My favorite feature (which is why I talk about here a lot) is my website‘s demographics. Sure I should care about age or gender, because that would be very useful in how I market to my target audience. But really I just like to look at the map of where my store views come from. I love maps.

That is the map of my demographics from Jan 2012 to today (May 8th).

I love the internet and how universal it is. I love that someone in Estonia has looked at my store. And I love that people from other countries are shopping with me. My international sales are ever-growing. Very cool.

Here’s the 20 locations of my website’s viewer.

After my last post I joined a site called Clickin’ Mamas. From there I read tutorial after tutorial on improving my product photos (well photos in general). I learned that for me shooting in RAW (versus .jpg) gives me the control I need  (and the speed I need) to get my photos processed right.

I also went through every single setting in my camera (Nikon D40) to reconfigure it from scratch.

Then it came to asking a new friend to let me takes pictures of her– not an easy task. Lucky me she agreed. She is also a fellow business owner and in her Etsy store– Mairwear– she has wonderful and fun product photos.

When she came over she was already comfortable with posing, which is good because I was clueless at it.

Here is a picture under my direction:

It is a nice photo. Mary looks great. You can clearly see the design. But with Mary being comfortable moving around I captured some more interesting shots.

I enjoy the playfulness she brought and over all I am really happy with these product shots.

More shots and some of my newer designs:

For example, in the picture the background was more yellow and the shirt color was off. It was also a little dark, not too bad all in all, but not good enough for a product photo.

To fix it, I adjusted the levels and used the replace color function fix the background and shirt color. I have to do something similar on all of my shots. The after is an improvement, but there are many flaws my technique.

I have some awesome photographer friends that took some product photos for me when I was first starting. They are still best pictures I have in my shop. Also many customers share the awesome photos they take, I am very lucky and grateful.

1. Aimee Buxton Photography  2. Michelle Short Photography

3. Customer photo, K. Cleven         4. Customer photo, H. Dost

I have been collecting Photoshop tutorials but haven’t had a chance to try many of them. Today I some downtime and was intrigued by a tutorial found on Rock The Shots called Clean Edit Challenge #2 by Amanda Padgett. It focuses on using levels, lots of levels.

Here is the before, me using the Clean Edit tute, and my attempt prior to the tutorial that I used as an actual product photo.

Both are an improvement from the original, and I liked working with the tutorial better than my haphazard way of editing photos. I felt more focused. And though I need lots more practice I like the “clean edit” version best.

I’m taking a recovery break from my Etsy store and put it on vacation for a month or so. I am hoping to restore some balance in my life. I have been creating more, dealing with more stupid health stuff (thyroid dumbness) and actually playing with my kids.

I will be selling my stuff there at low, low, low prices. Seeing how good the crop of artists attending I will be also bringing some first run items selling for low prices too. Most of my items will be 40-70% off.

Here are some gifts for the man in your life. Since I’m a geek and am married to a geek, this gift guide has a definite slant.

1. Red-Tailed Hawk Canvas Tote Bag, $26.00 Westmama Designs

2.  Western TV Tray, $30, House 8810

3.  Retro Magazine Rack, $58, BellaLulu

4. Fine Wool Men’s Underwear, $50, Satoria

5. You’re Neat Valentine’s Card–Whiskey, $3.50, Westmama

First of all when you sell a lot on Etsy it can be expensive. Like $70-$100 a month. So yes I had an amazing December, I also paid them a lot of money. I already pay for and host a stand alone website… so I am moving my more popular items to my website.

I also have a retail stores I stock. I’d like to do more. I get inquiries frequently but I’ve been not able to offer the customer service to them that I’d like because I’m really busy on Etsy. So my goals this year are to able to service my retail stores better– add more (so if you are interested in consignment or wholesale let me know).  And to do more craft show and art fairs. One a month would be ideal.

I will be doing giveaways and contests. So lots of fun changes.

Recently I acquired some lovely toddler cardigan sweaters from American Apparel. Working with my favorite models I snapped some quick pics of them before listing them in my store.

The cardigans have been a HUGE hit, they will sell out quickly. Partly thanks to a big feature in an Etsy Gift Guide.

Another instant hit in my shop is my Chrysanthemum Cotton Canvas Tote Bag.

Lucky for me the editor of Shopping’s My Cardio (a popular shopping  and fashion blog) featured this bag in her  Cheap Thrills Gift Guide (gifts under $30).

I’m thrilled for the mentions!