Have not been Blogging - But I have been Pinning

Do you pin? I've been enjoying Pinterest.

It's a great way to organize bookmarks of things you love.

My boards look like this. I have 70 boards I am working on.

And a total of 2,540 pins.

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A Great Reason to Blog

I've been neglecting my blog with so many other things to do, but now I have a great reason to write here. I just entered a giveaway contest on an awesome blog. You can read about here:
http://whatrosemadetoday.blogspot.com/2011/12/win-happy-2012-whimsy.html
Enter for a chance to win today.
If you love Mother Earth like you do you will LOVE everything in her shop.
Treat yourself a bit of nature at Walk in the Woods LLC.

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My reply to anyone who says they have no sales.

If people don't know you exist, it is tough to get sales. Here are just a few possible ways to be seen.

Comment on all the Fantastic Fives. I have discovered new and interesting shops when I see their comments on the Fantastic Five articles.

You can do that here:

http://www.zibbet.com/blog/category/fantastic-five

Another place to be seen is commenting on the Featured Zibbeters.

Give them support and others will see you being supportive.

You can find those here:

http://www.zibbet.com/blog/category/featured-zibbeters

Another way to get noticed and sales in your shop is by purchasing from other Zibbeters.

They quite often reciprocate.

150,310 items to choose from.

You can find them HERE.

If you can use supplies for your crafting needs, shop on Zibbet under Supplies for 20,960 listings

Find those HERE>

Stop in here at the Hub often and join in on the many fun threads. We have threads going on gardening,recipes, crafting, saving money, pets, health, dieting, hobbies, and promoting each other through the various promo threads such as the Stocking Stuffer Scavenger Hunt.

Don't miss PIFs, Pinterest, Challenges, Holiday Card Exchange and the Color Games.

If you need thank anyone, do that HERE.

If none of this interests you, start a new fun thread of your own. Anyone can.

You can find me promoting Zibbet at

Facebook

Facebook Zibbet Group

Pinterest

Twitter

Flickr

Flickr Zibbet Pool

Flickr Zibbet Open Studios

Flickr Zibbet Front Page Pool

Flickr Zibbet Vintage

Stumble Upon

Google

Blog

Judy

My shops:

Portable Graffiti Graphics

Portable Graffiti

Proofreader

Wild Goose Chase

My Daughter's Shop

The Purple Rat

PS Don't forget to include a link to your shop in your travels.

Organic Cotton Tea Bags by Gypsy Goods on Zibbet

I'm cheating!

This is a screenshot from my Facebook page about the awesome organic cotton tea bags that Kathy of Gypsy Goods mailed to me. I love being a tester for her. I had the privilege of also testing coffee filters before she offered them in her Gypsy Goods shop. 

The coffee filters are amazing, and last forever. Think of the savings. How much do you spend of coffee filter each year? Cross them off your grocery list forevermore.

The tea bags are working out great! Others I have tried from other places have too narrow of opening. Gypsy Goods tea bags are easy to fill. They are also easy to empty. Just dump the tea into your compost or directly in your garden. Rinse the cloth tea bag, hang it to dry, and you're ready for the next cup. 

Kathy does not have the tea bags listed yet, so send her a message and tell her to get listing.

But you can find the coffee filters in her shop here:

http://www.zibbet.com/GypsyGoods/section/kitchen-bath-home

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Well hello blog

Long time no see.
I used to blog daily, then it was more like weekly, and then monthly and more recently with so many other places to hang out on the Internet, like the Zibbet Facebook Group, the Zibbet Community Hub, Pinterest, Zibbet Flickr Group ...I had deserted my poor old blog.

I have also been busy writing the Fantastic Five on Zibbet. I hope you'll check it out. It's a weekly feature.

Zibbet sales are going well. I've been working on a few new shop banners for these shops. Bet Your Bottom Button Creations is a new shop on Zibbet and this banner is not completed yet, so it will change quite a bit before it goes into her shop.

Second Sister at MoArk Jewelry has me working on a logo for her. Waiting on feedback from customer. Once the logo is finalized I will be making her a shop banner for Zibbet and Artfire and and an Earring Card design.

Nicole's Visions ordered a shop banner, label, 2-sided business card, a web ad and product tag designs. At this point I am still working on her banner. Once the banner is decided on, I will work on her other items. Nicole is planning ahead for when she will be adding new crafts to her shop made from vintage vinyl record albums, reclaimed wood and fabric, a eco-friendly line of products. Currently she sells her photography.

Creations by DJ ordered a shop banner and it is also pending final approval. This is where it is right now. This shop has quite a variety of handmade crafts made by two women friends who are both nurses. Lots of neat Christmas items.

This banner I just completed and you can see it in her shop. Susan Wise makes gentle handmade soap. This is the second shop banner I made for her and I sure do appreciate return customers. This banner celebrates the beautiful season of Autumn.

Sherry Spring has two shops on Zibbet: The Bead Supply and Sherry Spring Designs. This is the second shop banner I created for her. Her other shop banner I made can be seen in her supply shop HERE.

Another return customer yesterday was Deni of Breitwerk. Deni had me design a logo for her a few weeks ago, and yesterday requested a 4x6 card to use in Z Boxes and other advertising uses.

Last week I also designed, made and shipped 100 buttons to Izzy's Place. Pat is going to use them as a way to advertise her shop. People will remember her when the button magnets get put to use on refrigerators and filing cabinets.

Last night I sold 6 Superman Vintage buttons from my Portable Graffiti button shop. A random customer who just opened a buyers account on Zibbet.com.

Keeping busy at Portable Graffiti Graphics ....hope you are, too.
Hugs,
Judy

Forever Free Basic Shop on Zibbet

16th July, 2011 Artfire is Removing Their Free, Basic Accounts From Their Site - What Does Zibbet Think About That? Firstly, I want to make it abundantly clear that I am not here to throw stones at Artfire. The purpose of this email is NOT to tell you that Artfire is doing the wrong thing - they are doing what they feel is necessary based on their unique situation.  The purpose of this email is to inform you about our reasons for keeping Basic accounts here at Zibbet. In this email we'll cover a few things (it will be a long email - read when you have time!): 1. The details 2. Why Zibbet won't be getting rid of its free, Basic accounts 3. Are Basic Artfire sellers welcome on Zibbet? 1. THE DETAILS For those that have never heard of Artfire or don't have a clue what we're talking about... Artfire is another handmade venue, similar to Zibbet. They had a free, Basic account and an upgraded, paid account - again, similar to Zibbet. Yesterday they announced officially that their Basic Accounts would be shut down on August 15. How many sellers will this effect? Over 42,500 active Basic sellers will lose their shop (about 75% of their total sellers), at which point around 350,000 items will be unlisted from the site (about 25% of their total items). Why have they made this decision? You can read the full, official announcement here. 2. WHY WON'T ZIBBET BE GETTING RID OF ITS FREE, BASIC ACCOUNTS AS WELL? Zibbet and Artfire are two different venues, with two different leaders, with two different strategies for moving forward.  At Zibbet, we're a metrics driven business, which means that we track LOTS of different things - the numbers don't lie and we base our decisions on those metrics.  I want to share some of what we know with you, to help explain why having free, Basic accounts at Zibbet works well...for us. SEO benefits Firstly, I've harped on and on about this - the more active items we have on Zibbet, the more buyers we will have. Basic sellers list items, and those items help to bring in more buyer traffic - for everyone!  Basic sellers only account for 15% of the total sales on Artfire. They also only account for 25% of the active items - Do you think that would have something to do with their low sales percentage? You bet it does.  Less items, less traffic, less sales. Period. On Zibbet, our Premium sellers make up 24% of our active sellers and account for around 70% of the sales. Our Premium sellers do get more site exposure, have better tools and features to help them sell more and have unlimited, non-expiring, listings. There's no doubt that Premium is the way to go on Zibbet. We know that Basics will upgrade to Premium when they see the value to do so (and we certainly hope they do), but even if they don't that's ok - because... We make money off Basics too! We have a couple of exciting partnerships launching in the future which will allow us to make a small cut off each sale that is transacted on Zibbet (Basic and Premium). This DOES NOT come out of your pocket - you are not charged a cent, nor will you even notice a difference to your service. These partnerships will be announced when we are ready to roll them out.  Basic sellers make sales too, therefore they will make us money. Just another reason why Basic sellers add value and are here to stay at Zibbet. Basic sellers need time to upgrade Our metrics tell us that Basic sellers need time to decide whether to upgrade or not and we're willing to give them the time that they need. Some sellers will never ever upgrade, and that is something that we're aware of and are fine with. Hosting costs are so low these days that these sellers are literally no burden on us financially. Check out this graph which shows historically how long it takes for our Basic sellers to upgrade to Premium. Most upgrade within the first couple of weeks (as you can see below), but there are still sellers upgrading every day in the 365 day period shown. This means that the Basic account is serving its purpose as a 'taste-tester' that compels sellers to upgrade over time - which puts money in our pockets to keep making Zibbet better and better... The graph below is a little more crazy and complex, but I'll try to explain. We track your activity (sales, upgrades, downgrades, etc) based on the month and year you signed up to become a member of Zibbet. We call this your 'cohort', which is the group we associate you with for the life of your account. This allows us to find 'trends', which is why I say that we're a data driven company - the numbers don't lie, and they help us to base all our major decisions on.  This graph shows the percentage of seller registrations that go Premium. And as you can see, over time a greater and increasing percentage of sellers will upgrade to Premium over time. The higher lines, representing a greater percentage of sellers that have gone Premium, belong to earlier cohorts. You can see that from the February, 2010 cohort, 20.85% of the seller registrations we received that month have upgraded to Premium.  Therefore, we can again conclude that over extended periods of time, more and more sellers will see the benefits of being Premium, and upgrade. 3. ARE BASIC ARTFIRE SELLERS WELCOME ON ZIBBET? Yes!  We welcome them with open arms, all 42,500 of them can make their home at Zibbet and they can bring all 350,000 items with them (and hopefully list 50 items each to make over 2 million items!).  This would bring huge SEO benefits to Zibbet and will increase the sales of all our sellers.  If you love Zibbet and you love sales, you should be telling Basic Artfire sellers to join us. To help make spreading the word even easier, I've created a special coupon code that will give them a free 45 day trial of our Premium Account (monthly or yearly). The code is: WELCOME This offer is valid until August 15.  Or, they can just sign up for a free, Basic account and upgrade when they are good and ready (or not). We also have an Artfire Importer, so setup will be quick and painless!  They can import all their items in with a few clicks of the mouse! If you have bothered to read this far, thank you!  I hope that what I have said makes sense and you can clearly see why Basic accounts are valuable to us at Zibbet and our reasons for keeping them around - for good!  If you're from Artfire and you're reading this, we welcome you to give Zibbet a try. You'll love what we're doing here and the community is super friendly! Have a great day and please feel free to post this entire email where you feel is necessary to inform all handmade sellers. Regards, Jonathan Peacock CEO, Zibbet.com

My First Grandchild Sporting Her New Hair Accessories From Zibbet

I was completely surprised by a gift that arrived in the mail from a fellow Zibbet Seller. I hardly knew her.   How thoughtful and kind that she mailed these hair accessories to me for my first grandchild, Isabella.

Today my daughter sent me some photos of her wearing her new hair accessories.
Isn't she cute?

Thanks to Lori of Lori's Styling Hair Stuff on Zibbet.

The Making of a Map Button

My map buttons are made from actual maps. Get a piece of the world in your very own button for ONLY $2.50. 

This is how they are made. My customer paid for this listing on my Portable Graffiti Zibbet shop. She requested a button with Zadar, Croatia. I searched through my big tub filled with maps until I found this map. 

I located Zadar, Croatia.....

See, there it is......

I line my trusty circle cutter up so Zadar is in the center....

...and I cut it out.

Here's the finished button....

....and the back of the button.

Each button gets packed in a cello bag to protect it.

I grab a padded mailing envelope, the other buttons and magnets that my customer ordered, one of my "thank you" business cards, a Portable Graffiti button, and a Zibbet button, to promote Zibbet.

Everything goes into the envelope and gets weighed...

I print out a Pay Pal mailing label and pay the postage on line.

I attach it to the envelope and it's ready to ship.

What place in the world would you like in your button?

Prefer a magnet or a mirror?

Just ask.

I make 4 sizes.

Visit Portable Graffiti on Zibbet.

Hanging Out in the Zibbet Community

I check the Zibbet Community Hub often throughout the day and evening. But I don't stay there long because I have work to do. I use the forum there but hardly ever do I look at the chat feature. Last night I did for some unknown reason. I met a new Zibbeter, made a new friend. We got talking about how broke we are. She needed a shop banner. And I made a trade. Victorian Spice has lots of neat treasures from yesterday for you to find today.

This is her new shop banner and avatar made by me, Portable Graffiti Graphics.

This will be my new grinder when it arrives. My mother used to have one like this.

There are plenty of treasures at Victorian Spice, so get over there and see what you find.

Update on Gypsy Goods Organic Coffee Filters

If you haven't switched to fabric coffee filters yet, I urge you to get with the program. You don't want to throw all those coffee filters in the trash, do you? I hope not. Some are made of 100% paper, and can go in your compost pile. Do you have a compost pile?

Some paper filters have other weird unidentifiable things in them that your coffee has to seep through before you get to drink it. Yuck.

Beyond going "green" there is another reason to use fabric coffee filters. Saving Green....money. You will save an incredible amount of money when you no longer have to write coffee filters on your grocery shopping list.

They are so easy to use. They start out white. With each use they turn brown and browner, which is just the lovely coffee naturally dying the color of the fabric.

In this photo of my coffee filters, some of which I have been using for years, I have assessed each one. The results are that Gypsy Goods Organic Coffee Filters which you can find on Zibbet, are the best in every way. Get yours today and stop tossing filters and money in the garbage (or compost pile.)

Been Busy Making Shop Banners on Zibbet

I made this shop banner and avatar for The Little Mommy shop on Zibbet.

What can I make for you?

I made this shop banner for La-De-Da Creations shop on Zibbet.

Indulge your inner hippie.

Paintings and Designs by Barb requested me to make this for her Zibbet shop.

If you'd like a shop banner, avatar, business card design or any kind of graphic design, I would love to work with you.

Stop in to Portable Graffiti Graphics to see more of my work.

Thanks,

Judy

Eco-Friendly Purchase from Mimi & Colette

I love this Swiffer cover I bought from Mimi & Colette. First, I want to make it clear that I have never used a Swiffer as they are sold with those disgusting-smelling chemical-soaked disposable things that you put on them. My sister bought me the Swiffer a long time ago, and it just sat with the broom and did not get used.

When I saw that people could now buy a reusable cotton cover for this cleaning gadget, I thought that was pretty cool. I ordered mine from Mimi & Colette on Zibbet.com. They come in all different colors, made from 100% Cotton. You can wash them over and over. Nothing to ever throw into the landfills. That makes me very happy.

Look how products from Mimi & Colette arrive in the mail...wrapped beautifully...so you can order from her shop and have the items mailed directly to the person who want to give a gift to. That saves a lot of postage costs, and you don't have to gift wrap it and go to the post office.

I LOVE how Mimi & Colette did not use tape on the tissue!!! Look at this, so neat! I can fold up that tissue and REUSE the paper and the ribbon.

And here's my reusable cotton Swiffer cover which she sent to me with a really nice personally hand written thank you card and a FREE GIFT!!! Mimi & Colette sent a wonderful cotton hand made wash cloth and I just LOVE the purple. 

I HIGHLY recommend this Zibbet shop. So stop on by Mimi & Colette and see all the other wonderful items she makes.

Thank You "Running Garlic"

Check out this cool package I got in the mail. FREE!!! All the information about it is on Running Garlic's Blog.

She also has a very cool shop on Zibbet. So if you don't get lost reading her 2 awesome blogs, stop in and check out her Zibbet Shop.

My First Order From Mrs. Supply

Mrs. Supply is a very popular shop on Zibbet. I placed one small order from Mrs. Supply and now I can see why she has so many sales. Look at the awesome packaging job she does. Talk about coordinated!!!

The ribbon is packaged so cool, all wrapped around a wooden clothes pin. I hate to even open it. I might hang it on my bulletin board just as it is. I ordered the tree ribbon, but look what Mrs. Supply sent....additional free ribbon on another clothes pin. Thank you so much Jennifer!

Easily Import Your 1000Markets Items Into Zibbet!

Easily Import Your 1000Markets Items Into Zibbet!

Here at Zibbet we had mixed emotions when we heard about 1000Markets recent acquisition by Bonanza. 1000Markets was a great site, with a great concept and full of beautiful items. We were sad to hear that the site would be closed entirely on the 30th September. At the same time, we became excited to see lots of 1000Markets sellers flocking to Zibbet looking for a new home as very few want to make the transition to Bonanza, which to quote one seller "looks like a flea market", and is not a handmade only venue.

Zibbet To The Rescue!

The biggest frustration we've seen from 1000Markets sellers is that they have to both find a new place to sell AND spend hours and hours re-listing all their items and setting up their shop again. Well you'll be happy to hear that Zibbet is solving that problem for you! We've created a tool to quickly and easily copy all your 1000Markets listings onto Zibbet. All you need to do is go to www.zibbet.com/sell, sign up for either a Basic (25 item limit) or Premium (unlimited items) account and then enter your 1000Markets username in the field on the right. It's that easy!

Use coupon code 1000MSPECIAL for a FREE 30 day trial of our Premium Account. Cancel within the 30 days and you won't pay a cent!

All your items will be imported, including:

• Item title
• Main image
• Description
• Price and shipping charge
• Tags
• Quantity available

The only thing you need to do is categorize your item and upload any extra images for each item, which will be super fast with the ability to upload multiple images at once. Or you can list your item with only the main image, and go back and add extra images later.

Why Should You Sell At Zibbet?

• Zibbet is a site on the move, which is gaining popularity amongst buyers and sellers fast! We are constantly developing the site and listening to users' wants. There's so many great upcoming features in the works, which you can read about on the Zibbet Blog
• Our shops are beautiful and our Premium shops are very customizable: You can change colors, make your thumbnails bigger, add "widgets", have a choice of different sized banners plus so much more. Here's just a couple of examples of how great your shop can look: ChristianMarie andumeorigami
• We have great selling and promotional tools and features, such as putting groups of items on sale, offering fully customizable coupons and gift certificates, plus so much more.
• We have no listing fees and no sales fees. You keep all your profits!
• We provide great and timely customer service and support.
• Our community is friendly and thriving.

Make sure you spread the word and tell your fellow 1000Markets refugees about Zibbet's import tool and how easy and painless it is for you to set up shop here!

If you have any questions at all, contact support@zibbet.com. We look forward to having you with us on Zibbet. You'll love it here!