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Sooooo.....no bears done, but I've added Shelli, Jennifer, Laura Lynn and Aleta to my blogroll. Who else lurking out there is blogging???
LOL Melissa!!!! :crackup:
Yep, I should be working on one of the 4 bunnies I have in the works... but no..... I'm playing with my blog and reading TT!
By the way.... FABulous explanation on RSS stuff... and thank you for the Bloglines link! Off to start my account there!
I have a question.
Is a blog only for those who don't want to bother with HTML or is there another reason. For me, it would be just as easy to make a webpage and just update it when I want.......but that sounds too easy so I must be missing something for sure.
Heather I just found one answer to your question .... encouraging you to set up a blog instead of just making a webpage..... People cannot subscribe to your webpage on Bloglines because it has no feed!
I just set up my account on Bloglines (thanks Melissa!) so I can quickly and easily check out all my friends blogs at a glance. If you have yours set up as a webpage... I can't add it to Bloglines (just tried one and it didn't work)
Also.... there are others out there who love to browse blogs.... so it's a way of reaching some people who would never have found your website otherwise....
Sooooo.....no bears done, but I've added Shelli, Jennifer, Laura Lynn and Aleta to my blogroll. Who else lurking out there is blogging???
I've added the same, excluding myself and adding Melissa.
Back Road BearsOK , I haven't gotten through this whole thread but I've got to ask....
How do you all find the time to BLOG, have a website, make bears, many also work a full-time job and have families and other hobbies as well! Do you all sleep!?!?!?!
I've wanted to look into this whole blog thing as it seems like THE thing to be doing. But I didn't see the point as I have a website I update sort of frequently. Plus, who really wants to know what little 'ol me is up to? If family wants to know they call my mother, if friends want to know they email me! Is it really worth spending the time? Besides, what ever I'm up to you all know here... this is like my blog... TT. 
So, if I'm going to start a blog I'm going to have to quit TT, quit emailing with my friends and spend a week learning typepad to get my blog where I want it. (Read: NOT make bears for week!) Then sit down almost daily to update my blog and will likely find myself rambling on for ever about nothing. I dont' read blogs because that's what many I've seen do in my opinion.... they are just a self-serving place to brag, gossip and, well, be totally self centered! Ones with quick updates... those are great! Tami - love yours! Others just have way too much in them to sift through to find anything truly interesting.
I guess it comes down to time. Having the time to seek out and read blogs and the time to keep a blog. Can you track hits, know if your efforts pay off, your blog content of interest, etc.?
Where do we draw the line? All this internet stuff... how does one get anything in 'real life' accomplished? Am I sounding like an old fuddy-duddy who is resisting the future? Resisting technology? I don't mean to, really!!! I wouldn't have sold 18 Mimzy bunnies this weekend if it wasnt' for my website! I just find more value and meaning in my 'in the flesh' relationships, my 'in the fur' pets and my 'in the fur' teddy bears! How am I supposed to have time for them if I keep getting into more internet stuff?????
Sorry, Shelli..... your thread is inquiring about Blogger vs. Typepad.... I got rather OT! I'm not against the blogging concept and there are some great ones out there... so no one be offended by my rant! Please!!!
I've learned a lot from this thread... Melissa - you are such a fountain of knowledge! Heather thanks for asking the questions I had too! You guys have helped me learn the purpose of a blog and some of it's pros and cons. I'm seeing the concept in a different light.... just not 100% sold on it yet!
How do you all find the time to BLOG, have a website, make bears, many also work a full-time job and have families and other hobbies as well! Do you all sleep!?!?!?!
For me...I am a stay-at-home-mom (until August when my son goes to school), I have a huge biking hobby/addiction, I stay up late ALL the time, my husband works a LOT of overtime and is on two competitive tennis teams, and my daughter has her hobbies as well. My blog is an outlet and I spend a couple hours a week on it at the most. It is my only way to make contact with my customers since I don't do shows or have a website. I make my bears in increments...hour here...hour there. I admit my house is not a museum. We have tennis raquets, bikes, and remnants of our week all over the house. We go, go, go ALL the time. I have the kind of personality that if I don't have many irons in the fire, I will get in a complete funk and not be creative at all. If I have a little stress or tension I am totally fired up. My husband is the same way so it works for us.
LOL Daphne!!!
Like someone said earlier... it's just a little more personal than a website. A peek into the day to day... I keep one for my biz and one for family.... I kinda like it cause I used to keep a journal - and now it's online.
It is SO easy to set up a blog... no time at all! I chose the Blogspot one cause it's free. Im still using the Yahoo 360 for my personal one.
I read somewhere that actually just posting small bits is great - you don't have to write novels
Not everyone wants to get this personal with teddy bear artists (or other people) but some do...
Sorry, seem to be rambling here cause I need to get stuff done :crackup:
But the link Melissa posted for Bloglines is awesome! I'll just check in there once a day and can read all new posts to my friends and families blogs in once spot... quick and easy.
sewing starsWhere do we draw the line? All this internet stuff... how does one get anything in 'real life' accomplished? Am I sounding like an old fuddy-duddy who is resisting the future? Resisting technology? I don't mean to, really!!! I wouldn't have sold 18 Mimzy bunnies this weekend if it wasnt' for my website! I just find more value and meaning in my 'in the flesh' relationships, my 'in the fur' pets and my 'in the fur' teddy bears! How am I supposed to have time for them if I keep getting into more internet stuff?????
blogging is not for everyone. 
it does take time, but i have found it to be such a great marketing tool, and an outlet for me too. i am lucky i guess,
no kids or anything to take up my time in that way. you certainly shouldn't feel pressured to take part. i actually stopped
visiting boards like these for several months and chose to blog instead when i was so incredibly busy around christmas.
you should do what interests you! i just enjoy showing off things i work on, and getting the instant feedback. it makes me
feel like i am part of a community, and i connect with people across the world i wouldn't meet otherwise, but posting and
commenting on boards like these does the same thing! 
Daphne wrote: ....they are just a self-serving place to brag, gossip and, well, be totally self centered!
Tell us how you really feel, Daphne!! :crackup: :crackup:
Aleta
Back Road BearsAleta - apparently you haven't read blogs by folks outside of the bear/art community (or even some from within it!).
So nice to see you posting in the General Discussion forum again. I thought you'd left this portion of TT.
Awwww. How sweet, Daphne! You missed me.
Hugs, :hug:
Aleta
Posts: 8,574Thank you Melissa and Shelli and Theresa and Jennifer
I feel like I just had a crash course "Blogging for Dummies" Between you all you made sense and sense of the blogging phenom.
Daphne said:
Plus, who really wants to know what little 'ol me is up to?
I understand how you feel Daphne.
But one does not have to spill one's personal secrets all over the internet-what is revealed is what one chooses to reveal. And in an art centered blog what would be revealed would be about the art.
But if it is a way to promote one's art...update frequently....say a few personal things on the subject....it would seem that it quite likely will interest people interested in the art one does.
And one does not have to reveal much of their personal private life to still make a good blog, if it is an art centered focused blog site.
And Daphne, in your case, you could have had a whole blog on the Mimzy frenzy...it might have increased even more the interest in the bunnies. Who's to say?
But it does seem like a marketing tool that is easy to use, can link easily through rss feeds and keep one in touch more easily with others in the same field.
Thank you ladies. You certainly gave us all a lot to think about.
dilu
Blog stands for "weblog" and I think the idea is that blogs are supposed to be just that -- "logs." As in, something you record little (or big) progress notes in, every day, or frequently. Like a ship's log, or a medication log, or do you remember the Star Trek log -- "Captain's log, stardate 2120" or whtaever they'd say. Funny, thinking of that.
Anyhoos... Blogs aren't so much a showcase or a display of goods, accomplishments, family photos, and/or services like a website is, but rather a digital "log" of everyday STUFF and NONSENSE, whether business or personal.
There's no criticism of websites in what I say, by the way, or any suggestion that to be a complete person or artist, you need to have a blog. I just see website and blogs as different things, and as serving different purposes. I find my website harder to update than a blog but others might have a different mindset or use different programs that make website updates easy as pie. Like so many things, it's entirely personal preference to do one, both, or neither. Whatever works!!! That's my motto!!!
I equate blogging with journalling. So it makes sense to me that, like with paper and pencil versions, you either like to journal, or you don't. And that, similarly, you'll either like to read the journals written by others, or you won't.
I love having a website AND having a blog. I keep a blog so I can "muse" and show non-bear work I do, or show off pictures of my family (like my sister Paulette who is dying and whom I wrote about in the last week,) which I don't think fits as well on a website, at least the way I've conceptualized MY website. Others might conceptualize their websites in a different way than I do, and have a personal page or be more personally generally in their posts. That's okay too!
For me, it's just a great personal, stylistic fit to have a blog so I can muse and digress and explain and connect with others, and a separate website to advertise and market and sell. My high school friends live 4+ hours away and my college ones, more like 10+ -- or more. I have friends in Europe from when I lived in Zurich, and one sister in San Diego and two others in Wisconsin. It just makes my life easy to have a blog not to keep in touch, necessarily, but to keep people who care about me updated on my life. And the bonus is that total strangers can have a look-see as well, and they sometimes send the nicest most supportive comments. I got the most lovely and really helpful email from a visitor named A** (last name unknown and I doubt I'd share it anyway!), just to share her own experiences of death and dying with me as my family goes through a rough time. If I hadn't blogged about Paulette I'd never have received that message, which meant the world to me. And I wouldn't have written about Paulette on my website, or even here at TT in the vulnerable ways I covered in my blog.
sewing starsI love having a website AND having a blog. I keep a blog so I can "muse" and show non-bear work I do, or show off pictures of my family (like my sister Paulette who is dying and whom I wrote about in the last week,) which I don't think fits as well on a website, at least the way I've conceptualized MY website. Others might conceptualize their websites in a different way than I do, and have a personal page or be more personally generally in their posts. That's okay too!
For me, it's just a great personal, stylistic fit to have a blog so I can muse and digress and explain and connect with others, and a separate website to advertise and market and sell.
i feel very much the same way, although i like to use mine as a marketing tool too.
that is the beauty of blogging, it can be for whatever you would like! dealing with constant
updating of my sites can be overwhelming, but making a post with my thoughts or showing
what i have been up to keeps me current with my customers. that is why i link to my blog
directly on my site.
Posts: 8,574Ahhhhh so Shel i still need to learn coffee cup.....sigh....was looking for a way out 
ahh-You know....
d
Back Road BearsOk, I was just talking with someone about blogs and suddenly it all clicked in my pea brain in a way I understand.....
Blogs give a collector a glimpse into the artist's personal life, thus giving them a personal connection to the artist much in the same way a collector would make a personal connection with an artist if they were to go to a teddy bear show and meet the artist in person.
See...... NOW I GET IT! I never claimed to be the sharpest pin in the cushion!
Further more... until recently, I'd always associated blogs with teenagers... that is was a purely social thing for kids to do ... not something for artists or professionals to be spending their time on.
You guys have really helped open my eyes! Thank you! :hug:
(Of course some of you are now convinced beyond a doubt that I'm totally obsessed with bear shows... I'm not... but it was a way for me to think about it that made sense.)
Shelli really wrapped it up the way I feel about blogs too. My parents are always asking what I am making, my customers are always asking what is next and friends ask me what in the world is needlefelting. I feel like I can reach a whole bunch of different people with one site and explain it all there...one time. It's also my only marketing tool and an inexpensive one at that.
Further more... until recently, I'd always associated blogs with teenagers... that is was a purely social thing for kids to do ... not something for artists or professionals to be spending their time on.
I had somebody tell me I should get a MySpace account and I almost laughed in their face. I associate that with teenages and a bunch of nonsense as well as crime. But blogging to me WAS the epitome of professional journaling for a lot of talented folks and people with incredible traveling adventures. You can reach a lot of people through your blog at one time without having to email individuals.
Daphne...it's time for you to get a blog so we can add you to our list!
Blogs give a collector a glimpse into the artist's personal life, thus giving them a personal connection to the artist much in the same way a collector would make a personal connection with an artist if they were to go to a teddy bear show and meet the artist in person
Yep indeedy....I think for me that's the key thing. I live literally a world away from most of my collectors and at times like now, when I am super busy sewing bears...but not putting them on my website, as they are for shows/bid4bears it's a great way for me to keep connected with my collectors, and reassure them that I AM still alive and sewing. Also, it's a way for me to show some of the other creative things happening in my life and a great way to connect with like-minded people in those crafts where I don't have a teddy talk type forum for inspiration.
You won't be finding too much of me and my personal life as such on my blog (i am a repressed middle-class anglo-saxon after all! ) plus it's just too sad to inflict on anyone :crackup:
Back Road BearsDaphne...it's time for you to get a blog so we can add you to our list!
I'll add it to MY list...... my 'To Do' list that is! :crackup:
Tami Eveslage Original Teddy BearsDaphne wrote;
How do you all find the time to BLOG, have a website, make bears, many also work a full-time job and have families and other hobbies as well! Do you all sleep!?!?!?!
I just started a blog as an addition to my new website for pretty much all the reasons other folks have listed; it's a way to be a little more personal than on my website, it's easy for me (a person with no technical prowess) to update, and well I like to be introspective and to write.
But Daphne, I think we are all trying to figure out just how to fit it all in! That comes with being creative divergent thinkers too! It could get you into trouble, but hey it's fun! Here is an example...I while back, when I first noticed Jennifer's (nimbleknot)absolutely precious and original creations here on TT, I decided to check out her website. I got wrapped up in reading her blog and saw that she was building a dollhouse! Oh!! I love dollhouses! Jennifer had a link to the blogger who inspired her to build a dollhouse, and oh! oh!, look how cute an whimsical that dollhouse is...and before I know it, I'm scouring ebay looking for a dollhouse kit!!! Do I have time to build a dollhouse? Let's see between the family, the B4B campaign coming up, and grad school...he** no!!! :crackup: :crackup: I came to my senses and didn't buy a kit. I decided I'd have to build a dollhouse when I retire!!!! But it was a fun little trip. I think bogs are great!
This has made very interesting reading, thank you! I've just started my blog too ... it's very basic at the moment and I have no sense of direction for it, so I'm just going to ramble and see where it leads me.
If you'd like a peek, this is the address. I've used blogspot because it was nice and easy to get to grips with! A couple of the others I tried drove me nuts in a very short space of time.
I'd love to include swap links with other bloggers, once I've worked out how to! 
Tami Eveslage Original Teddy BearsI'd love to include swap links with other bloggers, once I've worked out how to! :thumbsup:
Me too!
I love how you gave a little background on yourself and your bear journey, Paula. That was probably a good idea, and your baby picture is darling! My story would be similar because my Teddy passion began with my childhood bear too. (I was six when I got him)
Glad you liked it Tami! I'm just finding out how consuming these things can be! I've spent the past hour or so playing with my blog instead of working ... tut tut!! Mind you, half the time was spent trying to upload multiple pictures exactly where I wanted them, rather than where the software wanted them to be ... grrrr!!
I've spent the past hour or so playing with my blog instead of working ... tut tut!!
tee hee....I know the feeling.
I've added everyone (I think) to my blogroll....if I have missed anyone let me know.
Right I AM off to sew : )
