Blogging and Twitter

[TeaFoxIllustrations]

Hi :) I just recently joined in with this group but haven't been able to post due to finals. Now that its winter break, I'm hoping to get more serious about promoting my shop and hopefully others through treasuries as well. Similar to another thread posted by windowfog, it made me raise some questions concerning blogging and twittering, and other forms of advertisement.

Do you have a blog or twitter account? I was thinking about starting one up myself, but I feel like what I do isn't worth sharing to the world, or would make people want to read about it. :/ It seems like a silly question, but what do you do to make people read or care about your work? Do you have step by step processes laid out so others can understand how your work is created, or do you simply use it as a form of advertising, posting your finished pieces and directing the readers to your shop?

[Former_Member]

That's how I feel, too. That 'is it worth it?' feeling because you really don't have much of an audience yet, so.. what's the point? Who's gonna read it anyway...

But I went ahead and got a Twitter (just last month) because it doesn't hurt or cost anything to try and I can always delete it later.

Besides, people use so much social media to connect, might as well join a few to make it easier for people to find you. This way, you can have a website other than your shop to direct them to. It's also a good way for them to keep up with you and get notifications of your updates without having to sign up for a newsletter.

I think blogs are always interesting. Especially if you put info like the ones you mentioned. I don't have one b/c I'm afraid I have nothing to say! However, if you have a process or a story behind your art, those are worth reading. I always like to know the back story or concept behind a song or a piece of art or even the method used to achieve it.

I always find those kinds of things interesting and actively try to find them out.

I'm new to all this as well, so I have no idea what the best way for anything is, but I don't think it hurts to try.

And... as nice as it may be to have a shop up and have nice products on there.... how are people going to know it's there if you don't try to share it?

Some people look at it as whoring themselves out, but reality is, it doesn't matter if you have great quality items if no one even knows you're selling them...

[TeaFoxIllustrations]

I guess I've never been one for so much attention or think that what I do is insignificant to other people, but that mindset won't get people to the shop, as you said. You're right. I guess trying things is the way to go and just see what happens.

And I didn't mean to sound so negative about getting exposure on deviantart through groups XD Its just odd when I see some deviations that have 50 groups attached to them, but if it works, I guess its worth doing.

I started up a blog in hopes of promote fellow artists and treasuries on here too, and also see if I can translate my artistic process into words and WIP images. I'm hoping people will be able to relate or get to know me as a person instead of as another print seller.

Thank you for putting it all into perspective a little. :)

[Former_Member]

I'm in a similar boat, I've just opened my etsy shop and need to do some promoting. The blog idea sounds really interesting, and I might start using my Flickr account to gain a wider audience.

[QuirkyUniverse]

I have a small blog. I started off just putting what I make on there but I'm trying to put some more helpful content to other people on there as well now. I also have a post on there about all the social media. Some seems to work better than others, plus I think it depends on what you're selling also. One thing I'm learning is even if people follow you on social networks doesn't mean you get sales, plus I'm finding the people who try to sell their items non-stop and don't post anything else, especially on twitter, get annoying fast. I'm still trying to figure all this out.

http://madddoggoftomorrow.blogspot.com/

[TeaFoxIllustrations]

@daintybones I've never dealt with blogs before until yesterday when I looked into starting one. It seems silly because I feel what I do isn't that special, but I'm trying to look at it in a way of documenting my process and how I create my work. I figured it could help someone if they're stuck with their art, or it could at least let people know how much time goes into the creation of it. :) I've seen other artists do this and when I finish reading about it, the work seems more personal instead of just another image on the web. Perhaps you could take a similar stance if you make a blog ^^

@rowan300 Yea I understand those who try to sell their items non-stop. They just remind me of the annoying ads you see everywhere and it stops making you appreciate what they do overall. :( I'm trying to make people aware without becoming annoying myself, so I'm hoping having a few different outlets to announce things from will spread things out a bit. I started a twitter account too, but I don't believe I'll use it because it doesn't click with me like other forms of social networking.

And I hope you don't mind that I followed you on blogspot ^^ I'd like to follow more artists on there.

[OPelaez]

I started a raffle on my blog today to win a free original ACEO painting of mine. http://opelaez.blogspot.com/2010/12/things-i-like-free-art-giveaway.html

I have way more followers on my deviantart site, and I'm hoping I can gain some of those fans onto my blog site.

For a second, I thought about opening a twitter account to promote my art and shop, but I don't want to become "annoying" with my promoting, too. I do have a Facebook page specifically for that kind of stuff and if people are interested, they can check me out there: http://www.facebook.com/pages/OPelaez/182599498432253

[QuirkyUniverse]

I don't mind getting new followers at all. I think it's ok to post your items on facebook and twitter, but I think you should maybe keep it to your best stuff or try to limit how many times you post it per day. If I'm following someone I look forward to seeing their new items, but sometimes I'll open up twitter and the whole page is one person tweeting 30 different items they just listed. Those people I tend to stop following.

The blogs I like to read offer content besides just new items. Like how they make the items, sometimes people put up recipes, all sorts of stuff can be interesting. Once again, I look forward to seeing what they make also but just be aware no one wants to read one long, non-stop advertisement.

[TeaFoxIllustrations]

I've seen a few artists offer up raffles for free art or prints. I do like the idea, kind of like a promotional way of looking at your art, etc. ^^ I'd like to do something like that, but only once I get more followers/watchers.

And I agree with what you're saying about twitter. I'd rather keep my facebook page to advertise things. Somehow I think its less annoying because you can update with actual content instead of just statuses.

[Former_Member]

Yeah, Twitter's very annoying. I find it very hard to keep up. It is like an unrelenting flood.

Everyone has good points. And it's true that different media work better for different things. I still think it's nice though to try different ones even if you don't update them much, just so people can have a way to connect with you.

Giveaways are nice. And yes, sarahgraybill, it's wise of you to wait till you gain a bigger audience. I tried it, but I wasn't good at promoting it (still am not good at it). But I've now found a lot of websites that host giveaways, especially art or Etsy giveaways. So if you want to try it, you can also use them since they already have an audience to begin with.

There's a few of them. Maybe google 'Etsy giveaways'.

[Former_Member]

Hey everyone!

I've started to blog months ago and it was really hard for me to write about something. I thought that these things are not interesting enough to write about. But after reading several blogs I realised that it is nothing wrong to write about your daily life or your thoughts. Not everyone will be interested in everything you write but there are people who are actually interested in what you want to tell them!
Now I have 2 blogs.. a personal blog and a blog about my art and etsy! I don't know if I can handle it but I'm excited! I love reading blogs and maybe someone will find my blog and follow my tracks!

I think Twitter is a good way to communicate with people. You don't have to comment on something, you can actually ask the person and follow her. But I use twitter only for things I REALLY want to share. Not "I ate pizza" or something. If you are an artist, it is a good way to announce something or to talk with people who like your things!

And yes, some people can be really annyoing, if they write 200 things in 1 h....

[TeaFoxIllustrations]

@makoccino What is your blog? :3 Now that I started one after reading through some of the threads on here, I'd like to add some artists to follow through my blog. Are you on blogger/blogspot?

[Former_Member]

Oh! It would be great! I will add you too!

My blog is: http://makoccino.blogspot.com
I haven't much yet but I will change that!

[RealmofForgottenLore]

I'm still fairly new to this as well, and in the very beginning it was daunting. I had the whole thought process of 'what if I'm not ready for what comes? How am I going to do this, and that?' and it went on and on. Until one day I realized that I'll never start up my shop if I don't just get down to it and take it as it goes. Which is what I did. One of the things that came about was of course self promotion, which I wouldn't refer to as whoring out your shop. It's what every single company does to get their items seen. And that is just what it is. Sales can come from promotion, but don't always.

So what I did, since I already had a Deviantart account, I started slowly letting my DA friends know that I was going to start a shop and selling the products that I make. I actually have made a couple of sales from my DA friends, and that's because with every new item I make, I take my photos and post them there. In the comments section I post links directly to the listed item in my etsy shop.

A blog, or at least just sharing things about yourself, your inspirations (I think that's a great one by the way), things that you like to do, that you enjoy, how long you've been doing what you do and what you use. All of that actually does interest people. Think about where you get your inspiration from, other artists that you've grown up and had really driven you to where you are now, what information would you like to know about them?

I never had an interest in joining Twitter for the purpose of promotion, but I did so with my Facebook. And on my shops facebook fan page I'm getting more people who like it. Every bit of promotion can also take a long time to really establish yourself, it's a lot of work but it's worth it in the end.

Another site that I use (and really should utilize more) is livejournal. It's been difficult to get back into writing journals and sharing them with others, but once I do it should get easier.

:D

[Former_Member]

Yes, people think too much!

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
~William Shakespeare

So if you have an idea, you should try it!

I'm always thinking I have to make 10000 items first before I can show them to people.. Since I haven't got a lot of different things I'm very conflicted...
Is there actually a "right" time to start promoting your shop/items? Or should you simply start the promotion with your first thing you have made?

[OPelaez]

As long as you have one item in your shop, I think anytime is the right time to promote it. How else will it attract potential buyers? And even if the item isn't exactly what someone is looking for, the style might be right and then they can bookmark your shop to keep an eye on it for something that comes along that they do want to buy.

I don't have a ton of items in my shop, but I promote what I do have and continue to create new pieces while I promote the others.

[Former_Member]

Yeah, it is probably the right thing. I will try to promote my things more..

[Former_Member]

Also something that might be helpful (since we're talking about social mediums and other thingers ;D) is if you're a paid subscriber on dA, you can put a twitter module on your dA page, and if you have a twitter and tweet about your items, it puts that tweet pretty much at the top of your page or whatnot :) So if people visit your dA page for whatever reason and not necessarily a deviation, they can still find your shop and such :) It also helps if you're normally active on dA (i practically live there AHAHAH XD) then when people visit your page due to whatever reasons for your activity, it also drives shop traffic :D That's what I've found anyways :) a good 4% of my shop traffic comes from twitter :) It takes a lot of time to build up an audience, but one of the helpful things (especially if you're new to twitter) is, if other deviants have twitters and see that you have one and if they're into that, they'll add you and your followers grow :D (That's what's happened with me at least in both ways; i've followed other deviants and also am followed by some :D).

[Former_Member]

http://turnerstokens.blogspot.com/

I have been a little lax about updating due to the holidays but I have a Twitter, Blogspot and Facebook along with my Devart account. My goal was to go where those interested in my work would be. Some of the people overlap on the networks but I wanted to make sure I had most of my bases covered when it came to reaching out to the audience.

So far when I look at where traffic is coming from the most, Deviantart is ranking the highest and it has been allowing me an easy access to talk to people directly about their interests and what they would like to see done in my work.
For Facebook I made the mistake of creating a group rather than a fan page when I started and I decided to just stick with the group for now.
Running giveaways and contests have been a great way to get information from my watchers. Details like favorite colors, themes, holidays and things that seem pretty simple but can be applied to my work has really helped.
Make sure your contact information is the easiest to find on your blog along with where people can find you.
Through all the social media, the main goal behind it is to connect with your audience, build a relationship with them and then sell.
Also, when you build your blog, incorporate Google Analytics with your blog and your shop. It is a great way to measure intereaction with your brand and where you are online.

[Former_Member]

Welcome to the group and to Etsy!

I'll let you know some of my experiences in short and hopefully this will help you!

Promote on Etsy - join teams, talk in chat, post on forums. People on Etsy are the most likely people to buy on Etsy. When they think "I need a pot holder" they don't think "Walmart" like most people, they think "What's on Etsy?". People on Etsy love to support other people so they're often willing to pay a bit extra for something to support someone else's similar dream.

TAG your items! Use all 14 tags no matter what! Even if you just say "Cute" or "Pink" or something that seems covered in the title or description. Google owns the world and you want to get those buzz words so people can find you. Think about the vague and stupid things you type in Google when you're trying to find something. "Inexpensive Christmas Gift" is a horrible description as it can give you back 100000000000000 results, but it's what people are more likely to search for, so use it! If your item has free shipping, tag it with "Free shipping". If it makes a good gift, tag it with "Gift"!

Back link to your shop. You're right - it's most likely that no one wants to read your blog or twitter. They probably don't care at all. However, there are a lot of blogs about whatever you do that ARE popular and that's where you can get seen! Comment on blog posts and you'll see most let you put in your site. That will spread it around. In every forum you are on, put a link to your shop in the signature. I have a link in my DA posts, my crafster forums, even my WoW guild forums! The most views I even got in one day was when I posted on the Facebook page of a big gaming site called Kotaku with a link to my shop.

Submit your work to popular blogs. All those sites you're back linking on? Send them an email and show them your stuff so that they might do a feature on you, too. Many have forms to submit stuff simply. Every time you have something new, let them know. Don't feel like your bothering them - it's what they do!

Gimmicks work... sort of. Do your research and find out what gimmicks really work. People were super excited that Etsy made coupons, but how many extra sales did that bring in for most shops during the holidays? Chances are, very little. The people who were going to buy from them would have done it regardless of that extra 10% off. Research shows that one of the most effective ways to get people to spend more in your shop is to offer free shipping for spending a certain amount. Someone who was going to spend $25 may spend $50 if they get free shipping! Also be wary of contests and giveaways. In my experience, you mostly get freeloaders who would LOVE your stuff for free, but will never buy it otherwise. Just makes sure you're not giving away more stuff than you get in new sales out of it.

[Former_Member]

Its good to start slowly.
But don't let your blog or tweeting take priority over your shop (creating and listing).

I'd say yes to starting a blog, twitter and facebook for your shop. Its easy to link your facebook to twitter so that whatever is typed into your shop's facebook account automatically is posted to your twitter {ie. less work}.

As for blogging I started out blogging daily or nearly so and got burned out quickly. I suggest maybe a post per week.


One way that I recently started gaining back some of my time was by using Google Calendar to schedule when I'd work on marketing things.

For example:
I'm the founder of Etsy-Deviants on Deviant art.
I know I've been slacking in my duties for quite awhile.
So I scheduled biweekly clean outs for the galleries on google calendar for a day I know I'll have time.

I'm also a member of the EtsyBloggers Team here on Etsy and I try to keep up with blogging.
We have 3 blog posts required per month- 2 carnivals and a feature. So I scheduled to write them.

I also want to try doing more treasuries this year so I added them to schedule biweekly as well.

I even scheduled when to list items I recently photographed and the next day I plan to do more photographing of items.

So far this method is working for this year. My hopes are high that it will continue to work for me.

Also somewhere I found a download called "Marketing tracker" its just a simple doc file setup to write in what you did, shop views, sales, hearts. Its useful to gain perspective on how your online actions affect your shop. I add in a bunch of other info about my shop to give me more perspective.

[MixdJuxt]

Wow, Liz! You're so organized. That's really great, thanks for the pointers.

[OnceUponaToadstool]

Hi,
I agree with everyone else in terms of not knowing what to say. I started a blog a few months back and have only posted one post, its basically a self introduction that rambles on into what inspires my artwork. But that was a few months ago and I haven't been able to figure out what to write next. Ive been thinking about doing reviews on different art supplies, but you can find that anywhere so why do it?
Anyways, thats my dilemma. Im enjoying reading what everyone else has to say. There are definitely some helpful tips I will have to try out.

Here is a link to my blog if you are interested.
http://www.elisabethrunningdesigns.com

Thanks,
Elisabeth