A great way to expand your handmade greeting card business is to offer handmade wedding invitations. According to google trends, handmade cards are trending way up as regular mass produced cards are trending steadily downward. Now is the time to begin marketing your talents towards more lucrative areas. Many people become engaged during the Holiday season from Christmas, New Year's and through Valentine's Day. They often set their date for the following year's Spring/Summer season. Begin speaking with everyone you know and putting the word out about your cards. This gives you ample time to study and learn all the necessary details and to be prepared for your new business. The great part is you will soon be receiving orders for 100-350 cards at a time insted of 1-3 cards. This will dramatically change your business, so plan for temporary hiring and other space expansions to accomodate the manufacturing. This does not have to be a permanent space as you are probably working from home, so don't worry about taking over the den or living room temporarily, it will be well worth it!
All the Best!
Bette
Monday, March 15, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Handmade Greeting Cards, Give to Get
Oops, I accidentally moved this post to my drafts. It is one of my most popular with over 1,400 views so I wanted to be sure and get it back on the blog again.
When marketing your handmade greeting cards or arts and crafts, remember 'Give to Get'. Giving away your cards is a wonderful way to get exposure and create good will. When we first started our business I met a man who was a fund raising events promoter. It came up in conversation that he was having a private party in a Manhattan hotel for about 15 people. I offered to make his invitations for him at no charge, he was thrilled. Upon receiving the invitations, he was very pleased and he invited me to display as many cards as I liked around the hotel suite for his guest to view during the party. To our pleasure, Kathy Hilton ended up being the receipient of one of our cards and the party led to quite a wonderful response.
Your product is your best advertisement so never think of giving them away as an expense you can't afford. Believe in your Art and your talent and give without the expectation of anything in return . Remeber most mass produced items are discarded relatively quickly, anything handmade usually stays around for quite some time. The products you have given out are likely to be 'out there' working on your behalf for a long time.
Subscribe to our newsletter
for exclusive tips on growing your business that are for subscribers only!
Best Wishes,
Bette
PS Visit my handmade card website right here.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Start your handmade greeting card business now.
Why should you start your handmade greeting card small business now? One look at Google trends.com under the keyword, 'handmade greeting cards' and you'll see some amazing reasons. As of 2009 there has been a huge spike in the number of online searches for handmade greeting cards. Interestingly the searches for 'greeting cards' has been trending steadily downward, indicating a consumer driven interest in handmade art. We have been online with our handmade greeting cards since 2000 and have subsequently secured a consistent top 10 ranking on google under that search term as well as few others. Now more than ever and I don't know the reason, I can only acknowledge the statistics, people are becoming more interested in this niche. So get yourself going and expose yourArt to the world. You can also utilize google trends.com to investigate your other small business ideas and see where they are heading. Best of Luck!
We recommend that you get started building your own website as soon as possible. Here is a link to a free, powerful website builder that you can use as long as you like.
Free Website Builder - You will love it!
You can visit one of our handmade greeting card websites at http://www.creativecards4u.com/
Friday, February 19, 2010
Small Business Exposure
Here are some tips for getting your small business more exposure. This is the first post on our new series of Small Business Exposure for your Handmade Greeting Cards or any other product/service.
Almost every town has a local paper and we mean local, not a mainstream publication yet. Get your local town/village paper and find out who the writers are and for what sections. Make contact, you must self-promote. This may seem uncomfortable, but look at the bigger picture of getting your artwork or small business idea exposure. Tell the writer who you are, how long you have lived in town, what you do and why it is a great local story. Send them a card or sample of your small business product. Offer some incentive, free writing/shipping etc. Keep in mind they may turn you down, however maintain and build the relationship. Be sure to make contact again several weeks before any Holiday, it could be the perfect time for your story/business. Relationships are everything, maintain them.
Lots more to come on our small business exposure series. Stay Tuned.
Almost every town has a local paper and we mean local, not a mainstream publication yet. Get your local town/village paper and find out who the writers are and for what sections. Make contact, you must self-promote. This may seem uncomfortable, but look at the bigger picture of getting your artwork or small business idea exposure. Tell the writer who you are, how long you have lived in town, what you do and why it is a great local story. Send them a card or sample of your small business product. Offer some incentive, free writing/shipping etc. Keep in mind they may turn you down, however maintain and build the relationship. Be sure to make contact again several weeks before any Holiday, it could be the perfect time for your story/business. Relationships are everything, maintain them.
Lots more to come on our small business exposure series. Stay Tuned.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Greeting Card Small Business Tips
This weeks small business tips for your handmade greeting cards are regarding paper.
When building a small business it is important that your products are as professionally looking as possible. To give your cards a really professional look we recommend that you bring your card stock to your local printer and have all your paper professionally scored. Scoring your cards by hand can look a little sloppy and also unnecessarily waste good paper. We also suggest getting a cutting board to make clean,straight cuts. The detail cuts can always be done with scissors later. Don't worry, your cards will still have that handmade look and feel because all of your artwork is applied by hand. We hope you will appreciate the time saved and the added professionalism these tips will provide for your small business.
As far as what type of paper to use, that all depends on your individual artistic needs and whatever message you are trying to send. Contact as many companies as you can and often times they will send you free samples, which are a great boost to any small business.
You can visit one of our handmade greeting card websites at www.creativecards4u.com
and we recommend that you get started building your own website as soon as possible. Here is a link to a free, powerful website builder that you can use as long as you like.
http://www.vodahost.com/partner/idevaffiliate.php?id=14940
All the Best,
Bette
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Small Business, Your Most Important Tool
The most important tool in creating a successful small business is Relationships.
Your relationship with everyone from your paper suppliers,local printer,business associate,friends and family all contribute enormously to your success.
For example we have found that when you are researching companies to provide your paper needs, the right approach can often get you many free samples to experiment with and often use for a few final products. What a great cost/benefit ratio. You then of course return the favour with future business and personal recommendations for that company. The same goes for your local printer, they will often professionally score all your paper at little or no cost if they believe in the relationship. They also come in handy when you need bulk cutting, your own business cards etc.
The primary rule is to try to under promise and over deliver while always being upfront and sincere about what you are trying to accomplish. We will be posting more tools and tips to help with your success and we wish you all the best.
Your relationship with everyone from your paper suppliers,local printer,business associate,friends and family all contribute enormously to your success.
For example we have found that when you are researching companies to provide your paper needs, the right approach can often get you many free samples to experiment with and often use for a few final products. What a great cost/benefit ratio. You then of course return the favour with future business and personal recommendations for that company. The same goes for your local printer, they will often professionally score all your paper at little or no cost if they believe in the relationship. They also come in handy when you need bulk cutting, your own business cards etc.
The primary rule is to try to under promise and over deliver while always being upfront and sincere about what you are trying to accomplish. We will be posting more tools and tips to help with your success and we wish you all the best.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Beautiful greeting cards are one thing, website ranking is another.
For years we designed beautiful handmade greeting cards that were a labor of love. Some designs could be done in about an hour and some took as long as 18-20 hours. We started about ten years ago when the internet was still fairly new and developing quickly. We gave little thought to keywords and website ranking as the Art and Creating always took precedent. As a result our cards were beautiful and our sales were almost entirely local,(which is a good place to start).
About two years into the business we turned our attention to keywords, search engine optimization and other not-so artistic, but very important matters. With a few focused changes our business began to rank higher and higher on search results and sales began to come in from all around the world. Local business soon became the minority percentage as we sold cards to England, Israel, Morrocco, India, Lithuania and more. We were truly astonished. We now rank in the top 10 on google for the keywords 'handmade greeting cards' and 'handmade birthday cards' as well as the top 50 for 'handmade wedding invitations'. Go ahead and search those keywords in google and when you see http://www.creativecards4u.comthen you have found one of our very first sites. Word of mouth was a great start, however to really grow and sustain your small business, a website is priceless.
The reason I am sharing this with you is that as a Creative person and you know if you are one, it helps to know the importance of getting started on your website as soon as possible. It can and will open up a whole new world for your Art and lead you to places you may have never dreamed of going. As a result of our success we are currently developing over 15 different websites that will be premiering worldwide very soon.
So while you are perfecting your designs,and we know how that goes,get your site going and the two (your Art and the site ranking) will gel at the right time.
After 10 years of using many different site builders and host we are truly comfortable recommending the following link:
Free Website Builder - You will love it!
It will allow you the artistic freedom you need while offering tons of video tutorials to guide you through every or any step you want help with.
We will be posting our personal tips on building your Art business right here, so check back regulary or follow this blog. All our Best.
About two years into the business we turned our attention to keywords, search engine optimization and other not-so artistic, but very important matters. With a few focused changes our business began to rank higher and higher on search results and sales began to come in from all around the world. Local business soon became the minority percentage as we sold cards to England, Israel, Morrocco, India, Lithuania and more. We were truly astonished. We now rank in the top 10 on google for the keywords 'handmade greeting cards' and 'handmade birthday cards' as well as the top 50 for 'handmade wedding invitations'. Go ahead and search those keywords in google and when you see http://www.creativecards4u.comthen you have found one of our very first sites. Word of mouth was a great start, however to really grow and sustain your small business, a website is priceless.
The reason I am sharing this with you is that as a Creative person and you know if you are one, it helps to know the importance of getting started on your website as soon as possible. It can and will open up a whole new world for your Art and lead you to places you may have never dreamed of going. As a result of our success we are currently developing over 15 different websites that will be premiering worldwide very soon.
So while you are perfecting your designs,and we know how that goes,get your site going and the two (your Art and the site ranking) will gel at the right time.
After 10 years of using many different site builders and host we are truly comfortable recommending the following link:
Free Website Builder - You will love it!
It will allow you the artistic freedom you need while offering tons of video tutorials to guide you through every or any step you want help with.
We will be posting our personal tips on building your Art business right here, so check back regulary or follow this blog. All our Best.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Handmade greeting cards and extra income
Happy New Year!
Starting today I am going to publish articles on how to earn extra income with handmade greeting cards. It's a fun way to earn money doing something you love that helps others to share their appreciation for one another.
If you enjoy creating, you are more than half way there already. A digital camera and a computer and you can eventually gain worlwide exposure for your handmade greeting cards.
One of the most important things you can do towards getting your handmade greeting card projects turned into a business is to get started right away with a website. Don't worry about any technical issues, the website builder we recommended below is loaded with video tutorials that walk you through every aspect of site building and answers all your questions. Here is the link:
Free Website Builder - You will love it!
Getting started now is important because it is one of the factors taken into cosideration by search engines that are going to help your business get a higher ranking. Higher ranking means more exposure. In other words, the longer you are online the better, so don't allow yourself to get in your own way with excuses. There are currently 1.6 billion people using the internet and that number is increasing daily. You have the opportunity to begin reaching out to people you never dreamed of before with your designs, so start today!
Starting today I am going to publish articles on how to earn extra income with handmade greeting cards. It's a fun way to earn money doing something you love that helps others to share their appreciation for one another.
If you enjoy creating, you are more than half way there already. A digital camera and a computer and you can eventually gain worlwide exposure for your handmade greeting cards.
One of the most important things you can do towards getting your handmade greeting card projects turned into a business is to get started right away with a website. Don't worry about any technical issues, the website builder we recommended below is loaded with video tutorials that walk you through every aspect of site building and answers all your questions. Here is the link:
Free Website Builder - You will love it!
Getting started now is important because it is one of the factors taken into cosideration by search engines that are going to help your business get a higher ranking. Higher ranking means more exposure. In other words, the longer you are online the better, so don't allow yourself to get in your own way with excuses. There are currently 1.6 billion people using the internet and that number is increasing daily. You have the opportunity to begin reaching out to people you never dreamed of before with your designs, so start today!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)