How to link your blog to your Facebook Fanpage

I posted this on my origami and craft business blog in April 2010.  I thought it might be nice to share my thoughts with you!

Thank you for reading!

How to link your blog to your Facebook Fanpage

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

An excellent animated presentation of one point of view on what really drives people to work at their best.  I’ve become a fan of these videos, the animations keeps the view engaged from start to finish.  Well, at least me.  I’m a visual person.

Having worked for a few years, I agree with many points, especially that money is not a key motivator when your job goes beyond the rudimentary. 

 

Enjoy!!

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This lively RSA Animate, adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.

Submit your URL to be indexed

You don’t have to wait for Google to crawl your website, you can submit your URL to them!  Enjoy! 

http://www.google.com/addurl/

How to Implement a One Question Survey

I browse through the Etsy forums on a regular basis because there’s always helpful souls generous enough to share business tips and their knowledge.  Someone posted a link to this post from Handmade Spark:

Ever Wonder How Customers Find Your Etsy Shop? Here Is An Easy Answer

This was written in mind to create a survey for how a buyer found their Etsy shops, but I think it’s useful for other things that you may require a survey if you accept payments by Paypal.

What do I want to do when I grow up?

When I graduated secondary school, I was a pivotal point in my life. 

“What do I want to do when I grow up?”

I had absolutely no clue. I didn’t have any strong role models or mentors at the time.  So, I decided, well, let’s work in an office, that seems easy.  I did really well in the business 101 course and computer programming course.  Let’s go into business school.

What I should have considered before making that decision:

• happiest when working with my hands
• loved to draw
• loved to fold origami
• loved quirky and unique things

I was stuck in a paradigm and a lack of confidence to believe that I could be successful working with my hands.  I thought I had to be the serious working professional in order to be happy and successful.  I believed people when they told me my creative ideas wouldn’t sell. 

I don’t regret it. I’m proud of my career and that job helped me achieve so many personal goals in my life. I learnt my lesson and not to let others discourage me.  Money doesn’t equal success.  I enjoy what I do now, but I want to love what I do.  So here I am, a successful working mother of two, wondering:

“What I want to do when I grow up?”

When I grow up I want three things:

1. I want more quality time with my children.  
2. I want to spend my days being creative.
3. I want to make money doing what I love. 

If I get all three of these wants, then I will be happier (I’m already happy, I just want to be more happy).  So I made a decision a few weeks ago.  I’m going to to make this dream happen.  It’ll be a uphill battle and will take dedication and time but I believe it will happen.

This may take a long time since I have little spare time outside my work and family so I need to keep my focus.  As motivation, I already secured the domain name, a facebook fanpage and this blog.  As you can see, I have a lot of design work to get these set up, PLUS develop a real business plan.  However, my husband knows my dream and he’s very supportive.

In other words, I bet you read the picture and comment before you read my blog post didn’t you?  hahaha, I thought it was funny.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

How to add Google Analytics to your Facebook Fanpage

If you use Google Analytics you know how powerful this tool is for your business.  Facebook Fanpages has its analytical tool called ‘insights’, confined to the activities generated by your fans and don’t have any idea how those fans found your page in the first place.
Not everyone visiting the page will ‘like’ you.  After researching, I've found many resources to add analytics.  The issue I have with most of them is that their tutorials assume you know some HTML coding and it's confusing.  All I want is to put that tracking code!  Fortunately I figured it out and hope this is helpful to you..

Step #1
Add the FBML application to your facebook fanpage.  I got this off the official tutorial from Hyperarts

Adding Static FBML to your Public Profile (Fan Page)

1. Click “Edit Page” under the Page’s large avatar image;
2. Under “Applications,” under “More Applications” click the pencil/edit icon and select “Browse more”;
3. Under “All Applications” in the left column, enter “static fbml” (without quotes) into the search field and hit your enter/return key;
4. Go to the Static FBML application from the search results page (it should be the only result);
5. Click “Add to my Page” in the left column;
6. You have successfully added Static FBML to your Page.

Step #2

• Create a Google Analytics account if you don't already have one.
• Create a website profile in GA to generate the tracking code

Step #3

• Create the HTML code – I just I used the hosted version to create my code:  http://ga.webdigi.co.uk/
• Fill in the fields and copy the HTML code that gets generated
• I figured it out from the official tutorial from Webdigi’s blog

Step #4

• Go to your fanpage
• Go to 'edit page'
• Go to 'edit FBML'
• Make up a title or name.  I just call mine "Thank you for visiting!" so it's not obvious what it really is.  paste the code in the field provided
• save changes
• On your page, go to the 'boxes' tab.  You should see a box with the title you just saved
• click on it 'pencil' and instruct to move to wall
• Go to your wall, you should find that box.  I like to move it tot he side.
• Wait a day or two and check analytics.  Voila!  You should have streaming data!

My Cousin’s Getting Married!

It’s Chinese tradition to give money, but I also wanted to get them a small gift.  So we decided to get a picture frame.  I was going to  doodle a cartoon to put in it.  Better than the random stranger photo that comes in it.  Then I got an idea.  Why not give them a personally designed graphic?

Their wedding colour is green which of course is my least favourite colour. So, I took this on as a challenge. I used the shade of green from my cousin’s wedding website and ribbon on their invitation we got as a guide. I had a couple of elaborate ideas, but decided to go with a simple bird design. It was a challenge for me is to get the shade of red that goes well with the green  background. Of course personalize with flowers :)

I love how it turned out! The “LOVE” is screen printed right on the glass. I like how it overlaps the picture.

Lesson’s Learned

• Note the orientation if you use frames with an embellishment on it. I had the “LOVE” screen print upside down when I mounted it the first time!
• Always double check the proof. It all framed and wrapped ready to go. Only when I went to close the program on my computer that I noticed that the birds were transposed and had the year as 2009.

The Vendor Client relationship - in real world situations

I couldn’t stop laughing, I’ve experienced a few of these client conversations.

It’s Twyla’s Birthday!

This tiger has a special place in my heart.  This is my first design using Photoshop.  My favourite part is the heart on the chest.

I was excited when I realized an opportunity to make a birthday card using this design.  I think she really liked it!

Lesson’s Learned

• 65 pound cardstock is great for origami design cards, but not for graphic designs
• know where your envelope templates are when you need one for a custom card

Finding Jobs on Craigslist?

I’ve always thought of Craigslist as a is a free for all post anything to the masses in hopes of getting someone interested.  Mind you, my experience with Craigslist was finding a new phone and selling toys.  Not enough to rightfully say Craigslist is a pit of low quality job seekers.

Then I realized, since we are still in the largest recession in our working careers, you shouldn’t be that picky. 

So I went on to Craigslist and searched for my day job title.  Lots of postings!  Reviewing the postings, these companies are looking for highly qualified professionals with decent qualifications.

Surprising! Also there are many job hunting advice finding meaningful jobs through Craigslist as well:

How to Find a Job on Craigslist

How to Change the World: How to Get a Job on Craigslist

Maybe we will find the right person for the job, who knows?  All I can say is not to judge just because we get applicants through them, a lot of reputable companies post there. 

The Secret Powers of Time – Professor Philip Zimbardo

This is a very enlightening lecture told through a entertaining visual medium.  Time is one thing that we all take for granted.

Enjoy!

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Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.

Engrish: One Hole Punch

I needed a mini-hole punch for my paper crafts so picked up one from Daiso, a popular discount store located in Richmond, BC.  I have a habit to read the packaging and found an amusing translation!

I love the second point, test on “useless” paper!