I decided to try making my own podcast. I’m testing this out because I want to try this with my students. I used Anchor app. Super easy!

It won’t allow me on the unpaid version of wordpress to add the audio. I’m having to do a work around. I have to post a link instead. NMillerIllustration Podcast.

I started watching on youtube a talk by Casey Neistat. I loved how he talked about his beginnings from A to B with his youtube channel and business. He has the defunct app Beme, but explained how he was able to take that failure to turn it into a 25 million dollar deal with CNN. CNN didn’t purchase the failed app, but his team creative.

I’m also watching a video about chat bot shops. It really interesting for me because I’m a one person show. I also work a full time job. It really would be great to get help with customer service. Is it possible to have this work for a small business person.

I got my paperwork sent into get my business account from my bank. I went in and talked with a banking staff. They gave me the forms. It’s good to have a business account to be able to track all your business expenses and tax purposes. I had to provide a business license and website to show that I’m legit.

I got more of my cards in. I need to get my line and whole sale sheets updated. My black and white cards came in. My stickers came in of my owls. I’m also decided I need to create a packing slip. Etsy auto can set up packing slips for you. It’s just a paper that lets you know what was in the order. I’m going to find out if Shopify or Weebly store can generate it for me.

For bookkeeping I’m looking into Quickbooks and Outright.  Quickbooks is about $7 per month. Back in the day I used it for my home bookkeeping. I’ll probably go with Quickbooks. I got this info off Olivia Haywood and Holly Casto’s Youtube video. I currently use an excel form to track expenses.

I found this info from Youtube from Fuzzy and Birch. She provides a template as well on the MORE section of the video. Scroll down. Has a photoshop template to get a preview of your Instagram as a whole. This was really helpful! Here is a screenshot of what my next 5 posts will look like. It gives you a overall view. I think people think of their feed as 1 post at a time. I think you have to look at it overall. What feeling or look are you communicating to your viewers? Does it communicate your brand? You only have less then 3 seconds on instagram to catch a viewers’ attention. Your photos have to be top notch.

Another tip is archive your stuff that doesn’t look good on instagram. Many of my early photos were dark and had a yellow cast. I archived them so if you need to go back and review your photos you still have them. It looked odd that I had so many bad posts compared to my newer lighter and brighter photos. I didn’t make my instagram feed public until much later. I had tons of not relevant posts. I like cooking and food. I removed those photos. Now there is a lighter/friendly feel. I’m getting better at taking photos. The photo booth I purchased really helped. I work full time so using natural light really doesn’t help me because I’m working during the day. I get home the lighting is just not there.  Here is the photo booth. FYI this is an affiliate link.

 

Just some free tips!

I was doing some more online research for ways to push and post timed messages on instagram. I’ve got a full time job, mom, and wife. My schedule is pretty busy. Then I’m doing this design and stationery business on the side. I found a program called Later.com. You register online and then you download the app on your phone. Then I post in advance for the next week. I like this better then Planoly. I signed up for that as well. The free plan only allows 15 posts per month. That’s not enough. Later allows you to do 30 posts, 50 Tweets, and 30 Pins. That’s much better. It is really easy to use. It pushes your posts through your phone app. Pretty cool stuff.  Here is a link to refer you to the site Later.com.  I do get 10 extra posts if you sign up via that link. I would appreciate it!

Hi All, I just used mailchimp to set up my enewsletter.
Link Cute Critter Stationery.
It will give you updates and behind the scenes info on my process. It’s been fun playing around with Mail Chimp it is a free (up to 2,000 emails). It’s a great way to get in touch with people that are interested in your art/products. It wasn’t too hard to learn. Absolutely no coding required. Drag and drop to design your landing page, and emails. Great product!