I’ve been on Squidoo since August of 2007, but I haven’t really put much time or thought into it until lately. I have blogged before about some sites, like Flickr, being good for backlinks and SEO, but Squidoo, until now, had not really been a part of my strategy.
Now that I started Bears on Patrol, I took a second look at Squidoo because they raise money for charities with each lens that you create, if you specify in your settings that you would like your earnings to go to charity. I have sent the information to request that Bears on Patrol be listed as one of their charities, and I’m expecting that to be approved within a week.
Since I’m looking at Squidoo again, I’m starting to think about possible new lenses (which are Squidoo’s term for the “posts” or pages that you create). I have already written lenses about Bears on Patrol, my Zazzle gallery, and Blake’s Sublime Designs. I can see writing some more about amateur radio, especially my interest in using the radio to receive NOAA satellite images, and possibly Paint.NET and Inkscape tutorials.
There is definitely some potential there, and I am excited about getting others to specify Bears on Patrol as the beneficiary of their earnings once we are approved.
If you haven’t been to our site in awhile, I encourage you to check it out. We have added several great new products, and we have also given the site a new look.
I’m very happy with the new look, although it took a bit of hacking into the PHP template files to get things working. Let me know what you think!
I thought I would give you a brief glimpse into the fun and exciting world of producing custom products. When I first got started researching dye sublimation (the process used to create my products), I talked to a guy in a professional forum and he told me that a dye sub business was “like printing money”. At the time, I wondered if he was joking or serious. I have since answered the question for myself. Let me introduce you to my latest creation, an 11 oz. black ceramic mug.
This looks like it came out pretty well, right? Wrong! Have a look from another angle.
Yes, the transfer was placed upside down! Aaaaarrrggghh! Printing money, all right! Wonder if I can give this one to Mitch. 
Just kidding, although this goof-up is for sale at a very discounted rate if anyone wants it.
I thought I would give you a brief glimpse into the fun and exciting world of producing custom products. When I first got started researching dye sublimation (the process used to create my products), I talked to a guy in a professional forum and he told me that a dye sub business was “like printing money”. At the time, I wondered if he was joking or serious. I have since answered the question for myself. Let me introduce you to my latest creation, an 11 oz. black ceramic mug.
This looks like it came out pretty well, right? Wrong! Have a look from another angle.
Yes, the transfer was placed upside down! Aaaaarrrggghh! Printing money, all right! Wonder if I can give this one to Mitch. Just kidding, although this goof-up is for sale at a very discounted rate if anyone wants it.
How much are you spending on advertising? Do you think you could be doing better? If you’re like me, you have had advertising campaigns that left you thinking that you got a very low return on investment and not much publicity. When I think of a standard ad campaign, I usually think of the time frame in terms of days, weeks, and maybe months. What would you think about a campaign that would still be running a year from now with no additional investment? Let me introduce you to a truly unique advertising campaign idea.
If you market locally, some of your goals probably include maintaining visibility and establishing yourself as a leader in your community. Here comes the “meat” of my advertising plan. A standard 11 ounce ceramic mug has an area about 8″ x 3″ that can accommodate images and logos. According to my calculations, that would be enough space for up to four small advertising spots.
An 11 ounce mug can fit up to four ads
Your first plan of action would be to find local “mom and pop” restaurants, diners, and coffee shops that would be willing (and happy!) to accept one or two cases of free coffee mugs to use at their tables. Next, find other local businesses to purchase ad space on these mugs. One of my 11 ounce custom mugs is about $14. Fitting four ads on each mug makes each ad cost about $3.50. Make sure to mention to your advertisers and restaurants that these mugs are dishwasher safe and that the image will not crack or peel. That’s $3.50 for permanent advertising on each mug!
Local businesses will appreciate your efforts to boost visibility for everyone involved, and local restaurants will be very happy to be receiving a free supply of mugs. Make sure to notify the local media and submit a press release!
Custom Photo Mugs Website
This relates to my previous post about SEO and backlinks, and it also relates to my business. I recently purchased a new domain, Photo-Mugs.net, which is an e-commerce site selling custom photo mugs. I have already been selling custom mugs from my main site, but I decided to try this as part of two experiments. The first part is to see if a site without an overwhelming number of products does better when it is more narrowly focused. The second part is to see if a more SEO-friendly domain name, Photo-Mugs.net, will do better.
I have also added a plugin that rewrites the URLs for each product to enhance SEO. A URL on the site will now look like this:
http://www.photo-mugs.net/Ceramic-Mugs/c24/p65/Ceramic-Mug-with-Contrast-Rim-and-Handle/product_info.html
As you can see, the URL now has the product name in it, which is more descriptive and hits some of my keywords. I’ll let you know how the experiment is going.
As always, your comments, Diggs, Stumbles, and Tweets are greatly appreciated.
Yes, it’s September, but that time of year will be rolling around sooner than you think. Yes, the time of year when you have to start shopping for relatives and friends who have everything or really obscure tastes. Have no fear! Your solution might be a mouse click and/or a camera click away!
So you have a cousin who likes underwater basket weaving, but that doesn’t seem to be a category in the places where you shop? No problem! Send us a picture of her basket collection or let us help you design a shirt proclaiming her love of the great hobby. Our apparel and jewelry section has plenty to offer.
What about your friends who want every decorative item in their home to match? They’ll love a keepsake box with a design matching their curtains or upholstery, or one of our kitchen items will fit right in with their style.
Do you have an uncle who is obsessed with his classic car and wants nothing for Christmas? Take a photo of his prized car and he will love it on one of our mugs, or give him a special license plate or license plate frame.
If all else fails, we have gift certificates so your loved ones can customize our products exactly how they want them.
Need more ideas for the people in your life who are hard to shop for? Leave a comment here and I’ll brainstorm some ideas with you.
I’m working on setting up a new store for amateur radio custom products. I’ve already got a CRELoaded version running here, but Heidi Caswell introduced me to an e-commerce plugin for WordPress that I really like. It has many of the features of my current store, and I really like the ability to have a blog there as well. If my content is good, it should help draw people to the store and get repeat visitors.
I don’t have much of it set up yet (a bit of the category structure and two products), but you can take a look at it here. Once I figure out how to import my existing products, the store will be moved to the location of the existing amateur radio store.
Are you a professional photographer or someone who enjoys shooting photos in your spare time? This is your chance to have your best work featured here and mentioned on our store’s home page. Just add a comment to this post with a link to your photo on a site like Flickr or PhotoBucket and the winner will be announced two weeks from today. The winner will receive their choice of a 15 oz. Great Ceramic Mug, Maple Keepsake Box, or a Lacquered, Oval-Shaped Pecan Keepsake Box. The item you choose will feature your winning photo.
Maple Tile Keepsake Box and Lacquered, Oval-Shaped Pecan Keepsake Box
15 oz. Great Ceramic Mug
Disclaimer: Open to US residents only. Please keep photos G-rated.
I will be starting a new series of blog posts about how our products are created, and I thought it would be a good idea to start off with the graphics software that we use, including some tips and tricks. I’ll officially kick off the beginning of the series tomorrow, but I wanted to get this started with a poll. If you work with graphics (creating, editing, manipulating photos), what software do you use?
[polldaddy poll="863768"]
