Blind Spots.

I've been thinking a lot about my business situation lately, and I think I need some advice... Being semi-self employed and freelancing instead of having a usual 9-5 job has a lot of rewards, a bit of peril, and a definite learning curve. Even though I've kept this blog up for 6 years, and my etsy shop for 5, I feel like I still have a lot to learn. This has always just been a fun little side job, an outlet for my creativity really, but now it needs to be something more substantial. Having more time to focus on it now, I have seen it grow so quickly in a short period of time that I know I can make it into exactly what I need if I get over a couple key personal hurdles.

My biggest "blind spot", if you will, is in the realm of advertising. I'm a pretty shy person by nature really, and I've always just left it to etsy to advertise my shop, and blogger to get people to my blog. I've never been the kind of person to try very hard to stand out, and I need to change that behavior when it comes to my business. But really, I have no idea where to start, so I was hoping you all might have some advice to share, or some help to lend. I'm going to start small... Very, very small, and work my way up. First of all, I now have a mailing list! Check out the sidebar for the sign-up form. I'll be using it to send info on new projects, upcoming shows, and coupons, and I know myself well enough to know that I won't be sending out too many newsletters so don't worry about me spamming you to death! Anywho... Now you must all know by now that I am a huge dork, so this is the first piece of advertising I have come up with:

Okay, you can stop laughing now. Yes, this is one of those posters with the tear-off strips. I designed this a couple weeks ago when my new printer arrived, and just printed and cut 2 of them. (Mine say "Designed and crafted right here in Oakland" because I'm intending to hang them around town.) See what I mean about starting small? I've also got some new business cards printed up:

And these little guys are coupons for returning customers that I'm putting in my packages. They've got a thank you note and a code on the back in the same style as my cards:

(I used moo for the printing, www.moo.com.)

I've looked at buying some ad space on other websites, but I have such a limited budget right now that they all seem a little too pricey. So I was wondering if any of you lovely readers would be interested in trading some ad space? I have quite a good readership these days and it keeps growing (for the stats see the new "Advertise" tab at the top of the page), and if you have a site with comparable stats I'd love to do a straight-up even trade. In case you haven't noticed, I've cleaned up the sidebar to make room for some new sponsors, and moved the How-To's and Recipes links to the tabs at the top, and I've also added a couple new tabs. I'd love any feedback or advice you guys can offer, and please send me an e-mail at ohthecuteness@hotmail.com if you're interested in teaming up for advertising! And heck, if you wanted to print that flyer up there and hang one on your community bulletin board, send me a pic and I'll send you a coupon for the shop! Just click on the image for the larger version.

I also recently learned about this little doodad on Amazon... Apparently you can become an "associate" and basically build you own mini amazon shop, stocked with all the stuff you love. And when you refer people to an item in your shop, you get a little commission when they buy it. I think it's pretty cool, and since I'm always posting links to books and other stuff I blog about, I figured why not? So now when I link to a book it will still take you to Amazon, but it will be in my own little bookstore and if you buy it from there you'll be supporting my business! You can also check out the entire little shop under the link at the top called "My Bookstore". Hope you like my selection! ^_^