FYI from Jean M. Judd

Fellow SAQA members,

Have you wanted to increase traffic to your web site but don't have the time to commit to having your own dedicated blog like myself? Try putting on your calendar to once a week check out the SAQA IL/WI blog and leave a comment on something that someone else has posted. Another option is to send Trish Williams a blog post about your upcoming class or exhibit you are participating in. Just a one or two paragraph writeup and one image of your work and you are good to go.

I've noticed that my web site statistics every month includes at least 10-15 direct visitors that come from my either commenting on something posted about someone else on the SAQA IL/WI blog or from announcements about my artwork posted on there that I sent to Trish. I also noticed each month that Google is indexing the blog as well and my comments show up there too so Google is driving people to the SAQA blog as well which is great exposure for all of us.

I get monthly Google Alerts emailed to me letting me know where I am showing up on the web and some of them are very surprising: one of my quilts is on a tattoo site from Hollywood (just found out about this one a couple weeks ago) and one of my art pillows has been featured on a religious organization's site for over a year. I also am surprised at the blogs written by others that reference my work and link back to my site as well and I find out about this through Google Alerts.

If you haven't sent your web site address, Etsy shop, blog, or whatever web presence you have to Trish to be included in the side bar with a direct link to your web presence, do it soon so we as well as visitors to our blog can check out your work.

I have a weekly appointment on my calendar on Fridays to check both the SAQA IL/WI blog as well as the SAQA MN blog to see what has been added since the last week. If I have something to comment, I add that where appropriate. The videos that Trish is adding are just wonderful. The most recent on is about Joan Schulze and you may recognize that the narrator is Lisa Chipetine. She has a wonderful voice for this type of work.

As another note, you may need to hit the button more than once to add in your comment to the post after writing it. Your comment won't be posted until you finally see the "word scramble" and type it in the blank field and hit the button one more time. I have found that it is usually three repetitions.

Looking forward to reading about you and your work on the SAQA IL/WI blog. I had hoped that more members would be willing to sign up take a week of writing posts like Darcy Berg, Frieda, and myself did early on but that didn't seem to gain momentum. Maybe that can start up again. If we all do a little, it will grow and blossom for all of us.



Sincerely,

Jean M. Judd, Textile Artist
2807 State Road 87
Cushing, WI 54006-3209
Phone: 715.566.0212
Email: sistersinstitches@mail.com or jean@jeanjudd.com
Web Site: http://www.jeanjudd.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanmjudd
Online Gallery: http://www.yessy.com/sistersinstitchs
Online Gallery: http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/m/maude/
Textile Art...Discover the Possibilities!TM