Author: MSG Team

Jason & Cinnamon Miles founded Make | Sell | Grow as a resource for sewers, crafters, and artisans. The goal is simple - give tools, tips, and training in a simple to understand way.

Register Your Pretty New Logo

So we recently wrote an article about how to get a nice logo made. You might be wondering how official trademarks work, and how you go from where you are now, to an ‘official’ registered trademark. Great question. It’s a question we had to investigate and learn about too, and you might want to as well. There is a process, and it’s outlined nicely on the Fashion Law Blog. Rather than re-phrase the article, we’ll just share the link here. If you have aspirations of going from ‘home-made’ to a formally recognized brand, then follow these 4 simple steps outlined in their article.

Ah, for those of you who are putting this all together – then YES it’s probably wise to start the entire Naming/Branding effort with one simple question in mind – “Can I formally register this name as a Trademark, or does somebody else already own it?”. Going thru the 4 steps in this process will help answer that question. Obviously it would be a waste of time to create and launch a name and logo, only later to discover that someone else already has a legal claim to it.

Let us know how we can be of help!

Jason/Cinnamon

2 Ways To Get A Professional Logo

 

Let’s talk logos. A logo is important for a few reasons:

  1. If done well it conveys professionalism.
  2. If done really well it conveys deep meaning.
  3. Overtime your customers see it as a symbol of all they think and feel about YOU and your work.

I know what you’re thinking – ‘oh man another thing that I need to figure out’. The good news is that there are online tools that can help you. And if by chance you think the ‘big boys’ have this all figured out – you should realize they don’t. For example, GAP just went thru an epic screw up, which should comfort all of us – they’re human too. If you haven’t heard about this GAP fiasco, you can read this article by Marka Hansen, the GAP President. Then read the second article about how the logo change was a huge disaster.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marka-hansen/the-gaps-new-logo_b_754981.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/12/gap-gets-rid-of-new-logo_n_759131.html

Okay, so how do YOU get it right and check this important issue off your list. Here is exactly what we did to get our logo, and 2 resources you can use.

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Facebook Fanpage with a Vanity URL…

Hi everyone,

Katie J just asked us about how to make a ‘vanity url’ in Facebook – (that’s where your page name is short and nice, instead of long and random). We’d never taken the time to figure that out ourselves, so we just figured it out – shared it with Katie, but also thought we’d share it as a post.

Obviously having your brand clearly represented in Facebook is a great idea. So, here is a link on how to do it: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6109/How-to-Create-a-Facebook-Page-Vanity-URL.aspx

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new website for libertyjaneclothing…

Hi everyone,

At long last our new and improved website is live. You can check it out at www.libertyjaneclothing.com. You’ll notice our partner page … If you are NOT listed there and want to be – let us know. So let us know if you don’t see your biz represented. This is a benefit of becoming a member of The Cutting Room.  If you have a logo – cool we’ll use it. If you don’t we’ll make you a simple black and white one.

You might also like the portfolio section. We are adding links to the various patterns used – it’s almost like a visual guide to which patterns we’ve used. You might see some of our work that you weren’t familiar with before… It will take us a while to get the links completely added. …and a while to get all of our outfits included…

Anyway, we wanted you to know about this because driving traffic to your sites is an important part of our promise to you. We’re hopeful this new method of driving traffic will help you. Let us know if you have questions, comments, or suggestions…or if you see an uptick in your visitors.

Thanks again for working with us.

Cinnamon

Adding Photobucket pics to Ebay – Screencast…

Hi everyone,

Cathy asked a great question about how to add photobucket pictures to Ebay listings, (in response to our post “3 Ways to Add Wow”). So, here’s a screencast showing you how we do it. Why do it this way? Well, this allows you to add as many pictures to your listing as you want – for free!! And it’s within Ebay’s policy guidelines, so it’s a great way to save money and improve the quality of your listings. Enjoy, and leave comments below if you have questions…

[wpvideo i0CHdyBh]

Price It Like Picasso

Price It Like Picasso

Remember we said we think eBay has ‘treasure hunters’ and ‘bargain hunters’? And you want to appeal to the treasure hunters, right? Well, when it comes to pricing your items, there is a huge concept that really governs this whole idea.

Economists call it rival versus non-rival goods. It sounds fancy, but it’s pretty simple really.

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Why we avoid fixed prices

It’s true, we don’t like selling items for fixed prices, aka ‘buy-it-now’ prices. Especially on Ebay. But please realize, everyone is different and what does not work for us, might work great for you. You really have to decide what’s best for you, and your situation. If our viewpoint is helpful – great! If not – no worries – you really don’t have to listen to us, (but if it’s helpful – great).

Our aversion to fixed prices has to do with 3 issues.

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