LinkReferral

I use a site called LinkReferral to help promote my Etsy. I thought I'd do a review on the website. LinkReferral is a site that helps you promote your website by clicking on other websites, writing reviews and referring people to the site. The more things you do, the higher your "ranking credit" is on the site and the higher you show up when people click on other websites. I go on the site almost every day to try to keep my ranking credit high. If you're interested in promoting your website, this is what I do every day:

1.) Login to your account. Under the "Increase Traffic" bar, click the "Visit/Review other peoples site for ranking credit" link.

2.) You can visit up to 30 websites a day for ranking credit. I like to click on "do a Keyword/URL Search" at the bottom and search for "etsy" or other topics I'm interested in. This way, I'm finding websites I'm interested in and not just clicking random sites. This is also a good way to find new Etsy shops.

3.) If you find a website you like or want to review, you can click "Review this site". You can review up to 5 sites a day for ranking credit.

4.) You can also post in the forums to improve your ranking credit though I don't usually do this. The more things you do on the website, the higher your ranking credit is and the more your site will get viewed.

LinkReferral is one of the top referrers to my Etsy so it helps bring traffic to my site. I've gotten about 80 reviews on my Etsy and I get about 1-2 clicks per day. The downside is the bounce rate is high so people don't tend to stay on my site very long which means most people are clicking without really looking. Even though the bounce rate is high, the reviews mean some people that click do look at my shop and might come back to buy. Most of the reviews are positive and some give helpful advice. Out of the social networking tools I use to promote Etsy, I think it is worth it to use LinkReferral at least to bring a little more traffic and get feedback.

Have you ever tried LinkReferral? What sites do you use to promote your Etsy or other websites?

EBay

I decided to try selling some electronics on EBay. I actually bought these off EBay and am trying to resell them for a higher price. I don't know if I'll make any money, but I thought I'd give it a try. Here's what I got listed:

Graphite Apple 6th Generation 8GB iPod Nano - Brand New



Fujitsu MHZ2160BH 160GB SATA Laptop Hard Drive



Sony Playstation 3 PS3 60GB Hard Drive with Caddy



Seagate ST9160310AS 160GB SATA Laptop Hard Drive



I like using EBay to make a little extra money off of it. You can also find a lot of interesting collectible items. Do you use EBay?

Back to School Sale

There are a lot of items in my shop that are great for back to school time. I start school at the end of August and I always like to keep journals and planners to stay organized. Here are some items I think are good for the school year:

Altered Octopus Spiral Journal
This altered spiral notebook is perfect for your journaling needs. It has blank unlined paper inside so you can use it for writing or drawing.



Laundry List Sticky Note Pad
This journal has checklists that you can tear off. I made one of these journals for myself and I'm using it a lot right now. It helps me keep track of things I need to do and it's small enough to carry around in your purse.



Gold and Green Leaf Altered Large Moleskine 2011 Planner
If you don't have a planner yet for 2011, this altered moleskine is great to keep organized from day to day and would be good for writing down school assignments. I also make custom planners for 2011 and 2012.



Green Damask 2011 Calendar
Calendars are great for writing down big events and giving you an overview of each month. This 2011 calendar is now on sale.



Roses are Red Box
This box is great for holding small items like paper clips, pencils and other small supplies on your desk. The divider makes it so you can organize items.



I made a coupon code so you can get free shipping on any purchase in my shop if you enter the coupon code "SCHOOL" at checkout. What items do you get for back to school?

Catfish Feature

One of my cards was featured in an article about catfish on the Etsy for Animals blog:

Map of the World Travel Greeting Card



There's some interesting facts in the article. Like did you know August is National Catfish Month? Or that there are 3000 recorded species of catfish?

In other news, sorry I haven't updated this blog in a few days. My computer's having some problems so I haven't been able to list new items this week. I'm in the process of making a bunch of new boxes and Halloween greeting cards though I might post some in the process photos if you're interested in seeing them.

Universe Photos

I think photos of the universe are amazing and really interesting to look at. You can click on the photo to see the full size of it.

Also, I thought this site about the average color of the universe was interesting. Apparently, it's a beige color. You can see more universe related photos on my Pinterest. What kind of photos inspire you?

Millennium Park Photos in Chicago

I took these photos at Millennium Park in Chicago this summer. My school is right by Millennium Park so I always like to go there to take photos.









I love parks in cities. Have you ever been to Millennium Park?

Autumn and Halloween Items

I decided to put autumn and Halloween items up early this year on sale.

Pumpkin Carriage Shimmer Greeting Card



Autumn Leaves Greeting Card



You can see more cards in the sale section. When do you start shopping for autumn holidays?

Birchbox and EtsyVeg

One of my blog entries was mentioned on Birchbox's blog. Birchbox is a service where you pay $10 for a box of beauty samples that comes once a month. It lets you try new beauty products without having to pay full size for them. I upcycled one of their cardboard boxes and posted an entry about it on here.





I was really excited that they saw my blog post and decided to put a link to my blog. :) You can learn more about Birchbox on their website.

Also, I was featured in this EtsyVeg blog treasury that's theme was sunshine and roses. I think it's kind of related to Birchbox because one of my upcycled cards was featured:



Do you like to upcycle items? If you don't, I encourage you to save old items and packaging to make new things out of!

New Greeting Cards

Here are new greeting cards I got up this week:

Rounded Gold and Silver Striped Card



Wavy Iridescent Pink and White Script Collage Card



Let me know what you think. Also, I'm thinking of making more greeting cards for specific events. If there's any holidays or events you want me to make greeting cards for, let me know.

Food Art

For Friday's inspiration, I thought I'd post photos of food art. I love seeing food used in creative aways.







Let me know which one is your favorite. Also, I recently found this site called Pinterest where you can post photos of things that inspire you on different "boards" with different topics (for example, I have a food board on there). If you use Pinterest, feel free to follow me.

New Photography

Here are some recent photos I've taken around my garden:









We're growing sunflowers in our garden so I'm doing this photography project for myself where I'm taking photos of the sunflowers in different stages of blooming. I'll post photos of that when I'm done.

I'm also in the process of making a banner for this blog. I've always just had text at the top of this blog so I think it would be nice to have an image. I can't wait to get it up!

Zebra Printed Items

I recently listed this greeting card:

Zebra Greeting Card



I noticed I had a lot of other zebra printed items in my shop. Here are the rest:

Rounded Zebra Greeting Card



Zebra Lovers Coptic Stitch Journal



Zebra Print Birthday Card



I think these items would be great for animal lovers or people who just like animal print.

Tuesday

For winning the EtsyVeg challenge, my ad is now up on the EtsyVeg blog.

I decided to link the ad to this blog instead of my main website to try bring more traffic to this blog. I'm also working on a bunch of new advertisements to use with Project Wonderful. I've noticed some of my ads were kind of outdated so I decided to redo them. If you know any good websites to advertise on, let me know!

Sunflower and Gold Spiral Greeting Card

Here are some new cards I got up recently:

Sunflower Greeting Card



Glitter Gold Spiral Greeting Card



They're both blank on the inside so they can be used for any occasion. Let me know what you think!

Clock Art Inspiraiton

Here's some interesting clock art I found:













You can see more things that inspire me on my Tumblr. What kind of things inspire you?

Mary Kay Cosmetics

I had a video review done for my Mary Kay Business. I'm a beauty consultant for Mary Kay Cosmetics. This makeup guru reviewed five Mary Kay products I sent her. You can see the video below:



It's not Etsy related, but I thought I'd share since it's business related. What skincare and makeup brands do you use?

Etsy for Animals Pet Loss Article

I got featured on the Etsy for Animals team blog. I was in this article about healing from pet loss by using your creativity. This card got featured:

Fuschia Photo Frame Greeting Card



The article mentioned using this card to put a photo of the pet. I never thought of using the card like that, but I think it's a great idea. I also used to have this card up (which you can always get custom ordered):

Pet Sympathy Greeting Card



Have you ever experienced a pet loss? How did you deal with it?