Featured Artists, Marketing Tips, Blog Tips, and Random Musings by Finding Charm

Please Vote for Me! I'm Featured on Great Finds!

2012-01-20T23:23:00.000-06:00

Click on the button above! The poll is on the left side of the page, at the bottom.

Here's the piece that is featured

Here is a list of all the goodies I can get. I've never won before!

A custom banner set for your shop by Helping Hands Graphic Design

A free Listing on the new On Fire Gift Guide

A $10.00 Gift Certificate from Gayl’s Goodies

On Fire For Handmade Featured Artist: Zur Designs

2012-01-17T10:23:00.001-06:00

This Week's Featured Artisan is Deb Hall - Zur Designs! Deb not only is a dedicated artisan, she also is dedicated to helping promote her fellow artisans She has a group on Facebook and team on Etsy called Indie Junction! You can find Zur Designs on:

On Fire For Handmade Featured Artist: Curiosity's Piqued

2012-01-10T09:04:00.000-06:00

This week's Featured Artisan is Lori Guenter - Curiosity's Piqued. Unique crocheted goodies! You can find Curiosity's Piqued on:

You can grab the code for your blog HERE

On Fire For Handmade Featured Artist: Catherine's Jewelry Design

2012-01-03T10:30:00.000-06:00

This weeks' Featured Artisan is Catherine Templeton - Catherine's Jewelry Design. Exquisite pieces created with love by a wonderful Artisan! You can find Catherine's Jewelry on:

On Fire for Handmade Featured Artisan: Caty Ann's Creations

2011-12-27T09:04:00.003-06:00

This week's Featured Artisan is Cathy - Caty Ann's Creations. Beautiful creations by a beautiful lady! You can find Caty Ann'e Creations on:

Arfire

On Fire for Handmade Featured Artisan: Creations with Heart

2011-12-20T09:43:00.000-06:00

This week's Featured Artisan is Julie - Creations with Heart. Beautiful Creations made by a beautiful lady! Julie not only creates jewelry she features her fellow artisans on her wonderful blogs! You can find Creations with Heart on:

New Series: The Handmade Community and Google +

2011-12-14T09:36:00.000-06:00

What is Google +? This post is general in nature and serves as an education to future posts. I will go into detail in future posts about a variety of Google + topics. My goal in this post is to help connect some dots as to why you should consider joining the Google + bandwagon for marketing your business.

In a nutshell Google + (G+) is Google's way of going social - again (Google Profiles and Google Buzz were first attempts). Yes, it's one more thing to add to your list to keep on top of. But it's different, I promise! It is brand new. It launched by invitation only in June 2011. I was lucky enough to get an invitation and started playing around with it and still haven't played with all the features it can do. Due to overwhelming demand, the entire social network was opened up in September. G+ has much more privacy control than any other social media. You control what is seen by who. There's no adding you to some group, no tagging you in photos you don't want to be seen in, all those annoying things that Facebook does. You see what you choose to see. If you tag someone on G+, only that person sees your post. How cool is that? You're in control.

I bore you with these details to preface anything G+ you see or read about is all new and we're all learning together. Even us marketers are learning as we go. From what some of us can tell, this could ultimately aid in SEO. I say this because having a Google + account whether personal or a page and +1 button all over the Internet, it would be hard pressed not to show a connection. The more +1 something gets, the more it tells the Google Gods, Wow, this must be important, we better rank this higher. But again, it's still new and theories are just beginning. But it is Google, and from what I've learned, it's best to see what they're doing whether it becomes a dud or success.

I need to start out by defining some of the main features that Google + has to offer so as I explain some processes, and it will make sense.

#1 Profile -You'll need a Google Account if you haven't already. It is the easiest thing to set up. It's very intuitive. If you use gmail, you already have an account. You will see in your Google toolbar in the upper left corner "+ You" click that and it will get you started on your G+ profile. Click here if you need to set up a Google Account.

#2 Page - Very similar to your G+ profile, but is about your business. Now you can add a Business page under your profile. You will find a Create Page green button on your Profile Home page. After you create your page, you will see a carrot that drops down your page, click and you're on your business page. You can have multiple pages as well. I won't go into this too much as this time unless there is demand. There are some functions that don't happen on a page that I hope will change as the program develops. Pages has only been released a matter of weeks.

A FEW DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PROFILES AND PAGES

Pages can’t add people to circles until the page is added first or mentioned. Profiles add people to circles.
Pages can be made for a variety of different entities (more than one G+ page) whereas profiles can only be made for people.
Pages default privacy setting is public. Profiles choose get to choose privacy settings.
Pages have the +1 button. Be sure once you have a Profile and Page set up to +1 others. Here's a post of mine to tell you how to add the + 1 button to your blog!
Pages can’t +1 other pages, nor can they +1 stuff on the Web. Profiles do! + 1 a way
Pages can’t hangout on a mobile device. I hope this will change in the future. It's vital to mobile marketing. I'm sure it's the mobile technology and not Google.

#3 Circles - this is critical and what differentiates itself from other social networking sites. You can create a variety of circles or groups of people (network). I have many circles all segmented by Jewelry Makers, Knitters, Marketing Tips, Food, etc... So as someone adds me to their circle of choice, I'm notified (how I set my settings), I can then choose to ignore or add them to one of my circles - they won't know! It's done in one click. Easy peasy. This is a marketers dream for market segmentation. You do not want to blanket your audience with the same message.

Every market is different and should be messaged differently. Two instances:

Take Twitter...as business owners, you should not mix business and personal. But in order to do that on Twitter you have to have 2 different accounts to maintain that. What a pain. Google +, because of the Circles, allows you to send a post out that only your family and friends can read for example, and no one else can because they're in a different circle. Facebook doesn't like for you to have multiple personalities either. So this is hard to do as well without multiple accounts which again, is a pain to maintain.
Two, if you sell male and female segmented products, you don't necessarily want to send a general message out to males for long dangly feather earrings. You'll want to send that to your customers you've added to your circles you know who will be interested, or other pertinent markets or Circles. It's all in the messaging. I'll get into this much more in a future post. *Which by the way, the majority of G+ users at this time are male! If you have a male dominated product, you need on G+ NOW!

I hope this is helps answer some questions about what Google + is and what it can do for your handmade business. Next post I'll plan on explaining the use of Circles from a marketing standpoint especially.

Please let me know if you want to see something specific or have any questions. Such as detailed how to set up a profile, page, or whatever. I'll answer them!

On Fire for Handmade Featured Artisan: Cowgirl by Design

2011-12-13T09:10:00.000-06:00

This week's Featured Artisan is Michele Blair - Cowgirl by Design. Beautiful

Creations that will make Wonderful Gifts! You can find Cowgirl by Design on:

Artfire

Twitter

On Fire for Handmade Featured Artisan: Handmade Creations by Shelly

2011-12-06T10:34:00.000-06:00

This weeks Featured Artisan is Shelly - Handmade Creations by Shelly.

Wonderful knit fashion accessories and more are found in her shop.

You can find Handmade Creations by Shelly on:

Read about all the other gadgets Blogger will be retiring.

Google Friend Connect Disappearing March 2012

2011-11-30T21:51:00.000-06:00

Bad news if you have a non-blogger website or blog that you have Google Friend Connect (GFC) added to. On March 1, 2012, the GFC will disappear from NON- Blogger sites. Don't panic. With the addition of Google + pages, you have until March 1st to get your followers to "+" your page. All you need to do is create a Google + Page for your business or site. It's not difficult to do. They have even made a Google + Badge for you to add to your blog. Even Blogger blogs can use this. You will see mine to the left.

Google + I think will be around awhile as it gains momentum and users figure out how best to utilize it. Even I am still learning. The feature I like best is the Circles. Segmenting is just perfect for marketing. You can choose what Circles to share certain information with.

If you're interested in learning more about Google +, let me know and I'll be happy to write up a post about it. Theory, explanations, and examples of how to use it.

Keep your eyes open and start +1 as you come across the button.

On Fire for Handmade Featured Artisan: Vintage Tags for Days

2011-11-29T11:30:00.000-06:00

This weeks Featured Artisan is Debbie LaRue - Vintage Tags for Days! I was so happy to see my pal was this week's featured artist. Vintage Tags for Days is her newest endeavor and I think it's super! Gorgeous tags in a vintage style to give a unique look to your gifts! You can find Vintage Tags for Days on:

Debbie also has a shop called Flower and Bud Jewelry on Etsy too!

USPS Holiday Shipping Deadlines - 2011

2011-11-26T10:49:00.000-06:00

Wanted to share the shipping deadlines for the Holidays and spare you the trip to USPS.com.

Domestic Mail Deadlines

Domestic Mail Class	Deadline
FIRST CLASS MAIL®	DEC. 20
PRIORITY MAIL®	DEC. 21
EXPRESS MAIL®	DEC. 22 (Check your local Post Office)
PARCEL POST®	DEC. 15

Related Holiday Dates:

First night of Hanukkah (Chanukah) - Dec. 20th at Sunset
Christmas Eve - Dec. 24th
Christmas Day - Dec. 25th
Kwanzaa - Dec. 26, 2011 - Jan. 1, 2012

Outbound International Mail Deadlines

International Mail Addressed To:	Global Express Guaranteed® (GXG)4	Express Mail International® (EMS)5	Priority Mail International™ (PMI)6	First-Class Mail International™
AFRICA	DEC. 20	DEC. 10	DEC. 2	DEC. 2
ASIA/PACIFIC RIM	DEC. 19	DEC. 15	DEC. 9	DEC. 9
AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND	DEC. 19	DEC. 15	DEC. 9	DEC. 9
CANADA	DEC. 21	DEC. 16	DEC. 12	DEC. 9
CARIBBEAN	DEC. 20	DEC. 15	DEC. 12	DEC. 9
CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA	DEC. 20	DEC. 10	DEC. 2	DEC. 2
MEXICO	DEC. 21	DEC. 15	DEC. 9	DEC. 9
EUROPE	DEC. 20	DEC. 15	DEC. 12	DEC. 9
MIDDLE EAST	DEC. 20	DEC. 15	DEC. 12	DEC. 9

EtsyBloggers Featured Blogger: MagdaleneJewels

2011-11-24T08:08:00.001-06:00

Time for November EtsyBloggers Featured Artisan and Blog Carnival. Etsybloggers is the official Etsy team for those who love to blog about their craft, the creative process, and other Etsians.

Magdalene Jewels is the featured blogger this month. She has two Etsy shops, one a jewelry shop, the other a knit shop. Magdalene uses a lot of Swarovski elements in her pieces. All of her pieces are so different, you have to look at each page in her shop to make sure you don't miss anything. I found this vintage Garbo inspired bracelet.

In Magdalene Knits, you'll find yourself indulging in soft billowy hand dyed and hand spun yarn creations. They're perfect for baby. I love this Irish Knit Sweater for Newborns Infants or Toddlers. She'll custom make items for you too! You can also find neck warmers, slippers, and gloves.

Magdalene also maintains two blogs in which her blog consists of stories and blogs about everyday life; her family, friends, and friends from Etsy. She also posts Monthly Favorites, which will be found on both of her blogs.

Magdalene Jewels and Magdalene Jewels' Blog

On Fire for Handmade Featured Artisan: Jardin de Lillian

2011-11-22T09:30:00.002-06:00

This week's Featured Artisan is Kalyene Sue Bacon - Jardin de Lillian. Truly unique

jewelry designs! You can find Jardin de Lillian on: