Uh..boy CEOS *can* wear nail polish. It's New York after all.

So not my picture.

Best thing since sliced bread. Interestingly , a fairly hard bar. Today one of my bars broke and I couldn't put the pieces back together since this soap isn't the time to become soggy in the shower.

New 50 Item challenge

dirty stars
Originally uploaded by cassowaryjewelry

Ahead of my challenge for August, I made two pairs of earrings

People are adopting vintage and supply shops. I may just post some finds that I like on my blog.

Oh, adoption list.

after the patina

after the patina
Originally uploaded by cassowaryjewelry

I'm experimenting on patinaed items. Items soaked in blue green patina. The brass star and the copper bird have turned brown, but the brass butterflies turned black.

I only have one item in the etsybead sale this week.

There are not 20k people making a living on etsy. I could see making enough to buy a Wii or buy college books, but 30k a year? Probably less than 1000.

Apparently we have new handmade overlords. I spent all day goofing off, so I didn't know about that until I saw this on my twitter. I guess I welcome our new handmade overlords too. This meme is from the Simpsons.

The blackapple appears on the forum! She debunked the she makes half a mil a year rumor, but let's start a new one. If you say black apple enough, the blackapple fairy comes and gives you one of those blackapple comic books.

also, I'm happy to be in the same internet tribe as the guy from the long tail. I can't get folks who haven't heard of all our bases..., goatse, old meme, etc. Those are the basics of the internets folks. At least know about lolcats and macros,ok?

now that's advertising

now that's advertising
Originally uploaded by cassowaryjewelry

An etsy sighting in a Rings and Things catalog mailed to thousands across the country. Note that the placement of a supply in a catalog that people who are shopping for supplies read is a good strategy.

Ah, this is a good example of how new and old worlds are colliding. In the olden days, you needed to control your brand message, but now on the net, not controlling your message is the point. People can find ways to use your products that you haven't thought of. For example, a customer used a bracelet of mine for a wedding. I don't think much about weddings, but other people would. Your customers and potential customers are creative, and so it's important to see how others see your products.

People are celebrating the official start of the Christmas in July sale. I'll of course be promoting my section, if I am not overextending myself again, as I always do. I took some pictures, and will probably edit them all day.

The Long Tail is my new obsession. But, I'd like to note that casual games are definitely the long tail of video games. For example, take Chocolitier 2. I've never seen a version in stores, but over a year after it's release, it is still on the top 100 of big fish games'[just one of the distributors of casual games, which are usually distributed by download, although there's boxed versions for the luddites] Yahoo's casual games portal also builds reviews and you may also like into the game download page, which is another part of the long tail. People who are casual game enthusiasts may download several games a week and review them, and this can help the more casual casual gaming fans.

For example, I like time management games[do Y before time runs out!] instead of hidden object games[click on items..to solve puzzles] so I'll trust the recs of other time mangement fans over the recs of hidden object fans, especially those fans who play and review a large variety of games. There are also various websites set up for news[I learned, for example, in this review that there will be a Chocolatier 3 and totally died of happiness] that gather thousands of fans.

In regular game economies, you need hits. The production values of games have gone up. The price of producing the voice acting, CGI cut scenes and long levels of hardcore games must be staggering. If only 1000 people buy your game in the first month, you're likely to lose a large amount of money. However, casual games have much lower production values and are quicker to produce. The distribution also allows producers to wait. If chocolaitier 2 sells 1000 in the first week...but continues to sell 100 every week after for a year, long after a game that sold so badly offline would have been removed from the shelves, there is some profit there. And for the game portals that have hundreds of these games, year after year...there's even more profit.

In today's reads, I'm reading The Long Tail. If you want to create an internet venue, remember it's the folks who only sell a few items a month that keep you alive, it seems. If a million people buy from one person, but two million buy from two million separate people, the second is more cash.

This skirt is love. But it'll never be mine!

Finally got my etsybead theme section working. My 800 heart sale will be free shipping. Gotta promote, promote, promote. And of course, I'm anticipating a late summer full of crafty goodness.

Oooh, this referral thing should be causing a lot of drama that I missed! Please don't spam, etsy people.

Oooh, i heard a ruuuumor in New York! My brother said his friend was interviewing at etsy[she's a computer programmer] and that they were interviewing like 20 people. This is just a rumor

Yay, an etsybead treasury

On etsy, staying positive means saying negative things about other people, their shops, their intentions and possibly what their grandmas did for a living. By page 19 or 22 or so, there's some resistance to this idea. I would propose that all threads that say STOP WHINING EVERYONE ELSE be moved to the bitch and moan section.

Not to mention, I hate how people act like if some lady gets a $5 pity sale, they are somehow winning over them in a huge way, as if every single sale someone else gets is somehow taking away from them. I promote everywhere, and get sales slow and steady.

Ouch, I'd hate to be a noob. At least she's not being all positive before going for the maybe your stuff sucks tack.

Etsian Behave Littles has come up with a line of condom holders before the big Freshman rush of the fall. Have fun, prevent babies and disease!

We can now put items into sections while listing.

An etsian notes that shipping isn't free. I skip many of these steps- invoices? no. And I don't wait in line at the PO unless it's an international package, but I still have the cost of envelopes and tape, and the fact that it cost me $1.52 to send 2 ounces to California today.

ah, long promos threads. Note how I posted using an interesting title, talking to the other people in the thread, and took advantage of obvious points of human psychology. Thumbs up to me!

Hey, I've been featured on a blog!


from that blog, I found an article on the time movement, and I have to say I'm all for it. I'd rather work less and consume less than work more to get stuff that's going to hang in the back of my closet.

I love twitter.

This post is a paean to the amazon box. If you're in business, never throw out the amazon box. This is as unadvised as making a hammock out of clotheslines. You can reuse the amazon box to ship almost anything. It doesn't get ruined after you remove its original contents. Just put some bubble wrap[hopefully recycled] in and seal it back up, and whatever you've got in there is protected against wind, rain, hail and postal workers. Go,amazon box!

Yay, I got a treasury.

Hey, I didn't know that you could search twitter. Also, LEST has a fourth of July contest.

Finally got the Christmas in July section up. Hoping to do some promoting soon.

People are protesting the lack of a doll category on etsy. I'm working on a paper, and watching my ebay auctions.