I hate facebook. . .

 Seriously folks, I have always hated facebook, it took years for my Mom to convince me to make a profile and I only did it to send her bonus stuff for "Ghosts of Mistwood" a game that no longer even exists. 😕

I have never trusted facebook they collect and track too much personal info. People on facebook are entirely too trusting those stupid 20 question games that ask things like"what's your favorite color" "what's your pet's name" "what was your first car" those things are designed to provide info for hackers, think about it those are the answers to standard security questions, throw in your momma's last name and your birthday and welcome to total ID theft. Yeah those are covered by those what's your stripper name posts where they ask the month and day you were born to pick from the lists to make up something goofy.  😐 Layer onto that the number of people who use facebook on their phone to "check-in" basically telling everyone where they are and that it's a fine time to rob their house since they aren't home. 

I think you get my point(s).  The only reason I created my business facebook page is because everything says a business should have a facebook presence, but facebook limits the reach of small business pages. It has reached the point where you have to pay for ads to even be seen by one's own followers, which I think stinks since the notion that someone liked and/or followed the page means they are interested in the page/business/content.  So why should I have to pay for ads to reach people who have already agreed by affirmative actions that they Want to see my posts?  Simple answer facebook is greedy their entire business model is based on selling ads so if they hide your stuff unless you pay up they win. 

Yesterday they shoved a new layout page format on me, like I logged in and BAM there it was in my face. 😒  It is ugly and I am hating it for many many reasons, not just that it's new. 

My business page now gives me a headache to look at, I have to scroll forever to see my post from yesterday, there is a bunch of crap at the top that I am not interested in and have no desire to see, including a repeatedly appearing pop up suggestion to set up ads. 😠  I have x'd it out 3 times but every time I come back from a group or another page it just reappears.  It gave me notifications that I shared my own post, like I need a notification for that, I did it I already knew.  The off-center cover photo makes  me feel like am sitting crooked. The giant side menu that does not collapse and just eats screen space is ugly and stupid while being a total waste of space.  The "rounded corners" are the worst, boxes are square, squares have corners, corners by definition should not be round, the phrase "rounded corners" is oxymoronic and makes my brain hurt.

I switched back to the classic and filled out the survey telling them how much I hate the new one and everything I think is wrong with it. I can only hope that enough people also complain that they re-think this disaster or at least make some modifications. Sadly, I doubt even if every single person on the planet complained that it would actually change anything.  😕

Once the new fugliness becomes permanent I will use facebook way way less, I cannot spend extended periods of time on a site that gave me a headache in 10 minutes.  😐

learning goimagine. . .

 I have written before about how when I start on a new site I like to spend some time literally hovering every inch of screen and clicking every possible button, just to see what it does. 😁

I know it may sound weird but there are so many things you can find and learn by simply taking the time to investigate.  While hovering your cursor around a screen watch for things that change color, watch for the cursor to change, watch for things that are underlined, look for little arrows, there are a lot of sometimes subtle clues. 😉

I have been on goimagine and working on my shop since April so I have over 4 months in watching the site and vendor interface evolve and become what it currently is and in that time I have learned a lot about how it functions.  Some of the things I found where pretty well hidden. Some of the things I've learned, I learned don't always work exactly as expected. 

One of the things I learned fairly early that is very helpful is that you can edit prices, qty, and status straight from the "Product" list without ever opening the listings individually.  If you hover over the price or qty, or just click where they are, type-able boxes appear and you can make changes right then and there, just remember to click the "Save" button up top in the corner. 😉

The next awesome and helpful thing I learned is the bulk editing options, which are pretty amazing.  Goimagine's bulk edit allows you to edit as many listings at once as you want up to and including all. Now selecting them all can be tricky because the checkbox to select all is virtually invisible until it's clicked, the arrow for the drop down does not appear unless you hover or click right there.   

Once you have selected the listings you want to edit a magical new menu bar appears with several options. The "edit selected" gives you the amazing list of things to edit, it comes as a pop-up box with a massive amount of choices.

I highly recommend scrolling down to the "unselect all" to start.

You can pick whatever you want to edit, you can edit multiple things for each listing, just click the checkbox(es) with what you want to edit and click "Modify selected" and edit away. This can be handy for many reasons, if you want to add seasonal search terms, adjust your shipping time frames, change your shipping box sizes, etc.,

With Labor Day coming many may be thinking about having a "Sale" and while goimagine does not yet have coupon options you can definitely have a "Sale".  Actually, there are multiple ways to achieve that, you can simply change the "Price" from the "Product" list, you could use the bulk edit option, or you could use the "Global Update" which can be tricksie as many don't even know where it is. 

The "Global update" is similar to the bulk editor but more specific.  It can be used to set discounts on any or all listings but it is a multi-step process. First you don't select the listings first, just click the gear and select the "Global update", that will take you to a new screen. 

In this process you can set a discount by $dollar amount or %percent, note that in order for it to be a "Discount" you need to put a minus - so that it is subtracting. Then you select the products you want the "Global update" to apply to, you can only select so many at a time, even if you click the top checkbox it only selects the ones on the shorty page unless you change how many appear on the page.

Although, the search function in here is cool if you want to only discount a specific style of product or category, like just the earrings and not necklaces.   

Once you've set your discount and select items just click "Apply" up in the corner. 😇  

Now a bit of a warning, I know NOW a warning. ~LOL~  Yes while setting a discount with the "Global update" option is an easy way to discount lots of listings at once, there is no time frame the discount will remain in place until you undo it.  

WARNING : if you try to undo a "Global update" discount by reversing the process (using global update to increase the price back up by the same percent as the discount) it will not reset your prices to full regular retail, rounding and math and stuff. It will in fact be off by change. 

So your best option to reset your prices after a "Sale" is to manually reset them by just typing them in on the "Products" list so that your "Price$" and "List Price" match again.  😉

Good grief . . .

Reading the esty forums this morning I found multiple threads of people complaining about receiving infringement notices and/or having their shops shuttered "for no reason". (as if, there is Always a reason) 

I find myself rather annoyed with these people because when you look at their shops and realize that : 

One of them was reproducing stolen art. Literally found a picture of a painting, copied it without permission, and had them re-printed through some print on demand service and drop-shipped from god knows where. The "Seller" didn't do a darned thing they didn't create the artwork, they didn't print the repro, they aren't even seeing or shipping the product. 😡  This pisses me off, as someone who spends hours actually painting one of a kind artworks, I hope this fraud gets more than one notice and has their shop closed and is permanently banned from etsy. Lucky for them none of the stolen art they have listed is mine. (But I have seen POD people in my etsy stats, so I keep an eye out for my stuff.)

Second infringer example, "fan art" selling art based on very obviously trademarked and/or copyrighted characters. Their defense they draw and paint them themselves, never mind that it is someone else's original creation and famous cartoon characters are and should be completely off limits. Draw your own characters not copy Sailor Moon, the lack of creativity and originality is really troubling considering the art actually looks really good, the person has some talent just no morals or ethics or understanding of "Intellectual Property" rights. 😕  

Final prime example of what not to do, reselling junk.  No joke, not a single thing in that shop is handmade. Honestly, I do not believe that any of it is even qualified as vintage. New brand name make-up and commercially produced jewelry that looks so shiny and new, it's like the person decided since the wedding is off they should sell their engagement ring. Half way thru the comments the seller admitted they finally just read the seller handbook and if they had read it to begin with they never would have started on etsy. 😶  

Seriously why don't people read the "Terms of Service" or Handbook rules or anything really. ~sigh~

Too much fun. . .

Sometimes I have too much fun playing with graphics and making banners and cover photos.  Sometimes getting them just right size wise for facebook and pinterest and the blog is tricky mainly because they all need to be just a bit different. 😏

  I make them using Adobe Spark because they have templates that you can just add photos to and adjust here and there.  Spark also has, aside from the templates and layout, a resize option with preset sizes for assorted social media use.  However, in the years I have been using it I have noticed that the facebook sizes never fit quite right. 😏  Which may be why I always end up making at least a dozen. 

I find it ironic. . .

 I have been on etsy for just over 5 years and in those years I have watched them ignore sellers opinions and input, even when they send out surveys and ask for seller opinions they do the opposite. 😕  

That may sound like a joke but it's not.  I have seen many in the forums complain that the surveys don't work, won't open, tells them they already completed it when they haven't.  When the discussions happen about surveys everyone tries to interpret the questions and guess what they are up to and regularly thanks to group-think we get pretty close.  However, in the discussion of fees no one wanted them applied to shipping but they did it, in the discussion of advertising fees no one wanted it to be mandatory or auto-enrollment, or more than 8% then the program came out with auto-enrollment, mandatory for sellers over $10,000 and 12% 15% so basically the exact opposite.  This is not new it's a pattern I've noticed.

For years many sellers have been asking for more photo slots, the ability to do videos in listings, more options/variations for listings, better support, marketing stuff, control of resellers and infringers, all sorts of things.  Most of those things have not materialized, they did increase the # of photos from 5 to 10 a few years ago but until this year that's about it.

So this spring when goimagine was created and started its beta life listening to the sellers. . .vetting for handmade, not allowing infringement, unlimited photos in listings, unlimited options and variations, fast and responsive support with actual answers, reasonable fees, no mandatory marketing fees, promising to give to charities, supporting sellers and offering marketing materials.  I am sure it got etsy's attention.  I know for a fact that it did because there was a forum thread where someone said they had signed up and were encouraging others to take a chance on goimagine.  That thread had over 400 replies when it got shut down by an admin, it didn't get closed right away but eventually "While it’s ok to discuss alternate venue and their relationship to Etsy, we ask that you not post direct sign up links, private team invites from off-Etsy sites, promoting your off site listing’s (with direct links), or support style discussions that do not pertain to selling on Etsy." 

I know it had to bother them to have the open discussion and direct comparison with goimagine (and realize they were going to lose) because in the 5+ years I've been reading those forums the number of discussions about ebay, amazon handmade, mercari, artyeah, and every other possible place have been pretty numerous but the comments have always been etsy sellers telling each other that etsy was better than all those other places and those discussions were rarely if ever closed. 😏

In the meantime, in the few months that goimagine has existed and etsy has been aware of it, etsy sudden released videos for listings, and special etsy packing tape, both things that goimagine has. 😏

Oh I'm sure those facts and their ironic timing have absolutely no relation. Now if only we could convince etsy to give their profits to charity. 😁

Just days. . .

 😮  😯  😱  😲  😳  😵

OMG!! I can't believe it's only days until the official public LAUNCH of goimagine.com I have been working on my shop and listings for 4 months and now it's just a matter of days.   😶

Having a hard time deciding what I am feeling most. . .excited. . .nervous. . .scared. . .hopeful. . .anxious. . .

I have added the new "google feed" category info on all my existing listings.  I have been working on my "How it's Made" section(s) but that has been complicated by needing to do 3 different versions for the different types of products.  I have all the paintings finished (I think). I have most of the chainmaille listings updated, I think I have about a dozen to go.  Today I plan to get on updating the wire tree listings. 😎  That will be the last of the "How it's Made" sections.

In the last week I have changed my banner, put my founding maker badge in as my shop logo, and got a "Featured" product section squared away.  I have re-done my RainbowMaille pinterest board deleting 192 pins that linked back to etsy and I am working on re-pinning the items but with goimagine links. 😉 I have been instagram posting and even using the "Stories" which I don't normally do.

I still have listings that need photos.  I have at least a dozen paintings that need photographed and listed.  Unfortunately, this week I have spent entirely too much time on this laptop and no time making new things. 😕  However, I'll just have to power through the next few days and get as much done as fast as I can, maybe next week I'll get to go back to painting and creating. 😇

How it's Made. . .

 How it's Made. . .no not the TV show, the new tab available in goimagine listings. 😉  ( I crack myself up)  😊

So this week's site updates/upgrades include a couple things I am really excited about. First the "Featured items" ability 🎯 score!  This is a great thing in my opinion.  I was able to select a variety of my products to highlight at the top of my shop, which I really like the look of.  Instead of a wall of art or trying to figure out what is under which "category" now the top of my shop showcases an assortment of chainmaille and wire trees, showing a broader range of my work.  This is also a step towards sellers having more control over the appearance and arrangement of their shop fronts. 👍

The second thing I got excited about was the new "How it's Made" tab on our listings.  This had been mentioned previously and I was looking forward to it becoming available.  It allows up to 3 photos and there is a format-able large text box that we can write whatever we want to describe our process, our materials, show off our studios.  To me this is a great opportunity to really try to connect with the buyer, to allow the buyer to see where the art was created, possibly even work in progress photos.  😀

So I jumped right in and started edit listings.  I wrote like me, all about how I do things, because as a one woman show it is all about Me. 😄  I am the artist, I am the owner, I am the creator, I am the photographer, I am the copy editor, I am the shipping clerk, I am the marketing department.  I thought what I wrote was fine but when I showed it to my husband, he literally looked at it for about 5 seconds and said "hmm. .seven I's in 5 sentences. . .not good". 😕  Now to be clear he's all corporate executive guy and all about "teams" and he has been trained against using "I" declaratives.  I sat and listened to him and fought my desire to get annoyed with him because he was just trying to help and I should not get mad about that. 😇  

I thought about and although there is a big part of me that thinks all my "I's" are fine because of the sole proprietorship nature of it all being just me, I cannot totally ignore what my husband said.  Mainly because he is a really smart guy and has had decades of training and exposure to some marketing guru types that have told him all about the psychology behind such things.  However, all of that is in the context of huge commercial businesses and not handmade small businesses selling one of a kind art items, so. . .I am torn.

The original text I wrote: 

I buy pre-made medium-weight cotton duck canvases that are pre-stretched, kiln dried, and pre-primed.

I prefer to stick to with smaller sizes 8" x 8", 8" x 10", 10" x 10" 11" x 14" because it helps to keep shipping easier and reasonably priced.

I use mostly acrylic paints these days, although I do have some watercolors for sale.

I prefer Liquitex brand products including paints, mix-ins and varnish, although I do use some Krylon spray sealants.

I use a variety of brushes, pallet knives, my hands and some other non-traditional tools as well.

This morning's rethink edit : 

My art starts with pre-made medium-weight cotton duck canvases that come pre-stretched, kiln dried, and pre-primed, it saves a lot of time.

By sticking with the smaller size canvases like 8" x 8", 8" x 10", 10" x 10" 11" x 14" it helps to keep shipping easier and reasonably priced.

Currently using mostly acrylic paints these days, although I do have some older watercolor works for sale.

Made with Liquitex brand quality products including paints, mix-ins and varnish, although I do also sometimes use Krylon spray sealants.

I use a variety of brushes, pallet knives, putty knives, my hands and some other more non-traditional tools as well.

Now I don't know which one to use. 😟