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December 2007 Archive
The following posts were made in December 2007. You may subscribe to the RSS feed for this archive if you would like to take your time reading through our posts.
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Posted on December 18, 2007
Handmade in a Web 2.0 World
BY JENNIFER EUBANKS
A few days ago, an article appeared in The New York Times Magazine, entitled Handmade 2.0. Being a somewhat crafy individual, I took interest in this story that focused on Etsy.com, a popular online site for selling hand-crafted items.
There is a movement to buy handmade items--as a method to decrease the ill-effects that mass production causes, as well as support and encourage individual crafters. The movement must be working, because so far, every day this December Etsy has had record-breaking sales. For comparison, $4.3 million were spent on the site during the month of November, which was a 43% increase from October.
The site is not profitable, but it embodies a spirit that is making it increasingly popular--even moreso during this Holiday season. Although somewhat lengthy, the article makes many good points about how Etsy allows crafters a chance to sell their wares to a larger market than they would otherwise have access to, as well as potentially making a living doing something they love.
However, as the article points out, not all is rainbows and sunshine, as the site suffers from the same problems that affect other marketplace venues--in order to make money, a crafter must produce what the consumer demands. You are free to offer a variety of wares, but it is entirely possible that you will spend all of your time making the same 1 or 2 items over and over and over again, which can make it feel more like work than a labor of love.
Also, as the site expands, it becomes increasingly difficult to breakout as a new artist. Another common problem is that of pricing--an established artist may be reluctant to raise prices, and prices can only go so low in order to still adequately compensate the artist for their time and cost of materials. As the article states, "Etsy is another manifestation of how D.I.Y.-ism has evolved." We've already seen other instances of how the crafting world is tech-savvy and taking advantage of the sense of community that the web has to offer--most recently my post on the Knitting and Crochet site, Ravelry.
While a pairing of handcraft and internet may seem anachronistic, it is a union that is ultimately beneficial. It allows craftspeople to do what they love, while also allowing consumers to purchase unique handcrafted items without having to travel to boutiques and fairs, scouring multiple locations for that perfect treasure.
Posted on December 14, 2007
RSS beats Lupus
BY STEPAN MAZUROV
Google has recently released their "Zeitgeist" end of year trend statistics based on billions of online queries. One interesting bit of information was that "What is RSS" was 3rd most searched "what is" item this year, beating lupus, sap, bluetooth and java.
Here is a full list:
- what is love
- what is autism
- what is rss
- what is lupus
- what is sap
- what is bluetooth
- what is emo
- what is java
- what is hpv
- what is gout
Few other interesting search compare different television series and its great to know that my favorite Heroes and Lost are top 2 pick
- heroes
- lost
- house
- 24
- bones
- jericho
- reba
- scrubs
- greek
- caveman
Since I just got an LCD TV and an HD-DVD player, this graph solidified my decision to pledge my support to HD-DVD format:
What surprised you the most this year? Which predictions came true? Share your thoughts!
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Posted on December 13, 2007
Everyone Loves Stats - Flickr Introduces Photo Statistics
BY JENNIFER EUBANKS
Today on the Flickr blog, it was announced that stats are now available for your photos. As of right now, they are only available to Pro users, and you have to go to a page to specifically activate the stats.
Posted on December 12, 2007
Your 2008 Marketing Plan
BY JASON CORMIER
We were recently going over a client's online marketing strategy for next year, and found that much of our initial focus was about the next big, new and different thing we were going to do to impact sales.
As we dove deeper into the process, looking back at what worked and what didn't for this year - we were reminded of the fact that new marketing plans often don't need grandiose makeovers (particularly if last year's plan produced).
Posted on December 7, 2007
The Rise of Web Surfing
BY JENNIFER EUBANKS
Surfing (the kind with ocean and a surfboard), has seen a rise in popularity over the past few years. Part of this popularity can probably be attributed to the ease with which the internet provides surfers with valuable information. What once required more guesswork or actually going out to physically inspect the ocean, can now be done from the comforts of home.
Surfing blog sites will often talk about what they have encountered each and every day, and in what spots. Bigger, more commercialized sites, such as Surfline, provide links to webcams, reports, forecasts, and other news that can help a surfer decide when and where to catch their next wave.
Being the sole member of my company who lives in a beach town, I was inundated last weekend by reports of an "epic swell" that was expected to hit the coast of California mid-week. Talk of the huge impending surf popped up everywhere, from localized blogs, to local newspapers, from local news to widely circulated newspapers. Everyone had something to say about the topic, which is interesting considering that I don't believe I've ever heard traditional media focus so much attention on high surf advisories in past years. Certainly one would want to be aware of when it is dangerous to be walking along the beach, but in the winter, the majority of people who would dare venture out in the cold are those who go to partake in the sport of surfing. More likely is that in this increasingly digital age, the media has noticed how much is out there in terms of online resources for surfers, and want to cash in a bit.
Like many other niche groups on the internet, surfers have a lot of resources from which they have formed a community--there are forums, swell charts, video, podcasts, reports updated several times daily, blogs to share experiences, and of course Flickr and Youtube to post all those photos and videos you took to share that perfect barrel with friends and other like-minded individuals. When the swell peaked on Tuesday and Wednesday, photos were almost instantly available--something that validates the hype of the day, while getting to share and compare experiences from all over the coast.
The ease with which one can find information on surfing can easily correlate to the increased number of people out when the surf is at its best. Gone are the days when one had to get up before dawn and see what was in store and then use word of mouth. Now with live webcams, the conversations revolve not around "is it good today" but "what time should I meet you there?"
