Hi there, nice site, but it's not very easy to see that it's a store. Other than the buy button. Maybe that shoud say store? ALso there is no price for the puppet on the page where you're askin gus to build it. I think adding patterns, even your own and supplies is a great idea. And it would be great to have supplies listed as well.
I am a doll maker and I visit online shops like www.joggles.com, it's well organized and she sends out a weekly email telling you what's new. It might bea good idea to sign up and check it out. She's really grown her buiness alot since I first signed up. She even doesn on-line classes. It might be worth it to check out others who are doing it and see what their formula is.
Also talk up your site on the etsy forums and in your store profile. Doesn't hurt to take advantage of a resource that you're already using to some extent... I really admire what you're doing! Keep it up  and  Good Luck!

gosh, my spelling was atrocious... sorry... should have used spell check or looked at the screen while I was typing.

Hi there, nice site, but it's not very easy to see that it's a store. Other than the buy button. Maybe that shoud say store? ALso there is no price for the puppet on the page where you're askin gus to build it. I think adding patterns, even your own and supplies is a great idea. And it would be great to have supplies listed as well.
I am a doll maker and I visit online shops like www.joggles.com, it's well organized and she sends out a weekly email telling you what's new. It might bea good idea to sign up and check it out. She's really grown her buiness alot since I first signed up. She even doesn on-line classes. It might be worth it to check out others who are doing it and see what their formula is.
Also talk up your site on the etsy forums and in your store profile. Doesn't hurt to take advantage of a resource that you're already using to some extent... I really admire what you're doing! Keep it up  and  Good Luck!

I'll answer this seperately from the ones above, as there are a number of comments to reply to.

I'm not sure what exactly the area is that you were looking at that makes it not look like a store - it could be the icon at the top of the page, which I was testing out different versions of. I've found the one that says 'Buy' gets a lot more interest than the one that says 'Shop'. (EDIT: Figured out what you mean... it doesn't look like a store because it's not. It's my blog, which has a number of different functionalities. The home page aggregates posts from other pages; the FAQ page is updated regularly with info and to keep Google interested; the store page - read below. I thought about creating a different site for the shop, but there's no point: it would take people away from the whole pupsinmelb site, and since the generator is not something easily programmed inside of an ecommerce platform, I decided just to insert it directly into the blog)

Secondly, it should be noted that my entire site is created using a blogging platform, so the store page is in actual fact, a hacked blog page - and so doesn't look like a traditional online shop.

You're right and wrong about the price. It is there, but lower down. I'll change it so that it's at the top of the page.

I do agree that a mailing list, and other forums, classes and patterns will help with sales - I wish I had more hours in the day to get everything organised. Hopefully over time I can increase the number of things available!

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement!

Will your book be in PDF form ? and will it be forsale. Andrew from http://www.puppetbuilding.com I'm sure can give you some advice in this area. Ben from Puppet Minister sold his first book Elephant bites
http://www.puppetminister.com/products.php in the past few years.

Do you have the pattern forsale for the ballerina puppets? Keep up the good work............. I love the excitement you generate in your post. If I can be of help let me know.

Billy D.

I hadn't thought much about the format, but in my head I'm imagining it like The Foam Book - something you can have on your bench top. I'm also imagining it to be in editions, rather than something that's 500 pages long and with everything it can possibly fit. However, I realise that pdfs may be easier to sell... I'm not really sure at this stage which one would be easier to market. I like the idea of a hard copy version though. (And yes, it would be for sale)

Thanks for suggesting those names: I'll definitely contact them about it.

I don't have a pattern for the ballerina - she's just a Barbie doll with one leg removed, and replaced with a foam carved version. I don't feel right about selling a pattern for her: she was made by a friend of mine, so technically she should get any profits from her.

However, I do have some muppet patterns that I could publish. Just go to get around to it...

Too much to do!  :P