The purpose of our ‘3 month battle plan’ is to keep you informed of what features and enhancements you can expect over the coming months.  It’s also an opportunity for you to make suggestions for features you’d like to see in future battle plans.  We’re always listening to our members here at Zibbet and want to provide you with the high quality tools you need to succeed.

Lets take a look at what we’ve achieved from our previous battle plan.  When comparing you will see that we achieved 3 of the 6 projects, however we did considerably more than we had planned in the ‘improved search’ project, plus many other side features have been added too.  Here’s a list of everything we achieved:

1. Launch of Zibbet Community Hub - www.community.zibbet.com (if you’re not on there yet, we’d love you to join us!)
2. Improved site performance with faster page load times (lots more work will be done on this over time).
3. ‘Share’ features added, allowing browsers to share your shop and items with their friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter, Kaboodle, StumbleUpon and through email.
4. RSS feeds made available for your shop
5. Improvements to ‘leaving feedback’ feature.
6. SEO improvements allowing Google and other search engines to find your items easier and present it in a better way to browsers, improving click-through rates to your shop and items
7. Improved page to upload your item images when listing - faster uploading plus ability to rearrange images once uploaded.
8. Premiums now have another 4 item images allowed to be added
9. Ability for Premiums to place their items in the new Gift Guides (yet to be officially launched)
10. Sale by section - Premium sellers can now put only certain section(s) of their choice ‘on sale’.
11. Launch of ‘Fantastic Five’ weekly feature.  A fun article that shoppers will love!
    …………..
    From here on in (12-15), these items will all be taken ‘live’ within 24-48 hours (1st-2nd Sept, 2010)!
    …………..
12. SEARCH IMPROVEMENTS. Lots of search improvements and this is where we spent most of our development time, as we continued to make it better and better than we first originally planned…which was definitely worth it!  They include: Brand new design for search results, ability to filter results by color, price range, where sellers ship to, and categories.  Ability to ’share’ your search.  Sorting results by relevance increases chances of shoppers staying longer on site, plus Premium members are given a ‘relevance boost’. Search now recognizes the ‘root’ word, e.g. a search for loving, would also search for ‘love’. WARNING: Fasten your seatbelt because there are HUGE speed improvements too!
13. Shoppers can now search through all items ‘On Sale’.  Any item that Premium members have placed in ’sales mode’ will appear in these search results.
14. Ability to search within a particular shop.  This will be particularly handy for sellers that have a lot of items in their shop.
15. Brand new look for Zibbet. See homepage screenshot example below.  This makes Zibbet more appealing to shoppers and encourages them to start browsing your shops and items!

There’s plenty of other small improvements and bug fixes, but for the sake of taking up too much space, we’ve left them out.

PROPOSED 3 MONTH BATTLE PLAN (SEPT - NOV)

In the previous 3 month battle plan we didn’t get around to completing - checkout improvements, Google Analytics, and auto upload of items to Google Base / Merchant Center (Google’s product search engine). We still plan to complete these three tasks as part of the current battle plan, PLUS the following things (in no particular order):

1. Launch Gift Guides - Premium sellers can currently add their items to a gift guide when listing, however it isn’t available to shoppers yet.
2. New BUY page - We’re getting this redesigned to be more appealing and user friendly for shoppers.
3. New SELL page - This is also getting redesigned.  We want it to clearly convey all the benefits of selling with Zibbet in order to attract as many sellers as possible to the site.  Remember, more sellers = more items, which = more buyer traffic to Zibbet and your shop.  It’s in your best interest to see as many sellers as possible sign up to use Zibbet to sell their work.
4. Auto feed all sellers items into TheFind.com, a very well trafficked shopping site, increasing exposure to your items.
5. Vacation Mode - If you’re planning to go away this holiday season, you can easily put your shop in ‘Vacation Mode’ which will have a number of customizable options available to you.
6. Facebook Application - This will allow you to have a mini version of your shop, where items can be purchased, right on Facebook!
7. Zibbet Widget - This will allow you to customize a widget full of your Zibbet listed items.  This widget will be able to be added to your blog, website etc.  People will actually be able to buy your items directly on the widget without having to come to the main Zibbet website!

No doubt there will be other little improvements made along the way.  Remember, you can stay up to date with all the behind the scenes development action by following @ZibbetScoop on Twitter.

Thanks for being a part of Zibbet!  We’re on the rise and looking forward to a great future! 

We’d love to hear your thoughts and comment below!

Image credit: MillaLove

Of course, handmade items in general are more eco-friendly than not because they aren’t mass-produced in factories, wasting energy. But for today’s eco-friendly finds, we’ll be taking a look at a handful of shops who are really going above and beyond the norm, to ensure their products are not just of good quality, but good for the environment too.

This is a topic that I am sure most (if not all of us) can get behind and support, so before I get on a soap box here, I’ll just introduce you to five amazing products in the eco-friendly category…

1. Black & White Stripes on American Apparel ORGANIC by Jessalin Beutler $25: This super soft men’s tee is made of organic cotton, and the original design is actually painted by hand using non-toxic water based inks.

2. Recycled Skateboard Custom Bling Dot Necklace by Seven Ply $22: This shop takes recycling to a whole new level, by repurposing broken and beat up skate decks to create playfully, unique jewelry. Each piece is truly one of a kind and has been cut, sanded, and sealed just for you.

3. Thirsty Rose - Recycled Soda Can and 925 Necklace by Jewelry By JLy $32: This necklace is made from a recycled Pepsi can and was designed specifically to promote environmental awareness. Each aluminum flower is formed by hand and is then filed down for safety. Quite the statement necklace.

4. Map Paper Garlands by Milomade $18: Get ready to decorate your home with these beautiful garlands, made from recycled maps and sewn together with cotton thread. Great for parties or year round decorating.

5. Alpargatas/Espadrilles by Barro Style 1 $23.99: And finally, made from 100% natural cotton, these eco-friendly shoes look as comfy as can be, and for under $25, you just can’t beat the price either. Four colors and all sizes available. Oh yeah, did I mention these are unisex? Love these shoes.

very top image credit: A Little Bit Magical by Ginger Snapz

Jennifer prefers to use only herbs and plants that are locally grown, organic, and conscientiously wildcrafted by her own hands. A lot of time goes into gathering, drying and preparing the herbs in her products.

Jennifer is an active member of our Zibbet Community. She posts often in the forums and she is a member of 9 groups there. You can meet up with her at Veggie Zibbeters, U.S. Zibbeters, Creative Bloggers, and Zibbet Studios, to name just a few.

Jennifer’s Flickr Pages are great because in addition to photos of her products she includes many inspiring photographs of her herbal products booth set up at craft shows and some really cute photos of Zuzy her cat.

Jennifer’s Blog is quite extensive and loaded with great information about herbs, like useful backyard plants and recipes you can make to keep the mosquitoes away this summer and at the same time be earth-friendly.

To make friends with Jennifer stop by her Zibbet Community Page and just click “add as friend.”

We hope you enjoy getting to know this valued member of Zibbet.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself?

   I am 32 years old. I was born in Brooklyn NY and I grew up in the western mountains of NC in Asheville. Now I live with my boyfriend and our cat, Zuzy. We live about thirty minutes from the Atlantic Ocean in Northeastern NC. Before I started making herbal products I had a career in the movie industry as a production assistant in the art department and as a videographer, taping and editing weddings. I am a lover of all things cute and covered in glitter! Bright colors and music from the 80s make my heart go pit pat!

2. Apart from being ‘creative’ what do you do?

   I play video games, take walks with my boyfriend, try to teach our old cat some new tricks, learning how to cook better meals, watch movies, and working a day job at a local bead shop.

3. What inspires you to do the kind of work you do?

   The people in my life, plants, the ocean, movies, music, books, and video games; most everything in my life are my main inspiration. I seem to be always filing things away that I have heard, read, or seen and saving them for later use.

4. Do you look up to anyone? Who? Why?

   I really look up to my fellow crafters. Most crafters I have met are very hard working, extremely passionate about their craft, not afraid to think “outside the box,” willing to help out other crafters, and they don’t easily give up.

5. What other passions do you have in your life?

   I love video games! I used to play a lot of them back in middle school, then I took a long, long break and now I am playing again.  There are so many more kinds of games out now than before!  Some of them have become real pieces of art with beautiful hand drawn backgrounds and incredible attention to detail and bright colors.  My favorite games are the ones that include jumping on lots of platforms, solving lots of visual puzzles and lots of tower defense.

6. What do you like most about Zibbet?

   There are many great features that Zibbet has to offer, however one of my favorites is the ability to offer discounts, coupons, and gift certificates! I have found it to be super easy and intuitive both for the buyer and the seller.

7. What ‘new’ things would you like to see added to Zibbet?

   I would love to have a Zibbet widget to put on my blog.

8. How do you promote your work?

   I have a blog and I sell at a weekly local farmers market in the summer and several other craft shows during the year. I always carry my business cards with me to give out (you never know when your business is going to come up in conversations) or to post on bulletin boards. I have another shop on Etsy and lots of word of mouth. However, my mother, really has been my best promoter so far!!

9. How would you recommend other Zibbeters make the most of Zibbet.com?

   Get involved with the community by reading and posting on the forums and reading the Zibbet Blog. This will let other Zibbeters and buyers get to know you and your products and there are all kinds of great business tips, groups to join, etc… It is just a great way to network with other crafters. Listing new items in your shop as often as you can and having great customer service.

10. In the future I’d like to be…

    Healthy, making a good living from my business, living in a little house some place nice with my boyfriend.

For those of you unfamiliar with Tumblr, it is a social media microblogging website designed for posting short paragraphs of text, videos, links, and photos. Think of it as a cross between Twitter and a regular blog. Tumblr is perfect for those who are looking for a simpler alternative to a traditional blog or those who want an easy way to supplement the social networking they already do. Tumblr can be an excellent tool for marketing your Zibbet shop and increasing exposure for the community as a whole. Here are my tips for using Tumblr to promote your business:

Set up your blog in a way that reinforces your branding and will appeal visually to your readers. Tumblr blogs are completely customizable with both paid and free templates. Try some out until you find what fits you best. I decided to go with a simple free theme and use my logo as my avatar. You can add widgets, code, links, and pages to your blog, so get creative. Link to your shop, add a Twitter widget to show your latest tweets, put up a Facebook badge, and/or add a paragraph or two about you and your work. Think of the first page of your blog as your marketing hub and include things that will entice people to follow you and check out your shop.

Follow other people. The Tumblr dashboard consists of your activity and the activity of those you follow. Tumblr makes it easy to follow the people that follow you with the click of a button. There is also a search feature where you can track different tags or keywords. For example, I have both handmade and Zibbet as tracked tags in my dashboard. Anytime someone tags their posts with either of those two words, Tumblr notifies me on the side of my dashboard. I recommend following other people who post about Zibbet, handmade, vintage, and anything else you might be interested in. Interact with them by reblogging (explained below), liking (also explained below), and answering posted questions and you’ll find that your network will start to grow. Since Tumblr is a social media site, the Golden Rule of Social Networking applies - you’ve got to listen to others and interact with them if you want them to listen to you.

Post interesting content. Tumblr allows for the following types of posts: text, photos, quotes, links, chats, audio, and video. Be as varied as you can and post as much visual content as possible. Make use of the tag feature so that people searching for a specific topic can find you. Similar to the retweet feature on Twitter, Tumblr has a “reblog” feature. People that like your posts can reblog them, posting them on their own Tumblr blog. Credit is automatically given to you for the post and you can track how many people do this by looking at the notes Tumblr adds to each post. Interesting quotes and beautiful pictures seem to be reblogged often, so make sure that your content is brief and visually stimulating if you want it to go viral.

Reblog and favorite other people’s posts. (Remember the Golden Rule of Social Networking?) Reblogging is a great way to show other Zibbeters and handmade artists that you appreciate their content. If you find something exceptional, reblog it on your own blog. There is also a feature for you to “heart” or “like” others’ posts. Liking can be another way to help promote fellow Zibbeters and put interesting content on your blog. One of the features of the template I use is to have my five most recent likes show up in a column on the side of my blog page. It’s a great way to show love to a post that I don’t necessarily feel the need to reblog.

Don’t only advertise yourself. If you’re reblogging and favoriting other’s posts you’re probably not making this error, but it’s still worth mentioning. Just like on a regular blog or on Twitter, people tend to listen to people who post more than a constant stream of shop advertisements. Post work of other people that you find exciting, throw in some inspirational quotes, cool recipes, or YouTube tutorials - make the actual posting of your own work less frequent and it will have a greater impact. You’ll pull followers from more interest areas (and not be dismissed as a spammer) if you do more than just post links to items from your shop.

Keep it fresh. Tumblr has a scheduling feature that allows you to set items to post in the future. Take advantage of this and spread out some of your posting to achieve maximum exposure without flooding your followers’ dashboard feeds with post after post from you. I try to have a few posts in my queue ready to go at all times. My Tumblr automatically posts something from my queue every five hours, keeping my blog updated even when I’m not around. You can set up the scheduler to post however frequently or infrequently you like and you can even define the hours within which you want your content to be posted.

Consider utilizing the directories. You can either get yourself in the inspiration directory by asking your followers to support you or you can pay for inclusion in one of the other directories starting at $9. Don’t feel like paying? (Yeah, me neither. I love free things.) Then simply follow some of the people in directories that interest you. It’s a great way to target who you follow so that you make friends with similar interests and always find cool things to reblog.

Currently, Zibbet has a rather small presence on Tumblr. However, using these tips and ensuring that each post is appropriately tagged will increase our visibility on the site, which is great for everyone. Handmade and vintage seem to be popular topics, so I definitely encourage every Zibbeter to take advantage of that niche!

Best wishes for much success on Zibbet!

My Dog Blogs Necklace by Kristy Lynn Jewelry on Zibbet

Vicki is committed to assisting her fellow Zibbeters improve their shops for successful online selling. She is the owner of three Zibbet shops: LOC Design Studio, Denim and Pearls and A Stitch and a Prayer. You can follow Vicki on Twitter and through her LOC Design Studio blog.

For some of us, as we grow up and get older, into our teens and then finally adulthood, that love and admiration for bikes begins to fade. But for others, it only gets stronger. And this post is for those people.

So break out that bike, and take a leisurely ride with me for this week’s Fantastic Five, as we celebrate all things bicycle related.

1. Handmade American Cherry Bicycle Grips $50 By Carter Fabrications: These hand spun grips are gorgeous. They are so well made, it is almost hard to imagine that these were actually turned on a wood lathe using old pallet pieces. Each handle grip is finished with a coat of spar polyurethane and will fit any standard handlebars.

2. Polaroid Photograph - Beside the Little Red House $25 by Alicia Bock: If this photo doesn’t scream “end of summer”, I don’t know what does. The soft light, in this limited edition polaroid print, is quite dreamy. And the seemingly endless row of bikes are just there for the taking.

3. Biking is for Lovers Tandem Bicycle Organic TShirt $18 by Dark Cycle Clothing: Although it was originally created for Valentine’s Day, I think this shirt is perfect year round. Each unisex tee is hand printed on a super soft, navy blue, 100% organic cotton material.

4. Bicycle Charm Necklace $16 by Dandy Apple: Add a little something extra to your outfit before heading out for the day, with this vintage bicycle advertisement pendant necklace. Scalloped, hand antiqued brass setting with an antique brass necklace chain.

5. Everyday Short Black Fingerless Gloves $20 by Heidi the Artist: And last but not least, when you are in the market for a pair of gloves, you may want to consider this fingerless, unisex pair that is perfect for bike riders. Made of a heavier stretch matte knit (5% spandex).

Are you a bike lover? I’d love to hear your fondest bike memories in the comments below.

Very top image: Forgotten Bicycle by Hockman Photography

]]> http://www.zibbet.com/blog/2010.08.23/fantastic-five-bikes/feed http://www.zibbet.com/blog/2010.08.23/featured-zibbeter-ariamy http://www.zibbet.com/blog/2010.08.23/featured-zibbeter-ariamy#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:00:57 +0000 Jonathan http://www.zibbet.com/blog/?p=2461 Friendly folks abound in Zibbet’s Community and Arty Lou is one of them. If you haven’t had the chance to “meet” her there yet, you will enjoy getting to know a little about her in this week’s interview.

Arty Lou enjoys creating fine jewelry designs as well as creating shop banners and selling jewelry supplies in her shop called Ariamy.

Arty Lou uses Twitter to promote her work. She writes a blog where she shows off beautiful photos of the majestic country of Greece where she lives with her husband and sons. You can also stop by Zibbet Community to see her pages complete with music or meet up with her in some of the fun Zibbet groups she has joined.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself?

   I’m a mum of two beautiful young boys who has been living on one of the Dodecanese (Twelve) Islands in the Aegean Sea, for over ten years. I was born in Bairnsdale, Australia but grew up in Melbourne till my family decided to move to Greece. In Greece, I taught English as a foreign language part-time but gave it up to devote myself to my young sons who needed me more.

2. Apart from being ‘creative’ what do you do?

   Apart from being creative, I teach my sons English, use the Internet often to blog, socialize or simply promote my work. My family also has a small business in the tourist industry that I help out with on occasion. I would be happy to have people visit our fan page on Facebook to see the beauty of Greece.

3. What inspires you to do the kind of work you do?

   What inspires me is what I see around me. There are so many beautifully created pieces out there, it’s difficult not to feel the urge to create yourself.

4. Do you look up to anyone? Who? Why?

   The one person who I look up to is my older sister.  She has been through many difficult trials in her life and she still manages to remain strong. She is always encouraging and supportive of my decisions.

5. What other passions do you have in your life?

   I would say I feel very strongly about animals - cats and dogs in particular.  It bothers me when they’re callously left to the streets to die. Once, I had nurtured a pup of one or two weeks that was abandoned on the street in a rubbish bag. I couldn’t keep it at that time so I gave it to a person who wanted it when it was old enough. Given the chance, I would do it again. Right now, I have three adorable kittens of my own. They also needed a home.

6. What do you like most about Zibbet?

   What I like most is that our opinions are heard and that we‘re able to contribute in a small way. On the whole, I’m happy to be a part of such a vibrant community whose common interest is Zibbet’s success.

7. What ‘new’ things would you like to see added to Zibbet?

   I would definitely love to see the thumbnails of all images enlarge when we scroll our mouse over them without clicking to view them.  Also a ’heart’ feature or something similar would be nice.  (We’re fussy Zibbeters I think!)

8. How do you promote your work?

   I promote via Facebook, Blogger and Twitter.  I also have a display of my jewelry in my brother’s hair salon and I‘m happy to say it‘s doing well for me.  At one point, I used Google Adwords to promote my shop but only temporarily.  There’s so much more I could do to actively promote my work especially locally. I need to urge and push myself a little harder to accomplish this.

9. How would you recommend other Zibbeters make the most of Zibbet.com?

   I would recommend other Zibbeters make the most of their referral code now that it’s still at $9 to introduce more people to Zibbet and receive a lower monthly bill at the same time. Zibbet also has other wonderful features that could be put to use to increase their sales. I also suggest they never be discouraged no matter if there hasn’t been a sale yet. They should continue to do what they love best, list frequently and promote, promote, promote!

10. In the future I’d like to be…

    A successful seller who has achieved her goals. I would like to contribute financially by doing what I enjoy in the comfort of the surroundings of my own home and family. There’d be no greater satisfaction than that for me.

A recent Google search for “widget” found “about 79,000,000″ web pages. The possibilities are virtually endless! As you browse the web for widgets to install in your Zibbet Premium shop, it’s important to stay focused and select widgets that will improve the buying experience for individuals visiting your shop.

I encourage you to include badges in your shop for the social networking sites where you spend time. I’ve found it to be a bit of a challenge at times to find the starting place for creating the badge code that I need on those sites. So to help you “cut to the chase” here is some basic information to get you started.

On Facebook, the Create a Profile Badge link is located on the lower left side of your Profile page. Visit Facebook Badges for more information.

Twitter “follow” buttons are available directly from Twitter (you’ll be prompted to log in if you aren’t already) as well as from a variety of other online sources including TwitterButtons and TwitterIcon. Search Google for twitter button to find even more! Visit the official Twitter Help Center for more information about Twitter badges and widgets.

If you are a member of Zibbet’s Community Hub, log in and scroll to the bottom of any page. There you will find the Badge link. And if you are a Zibbeter and you’ve not yet joined ZCH, there’s no time like the present!

If you are a member of Indiepublic, log in and scroll down the Main page. The badge link is on the lower right side of the page.

If you are a member of My Craft Corner, log in and scroll down to the bottom of any page. There you will find the Badge link.

Here are some links to sites that provide widgets that will add functionality to your Zibbet Premium shop:

Currency Converter For more currency converter widgets, search Google for currency converter.

Flag Counter For a variety of “hit counter” options, search Google for hit counter.

Clocks For more clock widgets, search Google for clock widget.

Bravenet offers a variety of free and subscription-based tools and services, including mailing lists to facilitate the sending of newsletters. Installing a mailing list widget in your shop will make it easy for your customers to subscribe to your newsletter if they choose.

To add music to your shop, mailboxdrive.com offers free mp3 downloads. If you have a Flickr account, you may like this really cool Flickr widget to share your photos. Placing a Flickr widget on your blog is a great way to share photos of your items to potential customers.

WidgetBox is a popular source for a variety of widgets, including those for sending your blog’s RSS feed to your Zibbet shop. WidgetBox has created a video, titled What’s a Widget? which provides a quick overview of widgets. I think that you’ll find this video to be a nice review of the information you’ve learned about widgets.

Many of the widgets discussed here can be customized in a variety of ways. For your widget to be displayed properly, make sure that it will fit in the space allowed. Widgets placed in the right column of your shop’s FP cannot be wider than 205 pixels. Widgets placed at the bottom of the page cannot be wider than 880 pixels.

If the widget customization allows you to select your own colors, it’s easy to match them exactly to your shop’s custom color scheme. Simply grab the six-digit hex codes from the Choose Colors screen in your shop. The codes are found in the column to the left of the color preview. Select and copy the code that you need and then paste it into the appropriate space in the widget configuration screen. If the widget configuration asks for an RGB code instead of the six-digit hex code, the code can easily be converted at javascripter.net.

Now that you know where to find some really useful widgets, it’s time to learn how to actually add or install a widget in your Premium Zibbet shop. I’ve used Facebook as an example. However, each widget source will follow a slightly different process for actually generating the widget code. Most are very straight forward and easy to follow. Once you have the code, the instructions for adding a widget to your shop are the same for all widgets.

To create a badge for your Facebook business page:

Click the Create a Profile Badge link on the lower left side of your Facebook profile page.

On the Profile Badges page click Page Badges.

A list of all of the pages that you administer will appear. Click the Other button for the page that you want to create a badge.

A box containing the code for your badge will appear. Click once in the box containing the code to select it. To copy the code, choose Copy from your browser’s Edit menu or press Ctr-C (PC) or Command-C (Mac) on your keyboard.

If you want to customize the appearance of your badge, click the Edit this Badge link before you create and copy the code.

When you’re happy with the appearance of your badge, click Save.

Click Other to generate your badge code and then select and copy the code.

To install your Facebook badge (or any widget for that matter) in your shop:

Log in to your Zibbet Premium shop if you aren’t logged in already. On your My Zibbet page, click Customize Your Shop. Click the Widgets tab.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the +Add New Widget link.

A blank widget box will appear. Click in the box labeled Widget Code. Paste your Facebook badge code into this box. To paste the code, choose Paste from your browser’s Edit menu or press Ctr-V (PC) or Command-V (Mac) on your keyboard. Adding a title is optional.

You have the option of having your widget appear on the right side or bottom of your shop’s FP. Select the desired location from the Position drop down menu.

When you have completed your widget’s set up, click the Save Changes button. To see your widget, click your shop’s URL in the upper right corner of the page.

Your widget should now be visible on your shop’s FP.

Please note that there are three widgets pictured in the screen shot above. The first two are clock widgets-one showing LOC Design Studio Time and the other showing Zibbet Time. For both clock widgets, I entered a title in the widget set up. I left the title blank for the Facebook badge. What you see for all three widgets is the execution of the code that was pasted into the Widget Code boxes.

To reorder your widgets, return to your Widgets page and click and drag the gray bar on the right side of the widget that you want to move. Drop the widget in the desired location. In the screen shot below, you can see that I have moved the Facebook badge to appear between my two clock widgets.

After saving this change, my shop FP now looks like this:

To delete a widget, click the Delete link for that widget. Don’t forget to click the Save Changes button before leaving your widget page!

I hope that you now have a better understanding of widgets–what they are, where to find them and how to add them to your Premium Zibbet shop.  I also hope that you will take some time to customize your shop with the addition of a widget or two!

Best wishes for much success on Zibbet!

Gear coaster photo from The Painted Lily on Zibbet.

Vicki is committed to assisting her fellow Zibbeters improve their shops for successful online selling. She is the owner of three Zibbet shops: LOC Design Studio, Denim and Pearls and A Stitch and a Prayer. You can follow Vicki on Twitter and through her LOC Design Studio blog.

Chances are you’re going to have to buy at least a handful of school supplies this year, if you have children. So why not think about teaching your kids the quality of handmade goods at an early age (if you haven’t already of course), and see if there are a couple of items here that they might like.

You’ll be surprised at all the handmade offerings you’ll find for this very occasion: backpacks, pencil pouches, clothing, accessories, and even notepads.

1. Mini Appliqued Pencil Case $14 from Dinky Daisy: Seriously, what little girl wouldn’t want this? Even I want to put my pencils in this pouch. Each is hand sewn and hand appliqued, and comes fully lined. So cute! Six different styles available.

2. The Lion Say Notebook $18 from Teal Stripes: I love this playful, coptic-bound notepad. The small size and illustrations on every page will make this a book your kids will look forward to writing in. Perfect for writing down homework assignments each day.

3. Authentic Yellow Library Cards (set of 25) $3.50 from Krafty Girl: Let your children’s friends borrow a book anytime they want, with these vintage library cards you’ll always be able to keep track.

4. Altered Composition Notebook Pears $5.75 from Zany Hoopla: And for a simple notebook that will work for any subject, how about this composition book from Zany Hoopla. The elastic band keeps contents secure and the pear pattern adds whimsy.

5. Abstract Floral Toddler Backpack $35 from Sewn Creations and More: And finally, you’ll probably need a bag to carry around all these handmade back to school items. So, check out this funky flower print backpack. Its the perfect size for toddlers and young children, and still lots of room for a few books and notepads. More styles available (including boy backpacks).

See you next week!

Image Credit (very top image): The Norah Dress from Lucy Jane

]]> http://www.zibbet.com/blog/2010.08.16/fantastic-five-back-to-school/feed http://www.zibbet.com/blog/2010.08.15/featured-zibbeter-concordsoap http://www.zibbet.com/blog/2010.08.15/featured-zibbeter-concordsoap#comments Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:30:53 +0000 Jonathan http://www.zibbet.com/blog/?p=2393 With a desire to provide her loved ones with eco-friendly products, Melissa began making soap for her own family and eventually it turned into a business she named Concord Soap. She loves to convert “commercial soap buyers” into becoming “handmade soap addicts.” She says once you have tried handmade soap, you’ll never buy commercial again, and you’ll even be converting everyone you know.

Melissa has lots of friends on Zibbet Community. You can meet up with her on her Community Page and also in any of the three groups she belongs to: Zibbet Bath & Beauty, Bath and Body Goodies and U.S. Zibbeters.

You can follow Melissa on Twitter and her blog. Also check out her Flickr for many inspiring photos to get some great eco-friendly gift ideas.

Join me as we visit with Melissa in the countryside where she lives with her family in an eco-friendly house.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself?

   Hi there! My name is Melissa and I am the founder of The Concord Soap Company. I am 38 years old. My husband & I just celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary and our daughter just turned 10…woohoo…double digits! We live out in the country surrounded by woods and lots of wildlife in Northeast Ohio.

2. Apart from being ‘creative’ what do you do?

   Like many other Moms, I chauffeur my daughter from one activity to another until we’re both exhausted! In our spare time, we are working feverishly to finish our basement ourselves. We are probably 75% done, with the remainder being my Soap Room! I am looking forward to having my very own kitchen, workroom & office in the basement! I think ALL of us are looking forward to soap production moving to the basement & out of the family kitchen!

3. What inspires you to do the kind of work you do?

   My husband and I became interested in living as environmentally friendly as we could once we started our family. We are avid recyclers and are always trying to lessen our impact on the environment in as many ways as possible. We used cloth diapers on our daughter, carry our cloth bags when shopping, drive a hybrid car and just built our eco-friendly house! I have always been immersed in many different crafts. (usually all at once!) The blending of our natural living and my passion for crafts resulted in my interest in making handmade, natural soap for my new family. I began by making cold-process soap and then added other bath and body items to give out as holiday gifts. As you can guess, it snowballed from there! After many experiments and trials, I selected my favorite recipes and began my business adventure!

4. Do you look up to anyone? Who? Why?

   My biggest inspiration has always been my grandfather. His life was a real rags-to-riches story. His ambition and drive were, and still are, inspiring to me. I like to think I get my strong work ethic from him. He was one of my earliest supporters & always loved to brag to anyone who would listen about how much he loved my soap! It’s been difficult since losing him a couple years ago, but I am comforted by the thought of him looking over me & my business. My husband comes in a close second to grandpa. Josh has a great business mind & is wonderful to bounce ideas off of when needed. He is always there to give me a little push, a pep talk, stick labels on soap or even work craft shows!

5. What other passions do you have in your life?

   My family is my biggest passion. I love supporting them. I love being a mother & watching my daughter grow, mature & succeed. We love to do anything as long as we are doing it together even if it is mudding/taping/sanding drywall! (yuck!) One passion that we enjoy is traveling. We’ve been on some amazing trips and seen some awesome sites! Josh & I have traveled internationally as well as many hiking trips where we roughed it for days & days. We now enjoy sharing our passion for traveling with our daughter. We are looking forward to taking her to our favorite hiking spots near Moab, Utah very soon.

6. What do you like most about Zibbet?

   I LOVE the ease of listing items at zibbet. The process is streamlined very nicely.  I also love that there are no listing fees here.

7. What ‘new’ things would you like to see added to Zibbet?

   I am happy that the community area has been added…it’s an awesome addition! I think the major issue right now with zibbet is just that it needs to bring in shoppers. I know this takes time & I am happy to be here to watch it take off!

8. How do you promote your work?

   I like to hang out in the Community area whenever I can get some free time & have joined some Groups. I love chatting with fellow artisans & have met some great people! I try to list new things often. I add my zibbet shop link to my biz cards, newsletters, brochures and anywhere else I can! I have a blog (that I don’t update as often as I should) and all the other goodies like Twitter, Flickr, Project Wonderful, etc.  I sell my goodies at local craft shows, Etsy, my own website, as well as Zibbet.

9. How would you recommend other Zibbeters make the most of Zibbet.com?

   I like to do lots of research, but that’s me. Browse around the site, check out your competitors, ask lots of questions…then dive in & be as active as possible! Zibbet has a lot to offer sellers as well as buyers! There is some amazing talent here!

10. In the future I’d like to be…

    … able to have an employee or two to ‘watch the store’ while I get some more travel time in with the family! And in the near future, I am hoping to grow my wholesale accounts, especially locally.

“What did she just say?” you are probably asking about now. Translation: a web widget, or simply a widget, is a little program that you can add to your Premium Zibbet shop and it will run all by itself!

I know what you’re probably thinking now: “I don’t know anything about writing computer programs, I don’t care how ‘little’ they are!” Of course, most of us aren’t programmers nor do we desire to be! And that’s one of the great things about widgets–when you find one you like, all you have to do is copy the code that someone else wrote and then paste it into your Premium Zibbet shop.

“But I still don’t get it,” you say. Let’s take a closer look at widgets and how they can be used to customize your shop to improve the shopping experience for potential buyers…

It’s virtually impossible to browse the web today without encountering widgets at every turn. Advertisements, polls, clocks, weather forecasts and games that you see on websites are just a few examples. The first use of widgets was probably as hit or link counters on web pages. Generally, widgets may also be referred to as gadgets, badges and modules, just to name a few!  The web abounds with free widgets. Simply search for the word “widget” on Google and you can stay entertained for hours looking at what seems like an endless stream of these little programs!

One of the many useful tools that Zibbet has provided for Premium shops is the ability to add widgets to our shops. Let’s face it, widgets are fun! And because they are so much fun, it’s easy to get carried away with widgets. We need to remember that what we want people to do when they come to our shops is to buy, so we need to be careful to not distract them with too many “toys.”

I believe that the wisest use of widgets in our Zibbet shops is to direct traffic to our blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to gain followers and to advertise our other Zibbet shops, if we have them. Be sure that you make it easy for your new followers to return to your shop from your other sites!

Because Zibbet is a global marketplace, providing shoppers with a currency converter is an excellent way to assist them with their shopping. Instead of having to leave your shop to visit another website to calculate the cost in their own currency (and possibly not returning to your shop!), I believe international shoppers appreciate the ease of doing the calculations right there in your shop.

Another way to use the widget feature is to include helpful information that appears as text on your FP. For example, I have a widget that contains information about jewelry care and my repair policy. The possibilities are endless… Do you sell pet products? You could provide some helpful ”tips” or “Did you know?” information about pets in a text widget. If you sell vintage items, what about giving some historical background for the time period for a particular item? You could feature a different item and historical perspective each week or month. Providing useful information is a great way to provide shoppers with a little “something extra” just for visiting your shop and could be the key to a return visit that results in a sale!

Zibbet’s generosity even allows you to add your Etsy mini and/or Artfire Rapid Cart to your shop. Although Zibbet allows you to do this, I encourage you to think carefully about making it too easy for a shopper to leave your Zibbet shop and get lost on another shopping venue. If you truly want to sell from your Zibbet shop, you need to do all you can to retain your potential buyers’ attention and keep them browsing in your shop. The longer shoppers stay in your shop, the more likely they are to make a purchase!

For some ideas on how to use widgets in your shop, take a look at these Zibbet shops:

Additions

Ariamy (be sure to turn your computer’s speakers on!)

Grandmother’s House

Leela Bijou Jewelry Designs

Understand Blue

Wildfire Pottery

Wild Goose Chase

Next week, I’ll provide you with “how to” instructions for adding widgets to your Premium Zibbet shop. I’ll also give you some links to sites where you can get the code you need to add widgets that will enhance your shop’s functionality.

Best wishes for much success on Zibbet!

Diamond Back Vintage Button Brooch can be found at Callooh Callay on Zibbet.

Vicki is committed to assisting her fellow Zibbeters improve their shops for successful online selling. She is the owner of three Zibbet shops: LOC Design Studio, Denim and Pearls and A Stitch and a Prayer. You can follow Vicki on Twitter and through her LOC Design Studio blog.