http://www.tumblr.com/blog/wecreateartwithheart
To Tumbler.
This way I can be closer to my White Tail Collective Community.
Consider following my link there for new exciting adventures of an artists story of success, trials and tribulations.
xo!
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
The Jump.
Hello Fabulous Blog Readers,
I have so many things to share with you.
First off I have a secret that I kept from you all and I am sorry.
I wrote a blog entry that was about priorities and how I felt that my priorities were jumbled and stretched thin. I really felt the heat in the saying, "there are only so many hours in a day." I made a list for you all to see that was something like this:
My Life:
Working my Part-Time Job
School (statistics class)
Sarah Creates (my art business)
Health and Wellness (healthy food preparation and exercise)
This list mind you, does not include relationships with family and/or friends, relaxation, art time, house cleaning...the day to day life activities that make like fun and a bit unpredictable.
I told you all that I was doing excellent in some of these things (school and health and wellness) and half assing the rest...(work and Sarah Creates). I was so honest with you when I made the confession that ONE OF THESE THINGS NEEDED TO GO. But I cringed when I thought about letting any one of these things go out of my life.
I publically proclaimed that the one that needed to go was my part time job...
Let me share with you a bit of back ground here.
I have been working in a bead store in Humboldt County. I like the ladies that I work with and I like most of the customers. In a way, this job was perfect for me by having jewelry (my art medium) shoved in my face in all manners of ways 4 days a week. I made custom jewelry with people every day. This was my job. This kept me on my toes, and saturated my life with my art.
It was great.
But when I thought about: if I could work this hard for myself, I could make more money than I do now, be happier, make my own schedule, be independent, be a full time artist...
I realized which one of the "priorities" needed to go.
Once this happened I pressed the delete button.
I guess I thought that it was too scary to acknowledge my feelings in that moment. It was scary to share them.
I mourned. I was scarred. I was afraid of disappointing my coworkers. I was afraid of failure.
Then
I jumped.
Instead of criticism I received congratulations, recognition of my talent, the confidence of my co-workers, a premier party in LA, a new consignment relationship in LA, an online sale of a 216. dollar necklace. All in the few days after I took that jump.
Now I recognize how valuable it would be to share with you my whole process. The sorting of priorities, the weeding out of painful pseudo necessaries, the fear of failure and the jump.
Sorry for the delay in relating to you.
I am still falling, but I feel safe and the wind against my face feels so liberating.
I have so many things to share with you.
First off I have a secret that I kept from you all and I am sorry.
I wrote a blog entry that was about priorities and how I felt that my priorities were jumbled and stretched thin. I really felt the heat in the saying, "there are only so many hours in a day." I made a list for you all to see that was something like this:
My Life:
Working my Part-Time Job
School (statistics class)
Sarah Creates (my art business)
Health and Wellness (healthy food preparation and exercise)
This list mind you, does not include relationships with family and/or friends, relaxation, art time, house cleaning...the day to day life activities that make like fun and a bit unpredictable.
I told you all that I was doing excellent in some of these things (school and health and wellness) and half assing the rest...(work and Sarah Creates). I was so honest with you when I made the confession that ONE OF THESE THINGS NEEDED TO GO. But I cringed when I thought about letting any one of these things go out of my life.
I publically proclaimed that the one that needed to go was my part time job...
Let me share with you a bit of back ground here.
I have been working in a bead store in Humboldt County. I like the ladies that I work with and I like most of the customers. In a way, this job was perfect for me by having jewelry (my art medium) shoved in my face in all manners of ways 4 days a week. I made custom jewelry with people every day. This was my job. This kept me on my toes, and saturated my life with my art.
It was great.
But when I thought about: if I could work this hard for myself, I could make more money than I do now, be happier, make my own schedule, be independent, be a full time artist...
I realized which one of the "priorities" needed to go.
Once this happened I pressed the delete button.
I guess I thought that it was too scary to acknowledge my feelings in that moment. It was scary to share them.
I mourned. I was scarred. I was afraid of disappointing my coworkers. I was afraid of failure.
Then
I jumped.
Instead of criticism I received congratulations, recognition of my talent, the confidence of my co-workers, a premier party in LA, a new consignment relationship in LA, an online sale of a 216. dollar necklace. All in the few days after I took that jump.
Now I recognize how valuable it would be to share with you my whole process. The sorting of priorities, the weeding out of painful pseudo necessaries, the fear of failure and the jump.
Sorry for the delay in relating to you.
I am still falling, but I feel safe and the wind against my face feels so liberating.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Recent Give Away Experiences and Floodstreet Review.
This last Holiday season I participated in 3 giveaways. I participated in hopes of promotional advantages, free(ish) advertising and with the desire to show support for my community of artists. Normally I would not be involved with 3 giveaways at the same time, but the holiday season is a great time to get exposure and I wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity.
My normal protocal about giveaways are that I space them once every three months.
The first giveaway I participated in was for a blogger named Eliza K.
http://elizakprints.blogspot.com/
I exchanged a pair of Sterling Silver and Fluorite Earrings for advertising space on her blog, which is well trafficked. I saw some Eliza K traffic filter onto my etsy site. She was very organized and courteous. No one purchased anything from her crowd, but exposure is a good thing. Eliza used Rafflecopter as her method of selecting her winner. http://www.rafflecopter.com/
The second giveaway I participated in was for my new collective, White Tail Collective. This was via Facebook.
The third giveaway was my own giveaway for Sarah Creates also via Facebook. White Tail Collective and I both used an app called Floodstreet. https://www.facebook.com/FloodStreet?fref=ts
I am not sure if you have heard on the Facebook streets that creating your own giveaway from your business page is actually against the Facebook law. So Apps like Floodstreet have been made to facilitate giveaways.
The Pros:
My "likes" increased from 100 something to 509 in two weeks time. People were also really grateful and posted on my Floodstreet page kind words about my artistry and excited exclamations in regards to the potential of receiving such a prize. I gained a lot of exposure. My stats went up, people were posting on my page and talking about Sarah Creates.
White Tail Collective giveaway was also successful, earning over 150 likes in one week.
The Cons:
The App's set up and page is really glitchy. The first time I tried to give something away through Floodstreet, it set me up with an incorrect date and time. My giveaway lasted for one minute on the last day of the month. Once the date is set, it is set. There was nothing I could do about it. No one answers the emails on their Facebook page. There are threads and threads of people asking questions with no responses. Also when you write a description of your giveaway prize, Floodstreet wants you to advertise for it like a used cars salesman would auction off a cheap car. I, of course, did my best to sound like a high priestess artist, but it was challenging.
Perhaps the biggest problem for me was...where are my target customers? Wait, where did my target customers go? I sell high end jewelry, one of a kind pieces. I would rather have a list of 50 good customers who come back to purchase my art, tell their friends about me, and post on Facebook out of excitement when they purchase a new piece rather than 500 people who just wanted to get a cool pair of earrings for free with no desire to verbally support (post) or purchase in the future. At one point this made me question the whole giveaway experience.
In the end I am especially glad that I did the Sarah Creates giveaway. I have made some new genuine fans and that is worth every effort that I gave for that giveaway. Really truly. I want to have another giveaway, but I would like to be more strategic about it next time. I think that rafflecopter is definitely worth looking into.
Thank you for listening.
Sarah
My normal protocal about giveaways are that I space them once every three months.
The first giveaway I participated in was for a blogger named Eliza K.
http://elizakprints.blogspot.com/
I exchanged a pair of Sterling Silver and Fluorite Earrings for advertising space on her blog, which is well trafficked. I saw some Eliza K traffic filter onto my etsy site. She was very organized and courteous. No one purchased anything from her crowd, but exposure is a good thing. Eliza used Rafflecopter as her method of selecting her winner. http://www.rafflecopter.com/
The second giveaway I participated in was for my new collective, White Tail Collective. This was via Facebook.
The third giveaway was my own giveaway for Sarah Creates also via Facebook. White Tail Collective and I both used an app called Floodstreet. https://www.facebook.com/FloodStreet?fref=ts
I am not sure if you have heard on the Facebook streets that creating your own giveaway from your business page is actually against the Facebook law. So Apps like Floodstreet have been made to facilitate giveaways.
The Pros:
My "likes" increased from 100 something to 509 in two weeks time. People were also really grateful and posted on my Floodstreet page kind words about my artistry and excited exclamations in regards to the potential of receiving such a prize. I gained a lot of exposure. My stats went up, people were posting on my page and talking about Sarah Creates.
White Tail Collective giveaway was also successful, earning over 150 likes in one week.
The Cons:
The App's set up and page is really glitchy. The first time I tried to give something away through Floodstreet, it set me up with an incorrect date and time. My giveaway lasted for one minute on the last day of the month. Once the date is set, it is set. There was nothing I could do about it. No one answers the emails on their Facebook page. There are threads and threads of people asking questions with no responses. Also when you write a description of your giveaway prize, Floodstreet wants you to advertise for it like a used cars salesman would auction off a cheap car. I, of course, did my best to sound like a high priestess artist, but it was challenging.
Perhaps the biggest problem for me was...where are my target customers? Wait, where did my target customers go? I sell high end jewelry, one of a kind pieces. I would rather have a list of 50 good customers who come back to purchase my art, tell their friends about me, and post on Facebook out of excitement when they purchase a new piece rather than 500 people who just wanted to get a cool pair of earrings for free with no desire to verbally support (post) or purchase in the future. At one point this made me question the whole giveaway experience.
In the end I am especially glad that I did the Sarah Creates giveaway. I have made some new genuine fans and that is worth every effort that I gave for that giveaway. Really truly. I want to have another giveaway, but I would like to be more strategic about it next time. I think that rafflecopter is definitely worth looking into.
Thank you for listening.
Sarah
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