Pin up!

There are so many new and exciting ways to advertise, market and push your business on the web.

By now you've heard of Pinterest. Yes, please Pin away! Know that "an individual Facebook user is valued at more than $100 and that it takes nearly 8,900 tweets to earn a company $10 - while just 20 pinned items on Pinterest will yield the same amount". -- Website Magazine June 2012

I learned some creative ways to utilize Pinterest for marketing and advertising:

Pin your YouTube videos! That's right, sell your product, service or image via YouTube. Make a video/ commercial and Post. Easily, your video can go VIRAL and open doors for your business!

(TheMerryBird Designs can assist you there if you need!)

Create an Events Pinboard and post upcoming events. That will entice onlooker to want to take part!

Pin your favorite "Cause" to build funds and work with your cause by donating a portion of your sales!

The main idea is get creative on how to communicate on the vast and ever growing web! Attention is key!

Kristine Sheehan

TheMerryBird.com Designs

2012 Plugins for WP

Authors, Designers, How often do you blog?

I wonder how often to blog. Too much drives readers away, too little makes them forget. I was told to think quality over quantity. Good advice, as if there is quality, then people will find you again and again. With a blast of infomania online, bloggers have to trust their instincts and choose wisely about what to write and publish. Try out wordpress with the suggested plugins to enhance the quality over quantity tactic – blast, share, touch and digg!  Oh my!

And don't forget to check out what author A. Allen has to say about blogging slowly! (June 3) http://annerallen.blogspot.com/

Hi Ho Hi Ho! Boy has Snow-White has changed since I was a girl! Oh my!

Ok, so now that I’ve dated myself I will engage in the positivity of new WP plugin's for blogging.

I found that wordpress has some awesome 2012 plugins that everyone should check out and try to utilize. (although I can’t speak from experience yet, I have a good feeling about my source!)

I like these top 4 Wordpress plugin recommendations from Leo Widrich:

1.       Share Share and do some Digg Digg!  Digging! (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/digg-digg/) According to my source this plugin alone increases social sharing by up to 7 times! Gotto get this one!
2.       Go Mobile with WP Touch (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wptouch/) apply a theme today! Easily advertise to your mobile traffic
3.       Let’s go All in One SEO pack! (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/)
4.       Display All you got with Social Media Widget (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/social-media-widget/) Show off all your social media profiles on one sidebar!

I’m off to apply these to my wordpress! 

Beyond a Digital Economy

So I built it in 2006 and I'm wondering when they will come! Blog, website, press, yada yada yada. Page views  are there but I want to learn how to claim more space and business on the net. Another words get under a viewers skin. (A Light Bulb Moment!) But the question is how? And do I really want to do that?

Design. Design on the web today goes beyond the way something "appears". It moves web viewers into an "Experience". A design will evoke a desire in a viewer to share, buy, need and want to come back again. So as a traditionally trained designer, I  lost my natural inclinations or intuitions years ago, to follow a format that was accepted as a lure for online business. Kind of stiff, understandable and tightly professional for those Non-designer types to understand. 

The web and how it is perceived  has changed over the years. People now NEED the web for multiple things. Shopping, banking, searching for information, communicating, and having fun. A world within a world, one that cannot always be stiff. The internet and it's design has made life easier, better in some ways.

As I come to grips with changes I must make to create this "Experience" of a website and business, I have to reach BEYOND what I know, losen up the perception of my online viewers.  

I guess going BEYOND that would be called exceptional Creativity. Write creatively, create images creatively, photograph creatively and think globally with social media. With the rapid progression of technology and the changes that are occuring so quickly I feel as though I learn something today only to find I'm a step behind. In a blink a new muse has arrived on the scene again. 

Anyway online business people look at it, to win in a digital economy you have to be the marketer, social media expert, advertiser, smoozer and creative creator/director. I liked it when all I had to do is design and image to make a smile and a sale.

I like this excerpt from "How to Win in a Digital Economy by Jeff Bullas http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/04/19/how-to-win-in-a-digital-economy/:

To Win in a Digital Economy

• Build, optimize and maintain your online assets
• Market your online assets relentlessly, everywhere
• Don’t ignore the growth of mobile
• Optimize for search engines
• Don’t underestimate the value of email
• Create Multimedia “Liquid” content
• Publish and promote your content on social networks

To create the winning "Experience" people NEED to see, hear and find on your business website, you must keep all lines of website development and optimization moving. 

Anyone...need a job?

TimeLine

Timeline. That’s what I used to use to keep myself organized, back in the day…

But today Facebook gave a new meaning to the word timeline. Timeline refers to the new format facebook has migrated it’s personal and business fanpage design. Like it or not, if you have a facebook page you will have the new timeline format to play with. Although the buzz about timeline has been around for months, by the end this month of March, it will be on every facebook page.

At first I wasn’t happy with the change as it created a lot of glitches for business page design. No longer can businesses “fangate” and no longer can designers take on the roll of linking and having fun with subscriber and non-fan page design, (yet). Old pages can still be accessed and viewed by those that are fans, but it limited the way businessescan market themselves. New rules state that businesses cannot use text that “sells” or text that is“call to action”. This rule alone, in my opinion makes it very tricky for smaller businesses to excel.

My new motto is let the images do the talking. (didn’t images always do that?)An oxymoron at best! Check out this very short video for the basic new rules of Timeline.

Writing a Kick Ass Proposal in Six Steps

Many freelancers must submit proposals to clients to volley for the job. Here’s 6 tips for writing a Kick ass proposal and win the job.

First, always take note about what the client needs. You must show the client you can solve their puzzle and make the job count! Understand their design needs and customize your proposal to prove you are the best person to do the job.

Second, allow the potential client to evaluate your work via web links to past clients or to your portfolio. Target the past works that show you understand where the potential client wants to go.

Third, create your marketing pitch by providing background information about you and your business. Ie. http://www.themerrybird.com , you may have a short bio on your web page or direct the prospective client to a place where then can read about you – http://www.facebook.com/TheMerryBird.Designs

Fourth, quote a fair price or a competitive one. Observe what other designers are charging: Hourly or Fixed? Base your fee on your experience. You may feel like Picasso but look like a recent college grad or you may be a seasoned professional exploring new venues for freelance work.

Fifth, respond to those potential clients in a timely manner. You could lose the deal if you don’t take note of the email/correspondence that potential client sent last week! Check your communication venues regularly. Answer, wait and FOLLOW UP!

Sixth, customize your proposal to each client. By doing so, it will show that you are committed to focusing on the prospective job. You will get noticed!

Ok, you just Kicked Ass at writing a proposal! Good luck!- Kristine Sheehan

A "Glowing" Freelance Prediction for 2012

There is a lot of commotion going on out there about small business and which way
2012 will turn them. Many small business owners are securing the hatches by creating long term business plans and short term plans enabling them to be ready for any immediate changes.(that is, if you are dealing with venture capitalism)

On an even smaller scale, business success can vary with the economy of tomorrow. As long as owners are creative, savvy and willing to help others- where there is a will, there is a way.

Sited from Carol Tice's Top Ten Small Business Predictions for 2012
( http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/222419 ) this prediction has special meaning for me as a freelancer.

"Services head offshore. Service-sector businesses will be in demand overseas, Elance forecasts. This year, U.S.-based contractors exported their services to more than 140 countries through Elance's freelance portal."

Ideally I'd like to keep the work here in USA but the struggle is harder than ever and services have to reach far and wide to keep moving. Now a new prediction comes to mind: Freelancers must "Glow" in light of the economic situation and prove themselves even more. Maybe that's not a prediction but a fact of freelance business in any economic reality.

Kristine Sheehan
www.TheMErryBird.com Designs

"Spiel" it Out to Make a Book Sale!

Authors were born to write not sell. I can relate, I'm a designer that was born to design. But if we want recognition, profit or fame we have to SELL our product or service. But how? You need a spiel.

A spiel is that catchy business tactic that your target market depends on to find you . For any author that is self publishing you know that Readers WILL buy books. All that the consuming reader needs is the place to find the topic they seek.

No matter if the subject is "in"style or not, know the genre of your book and have it placed in the correct category. That will ensure it to be placed where the reader can easily find the topic they seek on a store shelf or online search. (Don't forget to add the all important online search tags!)

Did you know that "40% of a book sales spiel depends on the title and cover design" of your work. Of course! Readers judge a book by it's cover! The title tells a secret while the design gives the potential reader a visual of it. That's a good reason to know a photoshop professional to design a cover for your work.

The back cover blurb is also a big part of the sales spiel. Once the reader is attracted to the book they usually pick it up and read the blurb on the back. See? It all begins with a tasty appetizer of what the book tale is about, the reader wants to read more and buys the book! Or....

Online interactive samples are another terrific way to "spiel" it out. By releasing One or two chapters of your work for free, a potential customer can click and read while being hooked into making the final move, a sale.

Like I said, "Spiel it Out to Make a Book Sale!

Kristine Sheehan

www.TheMerryBird.com Designs