Disney sues family-owned company over trademark infringment

If you read yesterday’s post and thought “that won’t ever happen to me,” think again. In July, Disney sued a small, family-owned company, Kool Klown Party People, for advertising and using what they perceived to be Tigger and Eeyore costumes the company purchased on eBay to use at children’s parties.
Granted, Disney gave them several warnings [...]

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A Hot-Button Issue: Copyright and Trademark Infringement

I was browsing the Etsy forums recently when I found myself in a thread that turned quite ugly. That was sad.
The thread focused, however, on copyright and trademark infringement by using images owned by companies like Disney and Sanrio (the Hello Kitty people). I think that anything someone does creatively is a great thing, and [...]

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Watch Pat O’Bryan’s Internet Business Unseminar5

There are a couple of Internet marketing guys I follow because I like to learn new things and reinforce what I already know. I like Joe Vitale, Craig Perrine and Pat O’Bryan a lot.
This weekend I was hoping to be at Unseminar5, where they are all speaking, in addition to Eric Farewell and Ben Mack [...]

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Business Planning Lessons From Weight Watchers

I’m not very organized. I’ll admit that right up front. Honestly, I don’t know many creative people who are. I don’t like to plan and I’m easily distracted. Like, for example, right now, I should be completing the orders that I promised myself I would get done today (I so need deadlines to get anything [...]

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Weeding Through the Blogs and Finding a Treasure: Seth Godin

I read lots of blogs when I have the time. I wish you could get paid to read blogs. It’s so much fun and there’s so much to learn.
But sometimes, when there’s just not enough time, you have to be a little choosy. There is one blog though that I read religiously, no matter how [...]

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Communication Is The Key To Happy Customers

I’m so angry at my son right now. He took my car last night to go to work (his is not running) on the terms that he’d be home by 7:00 am, so I can get my daughter to work and myself to work on time. It’s 8:05 and he won’t be home for at [...]

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Selling crafts on eBay or Etsy? Don’t miss this promotional opportunity!

About a month ago, I sent out an order to a repeat customer (my favorite kind!) While she loved the album as always, this one was a rush order for her, and I made the mistake of throwing the album into a plain plastic bag and just sending it. She was very disappointed that it [...]

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Submitting Your Etsy Store Or Website to Google

Reading the Etsy forums today, I came across a post from momomatic, who had some great suggestions for building buzz for your etsy store or crafty website. You can read the whole post here on the Etsy forums.
The piece that I found interesting though was a link to go submit your etsy store or website [...]

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Tags, Titles and Keywords…Oh My!

There is so much to know when setting up any online business, and this includes crafting. Sites like Etsy and eBay make it easy to get started, but if you don’t know the first thing about keywords, you can have the most beautiful, high-quality, deal-of-the-century products on the planet and you might find yourself with [...]

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Who Is Your Target Customer And Where Are You Promoting Your Business?

I’ve been participating in Etsy forum discussions a lot since I’ve joined. There is so much great information there and everyone is so helpful. It’s definitely helped me get up to speed quickly on Etsy so I understand a bit about the navigation and the process. For example, renewing listings (which costs just 20 cents) [...]

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