Contact Maine Creates

Fine Arts

Handmade Crafts

Jewelry

Accessories

Provisions

Maine's Products

Creative Services

Sitemap

Mainecreates http://www.mainecreates.com/ Copyright 2008 MaineCreates.com a "Maine Creates LLC" work. What's Happening inside MaineCreates.com <div align="center"><br /> </div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="4" color="#89712b">What’s happening inside MaineCreates.com?</font><br /> <font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#404040"><em>A monthly update from the founder, Matt Zito.</em></font><font face="Trebuchet MS"><br /> <font size="2"><br /> </font></font> <font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">Wow! We are growing. This is good news for the creative <br />people of Maine. As our community expands and more <br />people join, more opportunities will arise for everyone. <br />This is called the “the network effect.” </font></div> <div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">Below are quick monthly statistics. A highlight of a new <br />art gallery and artist relationship formed through MaineCreates.com. Recent press received, new features <br />added to the web site and an update on what's coming <br />later this summer. </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">17,000 page views this month 5/29-6/29</font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">71 new members</font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">88 creative work connections</font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">6 new ideas.</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="4" color="#996600">Support MaineCreates.com</font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#996633"><font color="#996600">If MaineCreates.com is providing you with opportunity, <br />please give back and support us financially as we <br />continue to build this community. </font><br /> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="2" color="#996633"><br /> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">Buy a <a href="/user/payment.php">LifeTime Membership</a> - $99 for unlimited work <br />and idea connections for life and free links from your <br />profile page to your web site. This limited opportunity <br />will last till we reach 100 members and or when we <br />launch the e-commerce storefronts for members to sell <br />online, whichever comes first. Links to personal web <br />sites will not be included with the free membership in <br />the next update. (See What's Coming below.) To buy <br />the LifeTime membership, login to your account, then <br />click the LifeTime Membership link on the left hand side.<br /> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div><font size="3"> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" color="#666666">Buy a Showcase advertisement <em><strong>only $2 a day</strong></em> and have <br />your ad displayed in every search and search results <br />page. Login to your account and click on "My Showcase" <br />located on the "My Profile" page. This is a great deal!<br /> </font></div></font></div></div> <div> </div> <div> <div> <font face="Trebuchet MS" size="4" color="#89712b">New Connections made at Maine Creates</font><br /> <font face="Arial" size="3" color="#404040"><em>Chapter Two & The 2 Fireflies</em></font><br /> <font size="3"><br /> </font><font face="Arial" size="3" color="#666666">By: <em>Garry & Rosemary Levin, owners, Chapter Two, <br />Corea, Maine.</em> </font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"><a href="/user/profile.php?ID=100">"Chapter Two</a> is a growing art gallery in Corea, and <br />when the opportunity to list on MaineCreates.com <br />arose, we took advantage of it. Shortly after we listed, <br />we learned that Amy Hayes from Franklin who, with <br />her sister Jennifer, had started a jewelry business <br />called <a href="/user/profile.php?ID=151">The 2 Fireflies</a>, and was interested in making a <br />connection with us. After visiting their website, we <br />contacted Amy and offered her the opportunity to <br />retail her jewelry in our gallery. On Saturday, <br />June 29th, Amy came to the gallery and we agreed to <br />do business together. Working together, we picked a <br />selection of her earrings, necklaces and pendants to <br />sell and before we even got the display set up, we <br />had people looking and commenting on the work. <br />We look forward to a successful joint venture, which <br />came about as a result of MaineCreates.com." </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">Do you have a MaineCreates.com connection story <br />to share with the community?  If yes, please send so <br />we can highlight connections being made.<br /> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div> <font face="Trebuchet MS" size="4" color="#89712b">Features added to MaineCreates.com </font></div> <div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial">Customized Your Possible Connections  - at the bottom <br />of your "My Profile" page, we enabled full customization <br />of your Possible Connections, so you can now set your <br />own search parameters for what type of creative person <br />or organization you are looking to connect with. (thanks <br />for the suggestion WendiLee,  <a href="/user/profile/ID-102/whopaints.html">whopaints).<br /> </a></font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial">You can select a specific geographical area, and enter <br />in your own keywords that our system will search and <br />look for matches between members and your keyword <br />entries. <br /> </font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial"><img src="http://app.icontact.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/185335/0de166630cacf9fce4a0bb9189539ddd/image/png" border="0" width="433" height="359" /> </font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial"><br /> </font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial"><br /> </font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial">Search function being added to home page- we added the <br />search to the home page. If you get overlapping text, then <br />"clear your cache" and clear your private data as your computer <br />is pulling the older image. <br /> </font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial"><br /> </font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial">Blog from your Profile page- we added a simple Blog <br />interface so you can now Blog and members can comment <br />on your posts. Add a title to your Blog and away you go. <br />You will see your Blog published on your public profile <br />page at the bottom. A few extras features we've built <br />include private messaging between members, and you <br />can send an email to all your work and idea <br />connections/contacts.<br /> </font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial"><img src="http://app.icontact.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/185335/35ec5484415fd345af1f7a22bd15a2a4/image/png" border="0" width="420" height="77" /><br /> </font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial"><br /> </font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial">Submission of your Creative Profile to search engines - <br />we are currently adding search engine submission <br />technology, so your profile, and blog posts will become <br />active pages on the Internet. Many people will access <br />your Profile and Blog posts outside of MaineCreates.com. <br />This is good and part of our distribution plan for getting all <br />our members visibility.</font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial"><br /> </font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial">Google Analytics- we are adding analytics data to all <br />our pages for site traffic stats in addition to our current <br />server tracking system.<br /> </font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial"><br /> </font></font></div> </div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">Total Member Profile Views- in the lower right corner <br />of your profile page you will see the number of "views" <br />your profile has been viewed. This counts as one view <br />per session or one unique visitor to your profile page. <br />*Note- the total views have been reset due to the latest <br />upload as of July 1st. <br /> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">Press - on this page we highlight all <a href="/Press.html">press coverage</a> on the community. This month MaineCreates.com was covered in <br />the Ellsworth American, the Maine Technology Institute <br />and the Portland Phoenix. </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">Member Badge– <a href="/Member-Badges.html">Member Badge</a> enables members to add the official- MaineCreates.com membership logo to your web <br />site or Blog.</font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"><img src="http://app.icontact.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/185335/26a9ca5340d513b3630f2d1d17e19106/image/png" border="0" width="101" height="99" /> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">Ideas - you can now comment on your own idea, rate a <br />members idea, and bookmark the idea.<br /> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">RSS- you can RSS every new ideas, creative works, <br />projects and Blogs added to MaineCreates.com. <br />(see your "My Profile" at bottom of the page, too add RSS.)</font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"><img src="http://app.icontact.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/185335/54d2279dad6e7d63295669070a35e405/image/png" border="0" width="449" height="98" /><br /> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="4" color="#89712b"> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="4" color="#89712b">Questions asked by a few members.</font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#996600">How does the Possible Connections feature work?</font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">If you use our "default" Possible Connections and do not <br />"Enable" the new Customized Possible Connection feature, <br />then the web site checks each members text entered in <br />My Works, Current Projects, Associations, and your <br />creative profile information. The systems also checks all <br />the tags or tagging your enter. The system then looks for <br />matches in text description and tags with other people's <br />text descriptions and tags. When the system finds matches <br />we send that member match to your "Possible Connections" <br />page in your My Profile.</font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div><font color="#89712b"><font size="3"><font face="Trebuchet MS">Who can join MaineCreates.com as a creative member? </font></font></font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">We have purposely kept the web site open and did not <br />define who was welcome and who was not at the onset. <br />We realize this is "abstract thinking." This was done on <br />purpose as I was not sure on who would use the site and <br />I wanted to leave it open. I estimated that at 100 members <br />I would have a pretty good idea on who was using the site <br />and how it was being used. As we near 100 members we <br />are starting to define the site.</font></div><div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div><div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">We have recently removed two new profiles as they were <br />added. We have only had to email two people telling them <br />that we had to remove them from the web site as their <br />profile was not "creative" in nature.  <br /> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">In narrowing the membership to a specific target group, <br />we are moving towards defining Maine Creates members <br />as creative people that reside in Maine and create a <br />product, creative service, good, and or provision with <br />their hands or mind. We have included about 75 creative <br />economy work classifications so we reach to include all <br />of Maine's creative people. <br /> </font></div><div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div><div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">When the community starts selling online, new product-<br />service categories will include "Maine Goods", "Fine Arts," "Handmade Craft," "Homemade Provisions" "Maine Products" <br />and "Creative Services." As we get closer to 100 members <br />and we integrate the selling system the web sites branding <br />and focus will narrow. </font></div><div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div><div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">My mission will not change in that this web site at its core is <br />about changing the lives of people in Maine and to invigorate <br />the creative economy of Maine. I welcome feedback on my comments above. Visit my Blog to comment.<br /> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666">The buyers and people that come to the online community <br />to connect with us and buy from us of course will be welcome <br />and be open to anyone in the world. <br /> </font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#666666"> </font></div> <div><font color="#666666"><font size="2"><font face="Arial"> <br /> </font></font></font></div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="4" color="#89712b">What's Coming?</font> </div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="#89712b">In the next  2-3 months-</font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial">Member storefronts to sell your works online. Yes, its coming. <br /> </font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial">Distribution of our members creative profiles and your works <br />for sale to partner web sites. </font></font></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial"> </font></font></div> <div> <div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="4" color="#89712b">How to help us grow?</font> </div> <div><font color="#666666"><font size="3"><font face="Arial">Please spread the word about what we are creating at MaineCreates.com and how we are building a community of <br />creative people through the use of technology, online <br />networking, and selling to invigorate the creative economy <br />of Maine. The online storefronts will bring us full circle and <br />shortly we will not only be connecting with people in Maine <br />but we will be selling to the world. </font></font></font></div> <div><font color="#666666"><font size="3"><font face="Arial"> </font></font></font></div> <div><font color="#666666"><font size="3"><font face="Arial">Please support the web site and buy a LifeTime Membership. <br />This offering will "disappear" from the web site shortly. </font></font></font> <br /> </div></div> <div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial"> </font></font></div><font size="3" color="#666666"><font face="Arial"> </font></font> http://www.mainecreates.com//blogcomments-2.html