We Are Moving!!!

This blog will be migrating to Facebook in February. Please check back for more information.

The shoemaker's children....

There's that old saying about the shoemaker's children having no shoes --- let me tell you, it has been shoeless here for most of the year. Business has been decent but do I have time to update my professional web site? What do you think?  So, over the weekend I set myself the task of getting some updates on my Valentine-Design.com web site.

The first thing to update was the Web Gallery. I've had fewer new web sites but far more complex ones than in years past --- shopping carts, slide shows, Flash galleries, XHTML galleries. So you can see some of the new web sites here: Valentine-Design Web Gallery

I've also been doing a fair amount promotional videos to be used in trade show kiosks, posted on blogs, or uploaded to YouTube and other video hosting sites. You cn see a couple samples on Valentine-Design Promotional Video. These are fun and relatively inexpensive.

I've been designing book covers, DVD jewel case covers and labels for awhile now but this year I got a chance to make a DVD portfolio for a photographer who wanted to send DVDs to potential customers instead of the expensive-to-mail promotional material he was sending. Take a look at Valentine-Design Design.

So that's a sampling. I have more to organize but I have work to do at the moment (and don't think I'm not grateful for that!)

Thanks for reading.

Rebranding Gloucester

It's been too long since I updated this blog but life has been busy. Much to my surprise (and delight) the knitting book launched in March has been a big success and I'm very, very happy to say I haven't blogged because I've been busy with that. But it's time to post about my latest project.

The City of Gloucester, which I love, is going though tough economic times, like many of us. One of the hardest decisions the mayor had to make was to eliminate the position of Director of Tourism. This left the tourism council with a tough problem, how to maintain their web site. They asked for volunteers and I raised my hand.

As I familiarized myself with the web site I saw a lot of problems with it. It is loaded with good information but is not particularly attractive (it suffered from too many cooks...), loads slowly and is not particularly enticing.

Because I love Gloucester and all it has to offer I contacted two of my fellow lovers of Gloucester, Jay Albert, the photographer who maintains Cape Ann Images, and Joe Ciaramitaro, of Good Morning Gloucester. "Let's make an awesome web site that really promotes our city," I said. "Count me in," they said. Thus began the redesign to show the world the Gloucester we love in the hopes it will entice people to come here.

Once we had the site underway, Jay and Joe supplying the images for my design and organization, we approached the Tourism Council. The response was very positive. This is the new home page which features audio and a Flash video you have to visit the site to see.

Many of the pages have been completed but we still have work to do. But the main objectives are to 1.) show the many amenities Gloucester has to offer including activities, culture, dining, shopping, etc. and 2.) to provide as much information as possible that will allow those planning their vacations to consider Gloucester as a desirable destination.

As a further enhancement we are adding a new, sexier URL: www.iLoveGloucester.com. Right now it points to the test server but eventually it will be attached to the actual site along with the exisiting URL.

So, we have work to do but progress has been exciting. We have a fantastic product in our beloved city, packaging and marketing it is the challenge. Take a look at the site and let us know how we're doing: iLoveGloucester.com

What Have You Got To Sell, Part 2?

Have you ever heard of “passive income”? Quite an interesting thought, isn't it? A little (or not so little) stream of income that trickles into your account and, after the initial setting up, requires nothing from you sounds good, doesn't it? With the internet it is possible. Here are a few examples:

Sarah is a motivational speaker for a popular course in spirituality. In the 1990s she traveled the country lecturing and selling tapes of her lectures at the retreats where she was a speaker. Now she is retired and doesn't want to continue traveling despite many offers to do so. However her tapes have become a significant source of income for her and this is how she did it.

With the help of the engineer who originally recorded her lectures she had them all reformatted into MP3 recordings. These files are in a database on the internet linked to her web site which describes the various lectures. Those wishing to purchase the lectures can do so for a modest fee which they pay for by credit card or bank card through PayPal. The site is set up so that as soon as a customer pays for a lecture they are automatically redirected to a page where they can then download the MP3 file to their computer, MP3 player, or any other device. Simple as that.

There are several advantages to this system. 1.) Anyone, anywhere with computer access and a bank card or credit card can purchase from her. 2.) It doesn't matter what time of the day or night they do it and doesn't need Sarah to be involved. Plus it is instant gratification for the customer. 3.) Once a week Sarah checks her PayPal account and transfers the funds that have accumulated into her bank account. That's all she has to do!

Brian is a composer. Over the years he has written dozens of original pieces as well as created arrangements of well-known songs. With a web site that describes his work, which includes small audio clips that can be listened to, Brian is able to sell his composition and arrangements in PDF format. Like Sarah Brian did all the work when he created his pieces and scanned them in to his computer. Now musicians can just pay for the music they want and be immediately taken to the access page where the piece is downloaded. Brian's job is to transfer funds when he feels like it.

Bonnie loves to cross-stitch. For years she designed her own cross-stitch patterns and friends often begged her to share her designs --- which she usually did for free. When she started sorting through her patterns she had over a hundred of them all drawn out on graph paper and colored in with colored pencil. Like Brian, Bonnie picked her favorite designs, scanned them into the computer, and created PDFs. By creating a web site and using the simple pay/download technique Bonnie's designs are available to needleworkers around the world.

Knitters, quit pattern designers, crocheters, and other fiber artists are finding the internet a rich market for selling what they used to give away!

Whether it is music, audio and video files, photography, designs, instructions, lectures, stories, poems, songs, or more, if you have created a body of work you could be earning money from it. At Valentine-Design we have helped a number of creative individuals get started generating streams of passive income. What can we help you with?

Okay, I'm Embarrassed....

One of the things I harp about, both here and and to clients, is the importance of "branding" your endeavors. Branding is important --- it helps create an identity for you and/or your business, services, products, etc. This is particularly important for small, independent and micro-publishers who are trying to establish themselves in a gigantic marketplace. One of the best examples of branding I have seen by a small publisher is Level Best Books' covers for their annual crime anthologies.
Like a lot of small publishers I started out with a web site for my small press, www.ParlezMoiPress.com. Then, on the advice of several authorities on marketing, I purchased the URL for my name, too, www.KathleenValentine.com and set up a page for that. After that I acquired the URLs for the books I was either publishing or promoting through Parlez-Moi Press. Every time I did that I set up a web page to go with it. All well and good except..... As I talked more and more to clients about establishing their "look" I became increasingly aware that I was not practicing what I was preaching. It got to the point where it was embarrassing. So right after Christmas I set myself the task of re-designing my own conglomeration of web sites.

Since the site I liked the best was www.KathleenValentine.com, I decided to use that as the model for the rest.

First I re-did www.ParlezMoiPress. I still have content to add but at least I'm not embarrassed by the look of it any more.

Then I went on to add the pages for my four current books --- two of which are published and two of which will be within the year. The first of these is my collection of romantic short stories, My Last Romance and other passions at www.MyLastRomance.com.

Then came the page for The Old Mermaid's Tale. I had a rather extensive site for that and I realized that most of the stuff I had on it was just fluff. I trimmed it down to one page and it is now at The Old Mermaid's Tale:

Since I am frantically trying to get The Mermaid Shawl ready for press (it is with an editor at the moment), I wanted to get that updated because it is getting a lot of visitors. It can be seen at www.MermaidShawl.com:

And, finally, my soon-to-be-published novel, Each Angel Burns, which is going through the final set of editorial changes, need to be added. It is now at www.EachAngelBurns.com:

So, that's my current effort to do for myself what I do for others. I discovered I am an unruly and impatient client! But I think this is a big improvement. Now to get the books out!

What Have You Got To Sell?

In these challenging economic times a lot of people are thinking about ways to supplement their income. The internet has given us a lot of alternatives such as eBay, Etsy, Cafe Press and more. Through these sites people sell their own art, crafts, design work, products, and items they have no use for. A significant number of people are supporting themselves by setting up shops on sites like eBay to sell items they purchase in yard sales and flea markets. If you live near an outlet store, mill store or have access to seconds, discontinued items, etc. through a local manufacturer those items can be purchased locally and sold at a good profit to people in other parts of the world that do not have access to them.

I live a few miles from the mill outlet store for a manufacturer of very popular and pricey outdoor wear. For years I drove by it every day and often thought that, if I had time, I'd buy up their discontinued items and sell them on eBay. Of course, I never did but a lot of people do.

I'm an avid knitter and seamstress and I purchase a lot of fabric and yarn on eBay. One of the things I love is having access to fabrics and fibers from other parts of the country that I could never afford without eBay. Recently I purchased several balls of 100% cashmere yarn for less than a quarter of what it would cost locally and the vendor I bought it from, who lives in the midwest, told me she is doing so well with her eBay shop --- selling yarn from a local mill --- that she is doing it full time.

One of my favorite clients has opened up a Cafe Press shop to sell her unique cat designs. Clare Higgins called me about setting up a web site for her Modern Art Cats that would link to her Cafe Press shop. Her designs are so unique and charming that she is beginning to develop a following and cultivate a market for her artwork.

Another friend is a writer who is working with Valentine-Design to establish an ePress. Her web site will contain PayPal buttons that access her short stories when the customer pays for one. More about this in my next blog!

If you have an idea we are always happy to talk with you about it. Finding a marketplace for your goods, services, and creativity has never been easier!

Be A Show-Off

It's been a busy summer at Valentine-Design in no small part because we have had a couple of beautiful web sites to work on. In the last post I mentioned Amore Photography. Yesterday we launched the redesign of Glen Magna Farms' web site. It was wonderful to work on because I had the benefit of selecting from both vintage photography from their archives and recent photography from nine different photography studios.

Glen Magna is a historic estate which is used now as a function hall. They wanted a web site that would showcase the romantic nature of their gorgeous estate with all the varied opportunities for photography. Please take a look at Glen Magna Farms.org. Thank you.