Boost Your Biz

boost your biz - badge, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

As you surf the internet, watch for this badge.

When you see it, click on it to visit another blog I write at www.PamHawk.com

There you'll find interesting, creative but practical, and very very inexpensive tips and tricks to hep you grow your own creative business.

If you use any tips, I'd love it if you would grab the badge for your sidebar to spread the word!
Thanks!

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Connecting with your readers

A couple of weeks ago I was surfing through my Technorati Experiment post to check out some of the blogs in the list and ask to have my links added to their list. I left a comment at one of the blogs and promptly forgot about it until later when I checked my email.
Here is what it said:

Hey Pam Hawk,

Just wanted to thank you for stopping by http://Bradblogging.com on August 3rd, 2008.

Your comment definitely helps me write better articles, and allows other readers to see your opinion about the article (http://bradblogging.com/more-traffic/give-and-go-technorati-authority-increase-anyone/) that you talked about.

I hope to see you back again soon! If you have a busy schedule, you could always subscribe to my R.S.S feed so that my posts are available at your convenience. Simply click this link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/bradblogging or go to the main home page and click the corresponding button.

Cheers!
Brad @ Bradblogging.com

Now while I realize Brad has probably set up an auto responder to send this email the second I left his site, it left a positive impression on me, and I did go back to read more posts.

You know what? I found some valuable information on his blog and have since subscribed.

If the email hadn't been sent to me, I probably would never have returned to his blog. Instead, this tiny effort on his part gained him another regular reader. Pretty darned smart, if you ask me.

When people leave comments for me, I read them all and try to respond accordingly. I also visit the sites of my commenters and read their posts and try to leave relevant comments as well.

Connecting with your readers encourages a sense of community in your blog. It also makes you more human and it does increase your readership, whether it's through regular visits or RSS subscribers. In fact, if you enjoy reading my blog, I invite you to subscribe, as well. Just click one of these buttons in the sidebar and select your reader.

So tell me, what do you do to connect with your readers?

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Promotion tips from Joanna Goldman

Dear readers, in following up with more interviews with Etsians and bloggers, I present to you some valuable information from Joanna Goldman. She is doing an outstanding job using many different places to market her Etsy store, and when she replied to my request for people to interview for this project, I immediately recognized her work from the car loaded with Ikea packages to the soulful little elephant with the big eyes. Perhaps you have seen her work here and there?
So Joanna, please tell us about the techniques you use to promote your Etsy shop.

As an Etsy seller, I'm basically trying to get my name and shop out "there" (the mega-giant world wide web!).

All my promos have a consistent branding feel to them. I think that this is important. I recently had a customer who saw my shop a while ago and liked my stuff, but didn't buy right away. What got her to purchase something was seeing one of my ads on majaba.org. It just goes to show that a strong presence makes a difference.

I use a number of different promo techniques to get recognized:

Blogs: http://www.joannagoldman.blogspot.com
I blog mostly for promo purposes. On my blog you will find my latest creations, articles that i was recently featured in, and coupons etc for my Etsy shop.

Website: http://www.joannagoldman.com
My website useful and more "professional" looking than my blog. It basically cuts out all the fat and shows who I am and what i do. I try and keep it as clean and simple as possible.

Other sites:
I use flickr, facebook, myspace, Etsy forums, other forums, (and a whole bunch of other stuff that I'm forgetting about) as promo tools. This kind of marketing doesn't usually lead to immediate sales, but I've had success months down the line.

There is a great forum post that lists a billion places to list yourself on the web. http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5703544
I'm am steadily making my way through this list, and I think it's helping!

In addition to the free promo-ing, I've been sponsoring events, donating my items to be sold for charity, and participating in online contests.
I've started doing paid advertising too. So far I've done majaba.org, project wonderful, and I have the handmade children's showcase on Thursday. All of these have gotten me tons of hearts and more exposure. I am sure they will pay off in a few months time.

In addition to Etsy, I am also consigning out my stuff to 3 stores: 2 in Toronto, Canada, and one online (http://www.trendyshoppes.com/)

It is important to keep in mind that building a business takes time. You have to plant many, many seeds before you can start to see any results. So far I've only sold 71 items off Etsy, but I'm still relatively new to this. I'm confident that this holiday season will be a successful one.

Stay positive, stay motivated, work hard and success will follow.


Thank you Joanna, for sharing your many different avenues for promoting your Etsy shop. I too, will go check out that Etsy forum post to work my way through the billions of places on the web to list my own shop.

Dear readers, when Joanna touches upon her consistent branding as part of her promotion (in her second paragraph) that basically means that once you see one of her promotions or ads or visit her shop, you recognize and remember her every time you see another promotion or ad. This is important, because it takes a while for a new advertisement to sink in. As long as your message is consistent, each view will work its way deeper into your customers' subconscious until they can't live without what you have to offer. This was true more than 120 years ago and is still true today. Joanna has figured this out and her consistency is paying off.

Now please go and check out her Etsy shop and her links! I bet you'll find a favorite or two!
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Branding part V - more ways to use it

An interesting comment by Lindsay at spreadshirt.com on today's earlier post suggested checking out ChrisBrogan.com for more ideas on how to use social media for branding. My post barely whispered in that direction, but since you're reading this, you are obviously using social media and it only makes sense to give you more information about how to use this to your advantage.

Please check out Chris's post 100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media. While you're there, go ahead and check out the rest of his blog. You may find more information to help you on your way.

Excellent tip. Thanks Lindsay!

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Branding part IV - Putting it to use

Once you have a logo designed, and you know you can start using it to identify your products or services, the fun begins. Go nuts with your logo! Here are some places you can use it:

Duh:

1. Business cards and other stationery products
2. Avatars
3. Websites, blogs, e-commerce store fronts
4. Product packaging

Aha:

1. Have a vinyl cling or magnetic sign made up and stick it to your vehicle.
2. Make bumper stickers.
3. Work your logo into decopauge, decorative items.
4. Sew your logo into a quilted or fiber art design.

Genius:

1. Go to http://www.cafepress.com/ or http://www.spreadshirt.com/ and print your logo along with your phone # or website address on shirts, caps, aprons, etc. Use these items for yourself, as gifts, and as promotional giveaways to promote your business. (Seriously. How many people do you see walking around wearing the logos of Tommy Hilfiger, Element Skateboards, or Dale Earnhardt's number?)

2. At craft fairs, print your logo on bright colored, re-useable tote bags and use them instead of shopping bags for big sales so your logo will walk around the fair for all to see.

3. Encourage people (customers, blog readers, etc) to send in pictures of themselves with your logos. Post them all on your website or blog and have visitors vote for the best one. Award prizes for different categories.

4. Have a rubber stamp made of your logo. Stamp the image all over solid color wrapping paper and use it on gift items purchased from your e-store.

5. Try an Andy Warhol-inspired approach and turn your logo into artwork.

6. Use a permanent ceramic paint pen to draw your logo and website on a coffee mug and give it away.


Any other ideas? Post your comments!
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Branding part III - Making it yours

This next step requires a little research, but it's critical to look into before you plan to start using your logo: make sure nobody else is already using your logo.

In our case, with the flying plate logo, we needed to make sure nobody else was using a logo that looked like ours. A visit to the USPTO, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, got me started on a logo/trademark search.

I did a search to find out my design codes, which are:
11.03.09 Plates (empty)
03.17.01 Wings
and 24.03.25 (other emblems and insignia) when a wing design comprises an emblem or insignia.

Then I went to search for logos using those codes at the USPTO search site. A search for PLATE and WING and got a lot of hits including one for something called Violent Vegetables (?!) After a little tinkering, poking around, and some help from our local business development office, we got our flying plate logo off the ground, so to speak.

For help with this step, you can contact your local Small Business Administration, or SBA. You can also find information online at http://www.sba.gov/. For specific information regarding this post, you can check out the SBA's information regarding copyrights.

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Branding part II - Developing a Logo

The first step we took in establishing the Pass It On Plates brand was to create a logo.

Wait - Before telling you about creating the logo, I should explain why sometimes I use the term "Me" or "I" and sometimes I use the term "Us" or "We. Even though I'm the chief cook and bottle washer here at Pass It On Plates, and I'm pretty much "it" when it comes to producing plates and PlateWraps and things in the Oregon studio, I've got a crew helping to develop this business in our Wisconsin studio. The reference to "We" and "Us" includes the whole group of talent at Pass It On Plates.

The head of our Wisconsin studio is my smart and clever mother, Donna. Yes, this is a mother-daugher project, 1,763 miles wide. She not only creates plates and works with making PlateWraps and Pretty Little Doo Dads, but she works tirelessly on our marketing, sells plates at local art shows and at the Hayward Flea Market, and works with local business development experts to put Pass It On Plates on the map, so to speak. Donna also found some local talent to help make PlateWraps and help out with other related creativity.

Back to the logo:
Our first step was to decide on a logo to use. Since this logo would be plastered on everything sent out of our studios, it had to be simple, easy to recognize (not some obscure shape or random photograph,) easy to put on our plates - which means it has to be easy to draw by hand, and unique. We did a little brainstorming and Donna came up with this:

Logos 1, originally uploaded by passitonplates.
Sketches from the first brainstorming session to figure out a logo for Pass It On Plates.

Logos 2, originally uploaded by passitonplates.
More logo sketches. The idea is starting to come together. Donna got several friends involved to see if they could figure it out.

Logos 3, originally uploaded by passitonplates.
Still playing with the concept of the plates and working out some kind of visual graphic for a logo. Even if they don't fit our criteria to be simple and easy to duplicate by hand, it was important to sketch out every single idea. You never know which idea will lead you to the one that ultimately gets used.

PIOP+Logo1, originally uploaded by passitonplates.
Here is the very first incarnation of our Flying Plate logo.

From here we tweaked it and made minor adjustments. We showed it to friends and business developers and asked for their opinion, then we made a few more adjustments. In the end, our logo developed into this:

The Pass It On Plates logo, originally uploaded by passitonplates..

Branding part I - An Introduction

Lately, I've been thinking about how to establish the Pass It On Plates brand. I expect several artists and/or moms out there reading this may wonder,

"Why the heck would Pam care about that?"

Branding is critical for any small business working toward establishing itself and standing out from the competition. While Pass It On Plates may not have a lot of obvious competition in the field of interactive traveling plates, we still compete with everyone else selling gifts.

If you are new to this "Branding" concept, it's simple to grasp. Think about who says "Snap crackle pop!", imagine a certain fast food restaurant's golden arches, or envision the shape associated with the phrase "Just Do It."

Branding is an image and/or phrase
that your customer identifies as "you."

At this writing, there is not a lot of branding going on here at the Pass It On Plates blog. Or website for that matter. We put our flying plate logo on the plates and we show it off in pictures. It's on some promotional materials that we give away, such as mugs and tote bags, but that's about it. How many times do you see it as part of our web presence? Let's count: Blog? none.Plate diaries? none. Website? none again. Etsy store? consistently, none.

Grand total: Zilch. That's not good.

At the top of this summer's To Do list is: Establish the Pass It On Plates brand. Branding is new to me and I am learning as I go. Throughout this process I will share what I have learned and I'll offer ideas on how to make this work for you, whether you have a creative business, a Mommy blog, or some other home-based business that you wish to grow.

Next: Developing a Logo

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