Referral Contest

I'm doing a surprise giveaway for my fans! The contest starts now and ends March 31, 2012.

I need your help telling your fans, friends, and family about Bum Luxury!

Here are some ideas:

1. Go to your Facebook personal profile, Facebook fan page, Twitter, and/or blog and post asking them to become a fan of Bum Luxury.

2. Tag our page @BumLuxury (or you can use our link http://www.facebook.com/BumLuxury)

3. Tell them what you love about being our fan.

4. Mention a product we sell that you love.

5. Then post a comment below letting us know you are participating and where you posted (Facebook profile, your fan page, blog, Twitter, etc.)

Contest Rules:

A minimum of 5 referred friends are required to win. They will need to fill out this document with your name.

FREE USA shipping. An International winner will need to pay shipping.

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

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Website Woes: Social Media and SEO

When I first began Bum Luxury, I was pretty clueless when it comes to websites-hosts, domains, SEO, HTML, ecommerce, etc. Trying to figure out what I was doing was like reading a manual in a foreign language. Ten months later and I'm still learning, but fortunately have figured a few things out along the way. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/byronshell/

As an e-commerce site, a website where customers can buy merchandise, I need to make sure customers can find me. It's not like everyone is going to know that a new website, www.bumluxury.com, was created and come flocking to it overnight. I wish it were that easy. 

Because the market is saturated with cloth diaper companies, I have to create a unique SEO, or search engine optimization, for my page to get customers to find me. It took awhile just to get my website to pop up on the first page when I searched for Bum Luxury in Google. I still have a long ways to go to get to page one when you type in cloth diapers or any of the brands I carry.

Since I'm just starting out and have limited funds, I am doing much of the work on my own. One reason I started this blog was to help with my SEO. The more I have a presence on the web, the higher my SEO becomes. Creating unique blog posts to help consumers learn about and understand best practices when it comes to using cloth helps the internet realize that my site is relevant when people search for cloth diapers. 

One of the biggest social media outlets of course is Facebook. Search engine optimization is becoming more and more intricate and taking into account a businesses online presence, not just on their particular website, but on social media sites as well. Now, I can't be on every site and interact with everyone, so I am using Facebook as my top social media site for now. Luckily, it links easily to Twitter, so I have killed two birds with one stone. My blog automatically posts to Facebook using Networked Blogs, so that saves me time as well.

When you first create a page on Facebook, the only fan is you. Bummer. It takes time and energy to gain fans and keep them. Search engine optimization and Facebook work together and build your business. By increasing your fan base, you increase your SEO. The more fans you have, the higher number of people will see your posts, interact with your page, share your content, and hopefully become fans themselves. 

This article shows the various social media users and where businesses should focus their energy. Would you be surprised to know that most consumers prefer Facebook? If so, I would guess you're not a big social media user and therefore, would be very surprised if you were reading this blog!

The internet is genius when helping businesses track and analyze their customer base. I can find how and where people came to my page from, what they are looking at, if they shared my posts, etc. from analytics and insights. It's fantastic! I use this information to learn where my focus should be and to hopefully increase my customer base. 

I don't think that figuring out the internet will be an easier as years progress, but I hope that I can learn as I go-like my own kind of on the job training! 

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1000 Facebook Fan Giveaway: ScrappinCntry Memories

As moms, we all love to keep memories of our children in cute little books, but it's not always practical to have the time and energy to create page after page in a scrapbook. At least not for me!

Introducing ScrappinCntry Memories by Dawne!  Among other things, she creates custom transparencies to add to your scrapbooks for easy layouts. She has twenty nine transparencies to choose from so far. Just like back in school, they are overhead transparencies and come on an 8.5x11 sheet. These transparencies can then be attached to any 12x12 sheet of scrapbooking paper to create a layout in less than 5 minutes. Just add some embellishments and your done!

Here are a few examples of layouts you can achieve from these transparencies:

You can win five transparencies by entering this giveaway. If you don't want to wait to try these out or you didn't win, check out Ebay for more pictures and immediate purchase.

1000 Facebook Fan Giveaway: Cloth and Accessories from WAHMs

I love to work with other small businesses and there's nothing better than your fellow work at home mom (WAHM) that loves cloth as much as you do! Or as much as I do...Check out these three awesome sponsors and their prizes for Bum Luxury's 1000 Facebook Fan Giveaway!

Balls Everywhere with Molli

In addition to being mommy to thirteen month old named Jack, I am a biology and agriculture teacher in a small high school.  I'm also an Army Reservist.  I recently finished my master's degree, and I guess I thought I should find something to fill up all that free time!  My husband makes most of the balls (good excuse to sit on the couch :) ), and I do the marketing and shipping.

Enter the giveaway, or check out Balls Everywhere Facebook page if you want to purchase from her directly. 

Bending the Rules

When it comes to business, many people will do anything for a sale. 

Stay at home moms that want to be able to be at home with their children often will begin a home based business in today's world of party planners and online shopping. Most cloth diaper retailers are parents like myself. I chose to start a business because I'm passionate about my products and I love meeting new people and helping others choose a greener lifestyle. 

I have learned a lot in the past 6 months of owning Bum Luxury. First, it's not nearly as simple as one might think to have an online store. Second, I can't be everything to everyone. I have a lot of work to do to make my way to the top so I need to focus on what's important to me. Is it the cheapest price, best customer service, largest selection, etc.? To me, customer service is the most important. Like I've said in the past, I'm a cheapskate, but I would rather pay for great service than get a deal from someone who knows nothing about the product or could care less about me as a customer. 

Also, in the world of retail, there are MSRPs: Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price. I have to sign a contract that says I will maintain MSRP and can only have sales at a maximum percentage off. Advertised sales must also be approved by the manufacturer. I can always mark the product up, but to keep the product at a fair market value, retailers are all on the same page. 

In the last six months, I've only come across three people that are obviously marking products below MSRP to gain a sale. Not too bad when you consider how many people sell cloth diapers. The first time, I nicely emailed the girl and let her know that she was breaking the manufacturer's contract. This was on Facebook and she decided to block me. That didn't go so well. So, with the advice of more seasoned retailers, the next time I saw this happening, I just contacted the manufacturer. I received an email back that the situation had been taken care of. The girl was warned-maybe it was an honest mistake. 

I have mentioned before that I'm a part of some great swapping groups for cloth diapers on Facebook. There's a girl in my favorite group that constantly marks products under MSRP and sells them openly at her prices to the over 1000 members. I do not share any products with her, so I am not familiar with her contracts. Apparently, other people were aware and reported her. Those manufacturers decided to cut her as a retailer-she broke her contract. 

WOW! The retaliation began. Everyone couldn't believe someone would report her to the companies for marking her products a few dollars lower than she was allowed. It didn't matter that she signed a contract, that she was potentially taking business from honest retailers that support their families with the business, or that she was sharing information about the wholesale pricing with non retailers. People actually said it's okay to 'bend' the rules.

Of course I spoke up. I explained why MSRPs are set and that as a retailer, she had to sign a contract, blah blah blah. I stated the facts and got booted. Kicked to the curb. I'm swimming with the fishes. 

My feelings were hurt at first, but I am so glad that I have the guts and courage to speak my mind when I know people are being dishonest. I would rather keep my values and know I did the right thing, than sit on the sidelines and watch the drama unfold and pretend these people are right. 

I believe everything happens for a reason and hopefully I will have more time to blog now that I won't be on my favorite swap group. Oh, and karma is a B. 

 

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Diaper Addiction

I never thought it would happen to me, but I have been sucked in by the cuteness of the fluffy bum.

I have an addictive personality-if I see a show once, even if it is one of the worst shows ever (think trash TV, like a VH1 reality show) I have to see what happens. Now, you might wonder why it was on in the first place...those commercials really pull me in! If I play a video game I can become super addicted. Then there's always chocolate and peanut butter, the best addiction of all! Now, I have to add diapers to the list.

When I first researched cloth, I saw so many woman showing their giant stashes of diapers and was wondering why anyone would need so many. That's not going to save them any money! For 9 months I did great with my diapers. I didn't feel like I ever needed more, well, maybe I wanted a new color every now and then, but I didn't want it bad enough to buy it. Also, I knew I had enough, so I couldn't justify buying more. Then I started Bum Luxury. 

Of course, as a business owner, I have to try the products. I can't sell something and claim it's all that if I don't believe it. So, I had to try some new diapers. First, I joined some swap boards. I joined the Babycenter swap board first. It didn't pull me in b/c I only clicked on the name brands I had heard of and you could only see the cute diaper pictures once you opened the thread. I was safe. 

Then, someone posted a swap board on Facebook. That's when the trouble started. There were just so many cute diapers and the pictures were posted right there! Very difficult to resist. Now, I'm a cheapo, so it was easy to say no to most diapers. I decided to buy some cheap ones-almost free except for shipping, just to see the type and quality of the diaper, and to use in my cloth diaper seminars. Then, I saw the cutest WAHM diapers ever! I had to have them! Plus, they were only $18 for two, so I splurged and I'm so glad I did. Since that first transaction, I've bought and sold a ton of diapers. It not only gets the word out about Bum Luxury, but it helps me to try diapers at great prices. If they don't work for me and Baby J, I just resell them. 

The only bad part about these groups of course is the addiction. Having it on Facebook can really take up my time. 

The positives definitely outweigh the negatives though. I've met a ton of great woman that I feel so close to, but have never met in real life. It's nice to see where other cloth families are located and how everyone has a different opinion on brands and types of diapers. Plus, there are other groups I've joined for swapping like baby clothes swaps and baby wearing swaps. Since the hubs doesn't want another child, it's a great way for me to get some good money for Baby J's used stuff. 


Plus, the money just comes through PayPal. I never see a hit to my bank account. If I don't have any PP money, I either sell something or don't buy. Luckily, I've been able to keep my account in the positive for most of my buy/sell/trade days. :)

If you're interested in swapping, check out some of these groups (in no particular order):


Cloth Diaper Swap
B/S/T Fluff and Stuff
From One Lil Hippie to Another

Baby Clothes Swap
Children's Clothing and Maternity Swap
Find it Here Maternity

I have also created a group just for the Phoenix area. It's not just for fluff or baby, but basically a Craigslist on Facebook. That way I can save money on shipping and get some of the bigger products out of my house. 

Phoenix Area Swappers


So go ahead and join a group and see what you can find or make some extra cash! We all need something these days:)

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Shop on Facebook!

What are they going to think of next?!?

As I was searching pages the other night, I came across someone's Facebook store. I did a double take. Hmmmm...I want one! And what do you know? At the bottom of their store was a link telling me I could have one too! Plus-it's free! I have spent two months trying to make an e-commerce website look amazing and user friendly (to no avail) and here is a free way to list my products? I love it! 

That night I stayed up late listing my products. I didn't have too many left since I had made my first sale the day before. That's right, folks! Bum Luxury made a sale! Whoo hoo!

Until I become a genius at web design, I will be marketing both my actual website and my Facebook store front. As an additional bonus, all my Facebook fans will get 10% off their order. It's a win-win people!

You can find products here:

www.bumluxury.com

www.facebook.com/bumluxury Click on the 'Shop Now' link on the left sidebar. 

And just an FYI, Bum Luxury is now an approved retailer for three additional brands other than Fuzzibunz, but we are waiting for the shipment to arrive before we let you know who, so check back:)

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Network Blogging

As I become more familiar with blogging, I realize there are some people who just want a big number to follow them. I, on the other hand, really want people to read what I write. For that reason, I am always looking for a different number-the number above the "Networked Blogs" section.

I saw the Networked Blogs gadget on someone's blog and clicked on it to figure out what it was. It's a way to easily see posts from the blogs you follow-all on your Facebook page.  

I am a follower of many blogs already-I'll follow anything that interests me and give it a try. I hardly ever click on my dashboard to look at those blogs, however. Then, one day while browsing my Facebook updates, I noticed a couple of the blogs I follow have posts that automatically feed onto my page. More important than that though, is that I read them. If it's on my wall, I see it and read it. If it interests me, and usually it does, (why else would I follow a blog?) I click the link to read the entire post. These bloggers get more attention from me because they are networked, and I'm sure they get more attention from others because of it, too.

Now when I browse a new blog that catches my attention, I look for that Networked Blogs gadget so that I will actually read their posts. I hope that more bloggers start using Networked Blogs! It's a great way to read all the posts that interest you in one place, without having to click on everyone's individual blog. Let's link up, people!!

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