This is a last minute blog! Hello???

I am not really sure what to talk about here since I gabbed it all last time...lol. But let's see...I was reading today how you can make a living online selling things. Of course, they were referring to things you buy from distributors, but I was thinking...wouldn't it be nice to make a living by selling our art or wonderful craft items on a regular basis?

How do we accomplish that little fantasy? We can do it by just what we are doing now, networking, making friends, and doing all we can to advertise our creations. Earlier, someone mentioned places like MySpace. I have had a membership there for a very long time, mostly for my writing and a few of my kids. I do get other writers wanting to be "friends" occasionally, but I also get a lot of junk mail and spam invites. I don't really think I get much off of My Space. It is more for socializing and too many people can view it that maybe aren't interested in our art at all. I consider it more of a dating/keeping in touch type place. It is just one more thing to keep up and I am overloaded right now.

I think this DAWG group on Ning, getting our items listed on Etsy, eBay, and perhaps joining one or two of the eBay groups that we spun off from, would be the main source of acquiring traffic to our sites and our art/crafts. One other possibility and it used to be free is Classmates.com. Now some of you live in the same place and have all your life. But some of us have moved from state to state, and lost track of those we went to school with. The worst part of Classmates is that it costs to be able to see who is trying to contact you. I think it is approximately $13 for three months, the more months you pay for in advance, the cheaper it becomes. I actually ran into a few old classmates there. It was very cool because we are coming up on our 40th year high school reunion, not that I will be in California next year, but it was fun to catch up, and I did sell a few books and gathered interest in my eBay art. Just a suggestion and not for everyone.

Seems to me, if you spread yourself too thin trying to advertise you will have no time to create. I am not finding much time at all between family and trying to keep up with the few places I do belong to. So, I am prioritizing. I am choosing eBay, ETSY, DAWG ...and once in a while, I will check MySpace.com or Classmates.com to see if anyone has tried to contact me.

Another good thing I have is a "free" website (I use the free one I got with Register.com for registering my name with them for the next ten years!) I use my website mainly for my romance books, but I am considering adding a few new links to my art as well. I get quite a few hits on my website, but royalties pay so little that you would never know I sell any books. I make more nowadays off my ACEOs...Lol! :)

One more thing... I have noticed a lot of the more "established artists" doing, you know, the ones who have regular bidders and get $$$ for their art, they are finding places like CafePress.com and taking their more popular art work and having magnets, key chains, etc. made with them. I used CafePress years ago for a romance writer's conference I went to where we needed tons of promo stuff in minimal time. CafePress does really nice work. I still have two of the coffee mugs with the cover of Whisper of a Tryst on them. Nice stuff. :)

Oh, and get some business cards. You can go to: http://www.vistaprint.com/ and they offer 250 free business cards for the cheap price of S&H (only about $10, if I remember right). You can pay to have your own "logo" put on or you can use their free ones with quite a wide selection of styles to choose from too. It is worth it, trust me. Then drop a card into the little bowls at Daily Grind, Starbucks, or any little restaurant that offers the "drop in your business card for a free meal" deals. I have also set them up in places where they will allow me to: bookstores, cafes, wherever creative people hang out.

Oh, and I used to send my business cards in my bills. Don't laugh! I worked for a bank once and the things people put in the mail...heck, it is free advertising -- plain and simple. What can they do but toss it? Just like we do all the stuff they stick in our bills...lol. But, maybe, you will catch the eye of some bored secretary or whatever, and she will buy your book, or your art, or that beautiful piece of pottery.

Okay...if anyone else has thoughts on this subject, please jump in and share. If I have repeated anything please excuse me...my mind tends to get cluttered. Have a great day/night/whatever!

If you want to visit my website just for fun and read some excerpts from my books it is: http://www.christinepoe.com/, or peek at my continually changing cat art on eBay. My eBay URL is: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZcatdancing51, and my user I.D. for ETSY is also catdancing51, just like on eBay. Oh and if you go to ETSY.com please "HEART" me? And I will do the same! Toodles!