Thanks for your interest in my Exchange Program - Free Supplies for Tutorials
If you have an established online supply shop, you are more than welcome to participate. I'd love to have you! Any kind of supplies - handmade or commercial - fabric, yarn, jewelry supplies, digital art, patterns of any kind, bath/body supplies, scrapbooking - anything at all. (Sorry, this program isn't open to those with a few supplies in a non-supply shop - only to established supply shops.)
Here's the plan:The supply seller offers free products (including shipping) to those promising to create a unique tutorial using the supplies given.
All of the details will be decided by the supply seller. The seller will write up a blog post outlining how it will work. I'll create a post on Totally Tutorials and a link on the sidebar to the seller's blog to help get the word out. I'll also post a link on the
Exchange Page to all current exchanges. Sellers might also want to link to their blog entry in their shop announcement to get even more participants.
ALL of the details will be on your blog. My post here will simply link to you where they'll get all of the specifics.
You decide how many items you'd like to send out and to how many people. It can be one item to one person or five item lots to five people (or anything in between). You may choose to accept applicants on a first come - first served basis, choose from them randomly, or choose who you think will do the best job of creating a tutorial and taking fabulous photos. It's all up to you.
If you'd like to send to even more people, you could say that you'll send to *up to* 10 people. Then you're not locked into any number. It can be dependent on how many applications you receive.
You'll need to decide on an end-date for your exchange. A week seems to work well when offering to three or less. If you're offering your supplies to more people - a week and a half to two weeks might be better. You can always extend your end date to two weeks if you haven't received the number you'd like.
Two weeks is the maximum time that any exchange will be left open here. Even if you haven't gotten the number of applications that you were hoping for, the exchange will still end after two weeks (at the most).
I'd like to recommend that you give non-etsy members a way to contact you. Many of my readers and tutorial submitters do not have etsy shops. If convoing you is the only way to contact you, some people might have no way of entering. It might be a good idea to give them the option of convoing you OR leaving a comment on your blog to apply.
If any of your applicants don't have a blog to post the tutorial - they may want to post it on Craftser, Instructables, or CutoutandKeep.
When your end-date arrives, I'll close out your exchange - removing the links from the sidebar and the
Exchange Page. I'll add your exchange to the
Closed Exchanges page. I'll also put a note on the post here about your exchange to let people know that you're no longer accepting applicants.
Once the participants' tutorials are complete, they should let both of us know. They'll submit their tutorials to me by using the "
submit your tutorial" link on the sidebar here. Exchange Program tutorials go to the head of the line to be posted. I usually have them up within 24 hours of being submitted.
I'll schedule when each new exchange will be introduced. I'd like to post no more than one new exchange every few days so that I can promote each equally and so that we have a nice variety. I also don't want to have too many running at one time. Regular tutorials are posted on Totally Tutorials every morning and some afternoons. New exchange posts will be posted on some afternoons.
I've been asked a few times now about sellers running more than one exchange. I'd be thrilled to have you all participate more than once if your exchange goes well! I would prefer that they don't run back-to-back. I'd like to keep a nice variety of sellers. I'd also like to avoid having two of the same type of supply exchange going at once (except for jewelry). After your exchange ends, if you'd like to do it again, just contact me and we'll schedule you. When your next exchange goes up will depend on how many others I have scheduled and if any involve the same type of supplies that you are offering.
Please contact me to discuss the details and come up with a date to start that works for both of us. Please don't publish your blog post until we've agreed on everything.The benefits if you participate?* The supply seller will get additional blog traffic from their post explaining the exchange. It will be linked to from here.
* The supply seller will have links leading to her shop in the tutorials. Maybe the receivers will put items up for sale and link to you in those listings.
* The supply seller will be allowed to use photos of the finished products in her listings and/or blog and link to the tutorials if she chooses. This will give your potential buyers inspiration on how to use your supplies.
* Besides the tutorials on the receivers' blogs and the posts here about it, I have a
page where all tutorials using supplies from each seller will be grouped together, for more exposure.
*Perhaps the receivers will love your supplies so much that they'll return to purchase in the future and hopefully you'll receive new buyers as a result of the tutorials.
Right now, this blog receives 2,500 to 3,000 page views a day with over 1,800 followers. Taking part in this exchange could be a nice benefit for both the sellers and the receivers.
So, if you're a seller of supplies, please think about it! If you'd like to participate and you have a shop on etsy, please convo me (
dottyral). If you don't sell on etsy, please send an email to dottyral at gmail dot com. We'll work out the details and schedule when your exchange will begin.
I'm excited about this! I hope it will be fun and rewarding for all of us!
Supply Sellers: Please be sure that you address all of the following in your blog post or in your contact with potential tutorial writers.....* What you're giving away, with photos.
* How many people you'll send it to.
* Any restrictions?
* Domestic, International?
* How do they contact you to participate?
* How do they "buy" the item?
* When will you stop accepting applicants?
* How long do they have to post the tutorial and let you know that they've done it?
* How/when will they know if they've been accepted?
* When will you ship the supplies?
* Please make sure that they have a blog in which to post their tutorial, or can post it to Craftser, Instructables, or CutoutandKeep.
* Make sure that they agree to let both of us know when the tutorial is posted.
* Please make sure that they agree that you can use their photos in your listings and/or blog, that they'll link to you in their tutorial, mentioning your supplies, and that anyone can use their tutorial to make items to sell.
* You might want to link to my
Exchange Program page on your blog post so that applicants can read the guidelines and know what is expected of them.
If it would be helpful, have a look at the blog posts detailing
previous exchanges (Click through to read each blog post.) and the
tutorials created as part of the program.
Please let me know when you're no longer taking applications for your exchange. Then I can close it out here.
Thanks!
Dotty
Disclaimer: I'll have nothing to do with the fine print and the exchange of product for tutorial. The seller makes all of the decisions - who will receive the items, what item(s) to use, the time-frame to offer the supplies, create the tutorials and post them, etc. I hope it won't happen, but if either party doesn't come through with their end of the deal, the two of you will need to work it out. My job is to help bring the two of you together, and post the tutorials here. Other than that, it's all up to you.
Edit: This exchange is now closed. You can see the tutorials (as they come in) here.
