Making Cool Stuff at Cafe Press

I have recently been enjoying making cool stuff at cafe press. This is probably the simplest way I know to sell your art online. You probably won't make a ton of money - but compared to the labor intensive - pocketbook breaking ordeal of art fairs and local shows, not to mention the potentially humiliating experience of gallery owners who  turn up their noses at your cool stuff - well, for me it's a no brainer.

All I have to do is come up with a sharp, high resolution graphic of art that I've made. Then it's a simple process to upload it to cafe press where I can put my art on everything from framed prints and calendars to mugs, mouse pads and stickers. And people have been buying! How cool is that?

Check this out, it's a recent email from Cafe Press:

Hi from CafePress.com!

You've made a sale! Way to go!
Here is a summary of the items you sold:

1 x Flower Peace - Daydream Necklace Circle Charm
   
Retail Price:    $15.60 each
Markup:          $1.56 each
Earned:          $1.56 total (Sales Source: Marketplace)

Log in to your account at http://www.cafepress.com and check out your Sales Report to see more info. Thank you for your contributions to the CafePress.com community and keep up the good work!
Happy Selling!
CafePress.com

15 Ways To Increase Traffic

From SelfGrowth.com, we have some really good advice on how to increase traffic to your website.

"To help all of you better understand what’s working for small to medium size websites, I have enclosed a list of 15 techniques we’ve used to help build SelfGrowth.com into a site that draws over a million visitors a month."


Here they are:

  1. Create useful content on your website. Nothing else is as important.

  2. Update your useful content regularly. Today’s web audiences expect to see fresh material, and having regularly-updated content will keep them coming back.

  3. Build sticky and interactive pages on your website including discussion boards, comment capability and anything else that helps build community.

  4. Create an e-mail newsletter. This is an extremely effective way to link back to your website and continuously drive traffic.

  5. Seek out partnerships with other people with e-mail lists to promote your website.

  6. RSS Feeds are a great way to keep visitors informed of fresh content on your site. For an explanation of RSS Feeds, see this video on YouTube.

  7. Create an affiliate program to promote your products and services.

  8. Use Search Engine Optimization techniques to get listed naturally at the top of Google, Yahoo and other search engines. Read more here: Search engine optimization

  9. Podcasting. Podcasts are a great way to build a regular audience and keep them coming back. Watch this video on YouTube.

  10. Invest in Pay Per Click Advertising (ie. Google Adwords and Yahoo) to drive targeted traffic to your website.

  11. Submit your articles or book excerpts to other websites with links back to your website.

  12. Blogging. Blogs are a fantastic way to create fresh content that builds a regular audience. You can use weblogmatrix to find out which blog software is right for you.

  13. Social Networking. Build profiles on popular social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, or Linked In. You can use these profiles to connect to others with similar interests and send them to your website.

  14. Social Bookmarking. For more on social bookmarking, you can watch this video on YouTube.

  15. Invest in other forms of paid Internet advertising including banner advertising.

Thanks to: David Riklan, Founder - SelfGrowth.com

Learn To E-Mail

Email:
There's More To It Than You Think


A friend who is a computer expert received the following directly from a system administrator for a corporate system. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send emails. Please read the short letter below, even if you're sure you already follow proper procedures.

Do you really know how to forward emails? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT. Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it?

Every time you forward an email there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their email addresses and names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every email address that has come across his computer.

Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel!

How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps. Try the following if you haven't done it before:
  • When you forward an email, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top). That's right, DELETE them.
  • Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the 'Forward' button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don't click on 'Forward' first, you won't be able to edit the message at all.
  • Whenever you send an email to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding email addresses. Always use the BCC:(blind carbon copy) field for listing the email addresses.
  • This is the way the people you send to will only see their own email address. If you don't see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear.
  • Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say 'Undisclosed Recipients in the 'TO:' field of the people who receive it.
  • Remove any 'FW :' in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling.
  • ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual email you are reading.
  • Ever get those emails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it? By Forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many emails just to see what you sent.

Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses.

  • A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein.
  • DO NOT put your email address on any petition.
  • If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient.
  • Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email addresses on a petition. (And don't believe the ones that say that the email is being traced; it just ain't so!)

Some of the other emails to delete and not forward are:

  • The one that says something like, 'Send this email to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your screen.' Or sometimes they'll just tease you by saying 'something really cute will happen.' IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (We are still seeing some of the same emails that we waited on 10 years ago!)
  • I don't let the bad luck ones scare me either, they get trashed.
  • Before you forward an 'Amber Alert' , or a 'Virus Alert' , or some of the other emails floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for YEARS!
  • Just about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked out at Snopes. Just go to www.snopes.com . It's really easy to find out if it's real or not. If it's not, please don't pass it on.

So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses. I doubt we really want our email addresses spread around the world.

Seed Conference Notes

Wow... these are really cool. Not only that, but they are inspiring and I learned something! What are they? Sketchnotes by Mike Rohde done at the SEED Conference on June 6th, 2008.

SEED 3 Sketchbook

SEED 3 Sketchbook

SEED 3 Sketchbook

SEED 3 Sketchbook

SEED 3 Sketchbook

SEED 3 Sketchbook

SEED 3 Sketchbook

SEED 3 Sketchbook

SEED 3 Sketchbook

SEED 3 Sketchbook

SEED 3 Sketchbook

SEED 3 Sketchbook

SEED 3 Sketchbook

And here's a great quote from Gary V:

"Don’t quit your job to become the queen of cheese. But if you’re doing something that blows and you hate it, go work at 7-Eleven to pay your bills and spend every other hour building your personal plan. If you work 9 AM to 6 PM and get home at 7, whatever you put in between 7 and 3 AM is what you’re gonna get in return. You want to watch Lost? Knock yourself out. I don’t watch shit. I don’t read shit. I’m all about my community and putting out content. I don’t consume. I put out."

Source: 37 Signals

Recent Posts Widget - Is it broken?

If you've been using the recent posts widget by Beautiful Beta, you might find that it's not working today. I don't know if it was working yesterday, or not, but it's definitely not working today.

So, I visited Beautiful Beta, and was surprised by the minimalist look of the site which was so different from the last time I was there. After exploring for a while I ended up at the Beautiful Beta Wiki for the Recent Posts Widget. The widget installer was not funtional, however there was a complete explanation of the hack, along with the code.

Apparently the java script file that powers the widget is not accessible anymore. I don't know if the site is down, or what the problem is.

The good news is that this is easy to fix. The java script file is available for download right there on the Wiki page. I downloaded the english version to my desktop, and then uploaded it to a free hosting server (hotlinkfiles.com). I then copied the direct link to the java script and replaced the original url with it and now... voila! my recent posts are back.

To fix your recent posts hack, you'll need to replace this url: http://home.planet.nl/~hansoosting/downloads/showrecentposts2.js with the link to the java script that you uploaded to your web host. I'd let you guys use my link, but I'm worried about the limited bandwidth of my Hot Link Files account.

A Short History of Blogging

Medieval Blogger
Bloggers were invented ca. 300 AD, and were originally called "monks." Like their distant descendents, monks had shitty haircuts, and never got laid.
LOL!
Sounds just like me!

The Table Maker

At the Table Maker, you can make tables for netscape & other browsers easily! Just fill in your preferences for the table you want to make and then hit either of the two "Make Table" buttons. It's not too hard to figure it out, but a little bit of knowledge of html is helpful.

For help on using TableMaker , see the Examples page. For links to other relevant web sites, see the Resources page. Check out the TableMaker Application for use on your computer without an Internet connection (currrent is version 1.1).

I made a table for this post so that you could see how it looks. Cool, huh? As always, if you have any problems, leave me a comment and I'll do what I can to help.

The BlogWhat you will find there
Way Cool PicturesCute, interesting, funny pictures found here and there while surfing the net. Totally G rated, nothing offensive ever posted.
More Cool PicturesThis is where the more edgy pictures are posted surreal, cool, and sometimes bizarre. No porn, but sometimes the images are pretty out of the box.
My Slide Shows An attempt at keeping track of my slide shows and what the heck is on them.
Way Cool Quoteslots of great quotes
As WithinInspirational quotes prayers and poetry paired with awesome nature photos
Mandala MadnessAn eclectic collection of mandalas, quotes, and poetry - uplifting and inspirational.
The Prosperity ProjectTrying stuff out to see what works and what doesn't. Come on by and check it out.
Gypsy MagicMagic spells and Gypsy lore. It's pretty cool.
Shirley TwofeathersMy personal blog with all kinds of different stuff on it, some of it's dumb and stupid, some of it is boring as hell, and then there's the really cool and interesting stuff. Come on by and check it out. You know you want to!
My Work at Home JobAn attempt to keep track of stuff that seems useful so that I can find it later. Oh, hey, that's where you are right now!

Share Pics - Get Paid!

In my never ending search for free image hosting that's reliable and easy to use, I found this cool site: Share A Pic. You actually get paid to share your pictures here. Of course, in order to get paid, people have to actually go see what you have posted. What's cool, is that you can add thumbnails (like the ones below) to your myspace page, or blog, and it's really easy. The only drawback is that the image links are to thumbs only. So, while it won't work as an image host for my picture blogs, it will work as a way to promote those blogs on places like FaceBook, MySpace, Gaia, and ... well here.

This gallery is a series of slow motion photography images that I was posted on More Cool Pictures. Click on the thumbnail and it takes you to the page at Share A Pic. Pretty cool, huh?




Ask The Plumber Guy!

Why fiddle around with Fortune Tellers when there's a bonafide plumber - ready, willing, and eager to answer all your plumbing questions?

The Plumber Guy

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check out my new widget. He's really a lot of fun! I created "Ask the Plumber Guy" from the java script for "Ask the Fortune Teller" over at Yaldex.com. All I did was add an image and then I went in and changed the possible answers. You can't add more answers, but you can change the ones that are there.

Also, this does not seem to work in a blog post, and you can't have more than one on a blog as the answers from the first one will overwrite the answers for the others. It is fun, however, and easy to do.

If you have any questions about how to do it, I'd be happy to help out. Have a fun day!

EZ Banners and Buttons

I found a cool site called Image Chef and in about 3 minutes was able to create this cool banner. The whole process was so easy that I thought it might be something good to share. Here's the banner I made. Nifty isn't it?

ImageChef Custom Images

You can either get the code that links back to Image Chef, or you can save the image to your computer. It could then be cropped and/or resized to fit into a smaller space - and might be useful for a number of different things.

The Prosperity ProjectFor example, this nice little banner is also a link to The Prosperity Project.

How did I do that? I cropped the banner, resized it to 200 pixels wide, and then uploaded it into this blog post as an image. I then clicked on the "html tab" (right next to the "compose" tab) and did a little editing. Here's how: When blogger uploads an image, it uploads 2 urls. One is prefaced with a href= the other is prefaced with src=" The second one is the link to the actual image that you see on the page, don't change that one.

The first one, the one that follows the a href=" is the one you want to change. Be sure not to erase the little quotation marks before and after. Also, remember to include the http:// Replace the blogger url with the url to your link. In this case, it would be http://theprosperityproject.blogspot.com instead of http://bp1.blogger.com/ _D8VwTKAphks/ R91TRUSVfCI/AAAAAAAAHxk/ q3mulh8h8Sw/s200/tiny-banner.jpg

If you want the link to come up in a new window, add this phrase target="_blank" after your link.

Mine looks like this:
"http://theprosperityproject.blogspot.com/" target="_blank". When you do the editing, you'll see little things that look like < and >, be sure not to erase them by accident.

For good SEO, and if you really want to get fancy, you can "caption" your picture link by finding (in the html) this little phrase alt="" All you have to do is type between the " and the " whatever it is that you want the image to say if someone hovers their mouse over it. In this case, I typed in The Prosperity Project. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, hover your mouse over the big banner, you'll see that it says ImageChef Custom Images. Now hover your mouse over the little banner. It should say The Prosperity Project.

So, this is how I make image links without having to write or remember anything too complicated. I am no expert, nor do I have much experience with non-blogger blogs. But if you have any problems, just leave me a question or a comment and I'll see what I can do to help. Have a great day!

Wow! Awards!

The first time I got an award for one of my blogs, I was hugely impressed and really excited. Since then, I've managed to collect a few more. If you like receiving awards, it's not too hard to begin to collect them - all it requires is that you spend time every day visiting and commenting on blogs that you enjoy reading.

Here's a great example of a blog award success story: Bob, over at Black Holes and Astrostuff has managed to collect an impressive array of awards. He has a really nice blog, with lots of interesting information and the awards are well deserved. In addition to that, he is really great about visiting and commenting on the blogs belonging to his own visitors, as well as the people who leave him positive feedback at blog catalog. Pretty soon, you begin to feel as if you know him personally. Naturally, when an award opportunity presents itself, he's the first person you think of.

Why even care about awards? Aside from the obvious ego boost, the giving and receiving of awards is a great way to accumulate links and incoming traffic. The way it usually works is that the person giving the award blogs it. They say nice stuff about your blog and provide a link to your site. They then leave you a message telling you that you've received an award... and to come and pick it up. This stimulates traffic (from award recipients) back to their site. When you collect your award, it's customary to blog about it and this creates a link back to the giver of the award. You then are encouraged to find other deserving bloggers and pass the award on to them. So, you can see how it builds links and traffic.

If no awards seem forthcoming, you could always create one of your own and pass it around. All you need is an idea for a cute little graphic, a title for the award.... for example... here's one I came up with, feel free to grab the image and pass it on:


    And, while I'm thinking about it, this seems like a pretty good time to pass this award on to some of the blogs that I think are absolutely yummy!

    I have not been very good about following through on awards... here are the ones I have received for my various blogs, and I'm sorry to say that it's been a while since I got those awards, and cannot now remember who they came from. I'm sorry you guys! I'll try to do better!

      Mandala Madness


      More Cool Pictures


      Way Cool Pictures

      My First Check From Google

      Here's something cool! My very first check from Google is winging its way to me. It took me 1 year and 4 months to make $103.00 with Google Adsense. But get this !! Already, just in the months of February and March - that's only a month and a half - I have accumulated $42.00. WOW! Is that cool or what? I am so excited! All my hard work is finally beginning to pay off. So, don't be discouraged. Build it and they will come. Make it interesting, and they will come again. Preservere and money will follow!

      Maukie - the virtual cat

      Maukie is the fiercest, cutest cat ever to terrorize your mouse pointer. Move your cursor and Maukie will follow. Scratch her head, and she'll meow. Rub her tummy, and she'll purr. All the while, she's breathing in and out, and watch the tail. She may even try to swat the cursor. She comes in smaller sizes too! Isn't she fun?

      Snap Shots a cool new Widget!

      Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

      I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

      Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

      Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

      Cool Music Widget

      Get your own Music Widget!

      Dive in! Find the music you like, create your playlists, make your widgets, grab the code and add it to your profile page, site, blog or photo album. It's really cool, it's fun, and it's easy.

      When you create a widget, there are several options to choose from. I chose the horizontal embed in a blog post option. But you could have a nice little vertical music player in your sidebar as well. The one I have embedded here plays classical piano music. Turn it on, and check it out!

      Circumventing the new Blogger comment system

      For those of you who are not very happy with the new blogger comment system, here's an alternative comment provider, HaloScan. I found it, in use, at a nice little blog called Webster 12:

      HaloScan provides a free, easy to use commenting and trackback service for weblogs and websites, allowing visitors to leave feedback, share their opinion, or comment on the subject at hand.

      Features

      • Easy, two-step installation on any weblog or webpage
      • View, edit or delete comments from the members section or the comment page
      • Ban offensive commenters by single IP or an IP range
      • Customizable comment window through CSS or the HTML template editor
      • Hundreds of user-submitted templates to pick from
      • Worldwide time-zone and character encoding support
      • RSS-XML feed/syndication
      • Email notification of new comments
      • And a lot more...

      Here's what's posted on their front page as "Latest News"
      · 12/30/2006 - New Blogger Installation Wizard - Easier than ever to install
      · 09/17/2006 - Recent Comments Widget - A recent comment list for your blog
      · 09/05/2006 - Dashboard Hotness - Members now have a Dashboard!
      · 06/06/2006 - Free Email Notification - More free stuff for members
      · 05/29/2006 - Database Upgrade - New, faster, higher capacity servers added
      · 11/18/2005 - More Blog Integration - Blog post title fetching feature
      · 08/24/2005 - Help Pages - The new help area contains over 100 pages

      Build It And They Will Come

      Just last week, I was whining and complaining to my sister about life in general, and how I spend so much time working on all these really great blogs that nobody ever goes to. And now I have to eat crow, because I went to stat counter today and this is what I found!!! One Cool Picture After Another has exceeded the 100 hits and 200 page loads mark! Yowsers! I thought that maybe, on a good day, I had like... 15 visitors.



      I find this very interesting because I have not done much at all to actively promote this site. What I HAVE done to "drive traffic" is this:

      1. Linked it on my other blogs.
      2. Posted it at Technorati.
      3. Put it up at My BlogLog.

      That's it. I did the exact same thing for Way Cool Pictures and More Cool Pictures, plus I posted them at Blog Catalog, and have actively pursued links for them on other sites. And yet this blog is the one getting the most traffic. It can't be the content, because it has the same content as both of the other two. So, I'm thinking it has to be the fact that I put up three posts a day. It did get stumbled once or twice, and it did get posted on facebook. Both of which might also be contributing factors.

      Why do I even have three picture blogs? Good question. And here's the answer: I have a number of friends and coworkers who might be offended by some of the pictures and art that I really like. So, I made a picture blog just for them. Nothing offensive is ever uploaded at Way Cool Pictures. The rest of the stuff that I like is housed at More Cool Pictures. I do not go in for anything too terribly gruesome... well... sometimes... but not usually. And while I never post porn, More Cool Pictures isn't necessarily something you could recommend to your great aunt Martha. Some of it is in very "bad taste", which is what makes it funny and interesting to me.

      The two most popular posts at Way Cool Pictures currently is The Amazing Art of Julian Beaver, and Krakatoa Day. At More Cool Pictures, it's Foot Binding and Creepy Cannibal Pictures.

      Then, one of my friends complained about having to go to two blogs in order to see ALL the cool pictures. So, I thought, why not... I'll combine the two and call it One Cool Picture After Another. I had no thought of it being more than a convenience for my friends. Interestingly, the favorite posts there are The Piercing and Pain Festival and The World's Largest Penis (no porn - I swear to you - it's not a picture of a person).

      So, there you go! Build it and they will come. Be patient. Post every day.... post more than once a day if you have something interesting, relevant, shocking or funny. Eventually, that small trickle of 2 to 3 visitors a day will grow.

      My Flickr Profile

      I've been playing with my new Flikr account. Surprisingly, the photos I have uploaded get looked at! I've even been invited to submit some photos to a couple of groups, which was fun. And several have been marked as "favorites".

      All of this would be even cooler if the photos were pictures that I actually took, instead of stuff I found on the internet. But, hey, I'll take whatever appreciation I can get.

      Here is a screen capture of one of my most looked at sets, Burning Man 2007. It's been up for about a week and already has had 86 views and a number of comments.

      So, this is what I put on my Flikr Profile:

      I am an artist, a blogger, a reader, a writer, a Reiki Master, a gypsy, a shaman, a psychic, a woman, a mother, a grandmother, a daughter, a sister, and a friend.

      Other words that apply to me include: out of the box, unusual, outspoken, odd, eccentric, free spirited, employed, unemployed, foolish, wise, stupid, smart, funny, sad, ridiculous, sensible, practical, down to earth, driven, gifted, calm, relaxed, freaked out, dumb, mental, open minded, bound and determined, stubborn, persistent, opinionated, ambivalent, physical, emotional, spiritual, human... the list goes on and on.

      I have a bunch of blogs and websites.. come and see them if you are interested, they are: shirley twofeathers, Mandala Madness, Way Cool Pictures, More Cool Pictures, Gypsy Magic, Green Dolphin Studio, Way Cool Quotes, The Prosperity Project, As Within, and Question of the Day. How's that for a long list?

      Now, the question is, will this profile and the uploaded pictures bring me traffic to my blogs? or interest in my art? or is it just a nice diversion?

      Here's an idea!

      Here's an idea! I happened on to a website that will post your articles and pay you royalties on any ads that get clicked on. It's Triond. Here's how it works:

      1. You create interesting content and submit it.
      2. They publish your content on appropriate websites.
      3. You earn royalties.

      Sounds pretty simple. It's easy to sign up, and best of all it costs nothing. I found it through a comment left at As Within. This blog rarely gets looked at, much less commented on - even though I think it's by far my most inspiring one. So when someone left a comment, I was totally surprised, and checked out her profile. What I found was a blog, Journey of a Spirited Strider, with teasers and links to posts she had written on other sites.

      What a cool way to stimulate traffic to your content! It might even be a really good way to create income from my dog training experience.

      Ask The Plumber Guy!

      The Plumber Guy

      Ask any how-to question, and get an immediate answer from The Plumber Guy! It doesn't even have to be a plumbing question... this guy is great with how to fix just about anything! Go on... you know you want to... ask him a question.
      Your question:
      Plumber Guy says: