..So now my next question to you is this…Are you using Social Media in your Digital Scrapbooking business? Yes or no? How? With what results?I’d love to know what you have to share on this subject. So please go ahead and leave a message here, telling us your thoughts on it!

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Then I went to work copy and pasting new resources into our forums until my fingers were tired to the bone.  In the end I wound up with over 100+ resources to share.  Most of them are for digi-art designers, however there’s plenty for other professionals working in our industry too!  And if the truth be known, I really only scratched the surface on what’s out there on the web to assist scrapbooking professionals.

Sneak Peak into the Resources List

The resources include: torn, folded, distressed, and colorful paper how-to’s; making glass beads; transparent 3-D objects; a bazillion different affects for making alpha sets; tips for packaging your products; printing photo albums, and much, much more. Far too many to name here!

Visit our Forums Today!

So if you want to grab some freebies with commercial TOU’s or revive  your muse with some really awesome tutorials to get you back into designing fresh and new products - then jump over to our forums today and see what I added.

If you aren’t registered yet, simply log into your business associates benefits area. Right there on the front page in the “Getting Started” chart you’ll find instructions for registration in step three.

Don’t Be Shy About Sharing  Your Knowledge

While you are in the forums, please add your favorite links to resources that you use too.  I’m sure our entire membership will appreciate you sharing.

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Maybe social media isn’t for everyone.

According to eMarketer  (piggybacking on some data from LinkedIn and Harris Interactive), it seems that only 8 percent of advertisers actually think of Twitter as a “very effective” promotional tool.  And the numbers aren’t much different for consumers.  Just 8 percent of consumers think the same thing. So my question to use is this - Are you using Social Media to boost your digi-scrap sales?  If so, how are you using it? Barb Dybwad wrote an article over at Mashable-The Social Media Guide blog that claims one in five tweets are free brand advertising. She goes on to say,

“Those tweets contains a mix of requests for information about specific products as well as responses to those queries from people’s networks, giving companies an unprecedented window into the concerns and questions customers and potential customers have about their products.”

I think it’s that comment alone that prompted so many responses to your article that specifically addresses the fact that while businesses are using it for marketing and strengthening their brand, there’s still a ton of data that isn’t collected and shared with business owners - so too much is still unknown about it’s worth.  As more information is gathered and shared with Twitter members the true power of Twitter as a business tool will quickly be realized.

Now is the Time to Dig Deep into Twitter

Research it’s business uses. Experiment with the service and start learning about the many ways Twitter can be used to help you boost your digi-scrap sales.  The same goes for Facebook.  Be careful as you do too, because Social Media can be as much of a distraction as it can be a tool.  If you find yourself spending too much time “playing” on Social Media sites, step back for a minute and double check what you’ve got going on. Remember to periodically track how much time you may be wasting on Social Media sites. Do games and idle chattering keep you from doing more important business activities? Social sites of all types whether they be micro-blogs like Twitter or community forums, can be like a double edge sword. Great for marketing and great for wasting time too.  It’s one area I have to watch all the time! It’s just too easy to get side-tracked. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with chilling out with friends on social sites. A digi-scrapper who’s all work and no play is going to get burn out really fast.  So play and have fun with folks hanging out at Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and in your favorite community forums. Just be sure to keep a healthy balance in your activities.

DSD-Pro is on Twitter and on Facebook Soon Too

I’ve started playing and working in the Social Media sites to see what I can learn for business purposes and I’m having fun meeting new friends, and reconnecting with old friends along the way. Check us out @DSD_Pro on Twitter and look for our Facebook Fan Page as well. We’re just getting started so there isn’t much to see yet, but soon we’ll have some good digi-scrap business info for you to get your hands on and move your business forward!

Now besides experiencing this media first hand I’m also reading about Marking through Social Media sites. The amount of research available about the marketing potential is massive.  Enough to give a person information overload. So I’m taking it a bite size chunk at a time. I’ll pass along to you tips and tricks as I discover them. Please share in the comments section your experience as well. Take a minute and talk to us will ya?

Click here to view more details

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Remember I told you about that giant Twitter Giveaway event a few days ago? The one that could help you grow your prospect list?

Well we had a ton of business owners jump on board and they are now ready to give you lots of free products and offer you some totally outstanding deals on top of that too. It all starts today!

Because of the shear number of participants and the number of items being offered, I opted to include only one of my original free items at the giveaway.  A four-piece twitter background package - because I think it’s more relevant to the event and offers my digi-scrapper store owner friends something else they can sell in their stores.

The PLR products I was originally planning to offer, I’ve decided to offer only to folks who take advantage of the designer Twitter backgrounds I mentioned.  So if you register your free gift from me, you’ll get that as a bonus in the next day or two as well.

Giveaway Link:  http://twittermarketinggiveaway.com/go/80

There are so many tips and tricks to using Twitter that you’d probably waste countless hours and dollars looking for the RIGHT
product that tells you how to get ahead with Twitter and/or to simply make money with social networking.

STOP! Don’t waste your time and money on every Twitter product that comes your way, when all you need to know is right here, at this giveaway event:

http://twittermarketinggiveaway.com/go/80

You see, over 400 contributors have donated hundreds and hundreds of products, most of which are dedicated to Twitter and/or Social Networking! Some of which can be helpful to you in your digi-scrap business too.  Whether it is how to build your follower-base, or how to use the various 3rd-party tools to make Twitter work right, you can get that information here!

To grab your free background files from me (which you can then turn around and sell straight from your store and keep 100% of the profits) - just register at the giveaway sight, and wander through the downloads to pick out the offers you think could help you in your digi-scrap business.

I think you’re going to be shocked at what you’ll find!

Here’s a picture of the Twitter package that I’m offering so you’ll know what you’re looking for in the
giveaway if you are interested in picking it up.

Here’s the signup link again:
http://twittermarketinggiveaway.com/go/80

I hope your business does well for you today and have a blast at the giveaway!

PaintChip

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It is expected to get me about 5000 members on my prospect list.  Who knows, maybe up to 10,000 new members. And I’m stoked about it! The promotion will have over 200,000 visitors in just a few days. So the exposure will be great.

The promoter, Bob Tompkins & Reed Floren has asked me if I knew anyone that would want to participate in this venture…

Since I know most of our blog readers are just like you and have a digi-scrap site that might work with this.  This giveaway event will have some really awesome stuff for any online entrepreneur, blogger, or tweeter. I’m thinking your audience would fall into those categories.

I’m guessing you might be looking to increase your prospect list too.  I think that some of you will really like what they are doing here and I know you will jump on board like I did ASAP.

To get the “by Invite Only” private JV details, just jump on over to the JV sign up page to get the details, sign up (it’s free) and then get a gift ready to pass along to other and watch your list start to grow right away!

There is only a few days to get involved.  So don’t delay if you want to get on board with the list building activities! They made it so easy. It’s all dynamic. You set the text and logo’s yourself then it is automatically and instantly added to the sales pages and members area.

I’m getting my special gift ready to go now and will load it up tomorrow morning. So as soon as the actual event launches and people start coming on over to pick up their freebies, they can pick up mine too… and join my mailing list at the same time!

If you’ve never participated in a giveaway project before as a joint venture partner, this might be the perfect one for you to get your feet wet with.  The guys are not limiting the JV list to only folks with big lists.  So even a newbie can jump on board this one!

Now if you need more information about how to go about joint venturing in a giveaway event, please don’t hesitate to ask.  I’ll be happy to fill you in on what it’s like and what steps you’ll need to do to get the most out of the giveaway.  You know - so you can really get a bunch of new subscribers to your list!

Okay - enough talk.  I’ve got to break away from the blog and go finish up my free gift for the giveaway event.  Hope you’ll join me!

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Take for example the product safety laws.  At first glance you may be thinking that the various consumer product safety laws associated with child safety don’t really apply to digital scrapbooking.  Then again - maybe they do.  If part of your business activities includes printing and binding your digi-scrap art products into books that are going to be used by children, do the laws apply to you?  If you sell non-digital products in your online store along side your digi-art products (ringed books or photo albums and such) - are they likely to be purchased for projects made for younger audiences?  Could they be used in school classrooms?  Are you selling your digital products in a physical medium like CD’s of artwork that could potentially end up in the hands of a 12 year old sitting in front of the computer using your products?

The choices for how your products are marketed can even make a difference.  For example, if you show a picture of a family looking at pictures in a scrapbook and a child is included in this family - does it imply that your finished scrapbooks could be considered to be made for adults AND children alike?  It may sound totally ridiculous to you that your digital scrapbooking business could be affected by laws and regulations related to other businesses as far out in left field as the toy business.  However, the fact is that in this day and age we often see outragous lawsuits or something like seemingly silly claims, being seen by millions on YouTube and other internet avenues - completely wiping out small businesses.

There could also be real concerns about the types of materials used in the products you deliver to your customers and how those materials could be unsafe to children!

So what do you do about it?  I mean how do you run your business without being paranoid of breaking laws or getting sued, or deciding to walk away because it’s all so very overwhelming?  There are several things you can do as an entrepreneur to feel more comfortable.  Be prepared for bad things to come about - even if you think it won’t happen to you.  Consider things you can do to protect your business and your family from false claims, from disasters, or from breaking laws that you didn’t even think would affect you.  Put things in place now so you can sleep better at night, knowing your business is on the right track.

Research the Obvious

• Check out the local laws and regulations associated with running a small business in your home.  These laws will vary based on the country where you live, as well as the smaller townships such as providence, cities, counties, etc.
• Look into the tax laws for your areas also.  Research this info both online and offline.  Not only do the various tax associations have local offices where you can talk with trained personnel and get answers to your questions, but they have a wealth of information and additional resources via websites too.
• What form of business have you chosen and how does that affect your personal or business assets should a loss occur?  It can be drastically different depending on if you’ve chosen to conduct your business as a Sole Proprietor, a Limited Liability Company, an S-Corporation, or  one of the other business types that are available to you.  So visit the government offices that apply to your location and business needs.

You may find there are license requirements for you to conduct a digital scrapbooking business in your home.  Then again, maybe there aren’t, but how will you know unless you thoroughly research it?

Get Straight Talk from the Right Professionals

Consulting with a professional before getting started, or when you question how to do something the legal way may be all that’s needed.  Then again you may feel it would be better for you to hire or keep on retainer certain professionals for their ongoing services.

• An accountant or other financial adviser is almost a must in any business endeavor.
• You may want to look at getting business advice from an attorney that is well versed in consumer safety practices if you distribute consumer goods that are delivered offline (scrapbooks, CD’s, crafting products, or finished art products of other types, etc).
• Keep in mind your local insurance agent who can give you council on whether or not you need coverage for loss or damaged equipment or even digital files that make up your digi-art inventory.  Do you have customers come to your home for consultations?  Do you have products your display in homes or use your car for business purposes?  Are there additional insurance needs associated with your business activities that you haven’t thought of?

Just as I encourage you to research in multiple places, I also encourage you to ’shop’ around for your professionals too.  Like coordinating efforts with the right doctor, dentist, vet, or car mechanic - you need to feel comfortable with the business professionals you work with too.  So don’t be shy about choosing the ones that fit well for you and your business!

Digi-Scrapping and Toys

So back to the question I asked in the title of this post - how (if at all) do the product safety laws currently under question in the USA, affect your digi-scrapping business?  Since your business is going to be different from mine, I can’t really answer that question for you.  Surprisingly enough, for me and my business there may actually be a connection.  But I’m not sure.  So I’m off to do additional research and get some advice from my professional team.  If this is one of those questionable concerns you’d like to do more research on yourself, here’s a few links to help get you started:

• Digital Journal Lifestyle Article
• Info at Handmade Toys Alliance
• CPSC document / CPSIA Request for Comments document
• Article at CafeMom
• Viewpoints from various people posting on YouTube

Curious about what got me looking into this toy thing a little further?  A conversation prompt at one of the many S4O scrapbooking Yahoo Groups.  While some of these groups are specifically for paper scrappers, I still find them of interest to the digital scrapbooking side of the house too sometimes.

Do you have an opinion about this?  I’d like to hear it.  Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment!

~ Cindy (aka PaintChip)

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Today I thought I’d share with you some websites that offer you guidance and tutorials for dealing with the website design hurdles you may be jumping through for your Digi-Scrap business website.

While making several of my regular stops along the web this morning I came across a link shared over at DigiD4O. Freelance.com shares 25 tutorials for advance designers. I found the design tutorial about hand drawn sites rather interesting.

Continuing on my web hopping trip I found that eskimo.com offers several good points about common flaws in website design. These are the types of things you want to avoid!

If you are looking for browser-safe color combinations for your website, a quick search any search engine site will provide you with a list of places on line that offer color picking tools. Many of them offer pre-designed color sets to make the job even easier. Here’s a list of color-helping tools I found with a simple Yahoo search.

Now if you are just getting start designing, you may be looking for basic guidance about HTML coding and such. W3schools.com offers super easy tutorials to learn from.

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Increase Your Digi-Scrap Website Traffic

This weekend we opened the doors to our new Digi-Scrap Resource Directory!  We  have over 35 categories where you can list your website and advertise your services… absolutely free!  We’ve moved the listings we used to have in our forums to this new resource to make it even easier for you to find what you’re looking for and to advertise what you have to offer!  You don’t even have to be a DSD-Pro business associate to post here.

Add Another Layer of Free Marketing to Your Business

Cindy has enlightened our DSD-Pro Business Associates about the ins and outs of Article Marketing with a series of articles in our Networking Center.  If you are a registered member, check them out today.  If you aren’t registered yet — why the heck aren’t you?  Grab your no-cost membership now! Cindy shares many tips on how to make the most of your article marketing and this series is well worth the read!

Boost Your Holiday Sales!

Nichole Fischer is one of our guest writers here on our blog and she’s posted 3 new articles about Marketing your Digital Scrapbooking business services and products througout the holiday season:  Check them out at: Holiday marketing Tips, Seven More Holiday Marketing Ideas, and Solving the Age-Old Holiday Gift Giving Problem . I think she may have one more article up her sleeve for this series.

Keep In Touch

You can always stay informed of what’s going on at DSD-Pro by subscribing to our RSS feed or our Email Updates!  Use the buttons at the top of our the side panel to sign up today!

~ GregJA

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Your Customers are Ready to Buy!

The holiday season is one of the times of year when you don’t actually have to stimulate customer spending.  People are already looking for gift giving ideas and they are ready to buy.  So be first on their list as the answer to one of their biggest  gift giving challenges.  We all like the idea of gifting special things to our friends and family during this time of year, but sometimes we run into that question of “what do I get them this year?”  And answering that question can indeed be a bit of a problem.  This is where you come in and help them fix that issue.

It’s time for you to put the right gift ideas in front of them!  How do you do that when shoppers are bombarded with offers starting in September?  For digi-scrap businesses email marketing provides the tools for you to effectively target customers who are ready, willing and frantic to spend money over the winter holidays.

This year make sure your holiday marketing strategy include three things:

1. Solve a customer’s problem
2. Connect to the timing of your customers’ decision making
3. Target customers’ interests and buying patterns

A holiday mailing campaign is the perfect way to market every year.  Whether you run a postal service mail campaign or an online email campaign - don’t miss this golden opportunity to make more sales this year!  With a mailing campaign it’s all about being on top of your customers’ minds and helping to make their lives easier over the holidays.

Solve Their Problem

We’ve all been there sometime or another - wandering the aisles of our local convenience store aimlessly searching for last-minute gifts.  This is the part of holiday shopping that can be stressful, frustrating and unsatisfying. What do you do when you’re down to the wire and you’ve barely made a dent in your gift list? How do you get the right gifts on a budget? What do you get for the person who already seems to have everything?

These are problems you can help solve.  Look at your customers’ past purchasing behaviors. Then send an mail offer that targets those needs and anticipates the challenges you suspect they may be having this holiday season. What kinds of categories have they bought from before? Offer three great gift ideas in that category at three different price points.

And don’t forget the business gift buyers either.  Corporate Business-to-Business gift buyers have their own set of purchasing problems you may be able to help solve for them. What’s the budget? How many gifts do they need to buy? How can they buy corporate gifts that will stand out among all the other clocks, wallets, coffee mugs, and fancy pen holders? Suggest great gift ideas in price ranges that reflect past purchases. Add value by making the decision fun and easy.

Time Your Offer Right

Everyone has their own style.  You probably know your fair share of planners and procrastinators.  Some people get their holiday lists bought even by Thanksgiving, others wait until the last minute.  So when doing your mailings, keep in mind the timing horizon of your customers so your mail promotion arrives when they’re ready to buy. Fall isn’t too early for corporate gift buyers and event planners to make winter holiday plans. Your first mail campaign should arrive in time to help them make their business buying decisions.

Make sure your mailing envelope and subject line tells what you’re promoting; for example: “Early Holiday Gift Ideas” or “Not Too Late for Great Gifts.” For those last-minute shoppers, offer free shipping and give them extra gift suggestions that make them look like they put thought into their purchases. Next year they will remember that you saved the day, and they are more likely to come back again next year too.

Target Their Needs

Remember that holiday marketing should be relevant, timely and valuable to the recipient, not just to you. Apply the same principle to targeting and segmenting customers for your holiday sales. Know what interests them, and suggest other products in that category within their price range.  For example freelance scrapbook artists may want to consider having small pocket book size gifts products that are a natural fit for the customer who also purchases the larger memory album packages.  Or offer photo key chains as an additional gifting options along side the smaller albums.

This holiday season don’t just focus on pushing products.  Help your customers solve their gift-giving problems too!

All these same mail marketing strategies work well for other holidays and seasonal events throughout the year as well (Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Graduation Season, Back-to-School, etc.). For every holiday leverage the built-in sales opportunities that already exist for consumers in your area.

When you’re solving problems and making your customers’ lives easier, your mailing communications are welcomed and valued all year-round. Now that’s “the gift that keeps on giving!”

~ Nichole Fischer

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Idea One: If your digi-scrap business has an offline side to it, pitch your holiday gift suggestions to newspapers now! October and Novemember are the months when newspapers are at work on the editorial content for their holiday gift guides.  You know - those inserts.  If you didn’t begin contacting them last month then don’t wait even a weekend more!  Do it now.

Get Creative with Your Gift Giving Ideas

The more creative you are with your gift packages - the better your chances of getting feature coverage!  This is a terrific time of year to get those upscale and higher price items selling!

Neiman Marcus does an annual Christmas book that always features high-priced outlandish gift ideas.  I’m talking about gifts that run into the multi-thousand $$ price range.  This gets them a huge amount of press space and it also spurs sales higher than average even for their smaller price items.

If don’t have or don’t want to market a high price item, here are a few (more traditional) ideas you may consider:

• Idea Two: Create a something-of-the-month-club gift package that includes 12 items from your product selection.  This could be a combination of merchandise types, or a set of event tickets and classes relating to a particular theme that are offered once a month, etc.
• Idea Three: If you usually offer single item packages, offer themed gift packages instead.  If you usually offer themed kits, bundle up a set of individual packages for this holiday season.  Bundle your solid paper pack, with a package of overlays or brushes for instance, with a few element packs from your store and admission to a designing class.
• Idea Four: Partner with a local photographer or gift supplier and offer a VIP gift package including a photo shoot and a custom photo album or a digital slide show of their family layouts on a DVD they can display on their TV.

Idea Five: Besides newspapers, local radio and TV stations are hungry for out of the ordinary holiday features.  With the season stretching longer and longer each year, they have more space that needs to be filled. Spend some time coming up with a few unusual story angles and start drumming up interest now.

Package Your Products for Every Size Budget

Idea Six: As you move into the holiday season and start your heavy marketing - assemble a list of gift suggestions to fit every budget.  Include gifts that are under $10, around $50, and over $250, etc.   Then market them based on the price itself!

Think Small for Bigger Sales

Idea Seven: Create products that are easy to stuff into small boxes and Christmas stockings.  Make up some printable coupons.  Offer to provide your products on DVD and CD formats.  Consider creating printable box templates for cut and fold packaging!

~ Nichole Fischer

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