Introducing LolliShops.com!

This is a juried site, and I've been accepted! I'm so excited and honored to be included. As much as I love my edgy, retro-futuristic steampunk work, there's still a soft, romantic, girly side that wants to come out and play. Now I have a venue that specializes in sweet, sparkly and whimsical adornments for both men and women (but mostly women). I'm going to start listing some of my button jewelry and cabochon jewelry that just seems to be getting lost in my Etsy shops.

The site will open to the public in the fall, and until then you can follow along in Sadie Lou's blog.

*cue Cyndi Lauper* Oh girls just wanna have fuuuuuuuun!

The Web Host of My Dreams

I love Volusion so much, I want to have their internet babies. Their customer service is so good, it's stunning. There are much cheaper eCommerce sites out there, and if you are not planning on growing a large company then a smaller site will be a better option for you. If you are planning to ever have any employees, do wholesale, dropship, manage a warehouse (or multiple warehouses!) offer LiveChat support, or any other bells and whistles, then Volusion is the only place to look.

I searched for months to find the right web hosting solution for me. In my case, I make several different lines of products, so I needed to be able to sort by an infinite number of reducing categories. Most websites did not allow more than one sub category per main group. Volusion is infinitely expandable, so no matter how big my company gets, I will never have to leave for a company that will be more capable of meeting my needs. This is very important, because I HATE moving!

Volusion offers over a dozen different shopping cart companies, with several different levels of processing. They have stock templates (a bit too spendy for my taste), in house designers if you want them, and in house consultants. They also offer SEO (search engine optimization) services when you are ready to get your name out on the web in a bigger way.

I checked different companies that review eCommerce sites, and Volusion always came in at the top of the list. I was actually getting worried that they were too good to be true, and that somehow this was a scam. "Nobody is that perfect!" I thought.

Here's what really closed the deal for me. I am NOT a computer person, by any stretch of the imagination. I use an ancient iMac because it took me forever to learn it, and I don't want to have to learn a new machine. Computers frighten and confuse me, and generally make me say bad words. Volusion offers step by step video tutorials as well as written tutorials for every single aspect of the site. The tutorials can be paused and backed up as many times as you need to figure something out.

They offer 24 /7/365 "live human being who speaks English as a first language" tech support. You can choose between phone, LiveChat or email as communication. I chose email because nothing I was working on was time sensitive, and the longest I have ever had to wait for an answer was four and half hours - in the middle of the night on a weekend! During business hours my emails are answered in about a half an hour, tops.

I explained that I was not a computer person, and they used very simple straightforward language with me, explained things clearly (speaking sloooowly and using little words!). Then, they checked back to make sure that things were working for me, THEN they asked if there was anything else they could do for me! I think I nearly fainted. This was not a fluke. Every single time I've had a question my experience has been the same. Everyone is pleasant, professional and helpful.

I also want to give a shout out to Jess Bryant (jessica-bryant@uiowa.edu) who did all of my web design and countless little revisions. She's fast, friendly and fabulous. Do yourself a favor - before you spend money on an expensive template, or spend all of your valuable time trying to do it yourself when you'd rather be crafting - let Jess give you a bid at least. Tell her Grace at Rivkasmom sent you! (I don't get a penny, I just really like her.)

Edited to fix typos. Why do I keep wanting to call them Volution? It's Volusion, with an "S"!

I'm so excited :-)

I just made my first sale in my own, personal website! Not Etsy, not Ebay, just Rivkasmom.com. :-D I feel like such a grownup, like when the training wheels come off of your bike for the first time, and you're flying down the street with nothing to hold you up except your own skill.

I've heard people over and over say "don't put all your eggs in one basket" when it comes to online marketing, and it's so very true. Ebay sales are in a major nosedive, Etsy's servers were down for maintenance for several days, and I still had a place for people to find my work.

If you are serious about your work, you really need to get your own domain. If you're just starting out, buy your domain anyway and have it point to your Etsy, Mintd, Trunkt, Dawanda, or other selling venue. It will help you in Google rankings and be a great place holder for when you're ready to expand. It's only about $10 a year (if you're in the US) and it will also keep someone else from using your business name.

In the world of commerce, this is a crucial rule: It's not who thought of it first, it's who REGISTERED it first. This goes for trademarks, copyrights, domain names, and just about everything else.

Next up, I'll go into more detail about my website and webhost, as it really deserves it's own post. For now, I'll just say that you should go look at www.Volusion.com, because they rock my socks.

~Grace