ThreadTreasures.com - Sample Downloads

Just when you think that everything is going along great at the shop, I get up in the morning to find frantic emails saying that the Sample Designs were not working and that they couldn't be downloaded.

I almost had a heart attack I tell you.  I had worked so hard, and had seen them being downloaded by so many people.  What happened?  I mean, I go to get a couple hours sleep, only to wish that I had the coffee hooked up to an IV drip going straight into the blood stream.

So, I start the process of tech support to see if I can determine the issue.  I verify the files still exist, and that the permissions are correct on them.  I test, and BAM...403 error.  I am FORBIDDEN from getting my own samples.  What's a girl to do?

Of course I try the interactive technical support chat and get someone that can 'type' English, although I am sure that if I had been on the phone with him I would not have been able to understand a single word.  After an hour or so trying to get the support person to TRY to download the samples, he tries.  Lordie Lordie Lordie...  Can I please have my wisdom teeth removed while my contractions are coming 30 seconds apart please?

I had to finally open a email ticket, which usually means file 13... if you know what I mean.  I wasn't about to  let my business suffer at the hands of someone that still can't wipe their nose.    After another hour, I had pinpointed the issue and was putting into steps the resolution to the problem.  Needless to say, not 15 minutes AFTER I fixed my own issue, I receive the email saying that they do not experience the problem.  I replied that I had fixed the issue myself and proceeded to let them know what it was should another client of theirs experience the same issue.  I'm sure my return email probably ended up in someone's automatic wastebasket.  Oh well...

ThreadTreasures.com - Venitian Mask and Virtual Advertising

Yeah!!! I have my Venitian Mask set of embroidery designs complete and tested.  I think that they turned out pretty good.  They look better in real life than a simulated view.

The virtual advertising seems to be paying off, as I have had a steady stream of people in the store today.  Some are looking around while others are enjoying the Sample Designs that I have offered up.  Some have purchased designs.  Quite a few have signed up for the Newsletter that I will start sending out soon.

Overall, I'm happy with the progress thus far.

ThreadTreasures.com - Virtual Advertising

I have now switch part of my focus for Thread Treasures into advertising as the store front seems to be set up and working. I have joined various Yahoo groups in order to spread the word about my designs.

I guess I found one good group to advertise on, as I ran an intro ad that came out at 2:30 in the morning, and found 8 different clients on the store looking around.

Most have created accounts or used the test account to download the free sample designs that I have made available for people to get to see my embroidery.

I will need to spend some time reading some of the different types of ads that other digitizers use, or the services of an individual that writes ads for tons of places, and come up with a method that will hopefully produce successful copy for me.

Anyone know a marketing major that works for free?

ThreadTreasures.com - Blog overhaul

I thought that I would be a good person and come look at the blog before I started my day doing some digitizing and modification of some Venetian Mask designs that I am currently working on.

Low and behold, up pops a little message that the background that I had been using was going the way of the dodo on Friday. What a pain to try to get it removed and go back to some of the Blogger supplied backgrounds. But after 30 minutes or so, it is gone and I can continue with my day.

I'm feeling good as I have already walked over 2 miles this morning. Hopefully I will get the Venetian Masks completed and tested before the next round of storms hit. We lost power for a couple hours last evening, so I feel that I am a little behind.

I've started a new exclusive set for quilt blocks as well. At the moment, I'm not exactly sure how many designs I will include in the set, but it could be around 40 or so. I won't know until I'm finished with the entire thing.

ThreadTreasures.com - Facebook

Oh the joys of Facebook and everything else going on right now. I hear that a ton of the digitizers are using Facebook to show their designs at their stores, so I created a Facebook for ThreadTreasures that will show the designs at the .com. It is a learning curve for sure, and I am not faithful in writing on my blog or posting on Facebook.... yet anyways. I will need to try to take time each day to do a little bit of something I suppose.

I will say that I am really getting into the setting up of a store. I need to take the time to learn more of the CSS language and stylesheets so that I can make a ton of customizations that will give my site a bunch of bells and whistles that no other place has, but that will be a while. I still need to concentrate on making designs.

ThreadTreasures.com - SEO Submission

The past day was spent attempting to get the Sitemap for Thread Treasures to upload to search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Ask and the like.

Being a techie, I would have never thought that getting the module installed and configured would be so time consuming, since other modules were a matter of a few moments.

In the end, the site can now feed into the googlebot so that the rankings will improve when phrases are entered into the search engines.

I will be putting more and more designs on this page to reference.