Online Wanderings
Is this a coincidence, or just the power of the Web? A few weeks ago, a photo album of my high school trips to England, Ireland and Italy seemingly materialized on the floor of my bedroom closet. When I was looking through it, almost every picture was of me and my friend Janice, someone I had bonded with instantly but had lost touch with after high school. Janice and I kissed the Blarney stone together, lunched at the Bad Ass Café in Dublin and watched my hair catch on fire from a candle in the Vatican during Easter Mass.
I regretted that we lost touch, and told my husband I wasn’t quite sure how it happened. Three days later, I kid you not, I got an e-mail from her in my work e-mail inbox. Like me, she got married and changed her maiden name. I was pretty stumped as to how she found me.
I was really curious to know how she found me online, and she took me through all the twists and turns, how she searched for me first under my maiden name and found articles I’d written and old addresses. But somehow, as she searched for me, “Nicole Rollender” popped up on one of those business profile sites (for example, I have profiles on LinkedIn.com and Plaxo.com. She clicked through to Stitches.com and saw my editor’s note picture and knew she had found me.
I’m online pretty much all the time, logged into e-mail or instant messenger. I’m always looking for new blogs about writing, poets I don’t know or writing contests (and of course, embroidery and fashion). Blogs are popping up all over the place, including in the embroidery industry.
Nicole and Janice on a high school trip in Ireland
On the supplier end, for example, Kristine Shreve, director of marketing for EnMart, writes a weekly blog at http://blog.myenmart.com. The blog focuses on helping embroiderers run their businesses better and improve their techniques (check out her “Commentary” column in the July ’08 issue). And on the embroiderer side, one blog I like is by Peg Bowles, owner of Initial Impressions, at www.initial-impressions.net/blog. Since one niche she focuses on is the wedding industry, on August 2, she posted a fun blog entry called, “Wedding Traditions – Why Do We Do That?”
And, on ASI’s home page, Asicentral.com, you’ll find two blogs: “Tim’s Blog,” by ASI CEO and President Tim Andrews, and “Bellwether Blog,” by Michele Bell, Supplier Global Resource editor and Counselor senior editor. On Stitches.com, you’ll find blogs by Phil Stitch, Jimmy Lamb of Hirsch International, and coming soon, from Ed Levy, president of Digitize4U Inc. I can recommend some other popular blogs in the ad specialty blogosphere:
• Promopeddler.com: http://blog.promopeddler.com
• Boundless Network: http://boundlessnetwork.typepad.com/boundless_blog
• Robyn Promotions: http://robynpromo.com/blog
• The Platform Group Gallery: www.theplatformgroupgallery.com/visitourblog.php
• Michelle Kajan, sales rep for Jack Nadel International: http://thevipswagsuite.blogspot.com
As for forums, here’s one that recently launched: Jim Auclair, owner of Fix-yourstitch Embroidery, and Jerilee Auclair, owner of Black Eagle Designs, recently launched Fixyourstitch Embroidery Machine Repair Google group that about 140 people have subscribed to so far. To join, send an e-mail to Jerilee at jerilee@blackeagledesigns.com. I’d love to hear what Web sites, blogs and forums are helping you in your embroidery lives. Please e-mail me at: nrollender@asicentral.com.
Oh, and back to Janice – in another coincidence, her friend recently started an embroidery businesses. Check out this new business site from Stitches reader (and Janice’s friend) Kathy Gehring, owner of Katz Kustom Threads LLC, at: www.katzkustomthreads.com.
Cheers,
Nicole Rollender