I just wanted to mention that the sponsor banners you see over on the right side are not paid for spots, at this time. As I build up traffic, I wanted to offer the spots for FREE to companies whose business is to help other small businesses.
I actually approached most of them myself as I feel they are beneficial resources for you, as creative business owners. They're all graphic designers, business consultants, places to promote yourself or places to commune with like minded people.
I wanted to draw your attention to a couple and tell you more about them...
The Happily Handmade Giveaway is an AWESOME way to promote your business. I participated a few years ago with my first jewelry business and it got me a great amount of traffic and response at the time, plus a ton of mailing list sign-ups. And, it's fun!
Basically, as a sponsor of the giveaway, you pay $20 and donate up to 20 items to be included in these incredible gift baskets that the Happily Handmade Giveaway girls put together. You set up a giveaway page on your website or blog and collect entries during the giveaway period (which starts April 1st) via a really easy code/form that they supply you with, or you can have people sign up to your mailing list or something too.
That giveaway page on your site will link to all the other shops participating, as there's will link to yours. Your customers can enter once in each shop and the more entries they get, the more chance they have to win one of the awesome giftbaskets, so it creates a big hub-bub and reciprocal traffic going through all of your sites as customers enter.
All the detailed rules and info can be found on the Happily Handmade site. The sponsor sign-up period ends March 20th, and all your donations must be received by the 23rd, so hop on it! It's inexpensive and a great way to get your name out. I totally recommend it!
ByHand is a new site that I'm just starting to get familiar with, dedicated to "putting the personal back into handmade." They began just a month ago, but already have thousands of unique visitors coming through everyday.
They are a non-profit community created to help handmade artisans promote and sell their work. You can create a profile and become part of the artisan directory, list your items that will link directly back to your shop for customers to purchase, connect with other handmakers in the forums, read their daily community blog.
I haven't even been able to skim the surface of what the site has to offer yet, but it looks like a great burgeoning community of artists and crafters and I know they're working hard behind the scenes to promote and advertise the site. Take a look around!
