Try Handmade Picks :: Introduction
Hi, I’m Erika Jurney from the Try Handmade blog where our motto is People not Factories. We believe that buying from a person is more meaningful and powerful than stopping by the local big box store to buy some mass-produced piece of plastic.
Thanks to Jonathan, I’ll be coming here each week to showcase some of the great finds here on Zibbet. And be sure to check the end of the post for a fantastic surprise. (You’ll love it, I promise.)
First up is this adorable clay piece from Little Clay House. I’m not usually drawn to The Cute, but the workmanship and detail on this piece are fantastic.
Do you prefer jewelry? No problem, here’s a delicate little bracelet from MaximeB would make a perfect gift for your babysitter or favorite niece.
And I love this simple / stylish linoleum block print by Feline Graphics.
These lampwork earrings by Khalliah Design are a delight.
And there you have it — my first week’s selections! Next week I’ll have a theme which my selections will be based on - do you have any recommendations for people I should feature? A particular theme you’d like to see? Please leave a comment to let me know.
OK, you want to know what the surprise is? I get to give away a Free Lifetime Premium Membership on Zibbet! {I know, it’s awesome.} I’m excited to be able to make this completely free selling experience available to someone. Is it going to be you? Head over to the entry form and find out.
See you next week!
Erika Jurney is the founder of Try Handmade. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook, or learn more about her love of the handmade.Tags: Feline Graphics, Khalliah Design, Little Clay House, MaximeB, Try Handmade, Try Handmade Picks
Ohhh very nice picks Erika! I look forward to more of you posts
It’s nice to see this blog coming alive
Cheers!
Nathalie
http://www.zibbet.com/CanadianRockiesArt
Nice blog!~
“A particular theme you’d like to see?”
I can think of many that would interest me, but I’ll name one for now:
Cool stuff for teenagers, since I mostly shop for my two 19-year-old daughters.
I agree. I shop for my 9 year daughter and niece. I also sell some cute yo-yo hair fancies and make cute little tote bags for library books, etc. Stop in and see for yourself. I’d love to have you. Creations By Campbell.
Good suggestions, thanks. I’ll try to remember what it was like to be a young/teen girl!
Slightly, sort of off topic, but not really….In order for Erika to do a good job of selecting items to feature, we need members to LIST MORE items for Erika to choose from.
I have 45 sales in my shop, and just went through all the people who have bought from me to see if I could find something to buy from them, to spread the “Zibbet Love”…..and there is hardly anything listed for sale.
So I went through my 100 referrals, and even those 100 shops, the majority of the shops are empty.
Perhaps Erika can work into her featured items blog post encouragement to sellers to get listing those items.
There are quite a few of us here selling our items on Zibbet
I would personally be delighted to have my items featured, as I really like her choices
Lovely selections. I’ll be perusing each shop!! uh ohh, PortableGraffiti, you’re talkin bout me… I’m excited about spending more time here, getting my act together with listings up & running. Looking forward to growing with the community. It’s good to see these features.
And wow, Erika, teens are hard to shop for, but I’m betting you’ll find something appealing to the teen psyche;-) I have 4 teenagers, 2 daughters and twin boys. I’m already feeling challenged to create and list something my daughter’s would love! Teenage boys - even harder task… maybe cool tshirts anyone??
Great post, Erika. Nice to see this blog come alive. PortableGrafitti , I understand what you’re saying. It’s disconcerting to wander around and find an empty shop. In my wandering I actually bought from your daughter. I’m a shopper as well as a seller!
I’m also curious to know what, if any, outside promotion Zibbet may be doing other than Facebook and Twitter.
Firstly, let me start by saying that it’s so great to have Erika Jurney, founder of http://www.TryHandmade.com with us writing for ‘Inspire’ each week. Make sure you check out her site for more great handmade finds! She really does have a great eye for quality handmade products.
And let me reinforce what many of you have said…
The more items we have listed on the site the better. Every item you list creates a new page that is indexed by Google. On average we’re getting 0.5 views per month for every item listed on the site. Therefore by listing items, you’re not only making your shop look more attractive to buyers, but you’re helping to increase the overall traffic on the site, which means more buyers, which hopefully turns into repeat buyers etc etc. The advantages of having more items listed on the site are huge!! I’ll be covering this in more detail in an upcoming post.
Zibbet is currently promoting using a number of paid mediums, including Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Banner Ads etc. Funnily enough we get more traffic to the site by people finding our sellers items through Google than we do from these paid advertisements. We also have a number of other marketing strategies, such as SEO, social media etc.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of Erika’s picks over the coming weeks!
AllAboutTheButtons: Thanks for buying that Origami Dollar Heart from my daughter! Made her day! If anyone wants to see them (Valentines Day coming up). Her hearts are here: http://www.zibbet.com/thepurplerat
I finally found something to buy today. I had to have Alpie. LOL
http://www.zibbet.com/CatFluff/artwork?artworkId=25490
Looking forward to buying lots more when I sell lots more. So keep listing everyone.
It is fun to see so many familiar faces here at Zibbet! Love the look of the site and am anxious to browse around. Thrilled to know Erika is here!
Great post! Thank you Erika. I like the proposed theme although, my off springs are not teenagers yet but will be soon.
Yes, welcome aboard - buy handmade where the pieces are skillfully crafted by an artisan’s hand, each as unique as we are. My daughter likes steampunk.
Congratulations on your wonderful first post Erika……however, I do love to see “The Cute” stuff as well….look forward to your next post
Wonderful! Can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
Wow! This is amazing! I am so excited to be a part of this site. I am new and I cannot wait to see everyones amazing work. Congratulations Erika!
I too am happy to see Erica on the blog. Thanks to Jonathan for helping promote our site and works.
I am new to Zibbet and must say that everything looks wonderful! I especially like the Little Clay House. I think it would be great to see a “green” theme in the future. Nice work
I know Erika from her Try Handmade blog and super gallery, so it was a lovely surprise to find her on this great new site.
Love this posting! Try handmade is a truely great blog. I’m looking forward to seeing more and more postings for you Erika!
Thanks again everyone - I’m working on tomorrow’s column right now
I love features like this! You do all the legwork for me and find all the pretty stuff!
Can’t wait for the next one.
Thanks for the feature. Sometimes it’s hard to gauge if people are seeing my stuff.
Just found this great thread…I have been loading my shop to almost 100 things with lots more to come. Thanks for the info Erika and welcome!
If we load our shops…they will come???!!