Simply your best

Fun Friday Share #8 & #9

TODAY’S FUN FRIDAY WILL SPAN TWO WEEKS. IT WILL BE DIFFERENT THAN IN THE PAST, SO PLEASE READ THESE SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY.

OVERVIEW, PART ONE: This week, we will be sharing our best work. You may submit up to 10 links here in the comments (please read further down about comments), and you may add 10 pins to the Fun Friday #8 section of our board, which is now PUBLIC! 🎉

YOU DECIDE what is your best. It does not need to have earned an “Editor’s Pick” or a “Bestseller” badge. It may not even have sold, but YOU know it to be quality and representative of your very best.

You may also share items that we don’t always feature here. I know we have clip art artists, course creators, handmade artists, bloggers, template creators, and more. This is your chance to share a little bit of all the things you do! PROMOTE YOURSELF! :D

OVERVIEW, PART TWO: This will be a two-week challenge. As our creatives begin sharing their work, I encourage each person to curate items to share and “promote” as an affiliate or just as a creative rooting for friends! The extra week is built in to give some time for sharing one another’s work intentionally.

Affiliate opportunities work differently for the various marketplaces and product types, but this is a way you can help a fellow artist and possibly benefit yourself as well. :) You could do this anytime, but RIGHT NOW is the BIGGEST time of the year.

I know there may be concern it’s too late, but here are a few suggestions:

1. Social media. It works more quickly than Pinterest. If you’re on a platform and you have followers or friends there, share with that audience!

2. Benable. An easy way to share with affiliate credentials, especially for a creator who is possibly on a different site than your primary marketplace. From my experience, it is WAY FASTER than Pinterest, and the competition is lower. P.S. (Please don’t blast this across the universe…) I’ve had good luck there with stationery. 😉About half of my lists have affiliate links, and I haven’t done anything on Benable for awhile. However, I’m almost to the payout threshold and I just sold something this week.

3. Pinterest. It’s the slowest, but my two biggest suggestions are video pins and collage pins for speed. Collage pins, however, route to the address of the pin you pull the photo from, so to benefit from affiliate referrals here, you may need to pin the item yourself and then create the collage pin. Not the fastest, but if you have a strong Pinterest account, it might have potential, especially if the products appeal to a younger audience (they are the ones who favor collage pins the most).

4. Pinterest (for the future). I have one or two items to share that I don’t think will be great right now, but they have had success around more springtime holidays like Mother’s Day. There’s still time for those to grow. :D

POSTING YOUR ITEMS: PLEASE READ.

1. If this is your first time joining one of our Friday Shares or challenges, please share your Pinterest account and I will add you to our collaborative board. Save your pin to the Fun Friday #8 Simply Your Best section on our collaborative Fun Friday board on Pinterest.

2. COMMENTING, PART ONE: For this week’s share, please provide all of your links in ONE comment. We are now close to 50 members! I know not all will join, but this will help us stay a bit more organized. For those who try to “spread the love,” the single comment with links for each artist will be a nice way to see what each person has shared, allowing me (or anyone else) to pick a favorite or two from each person.

3. COMMENTING, PART TWO: This week, I encourage you to share direct links to the items you are trying to sell/get eyes on. This will allow people to “get to” your items the fastest to check them out and possibly create an affiliate link rather than going through Pinterest first.

4. COMMENTING, PART THREE: I highly suggest a quick sentence or two description to accompany each link. This will allow us to “shop” each other’s shared products more easily. You may share an item’s success if you wish (to try to convince people they may want to promote it), but you definitely don’t have to.
   
   For example:
   (LINK) This woman’s crossbody tote features watercolor style photo art of a large blue flower on one side and a pink flower on the opposite side. This has been one of my best-selling items on Zazzle, and it performed particularly well around Mother’s Day. (LINK) This course teaches new Zazzle creators the basics of Zazzle with helpful videos and guides plus bonus items like templates and mockups. Created by an experienced Zazzle designer.

5. PEOPLE WITH AFFILIATE PROGRAMS, SALES DATES YOU CONTROL, OR PROMOTIONAL/COUPON OFFERS: Feel free to share info as relevant to help those who may want to promote your offerings. For example, if you’re planning something big for Black Friday/Cyber Monday, it might be helpful to know. :)

QUESTIONS?

This is a lot of info and different from what we’ve done before. Please let me know if you have questions. :)