Round up of 2015 - Making money from handmade books

Arty Cow Designs 

handmade travel journals, wedding planners and scrapbooks 

So here we are the last day of 2015, or New Years Eve depending on your perspective. 

The year is drawing to a close and it is time to reflect on all that has passed. 

It has been a super exciting year, it was this time last year that I made the decision to kick start my online shop Arty Cow, for real.... not just dabbling. 

I spent New Years Eve 2014 changing my key words, shop descriptions, photo  titles, search terms, tags an much more in a bid to let the wider world know that I am here and I am ready to be creative. 

I thought up my name whilst on a dog walk on the beautiful Sussex Downs which is where most of my pondering is done, and as soon as I got home I drew up my logo and I was ready to launch. 

Since then things have gone from strength to strength. I have been extremely fortunate to have had an amazing year for sales of my travel journals, wedding planners and scrapbooks.  In truth I wasn't prepared for the influx of orders, I thought it would perhaps trickle in nice and slow but wowzer it would appear I was underestimating the power of key words and tags..

Part way through the year I had to amend some of my designs so they could be replicated over and over as the demand was so high for the travel journals in particular. 

So I redesigned them and sourced all of the components that would appear on each book regardless of design to make life easier for me and to make the shopping experience better for my customers. I also changed the set up slightly part way though the year providing customers with the opportunity to build their own design to their own budget. the new set up meant customers could add spine dangles, names, maps etc direct from the shop without the need to contact me first to discuss the possibilities. 

It would seem that this was just in time because the later half of the year became super busy in the run up to Christmas.

Well the Christmas rush is now over and it is time to look to the future and what 2016 will bring to the Arty Cow Studio but first.... I have a few hours of 2015 left so I am going to put on my boots and go for a walk to think, assess and be grateful for all I have received this year. 

Whatever you are doing for New Years Eve, stay safe and I will see you on the other side. 

Arty Cow