So...it's Wednesday, and I haven't designed any new cards. I've been spending a lot of time researching SEO "stuff" and how to get more publicity on the internet for Prettyfolio. When I started Prettyfolio, I expected the most difficult task to be continually creating new designs, but I've discovered, as msot Etsy sellers do, that the most challenging (daunting, time-consuming, frustrating, mind-numbing...insert adjective of choice!) aspect is actually the marketing: trying to find just the right keywords to fit the character counts and tags to fit the allowed number; doing fake searches on Google and Etsy to determine the most common relevant search terms and incorporating them into each listing; and analyzing data from my store stats to see what people are actually looking at, and then trying to figure out why so many people look at the same 2 or 3 products, but not one single person actually bites the bullet and buys it?

Here is where my many years of schooling are beneficial! I'm a trained problem-solver! I thrive on running into a brick wall and researching my way around, under, and/or through it!

Thanks, Albert! So forgive me if I don't post a lot of new cards in the next week or so, as I'll be trying to optimize my listings for better visibility. That, and the kids are on spring break next week, which should be interesting because they have all discovered how to annoy each other :-)

I've been visualizing some new products in my head, though! That counts, right? My little Henry and I had picked some flowers near one of his favorite playgrounds a couple of weeks ago, and I just today took them out of my flower-pressing contraption. When I say flower-pressing contraption, I really just mean layers of cardboard and brown paper bags squished between biology, biochemistry, cell biology, and immunology textbooks. And to think that I almost got rid of the textbooks because I didn't need them anymore! Anyway, I don't know what kind of flowers I pressed, but they're beautiful little purple ones that dried amazingly! I can't wait to work with them! I also have about 30 buttercups pressed last summer, some pansies, and lots of tiny wild violas. On a different tangent, I'm thinking downloadable, printable designs, and DIY card kits for kids. I'm so excited about my ideas, and darn if there aren't enough hours in a day!

Until next time, here's to creativity, intelligence, and banging one's head against a brick wall!