That’s All Folks

That’s it, nothing new going to be written here. Your most brilliant of advisers is off to play with other toys. I have hugely enjoyed doing this but I need to create some extra time to do other things .

It feels liberating and sad, but it makes sense.

I am going to leave the blog up so that you can come and dip in.

The advice list is on your right . All there waiting for your eyes and your action. If you set yourself one a month you will end up in a better place, so it’s up to you.

The media advice will go out of date so consider if it’s still relevant

Final Words

Nothing is as good or bad as you think

Put your bloody prices up

Journey of a Lost on-line Sale

Have you ever really considered just how tough it is to make a sale on-line?

At how many points that would be sale can fall by the wayside.

Most of them nothing to do with your work, but with the marketing process itself. 

If you think you can make a living by simply selling on-line take a look at this info-graphic of the journey that an on-line mail out to your EXISTING customers has to take. The survival of your sale is just about as precarious  as the fate of a sperm looking for an egg.   Depressing isn’t it?

You see how your sale is endangered even when it has been added to the basket and goes on being vulnerable even to the point the buyer unpacks it at home.

But you can take action, lots of the right hand downfalls can be addressed.

It’s never going to be water tight but you can make it a much less leaky journey.

For example , think hard about your postage cost, consider absorbing some in the price ( by increasing it NOT by loosing margin). Also make postage costs clear upfront in the description, nobody wants to find them out mid buying process.

Tighten the process instead of winding and bitty newsletters , go for a hard-hitting punch mail with one call to action.

My latest piece here ( link straight through to product in your on-line shop, opened and ready to buy) If that is too brutal for you and you want to send customers to your web home page, then make sure it isn’t a spaghetti junction of options, so the chance of their taking the right route is one in a million. The buying link has to dominate that page.

The less actions required to get to the sale the more likely you are to make it.So get those clicks down.

  You can find help on some of those right hand issues by reading these posts:

Prices: Pricing for Failure 

Good web home page ( but consider linking directly to your shop) : Botox your Home Page

Shockingly I can find no post on how to do decent product descriptions although I feel as if I never stop writing about it, so that’s my next task

How to handle social media bust ups

Occasionally somebody has a go at me on-line. When that happens it’s upsetting, especially if it really gets going without my seeing it, so by the time I arrive at the scene it’s completely ablaze.

So what should you do? What works?

The objection you need to deal with is the first one . Try not to get wound up by the ones that follow, they are just excited onlookers with very little knowledge of the issues. You can deal with those later.

With the initial one, apologise all you can, they most probably have a reason to have had a go, so separate out that part and say sorry, at least say sorry for causing them upset.

Then explain. When you explain do not give unnecessary ground, stay assured, if you are over apologetic you will attract predators. Put your case with confidence.  Then Send

Next work your way down the comments, dealing with the issues as they multiply. Do it one at a time and name the people you are answering. Each time sorry (if you think there are even the slimmest grounds) and explain and Send

This creates lots of posts which means forum watchers will come back and see your defence. Also dealing with each issue in isolation helps you stay reasonable (and you absolutely must be reasonable)

Some people will reply and be friendlier which helps you handle the sense of injustice that such on-line flares produce. Watch that thread and keep responding to any extra issues.

BUT that spat  will grab you lots of attention it’s just like the school playground when the shout of “fight” goes up, there are lots of people who will be silently  on your side, it’s better than any paid for advertising. If you want to make your mark handle the situation well and you will reap huge benefits

A brilliant animation on why anger goes viral on-line is right here 

And here is an example  of me in the defence box on Folksy Forum a while ago:

Hi everyone I am the she that you are all criticising I would have responded sooner but I did not see this post. Someone has just very kindly told me about it as they thought I might like to respond.

I understand where you are all coming from. Using a section of someone’s profile without asking their permission seems unfair especially if you are critical of the way it’s written. I would not like it if it happened to me.

However …. etc etc

I am going to post this bit then come back to the other issues raised Please consider me still in the witness-box

It was time-consuming and initially upsetting ( it’s the first read where the comments pile up against you that shakes you) but once you get into handling it you really can un -sink the Titanic and end up at a place of sweetness and light.

So if it happens don’t go for the gin and un-join the guilty venue, take it in your stride and see it for what it is, a real opportunity to do yourself lots of good.

This post originated on Handmade Lives’ Facebook Page

Re -writing your maker profile

Your maker profile should have a use by date on it. Go read yours and I bet you will find it doesn’t reflect the way you think of yourself or your current work.

Hate writing about yourself? TOUGH its some thing you need to do, so read some pointers and get it done.

The good news is

Good profiles are SHORT because as Scott Berkun  says

Assume with each word in your bio that fewer and fewer people will keep reading. It’s a great assumption because it’s true.

The average visitor spends 15 seconds on a page; then they click  so put the key info in that first short paragraph

WRITE IT, CUT IT and  CUT IT AGAIN.

Then make a list of what it tells the reader as a check to see if you have actually ended up saying anything.

When you are working on a maker profile where you can’t add pictures you must state the obvious. Say you are a potter/ textile artist/ whatever;  as web visitors all have Attention Deficit Disorder: they are on your page but often can’t remember  why.  So ground them.

You think you have a more dedicated reader? Well you don’t, the days of sitting quietly in front of a great big computer gently browsing have gone. At least 70% of your views will be on mobiles. Your reader is probably on the bus surrounded by other people’s one-sided phone conversations; passengers  getting on and off, they are late and have just realised they have sat next to a drunk. It’s not that you do not have their undivided attention, it is more likely you don’t have any of their attention.

So be calm, be clear and don’t waste their time

Do not do this

“Hello to you and thank you for reading this bit.
Please note I own the copyright on all of my images used for my greeting cards or prints. So, this is where I get to talk about me.”

I AM OUT OF HERE

Do do this

“I am an illustrator/designer, I specialise in creating modern images with a quirky mid-century feel. My preferred mediums are screen-printing and collage using vintage fabrics. I also produce my designs as digital Giclee prints in limited editions.”

CONFIDENT, FOCUSED, CLEAR

My work is inspired by living in Cornwall, being out everyday in the Cornish countryside and along the coastline with my labradoodle Rufus, foraging for seasonal treats, fishing and growing my own fruit and veg. In my work I seek to evoke the simple pleasures of life here by the sea with a sense of style and humour.”

A GLIMPSE OF HER LIFE THAT WE WOULD LIKE TO BUY INTO

A bio answers two basic questions: “Who are you?” and “What do you do?” It should also act as bridge between the viewer and the artist. The first paragraph answers the who and what and 2nd builds the bridge. It is  a very well done and efficient profile.

Unimprovable? No, I can cut 20 words from that 2nd paragraph and loose nothing:

“My work is inspired by  being on the Cornish coast  with my Labradoodle Rufus; foraging , fishing and growing my own fruit and veg.  In my work  I seek to evoke these simple pleasures with style and humour.”

That’s why I said earlier, Write it, cut it and CUT it AGAIN

  NO LISTS PLEASE

This is why:

“I have been taking photographs throughout my career and creating photo images for most of my life.(WE ALL HAVE) My photographs have been used in Company brochures, Universities, Advertising, presentations to the NHS, BIFM, Access Association, accessibility brochures and flyers, and elsewhere.”

(IGNORING THE WEIRD CAPITALS, WHO CARES?)

“I was taught to knit as a child by my Mum.  I knit to relax, and I love making things. I enjoy knitting with different yarns, recycled sari silk, recycled cotton and wool, banana yarn etc. The different textures and colours are great. An example of items I enjoy knitting are, egg and tea cosies, mug hugs, flower brooches, cushion covers, and things to keep you cosy.”

You are with me now aren’t you? Definitely NO LISTS

DON’T CONFUSE FRIENDLY WITH AMATEUR

Friendly expert makers can command a decent price. Friendly amateur ones have to charge peanuts

“I live in Xshire and I’m currently unemployed. I love making my crafts in the mean time and will continue to look for a job that pays £40,000 a year that allows me to mess about with glitter.”

 She might as well say “I am selling tat “

TELL THE TRUTH, BUT NOT ALL OF IT and DON’T BE AN APOLOGIST

  DO NOT WRITE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY they are irrelevant

This sort of thing is not re-enforcing your  standing as a maker so don’t use it

“When my children flew the nest I took up /potting/ sewing / rope wrangling”

It screams amateur and don’t talk about your disabilities either, people fear you will be unreliable

It’s not that you can’t write about these things but do so in your blog not in your maker profile . Your maker profile is there to sell. Your blog is there to genuinely share your life.

 WHICH PERSON SHOULD YOU WRITE IN?

Don’t do that terrible Christmas round robin  thing of swapping around,  you must be consistent otherwise you come across as evasive

Don’t use “we” you are not Ford Motors and also, if it’s actually just you, it is dishonest

If you write very well and are very confident “I” can work

Probably the best thing to do is to just use your first name if you are just starting out  and your full name if you are well established.

HOW TO PRESENT YOURSELF AS EXPERT NOT BOASTFUL

 best bit advice on this comes from Douglas Detrick

“Avoid words like “best,” “greatest,” or “well-known,” which are opinions, and stick to factual phrases  like “Joe has performed in concert halls large and small throughout the Midwest and in New York.”

USE  LOTS OF PHOTOS  THEY INVOLVE THE READER BETTER THAN WORDS

 DESIGN YOUR PROFILE AROUND THE PHOTOS

Layer your photos, crop them, mix it up and make it look informal. Prepare your photos before you write your text then you will know what length you have, also the page is already looking great so you won’t be so intimidated by the task.

Its odd but viewers really think they are getting close to you through these pictures, you want to make them want your lifestyle so that they want to buy a little bit of it by having something you make.

Even if you are using a template that only allows one  picture cheat by doing a collage so its more lively and arresting. You want a fly on the wall feeling.

SAMPLE PROFILES FOr THE beginner and the established craftsperson

HOW TO WRITE YOUR PROFILE WHEN YOU HAVE NOTHING TO PUT IN IT

Sarah works in Dorset and specialises in knitwear for children using only natural wools from English flocks. Sarah makes traditional nostalgic pieces which stand up to the rough and tumble of childhood .She has a regular stall at Trollope Bottom market on the last Wednesday of the month.

To this you must add pictures. Perhaps a shot of  her stall, looking very English Calendar; a close up of her  knitting away, a pile of garments folded just to show the patterns, a bit of Dorset rolling countryside and some cute kids in a field walking away from the camera, all wearing her knitwear.

FOR THE WELL ESTABLISHED CRAFTSPERSON

Tom Makepiece is one of the foremost slipware potters in Scotland. His pieces are represented in many major collections including ….( not all, just two or three )
Tom works from a pottery deep in the hills of Mcshire using local clay and a traditional wood fired kiln

(Now quote your self on why you use a wood fired kiln or local clay)

“Only a fool  wood fires, it means 36 sleepless hours of stoking wood to build the temperature within the kiln and maintain it knowing all the time that your work is sitting in there a hostage to  fortune.

But it is capable of producing heart stopping lustres which no electric kiln could dream of. For me this is the heart of pottery and allows  my work to line up with the nameless medieval makers

I am striving not to make a pot but the pot the one that will ensure that my name will be up there with the greats ”

Tom Makepiece trained with the great Lucian Pole at the St Austell pottery and studied with the Japanese master Po in Pot.

He is represented by the Bond Street Snob Gallery and the Edinburgh Even More Snob Gallery

You will find Tom Makepiece each year at Art in Clay, ( name two top regulars) a full list here (link to page)

To this you add ( if possible) a Video of you making   and a handful of photos perhaps  of you at your wheel,  romantic night-time kiln tending,   at a gallery opening  and a trophy piece

 

If you are intrigued by the photographs then you can read my profile of the maker here  

If you want to upgrade your homepage there is a post on that here

 

Venice

 

In November I went to Venice; wet Venice, Venice of mists and high tides

A visit to Venice makes me feel improved with my eyes properly feasted. That’s why I share these pictures, a little tiny, much diluted teaspoon of Venice is better than none.

After  nights of  furiously sloping water and a rowdy monkey orchestra of battering raindrops  the  Acqua Alta siren announced yet another day of duck boards and wellingtons.

We stayed along  the Fondamenta  from the Ospedale. Those ambulances gave way to nothing, it must have been like the Ride Of the Valkyries  for patients

 

You see, rain

That’s our apartment on the corner on the piano noble. We stayed in a crudely cut dollop of a C15 palazzo, dolled up in the C17th and ill modernised in the seventies. We had a great deal of space , enough for six opened drying umbrellas to make no impact on the acres of the main salon.

You need space indoors at this time of year as Venice is seen through the letterbox  between your umbrella and opened map. Everyone scurries along narrow alleys, duelling umbrellas with people coming the other way.

It was perfectly possible to step from puddle to canal without the aid of the Mafia and rather wonderfully, away from the darkest alleys, the canal water was aquamarine ( apparently the exact  hue is down to how much salt in the water)

  It is the glimpses that are so arresting…

 into a workshop

into an archive

into Venetian gossip

Or out of a bookshop onto yet another canal

It’s all marvellous even without going into a museum. But when you do go,  you can loiter and briefly have a room completely to yourself.

 They let you photograph and so you can play until you get the photo that pleases you.

You see extra magic. the painter is Rosalba Carriera.

Layers of fairy tale

How could you possibly ask for more?

Except being looked at can wear a dog down. This is the down side of vitrine life. This is the bit that Edmund de Waal glossed over. That dog is frankly fed up.

So there you are, a dash of  Venice to begin the year

If you liked this you might like to see what my camera saw last year in  Morocco