Diamond Painting Basics, Accessories & the Problems they Solve - Pink Clay, Wax, Putty, Mud, etc.

Every question you ever wanted to ask and some you haven’t even thought of yet
The Ultimate Diamond Art FAQ with Links
(A continuing series of excerpts from my Amazon Kindle Book)

Yesterday's Question Answered: Drill Picker Pens and Styluses
Next Question to be Answered: Drills – the Heart of the Art - Part 1

Every kit comes with a little pink or blue square pad of something tacky that goes by the various names of clay, putty, mud, or wax that is used for picking up drills and placing them on the canvas. But, for some people, this little pad is not ideal, so questions have emerged and alternatives sought. Note that the stickiness of the picker pen must be strong enough to pick up the drills, but not so strong that the drills aren’t pulled off easily by the adhesive on the canvas. It’s a delicate balance.

How do you get the putty from the pad into the pen?

The idea is that you peel the plastic off one side of the little pad (it doesn’t matter which side) and then you poke your stick pen into the pad, all the way through, to fill the tip with the tacky substance. This allows you to pick up the drills out of the tray. You may be able to place several drills before needing to poke your pen into the putty pad again. The little pad ends up looking like Swiss cheese over the life of the project, and some clay pads appear to stay tackier longer than others. They do dry out, but even though it can take a long time to do so, it is wise to store unused pads in a sealed container or a zipper bag. There are lots of zipper bag sizes to consider. You may even want to use them for sorting drills or packaging individual small projects, like keyrings, magnets or earrings, for sale or storage. https://amzn.to/4bZQgB6

Help! I’ve run out of sticky pad before I’ve finished my project!! What did I do wrong?

You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s possible that the pad you received just wasn’t all that sticky and you had to poke it more often than would have otherwise been necessary. But, not to worry! There are solutions. Sometimes, the manufacturer gives you extra squares for a large project, and if you save them, along with what’s left of your current piece of Swiss cheese, you can retrieve another pad from your stash bag and continue the project. You can also purchase more squares of standard pink clay. Some are in cute little plastic containers to help keep them from drying out, such as round, square, heart-shaped and clover. There are also many colors of these clay pads, blue and white being almost as common as pink, but I have also seen yellow, orange, green and purple. I haven’t been able to determine whether the putty color makes a difference in the stickiness or the freshness longevity, though. If it does, the difference appears to be minor. Here are a few options for more putty clay pads: https://amzn.to/4lDqjKU

Is there some other tacky medium we can use besides constantly poking this little pink pad of “sticky stuff”?

Yes! Nail art wax pencils, silicone cone tips, Blu Tack, museum putty, beeswax-coconut oil mixes and using automatic pens, all work as longer-lasting clay alternatives. You can pick up a lot more drills with these mediums before having to reload your pen.

If you don’t like constantly poking that pad after every few drills, you can always roll it up and twist it instead. Yes, you heard that right…roll that little pad up, even if it’s round, twist it into a thin tube and poke it inside the barrel of a special automatic pen that will let you get every last drop of that sticky stuff without the constant refilling of the pen. All you do is twist the top of the pen to extrude just a hair more of the clay. There are a lot of these automatic pens out there. Here’s one of them. https://amzn.to/3PlNn4I

One thing to note: Some of the poorer quality clays have been known to leave a slight residue on the rhinestones that needs to be wiped off, and a lot of people would prefer another method entirely because of this. So, enter the rhinestone picking wax pencils that nail salon artists use. They require a pencil sharpener, and I have found that the black paper-wrapped pencils are of much better quality than the white wax in the white wooden pencils. Because this is a real wax, it may not be sticky in cold environments. But you can “haw” (breathe warm air by saying the word “haw”) onto the wax tip to soften it and make it sticky again. You can also roll the tip between your forefinger and thumb to warm it up or to put the point back before needing to resort to the sharpener again. Currently, this is my preferred method, because the wax is strong enough to lift some of the larger, and heavier, special shape drills that the putty in the pad can’t seem to hold onto. Here are some choices for the wax pencils: https://amzn.to/4bwKyFf

Other tacky mediums that you can poke your pen into and that work well with diamond art painting drills are:

Museum Putty, which has other uses as well, most notably in earthquake prone areas, and even near military training bases when the heavy artillery rattles the windows. https://amzn.to/4dMHB6z

BluTack is a putty that is also used for holding things on the wall. https://amzn.to/4maW9yU

Glue Dots are double-sided and great for office use and other paper crafts. They come in 3 sizes, 2 of which, micro and mini, are used in diamond painting depending on which tool you want to stuff the dot into, a single pen tip or a multi-placer. You MIGHT be able to roll the larger sized ones up and put them into an automatic pen, but I haven’t tried this, so if you do, please let me know how it works at https://ei-kan.blogspot.com Here are a couple of YouTube videos that explain how to put these sticky glue dots in your pens and multi-placers. There are other videos as well. A lot of people swear by this method, because of the satisfying, and somewhat soothing “snap” that you get when you place a drill with a pen filled with a glue dot. And isn’t this hobby all about relaxation? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h3rz6I9SYqo&ra=m

And https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YOQ1-EtrcNI&ra=m

Micro Glue Dots are very small and may be hard to work but seem to be better overall. https://amzn.to/4tufhKF

Mini Glue Dots are larger than the micro version and work best in the multi-placers. https://amzn.to/3POpiDY

Zots Micro Dots are the same thing if Glue Dot Micros are not available in your area. https://amzn.to/4sKSCd0

Here is a unique idea: a silicone tip pen that theoretically lasts forever. No wax, no clay, no glue needed but refers to it as “self-adhesive wax” But it’s not wax, so there is no residue, it’s a self-adhesive sticky material that you can wipe clean if you need to restore its stickiness, sort of like the sticky pads above that you can put your tray on, but not THAT sticky. I suppose you could rig up a tiny piece of that sticky pad to do the same thing as these cones, but they might be TOO sticky: https://amzn.to/3Op30Iw

There are some people who think that everything mentioned above (except for the forever pen) leaves a slight microscopic residue on the drills that needs to be wiped off with a baby wipe before sealing, so now there are numerous “vacuum pens” that can suck the drill onto the pen tip so that you can place it down on the canvas. This totally avoids any potential residue from clay or wax or glue dots interfering with the sparkle (which I have never seen with the wax pencils, but I admit it’s probably there). They may not work as well with the heavier special shape gems as the suction can be weak in some models. It can also be too strong to leave the drill on the canvas if the canvas isn’t very tacky. Read the reviews carefully to see if either situation is an issue, or if there is a way to adjust the suction accordingly for different adherence situations. https://amzn.to/4bDIc7T  

Yesterday's Question Answered: Drill Picker Pens and Styluses
Next Question to be Answered: Drills – the Heart of the Art - Part 1

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I have been doing diamond art for over 10 years. My book was published under my pen name. You can contact me through my blog here at https://ei-kan.blogspot.com if you have any additional questions to add to this section or to notify me of any dead links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualified purchases. This book is available in its entirety on Amazon Kindle (visible link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZKGSVKS) and there are some discount coupon codes for up to 15% off your purchases at select websites near the end of it And yes, I earn a few pennies from a few other sites mentioned as well, but not all.

Diamond Painting Basics, Accessories & the Problems they Solve - Drill Picker Pens and Styluses

Every question you ever wanted to ask and some you haven’t even thought of yet
The Ultimate Diamond Art FAQ with Links
(A continuing series of excerpts from my Amazon Kindle Book)

Yesterday's Question Answered: Drill Trays or Boats
Next Question to be Answered: Pink Clay, Wax, Putty, Mud, etc.

Drill Picker Pens

All kits come with a pink or clear plastic stick pen, or stylus, for grabbing the drills and poking them onto the canvas grid. It is very simple in design, but, oh, so useful! For some people, this pen is hard to handle due to its small size and thin straight shape and alternatives are often sought.

This pink pen looks very simplistic, like it’s made from a plastic straw.

Likely it's not. But it’s straw-like look does have a purpose. That hollow end is designed as an additional tool receptacle that allows specialized placers, rollers and straighteners to snap in and out as needed. But you will eventually have so many pink pens that you’ll have a tool at the end of every one of them and never will have to swap them out of a single pen again. See the Multi-Placers and How to Use Them section for more information about these tools.

Is there something more comfortable than this ubiquitous pink pen?

Ergonomic pens exist in many different shapes to fit any size or shaped hand. Here are a few beautiful ones to choose from, many of which contain additional accessories and multi-placer tools that you may be interested in. See the Multi-Placers and How to Use Them section for more information. https://amzn.to/4sQTD2N

Or you can just slip one of these little foam cushions over your pink pens, too. https://amzn.to/4biTmQr

Another option would be to wrap your stylus in either bake-able polymer clay or in air-dry clay in the color pattern of your choice and allow your hand to mold it into a comfortable shape that is unique to your own hand. I strongly suggest that you use a clay sealant over air dry clay because moisture from your hand can reactivate the clay. https://amzn.to/3POZB6k

And here are some choices for clay sealant, which is different from diamond art sealant. It comes in gloss, matte, or satin in most cases. https://amzn.to/3OugByd

  Yesterday's Question Answered: Drill Trays or Boats
Next Question to be Answered: Pink Clay, Wax, Putty, Mud, etc.

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I have been doing diamond art for over 10 years. My book was published under my pen name. You can contact me through my blog here at https://ei-kan.blogspot.com if you have any additional questions to add to this section or to notify me of any dead links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualified purchases. This book is available in its entirety on Amazon Kindle (visible link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZKGSVKS) and there are some discount coupon codes for up to 15% off your purchases at select websites near the end of it And yes, I earn a few pennies from a few other sites mentioned as well, but not all.

Diamond Painting Basics, Accessories & the Problems they Solve - Drill Trays or Boats

Every question you ever wanted to ask and some you haven’t even thought of yet
The Ultimate Diamond Art FAQ with Links
(A continuing series of excerpts from my Amazon Kindle Book)

Yesterday's Question Answered: How to Choose a Diamond Painting Kit
Next Question to be Answered: Drill Picker Pens and Styluses

Drill Trays or Boats
All diamond art painting kits come with a little plastic tray, which is sometimes called a “boat” because it looks somewhat like it has a bow and a stern. Although it may be any color, green is the most common and there are numerous questions surrounding it. One of the main ones is how to deal with the drills in the tray.

How do we get the drills to lay flat in the tray?

First, pour just a few, no more than a half teaspoonful, of a single drill color into your tray. Not too many, or there won’t be enough room for them to move around without spilling over the edge. Then gently shake the tray from side to side until most of the drills have aligned themselves into neat rows along the grid lines from the vibration. When you are first getting started, leave the tray on the table when you shake it. Later, when you have more confidence and control of the process, you can shake the tray anywhere in the air. Here are a couple of videos that show how to “rock the boat”: https://www.tiktok.com/@diamondartwithave/video/7522897469013839117 and this one: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/OB84G7_qnDw?ra=m

What is that single line for that is perpendicular to all the other grid lines in the boat?

In some trays you may notice a perpendicular line near the bow of the boat. This acts as a “stop” to prevent flipped drills from sliding into the end of the tray when you tilt it, especially if you've poured too many into it. Some people put a strip of decorative washi tape at that end, to act as the stop in trays that don’t have one, like the standard green trays. The stop is also useful when filling certain multi-placers. See Multi-Placers and How to use them for more information.

Can’t I just use cellophane tape, painter’s tape or duct tape as the STOP line in my tray?

You could, but drills may stick to the adhesive that is on the edge of the cellophane tape, even more so with duct tape, which is just too strong and can damage the canvas. Painter’s tape can work as a stop line and is also an option for sealing around the edges of a canvas when painting the edges to hide the wording, because it won’t pull the drills off the canvas, but it only comes in solid colors. Washi tape is preferable for all diamond art purposes due to its versatility. Washi tape is a decorative Japanese masking tape made from natural fibers like bamboo or hemp. It has a lower tackiness than painter’s tape, and like painter’s tape, it is repositionable, and easily torn by hand. It comes in lovely patterns and in many widths. It is sometimes used to section off working areas of a large canvas, or as a decorative mat when framing diamond art paintings. https://amzn.to/4mBIOQr

Is there a trick to not spilling the drills when we empty the tray into our storage container?

Using a funnel is an option, and you can make one by making a cone out of printer paper, or you can purchase one of these 3D printed items depending on the size and shape of your storage containers. I have one of each style of diamond art funnel because I have so many different types and sizes of containers. https://amzn.to/48BkisH

We’ve noticed that the little green tray slides around too easily on a table. Is there a way to keep from spilling it or knocking it off the table accidentally?

Yes! There are little silicone sticky mats that are ideal for keeping your trays, whatever style you choose to use, from being knocked off the table by yourself or a rambunctious cat or kid. It will even keep your drill pen from rolling away. They are great for all sorts of craft, office, kitchen items, or workshop items that you don’t want to slide or roll. If they get dirty, just wash them off with plain water, and maybe a drop of soap, and they’re sticky again. They do not interfere with the shaking process, but rather they force you to shake more gently. They can also be cut into different sizes if you feel the full-sized one is too sticky or holds your tray too tightly when you’re ready to pull it off and pour your drills back into their storage container. https://amzn.to/3PkVQFi

Is there something better than the little green tray that is either larger, or has higher sides, or that doesn’t get spilled so easily when we shake it?

Trays with higher sides, such as this No Cats Allowed set, makes shaking the tray less worrisome, as well as easier to pour the leftover drills back into your storage container without spilling the lot of them, thanks to the little guard section. They also stack nicely, which allows you to use one on top of the other as a safety lid, to further keep spillage to a minimum as you get used to the shaking process. .https://amzn.to/4sXBsZy

Trays with clear lids are a good option as well. Those with opaque lids, such as the tray set above, don’t let you see the results of your shaking, although over time you will know if the majority are upright or not even if you can’t see them. Sometimes, the movement from taking a snap-style lid off a tray may cause some drills to flip back over. Here is a set with clear sliding lids in 2 sizes that solves both situations. https://amzn.to/4lGzCtx

Now, these little drawers/boxes below are my new favorites! The drawers are large enough to hold multiple packets of drills, (I often do more than one of the same kits) and the removable tray keeps the lot of them out of your way while you work until you need to refill it. The perpendicular line allows you to pour excess drills back into the bottom storage area without disturbing those that have flipped. You can close the attached lid (without snapping it closed), to tilt the drills onto the upper tray; then shake them along the grid; open the lid and get to work. They easily double as storage for the leftovers, and the containers travel well. The drawers do tend to slip out of the white shelf, so be careful with accidentally tipping it forward. https://amzn.to/4cWbCQK

There is a variety of clear box/drawer sets to choose from, but while they are large and can store more of your drills, you can’t fill them too full if you want to use the built-in grid on the floor of these, because too many gems will be in the way. That’s why I love the removable tray in the previous set, because it solves this problem.

What can we do with the 1001 little green trays we’ve been collecting with our kits over the years?

Well, if you happen to like using the little green trays, or simply can’t bring yourself to throwing anything away, you can get a few of these shelves: https://amzn.to/40FZRXh

Or this style: https://amzn.to/4bROmST

Or maybe not… :)

Help! We are being overrun by little green trays! How can I use them rather than purchase the item in the solution above?

Someone has given this some thought as well. One method is to use all those green trays you’re collecting and put them in racks such as these. However, the first two do include trays, which can only compound the problem, but it shows what is possible if you want to make your own. https://amzn.to/4bpugPW

This is the same concept but in a different orientation: https://amzn.to/4sXmQsX

Or you can stack them in a tower. This one does not appear to come with trays so you can use your little green ones in it. Yay! https://amzn.to/40KDNLk

Or you can teach freestyle diamond art classes using little 5 x 7 mini diamond art cards that don’t come with any drills at all and give everybody their own little pack of 3 tools from your monstrous stash. They are a great use of excess drills, too. See the last page of this book for advice. https://amzn.to/4vBGxZl

I use square drills and they don’t always line up well in the trays I have. Is there any tray that is specifically designed for square drills?

I recently came across this unique set of cool square drill trays that offer multiple options for getting your square drills sorted quickly. They have higher walls for drill shaking, thicker internal lines for flipping drills, and drill-catching grooves for smooth multi-drill pickup, along with a drill reservoir to keep the extra ones out of the way, Some have single compartments and others have combinations of 1, 2, 3 and 5 drill compartments for those who like to use multi-placers. They also have sliding lids, stack well and come in multiple sizes. https://www.bellaartdenicole.com/products/dots-of-kindness-3d-printed-diamond-painting-drill-trays?variant=47230581899513 



Yesterday's Question Answered: How to Choose a Diamond Art Painting Kit
Next Question to be Answered: Drill Picker Pens and Styluses

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I have been doing diamond art for over 10 years. My book was published under my pen name. You can contact me through my blog here at https://ei-kan.blogspot.com if you have any additional questions to add to this section or to notify me of any dead links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualified purchases. This book is available in its entirety on Amazon Kindle (visible link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZKGSVKS) and there are some discount coupon codes for up to 15% off your purchases at select websites near the end of it And yes, I earn a few pennies from a few other sites mentioned as well, but not all.

Diamond Painting Basics, Accessories & the Problems they Solve - How to Choose a Diamond Art Kit

Every question you ever wanted to ask and some you haven’t even thought of yet
The Ultimate Diamond Art FAQ with Links
(A continuing series of excerpts from my Amazon Kindle Book)

Yesterday's Question Answered: Diamond Painting Lingo
Next Question to be Answered: Drill Trays or Boats

Choosing a Diamond Art Painting Kit This is the first question everyone should ask themselves. There are a lot of misleading ads out there for diamond art kits that show it framed over a couch, and when you receive it, it’s only large enough to fit comfortably on the corner of your desk. They come from abroad, and are usually measured in centimeters, not inches, so do not mistake 30 cm for 30 inches! Additionally, the images shown may have a lot of details that will not show up well, if at all, on the size of canvas they are offering. My very first canvas of an intricate fractal shown only as a JPG image in the advertisement was extremely disappointing as a 30 cm x 30 cm canvas. It looked very pretty when finished, but it did not look at all like I expected the fractal JPG to look.

How do I choose a canvas that will look like the image they are selling?

When purchasing a canvas, look for a picture that shows it with the drills attached. Many do not show you the completed version, so check the drill chart carefully if one is provided (which, again, they often are not) and see if the drill placement in the detailed areas is to your liking, or if there are any drills in the detailed areas at all. Often there is no chart presented or finished image to view, so you will have to learn by experience how to choose what size canvas a particular image might look best on.

Rule of thumb when you have no chart or final view: Simple images with very little detail, or those with large blocks of color, such as a cartoon, abstract, mandala, minimalistic or boho style, can look good on small 20 cm x 20 cm canvases, coasters and keychains. But when you start getting more details, or there are words in the design, start looking for the 30 cm canvas size, and when they get truly complex, or with long phrases, even a 50 cm canvas may not be large enough to satisfy your desire for the details. Eventually you will gain an eye for the good stuff and be pleased with every canvas you choose. But ideally, you should view a chart or finished version before purchase.

Here is a tip when looking at the charts: Notice that there is no such thing as a two-toned drill so do not be fooled by charts that appear to show two or more colors within the same charted square or circle. (This is most often more noticeable in square drill charts). This means you will need to choose which color may look best in that spot, and it may not be the manufacturer’s chosen color in the symbol key, or legend, along the edge.

The larger the canvas, the more colors there will likely be in the image, and this is a good thing because they help with gradient shading to make the final project look good from a distance. It may feel more tedious to kit up a large number of colors, but it will be well worth it in the end.

Before I get started, and lock myself into something, which drill shape is best? Square or Round?

The choice really depends on your own visual preference as well as the availability of a desired image, which may only be available in either round or square. I don’t consider myself to be “locked into” any one style, but most of the projects that appeal to me have only been available in round drills. I do have some projects in square drill, as well as a complete set of the square drill colors in case of color shortage.

Round Drills are 2.8 mm in diameter and have 26 facets which allows them to catch the light from more angles so that they twinkle with more sparkling. They are ideal for beginners because they are quicker and easier to place, due to not needing to be oriented in any particular direction before placement, and they can create smoother curves due to their roundness, but they leave visible gaps that show more of the painted image underneath, which may or may not be a good thing. The finished paintings look better from a distance. If a round drill is not placed correctly on the chart, the grid circle may be visible and this can give a less than professional appearance, especially if the other drills are not lined up properly. See Alignment Techniques. Please note that the Diamond Dotz line of Mini Dotz diamond painting kits use a smaller, 2 mm mini drill size, so be sure to store them separately. There are also some 2.5 mm rounds out there being sold as 2.8 mm for diamond art, so read reviews carefully. You can also use these smaller ones as embellishments on a square canvas if you accidentally end up with some.

Square Drills are 2.5 mm and have only 9 facets to catch the light. Because they fit together perfectly this gives them a cleaner, more brilliant and refined shine or glossy look. They are a little trickier to place because not only are they a tad smaller to grab, but they need to be oriented “squarely” onto the canvas. This does require precision and can be frustrating for beginners. You know you have placed a square drill correctly within a group of them when you hear a satisfying “crunch”. This sound also appears when you are rolling over the drills to tighten them to the canvas before moving on or sealing the project. There are tools available to help with lining them up if needed. See Alignment Techniques. Curves on small canvases may look jagged, so larger canvases are best when using square drills in a project that has a lot of curved lines. But they do provide enhanced sharpness and high-resolution imagery by covering the entire canvas so that the image below is no longer seen. This makes them particularly suitable for projects requiring intricate detail or more complex designs. But again, detailed and complex images should be done on large canvases anyway, whether square or round. Because the square drills are smaller, 2.5 mm rather than 2.8 mm, the same image may be a full centimeter, or more, smaller than the round drill version of the same project, but at the same time, the smaller size provides a higher resolution image. Think in terms of “pixels” per square inch and you’ll get the connection.

There are many YouTube videos regarding the differences between the round and square drills, but here are a couple to get you started. This one is a comparison of the drills and processes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmaJhzrIyvc&t=155s

This one compares the same project in both square drill and round drill so you can see the end results of both styles within the same image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKoZRsM0jNA&t=230s

What is the difference between 3D and 5D drills?

These designations refer to the number of facets, or faces, on one side of a diamond drill. The D stands for “dimensions”. When diamond art first came on the scene, they were of the 3D variety. Now, 3D is rarely seen, other than in beginner kits, lower priced kits, or kits for kids. 3D drills have a total of 9 facets, 3 faces on each side. They appear rounder with not as much sparkle. 5D drills have 5 faces on a side, or a total of 15 facets. Because there are more facets, 5D drills have more light refraction from different directions and that results in more sparkle, deeper color, and depth. You can see a comparison picture of round drills here: https://fabercastell.com/blogs/creativity-for-life/5d-diamond-painting-vs-3d-diamond-painting?srsltid=AfmBOorYfGv6qp_4oPBjwnSB5wF_poezN100Dh3Zql9LLmm3sFeYxEHE

There is no difference in the difficulty level between the two “dimensions”, they simply provide a different visual effect. If you have been doing diamond painting for many years, or buy lower priced kits, or get your kits from various suppliers and haven’t been paying attention to the D number, you might want to make sure you don’t mix the two types of drills in the same jar. It could have an interestingly uneven effect if both are used on the same canvas, unless you are intending to create a special shapes effect.

You may also run across a 7D designation as well. These are typically flat-bottomed gems in special shapes and so far are not used in standard square or round drills. You can see 7D gems here along with a square vs round comparison, and a canvas size guide: https://tonysourcing.com/diamond-painting/ 

Yesterday's Question Answered: Diamond Painting Lingo
Next Question to be Answered: Drill Trays or Boats

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I have been doing diamond art for over 10 years. My book was published under my pen name. You can contact me through my blog here at https://ei-kan.blogspot.com if you have any additional questions to add to this section or to notify me of any dead links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualified purchases. This book is available in its entirety on Amazon Kindle (visible link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZKGSVKS) and there are some discount coupon codes for up to 15% off your purchases at select websites near the end of it And yes, I earn a few

Diamond Painting Basics, Accessories & the Problems they Solve - Diamond Painting Lingo

Every question you ever wanted to ask and some you haven’t even thought of yet
The Ultimate Diamond Art FAQ with Links
(A continuing series of excerpts from my Amazon Kindle Book)

Yesterday's Question Answered: Introduction to Diamond Painting
Next Question to be Answered: Choosing a Diamond Art Painting Kit

Diamond Painting Lingo
Every hobby seems to have its own vernacular, or language, and diamond painting is one of them. Here is a video where each common term or phrase is defined for you. I will also try to define terms as I use them in this book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DsY1VMwhqc&t=524ss

3D/5D – this refers to the number of facets or “dimensions” on one side of a diamond drill. 3D drills have 9 facets, 3 on each side. 5D drills have 15 facets, 5 on each side. Don’t mix them up.

AB - stands for “aurora borealis” and is a type of drill style that can twinkle in multiple colors

Boat – another term for the boat-shaped tray that the drills are poured into for use.

Canvas – the medium that the kit uses as the template for the project. It can be fabric, acrylic, or any material that has a tacky glue spread on it to hold the drills.

Canvas Size vs Frame Size - The canvas size refers to the size of the image. The frame size is how large the frame needs to be to display the entire canvas, including its border.

Charting – the act of determining which colors go where when creating a diamond painting.

Checkerboarding - a placement technique that resembles a checkboard for large one-color areas by applying diamonds in every other space and then going back and filling in the missing spaces.

Clay/Mud – a term for the little sticky pad that comes in every diamond art kit.

Color Key/Legend– this is the little table/grid printed on the edge of a fabric canvas that shows which symbols match which colors. May or may not include the DMC code of the colors used.

Confetti - an area that has multiple colors and looks like random confetti when viewed up close.

Cover Minders – cute magnets paired with a 2nd magnet placed on the other side of the canvas to keep the film or parchment paper out of the way of the section you’re working on.

DMC – refers to the Dollfus-Mieg & Compagnie list of thread color codes devised in 1898. and is the closest thing we have for a standard guideline for the industry. Not all manufacturers use it, but there are conversion lists available.

Drill – what the “diamonds”, beads or gems used in diamond painting are called.
Full Drill/Partial Drill - defines how much of the template is covered by drills. A full drill is completely covered, while a partial drill uses drills only to highlight portions of the image.

Kitting Up/Down – this is the act of organizing your drills and tools in whatever manner you normally use in your workflow to make the project go smoothly. Kitting down is when you are sorting, cleaning up, and putting everything back into storage when the project is completed.

Picker – the handheld device, or stylus, that looks like a writing pen, but with a slight stickiness on the end and used to pick up drills out of the boat.

Poking – the act of picking up a drill and then placing it onto the canvas.

Stash – can refer to all the extra drills in storage and available for use, or all the diamond kits you have that you are looking forward to completing.

If you need even more than what I have defined throughout this book, here is a huge list: https://www.diamondartclub.com/blogs/diamond-painting/diamond-painting-terms

Yesterday's Question Answered: Introduction to Diamond Painting
Next Question to be Answered: Choosing a Diamond Art Painting Kit

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I have been doing diamond art for over 10 years. My book was published under my pen name. You can contact me through my blog here at https://ei-kan.blogspot.com if you have any additional questions to add to this section or to notify me of any dead links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualified purchases. This book is available in its entirety on Amazon Kindle (visible link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZKGSVKS) and there are some discount coupon codes for up to 15% off your purchases at select websites near the end of it And yes, I earn a fewearn a few pennies from a few other sites mentioned as well, but not all. Thank you for using my links.

Diamond Painting Basics, Accessories & the Problems they Solve - Introduction

Every question you ever wanted to ask and some you haven’t even thought of yet
The Ultimate Diamond Art FAQ with Links
(A continuing series of excerpts from my Amazon Kindle Book)

Today's Question Answered: Introduction to Diamond Painting
Next Question to be Answered: Diamond Painting Lingo

Diamond Painting, also known as Diamond Art, Gem Painting or Pearl Painting, is basically a mosaic art form based on the color-by-number concept using beads, known as drills, as the “paint”. These drills are usually round or square; resin or acrylic; solid and opaque colors or shimmering and metallic. Some resemble rhinestones, while others resemble pearls or tiny tiles. The drills may completely cover the underlying image that is printed on a fabric or acrylic “canvas” grid; known as a “full drill” project or they may only cover parts of the printed image as an embellishment. The latter often use what are called “special shapes” in varying sizes to enhance the design along with the standard size round or square drills. The most common size for round drills is 2.8 mm in diameter while square drills are 2.5 mm square. The special shapes can be any size, usually no more than 8 mm, but can be as small as 1 mm, particularly in the case of pearls and sometimes rhinestones.

You can purchase diamond art paintings as either a finished item, or in kits of various sizes or styles, where the outer dimensions of the canvas are measured in centimeters, while the actual printed image size is often not stated, and neither of which fit standard photo or canvas frames, though the market appears to be changing. Depending on the size of the canvas and the amount of detail in the image, the finished product may look more pixelated on a small canvas than it will on a much larger one. Think “Minecraft” versus a high-resolution computer monitor. If you are a fan of detail, then choose the largest canvas size that is available for the project you are interested in.

All you really need to make a diamond painting comes in the kit that you purchase, and every kit includes only what you need. And it always contains the same 3 things. There will be packets of rhinestones (officially called “drills”); a green tray to pour them into, that you shake lightly from side to side so that the motion flips the drills upright where you can grab them with the pink plastic pen that you have previously poked into the little square of pink “clay” that will allow you to pick up the drills and place them on a piece of fabric or plastic or wood item that has been covered with a tacky glue, and protected by a piece of plastic film that you will peel off to reveal this sticky surface. There may be other items such as chain hangers, tiny zipper bags, magnets, even small wind chime tubes, depending on the project. But the above three items are in every kit.

And that’s all there is to it… Or is it?

Those who have become obsessed with creating diamond art paintings, me also being one of these addicts, have decided that this basic process needs not only to be improved upon, but made more complex so that others will take our art form seriously and understand that it’s not as simple as it appears. Therefore, lots of people have created quite a few accessories, often with 3D printers, that solve problems we didn’t even know existed. And suddenly we can’t do without them! These products make diamond art painting easier, more professional looking, and more comfortable to work on for hours at a time.

Are any of these accessories required? Nope. But you ARE going to want them all once you know how they can improve your own rhinestone life. 

DISCLOSURE
While this Amazon Kindle book is packed with information you can use right now, you will quickly notice that there are a lot of links for commercial products because I have found that sponsored links are the best way to augment the information that I have. There are a lot of cool products available for diamond painters, along with even more information on the product pages about how to use them, as well as reviews that sometimes share even more ideas. It’s easy to find yourself going down the rabbit hole, which is a lot of how this book came about. It’s been several months in the making.

Personally, I like to have a paper copy of a book to grab and flip through when I’m having issues, which is why this has been provided in a printed format. In the KINDLE version of this book, I have included two links for each entry, a short one and a long one, because in a print book, typing the short link will be a lot easier. The long link verifies where the link will take you and has been included in the Kindle version for those who are wary of short, blind, live links to. Plus, the long link serves an additional purpose: if a specific item later becomes unavailable, you can probably find the name of the item, or the search that was used, within the long link so that you may search for a similar product replacement. Additionally, I will be updating the Kindle version more often as new questions arise, and the print version will only be updated if there are significant changes or additions involved. So, you may want to own both versions.

You can contact me through this blog at https://ei-kan.blogspot.com if you have any additional questions to add to this book, or to notify me of any dead links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualified purchases. There are also some discount coupon codes for up to 15% off your purchases at select websites near the end of this book, and, yes, I earn a few pennies from a few other sites mentioned as well, but not all.

And now, on to the most common, and uncommon, questions!  

Today's Question Answered: Introduction to Diamond Painting
Next Question to be Answered: Diamond Painting Lingo

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I have been doing diamond art for over 10 years. My book was published under my pen name. You can contact me through my blog here at https://ei-kan.blogspot.com if you have any additional questions to add to this section or to notify me of any dead links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualified purchases. This book is available in its entirety on Amazon Kindle (visible link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZKGSVKS) and there are some discount coupon codes for up to 15% off your purchases at select websites near the end of it And yes, I earn a few pennies from a few other sites mentioned as well, but not all.

 How to Survive the Summer Heat Without Air-Conditioning

There was a time in my life when I spent several years without air conditioning and I live in the state of Texas. Anyone familiar with this area knows that it can be hotter than Hell when it wants to be, and even when we don’t want it to be. When people found out I did not have air conditioning, they were totally aghast! However, I was comfortable, because I had figured out some tricks for how to survive without A/C. 

Friends have suggested that I share these tips with you, just in case you find yourself in a similar situation either due to financial concerns, storms, homelessness, or if the power grid goes down, and in Texas, well, we do have a little bit of a flaky power grid at the moment.

Now, before you freak out, remember, people had to live with out air-conditioning for CENTURIES, and in some areas they still do, so there are ways to do this. Even in these days of global warming, no matter how unpleasant it may seem to our modern lives, you CAN do this!

So, here are my 10 tips for living without air-conditioning:

1. Live wet. Keep your clothes damp.  Wet your hair.  Soak in a kiddie pool under a shade tree or an umbrella and don’t dry off. Take a brief cold shower a few times a day, with your clothes on, or run through a sprinkler with the neighbor kids, who obviously have the right idea. Keep a large sprayer bottle of water handy, and mist yourself as needed. Keep one beside your bed at night and aim it at the ceiling, because when the mist falls down onto you, it will be much colder. 

2. Drink a LOT of water.  Yes, WATER. Ice is nice, but I had no ice last year when the fridge died, so had to give up on that luxury.  Putting a bag of ice in a giant cooler, really didn’t work very well, because it was hard to slide that monster out the door to empty it every morning, but it’s an option. Oh! Here’s an ice water trick I used before the fridge died: fill a large/gallon jug half full of water. Put it in the freezer at a 45 degree angle. This gives maximum surface area for your giant ice cube when you put your drinking water into the jug with it. It also melts slower than standard ice cubes. Keep several of these in the freezer, and put them back before the giant cube totally melts, so that it will freeze faster. I currently have a 2.5 gallon jug with a spigot in my fridge so that my gardener can have ice water when needed.

3. Remember that sugar dehydrates, so limit sweet soda drinks and other sugary foods. If you feel you need an electrolyte drink, choose a “Zero sugar” brand. Or, drink a LOT of WATER.

4. Salty foods will help you retain water and stay hydrated. Try to use sea salt whenever possible because it has 80+ trace minerals in it that can help your hydration. Stay aware of your sodium/potassium balance, and add a potassium-rich avocado, banana or Swiss Chard to your diet when eating a lot of salty foods. (There is also a calcium/magnesium balance to be aware of to avoid leg cramps at night, but that’s a topic for another blog)

 5. Acclimate!  Meaning, do your best NOT to be in A/C during the day, or you will ruin your acclimation to the heat.  For example, do not turn on the car A/C. Just sweat it out and you’ll be able to acclimate to higher and higher temperatures and be more comfortable as summer progresses. If you work from home, this is a lot easier. Your air-conditioned office is your enemy, so sweat your way home without the car A/C so that you will be better able to sleep in your miserably hot bedroom. That being said, limit your time in air-conditioned stores. Get in, buy, and get out fast! If you can do curbside pickup that would be great, and if you can afford home delivery, go for it!

6. Fans are good.  I have a rather large collection of battery-operated or USB rechargable fans in many sizes. My collection grew over time: and as my budget increased, I purchased  better fans. I even have some that I can wear around my neck or hang on my computer monitor. I also have several very large USB power banks (20000 mAh) that I can plug these fans into for charging or for directly running them if the power goes out and I have run out of batteries for those versions. And I can also charge the power banks from my car. It’s actually quite amazing how power efficient these fans are! Make sure you keep your fans and power banks fully charged at all times. Especially if you see a storm coming. If you have only one little 3” fan, like I started out with, have it blow on your face at night. You’ll be amazed as to how much cooler it will make you feel than if you have that single fan on your body. Having an 8” or 10” fan blowing up from your feet rather than from the side of your body will keep you cooler as well. I had to fasten mine to the foot of my bed because I kept kicking it over. A remote controlled one for that location is best.

7. Open your windows on both sides of the house, apartment, or room to allow for cross breezes as much as possible. If you are wet, then a breeze will really help, no matter how small the fan is or how little the outside breeze is, if you are lucky enough to even have a breeze. It may seem counterintuitive to open your windows on a 100° day, but when you consider that your house without air-conditioning is probably already the same temperature as outside anyway, you’re only going to gain comfort if there’s a breeze.

8. If you still MUST have A/C, build a DYI air-conditioner out of a Styrofoam cooler, a small fan, a PVC pipe, and a bag of ice. There are many affordable ideas on the Internet, with video instructions, some are even as cheap as $8! Pick one that works for you. Mine worked only in a very small space, (the back seat of a Toyota Yaris) so take that into consideration as well. You pretty much have to be sitting next to it for it to do you much good, but a lot depends on the size and power of the fan you use, and how well you can seal your ice compartment.

9. And finally, if you are a nomad in the desert, wear light weight cotton clothing in light colors; stay in the shade (be watchful above if you have to sit under your camel); look for a breeze; near a stream or pond; or find a big palm leaf and have someone wave it at you. Oh, and did I say, drink LOTS of water?

10. By the way, this all works for your pets as well. I’m not sure if a hamster or a rabbit would approve, but I have had cats that I’ve had to wet down, and who actually enjoyed sitting in front of a fan while they were wet once they realized why I was torturing them this way. They didn’t get sick either. You don’t catch cold by being cold, contrary to what your mother may have told you when you were growing up.

And, I am happy to inform those of you who may know me from that trying period in my life that I have moved out of Hell House and I now have a well-insulated paradise house on Avalon that has air-conditioning. I have it set at 80°, both to save money and to help keep me at least somewhat acclimated if the power goes out, and I’m comfortable, and grateful to the Lord for getting me here! Thank you, everyone, for caring.

How Your Marketing Video is RUINING Your Internet Campaign

All the internet marketing gurus have told you that you need video on your website to get sales, right?  But did they bother to tell you HOW to create a sales video that will grab and hold your visitors' attentions, not bore them to tears within the first 30 seconds of  clicking PLAY?

Thought not...

Especially considering how many horrible marketing videos there are out there.

You may have noticed in your hit logs that visitors are MOVING ON to your competitors' sites after only remaining briefly on yours.

Yes, CHEAP, amateur videos, are CHASING your visitors AWAY before you ever get to the important parts, by not holding their interest long enough to get the cash that is in their hands away from them that they WERE thinking of spending on your site, before you ran them off with that  $5 video purchased from a popular slave labor site.

You see, just like you, when you have the TV remote in your hand flipping rapidly through the channels for a good TV show to watch, most people will not watch past the first 30 seconds of a long, boring, talking head, cheap webcam  video with cluttered background and poor sound quality!

Especially when they have NO IDEA how long the video will run, and are prevented from "cutting to the chase" and fast forwarding past all the doctored shots of checks and faked "live" affiliate account logins (yes, live can be faked!) with blurred areas hiding where the money REALLY came from that they have all seen before and that take up WAY too much brag time...past all the time-consuming fluff to get to the MEAT of the program being offered, because your video is wasting their time.

On top of those issues, the quality and style of your video tells the world exactly how much you are making with the program you are promoting!  And people won't buy into your program if the video quality and style is cheaply filmed and and more cheaply edited.

If you shot your video with a webcam or a cheap camera using amateur, ambient room or outdoor lighting, without paying attention to shadows, windscreens and cluttered backgrounds, your visitors are going to know it is nothing more than a "home movie" and they will know you aren't making a dime with your program.

If it is nothing more than a talking head sitting in front of a webcam or even a professional camera, or driving a car (complete with distracting road noise because it is in a cheap car), visitors are going to be very bored, because that is all they are going to see and they are aren't going to wait around very long for the scene to change. And if you aren't particularly attractive,  then you might as well have made an MP3 audio instead of an MP4 video, because it may be simply unpleasant to look at you, and others may be distracted by your garish or unkempt hair style or your choice of attire.

Additionally, "face readers", such as myself, can tell a lot more about YOU by not only watching your body language as you talk, but by the actual physical characteristics of your face. It's downright spooky how a stranger pegged a very personal part of my life just by the way my eyebrows are shaped!.  Google it, it's extremely revealing what your face says about you, moreso than the words you are speaking that often contradict what your face is actually saying.

Now, do you still want people to see your face after THAT revelation?

And please, please PLEASE stop using miles of simple plain text on a plain white background  without borders that make it hard for a viewer to actually FIND the video they are hearing. 

And please stop reading it verbatim to your customers as if they are illiterate!  It is extremely offensive to insult your viewers' intelligence like that.  If you want them to READ it, put it in your sales page or sales letter. If you want them to HEAR it, make an MP3 audio that they can click or download if they want, after reading compelling ad copy on why they need to listen to it.

Oh, and videos that start playing as soon as the web page is opened, not only startle your visitors who were peacefully surfing quiet pages for hours, perhaps listening to their own music or TV, and who are now scrambling to find the MUTE switch or the STOP button, but they annoy most people who are trying to READ your three-mile-long sales page hype without someone babbling more useless nonsense into their ear at the same time.

And finally, a webpage with video and audio that a visitor cannot control themselves, is a frustrating experience for your visitor and potential customer, and they will move on.  Trust me, I move on a LOT on these marketing sites, but I move faster, about 10 seconds, because I can tell immediately that there is no money to be made from  your program.

Ok, enough of what NOT to do.

Here's how you can fix the problem:

You need to give your videos a PROFESSIONAL look, so that you can create the ILLUSION that you actually ARE making money online.

Without the professional touch, people will KNOW that you are really NOT making a single dime, or you would be able to afford a videographer who understands lighting and interesting and varied camera angles, and a video editor who can add the pizzazz to the entire shoot.   Better yet, stay out of the video yourself, except for your voice.  But if you are not a trained voice talent, your video will still lack that necessary professional quality that also comes from having a proper sound studio rather than a PC mic on your webcam.

The best approach is just to check out the video styles of the sites that already have professionally created videos, such as Ashmax, GDI, IBS, and others, that have no people in them, just stock footage, sound effects, graphics and music, and that have creative titling that is not ever read verbatim by the voice talent. They are also less than 2 minutes long, 1 minute is best, action-filled and packed with just enough info to get your veiwers begging for more information!  Not 11 minutes of here's my Clickbank check, and my Paypal account that I have never taken any money out of (ask yourself why??) and other info that just bogs your viewer down if they last that long in PLAY mode...

Now, remember, these site affiliates may actually not be making the money their video style implies they are making, and that is whole point.  Use video as the ILLUSION that you are successful, rather than as the PROOF that you are not...

Even if you are NOT making enough money with your promotion to afford a professional quality video that can actually HOLD their attention and interest in your program enough to buy into it, you can find semi-professional video editors for a little less who would love to take your footage and give you the best creative and entertaining video they can from it. Stock footage sites abound, where you can purchase single 10-20 second clips for $30 - $100 and there are also FREE SOLUTIONS, such as free footage collections of clips that are available for the price of shipping. or sign up for 7 days of free downloads. Add some free royalty-free music from either site, or get a free song here, and you are rocking and rolling!

Yes, professionally shot footage and creative video editing CAN make a HUGE difference in whether people watch your video or not, or think your program is making money, or not...
And that is how to make your marketing video more enjoyable to watch to the end ..so that you can realize better conversion rates.

About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on www.elance.com as well as other freelance sites. The Footage Firm is an online provider of FREE royalty-free licensed stock video footage, sound effects and royalty-free music for professionals

The One Bug in PostworkShop 3 that Xycod REFUSES to Fix!

Yes, folks, it's true! Xycod, KFT has actually refused to fix a bug that is in every version of PostworkShop, from the very first revolutionary release, to the latest offering of the new and vastly improved PostworkShop 3.

Xycod has always been very responsive to users' requests for features and bug reports with excellent, fast, friendly, customer support, and the PostworkShop 3 development team is no different. Customer feedback is their driving force when it comes to making PostworkShop feature rich, yet this latest version is now easier to learn, simpler to use and much, much faster.

Within barely a month out the door from the PostworkShop 3 official public release, Xycod has released the latest software update "bug-fix" that makes the best even better! More powerful features, more workflow options, as well as accelerated styles. But what you won't find in this release, or in ANY future bug-fix release, is the "Creativity Bug" fix.

You all know it. You all have it. It's part of every PC and MAC owner's PostworkShop life. It's responsible for every first sale, and every upgrade purchase. As soon as you start the program for the very first time, you suddenly notice this bug, and you also notice that it just doesn't go away, either! Even after you shutdown the program, that bug persists! Even when the computer is turned off, and you have left the building, that bug is there, like a contagious virus, ready to infect the next person who opens the program for the first time, or the next time...

The Creativity Bug grips you every time you look at an image that you just downloaded out of your camera or that stock image you just bought off the internet. It's that age old "Wow! I think this image would look fantastic with that "Random Paint" style! I'll just add a little sepia over there, mask that section there for a more Antique look, and...oooh, I can't wait to get home and start working on this photo!"  You even find yourself wondering which PostworkShop Style, or combination of styles, was used on that painting in the doctor's waiting room, or on the restaurant wall, and you can't wait to get back to your computer to try to recreate that same effect.

So, why in the world would Xycod want to fix THAT bug, anyway?

The Creativity Bug...a necessary part of the artist's world that's reinforced in every PostworkShop 3 session...and a PostworkShop bug that no one has ever complained about.

With both a Standalone version, and a free plugin mode that works with Adobe Photoshop and as well as an external editor to Lightroom, along with over 300 adjustable style presets (and growing!) and  the ability to create custom styles, as well as sell your own original creations through Fotolia or other stock image sites, or even your own framed fine art prints, you can't IMAGINE the possibilities!

Check out the website below and start using the newest, easiest, fastest,PostworkShop 3 today. Get infected by the Creativity Bug that Xycod refuses to fix. :)

Clipped from: postworkshop3reviews.pixelclickspicks.com (share this clip)

About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on vWorker.com as well as other freelance job sites. She has also been an avid PostworkShop fan since version 1 and uses it in video production. The Footage Firm is a popular stock footage website that periodically gives away HD and SD video collections as well as royalty free music, After Effects templates, and now Red One footage.

A Short Course in SEO Marketing

I know that a lot of people charge high prices for their SEO and marketing services, but you may need some background on what it all entails that may help you to understand what is involved and why prices are so high:

First of all there is usually an initial flat rate fee for going over your site with a fine-tooth comb and optimizing every bit of code for SEO purposes. Then there are comparisons with your competitors' sites to see what they are doing with their code, and then your site/marketing campaign is tweaked even more, so as to outrank them.

Then there is a monthly keeping-an-eye-on-your-site-and-on-your-competitors'-sites fee, to make sure that if they move ahead,  we can figure out why, and make your site overtake them again. However, one morning you may find a competitor, who was on page 22, suddenly showing up on page 1...and where the heck did YOU go? Dang! You're now on page 14! But why?

Well, Google has a nasty habit of periodically changing its algorithms and rarely says a word about it. And they most certainly will never divulge how ANY of their algorithms or indexing methods work, since it's all proprietary.

So, internet marketers and SEO gurus keep an eye on such Google trends, and when something happens that causes the rankings to get suddenly scrambled like eggs, the panicked buzz starts, and the experts start speculating on what the change was that mighty Google implemented, and then they react accordingly: creating test sites,  tweaking them in various ways...until the ah-ha moment arrives and they can say "Ha! This is what they did! You now need to... "  So, the professional SEO marketing service providers are paying members of this network, too.

Now add to all this, that you can usually only rank highly on a single keyword,and it's usually a longtail one these days, since all the single word ones were taken long ago and bidding is fierce for them on Google Adwords.. I did my own SEO on my site, and for years I was number 1 for "sequential interlocking articulated wooden puzzles" but I just checked last night, and.now I am number 4, due to no activity on that site for that keyword anymore, as well as others figuring out how to outrank me in their own code now.

Plus, you have to be careful with the % of your keywords vs the rest of your written text. This is yet another part of the algorithms that can change. Get this wrong and you can be sandboxed for "spamming the engine".  Oh, and if you use "black hat" methods or services that promise to get your site on page 1 in 2 days, well, by the 3rd day, you could find yourself banned from Google completely.

So, as you can see, it's very tricky stuff! 

Another thing to consider. Google offers their own SEO services. Sounds good, right? Well, think about it this way: trusting Google to do the SEO on your site for their own search engine is like trusting the medical insurance provided by the hospital you are in.... there can be a severe conflict of interest.  As they change algorithms, and drop your rank, they can keep you tied to them for life, money-wise, to get you back to the top of the heap and stay there...only to drop you again at the next algorithm change which they probably already know will be coming up as they are working on your site. (Oh, and you might want to read Robin Cook's "Fatal Cure" for that insurance comment I made. It's scary what a conflict of interest can do to you.)

But it's not just tweaking your website code that is involved in SEO marketing services. It also involves dealing with Facebook, Twitter, other social sites, different videos everywhere, not just on YouTube, backlinks that need to be from the right places, press releases, blog articles, forum posts, email marketing etc..

As you can probably guess, it is very time intensive to set all of that up in the beginning, as well as keep up with it every month so that the site does not "go stale", You will lose rank if your site "stagnates".  This blog of mine was ranked high in 2010-11 for the keyword "horse" because I posted an in-depth article about horses every 2-5 days during that time.  It has gotten stagnant now, with no posts for months and now I have dropped. And as I said above, my stagnant wood puzzle site is now lower, too. Oh, well. I just haven't got the time to promote either, since nothing is for sale anyway. But they have been good practice for me in the SEO world where I work now.

Anyway, I hope this "short course in SEO marketing" helps you somewhat while you try to decide on who to hire for your SEO marketing services. I'd like to recommend that you check out our company, FrancySolutions.com for all your web design, SEO and internet marketing needs, both online and offline, before making your final decision.


About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on vWorker.com as well as other freelance job sites. FrancySolutions.com also uses her services in many ways. She has also been an avid PostworkShop fan and uses it in video production. The Footage Firm is a popular stock footage website that periodically gives away HD and SD video collections as well as royalty free music, After Effects templates, and now Red One footage.

Website Review: Sean Donahoe's Internet Marketing Success Center (IMSC)

I really wanted to write a great review of Sean Donahoe's Internet Marketing Success Center, (IMSC) Inner Circle because he's such a nice, helpful guy...but sadly, I cannot.

The site, Internet Marketing Success Center, (IMSC) is more often down than it is up, pages are slow to load, many links do not work properly, and the navigation of the site is frustrating at best, assuming the site doesn't die on you in the middle of a page change.

Sure, the IMSC site looks good, with a splashy background and an excellent sharp picture of Sean Donahoe, along with professional looking icons and very nice, eye-catching pages to display a ton of great informational videos and PLR software and article downloads, but unfortunately Internet Marketing Success Center (IMSC) is a navigational nightmare. So much so, that I did not last through my one dollar 14 day trial of the site. I cancelled after 5 days of struggling with the slowness, the errors and the downtime.

For example, in the download section, the "Download Now" button does NOT mean Download Now, so you can't do the "right click.save target as", like I can on Mark Austin's Resell Rights Weekly No, "Download Now" means click here and go to yet another page that has exactly the same description information (and some useless download stats). THERE you can download by using "save target as", etc. But I did not find this out until I had gotten frustrated by the "Download Now" button constantly telling me I had already downloaded the file, which turned out to be an .htm, not a .zip.

However, even after you click into that additional page, many of the downloads do not give you the zip file. but rather you end up downloading the jpg or png image of the item instead. There is also no way to get back to the page you were on, other than using the back button, and for some of us who have randomly double-clicking mice/touchpads, this means NOT getting back to the page you were on, and having to waste even more time waiting for page loads to get back to where you were.

Additonally, there are only 4 or 5 items per main download page, and a lot of self-advertising banners that are the same on all pages, that makes the pages slow to load. If the pages were cleaned up better, to be more like Mark Austin's Resell Rights Weekly that has over 100 downloadable items per month on a single page that loads in a blink with direct click links on all items, I would have stuck around on Sean Donahoe's Internet Marketing Success Center (IMSC)

In the section that has the "Ask Sean" videos (which are not available at the cheaper price), it is not obvious that the videos can be downloaded for later watching offline. There is a barely noticeable and non-intuitive "download" link called "Read more" that leads to a page where you can download the video. However, right click/save target as, often gives an .htm file to download, NOT the mp4 video. This .htm page is an error page that says "This page demonstrates link redirect with "WP-NoExternalLinks" plugin. You will be redirected in 3 seconds. Otherwise, please click on this link"

Clicking on the suggested link however has the browser just sitting and spinning for long minutes until the browser finally admits that it cannot display the page. Nor can you get back to the video page once this error occurs, as the site has just dropped dead on you.   Not even a cached page at Google will get you back to the Inner Circle, it just sits and spins also..
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There is no way to contact Sean Donahoe to tell him about these issues. I could not find a Help Center link to put a ticket in to tell him his links don't work. I can only hope he stumbles onto this post while he is searching for his latest contest winners. I know I won't be a winner with such a negative post, but I had hoped to write a more positive one when I first joined his Inner Circle.

All in all, Sean Donahoe's Internet Marketing Success Center (IMSC) is a great idea, but for $47-$97 per month, it's poorly implemented for the target user. There are too many clicks when one click should do, the site's pages are way too slow to change, and then too slow to load, and it goes offline frequently, several times a day, for an hour or more, so you barely have time to download more than 5-10 items before it crashes out on you, or after about 2 or 3 main page changes, the browser is sitting and spinning again, and down for the count. One thing I noticed, whenever it comes back online, there is a new item to download, so when he is adding things to the site, apparently several times a day, it's offline to everyone but Sean Donahoe.

By comparison, Mark Austin's Resell Rights Weekly is only $19 per month (with a FREE option that still gets you a lot of useful content) and a whole lot easier to navigate, with most of the same PLR and MRR downloads that Internet Marketing Success Center (IMSC) charges twice as much for, with no free subscription option at all.

It's only a $1 for a trial subscription to either one of the two sites, so check them both out for yourself. I've already made my decision about which is the best value for the money and the least waste of my time.