Ad and Gallery Update - Tink

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Tinkster :

]Today was the official opening of my exhibit there, and sales were ]brisk! Enough so that she's concerned about running out of exhibit ]stuff. About half of what I had on exhibit had sold by lunchtime ]today!

YIKES!!!!!!!!!!! way to go, TINK!!!!

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

newest creations: ----------- I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all.

Tink - YOU ROCK.

Becki "In between the moon and you, the angels have a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right." -- Counting Crows

*chuckle* Nah.... In fact, I've gone back and changed some of my auction prices. It's worth a look ;-)

Tink (who was supposed to get up at 7 for a meeting and didn't. Got up a half hour before said meeting. Day continues at frantic pace!)

New Auctions Up:

Oooo...I'll start!

Uh oh....drive safe, missy!

Heheheheh! I knew someone would be happy. LOL! I had a wholesale customer waiting in the wings for that set, but I didn't know she really wanted them. You have to be direct with me: "Tink, gimme those beads. Now!" She was saying, "Oh! Those are SO NICE! I can think of a million things to do with them!"

To her, that was claiming them. NOT. *waving at her because she hangs out here". Anyway, long story short, I had just spent an appreciable amount of time photographing the suckers and writing up the ad. The deal we struck was thus: I'll post them with a starting bid of her wholesale price with an appropriate Buy It Now. If they sold, I would make her another set. If they didn't, she could have them at the wholesale (opening bid) price.

I fussed around on the torch after I got home today and made another set, since these go so well. Emailed her about it and she said "Thank goodness! I was going crazy watching the auction." So that allowed me to revise my auction. LOL! And now it's a bargain, as I am SO over making these. Time to move on... And they won't do me any good for my gallery stocking need, as I'd have to turn them into something. Which is not my thing. I suppose I could put each bead on a cord or something. LOL!

I may be nuts, but I see eBay as much, much more than just an immediate buy/sell vehicle: The exposure you can get by keeping items up there is very valuable, in my opinion. I really like the layout of the ad for this set of beads, and felt it was important that it be seen.

Does any of this make any sense? I am still not totally functional today from having to get up early with little sleep.

Tink

PS - Here is the auction I'm talking about:

New Auctions Up:

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Tinkster :

]

gods. i've loved those from the minute i saw them!

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

newest creations: ----------- I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all.

Yes, it does make sense and I love the ad. I wanted to tell you that when I teased you about selling "key largo" but gawds know what I did to lose that thread. Anyhoo, you're artist ability isn't confined to just glass, your ad is a reflection of your art too. I know it doesn't have to be but I could tell immediately that you wanted it to be artful and it is! Ta-dah! Well done, Tinkmeisterina.

A couple shots of espresso should fix you up for about 4 hours.

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Tinkster :

]I really like the layout of ]the ad for this set of beads, and felt it was important that it be ]seen.

i have to tell you - i love the layout of

it's easier to see and looks GREAT! ----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books) newest creations: ----------- I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all.

I think maintaining a presence on eBay works not just for sales but it gets your name out there. There is nothing wrong with honest self-promotion AND new customers. Go Tink Go.

Taking the advice of someone who posted here recently, I am going to attempt to respond to three posts with one. LOL!

Thank you, vj! I really truly love my eBay store, and it has paid for itself many times over each month. Unfortunately, I haven't given it the attention it deserves, primarily because I haven't had the time. I plan to spruce it up even more in the near future!

Yo Margie! LOL! I think part of the big deal for me about these Largo beads is that I never, EVER like repeating things. But with these, I looked forward to it. SO WEIRD. I love EDP so much...

Oh, so what do I pull out of the kiln this morning? A Largo vessel. LOL! Someone needs to come and hide my EDP and black or something. I was particularly pleased because I have come up with a new cool way of doing stoppers for vessels. I dreamed about it the other night, and it actually worked!

I have to say that I am veyr, very pleased with where my business stands right now. I don't have a bunch of stuff here that hasn't sold, I have people coming to my site and my auctions, and I am selling quite a bit even before I have to take photos, which is a HUGE plus, in my book! And I have also found that a lot of people who buy from my site FOUND me on eBay, but won't buy via auction, so they contact me directly. Now there's a good reason to keep auctions up all the time!

According to my microenterprise team, because 80%+ of my customer base is repeat business (a very good thing) the way to grow my business is to increase the customer base. That would, potentially, mean exponential growth if the new customers are also repeat buyers.

With that in mind, the fellas and I have put together some goals for the next six months since the previous six months went so well and exceeded expectations and projections:

*Bead and Button Ad *Bump up the Demos and Classes (local and long distance) *More eBay Auctions (primarily for the visibility) *Better Utilization of my Mailing List *Direct mailings to Shops and Galleries *I forget the rest. LOL!

More than anyone wanted to know, I'm sure, but maybe this will help someone else who's reading...

Tink

New Auctions Up:

LOL!!! Vessels... *droooooooooooool*... :)

Ooh, wanna see!

Great news Tink...and I'm positively green with envy that you're going to Zingerman's in person.

Barb

Tinkus,

Congrats on the Ann Arbor thing!!! I am so happy for you!

mary

hey, Tink...with all of this, *when* are you supposed to make beads/etc??? LOL!!!

I would suggest either getting Donna there more, or perhaps hire a part time teenager who is taking a business course of some kind to help with shipping/etc. Some of the small stuff. Let Donna take on more of the higher things (prepping glass, doing the accounting/etc), and let yourself relax, and work. You teach Donna, and Donna teaches/supervises the assistant. More work done, less headache on you.

Or just pay for a plane ticket for me to come up once a month. I will clean house, help you catchup/etc. :-)

mary

That is awesome! I'm glad to hear it.

-Kalera

T> I've barely had time to keep up with processing sales lately, much