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Ten years ago today, Seinfeld went off the air. TEN YEARS!!! This fact makes my head spin. Off the top of my head, just look at this list of common phrases that are still around and used everyday. All of these have origins from Seinfeld. Amazing. Here's just a few:
* It's not you, it's me
* Festivus
* Not that there's anything wrong with that
* Re-gifter
* Double Dipping
* The Coffee Table Book about Coffee Tables
* Yada Yada Yada
* No Soup for You
* Shrinkage...and of course...
* Master of Your Domain
Here's a YouTube video with these and more.
TEN YEARS!!!! I'm old.
When I started Sandbox Threads last year, I did so with little experience building websites and no experience with getting found by search engines. Boy, has that changed.
Now let me be clear, without Google most of you would have never found Sandbox Threads, and for that, I am thankful at how efficiently Google indexes site. At least 70% of our traffic comes from Google searches & Google Ads.
But over the past year, I'd learned a whole bunch about what is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The most simplistic explanation of SEO is building your site so Google likes you and ranks you high. There are many, many factors, but for this post, I'm focusing on keywords, and in SEO the more keywords on your page, the better (but not too many, Google is finicky and will penalize you for TOO many).
Strangely this sort of optimization goes against basic marketing & name-branding principles. Look at the above image with the top ranking sites in Google for "cool baby clothes." Look at all those "keywords" stuffed in the title, but where's the business name? Look at the description, again, where's the business name? It's not there. Only when you get to the web address do you see the business name.
Now what happens if Google changes the search criteria, and these business lose ranking. Will anyone remember what the business was called that had those great shirts? I say no, not with the aggressive SEO they are using.
Are these sites doing anything wrong? Nope! They are just using SEO to rank high, and with one exception, I have a working relationship with each of the sites at the top of the Google rankings, and like them.
Sandbox Threads has just decided to take a little different approach. Do we rank as high? Most times no. For "cool baby clothes," we rank somewhere around 25. Does that cost us money? Probably, but I'm just not willing to sacrifice establishing our name for the sake of SEO.
Below is how SBT shows up in search results. We stuff keywords in the results too, but first and foremost, we're Sandbox Threads.
Whether folks will remember us or not because they see our name in search results is hard to know, but we do get quite a few visitors searching for Sandbox shirts, so maybe so.
One other quick note, one of my favorite kid shirts site, Fooey, has not fully given over to SEO either. I remembered their name because, guess what, it was in the search results. I like that, and the SBT title is modeled after them. Ben has a couple of shirts purchased at Fooey, and we love them. (One other SEO aspect is having other site link to you, so here's some unsolicited link love to the cool baby clothes at Fooey).
We've decided to add a little color at Sandbox Threads. And we could think of no better color for spring and summer than "grass" green.
The new "grass" onesies come in sizes 3-6 month & 6-12 month. While the "grass" tees come in 2T, 4T, & 6T. These shirts are a bit thinner, a bit longer, but the sleeves are a bit shorter than the rest of the SBT stock. While this wasn't intentional, that seems like a good combination for summer (you might be wondering, why would longer be better? Well, more shirt to wipe the dew off your brow, of course. It's hot outside.).
Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to check Sandbox Threads often for cool new baby clothes in hip new colors.
I really love running Sandbox Threads, and I obviously have greater "ownership" in Sandbox Threads than any other job I have held. The one drawback of being a small business owner, though, is that you can't really call in sick (I'd just be calling myself).
This past Saturday, Elizabeth, the mom of SBT, left to attend a conference leaving Ben and I to fend for ourselves. All was going well until Monday afternoon when my throat started hurting a bit. By Tuesday morning, I could barely get out of bed, and after going to the doctor yesterday, I learned that I have a pretty severe tonsil problem that may require some form of surgery.
Ben has been a real trooper during this whole ordeal. He's been very content playing alone while I was curled up on the couch. And we are very grateful to have Elizabeth back home.
The main reason I decided to share this story is for those of you who have ordered from Sandbox Threads. Your order may take a day or two longer to get processed and shipped. I'm caught up as of Thursday morning, but I also go to the doctor at noon to find out my fate.
Wish me luck, and also be sure to check out the new designs we just introduced last night at Sandbox Threads.
**UPDATE**
No surgery necessary. It's just severe tonsillitis. And on top of my antibiotics, they gave me some hydrocodone for the pain, so now...all is good.
Much to the chagrin of my wife, our son gets up in the morning, eats breakfast, then gets out of his high chair, retrieves the remote, points to the TV and says "cars." You see, mornings when Ben does not go to "Mothers (Fathers) Day Out," I let him watch cartoons while I print out orders and mailing labels. Noggin is the station of choice.
This morning I saw a spot featuring the partnership with Noggin and First Book (follow link to learn more, and see, wife o'mine, TV doesn't always Stink. One can find a benefit from time to time).
The subjects of books is very dear to my wife. She is a former 3rd grade teacher turned college professor. As a prof, she teaches future teachers how to teach reading to their future students and believes that early positive experiences with books and reading are key to successful literacy development.
I am drawn to the First Book program for a couple of reasons. One of my friends and I have a continual debate over America and the state of things. He contends that the US provides everyone with the same opportunity to succeed and each person has to make his/her own breaks to succeed.
I contend that while that is true on its face, not everyone comes into this world with the same advantages/benefits/situation and thus not everyone is granted the same chance to succeed. Home life, neighborhood, outside influences, parenting, and thousand of other influences play a much larger role than just pulling yourself up by your boot straps. This is especially true during early childhood development when a child doesn't have much say in life.
I am of the belief that a program like First Book helps by promoting reading early on. For all our problems in this country, I truly believe the easiest way to change the direction of this nation is by education. Not the teach to the test education that is currently mandated, but actual learning, exploring, reading, and more.
Anyway, we think that the Noggin and First Book partnership is really cool. Take a look. We hope you agree, and that you might consider joining Sandbox Threads in donating to First Book.
While you cannot see it in this photo, Ben is sporting his My Mama's for Obama shirt while watching Senator Obama speak.
Doors for the event opened at 4pm, and we arrived shortly afterwards. Unfortunately, the event held 10,000 and we were 10,003. Not literally, but we were about to go through security when the fire marshal said no mas. We then made our way to the overflow area, and low and behold, Senator Obama came out and spoke with us first. While we didn't get to shake hands or get a great picture of Ben with Obama, we did get to see him and hear a short speech those inside did not get to hear. We also got to hear his other speech while Ben ran around with all the other kids outside the event.
We were bummed not to get to "see" both speeches, but overall it worked out better for us as a family.
I really need to stop, and I hope am I finally at a point where I can, but as you can see Sandbox Threads has just had another face life. Included in update SBT 3.1, you will notice a new, brighter logo, no more gray background, and also a big overhaul of the blog to make it look almost identical to the rest of the site.
We think the makeover makes the site more welcoming. The new colors warm up the screen, and unlike before, the background compliments the rest of Sandbox Threads' color scheme.
I probably should get a different hobby, but I'm a night owl that also has a toddler and a pregnant wife who go to bed around the same time, 8 pm, so I find myself on the computer "tweaking" Sandbox Threads until the wee hours of the morning.
Here's to hoping the tweaking is done (at least for a few months).
Most days just keeping up with our 19 month old son wears both myself and my wife out. I can't imagine throwing in seven, yes, seven dogs to boot, but that's exactly what Angela at Seven Dogs and A Baby blog does every day. Today, Seven Dogs and a Baby features Sandbox Threads.
For our regular readers, you will know that I'm a southern boy originally from Tennessee, and after reading Seven Dog's review today, I am disappointed in myself. I grew up seeing roadside barns painted with "See Rock City," and when I was putting together designs for our Travel Places section, it did not occur to me to include a See Rock City design. Well, that's about to change.
Thank you Angela for the review, and look for a See Rock City design to debut on Sandbox Threads in the weeks to come.
