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My Etsy Story (or how I became a jewelry designer)

The charmed design 1012 line came into being as something constructive and positive to do while I recovered from a sudden and life threatening illness.

Two years ago, I woke to find myself in an intensive care unit with absolutely no knowledge of how I got there. I learned that I had become ill from an infection that was a side effect of a routine tooth extraction. I came very close to dying, had several life saving surgeries, and am blessed to be here today.

Though the illness caused me to lose my job, home, and life as I knew it, surviving such a near death experience has made me feel and believe that I am indeed - CHARMED. Hence my name, Charmed Design 1012.

one of my first bracelets

After a month or two of creating, I had a pile of pretty bracelets and, after encouragement from my very supportive family, decided to open up shop on Etsy.com. My shop has been open a year now and is enjoying growing success. I also sell my jewelry in boutiques and galleries throughout the US.

Out of tragedy has come something beautiful. I have a career that I love and I am getting healthier by the day.  My jewelry reflects my experience and love for life. I share this by exploring the fascinating world of symbols that have traditionally surrounded and directed us.  Each piece is designed to be full of meaning and beautifully unique. My jewelry is all about feeling good and looking gorgeous.


Visit my Etsy shop HERE.

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The Meaning Of: OM

If you have looked at my jewelry, you already know that I create pieces that have meaning and spirit. I thought it would be great to elaborate on the meaning of my favorite signs and symbols. Today, it is the Om symbol.

  Om is not a word but rather an intonation, a mantra used in prayer. It is made up of three Sanskrit letters, aa, au and ma which, when combined together, make the sound Aum or Om.

According to Eastern philosophy, it is the sound  that was made when all of creation came into existence.

 There is harmony, peace and bliss in this simple but deeply philosophical sound.  If repeated with the correct intonation, it can resonate throughout the body so that the sound penetrates to the centre of one's being, the atman or soul.

Wearing an ‘OM’ charm is said to bring  luck, harmony, and peace to those who wear it.  The Om sign helps to enhance the very essence of one’s life.

You can view my designs with the Om symbol here.

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Why No Posts Lately?

I have not been able to write any blog posts recently as I have been ill. I was in the hospital for over a week, had surgery, and am now recuperating. Hope to be back to blogging soon!

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Dead Simple Way To Track Your Etsy Sales (and more)

If you're not already familiar with Metricly, let me introduce you. Metricly helps small businesses and startups create easy-to-use dashboards to track their key metrics and better understand their business.Metricly aggregates your metrics from all across the web in one place, then graphs that information in a format even I can understand....which is saying a lot.

Metricly will connect to your Etsy data and provide you with real time sales data, customer information, and much more giving you tools to improve your sales. They even send you a weekly email with updated metrics. When you connect your Etsy shop, several graphs are automatically prepoluated with data such as total sales, item sold, average sales price, favorites and feedback, sales by state, and my favorite - sales by new and repeat customers. Dead simple.

In addition to Etsy, Metricly will also connect to your Facebook, Twitter, Google Analytics and more. One of my favorite Twitter metrics is a graph that charts the reach of my retweets and mentions. I think it is so neat to see how many people are exposed to my name or one of my tweets.


Nowhere else will you find all of this data in one place in such an easy to use interface. In addition to the graphs and dashboards automatically generated when you connect a source, Metricly makes it easy to create your own custom graphs. With a glance, you can see for instance how your Twitter and Facebook compare and relate.


Another great feature of Metricly is that links to stories and articles that are related to your graphs are provided to you. An excellent learning resource.


I almost forgot to mention, Metricly is free. F-R-E-E. We all love free, right?
http://metricly.com/

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Make Your Email Signature Stand Out From The Crowd

How lengthy is your email signature? If you are like me, you don't want to leave anything out: your store address, website address, facebook, twitter, blog, etc....This is important information, right?

The end result is line after line of links. Let's be honest with ourselves, all these links look horrible.  Take a look at my old signature below. Who is going to take the time to pay any attention to this mess?

Lori Cohn

Charmed Design 1012

Shop: www.charmeddesign1012.etsy.com

          www.charmeddesign1012.artfire.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/charmeddesign1012

Website: www.charmeddesign1012.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/charmed1012

Now, take a look at my new signature:

Pretty awesome, right? I love my email signature now, courtesy of WiseStamp. WiseStamp is a program available on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox that allows you to custom design your email signature with a ton of different options. 

Custom design multiple signatures using different fonts, templates, logos, and more. You can easily add your social links and profiles with the clean, modern icons you see above. And they even have one for your Etsy shop!

WiseStamp has several email apps to enhance your email signature and bring it to life. For instance,  there is a Twitter app that shares your latest tweet, and a Stumbleupon app that shows recent pages you have stumbled and allows others to Stumble or follow you.  There are several other apps  which include sharing music, supporting the causes you care about, sharing your latest bookmark, and others with more to come.

Follow the link below to install WiseStamp. I would love to see what you do with your email signature! Send me an email at charmed1012@gmail.com to show it off!

http://www.wisestamp.com/

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Target Your Customers Using Facebook Insights

You know that little box on the left of your fanpage, below your information and above your friends, that says 'Insights'? And underneath it shows you information like your monthly active users, daily new likes, and more?

If you just nodded (and if you didn't, still read on) I have another question - Have you ever clicked 'See All'? If not, it is well worth taking a look at. The information Facebook gives you here can be invaluable.

Facebook breaks the data into two sections: Users and Interactions, on the left side of the page.

The User data includes Daily Likes and (ugh) Unlikes. Further down are demographics based on gender, age, country, city, and language. You can use this information to strategically create posts that appeal to your largest markets. See what I meant about invaluable?

The Interactions page shows you Daily Story Feedback which includes Daily comments, Daily Likes, and (ugh, again) Daily Unsubscribes.  It also lists your most current posts with the number of impressions and percentage of feedback.

Most of us interact on Facebook several times a week, daily, or even more frequently. This information truly gives us insight into those interactions and can truly impact how we communicate with those that are most interested in what we have to say. Have a look, do you know your target customers or does what you see surprise you?

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Silk Ribbon Bracelet Giveaway

Enter now through January 2nd for your chance to win this gorgeous silk ribbon wrap bracelet. Visit:
http://www.pinkdandychatter.com/2010/12/holiday-gift-guide-giveaway-silk-ribbon.html

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