Pimpin' Out The Jocks

Martin,
What about advertising? Like a Local Lumberjocks in YOUR area. Like the Workshops map with Your Local Lumberjock with the little red star or something? I don’t know about anyone else, but I could use some more work.
And maybe a small amount of the money made can go to buy t-shirts. I really like this site and the potential that it has.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

For the most part, though, the people who access the Lumberjocks website are the lumberjocks themselves, and not people looking for someone to perform a service. I think advertising would be an effort doomed to fail from the beginning.

As a woodworking forum, Lumberjocks.com is a great resource.

As a woodworking blog site, Lumberjocks.com is a great resource.

But I think this is the wrong environment/atmosphere for selling finished pieces and advertising services. It just doesn’t hit the targeted audience.

Again, I would encourage caution with trying to do too much too fast and with trying to spread the scope of the site out too far.

I think one of our biggest focuses right now should be in trying to get a larger percentage of the 300+ members to interact in the forums. Another focus should be to encourage more people to write in their blogs. I think sales and advertising is the wrong place to focus.

But that’s not really what I’m looking for, so maybe that’s why I feel that way. I was specifically looking for a place to blog and a woodworking forum that wasn’t bogged down with politics and acronyms and that rigid atmosphere I’d come to find on many forums.

-- Ethan, http://www.merganserwoodworks.com, http://greystonegreen.blogspot.com/

Obi, thanks for placing really BIG logo on your site – much appreciated. This is great example of spreading the word in the online world. And I don’t hate you for that ;)

-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin_Sojka/1357216976

Ethan, you’re right.. I don’t want to spread the scope of the site too much from the current state. I’m pretty happy with the current core features – projects, blogs, forums. These features in itself ensure that our LumberJocks site is unique and worth visiting.

In the coming weeks I’m planning to focus more on tuning and improving these core features and on some monetization ideas as well because as we grow the maintenance itself will require more time and money (awards, faster server etc.). I’m going to write about these issues in my upcoming blog entry.

-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin_Sojka/1357216976

Stay focused is a great plan for success.
On the other hand, an idea to support “sales” might be as simple as a statement on the main page stating that some members may sell their work and for buyers to contact them directly.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Martin, I placed a logo on my site (link below). At first I had difficulty knowing how to keep the LumberJocks logo on the top of the page.

I then realized that I could do so by posting a future date as it is this that contols the position of each post. Perhaps others that are using blog sites could to the same.

-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.canterburybaptist.org/

Great way to show you’re the proud LumberJock! Thanks for that.. each link to our site helps.

Obi, I think I got one solid idea after reading your suggestion about the advertising here. Not exactly like that but something similar. I will share it later ;)

-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin_Sojka/1357216976

This site is gonna explode. With all the effort, time and money you’ve invested, for the furthering of the craft, you’re gonna reap a harvest. May I suggest Lumberjock hats for the people that want to keep their heads from getting sunburned? or those who want to keep the sawdust off their heads?

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Obi, we already have 3 kinds of caps in our Merchandise Store – any of them would be great against sun or sawdust ;)

-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin_Sojka/1357216976

Well, this must have been a Senior Moment. I remember seeing all these cool things before but the mind just went blank

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

hey folks:
From my own experience, lumberjocks is a much more fruitful endeavor to promote my work for sale than I imagined at the beginning. What I am finding is that the traffic that comes from the lumberjock links drives my own website much higher on the search engines.

Before lumberjocks, I might find my own website as a hit at the 10th or worse page on google. After a strong summer of traffic to the website, I have moved up significantly. This has been driven for the most part, by lumberjocks traffic.

For those of you that have your own website, you need to get some service that tells who, when, how long, and where they came from, to your website. Before I had those statistics I was just guessing at what was happening. I am using www.statcounter.com. I can tell by logging in how many page loads, what was viewed, how they found my site, what link they clicked where, to get to me, etc.

If I see some traffic from a certain computer coming back to my website several times, then I know someone is interested. I watch it for a few days, and then many times I get an email from someone living in that city I had been watching, asking for a price. I can’t tell from statcounter who the person is, or their address, or be able to contact them first, but I can tell what city they live in, their ISP address, and what they have been looking at on my website.

If I were to pay extra for the information, I can purchase more information about the visitor, but I don’t want to become a spammer, worse than a telemarketer, huh? I want people to buy my work based on their love of the work, not my attempts to pressure, or appeal to their wrong motivations, or catch them in a vulnerable mood, etc. I am looking for customers that will order again and again over many years, not one-time quick sales, and I don’t want people to be introduced to me by spamming them first.

It does make you think though doesn’t it?

If “little-ole-me” can tell exactly what computer visited my website, who is it that has your computer logged into their statistics? Maybe they aren’t so “ethics” driven in their business. Is it blackmail-able information? Watch where you visit, is my advice. If you are worried, you should be. I am worried about where my computer gets logged, and it helps with my own accountability about visiting “those” websites. Ok, that’s enough of the morality monitor.

Now, back to my subject:

Since June this summer, I have logged 14,570 (as of this morning) pageloads by visitors to my website. That is not many for a big company, but that is huge for my website, and a lot of traffic comes from the lumberjocks site, on average about 40-43% of those pageloads.

Now, lumberjocks aren’t buying anything from me at this point I agree, but it is their “traffic” that my website needs so that I can be “searched” and found by the search engines being used by people who are wanting to buy something. If they can’t find me quickly in the first few pages of the search engine, then they don’t visit the site, and I don’t exist as a business to them.

I am finding now, that no one from using a google search visits my site if I am lower on the search than the third page (30th). I had one case this weekend where someone found me at the 71st item on their google search and they still came to my site, but that situation is an exception to the rule. I scanned back over their search to see who the other 70 hits were, and for the most part, were not the type of thing they were looking for, so they apparently kept moving down the listing until they found me. I don’t know who else they looked at, but I can imagine that the information is available if I wanted to pay for it somewhere.

In almost every case, my site gets a visitor if their google search finds me in the first two pages. How do I know this? The statcounter specs show me the search engine page they used, with the key words they used, and if I click that link on the screen, it will show me what they saw, and I can see all of the competition for attention around my own website listing. How do people choose to go to my site, versus another? I don’t know, I am working on that theory now.

I theorize that it is a combination of the website name, and the how the key words were located in my site, you know, the extraction of a sentence that appears in the google listing just below my website name. This makes me consider carefully what I say in each sentence, and the name of my website.

I am finding that google searches are not hitting on my “keyword list”, but rather on direct, updated words in the sentences of my website. The whole method of setting up a metafile with keywords doesn’t seem to be the method that google is using any longer. There was probably too much abuse by website owners, and now google is adapting.

You day-jobbers that build websites would know more than I do, so please share your knowlege with the rest of us.

Before lumberjocks I had no one visiting me from a google search. After about 8 months of using lumberjocks for comraderie, google searches are around 20% of my traffic now. Those people are not lumberjocks, those are people searching for something with key words that google found in my updated, text sentences. I can log those key words also, to see what people are searching for, adding sentences, or modifying the website.

Sure, lumberjock members are woodworkers, but I am finding that the lumberjocks site is getting a lot of hits from non-members on their google searches, they find my posted project at lumberjocks, go to my profile page, then go find my website.

For instance, In one week in November, I had 5 people from around the country send me emails asking for a price and description of my Nakashima-Inspired coffee table. They found my website, eventhough I never had a photo of that project posted on my own website, only on lumberjocks (interesting huh?). From the project on lumberjocks, they went to my website, and then emailed me for more information about the table.

At some point, people like myself will want to pay Martin for the statistics on the lumberjocks site, so that we can help drive traffic to our own websites.

Here is the bottom line for me about one-man woodworking shop websites: nobody finds them!

If nobody finds them, they don’t exist to the buying public. To promote activity to my website, I have gone to shows and handed out cards with my website name, I have purchased magazine advertisment. Lumberjocks, which is free, has been the only confirmable method for raising the flow of traffic to my site.

The advantage that a site like lumberjocks has for folks trying to sell their woodworking, is the synergy created by having so much associated with the site, and the ease at which people can find the projects.

If you post a project on lumberjocks, you will have more people find you than if you do it on your own website, I could almost guarantee it, but I won’t.

If Martin had a special section where all of the projects that are “for sale” could be shown, or an extra button that non-members could see prices of the pieces for sale, I am betting that it would come nearer to selling on lumberjocks than on my own website. Why you ask?

It is because nobody can find my website! Can they find yours?

However, what I am seeing is that since the traffic is increasing to my website from lumberjocks pushing people there, my own site is increasing in traffic, and I am finally getting some activity to my website from people that want to buy things.

Other woodworkers have other experiences, so I will enjoy seeing what the others of you have learned. Mine is just another opinion to throw in the swirl, don’t hate me for it. (And if you are someone that competes with me for the same customers, I hope you feel that I am all wrong, ha ha).

Enjoy your day, I need to get out to the shop,
Mark DeCou
www.decoustudio.com

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flint Hill's Artisan

Glad (and surprised) to hear that Mark.

Since my other job has me working with artists, I know that we can get along, and do well without direct competition, but encouragement, so there is nothing wrong with a little competition amongst those of us looking for more work. We’re spread out enough geographically, and stylistically we’re all different. The web, and hopefully this community here, will enable us to better meet and match with clients. Lord willing, we’ll be on the verge of a new wood-working rennaissance, and will be able to afford to make a descent living at it!

If we share what we know, we’ll all win!

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

I got more hits yesterday then any day this month from double the highest day up to 5 times more than the average, ALL ( I believe ) due to Lumberjocks.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Too bad cafepress doesn’t carry any “sawdust colored” hats… I’d be all over that one! I did notice they have added new shirt colors though, I may just have to pick up another one of my cookie shirts in grey!

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Wow, Mark, that’s a lot of information to take in! But if I read it all correctly, the increased traffic to your site doesn’t have anything to do with you trying to sell or advertise on Lumberjocks. It does have everything to do with your posting projects, involving yourself in forum discussions, and making blog entries – pretty much just from you being an ACTIVE lumberjock, correct?

I like the idea of keeping track of how many people visit my site (maybe even especially now, when it is so young) and how they found it. I’ve already sent an e-mail off to my web developer to see what we can do about that.

Without getting into some sort of Capitalism/Socialism discussion, let me just say that I don’t fear competition. For one thing, most of us are so diverse in our focuses that we don’t really compete with one another – some excel at carving, some at woodburning, some at more of a carpentry-level. But regardless of that, Capitalism is great motivation to always work on increasing your skills and maintaining an idea of “quality” in the works you complete.

I figure if I start building my client base now, by the time I’m ready to retire (another 30 years?) I’ll have a large enough one to keep me busy with woodworking! (Talk about long-term goals!)

-- Ethan, http://www.merganserwoodworks.com, http://greystonegreen.blogspot.com/

Amoung the youth there is a phase .. they say amongst themselves “I’m Pimp” not “A” pimp. In this context they are emplying that they can deliver for that is what a pimp does. He delivers. Most of the time it’s illicit, but whether it be guns, drugs, prostitutes, whatever, they deliver.

The whole idea of this thread was to get the Lumberjocks more recognition. If you have more than enough money to sustain you, then you’re doing this as a hobby. There are those of us who do not do this as a passing fancy but as a passion and also a way to provide money for the neccessaties of life. Since I just started my own cabinet shop in January of last year, I need more people to know that I’m here. I need advertising. Being a stuggling artist, I need all the help I can get.

If by putting this link on my site I can get more recognition to my fellow “artists” and possibly make them more money in their pockets, that’s what I want to do. It isn’t all about me, it’s about the craft as a whole.

Have a nice day.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Mark, consider adding your looong reply as your blog entry as well.. lots of great info. I’m going to be short because I’m too busy right now (and will try to share more knowledge from the internet marketing area later).

You’re right that being active here on LJ can improve your position in Google. As you know you have link to your website embedded in each post (it’s in your signature) and search engines treat quality links as “votes” for your site. The more quality votes you have the better your position in Google. And links from LJ will become more and more valuable in the future because you are all adding tons of high quality content each day.

The other benefit and I think maybe even more important one is that potential buyers are using search engines to search for the projects (like in your example with the Nakashima-Inspired coffee table). And since we’re placing emphasis on the projects here, these project pages are working extremely well in Google. Each project page has rich content and we have rapidly growing number of projects. Combine these two aspects together and you get the synergic effect ensuring that the projects posted here will be found by the searchers/buyers very often. And if they like your project, they can navigate to your profile easily, read some of your comments, see your other projects and hopefully go to your own site.

In summary, woodworking professionals may get more new leads by showing their projects on LJ ;)

-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin_Sojka/1357216976

Ethan, if you’d like to keep track of how many people visit your site I recommend you to review following 2 services:

• Google Analytics
• Statcounter

-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin_Sojka/1357216976

Thanks for the advice, Martin! I’ll look into it.

(yeah, and I added my website to my signature after your other post…)

-- Ethan, http://www.merganserwoodworks.com, http://greystonegreen.blogspot.com/

Competition??? I was trying to be funny, guess it didn’t work. I hope that I didn’t give you folks the idea that I wasn’t a team player.

I am not worried about competition from the lumberjocks, we all support each other, the more any of us sells the more it helps the studio furniture movement gain strength. The more people that see something a friend of theirs bought from an artisan the more motivated they are to find something cool to brag about at the next party they attend.

“Don’t ask what lumberjocks can do for you, but what can you do for the other lumberjocks.” That sounded like something I heard before, wierd.

I type fast Martin, so my looong replies get tooooo long I realize. That is why I like the need more room button. I will try to put the information in a blog entry soon, I have a meeting tonight and need to get going.

OBI & Merganser: bottom line, get your website names in as many places as possible.

I forgot to mention that one of my lumberjock posted projects got me two articles on an internet site that caters to people that look for shed antlers. This has driven about 10 people to my website so far, and it was from a lumberjocks posting as well. I mentioned in some other thread about being asked for a quote in a new book being written on “The Best Sex Ever” which will soon be a book on internationl traditions of romantic love. This opportunity also came about from the author doing internet searches and stumbled onto my Love Spoon project posted on lumberjocks. If I keep thinking about it, I will come up with a bunch more examples, but I need to go now.

Client Base: work hard on that now. Word-of-mouth has been the only sure way I have built any business up. All of my efforts to do it faster with shows and advertising have been expensive and less productive. Make happy customers every time. Also, people will respect you more when you charge a lot for your efforts. What I found was that people didn’t really take me serious until I was serious about myself as a business. Then, they started asking for more than I could do in my hobby hours, and when that list got to 18 months of full time work, I turned in my notice to quit. Lots of people are great at hobbies, but few are great at craft careers, and I found that people were drawn to that image of a working self-employed artisan more when I was full time, eventhough I had to double and triple my prices to pay for all of the overheads. I started first by charging full-time prices for 3-4 years while I still had a day job. Once I was convinced that there was a market for my work at those prices, the decision to quit my day job was easier. Still it is hard work, very risky, full of worry at times, and I have learned to trust in the Lord’s provision more than ever before, even counting my three years as a full time missionary for World Impact. Pretty cool journey so far.

Mark

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flint Hill's Artisan

I don’t think Martin really had an idea of how big I believe this is going to become.
LUMBERJOCKS.COM… The Associated Artists of The Woodworking World
Way to go Martin

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Don’t worry Mark, we got that you were being funny… As it’s been noted before, It’s so hard to convey tone.

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

YES, SCOTT, IT IS DIFFICULT TO CONVEY MOST TONES THROUGH TEXT-ONLY INTERACTION. BUT THERE IS ONE SURE-FIRE WAY OF MAKING SURE PEOPLE READ YOUR WORDS AS IF YOU’RE SPEAKING IN A VERY LOUD VOICE. HAHAHAHA…

Man, I hate it when people type in all caps… Don’t worry, Mark, I don’t think anyone read your (lengthy) post with anything but kindness and the best intentions in mind.

-- Ethan, http://www.merganserwoodworks.com, http://greystonegreen.blogspot.com/

Stop shouting! ;) It’s after midnight!

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

YOU PEOPLE WANNA KEEP IT DOWN, EVERYTIME YOU SAY SOMETHING IN THIS THREAD MY COMPUTER YELLS “YOU’VE GOT MAIL” hahahahaahaaa

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

oh, wait… it’s only 9:00 here

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

“You’ve got mail!”

made you look! :)

G’Nite… morning actually

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

I guess it’s time to list all of the projects I’ve done that I didnt think were good enough to put here:

http://www.ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/myprojects.html

Now I have to take more pictures, hire someone to keep up with the website, this is starting to feel like a real business hahahaha

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Also if you go to my site there’s a Rockler Banner. If you click on it, they are GIVING AWAY 4 COMPLETE SHOPS WITH TABLE SAW, BAND SAW, PLANER AND DRILLPRESS. YOU CAN ENTER ONE TIME EVERY DAY FOR THE NEXT THREE MONTHS (I THINK) ENTER DAILY. I’VE FIGURED IF I CAN’T WIN IT MAYBE ONE OF YOU CAN

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

My Nephew just told me that I should add Pay-Pal to my website. Anybody know anything about that?

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Pay-Pal makes it easier for the shopper to buy. Also the buyer has some protection with this system. You can go on Ebay , and read all about it. They explain it pretty thoroughly.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Thanks Dick

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

And as far as the advertising goes, there is gonna come a day when Lumberjocks.com is going to be famous world-wide as the place to go to find Craftsmen and women who know how to work wood. Artists with the skills to build you anything you want built… and in YOUR area.

The friend of mine that got me started in all of this bought me a truck because I needed one. And then to work it off, he said I could build another Pulpit for HIS church just so he could pimp me out.

This is the greatest site since www.ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Well, O.K. maybe better

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

My Website ( www.ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/ ) has reached PAGE 1 On Google’s Search when you type in “The Cabinet Shoppe”.

I’m at the bottom of the page… But I’m on the first page. God really, really likes me, and I’d like to throw a special thanks to Lumberjocks.com for helping me get there.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Yesterday my website had more hits than any day since it’s inception. A total of 81. My average has gone up from 12-15 daily to over 50. Thanks to Martin and all the Lumberjocks who’ve stopped by for a visit.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Way to go Obi!

-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin_Sojka/1357216976

bravo Obi.. bravo

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Wasn’t me, it was Martin. And internet explorer. If I.E. hadn’t had a bad day, I never would have had to load it directly to my website. And it was YOU GUYS at Lumberjocks. You guys looking around the web at wood stuff, made it happen. Give yourselves a hand. If I accomplish anything, it will be due to those around me who helped make it possible.

Thank you all, for your help and inspiration

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Congradulations, Obi. I’ve really enjoyed your website!

-- Jesus is Lord!

Well it must be working, as I checked both Yahoo and Google this morning. When I searched on Brooks Woodworks, my site was on the top of each search! Amazing!

I was also reviewing my traffic count yesterday, and see the traffic is up as well.

Thanks Martin for your great site!

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

And you guys thought I was just making it up! Glad to see that you OBI and BILL are seeing the same impact to your sites as I did from the lumberjocks traffic.

Now, just turn those “hits” into cash. I don’t have a plan for that yet.

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flint Hill's Artisan

Well since I’m still in my brother-in-laws garage, I don’t have an official shop or phone number, so I’ll keep working the little jobs til that becomes a reality.

Bill, try putting a phone number on your home page.

My brother-in-law and i came to the conclusion that making about $15,000.00 in my first year of having my own business wasn’t bad, considering that I didnt have a real shop or a phone number. No real advertising per say, so as things pick up, things will start to get a little more organised.

Bill,
The amazing thing was that The Cabinet Shoppe had a higher page than Ye Olde Cabinet Shoppe.

But then there is Ye Olde Cabinet Shoppe, Inc. in Mo-town. Since when is “Ye Olde” anything a corporation?

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

I agree Mark, trying to convert those hits into cash is a big one. I am expecting to have better results this year. I may even be able to catch Michael in a year or so.

It sounds like you are doing pretty well Michael. Imagine what a little advertising would do for your business! You would be too busy to even post on Lumberjocks (which would be a bad thing if you could not post).

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

I’d rather be cuttin sticks

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

I just loaded 8 tool reviews by Plans Now in a PDF format. You can look at them here I’m also going to be loading Jigs shortly.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

So how goes your marketing Michael? All those new pages should be upping your hit count.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

The hit count is fine, but I’m still working on getting real jobs. Money works better than hits.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

congrats Mike, keep the faith and good things will happen for you. You have too much going for you, I mean besides the gift of gab, which, don’t get me wrong, is an important part in all this. But you have some good marketable skills, a few of the right doors open and like Mark says that one miracle and away you go. Mike

-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com

I agree Obi, money talks and hits just count.

You are doing well and I expect to hear you have too much business soon! I better step my self up a notch to compete in your league.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Back to an earlier posting, I think I would add an online cart that takes credit cards and PayPal. A number of people (myself included) do not have PayPal, but do have credit cards.

Anyone else have an on-line store set up yet?

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

I am new to Lumber Jocks and think this is a great site and resource. It gives the people involved, Ideas, and a way to write to people that have the same Love of the craft that I do. Just hope that it stays focused on the woodworking trade. I have given a lot of thought about starting up a woodworking supply store and teaching the woodworking trade to people. I started out selling or still do sell Razor tip woodburning supplys and some carving tools not a big money maker but it allowed me to buy a few of my own tools cheaper, If any one needs any I will save them some money. I have not set up a web site yet, but I am just teaching some of the basics to people and wanted a way to pass along items cheaper for the people wanting to learn some of the trade

-- vlee2@ford.com

Hey Bill, last week’s Mod Bee had a insert with a furniture ad in it. Room Sourse (I think) and I’ve been commissioned to build the pine coffee table in it. Only I’m making it out of Hickory w/ Walnut paneled drawers. So far I’ve been given $800.00 and I’ll probably make another $200.00 on it. This is as close to starting up the store as I’ve gotten so far, along with the web site.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Very cool Obi! It sounds like business is really picking up for you! You must be doing things right!

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

I wonder what other methods people have used to “pimp out” their business? Do brochures work? Have you sent samples to anyone for a look? Any more thoughts on the subject?

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

I read this blog from time to time (subscribe to the rss feed, cause otherwise I’d never get back to it.) some of the entries have been/could be helpful.

http://www.artbizblog.com/

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

This whole thing was basically to get other jocks to realize that maybe they had family members in other parts of the country that might want something built and suggest other Lumberjocks to do it.

For example if I had family members in Kansas and they wanted something custom made, I could suggest Mark, giving him an opportunity to make some money and feed his family.

The problem these days and it’s everywhere is that people are so selfish and conceited and closed minded that if it doesn’t directly affect them it doesn’t matter. And it has even crept into the church. I was talking to a friend of mine and when I mentioned making things and hiring from within the church she implied that the people from her church (of which I’m one) were too incompetent to hire.

Now that I’ve found out that my work is worse than Wal-Mart’s I might as well go crawl off and die a total failure… NOT!

Another thing is that sometimes you have to draw people a map, pictures included to show them that this is a marketing gold mine, if utilized properly.

If I knew where you lived, and I had pictures of your work to show others, there is a possibility that I can send business your way.

And just as I get ready to go back to the shop, let me explain something.

AFFILIATES. IF YOU BUY SOMETHING FROM ROCKLER BUY IT FROM A LUMBERJOCK’S WEB SITE. YOU ARE GOING TO PAY THE SAME AMOUNT BUT ROCKLER GIVES THAT LUMBERJOCK 10%. I’D HAVE SUGGESTED MINE, BUT LET’S HELP MAKE MARTIN SOME MONEY BY BUYING YOUR ROCKLER ORDERS FROM LUMBERJOCKS.COM SO HE CAN GET PAID FOR ALL OF HIS TIME AND EFFORT

And that’s all I have to saaay about thaaat

Have a nice day.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Last Sunday my website got 159 hits… almost doubled my highest hit count of 81 and since then I’ve been averaging 55 hits per day up from an average of about 15.

THANK YOU LUMBERJOCKS

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Man, you guys have been busy on this thread since I’ve been out of town…Good Stuff !!!

Add me to your list of visitors Obi, nice website. I have a page on my site for Woodworking Webites, I’d be Happy to add your site to it – click here to view my page – http://www.sawhorseworkshop.com/linkswebsites.html ....and anyone else who has a site, I’d be glad to add a link and I would be grateful if you would add one back to me from your site.

-- Sawhorse - Sulphur Springs, TX - www.sawhorseworkshop.com

Sure thing Sawhorse, sign me up too.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

trade links? you betcha!

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Thanks we all need all the advertiseing we can get

-- Robert, mountainwoodcarving@netzero.net

Dont forget about MsD’s posting to promote small companies.

You can get a small ad in an eMag with your logo linking to your website for $0.00. Yep $0.00.

The “Get” :The business gets a small ad in the December eMag, with their logo linking to their website.

The “Give” :In exchange for this free promotion all they have to do is forward the eMag to their business mailing list!

The “Goal” :of course we want to continue to spread the word about LumberJock.com and, as always, we want to support the small businesses who may be just starting out or are just simply a small business in this world of big corporations.

http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/MsDebbieP/blog/2578

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

Wow … So much to take in. Having a website has been a great boost to expanding my client base and reaching customers. The best traffic I have received has come from advertising on creigslist. I have had many inquiries that have come from Lumberjocks and projects I posted here. I offer paypal buttons and there are many people who buy using this method and paypal will except credit cards. Lumberjocks is a great site and I strongly believe that as a group networking together each of us can improve our own businesses and those of our fellow members. I am proud to display the logo and link on my site.
Thanks OBI (and everyone els)

-- Ron, Twain Harte, Ca. Portable on site Sawmill Service http://westcoastlands.net/Sawmill.html http://westcoastlands.net/SawBucks2/phpBB3

Well, Ron, I just added your site and Mark’s to my home page. I think Bill’s, Scott’s and Sawhorse’s are next.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/