I just wanted to check in about something else important. I am so very pleased that I get so many emails letting me know what’s going on in the craft and design community. I feel very lucky that people take the time to let me know the good stuff that they are doing. I do, really!
I receive around 20 emails a day informing me about markets and events and other interesting things that are going on. And these emails are about really good things! As you can imagine, if I posted even a few of those daily, my blog would be simply full of them. And that could be good, but it’s not really an events blog, it’s a personal blog, if you know what I mean. Sometimes I do post events, if I know I will have time to go to them. But I don’t want you to get snotty with me if I don’t put your event up on this blog, and I’ve been getting a few terse emails (probably not your email, so fear not!) about that very issue.
Are you sad that I didn’t post your event. Oh, I am sorry, I am! Truly. Just so you know, it’s nothing to do with competing advertisers, competing craft groups or any other commercial concerns! It’s just that I want my blog to be about my family and my life. And it would be very hard to make decisions about which events to mention or advertise. (The ads that I do have go towards funding my Kiva Loans. I thought it would a good way to do something positive with the ‘traffic’ I get on my blog. Any money left over helps fund the other charity work we do at Mike’s. And let’s get serious, we’re talking about $25 a week in advertising revenue!)
We DO have the perfect place for your event listings : Craft City Melbourne. Craft City Melbourne is a site administered by Gemma Jones and myself. It was designed to be a central resource for Melbourne craftiness and for Melbourne crafty people! An online community, if you like! If you send us a blog post in an email (not in a word document : the formatting will weird Blogger out) and attach some links to web images, I will happily post your craft/art event over there. Please add Craft City to your reader so you can stay abreast of what’s happening.
Craft City is also a place to write your mini review of your favourite crafty spots. It’s a place to find out where to buy crafty supplies. And it’s a place to find out about interesting people. It’s a submission based site, but we rarely get submissions, so maybe that sounds like you?! Submit away! We would love to hear your tips and thoughts. We would love to publicize your event! We would love to read your opinion piece or profile! It’s also a great resource for people who visit Melbourne, don’t you think?!
Another place to post your event is on the Mike’s forum. You need to join to post, but it’s free. Why don’t you do that too?!
Also : Facebook invites! Have you sent us one? Thank you! Did you know we receive around 40 Facebook invites day. If you want to invite us to something ace you are doing, send us a personal email or a real invitation, because we are finding it so hard to keep up with our Facebook mail! We currently have 377 items in our Facebook inbox – mostly invites, I think! Because it’s just Cam and me, juggling the shop, kids, book and other things, Facebook is one of the things that is on the backburner most of the time. Please don’t think it’s you! It’s not you! It’s just that combined with 100s of personal and business emails each we receive each day, we physically don’t get to Facebook. But we like you! We do!
We are just a tiny family business, and we try really hard to promote as many things as we can, we really do! We try to link around as much as possible – and we are constantly providing people with information when they come into the shop. We try to add links to our blog list every day, so that people can visit as many wonderful crafty blogs as possible from our site. I send emails every single day back to people who want advice on how to iron on an embroidery transfer, or what to study, or where to go in Melbourne, or how to get a publishing deal. We spend A LOT OF TIME on this. It’s really important to us. I am sure that you know that! We want everyone to get into craft and see how great it is!
xx Pip
PS :: Do you have some good ideas about how people can promote their events? Add them in the comments, why don’t you?
PPS :: If someone would like to set up a collaborative Google Calendar, in which people can enter their events, I would love to link to it on this site, as well as Brown Owls, Craft City and The Forum!