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Queen Goddess Uokes
5/19/2009 10:17 AM UTC
best to your business
Expand Your World
8/1/2008 3:02 AM UTC
I raslly love your show. I would love to have you as a guest on mine. 918 694-8330
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My name is Nicolette Tallmadge, I currently run my own hand crafted jewelry design business. I’ve been designing and selling jewelry for over 11 years. I got the idea about The Crafted Webmaster when I was working as a full time and freelance web designer. I created my first site in 1996 by learning HTML in a magazine and used that experience to get a job designing web sites for a living. While designing sites full time and on a freelance basis, I was also designing and selling my own handmade jewelry and used my web experience to promote myself online. During that time I helped many of my fellow artisans with setting up their own web sites and with advice on how to promote their business on the web. I now run my jewelry business full time and I’ve built The Crafted Webmaster so I can provide information to other fellow artists and craftsmen so they can learn how to promote their work on the Internet.
Date / Time: 8/27/2009 7:48 PM UTC
If you have a website for your artwork, having a reliable host company to host it is an absolute must if you want your website to stay up and available to customers 24 hours a day. So what do you do if your current website host is less than reliable? And how do you find a host that will ensure that your website will stay up and operational? On this show, I'll discuss what to do if you're having problems with your web hosting company and what do look for when you're shopping around for a new one.
1. Always be prepared
• Always have an up to date backup of your website in your possession (HTML pages, images, database backups) • Keep your domain name registrar separate from your hosting • Keep all of your login information handy for your domain name and hosting • Make sure that you are the owner of your domain name
2. Signs that you need to switch hosts
• Your hosting service goes down more than a couple times a month. • Tech support fails to respond to questions or problems within 24 hours. • You're consistently having a hard time reaching anyone in tech support. • You start noticing some of the same complaints from other customers in the tech support message boards. • Problems with your website are due to changes or limitations with your hosting service (it's possible that your website just outgrows the abilities of your current host).
3. What to look for in a host
• Get some recommendations from friends or colleagues that have a website. Chances are if they've been with their host for a year or more the host is pretty reliable. (I've had good luck with Hostgator and Bluehost for hosting) • The host has been around for more than a couple of years. Use Whois.org to check how long the service has been active. • Type "[hostname here] sucks" or "[hostname here] stinks" in Google or another search engine to see what kind of results you get. • Check out the support area and see if it also includes message boards. Take a look and see what kind of complaints typically crop up. Also check to see what kind of response customers get from tech support. • Be wary of "unlimited bandwidth", "unlimited space", and 24 x 7 uptime claims. It's really impossible to ensure these claims. • A basic package that includes features like SQL databases, pre-installed scripts, and plenty of storage should cost between $7 to $20 per month. On average you can get a decent package for about $10 and it will take care of the needs of the average website.
4. Making the switch
• Take your time looking for a new web host. Don't rush because you're frustrated or angry. You may end up leaving one bad host only to sign up with another bad host. • Don't prepay for hosting for the first couple months. A lot of hosting services gives discounts if you pay 3 months, 6 months or even for the entire year up front. Test the service before you commit for more than a month. • Don't cut off your old host until everything is up and running at your new host and the DNS for your domain name has been changed properly. Remember that changing the nameserver or DNS information for your domain name take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to be universal across the Internet. If you don't know what DNS is or how to change it you can watch this video on how to change your DNS information.
Original Air Date: 8/27/2009 7:00 PM UTC
Date / Time: 8/25/2009 7:40 PM UTC
The social networking site Facebook is estimated to have more than 250 million active users and over 120 million of those users log into Facebook everyday. That's a lot of potential new visitors to your website who could turn into potential customers. If you have an account on Facebook, you already have access to a great tool that can help you bring more traffic to your website. But Facebook is so huge....where do you begin? In this episode, I'm going to outline five Facebook tools that you can use to bring more people to your website.
1. Facebook Profiles
• Fill out information about your interests and links to your websites • Add photos and videos of your work to your profile • Use lists to divide your friends into manageable groups • Don't forget to comment on people's status updates and events. Remember that social networking is "social"
2. Facebook Pages
• Pages are "profiles" for businesses and companies • Unlike profiles pages are public • Apply a Page Fan Box to your blogs and websites • Use Facebook ads to bring more people to your fan page • Add photos and videos to your page • You can have an unlimited amount of fans
3. Facebook Groups
• Find groups that your customers would be interested in and join them • Participate in the discussions, comments on photos, wall comments, and other things added by the members • Create your own group for your business, either public or private • Unlike Pages, you can message your group members directly • There's a 5,000 member fan limit
4. Facebook Apps
• These are little "applications" that add different features to your Facebook profiles and Pages • Use different apps to connect your blog to your Facebook account, connect your Facebook to your Twitter account, and to encourage people to go to your website • Be sure check out the following apps: Networked Blogs, Blog RSS Feed Reader, FBML, Twitter, Birthday Calendar
5. Facebook Events
• This allows you to invite people to events either outside on inside Facebook • Use events to invite your friends and page fans to sales, promotions, gallery openings, open houses...any event that you want to send an invitation for. You can also make your events open to anyone on the Facebook network • Dress up your events page with photos and videos
Original Air Date: 8/25/2009 7:00 PM UTC
Date / Time: 8/20/2009 6:03 PM UTC
So you finally decided to take the plunge and start a blog for your art. But before you go to Blogger or Wordpress.com, take some time to do a little bit of planning before you begin. Here are 5 things you must do before you start your art blog.
1. Figure out why you want to start a blog
• Build traffic to your art website • Get more customers • Talk about your artwork • Knowing what your goals are will help you plan
2. Figure out who you're blogging for
• Who's your audience? Customers? Other artists? Galleries? Potential collectors? • Your audience should match your blogging goals • Figuring out your potential audience will help you plan how to promote your blog
3. Figure out what your "anchor topic" is
• Your "anchor topic" is the main topic of your blog, what you'll be blogging about • It should match your blogging goals • It should be of interest to your audience • Choose an anchor topic that you can blog about long term
4. Name your blog
• Choose an interesting name that attracts readers • Include major keywords in your name • Use freekeywords.wordtracker.com for keyword ideas
5. Get a domain name for your blog
• A domain name is virtual real estate. It will separate your blog from all of the blogspot.com blogs • At $10 per year or less, a domain name is a cheap form of branding • You can get a domain name at MyNamespot Domains.
If you're thinking about starting a blog or if you already have a blog and you want to be more effective, sign up for my FREE e-course "50 Blogging Tips for Artists". Get a free tip in your email every day that will help make your blogging life easier. Sign up now!
Original Air Date: 8/20/2009 4:00 PM UTC
Date / Time: 8/18/2009 7:32 PM UTC
If you're like a lot of other artists, craft shows and art festivals account for a lot of your sales, especially during the upcoming holiday season. But did you know that that you can help increase your offline show sales by using the power of your website and the Internet? Here are 7 ways you can leverage your website to increase your art and craft show sales
1. Build your email list
• Gather names at all your shows • Gather names on your website • If you don't know how to set up a email list, you can also read my article series "How to Plan and Start a Great Email Newsletter".
2. Provide detailed show schedule on your website
• the name of the show • opening and closing times • your booth number (very important!) • a map of the show (with your booth space clearly highlighted) • directions to the show • a link to the show website • parking information (how much attendees need to pay and where to park) • information about special events (kid's activities, entertainment, etc) • any other interesting tidbits (number of artists, if this is a long running show, rain dates, etc)
3. Provide show incentives on your website
• Downloadable PDF coupons for discounts, free gifts • Information about show specials • Show ticket giveaways
4. Use email alerts to notify people about your shows
• Send reminder emails to your list before the show • Include detailed information about the show in your emails • Include information about show incentives • Send reminders multiple times
5. Use blogging and social networking to spread the word
• Provide a link to your show schedule on your blog • Announce the show on your blog • Consider live blogging or doing a show recap on your blog • Don't forget to announce your show on Twitter, Facebook profile, Facebook page, LinkedIn and other social networking sites • Take pictures and video during the show and upload them to social media sites like Flickr, Picassa, and YouTube
6. Advertise on the show website
• Some shows offer artists the opportunity to buy ad space on the show website • Have the link to your ad go directly to your show and show incentive page
7. Follow up after the show
• Send out follow up emails to new customers • Add the people that signed your guestbook to your email list • Send a special "post-show" offer to new people on your list
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