Marketing Monday: The 21 Best Resources from the 2010 Blogosphere

misscourageous

Hi - I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday!
I'm back to posting links and articles about marketing on Mondays.
Today I'd like to share an Etsy blog post with loads of great information:
The 21 Best Resources from the 2010 Blogosphere
Everything from "When to Start Selling Your Work"
to tax information and social media.
{I love that part about wasting an entire day on Twitter.}

So, cheers to a New Year and pimping, I mean marketing, our wares!

Marketing Monday: Present Yourself to the Press

Last year, I had bookmarked an Etsy blog post Seller Tip: Present Yourself to the Press.
Since I'm also posting the Feature Me Friday posts, I thought it would be a great topic.

As a crafter and seller, you want to get your story out there - summer fairs, gallery exposure, wholesale orders, and don't forget the holidays (yes, time to start thinking about it now!).
Your story should include a few basic photographs, according to Vanessa and Danielle.

a nice head shot


slyraccoon

a photo of your studio or workspace


alexkeller

a photo of you in the creative process


rikrak

your items in context


eyepopart

your items against a plain background


ecokaren

You'll want to keep high resolution photos on file and you can always resize those later.
What else can you use these for?

• About Me or Contact Me page of your business website
• Your blog
• Facebook Fan page
• Your Flickr stream
• One of the images in your Etsy listings
• A blog, magazine, or newspaper interview
• Applications for a grant, artist in residency, gallery show or craft show
• If you're picked for Featured Seller on Etsy
• Etsy Open Studios Tour series on The Storque and its Flickr group
• For another example, check out ShareSomeCandy's Workspaces series
• Other Storque posts

goodgirlsstudio

Minding your SEO

I don't know about you, but this has been on my mind a lot lately.
I received a link to this post on
Minding Your Own Business - Top 10 Tips to Improve Your SEO

It has very understandable tips that will help you to get traffic to your site,
which is great, because I need understandable!
And the free Etsy SEO Guide you can also find in this Storque post about SEO

What are you doing to drive traffic to your shop?

EyePopArt's Series on DIY Art Education

Christine Claringbold of EyePopArt wrote a great article for the Storque:
Parents Teach Art: A DIY Approach to Elementary School Art Education
It discusses a very personal way to bring art back into the schools! She included simple steps for becoming more active in your school districts arts program.

Stay tuned she will also be taking a closer look at how the program works, including roles and responsibilities of the art committee, scheduling classes, teaching tips, and ideas for hosting an exhibit of student art!

Christine you are an inspiration of artistic sustainability! Thank you so much for sharing your know how with us...we can't wait to read more!

Announcing Earth Tones in the Storque!

Etsy's blog the Storque just premiered a new featured column: Earth Tones. It's focused on being eco-conscious.

Trashion and EcoEtsy teams collaborated on a series of Earth Day celebration articles. The first one Why We're Green coordinated by EcoKate is up already for your reading enjoyment!

Trashion team members highlighted in this article include Kae1Crafts and rikrak. Both life long upcyclers.

It's a wonderful read and a great start to a very special feature!

Etsy Finds: Handmade Rugs

Etsy Finds: Handmade Rugs
Story by anda, EtsyLabs
Published on September 12, 2007 in Spotlight
Photo by Fiveforty

Fall is coming.
Your hardwood floors are getting cold.
You need rugs. You need a lot of rugs. Handmade rugs, woven rugs, hooked rugs, braided rugs, recycled rugs, area rugs. Today's Etsy Find is a handwoven felted wool rag rug by Etsy seller Fiveforty. It's made from recycled old sweaters!

Trunk full o' Trashion - The Storque - Etsy.com

Article available in the first issue of Etsy's The Storque
http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/events/article/trunk-full-o-trashion/124/

Trashion = Trash + Fashion
The Trashion Street team recently descended upon the Etsy Labs and made us feel guilty for not recycling everything in the world. Their trunk show drew in people from all over who appreciate their guile and creativity.
Check out some of the the designers who spring into action when they see something headed for the garbage can. Here's the flickr set for Last Friday Trunk Shows and a video by Shannon http://blip.tv/file/363589