2015 was all about changes.
I took a breath, than cut cords and took steps. Some willingly and some with a smaller or bigger push from my friends. So here I am, a freelance beadwork jewelry designer focusing on writing tutorials and teaching. Yippee! It sure feels great, but now I would like to talk numbers, my friend.
I started to build the Storytelling Tutorials project in August. I learned to work with WordPress, figured out how to set up a blog and a website, arrenged domains and hosting. (Yes, I have an IT-guy at home, but in this case he was more the motivation part than the technical background support of the project.)
I published my first post here on 7th September 2015, and than 24 more followed.
Together they attracted 2362 visitors, the top being Hungary with 954 visitors, the United States and the bead emporium, the Czech Republic not far behind. Some of the less busy but interesting locations where The Storytelling Tutorials were read and hopefully enjoyed were Honduras, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Qatar and my beloved Morocco.
While I think cca. two posts for a week are pretty good for the beginning, I tried to focus more on quality than quantity. I started a series of interviews with jewelry designers from all around the world and it proved to be the most engaging content on the page.
The most visited articles were:
- Face to face: meet Erzsebet Kis Jakab
- Face to face: meet Andrea Zelenak
- Face to face: meet Lucy Struncova of Lucy Clay Tools
I would also like to mention the last article of the year, as it has a great potential, but being published on the last day of the year it didn’t have the chance to figure at the top of the statistics for 2015, nor will it for 2016. So I wish you a pleasent time getting to know Zuzi Hake! Also you can still enter here to win a tutorial from Zuzi. It’s for a beaeded bead made from seed beads and Superduos and has the coolest texture I’ve seen recently!
On Facebook the community reached 1000 members.
It was busy on the biggest social media platform lately. We had a major giveaway there, celebrating reaching a milestone over every hundred new beaders. I gave away 45 free tutorials so far, and today I will announce the winner of the 10th and final winner, who gets 10 beadwork patterns according to her / his choice. That will be a pretty lucky beadgirl / beadboy I guess!
Currently the community is happy and enthusiastic it seems, and as for the statistics, it’s 98% women, the majority between 45 and 54 years old, but the groups between 25-44 and 55-64 being also quiete strong. Most of the people come from the United States of America, followed by Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Hungary.
What about the beadwork patterns?
It can’t be put into numbers, but I would like to tell you about two major things which happened close to the end of the year.
After a lot of experimentation I finally admitted that my DIY graphic designs will never look the same as of a real designer. After hiring an illustrator my tuts finally got a professional look. BTW I am learning to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop currently, and I will redraw all of my instructions during the following months.
Other thing what makes me jump all over my studio is joining the Beadsmith Inspiration Squad. Quoted from the official page of the team: “The BeadSmith Inspiration Squad is a carefully selected unit of highly trained and lethally talented bead artists from around the world who want nothing more than to inspire you to beading greatness! ” That being told I think I don’t have to add any words for you to see why it makes me so happy to be invited to be a part of this great and inspiring project. If you would like to find out more and follow what happens with this talented group of people you can join the official Facebook group dedicated to the Squad (with my Cobble Tiles bracelet on the cover at the moment).
I hope you liked reading my revision of 2015.
I would be happy to hear what made you happy (or moved, inspired, energized) in 2015!
Drop me a line or tell me in a comment! And if you have a blog and wrote an article about it, than don’t hesitate to leave a comment with the link!
I wish you a happy and healthy 2016, my friend.
Hope to see you soon,
Erika
I don’t always have a lot of time to read blogs, but occasionally I like to look here and there especially when it concerns beads and beaders.
I see that many people like beaded beads but I personally don’t like to bead them although I certainly admire them. I like intricate patterns and lacely delicate bracelets and romantic necklaces and pendants mostly.
I have a blog but rarely post anything there because I don’t have the energy or time to write and post things very often.
Keep up the good work Erika !
Dear Linda,
it’s an honour seeing you here – thank you very much for your visit!
It’s very interesting to read about the preferences of different artists, thank you!
When I am focusing on finished jewelry, I tend to make pendants. And when I know i would like to come up with a design for a workshop / tutorial, mostly it’s a beaded bead 😀
Dearest Erika; Like Marie, I am so very proud of you as an artist, adventurer and writer. With the advent of Facebook, it has replaced the well written blog. I am pleased and appreciate the work that it takes for you to keep a Blog going and so very interesting. You have come so far in such a short time, the volume of work should not be the goal, a superior quality is what is the best way to show your brand. Continue on your stellar path.
Dear Linda,
thank you for taking the time to comment here! I agree that people, also creatives somehow abandoned the blogging scene recently. I think it’s a shame, as it offers so many opportunities and it’s very enjoyable to work on 🙂
I will try to bring you high-quality, interesting articles in the furute, too, and hope you will enjoy it 🙂
Have a very nice day!
Dear Erika, I totally love your blog because you show that it is possible to have a stat of the art blog about beading. Same I try to work on since two years 😉 . But I have a fulltime job and running a nice looking blog with content cannot be done in an hour a week. I know how much work this is and totally appreciate your work. I was not quite sure if the beading blog era was over because most people just post pictures on FB, Instagram or Pinterest and let their blogs die. You brought back the glory to the beading blogs honey ♡ I am totally looking forward to your 2016 blog year. My plan is to work a little less and have a post a month 😉 Hugs and hope to see you again this year (we are pplanng some days in Amsterdam)
Dear Marie!
Thank you very much for your comment!
I must agree, blogging requires a looot of time, but it’s very rewarding. For the past years beadwork was clearly the activity I enjoyed the most, but now I find it hard to decide if I should play with my beads or work on my page when I finished my other things 😀
I hope you will be able to find more time in the new year for your blog, I am really looking forward to your posts! And looking forward to your visit to Amsterdam, too 🙂