… and from Lionel Richie.

We at Storenvy are really excited to be sponsoring and attending LessConf next month. “What’s LessConf and why should I care,” you ask? It’s been organized by our developer/designer/marketer friends at LessEverything, and in six concise points, you should definitely attend LessConf because:

• It’s like a one-day SXSWi conference. I mean, Gary Vaynerchuk will be there! Plus six other awesome speakers you should hear.
• Everyone who attends gets a copy of GaryVee’s brand new book, Crush It, for FREE.
• The first 100 registrants get to have lunch with the speakers.
• It’s in sunny Jacksonville, FL, where we can all go to the beach afterward.
• It only costs $207 for the first 200 who register, but for a few of you out there, it’s…
• FREE to the TWO OF YOU who win our LESSCONF TICKET GIVEAWAY!

If you still need convincing, how about this:

Here’s one more bonus reason to go – if you pay a little extra, you could get the chance to pick Gary up from the airport. (Details on that come later.) Also, Barcamp Jacksonville will be the next day, so stick around for that.

Good luck!

Last Thursday night at the print shop was awesome. Thanks to everyone who came out, and especially to I Am The Trend, who hosted this amazing video podcast. I know it’s an hour long, but there’s a lot of useful info in it, like…

• All about Storenvy’s next big website launch, which will be coming in a month. (I revealed lots of secrets about the system that you can only hear if you watch!)
• How to run a successful T-shirt company — how much money to start with, how many shirts to print, how to promote yourself, product photos, customer service, etc. Good stuff from Tim at about 16:00.
• Tips on tee printing for bands.
• Iain schooling everyone on screenprinting at about 41:00. (Half-tones: Let Storenvy do them for you! Pantone numbers: Iain knows them all by heart.)
• My food cravings right now.

From left to right in the video are Craig and Tim from Assault (they publish some great tutorials, check them out), Adam from I Am The Trend, me, and Beau from IATT. Jumping in later are Jud from ShirtFight and Iain, who runs the Storenvy print shop. (Sorry that it starts with me rambling, but someone forgot to hit the record button earlier.)

Tune into I Am The Trend’s weekly video podcast every Thursday night at 8 p.m. CST! Thanks again everyone!

If you are in the area we would love to meet you! Let us know if you think you can make it!

UPDATE: We are super excited to be hosting IATT.tv, I AM THE TREND’s weekly video podcast.
Tune in live at 8pm CST!

How did I not find this egg-dying how-to until the day AFTER Easter? Hipster eggs!!

Oh well, we’ll just file it away for next year. You can buy kits from Marhar Dry Goods (image above from there), or I found a really easy tutorial at Our Best Bites. You basically just wrap the eggs in 100% silk (think thrift store ties!) and boil them in water and vinegar. Way too easy to be this cool.

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You asked, we answered. Now with more stats!

(You know the drill — click to enlarge.)

Features include:

• Gross Sales (This Month, Last Month and 2 Months Ago)
• Recent Orders
• Most Viewed Products
• Best Sellers
• Top Buyer Countries
• Visitors (Unique and Page Views)
• Top Referring URLs
• Top Search Engine Terms
• Top Visitor Countries
• Inventory Alert (for Sold Out items)

And here’s the obligatory “Before” picture. We’ve come so far!

We had a blast at SXSWi this week! We’re still working on following up with so many great connections, and we picked up some great tips and ideas to make the site even better. Can’t wait to work with all our new friends!

For those of you we weren’t able to spend face time with, that’s Scott on the left, Nick on the right and me and Jon in the middle. And 3D Guitar Hero!

We are happy to report that our DIY Store Admin Panel is now being tested in private beta by six stores! Thanks to Ephraim Clothing for kicking things off about a week ago.

PRO Stores will also notice an update to their Admin Panels, though they have fewer controls under the Settings tab.

Here’s a little tour of the updated system. (Click any image for a full-screen view.)

Dashboard
As always, the Dashboard gives you immediate access to all of your store stats from this month, last month and all time. (Note the red bar across the top of this demo store, signaling that it’s in Maintenance Mode and not viewable by the public.)

Orders
Manage your orders as they arrive. Orders come in as “Open,” until you mark them as “Shipped,” “On Hold” or “Canceled” with the click of a button. Each category is color-coded for easy management when viewing All.

Products > Manage Products
Easy product searching. Easily mark your products as Active or Hidden. Easily manage your Variants (S-M-L, Purple-Pink-Blue, etc.) and Quantities (even tells you how many you’ve sold and how many remain). Add up to five product images, and easily reorder how they’re displayed.

Products > Collections
Click and drag the order of your Collections, click and drag the display order of the products IN your Collections and click to add/remove products from within a Collection.

Design
As always, easily change your store colors, banner and background image with a live preview.

Promote
Easily add/remove Discount Codes and view how popular they’ve been.

Settings
One click puts your store in Maintenance Mode so that you can make all the changes you need to before putting it in front of your customers.

Need to change your store’s name? Manage your Storenvy sub-domain on your own. Just be sure you’re prepared for the change, it’s not reversible.

Shipping Rates: Easily manage your rates by creating Groups (by item type) and Classes (by location).

Customer Support: On your Support page, describe your return policy, share size charts, etc. Update it anytime according to questions shoppers are asking you.

Taxes: Set your rates here.

If you’d like to join now as a private beta tester, try to catch us in our friendly support chat room and request a code. DIY Stores will be openly available through our homepage sometime soon.

We’d appreciate any feedback, so feel free to leave a note in the comments here or in the support chat room.

Finally — major props to Jon and Scott for working around the clock to get DIY Stores ready for launch!

When your valentines are recycled AND recession-proof, you are SO 2009.

For all the Netflixters out there — click the links for fold-by-fold instructions, which someone customized for Netflix movie sleeves based on traditional origami instructions. (We appreciate your work, “someone.”) A valentine for everyone!

The heart: Naturally.

The tray: Use it to hold trace amounts of popcorn while you watch a romantic comedy. Or maybe to serve a mini breakfast in bed?

The swan: This bird has loads of symbolism associated with it. Grace. Calm. Love. Fidelity. The ethereal. Lover of poetry and harmony. Eroticism. (All that is to say, you can’t really go wrong here.)

The shirt: Last-minute shopping? This one’s much cheaper than the real thing and JUST as stylish.

And finally…

The bullet plane: For those of you flying solo this V-Day. Stock up and consider it ammunition.

Hard to believe the holidays have already come and gone. Wishing everyone much success in 2009!