Creators of Nations

Linda from Ruoiled will be blogging on Sundays. Here is her first post:

Happy Mother's Day to all our sisters who read this blog. I want to take a moment to introduce myself; I'm Linda from the shop Ruoiled (Are you oiled). I am excited to share in the writing of this blog on my favorite day of the week, Sunday.

Some would say this is breaking the Sabbath, but I do not consider it work because I am going to stay focused on sharing things that inspire me from church. Today was an interesting day because we just had a missionary return this past week in our ward and we will be sending off another missionary from our ward on Wednesday. The missionary that returned is now a new person. He glows unlike the young man who left here. Before, he was closed and seemed so worldly with his sloppy clothes, unkempt hair, and eyes that seemed empty. Many of the brethren worked hard to get this young man ready to go on his mission. I was doubtful that it would happen, much less last 2 years. But his parents' faith paid off. And he was so beautiful to look at today, in his missionary attire, minus the tag. I know I have learned a lot through witnessing that miracle!

Then began the speakers for Sacrament Meeting. It was so wonderful to hear from the mother of the missionary who will be going, of how the great grandmother's husband was called on a mission in the beginnings of the Church and even though they were struggling that they decided he needed to serve the Lord. Well, that dear brother had an accident befall him on his journey to begin his mission and was killed. The sister was struggling to provide for her small children for they were really poor and lived in a house made of sod. That winter there were holes in the walls that let in the cold and she became very ill with tuberculosis. Well, she heard from her brother who invited her to come take over the home that her parents left behind, but withone condition, that she forsake the Mormon religion. He said he would wait to receive her letter when she had enough of living in poverty. She quickly told him that he would never receive such a letter, that she was committed to the truth found in the Church. A few weeks later she died. Her children were raised by one of the apostles. And now this young missionary was the seventh generation of missionaries from this sister.

Then the father in the talk said this profound sentence: we mothers are creators of nations. That rang deep in my heart. How often do we consider the greatness of our positions as mothers in Zion? I don't know about anyone else, but I struggle to find the time to create items in my Etsy store. I shamefully and humbly admit that I don't always know how to balance my quiver full of children, care for my 80-year-old diabetic father who requires monitoring of his diet and blood sugar and has to be reminded to go to the bathroom, along with the full time job of creating items, a website, videos, conference calls, photographing items, creative writing for the listings, and managing the different social media sites to get the word out. I have faith that I am working a mighty work, connecting Energy Medicine with the scriptures in my blog here on Blogspot, as well as on my website; however, I plan to go forward from this day remembering that these beautiful children are the beginnings of my future nation. 

May all of us mothers find a way to relate our love for the gospel in such a way that it becomes the very nature of our children, that should the Lord call us home before they make it to adults, we will instill in them a determination to be future missionaries and leaders in moving the work of the Lord forward in these latter days.

Hope all who read this blog will feel inspired to make whatever necessary changes they need to make to allow time to cultivate the creation of their future nation is my prayer. 

God Bless,
Linda

Etsy Talk: Cross Linking

Sal from Simply Sal Boutique will be writing on our blog on Fridays. Here is her first post:

I'm so excited! With some help from the friendly people on the Etsy Business Topics Team, I figured out how to cross link my listings and shop home page, and what a difference it makes in getting views from Google.

I know all you Etsy alumni probably know how to do this, but for all us beginners I thought I'd just explain how to do it:

 

1. Decide what other listings you would like to link to your item.
2. Copy and paste their links into your item's listing.

It's that easy-- just copy and paste! I also put a link to my shop home page to make navigation easier.

I did some test Google searches after cross-linking my listings and came up on some search terms that it didn't used to. I had heard of doing this, but never understood the point. Wow-- it makes such a difference. :)

Best Wishes!

Sincerely,
Sal

BNS & BNR Treasuries

Ever wonder what BNS and BNR treasuries are? They are treasuries created by teams (or individuals) in order to promote and sell the members' shop items, though you do not need to be a team member to participate. The idea is to buy something from one of the featured shops in order to be featured in the treasury and then have someone buy something from your shop.

BNS stands for buy and stay, meaning that even if someone buys from your shop you stay featured in the treasury until the round ends, either after a certain number of sales or a time period. Once the BNS closes, all the people who shopped will be featured in the next treasury. (Some are not consecutive, but most are.) If you do not sell, some curators will carry over your shop one or two more rounds.

BNR stands for buy and replace, meaning that you immediately replace the shop you bought from in the treasury. If you are the last one to buy in before the round closes, you usually are featured in the next round since your shop didn't have much feature time. There are also PNRs, promote and replace. Instead of buying in, you promote the featured item.

Be sure to read the rules before buying in! Every curator does it differently. Some you need to call out the shop you want to buy from and wait for the curator's okay (usually for BNRs so that two people don't buy from the same shop since they both can't replace one shop). Some have a minimum amount of money you have to spend to get in, some don't. Some are open for a long time, some for a short time. Most have ways you can earn free spots: being the top promoter, being chosen in a random drawing, winning a trivia game. Also, if you spend a lot of money or buy from certain shops you get featured in more rounds.

Once you buy, you comment with the shop you bought from, the transaction link(s), and the amount spent after coupon, before shipping (ac/bs). Some curators will ask you what item you want featured, some choose it themselves. It doesn't matter, though, because you can buy any item from the featured shops, not just the featured items.

BNS treasuries are great opportunities for multiple sales since you stay in the treasury the entire time. BNR treasuries get more views since the items are constantly changing. Both are great forms of advertising. Even if you don't sell anything, you get more views and hearts. The advantage of BNS/BNRs over other advertising is that you get something for your money, which is like free advertising if you were going to buy an item anyway. Happened to me twice--I was going to buy something from a shop, happened to find them in a BNS later, and then bought it so I could be featured. The other time, I found an item I wanted to buy at a lower price in a BNS.

Also, the featured shops are encouraged to post coupon codes, so you will usually get good discounts. The best time to participate is during holidays and when you need to get a birthday gift. Then you can shop for what you want at a discount and also get featured, a win-win situation. That's how I got all my Mother's Day gifts and two sales!

The best thing about these treasuries is everyone is super friendly and supportive. You make friends and return customers and promoters. Try it out to for yourself. To find a BNS or BNR, seach for "open bns/bnr" under Treasuries or "bns/bnr" under Teams.

If you have any more questions, let me know!

Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Here are some of my favorite Mother's Day gifts from our team:

Print from Wonder Lane Art: Perfect for a from-daughter-to-mother gift. Reminds me of lyrics from a Primary song: "Dear Mother, all flowers remind me of you."

Temple Bracelet from Made by Maggie Mae: A great way to show your mother/wife you value and appreciate her going to the temple. And what woman doesn't love pearls?

Embroidery by Can Do Stitching: Great for the mom who likes to decorate the home with LDS art. Find more sayings in her shop.

Address Stamp from E. Hernandez Designs: Perfect for the mom who's always sending letters or wedding invitations. More designs can be found in the shop.

For more ideas, check out the Mother's Day gifts thread from our team page.

Giveaway Winner!

The winner of the bobby pins giveaway is comment #4 by Ashlee! Congratulations! Thanks, everyone, for the input too. I love the idea of guest posts and non-Etsy topics, but I need volunteers to help me out with the blog!