Found a FREE Webstore Builder!

I found a cool site yesterday offering FREE web store building! It's called eCrater.com I just finished setting up my store. http://lauralynn.ecrater.com/ The set up is a lot like an Etsy shop.

So far I've got one ePattern listed, but I got almost everything set up: The Home, About, Terms, Contact and FAQ pages. I still need to fill in the shipping costs which is why I only have a ePattern listed in there at the moment (no shipping on those!)

There is NO cost to set up a store, NO fee to list anything and NO fees when you sell. I believe they make money somehow with Google, but that works fine for me! I do that as well with my free patterns site ;)

Now as for teddy bear exposure - I don't think this site will help with that. I still use eBay and Bearpile as a form of advertising. But, if you have a simple website - heck, even a blog - you can then put a link on it to your eCrater store for your available bears!

HUGE Web Domain Name Price Increase!

I'm posting this as a business tip - or word warning....

You may have noticed that one of my hobbies - and source of extra income - are other websites. I have almost a dozen different domain names. Some are personal (like our family site and a few I got for my hubby's hobbies) and some are professional and bring in income. (besides my primary website for my bears)

It was fun and no trouble really... about $12 a year for a domain name.

Imagine my SHOCK when I got my domain renewal registration from Yahoo - and the cost went up by 170% !!!!!!



Guess I now have more work to do.... finding another place with which to register my website domain names..... ggrrrrrr.....

Less Time on Website = More Time on Bears!!

Although I have fun "playing" with my bears website - it is very time consuming. Right now I need all the time I can find to make bears!

Last night I figured out another way to cut down on the time it takes to add new bears to my website. (Originally it would take over an hour to add a bear to my site!)

I have added a "Flickr Badge" of the available bears to my Bears for Adoption page.

A "Flickr Badge" automatically displays photos that you have chosen from your Flickr account. Since I upload my photos to Flickr anyways, it made good sense to me.

I just had to make the badge code one time, it adjusts the photos as I add them. I do my website myself - and I do it by writing code by hand. I don't use a program. Less time "coding" means more time for bears!

If you want to give it a try making your own Flickr Badge - you can find the free tool here:
http://www.flickr.com/badge.gne

Forward your Domain Name to Your Shop

As promised, I have a photographic step by step "how to" forward your new domain name to the show you have decided to place your bears in - be it Bearpile, Etsy, eBay, or anywhere else.

Yahoo is who I use for my domains, so these directions are for them.

After you have chosen and registered your domain name with Yahoo, go to the Yahoo Small Business page and click on the button in the upper right corner that says "Small Business". That should bring your to your own page that will look something like this: (not exactly -- these are my own pages and I have a half a dozen or more domain names)

Click on the photos to enlarge them....


















If you have any questions about this, please post it as a comment as others may have the same question!