Christine AbelaWeb site designer. Quilter.

Don’t you love the craft markets? Where all those talented people get together and show you the clever and beautiful things they have made, just for you?

Dianne Fluke is a quilt maker who also makes some wonderful gifts, which she sells at the Newcastle Farmer’s Market in NSW, Australia. But since I built her a new web site, you too can enjoy visiting her!

Dianne has a license from Alicia Beverley to make the wonderful My Place (R) 3 in 1 nappy bags. These are a great idea if you have a baby, or as a gift for a friend with a baby, because they act as a nappy bag, a sleeping bag and a play mat all in one.

She also has crayon rolls (with crayons!) which are a great gift for the slightly older child, and shopping bags for, well, everyone! Not to mention the crayon belts, embroidered washers, and… well just go and see! http://www.djsquiltsandmore.com

Make sure you join Dianne’s mailing list while you are there, so she can let you know about new products.

Adele Ritchie is a maker of beautiful bridal veils, in NSW Australia.

Each wedding veil is specially made for each individual bride, to suit their specifications for their big day.

I have built a new web site for Adele (who is also a quilter, so you KNOW she is a nice person – grin), at http://www.veilsbyadele.com .

There was movement at the craft shop, for the word had passed around
That the shop had something new that very day.
It had joined the modern era — on Google it could be found,
So the locals came to see, and buy, and stay.

It was not the only craft shop in that happy little town
But it really could be quite a job to find.
So it missed a lot of traffic that usually went down
To the big shiny chain store – you know the kind.

It was a simple little web site, not too flashy, not too slick,
That Christine had built for Susan’s shop.
But it told people how to find her, it really did the trick
And that first day, the phone just didn’t stop.

They came to buy the ribbons, they came for the stamps,
The fabric and the paper on the racks.
And the travelers with their smart phones, using Google Maps
Really liked the cute little packs.

Susan’s fingers they were flying on the till all through the day.
She had to call in help from sister Anne.
“How did you find me?” she told Anne to say.
“Oh, on Google”, the answer always ran.

That first day was but a trickle, and from there the business grew
And they came to buy from far and from near.
With the video on YouTube and the web site, Susan knew
That this would be a most amazing year.

So if you think you can cope with a busy life like Sue’s
And want to make your craft shop really hum,
Get in touch with Christine – you’ve got nothing to lose
at www.local-business-online.com

—————-

With thanks to A.B. Paterson for his inspiration.  Copyright Christine Abela 2010.

As you have probably worked out by now, I am a web site designer. Most of the sites I build are for craft businesses, and so I have developed an understanding of the needs of this very special group.

The sites I normally build might have a shopping cart or they might not, but they are all able to be updated by the site owner. So the content can be kept fresh and up-to-date.

But there is a large group of people who run craft businesses, particularly the bricks-and-mortar shop owners, who simply don’t want to be bothered with a web site. They don’t want to have all that extra work of loading their products onto the Internet, or checking a site every day to see if they have an order, or mailing things out.

These people are more than happy running their shop, and don’t want the extra stress and work of also running an Internet-based business. But what they really want is to generate more traffic for their store.

There are two groups of people who go into a craft shop – locals and people traveling through the area. So the challenge for the craft shop is to get the message out that “Hey, I’m here!”. One of the best ways to do this is to be able to be found on Google.

Google has been described as the new Yellow Pages. If you type in your craft name followed by your town, does your business appear? This is how people will be searching when they are trying to find you. They will not be searching on your business name, unless your business happens to be a big well-known store.

So what you need is that when someone types into Google your craft name and your town (e.g. “Scrapbooking Liverpool”), your business name and contact details appear in some form on the first page.

But how, I hear you asking, can this happen if I don’t have a web site? Well, I am going to let you in on a little secret. There are a lot of other ways to be found online if you don’t have a web site. And if you do have one, you can still use some of these techniques to get people to come to your site.

Before I go on, I want to slip in a little bit of blatant self-promotion. Because of demand, I have set up a new “arm” of my business to do just this for people. You can see the details at http://www.local-business-online.com . It is still early days, and I am still working with the first few clients, but if you think it would be easier just to pay someone to do all this for you rather than having to do it yourself, that’s what I am offering.

If you have the sort of business where you have a street address, and are happy to have walk-in customers, one of the best ways to get into Google is with Google Maps. Go to http://www.google.com/local and look for a link that says “Put your business on Google Maps”. Here you can find your address on the map and add your details. You will need to provide a valid phone number, because they will contact you to confirm that you are actually the owner of that business (it is an automated thing). With Google Maps, the map appears right at the top of a Google search (depending on your preference settings) and the closest matches appear first. This is a great way to get to the top quickly!

If you are putting in a Google Maps listing, it is a good idea to make sure you fill in as many of the boxes as possible. If you have a video of your business in YouTube, for example, that can be added to your listing. A picture also makes your listing stand out. Fill in your opening hours (this helps travelers a LOT) and any other details you are happy to share. The more detail you give, the more it will help searchers, and the more Google will like your listing and rank it higher.

Speaking of YouTube, don’t forget that YouTube is owned by Google. This means that when you submit your video to YouTube, it is likely to be picked up by Google very quickly, and ranked high. Make sure you use those keywords (your craft name and location) in both the name and the description of the video. And if you have a web site, put the link in the description on YouTube.

There are a lot of other free video-sharing sites on the Internet too. Just do a search and you will find lots. The idea is that you want your details to appear in a LOT of places on the Internet so that when someone searches for you there is a very good chance that at least one of these will appear on the first page. And if you totally dominate that first page of Google, well that’s great for business! It makes you look like you are the only business in town for your craft.

With regards web sites, as I said you don’t really need one if all you want is walk-in traffic. But it does help to have a simple one-page site where you can direct people that is a concise presentation of your contact details and opening hours. A simple site could also include your YouTube video embedded, and maybe a map from Google Maps embedded to help people find their way to you. You can set up a simple web site for free (if you have time/energy!) which, while it won’t look as “professional” as one under your own domain name with all the bells and whistles, will definitely give the person who wants to visit your store exactly what they need to find you.

Another often-overlooked free online promotion tool is the classified ad site. The Big Kahuna is Craig’s List (http://www.craigslist.com) . You can make up a simple advertisement and submit it for free. You will need to renew it every six weeks to keep it current though. If you can put in a picture as well that will help a lot – have a look at one I did recently http://adelaide.craigslist.com.au/art/1877975298.html (if that link doesn’t work please let me know because the link might change when the ad is renewed).

There are lots of free classified advertising sites on the Internet – I found over 50 for Australia alone in a Google search. The ones you need to go for are those that appear on the first page of Google. So if you are selling scrapbooking products in Liverpool, for example, but you do a search on scrapbooking or another craft in Leeds and you find that certain classified ad sites come up on the first page, those are the ones to join.

So, in summary, with a bit of effort you can have lots of places on the Internet that will tell people about your business. Aiming to dominate the local market in the search engines is going to be great for your business!

Of course, if it all sounds like too much work, you know who to turn to (grin).

Christine.

I love working with machine quilters. I haven’t met one yet that wasn’t genuinely hard-working and creative. I certainly would never be brave enough to take a quilt top that someone else had spent many many hours working on, and then have to finish it off for them by quilting it.

This is why I enjoyed working on a web site for Hilary Arnold, a machine quilter in Gippsland, Victoria (Australia). You can find the site we built together at http://www.fairfields.net.au . Her business, Fairfields Creative Quilting, is purely a quilting business, offering customers the choice of having their tops quilted with edge-to-edge continuous designs or custom-quilting solutions, as well as a basting service and quilts made on commission.

Make sure you join Hilary’s newsletter list to be kept up with all the news!

Most of the web sites I build are for craft-related businesses. I love working with crafty people, because they are so artistically talented, and have a great passion for their work. Most of these are people selling tools and materials for others to create their own craft items, but Karen from Studio Crafts by Karen in Bacchus Marsh (Victoria, Australia) sells a huge range of ready-made items. I have built a new web site for her at http://www.studiocrafts.com.au .

From Bears to Quilt Hangers, Karen has a huge range of products that would make great gifts, or a treat for yourself to decorate your own home. She has a pretty range of Gollies (contact her for details, because the range she has in the shop was far too wide to put them all on the site). And lovers of the “primitive” look will particularly enjoy her rusty items and the pip berry products.

If you don’t see anything you like on the site, please join her mailing list so she can keep you up to date with new additions, because she is still busy adding products from her packed-full shop!

And, as a special treat, I have convinced her to have a 10% off opening sale, so everything on the site is reduced for a short time. Enjoy! http://www.studiocrafts.com.au

Mt Macedon is a beautiful part of the world. Hilly, lots of trees, and nearby Gisborne has a wonderful patchwork shop. So I was delighted when Mary Kelly asked me to build for her a pretty but simple web site to show off her products.

Her store, The Drapers of Mt Macedon, is located in Gisborne in the state of Victoria, Australia, and has a huge range of fabrics. But, as her site says, she also has “all types of haberdashery including Zips and Fasteners, Gutermann cotton , Polyester, Quilting cotton, Sulky, Metallic thread, Signature thread, DMC threads, Cottage Garden Threads, Scissors, Quilters Hardware, Batting, Bias Binding, Ric Rac,Wool Blanketing, Wool Felt, Polyester Felt, Buttons, Ribbon, Elastic, Aida Cloth, Linen and list goes on and continually expands……….forgot to mention all of the patterns and books as well……..”.

I hope you enjoy http://www.drapersofmtmacedon.com . While you are there, be sure to join the mailing list so you can be kept up to date with all the new additions to the range. Mary mentioned she has a lot more fabrics coming in August, so it will be worth a visit, either online or in person!

I have become well-known for the craft-related sites I build, so this is something a little different. Commercial Food Equipment is a family-owned business that was started by Stacey Brown’s parents almost exactly forty years ago (actually 40 years and 1 day!).

Stacey is a quilter, so I just knew we would get along – and we had a great time designing her new site. Her business has a huge range of equipment used in large commercial kitchens like those in restaurants and hotels. So she wanted a clean “corporate” look for her site, that would make it easy for her very busy customers to quickly find what they need.

Their motto is “from a teaspoon to a cold room”, and Stacey and her staff (with help from son Tristan) have been very busy loading nearly 800 products – with many more to come! http://www.commercialfoodequipment.com.au

Located in Queensland Australia, CFE does sell to the general public, but I invite you to visit the site to see an example of a professional non-craft site.

I enjoy the challenge of building web sites for Quilting organisations. It can be tricky dealing with a committee, but in the case of The Australian Quilters Association, they appointed one person to be the web site co-ordinator – which made my job a lot easier!

The AQA is the oldest quilting association in Australia, according to the history Susan has written for their new site. But Susan wanted a fresh-looking site, and was very keen on blue. When you visit the site, you will find several pages that will give you current information about the association.

There is also a “hidden” area that is only accessible to members. The membership secretary is able to add the members’ names and email addresses to a database, and then those people can log in using a special password and can see the pages that are for members only.

Perhaps you have, or know of, a group that would like a site that can do that? I would be more than happy to discuss your needs.

But in the meantime, I hope you enjoy http://www.australianquiltersassociation.com/ – the AQA’s new site.

…especially crafters! I have set up a new site so that those of you who have free craft items to offer can show them off.

It is called Free Stuff For Craft, and you can find it at www.FreeStuffForCraft.com

It isn’t quite ready for general public type visitors yet, but it certainly is ready for advertisers. And even advertising here is free!

So come and join us, and spread the word! Launch will be in about a week, so get in quick and get the benefit of all that free publicity.