Just wondering, Is this forum open to the public or is it private to members only? If it is private will we be sharing ideas of how to improve our store set up, give each other ideas of how to promote, increase sales or is it just a voting site? I am intrested in learning more about zazzle but also about how online business operates and am thrilled to learn from anyone that might like to help. I look forward to getting to know anyone that is willing to get to know me. I promise I dont bite.
huggs
Dorrie

It's pretty private I don't see why not (sharing ideas)
I'm not the brightest in that field though
I'm on a few top sites and tend to give my stuff as presents (business card sneakily put into the packaging)
I also have a few of my "Mad Mugs" that I show to people and ask them what else I could put on a mug.
They get to feel good; that I ask their oppinion,
and I get sales as many ask if they can buy the sample or go to the gallery to see what else I have!


http://www.zazzle.com/eddys_mad_mugs

Thank you for respsonding. I would love any ideas to furthar my gallery along. I know with the holidays upon us all over the world that it is a busy time of year. We just got done with a major election here in the USA and are heading into the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. I need to get busy creating and am in a funk and just dont seem to be able to get into the swing of things. I guess I need to cruse zazzle to get my juices flowing. Thank you again for responding, maybe that is the kick in the pants I needed to get me motivated to get moving.
happy holidays where ever you call home.
huggs
Dorrie

Im feeling very creative right now, but my problem is that I dont have that many customers as of yet, and I need some help spreading the word about my designs! I create mostly cat themed designs but I also make some other designs that are inspired from nature as well. All my artwork comes from my photography and I use it in a variety of different ways such as black & white, color, photoshop, etc. and apply different themes and ideas to my designs. I have a shop at cafepress, zazzle, imagekind, and just recently started one at greeting card universe. I slowly keep finding more sites that are commission based and offer print on demand services to new artists. This is encouraging to me. But anyways how does one get votes on The Artists Cafe? I just registered this evening and have placed the html code on almost all of my shop sites and so far have got no votes. I would be more than happy to vote for anyone here who needs votes if you could vote for me in return? I may create a list of web links for other artists in my myspace blog to help promote awareness of their art if they wish to be listed. But doing so I hope that the favor would be returned back because it is a two way street and I could use a little bit of help every now and then.

I'm glad you came back to check answers. Quite often people post questions then forget about it. Especially when they have lots of other blogs and sites to keep up with.

When it comes to promotion I'm horribly upfront about it. After all, if you don't blow your own trumpet, who will?

I recently joined plumdrop (as have many zazzlers) It's a place where you can blog about your latest goods, a full list of all your stores (I'm Zazzlex2, GCU, Red Bubble, and creative craving) and you can talk to other sellers. the nice thing is that they are not all Zazzlers; many sell on e-bay or SESI and they all have great advice. You can also talk to others with the same interests as you like photography or crafts. It's not all about sales. (but it all helps to get your name out there)

Hi and welcome Cats Meow (great name by the way) Try not to feel pressured. It is the holliday season for all; thanksgiving, Hanukka, new year, chinese new year, martin Luthor King day, Groundhog day etc...
I think GCU does the best category list. I use it when I get stuck. I look through it and go "Ooh yes, I think I'll make a Happy Christmas to my coach card today!" Or a Vietnamese New Year Card oh yes I've got one of those. It's the same as Chinese new year only they call it year of the water buffalo instead of year of the ox!
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Laugh, and the world laughs with you

http://www.zazzle.com/eddy_g
http://www.zazzle.com/eddys_mad_mugs

Eddy just wanted to say thanks for the warm welcome also wanted to let everybody know about this website I just found this evening.
It is called Home Of Modern Art and it is a *free* website that allows artists to upload their images so that they can promote their art to potential customers. It allows you to build a gallery of your images on their site and your images are used as free e-cards. I would suggest that before you upload your art to the site make sure your images are copyrighted in someway (your name, website, etc.) so that you get the proper credit. You have to be a registered member in order to use this site. Plus they give you the chance to get some feedback on your artwork via comments and ratings by the other members on the site and vice-versa. This is a good place to post links to any shops you have online. Perphaps maybe you could even find a way to get more votes from this site? Just a thought I had.

http://www.homeofmodernart.com/
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~JeSSiE~

Now this is what I was hoping for!!! Places we can go to interact with other artists to promote our work, to get ideas, to expand our minds and adventures in the internet world, after all, expansion is the key to getting our name out there right?

It is so nice to meet both of you!! I plan to check out the sites that you both mentioned and hope to see you there. I really like the idea of checking out other holidays in countries that are unfimular. What a cool idea. Supply and demand.

I guess I got some home work to do.

Would it be possible to have a list of sites somewhere so that we are aware or could you tell me how I would go about finding sites that we could use to promote? I am new to all this and was wondering how you would go about selling your stuff on ebay if its digital art? Its facinating to me.
huggs
Dorrie

OK I'll do that properly with links.
The plumdrop site is http://www.plumdrop.com/
and my page is http://www.plumdrop.com/members/EddyG
As you can see you list ALL your sites
Write a little blog to show off your newest or favorite designs, selling ideas and general fun
Then you also join groups that interest you to talk to other designers and sellers - they know all about ebay and things like that
I'm in the Zazzle group (of course)
General crafts and sewing - for fun
and cards and stationary group for selling tips. They are all very friendly but don't worry I still come here too.
_________________
Laugh, and the world laughs with you

http://www.zazzle.com/eddy_g
http://www.zazzle.com/eddys_mad_mugs

So far it doesnt *appear* from what I can see to have that many members at the moment so interaction with other artists is very slow. But I guess they do still have some unregistered visitors to the site (maybe potential customers down the road perhaps) because when you look at the stats for the artwork on the site there are downloads and hits for the free e-cards! so that is good news. Bad news is I that tried leaving my voting code in my gallery to see if I could get visitors to vote for my site here at The Artists Cafe but I guess the webmaster doesnt allow certain html codes? I didnt really see any rules on that so its kinda trial and error to see what info you can post in your gallery. But anyways they took my voting code down. I posted links to my online shops under each of my photos and then like a week later I get this email saying that only the artists website can be posted? I dont understand what was wrong with me posting my shop links? So far they have not been taken down and the only other thing I could put up in place of that if the webmaster wants to be anal is either my TheCatsMeow myspace page, yuwie page, or my today.com blog that I just started LOL! It doesnt take very long to start a blog is it just me or did I miss something? I thought the links to my shops was how one got in contact with me if they wanted to buy my art per se...?
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~JeSSiE~

Blogs are easy to start
Hard to keep up
I've only just gone back to doing my Yahoo 360 page after nearly a year.
So busy with my newer sites you see
it's also too tempting to spend all your time on forums and forget to design anything new!
I must get some sort of routine or tick list going to make sure I visit each one in turn (can't visit each one on the same day!)
Not enough hours in the day!
_________________
Laugh, and the world laughs with you

http://www.zazzle.com/eddy_g
http://www.zazzle.com/eddys_mad_mugs

Blogs are very hard to keep up! so easy to start but time consuming. Many of mine I just copy and paste right into the other, except that doesnt work with myspace and yuwie because the html codes are not always compatable! myspace disables any yuwie codes since they are competition so if I need a blog post from myspace on my yuwie page I have to delete all the darn myspace code out once I get everything copied into yuwie! I finally got my first sale at zazzle today. It was on one of the postage stamps. Of course my earnings are still pending right now since it didnt clear yet. But it is a small start. I have been going on those pay per click sites to get free advertising, especially freeadplanet.com, but Im also starting to check some of the other ones out too. They can be helpful (somewhat) with promotion because some of them will allow you to convert your earnings into a free ad for a short amount of time or they may have links to other websites that can lead you in that direction. of course this is another time consuming thing as well.
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~JeSSiE~

wow you have been busy.
Good luck with the adverts
And congrats on your sale - doesn't it feel good?
I get so exited when I get a sale
First thing i do is check out where they live.
Usually far far away
I've only ever had 5 UK sales on Zazzle
Maybe we'll have more now that zazzle.co.uk shows the prices in GBPounds.
Here's hoping.
_________________
Laugh, and the world laughs with you

http://www.zazzle.com/eddy_g
http://www.zazzle.com/eddys_mad_mugs

I was very happy at first and hopeful but then I saw that the buyer canceled the sale so I lost that one so for right now things are still going slow for me at zazzle. Maybe I just havent reached enough of people yet? Idk. But Im going to keep trying until I do get a sale. I had my first sale on cafepress a few mos back, but havent had any since then. So things are going slow there too. Yes, I was busy with some of those PTC sites but I decided to not use them anymore because from clicking on so many ads that has caused my computer to slow down. I deleted my free accounts at those sites. Its just not worth losing my computer for a *chance* of maybe earning some money online. Alot of the things you can do online for free to earn money such as pay per click ad sites, paid surveys, etc. and all the other misc. programs you also have to be careful with because some of them are SCAMS. Im looking into PTR(paid to read) email programs right now, but again with those you have to be very selective on which ones you join. So far the very few programs I have joined seem to cause no problems with the computer so we will see how well they work soon. But atleast now Im getting my art work out there so whenever I do get a customer they will have a variety of products to choose from.
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~JeSSiE~