Five Minutes With....

The lovely Kate, a fellow crafter and blogger over at Beak Up Crafts, has interviewed me for her {Five Minutes With} feature over on her crafty blog and you can read it here.

Kate from Beak Up Crafts

Grab a cuppa and spend five minutes with me while I share my journey with fizzi~jayne makes.... and share my top tips to time management.

Pssst....There is also a discount for readers to use in my shop at the end of the post.

fizzi~jayne x

Don't Forget your Father's Day card....

Father's Day is on 21st June 2015 and I have a range of handmade Father's Day cards in my shop for your special Dad.

Men are always challenging to buy for don't you think? And to be honest I find them challenging to design for but I love a challenge and I hope you like what I have created....

Last order date to a UK address is 16th June 2015 to receive your card in time,  if you are posting it onward please allow extra time to order.

I will have these cards at the Little Fox Market this Saturday.  I always look forward to this craft fair and this time there will also be new foodie stalls including a micro brewery. Funnily enough my hubby is now more than happy to help me set up after hearing this news!

fizzi~jayne x

book review ~ Online Marketing for your Craft Business by Hilary Pullen....

One of my 2015 goals is to grow my business online and to help me do this I have read Hilary Pullen's Online Marketing for Your Craft Business.

I made lots of notes and used my new owl sticky notes, they look so cute!

As the front cover describes, Hilary's book tells you "How to get your handmade products discovered, shared and sold on the internet" and I think it does a good job of that.  The book delves into each key area and social media platform, including:

• Blogging
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• Google+
• YouTube
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Newsletters

Hilary explains how to get the best out of each platform and gets you started if you haven't got a profile.

I was thankful for a chapter explaining Google Analytics and how to use the reports.  I set up Google Analytics as soon as I set up my Folksy shop and started selling.  Having previously worked in retail I was used to analysing stats but I haven't really got the best out of Google yet and it proves that I need to make time for analysing metrics such as unique vs returning visitors, page views and bounce rate to be able to know what is working and what I need to focus my time on. 

There is a LOT to think about and I'm wondering where I will find the time to do everything and do it well, in a lot of companies there is a team of people whose job is social marketing! Hilary does acknowledge that it looks like a lot of work but by being realistic with your time and planning in advance can mean you make the most of social marketing and in turn grow your business online.

I already have a plan for this blog with my ideas and when I'd like to post them but I don't have a social media plan.  I tend to post as I go which is still important but there are bound to be posts I can plan and schedule so I don't spend lots of 15 minute (or longer) periods during a week.  This book is helping me put my plan together.

This is a fizzi~jayne recommended read if you want to grow your blog/business online and want to get the most out of your social media posts.

Have you read this book? What did you think?

fizzi~jayne x

Please note: the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links

If you happen to click on an affiliate link and purchase something, I may make a small commission (pennies!) on that purchase which goes towards my work on this blog.