GCU Community Newsletter #5 – May 26, 2011

Shedding and Shredding (Cat Activities I Could Live Without)

Hidden Gems: Boss Birthday Humor - artist Tammy Moody

Early summer, but winter hasn’t quite lost its grip yet. We’ve had a couple of days where it was nice and warm, then the temperature dropped. The cats don’t seem to mind, except when it rains. Then they want to stay indoors and nap. Truth to be told, so do I!

Last week, we had some fun times with interesting guest posts about the New York Stationery Show 2011: Mindy Rosso and Pamela Jorgensen gave us their accounts and observations. Another guest blog by Doreen Erhardt informed us about how to profit from the GCU Widget. Our weekly Design Spotlightwas on Mary Kay Mickiewicz at Sign Language Greetings – her story was truly inspiring for many of us. Doreen Erhardt’s column, A Dash of Inspiration – a Cup of Creativity talked about Photo Manipulation and gave us some tutorials. And our first Blog Carnival, SUMMERTIME, AND THE LIVING IS EASY, was a smashing success. Kudos to everyone who participated!

I’m so chuffed, I’ve decided to start a new contest – a Lightning Round! What’s that, you ask? Keep reading and find out! You could win a really neat mystery prize (no, I’m not telling, but I’ll give you a hint: it’s not only useful, it’ll  help make your GCU store promotion a snap.) See the Contest below for details.

Keep up the good work, and don’t forget the pass the love around!

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What You Should Know

Hidden Gems: Martial Arts, Monkey Fu - artist Corrie Kuipers

Whether you’re new to blogging or an experienced blogger, there are some things you may not know, information that can help you better your blog, enhance your experience, and ultimately bring success. Here are my top five tips on what you should know about blogging.

Be Yourself: It’s tempting to want to copy a popular blogger’s style, but you should work on developing your own unique style. “Fake it till you make it” isn’t a good philosophy. I’ve got some tips about finding your “voice” in Newsletter #3, and this takes me to…

Don’t Forget Your Readers: You’re writing a blog for readers, not for yourself. Remember that! Before you write that post, think about what YOU (as a reader) would like to see in a blog. Does your post inform? Entertain? Would it be interesting to people who share your passion? By all means, put your personality into it (see Be Yourself above), but never, never, never forget your audience.

Update Frequently: Easier said than done, right? But it’s true…if you don’t update your blog often, you won’t see much traffic or readership. Readers get bored of seeing the same old stuff you haven’t updated in months, and they’ll stop visiting. Useful, updated information is beloved by search engines and readers alike.

You Won’t Get Results Overnight: Even the most interesting and informative blog needs time to develop a readership. Don’t go into this with high expectations, and please don’t be discouraged. Seek out ways to promote your blog, which leads me to…

Promote Yourself: Yep, the dreaded “p” word. No doubt about it – if you’re using your blog as a vehicle to market your art, you need to promote it. Don’t make a couple of posts and expect the world to flock to your door. You have to get out there and promote. There are a lot of ways, including commenting on other relevant blogs, or joining in blog carnivals (also called blog hops). However you decide to do it, make the time. You’ll be thankful in the end.

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I’m not monkeying around – it’s a Lightning Round! Let’s see how many of you fantastic bloggers can make a new post with the theme MONKEYS. You heard me, it’s time to go bananas! You have just ONE WEEK (until May 31), so you’d better work like lightning! Use your imagination and include 3 links to GCU cards with a monkey theme. I’ll get you started with this link to the collection of monkey-themed cards. You could write about monkeys in general, specific types of monkeys, a trip to the zoo to see monkeys, the Chinese Year of the Monkey, a recipe for monkey bread, the history of the monkey puzzle tree, the origins of phrases with monkey in them (cold enough to freeze a brass monkey, etc), the depiction of monkeys on TV and in movies – the possibilities are endless. Squidoo lensmasters, you’re in on the fun as well,  same rules apply. Send me your entries. On June 1^st, I’ll make a master post you can share AND I’ll have a drawing for a cool mystery prize that will help you promote your cards. This’ll be more fun than a barrel of monkeys, and you don’t want to miss out. Hurry and get your monkey business on!

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GCU uses a formula to determine a card’s rank (position on the page). This formula includes how long since the card was created, number of clicks, number of sales, number of times it has been favorited, number of times it’s been in a shopper’s cart, number of reviews, number of times customized, number of times it has been a GCU pick, etc. The position is also relative to the popularity of adjacent cards. So now you know just about what it takes to get to the #1 spot!

Want more comments on your blog posts? Don’t sit behind your desk and wait for the crickets to stop chirping their lonely song. Get out there and comment on other relevant blogs, and be sure to provide a link to YOUR blog. Make your comments thoughtful, useful or at least show you’ve actually read the post you’re commenting on and you’re not a spammer. Don’t be afraid… I don’t know of many blog owners who discourage commenting.

DID YOU KNOW you can “like” this newsletter or any post on the GCU Community blog, or include them in your social bookmarks? Just click the title of the post, which takes you to the permanent link page. At the bottom of the page you’ll see buttons for social sites like Facebook, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc.

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Lightning Round – MONKEYS

Hidden Gems: Miss You - artist Allan Howell

Ook ook ook! We’ve gone bananas ‘cause we’re having a Lightning Round! What does that mean? You’ve got one week (till May 31) to make a new blog post on the topic MONKEYS. Include 3 links to monkey-themed GCU cards. Squidoo lensmasters, your brief is the same. On June 1^st, I’d make the master post of links public so you can share AND I’ll have a drawing for a cool mystery prize that will help you in your promotional efforts. Better hurry, you don’t want to miss out!

Photography Tip
From Sun at Night on the GCU Forum: “Just a few pointers when photographing textile arts:

• Most designer fabrics are licensed, that usually means that a photographer should not photograph the fabric for commercial uses. This includes objects made from the fabrics. As an example: Laurel Burch designs. Plain fabrics, polka dotted, checked all those are just fine. It’s just the artistic repeating patterns. Most fabric stores will label these designer fabrics. (Licensed designs) often include Disney and college mascot themes. Stay away from these.
• Unless it is your own original embroidery design, you should not use it for commercial purposes.
• There is no copyright on sewing patterns. You can photograph apparel and just about anything you can make.
• Keep in mind your keywords. Since these are printed cards and not embellished cards, keywords should not include lace, ribbon or basically any notions.”

Facebook Tip: How to Share a Card Link on a Fan Page
From Doreen Erhardt at Salon of Art: “Re: the share button under the card You’ll see in the upper right margin of your Facebook Fan Page it says, “Post as Judith’s Business” or something like that. What I’ve found is you need to OPEN your Fan Page, click on that link so you are posting as your business, leave that window open, then when you click on a FB link it will post on your Fan Page. Default is will always be your Personal page.”

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The next Newsletter will be published on June 2, 2011