Another year, more changes!

Ok...so I've managed to let almost two years go by without posting to my blog!  I am so sorry!  Life has definitely been crazy in a good way since my last post.  The biggest change being I got married on New Year's Eve 2010!  And with that marriage has come more changes.

I left my position last week with my sister's business and will now be working with my husband full-time.  He is a tax preparer and has decided after several years of working for someone else, it was time to have his own office/business.  So after meeting me and realizing that I brought the marketing/encouragement/business knowledge he didn't seem to have to the table, he took the leap and we will officially open our business next week! Check us out on facebook at www.facebook.com/wellspringtaxservice if you are looking for fast, reliable tax preparation! We work with clients nationwide!

So with these changes, I have found myself getting back in to some of my old habits...such as jewelry designing and putting my marketing skills back to use!  I hope to get this blog back up and going a little more than I have in the past and also hope to help handmade businesses, such as yours, with business marketing reviews.  I'll share more details about this later, but when I offered them before I was overwhelmed with helping create/design new marketing materials for handmade businesses! 

For now you are up to date and I promise, I'm back and will be posting more often!  Thanks and have a very blessed and wonderful new year!

Find Your Niche...Then Market

My new article has been published at www.handmadenews.org!

Please check it out....http://www.handmadenews.org/article/index.php?id=1347

Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, and vote for my articles if you find them helpful! As writers we need your feedback! ;-)

Thanks and have a great week!

Until next time...Blessings! ~ Dawn

Teaching As A Marketing Strategy

New Article on Handmadenews.org! In this article I share with you how teaching a class on your craft is a great way to market your business! Enjoy!

http://www.handmadenews.org/article/index.php?id=889

Please leave feedback or comments on articles! We appreciate it. You can also vote for the articles if you like or dislike them! As writers, we need your feedback!

Thanks, Dawn

Effective Advertising Strategies Article

New Article at www.handmadenews.org! Please check it out, leave comments and vote for me! I'd certainly appreciate it. I have new articles going up there almost every other day and will be doing a feature article real soon!

Today's article is on Effective Advertising Strategies for your handmade business! Here is the link....http://www.handmadenews.org/article/index.php?id=737

Also be sure to check out the advertisers as well! That's what keeps our site going!

Thanks and many blessings! Dawn

Follow Here or Follow There!

Little did I know when I started sharing information about marketing, advertising and promotions for handmade businesses via this blog that it would lead to other ventures, but it has! I'm now a columnist for another site (read on!), I'm starting a street team on Etsy to get store owners together to have face to face discussion about their handmade businesses and the list goes on!

While still fairly new to Twitter (and still not sure if I like it or not), I've met some interesting people along the way and have gained almost 400 followers in just the three weeks I've been on there. One person whom I met via Twitter suggested I venture over to http://www.handmadenews.org and check out the site and see if I would be interested in becoming one of their columnists in their marketing section. I went and checked out the application and decided I'd apply, but thinking the entire time, there are more qualified people out there and I'm probably waisting my time on this, but I'll try it. I had to update my resume (thank goodness sister is a Certified Professional Resume Writer for over 20 years) which I did, supply a writing sample and answer several other questions. I hit send and thought, ok, end of that, move on and forget about it.

Well, that wasn't the case. A few short days later, I woke up to an email from one of the sites VP's saying that I had been selected as a columnist for the site. I honestly thought it was a joke, but it was true. I was pleasantly surprised and humbled that I'd been chosen among the hundreds of applications I know they received.

I appreciate each and everyone one of you who follows me on this blog. I will continue to post links to this blog which will be for the articles I am writing for Handmade News. The articles for that site will be on marketing, advertising, promotions as well, so nothing will change!

And if there are topics, questions or things you would like to see articles on, please don't hesitate to contact me anytime. I'd love to hear from you! Email me at shadesjewelry@aol.com or leave a comment here!

Again, thanks and I look forward to more handmade business blogs with you!

As always, Blessings!! ~ Dawn