“This should
simplify things
considerably for most
everyone.” ~Cindy-L
Since Google likes anchor text links so much, I was hoping to include them as one of the requirements to participate in Phase 3 of my Polymer Clay Bead giveaway contest. BUT… me thinks this is going to cause more stress for everyone than it’s worth.
SO… I’ve come up with a new idea involving Facebook, that I’d love for you guys to try out. Hopefully, it will simplify things considerably for most everyone.
By the way, for those of you who already have figured out how to do anchor text links… And for those of you who still want to learn, there will be special bonus points for you guys. But more on that later.
For now, what I would love for all of you to do, is to use a dedicated Polymer Clay web page that I set up on Facebook a while back, as the central headquarters for uploading your photos. Don’t worry, you will still benefit from also having your photos and links posted elsewhere… like on your personal blogs and such.
So here is the procedure…
1) When you are logged into your facebook account, go to…
http://www.facebook.com/polymerclay
2) After you click on the Like link at the top of the page, the Write Something dialog box should appear for you.
3) In the Write Something Dialog Box, there is a little Attach: Icon that allows you to upload pictures.
a) Upload your photos, one at a time (as many as you like).
b) In the Write Something text area for each photo, add your description, caption or story. Also include the regular, big long and clunky http:// web link that points back to the page on my blog which provided you with creative inspiration for your project. Usually the best pages to link to are the Tuesday posts with the teaser video clips.
c) When you are all done, then click on the Share Button to submit your contest entry. Each photo (+ link) that you add to this http://www.facebook.com/polymerclay page, counts as another entry for you, into the bead giveaway contest.
d) OPTIONAL: If you have published a longer write up or story about your contest entry (at your blog for example), add an additional comment to your Facebook photo(s) and include a link to your own blog post (the permalink url for your post). If your blog article contains additional anchor text links that point back to my blog, each of those anchor text links will count as 3 more bonus contest entry points for you. So as you can see, it really does pay to learn how to do those friendly looking, keyword anchor text links that Google loves so much.
Additional Notes…
With this new approach, you do not need to email me when you upload your photos to Facebook. I will be checking the http://www.facebook.com/polymerclay regularly to tally everyone’s entries. It will be like command central for you to let me (and everyone else in the polymer clay community), know about your beautiful creations.
And rather than tracking web visitors to identify who the contest winner will be (as was the original plan), I’m going to just keep things simple and do a random drawing. So the more photos (+ links) you enter, the greater will be your chances of winning.
Entering older photos that were included in Phase 1 and Phase 2 of my previous contests, IS allowed.
And finally, just an FYI. When you head over to the http://www.facebook.com/polymerclay page, have a look at the number of Likes (or Fans as they used to be called), that this page has already attracted. Currently there are over 1300 of them. That means your photos will be getting seen by many others in the broader polymer clay community… potential friends and even customers who will want to buy your creations.
So go upload your photos, following the guidelines that I presented above. And then in the comments section below on this page, let me know what you think about this new plan. Was the process simple enough to follow? Do you have any additional suggestions? Questions? I’m anxious to hear your thoughts and opinions.
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Sounds clear to me, but I’m certain I’ll have questions, as the saying goes, “the devil is in the details”, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.
Well, it’s 90 in the shade with 70% humidity this morning. Good excuse to check out Facebook. Can’t play with clay because it’s way too soft right now and that’s with airconditioning.
Well, I posted. First time forgot the link to here so Cindy added it. Next time I forgot to add my Flickr link so Cindy added that! Wish I could attribute this to fibro “fog” (fibromyalgia patients often suffer from a “fog”, something to confusion) but I think it’s just plain old “Huh???” And Facebook told me I was adding friends too fast so I was violating the process. At least I found the “Like” icon… Where coes Cindy find the time to do all this?
LOL….Ah, summer time…..clay on ice.
@Koolbraider: I’ve never gotten the “adding friends too fast” message. Who’da thunk? You must’ve been friendin’ like crazy!
@Jocelyn: Yep, gotta break out the blue ice-packs.
Just returned from Facebook fully satiated with close up imagery. Wow are those pics something to see, chained back to back and blown up huge. Such a treat. Thank you all for sharing inspiration and techniques.
@Jocelyn: I know—nice, huh? I love it.
Well, this seems clear to me, but where are all the other posters today? Perhaps over at Facebook, adding new pics & linking to the right posts, their blogs, or even another photo-share site? I hope so! I hope everyone understands it—Cindy has made it simpler. C’mon, everybody, and post those pretty pictures! Not just on FB, but also on your own blogs! I just love seeing other members’ work. And like Cindy mentioned, this is a great opportunity for exposure.
It will be amazing if this works out. For our Polymer Clay Tutor, this can lead to new members joining this wonderful website. They can join us in learning how to do fun & fabulous projects using our precious medium, polymer clay. This could also do so much for members who post their pictures and take advantage of this opportunity—increased visibility of their work can lead to sales of their handmade beads, jewelry, and other cool polymer clay items. So keep posting, guys! Don’t forget to add the beauties from contests #1 & 2!
I just hope that this new Facebook aspect won’t take away from this blog.
@carolyn: Yeah, me too! I’m wondering if that’s what happened today—not too many comments here…
Okay, I added some photos, and will try to do some short writeups in my blog as well. About time I started blogging again!
@Silverleaf: Wow, Silverleaf, your work is so gorgeous. It almost makes me feel like I’d just never measure up so why try. But try I will … someday my beads will be a beautiful as yours … I hope!
@carolyn: Carolyn you could give anyone a run for there money with the talent you have been blessed with. Your art is so inspiring both polymer and wire. Cindy has encouraged so much talent here.
You go get em Carolyn.
Uuuuugggs, Peggy
@carolyn: Thanks for the compliment. :) But don’t sell yourself short, your work is amazing!
I always think my pieces are okay – not fantastic, but okay. But I guess I’m probably better than I think I am, as I’m always comparing my work to all the books I have and to clay work on web pages by the “big name” people who have been claying for a lot longer than me and have more talent and so on… I have a lot to learn but I’m seeing improvement anyway.
@Silverleaf: Silverleaf as I have commented before I so love your work when I go to facebook I always go see if you have anything new. Glad you are feeling better.
Uuuuugggs, Peggy
@Peggy Barnes: Thank you Peggy! I really should get some more photos up for you to look at then, huh? ;)
@Silverleaf: I’m with Carolyn, Anna your work is simply stunning….I got lost in your photos for a while last night!! Thanks so much for posting and sharing them! =)
@DJ: *blush* Thank you DJ! I have a lot of new pieces I need to photograph and post on my fan page (that’s facebook.com/silverleafshinystuff if anyone else wants to take a look) so I’ll try to work on that this week.
@Silverleaf:So beautiful!!!
Phaedrakat, I wasn’t clicking any faster than usual. And apparently others have had the same problem; some of my “friends” said the same thing. Boy, it was easier getting a home mortgage than dealing with FB!!
I’ve tried to make Cindy’s list into five stages:
1) Write something about your beads; it’s nice to add a story.
2) Attach and upload photos.
3) Include a link to “Tuesday Teaser” here on Cindy’s site for the bead type, being sure to make it an anchor text type of link. She also asked that we not mention her name, only the site/tutorial/etc. [EDIT: Mentioning my name is fine… I was just referring to not including my name in your anchor text links. Sorry for the confusion but I just wanted to do a quick clarification on this point :-) ~Cindy]
4) Add link to your other places with your photos, such as Flickr , Etsy shop, or blog.
5) Hit the “Share” button. Since you have hopefully hit “Like” for Cindy’s site she will get a notification that something has been written on her Wall.
I I spent a couple of hours on FB yesterday just checking out different features. While reading posts on the News Feed I noticed that they were not in chronological order. Some from 18 hours ago appeared before some from an hour ago, or a day before the newer post. No rhyme or reason as far as I can see. Finally, I don’t see how you folks have time to work, blog, and use FB at the same time!!! (And I’m still work on those anchor texts by the way. Many thanks to you folks who help us text challenged ones.)
@Koolbraider: Looks good! I love how you spelled out the steps. The reason the news posts are out of order is because if someone comments on one, or maybe even “likes” the post, it gets bumped up in the feed. So there actually is a bit of “rhymin'” going on… :D ~Kat
PS Where are you having trouble with anchor text?
Oh, if these are not the right steps or if they are not in the right order, please let me know. I have another two sets of faux agates in the oven; poor Cindy will at least get to see new beads!
Phaedrakat, now I know what’s happenin’ on FB then. I’m going to do a bit of research into anchor text. Flickr has a small table showing the right symbols to use.
And now for something completely different: I finally figured out why Cindy wants to link to the “Teaser Tuesdays”!! That’s where folks can get a taste of the tutorial. Only took me over a week to figure that one out, even with Cindy saying why. (Must keep away from my set of hammers until the urge to knock some sense into my head passes…)
@Koolbraider: I explained to Freda exactly how to do the anchor text on Flickr here:
I give some instruction in the comment the link above points to. But you can find even more detailed instruction by going to the link inside that comment. It shows the actual code you need to create the proper anchor text, or link text–as it’s called in Flickr, links back to Cindy’s tutes.
You’re right that Flickr does have a table of the codes to use to format your comments. The one to use for your links is the second-to-last one. Best of luck, and feel free to contact me (on FB, Flickr, or here) if you want some help…
Okay, have an idea about anchor text now. Wikipedia helped with a great example. I’ll see if this works:
enwikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Nope, Error 404, “not found”. So maybe this:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_text
Yay! I think I left out a pair of quotation marks for the first link; noticed the copy and paste left them out but I should have added them (yup, blame it on the pc).
Now off to research dremels for buffing…
Looks like it’s back to the grindstone with anchor text tomorrow!
Phaedrakat, after reading your post on the anchor link text I found that your example was exactly what I had posted above (the second time). But for some reason it didn’t stay as a link here. What happened? I’m referring to: <a href="…..(etc.) finishing with the That’s the html you are saying we need to use? (Am going to bed now; it’s almost midnight here.)
@Koolbraider: Okay, last time. This is the third time I’ve tried to write this. I don’t know if they’re filtering these comments for code, or if something’s wrong with my computer, or what! I saw your FB comment, but didn’t understand what blog you were talking about. But now I do. You tried to post the actual code on here, but it disappears when you use an open & closed caret mark&emdash;that’s the way the codes work. I actually had to write a bunch of additional code to make the anchor text code show up the right way and stay visible. Anyway, I’m glad you’ve got it figured out now. Best of luck on your new projects!
I’m trying to post, and it’s not working. What’s happening?
Okay, I’m messing up big time—and I didn’t prove anything to myself. This will. Have a great day everyone!
Phaedrakat, that explanation makes me feel better, now I know what happened here. I’ll stick to trying anchor texting on FB, and maybe check out my Flickr stuff again. (I was having trouble last night posting here for a while but it settled down for the last post of the evening for me. maybe the time difference hit you by then.) What was the extra code you needed to add here, or do I need to worry about that?
Oh, someone wondered if FB participation might affect the community here. As far as I can see, FB is almost more trouble than it’s worth but it is a good tool to get the word out about your work and business.
I personally do not like FB. Some of that is because I don’t understand it, but also because I find a lot of it is a waste of time. I don’t have time to pan through the ‘games’. And with the postings for Cindy … this doesn’t seem to be going over so well. Silverleaf and I have posted and I’ll probably dredge up some old pieces, but I don’t see others. This does save Cindy the time it would take for her to handle these photos individually herself, but other than that I don’t really see the benefit. I don’t like scrolling and having to go to the next page, etc., so I guess the best is going to her “photos” tab. There I found some really lovely work by someone I had not heard of before: ????????? ???????. I don’t see a regular posting from her though … just the photos … and this really confuses me. Anyway, we all need to give Cindy’s FB a try … this saves her time which means she can spend more time on developing tutorials for all of us.
@carolyn: I don’t know if you knew this, but you can hide all the games and stuff you don’t want in your news feed. When you see something you don’t want, if you point your mouse over it you should see a “Hide” button on the right-hand side. Click on it, and then you get the option to either hide everything from that application, or hide everything from that person. You can hide whichever apps you want this way so you’ll never have to wade through hundreds of posts about your friends finding an injured fruit fly that needs to be adopted or whatever. ;)
@Silverleaf: Thanks a bunch! I didn’t know this. Now I’ve gone through and done the hide bit on all the ‘games’ I found. This means I won’t be bothered with them again, right? How do people have time for these things?!
@carolyn: Now you’ll never see them again, unless you change your settings. I have 400-ish friends and a lot of them play so many games that I have no interest in, or post their horoscopes (which I think are a load of nonsense) or send each other “hugs” or whatever, and if I didn’t hide them my news feed would be so full of all that stuff that I’d never see their real updates. I’ve also had to hide messages from a couple of pages that I “like” because they post too often.
I used to play a few games and each one only took up a few minutes each day, but I got bored of them and now I don’t play anything.
@Silverleaf: Wow, Silverleaf, I never knew you could do that with Facebook! I hardly ever go on anymore, for all the reasons you listed! Guess I gotta check things out again, see if I can figure out how to block things. I’m half decent with a computer, but definitely Facebook challenged!
@Silverleaf: Ya know I worried about this.. That my friends would get tired of seeing all my post and block me.. Some people just don’t like all the crowding on their pages.. I am one for sure to block the apps. they drive me nuts….
@carolyn: If you go to the right of the “games” it will say “Hide Farmville” or whatever, and you don’t have to wade through that nonsense.
I see Angela posted, as did Koolbrainer. But there are so many more who should be sharing their work. What is holding you back?
@carolyn: I have tried to share my work, but it gets returned. I use my scanner as I don’t have a camera. what address should I send it to? I wonder if I’m using the wrong address. I would love to show all of you wonderful people my work. Cindy helped me straighten out my paypal account when my payment to her was denied because I had to change my credit card. She is a gem!! So helpful and patient!!!!
I am working on an experiment, and if it turns out I’ll put the photos up on FB, if not… It’ll be back to the drawing board. :)
@Ken H: In the meantime, Ken, why not post some of your old photos to Cindy’s page? The jade photos that Cindy made into a spotlight are perfect to post there, just link back to the Cindy’s Faux Jade tutorial—that was your inspiration, right?
C’mon everyone, you don’t have to come up with something new to get points, and in the meantime, the photos draw more viewers to Cindy’s FB, this blog, and to anything YOU might have set up, like your own FB, blog, website, or photo-share (Flickr, Picasa, etc.) Everyone who has had a Spotlight, just post those same photos to Cindy’s FB.
Same thing with the photos from the first contest – the pieces influenced by Vol-014 polymer clay tutorials.
You’ve already shown the photos, so they’re all ready to go on your PC. And it’s not like you’re shy about them—we’ve already seen your lovely creations! I’m very curious what’s holding people back… Maybe people are on vacation???
If you don’t remember what you posted, go back and take a look at them; this is the link to the 1st Bead Giveaway Contest Entries.
I hope to see more photos, and have everyone earn some points in this contest! Good luck, everyone!
Thanks guys for helping to kickstart this Facebook photo gallery / contest initiative. Although we’re not seeing a huge flood of activity right out of the gate, I think (hope) everyone will eventually catch on to how easy it is. You don’t have to be a Facebook junky to make this work.
After setting up a free Facebook account for yourself, it is a simple 3 step process…
1) Upload a picture(s) from your computer to the http://www.facebook.com/polymerclay page
2) Say something about your creation… a description, caption, story, etc.
3) Include a link back to one of the pages on my blog that provides more information about the techniques you used. No anchor text required.
Heck, if you are having a hard time with Step 3, don’t even worry about it. Simply do Steps 1 and 2. Then either myself, or someone else can add the link (Step 3) as a comment right under your Facebook picture(s).
As the community here at the blog grows, Doug and I simply are running out of time to manually post all of the photos we receive via email. The Facebook Gallery makes it a self-serve process for you to be able to instantly share your photos whenever you like. Plus, you can upload nice big pictures (as many as you like)… much larger than the ones we are able to post here at my blog.
Once everyone catches on, the Facebook Photo Gallery is going to become a very inspirational resource that will allow you to spend hours clicking through an amazing collection of beautiful polymer clay images.
By the way… did you know that Facebook currently attracts 540 million unique visitors per month. That’s over half a billion people each and every 30 days! Wow! Their web traffic is somewhere between 3 and 4 times greater than Google’s, and over twice as much as Youtube’s. In other words, if you want people to see your stuff, Facebook is a good place to be.
Oh and wouldn’t it be nice to win the next batch of Polymer Clay Tutor Beads? You can click on the link by my name to see an example of the last prize won by Carolyn-F.
@Cindy Lietz: Cindy, you do want the pictures to be influenced by your tutorials, though, right? I’m guessing you don’t want photos on there that were made using tutes sold by “your competitors”? (I put quotes, because no one can “compete” with you. You’re the best! Aaahhh…LOL) ;D
@Phaedrakat: I’ll be watching how things evolve with the Facebook Gallery, but at this stage I’m thinking that it will be OK to allow the page to be used for the polymer clay community at large. In other words, if non-members are uploading their polymer clay pictures to the Facebook Gallery page, that is still going to be adding value for anyone browsing through the pictures as a general source of inspiration. However, for obvious reasons, those non-members photo uploads are not going to qualify as entries into my bead giveaway contest. Those are my thoughts at this stage, but like I said above, let’s watch how things evolve.
I’m sorry, everyone. I didn’t mean it like that! I didn’t mean the photo gallery should be limited to members here only. I just meant that people should not provide links to other’s tutorials in Cindy’s gallery. IMHO, it would be okay to post a cool picture, but not to try to use Cindy’s gallery to get people to buy tutorials from someone else. Sorry about that. Just my opinion, and I probably should have kept it to myself! Me & my big mouth… Sorry again!
I think you made a valid point Phaedrakat, and really appreciate your concerns. No need to apologize. You are absolutely correct that the contest photos / entries should be related to inspiration and lessons learned here at my site… and that they should not be linking to other’s tutorials.
Wow! I clicked on the link and saw all those photos. Talk about inspiration!
After having both this site and Facebook around for a few days, I must admit, I love both of them and eagerly switch back and forth. The more the merrier for me….
@Jocelyn: Didn’t know you were on FB—wanna be friends? I’d send you a friend request, but I don’t know your last name…(hint, hint)
@Phaedrakat: Kat, love to have you as a Facebook pal.
First, some cautions. I live a full life, lol, a lot of it based in the current music culture. My Facebook page, “Bluesuede Shoe” is set at the highest level of privacy. Why? I do not want my relatives, friends from high school, and former work professionals to find me, LOL!
So, if you don’t mind rough language, and lots of fun, send me a friends request. Keep track of what pops up before your kids tell you. You may find it best to block the comments from your Wall.
Let me know…..all here are welcome, of course.
I wanted to upload three picture onto the polymer face book gallery but I could only do them one at a time. Is there a way to upload more than one picture to a post?
@Cheryl Hodges: We can do multiple photos on our blogs, but I haven’t figured out how to get more than one photo in a post for Cindy’s FB … or my own. Cindy does that on hers … well, I guess Doug probably does it. My guess is they combine the photos and then post the combo. My son did something like that for me once but I have no idea how it was done. So today I just posted twice to get the two dove photos on Cindy’s FB.
Guess we have to wait for Cindy to hhelp with that.
@Cheryl Hodges: Since I’m an “admin” for that Polymer Clay Facebook Page, I’m allowed to upload what’s called an “Album” (multiple photos at once). But for general uploads, it’s one pic at a time. I did some research to see if that could be changed, but no luck.
Thanks Cindy; I thought I was doing something wrong. I’ve learned so much just doing all these things like having FB and the web album and a blog – never thought I would write either but I’m enjoying writing up descriptions. I’m adding another stand alone page for my other beaded jewelry which I can link to the other.
OMG -between trying to make stuff for FB, reading Cindy’s stuff and actually having time to figure out FB -I feel like the hamster on the wheel!!LOL So I may be slow getting pics taken and actually getting on FB.
I AM running as fast as I can……………hugs
@pattw: Well at least now you can cancel your membership at the Gym… LOL. It sounds like you are getting enough exercise right here :-)
I should have read further!! I’m going to try this.
@Sandra: Did you get it figured out?
@Phaedrakat: No. I tried to scan but it didn’t send. I’ll look at it again when I have more time. Thanks for asking, I appreciate it.
@Sandra: Where are you trying to send it? Cindy only posts certain work at the blog now, most of what people are sharing now is going on Facebook. You need to create a Facebook account, and then go to Cindy’s Facebook link and upload your photo. I’m not sure how the scanner works for photos of beads, but after you scan your beads, you should save the file to your computer. Then you can upload that photo to Facebook. I’m not sure if that helps or not—is that what you’re trying to do?
@Sandra: Whoops, I didn’t mean to send that last one just yet. What I meant to ask about is if Cindy wanted you to send her photos? She started the Facebook thing because she was getting overwhelmed with all the photos being sent in, and they had to be fixed just so, etc. But for certain things, I imagine she will still show member photos. So that’s my question. I hope that makes sense! Please let me know if you have other questions, too. I’ll try to help if I can…
I don’t know how to download and upload. My printer has a button that looks like a letter being sent. My son-in law will be here in about 2 wks. I’m hoping he will be able to help. Thank you for your input, I’d rather make jewelry than learn my computer. But since all of you do such amazing work, which I thoroughly enjoy, I would like to share mine too. I do appreciate your help, I thank you so much!!
@Sandra: Hi Sandra, After you scan your beads, are you able to save the file? As in, create a file that ends in “.jpg” or something like that? If not, we might need to wait for your son-in-law to get your photos uploaded. There are so many variables with computers & scanners, it would be pretty hard to talk you through it.
I understand that you’d rather be creating jewelry than learning your computer. Makes sense to me! We would love to see your work, though, so when you SIL gets here, be sure to get his help creating picture files to upload to Facebook. In the meantime, join Cindy’s site by clicking on “like” after following the link at the top of this page to her FB site. Also, friend me—Gianna Spelling (my picture is the same as it is here.) That way you can quickly message me if you need help with something. What is your last name or Facebook name? (So I know who to look out for…) ;D Best of luck!
Oh, I do have a facebook acct. I keep up with my children in other states with it.