I'm starting to want to branch out into jewelry art and design. I would have to redesign my website, though. Then again, what's wrong with a sub site devoted to jewelry? Also, on ebay, I have more great deals ending today. Some of these items are starting at 1 cent- you can't lose.

Warning! A bunch of scummy thieves have appropiated Sublime Stiching's designs, and are possibly using sweatshop labor to recreate the designs. Here's what to look for, from her site:

"What should I look for?
Look for clothing in stores that has Sublime Stitching designs with tags that say another company's name, "Made In India" or anything BUT "Sublime Stitching". Even if the tags do say Sublime Stitching, this does not mean they have permission to use my designs and re-sell them to the public. Only crafters making items by hand and selling them at craft-fairs, fund-raisers and through small retail venues are covered by my Angel Policy. "

That's why I'm always skeptical of people who complain about copyrights. Copyrights protect all creators. I had a bit of a strange problem earlier. This page had part of my site on it, but luckily, they corrected it. I'm glad! It was pretty weird.

About July's contest, Rachael Harlich won a free bag of buttons with the slogan "Nothing On Tv? Read a Book!" Thanks for all your support! In other news, I've decided not to have an ebay store, as it's better to focus one's effort on one store instead of two, but I do have ebay auctions up, with great deals on custom buttons, button sets, and the like.

I'm having a problem with advertising. I don't think I'm very good at writing ads. I have created some ads, like this one on etalkingheads.com, but I don't think they are very good. I am thinking of investing in an ad campaign. What I need is web traffic. Other small merchants tend to concentrate on attempting to get into magazines, as I have read on the Switchboards, but my items are not the type of thing that would be in magazines- I like my buttons, and am happy with them, but they aren't exactly a good fashion accessory- even my bracelets are just novelty displays for buttons, because I haven't started jewelry making in earnest. Now bracelets, and an idea that came to me recently- greeting cards- would be a better fit for magazines. However, I should caution myself on trying to expand too fast, and I need to keep my ad budget under control- I don't even have a credit card.

I'm also writing out some copy about custom button bracelets- i.e. a person gets their images on buttons and has a bracelet made at the same time. I'm considering clauses to make having an unique button bracelet seem like the most wonderful thing in the entire universe, and also trying to word my copy so that people will not think this is merely a cheap way to get merchandise for some overexposed media trend. Not only do I not want trouble with copyrights, I do recognize that for example bands make most of their money off of merchandise. Just because I'm not rich doesn't give me a free pass to rip them off.

I'm still plugging away at my ebay store. I am wondering if two stores isn't redundant, but then again, it's two different audiences. ebay attracts people who want bargains on stuff they've seen advertised on TV, and an independent website should attract more adventurous customers. eBay has a greater quantity, so that is good, but it's all about the keywords. I'm still trying out advertising. I've got an ad up on etalkinghead, and have paid for a quizilla ad that hasn't gone live yet.

Maybe when the school year begins, I'll take the plunge and have an ad on fark.com. It's a lot of money for a week, but might get people talking, and so I'll only have the trouble of maintaining that publicity. I don't know. All I have found is advertising that doesn't work. Button oriented live journal communities looked good, but I am not producing unofficial merchandise for things already on TV, so that doesn't work. Also, going to the flea market and handing out business cards isn't very effective either.

Cassowary Buttons is back up. Also, I have selected the winner for the contest, and the announcement should be any day now. I am working to stock my ebay store, which is slow going. I only have thirteen items up after three days of work, and that is with turbolister. I have great difficulty coming up with compelling copy.

I have restarted my ebay store, but rebuilding my inventory is going to be slow going. However, I'll try to update every day until I have the full compliment.