Spring 2014 Shower Cap Collection

In anticipation of spring, I'm debuting my Retro Revival Spring 2014 Shower Cap collection...

 

 

14 new fabrics!

 

New dot patterns, florals, and whimsical designs ~ Russian dolls, lipsticks, and mermaids ~ fabric options to suit just about every style!  Pop on over to my Etsy shop to get more information on these bathing beauties.

I Guess I HAVE to Mow

Sewing, sewing, sewing to the exclusion of everything else!

Look closely.  Can you spot Twyla?

I've been neglecting the farm!  Poor Twyla's just about disappearing ~ ha!

Despite the unrelenting heat and humidity I'm heading out to cut the grass.  Hope all of you are managing to beat the heat and staying comfortable and cool!

Important Reminder!  This is my last July post and chance to remind you about my AWESOME blog giveaway ~ over $200 in Retro Revival products and J&O Fabrics gift cards!  Click HERE for entry info.

If you don't care to enter, please take a moment to vote for a couple of my customers who have entered, including Charity...

(Modeling her Retro Revival Caps for Locs in "Animal Instinct Pink")

...and Paula

(Modeling her Retro Revival 1950's Style "Spring Leaves")

...and Tracy (well, that's her hubbs modeling her Retro Revival vintage tablecloth apron!)

(Modeling Retro Revival's "Peace Hope Joy" Vintage Tablecloth apron)

To vote for them, simply go to J&O's facebook page, click on Photos (left side of the page), then scroll down a tad and click on their pictures to open them up and then click "Like."  When you've clicked "Like," you've voted ~ easy peasy!

Good luck ladies!  And THANK YOU for voting ~ you've helped make this giveaway super fun!

 

Retro Revival Shower Caps Adorn Hollywood Heads!

So a couple of weeks ago I received the most exciting phone call.  Mindy Weiss's (Hollywood's go-to wedding and party planner with a client list including Eva Longoria, Ellen Degeneres, Heidi Klum, Gwen Stefani, Brad Paisley, Jennifer Lopez, Brooke Shields, Pink, Sting, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Reba McIntyre and Wolfgang Puck) assistant called me to ask if I could custom make some shower caps for a bridal shower they were planning.  Eke!

Of course I said YES!  This was about 5:00 p.m. on a Monday and they needed them in their Beverly Hills office by Friday morning!  Yikes!

I immediately set about sewing.  Hardly slept for two nights straight and sewed non-stop.  Literally, the fabric was aflyin!  As I frantically sewed, I kept day dreaming, wondering what celeb might be wearing one of my Retro Revival shower caps!  Yes, I was a bit delirious by Thursday morning ~ ha!  But I finished, 32 shower caps, all adorned with a faux diamond ring:

I packaged them all up and headed straight to FedEx.  Friday I received a very sweet message from Mindy's assistant saying they loved the caps.  Weeee!

A couple of days ago, Mindy blogged about the bridal shower (you can read it by clicking HERE) and included these pictures.  They placed a candle inside each shower cap and cinched them with a bow:

Hoping Mindy's order and her blog will lead to more shower cap sales!  A couple of my friends have teased that I should get Mindy to plan my daughter's wedding ~ ha!  I'd need a bazillion more shower cap orders to make that happen!

July's quickly coming to a close so if you haven't already, please click here to enter this month's blog giveaway ~ over $200 in Retro Revival products plus J&O Fabrics gift cards!

Retro Revival Made it to Page One on Google!

*September BLOG GIVEAWAY near the end of this post - woo hoo!*
Well, it took about one year, but FINALLY!  Retro Revival is showing on PAGE ONE of Google!  In fact, as of today, it's Google's first suggestion - yay!

Retro Revival also appears on page one of Google when you type, "retro apron." And when you search Google for "women's shower cap," Retro Revival appears twice on page one!

When I began my online business I knew z-i-l-c-h about online marketing, search engine optimization and had no idea how competitive the apron market is!  In order to successfully grow my business I had to quickly learn the ins and outs of web marketing.  Seesh, it's been a challenge!

I've had several people ask me exactly how I made this happen and thought why not write about it here?  I'm certainly not an expert but hope that these ideas and tips will help you!

The three paramount things I've learned are:

1. Post, list and write often and on as many sites as possible
2. Learn what key words and phrases apply to your area of expertise or business and use them
3. See #1 and #2 and keep doing it!  If you don't you'll drop off Google's radar.

These three things are important because, in a nut shell, the more often and more places your products appear with the right words, the better your chances of Google finding you and moving you up on their suggestion list.  Here are a few specific actions help you achieve #1 and #2 (in no particular order):

1. Begin writing a blog. It's free, fun and a great way to reach your target audience with your thoughts and offerings on relevant topics (in my case, content that is balanced between retro-inspired things and my business).
2. Encourage readers and followers of your blog to leave comments.  Google sees this activity and it'll help your ranking with them.  *Hint, hint*  Please leave comments when you visit me here - it REALLY helps my ranking, takes just a moment and it makes me happy to hear what you have to say!
3. Sign up for Blog Grader.  It's free, very easy to use and provides you with valuable information on how to get noticed on the web.
4. Post new products online.  At least once every week I post new products on my website RetroRevival, on my Etsy Shop, and eBay (search for 'retro apron' and 'women's shower cap' and you should find my items).  Through trial and error I've learned that posting new products at regular intervals, rather than many at once, is most effective since Google crawls the web periodically and they want to see new activity (if you post 10 new products on a Monday and Google searches for you on Tuesday, they may not see your 10 items).
5. Learn about how Google works by doing some online research and consider buying a book like Starting an Online Business for Dummies.  I learned a TON from reading this book!
6. Read and follow other blogs with relevant topics and leave comments which are also noticed by Google and sometimes, by other readers who will click on your comments and link back to your blog or online store.  Yes, it's one, giagantic circle of web/blog love!
7. Blog about other creative people (and they may blog about you) and their products that relate to your business or blog.  Doing this not only helps other people, it may lead to their fans and followers checking out your online store and blog.
8. Do a blog giveaway.  Not only does Google look for these but others do to and they, in turn, blog about them which leads to more readers to your blog and more visitors (and hopefully buyers) to your online store.
9. Become an "expert" and write about whatever your passion is on other sites such as Hub Pages, a free website full of information on just about everything!
10. Learn what meta tags are (similar to newspaper and magazine headlines, they help online readers and website crawlers, like Google, find content such as your business or blog) and how to choose the right words to use on your website or blog.  Check out Word Tracker, a site where you can type in the keywords or phrases you're interested in and they'll show you how many people searched for those words and phrases.  You'll quickly learn the best words to use to get the most people to find your site.

There are bah-zillions of suggestions and tips for increasing your online presense and I could go on and on, but I wanted to keep this post as short and as succinct as possible.

To help you further I found another great book - Country Living's Crafting a Business Make Money Doing What You Love!

For my September blog giveaway, I'm giving one of my followers this fabulous book that's filled with inspiration and practical advice for turning your creative passion into your livelihood.  To win...

Become a follower of this blog (if you aren't already)

Leave a comment on one of my September blogs

For an extra 5 entries, be sure to speicifically comment about your blogging expertise, leave a tip, share a helpful suggestion or anything to help my readers grow their blog readership and/or their business.

I will randomly draw the winner on September 30th.

Good luck!