Monday, May 21, 2012

A rant and some blog etiquette

 Source: Someecards

Let me preface this post by saying I love you all and I'm sorry for the lengthy rant, but I need to say state some touchy things I have avoided mentioning in the past, and also go over a little blog etiquette. If you want to avoid listening to my rant, please feel free to skip to a happier post :)

I  was informed by a reader this past weekend that someone was selling one of my free printables as their own. I contacted the person and she was very apologetic and removed the product right away, but I was initially pretty upset to know that someone was (knowingly or not) profiting off of something that I made myself and offered here for free to my readers.

As  an individual who loves to create, I enjoy sharing my ideas on this blog in hopes of giving other people some inspiration or the chance to try a project that they hadn't thought of before. I have a full-time job, so most of my craft time is done after my kids are asleep or on the weekends during nap time. It takes a lot of time (and money!) to put a project together, take pictures, edit the pictures, write the post, then promote it to different link parties. I would love to sell my projects, but right now, I don't have the time or money to do so. I have no sponsors  or huge companies throwing their products at me. The giveaways I do promote on my blog are typically mama's like myself who are trying their best to share products and ideas that they have put their blood sweat and tears into, and I'm happy to help them in any way I can! The tiny bit of money I do make (and believe me, it's tiny) is from Google ads. One day, maybe I'll be a big famous blogger who can sell the patterns and stuff I make, but for right now, my blog is my personal creative space where I get to spend some much needed "me time" creating and sharing my projects with you wonderful people for free.

Will I stop sharing my tutorials and projects? No. It makes my day when I get an email from someone who has made something from one of my tutorials! But peoples' projects and tutorials are still their property, and I think there are some important things everyone should remember.
  1. Please don't try to sell someone else's project. That's just not cool. If it's not your creation, then it's not yours.
  2. If you made something from another person's tutorial and post about it on your blog, don't recreate their tutorial. They put a lot of time into making that project! Pictures (and links) of your final project are perfect. 
    1. Here are some examples of projects I made from others' tutorials:
      1. Reversible Tunic by Sewing in No Man's Land
      2. Simple Skirt by MADE
      3. Doily Shirt by Maybe Matilda
  3. If you post about a project made from someone's tutorial, link back to the original blogger's post. Extra bonus points for emailing the blogger and letting them know you made their project. I guarantee you they will love to see the project you made with their tutorial (and they may even post about your project on their blog - more traffic for you, sweet!)
  4. Also, don't be a Debbie Downer. No one likes negative comments. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. If you have something that you think really needs to be said, please email the person directly rather than posting it in the comments section.
So all I'm trying to say is, just be respectful! Most craft bloggers are just mama's like me who have a passion for creating (and doing it for free.) 

Thanks again to all my readers and for your constant support. If it wasn't for you, I would have given up blogging long ago!

4 comments:

  1. Agreed and sorry you had reason to rant. All valid and well made points... on to happier things like more tutorials :)

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  2. Great post. Glad they took it down from their site.

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  3. It's sad that people take advantage of freebies like that . . . I'm sorry that happened to you! I haven't had that happen yet (that I know of at least)--the closest I've come was receiving an email from a reader who recognized one of my pictures being used as the cover photo for another shop's facebook page . . . she wasn't trying to sell anything from it, I think, just using a cute picture of a cute baby (if I may say so myself), but she was very nice and took it right down when I wrote to her. But it is disconcerting to think that all these strangers online who we trust to be honest and fair aren't all as honest and fair as we hope they are! Oh well . . . glad you got it taken care of!

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  4. Good for you for your rant. I'm sorry that it had to come to this, though. I'm glad that the situation was resolved.

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Thanks for all of your wonderful comments! I try to respond to each of them through email so please make sure you leave an email address or have your profile set up to include your email address if you want me to respond :)

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