Thursday 2 August 2012

...and breathe!!

Hi Everyone,
Just a quick note to let people know I am still here. Just incredibly busy, getting ready for the Edinburgh Festival. Organising and taking part in pop-up markets, sorting out where I'm actually going to be in the Festival, plus entertaining a gorgeous energetic chatterboxing 6 year-old throughout the school holidays!

All I can think is that this must be the busiest and craziest part of the year so after this everything else will seem calm and easy...I hope!

Things have been totally up and down, going from complete panic and stress to excitement and calm anticipation. I do truly believe that things happen for a reason and will turn out for the best in the end so am optimistic that all the confusion and changes will be worth it.

Just a short explanation, I booked a stall throughout the Edinburgh festival but the place was dug up by the Council so it was supposed to move and we would also possibly do different days, the new venue is actually a much better location. Throughout the last few weeks the venue and days have changed over and over, back and forth. I'm not sure how the lady organising has kept her sanity but she seems calm and is positive we will be sorted fully by next weekend!!

When I do know I will announce it and if anyone is in Edinburgh do please come along and say hi. If you do come near you may well be dragged in to look by my very eager young helper, if this does happen you will be compensated with a Sam Miller keyring, I promise!

I will definitely be at Colinton Market-Place this Saturday 4th August if anyone is around.
Please do also take a look at my facebook page for regular updates too.

Anyway just wanted to take a minute to breathe and get my blog up to date. Hope you are having a great Summer. Take care and hope to have some definite news soon X

Festival image by Sam Miller.

© Copyright  Sam Miller 2012
All the artwork and text on this blog are original and belong to SamMillerUK. They must not be copied, used or reproduced without the permission of the artist. Thank you.


Saturday 21 July 2012

Home again, Home again, jiggety jig...

Hi Everyone,
Just got back from a lovely week in rainy old sheffield. Cold and wet all week, but I do feel refreshed after seeing my family and friends. I've now come back ready for action as I've got LOADSof things coming up in the next month.

Pop-Up Markets have a lot of new events lined up so we are busy organising that, and I have my own wee stall in the Edinburgh Festival so I have lots of work to do to get it all ready, for (hopefully) loads of sales!!
Also I will be taking part in this years's Art in the Park which sounds like a great day.

Very exciting stuff and with my rejuvenated self at the ready I will try to keep up with my blogging too.
Keep an eye on my Facebook site for lots of details, times etc too or just pop by and say hi!

Have a great Summer,
SamX

Bags at the ready for the Festival! 

© Copyright  Sam Miller 2012
All the artwork and text on this blog are original and belong to SamMillerUK. They must not be copied, used or reproduced without the permission of the artist. Thank you.


Monday 9 July 2012

Blogging for Business - Sam Miller

After Joanne dewberry wrote a blog for me, she asked if I would write one for her about how blogging had helped my business. You can see the full article on her site at
joannedewberry.co.uk/sam-miller - how blogging has helped my business
Theres lots of other clever stuff on there so do take a look. I have also put a copy of the text here in case you just want a wee look...


How Blogging has Helped my Business - Sam Miller

When I started my own art business about a year ago I was really not a big fan of social media, particularly blogging. I couldn’t understand why people would blog and who would read it, so now a year on I am totally surprised to find that I am both the one blogging and one of the people who reads other people’s blogs. Plus, even more surprising than that is the fact that I am loving it!!

Best Friends by Sam Miller
I find it is a great way to get your ideas and work out there and it is great to recieve comments and advice from other people. I’m still not sure how so many people find me but I have reached a much wider audience by doing this and have made great connections and contacts with others. I think it is a perfect way for people to find about you and your business, to see what you are doing and to see a real personality behind the work.

I have been to a few marketing and networking events over the past year and the main message I have got from them is that YOU are the best promotional tool for your business, so following this logic I really believe blogging is an ideal way to promote yourself and your products.

ME photographed by my little girl
I have also found on a personal level it can help me think things through and help me prioritise my work by focusing my ideas, deciding clearly what I want to tell people about and what I want to achieve. It has definitely increased my profile and through this has increased the amount of viewers and customers I am getting to my website and into my shop.

I have also found a whole network of other people working on their own art projects so I am really enjoying finding out about others, reading and commenting on their blogs. Rather than being an isolated occupation, I have found blogging has introduced me to a whole exciting community which can be reached from my cosy little home.

I would recommend blogging to anyone, at first I felt it was an obligation, to tick the box that said my business had a blog. Now I am a total convert, I feel like it is an invaluable tool for me to use to communicate my ideas and show my work to the world. I also enjoy just putting my thoughts down in this way and it does help me formulate my thoughts and practise my pitch for when I am speaking to people in the real world!

My blog is developing all the time as I get more ideas about how to use it and I am really excited about the future and all the plans I have for it including competitions, featured artists and tutorials so do please keep taking a look and I would love to know what you think.

© Copyright  Sam Miller 2012
All the artwork and text on this blog are original and belong to SamMillerUK. They must not be copied, used or reproduced without the permission of the artist. Thank you.





Sunday 1 July 2012

Blogging for Business - Joanne Dewberry

I am thrilled that the lovely talented Joanne Dewberry has written this guest blog for me and I think it's really inspiring so do please take a look and let me and Joanne know what you think...
Thanks so much Joanne and happy reading and happy blogging everyone!
Best wishes,
SamX

What stops you from writing a blog?
Joanne Dewberry

Time? Subject matter? Motivation? Or does the thought of grappling with a blog platform scare the life out of you??


Back in May 2010 I was awarded Dorset Business Mum of the Year and started writing for guest articles and business articles on Charlie Moo's. But the readership was low as my party bag audience wasn't particularly bothered what useful social media tips I had or how to market your business on a budget. I thought about starting my own blog but put it off wondering who would read it? What would I write about??

Then at a business exhibition I bought a domain name for £1 www.joannedewberry.co.uk I figured for £1 it didn't matter what I did with it. I had a free hosting package with a forum I used at the time and started playing with wordpress.org. It wasn't long before I had built a usable site. I enjoyed putting it together and really enjoyed writing. Initially I started adding copies of articles I'd written on other sites, I knew the back-link would be useful.

Then I set up a fanpage and invited everyone I knew who had a business to like it. I started posting my blog content onto the fanpage and asking questions in order to develop new content.

 Now 2 years later 366 posts and a list of other places I have written for I still love blogging!! Blogging gave me a platform in which to set myself up as a freelance writer and somewhere to show my writing style to the publishers when I first approached them with a fuzzy idea for a book – Crafting a Successful Small Business



 

Whilst heavily pregnant with Olive I decided to run a “Blogging for Business” workshop I'd anticipated having 10 small businesses attend. I doubled it 20 smiling faces eager to learn a bit about blogging. I had written a huge booklet to go with the workshop, the feedback had been really positive so I added it as an e-book to my website and didn't think much more about it. Until while doing my accounts I noticed the sheer volume of people who had bought the e-book. Spurred on by this and £300 funding from Enterprise Nation I set about with #TeamJD turning a word document into a glossy booklet, Bloggingfor Business.

So stop worrying about time, motivation, content and readers – just do it! Be the expert you know you are. No one is more knowledgeable than you about your business genre show the world what you know, make your business stand out from all the other small businesses.

Joanne Dewberry
Dorset Business Mum of the Year 2010 www.joannedewberry.co.uk & www.charliemoos.co.uk 
 
Award winning business mum to Charlie 5, Megan 3 and Olive 1. For more information about Joanne's small business help and advice or Charlie Moo's email joanne@joannedewberry.co.uk

Bloggingfor Business teaches you skills and techniques to blogging with lots of handy hints along the way.