Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Prototype of New Product Packaging

I'm still not over Google's spanking, but one can only take one's licks and move on. I have followed their instructions by submitting a sitemap, which was very confusing for a non-geek person like myself. But I muddled through the lack of clear, concise documentation and figured out how to use my RSS feed as the sitemap. Blogger doesn't allow for a user-generated XML ... or whatever ... sitemap to be plunked somewhere in the template. I've submitted my blog for reconsideration so now it's a exercise in patience. I've also asked them about the "duplicate title tags" since I don't have a clue how to fix that. Blogger is THEIR product so it should be usable without creating havoc with another of THEIR products.

I did say something about moving on, didn't I? No more mention of PageRank unless or until I've been bailed out of search engine jail.

Today I took the mess you see on my dining room table in the opening photo and turned it into this:



I didn't use the boxed flower components in the first picture because after I opened it up, I realized there wasn't enough for duplication (there's that baaaad word again!). I need to make oodles of these packages so I opted to use cardstock, a couple of punches, and brads of which I have plenty. Not bad, don't you think?

I learned this technique last week when I attended a local stamp club that is run by a talented and creative Stampin' Up demonstrator here in the Plano area. If you'd like her contact information, contact me. She'll humbly tell you that she's just following the directions of other talented and creative people, but she has a gift for teaching.

In her class, we used double-sided paper so that the inside looks as good as the outside, but in the interest of not driving the prices of my handcrafted jewelry too far to the roof, I've opted for one-sided. I couldn't find any that matched my branding image, but I think this is close enough to work for now.

I'm having an open house in my house starting October 11th and continuing until further notice on the second Saturday of every month. If you live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and are interested in coming, drop me a line with your e-mail address and I'll add you to the e-vite list. Just about everyone who I have met personally through the various network events I attend will be getting an invite. I'll be using my new product packaging at the open house ... or I HOPE to that is!

Trying to get people to commit to a home show has been virtually impossible, even with a generous hostess package in the offering. I've asked those I know very well, and those who are in the Mastermind group with me "Why?" and the answer is what I expected. Hostessing is a LOT of work. I know that because I've played hostess myself plenty of times.

So for now, I'll play hostess and invite the fashion jewelry loving women in my circles to come over to my house and play. And the entrepreneurial women are more than welcome to bring their business cards for networking.

24 comments:

Rebecca D. Dillon said...

What gorgeous packaging!

Bruno and Betty said...

Wonderful packaging! Sorry to hear about your google woes.

Kim Caro said...

google shmoogle :)

Anonymous said...

That's beautiful! I wish I lived close...I would love to come.

Anonymous said...

Love the packaging!

Stela said...

That looks soooo good!! Love the product packaging

Anonymous said...

The packaging is a winner, really lovely. The google stuff makes me dizzy though. :-(

Unknown said...

The packaging is great, really cute! I think some of the reasons people are reluctant to host a party is feeling like they are imposing on their friends by inviting them and expecting them to come. And/or the fear that you'll invite a bunch of people and hardly any will show - the dreaded embarrassment of having the salesperson show up and you've only got two people for the "party". I usually have to have like 5 people promise me they're going to come before I even think about hosting a party.

Caroline said...

This packaging is gorgeous.

Designing Hilary said...

Carole brings up another good point about hostessing home parties.

My first Arbonne party, I was afraid that only 4 people were going to attend, and 3 of them had no interest in purchasing, they were coming for the food and company.

I ended with 15! The food I provided was all gone ... all of it ... by the end of the evening and the Arbonne rep had one of her best party results ever.

If the product is a good one, and the hostess just relaxes and ONLY thinks about having a good time, the parties are successful.

Hostesses shouldn't stress. Every one who is selling by way of networking marketing has had a dud or two in terms of sales, but as long as it's treated like a "party" it's still a good time!

I feel another blog topic coming on ... ;o)

Unknown said...

Gorgeous! I really love this!

Better luck with Google in the future.

Vridhi said...

Thanks for the comments you made on my blog...

Infact you have a lovely one too.

Daisy said...

That packaging looks really pretty and classy.

Aroma Fields said...

Beautiful packaging! And I didn't find you through Google :-) I found you through LinkExchange. Nice blog!

Victoria said...

That bag is fantastic.

Wish I lived closer, I'd stop by.

Glitzy Gallery Gal said...

You have been tagged! Check out my blog to see what that means!
www.GlitzyGallery.blogspot.com

High Desert Diva said...

Your packaging looks great. Etsy has a packaging Flickr group you might want to check out:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/etsypackaging/

Anonymous said...

this is really gorgeous

Meg said...

this is soooo pretty!

Anonymous said...

Wow thanks for this post! It is really helpful.. best regards, eric

Anonymous said...

I love the package...looks great.

Anonymous said...

Nice packaging, indeed. Just curious, what is your problem with Google exactly? As far as I can see, your site has been indexed by Google.

Designing Hilary said...

@ Archiver ... thankfully it is indexed. If it wasn't that would mean they banned the site and I could never recover.

But my Page Rank is now an N/A which is the equivalent of a big fat 0. It was a 3. This means the positioning of my pages in keyword searches performed by potential customers is at the bottom of the results pile.

Archiver said...

OK. My experience is, and I know a few geeks that will support me on this one, pagerank and search results do not have a direct relationship.

After reading an earlier post of yours about it, it seems like your problem is duplication of "content", NOT titles. Google dislikes that. Get rid of the dupes by shortening and slightly changing them with a link to the actual full post. Your rank will go up in the next update (hopefully) if you really think you have noticed a drop in the traffic after a lower PR.
Cheers