Chat Night

image from DeniseFelton.etsy.com

It's been quite awhile since we had a chat night. This Wednesday night at 8pm, please join us as we talk about the future of our street team.

The awesome gals at Etsy have arranged for us to have a Virtual Room *cheers*

Come and join us as the airplanes fly and all types of good things will be discussed.

http://www.etsy.com/virtual_lab.php?room_id=lounge

The above link is the room you want to join up on Wednesday!

***This is an informal chat, but many important things will be discussed. Please be sure to send an email to Cyndi@TheTwistedPurl.com if you have an issue you would like brought up that you are not comfortable bringing up yourself or if you are unable to attend.***

Hope to see you all there. Notes from the chat will be posted if you happen to miss out on the fun.

Blogging: What's In It For Me?

Blogging is quite the buzzword lately. Everyone has a blog, even my mother has posted to a blog she shares with my sister... once. Blogs come in many different forms. You'll find diaries, instructional writings, hobby blogs, fashion blogs, housing decor, political, and so much more. You name it, there is a blog for it.

A type of blog that has become very popular in the Etsy community is a blog that is related to your craft and your Etsy shop. They serve not only as a place to keep your favorite customers updated with what you are doing, but also to promote your shop and wares to the world. Many people are skeptical as to if this is a useful tool when promoting your Etsy shop. Just like any type of promotion, you get from it what you put into it.

Laurie of Glassbead recently pointed me in the direction of a blogger, Peg Corwin, who recently blogged about, well, blogging. You can read the post here: All About Blogging for Small Biz. The points are good and I believe that yes, you can use your blog to promote and bring business to your shop just by maintaining a blog.

Many of our AREtsy members keep up with their blog. I'd love to list them but am deathly afraid that I will leave several, amazing bloggers out. So, go forward, AREtsy, and update your blogs (or start one if you don't already have one).

The lovely item pictured above is titled "At Least Once a Week" and can be found in DeniseFelton's shop. Do you update your blog at least once a week? You should!

Looking Out For Yourself

Picture by Marge54.etsy.com

Wow! It seems that AREtsy is growing by leaps and bounds. We've had quite a handful of new members in the past few weeks. There are always questions from the newbies about where to post information about your shop. I'll give everyone an outline:

Yahoo Group Database

Hmmm... one place, seems easy enough, doesn't it? Well, yes, it is. The hard part comes in when those of us heading up forum threads and this blog try to keep things updated. This is where I ask for all of your help. Please check the various places that we promote our fellow AREtsy shops and let us know, nicely, if your information is missing or incorrect. We have such wonderful artists and shop owners in this street team and would hate it if we all didn't have our chance at being promoted. It's such a huge job to keep up on all of the information and we're always open to a friendly reminder to update your info.