The blog will be a bit lacking over then next few days while I recover from a summer flu, but stay tuned! We have some super-fun pics to share from MakerFaire that I'll post as soon as I can get my butt off the couch!

(photo: Rainy Day Clouds PCW recycled greeting card from Pocket Carnival)

A few weeks ago, we sent out a survey to our members, active and inactive, to ask what they'd like to see happen with cosa verde in the future. We got a ton of great responses, and we wanted to take some time to share the results and what we'll be working on in the months to come.

First of, a HUGE thank you to all of our members who participated in our survey. And a big congratulations to survey respondent #57, Elisa Shere Jewelry, for winning our random drawing for credit!

You guys are awesome. You are so sweet and supportive, and you have a ton of amazing ideas about what we can do to make cosa verde better. Overall, you left us feeling all warm and fuzzy about the job we've been doing, and how much you want to see cosa verde succeed. Thank you! And we want you to know that we've taken your comments to heart. This is a lot of information, but we're excited to be able to share what we're changing now and what we're working on for the future.

Your #1 concern: more traffic for less money

And we hear you! We're working night and day to get our traffic up. That includes more advertising (check out our ad on design is mine, for example,) carefully studying the returns that we get for every ad dollar, and more promotions and partnerships, especially over the next few months. We've also revised our pricing to give you more for your money. Because you deserve it. And we're not interested in taking your money... we want to earn it. Check out our new pricing plans.

As one of you observed, "I know this isn't a cash cow, more a labor of love. I hope you stick with it." We believe in cosa verde, and we ain't going nowhere. As far as the "cash" in "cash cow", we believe in transparency; here's a quick breakdown of our finances: in all of 2009, we were paid a total of $2598.30 in subscription fees. Of that, $329 went to plant trees, and $247.29 went to charities. The remaining $2022 (plus a few grand of our own cash) went into fees, hosting, maintaining and promoting the site. So, yeah, definitely not a cash cow. But that's just fine.

So what's next for cosa verde?
You guys have a ton of amazing ideas, and we've already started implementing them.

Things we've already done:

• We're adding more tools for you! Check out this page on how to make the most of your cosa verde subscription.
• We're expanding the blog to feature more content, including seller interviews. Email us to be added to the interview schedule!
• We've added a bar of random items to the bottom of the home page.
• We've made our badges easier to find, and we're working on adding personalized badges or mini shops for you to post to your blog.

Things we're working on:

• A way for YOU to curate the front page.
• An easy form in your profile where you can submit blog posts. In the meantime, we'll take posts by email. Contact us for specs. (If you mentioned you'd like to write something in the survey, we'll be reaching out to you!)
• An announcement space within your shop for special promotions, etc.
• A way to upgrade your shop mid-subscription.
• An easy way for shoppers to sign up for a (separate) mailing list, so we can keep them updated and promote your work.

Things we're looking into:

• Adding a way to "favorite" or bookmark items.
• Adding a "post to Facebook" feature, and a "Tweet this listing" feature.

Things we'd love to do, but we just can't:
We got about the same number of responses saying that you love that cosa verde isn't a selling platform as we got saying that you wish it was. We won't be adding a check out feature any time soon; we'd love to, but we're just too small to compete with the big players already out there. And staying small is important to us.

We also can't track which of your sales on Etsy (or other sites) come from cosa verde. We'd love to, but it isn't possible. We are not affiliated with Etsy, and their API can only give us so much info. We are working on a tutorial, though, on how you can use Google Analytics to get a better idea of which sales came from cv.

The nicest thing we've heard all week:
"cosa verde is a website I can be proud to be a part of"

Thanks again guys!
Hearts,
Liz + Jeff

Woohoo! This weekend marks cosa verde's first birthday! We have been up and running for one whole year!

To celebrate, all you members of cosa verde... anyone who has had a shop application approved in the past... will find an extra $10 showcase credit in your account this morning. And for the next week, new members can sign up using the code CVBIRTHDAY for $50 in starting credit. Hooray!

It's been a great year, guys, and we've got a lot planned for the year ahead. Thanks for helping to make this happen, whether you're an artist or a shopper (or a friend!).

Now, to get into the spirit of things... a little birthday-themed eco eye candy:

plantable birthday card from backwardprints

vintage velvet ribbon banner necklace from monkeypuzzle

recycled bottle felt banner from pilosale

recycled paper bow from loreleiSF

vegan cupcakes from thecupcakemint

Have a great weekend, everybody!

I got an awesome email yesterday from Cindy of Useful Books. Cindy has pledged to donate 100% of the proceeds from her shop to the Center of Life orphanage in Haiti for the next few weeks. A family from Cindy's church is in the process of adopting a child from the orphanage, which is right in the middle of the devastated area of Port-au-Prince. All of the children miraculously survived the quake as their building did not immediately collapse as most others on their street did. Unfortunately, two of the three houses later did collapse, leaving all 150 children, including 30-something infants, crowded into one house with no food or water.

I know many crafters out there are pledging some or all of their shop proceeds to Haiti relief. I encourage you to do so yourself, if you can afford to. To support the efforts of our members, cosa verde will waive shop fees for the next month if you are pledging part of your profits to some form of Haiti relief. Please let us know about your efforts so we can waive your fees and repost your pledges here.

We're taking cosa verde on the road! OK, not really. But Jeff and I are headed off for some much needed relaxation and (hopefully) adventure all the way on the other side of the world. We'll be in Thailand for the next three weeks on a belated honeymoon / general escape from reality.

But don't worry! cosa verde will be business as usual. I've loaded in a bunch of great blog posts for the next few weeks, and we'll still be reviewing applications and we'll be available by email. Just have patience with us...with the time difference and sporadic access to internet it may take us a few extra days to respond. We'll be back to normal operations at the end of the month, and boy do we have a treat in store for you for the holidays, so remember to check back in December for that!

(Image: recycled tile coaster from robotcandy)

Super-excited to announce that cosa verde was invited to participate in We Add Up's Climate Action Giveaway, which launched yesterday in honor of Climate Week. Entering will also subscribe you to occasional bulletins on how you can have your voice heard to help make sure world leaders take action on climate change. Head on over to their site to enter to win some amazing sustainable prizes!

Because I love Modish, and because I just can't stop talking about eco-friendly handmade finds, I'll now be guest blogging over at Modish! I'll be contributing to the Eco-Friendly Finds column every Tuesday. Look, I even get my own special header:

I'll be bringing you new finds each week, like these shawls made from naturally plant-dyed wool from larimeloom.

tree pendant by lulu bug jewelry

cosa verde plants ten trees for every new store that opens on the site, whether that store stays on the site for a month or a year. Today, we're happy to announce that our 100th shop opened up, which means that we've now planted a total of 1000 trees!

Trees are planted quarterly, through Trees for the Future. You can read more about our tree-planting and our charity donations here.