Feeling so bumped!

If you have read my post on Etsy or ArtFire?, I am back with the struggle a month later now. ArtFire has recently announced a change in suspending all Basic account and charge all sellers $9.95 a month. I have stopped using the word Pro seller, since you can only be a seller if you pay that fee. Not cool at all...

I have reopened my Etsy shop but since the listing expires once every four months, I am on the hunt for free sites to sell. Instead of trying to promote my Etsy store here, I am going to try to list some of these sites that I have found and hopefully explore them. If you have a site to recommend to those of us who cannot afford to run our own server, do leave a comment!

webs.com - Create your own free website and be able to sell up to 5 items at a time. This is what I use as my own website since the free URL is short enough and just right for the entourage of angels. No fees except Paypal and Google checkout fees as applicable. Good for the speciality of your shop that you would not want to incur listing fee with.

eCrater - Free to list and sell and you are only responsible for the fees to Paypal and/or Google checkout when you make a sale. Low traffic but I have managed to make a sale before. Low maintenance since the listing does not expire.

Handmade Craft Show - Pay to advertise for a minimum of $9 with 5 weeks exposure in the "aisle" with least traffic. It looks like you can use your Etsy mini in the craft show directly.

Zibbet - Free account with 50 items limit. Etsy and ArtFire importer included in the free account. I decided to set one up right away! The importers made migrating a breeze. It is awesome even just using it as an additional store. I will be able to use it to display items that I sold without worrying about the listing fees. Each listing is active for 180 days. Premium account ($9.95/mth or $69/yr) required to make coupons and use some other features. Very much like ArtFire Basic but I simply love the user interface.

madeitmyself - Feels like a pretty quiet market but it is free to list and sell. I don't like the idea of having to say how much it cost in retail and how much my listing cost though, because the item I made myself are not available in retail... Anyway, it cost $0.49 to feature the item, which I have not yet figure out what that means. My new listing was put on the front page and I was on the most active shop list. Anyway, you can definitely get away with selling without paying fees at all.

Three Sisters Marketplace - Free to list and free to sell, but you need to be juried and approved to sell. Sellers apparently have high quality items. Worth trying if you are confident of your products.

Storenvy - Compulsory use of Paypal for payment method, not a bad idea I guess. Much as we believe most people have Paypal account nowadays, we may potentially lose customers who don't. You are allowed to make coupon codes and each store comes with a Facebook app store. This is probably my favorite thing about the shop.

Silkfair - Different price tier to meet different selling needs. You can get the free account but there is still a transaction fee of 3% no matter which account you choose. Coupon function not available yet. I did not bother to set up an account.

ShopHandmade - You can choose to list for free with ad sponsorship or pay the 25 cents yourself. You can also choose how much commission to shophandmade.com. Therefore, you can totally get away with paying nothing to sell. I tried one product but I felt the user interface can be improved.

Concluding my online shop shopping experience, I liked Zibbet the best as it was totally painless to do migration, from both Etsy and ArtFire at that! You have the option to upgrade too, if 50 items limit or ability to create coupon is important to you. I would definitely take some time to set up my Three Sisters Marketplace as it seems to be a market of a different level. Storenvy might the only other shop I would maintain, based on its traffic and tools available. With all these options out there, I really do not think I would want to continue selling with ArtFire... If you have other great shop sites to recommend to those of us who are not able to run our own shopping sever, please throw your suggestions this way! 

Win a FREE Swarovski Crystal Angel!

Here's your chance to win a FREE Handmade Swarovski Crystal Angel, on any attachment of your choice!

I was wondering why my angels turn out quite different each time I design. So I took the opportunity to estimate the number of color combinations I can have, based on Wings, Hands, Heart and Crown COLOR, based on my inventory (I have currently removed the inventory of colors obviously). I am amazed and in shock.

Take a shot and guess the number by replying to the post on the FB page within the next 48 hrs. Up to 3 winners with the same closest answer will be picked randomly. Shipping charges applies as per normal and winners are more than welcomed to add on to their free package! 5% FB fan, 15% one-time discount for blog follower OR 10% VIP discount are applicable but are not to be used at the same time. Customer who leaves a review are entitled to additional 10% discount, on top of any other discounts.

The "correct answer" needs to be within 10% of the actual answer. Spread the word and have fun!

Etsy or ArtFire?

I had been struggling for a while with not putting items up on Etsy. Well, I cannot afford the time and money to keep re-listing my items since I only really get an order every once in a while. You may think that this is a chicken and egg problem, where it is necessary to spend on promoting before you will get traffic and sales. Honestly, who don't wish for more sales but realistically I may not be able to keep up with the cost. I have been on ArtFire, which is very much like Etsy, just without the fees, for a while (2 years) now. I have not yet paid a single cent to ArtFire but have used it successfully to display my inventory and made a little sales. Other tools I have used are website, Facebook page, eCrater and this blog of course. 

I did a little experiment last week by making a Treasury collection on Etsy and Curated collection on ArtFire using the same theme: Clowns that make you smile. Before I move on to the results of the experiment, I just wanted to thank the artists whom I have used in the collection. Clowns used to give me creeps but after I explored Grandma Phyllis' cupboard of clown collection, it opened up a whole new perspective for clowns for me. Their job is really to make their audience smile. They do it regardless of how they are really feeling. The professionalism of clowns are worth applauding and saluting, because they are artists in their own right. We have a musical clown, Happy, who sits on our TV and sings "It's a small world afterall" while rotating her head. She never fails to make me smile and I will always turn to her when I am feeling a little blue.

Back to the results of my little experiment, the collection was up on 1st June 2011. It has been 5 days and the number of views of the collection for Etsy and Artfire were 26 and 58 respectively. The number of comments I got were 2 and 7. Only 1 guest comment was recorded in the ArtFire collection. Apparently, I got a lot more traffic on ArtFire than on Etsy although most people swear by Etsy?! Maybe it is not a very popular theme but a direct comparison gave me the confidence that I can stick with ArtFire. Have you been struggling with the same issue as me? Share your experience with us!

While on the topic of being featured, I got curated again! : ) This is the second time Shower of Blessings got selected in a collection. Enjoy this Soft Summer's Day collection:

a soft summers day

  Curated By: starryhomecra...

ArtFire.com

Unique Gifts

Chocolate Cheescake - Pure Indulgence

Last week was a fruitful baking week. Tiring, but totally worth the effort when I hear the raving praise about the cakes I had made. There'll be no pictures for this post as there was simply no time to take one.

I mentioned in my last post about trying to bake a chocolate cheese cake. It was for the undergraduate's graduation party at Dr Perlin's place. I had baked my chocolate cheesecake based on a recipe from allrecipes.com. Opps, I just realized that there were 40 photos attached to the recipe to show what the cake would look like and mine was completely not like those because I refused to dump the chocolate chips on top of the cake. 

In an attempt to forge a perfect recipe, I ran through all the comments and tried to incorporate all that are suggested. Our love for nuts in baked goods also meant I had snuck walnuts and pecans into the crust. I had almost completely adulterated the recipe that the original chef who post the recipe may not want to claim this as hers. I would still gladly acknowledge Jessica as the originator of my recipe though. Everyone who dared to try it at the party did love it. If you do try this out, let me know what you think : )

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Ingredients:

1 cup ground vanilla wafer

1/2 cup walnut, grind

1/2 cup pecan, grind

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3 8-oz cream cheese (leave at room temperature to soften)

1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons sour cream

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Tip: About shopping for ingredients, I again strongly advocate going for the best you can afford for the ingredients that really matters. For example, I used Philadelphia cream cheese, Ghirardelli chocolate chips and Hershey's special dark cocoa powder while all the other ingredients were house-brand goods. (I have a special Mexican vanilla extract though)

Directions:

1. Melt the chocolate chips completely and leave to cool.

Tip: I used a 16-oz glass measuring cup and place it in a medium saucepan, with the handle outside the pan. This allowed me to measure the chocolate chips into the cup, double boil in the saucepan to melt, with complete control over stirring and be able to remove the cup easily when it is done.

2. Preheat the oven to 300°F.

3. Mix well with hand, crushed vanilla wafer, walnut, pecan, sugar, butter and cocoa powder, until you obtain an evenly mixed "playdoh-like" dough.

4. Press thinly and firmly onto the bottom and up the sides of a 9-in springform pan. Set crust aside.

Tip: I had just found out that springform pans are leaky. Therefore the firm crust serves to keep the batter in the pan.


5. Beat cream cheese until smooth.

6. Gradually add condensed milk.

7. Add vanilla extract, eggs and sour cream, and beat until smooth.

8. Add cooled melted chocolate (lukewarm is fine) and mix until smooth.

9. Pour batter over crust.

10. Place a roasting pan filled with water on the lower rack of the oven and bake 1 hour.

11. Turn off the oven and leave the door shut for another 1 hour.

Tip: Step 10 and 11 are meant to prevent cracks. I managed to resist the temptation to open the door although the smell was overwhelming in the house. I still had small cracks along the edges but the center was beautiful.


12. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Tip: Placing the pan on a wire rack helps with the cooling.


13. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight before enjoying it.
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I baked a second chocolate cheesecake on Sunday since I had other friends I had intended to share the cheesecake with. I also baked a chocolate oatmeal cake for Jinny's birthday. My criteria was that the cake must be able to be enjoyed as it is. It wasn't easy to find one that had unanimous good comments about it. The only thing I changed was to add an additional teaspoon of cocoa powder, as suggested by another user. This turned out to be a hit too.

If you enjoy whipping something together once in a while, do share it with the rest of us.

Seemingly disconnected but yet....

Angel Hope was featured in this week's ArtFire Member Curated Collection: Touched by an Angel. It is a beautiful collection and I have to say I had come across a few of them before when I was testing the search engine for pulling out my items. : ) I would like to thank the curator, Risen Phoenix Design for including Angel Hope in the collection.

Touched by an Angel

  Curated By: RisenPhoenixD...

ArtFire.com

Handmade Gifts

God always knows when to send an encouragement yeah? Of course He knows! : ) This Mother's Day week marks the 2nd anniversary of My Angel Now! I am constantly reminded of the fact that my mum is still in Singapore and I have not seen her for almost 2 years now. It may be another year before I get to say Happy Mother's Day to her in person. So, I honor her again on this occasion, since she was the first recipient of my handmade Swarovski Crystal Angel and that was essentially how the whole business started. If you following the clues, you would realize that there are three disconnected events and they are 2nd anniversary of My Angel Now!, Mother's Day and being featured this week. To me, they are most definitely closely linked.

Don't forget to give your mum a big bear hug and and wish her "Happy Mother's Day". They are the angels of our lives!