Social Networking Sites & Bisque Fire
Wordle brought to my attention by Andrea
Wordle rearranges text in an artful way into a word cloud – I pulled text from my last blog post for this one. Where Andrea finds this stuff, I’ll never know…. It’s just too bad that the image is so small on my blog.
Meanwhile, I’ve been playing around with some social networking sites, like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and others for about the last 6 months. A lot of people use these sites including other artists, potters, friends, family, business people, and potential customers. A part of the problem for me is that all of this takes time which of course takes away from studio time.
I lovingly tend to my blog – I post regularly & read and comment on other people’s blogs. It’s enjoyable to me – and of course, I want more people to find my blog. I think this is where social networking sites may be valuable since I’m able to liberally sprinkle my links around cyberspace for anyone to find. I’ve also registered my blog with various blog catalogs and I keep track of my stats to see how people are finding me.
I do enjoy keeping up with other artists and have managed to connect with people all over the world that I might not otherwise ever meet in person.
So, here’s my lowdown on the few sites where I’m registered:
- I’m not really all that enamored with MySpace, but am loathe to delete it. For the time being my page is static and I might check on it once a month if I remember. I have made contact with a few people from high school, but the truth is I don’t really like the way it works and looks. I’ve received dating propositions even though my profile says I’m married. It seems like a really good venue, however, for musicians as they can upload their music to their profiles for the public to sample.
- I’ve belonged to Flickr for at least 2 years now and think it’s really worthwhile. Not only can you store photos, but you can connect with other people with similar interests and browse other people’s photos. 2 years ago, I upgraded from the free account to a “pro” account for $24.95 a year. With the pro account, I can upload unlimited photos of any size. The free account limits the size of the photo and also how many are visible at one time. I think only the 200 most recent ones are visible.
- My Twitter page is fairly new – I think I’ve had it about a month now. I don’t always remember to “tweet” on a daily basis. It’s sort of like a mini blog where one has a 140 character limit for each post. The jury is out on this one for me.
- Also fairly new is my Facebook page. Since coming back home, I’ve been tending my page and trying to figure out the ins and outs of how it works. It seems a lot more valuable to me than Twitter and surprisingly, I’ve also found a few friends from high school – though the site doesn’t recognize my college alma mater. I attended high school in Stuttgart, Germany while my dad was serving in the Army in the 80′s so it’s been fun making contact with some of my classmates who are spread out all over the world. Facebook seems like it has the potential to really connect people together. My only criticism – and maybe I’m the only one bothered by this – is that you can’t click on people’s profiles to gauge whether or not you may or may not know them. Some names are so common that when you type them into the people search box, 10 pages pop up. Who has time to wade through those, only to email 5 of them to see if they’re who you think they are? But, I guess this helps in the privacy department. So – I’m still trying to decide how this plays out.
- I also signed up for LinkedIn a few days ago, but I’m not sure this is for me – it seems like this site is more geared to a business professional.
So, if you have any comments, suggestions or other about your experience with social networking sites and whether you find them useful, I’d love to hear your feedback.
~Cynthia
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot… remember this work?
Greenware
It’s been sitting on my shelves since late June and is surely bone dry by now and ready to be bisque fired. This might be a good thing to do this week to get me back in the swing of things and to free up a little space. I also have a couple of more glaze tests to do – my tests are already mixed up and waiting for me.
& Cool Flickr Toy">Wholesalecrafts.com & Cool Flickr Toy
I’ve spend entirely too much time online recently, and can’t seem to sign off when I mentally tell myself to. So, the other day, I uploaded some new photos to flickr and started messing around with some widgets and such while I was there. I came across Big Huge Labs, that nabs some of your photos to create this cool little mini banner.
Meanwhile, I spent the better part of 2 hours applying to wholesalecrafts.com this morning. A rep called me this am to follow up with an inquiry that I had sent them. I sort of forgot about it, but then, thought, “What the heck, let’s see what she has to say!” She gave me temporary access to the site for me to peruse, and answered all my questions. It’s $395.00 a year, if I am accepted. That’s a lot of dough, but, I asked a few people who are represented by wholesale crafts and they’re doing great – so it could be worth the investment. One artist I know even closed her Etsy shop because of the amount of business coming her way.
In other news, I terminated my relationship with online retailer, Asian iCandy, this am. They haven’t sold any of my work, so I don’t think it was a good fit. It was a drop-ship arrangement, so overall, it was a good experiment. I think it’s really hard to sell things online without the buyer being able to physically see and hold an item – and I don’t know what their marketing plan is or how they reach their customers. Wholesale would be a much better investment of my time and efforts. Money upfront, make the work and then send.
That doesn’t mean I will not do Etsy, art fairs or other venues – it’s just another avenue to make a living doing what I love.
I did a little more work on my clay bird monotype – it’s really more of a painting now.
That’s it for today,
~Cynthia
Podcasts and more…
An interesting connection happened recently. A gentleman in Michigan found my Flickr Photostream online and enquired about how he could go about purchasing some of my work. We’ve been emailing back and forth and it turns out that many of the pieces in which he is interested are no longer available. I directed him towards my Etsy Shop and he did choose the piece in the photograph above along with a custom order request. Yesterday he emailed me a photograph of my piece which is now in his possession. It’s interesting, because once the item leaves my home, I never see it again. I often wonder what people do with my work, how is it used, etc. Accompanying this photograph were several photographs of his beautiful garden. I can rest assured that gorgeous flowers will find a home in my vase. I’m honored that people think my work is a perfect compliment to their lives. It makes me very happy!
Meanwhile, I’ve been experiencing a bit of uncertainty in regards to my art career and if you read my last post, know that I applied for a job last week. Fast forward to a podcast that I listened to on Monday morning while I was out for my run and I had an ah-ha moment. Suzanne Falter-Barnes has a podcast on her blog with Andy Wibbels interviewing Seth Godin about his new book The Dip. It must have been a serendipitous moment, because it was exactly what I needed to hear right at that moment. Basically, in a nut shell, when faced with difficulty in your career (though the concept could be applied to about anything), do you know when to quit, or when to lean into “the dip”? Most successful companies know how to emerge from the dips stronger by being creative and basically just working harder. If it were easy, wouldn’t everyone be a millionaire? While the podcast is really geared towards businesses, as an independent artist, I connected to the discussion.
Seth also talks about being the best in your field – but don’t let that get you down. Best in the field is a matter of knowing your market and product – and there’s room for a lot of different businesses to exceed. For example he talks about the iPod. As a consumer, you either own an iPod or one of the other brands. iPod is a name brand like Kleenex or even Word, yet Microsoft’s MP3 player didn’t achieve stellar star status like the iPod – though it might have if it weren’t trying to play catch up with Apple. Anyway if you’re interested in hearing more, the podcast is free if you visit Suzanne’s blog.
Yesterday evening, I was invited, along with a handful of other artist’s, to Alyson Stanfield’s house to brainstorm book design for her soon to be published new book, I’d Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist’s No Excuse Guide to Self Promotion. I think Alyson’s newest book will be easy to read and a valuable reference for creative people trying to craft a successful art career. Lisa Call stopped by on the way over to Alyson’s house and we drove up to Golden together. I really enjoyed the drive with her. It was a wonderful opportunity to talk with another artist about the day to day challenges of being an artist in today’s world.
My in-laws left town this morning and I’m planning on spending some time in my studio this morning. For some reason, the humble pinch pot keeps popping into my head right now.
Until Later,
Moo Cards and the Business of Art
I desperately need to make some new business cards for both my Etsy shop and for my website, Colorado Art Studio. The problem is that I am doing a complete overhaul of my website and don’t have a logo or “look” that I want to advertise to the world yet. Enter Moo Cards stage left! I ordered some a few weeks ago and I just received them last week. I can’t tell you how much I like these mini calling cards (they’re about 1/2 the size of regular business cards-1″ x 2.7″). They’re a bit on the pricy side, 24.99 for 100; although that does include shipping from the U.K. They also come with this nifty solid storage container so that you can throw them into you purse, backpack or briefcase and they won’t get dirty, bent, etc.
The cool thing about these are that they’re constructed of heavy duty paper with a smooth satin finish. I thought they were made from some sort of plastic when I first got them because they’re so strong and durable, until I read the packaging. Moo Cards are made from recycled materials and are in fact themselves recyclable. The other really neat thing is that you upload your images from your Flickr account. You could feasibly print 100 different images on your order of 100 Moo Cards. I chose just 2 images, 1 of my fiber pieces and 1 of my ceramic vases. By the time these run out, I should have my new website up and running and also have new business cards freshly printed.
In other news, I registered my art business with the State of Colorado and the City of Denver. My business is now officially known as Colorado Art Studio, LLC! I haven’t made enough money in the past from my art to even make a blip on the radar; however, this year that is going to change. I have a lot of plans for the future and want to do this correctly. I want an official record of my income so that if my husband and I want to refinance or purchase a different house or maybe even a vacation home sometime, I will have an income on record. Who knows if social security will still be in existence when I need it; but at least by paying into the system I will perhaps someday be able to tap into it. These are but just a few reasons for my desire to start my business the right way.
How did I decide to organize my business as an LLC (Limited Liability Company), you might ask? I’ve been doing a lot of research and then last Saturday, after attending the “Building Creative Business Expo” in Denver and sitting in a workshop presented by Kevin Houchin I knew exactly what I needed to do. Mr. Houchin is an arts and entertainment attorney, so please visit his blog for a ton of great information regarding organizing a creative business, copyright, trade mark, public domain and other pertinant creative business information.
By the way, I am closing down my original Etsy store, DoodlesnKaboodles and am in the process of opening a new one, coloradoartstudio. Etsy doesn’t allow users to change their store name, so my only option is to close and then re-open. I am going to lose all my + feedback, all my favorites and the people who have ? me, but I’ll have to rebuild. I’ve also joined the newly formed Denver Etsy Street Team. We are going to have our first meeting March 18th. I’ll let you know how that goes later in the month.
