Simply Shiny Life

Perusing the etsy forums late Friday night, I found a post describing how to update my Facebook Fan site with a more formal landing page for those that had not yet fanned the page. The directions were pretty easy, so I thought I would share them with you so that you too could update your landing page. This landing page includes a request to fan the page as well as images of my jewelry and new logo.

To see what the heck I’m talking about, visit my ShinyAdornments Facebook fan page. See the tab called “Welcome” ? For those that aren’t current fans on my page, this is the page they will initially land on.

To begin, you need to create your very own ‘Welcome’ tab. To do so, you need to install the Facebook app called FMBL Tab.  Visit  http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4949752878 and click the link called “Add to my Page” located right below the FMBL page avatar.  Choose the fan page you want to use (should you have more than one), and then select “Add to my page”.

Return to your Fan page and click the “Edit Page” link located under your Fan Page avatar. Scroll down to FBML. It is nearly at the bottom of the list on my Edit page. Click the “Edit” link.

On the edit FBML page, enter the title you want for your new tab in the Box Title field. I used ‘Welcome’.  In order to add images, etc to your new page/tab, you’ll need to know a bit of HTML. Enter the HTML code for the page you want to add in the FBML text box.

My landing page uses three images I created using Photoshop linked to either my Facebook page or my Artfire Studio page.  All are various heights, but each is 475 pixels wide.

Here is the sample code I’ve used for my page. You can edit depending on the images and text you want to use:

<a href=http://www.facebook.com/YOUR FAN PAGE NAME GOES HERE><img src=”Your image name goes here. Needs to be hosted on flickr or photobucket, etc“></a>
<br><br>

<a href=http://www.facebook.com/YOUR FAN PAGE NAME GOES HERE><img src=”Your image name goes here. Needs to be hosted on flickr or photobucket, etc“></a><br>
<a href=”http://www.artfire.com/users/YOUR ARTFIRE STUDIO NAME GOES HERE” target=”_blank”><img src=”Your image name goes here. Needs to be hosted on flickr or photobucket, etc“><br>
</div>

Click ‘Save Changes’ once you’ve entered all the links and code you need.

To enable this Welcome tab as your new default landing page for non-fans, you will need to edit your settings again.  Click the ‘Edit Settings’ link under your Fan Page avatar again. Go to “Wall Settings” and click the “Edit” link.  In the view settings box, there will be a drop down menu for the “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else”. Choose the FBML tab you just created and click “Save”.

You are done.

I know this one was long. Thanks for sticking with me. I’d love to see what you created. Post a link to your fanpage in the comments below.

My ShinyAdornments shop on Artfire has received the Certified Handmade status icon. YAY!

As I shared in my previous post, Artfire Studio owners must meet a set of criteria and have their shops reviewed by Artfire staff.  I’m now the proud owner of a lovely blue icon in my shop.

When a buyer clicks this new icon in a seller’s Studio, this message is posted to the screen

“This Certified Handmade Artifact recognizes this
artisan’s commitment to exclusively offering
Handmade and Fine Art work in their studio.”

Of course the process and certification aren’t a perfect solution to some of the issues surrounding non-handmade items being listed and sold as handmade, thereby duping the unsuspecting buyer. Arguments can be made about whether or not the Artfire staff is qualified to actually deem one shop true handmade and another not. Additionally, as ONLY Pro shops can be ‘certified” there will be some concern about Artfire’s quest for $$ over substance, as Pro shops pay a fee each month to attain ‘Pro’ status which gives them access to many additional seller tools.  Finally, what policing power will be established to ensure certified Studios adhere to the only Handmade rule?

Regardless, I believe this is a very good first step for Artfire. A way for the buyers to whom it matters to identify artisan sellers and give them the opportunity to support handmade and not ‘faux’ handmade made in sweatshops, purchased for pennies, labled handmade and sold at a premium.

Again, Kudos Artfire!

Are you a Pro Seller on Artfire? Have you submitted your application yet?

I created my first Treasury East on Etsy earlier this week.  You can click on the image to be taken to the treasury if you’d like to visit the artists or read more about each item.

I don’t ‘get’ the new treasury format. I think I read that there are over 40,000 treasuries right now on etsy. 4ok!?? I”m wondering what purpose could possibly be intended? I don’t have much hope of mine ever appearing on Etsy’s front page. Selection to that hallowed space seems reserved for either Etsy admin or a favored few. The rest of the minions are relegated to the treasury cattle car is seems. (Minions is my word for the day. PetitPoulailler used it in the forums today and it stuck with me. Kinda slides right off your tongue doesn’t it? LOL)

Pretty though, huh?

Nancy Rosetta shared a nice little post about riveting on her blog. It’s an oldie but a goodie. Check it out.

http://nancyrosetta.blogspot.com/2008/01/riveting-tutorial.html

Nancy Rosetta Riveting Tutorial

I moved. New digs. New accoutrements. New big yard with new flora. Lots of new fauna that doesn’t necessarily stay in the new big yard. I love the new house. Love the new neighborhood. Evidently the local neighborhood fauna loves the new house too.

In addition to the myriad of new spiders available in the abode, I’ve also discovered one snake so far in the basement. IN the house. Eeps. Luckily it was small and most amenable to being booted to the backyard by me at 7 am. We were also lucky enough to find a very unfriendly bird in the basement, attached to a sticky bug trap. No idea how it entered the aforementioned abode. While I am sure it was ultimately grateful to Hubs trying to release it outdoors, it displayed its immediate displeasure with the situation by exhibiting some persistent pecking of the Hubs during the release process.

Want to see a picture of the fauna?

No. Of course you don’t.

Flora though… how about some of the local yard flora? Local to my very own little yard.

Have a great day everyone.

I’m back. Well, sort of.

My work space is together. Most of the boxes are unpacked. I’m ready to put a bit of flame to metal. Wrap some wire. Set some beads. Just need some time. I wonder if that is packed away in a box somewhere too?

I like my new work area. It has a tile floor and a ceiling fan. I need to have an exhaust fan installed, but I’ll just use the windows and screen door for now.

It’s about time I reopen the shops too.  I’ve had a nice, but busy hiatus. I should be ready to unlock the doors and say hello in a week or so.

Hello again everyone. Glad to be back. Nearly.

AuctionBytes posted an article called “IRS to Track Online Sellers’ Payment Transactions Beginning Next Year” you might want to read.

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y210/m03/abu0258/s03

The fact that the IRS is going to be scrutinizing online payments shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. I’m actually surprised it hasn’t happened yet. I’d welcome being able to receive official 1099s from Paypal to assist in my annual tax preparation. The proposed new form will be called a 1099-K, Merchant Card and Third-Party Payments.  You can see a sample below.

Unfortunately, for those of us managing small online businesses, this new scrutiny is only going to apply to those with sales exceeding $20k and 200 transactions.

Perhaps Paypal will give the rest of us an option to receive reporting based on this new requirement. One can hope, right?

Hippity Hoppity

(Ok, silly title. The kiddo helped me pick it out. )

You can click on the image to be taken directly to the treasury.

I’m offering a special sale to my lovely and very loyal newsletter subscribers.

If you’d like to join my newsletter list, I’ll send you all the details.

You can join my newsletter here: http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/my-newsletter/

I’ve not posted much new work the last couple of months. My time has been eaten up lately with my full time job, the hunt for a new house, and now the process of moving from our old home to the new one. Things like stucco inspectors, and painters and carpet measurements and septic leach line mappings and spiders and water quality tests have me captive.

The good news is that I’ve already picked out my new work area. There’s a tiled sun room simply calling my name. It’s already equipped with heat/cool, lots of light, and plenty of electrical outlets. Additionally, the tile floor is a HUGE benefit as I’ll be able to move my soldering equipment and torch from the garage into this space to accompany all my other beading paraphernalia. This new tile floor is so much more conducive to molten silver than the carpet in my existing space.  Just the thought of having everything I need in one place makes me giddy. LOL

We close on this new property in mid April. After selling the old house and getting settled in, I’ll be ready to take up the torch again. Probably more than ready, really. I’ve got loads of ideas that I’ve been logging into my sketch books. I’ll be incredibly ready to actualize them once I’ve gotten everything settled and the kiddo enrolled into some new summer activities.

I am REALLY looking forward to this move.