Archive for December, 2008

New shopping cart launch!

Friday, December 26th, 2008

Wow, so if you’ve been to the site before you’re seeing a whole new shopping cart in place!В  It’s gonna be pretty amazing, even though it looks pretty drab right now.В  The template isn’t far off from the default template, but that will be changing very soon… and somewhat slowly as I work on putting things in order.В  Slowly the site will come to life and be ready to make lots o’ money!В  haha, well maybe not lots, but the goal is to make a living from it for a while.

The first thing that I want to talk about is the awesome new feature present in the new shopping cart… and that is (drum roll please) affiliate programs!В  Anyone who is a registered user of the site can now guide people to the site via the affiliate program link and make 10% of all sales!В  Seriously, how could you not love that?В  You can make money from my work, my art, my passion!

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Inspiration!

Monday, December 8th, 2008

Ah, so I just got a huge jolt of inpiration today to get the new shopping cart up and running on here!В  I was searching Google for one of the usual terms that I try to determine how well my site is doing… “Sterling Silver Jewelry” it’s a pretty big term, especially for such a small site as mine… but no matter it’s one thing that I’ve been going for.В  For the first time EVER my site was in the top 10!В  Actually currently in 6th place, that’s bound to fluctuate and possibly drop, but it’s looking sweet for me right now!В  Anyways, if there ever was an inspirational time for me to start getting the site together… well this has to be it!

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New Shopping Cart Installation

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

I just thought that I’d update you on the new shopping cart installation.В  The process is a little bit tricky, and therefore slow, everything can’t just be copied over, and I’ve run into a number of problems with the installation.В  The new shopping cart is installed on another directory of this website… I’m just working now to get it switched over.В  I have most of the products, and some other minor things switched over.В  One issue now though is with the template of the website.В  The site looks okay as is, and if I could take the current template and just copy it that woudl be awesome!В  That’s not exactly possible though… And because it’s not exactly possible and I have to completely recreate the template I was thinking of just starting from scratch.В  The template design that is on the site right now is aimed towards capturing a more high end market, crisp, clean, easy to navigate.В  Nothing wrong with it… it just has no selling power… So I’m going to redesign it for hopefully increased sales, and definitely looking for increased browsing from the Ren. Faire crowds.

It’s obvious that my main group of people on the site are Ren. Faire types, so why not market to them?В  I’m a renny myself and it’s becoming increasingly more obvious that is the only group that is going to purchase my items.В  That’s fine, I plan on embracing this with an increase of stock as well.В  Cheaper stock will start to flow into my store with steel jewelry, more copper, and hopefully some armor items added to the cart.В  Anyways that’s where I stand right now… I’ve got a functional cart with all the same stock as on here, and once I have the new template made I’ll start the switch, which also means creating 301 redirects for every page and product on the site now to the new shopping cart.В  This is a painstakingly long process… but hopefully it pays off in the end!

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Handmade Silver Jewelry

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

I have to admit that I have a decent hold on the handmade silver jewelry market, and have for some time.В  However that hold has not kept me in the black with this business, and I really should look at some different plans of attack.В  My problem is not as I’ve said for years rankings, my problem is the level of stock found online.В  I’ve only got maybe 35% of what I have made up on my site right now, and many items that have been sold have disappeared from my stock, not to be repleneshed.В  It’s one of those hard situations though, I don’t sell much because I don’t have enough choices online, but I don’t have enough choices online because I don’t sell enough to motivate myself to.

Anyways, I really need to work on how much handmade silver jewelry I produce… I need to balance how much unused wire I have in order to make enough custom things, or resizings that need to occur… yet I need enough stock to look attractive to people.В  That’s why I like the idea of selling PDFs on jewelry care, jewelry cleaning, and jewelry making for a low price of $0.50 to $5.00 depending upon how much information the booklet contains.В  So that is what I should be working on now.

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So much to do, so little time!

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Oh my, so the goal is to get ArchmailleDesigns.com into the black.В  I know, such an odd time to choose to do so with the way things are going in the economy.В  But I still think it’s possible… I’ve got TONS of work to do in an effort to make that push, but things should be looking up.В  I need to get the new shopping cart up with 301 redirects from everything that is up, to the new stuff.В  I’d like to create a new sector for armor designs, I need to get more stock up, with the PDF’s… and I need to continue making money from other stuff the whole time…

Oh, and not to mention my wedding coming up ;-) so needless to say, I’ve got a lot on my plate for right now, and it’s not been easy keeping up with ANY of it.В  I would also really like to get at least two of every piece made on my site… just so that people have choices, and if something is purchased, the stock does not decrease.

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