Tag-Archive for » Internet Marketing «

Feb
09
Posted by Michele on February 9, 2010

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…

Jan
12
Posted by Michele on January 12, 2010

I can make that! I wrote that! My daughter wrote that, ain’t she smart?

It seems like an endless battle to fight the scammers, thieves and other no-good-knicks that STEAL from others.

Just when I thought I had gotten the content theft occurring on my Foods Not Safe for Pets article under control, I found yet another cretin posting the article in it’s entirety on Yahoo! Answers. And for good measure, she claimed her daughter who was attending veterinarian school provided the list – ah nice, a liar and a thief.

According to one of my new Twitter friends, in a recent Etsy feature on weddings, one of the “artisans” featured populated her shop with stolen photographs and created listings using them stating that they could make a copy of the designer dress in the image for some fee. Under mounting pressure from the Tweets, comments and other discussions; Etsy has apparently closed the offending shop.

Well, that’s one for the good guys. Now I’m off to see about yet another DMCA notice and updating that page to make it clear that people should stop posting my entire article on Yahoo!

Oct
12
Posted by Michele on October 12, 2009

Dear Blogger Without an Informative About Me Page,

You might have the greatest blog ever. Your posts might be witty, informative or otherwise link-worthy. You might have designed the bestest-ever tutorial to make something. People enjoy your blog and often return to read more. And yet, after all that effort, you failed to provide any information about who you are and make it easy for people to help promote your site.

who are youThink about someone blogging about cats. Are you more likely to trust information from someone who has three cats living with them or someone who is basing their comments on what other bloggers say about living with cats? Crafting is no different; particularly if you are selling what you make.

Most blogging software makes it really easy to create an About Me page. Yet, you either didn’t create an About Me page or you posted something meaningless.

May I offer a few suggestions to get you started…

While you do not have to say exactly how old you are, it would be nice to know if you are say under 30, a working mom or a much loved grandmother. Even having a vague idea of how old you are can help people get to know you and appreciate where you are coming from.

If you write a blog about sewing, while it is nice to know that you have a wonderful husband and the sex and number of children you have, prospective buyers of your items or people like me who want to exchange links would much rather see stuff about how long you have been sewing, what inspires you and perhaps from whom or how you learned to sew.

Large corporations create Press Kits so that when someone wishes to write a piece about their company they have some background information to draw from. While most bloggers will never need a full-blown press kit it would be nice if more of you thought more about promotion when it came to putting something on your About Me page.

Signed,

Michele

owner of

Crafty Tips Arts & Crafts Directory

Yes, today’s post is a bit of a rant. Drives me crazy when folks are so busy trying to avoid providing personal information that they fail to provide trade or professional info. It’s so much easier to add sites to Crafty Tips when the site owner has taken some time to provide some information about how they came to be making what they do.

Would you rather have a link with text that says,

Blog about knitting with both free patterns and patterns for sale.

or

This self-taught knitter has been creating custom knitwear for over 20 years. While she no longer makes sweaters for sale, she shares her knowledge and expertise on this informative blog about knitting techniques and provides a number of free patterns and patterns for purchase.

So, if you are blogging in cognito and particularly if you are trying to promote your online business, get serious information on your About Me page so other bloggers and people like me can help you!

To learn more about writing about me pages, please visit my earlier post which includes ideas and tips for what to include and what to leave out or you about me.

Oct
05
Posted by Michele on October 5, 2009

Looking back, I can’t really remember using the term recycled for much of anything before everyone wanted to go green.

Most of what we talk about recycling is what we once called garbage, trash, refuse and junk – old newspapers, building construction scraps, tin cans, glass bottles and even diapers are now commonly being recycled. The recycled materials are typically crushed, shredded, melted and/or chemically treated to be used to create something sanitized and new. Through the process we somehow see past the garbage aspect and see the new recycled item as clean and perhaps even better than the original. I still don’t see how taking a used diaper and recycling it into stuffing used for stuffed animals could ever be anything other than yucky but the end result was a pristine-looking stuffing used by toy manufacturers around the world, including one I used to work for.

While children’s crafts have long centered around the fairly clean and odor-free cardboard tubes from used toilet paper and paper towels, today’s crafters are finding many more recycled items from which to make their pieces. In the long run, it’s all good – less trash in the landfills and useful, creative items are being produced.

The problem, as I see it, is that crafters and artists focusing on green or recycled crafting must be careful on how they market themselves and might need to spend more time and effort explaining their craft and focus a little less on their green-ness.

more…

Oct
01
Posted by Michele on October 1, 2008

standing out from the crowdMany of us spend a great deal of time seeking ways to advertise our websites and businesses to stand out from the crowd.

How much time is spent actively reacting to what others are saying about us?

Some time ago I was subcontracted to do some marketing research for a company. Their products sold in the $100k+ range and they wanted to know what their primary competitor was doing online. The results surprised me and are something we could all learn from…

more…