EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT! : All About Newsletters

In 2010 I am becoming more organized and have always wanted to try out a newsletter. Today, I did just that and I am excited to show you what I have found and created!

I first was inspired by TimothyAdamDesigns and his newsletter. He always has so many great tips and links. His e-mail I get is just text and links, so I wanted a little more color and pizzaz to mine since I am artsy and funky anyways.

I went to the Etsy forums and looked up a thread started by etsian, thecyclingartist, about newsletters and mailing lists. I hate using the word mailing list because it sounds like spam and ads. This is not want I want to see or read all the time if I am being picky about which newsletters I am signing up for.

In this thread, I founds two great sites to create a newsletter. Mad Mimi was the first mentioned. While it looks very cool and there were good reviews about it, I wanted something free to start off with to make sure I would stick with a newsletter and learn how to reach my audience. Their site starts off at $8 a month for the same amount of contacts I could have at Mail Chimp, which is the site I am using.

I have found Mail Chimp to be pretty easy to use once I poked around for an hour or two and sent myself a test newsletter. I am able to link my twitter and allow readers to share the newsletter via Facebook and other social networking sites! Now I am ready to send out my first newsletter, which will be bi-monthly and focus on featured artists, Etsy news, tips, and deals!

If you are choosing to create a newsletter or mailing list, there are a few rules and laws you must follow and can be found at the FTC site for the CanSpam Act Laws. Please take a look at these and make sure your newsletters follow the few, but simple laws.

I will be updating this post as I learn more about newsletters and read comments and suggestions from you!

Please take a moment to sign up for my bi-monthly newsletter. Check out my first issue and see what you think? Let me know if it is good, bad, or what could be improved. What do you want to see?? You can always opt out later. Sign up below or to the left side of my blog!

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Valentine's Day Gift Ideas

Either you are celebrating a happy Valentine's Day, or promoting Singles Awareness Day. Which ever you choose, I am putting a call out for your Valentine's Day or Anti-Valentine's Day handmade items!

If you are a handmade artist, comment on this blog entry and your item(s) could be featured! I will be putting together a Valentine's Day/Singles Awareness day gift guide with your Etsy shop and links featured!

To submit, please include...

-Your shop name

-Link to shop

-Link to the item you would like featured

Visit my Valentine's Day items in my Etsy shop!

Find other Valentine's Day items in the Etsy Forums!

Featured Above: Raku Ceramic Heart Ornament/Pendant $8.00

Photography by Erin Hession.

TWEET TWEET Twitter Tips!!!!

I just read a really great Etsy forum by CatherinetteRings about Twitter. You can go visit this forum here, or read below because I will shorten with links for you.

I just tried many of these (I did not know they exist) and these applications are GREAT!

1. TWITSEEKER.com

This site is AWESOME because you can look up keywords, then mass follow people who have either tweeted about that keyword or have it in their profile (it lets you choose either option). It also lets you know how many followers they have and you can see information and stats about them. It is really easy and quick without any additional signing up for things. All you need to enter is your Twitter username and password.

2. TWITTERCOUNTER.com

This site is for you to see different stats about your Twitter account. Also, no additional sign ups... just your username and password. I just signed up and it already has stats for me. So easy to use! 

3. TWITALYZER.com

This site scores and analyzes you based on your tweets, retweets, following, etc. I am still figuring out what everything means, but is very easy to use. All you have to enter is your Twitter name and it will automatically score you. Pretty interesting stuff....

4.TWEEPULAR.com

This site is fun to look at and has MANY different things you can do! This site is also the best to mass follow or unfollow (if others are not following you back). I suggest you take some time to visit and poke around here! No  other sign ups required. Soon, you will also be able to see recent unfollowers.

5. Other Twitter Applications

I hope you find these links useful and easy to use! Do you have other links or experiences to share? Please comment below. I will possibly edit and also link your shop to the post! Happy Tweeting!

I am FAMOUS! (Well.. Getting Closer at Least)

I have some exciting news to share with everyone!!!!

This past January, I saw a thread in the forums about a company looking for some crafters for a new feature. I was extremely interested, but knew a million others would be as well. Luckily, I was the third person to post and was contact soon after. 

The result is that I am now working for a company in NY who is working with S.C. Johnson (a Family Company) with this new feature.

Unfortunately I cannot include too much information in this post, but will post the links here so you can see the project, learn more about myself and what I do, and enter your own project at the site!

Check out my crafting project here!

I would appreciate any comments or ratings from you on the site!

Learn more about ME HERE!

Enter YOUR OWN CRAFT PROJECT HERE!

This month's theme is " Fun 'N' Games".

The winner may be featured in an upcoming Clean Home Journal TM  issue!

Cleanhomejournal.com

Click on "Show 'N' Tell"

Please let me know what you think and thanks for the support!!!!

I am Creating a Book!

My student-artist ACEO and ATC trade has become so successful that it has snowballed into something HUGE!  I am in the process of creating a book titled "Create. Collect. Trade. : A Collection of Artist Trading Cards by Artists and Students."

I will be looking for shops and artists to fill the space in the book along with student work. This book makes a great promotional tool for you and a wonderful coffee table book as well!  

My purpose in creating this book is to help teach and spread the knowledge and inspiration to artists and visual art students of this unique art form and eventually hold a nation-wide contest for visual art students to be seen and published alongside true ACEO and ATC artists. 

For more information, please visit the book blog.

Create. Collect. Trade.

Or these forum posts...

ETSY thread about the book

ETSY thread about the ATC Trading Experience Between Artists and Students

If you have more information or would like to be a part of this wonderful opportunity, please convo or e-mail me at art2theextreme@yahoo.com

**Blog Image is by Etsian AnnaCox with Purty Girl Designs

CALLING ALL ACEO AND ATC ARTISTS!

I have always been familiar with the term ATC (Artist Trading Card), but am now discovering the term ACEO (Art Cards Editions and Originals). 

I was looking at some really neat ones the other day in the ETSY shop of mLee and today I saw this Fiberart ACEO on an ACEO site. I really wanted to know who made that Fiberart ACEO, but it would have been millions of sellers. Luckily, tonight I was in the chats and ran into DebiDesigns and discovered she was the amazing artist behind the mystery ACEO.

Anyways... it got me thinking. I have my 3rd though 5th grade students make ATCs and it would be wonderful for them to see actual real artist ATCs and ACEOs. I posted a thread in the Crafting and Business Forum to see if anyone would be willing to donate or swap and got a HUGE RESPONSE! Many Etsy artists are going to send examples of their work to share with my students! In return, I will be sending them student examples, photos of our trading day where students will get to trade their own with each other, and hopefully have a few letters to send out with the cards. I will also be featuring the artists in a few of my blog features, as well as a link area to their shops. 

This will be such a great experience for the students and I am amazed by the response so far by the ETSY community.  If you or anyone you know are an ACEO or ATC artist and would like to donate or would like more information, please send me a convo on Etsy or e-mail to art2theextreme@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

CHECK OUT THIS THREAD IF INTERESTED

Addicted to the Forums!

HELP! I am addicted to the forums! I am trying to cram all the two days I have left before school starts up again (I am an art teacher) with Etsy and lesson planning. I know I will not have as much time to run my Etsy shop and make art during school, so I might as well do it now.

What gets so frustrating is the forums at times because it only seems like sellers are promoting (which is what that area is for), but to buyers really know about the forums? I  think I would rather start holding meaningful conversations in the "Business" or "Ideas" forums, but cause it seems like a waste of time to try to promote all time time.  I think it is important to create meaningful relationships with other artists and Etsians. Everything in the forums seems so fast paste anyways that you have to type fast and copy paste. That gets annoying and I even found myself accidentally posting in someone else's promotion (which is what everyone does to me, but I really do not mind at all). They made a smart, but polite comment, which woke me up (but soon discovered others were doing it to), but made me feel sad because it was an accident. 

Since I barged in on their photo promo (since my pendant sale had nothing to do with photos), here is my promotion for them :). 

Pictured is "Glorious Sunset" by fellow Etsian, Coldcell. This photo was taken in Lancashire, England ( I LOVE ENGLAND). I just love the bright colors and think this photo is absolutely amazing. They are running a special thought January, Buy one get one FREE on any photographic prints (not including magnets or note cards). You can check out Coldcell's shop at

http://www.coldcell.etsy.com

And now I will get off my pedestal about forums....