Merry Christmas Bloggers Website Visitors Holiday Shoppers

Merry Christmas Bloggers and Website Visitors! Glad to see you at LilacsNDreams, and hope ya'll have been having a great week so far. 

So, how is everyone doing with the Christmas preparations? Got the shopping done? Is the food all bought? If not having your friends, and loved ones in your home will you be traveling. If so, are you preparing for this as well.

I know, so many things to do, and so little time to do them. And, now, the rush will be on to get everything completed by the end of the week before places are closed to enjoy their Christmas as well. How many bought gifts this year? How many are treating those special to you with handmade gifts? Did you know there are a lot of handmade gifts, repurposed and upcycled gifts being given this year as well. Not only the economy, but others are seeing that they can make it more personable by doing so. Sometimes a little bit of this, with a little bit of that, and doing it this way is found to be much better than the store bought items too. 

For those who are still shopping, and maybe doing Christmas on another day....not the traditional one....you will still have time to shop, and to also get your items shipped to you as well. Not only supporting your local stores to find what you need, but also supporting the artisans of all kinds is a great thing to do too.

As we all know with this big Holiday things will be slowing down just a bit with our stores, our blogs, and websites as we ourselves also prepare for this joyous and meaningful holiday. I wanted to stop by, and wish you all well, and thank you again for visiting with LilacsNDreams! I wish you all well. Enjoy your Holidays. May they be merry, fun, happy, and filled with much enjoyment. Take care everyone, and MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU!! 

Having Your Own Website, Domain, Host

Good Morning, and Welcome to LilacsNDreams Blog. I wanted to stop in here today, and mention about websites, and having your own domain. Many of us would like to do our own, and it can be a good move. But, there is always the issue of the cost with them too. Yes, they can be quite costly to set up, and sometimes maintain too. I guess it all depends on what you wish to do with the website. But, do know there are some sites that are free, and low cost too.

Some use their websites as their selling venues, some have websites that are maybe 1-2 pages because it is more as advertising for them, and there are some who use their websites as a landing page for all their venues, other websites, blogs, and so on and just redirect from there. 

For me? I am not a computer techie person, and therefore I teach myself as I go. Learn as I go, sometimes ask questions, or read answers to questions answered. I have been working with different places, trying them out, and of course seeing other places mentioned by many too. So, I am here today to mention a few to you, and if you have any to add to this list, please do so:)

First mentioned is going to be Weebly. This place is free. Some have added buttons t here for paypal, and google checkout. I think I seen a shopping cart there too. For me I use my Artfire and Ecrater widgets in place of the shopping carts right now. You can click, and still purchase, but I do not have the extra expense of a cart with it at this time. Has been accessible moving around this place, they have templates offered for you to use, and you set things as you wish to do. I have seen some use this as their blog too. Check it out when you can, and also visit my LilacsNDreams Weebly Site too. 

Ok, on with the list of sites to use. Another place to use is with Google. It is free, use as many pages as you desire, but will note to you that it is a little trying here too. As all things are with google...they make you work at it, and can get complicating sometimes. But, you get unlimited pages here, and it is free. I have one of my domains directed to a site with godaddy for a google site. Please visit if you would like at LilacsNDreams.net. 

Another place I have seen mentioned is PageBuzz. They have the shopping cart there, many templates to choose from that you would like to use, and I believe their cost was $20 a month. Some are using HighWire which I think can cost about $19.95 a month, and up depending what you choose. There is Big Commerce which the cost is about $24.95? a month, and up also. Some have used Yahoo, Prostores, HostMonster was mentioned and is about $6.95 a month. There is WordPress that some have liked, and some didn't because of the html and css coding you worked with. There is Vendio that does have a shopping cart. When choosing them make sure you choose the free store, or you will get tied in with ebay unless that is what you would like. There is GoDaddy that does domain registerations, but also hosting too. Webs is another free place to use. And...don't forget you can use your Blog Blogger as a website too. 

Remember, it all depends what you want from the site, how much work you would like to do with it to get it ranked, seen, and etc. I find along with many others for the time being that redirecting from your website has been easier. You do not have to spend as much time populating it with products. Websites can be great for redirection....to your venues that you use, and to use as a gallery. 

Also, it has been suggested that you should have your domain, and your hosting registrations separately. I agree with this. I use godaddy for my domain registrations, and like it has I can control where it is directed to. I might direct it to a website at one time, and then due to circumstances decide to change it to maybe my blog. Either way, customers and friends keep using the same URL address, and are redirected without any hassle on their part too. 

Hope this has helped some of you with decisions on having your own websites. Remember, they can take some work and time, but how much is up to what you want to put into it, and how you want the site treated too. Good Luck to all of you, and again, if you have any to add to the list, please feel free to suggest them. Happy Hump Day!

LilacsNDreams Blog, Website, Web Presence, Venues, Etc

Hello everyone, and Welcome to LilacsNDreams! I have been kind of busy lately, and not with any new listings like I should be. Or, crafting for my other site, and blog like I should be too. Sorry, and I do apologize for not being the fastest person to get things done. But, I keep working with things as my abilities allow me to, and it does get done. 

I did start crafting a cloche using a glass bowl, plate, and adding my own knob to the bowl to make it a cloche which I hope to maybe have done tonight for my other store, and site to show. What I have done the past 2-3 days is work with websites for LilacsNDreams, but also for PassnItOn too. The sites are free, and of course with that comes some learning curves, and of course as they say You Get What You Paid For. 

A while back I had read someone commenting about their brick & mortar store, how they moved from 1 state to another....I don't remember the business name but she was from CA, and they moved to Ohio I think it was. Anyway, she made the comment she wanted to show that using free things on the internet such as blogs, and websites could be done that you could profit with it. Her idea was free, and no/low cost, and it could be done. Most cost I have had so far is paying for my domains which makes the web addresses easier to remember, and shortens them too. I always kind of hung onto that idea, decided to finally work with it more....maybe because the season of spring is coming, and like many others trying to find a way to be more efficient, and bring it all together. Upon checking with GoDaddy where I get my domains from they had a special for a .net of $9.99 a yr, and for the .com and .co it was $11.99 a yr. But, already have the .com, and the .net intrigued me as that is what I had in mind. So, off I went to get just a yr, try it out, see what happens, and take it from there. Small investment compared to having an actual host, and so on.

I decided this was a good advantage actually as I sometimes will sell with one market place, then I choose another market place, and yet another one gets chosen too. Soon I have more venues than I know what to do with, don't have the time to spend with them like I should, and sometimes after a while I do not see the benefit with the site, and have left it, or hardly use it. Unfortunately, doing something like that makes it hard for customers, or anyone interested to follow with me. Let's face it, I don't mind hopping a little to get to someone myself. But, if it is done too many times it becomes questionable to me, and I start to lose interest myself. So, thinking of that is what helped me decide to work on things a little bit more with my blog, and with some of my own websites. 

Ok, here is what I have done so far. I have a website set up with Google Sites, and just came from GoDaddy getting my .net reserved for the year. My .net I will forward to my Google Website, and in case you are asking about the .com...I have already forwarded that one to here, my blog. I have decided I will still sell with the venues I have chosen, work with them, and saves me the cost of the shopping cart at this time too. But, for any changes, updates, keeping everyone posted about items listed for sale, where I am, links to follow me with or get to me, etc. I am going to keep all that information at my own places. So, for anyone to find me if need be all they have to do is look for my .com which comes to my blog, and my .net which will take them to the Google Site I have been working on. Anything else I do, I have, have worked on for blogs, sites, and so on will always be posted between the 2 places with all the clickable links to take you from there.

Hope this is going to work out as I am planning, and I know it sounds like I am babbling right now. Sorry. Trying to inform you of what I have been doing, my thinking, and hoping it makes sense to you. If not, please do not hesitate to contact me, leave a comment, and etc. 

What I have so far is on the right side you will see the stores, venues, places I am selling with, and the links are clickable in pink too. Follow my tabs at the top of this page, and you can be taken to what is called LilacsNDreams Store.  What I mostly do there is show pictures of items being offered, and what store they are in. For easy ways to reach me, and go straight to places that have links for you I can be reached at http://www.LilacsNDreams.com which brings you to my blog here. If you use http://www.LilacsNDreams.net that will take you to my Google Website I have been working on, showing links there, and setting up pictures for some items being offered on the different venues too. 

Hopefully if I do what I am planning to do, and have started to organize with I can pretty much keep things between these websites, and will not have to go all over to keep everyone updated. Also, hopefully I can make this easier for you my visitors, customers, potential customers, and for those who like to follow:) I like the idea of "I am only a click away"

Thank you all for being patient with me. I so appreciate it, and hopefully it becomes understandable why some days I am around a lot, and other days I have been kind of scarce. Feel free to visit my Website, and please keep in mind, none of it is perfect, and still a working progress, but I have enough done to finally announce it to everyone:)

Thanks for visiting me here, and feel free to ask questions, or leave a comment too. As always have a super day everyone. Till the next time:)

Vintage, Collectibles

 

Hello Everyone! Here it is the first day of March, and hoping we will be seeing more signs of spring with this now too. Snow is starting to melt here, dirty snow, and I can actually see the rear ends of the lighted animated deer that were out for spring. Poor things got snowed in, and have had so much could not get them out. Soon...

Well, I made another sale, and happy that people are coming from outside bonanzle to shop with me. I have advertised, showed my items at a lot of places with social medias, using my blog, google, yahoo, bing, facebook marketplace, and etc. I am thankful I am being seen. I spend a lot of time looking at other blogs, and websites by many I either follow, or find through searches. There are really some nice places to see, visit, view, and etc.

I like junking, love finding old things people put to the side, and picture them being refurbished/repurposed, and etc. Creativity of the mind can make many beautiful things. Soon, real soon I hope to be working on some minor pieces, and then working my way up to bigger & better. Baby steps first. When get a chance, ya'll should visit http://www.robolady.blogspot.com  she shows some really nice things there, and through there you will find her website to visit where you will see even more of the gorgeous things that were done from time gone by, present time, and etc. She shows work of hers, and also shows & mentions work of others too. She had a lot to see, and I spent time looking & getting my creative ideas rolling some what too. Here is her website too if you would like to also stop by there http://www.robomargo.com  You get a chance, give her a visit & view what she has to show. 

Take care & hope everyone had a great Monday March 1st too. :-)