Saturday morning ...

Still very quiet ... but plenty going on here. Just made a bracelet! Checked my site optimization and I'm very happy with the results. This week was another link building week ... just makes the site stronger. Got into the Best of the Web Directory, and also about six smaller ones ... My creative urges are strong lately and I'm thinking about NEW designs ... I'll get 'em up here when I make them ... soon!

A good week ...

This week I made ten rings, and actually put most of them into the Etsy store. Seems like things are getting a bit better ... shipped packages every day this week. And this week the site is in the top ten for "handmade silver jewelry" - so now it ranks well for both the handcrafted and handmade keyword search terms. It's nice to reach a tough goal ...

So today I have a chain to ship ... and then I'm gonna see if I can get creative again! I have so much stuff to work with ... I buy all these parts and materials and then don't have time to put stuff together. Just have to make time, that's all ...

Spent a few hours yesterday submitting the site to directories. I have people pestering me to do link exchanges - especially now with the site at the top. I do WANT to exchange links but it has to be the right way, and they all want to do a triangular or 3 way link ... cause it fools the search engines into thinking you've got one way incoming links. But sooner or later the bots figure it out when they start going in a loop ... and the SE devalues the site as a result. So even though they charge a fee to "evaluate" your site directory links are the best kind ...

I am going to do my best to keep the site where it is. Not gonna be easy ...

OK, so I'm a bad blogger!

Yeah, I know. I've been neglecting the ole blog. Sure, I AM busy, but I could write about it ...

So we're not doing street fairs this year. Learned THAT lesson. Kinda stinks being inside working on the PC all day. Every day. Lately, even on weekends ... but we're getting stuff done.

Learned some lessons the hard way. The blog advertising I was paying for was actually costing us more than money. I saw a couple of webmaster blogs that mentioned the name of the ad service I was using in a very bad way ... apparently Google was punishing sites that sold - and bought - ads through them. My site was perfect, but I couldn't get to the top of the Google search results. So I thought "maybe this is why" ... and ended the advertising after almost two years. And ... two months later ...

The site is now in the top ten results for the search term "handcrafted silver jewelry" on Google. Not only is this saving us $220.00 a month in advertising fees ... but we're getting more sales!

Today I did a Google Base feed for my chains. Next I'm gonna do the jewelry in our Etsy store ...

I really should have blogged about the two times we went to see the Cure in NYC ... WOW!

Started a NEW Etsy shop. Not much in it, yet ... but there will be:

http://eclecticCrafts.etsy.com

I'll do my best to visit again soon ... Bob