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.

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