Hi there! Sarah here, creator of Happy Little Tadpole. Today’s blog post is a little bit different from the usual posts I have written so far. This post is probably a bit overdue. It’s for those of you who are curious as to why I started Happy Little Tadpole, what it‘s all about, how it works, and what it will hopefully become one day, read on!
For those of you that aren’t friends or family who are reading this, first of all, welcome! And second, thanks for reading. Here’s a little information about me: I am a digital marketing consultant by trade. I work for a couple of business-to-business companies managing e-commerce sites, creating email blasts, writing articles, and completing on-page and off-page Search Engine Optimization tasks. Basically, everything web-related for small-mid sized businesses. Although I love my clients, the subject matter isn’t necessarily my passion or the most interesting to write about. And primarily, none of it is mine. I wanted to make something that is my own, s
I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit. In college, I took classes in the Fox School of Business at Temple while getting my bachelors in Advertising, In the 3-part series, I learned how to vet my ideas and write proper business plans, amongst other things.
Moving on – In 2016 I co-created a marketing company with a couple of colleagues. Although profitable, we ended up having different visions, so we dissolved the company a year later. Since then, I’ve been tinkering with children’s books (nothing yet published but hopefully one day – are you a publisher? Call me! ) and playing around with toy ideas, and laser printing. Currently, I’m not in a position to start a physical, product-based business, nor have I came up with a unique enough idea that is both worth pursuing and in line with my create-less-unnecessary-waste-in-the-world mentality. Hence,
The Creation of Happy Little Tadpole
Happy Little Tadpole isn’t a product or a store, really. But more of a platform. Currently, I utilize it to share my favorite children’s toys and books. The items are share can be purchased through the site, however, I don’t do any of the shipping or billing. I simply send my visitors to Amazon, where they can buy the items easily, and often with free shipping and at the lowest price on the internet.
The Toy and Book Selection Process
I started by selecting items I had gifted to my nephews, niece, and friend’s children. Then I moved on to do research at my local bookstore (Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon – LOVE!), where I peruse the children’s section, looking for unique, exceptionally illustrated, thoughtful, and/or unique children’s books and add them to the site. I also do the same at local toy stores, finding toys that I like, testing them out, then
Curated Gift Sets and Why I Love Them
I love gifting. Especially if you’re someone close to me, and I see things that make me think of you. I guess it’s one of my love languages (is there a gifts of affirmation? I don’t know…) It’s really not about spending a fortune or anything like that. It’s more about curating gift sets. I especially like doing this for little ones. For my oldest nephew’s birthday one year, I did a water themed gift set, where I got him a Melissa & Doug sprinkler, cute swim shorts, an ocean book, and a crab-themed velcro catch game. For my niece, a mermaid-themed gift set with mermaid stationary and colored pencils, and a pearl and shell necklace. I love to curate my gifts around a theme whenever possible. So that’s why I share gift paring ideas throughout the site. When you click on an item in the store and scroll down to the description, you’ll see a ‘Gift Pairing Idea’ section at the bottom of most items, where you can easily curated a themed gift set yourself.
The Product Selection Process
You may notice a theme when you look through the items I share – they either encourage creativity, foster education, or promote playing outside. Many of them are made of recycled or more sustainable materials like wood. I purposefully share items that are more likely to last long, steering clear of one-time use toys and items that rely heavily on plastic construction… I personally hate being wasteful, so I try to share items that have a long play-life. Many items tend to be more open-ended and pretend play toys, too, for the same reason and because I also feel that pretend play is important to help little ones express themselves and be creative.
How Does Happy Little Tadpole Work?
Currently, Happy Little Tadpole functions as an Affiliate Marketing Platform. As of this moment, I share items that are available for purchase on Amazon. When people visit my site then go to Amazon to complete their purchase, I received a small percentage (1-4%, for most of the items I share) of the sale.
FAQs about Affiliate Marketing (In case you were wondering)
Q: Does it increase the price of the item?
A: Not at all. Amazon simply pays me for directing people to buy it from their website, instead of elsewhere.
Q: How long do sales count as coming from my site?
A: 24 hours. Unless you put the item in your cart and save it to buy later, then 90 days.
Q: Does it only count for the specific items you share on Happy Little Tadpole?
A: No! It is for anything you buy through Amazon during that time. I did NOT realize this when I started – – – it is a HUGE pro to Amazon’s affiliate program.
Example: So let’s say you visit Happy Little Tadpole, click through one of the product links (the ‘View Price’ button on the product pages) then decide to buy pet food that day on Amazon. I would get credited a small percentage of that sale. It happens often and it makes it so I can still generate a small amount of income even when people aren’t making the same day purchases on the items they view through the site.
Side note: I share this information because I find it interesting, and I figure you might be interested to learn how it works, too!
Affiliate marketing is the only way Happy Little Tadpole generates a small amount of income right now. It is by no means a livable wage (nowhere close!) But, it’s a little something and it helps me want to continue building what I started. Eventually, I would like to sell actual items that I make on the site (pipe dreams!), but for now, watching it work and gather more traffic as it gains ranking on Google is a nice vote of confidence for what I do for a living for something that is entirely mine, no matter how small it is to start.
The Future of Happy Little Tadpole
I would like to continue growing Happy Little Tadpole as is, for now. Continuing to grow the curated product selection, adding new unique and exceptional picture books, and writing articles. Eventually, I would love to publish, heck, even self-publish the children’s book I wrote and illustrated, and sell it on the site. I’m also playing with some other registry-type ideas too, so you’ll have to follow along to see where the site goes! For now, I hope you utilize Happy Little Tadpole as a resource to gift thoughtful, curated gift sets of creative, sustainable toys to the little ones in your life.
Thanks for reading more about the creation of Happy Little Tadpole! Get a sense of the toys we curate by browsing through some of our category pages. Here are a couple of my favorite sections:
– Sarah Conley, maker of Happy Little Tadpole
Sign up for our Emails
Sign up to receive a notification each time a new blog post is published (usually about 1-2 posts a month) through the sign-up form in our sidebar (on the right side of the site) or through the footer (at the bottom). Thanks for following along as Happy Little Tadpole develops!
I adore the bee items , such a great time to educate the next generation on the importance of bees.
Really love the concept idea! As parents we are always looking or not just toys to our children but also tools for learning and playing together. Thanks!
This is quite interesting to know how you came up with Happy Little tadpole and am glad that you are trying to come up with the business that you always loved. I like the way, you describe affiliate marketing.