EtsyMom Street Team: Holly Day Blog Hop!!!!

EtsyMom Street Team: Holly Day Blog Hop!!!!: "Beginning to day at 6 pm EST, Check out all of the fabulous holiday-themed projects, gift ideas, and more from our wonderful EtsyMom Bl..."

BLACK FRIDAY AND CYBER MONDAY ON ETSY!

WOW! Black Friday, one of the happiest days for most of us has hit Etsy. Many of the sellers on Etsy have extended their sales from Friday, November 26 through Cyber Monday, November 29, 2010. So exciting. This is a great opportunity to get great deals on those wonderful handmade items that you just can't find anywhere else. Time to check all your favorites on Etsy to see if they have gone on sale or have free shipping.
Ana's Baby Couture will be having a FREE SHIPPING promotion from Friday to Monday! Buy two or more headbands and receive free shipping. Shipping costs will be refunded through paypal. I am very excited. The perfect time to get wonderful holiday accessories, or stock up on those gifts and stocking stuffer's for your loved little princess. Don't forget to stop by and check us out!

To find out more about Etsy; browse through their website http://www.etsy.com/

EtsyKids Treasury Team: Rose Prints Online - Letter Love

Another great work by FruitsOftheBLoom on Etsy.
EtsyKids Treasury Team: Rose Prints Online - Letter Love: "'The ABC's of amazing gift giving...' by rosepri..."

My New Bloom!!! Hard headbands for kids!

Adorable satin covered headbands with handmade fabric flowers on the side. They are absolutely gorgeous. The headband is 1" wide at the widest point and slim down to 1/2". It will fit a 3 year old up to an adult. I am creating a hot pink one for my nieces 7th birthday. She was my inspiration behind the headbands, she prefers hard headbands over soft ones and she loves flowers.

The headbands are available now for sale. Stop by my Etsy boutique. http://www.etsy.com/shop/anasbabycouture

EtsyKids Treasury Team: Lazy Day Wins Latest Fun Challenge

EtsyKids Treasury Team: Lazy Day Wins Latest Fun Challenge: "Congratulations to our winner, Lisabeth, of Lazy Day Artifacts for her winning submission of 'Skulls can be pretty too...' in our beginning ..."

EtsyKids Celebrates Universal Children's Day with Special Deals!

Are you looking to get a head start in your holiday shopping? Here is your answer! Find amazing deals in some of the top kid stores on Etsy.com. Take a look at all the deals Etsykids members are having to celebrate Universal Children Day.

Ana's Baby Couture is participating. We are offering FREE SHIPPING when you purchase 2 or more adorable flower headbands. Ana's Baby Couture flower headbands are handmade and one of a kind. You must enter code "EKSHIP" at checkout, (buyer notes) to receive the promotion. The deals are from November 5th- November 29th so check them out now!!

Click on the link below to see all the great shops!
http://etsykids.blogspot.com/p/etsykids-celebrates-universal-childrens.html

My Etsy Treasury made it to the Front Page!!!

Etsykids Team started a wonderful group of curators that work hard in creating beautiful treasuries that feature our members. We are a hard working group of artists and mom's. It has been a true pleasure meeting these woman. It gives me a greater incentive to help them achieve a front page. My goal from the start was to always support mom-owned business and this group has allowed me to do that. I am very happy to have my treasury selected by the Etsy Admins to be in the front page. It showed at 4:00am, way to early for me to see it. This morning as I am making coffee and making my kiddo breakfast before we run out to her toddler classes, I was pleased to see that as I am checking my Etsy account I saw that one of my treasuries had a large amount of views (500+).What a great surprise as I scrolled down to the comments section and saw, "Congrats on FP". I was thrilled.

Those of you who are not familiar with Etsy or Treasuries here is a little info; " Treasury is an ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery of handpicked items. Members can feature their favorite items, items selected on a theme or just whatever they like. The Treasury is not intended for self-promotion, but instead to acknowledge and share the many cool things for sale on Etsy. Etsy’s staff (“Admin”) often choose whole or partial exceptional Treasury lists to promote to the featured, handpicked items on Etsy’s home page. Treasury lists are temporary and limited in number, so there is some competition involved in creating a list of your own. "

So what does this mean to me? After all these were not my products that made it?
To me it is another way to advertise my business, to use my creative skills, and help other shops. Ohh yeah..and I am addicted to making them!! There are great artists on Etsy and it is important to me to achieve a presence amongst them as a fellow artists. An amazing factor is that Etsy Admins saw my work, by receiving this exposure I hope it will open doors for me to other possibilities like the chance to be featured on their blog. I also helped my team!! The great Etsykids treasury team, that in our opening month of October we have been featured in the front page over 5 times.
That is great!

I am very happy! I wanted to give a shout out to the shops that were included in the treasury, Congrats to you all!!

New Moon Crochet http://www.etsy.com/shop/NewMoonCrochet
Shop Simple Things http://www.etsy.com/shop/shopsimplethings
The Broken Plate http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheBrokenPlate
Carroll Creek Glass http://www.etsy.com/shop/CarrollCreekGlass
Photo Compositions http://www.etsy.com/shop/PhotoComposition
Wooly Bison http://www.etsy.com/shop/WoolyBison
Candy Stick Lane http://www.etsy.com/shop/CandyStickLane *EtsyKids Member
Bovine Bubbles http://www.etsy.com/shop/bovinebubbles
Grace Hester Designs http://www.etsy.com/shop/gracehesterdesigns *EtsyKids Member
Soy Comfort http://www.etsy.com/shop/soycomfort
A&B Originals http://www.etsy.com/shop/aandboriginals
Nicolette Tabram http://www.etsy.com/shop/NicoletteTabram
Fairyfolk http://www.etsy.com/shop/Fairyfolk *Etsykids Member
Shabby Chalks http://www.etsy.com/shop/ShabbyChalks
Butterfly Baby Place http://www.etsy.com/shop/ButterflyBabyPlace *Etsykids Member
JReal http://www.etsy.com/shop/jreal

EtsyKids Treasury Team: Ana's Baby Couture Gets Cozy on Etsy's FRONT PAGE!...

EtsyKids Treasury Team: Ana's Baby Couture Gets Cozy on Etsy's FRONT PAGE!...: "Congratulations to Ana of Ana's Baby Couture on Etsy for her gorgeous front page curating job, 'Love Lives Cozy Here.' Way to take the Ets..."

Not your average baby headbands...Couture Baby Headbands

My inspiration comes from my little girl, my nieces and high fashion. What a combination! I want to combine the things I love the most in my life and create something amazing. I want little girls out there to look spectacular! My fabric flower headbands are one of a kind. Fashionable, stylish, trendy, and ready to make a statement. The headbands are perfect for play dates, photo shots, and special events. I strive to offer only but the most fashionable accessories for the trendy baby and mom.
Ana's Baby Couture

Gold flower hair clip

Purple fabric flower headband

Purple and Gold print headband

BABY HEADBAND POLKA DOT BLACK WHITE GOLD

ELECTRIC BLUE FLOWER HEADBAND


FLOWER HAIR CLIP SILVER GRAY WITH SILVER CROCHET HEADBAND


BRONZE TURQUOISE FLOWER HAIR CLIP WITH NYLON HEADBAND

Take a look at my Etsy.com boutique for more accessories.

Festival of San Gennaro

Greetings, yesterday I was so excited about my front page on Etsy that I did not tell you about my wonderful adventures I had with my family. We went to this wonderful festival in Little Italy, Feast of San Gennaro. It is centered through Mullberry Street, which was closed to traffic. There were street vendors, sausages (missed my meat eating days just a little), and these awesome zeppoles which are like the most delicious fried donuts. It was packed which made it very hard to maneuver our way with the stroller. The festival of San Gennaro is New York City’s longest-running, biggest and most revered religious outdoor festival in the United States and we were so excited to take part. Here are some photographs.Huge blocks of turron!

I made it on the front page on Etsy.com

I can't begin to tell you how happy and excited I feel. I have worked hard to get out there and I have received a great compliment. Being included in this magnificent treasury, and then being selected to be on the front page.!!!!! I received many views and lots of hearts.

Dreams do come true, you have to work hard for what you want!! I am thrilled.

How to start an online boutique

When I wanted to start my own boutique online I went crazy looking for a "how to guide". I wanted to find someone to tell me exactly how to do this and be good at it. Well I will later on tell you about the steps I took but here is a great guide to get you started. After all I support mom owned business and I want you to be successful as well.
How to start an online boutique
Step 1
First of all, what do you want to sell? Is there a problem that you are trying to solve? Are you trying to make someones life better? I know these questions are overly dramatic but important. You have to find a problem and have a solution for it. Get a strategy going...sit down in front of the computer and get your shit together. Only the well thought out ideas succeed. So you want to be a millionaire stay at home mom...well how do you want to get there? Create some sort of business plan. Don't rush this!! Take your time, this plan will change over and over but the concept should stay the same; you want to open an online boutique.

If your are not going to be making your own items, apply for a sales tax permit and a federal tax identification number. Some wholesale vendors will require that you have these in order to purchase their goods. Particularly if you are going into business with your husband or someone else, consider forming a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or a corporation. DO YOUR RESEARCH!!
Step 2
Choose an E-commerce site to host your online boutique. Check out 1and1.com so far they are the cheapest!! Volusion.com offers an entire package that includes your domain name, shopping cart and web hosting. Corecommerce.com is another E-commerce site that offers packages both of these sites offer business email addresses, website templates (and the ability to use your own design), marketing tools, accounting tools, data feeds, Google AdWords coupons, the ability to create coupons or newsletters for your store and the ability to accept a number of different payment methods, such as Paypal, Google Checkout and credit cards. GoDaddy.com allows you to pick and choose the services you need, such as a domain name or shopping cart.
If you aren't familiar with SEO and online selling, an all-inclusive site such as Corecommerce.com may be the way to go. Volusion.com and Corecommerce.com offer a free 30 day trial. Vendio.com is a hosting site that allows you to operate your store for free. However, you won't have an exclusive domain name and your URL will be lengthy. This is important---a shorter URL such as Cutebooties.com is easier to identify than one that includes the hosting site's name and additional information, such as Vendio.com/stores/Cutebooties.com.
Step 3
Set a theme for your store when selecting or designing your website. Choose a catchy name and logo for your online boutique. Familiarize yourself with your products. Create an "About Me" page that includes your business history, vision and goals. Detail your shipping and return policy on a "Shipping and Returns" page. Create a Privacy Notice page that details how you will use your customer's information.
Step 4
Locate suppliers. Look for baby gear closeouts on eBay and other auction sites. If you don't already have specific brands in mind or you intend to design your own gear, contact American Apparel for basic wholesale baby gear. Also contact websites such as Children's Wholesale or Wholesale Kid for purchasing wholesale baby clothing, shoes and accessories. Until you know what will be a hit, limit your purchases to no more than 10 to 15 items of each style.
Step 5
Take high quality images of your inventory. Very important if you choose the Etsy.com route. Include relevant information in your product listings such as clear descriptions, sizes, colors and clothing or shoe materials.
Step 6
Promote your store. Thoroughly read through your website host's advertising tools. Take advantage of the Google AdWords coupon if offered. Submit your baby product feeds to Google. FACEBOOK!!! Your host site may have an easy way to do this; otherwise; you can visit Google.com and import them yourself (see Resources). Take advantage of Google Analytics, which you can use to analyze your traffic. Identify which key words (products) bring in the most customers.

This article was printed somewhere on about.com a little while ago. It helped me. I will post more suggestions later on as my journey continues.

Ana's Baby Couture

Ana’s Baby Couture boutique began out of the desire to find unique chic clothing and accessories for children. Family owned and operated company created out of the love and passion for trendy and hip accessories for children. We specialize in offering unique hair accessories. It is my mission to support mom-owned business.
I am working hard to realize my dream. I have many dreams; to own my own successful business, stay at home with my kids, and ultimately love every second I work. Seems a little nuts? I stopped sitting on my butt and started doing something about it. There is something so powerful when you realize that you are the one in charge of your destiny. The hard part always is getting up and doing something about it. That is the stage that I am in.

My Etsy Boutique