On being online...

I really spend an awful lot of time online now days. Just way, way too much. Most of it is time I would rather sleep, or knit, or make jewelry, or do whatever. But as an indie designer who can't afford a PR person I have to get my presence out there. I've written a bit about this before, but after a text message interchange with AnniePants of the lovely Bella Boutique in Anchorage, AK, I've decided to compile a list of all the places where I am trying to create an online presence.

This is the list of my online profiles/pages so far:

• The new shop.
• Flickr. Its an oldie but a goodie.
• Twitter. I mostly use twitter for random thought spillage rather than as a promotional tool per se, and I do quite honestly get irritated with people that do nothing but promote with it. Occasionally I will post on there when there is a blog update, and have also posted any promotional code I might be running, but thats about it.
• Facebook. I was traumatized by MySpace years ago, and it tooke me some time to get around to warm up to Facebook, but now that I'm on it, I do appreceate the lower amount of leaze on it.
• Stylehive. I signed up to stylehive a long time ago, but never really used it much, since it was a lot less user friendly in the beggining. And now, it really is just a new crack with its massive database of all things fashion and design.
• Trunkt. I only heard about this from Nea Wear about a week or two ago, and absoluetely love it. Intended both as a site for artists and designers and for those looking to purchase wholesale, the site allows for both free and paid portfolios. At a very reasonable $99 for a year price, it is something to consider for next year.
• The ol' blog is listed Technorati, which honestly, considering the huge number of listings there might lead nowhere, but hey, its free.
• I've just submitted my listing to the Hand Made Product Shopping Directory but considering the rather large size of the jewelry section, I am not really expecting much from it.
• Etsy. The etsy shop is still there, despite my not updating it anymore. I am going to let the item listings expire for 2 reasons. Jewelry is just increadibly hard to sell there, and in a Google search of my name it is the first thing to show. I really just don't find this ideal.
• LinkedIn. I have just started this, and mainly to try to widen the type of audience I might reach.

That is it for now. I know there are a million more places where to register online, but I've been writing this post for about 2 hours now, so time to quit.