So last night I worked into the wee hours of the morning. I woke up tired and a bit cranky then I got my email and it made the whole day a little brighter. Andrea of AndreaWDesigns featured me in her blog
http://http://andreawdesigns.blogspot.com/
She does her promotions for free, just because she wants to pay it forward.
What a great gal.
Thank you Andrea. You made my day!!

Artfire.com is rolling out the "Holiday Free For All" promotion.

Here is a sneek peek of the Monday press release:

ArtFire Gives Away Free Unlimited Listings for the Shopping Season

Everyone gets free unlimited listings for the holidays on ArtFire.comTucson, AZ – ArtFire has just announced that they will be giving away unlimited listings completely free for all sellers during the holiday season. This means that everyone can sell and list as many items as they wish for absolutely no cost or fees. When they first launched, ArtFire revolutionized the handmade marketplace by making it completely free for users to sell online. Site members were able to list and sell up to 12 items at any point on the site, and could have unlimited listings with customizable features for the flat rate of $12/month. However, due to the current economic situation and the upcoming holiday season, ArtFire has decided to remove this 12 item limit for the shopping season, giving everyone on the site the option to list unlimited items for sale. To make things even easier for sellers, ArtFire has also launched the Etsy Importer, allowing members to import all of their Etsy listings onto ArtFire quickly and easily. To help manage these imported listings, ArtFire is allowing free access for the month of October to their Global Product Editor, which gives sellers the chance to make batch edits to hundreds of products in their inventory at once. “Regardless of marketplace or venue we’ve found that sellers who list more items have a much greater success online,” said Tony Ford, COO of ArtFire. “We want to give everyone the chance to be successful, and free unlimited listing will help our artisans obtain more sales during the fourth quarter.”“Many of our sellers are concerned about the shopping season due to economic issues, and cannot afford to promote and advertise as they had last year,” said John Jacobs, CEO of ArtFire. “This Holiday Free for All will allow them to sell more items than ever before completely free.”This Holiday Free for All Promotion is the first ever of its kind, and expected to completely change the craft marketplace.

For more information, please contact:

Tony Ford, COOArtFire Inc.

1-877-688-2323

1-877-688-2323

http://www.artfire.com/

To quote Tony Ford COO and EVP Marketing, ArtFire.com

"For the holiday season all accounts (both Basic and Verified) will have the ability to list unlimited listings. There will be no listing fees, no final valuation fees, no commission fees, and no catches. We have decided that the economy is too tough for artisans and we believe our Verified accounts are worth $12 per month regardless of the number of listings.

As a Verified member you have access to all unique site features such as:

+1 search weighting (verified members always win a relevancy contest where the tie is with a basic member)

The Facebook Kiosk (worth $12/month all by itself by monetizing your fan page)

Coupon codes and gift certificates4) Free featured spots for every verified member on the category, trend and gift guide pages (randomly selected)

Artisan Guilds

Artifacts

Sticky Cart

Global Product Editor

Multiple quantity listings

Fully customizable colors and layouts for the Fusion Studio

The Gallery on your Fusion Studio

Larger Super banner

Advanced Artisan Bio with multiple pictures and links

Studio widgets capability for ads, video, or other html and flash widgets

10 pictures instead of 4 on items.

No advertising in your studio or items.

No promotion of other (verified) sellers items on your item listings.

Up to 99 studio categories

We have even more Verified features that will roll out throughout the 4th quarter. We will continue to make this deal even better for Verified members. But here is why we want to make listings free and the secret every other venue does not want you to know. Listings have value. The act of listing adds value and reduces costs for Artfire.com. You see the cost to host and transmit a listing is almost nothing ( a fraction of a cent). But for every 2 listings on Artfire.com we get more than one google visit per month from a buyer. We have worked hard to optimize our Google SEO and that means tht with about 400,000 listings on Artfire.com we are getting over 250,000 Google visits alone (out of nearly two million total unique visitors this month). These Google visitors are highly convertible buyers. These are people who go multiple pages deep, spend time on the site and move throughout the site (mostly landing on verified items because of the exposure bonuses mentioned above).In order to get 250,000 targeted quality buyer visits from advertising we would have to buy an additional 50,000,000 ad impressions (assuming a.5% Click through rate). The going rate for targeted ad impressions is between $5 and $10 CPM (cost per thousand impressions). That means the listings on Artfire generate monthly traffic equivalent to an advertising budget spend of $250,000 to $500,000. More items = more buyers. Every site that charges you a listing fee is asking you to pay them for the priviledge of giving them free advertising. At Artfire.com we believe Listings should be free for Artisans. We will subsidize the fraction of a cent via small ads or verified members who get exposure on the page. If it costs you time and work you should not pay us. If we save you time and effort or give you tools and features that add value to your business you should pay us. In order to test this theory. We are going to run the "Holiday Free For All" promotion. We believe we will lose some verified accounts who will downgrade. Although those folks will miss out on a lot of extra features, promotion, exposure and the new things we will continue to add for verified members. However, this will create the maximum possible chance for the most artisans to be successful for the least amount of risk.We have always said we want you to be a successful seller. Our research shows that a lot of listings is the critical key to selling. We are going to put our money where our mouth is. We are going to tell the secrets of the marketplace and start a revolution to reject the 1990's model that a seller should pay to have the privilege to give us free advertising. We are going to partner with each of you to give you fantastic tools for verified accounts and a no risk business opportunity for those getting started.

Happy Holidays Sellers - Our gift to you came early."

Go Artfire! This is the best venue around!!

http://http//www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=power_up&refuid=14988

Tag you're it!!

I have been officially tagged. This is a way to get to know outstanding artisans. Some of my favorites are at the bottom. Please take the time to visit them and get to know how great they are. Thank you to http://shinelikecrazystudio.blogspot.com/ for tagging me. Now I get to tell the world 10 things about myself.

1. I am a stay at home, homeschooling, mom of five fantastic kids. ( how's that for a mouthful)

2. I was born in Nova Scotia I have lived in Alberta for 25 of my 35 years but I am still an Easterner and I miss the coast like crazy.

3. I have multiple crafter disorder.....and I love it. I paint, sew, knit, crochet, embroider, cross stitch, bead, make jewellery, and can fix the kitchen sink.

4. I am in the middle of completely renovating my kitchen from top to bottom. I actually like doing renovations.....sometimes.

5. I suffer from Fibromyalgia, PCOS, Raynaud's disease and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. Thus I work from home making jewellery for my store JewelledTrellis. I am usually do this around midnight because I don't sleep well.

6. I play the harp and play around a little on the piano. One day I would love to play my little harp for my grandmother watching the tide roll in on Cape Breton Island.

7. I have a degree in Interior Decorating.

8. I love to read. I read historical biographies, popular fiction, egyptology, epidemiology, fantasy, mystery, I have to admit that I don't read horror at all. I don't sleep very well as it is.

9. I love to dance. Ballroom. My hubby hates to dance so I have to hope that one day one of my sons will love to dance so I can have a great partner.

10. I am terrified to be in public. This is rather ironic as I was a great public speaker and debater in my youth. Now I prefer behind the scenes work.

Now that you have endured 10 things about me it is time to find out more about these other great bloggers.

1.http://yourstruli.blogspot.com/ Beautiful period reproductions

2.http://frogprincessdesigns.blogspot.com/ Jasmine is a gem and so is her jewelry

3.http://blog.mamaslittlemonkeys.com/ I love these monkeys!!

4.http://craftedbylindy.blogspot.com/great cards and tags

5.http://delightfulstitches.blogspot.com/ fun shop with great textile creations

6.http://alterityart.blogspot.com/ victorian wonder and founder of Artfire Victoriana Guild

7.http://bellissimadesigns-sherri.blogspot.com/ beautiful paintings

8.http://kaysommers.blogspot.com/ creative designs and so fun to read

9.http://www.HansenSoapCo.blogspot.com fabulous soaps

10.http://ashillustration.blogspot.com amazing artist a must see.

Christmas is coming....are you ready?

Wow! School has already started and I am begining to see progress in my store. My digital camera is overflowing with pictures that I need to crop and put into listings. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed....excited but ovewhelmed. I didn't realize that when my family decided to have a handmade Christmas that I would need to be working on it last January. I love the idea of a handmade Christmas but I should have been more organized. So I am working on my Christmas gifts for all and hoping that I can finish them in time. Wish me luck.......