Mystical Beauty’s Musings

Archive for the ‘Websites’ Category

Do you retry your makeup?

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

Do you go back through colors that didn’t work for you a while ago, and see if they work for you now?

I have a pile of lipsticks that may work well with a certain liner, or a certain gloss, but don’t look right on me by themselves.

Every so often I’ll grab one of those and see how it looks by itself.

Oddly enough, some of them look great on me when I try them on, and I can’t remember why I didn’t like them in the first place.

Do you give lippies and other makeup another chance, or do you toss them out on their ears as soon as you decide you don’t like them?

In other news, you’ve probably noticed that I have been having blog problems since Friday, when I tried to upgrade wordpress for the second time.

Can you believe that 2 backups failed, and I had to rely on a backup for the end of May to get the blog working properly?

I did lose some posts, so if you see something that was here and isn’t please let me know, and I’ll see what I can do to repost it.

I think that I’ve rewritten everything that was lost, but the site was crawled during the mess, so I can’t rely on the cache.

I’ll have to try to upgrade it later, so wish me luck so that I can get everything working right, without much downtime.

They do say third times a charm!

Posted in Beauty, Websites | 6 Comments »

Makeup Mondo

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

I ran across a press release for Makeup Mondo this morning, and I’m really glad I did, because I’m always looking for great makeup tutorials.

Makeup Mondo offers free video makeup video lessons by celebrity makeup artists.

I really like how Makeup Mondo shows you color swatches of the colors it uses before they start applying the makeup (my idea of a plummy brown wasn’t the same as theirs), and how it shows you pictures of the brushes they use for the look, before they start applying the makeup.

I’ve only looked at two videos so far - Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Lopez eye looks, but the videos are close enough to the eyes so that you really can see what the makeup artist is doing.

I’ll definitely be back there.

I haven’t signed up yet, so I’m not sure how that process works, but otherwise the site looks great.

Posted in Beauty, Websites, Reviews | No Comments »

Confession Time

Friday, August 18th, 2006

I have a confession…I’m going to become an Arbonne consultant.

My mother in law took me to an Arbonne party about 2 weeks ago - I meant to tell you about it, I really did…

She wants to order some things, so she convinced me to become a consultant so that she could get some products for 30% off.

I live in MN, but if you live in ND you don’t have to pay the $29 fee to join - that’s a great deal.

I’m still going to have to check and see if you get the same stuff in ND.

I’m going to learn how to work the business offline, because I’m interested in learning.

I’m not exactly sure that I will work it offline though.

I am planning on promoting Arbonne online on my sites - it would be irresponsible not too, since I have the websites, and since I have been thinking about adding some ads instead of the adsense ads on the forums.

In fact I have an ebay auction now for 1 month of ad space on Etailers Mall.

Of course I will still have the free ads on Etailers Mall - that’s what the site is all about.

So now you know my secrets.

Oh yeah…unlucky me Josephina has already claimed the Arbonne ad for the cosmetics section of Etailers Mall…and I’m going to leave that up.

I’m not saying that I won’t figure a way to get my stuff in there somehow though

I’m thinking of adding some new options to Etailers Mall, and I need something to test it on.

Posted in Life, Business, Websites, Etailers Mall | 1 Comment »

Sarah’s Suprises goal

Friday, July 21st, 2006

I am setting a new goal for myself to try to post to Sarah’s Suprises at least three times a week - at first I was going to try to post 7 times in the next 7 days, but then I realized that I will be gone Sat, and Sun, so that’s not going to happen.

I was looking around at a website of a person I’ve come to respect from a couple of bath and body groups we’re both in…and I realized that she didn’t have one picture of any of her products on the whole web site.

I know it can be a pain to take and post pictures - shoot, I just started adding them my blogs, but I can’t imagine not having any pictures of your products on a business website.

I wouldn’t buy anything online without seeing it, unless I had a really, really good recomendation from a friend, and I don’t feel comfortable promoting a site without pictures so I can see the products.

Although I am just posting pictures of products I think are unique or interesting, and even though I don’t actually use the product (and I’m not getting paid to advertise the products), I still want to do the best I can to make sure that if I tell you about a site, I want it to have quality products, and a quality site.

If I do tell you about something, and you’ve had a negative experience with it, by all means let me know!

If there are any independent crafters that you know of that you think I should mention, please leave me a comment, email me, or pm me, and let me know!

I’d love to find more small businesses to share with you!

Posted in Life, Websites | No Comments »

Life…Money!

Wednesday, June 21st, 2006

I just renewed my domain registration for Etailers Mall, and Mystical Beauty.

I can’t believe it’s been a year.

When I went to pay the invoices via paypal, I was pleasantly suprised that I only had to pay 44 cents out of pocket.

The rest of the money was already in my paypal account thanks to surveys that I have completed recently.

Although it isn’t a lot of money, I’m so greatful for everything I’ve learned as a result of starting the websites…and as a result of starting my White Lily Candles business.

Although I went into the business knowing full well that I was not a party person - I don’t go to parties, much less see myself doing them, I fully believed Tamra when she told me that I could make a living doing this completely online.

I’ve always been a little too wary of things that can’t hurt me, and not wary enough of things that can.

Thinking back, I’m still not sure if I would change a thing…

I’ve learned so much as a result of White Lily - not from the company, but from myself.

I figured out how to make not one but 4 websites…from scratch - because I needed a place to sell my candles.

I found some great resources for learning how to market items, and how to start your own business or increase your income online, and I decided that I wanted to share that information with others, so I started the Free and Low Cost Business Resources Blog, to help others, like me, who were on a budget.

Because of White Lily Candles I decided to learn more about making candles, and bath and body products.

As a result of that I joined a lot of soap and candle making yahoo groups - and realized that there are so many people out there who make fabulous bath and body products, and candles, but don’t have the money or the presence that large companies have to advertise and get the word out about their business…so it’s harder for them to find customers.

As a result of that I created Etailers Mall, to help small business owners, and people who liked shopping at small businesses, where they can get personalized attention, and products handmade to their specifications, together.

Can you imagine asking Yankee Candles if they could change the color of one of their candles so it would match your decor? You can’t do it.

But with most etailers, you can.

Since I wanted Etailers Mall to be 100% opt in by the etailers - that way we make sure that all of the etailers are actively looking for customers, and are able to take care of the new customers we send their way - I created Sarah’s Suprises, a blog where I can showcase the cool etailers and products that I find, that aren’t listed on Etailers Mall.

I’ve learned so much in the past year - I’ve also figured out how to make money online, and although I haven’t made a lot, I have made enough to cover the cost of the hosting for my websites and then some - and that’s all I had planned to do.

I’ve also realized that it takes time to make money online.

I was so disappointed when I signed up as an affiliate for VMC Satellite and didn’t make any money immediately.

But this year alone we’ve sold 2 satellites (and had a dozen more returned), and made $100. I honestly have no idea where the orders are coming from, since I haven’t actively advertised it anywhere other than on my sites.

But I’ve got two orders pending! And I’m crossing my fingers that they will go through.

The site does allow you to create tracking ID’s now - it didn’t when I first signed up though - I just looked again, and it also has information in Spanish!

VMC Satellite also has several resources to help you get started as an affiliate, and to give you ideas on how and where to market the products.

I haven’t exactly done everything they’ve advised, even when I realize that it’s a valid and reasonable thing to do, so if I haven’t made more money, that’s my fault.

I’ve also found several other methods that have money slowly, slowly trickling in, so hopefully if and when I need a little extra money, I’ll have it.

I know this isn’t a great ending, but it looks like it’s time to go.

I’ve got to finish getting everything ready for the movers to come.

It’s the ending of an era, but I’m ready to start a new life.

Posted in Life, Websites | 1 Comment »