Google's Banned Words for SEO

Well, it seems Google has a list of terms and words they'll disallow for searching in Google Shopping. Most I don't mind at all, they're not terms I use and often find annoying when searching myself - alternating capital letters the @ symbol in place of an o. I don't really even mind the drug and explosives terms being banned. While I do understand the alcohol references, there are a number of colors that use the same terminology and that's going to make things a little difficult.

They're also banning text and twitter speak, the shortening of a word to a single letter or number. Here's where it gets a little tricky for me personally. The screen name I've used for close to a decade contains 4U2, That screen name has meaning to me, it fits me, it holds dear memories of my children. I'm well known by it, and now it's banned. While I don't use that screen name for my shops I do have several profiles where do I use it, and link back here and to my shops. Link backs, we've all been told, are crucial to building an on-line presence and now it can penalize me.

I suppose I could change my screen name, create a more unified brand for my shops, but that means I'll be starting over in creating my presence and the 1000's of posts will still be there, penalizing me in search rankings. I googled, I have over 11,000 posts in combined forums and message boards - but Google will only allow me to actually look at three pages. I've already been truncated.

On a brighter note, I've been quite productive this week taking pics, writing descriptions, pricing, and even managed to get several items listed in both shops. I have a couple projects nearly finished, several planned out for Art with Heart, the Christmas swap on the jewelry forum and of course gifts to friends and family.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are inching ever closer and I suddenly feel an urgent need to get MOVING! I'm hoping to make a piece a day, but I'm sure there will be days where I won't make it. I did ask for my Master Bath to be finished for Christmas and that means I have taping, texturing, tiling and grouting in my very near future. On top of rocking the basement!

Not much has happened on that front this last month. Alan has been busy working and the backhoe/sand transporter has not been available for grout mixing and I have discovered I don't have the upper body strength to tip a full mixer of grout. At least not at the height it is set to allow for dumping into the wheelbarrow. I just don't have enough leverage. But the trim is up around the windows, stained and varnished, the rocks are stacked up to the trim, and it sure is looking pretty!

Well, I have some pictures to take, an e-mail to send, a Peacock to get finished, a bracelet the needs a clasp, a couple necklaces that need chains revamped and several projects to get started and mortar to mix. So I had better get moving!

'Til next time!
Dana

I really do think I should l have posts (at least topics to expand on) on stand by for this poor neglected blog. I really don't mean to neglect it, there are just only so many hours in a day and I find myself wishing for more hours on a regular basis.

Well, except for this last weekend, the thought of more hours in a day was a terrifying thought. That's how busy I was and how exhausted I was by it all! Thankfully it seems the fast forward pace I was running at is returning to normal play. Whew! I don't think I could keep up the pace for very much longer either.

The good news is, I finally got some of my garden planted up in pots and moved up here. They're waiting patiently to be tucked into their new home! I still have a lot of work ahead of me but it just warms my heart to look out my door and see my roses. I really didn't realize how much I missed puttering in the garden.

Pulled out my landscaping plans - really just an informal sketch - circles with numbers that remind me where I wanted to put what plant, and now I can get to work.

So now that you have an idea of what's been going on in my personal life and why I've been absent (sort of) I can update you on my jewelry goings on.

Beads n Blessings, Art With Heart Cycle 3 is under way! My kit arrived and I'm really excited to get started!

I joined a Color Challenge group and that is turning into so much fun. The group votes on a color scheme for the week and then creates something using those colors. It's a very diverse group of artists so their offerings are always fun to see, from web site graphics, to business cards, to custom aprons, to lamp worked beads, to jewelry, it's just a blast!

I've also joined a treasury team and have had the honor of being included in some very nice treasuries. I belong to other groups, but have never been chosen for theirs, so this is really quite exciting for me! It's even given me the pleasure of discovering some new shops I'd not seen before and also provided me with some inspiration.

Coupled with the Color group I will have a new piece to share with you in another blog post very soon I hope. And with Etsy's newly remodeled profile pages I hope to be able to use it to help tell the story of how I create the pieces I do. Should be interesting, and yup more work!!

Until next time!
Dana

Making progress

I have completed my first locket, thanks in large part to the inspiration Mary provided me (see my last post) I'm quite happy with it for it being a first and have a number of variations of it floating in my head :)

Art with Heart Beads n Blessings Cycle 3 is now taking pre-orders. This cycle's charity is Step Up for Cancer. I lost my Dad 23 years ago to Cancer, lost my Grandpa (Mom's Dad) a week after 9/11, lost my Aunt (Dad's Sister) in May. My younger cousin is battling her third round, I can't think of a better cause, I'm all in! I've made my order and have my design worked out, as much as I can without knowing what the surprise element will be! I am really looking forward to this cycle!

I've got a fairly decent routine going now. Rocks, box, or garden is my morning routine mantra. Stack some rocks, unpack or repack a box, or weed the garden. The rock work is really coming along now, my house is staring to look like a home, and the weeds .... are still overwhelming (it's a brand new rather large bed)- but give it some time.

I've also discovered another blog to follow, she's just moved to her own domain http://www.newdressaday.com and I gotta say, I read all the way back to her very first posting and I am really impressed with this young lady's creativity, she's really quite an inspiration. On just one dollar a day, she is creating a new outfit to wear each and every day for an entire year. What she can do to a MuuMuu is just amazing. The girl has definitely got an eye for style and color. Check her out and see if you don't agree!

When did I get so busy!!

I just noticed I haven't posted in weeks, yikes! My excuse? I have been really busy of late. Really I have!

I've been putting tons - literally tons - of rock on the left half of my basement wall. It's stating to look really good too! Working with all that rock does tend to swell my fingers up some though, and the super high heat we had left me with a nasty heat rash on my rib cage. This pic was taken several courses of rock ago - I'm just below the Lowe's logo now.

Having an outdoor wedding to attend I took a couple days off and made myself a very pretty Silver and Turquoise set.

Then..... where did the time go??? it was time to get my kids ready for back to school! We went back to school supply and clothes shopping. Since my middle child is driving, she and my son were able to get their schedules and pick up those last little things they needed.

I looked around the house and boy did it look neglected! I spent another week cleaning and rearranging furniture. Digging through boxes and unpacking and just doing my best to try to make my house look more like a home. It's looking more so all the time. Still a few more boxes to go through but I'm making headway.

Then on her way into school, the low fuel light came on in my daughter's car, so she pulled in to the gas station. Rather she tried to pull into the gas station, she was just pulling in when she got hit. I can not begin to tell you how truly thankful I am that bruises, cuts and minor burns are all my children received. I AM truly thankful he took the nose of her car and did not t-bone them. The insurance declared it her fault as she was crossing traffic - but it didn't take a whole lot of looking at the facts to realize it wasn't entirely her fault. This being accident number 6 for the other driver - one of those was a few months ago, in January, for falling asleep at the wheel and he's only 21, is just one of those facts, but the one that bothers me the most. The rest are details and just putting 2 and 2 together and then finally hearing from the girl in the car driving behind Paige confirming it all. I am happy to say we found Paige another car, she drove it to school yesterday, but there are still a few repairs to be made yet before she is truly back on the road.

All of this in just a couple weeks! Feels like months. I did manage to remake several pairs of earrings, get pictures taken and listed too. I still have several pieces in my shops that need new photos, several pieces that still need listing AND I'm working on a design for a locket. I've had this design floating around since January of 2009 fiddling with the how to's of it. Finally, thanks to Mary Tucker of Wired Elements http://www.etsy.com/shop/wiredelements I've finally decided how I want to do it. It's a technique I've known for many years and she gave me a wonderful slap the forehead moment when she shared with me how she did it! Her blog is the Angsty Artist, http://theangstyartist.blogspot.com/ if you're so inclined.

I'll try not to let so much time pass between postings.....'til next time!

Offering or Selling?

I subscribe to a couple blogs, not too terribly surprising, most of us do. One of those blogs is Brass Tack Thinking and this post was in my e-mail this morning:
http://www.brasstackthinking.com/2010/08/offer-or-sell/
The writers share quite a few of my personal views on things - so of course I love this blog!! They write in a wonderful way that allows you to think on the subject and reflect. Sometimes offering a point of view that may be different from your own and inviting a discussion on how you perceive it. I have to say I'm in total agreement with the current post up for deliberation. I hate a hard sell in anything. I will refuse to buy even if I need what is being sold. Spam - not much better. As an independent artisan offering my jewelry for sale, it is up to me to market my wares. ah, but I hate spam and the hard sell! There are days when I cringe at the live feed on FB when it's the same person posting their wares over and over again, completely taking over the page so I can't see what is happening in the lives of the other folks on my list. Other days, every one of my artisan friends has decided "today is the day I share one or two of my pieces" I have to laugh and think I must have missed the memo that today is marketing day :) Then there are the friends who truly have embraced social media, they have thoughtful, funny, or thought provoking posts. They comment on others posts and share some beautiful work of friends and unknowns, so when they do post some of their own it just feels natural to see it, and I'm glad they shared. They truly offer what they have and I am grateful for that.

'Til next time!
Dana

oh nooo another copyright post!!

Copyright - oh it's a story beat to death but a very real issue all artists face. The better your work the more likely you are to face it.

We all learn by imitating what we see.

We all learn by imitating that which we find to be to our liking.

I keep an inspiration folder, filled with jewelry pieces of designs I love, artists I admire, some with intricacies I hope to master myself and some in mediums I have no intention of ever mastering but the work just awes me. I find inspiration in the graceful lines, the clean designs, the color combinations used, layering of techniques and just the sheer mastery of technique.

I aspire to be as good, to surpass. While these pieces inspire me to constantly do better, to master my craft, the thought never occurred to me to outright copy them. It is in my nature to create my own, to have my personality stamped upon it.

It is because of this that I struggle with the idea of selling a creation I have made after using a tutorial to learn a technique from some one else. If I follow the directions I learn the technique and make their design. If I don't follow the directions I haven't learned the technique I was after. It normally takes a couple attempts to really get the technique down. I recently bought a tutorial from my friend Bobbi of My Wired Imagination. http://www.mywiredimagination.etsy.com My oldest daughter fell in love with the design and so I made that ring for her birthday. It took a couple attempts to consistently produce not just the pattern but the correct size - but who needs five of the same ring? Not me!

So the rings have sat here for several months while I went back and forth as to whether I would allow myself to sell someone else's design. I looked at the descriptions of others work, those that I recognized as having come from tutorials, books and magazines, and some I recognized as copies of other artists work, some of those artists whose work is being copied are friends and acquaintances of mine. Surprisingly, not one of them, mentions the fact that it is someone else's design. My ring, my design, my this, my that. hmmm. Why? I suppose it's human nature to claim one's work as exclusive and you never see department store - manufactured jewelry - with an inspirational credit. Business is business right? Well, no, not really.

One of the best parts of buying hand made, hand crafted items, is the story behind it. The inspiration, the learning process, the person behind it, is what makes it unique - that story is what makes a hand crafted piece personal. Giving credit does not take away from the piece but instead adds value. I want my creations to have value, to have a story, a history. So if after hours of contemplating the beauty of one of Erin Patton's, Evra Och's or Iza Malczyk's pieces inspires me to create I'll say so. If I've made a piece using a tutorial I'll give credit to the designer. It will after all still have my personality stamped on it, hand crafted by me, and it will have a history, a story to tell.

'Til next time!
Dana

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's been a busy couple of weeks and very productive, even if at times it didn't feel that way. I told you I had started using my iCal to better manage my time. Except for the oversight to send that e-mail reminder to exercise, it's been working out very well.

I've gotten a great deal of my supplies inventoried and costs broke down to simplify pricing. I'm networking more efficiently. Taken photos and actually got a new item listed, though I still have quite a few to go. I even found a pair of earrings I thought I had listed but hadn't, while cleaning some of the silver jewelry I've made. I've finished applying the texture in the laundry room, got the first coat of primer on, all but the wall behind the freezer - it's stocked full and much too heavy to move. My daughter has been busy priming her walls, she's outgrown the plaid and mural, has chosen new colors and is ready to get going on the new look. The front of the house is coming along and I should be able to start laying rock soon. We've got calls in to insurance companies for quotes just in case our current insurance decides too little too late on getting the rock and balconies up.

Best of all, all my Beads n Blessings prizes arrived safe and sound! The Tronex cutters are amazing! I can't thank my friend Jodi of Jewels by Jules, enough for recommending them to me! She has a new book coming out this winter - So be sure to swing by her site to take a peek! I am so excited for her! The only problem with all my pretties arriving is I have so many ideas I can't seem to settle on one to get started on anything! Might be time to get back to work on some of the unfinished projects, at least until I can narrow down the new ideas! Top of that list is a pair of earrings for my friend Ne, I've had the wire cut for some time now and they really need to be finished before her birthday!

My iCal is telling me it's time to get some work done on the house! So I'll leave you with these links.....


http://www.etsy.com/listing/51026684/grace-a-14kt-gold-filled-filigree-cross
http://www.jewels-by-jules.com/
http://www.beads-n-blessings.com/art_with_heart_beading_competition


'Til next time!
Dana