34 of 52 - Silly Sockbear Sale on Etsy!!

For 24 hours I'm taking part in the Etsy UK Silly Sale.  That means that all of my sock bears (and other selected bears) are 50% off!!

So if you want to give one of these little bears a good home for Christmas (a sock bear is for life you know...) then grab a bargain while you can.

Offer applies to all sock bears in my Etsy shop only.  Go and check it out!!

30 of 52 - A diversion into Google Analytics

When I first joined Etsy i'd never heard about Google Analytics (GA) before and had no idea how it works.  But, I have learned a little bit now and then just by clicking about so I thought i'd share some of the things i'd found.

The first thing i'm going to start with is something that was posted on a forum thread I was on recently.  How do you find out where traffic to a specific page comes from?

So, you're checking you views and an item has shot up without any intervention from you.  You've probably checked Craftopolis and Craftcult and they don't show you as being featured anywhere on Etsy*.  Where do you look in GA to find out?

If you go to the dashboard for the site you're looking at (I'm assuming you know how to get to the first page here.  You have, after all, managed to install the tracking code already so that's a start.  Then look in the bottom right hand corner there is a box called 'Content Overview' (shown below).

Click the 'view report' link at the bottom of that box.

This will show you the full content overview.  In the bottom left hand corner of the new screen has a table of your 'Top Content' or the pages that are looked at the most.

If the item you want to see is in the top five most viewed pages, then select it (just click on the blue link) from the table you can see above.  If you can't see it, click 'view full report' again and you should find the page you want on that list.

So I want to look at my second most viewed pages which is for my new Caramel Long Fur Bear and when I click on it, I see a page like this

I have marked the 'Entrance Sources' link as that's the bit you need to click next.  This tells you exactly where all of the traffic comes from.  You will now see a table breakdown of the top ten traffic sources for that specific page.

So for my item, most of my traffic is direct (which I expected for this item as it was recently on the Etsy Front Page) but I can see that I get traffic from Google, Bronto (the system that Etsy uses for it's emails), Facebook and an interesting site called Demonkidz.com (a site which freaks me out but they regularly link to their Etsy shop so I figure they're coming to me afterwards).

So, now you know!  It's pretty straight forward but the links are a bit hidden.

If there's another thing you'd like to know about Google Analytics, let me know in the comments and i'll find out.

*I use Etsy as an example here, the same applies to Folksy, your blog, or website.  Anywhere you have Analytics tracking installed.

26 of 52 - The Gonk Tales

A few Gonks have ventured out into the big wide world.  And a few of them are having adventures along the way!

The first one I heard back from was Diego, who went on a walking holiday up in Scotland!

And he sent us back this postcard from John O'Groats.  I did hear that Diego tried to jump into the sea at John O'Groats but he was held back by his heroic owner.  Diego lives in Newcastle with my Father in Law and is often off on camping trips now.  Diego's adventures will continue :)

The next adventures is from the laydee's man of the gonk family!  The aptly named 'Bonk' (don't ask!).

(Click the image for a bigger version)
He got all spruced up for his date with a ClareBear!  The ClareBear in the photos was made over 12 years ago for a special birthday present.  Oh how they've change in all that time!  You'll be glad to know that the Gonk and Bear are currently living happily together in Northumberland.

This blog post was brought to you with the help of the complete mentalists that are Malcolm Freemantle (My Father In Law) and Allen Hurst (My Dad).  Thanks xx

24 of 52 - Bags of Bears!

And I don't just mean that I have bags of bears hanging around (though I do, it can get a bit scary round here sometimes).  I mean that my bears now come with something comfy for them to travel in!  And possibly live in, if you so choose.

Each of my bears will now come with it's very own printed (by me!) ClareBears drawstring gift bag.

And there will be a certificate of authenticity to confirm that your ClareBear is 100% original.  Get you bears in bags from all of my stores!

21 of 52 - Oh Blimey!! I didn't realise it had been that long!

Oh dear, I neglected my blog again.  It was the 9th of June when I blogged last.  So I'd best tell you what I've been up to.

I've been knitting!  I love to knit and I now have a really good excuse.  My Twitter followers and friends around the interwebs are probably aware that we have a baby on the way due at the end of November.  I mean that's pretty big news but time is marching on and now that 20 weeks is approaching, you sort of go 'eeep!' and get your butt into gear organising things that you need.  So I started to knit.

And so far, I'm getting head start.  As you might have noticed, we don't know what it is yet (and we don't intend to find out) so it's neutrals all the way.  I've even got a mint green and a white cardigan that need buttons and little finishing touches before they can be photographed.

We also have had a holiday!  woot!  It was a lovely week in a caravan in Moffat, Scotland.  The caravan was kindly loaned by my in laws and we had a lovely chilled out week.  We did go to Edinburgh Zoo and saw penguins and monkeys and lions (oh my!).

And of course there are some new things coming.  Here's a sneaky peak of my latest work in progress.

Now I must go and write a note in my diary about doing a blog post every week.  This Mummy brain is not doing me any good!

15 of 52 - New Items for patterns are turning out nice

So last time I blogged I mentioned that a new pattern was coming. My first efforts at the items have turned out well (apart from one of them being a Koala and NOT a bear at all). There will be a bear version of this pattern but he is this afternoons mission after i've messed around on Dawanda a bit. And played Scrabble on Facebook. And procrastinated a little bit more......

So here are the first pictures of the toys!



More photos of these and the bear when I get to it can be found over at my Flickr photostream

Enjoy your Bank Holiday!

7 of 52 - A Tough Week and a Giveaway!

This week has been rubbish! Sadly, I was made redundant from my job. Ah well, hey ho, move on to bigger and brighter things. Lots of job applications are flying around and when I'm not applying for jobs, i'm adding new things to my shop!

And I figured that whilst this was dubious grounds for celebration, I figured I would do a giveaway!

So this is your opportunity to get your hands on one of my original sock bears.

AND, there are even runners up prizes!

Three runners up will get one of my tiny bears which are not available in any of my shops yet.

So, as there are four prizes, there are four ways to enter.

1. Leave a comment on my blog telling me which item from my shop is your favourite (click on the 'comments' link at the end of this post).
2. Buy an item from my shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/ClareBears) - I know, i'm shameless!
3. Tweet the following message: RT @ClareBears I am entering the big bear giveaway at http://claresbears.blogspot.com/
4. Become a Fan on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ClareBears or ask your friends to become friends.

If you do all four, that's four entries and that's all you have to do.

The giveaway closes at 7pm (UK time) on the 8th March 2010. That gives you a whole week to enter. I choose winners randomly from a hat (or a random number generator if it's popular, who knows).

Entries open NOW!!