A year in FB posts

Just a quick post with a cool app on Facebook that randomly puts together a sample of your status posts for the year. It's interesting to see what was going on in my head although possibly not so much to an outsider. If you want to make one for yourself you can go here if you are on FB. It would be cool if there was a way to do that for your blog.

Updates!

First I want to say that I'm happy with the response to the Fall Newsletter Giveaway. I knew that joining the newsletter was more of a commitment to me so I made it a worthy prize. Well over 50 people have signed up since I opened the giveaway up so that is a good thing. I sent out an e-mail today to everyone on my subscriber list as of this morning. There were about 10 people still pending so if you thought you signed up but didn't get an e-mail from me today than you had better try signing up again to be safe.

Last night a friend from high school asked me about my Etsy shop on Facebook so I posted another link on my homepage and low and behold I woke up this morning to 5 sales. I have my Etsy mini on my FB page but I guess I need to be more proactive about letting people know about it. I certainly don't want to spam my friends since I primarily use FB to connect with people I know but this was a good reminder that it doesn't hurt to let people see that I sell some cool stuff.

I've been bringing lots of scarflettes back from the dead the past few weeks like the one at the top of the page. Shades of Clay is 100% cashmere and incredibly luscious with a handmade clay button to close it up. I'm a little concerned since a lot of the pictures for these items aren't up to my current quality. I know that they won't sell if they aren't listed, and relisting something is a lot easier than taking the pictures for something new and going through the whole listing process. So I think I'm going to continue to do it and just move them down the page a bit so that the pretty new pictures are at the top. I love that Etsy allows us to rearrange our listings now. This is a major perk for sellers and gives us a lot more control over how our shops look.

Overall I'm happy with how the fall is going so far. I need to do some more Project Wonderful advertising and possibly find a few more advertising opportunities. I hope that you are finding ways to get yourself out there as well. If you have any ideas for cheap promotion please share.

Crafting It Forward

So I recently did a crafting it Forward on Facebook where I committed to sending something handmade to the first 5 who responded to my Facebook note. I found a similar idea to pay if forword for bloggers on Cheese and Chocolate's blog that I replied to so I will be getting a box of fun stuff from her neck of the woods soon.



















I'm going to do it a combination of the 2 ideas. I will be crafting it forward to 3 people who commit to pay it forward on their own blog or in their own community. I'm going to have to limit it to the U.S. unfortunately to keep shipping costs down. If more than 3 people reply to this post by the end of this week, 4-25-09, I'll draw 3 names from a hat. The 3 people will be getting something hand knit from me of my choice. It could be a fashion scarf, a wrist cuff, or possibly even a pouch.

Define Your Life Through MEME

I was recently tagged by fellow crafty blogger extraordinaire, Soy Wax Candles.
The Rules for the MEME are:

1. Put your Music Player on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Tag your friends

I know that I'm risking great digital embarrassment but I do not have a Shuffle. I thought it would be inaccurate if I used my husbands so I decided not to play along. Yesterday I got a different music themed meme on facebook from Jen, a good friend in real life who blogs under Frugal Vegcafe. It was actually a lot of fun so I thought I would share it here.


Using only song titles from one artist, try to cleverly answer these questions, tag whoever might enjoy it, and pass it on:


Pick a Band/Artist: I choose Tori Amos, one of my all time favorites. I cannot tell you how many times I've listened to Little Earthquakes in the dark, while in the midst of some emotional upheaval or another.


1. Are you a male or a female: "Cornflake Girl"

2. Describe yourself: "Strange Little Girl"

3. How do you feel about yourself: "Silent All These Years"

4. Describe your boyfriend/girlfriend: " Heart Of Gold"

5. Describe your current boy/girl situation: "A Sorta Fairytale"

6. Describe your current location: "Here. In My Head"

7. Describe where you want to be:" Little Amsterdam"

8. Your best friend is: "Crazy"

9. Your favorite color is: "Agent Orange"

10. You know that it is: "Pretty Good Year"

11. What’s the weather like: "Winter"

12. If your life was a television show what would it be called? "Pandora's Aquarium"

13. What is life to you: "Another Girl's Paradise"

14. What is the best advice you have to give: "Enjoy The Silence"

15. If you could change your name what would you change it to: "Yes, Anastasia"


I am not going to tag anyone but I encourage you to play along. It is actually pretty fun. The other one looks interesting too so feel free to play along with that one if you like. You can find the questions on Soy's blog here. I've seen it spreading quite a bit lately.

It really is fascinating to see how many of this meme's are going viral right now. I read an interesting article on Slate the other day about the 25 Random Things phenomenon on Facebook. It is very similar to the 7 Random things tag that was going around last year on the blogs. Since joining facebook I've gotten lots of tags, some I've done and some I've ignored. There is only so much navel gazing I can indulge in before feeling self conscious. I think it says something about our culture that we really need this self analysis and connections with others right now. It may be a superficial connection but when someone participates it helps strengthen the bonds and makes you feel closer to them if only for a few minutes. I'm guessing that is something we all need more of, especially in our generation of spread out relationships.

Blogger, and Twitter, and Facebook Oh my!

Does anyone else get overwhelmed by all the different methods of promotion and on-line communication? I remember a time when we didn't even have personal computers and I'm not that old. Now my husband and I have at any given time between 3-5 computers of some kind in the house. Only one of them is mine but he has a personal laptop, a work laptop, a personal computer, and a Mac in the basement of a band mate that they use for recording. (The above card is from Simply Sentimental on Etsy).

I have been slowly incorporating different sites into my daily life and I'm beginning to feel overload. I don't want my promotion and networking to take over my life so that I end up spending less time knitting and have nothing to promote. Initially when I started my shop I would spend some time each day promoting on the etsy forums. This seems to be where most people start and it can be a useful tool to get hearts and meet people in the community. I am pretty over it to be honest and I go there less and less as time goes by. I poke in for a few minutes here and there and post a few thoughts, do a little promotion if I have an item that isn't getting much love.

My next venture was Flickr which is just for downloading pictures. It is free but you pay to set up a premium account and get more room and categories. I posted a ton of product pictures and a few personal and band pictures. I joined some crafting and etsy related groups and posted pictures to their pages. I still go in periodically but I don't think I've ever gotten a sale from it and I don't find it too satisfying at this point.

I started my blog around 6 months ago. I started out with low expectations but it has been a very fulfilling adventure so far. I'm approaching my 100th post and I average between 150-200 hits a day according to google stats. I know a lot of them are entrecard drops but I try to keep up with a lot of crafting and creative blogs on there and I feel that is generally reciprocated. I really don't know how that compares with other blogs but I honestly don't care. I like the connection I feel to other bloggers. I'm an introvert by nature and I think that blogging has been good for me. I've also gotten several custom orders and sales from readers so it has been the most productive on-line promotional tool for me so far.

Joining Entrecard has brought a lot of new bloggers into my sphere and I like the dropping process. It is a soothing and meditative activity for me usually. I can do it on my lunch hour and since my work computer is so fast I can get most of my daily 300 in during that time. I can usually find a few minutes here and there when I'm not with students to write a post and leave comments on other blogs during the work week also. I've decided that since my home computer takes so much longer to bring up pages and do my drops I'm going to keep it to a minimum on the weekends and focus on knitting time. This will hurt my entrecard rating but that is not as important as having the inventory I need for my business.

I recently added Facebook and Twitter to my daily doings. I really like that Facebook has reconnected me with people from my past that I've lost track of through the years. I started a shop business page to let people that already know me know what I'm doing with my knitting. Many of them had no idea about my business and I've gotten a lot of hits and compliments on my work. I see facebook as more about connecting and less about promotion, although a little promotion is definitely involved.

Twitter is much more of a promotional thing for me. To be honest I feel a bit like I'm yelling into the wind with Twitter. I have over a hundred followers after only a week of active tweeting but I don't think any of them are really listening. I decided I needed to give it a chance before I decided whether I wanted to really do it. People are always saying how many sales they have gotten from it and how wonderful it is so I'm trying to keep an open mind. I sometimes feel silly saying what I'm doing in 140 words or less. I feel with my blog I am actually reaching and expressing at least part of the real me. Tweeting seems more superficial and fake somehow to me. I have gotten a number of views when I've posted my new listings and what not so I think I'm going to keep it up for awhile and see if it grows on me.

I have a page on Etsy love, Myspace, and a few other networking sites but I've not added any content or spent much of any time there. What promotional tools have you found to be the best use of your valuable time?

Productivity at an All time Low

So I've gotten absolutely nothing productive done since joining Facebook. But it has been really fascinating to reconnect with people from all the different eras of my life. It makes the world feel like a much smaller and friendlier place. Thanks to the poster who suggested putting a separate page for shop promotion. I haven't figured out how to do it yet but that is the next plan. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

I did have a chance to think about the results of my latest poll. I'm so glad that I did it since the results really made me rethink some things. Obviously the majority of you think I should be focusing more on the bags and pouches and not the jewelry. I have made 3 pouches and they were a lot of fun. I did a basic design and decorated them with sea shells and puca shells. Mike said they would be perfect for carrying your stash or hackey sack. I think his point was that they were a bit sixties inspired which is fine by me. I will be working on some other designs and will try my hand at some bags with straps as well. I am still going to do some hemp jewelry but I'm not going to focus on it as much as I was planning. And of course I will also be doing headbands which I love to make. They are quick and use up the scraps that I have left from other things. Skinny scarves will be my bigger ticket items and so I will make up a bunch of them in different lacey patterns and such. It's weird to be planning my spring inventory now while we are in the coldest weather of the year but I guess it's how you have to operate. Thanks to all who voted! Above is a long skinny scarf/belt still available from last year. It is in the shop now if you click on the picture it will take you to the listing.

What should be the focus of my Spring Lenox Knits line?

Facebook Finally

I finally got with the 21st Century and joined Facebook last night. I'm starting to gather my posse and get some friends. It's funny since even the ladies at work are joining. It's obviously going to become passe very soon if my generation and older are now in on it. The kids will have to create something new very soon.

Here is my link. Nothing fancy but I have added some stuff to my profile and a few pics. I like it a lot better than Myspace. I had a page there but I just couldn't get into it. There were a lot of annoying bells and whistles that offending my delicate sensibilities. I like the streamlined and clean look of Facebook. There aren't all the crazy things jumping out at you whenever you enter someone's page.

I haven't figured out if I want to use it as a promotional tool somehow or just leave it as a personal diversion. I obviously wouldn't spam all my friends constantly with updates to my shop since that is just tacky, but there has to be some way to use it tastefully to promote. I have a link to my blog and etsy shop in my profile and I mentioned my shop there as well. I also included pics of my craft show displays. I don't want to put up a bunch of random pictures of inventory like I have on my flickr page but I'm thinking I may list some of my favorites and ones with Ani modeling. Since I have no kids my scarves are almost like my babies as sad as that sounds. I'm proud of my work and I want to share but I also don't want to look pathetic if that is not what people want to see on Facebook. I'm sure I'll figure out the lay of the land soon. I saw that Etsy had a page there so I'm sure that others have figured out a way to make it work for them. If you have a facebook account please share your thoughts on whether you use it for promotion or just for fun.