Posts Tagged ‘Monday Marketing’

Those of you in the Seattle area hopefully know about StashFest – a fund raiser for the La Conner Quilt Museum. It will be Saturday, March 31 and Sunday, April 1. We’re headed up with LOTS of marbled fat quarters to sell and add to the funds for the museum. We spent all of January and a week in February making fabric – hubby turned out great pieces and experimented with a lot of new patterns. You can read more here.

So this week is finishing up a few loose ends and starting to pack. I won’t take quilts off the wall just yet, as we just put them up, and I don’t want too many days of bare walls! The quilts we’re taking are of two kinds: some fairly traditional patterns that show off the marbled fabrics, and some art quilts that are more “whole cloth.” We’ve learned over the years that too many people think the fabric is wonderful but don’t know what to do with it. Hence the two types of quilts.

Special order forms, newsletter sign-up forms (yes, I know, I still need to do a newsletter…..just wait till we return and I get back in gear), quilts, care codes, velour to cover the tables….lots of little things to think through. But we are organized as ever…we could actually leave tomorrow, we are that ready. But I still have tutoring and some end-of-term grades to finish for Art Institute. Plus, I want to see if I can squeeze in some photography of two quilts before we leave. All the marketing lately has been in preparation for this show.

We also want to incorporate a longer vacation, as we have never been to the northwest. We’re reading the guides and making plans. I plan on posting when we’re gone….I just don’t know how successful I’ll be incorporating photos from the iPad. Now about gas prices…..a gallon of gas was a lot cheaper when we committed back in December. But we’ll be able to take a lot of public transportation in Seattle and POrtland, so we should save money – and frustration – that way.

We will be coming back to a large commissioned order of fat quarters, as well as two show deadlines….and three more table runners to complete (but I’ve figured out a shorter way of putting them together).

Life is good!

   One would think that once you are in your 60s you would stop having mid-life crises…..evidently not……..Seems I am once again concerned with the direction my artistic life will take, now that I’m retired. This thinking has kind of evolved over the last two-three months, as I realized I had over-scheduled my retirement on a weekly basis. College algebra on Monday (which takes 6 hours on Monday, plus a good chunk of Sunday for preparation), tutoring on Tuesday afternoon, yoga on Wednesday, tutoring on Thursday afternoon, yoga on Friday……add in an unexpected move, and there’s been virtually no sewing time these last six weeks. Not a happy camper……

So what to do? I have one Monday after today to finish the term, and then I am putting this teaching on a long-term hold. One of the reasons I retired was because I didn’t want this grind any more. I know I could teach more classes, but aside from screwing up SSI, I really don’t want to get back into the teaching focus. Yoga is a constant; I will keep my two mornings a week. I feel good and I am making weight progress. I’m going to keep the tutoring, as it is more rewarding, doing the one-on-one work. I picked up an additional client short-term, and both clients now will be a total of 6 hours a week, spread out, over several months at a time. That’s fine, because I can adjust travel schedules as needed pretty easily.

All that said, nothing much has gotten done on marketing. It took me forever to find the time to get new business cards made for the Seattle trip. February just flew by in a blur. This week are are attempting to finish the last of the marbling for StashFest, and we have already started to put things aside for packing. Two weeks from today we will be somewhere in California, headed north. I decided to redo a smaller quilt from about 12 years ago, to take along another example of the marbled fabrics with more free motion quilting. Spent about five hours over the weekend ripping out stitches. Surprisingly calming, not that I need another project…..

The rest of the marketing for the quarter is on the back burner. Visions got completed and entered…and I learned last week that the piece didn’t get in. Oh, well….this time at least I am philosophical and not pissed. It’s still a great piece. But I am rethinking the entering-shows-again route. I will keep making art, regardless. I do work well with deadlines, however, so I need to keep that in mind. And I do want to get back to taking some classes on line, once we are  back from Seattle.

Still no newsletter, and blogging took a big hit for about three weeks……just when I was getting so close to 3000 visitors. How important is all that? At my age, being retired, just how much of the marketing/business work do I really want to do? I find that if I don’t have one or two days a week to just sit outside, read, and generally veg, I’m not happy. So it’s time for some rethinking. And time to enjoy this new trip that’s coming….never been to Seattle and Portland, so we’re saving our pennies, given gas prices and the fact that the tax refund was virtually non-existent, so we can have some fun…and  possibly buy some new art!

Where is the first quarter going? We are leaving March 25 for Seattle and still have fabric to make. Life is taking a few twists and turns that are unexpected. The upstairs noise finally got to us, so we are moving – a week from today. So lots of packing, and still trying to make fabric and sew. Not a great combination.

Most marketing is on hold. I will need to put the Etsy store on inactive until we return. There’s just too much to do to keep it active, as well as bring the additional stuff with us in case we sell something. Need new business cards and new postcards as a marketing tool. Plus lots more fabric. And hardly anything for a tax return, so funding the trip up is going to be an interesting proposition.

Still no newsletter, but I am getting regular with the blog again. Numbers are up on the blog, and I hope to keep them growing. I made my first major deadline, but the other one for the beginning of March won’t happen, and I’m not sure the Fish Follies entry will happen – due the day we get back home from Seattle, which means it has to be done before we leave…..maybe, if the move goes well.

Can’t keep up with either Google Reader and the blogs – deleted some that aren’t strongly art-related.  Can’t keep up with updating the Facebook fan page. Don’t even ask about Twitter. I see that Pinterest is really catching on, but because of copyright issues, I am avoiding it right now – mainly because I can’t keep up with what I’m already trying to do.

But…..there is another potential commission in the works for end of April, Ebay is still going strong, and I have so many ideas for art pieces I’ll never get them all made. Right now I need to free up my schedule, which now has something every day. I’m tutoring a great kid, and the=at will continue, as will my yoga lessons. The new teaching gig will end in mid-March, and I probably won’t teach again for them. Too much like what I just retired from: worried about who’s passing, who needs more work, and the like.

So it’s hectic, but here is an interesting article from Fine Art Views, about what to say to a customer who wants to know if “you’re as good as so-and-so.” Enjoy! Hopefully you’ll have productive and not especially crazy weeks!

PS – I’m working on my iPad cover and practicing my free motion at the same time. Very soothing – I love this lesson on feathers!

Cotton fat quarter trimmed to fit the iPad, a thick left-over batting, I’m thinking a fusible batting, kona cotton for the back, and Superior Thread Art Studio green, and a #90 titanium needle.

Tension was workin’ good!

Overall  pleased with the stitch length.

From Joanne Mattera’s blog comes this timely piece: getting in to invitational shows. This is particularly timely for me, as I just sent off a piece for a major show, as I am spreading my wings this year. I want to get to where I am invited, rather than having to go through the jurying process. The whole blog post is full of good ideas.

“Paving the Way for an Invitation: The best way to get invited to an invitational is to get your work out into the art world so that it can be seen by the people who do the inviting. If you are not showing regularly at a gallery, there are many places where your work might be seen.”

Here’s a hint of the piece I just finished……I love the veining that is created in marbling.

Since I retired, I have been on a quest to improve all things affecting my art skills, and that of course includes free motion quilting, since I work with fabric. So I am part of the Free Motion Quilting challenge this year, run by Sew Cal Gal. This month is feathers, with Diane Gaudynski as our teacher. Feathers seriously intimidate me, and as I started seeing some of the work that was posted, I was thinking, no way. But I hadn’t even started yet.

Today I finally had the time, as a major deadline had passed. Now I must say Diane’s instructions are some of the BEST I have ever read. By the time I was done reading the instructions, I pretty much had no worries about plunging in. She is so clear, and her process makes complete sense. I can see why earlier attempts never worked. So here’s my VERY FIRST feather.

I had more trouble actually doing the spine, as I had trouble seeing where I was going. And the tension….after the third time of taking it out, I decided to change thread – from a Lava to an art color, and that made a difference. I am still adjusting, but the back is liveable now. This is a blue Ricky Tims Art Colors Superior Thread, #90 needle, on kona white cotton, with a cotton batting. Stitching is tinier than I want, but I seemed to have pretty good control over the movement of the fabric.

Well, of course I had to do another….I have a top that is at least 15 years old, and I knew when I made it I wanted feathers, and I figured I would need to hand quilt them. Nope – I’m gonna practice a lot and then do the feathers by machine. And that’s how I’m spending this evening. Gotta go!

You may remember that last Sunday I did what I call a “brain dump.” I had so many things floating around in my head that I needed to keep track of, and it was making me nuts. So I listed them all. Here’s last week:

email tutoring parent, email LN, change bed, reinstall Contribute, PD for AI, finish TAFA profile, take care of GoDaddy renewals, email long-lost teacher friend, write the review for C&T, look at Linqto, look at TalkFusion, finish blog post on vendors, finish blog post on quilts, blog post on MAS, email AI prof about video, Quilt Show renewal processed, install quilt album software, do paperwork for “quilt album ambassador,” finish January FMQ project and get it online, photograph new Etsy basket, plan for gift baskets for NW trip, complete Google + stuff, look at Facebook Timeline, score homework from class, mark quizzes from class, finish lesson for Monday, type new lab worksheet, get new business cards ordered, look at Redbubble, book proposal on academic coaching, check on bank loan, meet on company taxes, first newsletter, input names for newsletter, website revisions list, change copyright on website, update and reinstall Contribute, prepare for major copyright submissions, continue working on Visions piece, finish Visions piece, photograph Visions piece, marble this week, plans for deadlines in April since I will be gone.

And here’s my progress:

email tutoring parent, email LN, change bed, reinstall Contribute, PD for AI, finish TAFA profile, take care of GoDaddy renewals, email long-lost teacher friend, write the review for C&T, look at Linqto, look at TalkFusion, finish blog post on vendors, finish blog post on quilts, blog post on MAS, email AI prof about video, Quilt Show renewal processed, install quilt album software, do paperwork for “quilt album ambassador,” finish January FMQ project and get it online, photograph new Etsy basket, plan for gift baskets for NW trip, complete Google + stuff, look at Facebook Timeline, score homework from class, mark quizzes from class, finish lesson for Monday, type new lab worksheet, get new business cards ordered, look at Redbubble, book proposal on academic coaching, check on bank loan, meet on company taxes, first newsletter, input names for newsletter, website revisions list, change copyright on website, update and reinstall Contribute, prepare for major copyright submissions, continue working on Visions piece, finish Visions piece, photograph Visions piece, marble this week, plans for deadlines in April since I will be gone.

Progress, but I realized along about Wednesday that I was focusing on little things that could wait and ignoring the great big deadline for Visions. So Thursday finished the machine quilting, Friday blocked the piece, Saturday did the bindings and started with the embellishments. Now I have one small area to finish and arrange for photography this week – the BIG task that has to get done.

There are a lot of other things to do, but I am teaching this afternoon, midterms need to be scored and reported by Friday, we are marbling tomorrow, and I have one major tutoring session this week, and our arts meeting tomorrow night (where I hope to firm up the photograph….). But I don’t feel the need to do another brain dump, probably not until the end of the month when Seattle starts looming a lot closer.

There is a major marketing piece that also needs to be done this week. Last week I sold 25% of the items from my Etsy store, so I seriously need to restock with new fabrics. It’s a good problem to have!

This is one of my most favorite marbling patterns, and I need to practice doing this one on fabric. It’s a great pattern, lots of movement, and I SO want to quilt some fabric with this pattern! And it seems appropriate to start out a new year of marketing with a favorite pattern. We spent New Year’s Day, hubby and I, working on our schedule for the next few months. We are participating in StashFest in La Conner, Washington, the end of March, so we have to gear up production. That plus building the business.

Normally I would have started out working on all my goals, and then we would have looked at this major opportunity. But….this time was different. And it was good it worked this way. I need to work my business goals around out production schedule, and around finishing my piece for a show deadline on February 13. I need a new portfolio prepared for the March show, additional business cards and postcards – way lots to do for that show. Newsletters – preferred customers as well as collectors – NEED to be addressed – a number 1 priority for this year. Plus maintaining Ebay and Etsy, Fine Art America, and maybe more emphasis with Cafe Press. Given the production schedule for the next 12 weeks, I’m not sure I can do much more.

I do want to get the seasons pattern written, as well as Spring and Summer created. So I am anticipating a very busy first quarter. I hope to have my specific goals set by next Monday. In the meantime, lots of sewing on my one piece, plus practicing from the Free Motion Quilting Project.

In the meantime, here’s a post from Tara Reed’s Art Licensing Blog: 4 Things to Do to Make 2012 Your Best Year Yet.

I love number four: don’t forget what makes you unique!

Also, here’s a post from Dumb Little Man: Trying to Improve Your Willpower….an interesting take on our struggles with willpower. Here’s a quick nugget:

“The problem is, willpower is a limited resource. You can’t stick to a diet by sheer willpower, day after day after day. And you’ve probably noticed that on days when you’ve been trying really hard to be patient or to stick with a tough task, you’re more likely to crack and fail in a difference area. So, if you try to improve your willpower – forcing yourself to rely on it, or even putting yourself in situations where you’ll be tested – then you’re just setting yourself up to fail.”

To follow up on last week’s Cyber Monday post, here’s an interesting article from The Future Buzz. Here’s an excerpt:

Holiday gifts

At my last company, my group had a slew of vendors and we received all sorts of gifts during the holidays – wine, branded shirts, “towers” of goodies, and so on. We gave most of it out around the office and some went to the landfill. The only gift I remember from those years was from a small agency, Swirl, that gave us the opportunity to donate, on their dime, to one of a few charities — it’s 10 years later and I’m still talking about them.  No doubt, some of the gifts and incentives companies are giving away this year are really cool (feel free to send that extra iPad my way), but we all know far too much of it goes to waste – literally. And the recipient probably won’t tell his friends about the fruit basket.

Charitable gift cards have meaning for the recipient, change lives for the better, strengthen a company’s image, and won’t fill up landfills.  Some of the best alternatives:

• The Glue Network: recipient chooses among humanitarian projects in nine categories.  Uniqueness: offers broad choices for the recipient and inherently generates strong branding and PR for the company.
• Kiva: recipient chooses among global micro-lending opportunities.  Uniqueness: micro-finance is powerful in addressing global poverty and Kiva is a respected pioneer.
• Donors Choose: recipient can support a specific need for a teacher and classroom.  Uniqueness: projects are crowd-sourced, specific and support education which is the cause category of most concern to Americans today.

Every year during the holidays I try to focus on meaningful gifts for those close to us. And every year I am appalled at the commercialism. This year it just seems over the top, almost desperate, and not necessarily the retailers. A lot of people seem desperate.

I’ve made a decision for next year: for all the family members I will be donating the same amount for gifts to a nonprofit of their choice, preferably one they already support. This seems to be in the true sense of the season. I haven’t decided just what I’ll do in terms of company marketing, but I am certain that whatever is decided, a portion will go to a nonprofit of my choice.

This has been an interesting week of introspection. I have some interesting marketing opportunities, but I am hesitant to take them. The positivity I’m feeling is more of a home-bred sense of being at home and sewing/quilting/trying new art projects, along with some earning of additional travel money. Maybe it’s age catching up. Even ten years ago I would have probably been gung-ho to get the business up and making lots of additional money. The energy just isn’t there right now. With hubby not well, we need to make good decisions about our time together, and that means getting on the road as much as possible. We’re marbling now for the fun of it; hubby really enjoys what he has been doing and what opportunities we can have with some traveling – like going to Seattle the end of March.

I guess it means taking a long, serious look at what is really important at this stage of our lives.

   Yeah, I know….Cyber Monday was last week….and therein lies my problem.

Getting ready/surviving/marketing the holiday shopping season.

For the last four years or so, we have hardly had anything on line for  November and December, and thus have totally missed the holiday shopping season. This year we have been consistent all year, with hardly missing a week on Ebay and getting the Etsy store up and functioning. We’ve sold gift baskets so far leading up to Thanksgiving, which more than tripled what we’ve brought in for the shopping season in the past. But we have a long way to go……

I am not a big shopper, but I will confess to seeing a deal on Cyber Monday and buying – a real deal on a couple of ebooks on machine quilting designs, which I’ve been drooling over for a while. But I still can’t get excited about revving up holiday shopping.

Is it the commercialism of the holidays, and I subconsciously don’t want to take part? Probably a good chunk. Is it ’cause I’m getting older and want to spend my time on things I really like to do? Again, probably. I am trying to get pieces of passive income going on the website, so I don’t have to do so much work during certain times of the year.

This year it became Cyber Week, much to my dismay. I feel like I should have had something going, but I haven’t had the time – well, to be honest I didn’t make the time. Perhaps next year when we have consciously worked on the newsletter…..but it still is a  cunundrum an issue. Within it are questions about lack of product/pictures on the website; selling from the blog; hyping in the newsletter. It’s interesting in that I do a weekly blog post on marketing, and here is an area I can’t seem to get my head around.

Oh, well, a full year to be thinking about it…I’ll be happy just to get the newsletter up and going……..and make art.

Some interesting food for thought from the Fine Art blog…Questions You Don’t Have to Answer. Interesting because I was frustrated at a recent show in northern Arizona. So many of the artists I was looking at did not have websites. One was a great painter, and I knew i would buy anyway, since I was  right there. But now I had no way of looking at his work for future purchases. Yes, a lot of folks take a card, walk on, and you’ve lost your chance for a sale. I don’t shop that way, but I’m guessing I’m in the minority. Thoughts?

I realize a lot of people don’t consider themselves web savvy, and perhaps that’s why they don’t have a site…or even a Facebook page. But I’m figuring the web – and art sales on the web – is here to stay. Yes, we all want the immediate sale, but in this economy, that’s probably not going to happen. I bought from the artist – prints, because the price was right, but if he’d been on line, I would have looked at one of his canvas prints. Now I have to hope I see him at another show…….

Also of interest for marketing is this article posted a while ago in What the Craft – Why Handmade is So Expensive. This is a really good look at how much time goes into each piece we make. If we totaled up all the hours we actually spent, we’d never sell anything…..

And…10 Tips to Increase Your Productivity from The Future Buzz.

For me, my productivity comes from making lists, and then determining which of the big projects to work on next. I keep deadlines in mind, although sometimes I just don’t make them. I have a couple of things coming up that are definite for major art projects, and then my lists help me organize the day-to-day items. The biggest “left-over?”

Well, there are two…..my portfolio revisions, and the newsletter development and schedule. The latter is the most important, and for some reason it just hasn’t made it to the top and actually gotten worked on. That is a goal for the start of next year, so I don’t miss out on the holiday season. However, that said, we have been MUCH better this year about approaching holiday sales.

And in that spirit….this gift basket needs a home…...see the Etsy store…….

Great marbling session on Sunday – expect to see a few more fat quarters show up in Etsy…..

This Monday there are some great resources for you in various aspects of building your business. Hopefully you’ll find something interesting and useful. I’m starting with a quote from Dale Ann Potter from  her blog:

Affirm the positive, visualize the positive and expect the positive, and your life will change accordingly…. Remez Sasson

Great words, and I gotta tell ya, I am loving being positive and sending good energy out into the universe. It paid off big time yesterday with a couple of connections to some galleries in Santa Fe….

This first article came via a blog from a blog from another blog – and I discovered Harriet Estel Berman and some really great information – professional guidelines.

A Good Holiday Season for Etsy – are you ready? A timely article from the folks at Handmadeology. I intend to read and reread this article several times and really get into the aspects they talk about for being found.

Also from Handmadeology (love the name) comes a timely article on getting those views to conversions and sales.

From Social Media Examiner (a great resource you should definitely subscribe to) comes an article on 20 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Fan Page. Where should you be putting links? And other great information. Then check the sidebar for more great tips.

Also from Social Media is a GREAT article on companies that have created wonderful fan pages, with lots of helpful ideas for you. It goes perfectly with the above article. I tell ya, ya need to sign up for updates from Social Media!

In keeping with the positive quote at the beginning, here’s an article from Dumb Little Man – You Must Resist the Urge to Quit. I so agree with the sentiment – since I’ve retired and have had the time, I am so involved in making art, as well as marketing.  I think of the times when I was tempted to quit, because I just didn’t have the time – but I stayed with it, and now it’s paying off.

From Step 2: “Action creates momentum around a goal. If you’ve been taking action consistently and suddenly quit you’ll notice that it’s going to be hard to get your momentum back. That’s why one of the best things you can do when you’re tempted to quit is to take action. You’ll start noticing that even the smallest action taken on a consistent basis will have a compounding effect. The smallest action can reignite your fire or give you hope that there is a light at end of the tunnel.”

So what have you found on line about marketing that you want to share with others? Leave a comment with the information and we can all check it out. Now get busy!!

So…..I did pretty well last week and then faded at the end of the week. Plus, I am taking two online classes, and I needed to leave myself time to work on activities. Pretty much I got the goals for the week done, and I’m ready to set the goals for this next week, but I know I need to make some adjustments.

Major problems with Tweetdeck, so I wasn’t able to schedule the tweets that I wanted. I can only afford to take the time to read through the Twitter feed once a day, so I should probably change the time each day that I read it. I will keep to the schedule of reading tweets each day, with Sunday the day I schedule for the week.

One of the things I found was that I was busy trying to keep up with things and I didn’t really accomplish much for my own personal business. I need to change that, especially in the light of the marketing class I am taking. I need to be sure I am accomplishing what I want for Marble-T Design. I was able to work on the weekly goals of sewing, marbling, and adding to the Etsy shop.

Weekly Goals for this coming week July 18 – 24:

* Finish the Sedona commission

* Marble fabric for Etsy and Ebay

* Finish Lessons 2 and 3 of The Artist’s Toolbox with Lyric Kinard

* Do some goal-setting per the marketing class, primarily with Facebook and Cafe Press

* Get ready for gallery visit (inventory, etc) for Saturday

* Some work to do on the blog: more pages? widgets? other affiliates? blog giveaway? update current pages?

Daily:

* Read Twitter feed at a different time each day

* Google Reader – comment on at least three blogs

* AT LEAST 5 blog posts this week (only fot the three last week)

* Read newsletters from Linked in groups twice a week

* Facebook fan page each day…..

* At least one art activity each day

So I need to get back in gear, get back to being positive and feeling that anything is possible……..How many of you have found your energy levels with drop without any warning? And what do you do to get back to work? Inquiring minds…..

It’s Monday again….and it seems like all I did was read, look at emails, and set up buttons and the like. This is the “time-sucker.” So my goal for this blog post is to try and identify what needs to be done each week for marketing and set up a kind of calendar to work with.

This is what I’m dealing with: Ebay, Etsy, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Cafe Press, Zazzle, newsletters, a website, lynda.com, flickr, and a blog. I am trying to avoid doing all of this every day, because nothing else seems to get done. I’m brainstorming as I write, with the hope that by the time this post is done, I will have a plan.

Ebay: hubby handles almost all of this, including postal trips. But…if we are going to increase sales, we need more product, and I would like to help with the actual marbling. So…..marbling weekly. I do need to update the About Me page…..

Etsy: the bulk of the organization is done. But…I need to be adding product on a regular basis, which means I need to keep making things. It would be nice to have one new product up each week, if not more often. One of the goals this week is to add some of the major artwork (even though I don’t expect to sell it on Etsy, it is more exposure) on the site, as the pictures are redone. I want to continue with the circles marketing, which, if I have enough products, could be done every day – 15 minutes for this. Plus, I need to keep working…….

LinkedIn: profile is done, and I have registered for several groups for business. I have found already difficulty in keeping up with reading emails each day from the groups and have already deleted one group. This week I will determine which groups look to be the most advantageous. I also need to complete the setting up of a profile of artwork.

Facebook: I read this several times a day. I have a fan page which needs serious work, as well as Art From The Heart, which is to support healing art after the Tucson shootings in January. I have added FB buttons to my blog and this week to my website. I have read the Terms and looked at all the privacy settings. I also went through the photo stream stuff for FB and fixed photos for both the personal and fan page. I need to really think through what is going to happen with the Fan Page.

Twitter: I am finishing a class from lynda.com on using Facebook and Twitter for business, and I highly recommend the site. For #25 you can choose different trainings all available for a month at your schedule. I picked up all kinds of little tips, most of which have already been implemented. But….and this is a BIG but….the time for tweets and what to tweet. By syncing a lot of the programs, my blog appears on Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, my tweets appear in a couple of places. I don’t think I can go further with this – the tweet button is on the blog and soon to be on the website. This is one area that needs some serious scheduling. Since I use TweetDeck (which is free…), I can schedule and keep track of who’s following and what is getting retweeted. So…I’m going to use Sundays for scheduling business tweets for the week, and I will look through the twitter feed once a day to see if there’s some good stuff to retweet.

Cafe Press: I have a site, a free one, so I am limited as to the number of products I can put up. I haven’t looked at this in several months and it needs serious work. To have a store isn’t much money each month, and I could have a lot more products available, but the issue is marketing and driving people to the site. I have some great digital stuff already to go, and I need to start planning around the holidays, reading about marketing through Cafe Press, and so on.

Zazzle: Ditto for Cafe Press……both are not a high priority right now.

Newsletters: oy, it’s been months since a newsletter went out, and I have all these contacts where nothing is happening. I used Constant Contact last year for a few months, until I couldn’t keep up with the demands and school at the same time. I was happy with it, but disappointed that not many people actually read it. I need to go back to a newsletter and offerings at least once every three weeks, and more during the holiday seasons. I need to check out Mail Chimp, which is free, and I have heard people have good luck with it. I’ll try and make this a priority this week.

Website: Most of the changes to the website have been made by my wonderful web lady Suzan. I need to get a couple of buttons set up, and then do something about newsletters and contacts. I also have some pages to add on Digital Marbling (TN), and I need to evaluate “print on demand” for artwork. This is a “need to think about” topic…..

lynda.com: I have until Friday to finish my month of training. I still need to finish Twitter, and I want to get the html newsletter course done. I am not going to continue with Dreamweaver because it isn’t a priority.

Flickr: I have photos up, not all of them with copyrights, and there is a class on lynda.com if I have time. I’m not really sure what I want to do here….

And finally, my blog, Marbled Musings. I went a bunch of months with no new writing, and I’m at maybe three times a week. I need to get back to at least four times a week, and eventually every day. I have plenty to write about…and I need to stay up with my Google reader – as well as comment more on some of the posts. This is probably the biggest area for marketing that I have to schedule.

Weekly:

* Marbling fabric

* Work on Etsy products

* Sewing and other design

Mondays:

* Add Etsy product

* Add Etsy circle information

* Read newsletters from LinkedIn groups

* Read Twitter feed

* Blog post Monday Marketing

* Google reader and at least three comments

Tuesdays:

* Add Etsy circle information

* Read Twitter feed

* Blog post Top Ten Tuesday

* Google reader and at least three comments

Wednesdays:

* Add Etsy circle information

* Read newsletters from LinkedIn groups

* Read Twitter feed

* Blog Work in progress Wednesday

* Google reader and at least three comments

Thursday:

* Add Etsy circle information

* Read Twitter feed

* Blog – Thursday Thoughts

* Google reader and at least three comments

Fridays:

* Add Etsy circle information

* Read newsletters from LinkedIn groups

* Read Twitter feed

* Blog Photoshop Friday

* Google reader and at least three comments

Saturdays:

* Read Twitter feed

* Blog posting on Specials

* Google reader and at least three comments

Sundays:

* Read Twitter feed

* Schedule Tweets for the week (i.e. Etsy, Ebay…)

* Blog Sunday Stories

* Google reader and at least three comments

Goals for next week:

* FINISH LYNDA.COM

*Update “About Me” page on Ebay

* Update Etsy products, especially note cards

* Evaluate how calendar is working

* See if buttons are added to the website

* Decisions on what will happen with the Facebook Fan page

* Long-term thoughts – what to do with CafePress and Zazzle

* Read and decide about Mail Chimp for a newsletter

* Spend some time thinking about what the website still needs….

Okay, I think I have a handle on this…we’ll see next week as I evaluate how the week goes. And…I’m taking some online classes!

Thoughts??

Pretty much for the year I’ve been doing a Monday Marketing post, looking at what I’m doing and what I should be doing to build a business. Well, I think I’m done…with the posts that is, not necessarily with the business. I still have 18 months of teaching until retirement, and to do what I would like to do with the business just isn’t possible. There are not enough hours – and energy – to do it well, at least accordsing to the internet business gurus.

So I’m done with major marketing. I want to design, to quilt and sew, to fondle my stash, to dream up new ideas. I have to take the pressure off myself to have more to do when I get home from a tiring school day. Selling out (bad pun, I know…) – I finally don’t think so. I need to be done with the guilt of not getting more tweets to get sales on Ebay. I need to be done with the pressure to write all the time – I just like to write. I need to be done with looking at bottom line, which isn’t going to change all that much. I need to be done trying to make it with the Big Girls in the world of quilting. I need to be done with blogging courses and affiliates and trying to make big bucks.

My foray into entering quilt shows ain’t workin’ well. I don’t need to be beating myself up when something isn’t accepted. I sure don’t need to be comparing myself to so many other amazing artists and complaining about the “fabric ceiling” and my quilts not being accepted. I quilt and sew and design because I want to, I need to. Who knows where my thoughts and energies will be in 18 months. I do know they will be focused on a trip to Paris and Venice, as I’ve already started planning. That’s important…extremely, as age is creeping up and darkness is creeping ever so more into the good eye.

I like writing, I like sharing what I’ve learned and the occasional interesting thought. I like teaching, even though I am ready for retirement. I wouldn’t be surprised if I try to find a way to stay in teaching with consulting. So as I’ve said before, teaching will continue to be my main creative outlet, my “art” for the time being…and maybe even longer.

I’ll still tweet occasionally, put fabric in Ebay, maybe add some things to Etsy, try some goodies in Cafe Press and Zazzle, and the like, but sewing machine and ideas, here I come.

This has been my latest project. Rachel of Rayela Art does an amazing job, having only started this in February. Members include working artists, textile businesses, galleries, suppliers and other fiber/textile people. All have an established web presence. Our common connection weaves us together: a love for textiles and fiber art. Getting this together was not an easy task…biographies, store links – there is a LOT of thought put into developing this, and the site is getting a lot of viewers.

I’ve been analyzing all the various areas where I have a presence – some stronger than others. There will be an Etsy group on the Textile and Fiber Art list, and I am looking forward to being mentored, as I need assistance in creating a good Etsy shop. My current shop has a dozen items (as of tomorrow night), and part of what I was stressing over was creating new work just for my Etsy store. Well, duh – it occurred to me that I could list some of the work from our website that gets admired, but no one thinks to buy. So we shall see……

Now along with this was getting the connections to Twitter and Facebook and the Facebook fan page…all of which require time. It’s a good thing I have some basic computer knowledge and can find my way around the web and individual sites. Some just aren’t as intuitive as they could be……But I think Facebook is now linked to my blog, my networked blog, my Etsy…..

I’ve just begun to look at ArtFire as another outlet, but I need to read about that more. I can’t add widgets for Cafe Press and Ebay because I am still using just the free listings for Cafe Press (limited items) and weekly auctions for Ebay. I know you have to spend money to make money, but a store on Cafe Press and Ebay costs additional….need to make good use of marketing dollars, as we still need to buy supplies to continue to make art to sell in these various outlets.

I did enjoy yesterday – spent the majority of the day at the computer, working with Photoshop on some new images, writing bios, and looking for a pic of hubby and moi for the TAFA site. Those of you who know me know it’s not really a current picture, but it is a good one!

Had a great time doing all this yesterday, and then it’s always coming down to reality when Monday morning hits and it’s back into the classroom. I also got the new newsletter out – special on Sampler Package 1 – 20% off….check it out – perfect for collage, mixed media, small quilt projects….

Didn’t get to read my blogs this weekend, and I miss knowing what people are up to. But I do have some good stuff for tomorrow’s post on the Top Ten on the web this week. Stay tuned for Wednesday with unveiling of two pieces that are either home from shows or aren’t traveling to any at this point.

Make art this week! Tell me what you’re working on!

I think all artists grapple with this. For me right now it is incredibly frustrating….I spent about 5 hours each day through the month of July and the first week in August, working on art and the business of art. School starts again, and there are some weeks when everything comes to a screeching halt. I am trying very hard not to let this fact become a monkey on my back, but it’s very hard.

So I have to change my mindset, and I’m not quite sure how to do this. What is keeping me sane is actually doing the artwork on weekdays, as I can clear my mind and it doesn’t seem quite like work. So that’s good, because we still need to continue creating art.

But what about the marketing? I have a couple of solutions….

* Schedule my Tweets on the weekend whenever possible, and then just check in periodically.

* Write a couple of blog entries and schedule them ahead of time. I seem to be getting at least two done on the weekends. I’m trying to stay up with my Top Ten, as that seems to be drawing comments.

* Take two nights a week to read my blog subscriptions and comment. I really do enjoy reading about people’s art lives, and I don’t want to skip this. You never know when something comes up that’s a lead.

But I’m sure there are more ideas out there….. So –

I want to hear from you – how do you fit marketing into your busy schedule? What suggestions do you have? I’d like to compile all the comments for next Monday’s blog. Head below to the comment section and let us know what you do!