Quilting Business Blog » Quilting Websites

What Would Your Life be Like if You Had a Bigger Piece of the More than $3.3 Billion Quilting Market?

Charlotte Colmon — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:35:03 +0000

Have you ever stayed awake at night thinking about how to get your quilting business up and running?

Are your revenues down because of the economy?

Are you working hard to get your business off the ground, but feel like you are treading water?

Do you have excellent customers who move away and you never hear from them again?

Do you think about setting up a website but have no idea where to start?

Are you trying to market your quilting unsuccessfully to a local community that is tapped out financially?

Are you ever frustrated because you have new products arriving in your shop that you are excited to tell your customers about but you just don’t have the time to pick up the phone and let them all know?

And your employees forget to tell them?

Does it seem like no one knows about your online store?

Is your community willing and able to pay the true value of a quilt?

Do you have inventory that you wish you could sell?

Do you have workshops you would like to fill?

Are you looking for a real business strategy to make some extra money with your quilting?

Chances are you are wishing you were doing better in at least one of those areas, and – well, you are not alone.

By now, if you don’t know that most businesses in this economy are suffering, and many are just plain throwing in the towel and closing up shop, you’re sleeping with Rip Van Winkle, confident that when you wake up 20 years from now, your quilt shop business will be booming and you will have a gazillion dollars in the bank (and you are also assuming that a gazillion dollars will be gobs of money 20 years from now!)

And it’s not just quilt shops, it isn’t just in the US, and it isn’t just small businesses.

When General Motors lays off 130,000 employees, large chains like Circuit City, Starbucks, and Zales closes hundreds of stores, and even WalMart lays off more than 1,450 employees, many surviving local quilt shop owners are probably wondering what they can do to survive – let alone thrive.

Today, more than ever, professional quilters and quilt shop owners like you are anxious to figure out how to get the share of the quilting business revenue you deserve.

Many of us know that the number of quilters in the United States has been growing for the past several years, and with the impending retirement of the Baby Boomers, you can expect that trend to continue.

After all, for many, retirement brings the desire to remain active and interested in new trends, combined with the need for an activity that might not be so physically challenging.

Many Baby Boomers have fond memories of their grandmothers or mothers gathering with friends, neighbors or church groups to create beautiful quilts for babies, weddings, hope chests, and adorn beds at home.

And now given more time, the thought of learning how to quilt or creating more quilts for their family and friends is irresistible.

And we all know that quilters need resources – both beginner quilters and quilters with more experience.

But how is the best way to reach them and let them know about the resources at our shops?

Most business owners agree that the fastest and least expensive way is online.

But how do you keep in touch with your customers and visitors without getting them angry?

Quilter Penny Halgren has been a quilting website owner for more than 5 years now and has developed a system of communication with her newsletter subscribers that gives them what they want – information about quilting techniques, ideas for quilts, and resources to make their quilting easier and more fun – while giving her what she wants – increased revenue.

And now she has put together her system so you, too, can increase your business.

Penny reveals all of her closely held secrets in her brand new Online Quilting Business Success System.

Because Penny loves quilting and wants quilt shop owners to thrive in their businesses, she is sharing her system, and you can take advantage of her vast online experience:

http://www.QuiltingWebsiteOwners.com

By reserving your copy now, you can participate in live telephone training calls, listen to Penny explain her Online Quilting Business Success System, and get all of your questions answered, so you get a jump start for making more money online.

You truly can be one of the few successful online quilt shop owners in just 45 minutes a week:

http://www.QuiltingWebsiteOwners.com

Building Your Website – WordPress Dashboard

Charlotte Colmon — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:48:30 +0000

After creating yesteday’s video, I realized it would be a good idea to include a quick tour of the WordPress Dashboard in order to familiarize you with what you’re going to see when you log into the backend. So, I created this quick video tour:

WordPress Dashboard Tutorial

Next up… Selecting a theme:

Register your domain and set up hosting – done!
Set up your WordPress installation – done!
Pick a theme and apply it
The right plugins for your website
Getting a Google account
Settings, settings, and more settings
Creating a graphical header
Setting up an email subscription system
Organizing your site – writing pages
Writing posts and adding images
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Wrapping it all up

Building Your Website – Step 2

Charlotte Colmon — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:57:18 +0000

The quilting website tutorial was derailed for a bit, but I’m getting it back on track right now! Here’s Step 2 – Setting Up WordPress.

From this point on, I’m going to be using a sample site called www.QuiltingBlog.com. You’ll be able to go and check it out as the site progresses. At some point, I will post all the videos on that site as another reference.

PLEASE NOTE: The first minute or so of the video has a blank white screen with some activity going on at the top. Don’t worry… the video is working, it is just the part where I’m logging into the control panel!

Here’s the link to the video:

How to Set Up Your WordPress Blog

And here’s the updated list of tutorials:

Register your domain and set up hosting – done!
Set up your WordPress installation – done!
Pick a theme and apply it
The right plugins for your website
Getting a Google account
Settings, settings, and more settings
Creating a graphical header
Setting up an email subscription system
Organizing your site – writing pages
Writing posts and adding images
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Wrapping it all up

Building Your Website – Step 1

Charlotte Colmon — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:55:40 +0000

I’m almost ready to start putting up the In A Good Way website (just waiting for some content and images), but I realized that the very first steps in getting your own website up and running were not covered – registering your domain, securing hosting, and changing nameservers.

So, I’ve put together three short videos on how I would handle this portion of the process. I use www.GoDaddy.com to register all of my domains, and I use www.HostGator.com for my hosting. In the video, I’ll show you how to find a domain name, and once you have registered, what you need to do to have your hosting set up at Host Gator or GoDaddy. There are other domain name registrars and hosting companies (including GoDaddy.com’s own hosting), but since I can’t show every option, I’ll show you what I use. Then, I show you how to change the Nameservers so the Internet can find your site.

Here are links to all three videos:

Here’s what I think will be the flow of tutorials for building your website:

Register your domain and set up hosting – done!
Set up your WordPress installation
Pick a theme and apply it
The right plugins for your website
Getting a Google account
Settings, settings, and more settings
Creating a graphical header
Setting up an email subscription system
Organizing your site – writing pages
Writing posts and adding images
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Wrapping it all up

Watch your email for notices of when new tutorials are available. In addition, I’m going to be announcing a service to create your website for you at a very reasonable price. The announcement is coming soon!

Watch Me Build a Website

Charlotte Colmon — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:56:47 +0000

A lot of you helped out Teddi with In A Good Way, the charity that works with Native Americans looking to get their lives back on track.

Teddi has been working on getting a website developed for the charity, and now I’ve decided to help out and work with Teddi to build the www.InAGoodWay.org website. And, you get to watch the entire process!

Since Teddi has already registered the domain – www.inagoodway.org – with www.GoDaddy.com, I don’t need to do that. In addition, Teddi is hosting his website with GoDaddy, so that’s taken care of as well. But, there’s a lot left to do and you get to watch the process over my shoulder.

So, over the next couple of weeks, here’s what you’re going to see:

Set up a WordPress blog to act as the Content Management System (CMS) for the site.
Pick a template to use for the site’s look and feel.
Upload all of the plugins (extra software) that will help Teddi run the website efficiently and safely.
Create a graphical header that conveys what the site is all about when a browser comes to visit.
Fill in the content of the site with text, images, and contact information.
Create an email list that will allow Teddi to communicate with people interested in the charity.

Right now, Step 1 (set up a WordPress blog) is completed. You can see the image of the existing website in the smaller graphic, or you can visit the website (www.inagoodway.org).

So watch the blog for updates and tutorials on how to set up your own WordPress-based website for your quilting business.

And, if you don’t want to handle the work yourself, I’ll be announcing a service where I’ll build your website for you. The cost will run from $349 to $599, depending on what bells and whistles you want on your site.

Looking forward to the lessons…

Chuck

P.S. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please use the Comments field below. I really want to make this as interactive as possible, and also make sure you understand all of the steps.