Gabista Retailer Spotlight - Boticca, Fashion With A Unique Story

Gabista is proud to showcase one of our great retailers – Boticca. Their website is loaded with unique fashion items and the stories behind each item. It is worth a browse. And the great news is now you can gab all about Boticca thanks to Gabista.

• Tell your friends about Boticca, recommend a designer to your network, even tell the story about a piece you have just acquired.
• All you have to do to get started telling the Boticca story is register:
• For Bloggers to host Gabista Comments
• For Gabbers to Gab about Boticca

All creative work tells a story. Any collection, from jewelry to accessories, represents a chapter in a designer’s larger work. With each chapter, the designer’s story unfolds to convey their vision and inspiration.

Boticca was born out of one of those inspired moments. On a trip to Marrakesh, one of Boticca’s founders came across Mariam, a jewelry designer. As he talked to Mariam in the crowded Medina, he discovered that there was more to her exceptionally exquisite jewelry than just beauty; it also had meaning and a story.

Mariam told of how she had first sold her work in the Atlas Mountains to the women in her village. Her creations were so popular that she decided to travel to Marrakesh three times a week to sell them to tourists. Inspired by her unique story, Bottica set to work to ensure that more than a few lucky people would get to experience Mariam’s pieces on their travels. They wanted to change that, and this is how Boticca came to be.

Boticca.com is curated and edited by a team of fashion experts, designers, stylists and collectors, who illustrate the culture, stories and inspiration behind the collections on the site.

The site connects customers directly with more than 200 designers from 30 different countries, and celebrities ranging from Victoria Beckham to Olivia Palermo and the Gossip Girl cast have been wearing Boticca.com’s limited edition pieces.

Here’s a sample of their gift ideas for Christmas. What’s your favourite piece and why? Let’s Gab about Boticca now:

Using Gabista – Weekly tips on how Gabista can be used by Bloggers

While monetization in the blog world continues to evolve, one thing is for certain; many bloggers still haven’t decided how they feel about sponsored posts. Some bloggers have clear cut views on how they feel, some accept on a case by case basis, others have stringent editorial guidelines and still others reject outright. This post doesn’t pretend to debate the ins and outs of sponsored posts. We will leave that up to the individual blogger and their own views.

What we do want to share are some ways that Gabista could be used to generate content, comment and feedback. Many bloggers will find their own ways of sharing Gabista with followers, but for now here is just one possible example.

An example of a hypothetical Sponsored Post

I’ve been asked to write a blog post about the handbag shown below. I have decided to tell the story of what goes in such a beautiful handbag and invite my readers to suggest products they like to include. As a starting point I offer some suggestions - see picture below. Now view the comments section of this blog post, where you can see a sample of how this hypothetical conversation might occur. Note: The blog owner has moderation control, so can set approval rules as appropriate and thus publish or delete any comments or referrals as the sponsored blog post discussion develops. 

Gabista Retailer Weekly Focus – Barnes & Noble

Each week Gabista will feature one of our retailers and recommend a product we at Gabista particularly like.


Remember, being a Gabista referrer or "gabber" means being familiar with Gabista retailers' products. You might need to refer to the specific retailer’s website for more ideas before returning to Gabista to recommend or refer a product. In other words Gabista is about genuine sharing, recommending something you like/love and more. All Gabista's blog owners have the option to approve referral comments before they are published, to ensure they are relevant to the post and subsequent conversation. It’s never about spamming so please don’t try!



Today we feature a great book available from Barnes & Noble – it’s a children’s book called An Elf Named Finley.



An Elf Named Finley, by Rick Junnila is an inspiring Christmas Story about a boy who has spent his entire 13 years of life as an orphan. In the early years of becoming a man, he suddenly finds himself homeless and without a job.


Travelling out of the city in search of work, he finds a job in a small town of average people who strangely enough, call themselves “elves.” He is offered a scroll of written rules for making toys. With empty hands and empty pockets he begins the often difficult task of creating something from nothing.

Finley discovers that before he can create toys he must master the use of tools such as belief, love and hope… not hammers and nails like one would expect. Filled with both apprehension and determination Finley begins his journey.

When he has finally mastered the rules for making toys, Finley comes to the realization that he has not only created a toy, he has created the life of his dreams!

LESSONS FROM A BEAUTIFUL STORY

An Elf Named Finley teaches children far more about the poweryour child has within himself/herself, than they could ever learn from a stackof gifts.

It contains profound yet easily understandable lessons that havethe potential to improve your child’s life for years to come.

By the end of the story, your child will understand how belief,love and hope have power beyond just being words.

I invite you to discover the magic held within An Elf NamedFinley for yourself. You’ll not only enjoy reading it to your child, but youwill

THE STORY BEHIND THE BOOK, an inspiring tale

Rick JunnilaRick Junnila

“I was homeless, with two kids and I was broke!

By Christmas 2008 I had spent the better part of the past 2years, living out of my car and sleeping in my office. Because of changes inhealth care laws I had lost my job and then I cashed in my 401K to try and savemy new home. Needless to say, I lost my home with the housing crash, had my carrepossessed and all the while I was trying to stay focused enough start a newpractice. Divorced, with two children in joint custody, I stayed at severaldifferent friends’ houses while I had my children, just trying to keep a roofover their heads.

On Christmas Eve morning 2008, I asked for guidance regarding mydaughter who was 10 and no longer believed in Santa. I asked a simple question…“What do I tell my daughter about Christmas?”

Almost instantly an entire story rushed into my head! With tearsstreaming down my cheeks I typed as fast as I could, knowing the story was fromsomething greater than me. I also knew that I had to share this story. Iprinted the story from my computer and took it with me to celebrate ChristmasEve with my ex-wife and children.

My ex-wife read it to my children and then said “Wow that was areally cool story. Where did you get it from?”

I replied, “I wrote it.”

Then with the frankness that only an ex-wife could display andwith a chuckle in her voice she said “If it wasn’t for all the typos, I would never believe you!”

Isn't that a great story? - come gab with us on Gabista and tell us if you have read this story or perhaps recommend another book from Gabista retailer Barnes & Noble.

Not registered with Gabista? Join us now.

Introducing Gabista

Love to share the latest finds?
You're about to be rewarded.

Gabista. Comment meets Commerce.

If you like to talk about your favourite music, fashion, books, power tools, hand-knitted llama-wool beanies or any other great products, we'd love you to join us at Gabista. Gabista gives you the opportunity to spread the word and get paid while you do.

How does it work?

Well, more and more of the websites and blogs you read are using Gabista to host their comments. As well as providing great comment forums, we allow our members to showcase a few of their favourite things.

By accessing online retailers, Gabista members can add pictures and links to the products they love, as they comment. They can reply to other readers' queries with relevant referrals, review and recommend recent purchases, or just shout out "I love these shoes!"

As admiring eyes follow the links, sales are made. And as sales are made, commissions are paid. Some online retailers pay up to 50% commission on purchases!

Gabista collects these commissions on behalf of its members and shares them out. The more referrals generated by a member, the bigger the share that member receives. Simple.

So check out the Gabista section below. Sign up, have a play, add your favourite product.

Join us at Gabista, and start sharing the rewards.