Be Inspired - Links to Re-invent your Business

Words to Inspire

“Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek.” 
 Mario Andretti

Ideas to Inspire

Re-inventing your business requires a little research and finding the right information for your business. Today I have a few links to e-courses and e-books that may inspire new ideas for your creative business.

Blacksberg Bell - Marketing for Creatives: A Digital Guide

Build a Little Biz - Promote your Biz | A brainstorm of 181 awesome ideas to promote your biz and       build some buzz

Tara Gentile - Marketing ReWired A digital Workshop

Leonie Dawson - Biz & Blog Star Workbook (FREE)

Jennifer Lee - The Right Brain Business Plan Kit 

You don't have to work on your business alone. Sometimes some outside input is exactly what you need for those new ideas to flow. Check out the above list of items, and when visiting each of the sites check out the other items these amazing women offer to help you with your business.


Do you have a e-book or e-course that has changed your business?

Tomorrow an interview with Erin Giles

100 Sales 100 Days & Pinterest

It's been a good couple of weeks. I have spent some time on twitter and Facebook promoting my shop, as well as on my new favorite site Pinterest.

I know, another social media site, but Pinterest is different. It's full of wonderful pictures collected by you and your online friends. Of all my social media sites, this is my favorite.

Never heard of Pinterest, here is what they have to say about their site:
Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard.
Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

I started creating boards at the beginning of the month, and love having one place to save all the inspiration I find around the web. It's also a great way to save blog posts you want to reference in the future, photos to use in future posts, and a great place to keep a visual holiday gift list.

I also added a board for my Etsy shop, and when I add new items to my shop I share them on my Pinterest inspiration board. Keep in mind you don't want to use this site to only promote they do have rules. Click her for more info.

Last week I added 6 new items to my board and 3 of them sold within the hours of listing them.

Here are a few blog posts that will help you get started on Pinterest:
Pinterest 101
A Pinteresting Tutorial
4 Ways to Use Pinterest for Business

It is easy to get sucked in on Pinterest, so if time is an issue give yourself a time limit and stick to it.  Pinterest is a lot of fun and inspiring. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Do you already use Pinterest? 
Whats your username, I would love to follow you.  
Mine is Additionsstyle.
_____________________________________________________________

Stats for 100 Sales / 100 Days
9/7 - 9/22
Etsy Sales:  9
Items Sold:  12
Shop Hearts:  17

Use the Linky tool to attach the blog post with your stats.

Do you want to be motivated to make more sales this fall and holiday season, join us.  We are keeping track of our stats through December 15, decide how many sales you want to make between now and then and then jump on board.  Want more info click here, then email me and I will add you to the list.

Contact Valerie if you have any questions additionsstyleblog@gmail.com

Color Palette Resources

There are many decisions you have to make as an artist to create a piece of artwork.  Deciding on what colors to use can be a challenge sometimes.  

I have found a couple of wonderful resources you can use to create a color palette from what inspires you.

The Color Palette Generator

Check out this example of how the Color Palette Generator works on a painting from Toni Swarthout.

dull #662211 #333333 #992211 #bb4444 #bbaa99

vibrant #aa0000 #554433 #ff0000 #ff5544 #eeddcc

Another great options for creating custom color Palettes is Color Hunter.

Both of these sites are easy to use and give you a collection of colors that can use in your creative project.

When you are working with colors how do you decide what colors to use?  

Artful Blogging

Winter 2011

For the past year in a half I have been enjoying a magazine called Artful Blogging.

If you have not had a chance to check out this magazine it's worth exploring.  It's visually beautiful, full of inspiring stories of artist who blog, and a few tips that you can use for your own blog. 

Since I started reading this magazine I have discovered several new blogs that have become my new favorites. 

The magazine comes out 6 times a year and it's worth every penny.  You can read all about this wonderful magazine or get information to submit your own blog on their website.

Have you checked out Artful blogging?  What do you think?

A List of Fashion Websites

The Internet is full of links to fashion websites and blogs. With so many to choose from narrowing down a list of favorites can be challenging.

Here are a few sites that I check out to keep me updated on the fashions world.

Lookbook.nu

Sour Tang

The Adventures of an Urban Socialite

Focus On Style

Fashion Magazine

Independent Fashion Blog

Do you have a fashion blog or website that you enjoy? Share the link.

Journal Prompt - Dreams

Dream Traveler's Journal by papermajik on Etsy

We know that inspiration can be found all around us everyday. But did you know you could be inspired while you sleep?

We all dream every night. We may not always remember them, but if you take a few minutes before you get out of bed in the morning to write or draw the basic ideas for you dream, list images, and also how you feel, your dreams can be valuable to you and your creative process.

The night before put you journal/sketchbook next to your bed. In the morning before you fully awake, think about the images your saw in your dream and a brief recap of what happened. Then open your eyes and write or draw everything your remember.

You need to do this right away when you wake up in the morning, because we forget 90% of our dream within 10 minutes of waking up.

Try writing down your dreams for a week. Use the images or ideas from your dreams to create a piece of art. Let your images inspire you, and guide you to new ideas.

Do you use your dream images when you are creating?

Additionsstyle NEWS

SHOP News

I have not had a sale for a couple of weeks, I have been frustrated because I was basically working for free. On Wednesday I found out that I was featured in Etsy Finds post on Etsy Storque on Tuesday. It was my first time and very exciting. It's funny, when you are feeling most frustrated something happens to make you excited about working again.

While trying to get thing going with my Etsy shop I made some plans for big changes in my shop that I am going to work on over the summer. For starters I am going to re-shoot all the pieces in my shop with a new background, rework my tags, and work on the SEO (search engine optimization). Hopefully all this work will pay off for the holiday season.

I also plan to create several new pieces so I can start adding a new piece everyday, with the hope of having between 150 and 175 pieces available in my shop by September.

I hope all the changes will bring my shop to the next level, more sales, features, and maybe even a chance on the Etsy front page.

What are you doing to help increase sales in shop?

BLOG News

Last Sunday I shared information about my new project, if you missed it check out the post My Inspiration.

I shared a couple of links this week, the blog Hearts Expanding and a fun website for creating word clouds called Wordle. Both worth checking out.

Follower News
In the post Check It Out... trixiefishstabber productions wants to start sculpting Fimo Clay and is looking for a tutorial or website with information into the process. If you know of any sites send a link to Trixie.

Creative book of the Week
This weeks book is called Foolsgold:Making Something from Nothing and Freeing your Creative Process. Click on the link on the right side bar to go directly to Amazon.com.

Have a great week!

Creative Link - Wordle

I found a fun link the other day, thanks to my sister. It's a site called Wordle and it creates word clouds from text you provide.

The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in your text. You can play with your cloud by changing the fonts, layouts, and color schemes.

The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.



It's fun to do. Go make your word cloud and stop back and leave a link so everyone can check it out.

Creative Link

I recently joined the Creativity Every Day Challenge. It was created to help infuse creativity into you life everyday.

This challenge is easy going and is meant for you to find simple or grand ways to express your creative self.

Each month is a new theme with suggestions and ideas for interpreting the theme and coming up with ideas.

I am looking forward to participating and coming up with new ideas. It's easy to sign up, so jump on board. You can easily get to the site by clicking the link below or on the right sidebar.

Do you have any sites that inspire you to be creative?

Connect Online

Their are so many ways to connect on the Internet, and while visiting Julie Chats blog she shared a link to Virtual Girls' Night Out.

Every Friday night, Ann from Ann Again...and again hosts a Virtual Girls' Night Out with a great music video, a drink recipe and lot's of bloggers to hang with! Get and give tons of comments and find more followers for your blog!



Looking for something a little more low key the check out a la mode Stuffs blog for her new weekly meetup OM [one moment]. It is an opportunity to share and encourage each other to pause in our individual lives. Click on the link below for more details.



Also, to get to know the followers on this blog, I started a new weekly post called Check this out... You can use this post to update everyone on your shops, new items, blog posts you have written or read, a family event, whatever you want, so we can all get to know each other a little better.

These are just a few ways to connect on the Internet outside of the regular social media sites (twitter, facebook ...). Do you participate in any other ways to connect on the Internet?

Creative Buisiness Link - Bakery

I found another great website to share this week, it's full of great business information.

It's called Bakery.

The Bakery offers assistance to small businesses and independent shops worldwide. They help with social media, media kits, websites, budgets, branding, and much more. They also offer a e-course full of tips and motivation to move your business forward.

A business resource worth checking out.

Creative Business Link - Bixbe Biz

I do a lot of reading online checking out a variety of blogs and websites. This week I found Bixbe Biz.

Bixbe Biz is a resource for small online businesses, with information on running your business, accounting, customer service, marketing, social media, SEO, branding, and much more.

They also have a page full of other helpful resource links.

Bixbe Biz is a great resource.

Creative Business - Free Accounting Resource

Accounting is the least liked part of running a business, but a necessary part. As business owners we are always looking for ways to make this part of our businesses easier and quicker to do.

I found a resource that will help to make your accounting a little easier and it FREE.

The Accounting Spot is now offering, for a limited time, FREE accounting forms available for download. Available are Profit and Loss Reports, Inventory Tracking, and Quickbooks directions and tutorials, all ready to use for your Etsy shop.

There is a lot of great information on her blog and resources, so if accounting has you stumped check out The Accounting Spot to easily start getting your business in balance.

Do you know of any other accounting resources?

I love reading and checking out new blogs and websites. Today I am going to share with you 3 blogs I found that are full of information for your online shop and business.

Meylah Blog
The goal of this blog is to help creative people succeed in building their business online. They offer entrepreneurial advice and social networking know-how to help you reach success. Read a variety of articles from setting up your shop, marketing ideas, DIY projects, planning and interviews.

The Pursuit of Etsyness
This is a collaborative blog with guest blogger sharing ideas, tips, and tutorials. You can get information on sales, marketing, social media, photo's, tax info, treasuries, and more, all for your Etsy shop.

Handmade News
This is the largest handmade co-op super blog for the handmade market. Their are daily posts offering business tips, trend info, inspiration, marketing ideas, as well as craft techniques and crafts for kids.

Last year I did a list of 10 business blog for your online business, here are a few that are still up to date and full of helpful information.
Blogging Tips
Startup Nation
5000+ Resources to Do Just about Anything Online (worth checking out)

This is just the tip of the iceberg for online business resources. As I find new sites I will share them with you. Their is always something to learn.

If you know any sites or have a site that has business information for our online shops please share it in the comments.

This new site went up yesterday, and will make it easy to find handmade shopping sites, blogs, Facebook pages and groups, Twitter, and more.

It's a one stop site directory for handmade links. If your and artist it's an easy process to add your information.

Stop by check it out and make a connection.