Gain Twitter followers, free

So as most people, businesses, and organizations know from being online and on Twitter and other social media sites, the more followers you have, the more you will get noticed.  By tweeting, and posting, etc., to the masses there is always the possibility that one can really get some great name recognition and sales.

One way to get more Twitter followers, (I have written about other ways to gain more followers in the past  here,) is to actually buy follows.  I have never done that so I can't share any personal experiences with you.

Recently I came across a great site!  It deals in a commodity called "seeds".  And since they use the term "seeds" money can be involved, since they are not calling these, followers.  Anyway, I signed up for the site after reading some one's review that seemed, even to me,  quite enticing.

You can join this site AND you can actually gain Twitter followers without paying money.  It helps if you have a few followers already.  Yet, I'm thinking you can start out without many followers at all, it will just be slower for you, in the beginning.  On the second day that I was on the site,  I truthfully added about 1000 new followers!  That is amazing, even for me!  I started out with about 66,000 followers so I can follow a lot of new followers before reaching my follow limit.  Yet, I have never been able to gain as many followers in one day as since I joined the site.

Remember, when you join,  to give out 3 seeds to new followers.  It seems as though more people will see and then follow you if you have more than 1 seed to offer.  Then put yourself in interest categories that have a lot of followers.  Refresh your page so that you can find the accounts that are offering more than 1 seed to new followers and check (and refresh) the page occasionally to see if there are new accounts offering multiple seeds to follow them.

Lastly, they give you 25 seeds if you refer new Twitter's to join the page.  You will find that link under the Seeds tab on the main page, and then click on the referral link on the page and it will bring to to your own  link that you can cut and paste like I did.  I wouldn't have written about this site except for the fact that it really does work.

Follow this link HERE to get more Twitter followers!

How to set up an Etsy shop, Part 2

Shop Profile
Public Profile
Shop Settings
Shop Title
Info & Appearance
Banner and Avatar
Facebook, Twitter
Shop Announcement
Shop Policies
Change Shop Name
Shop Languages

Once you are registered as an Etsy user, you can begin to list, market, and sell your goods online!

You will want to write up a shop profile for your customers and all shop viewers.  It seems as though a lot of buyers like to know that they are purchasing their merchandise from someone with a profile.  It gives viewers the sense that you are really operating a legitimate shop.  It doesn't have to be especially long, but it should include information as to what you make and/or sell on Etsy.

To find the shop profile section; first sign on to your shop's page, then on the top right side of the page you will see a few links, next you will need to click on the link Your Account.  From there you will find, on the left side of your page the link Public Profile.  Once you click on the link you will be able to add your profile (in the "about section"), your profile picture (your shop's avatar), and other information.

Next you will want to go back to your shop's home page, and once again on the top right hand side of the page click on the link that says "Your Shop: *********".   Once you click on that link, look on the left hand side of your page and look for the section called Shop Settings.  Click on the link,  Info & Appearance.  In the section that says Shop Title, you will want to write a very short description of what you sell in your shop.  This little section is very important since it will show up in google search results!

You will see that on this page you will be able to add your shop's banner.  For those who don't know what a shop banner is...  click on the link to our Harrach Glass Etsy shop here and you will see our banner (as shown below) at the top of our page.

On the page How to set up an Etsy shop, Part I, we have included the size and other information showing how to create your own shop banner and avatar information.

You will also be able to link your Etsy shop to Facebook and Twitter on this same page.  This is an excellent way to get people to look at your shop, especially if you have a Facebook fan page.  We feel that having your shop linked to at least one of these social networks will bring in a lot more shop views thus, possibilities of more sales!

The shop announcement section is used to give your customers added information like sales and misc, yet important info.  This section will also show up in google search results.

On the top of the page you will see a tab link to Sections.  We use our shop sections feature to break down our shop into categories.  We sell jewelry, glass art, various supplies in our shop so we have created various sections to allow customers to find our merchandise easier.  We'll get more into sections later.

Next to Sections, you will find the link to Shop Policies.  It is advised to have a written payment policy and return policy.

The Change Shop Name allows you to change your shop's name although we advise our readers to stick to their original name due to name recognition.

Last there is the Shop Languages section which will allow your shop to be conducted in more than one language.  It is an excellent way for bi lingual shop owners to get a lot more shop exposure!

Advertising ideas

There are so many ways to advertise your business.  On the internet you can advertise through Twitter, Facebook, your own webpage, a blog, Myspace, Craigslist and a lot of other sites.  Link these internet sites together so that there are multiple ways to find you on the web.

You can make your own free QR (quick response) code which you can print out and place on your cars, in your store windows, on business cards, in advertising, even on kiosks (if you live in a city that has kiosks in public areas). These codes are just beginning to become popular in the USA but have been around and used for awhile in Japan and through-out the United Kingdom.  With your QR code you can write what ever you want to get your store noticed.  We included our blog, Facebook page, Etsy page etc. on our QR code below.  Keep in mind that only android and iPhones can read these codes.  We used http://www.qurify.com/en/ to make ours'.  To be able to read the code, download a free bar code scanner app for your phone.  Click on the bar code scanner app, hold your phone's camera towards the QR and your phone will be able to read it.

Newspaper advertisements are still viable forms of advertising.  These ads can get quite expense, depending on color or b & w, day of the week, and columns used.  Some newspapers offer sales on ads which can be excellent for anyone on a tight budget.  It is good to know the amount of readership for the paper you intend to advertise in.  Circulation numbers are very important to advertising.  Don't spend a lot of money on an add that won't be seen!  You will notice that once your store is up and running, you will probably get newspaper salesmen (along with other salesmen) stopping by your shop trying to get you to buy advertising.  Actually, sometimes you can get a good deal, for example; when a holiday is approaching, you can join in on a group ad that features many businesses in your own local area.  HINT: It is advised to put a highly visible "no soliciting" sign visible on the door of your store.  

Magazine and other periodical advertisements can work well for certain businesses, too.  A stained glass store (or other like businesses) ad could fit quite well in a local magazine where real estate and/or local artists are featured.  You will find smaller magazines that feature your city, or a nearby tourist destination work quite well.  

Last, but not least, don't forget to get your business in the yellow pages!  

You must advertise your store to get it noticed and getting new customers in the door.  With the internet you can advertise for free!

Feature Your Artsy Blog on our Blog

So I was sitting here at the computer this morning thinking about what we wanted to post about today.  And suddenly I thought, hey, why don't we give other bloggers a chance to be featured on our blog!  So that's what we are going to do!  Any interested bloggers can either send us an email at HarrachGlass@gmail.com or post a comment below with their blog address.  We'll check out your blog, and if it's good and artsy,  we'll post it to our blog, it's as simple as that.

We are looking for blogs that are about art, Etsy sellers, basically any internet artist.  We are also interested in sharing blogs about internet tools and tricks for twitter, Facebook and webpage development since we all need some help sometimes when it comes to HTML tags etc.  And, any art glass supply distributors, retailers, or manufacturers are always more than welcome!

Gaining Twitter followers, my personal strategy

Are you wondering how to add more Twitter followers?  Does it seem a mystery as to how some people have a huge number of followers, and you don't?  If you are wondering how to do this, I have some sort of simple ideas.

First of all, famous people don't really have to work hard to gain followers, if you haven't noticed.  The more that a person is famous, the more followers they probably have.  I personally don't think you should follow famous people at all, at least not to begin with!  Instead I do like to go to an account that has a LOT of followers and then I follow some of their followers.  Don't bother following a famous person's account, (someone with a lot of followers), if they are only following a few people.  Now if that famous person is following back a lot of people, then by all means follow that famous person.  And follow the people that that famous person is following, plus you should also follow the people that are following that famous person.

Also, I once maintained my own lists but I quit doing that after awhile.  

When I first started using Twitter, I liked to use the webpage twitaholic http://twitaholic.com/, to gain followers.  I would go to that site and look for the people that not only had a lot of followers but were also following a lot of people too.  Those seemed to be the best to follow.  You have the best chances of getting them to follow you back.  And some of their followers will follow you.

Finally I would go to those Twitter accounts who had both a lot of followers and also following a lot of people (I'd find them on twitaholic) and I would follow their followers.  I would try to check my Twitter account daily to keep up with all of this!  I would unfollow any people that I followed,  who didn't follow me back.  Just be careful not to unfollow too many people or you can possibly get suspended.  To unfollow people that didn't follow me back, I would use ManageFlitter http://www.manageflitter.com/ it is excellent for unfollowing.  And to unfollow people that followed me at one time, and then for some reason unfollowed me later, I used who.unfollowed.me http://who.unfollowed.me/ also a very excellent Twitter tool.  

For those people who have once followed me and then later unfollowed me, I block them permanently from my Twitter (I find those people by using who.unfollowed.me).  I actually have a little system to that though.  I block those Twitter accounts that have unfollowed me where their page shows that they are followed by more people than they are following.  For others who are following more people than they are actually being followed by, I don't block them, I just unfollow them.

Basically I try to remove all unfollowers to my account,  that way I can follow more people.  Twitter has a limit and you can't follow more people easily unless you clear out the unfollowers.  That is a big secret to gaining more followers.  If you reach your limit of new follows in a 24 hr period,  just wait til the next day and start following again-in the beginning this happened to me a lot.  Just be careful how many people you unfollow since Twitter doesn't like if you unfollow too many people in a 24 hr time period.  And if you do that a lot, you will be suspended.  I can't say this enough.  Also don't tweet spam or links to advertisers, you'll probably eventually get suspended.

Again, you have to gradually build up the number of people that you can follow / unfollow since Twitter has a limit on followers you can follow during a certain time period, usually daily.  As you gain followers, you will be able to follow more people.  So to begin with it is sort of slow going.

So, I hope this helps.  It probably sounds confusing but once you try my strategy, you will discover it works.  Don't bother going to websites that you have to join that offer a way to gain new followers, they don't really work.  Some sites charge you to do this!  You don't need to pay to get new followers, you can do it for free.

I have noticed that I get more followers when I have written something in my profile stating that I follow back, or something about following or followers.  Make sure you have a profile, some people don't like following someone who doesn't have one.  It's good to have some sort of personal avatar - you know, not the basic Twitter default avatar.

P.S.  If all else fails, follow my Twitter account, Harrach glass, http://twitter.com/#!/HarrachGlass and follow my followers!  And don't forget to unfollow the accounts, (with all of those links I gave you above), that don't follow you back.

Advertise your business on Twitter

Artists and anyone else for that matter, it is important for us to get our name and work noticed by as many people as possible.  Ok, that isn't being narcissistic, it is being smart.  The more our art work is seen the more possibilities that our work will get sold.  That is when Twitter comes into this picture.  It is by far one of the best ways to get your name out there in the online and offline art world.  It is free, what more can you ask for!

When you are new to Twitter, there are a few important questions you need to ask yourself when setting up your account.  Mainly, what are you going to write about?  And do you want to use your name, business name or some other name.  It really doesn't matter what name you use, although it does need to represent you in a good light.  In our case, we went with our business name, Harrach Glass.  And we decided to write about our favorite and most knowledgeable subject, glass art.  It really doesn't matter what you tweet about as long as it is interesting and people read your tweets and perhaps follow you because of them.  If you tweet links to pictures, you will be sure to get a lot of looks.  We have discovered that a lot of our followers like to look at our art glass pics we post on our flickr page, which we have also linked to Twitter.

Next we filled out our profile, something that is extremely difficult since you only have limited space on Twitter (we like to change our's occasionally).  We have read that a lot of people on Twitter don't like to follow someone who doesn't have a profile.  Unfortunately, we don't know if that is true.  And one of the most important parts for us is that we linked Twitter to our blog in the section where we can add a link.  You will find that setting when you click on your settings page, top right on your Twitter page, its a drop down menu,  and then by clicking the settings tab.  Once there, the profile tab will be on the top of the page.  Linking another online page is very important since you really can't write much when on Twitter.  We like linking our Twitter account to our blog since with our blog we can link other of our internet web pages conveniently in one spot.

In conclusion, Twitter advertising is a good thing!  Start out slowly and do the basics to begin with.  Come up with a great name, and profile for your account.  Link your Twitter to some other internet site that you have, even Facebook will do.  Don't worry about getting a lot of followers to begin with.  Start out with a good plan, like what you want to tweet about and what market you intend to reach.  Fill in a profile, add an avatar and background if you want to start with one, and you are ready to advertise on the biggest billboard in the world!

Change your Twitter font to get noticed

Go to the links below, click on the font or the wingding you desire, type in your text and the generators will convert the regular Twitter font to your chosen font.  It is really quite easy to do.  Check out my Twitter page, Harrach glass,  to get an idea of how we changed the font for our business name (Harrach) to make a more noticeable and eye catching statement.  Unfortunately, the font generator we used on our twitter name no longer exists. :-(  We did some research and found these generators that have some cool fonts and wingdings.

Try these:

Unicode Text converter

Messletters Weirdmaker