New Meticulously Cut Paper Illustrations by Maude White

Fun and Random

New York-based artist Maude White (previously) continues to create beautifully rendered illustrations with cut paper, creating dozens of new pieces since we explored her work this summer. White relies heavily on thin lines and negative space to create each illustration, a subtractive process with no room for error; a single bad cut could be fatal to a piece. Her latest series titled What’s Left on the Farm involves portraits of women with objects in their hair.

White currently has work in an exhibition at Peter & Mary Ann Vogt Gallery in Buffalo, and you can read a recent interview with her over on Artvoice. (via Hi-Fructose)

 
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Zazzle product grid content: Dynamic V Static - an evaluation

I recently had some correspondence with a fellow Zazzler about promoting. He's just starting to feel his way into a more business-focused approach and taking seriously the promoting of his Zazzle store and products.

Our back and forth turned to a discussion around the pros and cons of static and dynamic (feed generated) content.

I hunted around for an example of a site using dynamically created content from Zazzle and found this really gorgeous site called ButterflysAreBlooming. Please have a look, not only for the lovely designs but so I've got somewhere to use as an example for my comparison.

What am I comparing this against? Well, I've got a bee in my bonnet about the new Personalization Panel feature of SeeMyBest Pro. This is partly because of the amazing "stickiness" you get on the pages / blog posts you can get from it. By Stickiness, I mean that people end up spending time interacting with the page and tend to like coming back. Here's the example of a static content page, the one I'll be using as I compare (the personalization panel and product grid are what was created by SMB Pro, I just pasted the html it gave me).

In the end, I conclude that a mix of both dynamic and static is probably best.

In this comparison, I'm ignoring how 'pretty' both are, and am just looking at the various benefits and dis-benefits of the two approaches. My day job is as a business analyst and this would be how I would tackle it with that "hat" on.

Dynamic web pages

ButterflysAreBlooming

• Debra's ButterflysAreBlooming site (and similar sites such as those built with the Zazzle Store Builder - ZSB). This uses what is known as a "feed-driven" product grid.
1. Dynamic product grid used (feed-driven). Different products may be shown next visit because of popularity etc changes. Prices shown are always correct.
2. Great product zoom feature (doesn't work on mobile),
3. Ability to move easily to next page of displayed products
4. The fact that Debra doesn't show product titles is a choice she made, so ignore their absence. Doesn't really matter because the search engine spiders have real trouble munching on feeds right now (and this will likely continue for years - they have no real incentive to do anything about it because, being a feed it MUST just duplicate what's elsewhere.)
5. No tracking codes - feeds don't give you them "out of the box". You have to write code to add them. Downside is that without tracking codes you can't measure successes (dreadful place to be from the perspective of promoting. Imagine going to your marketing boss and s/he says "Right, you had a budget of 40 hours to spend. Did you spend it wisely or do I need to sack you and get someone who can?" And you say "Dunno, I didn't track any sales". Will you have a job tomorrow? No and no need to guess why!
   All us Zazzlers run businesses. The serious ones apply business principles as best they can in a continuous improvement cycle. The non-serious ones don't and fall by the wayside sooner or later.
6. Suffers from people who spam their product tags and descriptions (feeds from the Z market place (i.e. not a named store) that are based on searches can be fooled by such tag/description spammers and you can end up with inappropriate stuff being displayed - not always a downside, I guess, but I don't like it.)

Static Web Pages

Karmani Designer Lifestyle - Monogram Wristlet Clutch Bags

• SeeMyBest Pro's approach (product grid with personalisation panel)
1. Static pages (if it's specifc to SMB Pro's output, I'll say so)
• Prices, if you choose to show them, won't update
  - though when you Pin on Pinterest the Rich Pin aspect of SMB Pro's output ensures Pinterest shows the right price, even if you choose not to show them in your product grid
• Great for the search engine spiders who have no trouble reading the product titles (and descriptions, if you choose to show them (config option in SMB Pro)
• lots of lovely, yummy food to slurp up
• they can't deduce it's a duplicate of what's elsewhere like they can with feed-driven content, so your page gets some SEO benefit.
• I know this because, with static pages, I get to use Google Analytics and see people who have searched on Google, Bing and others coming to my pages.
• Huge advantage of SMB Pro's static product grid - behind the scenes, all products use a thing called schema.org product markup (I have to do that to make the Pinterest pins "rich"). Google, Bing etc. love schema.org markup because it helps their spiders "understand" the product info on the page
• The downside is static pages don't ever change unless you take manual action.
• Rubbish for iPhone etc cases over a long period. This is because new models will come in and, unless you do something about it, they won't appear in your product grid.
• There's no real harm, though, as they can just drift to the bottom of search engine results - the page will still get some long-tail results (few per month but over the lifetime of your web site, it adds up)

Other features of SMB Pro, while I'm at it

1. In-built template text replacement feature.
2. Provides for different tracking codes for different places the links appear / can be shared
3. There's no automatic pagination of results - only one page, if that's all you make for a particular niche product / design. If you make more, you have to provide the navigation between them somehow.
4. Doesn't suffer from tag / description spamming because you hand-select each and every product.
5. Easy to make collections because of the hand-selection (like a complete set of stationery for a wedding, all with the same design) Brilliant with the personalisation panel!
6. Leveraging (one action by you leading to a cascade effect) is in-built through the pin / sharing buttons - your referral id and tracking code are included in all pins / repins / shares / reshares. It's trackable down to which one was used and from which page / sharing location. This is because you do that during configuration for the page (great defaults are in place already to help you).

Overall conclusion (as it affects me)

• I could build a tool to do what Debra's site achieves - pretty much do have that already with SeeMyBest's dynamic page builder feature (free and pro version of SMB)
• I could therefore do either A or B but choose B because of the SEO aspects, the personalization panel (for sticky pages) and the additional intelligence I get with Google Analytics. You can still get some info from a dynamic page the same way, but because the spiders aren't seeing the dynamic content, it's not nearly as helpful to help in 'tuning' your promotion efforts.

Remember, there's presently a fully-functioning free trial version of SeeMyBest Pro for you to have a play with. See the Zazzle tools forum for how to get access.

Fires of the Flame Nebula - NGC 2024 in Orion Gallery Wrapped Canvas

Featured Product!

A gorgeous design. Click to customize and personalize. Maybe you'd like to see your name or initials on it?

Fires of the Flame Nebula - NGC 2024 in Orion Gallery Wrapped Canvas

tagged with: stretch frame, breathtaking astronomy images, orion constellation, orions belt, flame nebula, young stars clusters, orion the hunter, awesome space pictures, hrbstslr hfflmnb, hrfptraz, heavens, star forming, european southern observatory, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous outer space picture featuring the spectacular star-forming region known as the Flame Nebula, or NGC 2024, in the constellation of Orion (the Hunter) and its surroundings.

In views of this evocative object in visible light the core of the nebula is completely hidden behind obscuring dust, but in this VISTA view, taken in infrared light, the cluster of very young stars at the object’s heart is revealed. The wide-field VISTA view also includes the glow of the reflection nebula NGC 2023, just below centre, and the ghostly outline of the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) towards the lower right.

The bright bluish star towards the right is one of the three bright stars forming the Belt of Orion. The image was created from VISTA images taken through J, H and Ks filters in the near-infrared part of the spectrum.

The image shows about half the area of the full VISTA field and is about 40 x 50 arcminutes in extent. The total exposure time was 14 minutes and was the first to be released publicly from VISTA, the world’s largest survey telescope.
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image code: hfflmnb

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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Thank You - Cigar Galaxy, Messier 8 Greeting Cards

A gorgeous best-selling design. Click to customize or personalize. How would it look with your name or monogram on it - why not have a look-see right now?

Thank You - Cigar Galaxy, Messier 8 Greeting Cards

tagged with: stars, thank you, saying thanks, grateful, chandra, cigar galaxy, hrbstslr agmet, hubble space pictures, cosmological astronomy, outer space exploration, messier 82, active galaxies

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Composite of images of the active galaxy Messier 82 from the three Great Observatories: Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and Spitzer Space Telescope. X-ray data recorded by Chandra appears here in blue, infrared light recorded by Spitzer appears in red. Hubble's observation of hydrogen emission appears in orange. Hubble's bluest observation appears in yellow-green.

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image code: agmet

Image credit: Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope

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Cute Lab Puppy Ipod Touch Case

Cute Alert!

How can you resist this cute puppy design? Maybe you'd like to see your name or initials on it? Click to customize and personalize...

Cute Lab Puppy Ipod Touch Case

tagged with: ipod case, labrador retriever puppy, cute lab puppy, cute lab pup, cute puppies, yellow lab puppy, yellow lab, yellow labrador retriever, cute dogs, cute, lab, puppy, ipod, touch, case, labrador, retriever

Cute Lab Puppy Ipod Touch Case

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Cute ponies for the bedroom and school

Cute Pony Throw Pillows

Cute Purple Mermaid Gallery Wrap Canvas | Cute Pony Will Work For Carrots Sleeves For iPads | Cute Cartoon Ponies Mandala Messenger Bag

Cute ponies for the bedroom and school

If you know a boy or girl who loves ponies then here's a collection that should give you some gift ideas.
Any boy or girl will love them - some for bedroom and some for school. Which of these would be best?

Click the image for more details and to buy. You'll also see more designs from the artist there.

Patterned Cartoon Moo Cow on Green Ornament

A gorgeous best-selling design. Click to customize or personalize. How would it look with your name or monogram on it - why not have a look-see right now?

Patterned Cartoon Moo Cow on Green Ornament

tagged with: fun cartoon cow, mooing cow, fun moo cow, cartoon moo cow, brown moo cow, cartoon dairy cow, holstein, bovine, fun cow, hrbstslr moocow1, friesian cattle

Just Fun series A cartoon cow with cute little horns and covered in a patchwork of black irregular patches. It's on a bright green background and the cow is a Friesian / Holstein mix.
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image code: moocow1

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Cute Christmas Scottish Terrier Puppy Dog Cartoon Wrapping Paper

Cute Alert!

How can you resist this cute puppy design? Maybe you'd like to see your name or initials on it? Click to customize and personalize...

Cute Christmas Scottish Terrier Puppy Dog Cartoon Wrapping Paper

tagged with: dogs, puppy, puppies, animals, kawaii, cute cartoon, christmas, holiday, scottish terrier, scottie dog, breeds, fun, funny, holly, leaf, leaves, festive, holidays, santa hat, black

A very cute little Scottish Terrier (also known as the Aberdeen Terrier or Scottie Dog) cartoon animal with a festive Christmas Holiday theme. A very cute little Scottish Terrier (also known as the Aberdeen Terrier or Scottie Dog) cartoon animal. This adorable little kawaii puppy has a wiry black coat and stubby tail that stands almost vertically. He has a bushy "beard" and thick "eyebrows". He is wearing a fun red and white Santa Claus hat and scattered around him are holly leaves and berries.

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Pixel: A Mesmerizing Dance Performance Incorporating Interactive Digital Projection

Fun and Random

Pixel is an innovative dance performance conceived by French performance artists Adrien Mondot and Claire Bardainne, known collectively as the Adrien M / Claire B Company, in collaboration with hip-hop choregrapher Cie Kafig. The hour-long performance incorporates a host of digital projection mapping techniques, 11 dancers, and bills itself as “a work on illusion combining energy and poetry, fiction and technical achievement, hip hop and circus.” Pixel premiered at Maison des Arts de Créteil on November 15th of last year, and above is a 3-minute exceprt of the shows most jaw-dropping moments. (via Jason Sondhi)

 
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Don’t Blog this Year Without the Most Important Thing of All

Blogging with purpose

original post »

On Valentine’s Day last year, Darren reminded us all that blogging won’t get you far if you’re not legitimately passionate about it. What you’ll have is a site you’re only half-hearted about and you won’t be able to sustain that for very long – nor will your readers come to enjoy and respect your work. If you’ve got passion, then you can channel it into the best blog you can create 

Recently on Twitter I was asked for some tips on what sets ‘great’ blogs apart from the rest.

With millions of bloggers creating blog posts every day – how do you stand out?

It’s a big question, and the reality is that there are many ingredients to building a successful blog.

A variety of words came to mind as I struggled to come up with my 140-character guide to ‘standing out’.

I started to list them:

• Credibility
• Share Your Opinion
• Great Writing
• Ability to Connect
• Understanding Readers
• Injecting Personality

As I brainstormed, I realised 140 characters was not going to cut it:

• Great blog design
• Tell Stories
• Use Great Visuals
• Network with other bloggers
• Be prolific
• Be funny
• Be smart
• Be first
• Write great headlines

I started to think of the blogs I love and what makes them stand out:

• Be Useful
• Be Entertaining
• Take note of your readers
• Have a different spin on things
• Be Original

The list continued to grow and with it my heart sank a little.

“There’s no one way to stand out…”

But then I had two realizations:

Firstly – I love that there’s no one way to stand out! There are no rules. There is no blueprint – and that’s what is so simultaneously exciting and frustrating about blogging.

That’s why I love what I do. Constant experimentation, learning, testing and trying new things.

The second thing I realised is that there actually was a common feature about all of the blogs that came to mind as ‘stand out’ blogs.

Passion

There are plenty of bloggers that do the things in the lists above. There are bloggers sharing opinions, writing well, with a heart to connect, with great personalities…. bloggers who are smart, funny, prolific, original, entertaining and bundles of wonderful!

But something that seems present and that shines through in the blogs that I read and love is passion.

They are created by people with passion for the topics being covered, passion for the process of creating content, passion for their readers, passion for learning, and passion for pushing the boundaries of thinking and creating.

They love… they enthuse… they delight in what they do. By doing so they somehow draw others into their passion too, which is where the real magic seems to happen.

This isn’t to say that passion is the only ingredient needed for success – but maybe… just perhaps… it’s what binds it all together and helps a blog just click.

Are you passionate about your blog?

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger


Don’t Blog this Year Without the Most Important Thing of All

Don’t Blog this Year Without the Most Important Thing of All
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What Color Is It? A Website that Translates the Current Time into Color

Fun and Random

Created by Berlin-based artist and designer James E. Murphy, What Color Is It is a website that translates the current time (based on a 24-hour clock) into a corresponding hex color value. The color of the page changes gradually as each second ticks by. This could be a great start to a watch face for the Apple Watch. (via Swissmiss)

 
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Flame-colored Phoenix Rising - embossed look Scarves

A gorgeous best-selling design. Click to customize or personalize. How would it look with your name or monogram on it - why not have a look-see right now?

Flame-colored Phoenix Rising - embossed look Scarves

tagged with: rising from ashes, wings outstretched, stylized, mythical creatures, fantasy birds, fire bird, flame colored phoenix, mythology, embossed look, hrbstslr phnx

Fantasy series A great scarf featuring a flame-colored graphic of a Phoenix rising from the ashes. This image is beautifully contoured to give a 3d effect making the phoenix seem to be lifting off the scarf!
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image code: phnx

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