Wednesday, August 18, 2010

new listing, new web site

I listed a new button charm bracelet last night: Button Charm Bracelet - Maroon and White.


 I created this design in honor of my grandpa who has been a professor at Texas A&M for 25+ years.  The Texas A&M colors are maroon and white.  This listing already has 2 hearts!  I got both of them within half an hour of listing it.

I'm in the process of creating my own web site.  I bought a domain name through SoopSee (because it's about as cheap as anything else I've seen), and I'm waiting for them to activate it so I can use it with the site (it can take up to 72 hours).  Otherwise I have most of it set up.  I'll let you know how it all goes and if the site results in anything.  A lot of people seem to have success with having their own domain and a web site separate from Etsy.  I'm not crazy about SoopSee so far.  I know that it's still pretty new, and I'm willing to give it some time, mostly because I'm not sure where else to turn at this point.  I'm honestly not very impressed with most of the online options for web pages anymore.  There used to be a lot of free options that provided neat pages for those not interested in pursuing something professionally.  I created web sites through such sites 10 years ago that looked better than most of the free templates that I've seen recently.  Now everything costs a lot of money.  I'm just frustrated by the whole process.  It seems like it should be easier to do this than it is.

I've also thought about putting the domain name with this blog instead and customizing it with more tabs and whatnot so that I could provide more access to Etsy and my other web presence (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).  I don't love Blogger either, but at least it is free. Then I would just be paying to host my domain name and not also run a web site.

Any thoughts on this whole process would be appreciated!

5 comments:

  1. What you are doing is on my list. Go Daddy was recommended to me by two people. I'm still playing catch up on FLICKR about to pay for the pro site and not finding Facebook to be what I expected. So I've been beading. Good Luck! Like the pink earrings, too!

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  2. I'll have to check out Go Daddy. I did pay for the Flickr Pro account. It hasn't resulted in any sales yet, but it just isn't a very useful site if you're limited to 200 photos total. I get a lot of hits through my Facebook fan page. I'm setting up an application that will allow people to purchase items directly through Facebook (they pay via PayPal). We'll see how that goes. I'm still pursuing the newsletter option as well.

    Thanks!

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  3. I would love to hear how you like the site when you get it up and running. And if it brings traffic. Good luck :)

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  4. I'm glad you blogged about the bracelet. I really liked it when I took a look on Etsy, now it's even better, knowing it's in honor of your grandpa.

    Website. Yeah, I've thought about it long and hard enough to have purchased a domain name, too, but the thought of trying to create my own website just plain scares me!

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  5. Thanks Edi! I'll keep you updated.

    Anitra, thanks! The idea of creating a web site doesn't scare me. I have some past experience with that. I'm just frustrated about all of the costs and lack of creative control unless you're exclusively using professional tools.

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