Sunday, August 30, 2009

I'M SO EXCITED!!

I received an email yesterday from a woman who had seen my Google Adwords ad on her blogsite and she said both she and her mom were interested in my cards...yay! You can't imagine how good it feels to hear from someone...ANYONE!!! And she was such a nice woman who gave me a link to both her and her mother's blogs and I could tell that they were exactly my target audience. Thanks for making my day!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

I'M HAVING FUN DESIGNING TODAY!

I decided to take a break from marketing (which is a necessary evil) and get back into designing today, which I haven't actually done in quite awhile. I have had a successful week so far...actually made contact with an art director of a greeting card publishing company who is "going to bat" with her creative director for one of my images...yay! I don't think there's much hope because my images/designs don't really mesh with their greeting card line but who knows?

I alternate between thinking that I have a great vision with so much potential and then thinking "What the heck am I doing?" But right now I'm in the "yes" mode...I KNOW that there's a niche for this type of greeting card and it's simply (ha, ha) a matter of finding the right company that "gets" the vision. O.K...I'm going back to designing now. It's more fun than updating this blog :)

Sunday, August 16, 2009

LAST WEEK WITHIN A 12-HOUR TIME SPAN I RECEIVED...

the worst rejection (where they told me my cards were a "dime a dozen") and the nicest rejection (where they commented on their favorite image, told me it just didn't fit their venue, and gave me suggestions of where to submit my images). All in all, I consider it a somewhat successful week since I actually heard back from two companies :) To put this into perspective, you have to understand that each day I send out out many, many images and haven't heard back from most companies...so to hear anything is a plus!

Next week I am going to get back into designing...just for the fun of it!

Monday, August 10, 2009

MARKETING, MARKETING, MARKETING...

Yes...that's what I have been doing for the past week. I have been walking into local stores, giving away free greeting cards, submitting photos to greeting card publishers, mailing sample cards to gift stores, various boutiques, tried selling them on Ebay (bad idea), etc., etc., etc. I am still debating whether to try selling them on Amazon but I think if I do that I will have to create a package of 10 cards because who in their right mind would pay $3.50 for a greeting card plus taxes and shipping that would total around $8??? Enlighten me here if I'm missing something :)

Last week I was rejected by two companies and one informed me that they still hadn't made a decision. That's O.K...I've decided the worst weeks are the ones when you don't hear anything from anyone. It makes you wonder if they received them or not. I think I might have ticked off one company because I think I flooded their inbox with too many submissions. If I did, I apologize!!!

Now that I have Facebook I think I have to start figuring out the best way to use it. I think you have to keep everyone up to date on what you're doing...so, once again, to my friends I apologize if you get random things on your page!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

THANKS TO K, I'M NOW ON FACEBOOK...

and not quite sure what to do with it. I invited a couple of people to be my friends but then I asked them to email me instead of posting on Facebook...which might be kind of defeating the purpose of the whole thing :) I guess I'm supposed to join some groups that relate to what I'm marketing so that's what I'll do next time I get on. It was enough for one day to just set up the page and links, videos, etc.

I signed my first contract yesterday licensing my very first image for a greeting card. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. I had them put my dad's name on the back of the card for photography credit since he's the one that took the picture. The company sells to 14,000 retail stores across the U.S. and Canada so, who knows, maybe they will be able to sell a few--they DEFINITELY have a better chance than I do since they've been in business about 20 years. I get 12 free cards when they're done so I think I will mail them to my mom and brothers and sister even though it's going to be a Happy Birthday Mom card :)

Starting tomorrow I'm back at sending out more images and designing and still procrastinating on Tweeting.