Considerations

Paintings

2009-11-12T16:18:00.002Z

A little bit of America in England

2009-11-10T06:41:00.000Z

From Wikipedia, because it is quicker that way:

"The Battle of Boston Harbor was fought on 1 June 1813, between HMS Shannon and the USS Chesapeake. Shannon won the battle, and Chesapeake was captured. During this many men were killed on both sides.
At Boston, Captain James Lawrence took command of Chesapeake 20 May 1813, and on 1 June, put to sea to meet the waiting HMS Shannon, the frigate whose written challenge had just missed Chesapeake's sailing.
During six minutes of firing, two full broadsides were fired. Chesapeake was struck by 362 shots, while Shannon was hit by 258. Chesapeake suffered early in the exchange of broadsides, having its wheel shot away so she lost maneuverability. Lawrence himself was mortally wounded and was carried below. The crew struggled to carry out their captain's last order, "Don't give up the ship!", but were overwhelmed.

The battle lasted thirteen minutes, killing or wounding 252 men. Shannon's Captain Broke was severely injured in fighting on the forecastle. Chesapeake and her crew were taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia where the sailors were imprisoned; the ship was repaired and taken into service by the Royal Navy.
She was sold at Portsmouth, England in 1820 and broken up. Surviving timbers were used to build the nearby Chesap eake Mill in Wickham and can be seen and visited to this day."

The mill.

Wood from the ship is used in the construction.

It now houses a variety of small shops and a tearoom. .

How to start a FaceBook fan page

2009-11-09T08:30:00.000Z

Do you find FaceBook intuitive? For some reason I don't. I am normally pretty good with various Internet sites; usually all one has to do is read everything on a page and try out things by clicking around.
Read & Click gets me by most times.
It feels to me that FaceBook hides things under layers.

Let's look at the profile page.

The profile page can be regarded as somewhat like the introduction of a book.
It shows various bits and bobs of interest down the left side; your personal profile, your friends, photo albums and any applications you use.

There are tabs (circled in orange) just above the box where you write, which also show these items.

The profile page is mostly concerned with the *wall*, an interactive area where you can write about your recent activity, drop a link or make a comment.

Your facebook has other pages. First, is your Home page. This is somewhat like an index of all your friends' latest comments and links all on one page.
You can see your friends' latest comments and can click them to comment, like or share.

Any activity you do on the Home page, like sharing, liking or commenting shows up on your profile page.

Twitterfeed now gives you an option to feed your blog or Esty shop renewals and listings to either the Profile or the Fan page.

News (like promoting your Etsy items) travels fast. It's viral advertising.

Another page you can have is a Fan page.

To start your fan page.

At the bottom of the page, on the left, is a row of icons, (Circled in purple), which is an overview of things you are involved in, applications you have used, pages you have, groups you are in.

Click 'Applications.'

On the pop up list click, 'Ads and pages.'

At the top of the graph are three words, Ads manager, Pages, Help. (Circled in brown) Click Pages.

On the right, there is a button: + Create Page.

Click.

You are now set up to add your fan page.

The fan page is like a chapter in your book. It is described as a page, but can hold so many things it is rather like a chapter.

The fan page has a wall, for you and your fans to exchange information.

There are Tabs above the box you write in: Info (about your shop, groups you join, fan pages you join,) Photo albums for your shop items, an area for Notes and a Discussion section.

You can add gazillions of applications. I did a poll, using Involver.

You can send "updates" all your fans from this page, on the left. This is useful; one click and one message sent to all your fans! Updates arrive in your inbox.

Again, this illustrates what I mean about FB hiding things in layers. It's easy enough to see "Inbox" at the top, and hovering my mouse tells me I can view a message, inbox, or write a new message.
But nothing tells me to look there for Updates, or Notifications!

I hope this was useful.

Please leave a comment; help me update and improve the information here!

The Bluebird of Happiness

2009-11-08T06:50:00.001Z

The Bluebird is surrounded with myths and symbolism. It is said to be a sign of happiness, prosperity, good health and the arrival of Spring in America. The stunning blue of its plumage is associated with the sky and eternal happiness.

Some say the Bluebird is a “man of laughter” and symbolizes happy love.

Another myth tells of the Bluebird fluttering around humans and reporting back to the gods. Perhaps the phrase “a little bird told me,” developed from this myth.

I painted my own Bluebird and had the image professionally printed as a Greetings Card and as a Postcard.

Who could you send some Bluebird happiness to?

Click picture for details of the art postcard.

I must go down to the sea again...

2009-11-07T07:05:00.000Z

Click the photo for further details.

I love the shapes water makes.

How to set up Google Analytics for your Etsy shop

2009-11-06T10:06:00.000Z

Six easy stages, and one is merely clicking to the next page!

1. Go to http://google.com/analytics and sign up for an account.
2. Click on Add a Profile for a new domain. Enter your Etsy address in the URL box. Set your location, time and hit Finish.
3. The next page is not needed so scroll to the end of it and hit finish.
4. On the next page you will see a gray table with your website URL. Next to the URL is a tracking code in this format: 'UA-1234567-8' Copy the code; it is your unique code.
5. Go here http://www.etsy.com/shop_analytics.php and paste the code in the designated area. Save changes.
6. You have finished setting up Google Analytics.
There will be a yellow symbol with an exclamation mark on it under the status column in the Overview page in Google Analytics. When it turns to a green tick you can start viewing your stats. It can take up to 24 hours for the stats counter to update.

From The Storque: "Think of Google Analytics as the pulse of your shop, with the pulse equating to the number of visitors viewing your items. A higher pulse rate means more visitors, and in general more visitors would correlate to more sales for your shop.

Over time your shop will get more or less the same amount of traffic, but what you can do is start to experiment with some basic marketing efforts and use Google Analytics as the yardstick to measure success. Marketing efforts could mean, for instance, using a better set of Etsy tags to describe your item, creating a blog, actively using services such as Twitter or Facebook, or even buying some online advertising. The key question to answer is — which marketing efforts pay off for me? By looking at Google Analytics, it can provide historical data and trending that show you how your marketing efforts drove traffic to your Etsy shop."

If you have found this useful, please leave a comment. If there is something I've missed or not explained clearly, please leave a comment.

My Etsy shops are here and here.

AfricanSand's wonderful idea

2009-11-05T07:00:00.001Z

This pendant is a collaboration between Angela of www.Africansand.etsy.com and me. I am awed by her skill and excited at the creativity!

I took the photo of the flower, and the painting was an ACEO.
Angela printed the pictures, and made them into a wonderful, wearable pendant!

Click the photo for more information.

Let me know what you think!

One of the best photos of me...surely?

2009-11-04T18:07:00.003Z

Taken at around 4 in the early morning, this has to rank as one of the best photos of me, ever.

My third cold and chest infection in 5 months. I feel LOUSY.

140 Hours of Fame!

2009-11-03T08:35:00.002Z

140 Hours of Fame is the world's first online art auction using twitter to enable bidders to purchase original artworks from an international collection of fine artists, photographers, and sculptors.
The auction begins on 5 November 2009 at 12:01 p.m. EST and is live for 140 hours, through 11 November 2009 at 8:01 a.m. EST.

The rules of the auction are simple:

On Twitter, follow the account "@140hours"
Look through the artworks on this site and decide which work(s) you wish to bid on
Send a Direct Message (DM) to @140hours which includes Item #, Bid Amount in $USD, Name, Phone # & email. Example: Item 063, $960, J. Jones, 415.565.5555, jj@home.com
Pay close attention to the auction results, if you get outbid, increase your bid!
When the auction ends, the highest bidder wins

I have this acrylic painting in it!

Reviews via Link Referral

2009-11-01T14:10:00.003Z

Lovely cards & very unique - haven't seen any like them before! http://azurerocket.com

Very impressive set of images for cards and related purposes ... i like the drawing or paintings, art work on this site and feels that it is unique and soft ... page load is good and navigation is good too ... .http://www.leiron.be

Linda's site is colorful, exciting and easy to navigate. Beautiful photos of her hand-crafted cards showcasing original work, art photos, crafts, flowers and a number of other subjects from this retired teacher turned artist. As a retired professional turned artist, I understand the joy that comes from doing what you love. Linda's joy is apparent in her vibrant designs. Best wishes for a succesful artistic career..http://www.bellerustique.com

A terrific shop with items made by a talented artist. I like the beautiful art greeting cards. Images and information were clear and the site was easy to navigate. Excellent work..byarlenebabad.etsy.com

My first thought on entering your Etsy shop, was "peaceful". I like that you offer so many different forms of your art from art cards, to note cards, to mousepads. Your shop policies are clear and complete and your writing throughout is warm and interesting. My only problem is that it would be difficult to choose which item to get, as I like them ALL!.http://www.WellspringCreations.etsy.com

Lovely cards. Really nice subject variety, and lovely pictures of the cards. I really like the glass magnets, it looks like they are a nice size. The Christmas Cards are lovely!. http://www.audreyscountrycrafts.etsy.com

The cards you make are very beautiful. Perfect for many occasions.
http://www.bigcrumbs.com

Art Greetings Cards - Crafted Greetings Cards - Photo Greetings Cards - Christmas Cards - Cards with a gift - Glass Art Magnets - Note Cards - Packs of Cards - Postcards - Mouse mats - and a lot more go see - Health, Happiness, Peace, and Positive Perspective - IMHO >> In My Humble Opinion - The MUSEUM, Zazzle. http://www.zazzle.com/the_museum*

Steve as a waterproof penguin!

2009-10-31T17:10:00.001Z

2009 October - Steve
Originally uploaded by lindabutterfly

Steve bought this waterproof outfit with money given him by his colleagues when he left his job recently.

Great idea! Cards with a gift

2009-10-30T16:40:00.005Z

How about these for a great idea?
Click cards for further details.

Cards with a gift.
Card with earrings, card with crochet ring, card with handmade bracelet, card with magnet. There is also a card with a pin, and cards with hair accessories.

Baby dove

2009-10-29T14:01:00.002Z

2009 June 11th Baby dove (2)
Originally uploaded by lindabutterfly

This professionally printed greetings card is of a 14 day old baby dove. I had seen him grow from egg, through scrawny baby, to a teenager ready to fly.

The next day he left the nest.

Click the picture to see how you can own this as a greetings card

Autumn Wreath

2009-10-28T12:52:00.002Z

I bought the "blackberries." The acorns, teasels and other seeds were collected on a recent walk. I had cinnamon sticks in house.

Poppy Field

2009-10-26T07:35:00.001Z

Click the picture for details.

To see this acrylic painting as a greetings card, click HERE.

Books

2009-10-25T06:38:00.002Z

My son is an academic; a philosopher, a published author, an assistant professor working for a Norwegian University, a charity worker, an apologist, a leader of conferences for 16 - 17 yr olds in schools and colleges, at the chalk face, not an academic in an ivory tower.
He travels all over England and Wales taking conferences, making videos, writing study guides for teachers and students, teaching people skills of thinking for themselves. He also writes papers, many of which are published in peer reviewed journals.

He is now teaching Norwegian students from Gimmelekollen. They visit London, England as part of their course of Communication and Worldviews.

He flies over to Norway now and then as he is helping to set up a Masters degree. Here he is in Norway with Lars from Gimmelekollen on the left, then Peter, then Lars' wife:

Greetings Card - Frister Rossman sewing machine

2009-10-23T07:02:00.003+01:00

Frister Rossman sewing machine
Uploaded by lindabutterfly
Click the card for further details.

I came upon this wonderful machine in an antique shop. It was almost exactly the same as the one I had made all my son's clothes on and not a few of mine, in the 1970's.

Mine had a small motor added which I worked with a foot pedal.

Frister & Rossmann was established in 1864 near Berlin. The firm became Germany's largest sewing machine manufacturer.
The Company started exporting sewing machines to England in 1870 and they were sold by leading Drapers and Stores, like Harrods.
My machine was an old hand turned one, but had been modernized by the addition of a small motor, which I controlled with a foot pedal.
I made most of my son's clothes for the first decade of his life with it, I made all my curtains, dresses and skirts. I can feel the large wheel under my right hand as I tempered the speed. I can feel the cold, beautiful metal and see the delicate floral inlays.

I wish I had kept it, for the beauty of it more than anything else.

This is now a Greetings card!

2009-10-22T08:49:00.002+01:00

Click photo to see details of the card in my Etsy shop

A professionally printed greetings card showing my photo of the 1762 Trevi Fountain, taken one very hot evening in Rome.
This greetings card is 4x6" and blank.

Neptune, god of the sea, is riding a chariot in the shape of a shell, pulled by two sea horses. Each sea horse is guided by a Triton. One of the horses is calm and obedient, the other one restive. They symbolize the fluctuating moods of the sea.

I was so hot I wanted to jump into the fountain but hundreds of tourists and many Italian police made me decide to behave!

The card is protected in a cello sleeve.

Taking card photos

2009-10-21T11:55:00.001+01:00

2009 October - Taking card photos
Originally uploaded by lindabutterfly

Next year, in the Spring, our front door and the utility cupboards will be painted white.
That will be better for my photo taking!

How to understand and use SEO. 3. Shop title

2009-10-20T11:06:00.002+01:00

We will now focus on the shop front page (announcement) and the shop title, the small line under the banner.
Make sure to optimize the first 30 characters of your Shop Title. Those will show up in the title tag on a search engine. By 'optimize' I mean add your keywords, and write it concisely.

The Title tag format is “ by on Etsy ” So your shop title is turned into a title tag by the search engine.

Put your keywords closer to the beginning of the title to help the Spider get you higher in search engine rankings. That's when more users will click through to your site.

Focus on the unique value of your shop.

From the Etsy guide:

Example of a Good Shop Title

“Homemade Soap: Lavender, Oatmeal & more”
Title tag becomes: “Homemade Soap: Lavender, Oatmeal & more by myusername on Etsy ” (61 characters)
This gives you the most bang for the buck, by putting the relevant keywords “Handmade Soap” + “Lavender” and “Oatmeal” right up front. If a user searches for “oatmeal handmade soap” for example, this will be a clear indicator that this page is exactly what they’re looking for.

Example of a Poor Shop Title

“Betsy Lou’s Shop in Denver, CO”
Title tag becomes: “Betsy Lou’s Shop in Denver, CO by myusername on Etsy” (52 characters)
This doesn’t tell a user what the shop or page is about at all. Searchers will have no idea that your page has exactly what they want to purchase. Your page won’t show up in results for keywords specific to your shop and items.

Virginia Creeper

2009-10-18T17:37:00.002+01:00

The school I went to when I was 4 was covered with this plant.

I remember looking up at it, just as I have done in this photo, thinking the wonderful colors were jewels!

I picked up the reddest leaves I could find and stuffed them in my pockets.
I still feel these gorgeous colors are jewel- like.

How understand and use SEO. 2. H1 Tags (Item titles) and Meta Descriptions

2009-10-17T08:35:00.004+01:00

The title we give our item is called the H1 tag, in SEO speak. The H1 tag is designed to tell you what the page's topic is.

Most of what is included in search engines is put there by a computer, known as a "robot", "spider", or "crawler". These are computers that use what you tell them to build a database of relevant information to hand out to the people using the search tool.
So, we are into feeding spiders the right food!

The H1 tag should not be long. The format is by on Etsy, meaning the spider will make your words into a certain length.

If there are more than 54 characters but less than 62, "on Etsy" will be removed.
If there are more than 62 characters, "on Etsy" will be removed and the will be cut short, to the end of the last complete word up to 42 characters.

Basically, be short and snappy.

Using some of Etsy's SEO guide:

Example of a Good H1 Title

Oatmeal Bar Soap – Handmade with Vanilla

The spider makes this into: Oatmeal Bar Soap – Handmade with Vanilla by myusername on Etsy” (62 characters)
This title has the important keywords first, which will allow users to find it more easily. This will help with ranking this page higher for those search terms.

Example of a Bad Item Title

“beautiful , rose colored with the scent of fresh vanilla – soaps all made by hand and using organic oatmeal and vanilla”

Along comes the spider and changes this H1 tag to : beautiful , rose colored with the scent of fresh by myusername (62 characters + “on Etsy” has been removed, and Item Title has been truncated!)

Since having the keywords closest to the beginning of the Title Tag helps with your page’s ranking in the search engines, this title tag would not help for SEO purposes.
This title doesn’t mention the word “soap” at all after the spider got to it! So it would be easily overlooked even if it came up in the search result, because a searcher wouldn’t know the product was specifically “oatmeal bar soap” as with the example above.

Mouse mats in my shop.

2009-10-14T10:11:00.000+01:00

Mouse mats!

These are made using my photos and artwork.

Click any photo to see further details.

Change of mattress

2009-10-13T18:28:00.001+01:00

2009 October - The old mattress is collected by a charity.
Originally uploaded by lindabutterfly

Our 5 year old mattress sank. It was beginning to be uncomfortable. We went to a few shops to try out mattresses, then came home, searched online and got the same firmness for around half the price!

It was easy enough to get the old mattress downstairs, even though our stairs bend round twice.

I contacted a charity who took away the old one. The new one arrived a few hours later.
Getting it upstairs was NOT easy. I was glad we had a nice, firm bed to collapse onto once we did the job!

How to understand and use SEO. Keywords.

2009-10-12T19:18:00.004+01:00

Why is SEO important for us?
We can increase the amount of visitors to our shop sites, by doing things to make sure we rank high in the search results of a search engine.

When you use Google, do you use results on page 1, or do you go back and back to page 7, 8, 9 and 10?

Internet users mostly look at the first page of results. So you want your shop to come up on the first page! Simple! To do that, first you have to discover the right keywords for your shop’s pages.

Using online tools, you can identify and prioritize keywords that potential customers type into search engines when searching for your items.

Discover what word/s people are most using to search with. You need to provide a relevant, targeted page for someone searching using a given word or phrase.

Here is how to do research for your shop.

Go here:
and enter a word you have used in your description, which you think is an important, key, word.
You can also enter a few words as a phrase.

Fill in the captcha (the funny word) and click. "Get Keyword ideas."
Click on this column: "Global Monthly Search Volume"

You will see the number of searches made using that term.

For example, I used aceo.
I discovered 1,220,000 searches used this term. Hooray, it is a good term to use!
I am glad I didn't use the phrase, "aceo art cards" because only 2,900 searches used that.

Scroll down and you will see a most useful section, "Additional keywords to be considered."
This tells me that 5400 searches also looked for the phrase, "Altered art" and I now see I should now add this keyword to aceos which are altered art.

I have today been adding the word "Painting" to my art, changed the word "graphite" to "Pencil", and added "greetings" to my description of notecards, all by using this tool.