Feb
14
Photography Textbook
Michele

Hi to anyone who may be sticking with me here! Been a busy few weeks. Seems like its always feast or famine with my writing clients – everyone needing something at once leaves little time for blogging. But, hey someone’s gotta help pay to keep the lights on around here.

Anyway, found this great photography resource while working on my experimental site Online Degree Discussion.

If you haven’t visited my site before, it’s a great place to find information and links to free college textbooks and other basic info on online degrees.

A few weeks ago I came across this great resource. While it’s not really a match for my site, I though since so many of us have so much trouble taking nice photos of our handmade items that this article/e-book on photography might be of use –
http://www.photocourse.com/download/Textbook-of-Digital-Photography-samples.pdf.

Haven’t had the time to really read it over. Hope someone finds it useful!

Have any great photography tips you would be willing to share?

The only one I have is to cover up the lens with your hand while you are positioning a shot. Because most diggies are auto-focus, as you move around the room it keeps trying to focus on what it sees. I found out by accident that this re-focusing can take up quite a bit of your battery charge. Cover the lens with your hand and watch how much longer the battery lasts between charges!

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Feb
09
Free Patterns Gone Paid = Missed Opportunity
Michele

As I talked about in one of my first blog posts – Free Patterns Lead to Sales, it’s a fairly common practice for crafters to offer free patterns on their blogs and websites. Freebies can lead to a multitude of free links and advertising for your site. And it’s not a technique for garnering links and traffic that is solely utilized by crafters.

Where site owners are shooting themselves in the foot is when they remove a previously free article or pattern from their website and add it to their shop or store, make it part of a paid ebook or private area. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why someone would want to make money from their work. But, as those folks who have linked to that page realize that it no longer exists, you are going to lose all of those wonderful links to your site. more…

Category: Being Web Savvy, Selling Crafts on the Internet, Selling Tips, Website Promotion  Tags: , , , , , , ,  Leave a Comment
Feb
04
Forced Registration?
Michele

The other day I made a small rant about what I called Post Hiding. But, several blogs that I’ve visited since have taken this to an entirely new level. It’s what amounts to, give me your email or you can’t read my blog.

I suppose some marketing guru somewhere is espousing this wonderful technique to gain newsletter readers. What they do is you can see their blog unobstructed just long enough to read about 2-3 sentences of their site and then this giant box appears on the screen asking/demanding that you sign up for their newsletter. No where on the giant box is a place to say “No thanks”, “Not now” or “Maybe later.” No where is there a tiny “X” or button saying “Close”. Clicking on the page off of the box does nothing. Scrolling down the screen just keeps the box firmly over the content further down the page.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve spent hours disinfecting my mother’s computer after being infected by a virus from clicking on “No” as in “No I don’t want your XYZ thing” and the virus downloaded anyway. It escapes me as to why Internet marketeers think that people are going to willingly give up their email address (a good one anyway) and sign up to get yet more spam in their inbox from a blog they are visiting for the first time.

There’s no blogger out there that is so all-knowing and insightful that people are going to willingly sign up for their newsletter without being able to read at least one or two posts first. Well, perhaps some of these folks who have established cult-like followings might be able to use this strategy but the typical Joe or Jane blogger out there won’t get very far.

I just don’t get it. Why work so hard to create something of value, get it indexed nicely enough to bring in some search engine traffic and then basically tell folks that they’re not wanted? Even some of the major newspaper websites that have gone to a paid model will let you see the story that brought you to their site.

If you’re reading this, please don’t do this. It might get you a handful of registrations but more than likely it’s only going to get folks to move on to the next site and not come back.

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Jan
26
Public Domain Patterns
Michele

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems way too many people are building websites based around “vintage” patterns without regard to copyrights and other niceties.

Too many crafters are simply assuming that the original copyright holder did not renew their copyright. Patterns published in the 1940s and 50s are not necessarily out of copyright. It all depends upon whether or not the original copyright holder filed for an extension.

Posting a disclaimer like, “As far as I know this pattern is out of copyright but if you know differently please let me know.” at least shows the website owner has considered the pattern may still be protected. Problem is that disclaimer offers zip, zero, nada protection for the site owner or anyone else who might wish to sell items made from that pattern. Having a disclaimer is not a free pass for copyright infringement. Site owners can still be forced to remove the infringing content or even be sued by the true copyright holder.

A recent submitter to Crafty Tips seems to have employed a hybrid approach where they are placing usage restrictions on patterns that are either fully in the public domain or might have been renewed. Normally I would have happily added their site as it does have a nice selection of different patterns. The whole maybe it’s still in copyright issue didn’t bug me as much as the strange attempt to restrict usage. Some of the vintage patterns are identified as “free for personal use” while others are identified as being free for both personal and commercial use.

Granted, had the site owner used her own picture or made a number of rewrites to a pattern truly in the public domain, they could claim some level of copyright on the work. The pictures look like they were originally published with the pattern and there is no indication that the site owner made any changes to the original pattern.

When I post vintage patterns on The Crafty Tipster like the vintage sweater shown in this article, I always give credit to the original designer (if known) and the original publication information. Technically, if a vintage pattern is truly in the public domain, such attribution is not required. I do it to both honor the original designer as well as to ensure that anyone outside of the US has the information needed to ensure that the pattern is also in the public domain in their own country or any country they may sell the finished item in.

Only if I include a picture of an item I made or if I have made a number of changes to the pattern itself, am I creating something new that I can copyright – even then I provide the original designer’s info. The collection of patterns as a whole can be copyrighted but an individual pattern that has not been changed remains in the public domain.

The vintage pattern site, for now, is lingering in my submission queue. Part of me wonders if I am simply being too picky. The pattern designer in me doesn’t like the attempt at adding usage restrictions to something the site owner does not own.

What are your thoughts? Do you care if someone posts a public domain, vintage pattern and claims some level of ownership? Do you think the original designer should always be credited regardless of copyright status?

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Jan
25
Post Hiding
Michele

I’ve been visiting more blogs in the past few weeks than I think I did all of last year. I don’t know if this is someone’s misguided “good idea” or some sort of coding mistake but how could anyone think it’s a good idea to not include a link at the bottom of their blog to “previous posts”?

I mean really, do they think it’s a good idea not to encourage their blog visitors to stick around? Do they somehow think older posts have less value? I really don’t get it.

It also seems the blogs ascribing to this design do not offer post categories either. The only navigation is a list of months and the number of posts made in each month. But, there’s the rub. Go to one of the months that has a decent amount of posts and there’s still only access to the newest 2-3 posts.

Why? Why would any blog owner use a template that does this? Is there some strategy I’m just not seeing? All I’m seeing is a blog owner who is being really foolish and failing to recognize the value of their previous posts. All I’m seeing is a blog owner practically shouting at their visitors, “Go Away! You’re not welcome here!”

Category: Being Web Savvy, Internet Marketing  Tags: , , ,  Leave a Comment
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