Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 25

Unfortunately because I work so many hours at my day job I am sometimes later on important information regarding online business than I would like.  So I am not going to lie that the term Net Neutrality is new to me.  Although, the concept of free and open internet is not and I have always been aware of the threat behind the scenes to Net Neutrality.  I believe that since the dawn of the internet there has been a chance that someday free internet would be compromised looming in the background I just preferred not to worry about.  Alas those days are over and Net Neutrality is truly at risk.

"Under these rules, telecom giants like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon would be able to create a two-tiered Internet, with fast lanes for those who can afford it and dirt roads for the rest of us. These companies would be able to pick winners and losers online and discriminate against online content and applications. And no one would be able to do anything about it."~ Act.FreePress.Net

So today's post is dedicated to promoting Net Neutrality and open internet (free internet)  and I am asking you to sign petitions, contact your congress, and become actively involved to protect our small (very small) piece of the pie.

Here is how:
Visit the Electronic Fronteer Foundation to easily start your Letter to the FCC

Call your congress person the following site gives you an easy way to look up your representative's number  https://act.freepress.net/call/internet_congress_nn/

Provide Etsy feedback on how this proposal will hurt your business and why Net Neutrality is important to you using this form  It also asked you if you are willing to become more involved.   My time is very limited but I am saying "Hell Yes" (sorry for my language)  because it is so important to me.

This information was from Etsy's Discussion board where you can find much more information on how you can help us in this battle.  Go to https://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/discussions/discuss/14870744/ for more.

Please (I implore you) help ensure Net Neutrality and at the very least fire off that simple email to congress it really is easy.

Now for a little fun and let's lighten it up a bit :)

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Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 24

Good morning networking friends.
So after the celebrity hacking scandal everyone is  probably feeling a little bit more insecure about what the keep on the cloud.  I for one use the cloud in several ways and have actually used Dropbox
for 3 years now.  But what maybe don't think about is all the other services, app, etc that store our data on the cloud for us.

Every time I take a picture with my phone it is automatically uploaded to my G+ account, a service I love but alas does increase the risk of my photos being hacked.

Since I just purchased a new HP they offer a free cloud storage, Bullgaurd protects my computer and provides me cloud storage for my backup, you can store your photos for free on Flickr, Shoebox, Snapfish, Shutterfly.... I could go on forever with all of the apps and sites that offer storage on the cloud.

Often people I network with tell me that they avoid anything that will store their information, this is hard for me to believe since so many of us use some type of social media to promote ourselves.  If we don't we would have to be relying on word of mouth and good ole fashioned flyers or something.  Not many of us do that anymore.

Picture from http://www.sunpack.com/blog/tag/iphone/

Moral of the story no matter how we feel about the cloud it is here to stay and getting stronger.  I believe personally that we can use the cloud but keep in mind the risks and protect ourselves appropriately.

Picture from https://familysearch.org/blog/en/share-backup-dropbox/

Alternatives? Flash-drives, external hard-drives and discs.  Discs fill up very quickly even with zipping content.  They also run the risk of getting physically damaged the same goes with flash-drives and external hard-drives.  I have tried a number of these, some very expensive in the hundreds and right now most of them are in my closet waiting for the day I can afford to have someone remove the data from their dead carcasses.

Picture from http://lifehacker.com/5951822/how-can-i-recover-data-from-a-dead-or-erased-hard-drive

My conclusion is that the better choice for me is to store my work on the cloud, but with that being said I have to be careful.  Number one make sure it is a common reputable site to work with (often I use word of mouth and then researched it on the web.)  Two make sure to only load things that I wouldn't care if others see or associate me with. Three Backup my backup at least make sure that I have copies on my computer or in another cloud (things can go wrong I know first hand.)  And Four protect it with a good secure password.

I work for hospitals and usually their security rule is 8 characters, 1 number, 1 non-letter Character (like a !) and 1 capital letter.  Most often I through in a lot more than that but at minimum I suggest following the hospitals' rule.

I hope you find this helpful most of it is based off of my own experience and I would love to hear about your experiences in the comments.  This topic is important so I am sure all of us would appreciate the advise and your experience.

Now lets have some fun:

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Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 24

Happy Labor Day Weekend.  I am so happy to have this fabulous 3 day weekend!  Its been a long grueling week so since we have this wonderful holiday weekend I am not going to post an article today. But we are still going to have the fun stuff  and I invite everyone to link up :)

Blessings; have a safe and fun holiday weekend.

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Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 23

Good morning my networking friends,

I love to give tips on building your businesses that all have that WOW factor, but this mornings message may be a little mundane for some.  This subject has been on my mind this week since it was time to reorder my favorite internet protection software (Bullguard.)

At  times I have run into people who have used their computer as long as I have and have never download or uploaded protection.  As small businesses it is so important that we protect our assets just as well (if not better) than large businesses.  Unfortunately we are constantly under attack without even knowing it.

I have found Bullguard to be the best for my computers etc., but this doesn't mean that it is the best.  I personally simply find it to be the most effective in catching unwanted program changes, viruses etc. and it is very easy to use with many extras.  It offers the ability to monitor vulnerabilities, cleaning tools and much more.  But the take home message is whether you choose Bullguard, McAfee, AVG etc you absolutely must have protection.   It may be an expensive investment at the time but it will save you much more money and headaches later.

AVG offers a free version with minimal protection and almost all of the others offer free trials.  Are you protected?  What have you found to be the best?  I look forward to hearing your experiences.

Until next week
CC

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Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 22

As a continuation from last weeks blogging tips we will talk about some very simple, maybe even obvious, but all too important steps we should all take.

Now that you know what kind of blogger you are, decide how much time you have each day to invest into your blog.  Keep in mind that you will not just need time to create blog posts, but you will need time for maintenance and research.  Everything takes time and must be added in the equation or you may find yourself neglecting important components of your blog.

One of the points during that webinar, from http://learntoblog.com/ , have a "call to action" right at the top of your posts.  I do not have that yet but I have seen blogs where the GFC is right at the top under their page header.  I am considering this along with an I catching "Follow Me" above it.  On that note there has been blog sites I have visited due to blog hops or just because their post look interesting and there was no where to follow them.  Make sure you have an easily recognizable link for a person to follow your blog.  Maybe some of these blogs that don't have this feature think that people will use bookmark but I usually forget about my bookmarks unless it something I need for research.  So when I book mark these blogs (especially if they are just for fun) I forget about them.  GFC, Bloglovin, Feeds, etc gives readers a easy to use way to follow your blog along with reminders often with post synopsis to catch their interest.

Another very important part of blogging is setting up a post calendar.  Right now mine is quite simple;

But after listening to the webinar I realized that I might really benefit from having a calendar planned for the entire year.  I thought about my favorite shops; Michael's, Macy's etc.  I know that their marketing teams know years in advance what their marketing schedule is.  Many businesses plan at least a year in advance what their marketing will be for the year.  While not all large business models work for the small businesses this one makes sense.  Planning is everything!

Just like everything that is well worth doing, you need a plan.  While successful businesses and people make it look effortless and as if they just had followers drop from the sky, they all had a plan in the background.  No one achieves greatness without some sort of idea of the steps they will need to take.

Having your plan in writing helps you stay on task, keeps deadlines in focus and helps you think in advance what tools you will need.  I strongly suggest giving yourself enough room on these plans to "flesh them out" As you think about what you are going to do, ideas of how and what you will need will come to you.  Write them down in steps, add to this frequently.  Don't rely on memory!  So many of my brightest ideas have come while I was busy and thought "I will write it down later" to my dismay I had already forgot by that time.

The main takeaway for this week:  Call your readers to action, Make sure they can easily Take Action (give easy methods to follow you,) and plan, plan, plan... Success is not just happenstance!

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Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 21

Last week I attended an Webinar by Matt and Brad from LearnToBlog.com.  This Webinar was focused on successful blogging and making money off of your blog.  While I never started blogging to directly monetize my site I did create it to direct traffic to my shops etc.  I have to admit that over the years I simply enjoy blogging and having a forum to promote my online friends and talk about things that I find interesting.

 I found some useful information from the Webinar that I am going to share over the next week or two. Some of  which is very simple but many of us (including myself) are so focused on one aspect that we will overlook others.  Embarrassingly the old adage "couldn't see the forest for the trees" does describe me at times.  With all of that being said the following is what I gleaned from it:

Decide what type of blogger you are:

While which blogger category you fall under is not the important part, being consistent is; I am a combination of two, Professional and Promoter.  I love both which is fine but I do need to decide which will be my primary focus and which is secondary.  Also I need to be very careful not to stray outside of the two which I hate to say I have in the past.  I also think (personally not from the webinar) that it is OK to have a 3rd category but I think that it makes it harder to be consistent and may drive readers that are relying on certain content away.

Another piece of information I took away from this Webinar was that we need to be consistent with when we publish our posts.  We should have set times, schedules etc so readers will know when to look for your information.  I am OK but not great with this. In fact while I am typing this I find myself running a bit late.  So I will be working hard on my timing in the future.

Actually what I derived from this information is very simple.  Our content needs to be consistent, timely, well organized (thought out) and valuable.

Stay tuned next week as I discuss other important tips that was discussed on how to build your readership and a profitable blog.

For a little fun a quick question for you:

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Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 20

Follow up on last week's post:  I have decided to just go for it and build a shop on blogger.  I have a kind of lame name for it now Butterfly In The Attic - The Shop simply because I want to distinguish it from my blog but still keep it connected.  I haven't completely decided on the name but should decide relatively shortly.  I am always up for some suggestions from my networking friends so any comments would be appreciated.  I want it to be catchy (of course,) tie it to my blog and other shops, but distinguish it from the blog; just a small order ;)


Enough with my personal updates.  Have you heard?  Etsy will be rolling out a new Wholesale website in August, this month!!  I may be the last to hear news but this is truly new news to me.  So of course this leads my mind to wander.  Is there anything that I make that could be transitioned to wholesale?  Will it be worth it?  Is this my ticket to become independent? So many questions...

Would you be willing to sell your art or craft as a wholesaler?  I would love to hear your opinion and if you are interested in more information, here is the link to the article:

Etsy, Home of the Handmade, Takes On a Wholesaler’s Role

Here is to our Success!
Have a blessed day
Colleen

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Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 19

Good morning my networking friends.  Today's post is a little different and I must admit self serving; I need a little advise.  I have been selling on line (almost steadily) for over 12 years; I started out on Ebay which has become far too much like a giant garage sale and far too expensive.


I was so excited when I heard about Etsy 4 years ago and started dreaming about quitting my day job and becoming a full time Postcard Lady. Unfortunately I don't live there but actual live in reality where my Etsy bills are far greater than my Etsy income.

So I moved my shop to Artfire thinking that the answer is a monthly flat fee to find that my sales are almost nothing and 12.95 adds up very quickly when you earn $0. Along with the minuscule sales from Artfire I find it's platform to be very time consuming.

I have come to the conclusion that what I need is a platform that is essentially free.  While most often those platforms invest little for their clients (naturally because it is free) so to show up on a search will be unheard of.  But I am thinking that if I can somehow created a shop front that is linked to this blog I may increase my chances (in the lines of traffic and visibility) because I have already invested 6 years in the blog and have a following.

With all of this being said, not many people use blogger as a store front so apps and information is minimal.  I have found some shopping carts but so far none of the downloads actually work (I can't even open them) and they are quite time consuming with HTML coding.

I have actually figured out a way to create a store on blogger that is relatively simple and should work very well but there is no shopping cart.  The buyer would have to purchase each item separately or convo me for a bulk listing.  Also another draw back is that shipping will need to be figured into the cost of the item;  But for the most part I often offer free shipping on my tags etc.  Foreign buyers would have to convo me for shipping costs.


So my question for my networking friends is should I just build my blogger store without a shopping cart with the mentality of simple is better and I could always change it if it looks like I need too.  Or should I invest the hours and days into finding a free shopping cart that works, set  up all the coding etc?  The problem is that there is no guarantee that I will sell anything to make it worth the set up.

Also if there is anyone out there that has set up their own stand alone shop that has some advise I would love it.  Especially if you have a inexpensive platform that has worked for you.  I tried WIX but there was absolutely no sales after 8 months, just bills, so I gave it up. Better yet if you have experience with setting up a shop on blogger I definitely would love information.


Thank you in advance
Colleen

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Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 18

Does Advertising on Other Blogs Work?  Personally I would say a resounding, Yes.  I can only afford to advertise on one site at this time which I have chose to be ChristieCottage.  Jacki from Christie Cottage has reasonable rates (that I can afford,) a large following and she is active every day of the week.

http://christiecottage.blogspot.com/2014/07/saturday-so-thanks-for-rts.html

Blog advertising can be very helpful if you look for blogs that have a high readership and following, posts most days of the week (at least 5) and are overall actively involved in their blog.  I also look for those blogs that fit my personality but sometimes you can find success by branching out.


Right now my budget is very limited and I am sure many of you are in the same boat.  So I would love to swap advertising space with you.  To make it easier I have placed my blog button in this post if you would like to swap just grab the button code and place it on your blog sidebar or where ever just so it is visible.  Email or comment to me on where I can grab your code or even send me the code to your button directly and I will do the same for you.

<a href="http://butterflyintheattic.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3DvLsTaGmEhiJj5rxagQpcrDrEeiXX8FML2IaW1ijYvg8TaSFoOv6xTlgDM_NxHeK-_7iy0gN-8vrEjtKuioMoEWdioeqmzwfXMp5mvOgvln848bKQm20NOvJHOu0UPOM2dLWUjSnAuc/s1600/cropped+ButterflyInTheAttic2.jpg" /></a>

Here is my Shop button for a shop swap.  Again let me know and I will add you to my sidebar.

<a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/postcardsintheattic/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguJxdrwrLQ3aaxjLQkaXSfTlwF9BygCGHguwwB-9FYsaxS9I3nPvJhR_OiECfyIKRymikMATll46zOnosBOI_0OziTUe0GoPm8GMvS6TAQU-CJgpdA0MIXvgcOInLPo-2sEtZ5UeBx2s51/s1600/blog+button+butterflyintheattic+2+inch.jpg" /></a>

Also don't forget to check out my free shop directories and add your shop/blog links to the appropriate directory (if it applies you can link into more than one directory.)

Have a very productive and blessed weekend.

Don't forget to enter to win at the:

The Great Christmas In July Giveaway

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Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 17

Good morning,
There are many promotional opportunities for Christmas In July that I am offering along with other groups.  So today I just going to focus on those.  All of these are free to participate in but you have to invest a minute of time.  This is not a bad trade considering how many people these promotions will bring to your shop, so please invest in your business, it will pay off.

1st:
Blue Morning Expressions Christmas In July
Her linkup parties are always a huge success and a must for any serious shop owner

Christmas in July Week 2

2nd

Christie Cottage has her own Linkup party for Christmas In July

She has thousands of followers so including your item and backlink on her page will 

give you great visibility

Saturday Sale-a-thon #CIJ

3rd

My own linkup for your Christmas In July coupon codes and sales:

Christmas In July Coupon Codes and Sales

4th

My Free Banner Offer Draw attention to your CIJ sales and promotions with my banners.  

Free to download just for following me:

Free Christmas In July Etsy & Artfire Shop Banners For My Followers

And last just for fun

Join our Christmas In July Giveaway and win over $250 worth of Christmas gifts or gifts to yourself

The Great Christmas In July Giveaway

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Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 17

Due to the holiday weekend there will be no tips this week but please watch for special Christmas In July promotions and a great group giveaway next week!  Until them Enjoy your beautiful weekend and please Linkup

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Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 16

CountdownClockCodes.com Growing up in a very traditional Christian home left very little room to break away from form.  Holidays were only significant if they had a historical religious theme and any other holiday, national or not, was ignored.  So when I first heard of Christmas In July in the 80s I was completely uninterested.  But as I get older I find myself embracing quirky and fun holiday celebrations whether they are a "true" holiday or just made up to break the monotony of a season.

After all isn't one of our goals as humans to simply enjoy life?  So I am actually getting more excited about Christmas In July, CIJ, this year than I ever have.  Maybe the fact that I live in the desert has something to do with it but really who cares why, I am just happy to have something to look forward to after the July 4th holiday is over.

Many people are using this monotony breaker and the excitement around CIJ to market their shops.  Really I am sure that this was the plan from its birth.  This year I have joined the groups using CIJ to draw customers to our small shops and have started to build a group CIJ giveaway.  I have donations from 5 shops so far (not including my 2) so we will have a great prize to giveaway and plan to draw a lot of attention to our CIJ sales, so stay tuned to join in the fun.  Also there is still time for you to donate and be a part of the group giveaway.  If you are interested please email me at ButterflyInTheAttic [at] yahoo [dot] com for more information.

Other CIJ opportunities:

http://www.bmebluprint.blogspot.com/2013/12/countdown-to-christmas-2013-week-12.html

Julie from Blue Morning Expressions will be hosting one of her very successful Linky Parties Starting the beginning of July.  If you would like to see what her linkups look like you can visit her Countdown To Christmas by clicking the link.  Make sure you follow her so you will be notified of when you can linkup to her CIJ celebration.

A wonderful ETSY Team (Christmas In July Team) is collectively coordinating CIJ events this year.  Their start date is July 10th which is when my giveaway will begin.

"This team was established to share ideas, tips, goals etc for Etsy shops to get actively involved in Christmas in July. CIJ will held July 10th - 20th, 2014.
All shops are eligible to participate and sale items do not have to be holiday themed. We are a world wide team..."  ~The Christmas In July Team

Christmas In July Team Blog

Christmas In July Team on Pinterest

Christmas In July Team on Twitter

May we all have a very successful July!

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/4th-of-july-decorating-ideas-decorate-a-tree/

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Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 15

Good morning networking friends.  Happy First Day of Summer!!!!

My work week has been a bit insane so I am suffering from a little burn out this morning.  I have sat for the last half hour staring at my computer trying to pick a topic out of the sea of thoughts floating randomly in my head, alas without much luck.  So to avoid spending another 30 minutes trying to put together an intelligent thought I decided to make this post simple and hopefully interactive.

Most of what I do on this blog is promotion and networking; while I want to reach out to others and help them become more successful, the goal for me personally is to become more successful myself.  I truly hope one day to become a true entrepreneur and a self sufficient business.  One of my issues, and I think I may not be alone, is the ever growing options in social platforms.  Every time I turn on the computer there is a latest and greatest social site.  Some turning out to be not so great and then again is it me?  I am so limited in time am I spreading myself so thin that I can't utilize these great tools as I should?  This is where you come in and networking is important.

I would love it if you would share your success stories or a app, platform, etc that you have found to be very useful so that we can all learn together.  Please add it to the comments or if it is too long a note and is blog worthy please email me at ButterflyInTheAttic at Yahoo dot com.

My main tools that I rely on consistently are the following:

Twitter

Twitter is one that I completely rely on to bring people to my shop.  The quick, one or two line blips of information are perfect me because of my time limits. Millions of people that do not own shops own twitter accounts so that means my reach is not only going to other businesses but to the general public and potential customers.

This is a must have free tool for anyone with an online shop.  If you don't have an account I strongly suggest that you create one and build a following.  I would love to follow you so post it in the link up and I will.

The next two I have a love/hate relationship with.  I love the ability to hoard images and to repost or pin my favorites but I can burn up so much time without even knowing it and all the while accomplishing absolutely nothing if I am not careful.

Pinterest

Pinterest is one of the newer social networks and has been come a very valuable tool. I can watch the impact on my dashboards and see it has successfully driven traffic to my shops.    I would say that this is a necessity but take care because it is also a time vampire.

Facebook

While Facebook used to be an essential tool in the pocket of any true entrepreneur, with its ever changing rules and games it plays this site has become less and less important to me.  If it wasn't for the ease of using it I more than likely wouldn't bother.  I rarely see a lot of traffic from FB but again it is easy to use and I am by nature a very optimistic and hopeful person.  I have a feeling that I may be able to do better with it one day if I could invest a bit more time.

Google+

Google Plus is definitely one of those that I should spend more time getting to know but haven't.  It doesn't tend to suck me in as much as the latter two but it does drive traffic to my shop

The next two are very new to me.  I have been posting to them and have been active but I really haven't taken the time to explore them or use them like I should

Polyvore

I haven't done much at with this one aside from posting to it and creating the account.  Has anyone noticed an impact from using it?

Amazine

Again I certainly haven't used this one to any kind of potential.  But I have heard others comment on how much they enjoy using it.  Please share with us your experience with this interesting new social site.

So time for true confessions and please be honest if you have a few (or several like me) of these lying around collecting dust.  This is a collection of only a few of the  social platforms that I have accounts for have never used for anything.  I don't even know where to start with them.  If anyone uses these please leave a comment below and any success stories or why you like it.  I would love to know if they would be worth the time.

Instagram (yes I know this is popular but remember I just got my first big girl cell phone *non-tracfone* only about a year ago LOL)

Issuu

RebelMouse

Storenvy

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An InLinkz Link-up

Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 14

Pinterest has been really impacting sales and traffic to our shops for the last couple years.  It seems to be getting stronger and stronger.   Which leads me to my great find of the week that I would love to share:
Pinning treasuries has always been bitter sweet; how can one image represent that beautiful collage you created?  Fear not there is a wonderful new app that will pin a section of your treasury and it looks Great!
Check it out at: http://treasurypin.com/

https://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTI3NzM3NDJ8MjcyMzc3OTk1MQ/

Please let me know via email if you would like to be included my networking board  http://www.pinterest.com/butterflysattic/a-network-among-friends/
Simply follow me on Pinterest, I'll follow you as soon as you let me know and invite you to pin on this great board!
Contact me at ButterflyInTheAttic at yahoo dot com and I will get you started.

Over the years my blog has taken a slightly different direction than what I had originally intended for it.  At first I had started with information on collecting but never fully developed, then information on other hobbies I had and again  it took off in another direction.  What I have found is that I love promoting others and creating opportunities for myself and other small businesses to show off their stuff.  So with that in mind I decided to embrace this and focus my blog on promotion.  

I have created some directories that I would like to invite you to join.  The ideas is that it will never close and anybody can join as long as they follow the rules. I will have them organized by name so hopefully they will grow and become a great resource for browsers and shoppers.

If you link up your shop below please also link up on the page that fits your genre since the pages will be a primary directory .

For shops with digital
butterflyintheattic.blogspot.com/p/shop-directory-digital-art.html

For shops with ephemera
butterflyintheattic.blogspot.com/p/shop-directory-ephemera.html

For shops with handmades
butterflyintheattic.blogspot.com/p/shop-directory-handmade.html

For shops with Vintage & Antiques
butterflyintheattic.blogspot.com/p/shop.html

For blogs
butterflyintheattic.blogspot.com/p/butterflys-favorite-blog-directo...

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Post any of your family friendly sites (blogs, shops, FB, etc.)  What ever sites you would like to share. 

Please help promote this post using your social networks.  Here is an easy one:
Tweet

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An InLinkz Link-up

Free to Promote Your Shop, Social Sites, or Blog; on Networking Saturday 13

I have had a very long and challenging week so please accept my apologies for just having a network linky party with no information.

I hope everyone has a wonderfully relaxing weekend.  I will continue our series next Saturday
Blessings!

Had to share from: AnimalNova.Com

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Post any of your family friendly sites (blogs, shops, FB, etc.)  What ever sites you would like to share. 

Please help promote this post using your social networks.  Here is an easy one:
Tweet

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