Monday, April 14, 2008

Craft Shows, New Items, Craft Networking...

My first craft show of the spring season was yesterday. It wasn't a very good show, turnout wise. The cloudy, rainy cold weather we've had along the Jersey shore recently had much to do with the turnout. After a cloudy, rainy, WARM Saturday, the sun finally made an appearance on Sunday. While it was much colder than the previous day, it was still nice enough to get outside and do things outside the house. There were sooo many people going out for walks and exercising (my hubby took the boys for a beachcombing trek and there quite a few people walking on the beach, fishing, etc) so, I think the nice day became a huge factor in the weak turnout.
The show also had many vendors selling jewelry. As a seller of jewelry, it's nice when shows limit the amount of jewelry they allow in the show. The promoters of this show didn't and there were some customers complaining about all the jewelry. So while I didn't have a good show, I did make back my table money and made a bit of a profit, but it certainly wasn't worth my time and effort. It could have been worse, but I think I'll have to pass on this spring show next year.

I made several new items for this show, including a bunch of new sea glass creations...bracelets, necklaces and earrings. One of the necklaces sold, along with a necklace from my Etsy shop (that had about a dozen hearts) and I sold a couple pairs of beach glass earrings. My beach glass items did draw a lot of attention and many of those people took a business card, so hopefully I make an Etsy sale or 2 from this show.

Craft networking... this is an interesting topic and one that I read quite a bit about in the Etsy forums. Networking outside of the the forums and does it work? It's worked for me, as I've made a few sales through these forums and discussed crafting, shows, Etsy. It's way to discuss things on a more personal basis than the Etsy forums, where sometimes you can end up talking with 20 people. Some of these social networking sites take up a little time each week, but they really do work and can often result in a new Etsy customer or three!

I came across this site about a month ago.... http://home.bigcrumbs.com/RideTheWave
I often surf Ebay for items or supplies I can use in my crafts. Some of the most-respected sea glass sellers sell jewelry quality pieces on Ebay and the link above, allows me to get cash back on my Ebay auction purchases!
I also just order a crafting magazine from one of the other sites affiliated with this program and my final cost for a magazine that I have purchased from the store fro $3.99 an issue... 1 year/8 issues for $9.90 after receiving my cash back rebate! (the subscription cost $12.00 minus a $2.10 rebate!) I get cash back when I buy from 230+ well-known company sites!
I'm doing nothing different, except getting cash back now....Very Cool and it's totally FREE!

Til next time...
R

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