FRIENDS OF THE CRAFTS FAIR NEWSLETTER #2
From The Crafts Fair Online- http://www.craftsfaironline.com
Welcome to the second issue of The Crafts Fair Online's newsletter.
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In this issue-
*The crafty web master-
DRESSING UP YOUR WEB SITE
*This months's craft project-
COPPER EMBOSSING
*Learned along the way-
ABOUT COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK
*Site review-
FLUFFY'S PICK
*Fun stuff on the web-
SETTLING BETS
*Your webmaster's ramblings-
SEEKING JELLO
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The crafty web master-
DRESSING UP YOUR WEB SITE
This series of articles assumes you already have a web site to sell your crafts. If you don't have a web site yet, you'll find all the information and resources you need to create one in The Crafter's Web Development Center.
http://www.craftsfaironline.com/CWDC
Last month I talked about some of the mistakes people make in overloading the design of their crafts web sites. In this Issue I'll talk a little about some *good* ways to dress up you site and draw visitors.
I think one of the most important things one can do in terms of web design is to create (or have someone create for you) your own original graphics. While there are lots of free buttons and bars and other web graphics out there, savvy web surfers quickly recognise these as *stock* graphics. If your site looks like it's made up of second hand or shoddy graphics, it may reflect badly on the crafts you are selling.
Creating your own original title graphic, link buttons and devider bars does take a little basic knowledge of some graphic progam, but they are not very difficult to make once you know the basics.
If you are on a Macintosh computer, as I am, I would strongly recommend ColorIt! from Microfrontier (http://www.microfrontier.com) for making web graphics. It's a wonderful, easy to use yet powerful program and it's very inexpensive. I use ColorIt! for all the graphics for The Crafts Fair Online.
If you are on a PC you may want to have a look at Paint Shop Pro (http://www.pspro.ml.org/) It is shareware, (you can download it and try it out for free before you buy) and their web site has a great step-by-step tutorial on creating web graphics.
As far as the actual design of your web site, well, I've been a graphic designer for a little more than 25 years and I would still be hard pressed to come up with any hard and fast rules of what constitutes good graphic design. However, what I usually strive for is a cohesive "feeling". So, a good place to start is to ask yourself what kind of mood or feeling you would like the site to have. Do you want it to feel calm, warm and pastel? Or perhaps active, energetic and bright?
When designing a web site I usually start by looking for a font (type style) that reflects something of the feeling of the craft being offered. Once I have decided on a font for the title graphic, often the font it's self will suggest other design elements like the shape and style of buttons and bars. If I need to use a different font for other elements on the page I try to keep it similar in style to the main title font. As for as colors, again I usually look at the craft being offered and try to use colors that compliment the exhibition of the craft. These may be matching colors or in some cases the opposite to contrast the colors of the craft. It all depends on the "feeling" I'm trying to achieve for the site. The main thing is to think of all the elements of your web site, fonts, colors, shapes, as a part of the whole, they should all fit together in a way that feels comfortable and cohesive.
Once you have your design all set up there are a number of utilities on the web that will help you fine tune your site, doing everything from checking your html sytax to reducing graphics to checking your sites standings in the search engines. You'll find links to many of these helpers at Site Owner .Com (http://www.siteowner.com/)
Now that you've cleared away the clutter, given your site distinctive and original graphics and fine tuned things, the next question is how to get people to come to your site and perhaps more important, how the get them to keep coming back.
One of the best additions a crafts site can make is a page of instruction. The "Ideas & Instruction" section of The Crafts Fair Online is consistently one of our most popular areas. People enjoy learning and doing new things. Along with offering you finished craft, you might even think about offering a "kit" with materials and instruction for people who would like to make it them selves. But whether you offer a kit or not, a page of instruction about your craft gets people involved in your site and gives them a reason to come back.
You might also think about offering something free, a craft pattern for example. The lure of something free, even something small, may draw people to your site and keep them coming back.
Lastly, don't forget to promote your site at any real world craft show you attend. One of the best reasons for having a web site in the first place is to give your real world shoppers a second chance to buy your works. Shoppers at real world craft shows might pass up on buying your work simply because they don't feel like carrying it around the rest of the day. They may like your stuff a lot but not have a special need for it at the moment. Offering a card or brochure with your web address prominently displayed will give your shoppers a way to "come back later" and you may regain some of these lost sales.
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Last month's craft project was Batik, if any of you decided to give it a try I'd love to hear about your results. Please drop me a note and let me know!
This Month's Craft Project-
COPPER EMBOSSING
I was browsing through a craft supply store a while back and ran across some heavy copper foil (36 gauge). Seemed like something that it might be fun to experiment with so I bought a bit of it. A couple of months went by until one day I was trying to think of an interesting way to make a gift for a friend. I wanted to make a nice "home sign" with their family name on it to hang by the front door of their house. The copper seemed like it would fit well with their decor.
First I drew out a design of flowers and a humming bird for the top of it. (This friend collected humming bird stuff.) And a fancy script with their name, "Fond" at the bottom. ( The whole design in reverse since i would be working the copper from the back.) Then I transferred the design to the copper sheet with carbon paper being careful not to make an indentation in the copper.
I needed a surface to work on with enough "give" to allow the sheet to dent under my working it, but still enough support that it wouldn't crease. I found a stack of newspaper worked pretty well for this.
I experimented with different tools to work the copper and found that metal tools didn't work very well, they tended to scratch and gouge too much. Finally I had the idea of making some tools by carving some chopsticks into various size points and sanding them smooth. (These were pine chopsticks, just hard enough to do the job but soft enough not to scratch or gouge.)
I gradually worked over the design, pressing and drawing the points into the sheet and sketching out the over all structures. Then I turned the sheet over and worked the outside edges of the design with a slightly sharper point to give the edges distinction. Then I smoothed down the background with a flat tool, turned it over again and worked the design a little deeper and so on, gradually working each side until the design was clearly "protruding" and the background was reasonably smooth.
Once it was done I filled the back with a little plaster to prevent it from denting and nailed it with brass tacks into a pine frame in which I had routed out a space for the copper.
You can see the results I got at-
http://www.craftsfaironline.com/copper.html
If you decide to give it a try I'd love to hear about your results!
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Learned along the way-
ABOUT COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK
I recently ran into a problem with another web site calling itself The Craft Fair Online. It seemed at first to be a simple mistake, they didn't know about my site when they set up thiers. Still, they initially refused to change the name of their site, wanting me to prove that I had trademark rights to the name. So, I had to do a bit of research into Trademark law and thought I'd share a little of what I learned here.
First off a little definition. Copyright laws protect original works of expression, for example a story or song or a design, it generally does not cover names, titles or short phrases. Trademark laws protect distinctive names, words symbols and phrases that are used to distinguish a product or service in the marketplace.
So, for example, if you create a pattern for a work of craft, you have copyright over the pattern and if you market it under a certain name you have trademark rights to that name.
The biggest misconception that most people seem to have about both copyright and trademark is the idea that you must register with the government to have these rights. That's the problem I ran into with that other site, they wanted me to show them some government document that said I had Trademark rights to the name The Crafts Fair Onliine.
But the truth is, both with copyright and trademark, registering with the government is *not* required and only offers "prima facia" protection. In other words, if you register a trademark with the US. Office of Patent and Trademarks, they assume at first glance that you have the rights, but the true rights are determined by the courts if they are challenged. (One exception where registering a trademark does offer extra protection is that registration assumes you have *national* rights. So for example, if you have a small craft business in one town you might have trouble defending your trademark against a national chain unless you have registered the mark.)
Note: I'm talking about U.S. Law here, some other countries *do* require you to register with the government to have any protection.
So how do you establish a copyright or tradmark? For copyright it's pretty simple, just create something original, that's it. The moment you create something you hold the copyright to it. Right now, as I write this, I am establishing a copyright to this document simply by the act of creating it. If I wish to I could put the C-in-a-circle at the bottom to let people know that I am claiming rights to it, but my real protection is in the fact that I have created it. And, to help me defend those rights, it might be good if a few other people know I created it. Whether I register it with the government or not it would still be up to me to show that I created it if someone were to come along claiming that they held the copyright.
Trademark rights are similar but a little more complicated. Basic trademark rights are established by "first use". Before there ever was a Crafts Fair Online I was using the name as I worked to develop the web site. Just the fact that I was the first person to use that name gave me some basic trademark rights to it. However, if I had gone on just talking about it and not actually created the site I could have eventually lost those rights. The second part of establishing rights is "first use in commerce" meaning that I am actually running the Crafts Fair Online using that name. From there, rights are further strengthened by a number of factors. Have you actively promoted your trademark? How many people recognize your business by your trademark? Have you consistently defended it against infringement?
Again, even if you register your trademark, your rights are guaranteed only by the facts of your use of it. If, for example if saw other web sites calling themselves the Crafts Faire Online or Crafts Fairs Online and I did nothing about it, the courts may conclude that by not defending against such confusingly similar names I had given up my rights.
Here are some examples of some trademarks that were successfully defended against infringement by confusingly similar names-
From the US. Office of Patent & Trademark-
CUP-O'-COLA was held to be confusingly similar to COCA COLA
BONAMINE was held to be confusingly similar to DRAMAMINE
SARNOFF was held to be confusingly similar to SMIRNOFF
COCA TAN was held to be confusingly similar to COPPER TAN
SMOG for raincoats was held to be confusingly similar to LONDON FOG for raincoats
BRUTUS for men's wearing apparel was held to be confusingly similar to BRUT for men's after-shave and toiletries
TUNA O' THE FARM for canned chicken was held to be confusingly similar to CHICKEN OF THE SEA for canned tuna
PROMISE for furniture polish was held to be confusingly similar to PLEDGE for furniture polish
In conclusion, if you are just establishing a crafts business or web site it's a good idea to do a little search for the name you would like to use first and see if it is already in use. Then, once you have established a trademark name of your own, check from time to time to be sure no one is infringing on it. If you find that someone is trying to use your trademark write them and let them know it is already in use, most often they will just say "Opps, sorry, didn't know you were there." and will nicely change their name.
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Fun stuff on the web-
SETTLING BETS
Ever get into an argument about who played which role in some movie?
Find the answer at the Internet Movie Database
http://www.imdb.com
And just what are the words to Louie-Louie?!?!?!?
Find the lyrics to hundreds or songs at the Lyrics Server
http://www.lyrics.ch/
Or, look up the answer to just about any question at Info Please-
http://www.infoplease.com/
Is the question just too esoteric to look up? Then Ask an expert!
http://www.askanexpert.com/askanexpert/
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Web Site Review
FLUFFY'S PICK
Hi Folks!
For the month of September, we've added one hundred-seven new links, and removed twenty-five dead links. Here's little bit about both. There are some wonderful craft sites included in this most recent addition, and as always, it's difficult to pick just one as a favorite! This month's pick is the web site of Philip Geil, who "has been crafting pottery with his hands, eyes, mind and heart for the last 21 years at his studio on Clay Avenue in Austin, Texas." It's an elegant site, showing off not only the artistry of Phil's beautiful pottery, but the artistry of webcraft as well. I love this site! To my eyes, it shows off many of the wonderful design elements of which Steve has written. It is a pleasure to visit, easy to navigate, and makes a purchase very tempting indeed. Philip Geil Pottery can be found at http://www.philipgeilpottery.com/ Hope you'll find it as enjoyable as I have!
Each month, as I am surveying our new link requests, I am also running a very handy internet application called "URL Manager" on our current links. This software lets me know which of our links have gone dead. At the end of the month I check each of these URLs to make certain that they are indeed unavailable, and then remove them along with adding the new links. Unfortunately, there is no such way to automate the discovery of links which are no longer suitable for The Crafts Fair. I have happened upon several of our more longstanding links which have been drastically changed since their initial appearance with us. Sometimes a crafter's interests have changed to another medium, so a change of category and a new description might be in order. Sometimes the site is no longer about crafts at all. So I'd like to ask your assistance here. If you come upon a link which you think needs to be updated, or removed, please send an email to ABeal@aol.com, so that we can keep The Crafts Fair Online as up to date and useful as possible. Thank you!
Anne
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Your Webmaster's Rambling's
SEEKING JELLO
The year I was born my father won a local Emmy Award for his production of "Stars of Jazz" for KABC here in Los Angeles. The show gave him a chance to take one of his great interests, Jazz, and combine it with another, the new medium of television. He went on to work in program development for all three networks at different times and always loved his work, but I don't know that he ever had as much fun as he did in the early days when the focus was more about putting on a good "show" and less about ratings.
He was not a very crafty man at first glance, I remember him buying a "Craftsmen" tool box with all of the essential tools, screwdrivers, hammer, saw, all of which went untouched for the rest of his life. People were hired for the simplest repairs around the house. But he was a master of his own craft of television production, a craft where the tools were people and the materials were ideas. He knew people and how to put them together in a collage that would result in a good show. He had little to say about the end result, his skill was not in writing or directing but in knowing which writers, actors, directors, editors etc. would fit together to create an outcome of their own.
Growing up I had always imagined I would be in show business in some capacity or another, writer, actor, producer, maybe all. But childhood imaginings never seem to include the events that turn our lives in different directions and I ended up being a graphic artist, and sometimes fine artist and craftsmen.
When I first put up the Crafts Fair Online it was really just a hobby, I thought it might be nice for other crafts people and myself to be able to show their works online and to have one central place that craft sites were linked to.
As the site grew and evolved and the number of our visitors grew, running the site became more and more work and I felt more of a responsibility to offer additional resources. Gradually, running the Crafts Fair began to feel like putting on a show of sorts, trying to figure out what my audience was looking for and trying to provide it to them.
Then last year I began to offer banner advertising on the site to help pay some of the expenses. One of the first sponsors we got was "Linit Starch" , they are promoting the use of their starch in arts and crafts, but still the thought of being sponsored by an old fashioned laundry product made me feel like we were putting on an old radio show, "The Crafts Fair Online! Brought to you by Linit Starch!" I could hear the announcer say. I even suggested to them that it might be fun to have an old radio jingle play when someone clicked on their link.
But truly, the web really *is* like the early days of radio or television right now with the exception that *anybody* can put on a show on the web. While my goal is still just to put on the best show I can, I am hoping that at some point I can find some major corporation that would be willing to sponsor the *whole* site, just as JELLO sponsored The Jack Benny Show or as Texaco sponsored Milton Berle. Some company that would like to put their name above the title rather than just a banner ad, in exchange for a reasonable web master's salary for me. Until then, well, on with the show!
:::::::::::::In memory of my father, Peter G. Robinson, who died in office as Vice President of Program Development for NBC, 1972. I think he'd get a kick out of what I am doing now:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Steve
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Well, that's our second issue of the Friends of the Crafts Fair Newsletter, I hope you have found it interesting, entertaining, and useful. Please feel free to email your comments and suggestion! And don't forget to tell your friends about all the free resources at The Crafts Fair Online.