YART Sale

Many artists on Etsy are having a YART Sale and many of our AREtsy team members are joining in. This is the perfect opportunity to buy from your favorite shop and save a few bucks in the process. The sale began yesterday and is planned to last until June 20. Some shops are participating in it the entire time, some just for a few days, but rest assured, you will find a deal.

AREtsy shops having a YART Sale:

Punkinhead
AletteDesigns
DogwoodLane
EkioArt
GlassBead
JudySnow
IdyllHands
Ashlie'sBowtique


*** If you are a member of the AREtsy Street Team and are participating in the YART Sale, please leave a comment and we'll add you to the list!!!***

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.

Toad Suck Promotions

The Promos are coming in daily! Just thought y'all should get a peek at the cool things that everyone has been coming up with.

Sally, has come up with these little paper notebooks: And Hannah has made these adorable cards with little crocheted flowers that are on hair pens.
There is still plenty of time to get your Goodies to Cyndi of TheTwistedPurl. They need to be to her by Thursday, the 24th. On Friday, the 25th, she is having a "Stuffing Party" where anyone is welcome to come! We will be stuffing ourselves with cheese, grapes, bread, and wine and then stuffing the Toad Suck Sacks as well. Please contact cyndi@thetwistedpurl.com if you need her address.

Team Tag Update "AREtsy Team"

Etsy Teams Administration is asking Teams to start using the word "team" in all team tags. The reasoning behind this is very understandable. In a nut shell, they want to be able to easily recognize a Team Tag.

This is a quote copied directly from a post on the forum from sarawearsskirts:

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sarawearsskirts says:
I'll try to address some of the concerns raised in this thread and on this issue here (hopefully I won't forget anything to crucial in this post).

Okay, here's what's up: When I did a compilation of all the Team Tags that Teams were using in autumn, the list of Tags Teams were using was just all over the place - there was consistency or predictability for the list. To strengthen the Team Tag program, we decided that if there was some consistency among the Team Tags, it would make it really benefit the program overall.By adding "Team", it's apparent to everyone that it is a Team Tag, because the word Team is right there. This will hopefully cut down on the number of sellers accidentally misusing Team Tags because they don't realize certain tags are Team Tags. Also, it will make it easier for all Admin (support, etc) to spot a Team tag immediately. This is important because with over 250 Teams and new Teams being created daily, it's nearly impossible to keep up with Team Tags otherwise. As I've told Team leaders, your Team does not *have* to incorporate this change - promote your Team Tag however you wish. However, for consistency and to make the program as strong as possible on our end, we'll be promoting Team Tags that include the word "Team". This makes it easier for staff to find related items for Storque articles, makes it easier for people working on flagged items and site content to recognize Team Tags, and will help us work on more features promoting Teams in the future, among other things. This change does not need to be made immediately - make the changes gradually throughout your shop - when you list a new item or relist existing items. I'm not suggesting sitting down for hours on end tonight to make this change - I realize it can be a time consuming task and understand that it will take time to implement.Thanks for understanding that this really is a change we're initiating for the benefit of the Teams. We're constantly working to improve the Teams program, give the Teams more promotion, spotlight great Teams and provide more tools and improve communication and give resources to Teams. If we didn't feel this slight change in tags was really for the benefit of the program, we wouldn't implement it. Teams are so important to Etsy and this change does help in a few ways.

for more information:http://team.etsy.com/teamtags.html http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/howTos/article/team-tip-team-tags/1376/

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For our team tag it is changing from "AREtsy" to "AREtsy Team" and as Sara has said, they does not have to happen over night. When listing a new item, be sure to add the new tag to your listing in replace of the old tag. Thank you all so much for your help in this and if you have any questions or concerns, please email cyndi@thetwistedpurl.com or send a convo to TheTwistedPurl on Etsy. Thanks again.

Governor's Arts Awards

The Arkansas Arts Council is now accepting nominations for the 2008 Governor’s Arts Awards program, according to Joy Pennington, executive director of the Arkansas Arts Council. The annual awards recognize Arkansans for their outstanding contributions to the arts community.

Nominations will be accepted in seven categories: Arts Community Development, Arts in Education, Corporate Sponsorship of the Arts, Individual Artist, Folklife, Patron and Lifetime Achievement. Each nomination will be judged on the significance of the contributions made, the range of the individuals and groups served and the length of time and degree of the activity or contributions.

Governor’s Arts Awards nomination forms are available from the Arkansas Arts Council at (501) 324-9766, at info@arkansasarts.org or the Arts Council website at www.arkansasarts.org. The deadline for nominations is May 2, 2008. The recipients will be honored at an awards ceremony and luncheon during the ArtLinks 2008 Annual Arts Conference in Little Rock in October.

The Arkansas Arts Council was established in 1971 to develop and implement a comprehensive statewide program for the support of the arts in Arkansas. The Arts Council carries out a program of services and grants-in-aid supporting arts endeavors that have significance and that encourage and assist artists in achieving standards of professional excellence. In addition, the Arts Council assists other relevant arts projects including surveys, research and planning for the arts.

The Arkansas Arts Council is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage (DAH) and shares the goals of all of its agencies, that of preserving and enhancing the heritage of the state of Arkansas. Other DAH agencies are: Arkansas Historic

Preservation Program, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Historic Arkansas Museum, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center and the Old State House Museum. Funding for the Arkansas Arts Council and its programs is provided by the State of Arkansas and the National Endowment for the Arts.