5 of My Personal Crochet Goals for 2014

I don't normally make new years resolutions. Which is kinda sad but it don't like to make goals I know I can't keep but I've realized if I don't make goals I won't grow as a person or business! The world of Crochet is large and even with my experience there is so much more to learn! Here are a few things I'd like to accomplish this year.

1. Learn a new crochet technic!

 Last year I wanted to learn Bavarian Crochet & Broom Stick Lace. I learned the basics of both but I don't have a project to show for them yet. My Bavarian Crochet Blanket is still in process. When I learned Broom Stick Lace is was just by chance. I had joined a mystery crochet along but I never finished. I just got to busy with other things. 

What I want to accomplish this year is to learn and finish a project in Tunisian crochet. 

2. Write more patterns!  

I have a million ideas in my notebook. I want to try to stay original and unique. 

Which can be hard in a growing work of crochet artists. 

3. I'd like to try to get a pattern published 

in a popular crochet magazine or with a popular yarn company. 

I've been doing some investigating and I'm excited about the possibilities. 

I was beyond thrilled when I had a pattern accepted with my freelance work for Hobby Lobby (Holy Cowl) and it's always fun to do the Crochet a Day Calendar each year but I want to take that next step as a designer. 

4. Blog more! 

If you haven't noticed I've been blogging almost daily. I'm doing a really awesome crochet blogging challenge to start 2014 off on the right foot and I've learned so much! I won't likely blog everyday after January but I want to try to do it at least 2-3 days a week! 

More tutorials, patterns and crochet tips to come!!! 

5. Donations, Charity and Prayer.

I've worked on donating some hats each year to preemies organizations and I'd really like to check into doing it more local in our area hospitals. I have a lot of little skeins of yarn that can be quickly make into darling little hats. I'd like to set a goal to make a certain amount each month. I bet I could do over 100 - 200 this year. Thats just about 2-4 a week. 

Someone recently mentioned in my facebook group of praying for little ones while they make special blankets. I'm a Christian and I do believe in the power of prayer! I think that during these special hat making times it would be a great time to pray for the special little babies and families that would receive these hats! I just think of all the mindless tv I watch while I crochet and I think this could be a better use of some of that time. Thinking of others! I'm going to write more on this soon! 

So do you have any Crochet Goals for 2014?

Holy Social Networking Batman!

This has been an amazingly crazy week! I'm obsessed with checking my google analytics for my shops and blogs. I love to see where people are coming from and it's a good way to see what people are blogging or talking about in my shop!

I recently have noticed that my views in etsy had significantly rose from some very interesting sources that have talked about my shop and our products!

Usually my top sources come from Facebook, my Blog and Pinterest!

I thought I'd share a few! Some are really good! Some are unique and Some just really annoy me!

1. DailyMail - UK Based Online Newspaper - Featured my Batman and Robin Cape Sets
2. Buzz Feed- Featured my Batman and Robin Cape Sets
3.The Mary Sue - The Guid to Girl Geek Culture - Batman and Robin Cape Sets
4. Slash Film Blogging the Reel World -  Featuring Batman Cape Sets
5. Poorly Dressed - Featuring the Turtle cape (while the name is deceiving it wasn't a mean article)

That's just to name a few that I had high volume hits from! Social networking is amazing!

Here are my thoughts on it! I really love the free advertisement but I guess if I was going to share someones work or ideas I would credit them. I think that people don't realize there are copywrites on most of the images I use. (while some of these do give me credit in name I don't understand why no links)

If your going to share someones work. Here are a few things I think are very important:

1. Ask them if it's okay! - Send them an email, ask a few questions, get the facts straight before you publish and article!
2. Make sure you have permission to use images. Most the time if it's for advertising me I would say of course as long as I and the photographer get credit.

     a. it's never okay to remove watermarks!
     b. it's never okay to alter the image in any way!
     c. Its never okay just to use someones else's photos - Don't copy, save or use! - You must get permission from the photographer, I and  maybe even the parent! Believe it or not some parents don't want there babies image plastered all over the internet. (while they probably task the risk and is why photographers should have parents sign a release to the photographer do they know how it could be used)

3. Let them know when your going to publish the article or blog!
 
I would like to know because -

 a. I got tons a hits over the course of two days. This resulted in awesome sales( way above normal). Not that that will happen every time but since one was a popular newspaper article in the UK things got totally crazy with my pattern listings. I would have made sure there were extra causing less hassle for the customer and for me. Also it being international I got a tons of sale over night so again knowing when it was I could have better prepared.
 
b.  It would have prevented lots of convos and emails about how to find the items that were shared.
(my guess is that they googled and found me that way since many didn't link to any of my websites. So people didn't now where they could buy my patterns or items!

So I hope the people that published these aren't offended but I think that some of you could use a little internet etiquette!

*side note back to Pinterest! While I to am obsessed with it! Please Please Please don't save image and upload them without actually linking to the source. (my turtle image is everywhere I can usually get on Pinterest and it will pop up on the front page often) I wish I had time to go through and paste my links all over it but that would be a little tasking and I don't have time for that.

*I will do my best to protect my photos but I think I could seriously hire someone to find all the images used with out credit and fix the issue. I just don't have time to be the copywrite police!
 I found one person using it as there profile picture on a forum because they just thought it was cute. While I can understand it being cute that isn't your picture to use! (they kindly agreed to take it down) {thanks}

This also reminded me that one of my goals for the next month is to re-watermark all my images. I've not done them all but I'm going to do it so that even my professional images that are already watermarked have my website one them in a way that to me will probably distract from the image but make it hard for someone to remove it and then if it does get taken then at least my web address will be there so people can source it back to me! Hopefully that will also prevent other sellers from using them. Just a reminder to the craft world show your own work! You can easily find a photographer to work with! I've had the privilege to work with some awesome ones and if you can't save for a great camera and work with natural light! I started from scratch too!

A lot of people ask me how I find my photographers and how did you grow so fast and how do you get so many orders. The bottom line is hard hard work! It's taken me two years to get here and I have a lot of people to thank for helping me along the way but the truth is it's really is hard work! I love what I do and I wouldn't change it for anything. I'm always happy to help! I hope you find this article helpful and maybe the next time you blog or share a resource don't for get to give credit where credit is due!!

So the long and short of it! If your going to share or blog about someone, get permission, get the fact straight and give credit where credit is due!

Thanks!

Learning to Monetize?!?

I've slacked off in my blogging the past few weeks but life has been crazy busy in a good way though! I came across a great resource for monetizing my blog. What's Is Monetizing? Well it's making money with ads on your blog :)

I've had my blog for a year and it was never my intention to make money blogging. I'm a terrible writer and I don't want to share the same reviews and coupons as every other "review" blog out there. I just want to talk about family, life and business and share a few fun things along the way.

I've honestly only made $25.00 so far with my blog using bloggers built in feature of Google Adsense. It's really easy to set up. I don't have a huge fan base and like I said I don't want a bunch of flashy advertisements from random Affiliates.

I came across a great resource for those of you looking into other ways to Monetize. I figure the more I use the faster it will add up but we'll see :)

On Simply Stacie's blog she has a whole section dedicated how to Monetize and some great resources. She' tells you how much she's made and received. Check it out here.

I've already signed up with We Use Coupons . I've heard great things about there program and in the short day iv'e had it I've already made a few dollars.

I also signed up for Sponsored Tweets but I don't know if I like it. I don't twitter to much but I don't want people to think I'm spamming either.

I'm hoping to look into more and I'll let you know what I come up with.