Guest Post: Editing Photos with Susan

Did you know that our beloved Susan is a genius? And that's she's perfectly willing to share her knowledge and expertise with a bone-head like myself? 'Tis true.


I was fooling around with my blog, which is usually a pretty bad idea. Don't get me wrong...I can write a post. I can even add pictures to it! I can add a widget (provided it's a widget that's right there on blogger and all I have to do is hit the "add" button). But when it comes to anything more technical than that, I'm lost.


I'll give you a good example. Editing photos for my Etsy listings. I recently downloaded Picasa (on Susan's recommendation!) and have been trying to learn how to use it. Trying being the key word there. And I thought I was doing pretty good! Here's what I would do:
*Take a picture.
*Upload said picture.
*Open up Picasa and click on picture.
*Hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.
*Maybe crop, maybe not.
*Close Picasa.
*Open Paint.
*Resize picture.

See? I couldn't even figure out how to RESIZE a photo in Picasa!!


So, being a bone-head, I sometimes...well, forget that I'm a bone-head and I try to do things that I am perfectly UNcapable of doing. Like adding a Pin It button to the bottom of each blog post. Oh, I had a Pin It button. But it didn't actually pin anything! Who caught it? Susan. So I added her as an admin on my blog, because I trust her completely, and in the process of fixing it she realized what a bone-head I am and had me call her. 


And THAT is why I will get absolutely NOTHING accomplished today! She managed to cram about two weeks worth of graphic design tutoring into a one-hour phone call and I'm on fire to go back and make a collage! Oh yeah...I know how to make a collage now. I also know how to make an Etsy banner...FROM SCRATCH, Y'ALL...using my own photos! I also know how to resize photos in Picasa. 


I know a BUNCH of stuff.


So, do you have questions? Of course you do. We ALL do. Contact Susan Adams here on Handmade Jargon or at one of her many Facebook pages (see links below) and ASK her, for goodness sake. She'll most likely explain it to you and tell you how to do a bunch of stuff you never even thought about, too!!


To visit my Etsy shop, go here ---> Glitter Frog Designs on Etsy
To visit my blog, go here ---> Glitter Frog Designs Blog


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To Follow or Not to Follow, that is the Pinterest-ing Question

With all new toys, they become the most popular. Here is the thing with new toys, if you don't know how to use them, they get tossed aside or not played with at all.

Pinterest has become a fast growing social media network for the visually stimulated audience. This is usually the creatives that browse the internet, women and marketers.  Many of the creatives are crafters, wedding planners, home school Moms, photographers and how to guru's.  But what about the non crafters..non creative, the "I'm looking for a product I can't find locally in a store" people? Are they on Pinterest?

That is a very Pinteresting question.  One of the other issues to think about, that is if you are a crafter using Pinterest for marketing, is who is watching..rather, are they watching? Or are they just following everyone else so that their followers will see their stuff for sale?  This is a problem when you're only on Pinterest for self-promotion and networking.

That saying I have built my business by, "Give yourself away and you will find yourself a rich man", applies here. First, you need to prove you are worthy to be followed.  Make your Pinterest Boards valuable and interesting, worthy of looking at from your "regular" followers.  Second, offer your followers information relevant to your business that will make them want to come back to see what you have up on boards that is new.  Just like blogging, be consistent!

If you just post links just to post, you end up with a dead end. No one likes a car salesman. NO ONE. If you promote any product just for the sake of networking, you really don't get to far.  Your looks and clicks will increase some, about 35% more.  But what about conversion rate? The best you can hope for is your close friends buying from you.

Source: mjolk.ca via Susan on Pinterest

So here is my suggestion, make your boards look worthy.  Find the most beautiful, cool, interesting, "Wow!", I LOVE it!, type stuff.  Make your images worthy to be pinned, pin up awesome-ness, cool gadgets, unusual one of a kind items.  Then, once you start to get noticed, then you can promote your friends' stuff..and yours in the mix of it all. Take the time, put in the effort to be worthy of someone else's time and p-interest.

One last thing to add into each pin: the search engine on Pinterest is driven by words you use in your descriptions, not necessarily your board titles, so be mindful of your first paragraph of items you sell that they have correct keywords for your items to be found easily. Pin items with correct and keyword rich descriptions.  If the descriptions don't pull into your Pin when you click that "Pin-it" button, highlight the text you want to pin with the image and then click the "Pin-it" button.  The highlighted text will pull into the description of the pin with little effort on your brain to come up with text.



Susan ~ ArtFire LInk
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