GCU Community Newsletter – May 5, 2011
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Issue #3
SPRING HAS SPRUNG (AND SO HAS MY HAYFEVER)
Welcome to the latest edition of the GCU Community Newsletter.
In addition to my usual eclectic mix of cards selling this time of year at Greeting Card Universe, I’ve seen Nurse’s Day and Mother’s Day coming through my sales reports, and I’ve already started getting orders for Father’s Day (June 19). So far, I’m finding the majority of my sales are earning the normal commission rate. While I make some coupon sales each day, it’s not dominating my earnings report so far, thank goodness. What are you experiencing with GCU’s new Groupon and Plum District coupon campaign?
FYI:I had a shopper make a request for personalized birthday invitations and thank you cards – 100 cards in total.
Hidden Gems: Mothers Day - May 8 - Gina Minton Kearns
After a little back and forth, she told me that since she lived in the UK, she thought the cards would be way too expensive to ship from the U.S. Aha! I was able to let her know that GCU has a printing partner in the UK. I checked the price per card and the shipping charge, and used an on-line currency converter to tell her the price of her order in British pounds at that day’s rate. Turns out it wasn’t as expensive as she thought. The moral of the story? GCU’s new UK based printing partner means shipping costs to European shoppers may be more affordable than they imagine.
On to the other stuff! Last week, our Nuts & Bolts feature on Storefront Banner design explained why it’s important to make a good first impression on shoppers. In a brand new feature, Promotion in Motion, we learned about using social bookmarks to help promote your art, and what no follow/do follow links mean to you. The talented Doreen gave us A Dash of Inspiration – a Cup of Creativity about infrared photography – very interesting! And Ernestine Grindal was in the Design Spotlight with the sweetest Mother’s Day card you’ve ever seen.
Keep up the good work, and don’t forget to pass the love around!
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Sharing the Love
Once you start a blog and begin making regular posts (I recommend once a week or twice a month – you don’t want people to think you’ve abandoned your project or you aren’t serious about your blog), you’ll want to do things to attract more traffic to your blog.
Why? Because if you’re smart – and I know you are – you’ve already decided to use your blog as a vehicle to promote yourself and the art you’re trying to sell (such as greeting cards at Greeting Card Universe). The more visitors you attract to your blog, the more chance they’ll click on a link, the more chance they might turn into shoppers who’ll buy your cards.
Search engines love original content. So do regular people! In Newsletter #1, we talked about how your blog shouldn’t
Hidden Gems: Mothers Day - May 8 - Jen Cosgrove
be just about greeting cards, but about a subject you love (or one that inspires you, or that you find educational or informative) that you tie greeting cards into. Now you’re going to use that original content to draw in visitors, and with any luck, perhaps even backlinks from other blogs (which will increase your page rank with search engines).
Commenting on forums and other blogs is a very easy way to promote your own blog, but you need to do it the smart way. Many blog services allow you to link your name to a URL of your choice. Or you can use a link as part of your signature. However, it’s up to the blog or forum owner (most of the time) to approve or trash your comment. Believe me, if a blog owner visits YOUR blog and sees only irrelevant and spammy promotion, they’re going to dump your comment (and your link) into the garbage.
You want to be choosy about the blogs you put comments on, too. Obvious spam sites will get you nowhere with search engines, and may even harm your blog’s page rank.
So how do you find other blogs that are relevant to yours?
The keyword here is RELEVANT. Don’t bother trying to post a comment on a fishing blog if your blog is about flower arranging. Look for blogs that are about topics relevant to the topics you post on your blog. How do you do that? The easy way is to go to Google Blogs and enter your keyword.
Your search results will give you a list of all blogs where your keyword is used as part of the title and/or the first few sentences. However, suppose you want to also browse people’s blog comments as well? There’s a trick to that. Go to Google once more, and type in the following (one at a time, of course):
site:.com inurl:blog “post a comment” -“comments closed” -“you must be logged in” “YOUR KEYWORD”
site:.org inurl:blog “post a comment” -“comments closed” -“you must be logged in” “YOUR KEYWORD”
site:.edu inurl:blog “post a comment” -“comments closed” -“you must be logged in” “YOUR KEYWORD”
site:.gov inurl:blog “post a comment” -“comments closed” -“you must be logged in” “YOUR KEYWORD”
Note the different extensions. This trick allows you to browse comments on many different blogs for the keyword you entered. These tools can help you find blogs that are relevant to your interests.
A tip: search engines put great weight on links at .edu and .gov sites. If you can manage to get a comment on a forum or blog with either of those extensions, in the world of promotion that’s like finding a gold mine in your backyard.
Next, be sure any comment you leave isn’t of the throwaway “great blog” variety. You need to let the blog owner know you’ve actually spent a little time and read the entry you’re commenting on. For example, a month or so ago I left a comment on a blog post about a charity walk to benefit cancer research. Part of the blog post was about the walk itself, but another part was about the blog owner’s personal experience with cancer. I told the owner I was moved by her post, and commended her courage in writing about her (and her daughter’s) cancer experiences, and wished them both well. The comment was approved. I gained a backlink to my Squidoo lens about greeting cards for cancer patients (which I use to promote my GCU cards). See how this works? Be sincere, not spammy.
Many of us already follow blogs we like. Even if you don’t, I’d like everyone here with a blog (or without, for that matter – perhaps you’ll use a link to your GCU store or a collection you have at GCU) to leave one comment on a blog. If you want to stay safe, check the GCU Community blog roll and leave a comment on a fellow artist’s blog. The more daring can search out a relevant blog using the tools I’ve given you. Either way, let us know how you do.
If you spend just five minutes a day – JUST FIVE MINUTES – leaving one comment on someone’s blog, you’ll promote yourself and your cards.
Next week on Time to Blog, we’ll discuss how guest blogging can attract visitors to your store or site.
Each artist who writes a new blog post or Squidoo lens containing at least 3 links to greeting cards at GCU will be entered in a random drawing for a fantastic book Art Escapes: Daily Exercises and Inspirations for Discovering Greater Creativity and Artistic Confidence (Dory Kanter). “This title for both beginning and experienced artists gives readers ideas for building an art habit. It contains daily projects for drawing, watercolour, mixed media, collage and more. It aims to help readers increase their skill and creativity and find time to make a little bit of art every day.” Simply make your post on or before May 8th, then leave a comment on this blog (or get in touch by email).
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You can edit the inside verse of a card after it’s been approved. When you’re logged in, find your card in the MANAGE CARDS section, then EDIT. Don’t forget to SAVE when you’re done. And don’t forget to check, double check, and even triple check your verse for grammar and spelling as cards already approved don’t go through the review process a second time, even when you edit. Please note: Sometimes, adding inside verse will also necessitate a category change, but artists can’t change a card’s category once it’s been approved. In that case, send a note to the review team: cardreview(at)greetingcarduniverse.com. Be sure to include the PID# as well as the category you want the card moved into.
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. And thanks for sharing!
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GCU Community All-Stars!
This week’s Community All-Star Award winners are: Christie, Betsy, Ernestine and Naquaiya. In addition, Oma and Annielim receive our special Design of the Day Winner Starfor being chosen to grace GCU’s homepage.
Hidden Gems: Fathers Day - June 19 - Sign Language Greetings
And finally, we have two winners of our rare and prestigious Super Star Award: Tom Rent and Doreen Erhardt, for their tireless efforts in helping the artist community with tutorials and other helpful stuff. Please join me in congratulating our winners! (If you win an All-Star award but don’t receive it in your email, please check your spam folder; if you still don’t have it, contact us).
2011 Reminder Time: Since search engines can take up to 6 months to index new content, you should be working on this year’s cards ahead of time for the following holidays:
- September 5 – Labor Day
- September 11 – Grandparents Day
- September 11 – Patriot Day
- September 29 – Rosh Hashana
- October 8 – Yom Kippur
Don’t Forget: To change the date on your year specific cards such as Graduation and New Year’s. While GCU tries to contact artists who’ve been a little absent minded, this takes time that could be spent doing other things… like reviewing cards waiting for approval! If you happen to come across another artist’s card, and you notice they haven’t changed the date, give them a friendly heads-up. They’ll appreciate it.
We Need You!: If you’ve got a blog, a website, a Squidoo lens, or a YouTube video promoting your cards at GCU, or a Facebook or a Twitter account that you use, we want to hear from you! To join the roll calls here, leave a comment or send an email to gcucommunity (at) bigdates.com. We update the roll calls daily, so you’ll never be absent for long. Do you have suggestions? Features you’d like to see added? Tips you want to share? Send them in!
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The next issue of the GCU Community Newsletter will be Thursday, May 12
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CONGRATULATIONS! 5-4-2011
The first Greeting Card Universe Design of the Day winner is:
Oma N. Ramkhelawan at Caribbean Ink.
Congratulations to Oma for her very deserving win. Go check out her winning card on the GCU homepage.
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Promotion in Motion: No Follow / Do Follow
SOCIAL BOOKMARKS AND NO FOLLOW / DO FOLLOW LINKS
Social bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and De.li.cious serve a dual purpose – they act as an on-line archive for your list of bookmark links as well as a place where users can share their bookmarks with friends, vote on their favorites, and leave comments.
How does this help you promote your greeting cards at Greeting Card Universe?
First, you might be able to create a profile when you register as a user that allows you to include a link to a website (such as your GCU storefront, hint, hint!). Second, it gets your site out there to be seen by readers interested in your site’s content, hopefully increasing your traffic. Third, by voting and commenting on your friends’ posts, you can invite friends to vote and leave comments on your posts. One hand washes the other, as they say. You might even make friends who have websites or blogs relevant to you, and you can exchange reciprocal links.
What social bookmarking probably won’t do is give you much of what’s known as “link juice.” Let me explain: search engines use very complex formulas to figure out what page rank to assign websites. Page rank means how close to the #1 spot your site will be in results returned for a search. Got it? Okay, so inbound links, sometimes known as “backlinks,” are one part of the formula. What search engines look at with inbound links is 1) how many other high quality (ie, not spam) sites link to your site; and 2) the relevance of those links to your site.
Want to know more about how Google determines page rank? Cruise over to the Wiki.
These days, we’ve got the complication that many sites (such as many of the popular social bookmarking sites) use a little HTML trick known as “no follow.” That means while your links get indexed, search engines will not use those links when determining a website’s page rank. You can learn more about this phenomena here: Do Follow: Increase Your Backlinks with Do Follow Sites. Blame the spammers – they spoiled it for everybody. But that’s okay… no follow links just affect page rank in search results. They can still drive traffic to your site if they’re relevant, so they aren’t totally useless.
It must be said that some controversy exists when it comes to no follow links. A famous search engine (which shall not be named) has been shown to be unpredictable on this issue. Some folks say they serve no purpose, others insist they’re an important part of increasing traffic to your site. What’s known for sure is that search engines are smarter than you think. They look for a mix of high quality sources with original content that link to your website (like blogs, etc… spam-rich sites like link farms carry no weight with them), and they know when somebody’s cheating. Check out this informative blog post: NoFollow vs. DoFollow: Should You Care?
So when you blog or write a Squidoo lens promoting your greeting cards, you’ll want to also use social bookmarking sites to help build traffic, which is the whole reason you’re putting your content out there, right? The whole point of this SEO (search engine optimization) stuff is to get shoppers into your store and buying your cards.
If you haven’t already, go ahead and register at Reddit, De.li.cious, Digg, StumbleUpon, and RedGage, and use their bookmarking systems (careful – submit no more than two links at a time or you might be tagged as a spammer). Be sincere if you decide to make friends – don’t try to befriend everybody in sight. Be relevant. Be respectful.
And don’t forget to bookmark your blog! This can be an oblique way of promoting your cards, by the way. As we’ve talked in Time to Blog in our newsletter, the best way to promote your greeting cards at GCU is to write blog posts that are not about greeting cards. Instead, write about what inspires you, your passion, your hobby, or pick a subject you know something about, and make informative or educational posts. Then tie relevant greeting cards into your posts (you can use the Sell This Card tool to make it easy).
Here’s something you can do right now: if you already have an account with Google services like Gmail, AdSense, or Analytics, you can fill out a Google public profile. When you set up your profile, you’ll be allowed to list links (and link names to serve as anchor text). While these links are “no follow” – thanks a lot, spammers! – and therefore don’t affect page rank, they can still get you traffic to your site. This should be done in addition to any other promotion you’re doing to get your store or artist’s name out there.
Get started with Google profiles here.
Go here for more information on how to add links to your Google profile.
Some Social Bookmarking Sites
Reddit
Digg
De.li.cious
RedGage
StumbleUpon
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Pssst….
The good news keeps rolling in, folks.
There’s something artists have been wanting a long time, a topic that keeps coming up again and again in discussions.
It’s been on GCU’s “wish list” forever.
And I’ve been told your wish is about to come true!
What is it? Now that, I’m not telling. Nuh-uh. Speculate amongst yourselves. I CAN tell you we should be getting an announcement that’ll knock your socks off either this week or next.
Discuss! 🙂
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NEWS: The Gremlins are at it again!
Sorry, folks! I hear some technical glitches (aka, pesky digital gremlins) have caused the new Design of the Day feature over at the Greeting Card Universe homepage to go slightly awry, but they’re working on it and soon hope to have things ironed out. In the meantime, I suggest a nice cup of tea, a cookie, and some soothing music while we wait. Virtual chocolate chip anyone?
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Nuts and Bolts: Storefront Banner
BANNERS: A FIRST IMPRESSION
Apart from the background you give your store, and apart from any other bells and whistles, the banner (or header) at the top of your storefront reveals a lot about you as an artist, and equally importantly, you as a business person.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you’re designing greeting cards, uploading them to Greeting Card Universe, and trying to sell them to the buying public, then make no mistake – you ARE in business. And any business professional will tell you that first impressions are extremely important.
Typically, a person takes about three seconds to evaluate you at first glance. It’s no different when evaluating your store. When a shopper sees your storefront, the first thing that catches their eye is your banner because it’s right there at the top. In that split-second, the shopper is already forming an opinion of you (and by extension, GCU in general).
Since first impressions are nearly impossible to undo or reverse, you have to make yours a good one right off the bat if you expect shoppers to continue to the even more important (to you, anyway) task of browsing your designs and buying a card.
A good banner will entice shoppers to stay. It will impress them with your professionalism, your individuality, your personality, and give them an idea of what to expect from your card designs. You can’t afford NOT to make a good impression.
Where does a good banner start?
I’ll begin by pointing out that you need toactually make a banner. I can’t tell you how many artists’ storefronts I’ve visited lately, and there was no banner at all! Without a banner, your store looks unfinished and neglected, like you couldn’t be bothered to complete it. A shopper might think that since YOU can’t bring yourself to finish your store, why should THEY bother to stick around and look at your cards? Off they go, taking your potential earnings with them. If you owned a brick and mortar shop, wouldn’t you put a sign on the front to attract customers?
A poorly designed, badly positioned, out of focus, out of proportion, warped and/or wrong sized banner doesn’t do you any favors, either. Banners should be clean, crisp and clear, a synopsis of your design skills or a statement of your professionalism. A banner should be integrated into your storefront (preferable) or at least not be involved in a fight to the death with your background color.
Here are a few examples of good banners:
These banners are pleasant, well designed, and serve as introductions to each artist’s store. There are more good ‘uns out there; I just don’t have room to show them all.
So how do you make a good banner? The same way you make a good (ie, a commercially appealing) greeting card – by using your artistic and designing skills to the best of your ability. Here are some tips that can help steer you in the right direction:
Size matters!
The banner size that displays best is 945×149 pixels. Make sure it’s centered properly.
To Text, or Not to Text…
You’ll definitely want to include your name or your store name, but please… save the “cool” text effects for another project. Text on a banner should be easy to read, not fussy, look pleasing, and be well balanced with other elements in the overall design.
How Much is Too Much?
You shouldn’t try to cram everything but the kitchen sink into your banner. Too many different elements are distracting, not appealing. Strive for balance. If you have a logo (and you should – we’ll get into that another day), integrate it into the composition or make it the focus. Your mantra should be Keep It Simple.
Well Begun is Half Done!
Any art or photographic elements you use in your banner should be crisp, sharp, in focus, detailed without distracting elements, and represent you as an artist or photographer.
Remember, your banner tells a story about you. Make it a story that grabs a shopper’s attention, and leads them to the rest of the tale – purchasing your greeting cards!
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NEWS from Greeting Card Universe
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I’m totally thrilled to share this exclusive news with my community peeps! (it’s quite a scoop – this hasn’t even been officially announced by the GCU Team, so you heard about it here first!)
GCU is about to launch a new way to showcase the unique talents of their artists, called the Design of the Day Award. What’s this, you ask? Each day (except holidays, of course), the GCU Team will choose one card out of the many from that day’s NEW cards (meaning, the cards newly approved that day, but you knew what I meant, didn’t you?). The Design of the Day will be showcased on the GCU homepage for 24 hours. How cool is that!
The new DotD is going to replace the current “Featured Artist” slot on the homepage which was, in fact, pulled randomly from the entire pool of artists, and changed each time the front page was reloaded.
Who does the choosing, and what criteria do they use? That info’s staying behind the veil drawn over GCU HQ, but it’s okay. Every artist who submits cards has the same chance as everybody else, so I wouldn’t get too hung up about it. Just go on making your fabulous cards, and someday you may join the ranks of the chosen. 🙂
This is a great way for GCU to acknowledge the best designs by the best artists, and best of all, you get bragging rights! What’s not to like? And to help celebrate these achievements, the GCU Community (that’s me) will be giving all winners a special star to display on their website or blog. Yay!
When does the fun start? Tomorrow, so stay tuned. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited!
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Dash of Inspiration – May 2, 2011
A Dash of Inspiration…A Cup of Creativity by Doreen
Beyond Visible: 100 Years of Infrared Photographs
I consider myself very fortunate, because I began my journey in photography as a student in 1980. This gave me the opportunity to learn photography in a film-based world, choosing different types of film for different situations and developing my ‘masterpieces’ in a darkroom. In my studies, I took four-years of Black and White photography which included studying Ansel Adams Zone System, it was in this class I was introduced to Infrared Film and the dreamy effects one could create simply by through the use of film and on-camera filters. Sadly those days are nearly gone; however beautiful creations can still be made in the style of infrared using our own digital darkrooms.
These absolutely brilliant examples of Infrared Photography brought to us by Noupe will hopefully bring you some inspiration on how to transfer this beautiful photographic style to your digital darkroom. In addition, I’ve provided a link to a tutorial which gives some basic step by step instructions on how to apply an infrared effect to some of your landscape photos. As with all techniques, this will take some experimenting before you’ll find a process that provides the results you want to achieve. I’d love to see your creations!
100 Years of Infrared Photographs
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DON’T FORGET: When you leave a comment on any post, be sure to include a link to your store, your blog, your website, etc. It’s an opportunity for promotion!
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Weekend Recap – April 23, 2011
It’s been another exciting week for all our community peeps. We’ve had some “spring cleaning” of GCU storefronts, and good discussions and feedback. In this week’s Community Newsletter, we learned how to write blog posts that are attention grabbers, and why titles on your posts are important (some nice do’s and don’ts tips, too). The GCU Community All-Star awards were launched – congratulations to our first round of winners! How can you earn your very own star? Start a blog and promote your GCU cards, or start promoting your cards in your existing blog (or Squidoo lens or website – we’re not picky).
Till next time, have fun creating, learning and earning!
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FROM THE FRONT LINE
SQUIDOO-BE-DOO-BE-DOO:
When you make a new Squidoo lens, in addition to using the Amazon, Zazzle, etc. modules to make a little moolah, why not include your GCU cards as well? You can have up to 9 outbound links to GCU per lens, which is plenty to promote greeting cards without seeming spammy. Use the Sell This Card tool – it’s easy!
NEED FOR FEED:
Want to add the GCU Community blog to your RSS news feeder so you can stay on top of all the latest? Here’s the link you need: https://gcucommunity.com/feed/
DON”T MISS:
This week’s GCU Community Newsletter.
This week’s A Dash of Inspiration…A Cup of Creativity by Doreen at Salon of Art.
Our guest blogger, Tom Rent, on the importance of your artist profile and how it might affect your sales.
Design Spotlight on Rycky Creations: Hope
Design Spotlight on Ernestine Grindal: Breakfast in Bed
Artist Interview: Maria Dryfhout
Nuts & Bolts – GCU How-To & Tips: Storefront Design
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COMMUNITY SHOUT OUT
If you want to volunteer to write about a subject close to your heart on any topic you think will interest and inform the community, get in touch. We’re also seeking artists who’d like to have a favorite/bestselling card spotlighted here. If you want to get some free exposure, contact us about being in the Design Spotlight.
If you haven’t already, don’t forget to send in your links to your blog, Squidoo lensmaster profile, Twitter or Facebook so we can add you to our roll calls.
Got a question about GCU you want to Ask Mindy? Send it in to us and we’ll pass it on!
Don’t forget about our CONTEST – make a new blog post or a Squidoo lens and include at least 3 links to GCU cards, and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a really cool book (see last week’s newsletter for details). Just leave a comment with your blog’s link or send in your entry by email.
REMINDER: GCU is doing a promotion with Groupon and Plum District – coupons used by shoppers in these promotions to buy greeting cards will earn artists 15 cents per card instead of the usual commission. See Mindy’s forum post on the campaign for all the details.
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A PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES
Tomorrow’s the big day! I’ve heard from my spies at GCU headquarters that there’s going to be an announcement that will knock your socks off, so stay tuned ’cause you’ll hear about it here first!
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CONTACT US: You can get in touch anytime at gcucommunity(at)bigdates.com
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Design Spotlight: Ernestine Grindal
Today’s Design Spotlight is on Ernestine Grindal, who shares a very sweet story with us about her Mother’s Day card. It’s also a lesson in spontaneity for all you photographers out there. If you would like to see your favorite and/or bestselling card spotlighted here, get in touch!
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Outside: I suppose you'll be expecting breakfast in bed? Inside: No problem, you deserve it! Kibbles or bits? Have a great day, Mom. You're the best!
My Jack Russell Terrier, Phoebe, is my muse, my buddy and a source of great entertainment for the last 12 years. She’s been a true inspiration (and model) for many of my cards. When she’s not jumping around on her hind legs she’s such a “prima donna,” always looking for the cushiest spot in the house, burying herself in the pillows.
I had just gotten a digital camera – pretty late in the game, I must admit it was difficult to pry my hands off of my 35mm Nikon. Phoebe was just peeking out from under the covers and I saw a great chance to test my new camera. Now I’m not a photographer, and don’t claim to be, but I thought the shot was pretty cute. Mother’s Day was coming up and being a designer and illustrator, I loaded it into the old Mac, did a little pattern magic in Photoshop with the clone tool for the background . . . added borders, a little cropping and pulled in some Victorian ephemera, it all came together.
I’d picked out a pretty but casual font, now to come up with some copy for the text. As an artist, that’s always hard for me, but I thought I couldn’t go wrong with a little bit of humor — not the rolling on the floor laughing kind, just a little warm and fuzzy smile.
Phoebe always makes me happy with her warm little fuzzy smile, and sharing her on my cards has proved to be a great hit.
GCU Community 