The Holidays Are Coming!

With Halloween over, we have bigger holidays to look forward to. I'm super excited about Christmas. Our daughter was less than a month old last year on Christmas, so she really didn't get anything out of it. But this year, she's at least old enough to understand the concept of new toys to play with!

Sad thing is... Our tree is still up. Yes, you read that right. We really don't have room in our small town home for a full size tree, so we got one of those small trees about 3 feet high, decorated it with lights and small ornaments and then put it on an end table. It's been there ever since. I tried putting it away a few weeks after Christmas. Hailey was still a new born at the time, so I had little time to fuss with things like that. Once I gave in and tried to put it away, I realized I would never get it back in its box the way it came and soon gave up the battle! I guess at least this means less work for this year! (Hey, at least we took down the actual Christmas lights in the window!)

I'm gearing up for the holidays in my store. I'm super excited about it. I already ordered a Christmas shirt I designed for Hailey. I plan on ordering me one as well (or maybe the Definitely Naughty one instead). You check check those out here: Definitely Nice and Definitely Naughty. I love them.. I just haven't decided which one I want!


We're getting Hailey's birthday pictures done in a few weeks, and her Christmas pictures as well. I plan on designing some custom Christmas cards to send out to the family. That way, everyone can get a precious keepsake in the form of a card and everyone can have an updated picture of Hailey. I simply cannot afford to purchase that many pictures and gifts for such a large family! So, this will kill two birds with one stone. If you like this idea, message me at KimisKustoms@yahoo.com and I will be more than happy to design some holiday cards for you - whatever you'd like. I know how tight money gets around the holidays trying to cater to everyone!

What are you doing for the holidays this year? Leave a comment!

Labels: advertising, babies, cafe press, cafepress, christmas, clothes, family, gifts, Hailey, Kimi, marketing, money, parenting, pictures, stores

So Much Going On!

I'm so excited that the price changer on CafePress is fixed! I'm on a roll with new designs and hopefully I can manage a bunch more before the holiday rush!

This next design, I think I'm gonna buy for my daughter Hailey in the form of a Toddler Tee. It reads My Mommy Says I'm Messy. I Say I'm Artistic! It comes in five different colors - pink, blue, green, purple and orange. I can of course add more if you'd like it in a different color. It's super cute and features a messy splat in the background.





I have seen this joke time and time again and just had to have a shirt for it. I wanted it to encompass all military because I believe all military is equally important (and should be equally loved and supported). The shirt reads I Love Messing With Government Property. Proud Military Supporter. It features text in both light green and light grey. It makes a great shirt for anyone in your family, no matter what military branch you support!






With my husband going through the Medical Board process, I will soon no longer be an Army wife. It's bittersweet really. But, once an Army wife - ALWAYS an Army wife, as they say. So, I made this shirt! I'll probably make different versions of it later, but for now this design feature bright pink (almost neon) text with the Army star symbol in the corner. It's both vibrant and fresh! Check out the Retired Army Wife shirt and gifts!

Labels: advertising, army, cafe press, cafepress, clothes, family, funny, gifts, kids, military, parenting, shopping, stores

Booty Bay Bait and Tackle World of Warcraft Shirt!

This design is fueled by my husband's love of fishing on World of Warcraft. He drives me absolutely insane with it and fusses at me to level my fishing (and I think fishing is so boring lol).

He loves fishing on the game so much, that he had to have the special fishing chair so he could sit in it and fish on the game. He fishes all the dang time. Every Sunday, he has to participate in the fishing tournament in Booty Bay. He's 512 fishing with all of his specialized fishing gear on. Yes.. he's obsessed!

I like this shirt. The little fish is cute! I especially like it on the shirt type shown to the right. I think it flows well with the color. It's offered on all of the shirts and many of the gifts like tote bags, magnets, buttons, mini buttons, tile coasters and much more. Definitely check it out HERE!

Labels: bait, cafe press, cafepress, clothes, fishing, shopping, stores, tackle, women, world of warcraft

Back In Business!

The CafePress gods have finally smiled upon us and the Store wide Price changer is FINALLY fixed. It's a little wonky, but as long as it works..I'm THRILLED! I cannot believe how long it took them to fix it. I've been waiting since September 13th! Argh! I can finally start adding to the store again. It just wasn't worth it to do all of that dang work and none of the prices be right.

In light of things finally being fixed, I'm doing some hard core promoting of BOTH stores.

www.kimiskustoms.com
Kimi's Kustoms Family Store
Kimi's Kustoms Adult Store

Here are the cut off dates for ordering your Halloween stuff!


Be sure to check out our great selection of Halloween shirts and especially our tote bags - perfect for your first time trick or treaters!

Labels: advertising, cafe press, cafepress, clothes, commission junction, costumes, first halloween, halloween, holidays, kids, Kimi, marketing, money, Online, shirts, shopping, stores

Removed The CBox

I removed the CBox. The drama is absolutely ridiculous and far from warranted. I don't even know the woman who was posting the derogatory comments. I had never been to her store prior to her little messages. I'm not sure what she thinks I did to her, nor do I really care since I obviously don't know her or have anything to do with her.

If someone has an issue with my store, my email is up for grabs. Go for it. You can spam my email box all day if you'd like. I'd much rather a person do that than go to the length of even trying to IMPERSONATE me in my own store and make snotty comments using the name "Kimi" to try to make me look bad.

Grow up.. seriously. I am 22 years old and far, far from the high school setting. I'm a wife and mother...not some 15 year old girl who stole your boyfriend. I run a business - one that I take seriously and to heart. I'm in no way looking to compete with anyone. I stick to my store, I do my own thing and I make good sales.

There are only TWO military shirts I have ever sold from my store. One of them is seen in the gallery, the other is a shirt no one else in the marketplace has. I know this for a fact. And if anyone has it now, it's because they copied me. Do I care? Not really. I hope they sell just as many of them as I do. My store is far more than military, yet it's the military niche stores that have such an issue with me. Maybe if y'all spent less time digging through each other's stores to see who has what and what might be a knock off of your own stuff, you'd have more time to devote to making new stuff and you might sell more.

I've learned that having a CafePress store doesn't mean competing with other shops. It doesn't mean that at all. It's about marketing and getting your name and brand out there. That's the key to this sort of business. So spend more time worrying about yourselves and less time worrying about what I'm doing today. And stop coming to my store every hour...I have 3 different traffic meters and I see you digging around constantly. Get over yourself.

Labels: adult, army, blogging, cafe press, cafepress, funny, Kimi, military, shirts, shopping, stores

New Store: Kimi's Kustoms - ADULT

How bizarre that I haven't really announced this "officially" yet, and already people are flocking to our new store - Kimi's Kustoms - ADULT

I know what you're thinking... "But Kimi, I thought you weren't going to open that until next year?" Well, I wasn't. But through some poking, prodding, encouragement and some down right begging, I finally caved and said "Oh well..why not?" So, the adult store is open and has gained popularity through very little work.

But what I can't figure out is how search engines have it indexed already. I mean, that usually takes at least a few days, if not longer. I did upload my items to Froogle, but I don't know how people are finding my store so easily. I thought I was looking at the wrong traffic report, but I triple checked (I thought I was losing my mind) and I'm not.

Either way, I'm excited for this stores overnight popularity (wouldn't it have been funny if I managed a sale already? lol). It was much easier to set up than Kimi's Kustoms - FAMILY. Maybe it was because I had a very specific niche in mind that took me ages to figure out with the Family store. Or maybe it's simply because I know what I'm doing this time.

My next step is to somehow integrate the new store into my stand alone site www.kimiskustoms.com although how, I'm not real sure yet. I went in last night and at least linked the two stores together as sister sites, but the main website and blog both need some sort of integrated look. I'm thinking of making a Shop Family / Shop Adult button for my website. I dunno.. we'll see. It'll happen today - and that's all I know!

Labels: adult, advertising, affiliates, cafe press, cafepress, clothes, funny, gifts, goals, kids, life, marketing, money, shopping, stores

Google Is Starting To Like Us!

Thanks to some halfway decent search engine optimization on my part, and some excellent website crawling by the beloved Google, the store has finally climbed up in the search ranks! This excites me! I finally feel like I did something right and that my hard work is starting to pay off.

This makes me REALLY excited for the coming months when the holiday sales begin to pick up, and shoppers go out in search of that perfect gift for the person who has everything. Let's face it.. the person who has everything, probably doesn't have one of my shirts yet!

I'd like to thank the viewers who have been searching for World of Warcraft shirts recently. You brought this wonderful news to my attention (well, you and Google Analytics). This inspires me to create more WoW inspired designs!

world of warcraft baby onesies and shirts
wow epic cloth shirt

Those two searches have helped bring us to the top of the lists! And we're excited to be there! Help keep us there by telling your friends and family about us! Blog about us..write emails, tell people on MySpace..anything you can! We'll be forever grateful! :)

Labels: cafe press, clothes, gamers, google, marketing, search engine optimization, shirts, shopping, stores, world of warcraft

The Switch To Blogger

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, but I have switched from WordPress, back to Blogger.

I started out on Blogger, but was unimpressed with their scrawny templates (and still am). I made the switch to WordPress because I liked their templates better as they had a wider range of styles and colors...and I was able to choose a template that mimicked my store's theme. However, when it came time that I wanted to change the layout to look exactly like the store and fully integrate everything, WordPress fell short as it costs money to be able to edit style sheets. No thanks. I am not paying money to do work! lol

I took the time to copy all of the blogs I have written since the temporary switch and posted them. The dates are all wrong, but at least they are there. It took me ages, but I finally changed this blog to look almost exactly like my website www.kimiskustoms.com although it'll never be perfect. I'm quite happy..and now it's easier than ever to go from my blogs, straight to my store - making it easier on you as a potential customer and better for me as a saleswoman. WinX2!

Labels: blogger, blogging, html, navigation, stores, word press

Squidoo.com

I've been a hardcore blogger for about three years now. I love writing everything down, but cannot stand actually writing! My blogs are all mushed together about different subjects in my life. I usually write about me, my daughter, my husband or my store..so they are all pretty personalized, instead of the whole blog sticking to one subject (What can I say? I'm a diverse person!)

It didn't take long being a CafePress shopkeeper to find out about Squidoo Lenses. It's sort of like a blog, but each topic is called a Lens. In each Lens, you generally talk about one thing (although I suppose you could treat it like a blog if you really wanted to). On top of discussing a subject or telling a story, you can use different modules / widgets to sell items from places like CafePress, EBay, Amazon, etc. And the best part? You can get PAID doing this! How awesome is that!?

I wish I had more time to devote to them. I have a few at the moment and will be writing many more of them. My most popular Squidoo Lens right now is the one I wrote about getting my nipples pierced. Yes, you read that right! You can check that one out here if you are interested Squidoo Lens: Nipple Piercings. Don't open with little eyes around (especially little eyes that can read).

Interested in making a Lens of your own? Great! You can sign up here: Join Squidoo! I promise it's worth your time, and it's fun!

If you would like to check out all of our Lenses, you can go here: Kimi's Kustoms Squidoo Lenses. If you sign up and check these out, please be sure to leave us some comments on your favorite Lenses, and throw us some rating stars! We hope you come to love Squidoo as much as we do!

Labels: advertising, cafe press, cafepress, family, marketing, money, shopping, squidoo, stores

Christmas Cards!

Wow.. can you believe we're gearing up for Christmas already!? Well, I have to start now, or other stores are going to leave me in the dust this holiday season! As of today, there are only 108 days until Christmas! Yikes!

I've slowly been adding Christmas cards to the store. You can find them here in the Winter Cards Section. We don't just have Christmas - we have Hanukkah and even some more general winter cards as well! Here are some of my favorites!

Labels: cafe press, cafepress, christmas, family, gifts, holidays, shopping, stores, Uncategorized, winter

Stand Alone Site - Completed!

Finally, after hours upon hours of hard work, I have completed the stand alone site www.kimiskustoms.com! It was an amazing amount of work. I've never done a full website before and I have to say, all of the FTP, SQL, SOB, SHOL, Blah Blah Blah was incredibly confusing for me. I've never gone to school for this sort of thing so the acronyms and terminology really threw me off. Like my friend Chris says, nerds like to use big words and flashy acronyms to look cool and smart. Well, they certainly got me stumped for a while.

It feels really good to have all of it done, and I think it looks pretty nice. I tried to incorporate the design into both the store and the stand alone site so people don't even realize they are going from one place to another. I think it flows well. Of course, my opinion doesn't really matter. We'll have to see what the customers (and Google!) think of it. Ha!

Labels: affiliates, cafe press, cafepress, commission junction, shopping, stores

Store Affiliates

I'm super excited to see how many other CafePress stores are suddenly linking my products. I use Google Analytics and have been noticing a little more traffic lately. Upon digging through my reports, I notice that there are a few stores linking to my stuff (BIG stores, who I never thought would use my designs for affiliate linking). I'm not sure why they chose me, but that's great! I hope we both make money off of it. :)

If you are interested in become a Kimi's Kustoms Affiliate, follow these steps!

Directions:

1. Bookmark Kimi's Kustoms so you can find your way back easily.

2. Follow this link and review the agreement terms --> Publisher Sign Up.

3. Fill Out the online application.

4. Wait for Commission Junction to send you a confirmation email.

5. Head to www.cj.com and log in (the log in area is to you top right.

6. Click on "Account" then "Web site Settings" and copy your PID number for your website. (it will be located beneath "name")

7. If there are no listed websites, click 'Add A New Web Site', fill out the information for the site that will be displaying the banner advertising (such as your personal website). A New PID number will be issued to you. Once you retreive the PID number write it down somwhere some you won't lose it.

8. Come back to Kimi's Kustoms and select your favorite banner to place wherever you'd like where advertising is allowed! Note: Replace the “XXXXXXX” with your pid number.

9. Enjoy your commission!

Choose a Banner Style:




<a href="http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-XXXXXXX-10463747url=http://www.cafepress.com/kimiskustoms"><img src="http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w199/MrsKimiT/KimiKustoms/KKVertBanner.gif" border="0"><br> </a>





<a href="http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-XXXXXXX-10463747url=http://www.cafepress.com/kimiskustoms"><img src="http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w199/MrsKimiT/KimiKustoms/KimiKustomsBlueBanner1.gif" border="0"><br> </a>

Labels: affiliates, cafe press, commission junction, shopping, stores