Vlogging, or how to shear a sheep

Today we are trying something new on here on Havencroft Farm, I am going to show you how easy it is to shear a sheep, one of my first steps in making the high quality yarn you can buy at Common Threads.

This past week, I was lucky enough to be able to spend an hour with Stephanie Crampton Buckley, one of the founders of Arkansas Women Bloggers and owner of The Women Bloggers. She went through my connections - my blog, my Facebook account and my etsy store and gave me some advice for a tune up.

One of her suggestions was start vlogging (video blogging) some of our How-to's. Shawn was feeling well enough today to come outside and film this "How we shear our sheep" here on our farm; this is our first attempt.

My etsy store, Common Threads, has been doing ok this winter, but I'd like to increase my reach. I have been advertising on Facebook, and on etsy. I saw a spike in hits after the great article in the Three Rivers Edition of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette by Emily van Zandt and photographed by Rusty Hubbard. But, I'm still looking for ways to spread the word about the wonderful yarns and rugs that my sheep and goats grow the wool and mohair for.

Also, Stephanie said, as a craft person, I just had to do Pinterest. I haven't felt like I had the time for one more thing, but she showed me how to make it easy to at least update my boards and keep things fresh. So, I did some of that last night.

She suggested that I come up with 5 words or phrases that describe what I am/do to focus my efforts and then to use one of them in the first paragraph of everything for SEO  (that's "search engine optimization" mom). I've come up with YARN, FARM, WOOL RUG and I'm looking for the other two. Wool rug might not stay, but yarn and farm definitely do. What suggestions do you have for words? What words would you use to search and find out about our products.

And then, she pointed out that how-to's get the top hits. If you look on my stats for this blog, the two top articles are "How to build a sheep feeder," and "Hoop houses for sheep shelters".

So, as you saw above, I started Vlogging today. And I combined it with sheep shearing, which is one of the major foci of my life right now here on the farm. Keep tuned for more how-to video blogs. Maybe we'll start a Common Threads YouTube channel.

Coupons, Pinterest and more social media

As Cynthia says on her card,
"Weavings are heirlooms, too!"

Arkansas Women Bloggers are having their Unplugged conference at the Ozark Folk Center later this week. We've been planning and working on making it a great three days.

I asked any crafts people who were interested to offer coupons or at least business cards to put in the ladies swag bags. Of course, that led to a whole discussion in craft meeting about what a blog was... at least I didn't have to explain the internet to anyone, though there are many of our crafts people who still don't do email.

So, I've got coupons from several shops, and I want to put them out so that the ladies can see what is available and start planning how to spend the little bit of free time they'll have. I also want them to be out there so that they don't have to have the physical coupon with them to use it, they can just show the coupon on their smart phone. But what is the best way to do that?

Look at your coupon envelope carefully.
It's a coupon from the Old Time Print Shop!

This might not be the right way, but I think I can figure out how to post them here, and then share them to Pinterest, so that they can access them there.

This coupon covers lots of different styles
of Pottery from  John Perry and Judi Munn,
 including some fired in the wood-fired kiln
 and some fired in the vegetable oil kiln that
 uses waste oil from our Ozark Folk Center
restaurants.

Of course, one of the main things to realize about computer programs, web constructs and social media is that as soon as you figure out how to work it, they will change it. So learning to be adaptable is good.

Lots of pretty choices at the Doll shop.

Original art from the Leather shop

You can order a custom broom in the Broom
Shop or pick from the fine selection. Make
sure you read this coupon for a chance to
earn an extra broom!

Great soap made in Aunt Linda's Apothecary
Shop. Buy some to take home and/or
sign up to take a class to learn to
make your own!

Kids of all ages love to spin Shernan's
hand turned tops.

I don't know if I'll have time to write this week, but look for some new ideas to show up when I do!