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The following is an entry sent in for our monthly

Silly Farm Supplies Competition!

“Networking in the Face Painting World”
By Nancy Gervais

Hello Philadelphia!

I would like to share a story with you that was made possible because ofyour blog.  A couple of months ago after submitting an article for your Silly Farm competition, I received a comment from another local face painter, who as it turns out, lives quite close by. We got to chatting by email and eventually decided to meet up for coffee. It was a bit like going on a blind date!

We met at a local coffee shop, sat down with drinks in hand and started talking. Eventually our conversation turned to face painting (of course!) and we discussed how we had gotten started in face painting and where our businesses were going.

Most importantly, we decided between us that if we were ever in a situation where we could call on each other for help, we would. For example, if we were offered a face painting job that required 2 painters, we would call each other, or if we ever woke up one morning too sick to attend a job, we could always call the other as a substitute, providing they were free.

If we ever had to refuse a job because we were already booked, we would refer the customer to each other. I think the lesson to be learned from this story is that in the “business world,” anyone providing the same service as you and competing for the same customers is considered the competition.

But in the face painting world, chances are the “competition” is someone very much like yourself: ­ someone creative and talented who adores kids and loves what they do. Because we took a chance and met for coffee, we are both in a better position–we both have a potential “substitute” face painter in case we are ever ill, and we both have the option to accept larger events (i.e more kids than we couldhandle by ourselves!) as long as the other is free and able to paint on that date. I feel better just knowing that she is there in case I ever need to call her and most importantly, I have made a new friend who likes face painting as much as I do!

The old saying “it pays to know your competition” proved true in my case and I hope some of your readers can take something away from this story and maybe make a new face painting friend themselves!

Nancy Gervais
www.doodlebugfaces.com

______________________________________

Thank you for sending this in Nancy! I couldn’t agree with you more, networkingis the best way to go if you want to grow and do well in the face painting industry. I’ll be posting the rest of the entries until the end of November when I announce the winner.

To find out more and enter the face painting Silly Farm contest go to:
http://www.facepaintingtips.com/blog/competitions

Please leave a comment if you want to ask questions, or just want to offer encouragement!

Happy Face Painting,

Philadelphia Tivoli
P.S Click here for face painting designs with step-by-step with photos and instructions!

The following is an entry sent in for our monthly Silly Farm Supplies Competition!

“Face Painter Discovered Online Becomes a Star on CBC”
- SF Competition
Sent in by Erin Wainwright

Hi Philadelphia and fellow face painting enthusiasts!

I just wanted to write to you and share a funny thing that recently happened to me. About two weeks ago, I received a voice mail message from a television show called Living Montréal that is shown on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). They wanted to know if I’d be interested in taping a show about face painting to teach mothers how to do three simple designs for Halloween. Of course I called back immediately and accepted!

A week later I was in downtown Montréal getting ready to tape the segment for the show. From 5:30pm until 10:30pm I got to learn all about the secrets of television. What a learning experience! Every movement, every brushstroke and every swipe of the sponge had to be redone a million times from a million different angles!

The three children who were the models for the designs were so patient and wonderful! The oldest boy was ten and I painted him as a skull, the seven year old girl was a butterfly and the four year old was transformed into a Dalmatian puppy.

I have to state that the designs I painted were not my most detailed or best work, as the point of the show was to show mothers easy designs they could do themselves at home.

What I found the most amazing about the entire experience was the fact that the show found me through my free online web ads. They cost me nothing to post and they really work! What is also really great is that the show will be posting my contact information on their website for a year.

Talk about free advertising!

If anyone is interested in watching the show it will be aired during the week before Halloween at 3pm weekdays on CBC Montréal. As of yet, I do not know the exact dates, but I do know that the show will be shown in two parts, on two different days. After the show is aired on TV, you will be able to watch the segments on the Living Montréal website at the following link. http://www.cbc.ca/livingmontreal/

And so that was my big surprise! I cannot begin to express how excited and nervous I was to talk on camera, but as I became a little more comfortable, it was less and less difficult to explain and paint at the same time.

I cannot emphasize just how important web-ads really are. But as you can tell from my experience, it just goes to show what a little free advertising online can lead up to!

The following is an entry sent in for our monthly Silly Farm Supplies Competition!

“Face Painting Experience” - SF Competition
Sent in by “Miss Sparkle” the Clown

A bad experience can be a learning experience. 

I am a clown and was hired to do a birthday party for a friend I work with for his 5 year old daughter and her friends.  The day before I had started putting together an extra face painting kit so that if I ever had a large party and needed someone to help me I would have a spare kit.  Each kit is in an identical brightly colored tub.  The only difference was that my kit had my paint set in it and the other kit had everything else but no paint kit.  Both tubs have a handle so I can easily carry them and they are lightweight and not too bulky.

Well the day of the party I loaded my car with everything I would need to do balloons, magic and facepainting, including my face painting kit (or so I thought). (more…)

The following is an entry sent in for our monthly Silly Farm Supplies Competition!

“Face Painting Tips” - SF Competition
Sent in by Erin Wainwright

My name is Erin, elementary teacher and face painter located in Montréal, Canada! Since I wrote on your Blog last, my small business has picked up and I am actually doing quite a lot of work! Since I started off quite small, with very little money, I’ve decided to divulge how I got my small enterprise up and running.

SAFETY FIRST!!!

I searched the net and learned as much as I could about safety. Being a teacher has taught me a lot about liability, and since children are most often who we paint, you can never be too careful.  

I spoke to my bank and found out that I could purchase public liability insurance through them. I did not start taking jobs until I knew I was fully insured.

I learned what paints were safe to use, and how to properly clean my brushes and sponges. I use a mild anti-bacterial soap on my tools; I make sure that everything is COMPLETELY DRY before putting it away for long periods of time. 

MARKETING!!!

Since I was starting off on my own, I did not actually have heaps of money to invest. I began researching free advertising sites that would allow me to post pictures and contact information for free. I found the following websites extremely helpful! craigslist.ca , kijiji.ca , mypartyplanner.com , eclassifieds4u.com , classifieds.ivarta.com , olx.ca , classifiedads.com , isell.com , buysellcommunity.com , canadianbusinessdirectory.ca , partypop.com , peoplefield.org , ifind.ca .

To figure what to charge my clients… (more…)

Hi Guys! As promised I have just recorded an exclusive interview with Thea Mackay from “Wonder Down Under” Australia’s 1st Face & Body Painters & Entertainers Convention!!! It’s happening from the 8th - 12th Septemeber 2008 in Melbourne. Listen to the interview to find out all about it, then go and register at www.WonderDownUnder.com.au NOW!!!

www.WonderDownUnder.com.au

Click Here to Look at the Program Details
Info on each Workshop

Click here to Register for Wonder Down Under!
Do it NOW before tickets sell out!

Click Here to Look at the Updated Schedule.

Happy Face Painting,

Philadelphia Tivoli

P.S Remember to use the CODE WORD: PHILLY when you register for the convention to get $20 off and a copy of “The Halloween Make Up Guide”!!

Click here to Register for Wonder Down Under!
Do it NOW before tickets sell out!

P.P.S Spread the word! Tell all your friends, family and all the face painters you know to go, they’ll be sooooo happy you told them!

A couple days ago, I made a post about Gigmasters.com – a website that can help you get more face painting gigs (or your money back) in the US/Canada, they had a sale on where you could join for half price and that sale ended on the 31st July….

BUT Gigmasters.com have decided to extend this awesome sale just to give my special How to Face Paint blog readers/subscribers more time to join up!

So now, you have until Friday August 8th to sign up with Gigmasters.com and advertise your face painting business on their website at 50% off!

When you sign up, at the end of the registration process, on the billing information page,
Insert the coupon code: FPTIPSBLOG   
to receive your 50% off savings.

To Sign-Up, Click Here to Go to the Sign Up Page.

Happy Face Painting,

Philadelphia Tivoli
P.S Click here for face painting designs  with step-by-step with photos and instructions?  

To all the face painters in the US/Canada, I wanted to let you know how you can increase your bookings as a face painter and childrens entertainer to make more money and to grow your business. I just received an email from Rick Buckholz from Gigmasters.com (one of the most popular online live entertainment booking services with over 200,000 users within the United States and Canada).

Rick told me that Gigmasters are currently having a sale on where you can save 50% off until Thursday 31st July 2008!

You can sign-up today and begin receiving leads in your area right away for as little as $29.50 for 3 months (less than $10 a month), after the 50% discount.  There are no hidden fees, and they don’t automatically recharge you after your membership expires either.

To Sign-Up, Click Here to Go to the Sign Up Page.

At the end of the registration process, on the billing information page, insert the coupon code: DEALS
to receive your 50% off savings.

It’s completely risk free. They offer a 30-day, 100% money back guarantee on all Memberships. You can contact them personally for a full refund, right away if you’re not satisfied or haven’t received any gigs within the first 30 days.

Remember the 50% coupon code is the word: DEALS 

I highly recommend you advertise your services on Gigmasters if you live in the US/Canada….first of all, you can’t go wrong because there’s a 100% money back guarantee but I doubt you’ll need to use it. From an internet marketing point of view I know that you will get exposed to a tonne of targeted traffic if you use their service, they’re all over the search engines which means people looking for face painting in your area are extremely likely to find Gigmasters.com and find your contact details so go ahead and sign up before Thursday 31st July 2008!

Happy Face Painting,

Philadelphia Tivoli 

Hi guys!…If you’re an aspiring face painter who wants to take face painting more seriously…

Then I’d really like to help educate you on starting up your own face painting business the ‘right way’ so you can start making cash doing something that you love! 

You see, I believe that absolutely anybody can be successful, if they’re passionate and have the right information at their fingertips… 

But before I begin educating you, I need to know exactly…. What YOU Want To Know!

So Click on the link below, and Fill Out the Short Survey (there are only 7 quick questions) : 

Click Here to Take Survey & Tell Us What YOU Want To Know!

Or email me at info (at) facepaintingtips (dot) com with any problems or concerns that you might have. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

Happy Face Painting,

Philadelphia Tivoli
P.s Learn fun face painting designs by clicking here with step by step photos and instructions!

Okay, you’ve probably realised by now that having a website can be really important for building your face painting business. Face painting is visual, and unless they’ve seen you at a gig - potential customers always want to see examples of your face painting designs before they book.

But getting a website designed can be expensive, and when you’re just starting out you might just want to put up a free webpage.

Here are a couple of sites, that will let you create and host your own website on their’s for FREE!

http://www.weebly.com/
http://members.freewebs.com/
http://www.bravenet.com/

And don’t think that you have to know any crazy techy language. These websites give you easy to use templates, so if you’ve ever typed a word doc in your life, you should have no trouble putting up a pretty website with lots of pictures!

My favourite place to host your own free website is Google Pages. You can read about it here: http://pages.google.com/-/about.html (Firstly you need to sign up for a gmail account, when you do that, choose your username wisely, because your username will be part of your website name)

Why is it my favourite you ask? Well, I think you’d agree that having a website is pretty pointless, unless you’re getting traffic - getting other people to see it.

And how do you get traffic? Well, besides telling all your friends and family to go see it and printing your website address on your business cards etc you need your website to rank in the search engines like Google (Google is the most used search engine in the world!)

Now, do you think that if you used Google pages to put up your own site that maybe, just maybe, Google will favor your website… just a little…?? 

That’s why its my fav! Go check it out now, if you want a free and easy way to have your face painting business online!

And if you have any questions or have something to add, let’s strike up a converstion - just leave a comment to get the ball rollin’!

Happy Face Painting

Philadelphia Tivoli
P.S Want to learn more face painting designs before putting up a website? No problems, let us teach you how to paint new and exciting face painting designs with step-by-step photos and instructions right here: http://www.facepaintingtips.com
 

This is the first of many posts about advertising your facepainting business online. To start off, I wanted to help out people who don’t have a website yet but want to have a prescence on the web to begin with. (For those of you who have a website, this post will still be beneficial).

You don’t need your own webpage to advertise your face painting business, you can piggyback off other sites by listing your information on their directories. There are children’s entertainer directories all over the internet, that will let you submit all your details - Business name, description, location, phone number and website if you have one.

Quite a few of these are Free and some you will have to pay for. Start by submitting your details to the free directories straight away, because you’ve nothing to lose!

Here is a list of free websites you can submit to:

www.fpbaa.com (International)
www.partypop.com (International)
www.hotfrog.com (USA)

www.hotfrog.co.uk (UK)
www.freeindex.co.uk (UK)

www.entertainoz.com.au (Australia)
www.party-oz.com.au (Australia)
www.hotfrog.com.au (Australia)

Here are some websites that require a fee for your listing: 

www.snazaroo.com (International) $10
www.kids-partycabin.com  (International) 15 GBP
www.gigsalad.com/Variety/Face-Painter  (USA and Canada) $69
www.entsweb.co.uk (UK) 10 GBP - basic listing
www.entertainerdirectory.co.uk  (UK) 5 GBP - basic listing

(Prices are subject to change at anytime)

 If you know of any other websites, to list your face painting business details with, share it with us - leave a comment by clicking here!

Happy Face Painting,

Philadelphia Tivoli
P.s While you’re advertising your business, polish up on your skills by learning new face paint designs with our step-by-step photos and instructions!