Business blogging: Google Alerts

I thought I'd do some irregular blogging on some information, which you might find useful or not. Most people might well do any or all of these, but I figured....why not. So, for today...have you heard of Google Alerts? I *love* Google Alerts! They are a nifty little feature of Google - if you go here: http://www.google.com/alerts, you'll see the box shown here. Type in your search terms and your email address, and I'd suggest you set it to once a day. Now, I use it to keep an eye on my business, hubby's business, and my workplace, so I have alerts running on my name, my business name, etc. - you set up a different alert for each one. First thing in the morning (usually), I get an email - one for each alert - with links to the pages where the terms I have flagged up have cropped up over the last 24 hours.

The internet is vast, and we can't be everywhere at once - and Google Alerts aren't failsafe! Still, it's a great buzz when I find that a link takes me to the website of somebody who bought some beads off me a while ago, and is now listing a beautiful piece of jewellery they made with it. Google Alerts also catch Flickr photos, Facebook links, blog posts, etc., so if one of you were to blog 'I read this interesting blog post on Sabine Little's blog' or 'the Little Castle Designs blog', I'll find that in my inbox the next morning.

You could go further and use it to track trends or ideas - but be prepared for a lot of reading and clicking! If, for example, you track 'lampwork jewellery', that'll give you lots more results that little ole 'Little Castle Designs'.

Anyway, I hope you can use this info to get a bit more info about how and where your business name is appearing on the Internet!

If you'd like more of these posts, let me know, please? Apologies to all to whom I've just done the granny-sucking-eggs thing to!

And..trying a new thing - this *should* be a retweet button:

What a difference a day makes...

...24 little hours....have I got you singing?

Some of you know I've not been well - yesterday, I should have had the results from a glandular fever test, but guess what? They're inconclusive, and I have to have it repeated in three weeks. Ah well!

This means I've not made as many beads as I would have liked, but I have spent more time online. This in turn meant that, yesterday, I re-acquainted myself with my FaceBook business page, http://www.facebook.com/littlecastledesigns - and its 85 fans (except FaceBook now call them 'Likes'). I set myself the target of getting to 100 before the end of the day, and thanks to you all, I - we - did it :o)))) It even continued growing overnight, and is now at 107!! Thank you all, I'm all chuffed! I will soon get to work and connect a shop to the page. In the mean time, I'm planning a fan-giveaway, which I'll list over the week-end, so if you're not a Fan / Like yet, do join! (but then, I would say that!) - the Like box is just to the bottom right of this post ;o)

The other thing that made me happy yesterday was a meteoric rise up Lampwork Go Top 100 - on my homepage www.littlecastledesigns.co.uk is a link to that page, and you can enter a vote, before you get taken to the Top 100 website. Now, in all honesty, it means little in the world overall, it won't feed starving children, it won't improve world peace...but it does mean that you guys took the time to click and vote for me, and that, of course, means the world!

Thanks to my sister for the screenshot of my site a no. 2......I now want to see if I can get to no. 1, of course, even if just to take another screenshot and treasure it :o)

So, thanks to social networking and you all, after one little day, I feel thoroughly smug about my online presence. I know there are others who have lots more Fans, etc., but I'm getting there. Thank you for helping along!

A new website!

No, not a new address, but I've worked hard to get the best out of MrSite - I'm sure I could do more if I had the skill, but I'm pleased with how it looks so far. In the process, I became good friends with a couple of slate place mats, re-discovered some beads, finally got round to take pictures of some new jewellery (although it's not listed yet), and finished last night at 10.30pm on the pleasant feeling of listing new beads on my new website. Hurrah!

All the work's not done yet, in fact, there are a couple of tabs still missing, but I realised I was so daunted by the task, if I didn't start somewhere, it'd never get done. I hope you like the new site!

Travelling Rose Ring Toppers

The exhibition my rings were part of at www.galerie-sam.de in Germany is now over, and I thought it might be time for the remaining ring toppers to come home. Not so! They've caught the travelling bug and like it in Germany, so I have allowed them to stay on, to be shown and stroked (and sold) at the Mannheim Festival 'Glas und Kunst im Park' (Glass and Art in the Park): http://www.glasundkunstimpark.de/ - it looks like a fab event - have fun everybody who gets to go, I'm still looking into travelling to Wertheim, if I get my act together!

Choose your future

My calendar at work tells me it's 68 working days until the end of July - annual leave not yet deducted. I've just had a fab week-end with the family - long overdue, involving fish and chips in Bakewell and a trip to Chester Zoo. This morning, it's back to the grindstone, but the grindstone will change soon. So as I look at the keys to my two current 'work places'...which would you choose to unlock your future?

Have a good week, everybody!

Here we go, here we go, here we go...

...here we go, here we go, here we gooo-hoooo! Good things are afoot, but I can't tell you what they are, you'll have to wait, but they could be gooooooooooood!

I'm back in the groove now, working during the day, lampworking in the evening, catching up on Flame Off orders. Thankfully, my next fair is now not until June (Open Studios) - so I should be in a position to make new stock. I'll comment on the post below in a minute, but wanted to say 'thank you' for all your lovely comments. I'm planning a teaching session at one of the bigger studios, so if you fancy a day of roses, butterflies, surface-sculpture beads, etc., keep a few pennies behind from that large glass order you were just about to place (see, I know you were. Are you like me? A permanent basket open, ready to check out? Frantz Art Glass are very tempting like that, they really do save your basket between visits. I order about twice a year, but *boy*, do I order!!!)

Have a lovely day, everybody!

Remiss!!

It seems all I'm doing is apologising for not blogging...so why break with this new tradition - apologies!

Last week-end was the Flame Off, and I had such a marvellous time! I left Sheffield at 5.30am on Friday, driving down to Towcester to join my friend Sarah for breakfast. In my car, I had a whole load of rings, and all the ring toppers I'd managed to make...slightly hampered by the fact that my kiln had broken down last week!!! As a result of this, I didn't have enough stock - apologies to all who came to the stall not being able to find ring rose toppers!! Becky and Sarah were great company as fellow store holders - thanks, ladies! At 3.45pm, a voice came over the tannoy, asking for Sabine Little to report upstairs....time for my demonstration, in front of crowd and cameras :o) I thoroughly enjoyed myself demonstrating - apart maybe from the hole that piece of pinged-off stringer burnt into my thigh :o)

Doing the demo was my absolute highlight...although next morning came close, when Sharon Peters gifted me with her demonstration bead from the day before - thanks so much, Sharon, he has already assumed his pride of place!!!

Friday night, I went out for a curry with the fabulous Downton family (and the equally fabulous Sarah & Simon & Becky). Becky heroically did the driving, while Sarah, Sarah and I indulged in the vino stuff - three glasses later, sleeping was no problem!

Saturday was more selling, and making a couple of purchases - I've got a new press to play with :o)) I was asked for an impromptu demonstration of a butterfly - thanks to Richard Downton for letting me use the photo :o)

And then, all too early, it was time to go home again...so many people to hug and chat to, so little time! Thankfully, I'll be seeing a fair few of my glassy friends on our holidays in Devon in the not-too-distant future. But still - roll on next year!!!