Promoting Tips & Tricks Part VI: Promoting your Blog

I could easily to a ten- or twenty-part series just on how to promote your blog, but that would be beyond the scope of this article series, and others have covered it far more comprehensively elsewhere. So I’ll just do a single post, focussing on the needs of the online shop owner.

Much like your shop, your blog will benefit by being listed in directories. I’m in several — some limited to crafty blogs, others listing blogs in general.

Our Craft Directory is small and tightly focused. The owner checks every link before posting it, so you can be sure you’re in good company. As with most directories, they’ll ask you to put a link to their directory in your blog in return.

Blog Catalog is a much larger, more general listing broken down into nested categories. Again, they check every link before posting it. BlogCatalog also has a nice little feature which you can put in your sidebar, displaying the last five BlogCatalog folks who’ve stopped by.

BlogSearch is similar to BlogCatalog though I think somewhat smaller.

Technorati is the king of blog listings — in addition to a simple listing you get statistics on who’s reading your blog, what they’re typing into search engines to find you, and who’s linking to you. They’ll also supply a searchbox for your blog if you like.

VerveEarth lists and sorts blogs by physical location — offering a map of sorts of the earth as expressed on the internet.

RingSurf gives a slightly different perspective on the blog directory — instead of simple categories it provides hosting for blog rings. These are groups of blogs on a similar topic. I’m a member of several, as you can see in the first sidebar to the right.

As with shop directories, there are a lot out there. Some are worth it and others less so. It’s just a matter of looking.

Once you’ve signed up to a directory, treat it the same way you do a shop directory listing — upload an avatar, write up a profile, post pictures if it allows you to. Use it every way you can to get the word out.

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Entering blog carnivals is another good way to get people looking at your blog — I talk more about them here, so I shan’t repeat much. Do note, though, that this is one of the advantages to doing those little personal posts from time to time — you’ll have a lot more fodder for carnivals.

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On a more personal level there’s your blogroll. This is a listing of blogs you like and read frequently. It’s useful for you — they’re all right there in one place. It’s also a way of getting those you list interested enough to take a look at your blog — and perhaps put it in their blogroll in return. Remember the unspoken contract I mentioned in my first post on blogging? This is another part of it. You list me, I’ll list you, we both benefit.

Chances are you’ll also wind up making some friends this way. I have — hi Ruthie, Mary, Jill! From a hard-headed business perspective these are all great potential customers, and from a personal perspective it’s great to have friends who understand what you’re doing because they do something similar.

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Even more personal are comments. Once people are reading your blog, they’re going to start commenting. This is great! The first comment someone leaves on your blog will feel almost as good as the first sale you make. People are reading, and they’re finding something they care enough about to take the time to comment.

Take a moment to savour the feeling. Then, reply.

Every comment left in your blog should get some sort of reply. The people who comment want to know you’ve read what they say just as much as you want to know they’re reading you. If a post gets a lot of comments it’s perfectly okay to reply to several of them in a group — but do reply.

If someone comments in your blog for the first time, thank them for reading. If they leave a link to their blog, follow it back, and if you see something there you want to comment on, do it! It’s entirely possible you’ll find a friend.

Encourage discussion between your commenters. If people start to disagree and it looks to get ugly, ask them politely to agree to disagree, or take it elsewhere. You don’t need controversy in your shop blog any more than you need a couple of people in a shouting match in your booth.

Speaking of commenting and blogrolls, check the blogs in your blogroll every once in a while. I try to do this once a week and usually fail — many people manage to do it daily. Comment anywhere you find something interesting. Check out their blogrolls to find other blogs of interest, and comment there too.

That said, don’t just comment with ‘Great post!’ and your blog address. Write something with some substance. If you’re blatantly commenting just to get people to look, it’ll backfire.

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Looks like this is about long enough for the day — in my next post I’ll continue to talk about promoting your blog, using features, interviews, and reviews.

Promoting Tips & Tricks Part V: Blogging

Last time I covered newsletters and talked about how they differ from blogs. This time, I’ll go over starting and designing a blog.

Unlike your newsletter, which should be short and focussed, your blog gives you a lot more leeway to play. Post often, around once a day if you can, to keep people interested. Pictures and HTML formatting are fair game and in fact pretty important — a good picture will catch the eye and get people looking. I try not to post without using at least one picture (though I don’t always manage it).

Your first decision is where to host your blog. There are a lot of free blogging sites available. I have blogs on both Blogger and WordPress, and I find them both easy to use. I’ve also read blogs hosted on TypePad and SquareSpace, and there are a number of other such free hosts.

If you have your own web site, you can also host a blog there. I haven’t tried this so I don’t know a lot about how it’s done.

Pick a host you like and are comfortable with using. Get to know its ins and outs — yes, I’m talking about reading the directions again. Play with layout and such until you have at least some idea of what you’re doing.

Write up your profile with the same care you used in your shop profile — consciously or not people will judge you by it. Upload an avatar — use a good clear photo of yourself, or a picture of some of your products, or perhaps your shop logo. Make sure it’s a good high quality image.

Choose a name for your blog that reflects what you’re going to be saying there. A lot of people just use the name of their business as the name of their blog; others choose something else that echoes the feel of their shop.

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Speaking of feel, think about the sort of blog you want to have. Is it going to be folksy and friendly? Will you write frequent but very short articles on very focused topics? How about long, rambling ones that go from one topic to the next? Formal, informal, colloquial, erudite?

Do you post strictly about your shop, or do you talk about other indie sellers as well? News about the indie craft movement in general? Do you post personal things as well as those strictly business-related articles? Will you post in celebration of a big sale or about the snowstorm that’s had you snowed in the last few days?

Whatever you decide on, your blog should be consistent enough that your readers feel comfortable being there. Like a visit to an old friend’s home they want to know what to expect. It’s your blog — but you’ve opened it to welcome in your readers and you do want to help them feel welcome. Therefore it’s best to create a feel for your blog and stick with it.

Which isn’t to say that you have to decide all of this before you’ve posted a thing. Take some time to find out what feels comfortable to you — you spend more time there than anyone else and you have to feel at home. It may take several posts, a few weeks, even a couple of months before you start finding your voice. And it will always evolve over time.

Don’t worry if you don’t feel that your writing skills are up to much, either. The best thing you can do to improve your writing is keep writing. I could go on on this topic — perhaps I already have — but others have covered it far better than I could.

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The ‘feel and mood’ thing applies to the look of your blog as well. Your blog should be well laid out and easy to navigate, but in addition you’ll want to find a look that complements your writing style. Dark and dramatic? Bright and cheery? Simple? Cluttered and friendly? Here are a few examples of how the look of your blog can complement the feel:

Timothy Adam Designs uses a simple grey background; the colour is reminiscent of the metal he uses to make his jewelry. He has a lot of things in his sidebars but the way he uses the orange titles makes each element stand out while at the same time pulling the whole design together.

La Chapina Huipil Crafts has a clean, simple style which emphasizes the photos of the Guatemalan huipils she uses.

Miss Knits’ site is cozy and friendly, a calming pair of browns as the background with the delicate tracery of foliage to the left. There’s a lot in her sidebar but she keeps it well-confined to the right side.

Paper Girl Productions, like its proprietress, is bright, cheery and cute. The theme and feel is a nice complement to her unique stuffed animals.

Feel free to experiment for a while before you settle on a feel and a look for your blog. (As you can see I’ve been inspired to rearrange mine…again.) And there’s nothing wrong with the occasional complete overhaul, either.

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But what to write about? That’s part of the ‘mood and feel’ decisions you made above (or not). Things every shop blog should include:

* New products — this is often the fastest way for people to find out you’ve introduced something new. Tell your customers what it is (again, you can crib from your item descriptions). Tell them what inspired you to make it. Link to it, so they don’t have to go looking for your shop. And include pictures!

* Sales and specials — what’s on sale, what the discount is, why you’re having the sale, a coupon code if appropriate. Add a link to your shop, so anyone who’s just stumbled by can find it easily. Include a picture or two of what’s on sale.

* Upcoming shows — where, when, who else will be there, what else there is to do, any entrance fee, hours, directions, a map, a link to the show’s website if any. If the show has a logo, put that in. With a link to the show’s website. If they don’t, put in a picture of your booth. Or a kitten.

* Competitions, challenges, and contests you’ve entered (especially if your readers can vote in it). Include a link to the competition and a picture of what you’ve entered.

* Pointers to any blog or webzine where you’ve been featured, reviewed or interviewed. Include a quote from the interview or feature, but not the whole thing. This is part of an unspoken deal between you and whoever interviewed or featured you — you get the exposure of being featured or interviewed, but in return they should get the exposure of being mentioned in your blog. Include a link, and maybe a screenshot of the feature or a picture of what they talked about.

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You may be seeing a theme here. Include pictures. Blocks of plain text make people’s eyes go unfocused, and then they go away. Pictures catch attention.

I bet you looked at the picture above before you read the couple of paragraphs before it. Am I right?

Hold your mouse over it (or click on it if you like). It’s got a link to my shop. Any time you include a picture of one of your items, make it link to your shop. It’s a little more work, but it’s worth it.

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Some other things you may wish to write about:

* Features, interviews, and reviews of other people’s stuff. Remember that unspoken contract above? They get exposed to your readers, you get exposed to their readers, everyone benefits. Include pictures of their products, and make sure every one of them links to their shop. Include a link to their blog if they have one.

* Informative articles. This series is a good example; so’s the article I posted a while ago about why you don’t want to put arnica in the bathtub. Remember that great piece you put in your newsletter six months ago about how to turn an old t-shirt into a shopping bag? Repost it here. Complete with step-by-step instructions and pictures.

* Personal posts. Anything from ‘I’ll be on vacation for the next week so any orders will be sent out the week afterwards’ to my ongoing posts about my cats. You should be careful not to let these overwhelm your business-related posts (I probably should do fewer kitten posts, but I can’t resist) but a certain amount will help your customers feel a connection to you as opposed to just your business. Also, pictures.

There’s a fine line with personal posts, though. Too many and you’re just another personal blog. Griping about how bad business is — or worse, complaining about the awful customer you just dealt with — is likely to alienate your readers (and what if the awful customer sees it?). More on this below.

* Pointers to contests, sales, or special events someone else is holding — especially if that someone else is a friend or business associate who may wind up returning the favour.

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Some things that you should probably not post about, or if you do, it’s best to be cautious:

* Politics

* Awful customers

* How bad sales have been

* Anything else that’s likely to be controversial

I’ll bet you grumbled when you read that last one. I did, too. I’ll write about what I want, you’re thinking, and be damned to anyone who’s offended!

My advice? Keep it to your personal blog. Remember that your blog — indeed, anything public that’s connected to your business — is your workplace. If you wouldn’t say it to a customer in your booth, don’t say it in your blog.

And believe me, I do let loose in my personal blog.

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So — look, feel, mood. Make a space where you feel comfortable talking and others will feel welcome to stay a while. Take advantage of your avatar, your profile, and your sidebars to help convey what you want to. Post often, post things that people will enjoy reading. Use pictures to illustrate your point and get people looking. Your blog is an extension of your shop, and it’s just as important to make it look and sound good.

Next up, you’ve got a blog. Now you need people to read it.

Promoting Tips & Tricks Part IV: Newsletters

Two great ways to bring more attention to your shop are blogs and newsletters. They work in different but complementary ways to reach people:

A newsletter requires a small initial effort from your customer — they have to sign up. (I do not recommend signing people up without their permission, unless it’s your mom, in which case she’s on your list whether she asks or not). Once they’ve accomplished that, though, your newsletter shows up in their inbox, once every X, without any further effort on their part.

A blog, on the other hand, needs no signup and is there whenever your customer has a moment to look. They do have to go and look, though, and in that way a blog requires more ongoing effort on the part of your customer.

A newsletter needs to be intermittent — I recommend once a month or once every two weeks (mine goes out once a month). Much more often than that and you risk your customers feeling spammed and alienated, much less and they’ll forget who you are. Your newsletter should be short, concise, and focussed; too long and they’ll get bored.

You should post in your blog often — every day if you can. Frequent posting means there’s always something new to read, which will keep people coming back to look. And if you vary your topics a bit, that’s just fine — indeed, if done right it’ll bring even more readers.

You’ll likely wind up with a lot of overlap in your audience for each, and that’s what you’re looking for. The rest of this article will focus on your newsletter; the next (possibly the next few) will talk about your blog.

How do you get people to sign up for your newsletter? Leave signup links anywhere you can — in your shop announcement, in any directories you’re listed in, in the sidebar of your blog. Shortly before each edition goes out post a reminder and directions on how to sign up in your blog. Post in the forum of any group you’re a member of, with the same information. Put a signup sheet at your booth whenever you do a show. And when anyone buys from you, whether online or in person, ask them if they want to subscribe.

Again, with the exception of a few people — your Mom, your best friend, your significant other — do not add anyone to your mailing list without their express permission. You don’t like junk mail and neither do your customers (if you do, you can have all of mine).

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So you’ve built a list of people who want to know about your stuff, and it’s time to write your first newsletter. What do you write about?

I always include at least the following:

* Descriptions of new products. Keep it short but make them sound appealing. It’s perfectly fine to crib some verbiage from the description you wrote when you posted it in your shop. You may also include a bit about upcoming products here.

* Shop news. Any upcoming sales or specials go first. I also include a blurb about any new shops which are carrying my products, my upcoming event calendar, and maybe a pointer to a good review or just something nice someone said about my stuff.

* An informational or educational article related to what I make. I’ve explained the difference between an infusion and a decoction, talked about spring greens, and given a step-by-step description of how to make an herbal tincture. The idea here is to give your customers something interesting to read that isn’t just advertising.

* A monthly contest. I’ve asked for entries as diverse as ‘how do you keep cool in the heat’ and ‘what’s your favourite recipe that uses herbs’ and for a prize, I always offer a gift certificate to my shop.

The contest will help draw interest to your newsletter (everyone likes getting something for free) and if you post about the winners in your blog, they’ll be getting a bit of attention, too. You don’t have to offer a gift certificate but with the highly individual nature of what I sell I feel it makes more sense. And there’s always the possibility that they’ll wind up buying more than the gift certificate will cover.

I always put a little something personal in the intro, and from time to time I’ll add something about what I’ve been up to — a show I did, or something funny about the kitten. I don’t do this often, though, and I keep them very short, perhaps three lines. I’ve also written about things I feel my customers might be interested in — fundraisers for a good cause, for example, or legislation affecting the use of herbs.

Don’t feel you’re limited to the above, either. What you put in your newsletter will vary depending on your target audience, the feel of your shop, your writing style, and any number of things I’m sure I’ve forgotten.

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Speaking of writing style, you’ll want to find a style that works for you (and for your target audience) and stick with it. Not slavishly — but your customers should find the ‘voice’ of your newsletter to be familiar every time they read it. Don’t be surprised if it takes you a bit of time to find your voice, though. I’ll talk about this more in my next article.

As with item descriptions you must be sure to use grammar, spelling and punctuation correctly. Use your spellchecker but don’t trust it as a final authority (amusingly enough, my spellchecker doesn’t recognize the word ’spellchecker’). Reread what you’ve said to be sure that it’s what you meant to say. Ask a friend to proofread for you (if appropriate, offer to pay them in ’stuff’). Do it right, and your customers will pay attention to what you’re saying instead of trying to figure out what the heck you’re trying to spell.

Others will disagree, but I don’t like including anything in my newsletters but plain text. While pictures and fancy HTML formatting do get attention, they can easily backfire. Different mail software will display email in different ways, so what you’ve sent out might not look like what you meant it to, and there are a lot of people out there who want their mail simple and without frills.

Keep your newsletter short, concise, informative and interesting. Don’t send it out too often, and keep it simple. Find your voice, and find ways to keep people interested in what you have to say.

Next up, blogs, and how they’re not the same as newsletters at all.

Promoting Tips & Tricks Part III: Directories

Now that you’ve got your shop set up the way you like it, it’s time to let people know about it! There are a number of directories out there providing inexpensive or free listings. Some are specific to Etsy or DaWanda, some are general and will accept a shop regardless of where it’s hosted.

The host-specific ones first:

DaWanda Shop Directory Links is a comprehensive listing of DaWanda shops by category. In addition to a place in their listing, by signing up you’ll also get featured in a blog post.

Buried Treasury is for all those who feel buried under all the things you find on Etsy — it’s a directory which features your Etsy Mini. Buried Treasury breaks its listings down into categories to make finding things easier as well.

And now the rest:

Shoparama Marketplace is a huge directory of shops all over the web — again, divided into categories for easier shopping. It also allows users to rank shops, so you get a better idea of what other people liked and didn’t.

The Hand Made Product Directory, in addition to the directory itself, also provides lots of advertising opportunities — but more about the advertising later. :)

For those concerned about the environment, Green Shopping gives a list of green and green-related sites to shop at.

Another Handcrafted Shopping Network here. Again, you can rank the shops.

I’m also in the Naturally Boulder directory — this only applies to those in my local area but if you check around you may find something similar where you live.

I know there are more out there — these are only the ones I’ve found. Simply typing ‘craft directory’ into Google will get you a lot, though you have to sort through them yourself to find out which are really worth it. Any more you’ve found useful?

I’ll note (to continue the descriptions discussion from my last post) that writing the little blurb to go with the link to your shop is very important. Most directories only allow a line or two (and you don’t want it longer than that anyway) so you’ve got to get a lot of punch into a little space. Again, I can’t offer a lot of advice on how to do that — I’m still working on it myself! So any tips you have on how to do that would be welcome.

Next up, blogs and mailing lists.

Promoting Tips & Tricks Part II: Descriptions and Photos

I know I said that this part would be about directories, but it occurred to be as I started typing that I’d skipped a step — you’re still setting up your shop, aren’t you? And how it looks is hugely important.

You’ll need descriptions and photographs for each of your items, and since your customers can’t pick up what you sell, try it on or smell it, they depend entirely on what you’re saying. Getting your descriptions and your photos right is vital.

First off, your descriptions need to be accurate and thorough. What stones you’ve used in that necklace, how long it is, what type of clasp. What the fabric that dress is made out of as well as what size it is — and best to use actual measurements instead of saying ‘it’s a size 12′ because we all know how much that can vary. All of the ingredients in anything edible or anything your customers are going to smear on their skin, because allergies really suck. Don’t stint with this part of your description, and most especially don’t lie.

Grammar, spelling, punctuation. Yes, I sound like your freshman year English teacher. He was right, though. Poorly constructed sentences and badly misspelled words send your customers fleeing to the Land of Things That Make Sense — which, if you don’t get the basics right, is not where you are.

But amidst all of these concerns you also need to make your items sound tempting. That’s more an art than a science and one I freely admit I have little expertise with. I can do no better than to point you to In the Night Kitchen and her once-a-week writing critiques. You can volunteer to let her tear your descriptions apart (don’t worry, she’ll put them back together and they’ll be even better!) or just read through what she has to say to others — she’s brilliant.

That said, let’s move on to photos. You need the right tools and the right techniques, and I’ll tell you a little bit about both.

First off, if you don’t have a digital camera, get one. It’s simpler than getting film developed and then having to scan it, it’s cheaper than buying enough film to take the zillion pictures you’ll need to get the right shot, it’s faster than waiting for the film to get developed. It doesn’t have to be a great digital camera, but you’re going to need one.

Next, read the directions. No, really. Yes, they’re boring. Accept your fate.

You’re also going to want a tripod. Yes, your hands may be steadier than mine, but try holding the camera in the exact same spot for a series of ten pictures when you have to adjust the settings in between. You may want a light box — I find mine indispensable, others don’t use them at all. You may (or may not) want a couple of small lights. And you’re going to want something to use for backgrounds.

Some swear by natural light; I prefer my lightbox and lights. I use small pieces of batik fabrics for my backdrops; others use plain white, or plain blue, or music sheets, or any number of things. It’s a matter of experimenting until you find something that works for you and for your products. Once you’ve found a theme, stick with it — you want people to know that a new item is yours by the way you shot the photo, without having to look at the name on it.

Props can be invaluable. I use a necklace display for a lot of my photos. There are a lot of possibilities — a cool piece of wood to hang earrings from, adorable small children to model adorable stuffed bears, a simple turned wooden bowl to pour bath salts into. Some prefer to keep their photos as simple as possible and eschew props entirely. It’s what appeals to you, and what works for you.

Find a piece of photo editing software and learn it well. Yes, this means more reading. It’s good for you. Learn to adjust brightness, contrast and colour. Learn to cover over small flaws in your photo (though never in what you’re selling!). Learn to crop out extraneous things. Learn how to make your file the right size for where you’re putting it.

Use all the photo slots you have available (okay, I’m bad at this at times). Use closeup shots, long shots, detail shots. Get a picture of someone wearing or using the item. Get your girlfriend, boyfriend, mother, UPS guy to model for you (pay them in stuff). Drape necklaces over your kitten. Take a picture of the clasp, the seams, the binding. Open a jar of the bath salts and spill some out into a bowl. Use your photo slots to show people as much as you can about what you’re selling.

Experiment. Practice. Learn how to use your camera, your backdrops and props, your software. Keep at it. You can get everyone in the world to look at your shop, but unless they can tell what you’re selling, they won’t buy a thing.

Next up, directories. This time, for sure.

Promoting Tips & Tricks Part I: Shops

So I decided to do a post on how to promote whatever you’re selling online. It quickly became apparent that it’s not going to fit into one post — or even a few. So I’ll split it up, and here’s part one.

The question of whether to open multiple shops is a complex one. On the one hand, multiple shops mean more exposure, more potential customers. On the other hand, each shop is another thing to maintain, and each one spreads out your effort a bit more. For some it may make more sense to concentrate on one.

I’ve got three shops now. My main one is my Etsy shop; it was my first, it’s where I’ve gotten most of my sales, and it’s where most of my energy goes. It’s large but generally friendly; you have a lot of potential customers but you also have to worry about getting lost in the crowd.

Etsy charges $0.20 per listing and 3.5% of any sales. For this you get a shop with personalized URL, space for five photos, and a description box that does not allow HTML or formatting of any kind. A listing lasts for four months though I usually renew my listings before then to bring them back up to the top of the category.

I’ve had quite a few sales from Etsy. There are a lot of tools for promotion available and a lot of people know about it. I find it’s quite a good place to start.

My secondary focus is my shop with the Creative Cafe Salesrooms. This is a much smaller, more cozy community; you’ll have a much smaller potential customer base, but it’s easy to stand out. I’ve made a number of friends through the Salesrooms (and their associated Ning group) and also made quite a few sales.

The Salesrooms also focus quite closely on helping people with disabilities — many of the people who sell there are disabled, and Jill (who runs the place) does a very good job of bringing the issues the disabled deal with to the forefront.

Creative Cafe charges nothing, allows you quite a few photos — something like ten; I’ve never used them all — and allows HTML and other formatting in the description. It also lets you keep your listings up for basically unlimited amounts of time and will automatically renew listings for you as well. Their listing tools are the easiest I’ve found to work with so far.

My newest shop is at DaWanda. DaWanda is European and is actually a conglomeration of three sites — one in English, one in German, and one in French. You can post to one or all, though it’s highly recommended that you have at least some understanding of the main language for each site (I’ll be posting my items in the German one eventually, though not the French one).

Currently they charge nothing though there is word that this will change in the near future. They allow four photos and space for a description — I’ll confess I haven’t experimented with it to see if HTML works. The community on the English side is small but friendly. I haven’t made any sales yet but I’ve only been there for a very short time — in a few months I should have a much better idea of how the site will work for me.

I have heard that listing my items in German as well as English should help quite a bit.

There are other places to sell as well. There’s always eBay. All of the sites I’ve listed so far focus on handmade things and that gives me a fairly level playing field — on eBay I know I’ll be competing with people selling necklaces made in bulk by people being paid almost nothing. The competition is uneven and so I’ve never tried selling there.

That said, I know people making things similar to mine who have had quite a bit of success selling on eBay. It certainly can work for some.

Their charges vary by a number of factors and their help isn’t particularly useful for telling me how it works. I know that they allow quite a bit of HTML in their descriptors and photos are basically unlimited as long as you can host them elsewhere. Your customer base is about as big as it can get but I really can’t call it a friendly place to hang out. And I know there’s been a lot of controversy lately with how they’re treating their sellers.

There’s also WinkElf. I played with this a little but I’ll admit I gave up after entering a couple of items. They’re free to start but give you a lot of options that add up quickly — like more than one photo. On the other hand, you can put as many photos as you like in your description as long as they’re hosted elsewhere. I found their method of posting new items somewhat arcane but I’ll admit I’ve got a lot going these days and not a lot of attention to spare.

I can’t speak for their community or how well things might sell, as I haven’t really tried it. I might when I’ve a bit more time, though.

There are other places — I’m sure you know of some. I’d welcome comments with places I haven’t listed, or further information on the places I have. And discussion of the ‘one shop vs. several’ question would be awesome too.

Next up, directories, and getting your shop into them.

DaWanda!

I’ve found a new place to show my wares — and it focusses on Europe, which is already a decent chunk of my market.

It’s called DaWanda and it offers you the opportunity to list in English, German, and French. So far I’m only listing in English but I’ll be adding German soon. (I don’t have the nerve to try French, as I speak but a few words of it…) I’m hoping this will give me some more exposure and bring in more customers. And just having a new place to sell is always a good thing.

The exciting part will be doing the translations. They recommend that you avoid the automatic translators like Babelfish and having seen some of the results of those I can’t blame them. Though I’ve taken five years of German at various points very little of it has remained — but I think that with a good dictionary and a lot of persistence I’ll be able to muddle through.

It’ll be fun for sure!

You can find my DaWanda shop here. Have a look!

I love my family.

They made me this:

See, my mother owns a trophy store back in Pennsylvania. I worked for her (and for my father, before he died) for a lot of years. In fact, that’s where I learned what I know about graphics and layouts — I can thank them for my labels, especially the custom ones.

Since I moved out here my sister works for Mom in my place. She also does graphics work, and did a couple of lovely ads for me:

A while ago I asked them to find me a business card holder — ideally one that someone else had ordered and never picked up, or perhaps a sample they no longer needed, or something they’d messed up the engraving on. I didn’t want them to spend any money on it, see; I just wanted somewhere to put my cards.

Well, they went and spent money anyway. And on top of which engraved my company logo and stuff into the top.

Doesn’t it look great?

I love my family. :)

A teaser!

Today I got a box:

Inside was a kitten!

Okay, not really. I added the kitten after I took everything else out.

This was the everything else:

Yes, this means ‘lots of new products coming soon’.

More later!

Shopping Sites

Trying to find just the right thing for someone? Too much to choose from? I know the feeling — it’s hard to dig through all the choices to find something perfect, especially when half the sites that show up in the standard search engines turn out to be spam sites.

There are a number of places on the Web that seek to solve this problem, or at least make it easier — sites where every link is checked before it’s posted, sites that link to (if I may say so) only the best. Some are directories, some are blogs, all of them are places where you can find truly wonderful things.

If you’re in the Boulder area you may wish to check out Naturally Boulder. Their goal, in their words: “To create a thriving natural products business community able to support business interests along the product chain.” They hold a number of natural-themed events each year (one recent one was a dinner: “In Praise of Slowness”), they do press releases promoting natural living, and they have a directory of local vendors selling a wide variety of natural products.

Gemma Wild of Our Craft Directory has this to say about her site: “A human edited web directory of craft related web sites. All the links listed in this particular directory have been manually checked, so you will not find any inappropriate or junk web sites.” She’s very selective about who will and won’t be listed in her directory — it took two weeks for my application to be accepted — and thus it’s small, but very high-quality. She breaks sites down into categories such as Food & Cakes, Knitting & Needle, and Blogs to make it easier to find what you’re looking for.

Buried Treasury is another site like Our Craft Directory but organized as a blog. Tim at BT focuses on Etsy sellers and has this to say about his site: “[T]here are so many great items on Etsy that are buried under thousands of items……lets dig up these Etsy treasures and display them in a different and unique way. These Minis are active and can change when shop owners change their items.”

An Etsy Mini is a customizable widget which displays what’s for sale in your shop — it’ll change as you add new items, too. As an example here’s a link to my entry at Buried Treasury. Thus, in addition to breaking things down into a number of easily-searchable categories, Buried Treasury also allows you to see what you’re looking at.

Another blog is Indie Gals Vintage & Indie Clothing, Accessories and Jewelry Finds. A long title but it does tell you what they do. Every couple of weeks they’ll make a long post with any of a number of things — interviews, features, ‘Items that Should Be in a Treasury’, complete with pictures, links, and a whole bunch of other information. They’ll also post sales if you send them their way — you can see mine on the right side of the blog right now!

Shoparama Marketplace gets back to the directory style of shopping. As its proprietress puts it, “We hope to create a simple and stress free shopping experience for all of your shopping & gift giving needs. We will bring these specialized stores & boutiques to you!” Shoparama Marketplace consists of a long, sorted listing of diverse online shops, plus a number of featured sites at the bottom. Best of all, you can rank the shops you find there, so it’s easy to tell the real deals!

There are a lot more such sites around the web — if you know of any good ones, comment here; I know y’all want to know the good places to look!