Filed under marketing …

Feb 16 2012
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communication, craftmonkey, marketing, startup

Craftmonkey: Connects crafters with the folks who love them

A blue sock monkey

With the continued success of handmade marketplace Etsy and the rapid growth of crafter-friendly Pinterest, crafting has really taken off from both a buyer and a seller perspective. Crafting has gotten so popular that many people are running their own “crafty businesses”, earning an income from doing what they love either part-time or full-time and making the world a more beautiful place filled with all manner of handmade objects. I’ve been an on-again-off-again crafter for years and especially now that I have two kids, I try to buy handmade whenever I can. I’ve also served as a resource for crafters looking to get started with building and running a business, since these are some of my very favorite small business owners.

I’m therefore really happy to announce Craftmonkey, Social Glu’s inaugural foray into the app building business. Craftmonkey is a free web application that allows Etsy sellers to connect their shops with their MailChimp accounts to send out simple, beautiful email newsletters. The coolest feature is the ability to drag-and-drop text and photos from Etsy shops right into a Craftmonkey templates. It makes sending out and tracking newsletters super easy and even kind of fun.

Our long-time friend Adam Darowski was nice enough to shoot a little screencast for us that shows Craftmonkey in action. It’s worth viewing just to listen to the velvety sounds of Adam’s screencaster voice. I think it’s because he has a big beard that keeps his throat warmed up :)

If you’re a crafter or have crafty friends, please check out Craftmonkey! And let us know what you think – you’ll find us on Twitter as @hiCraftmonkey, in the Etsy app store and at craftmonkeyapp.com.

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Jan 06 2012
2 Comments
communication, marketing, startup

2-0-1-2 Launch! Tools to Get Your New Biz Going in the New Year

Lights spelling out Happy New Year

It’s a new year and if you’re like me, you’re launching a new business! That’s right, Social Glu is making its first foray into web app building and as you might imagine, it’s plenty hopping busy around here.

While I can’t yet say what the app is, I thought I’d share with you some of the free or low-cost tools that can help you, too, launch your very own shiny new business. Since my focus is on the marketing and communications side of things, that’s primarily what this list includes. Of course, there’s a bunch of other stuff to do too like business licences and tax dudes and dev environments, but we’ll save those for another post (or two).

  • Name: The first thing you’ll need is a name for your product and or business. It’s getting harder and harder to find an available name (especially one that has vowels!) I happen to love naming things and find the best way to come up with them is good old-fashioned brainstorming, a notebook, some friends and maybe a drink or two to get the creative juices flowing. However, if you are stuck, there are sites out there to help like Company Name Generator (which also runs a quick check on if the URL is available), Dot-o-mator (“Web 2.0″-sounding names!) and Crazy Namer (it’s true…they are pretty crazy.)
  • Website: Once you’ve thought of some good names, it’s time to see if they are available. Domain registration sites like GoDaddy, Network Solutions and Pear let you check availability quickly and for free, and their hosting fees are relatively inexpensive. Google being Google, they too offer domain hosting. You might have to be creative with the URL name (adding “app” at the end of your product name for example) but in general, it’s probably best to stick with a .com domain if you can. Other domain names like .biz and .net are fine and usually more readily available, but for now, .com still seems to be the respected industry standard.

    My advice is to buy any available domain you’re even considering, as it is better to own it then not. When you do purchase a domain, consider buying it for two years rather than one — it’s not much more expensive and one less thing you’ll have to worry about just as your new business is taking off.

Continue reading →

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Aug 15 2011
2 Comments
marketing, startup

Hitting the Seattle Startup Scene

Sean Ransom and Michelle Riggen-Ransom

As we get settled in our new hometown, it’s fun checking out what’s going on in the Seattle startup scene. When we left Seattle just over six years ago, the startup phenomenon was just, well, getting started. Now there are so many cool companies around and projects going on that they have their own website (Seattle 2.0), weekly Coffee Club meetings, even a Hops & Chops club for techies who want to talk shop, eat meat and drink beer.

I recently attended “Startup Night Seattle” (held the second Tuesday of every month), where two successful entrepreneurs shared their thoughts on marketing a start-up. Robert Pease, former VP of Marketing at Gist and Daniel Todd, CEO of GlobalMojo shared their experiences with and thoughts about marketing an early stage company. Todd has a very methodical, results-driven approach while Pease’s thoughts leaned more toward the word-of-mouth, branding, and more intangible elements of marketing. Event organizer Irna Menn did a great job guiding the discussion and asking questions even as the two men respectfully disagreed on various points.

I was especially interested in hearing what Robert Pease had to say, as Gist is a company that has been on my radar for a while. At one point during the discussion, he mentioned that he had certain competitors that he wanted to “crush”, so after the presentation I introduced myself as a co-founder of BatchBlue and asked if he wanted to kill me. Fortunately, he did not! It’s always nice when a networking event doesn’t end in bloodshed :)

Sean and I are planning to attend the upcoming Seattle Startup Crawl on Friday, August 26th, where we’ll get to meet folks from Cheezburger Inc., Estately, Habit Labs and Big Door. Startups and cocktails are two of our favorite things, so I’m sure it will make for an interesting evening. If you’re there and you see us, say hello! We look like the picture above, only slightly less fancy.

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