Beautiful Sites

Later this year when I'm no longer at my current job and (maybe) have more time to focus on jewelry things, I'd like to get my blogs redesigned. Preferably I'd like to at least get this blog designed to match my website (and someday get my main website back up to accept orders).

Maybe someday my website will be in the 35 Most Beautiful Websites. :)

Mail Chimp made it! Which doesn't really surprise me as they have an extremely great set up and easy to work with system.

These are some of my favorites.




Not all of them look that beautiful to me. This one kind of creeps me out.


I am not sure if the lady I've been working with for my website does blog design too but if so I'll probably stick with her. Unless someone has a suggestion for a really great blog designer. It has to be something I can work with and don't need to rely on them to update things. And of course it has to work with Blogger because I have no real desire to switch to another site...although I'm not completely opposed to it if it's easy (and easy by MY standards, which means kindergarten).

Finally!

I've been having major issues with my website getting hacked this year. It's so frustrating, but even more so since I have no clue how to deal with something like that.

My wonderful web designer has just been too busy to really get a fix on it so I went elsewhere.

HUGE thank yous go out to Liz from Zola Bola Studios for taking my website design and shrinking it down to the basics. Which is exactly what I wanted and needed. No more gallery or pages of products...those seemed to be the most vulnerable and hacked.

It's a new simple and clean design ... and she even made a VIDEO tutorial for me - showing how to edit my pages. Above and beyond my expectations.

So now people should be able to visit my site with no scary warnings or big red pages popping up saying that the site is dangerous. Maybe this will help get me back on Twitter...my account has been suspended for a few weeks now and I'm just hoping it had to do with the website link.

My next goal is to clean up some of the pages on my site ... especially the press page and the policies page. But one thing at a time. I'm just thankful that it's hacker free. :)

Website Issues

*sigh*

I thought I was done with website issues when I had my website gal take off the shopping cart. But apparently something is still up.

I don't really even want a real website anymore. If I knew which site I wanted to focus all my work I'd just have my domain point to either Etsy or 1000 Markets. But I still am working on both shops.

My site apparently gives people a message that there's a virus on it..which I have no clue how to find or even how it would have gotten there. It also gives a warning that my security certificate is expired, which it is, but it shouldn't matter because there's no shopping cart and no one is sending me information through the site.

Having a site is a pain. I think I want it to just be a front page that has some links to my Etsy shop, my 1000 Markets shop, my newsletter sign up page, and other various links. Maybe I'll chat with my web gal about that. Not that I have a ton of extra cash to make a ton of changes. But I really do want things to be simple.

Is Having a "Real" Website Worth it?

I've had my own website for several years now. When I first started out, I tried making my own but found my skill in the area definitely lacking. So I started looking around for someone to help me out and hired someone who helped me create a better site. But it still wasn't what I wanted.

Through networking sites I met and started working with Lightning Bug Designs - I was one of their very first clients. I LOVE their work. Things aren't always perfect because we're all very busy but I'm always happy with the final results. The first site was great but a year later I decided I wanted it changed again.

The second site is what I have now and I love it. We did a change again this year, but not a redesign. This time I decided to remove my shopping cart. It was not an easy decision to make. Having my own shopping cart allowed more flexibility and it also gave a more "professional" feel to the site.

However, sometimes life takes over and I ultimately decided that simplicity was more important than appearing "professional" (because I know some very unprofessional sites that have shopping carts).

I decided that Etsy will be my shopping cart. Have sales slowed? Yes, but it could have more to do with the economy than with my change over to Etsy. I know that some people will prefer not to shop via Etsy and pay via Paypal. So I also have to be a little more flexible with payments. I'll accept money orders but it will take longer for people to get their jewelry that way.

In the end, I may end up adding a cart back to my main website in the future. But for now Etsy is my main focus.

Which is better? I don't think that can be determined ... it is an individual choice and each person will have a different experience. I love Paypal and find it easy and secure to use. Others don't feel the

A website adds legitimacy. Even just having the address www.castocreations.com already gives that air ... but Etsy allows people to leave feedback publically. My rating so far is 100% and I hope it stays that way. To me, that feedback is super important.

I also love that I can see who 'hearts' me ( a way to add a favorite in the Etsy world). I do not contact people who heart me but it is nice to see new people finding my work.

Etsy has a built in audience. When you post a new item it is added to the front page, for at least 15 seconds, but is also added to the top of the list in your category. The list can move fast but for those few minutes you are at the top. To stay visible you need to post several times a day throughout the day.

On a website you can post new items and not be seen for days, weeks, or months depending on your sites SEO. Etsy items are able to be found via search engines as well.

Another huge benefit Etsy offers is affordability. It wasn't inexpensive to have my website built. I won't quote my figures but having an effective site can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 and more.

Etsy charges $0.20 for each item listed and then when the item sells takes 3.5% of the price. If you also use Paypal to receive payments you'll be charged a fee there too. But together they are still a decent cost of a business, in my opinion. It costs me at least $16 a month (that is with no sales) to have a merchant account to take credit cards. On top of that monthly minimum fee, when I do have sales to charge I get charged a percentage of each sale - a different one depending on the card used. Then there are other fees if the customer uses a rewards card or if they return something.

In the end, for small businesses like myself who hand make their products, Etsy is an amazing and wonderful option.

Wow...Sometimes God Makes Decisions Easy

I've been debating for a few weeks about my jewelry business. I still love to make jewelry and selling is just a nice byproduct of doing something I love. It's not my favorite part of having my own business though. Selling can be a huge stress.

And as much fun as having my own website was, I hadn't been updating it often for the past several months. Nor had I really made a lot of jewelry. My site had gotten quite a good Google ranking, which also meant that I got tons of Spam and people e-mailing me for links. My hits weren't outstanding though and although I enjoy having a site of "my own" it was a huge stress to have to do the SSL certificate and hosting issues.

Well, God works in mysterious ways.

Yesterday afternoon I noticed that I wasn't getting any e-mails to my google account. Which is odd because at the very least I normally get spam messages every hour. Still nothing today when I got up and I know that is wrong because I have several standard e-mails that I subscribe to.

I just read a message from my website developer and I wish I could fly out to her and bring her chocolate or something.

A host server crashed and everything is gone. Nothing can be recovered.


I'm extremely bad at backing things up and have no idea if my site was stored somewhere else. So the decision as to whether or not I should just go to Etsy or if I should keep my current site up has been made for me.

I am not closing my site entirely. I'm going to have a front page of sorts at www.castocreations.com but my shopping cart will no longer be separate and on my own. This means I can cancel my merchant account and save at least $20 to $50 in fees (sometimes more) each month. I'll still have paypal and Etsy fees but it really seems to even out. Not to mention the stress that I'll be able to reduce from worrying about people's cards going through - and having to run the cards.

Even better - no more SSL certificate needed!!! Woohoo!!! =)

The main drawback is not having the ability to accept credit cards at shows. I may keep my merchant account until after my work show this November.

So if you're searching for my site...it's dead at the moment. I'll be sending out a newsletter soon with all the new details. I'm actually relieved. All my new jewelry designs will now be posted for sale to my Etsy shop and my Etsy shop alone. You'll be able to purchase items through my shop but will have to create an Etsy account and pay through paypal. You don't have to have a Paypal account to pay though - they allow you to use your credit card without creating a new account.

I'm really surprised at my non freaking out reaction right now. Maybe it's all the sugar from my fair food. That's a new post. =)

Certificate Issues

I tried logging in to my own website's administrative panel and got this freakishly scary error page saying my certificate expired.

Well, yes it did but I also renewed it like a month ago. I am just having a very hard time getting it re-installed. Why it needs to be reinstalled is beyond me. Why can't it just be renewed and voila be done?

I hate technical things like this. It makes no sense and it is overly confusing to my puny mind. I just want to click a button and be done with it. Unfortunately I have two different companies to work with - one is the SSL certificate company and the other is my Host. Yes, it would be easier if they were the same company but at this point getting it that way would be even more complicated and I don't want to deal with it.

I would be willing to PAY someone to take care of this for me. Sheesh. My website designer company did do this for me the last few times but they are too busy now ... I've been dropped. *sigh*

So if you try to go to my website don't get scared okay? :) Nobody hacked it and it hasn't been taken over. I'm just lame and need to get my act together.

I Has Good Content

Can I rant again? It's not a very serious rant though, don't worry.

Having my own website is great. I love the freedom to post anything I want and make occasional sales.

What I HATE is seeing a message from my contact page coming through my e-mail with this boilerplate link request...

Dear Webmaster,

My name is XYZ and I have just gone through your site, and visited many
pages. I have noticed that you have good content on the site. It would be
better if we link to each other as reciprocal link place an important role
in a search engine ranking algorithm.

Good grief. I have gotten at least 50 of these in six months. Nearly identical text. I don't bother reading them any longer. I just hit the delete button. But the problem is that I do still have to open the message to see if it's an actual message from a customer.

If someone actually wants to link with me they better type up a specific request directly to me. Of course, I still might say no, but I'd at least respond instead of ignore them. Sometimes I even say yes and add their link! Though I admit it's been ages since I updated my links page.

Canned messages are so lame. :)

Website Technical Stuff Drives Me Bonkers

I am so bad at some things. I just can't wrap my mind around how things like registrars and domain servers work. I got an e-mail notice that my domain registration was about to come up for renewal. I've been with the same company (IPowerWeb) for that for several years. Simplicity is the best thing for me.

But good grief it took nearly 45 minutes this year. I guess they changed their servers over and old information didn't get transferred over. So when I tried logging in it didn't recognize me and when I called in they had no record of me and had to recreate my account.

Thankfully it's done and renewed for 3 years now. Woohoo! Of course, three years from now I'll be totally freaking out about how to renew again. *sigh* This kind of stuff really makes me feel stupid.

As long as my website keeps working smoothly I'll be happy. =)

Beep Beep - Lots of Traffic in November

Traffic on my website was the best even in November. I remember when I first launched my website (officially last year) and was so excited to see 10-15 hits a day. Now I get bummed if I don't see more than 150 a day.

That may sound like a lot but it takes hundreds of unique hits to generate one sale.


November 2007

3,922 Unique Visitors
5,766 Total Visits (1.47 visits/person)
187,706 Hits

14 Sales

Think about that. Nearly 4,000 unique visitors and only 14 sales. That's not that great in terms of conversion rates...although I do know certain jewelry friends of mine who up my stats a little bit (*cough* JenC *cough*)...not that I mind! :)

I am thrilled that I had 14 sales in November. I hope I can get that many each month. Working full time makes it more difficult to get many more - because let me tell you I was swamped. Most items are made when ordered, from scratch. No working on the weekend and stocking up - I usually stay up late in order to finish. I can't stand letting orders sit for more than a day or two.

Those sales don't include my sales from my Etsy shop - so add another 15 sales - although I have no idea how many hits I get on my Etsy shop because they don't give us by shop stats.

And why, you may ask, am I sharing this information? Mainly because I want to share with other jewelry folks...it is HARD to sell online. There are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of us out here in the cyberworld, competing for jewelry customers. It is a lot of work and you shouldn't be discouraged or think down on your work just because you haven't gotten a sale in awhile. Trust me, this was my busiest month all year. And I'm thrilled.

Hits and sales have continued to increase since the beginning of the year and I hope that trend continues.