Share and Brand your name all at once.

A new up and coming boutique recently asked me a zillion questions about advertising- that we'll save for another post. 

One of my suggestions for low cost advertising is to share a button for your business with friends, bloggers, anyone who wants it. We do this here. To get things rolling we introduced this 'word of blog' method to our customers and readers with a giveaway. Anyone that added our button and let us know about it was entered to win a great prize. Lucky for us,  most have them have kept the button up and more are added daily. 

how to:

1. You'll need to make yourself a beautiful and quite attractive button in a photo program like Photoshop or the like. Standard sizes tend to be 125x125 or 150x150 pixels. (If you can't make your own, there are some good designers out that who will help you out. Shop with recommendations and caution! If I had the time, I would love to help you. I can recommend folks. Contact me.)

2. Be sure to save your button as a graphic (i.e. jpg, etc.) Use a generic term like, blogbutton. (You'll see why later)

3. Now bear with me because I AM NOT techie at all. Laywoman's terms here- You need to upload your graphic to your server. This works differently for everyone. I save mine to my images folder on the server we use. In the same place all the other images for our site are located.

4. Next copy this code and substitute in your URL, name, and button's location.

5. Now that you have written your first bit of HTML code give yourself a pat on the back. You can use this to post HTML code in your blog, site, etc. allowing your button to appear live. If you click on it, it will link to the URL you have directed it to.

6. To share this code in print method as we do here so that people can copy the code and place it where they want you'll need to rewrite this: 

Whenever you want to change the image of your button, you simply have to save a new graphic under the same name, i.e. blogbutton.jpg Once you upload it to the server and replace the old image, all the sites hosting your button will automatically be updated too. Brilliant I know!

Questions? I'm not sure how much more help I can be, but feel free to post them below.

Go for it!

-Designing Mom Resa

My mom taught me to share.

Maybe it comes with old age, but recently we have been getting lots of emails from new and fellow designers/business owners seeking help. I am eager to share what I know because so many have shared, and still share, with me. My own personal Pay It Forward movie if you will.

Keep the questions coming. I will always do what I can, and hopefully more.

Go for it!

-Designing Mom, Resa

The Mogul Mom

I'm totally soaking up this new site. Full of AWESOME advice from someone with real experience. Plus she'll help you out, via email. Bookmark this one asap!

Go for it!

-Designing Mom Resa

E-Commerce Carts

Last week we relaunched our website. It was intended to be a summer project, that lasted through September. 

When we started Resa Design online in 2005 we did it all ourselves. My husband had some basic knowledge that got us started. With our experience in graphic design, some software, and PayPal, we were on our way. It worked great for a start up. It was even kind of pretty.  But it was becoming more evident we needed a new system, and fast. Something that worked for us and not us for it. 

So after lot and LOTS of trials, asking loads of online store owners what they liked and didn't like about their carts, we landed on X-Cart. So far so good, but we are just getting through week one. Take a look for yourself. 

Don't ask me about all the programing. This was well beyond my knowledge base. We hired a web company, Simply Profound. I did enter and set up all the products, designed the basics of what we wanted, and we did our own photography and photo editing. Since I know my way around the codes enough, I am able to make some changes here and there, but our web master still helps us out.

In the market for an E-Commerce software/shop? Here are a few others we looked at and actually tested out:

Interspire

Shopify

Magento

Volusion

Zen-Cart

Once we've gotten used to our new cart a bit more, I'll do a review of it, and the others we tried. Hopefully this will help you navigate the sea of options. And if you can't do it yourself, I HIGHLY recommend Simply Profound. Dave was so wonderful to work with and really knows his stuff!

Go for it!

-Designing Mom Resa

How to write a press release.

I've been trying to write a press release all day. This is not my area of expertise. Why I didn't call Google for help sooner, I don't know. But finally did, and found this site quite useful.

Do you have any useful Press Release tips or experience to share?

Go for it-

Designing Mom Resa  

HARO: Help a Reporter Out

Have you tried HARO yet? If not sign up. 

It's easy, and you'll receive three emails a day from Mr. Peter Shankman (well known PR professional) with story queries from all kinds of reporters (major news, print, blogs, etc.) If you feel you can help, you respond to the individual request with a pitch. 

A great way to get publicity for you, your business, or a client! (Did I mention it's free?)

I was recently quoted on iParenting.com about how my babies smiled when they were kids. You just never know what a reporter might be looking for.

Go for it!

-Designing Mom Resa

How to Drop Ship your product online.

A reader sent in this question to me recently:

Q: What does drop shipping mean? And how do you do it?

A: Great question. I had that one once too! 

First let's define drop shipping.

It's my experience, and I'm not an expert, that drop shipping is when a retailer sells a manufacturer's product, but does not ship it them-self. Typically the retailer will contact the manufacturer and place an order to be shipped to the buyer. Then the retailer pays the manufacturer an agreed upon price for the item. 

Why do people do this? 

First off, it's a great way to try out products in a store and see how they are received. Second, although the retailer doesn't make the type of profit they would from selling and shipping the item them-self, they do make a profit and have little to no overhead on this product. Third, it's usually the only or best way to sell custom items that need the manufacturer's attention before shipment.

Do we drop ship Resa Design products?

Yes, we offer our products this way to many retailers. It's USUALLY a win win for us. We get brand exposure and sales, and the retailer makes a profit and does all the marketing. When it doesn't work for us is when there is a lot of work in the initial set up, the retailer is hard to work with, and when the exposure is less than desirable. 

How do we drop ship?

Over the years we've developed a few ground rules to help us navigate the sea of drop ship requests, because they do flood in each week. (I think this is because of the rise of online shopping, more people desiring to work from home, and the ease of setting up a basic online store.) 

• Our first move is to collect as much information as we can about the retailer; i.e. buyer's name, site address, resale ID,  location, start date of store, phone number, email, and why they think we are a good fit for them. This is usually in the first email from the retailer.
  
• Then I check out the store itself. Having a store front to show me and how it looks is very important in my decision. If there is nothing to see, I'm more likely to say no right away. If the design is not our style or professional, I'm also likely to say no. This is only because we want our products sold to a certain market. We have worked hard on our branding and our customers expect to have a 'unique' product, not something that can be found on every block. 
• Next I look at the time in business. We're in our fourth year now. I know how much work this business takes. I have also seen so many online retailers come and go. It is a lot of work for both the retailer and us to set up our products for drop shipping in another store. When we were starting out, we said yes to retailers very quickly. I was anxious to get our name out there and make more sales. We are not at that place anymore, so we can be more selective. Currently we look for a store to be open for at least 6 months and/or doing more than 20 sales a month. 
• Resale ID. Why is this important. It's not hard to get one, but it's easy not to. If a retailer is serious about what they are doing, they will take care of this. If they don't have one, we will pass them by. (And some states do not require it.) Links: Great link for Resale ID questions.
• Finally, the answer to 'why us' is important to us. Answers like, "I really like your shirts", are not really what I'm looking for. (And no, I'm not going to tell you what I'm looking for b/c that would be too easy!) 

What I do next is contact the retailer with a Yes or No. If Yes, we send them our line sheet and drop ship agreement. (A line sheet is your price list and terms. Our drop ship agreement is a form where we collect information on shipping, what products they want to list, how to best contact them, and that they agree to our terms.)

After this usually the retailer will pull our photos from our web site, save them to their server, and then set them up for re-sale. When one of their customers orders our product, the retailer emails us the order and shipping address. We ship the product and bill the retailer for the product and our shipping costs. And that's it. Sale is done. 

In my circle of manufacturing friends, a 30% profit for the retailer is typical. Other arrangements can be made on a case by case basis. And we have done this. It does make for some more record keeping but it's good to be flexible with your retailers, especially if they are going to bring you a lot of business.

Lastly, be sure it's worth your time and effort. We process our drop ship orders just like our regular customer orders. They have to be shipped in our normal time frames and as if the order was coming directly from our store. If you can't keep up with the extra demand, drop shipping might not be for you. If you can, it's a great way to get your product exposure, fans, and most of all sales. 

We look forward to answering more of your questions. So keep them coming. You can email me directly at rtroyer AT resadesign DOT com (remove spaces and type as standard address).

Go for it!

-Designing Mom Resa