Dissapointed

So today was a pretty disappointing day as far as my etsy shop is concerned.  For those of you familiar with selling on etsy your items expire after four months and today was that four month mark for me.  I guess I just thought I'd be doing better by now and I didn't think I'd have so many unsold items when this day came.  So now the big question is:

What do I do to boost my sales?

currently I've been looking at blogs like handmadesuccess and handmadeology which have a lot of great marketing ideas.  I guess I just need to put them in to practice.

Just a Little Update

So school has been crazy busy and I've had very little time to work on my long list of craft and DIY to-dos. Despite that I have ads running on both facebook and etsy and have mad three sales in the last thirty days! YAY ME!!
What do you do to advertize your blog?

xoxo

The Modern Day Dauphine

And on the Etsy front...

I made not one but TWO sales today at Modern Day Dauphine! YAY!!! I only wish I knew if it came from the etsy add, the facebook add, the sorority facebook walls I posted on or sheer luck!

Not Four Years But For Life

As I've mentioned previously, I'm an alumni of Alpha Phi and I can't even put into words how much that means to me.  So today while I was looking through Facebook at all of the new pictures my sisters still in the chapter have been posting of all the new girls who just joined I got an idea.  Why not use Alpha Phi to my advantage? Since a huge part of my target market for my etsy store is college age girls, and this is the time of year when the girls get new little sisters who they make or buy gifts for, I decided to post a little advertisement for custom gifts on our chapters Facebook wall.  Then I realized how many sororities there are on campus and that they could all be potential clients as well and left a message on every chapter's page and had my friends at other schools post for me on their chapter's walls.  Even if all it gets me is some more exposure I'll be happy!

In other news I also launched an add campaign on facebook to get more "likes" on my facebook page.  So far I've gotten three new "likes" from strangers across the country so I guess that's a start.  What type of things have you done to market your etsy or blog?

And in the spirit of crafting for littles, here are the gifts I made for my own Little sis a few years back!

And so it begins...

I'm finally doing it! After promising myself to start my own business for the last three years I'm finally doing it.  I've spent the last few months crafting my heart out, convinced a good friend to take and edit my photos, and as of Thursday night www.etsy.com/moderndaydauphine is officially open for business. And the best part? I've already made two sales!! I plan on using this blog to express what it's like, trying to make a living off of the thing I love doing most: crafting! I make things for people of all ages, from baby books and blocks for infants to frames and home decor for teen's and adults.  I love everything feminine, girly and elegant, and I'm a sucker for beachy, shabby chic. In this blog you'll find posts about my current projects, my triumphs and frustrations, an occasional tutorial here and there, other crafters, blogs and sites I admire and a little bit about who I am, The Modern Day Dauphine.

So first things first, it all starts with a name and I chose mine because it describes me to a T.  If you don't know, Dauphine is the french word for princess.  I've always felt like I was born in the wrong century and I just know that had I lived in 18th century France Marie Antoinette and I would have been besties.  Marie lived a lavish lifestyle as a young dauphine, it wasn't until she took on the responsibilities of the Queen of France that it went down hill for her, and who would want to be queen when you could be a carefree princess?  I base a lot of my work on the style, elegance, class and extravagance found in the French Royal Court before the revolution (and my girl Marie's unfortunate beheading) but with a modern twist updated for a twenty first century princess.

So where am I at right now? My site is up, I've got my facebook business page, I've made my first two sales and my etsy shop is looking pretty empty.   Lucky for me I have two amazing friends who have been helping and encouraging me every step of the way.  I'm currently waiting for my extremely talented friend (who you can find at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001429546463) to finish editing the pictures of the rest of my crafts that he took so I can get everything up for sale on my site.  As for crafting, I just participated in a craft swap for one of my favorite websites, www.craftster.org and am still working on new projects for my shop. That's all for now, but check back for updates soon!

xoxo                 

The Modern Day Dauphine