The Bethenny Factor

You are probably wondering what is the Bethenny Factor. Or even who is Bethenny. Well Ladies and Gentlemen I am talking about the one and only Bethenny Frankel. She is a reality TV starlet who is best known for being a Real Housewife of New York as well as getting her own show Bethenny Ever After.

I am not one to get into reality TV, but like a car crash you just can't walk away from I got sucked into the Real Housewives of New York. I try not to judge these woman. I have little in common with any of them, but it is hard sometimes. Bethenny was my saving grace of the show. She always seemed honest and straight forward.

Now that you are caught up on who Bethenny is, let me explain what I mean by the Bethenny Factor. She created Skinny Girl Margaritas. She took a great idea and made it into a drink that is celebrated worldwide. It is a great idea and I think that she is brilliant. This is not the Bethenny Factor.

The Bethenny Factor is the fact that I drink it. I don't drink a lot. It's not because of any real reason, I just don't unless it taste really good. The SkinnyGirl Margaritas aren't sweet enough for me. I am not interested in a Skinny Cocktail. I don't mind the extra calories.

However, I keep buying them. I bring them to parties. I give them as gifts. I keep a bottle in the house and I continue to drink them. I did not even realize what I was doing until I read an article about why artist should keep a Blog.

I only buy SkinnyGirl because of Bethenny. Even though I have never been in the same room as her or know anything about her that was not on the season and a half of her show that I watched, I still feel the drive to support her. I want her to succeed, but more importantly I know there is a face behind what I am purchasing and I love that. This is why I buy and sell handmade, Because of the Bethenny Factor.

Go forth and drink SkinnyGirl!

-LB

PS. The men in my life LOVE SkinnyGirl Margaritas! They have no clue who Bethenny is or that it is low in calories, but they can't get enough. I do have to say that I am excited to taste the new SkinnyGirl Sangria.

Analyzing My Sales

As promised I have put together an analysts of my etsy sales. I have also put together a way for us to walk through it together.Okay. I wanted to put together my sales data from etsy to see if there were any trends in sales so I could focus my energy.

In putting together my information, it was important that I keep certain things in mind.

1. The massive wholesale order I received was mainly Scarflets and cowls

2. The consignment shops took mostly scarflets, but with no preference on color. The cozy cable scarflets also seemed to sell extremely quickly in a sticks and bricks store.

3. I did not create even numbers of each product that I offered.

Here is what I found out about my etsy store.

• I sold 25 scarflets, 17 Cowls, 3 patterns, 20 coffee cuffs
• 16 of the scarflets were in the Lattice Pattern and 12 were Braided
• I sold 5 Hogwarts House Scarves (before I stopped making them)
• The colors were as follows
• 18 - Green
• 10 - Purple
• 10 - Red
• 6 - Gray
• 6 - White/Cream
• 4 - Blue
• 2 - Brown

Here is how I did it.

1.) Download your CSV Files. (Shop Settings - Options - Download Data)

2.) Import them in to a Google (Or Excel) spreadsheet

3.) Copy all of the Item Names and paste them in a Word Documents (you will want to use Microsoft Word)

4.) Go to the toolbar, click edit and then Find. Once the window pops up type in a specific word. (Ex. Scarflet, KeyFAB, etc.)

5.) You will see in the pop up window the number of times your search word was located.

6.) Collect all of your data and proceed to analyze.

I hope this helps you with your shop stats.

Go forth and Analyze!

- LB

Knitting in July

It is that time of the year again. When I pull out my needles and get down to business. Despite the fact that the heat index says that it is 104 outside, I am knitting. Do not let me fool you, I love knitting. I love designing new items and thinking about how I am going to sell them. Who might buy them and whether they will have a remarkable moment (first kiss, reunite with an old friend, visit their first Dooney & Bourke flagship store) while wearing it. However as I knit, it is unbearably hot in the the midwest. I wish I had a pool. Like an adult size kitty pool. You can knit and swim right?

I digress. This post is about analyzation. I recently read a blog post (I try to read 3 post a day, everyday.) written by a woman who realized that here most popular etsy item (the one that landed in all of the treasuries and had hundreds of hearts) was not her best selling one. In fact, her best selling item was rarely listed in treasuries and was more expensive. That is when it struck me, I have not analyzed what the best selling items in my shop are.

I am now on a mission. I am going to actually download my Shop Stats (go to your Etsy page and look under orders) and go thru item by item to figure out what I sold the most of and try to figure out why.

Wish me luck friends, this might suck. I will, however gain some much need knowledge of my store.

As always I will share the details of my quest.


Go forth and Swim!


- LB

The End of an Era

This has nothing to do with Etsy or crafting. I am just being sentimental.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 comes out tonight and I am a little more emotional then I thought I would be. 10 1/2 years of movies is a lot. I saw the first movie at midnight with some of my closes friends. We were seniors in High School and we thought we were the coolest (We kinda were, but in an extremely Geeky way.)

It is interesting to think about how much has happened in the past decade and how many things have changed. There is a line in RENT that says "I can't believe a year went by so fast." I know that people say that a lot, but hearing it in the context of that play was the first time I really understood it. I graduated from high school, went to college and graduated, fell in and out of love, lost loved ones, had my first job, quit my first job, got married, bought house and about did a million other things in between.

So, I guess the end of Harry Potter really means that I am officially, without a doubt an adult. (In case being in my late 20s was not enough to cement that.)

Well at least Cassandra Clare's awesome books are keeping me going.

Go forth and see HP DH P2!

Always,

- from my iPad

Lowlabug.etsy.com

Location:Home

Vacation & July Showcase

Hey Blog World,


I took a vacation and went to Las Vegas with my husband last week. It was great, full of Luxury and that is exactly what I needed. A week was a long time in Vegas, but we filled it with shows, sites and way too much food. I owe all of you pictures.

I also signed up for two showcases in July. Now you might be thinking to yourself "Why did Laura sign up for July Showcase?" I signed up for them because I am curious to see if it will help boost my visibility during LowlaBug's off season. I also have yet to sell a eBook Cover and would love to know if it is because people can not see them or if they are just... mis-priced, common, uninteresting, etc. You know the normal "My stuff's not selling" designer fears.

I do think that the 7 Showcases that I did this winter (a low cost of $100) made a huge difference in taking me from 25 sales to 97 sales in 3 months. That does not include the two Sticks & Bricks who found me during that time.

Needless to say I am a big fan, but I prefer to book a specific showcase like the Main One or the 'Winter Clothing Showcase,' But an Accessory one will do.

I did finish an accessory showcase yesterday and ended up featured in a treasury... Is it related, who knows.

As always I will keep you posted.

Go Forth and enjoy the day

-LB