Wondering Why Wednesday 10.20.10

This is the last of my Wednesday threads devoted to answering questions from you, my readers! Since response to this was less than super enthusiastic, I think I'll put this on a back burner until a future time that I want to take a chance on trying it again! My post today will only be 4 questions instead of five since that's all that I received that weren't duplicated in some way!

Thank you to everyone who participated and sent me questions! I appreciate your curiosity and desire to improve your strategies and knowledge base!

My first question was from Dawn D... I know it's all okay to promote to other Etsians, but what the best way to get noticed outside of Etsy, like if you sell in a small shop or consign to a brick and mortar shop? Probably one of the quickest ways to get some broad coverage is to write and submit a press release to your local newspaper. Beyond that, if you make something you can wear, wear it, flaunt it, show it off! Leave some business cards and/or flyers everywhere you go. There are lots of ways to advertise to the public without spending a lot of time or money!

Barb wanted to know - Are you ever going to start posting information on gemstones again? You had done a couple of posts a while back that were great, but then you stopped. Most of the time if I've stopped doing something on my blog, it's because I'm getting lukewarm response at best. I want you to have content you enjoy reading. If there is a need or market for informational blogs, I'd love to know your thoughts!! I'm looking for ideas for my blog for the the first of the year forward - so please, please, please... let me know what you'd like me to write about!

Cheri asked - What makes YOU not want to buy from a shop? Tough question... I guess there's a few things I like to look for in a shop I'm considering purchasing from. Since I won't be seeing the item in real life before I buy it, I like to look pretty closely at pictures from a variety of angles. I check to see if the description matches the photo - are the blues blue, does the description give accurate sizes, that sort of thing. I'll look for negative feedback by other buyers - but I kind of take that with a grain of salt if it's only 1 buyer out of a hundred and all of the other feedback is great. Buyers and sellers can both have a bad day! Outside of that, I look for quality at a realistic price, and I tend to like shops that are willing to work with their customers since I'm often buying gifts for family or friends and sometimes have special requests! I love unusual items that are either OOAK or really make a lasting impression on me! Things that turn me off are announcements or descriptions with a negative or condescending attitude or descriptions where you can tell no thought really went into them. I don't like skanky or sloppy shops either - when it comes to business, I expect professionalism!

Laurie was looking for advice... Where's the best place to buy craft supplies? I buy from Michaels and Joanns but I want to find less common items at good prices. I guess that depends on what your craft of choice is! If you're crafting for yourself and only need a small quantity of supplies, there's always lots of great goodies on Etsy and Artfire and several other marketplaces. Don't pass up garage sales or rummage sales or even stores like Goodwill - sometimes you can pick up crafting supplies that are still in their original packaging dirt cheap. I went to a garage sale once where they had literally bins of jewelry supplies and old jewelry that they weren't even going to put out because some of the pieces were broken or metals had lost their shine. I bought a large lot of items for the ridiculous low price of $2.00 and used the components in some beautiful pieces. Another time I went to a church rummage sale and picked up about 10 skeins of yarn - brand new, good to better quality, but a mixture of colors, for $5. If you're buying in quantity, look for suppliers that offer quantity discounts, or better yet, suppliers that will let you mix and match to get a discounted price.

Well that's it for my stint as an advice blogger! Dear Abby I guess I'm not! (At least not yet!) Tomorrow I'll be featuring one of my favorite color combinations - blue and green! It reminds me of the grass and sky and all things beautiful in nature! I still have room for a couple of items, so if you have something you'd like me to look at before I finish my post tomorrow afternoon, send them over!

Have a great day now that we're over the hump!