Tagged: marketing

Aug 24

Free marketing worksheet!

zebra printI’ve been teaching a class on marketing and business for artists at a local studio the past 3 weeks. I have 3 wonderful students, each one doing something completely different and they’re soaking up the information like sponges. I love it when light bulbs pop up during class.

I think they’re helpful, and so do my students, so to thank you for being such an awesome reader, I’m going to give you these handouts. Four in all.

Each one is around four pages with three of them instructive and informative and the last page is a worksheet to help you apply the information to your business.

Here’s the first one: Marketing is not a Dirty Word. It’s an introduction to marketing, concepts and how to de-ickify the whole concept of selling your stuff, a small eye-opener about what’s really involved with marketing.

Let me know what you think in the comments! (and don’t forget to share this resource with anyone you think may find it helpful :) )

Creative Commons License photo credit: smoodysarah

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Posted in Biz

Apr 14

Stop being creative

Yep. I just told you to stop being creative.

I don’t mean with the stuff you’re supposed to be creative with—your art, music, writing, etc. Creating is part of who you are and what you do. So don’t stop creating.

I’m talking about something that should be a “rinse and repeat” kind of thing instead of a constantly-innovating kind of thing.

And that’s Marketing. I prefer to call it “sharing your thing” because marketing tends to bring up all kinds of ick.

One thing I’ve learned with sharing your thing is you must stick with what works.

Granted you do have to experiment a little at the beginning to find what works, and if something stops working you have to go back to the drawing board.

But once you find a “sharing your thing” plan/technique that works, stick with it.

If you keep reinventing ways to share your thing, you run the risk of never marketing at all. After all, it takes time to learn, get comfortable with and execute a decent plan. How can you share your thing consistently if you keep changing things up? How will you actually sell your thing and make money if you keep chasing after the bright & shiny?

If you’re creative, and if you’re anything like me, chances are you get bored easily and must constantly engage with new ideas, books, ways of doing things, new creations, pieces, instruments, materials… and that’s perfectly fine.

Use your creativity for the things you sell, not for how you sell.

So, does the bright & shiny derail you from sharing your thing? Is it something else that prevents you from sharing?

Photo Credit: Spike at http://morguefile.com/archive/display/151873

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Posted in Biz

Aug 27

Writing “My Story”

I’ve been listening to Suzanne Evans, a marketing/business coach, and the main thing that keeps coming up is “tell your story.” Tell people who you are and where you’ve been because empathy is your best marketing tool.

How, exactly am I supposed to relate my “story” to helping people with WordPress? What in my past is related to how people feel about their ability to handle their own websites? Is that all I can offer? Why should someone work with me as opposed to the other hundreds of WordPress teachers or cheap coders from eLance?

I suppose I need to keep asking those questions to finally arrive at a usable answer. I know that each of my unofficial mentors (including Suzanne) have their stories on the web in one form or another. I related to their stories, liked how they approached their businesses and felt I could learn from them.

So what about me?

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Posted in Musings

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