

Line the muslin and freezer paper up together.

Step 5:

Iron the fabric to the freezer paper hottest setting being careful not to let it sit too long on fabric.

Step 6:

If it lifts off easy like this it is not right.  You may have to let the iron sit on the fabric in one spot for 15 seconds.

Step 7:

Fabric should be stuck like this to freezer paper.

Step 8:

When it is ironed onto the freezer paper like this you are now ready to print on it.  Take it to the printer.

Step 9:

In my printer the fabric goes up but yours may be down I would check it out before I print.

Step 10:

Now just type in microsoft word or works or open office what you want it to say and hit print.  It will print out onto the fabric like this.

Step 11:

Now you should have a great fabric piece, peel freezer paper off the back and cut to use :)

New Items Added to Etsy come and get em while they last!

Just added this bunch and have more to add later too :)

All of these are up for sale now ready to ship in my Etsy Shoppe http://www.rabbithollowprims.etsy.com

Etsy Maintenance Improve Your Business

So the holidays are over but now is not the time to let down your guard.  People have holiday cash to spend and they also may be looking for a gift for a wedding, anniversary, birthday, etc.  Make sure you check your google analytics and see when people are shopping, what they are looking for and how they are finding you.  Use this info to help you adjust your shoppe to fit the needs of what the people are searching for and stay on top of it all. here is some great advice from Laura:
http://www.handmadespark.com/blog/improve-your-etsy-listings-important-maintenance/

Quit You Day Job?

So you opened an online business and want to quit your day job?  Well is it right for you?  Do you have the tenacity it takes to make it work?
Here are 5 real dangers of having an online business:
1. Hours worked on a website are not relative to the amount of money earned, whatever kind of online business you are in. What that means is if you make $20 for doing nothing (you set up your website and are trying to decide what to do next), it does not mean that if you work 20 hours per week, you will earn 20 times the $20. Bottom line, you are not going to quit your day job, work twenty hours the next week on your website, and find $400 in your bank account. While it is true that the more you work on your website, the more potential you have, money and time are not direct correlations. You cannot guarantee earnings this way.


Read them all here:


http://www.handmadeology.com/5-real-dangers-of-quitting-your-day-job/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+handmadeologytoday+(Handmadeology)

New Years Sale Right Now

Good morning everyone.  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones and got everything you wanted.  I know I enjoyed my family immensely and we have had fun playing the Wii, air hockey, and Legos.   I woke up this morning to SNOW.  Now down where I live it doesn't snow rarely ever and I have heard it hasn't snowed here for Christmas since 1947!  So with that said since I am snowed in, I decided to have a New Year Sale.  All items in my Etsy shoppe, Artfire, Website are 15% off starting 7AM EST .  If you buy anything from my website, I will have to invoice you before you pay to get discount or if paying with credit card I will adjust before I charge the card. I am working on loads of new items and I mean loads bunnies, Valentines, St. Patricks are all in the works and will be ready to go out the door soon so I will send out an email when they are ready to go. I have also switched over the website for Valentine's Day and Spring but still left the snow since it is winter and all LOL   Here is a link to all my shoppes and happy shopping.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Rabbithollowprims

http://www.artfire.com/users/rabbithollowprims

http://www.rabbithollowprims.com/

How to Get Great Search Engine Rankings

1. Chose your Keywords Carefully

Once you've chosen your business and purchased a domain name the next step is to find useful and relevant keywords. Without this step your Web site will get lost among the many Web sites that compete for your business.
To begin keyword research you need to utilize some useful tools. The first Web site you should look at is Google Keywords which is a free tool that displays the amount of searches and competition for specific keywords. It also allows you to find more specific keywords that can better describe your site.
A better tool would be to purchase some type of software or service such as WordTracker which offers detailed information about keywords. Unfortunately it's not free, but there are other services that are.

2. Find a Niche Market

This cannot be stressed enough as it's much harder to receive top search engine rankings for a new site than an established site. A new site will have to compete with Web sites that have established high search engine rankings.
To compete with these Web sites is unwise. You first need to find a niche market, and then build up your Web site to a position as to where it can compete with these generic terms. For example let’s say you have a Web site geared towards weight loss. You would not use the keyword "weight loss" because there's too much competition. You can use one of the keyword tools to find suggestions of related keywords that you will be able to compete against. You may find the keyword “weight loss surgery” or “weight loss techniques.” These phrases are much better keywords than generic terms like “weight loss.”
Use the list of a few keywords, check out the competition that word/ phrase has on Google. Look at the number of competitors. If this exceeds a few million, then you need look for a more specific keyword. The next step is to observe the top listed pages and see how well they are optimized. You can download the Google Toolbar and add Page Rank to your browser for free.
A low Page Rank between 0 – 3 means that you can easily compete with these Web pages. A Web site with a Page Rank of 4 – 6 is a bit tougher to compete with, but is manageable using my guided steps and expertise. You don't want to compete with Web sites that have a Page Rank above 7. Check the domains homepage, not a sub-page to get an accurate Page Rank!

3. View Competitors Source Code

It's important to view potential competitor’s source code to see if they have efficiently performed on page search engine optimization. To do this on your Brower click “view” and then click on the “source” option as displayed.”
This will bring up a page with all the html code on it. You don't need to be an expert with html to understand what we're looking for. We need to see if our competitor’s Web site is properly optimized. We look to see if they are using their keywords in the header tags, the title tags, and the image alt tags. These should all be located near the top of the source code.
If you cannot find these then go to the toolbar and chose “edit” and select “find” and type in h1 or title, etc. to see if there are being used for the keywords. If these don't exist or aren't being used to hold keywords, you have found an easily beaten page. This means that with some proper optimization you will be able to outrank this page. The last thing you want to look at is the body content and to see if the keyword is used a few times in the body content. A site lacking in keywords in the body context is a poorly optimized page. You should always make sure your Web page is keyword rich with relevant content.

4. Keyword Placement

After you've selected a few keywords to use we want to combine the ones that have like terms. For example, if you've selected three keywords such as: weight loss story; weight loss picture; safe weight loss, you see that all three keywords contain the words “weight loss.” We can combine the words to better optimize your page.
For the title tag the fewer the keywords used, the better the search engines will rank your page.
When we create the page it should NEVER have “Welcome to our Web site!” in the Title Tags.
It should NEVER have “weight loss story, weight loss picture, safe weight loss” in the Title Tags either.
The way the title tags should look is: “Weight Loss Story | Safe Weight Loss Picture” (Note: You can add this character | by holding the shift key on your keyboard and pressing the backslash key above the enter key.)
You should always remove prepositions such as “and” as this will only hurt your search engine optimization. The fewer, more relevant the words, the higher your search engine ranking will be.
Header 1 tags should be placed above your body content. This should contain your most relevant keyword in this tag. i.e. “Weight Loss Story” This main keyword placed in the H1 tag will substantially increase your page ranking! The Header 2 tag should contain your second most important keyword. The header 3 tag will have your least important keyword placed in it. These header tags are often overlooked, but make a significant difference in your on page search engine optimization.
The body content of your Web page should be rich with keywords and relevant content. You should have each keyword appear at least once for every 1-2 paragraphs. Do not stuff your body with keywords. You want to give your body a clean natural look, meaning do not over or under use keywords!
Image tags alt tags should also be keyword rich. Search engines often look at the alt tags of images on your Web site. If the alt tags don't make use of your keywords then you will be ranked lower than if you had keywords in your alt tags.

5. Homepage Organization

We want the search engines to notice your keywords and index you accordingly. In order to do this you should start and end your body tags with your keywords. This gives the search engine spider information that your page is highly relevant to your keywords.
When the spider looks through your Web site it reads through your content from top left to bottom right. Below is an example of how the search engine reads your page starting with 1 then 2 then 3.
Rather than creating a table that looks like this:
navigational links
Your body text...
You should create a table that looks like this:
Your body text...
navigational links
Now, search engines will view your body content before it views your navigational menu. The search engine will see the top of your page then see a blank area and skip to your body content then move onto your navigational menu

6. Search Engine Submission

The best way to achieve high search engine rankings for new Web sites may not be what you expected. You should not submit your site directly to the search engines as this process can take weeks or even months to get your site listed. Instead you need to get listed on top ranking pages that are relevant to your Web site's content. These high ranking pages are often optimized on a weekly or even daily basis. Every time the site is indexed your link will appear and the search engines will automatically list your site in its index.
To do this you need to search for Web sites indexed by search engines and get them to link to you. The incentive you need to give them is to write some sort of article relevant to your line of business. At the bottom of the article you include your web page URL to get picked up by the search engines. You submit the article to popular article directories on the Web and you will be indexed by the search engines in a matter of days.

To read more go here:
http://www.webreference.com/promotion/seo/

Geek! Nerd! Four Eyes! I love em All!

'Geek! Nerd! Four Eyes! I love em all!' by Rabbithollowprims

Geekery asscessories and such

Brain Function - Graphic Phr... Prime9tees $16.00	Primitive Valentine's Da... Rabbithollowpr... $5.00
Steampunk Speakers //// Free... autumnsteam $150.00	Cassette B iPhone 4 Decal IncredibleDeca... $9.99
The ORIGINAL Felt IPAD cas... latelierdelulu... $65.00	Blue LEGO Star Wars Light Sa... Gr0glmann $9.99
Christmas Clearance Obey Gra... ModernAnachron... $4.50	MacBook Leather Sleeve - The... Antjes $95.00
Tardis Dress Shirt orenjinotaiyou $40.00	Robot and Circuit Board Memo... girlgeekboutiq... $22.00
Geek is the New Cool- laser ... Morphologica $29.50	DR. WHO - Pendant from a Scr... HomeStudio $7.99
Stash Trooper- Moustache Art... scarletbeautif... $9.00	LEGO Indiana Jones Head Cuff... Cufflinks $15.99
Nerd phone cozy / iPod, MP3,... MouthyMitts $15.00	VINTAGE eyeglasses frames BL... foureyesdesign $29.50

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

8 Tips for Loads of Etsy Sales

I know you have probably heard a lot about how to sell on Etsy and what to do and what not to do and you probably are saying I have tried that or this, well I began reading up on some things I thought I was doing and realized I had more to learn, for instance did you know people like to know the story behind the product? They like to be able to say this was made by hand by so and so and they did it by fill in the blank.
So this morning I was reading Handmade Spark and found this wonderful article that you can read here:
http://www.handmadeology.com/8-tips-for-getting-loads-of-etsy-sales/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+handmadeologytoday+(Handmadeology)
and then also it linked to the original forum post here:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6720319

You really need to check out this interesting read and tips.....

Etsy Success Reading List

daniellexo says:

This week's list of the best from the business blogosphere is for the zombie hunter in all of us!  1. 7 Naughty Creative Business Tips http://www.blacksburgbelle.com/2010/12/7-naughty-creative-business-tips/ 2. Accentuate the Negative http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2010/12/10/accentuate-the-negative/ 3. Guidelines for Pricing Your Art http://www.artbizblog.com/2010/12/pricing-your-art.html 4. A Manifesto for Women in Business http://www.womeninbusiness.com.au/_blog/Style_and_Substance/post/manifesto/ 5. Ode to the Entrepreneurial Spirit: An Apology to 9 to 5r’s Everywhere http://whitehottruth.com/business-wealth-articles/ode-to-the-entrepreneurial-spirit-an-apology-to-9-to-5rs-everywhere/

Should I use Twitter and Facebook to Market My Business

I just read an awesome article over on handmade spark about how Twitter leads Facebook when marketing your business.  They found that Twitter is better for getting more clicks or traffic to your products to sell them.  It updates quicker but you have to remember the 80-20 rule retweet 80% promote 20% of the time.
To read more check it out here:
http://www.handmadespark.com/blog/should-i-use-twitter-or-facebook-for-marketing-my-handmade-business/

How to Make A Gift Certificate for Your Shoppe

Story by daniellexo, julieincharge, SarahSays, stellaloella  Published on December 9, 2010 in Seller Handbook	Photo by  paperfinger

As we quickly approach shipping cut-offs to deliver gifts in time for the holidays, some last minute shoppers may appreciate the convenience of a gift certificate from your Etsy shop. We have some guidelines and tips for sellers who wish to offer gift certificates.

How to Set Up Your Listing

Be sure to include pertinent information in your item listing, even if it seems obvious to you:

• When you list your gift certificate, make sure to follow Etsy's rules for item listings.
• Be sure to use the words "Gift Certificate" in your item listing's title and as a tag.
• Your listing must be for a set price; this should be the full value of the gift certificate.
• Be clear in your description that this gift certificate is only redeemable in your Etsy shop.
• Let your buyers know how you will handle an order redemption that has a balance. For instance, will you send the gift certificate redeemer a revised PayPal invoice?
• Your listing must be an actual, tangible item for purchase. This could be a traditional, formal paper certificate, notecard, MOO card or something the recipient might want to hang on to a little longer, like a sticker, coaster, patch or badge. A digital file, like a .pdf, is also acceptable.
• Let your buyers know how long it will take you to ship the gift certificate (or email the digital file).
• Please change your Etsy settings to allow "other" as a checkout option if it is not already enabled. This will allow the gift recipient to redeem the gift certificate in your shop.

What to Include With Your Gift Certificate

Read more here:

http://www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/how-to-offer-gift-certificates-in-your-etsy-shop-11340/?utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Offering+Gift+Certificates&utm_content=etsy_success_120910&utm_campaign=etsy_success_120910

Last Minute Gifts from Team OFG

'Last Minute Gift Ideas' by Rabbithollowprims

OFG Team Christmas Gift Ideas

3pk 16oz Double Wicked Apoth... redneckcandles $40.00	Traditioanal Mini Trees--An... thecottagecupb... $75.00
Christmas Peace Angel and Ba... Rabbithollowpr... $48.95	Glitter Snowflake Joy Orname... misseskwittys $12.00
Cardinal Soap - HandPainted paintedkreatio... $4.00	Felt Stocking Gift Card Hold... primitiveseaso... $3.00
Primitive Candy Canes with V... happyvalleypri... $5.95	Set of 3 Starry Starry Night... ChristmasGal $3.49
Primitive Santa - Decorative... tinsandtreasur... $6.50	Set of 3 Winter Cranberry Po... ChristmasGal $5.99
Baby's First Christmas O... Pipberrytree $3.00	Candy Cane Santa Chef Plaque pumpkinpatch5 $30.00
Santa's Toy Shop holiday... signsofpatriot... $15.95	Cat ornaments-set of 2 WhiskersNWhims... $6.25
Shabby Cottage diamond patch... MarionberryCot... $39.95	Winter Wonderland Candle Hat... SnowmanCollect... $13.25

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