As Promised: The Recording of the Webinar from Handmadeology

If you are running a business on the internet and have yet to figure out how Twitter and Facebook  help to market your products, this webinar will help you to further understand how to use it for viral marketing. It will be available for only a limited amount of time so don't wait to view and listen. It's from Handmadeology University. Enjoy!


11/10 Webinar


Okay, back to resting and recuperating :)

Tuesday Tools -- Great HMU Webinar & A "Breaking Down Your Costs" Worksheet

I attended Tim Adam's webinar this evening sponsored by Handmadeology University. The webinar focused on the changes occurring on Facebook and Twitter and how each can be applied to help focus on marketing. I believe the transcript should be available to us in the next few days. If it is free, I will share the link when it is ready.

Facebook's interface has changed in the past couple of weeks and for some (including me at first) it seems like it's more confusing than ever to figure out. There's now a "Live Feed" feature which I've found needs to be selected to see your friends' latest postings. What is exciting is the new Lists feature. Select "More" under the list of "stuff" on the lefthand side of the screen and one of the links is the ability to make a new list. One can separate out family from friends from fan pages and set up multiple lists from the "friends" list organized just the way that works for you. Depending on how large your friends' list is, it can take a bit to set up each list but I believe it is worth it.

Twitter now has lists too. Do you find it confusing to use the interface and figure out what you are ready and from whom? Don't feel alone! At times I'm bewildered too. In Twitter, I'm still working out an understanding of the Lists feature. I've used it to set up a couple of lists but until I figure out what it does for me, I won't bore you with how to set it up. What is really cool in Twitter is that there is currently a beta going on to add Retweet to the Reply and Trash selections next to each tweet. I'm fortunate to have been selected to use this beta and if you have,  I hope you experiment with it and send feedback on what you find.

There is more but I'm a bit tired this evening. I will tell you there's something terrific being developed by Tim that should be announced within the next few days. I will announce it on Twitter and my Facebook Fan Page. So if you're not following me or would rather subscribe as a fan, please do so you don't miss the news!

Finally the really super tool I found this week so far is an excel worksheet provided free by NoadiArt who writes "The Handmade Business Blog". Her article today, "Breaking Down the Costs", includes all the math to figure these important numbers out. Don't let that scare you away, however, because she includes a very cool spreadsheet template and if you don't own excel or know any spreadsheet programs, you can still use it. It is available on Google Docs which is available free to everyone. If you don't have a Google account, set one up. There are some really good tools for everyone. Use what you find to work for you and disregard the rest.

Have you found a tool you can't live without that helps you in your personal and/or  business life? If so, please share it with me in the comments below. If you've developed a tool you believe others should know about, write me too. I may feature you in a future Tuesday Tools article.

More tomorrow,

Diane xoxoxo

http://dpeagreendesigns.etsy.com
http://dpeagreendesigns.ecrater.com
Tweet Me: @dpeagreendesign
Email Me: dpeagreendesigns@gmail.com

Want to Schedule Your Tweets?

There are more and more free and paid services that allow a Twitter user to schedule tweets throughout the day. All are fairly easy to use. One of the newest, just gone alpha, is Twaiter. It is free for personal use; a business account which is limited to 500 tweets per month is also currently free. From their "about" page:

"About Twaitter --

Like Twitter? We do! With our enthusiasm (unhealthy addiction) for Twitter combined with our gallant attempt at adding enhancements to the Twitter platform, we know you’ll ‘love’ to Twitter on Twaitter.

If you are one of the growing Twitter user community, you've probably been in one of the following situations where Twaitter can help:

• Ever had an idea for a tweet, but wanted to send it later or at a specific time?
• Have a fellow Twitterer whose birthday is coming up in a few days, but you’re afraid you might forget to send a "Happy Birthday" tweet when the day arrives?
• Spend more time on Twitter than your work calendar? Ever want to send yourself a reminder or remind friends or followers of something?
• Want to participate in a scheduled Twitter conversation even when you are too busy to attend?
• Want to have links in your blog RSS feed automatically sent to Twitter?
• Want to schedule a tweet to go out at 8:14AM (and not 8AM sharp)?

…You can do it all with twaitter."

The only downside I've found so far is that once a tweet is scheduled, it cannot be edited if errors are found or you want to make a change. It has to be deleted and re-written.

I like that one can schedule Tweets from the control panel or use the "Outlook" inspired calendar to enter and schedule. Tweets can be scheduled hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and set to send once, a number of times or regularly with no end.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this service develops and hope you enjoy trying and using it. Let me know what you think...

Have a great Friday! Remember Twisted Thoughts cross-stitch patterns will be introduced into my Etsy shop (dpeagreendesigns) tomorrow. See you then :)

Quick Tip Tuesday -- Can I Schedule My Blog Post For Later?

Yes! I was wondering the same thing about Blogger when I received a newsletter sharing news about a new scheduler to publish blogs at a specific time/day. I searched Blogger Help and didn't find anything. It doesn't mean there isn't help though. In the Help Forum, I found exactly that!

I'm a newbie at disciplining myself to keep up with one blog and post every day (well, except for Saturday, my break day). The idea of keeping up with more than one is a bit daunting for me at this point .

For those who have more than one blog, I will share the information about new PostLater farther down this article.

If, like me, you are using Blogger, here is how to schedule your post to publish at a later date and/or time:

Create a New Post. Once the page opens, look for the "Post Options" link:


A box opens which show Options. Change the date and/or time in the fill-in boxes on the lower right:



That's all it takes!

NOTE: remember to change the date and time you want to publish before you begin typing the new blog. Changing it later won't stop Blogger from publishing it as soon as you click on the "Publish" button if you change it after entering text. The blog will still publish at your scheduled time as well. In other words, if you use TwitterFeed or one of the other services to feed Twitter and other micro-blogs, you may publish notice of the new blog entry two times -- once when you first click "Publish" and once again when it has been scheduled. This may not be a bad thing if, like me, you don't update more than a few items or times during a day.

If you publish more than one blog and do several updates each day to one or more of them, the new PostLater service looks like it might be a one stop shop to schedule all postings from one location. It not only supports all the major blogging platforms but also supports micro-blogging sites like Twitter.

For those of us who often post several new items from our various shops at one time, instead of inundating our followers with everything at once, wouldn't it be nice to send notices at pre-scheduled times throughout the day?

If You Are New To Etsy or Want To Increase Traffic To Your Etsy Shop ...

I recently found a thread in the Etsy communities where Etsyans were sharing tips and found a great site with lots of "easy to do" tips for newbies to Etsy, as well as lots of information for those who have been around awhile and are exploring other avenues to market their art and handmade crafts. Timothy Adam Designs has shared a ton of suggestions, tips and tricks to help each of us create a successful Etsy shop to share and sell our wares. His newest offering is "Handmadeology, the science of homemade".

Check out Etsy 101, the first in a series of "how to" videos on becoming an Etsy seller. More are planned and I'm looking forward to learning more from each.

In addition to Etsy 101, Tim's site includes valuable information on Twitter, Art Fire, Google Analytics, adding an Etsy mini to your Facebook site, and some great photography tips. It looks like it will be a "one stop shop" for helping any artist/crafter learn how to set up shop and market his/her offerings.