Coast Chimes Website Update

 Coast Chimes Handcrafted Wind Chime

glass, copper, driftwood, beach stone, brass

There is typically a small lull in activity after the Christmas rush, and I almost always take that as an opportunity to catch up on various tasks, long neglected. This involves restocking (making new stock), and having a look at my website.

This year, I have almost completed a major overhaul of my website, Coast Chimes. I thought it was pretty good, but reading up on 'best practices', I understood that a lot of things needed to be done.

I shrank and standardized all the pictures— a huge job, with nearly a 1000 images. Everything loads faster, and everything looks nicer. So worth it.

I tried, once again (for the hundredth time!), to improve the text / descriptions. I know this will never be a completed job, as nothing is ever perfect. But I improved the writing, and will let it be, until next time.

I deleted my 'sold' collection. Why risk people wandering over there, where there is nothing to buy? And maybe not figuring out how to get back to the available works? And by eliminating that section, I didn't have to work on all those extra pictures and all that extra text, to make it conform to the rest of the revised site. Win, win.

It always feels like a major slog to wade into a website, when you are far from an expert, to fix things. It's rewarding though to manage to make improvements, to clean things up. A great way to start the new year. Hop on over and check it out: Coast Chimes.

Post Christmas Rush Coast Chimes

 

Although it never quite got to this point, sometimes the

Christmas rush felt like this.

For the past few years, Coast Chimes (my wind chime company) has been steadily busy year round. But the month or so before Christmas is crazy busy. Now, with the 2023 Christmas rush over, it's time to breathe and to do essential chores.

The chores include restocking. Everything I do is completely handmade, and takes time to make. I don't have time during the rush season, so stock gets depleted. It is with eagerness that I approach having time to immerse myself in the creative process, and get my hands dirty again. That said, while I will be making a lot of nice, new things, it may be a some time before many of those start to appear on my website (Coast Chimes), and on Etsy. This is because for the next several months we have a grey sky, drooping rotting plants in the garden, and rain-- not ideal for product photographs. Some new creations will appear, but many may wait for bluer skies.

The chores also includes website improvements. I've already speeded the site up somewhat, improved certain under-the-hood features, and generally worked, and will continue to work, to provide a very nice experience for my customers. There is always more to do, but it is a nice site and seems to function well.

Finally, I definitely will take a little more time than usual for myself. All year, everyday, I take an hour (sometimes longer) from each day to hike, bike, or read on the beach. Right now I will enjoy a bit more 'time to breathe' and, just maybe, even take a short holiday.

Thanks very much, all you supporters of handmade quality, enjoyers of art wind chimes. Best wishes for 2024!

Coast Chimes Gallery, Gibsons, BC, Canada

Coast Chimes Gallery
Gibsons, BC, Canada

Having reached a state of serious chaos in my workshop, I decided to do an early clean-up-- something typically reserved until closer to the date of the annual Sunshine Coast Art Crawl, in October. But I really needed to do something about the mess, so why not add more display space at the same time as re-organizing? Pictured above is one of the additions, a new lit zone to show off some of my kaleidoscope works.

Everything in my home gallery is already photographed and available online, so no need to leave your home to order. Visit Coast Chimes to see all the great works available right now.

Handmade at Amazon Blues

I have the Handmade at Amazon Blues

I was so excited to receive an invitation for Handmade at Amazon. Amazon promised millions of potential customers and a strictly handmade site. A dream come true!

I believed Amazon had the expertise, the capital, the client base to do an absolutely brilliant job. My only concern was whether I would have enough time to fill orders and still make things!

Yep, I was one happy thrilled fan of Handmade at Amazon... before it opened.

Several months post launch not so much.

What happened?

First, let me stress that there are apparently many crafters and artists currently experiencing success on Handmade at Amazon. You can read their glee on various forums, and I am happy for them. However there are also many who are becoming disillusioned. Like me.

I don't know why some are so successful while others suffer utter failure, and for a few reasons I am not willing to take any more time to figure it out. Here's why.

I am dumbfounded that one of five primary categories while listing,  'Outdoor and Patio,' does not appear on amy of the main shopping menus. Since this is the category I list in, I believe this is a primary reason my listings are not seen. Invisible. My stats are dismal: far worse than any other site I have ever participated in, including my own little website.

I invested considerable time attempting to improve my visibility, all for naught. Also, creating or editing a listing is painful on Handmade: nightmarish listing templates. I have been on a dozen different sites, and this is by far the most terrible listing and editing experience yet.

Even worse— my pictures show up desaturated; they look awful. I found others were experiencing this too. After emails and phone calls to Handmade at Amazon support, a very nice, knowledgable support person phoned. She acknowledged that my pictures look worse than on other sites where I use the identical images, but she said after talking with Amazon engineers there is nothing Amazon plans to do to improve this issue. For handmade, pictures are what sell. Bad pictures mean low sales, no matter how many people see your work, and even more so when almost no one is seeing the work. Most disheartening.

Finally, the corporate atmosphere (all business, no soul) seems stifling. Something is missing here, from an artist point of view. You are encouraged not to get in touch with customers, you must answer question (even if your shop is on holiday mode) within 24 hours or face penalties, you must ship by the promised time, no excuse,  you must accept all returns (with the exception of custom orders) and pay for the return shipping if you sell internationally (even if the customer just changes their mind). That's all great for the customer, and I always do whatever I can to please my customers, but on Amazon it seems there is always a threat hanging over the seller's head. Of more concern is the way Amazon has 'trained' their customers: a quick look, buy with one click understanding that you can return whatever with no problem, expect your order to arrive instantly. It sounds like some sellers are 'enjoying' numerous returns.

So it turns out that the Handmade at Amazon has not lived up to my high expectations... not even close. Most distressing are the images showing poorly,  the lack of traffic, and the atmosphere.

I do want to say something very positive about Handmade at Amazon:  They have wonderful 24/7 email and telephone seller support. I have never had to wait more than a short time for an email response, and most often I get a telephone call from a knowledgeable pleasant support person. First rate. If only the site was that good!

Another good thing is some of the positive  spin off effects the entire experience has had, benefiting indirectly my Etsy store and my Coast Chimes website. More about that soon.

Although deeply disappointed I am not giving up. A few sales trickle in from those who do somehow manage to stumble across my listings. And I know Amazon is still tinkering. Who knows? Maybe they will fix it. I hope so.

Coast Copper: Canadian Wind Chime Website

Below, part of the homepage for Coast Copper—

a new Canadian website for wind chimes

Coast Copper has a nice selection of my wind chimes. All prices are in Canadian dollars.

It has been too cold here these past several of days for me to go out and do much glass, metal and woodwork. So I used the time to finally get my Canadian website made and launched. It has a great selection of my large wind chimes, and all prices are in Canadian dollars. It is called Coast Copper.

Coverflow Page on Coast Chimes

Click on the image to see it larger

Coverflow presentation of my 15 most recent works.

Visit the Coverflow Page on my website.

Always having my eyes open for ways to improve my website, the Varsis Studio Coverflow plugin for RapidWeaver web design software caught my eye several months ago. But it was not until a new website project came along ( Click Modular ~ innovative modular homes), that I found I could justify the expense-- reasonable as it may be at $14.99.

Since the Click site was really basic, being mostly images, I thought this would add a little intrigue to the site. A way to present pictures without producing yawns.

It's neat, because you can navigate several different ways, and also you can click on the middle image and open a Shadowbox show. Pretty cool.

Now I put the same Coverflow style of page on my own website. I have it linked through a Flickr account, and I plan to upload all my most recent works to that Flickr account. This will thus be a gallery of my 15 most recent works.

Coast Chimes Sale Page, Introducing

This Weeks Featured Sale Item
a beach glass inspired kaleidoscope wind chime
five copper chimes with a beach stone clapper
Coast Chimes Sale Page ~ Click Here

I've decided to add a sale page to my website.

After pondering this, I decided it would be fun to pull something different each week from my other pages, and have the sale run for just one week. If it sells, no more sale until the next week, and if it does not sell it goes back into my regular stock at the non-sale price, and I replace it with a new piece.

At least for this time of year, when I actually have considerable trouble keeping up with demand at my usual prices, I won't be discounting a very large percentage. But, hey, every little bit helps, right?

And even though it is a sale item, I will still be including a complimentary set of my cold forged copper earrings. People often email how much they love these earrings.

So why not check out this week's sale?