CheapTweet Blog

It’s that time of year again. The time when kids (and their parents) get ready to head back to school. And this year, it’s a particularly tough time for many families. Belts are tighter, budgets are smaller, and people are trying harder than ever to save money on back to school shopping.

Through the month of August, we’re going to be running a number of special back-to-school promotions and partnering with a lot of great companies to bring you the best and biggest back-to-school savings we can find.

The first of these promotions is with Football Fanatics, one of our CheapTweet Stores. Football Fanatics is running a special back-to-school discount, just for CheapTweet users: get free 3-day shipping on orders over $75.  They have great deals on sports gear, so your kids can go back to school supporting their favorite teams. I love this girls replica Texas jersey, for example. Back to school time does coincide with the start of football season after all, which is especially important here in Texas.

We also have a special Back To School category on CheapTweet, where you can browse through all the school-related deals on our site. There are deals on everything your kids need, from clothing and fashion, to school and office supplies, to backpacks, gifts, sports equipment and much more. If you want the savings delivered straight to you, sign up for an RSS feed of back-to-school deals.

As always, we’ll also be tweeting lots of great deals to help you save money. So make sure you follow us on Twitter and get ready for the best deals we can find on back-t0-school items.

This week, we talked to Alisa Treasurefield (@treasurefield). Alisa is a jewelry designer who lives in a very small town where she’s a mom to two delightful, teen-aged boys. One of her greatest sources of pride is how they’ve grown to be creative, inventive and resourceful, as well as good-humored! Alisa designs and sells jewelry and other treasures in her Treasurefield Etsy shop. You can also find her on Flickr and on her blog.

How did you get started making jewelry and other kinds of artwork?

I guess the jewelry was just a natural progression for a girly-girl sort like me!  I also like working small, so wearable art is perfect. I started drawing at a young age, maybe following the lead of my mom who is talented and artistic with many media, especially sewing and crochet.  My dad has always had a knack for wood projects and building.  I suspect a little of both my parents rubbed off on me.

Tell us a little bit about your artwork. What sorts of pieces do you specialize in?

For the past few years I’ve specialized in polymer clay jewelry.  I call my pieces “sculptural” because I often start with a lump of clay and just see what it becomes. I also do a lot of sketching that I later turn into jewelry. Lately, I’m getting back to the drawing and painting, and trying my hand at sewing and fabric art. I like to be challenged, so I try new things.  Hopefully, that keeps me and my art from becoming too boring.

Where do you get your inspiration?

Like so many other artists, nature is a huge source.  I’m also inspired by other art out there; whether ancient art or architecture, poetry, literature, my kids’ creations, or the things contemporary artists are doing.  I like to see how these ideas can morph under the influence of my mind and hands. Also, my imagination flows like a river when I close my eyes at night, but I’m not sure where THAT comes from!

How do you market or promote your work?

Flickr and my blog are the places I “Show & Tell” about my newest creations. I’ve exchanged links with other bloggers; occasionally, I place ads on blogs and other sites.

How do you use Twitter to help with your artwork and your business?

I always announce my special sales on Twitter, and sometimes tweet about what I just made.  I’ve been known to ask for input on ideas, too. I love the community aspect of Twitter and the people I’ve gotten to know there, so I mostly use it to connect with like-minded artists and business-owners.  I’ve found them to be incredibly supportive.

Do you have any tips or advice for someone just getting started selling her/his own work?

I would strongly advise anyone who’s selling their own work to be authentic in their creations, and to be positive in the image they convey to the rest of the world.  Tap into that part of you that’s happy and enthusiastic, that very thing that causes you to be creative in the first place.  The world is hungry for that. Never be afraid to share that part of yourself!

At CheapTweet, we’re always looking for interesting sellers, retailers and artisans to showcase in our weekly interview series. If you’d like to participate, send us a note!

This week, we teamed up with Perpetual Kid to give away 20 $25 gift cards to PerpetualKid.com. Now that the contest is over, we’d like to congratulate the winners! Enjoy your gift cards, everyone.

The full list of winners:

@mch710
@melohyellow
@gratziella
@angiesmusings
@empalomo
@madisonsmixtape
@smittenbeauty
@one_of_three
@jaesdesign
@sarahspann
@silkdress
@lisalmg
@jensaysrarrr
@jktang
@mom2chunkymonky
@catnmouse
@thriftyjinxy
@condoblues
@moonrock
@bkitchman

Thank you to everyone who entered! And be sure to keep following both @CheapTweet and @Perpetual_Kid to get updates on fun new products and all the latest deals.

Yesterday there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about contests on Twitter, which is oddly well-timed, because we’ve been talking about this a lot in the CheapTweet offices lately. What’s the best kind of Twitter contest and more importantly, how effective are contests on Twitter?

The types of Twitter contests

Right now – and this changes quickly – there are four main types of the simple Twitter contest: sign-up forms, follower gathering, retweets, and hashtags. There are certainly others, but these seem to be the most popular at the moment.

Sign-up forms are a fairly old-school tactic that encourage people to sign up to be entered to win a prize. It’s a quick, easy way to build your contact list for newsletters and company mailings. People can be hesitant to enter email addresses or even Twitter names for fear of spam, so be clear why you’re collecting contact info and what you will do with it.

Follower gathering is a Twitter version of the traditional “when we reach X goal you win” promotion. In this case, participants are eligible to win when the target Twitter account reaches a certain number of followers. Followers are encouraged to tell their friends to follow the target account.  The more complex contests involve multiple goal tiers with increasingly valuable prizes.  Sometimes these can seem like blatant popularity contests, so think carefully with your wording of contest rules.

Retweets are one of the best forms of viral marketing on Twitter. They are fast and simple and they put your message in front of your followers’ followers.  The goal is to get your followers to promote your promotion for you. Everyone who retweets the promotional tweet is entered to win. The trick with this kind of contest is to make the promotional tweet as interesting, valuable and transparent as possible. People don’t want to spam their followers any more than you do.

Hashtags are another way you get your followers to promote your contest for you.  On Twitter, a hashtag is a hyperlinked keyword. Any word that starts with a pound sign (#) becomes a hashtag, which becomes a clickable link to all other mentions of that word. It’s instant advertising; if that hashtag shows up in someone’s Twitter stream, that person can click on it and see everything everyone else has said with that hashtag. If someone sees a particular hashtag often enough, they’re likely to use it themselves. This type of contest can work very well, as Moonfruit saw recently, if you allow users to tweet whatever they want as long as they use the hashtag. The catch here is that they might tweet negative or totally unrelated things with the hashtag.

What we’ve learned so far about Twitter contests

The Twitter contest is typically a fairly inexpensive and fast way to build awareness of a brand or Twitter account. Prizes don’t have to be expensive (though, like in any other contest, better prizes get better results), and these contests take minimal effort to oversee.

A good example of a recent successful Twitter contest is the #moonfruit promotion from early July; anyone who used the #moonfruit hashtag was entered to win.  At the height of the contest, the Moonfruit Twitter account (@moontweet) had more than 47,000 followers. Two weeks later, and they’re down to 33,000. That is still a huge number, considering they started with just about 400 followers.  Moonfruit gave away 10 Macbook Pro laptops to earn those numbers, which is a pretty hefty prize, but they’re reporting increases in site traffic and paying customers.

We’ve done several Twitter contests in partnership with CheapTweet sponsors, and they’ve worked well. We see increased traffic to CheapTweet.com and more Twitter followers. In fact, we like contests so much that we’re running one right now with Perpetual Kid (which happens to be one of our favorite websites, as well as a CheapTweet Store).  We try to only promote companies and products that we like and we hope our followers will like. And we try to space contests out; we don’t want to flood our stream with contests and giveaways. People like free stuff, but they don’t like incessant advertising in their Twitter streams.

So, do Twitter contests work?

The short answer is yes, they can work. The long answer is well, they kinda work, for a limited time. The even longer answer is they work well considering the time and effort it takes to run them, and are a great way to get some fast and often significant buzz on Twitter, but it can be short-lived.

I just don’t think the simple retweet or hashtag contests have much life left in them. My Twitter stream is filled with contests and promotions, which is fine for now. But I think we’re quickly reaching the saturation point for the kinds of contests we’ve seen so far. This is not to say the Twitter contest is dead, but they will have to change form to remain effective. It’s what we’ve seen for everything on Twitter so far – what works in the beginning is not going to work a few months later.

So, if you’re thinking about running a Twitter contest, do it now! There’s still plenty of opportunity to find new followers and expose your brand to a large, new audience. But as fast as things change on Twitter, I expect that the “retweet or use this hashtag this to win a prize” contest won’t be as alluring in a few months as it is now.

This week we talked to Shelly, founder of Go-Girl, a line of “on the go beauty products for the diva in all of us.” Shelly was raised in Los Angeles, was an event planner for 10 years and then left event planning to start Go-Girl. Go-Girl has been featured in dozens of fashion and beauty magazines and blogs. Check out Go-Girl’s store and follow Shelly on Twitter.

And just for CheapTweet readers, Shelly’s offered a discount code for 10% off! Use code ‘GOGIRL’ when making your purchase.

How did Go-Girl get started?

I started Go-Girl after I created the lint on the go sheets.  They became such a success I decided to create more problem solvers. These include products like the smudge-sponge that removes deodorant smudges from clothes, oil blotting sheets, doubled-sided apparel tape and lots more practical beauty items.

Where do you get your inspiration?

I have always had a creative niche to me, hence the event planning.  It really just hit me one day after pulling hair off my clothes… why doesn’t someone create lint sheets?

How do you market or promote your store?

Through blogs and magazines primarily. I am in contact with all the magazines’ editors and inform them of our latest products and remind them that I’m here. Each month it gets better as I get more editorial coverage.

How do you use Twitter to help with your business?

I make contact with lots of fashion and beauty blogs and that seems to have spread the word considerably.

Do you have any tips or advice for someone just getting started with her/his own business?

If you have an idea, just go for it.  No matter what the obstacles are, just do it at your own pace.  Don’t listen to negativity – just do it.

PerpetualKid.com and Cheaptweet.com have joined forces for a Gift Certificate Giveaway, exclusively on Twitter this week.

Win a $25 PerpetualKid.com gift certificate!  We’re giving away $25.00 gift certificates to 20 lucky winners who follow both @Perpetual_Kid and @CheapTweet on Twitter.

When: Starting today (Monday, 7/20/09) and ending at 12:00 p.m. EDT on Friday (7/24/09)
Where: Twitter – of course!
How: Follow these simple steps.

1. Follow both @Perpetual_Kid and @CheapTweet on Twitter
   
2. Tweet the following: “I entered the @Perpetual_Kid and @CheapTweet Midsummer Giveaway just by following them! http://bit.ly/QjFZr #PerpetualKid”
3. That’s it! You’re done!

On Friday (7/24/09), 20 winners will be chosen at random to receive their $25.00 gift certificate to PerpetualKid.com! Winners will be notified by Twitter, so keep checking your Twitter account on Friday. Good luck!

In case you missed any of them, here’s a recap of the (hopefully) interesting links we’ve posted on Twitter the past two weeks.

A comparison of credit cards vs. debit cards from @bargainr [hint: he likes credit cards better]

How to take better baby photos: Expert tips on taking better pictures of little subjects from the NY Times

An article from Retail TouchPoints discussing various social media campaigns by retailers, mentions @wholefoods and @cotweet

Some useful tips on how to deal with difficult customers from @JCKMagazine

Here’s a guide to using Twitter #hashtags from @mashable

This week, we interviewed Theresa Cole (@michiganhemp), the owner of Michigan Hemp, an online hemp jewelry shop.

Theresa is a Michigan-based hemp jewelry designer. She is almost 33 years old, married to the man of her dreams, mom of two boys, step mom of three boys, and is pursuing her bachelor’s degree through Oregon State University’s online program.  A few of her favorite things are sunsets over water, the smell of fresh cut grass, and the smile of a child. Theresa sells hemp jewelry though her Etsy shop. You can also find her on Twitter, Zibbet and her blog.

How did you get started making jewelry and other kinds of artwork?

About six years ago, my husband and I went to an arts and crafts show where I fell in love with an adorable little hemp necklace.  I was ready to buy it until I happen to look at the price.  It was way too expensive for such a tiny, simple necklace with only wooden beads on it.  It was at that moment that I realized that I could make better items from better supplies and offer them at better prices.  On our way home from the show, we stopped at the craft store and I have been making hemp items ever since!

Tell us a little bit about your artwork. What sorts of pieces do you specialize in?

Hemp jewelry is what I would consider “my specialty”, but I also make keychains, and my favorite: “Soulful Sandals”, which are hemp barefoot sandals.

Where do you get your inspiration?

Each and every item that I make is inspired by the beads that I find.  Lampwork pendants and beads are one of my favorites, as well as natural stones.  The color and feel that the beads give off generally control the color and braid pattern of the piece.  I also try to use handmade supplies as often as possible, and my goal is to make high quality, affordable hemp jewelry so that every hemp lover in the world can purchase their favorite item without feeling guilty.

How do you market or promote your work?

The  main way that I promote my work is through the Etsy forums.  There are so many wonderful artisans on Etsy that are willing to feature your items and help you out any way they can.  I absolutely love the Etsy community!

How do you use Twitter to help with your artwork and your business?

Twitter is a wonderful tool to help get to know fellow artists and get the word out about your business at the same time.  I usually tweet at least a few times a day and have met some great people on twitter.

Do you have any tips or advice for someone just getting started selling her/his own work?

Ask lots of questions!  When I first started selling my jewelry online, I had no idea what I was doing.  Over the last five months, I have learned a tremendous amount through asking questions in the Etsy forums!  If you are wondering about ANYTHING, the people there will help you through every step!

At CheapTweet, we’re always interested in talking to people who have their own stores or sell handmade or unique items. We’re looking for sellers and retailers of all kinds. Email us if you’re interested in being interviewed for a future post.

Have you checked out CheapTweet Stores yet? CheapTweet Stores combine deal tweets and other tweets from a brand with what everyone else on Twitter is saying about them, all in one convenient shopping destination on CheapTweet.

Since we launched CheapTweet Stores two weeks ago, we’ve added some great new brands!  We started things off with these three awesome Stores:

DealTaker – all kinds of coupons and deals

Overstock – discounts on everything from bedding to electronics to clothing

VacationRentals – cheap vacation rentals all over the world

Since then, we’ve added several more great new Stores:

American Musical Supply – deals on musical instruments and deals

Football Fanatics – lots of sports team merchandise

Mack’s Prairie Wings – waterfowl decoys, hunting gear and accessories

Perpetual Kid – fun toys and gifts for grownups

There’s really something for everyone! And there are lots more on the way. We’ll have more Stores to announce in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

If you’re a retailer and you use Twitter, we’d love to open a CheapTweet Store for your store or brand.  Read more about Stores and request your own CheapTweet Store.  Contact us at sponsors [at] cheaptweet [dot] com if you have any questions.

This week, we talked to Karine Large (@saronti), a director at Saronti Books, a unique personalized book seller based in London.  Karine says Saronti is all about making families giggle.  They take photos from your family, your school or even your favorite football players, cut out the faces and stick them on storybook illustrations. Their books make thoughtful and unique gifts. In addition to their online store, you can find them on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

How did you get started making personalized children’s books?

Saronti Books began in 2002, when Sandie’s youngest son yelled “Mum, make me a book”.  Having been writing her own stories for a couple of years, Sandie (Saronti books’ author) adapted one to include him and his brother. This grew to include all the family. He took the book into school and the next day she was mobbed by people wanting to know where they could get one. She thought, “Mmm, I might be onto something here.” It’s now some years later and here we are. We get enormous pleasure from seeing children, parents, and grandchildren enjoying seeing themselves in one of our books. There really is no better gift.

Tell us a little bit more about your work.  Do you make items other than children’s books?

As far as we know we are the only company in the world making books personalized with faces of a whole family (or preschool). There are other companies making books with a child’s face in it, but not the whole family. We are working on games and other great products with the same concept, but can’t tell you yet!

Where do you get your inspiration?

It’s easy. Sandie can write on demand! I think she gets up at night with some new story ideas.

How do you market or promote your business?

We try everything. We have a very limited budget so we tend to focus on social media, mass mailing, link exchanges, reviews, etc…

As a bit of viral marketing, we recently created a Family Fun section on our site with kid’s online games, music, recipes, kid’s jokes, printable coloring, funny videos, mum’s gossip and more!  Customers seem to love it!

We have profiles on the usual MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, BT Tradespace and of course, best of all, Twitter.

We’re constantly looking to grow our list of resellers and to create partnership with new photographers.

How do you use Twitter to help with your business?

We started Twitter thinking we’d increase sales, but we were wrong. But the amount of people we met has been an absolute delight. We met really interesting people from different areas, exchanged ideas, learned a lot! Twitter is also fab when it comes to asking customers’ opinion. When I make a change on the website, for example, I just tweet to ask what they think. It’s amazing to get such a close connection with potential customers. Tweeting regularly about fun stuff, making people giggle and promoting the “Family Fun” section on our site has increased traffic dramatically! Twitter is such a powerful tool.

Do you have any tips or advice for someone just starting her/his own business?

Get a site up – even if it’s simple. Don’t spend too long on it – no point having a good site if no one knows it’s there. Loads of hosting companies will give you a site builder (even e-commerce) for free. Spend your time and effort on PR, viral marketing, social media and advertising if you can afford it. Let the world know you exist! If that works, then spend some more money into redoing a more professional website perhaps.