The Holidays Are Coming!!

I know it's hard to believe, but the holidays are just around the corner!! I have some great ideas for new products and gift sets, and I can't wait to get them posted in my Etsy shop. In the next few weeks I'm hoping to have some, or all, of the following items available: booties, adult size hats, mother/daughter matching sets, father/son matching sets, fingerless mittens, gift sets, and of course more hats!! This is a lot of work, but I would LOVE to offer these items to all you wonderful Rockarooz fans for the holidays! In addition to new items, I have also been brainstorming on gift packaging ideas. This has been a bit of a challenge but I know I'll come up with something wonderful to compliment these adorable products.

Thank you all for your great support! Rockarooz is growing bigger and better each day!!

Best Wishes,
Shannon

Etsy Treasuries

Check out a couple of the Etsy treasuries that I've been featured in. Very cool stuff!!

I'm Hot (Pink) For Black And White!

Cute Punk Babies!

Familylicious Review!

Check out this review about my Lil Devil beanie at Familylicious Reviews and Giveaways! You can also enter for a chance to win a free hat from Rockarooz!!

It's almost review time!

I'm so excited about my first review! Debra, from Familylicous Reviews and Giveaways is working on a review for my Lil Devil beanie for her Halloween gift guide. Debra writes up many great reviews on all types of family products from kids toys, clothes, and accessories to furniture, food, and even jewelry. And to make her blog even more exciting she's always doing giveaways! Who doesn't like getting great products for free? Check out her blog here...

Familylicious Reviews and Giveaways!

...and keep an eye out for my very first review :)

The Rockarooz Lil Devil beanie is available now at my Etsy shop!

Business is Picking Up!

Wow, I don't know exactly what did the trick but I wish I did! I've been messing around with my item descriptions and shop announcement this week, and the orders have finally started coming in consistently. Yay! I also have a feeling the time of year is playing a role in the sudden burst in orders. It is well known that summer is a very slow selling time on Etsy. I decided that summer might actually be a good time for me to open my shop since it would give me a chance to get my items posted and work out some of the kinks. On the other hand it's hard when you're a new seller and you aren't getting many orders. During the first couple months I sat in on a few Newbie Chats on Etsy and they often said it can take a while to get your first sale. I actually made my first sale in 5 days, but I think that got my hopes up because it took a couple more weeks for my next sale to come in. It's been a slow process but now I can really see some momentum. I'd say one of the biggest lessons I've learned thus far is to just stick with it! It's a lot of hard work but I know it will all pay off in the end.

Hats!!

Last night my wonderful other half came home from work and helped me out with more photographs of my products! So today I'm hard at work photoshopping, writing up descriptions, and posting new items! When I first started out, about a month ago, I had no clue as to what to write about my hats. Now, the more I do it I think it's coming more naturally. Practice, practice, practice... is the key!! So far I've posted 2 hats today and I have 2 more in the pipeline. I feel like I'm finally in the groove!

More Photoshop

So last night I sat down with the boyfriend for some more photoshop practice. He still helps me out with the initial photography but I'm SO happy I can fix up the photos on my own to get my items listed! It's so much fun, thanks babe! Below is a sample of my continuing progress. This adorable visor beanie is also now available in my Etsy shop - woohoo!!

Visit Rockarooz at:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Rockarooz

Before

After

Photoshop

One of the most important things I've learned about selling on Etsy is that good photography is imperative. Lucky for me I have a boyfriend who is a photoshop pro, and he has been nice enough to help me out in this department. However, I can't always be dependent on him to get items posted to my shop so I decided to start playing around with it on my own. There are numerous tutorials online that explain every aspect of photoshop that you'll ever need to know. I already know some of the basic tools so I started out with a simple tutorial about curves. With curves you can adjust the contrast and brightness of an image which is a great place to start on improving its quality. Also, because I'm working with a simple product shot I decided that I needed to get creative with the crop in order to draw people's attention. Below you'll see before and after photos of one of my new hats. I definitely still have a ways to go on my photoshop skills but I'd say this is a decent start. What do you think?

Before

After

A New Venture

Welcome to my new blog for Rockarooz! I recently started my own home based business selling handmade baby hats and accessories. I'm having a great time designing and creating new items, but so far the main challenge has been learning everything that goes into owning and running my own business. I thought it would be fun and helpful to share my new experiences as I learn new tips and tricks every day. Thanks so much for checking in, I'm sure I'll be posting again soon! :)