Meet the Middle-Man at FindAFeature

**CONTEST CLOSED -- WINNER CHOSEN**
(Win $25 gift certificate and FREE advertising)

Hello, today I'd like to introduce you to my little middle-man. Throughout history, the middle-man has always gotten a bad rap, but today I'm going to introduce you to a new middle-man who will force you to leave that prejudice behind. My little middle-man lives at FindAFeature.

FindAFeature or 'FAF' (as it now has a pet name) is a new project I started to tackle a common dilemma I see in the handmade/blogging community. I always need (lefthanded) people to feature on my Lefthand Madens blog. So, each time my well runs dry, I go back into the forums at various venues and start requesting more participants. While I'm there, I always see other folks doing the exact same thing for their blogs. So it dawned on me that this is highly inefficient.

FindAFeature was created to fix that problem.

How it works:

If you're a blogger, and you need people to feature on your blog every day, week, month (whatever your need is), you can submit your request at FAF and let people come to you.

If you're a blogger, and you want to host a giveaway, and you need participants, you can submit your request at FAF and let people come to you. For example, if you're an established jewelry seller, and you want to host a giveaway to promote newbie jewelry sellers on your blog, you can post a request on FAF and people who meet your criteria can respond to you.

If you're a columnist or reporter covering a handmade news story, and you're trying to reach a particular segment of the handmade community, you can submit your request at FAF and let people come to you. For instance, there's a request on FAF right now from a columnist at handmadenews.org who wants to interview small, sustainable, organic farmers.

If you want to feature certain products or have other needs that FAF can help you out with, you can submit your request at FAF and let people come to you. For instance, I have a request up now for Lefthand Madens because I want to feature handmade products that are specifically made for left-handed people.

All you need to do is read the submission guidelines and then email me at findafeature [!at] gmail dot com or convo me via Etsy with your request, and I'll post it for you and send you the link. If you like, you can then post it on your blog or just hang onto it. Since I started posting listings on Monday, we've had 9 connections already!

If you get a response to your listing, please let me know so that I know if FAF is working for you. You also need to let me know when to remove your listing if it doesn't have an expiration date.

How Do People Know The Listings Are There?

FindAFeature has a Twitter account where all new listings will be immediately tweeted, and unfilled listings will be re-tweeted. FAF will soon be on the Entrecard network and will be advertised through Project Wonderful, handmadenews.org, and through word of mouth. If you'd like to put a FindAFeature button on your blog, you may grab the one on the FAF sidebar. You will make my little yellow stick man very, very happy!

But I Want to Be Featured On A Blog!

Yes, I know. That's the ultimate goal of FAF. If there isn't a listing that meets your criteria, the best thing to do is to follow FAF on Twitter and to follow the FAF blog as well so you'll see the new listings as they go live. Then you'll be able to respond immediately to one that's a match for you or tweet your best friend because you saw one that's a good match for her!

And, I know that there are many of you out there who want both. You want to feature people and you want to be featured yourself. So why not put up a listing and keep the torch lit?

But I went and looked at your site, and it's dark and black and scary.

No, it's not. It's just classy. He's a little yellow man; what other color do you want him to wear?

Can I just see your site without having to look at it?

Sure. Here's a screen shot. If you look at the green words, you can see how easy it is to navigate. You can see right next to 'Instructions' in green, that you can click and get right to "How to Use FindAFeature" and the submission guidelines. All of the actual posts are color-coded as well. You can only see 1 of them in the screen shot.

Blog Features
Giveaways
Interview/Reporting
Other


Okay, but I read a lot of blogs while I'm supposed to be working, and then my boss comes in and scares the crap out of me, and I forget everything I was reading, so can you give me an easy way to remember this site?

Sure. It's easy. Just remember: www.findafeature.info
You asked for info; I gave you info. www.findafeature.info
Or for those of you who are extremely visually oriented: FAFO

I have a question.

Please ask. I might have the answer.

~*~*~*~

FAF is a free service, so me and my little middle-man are very grateful to those who've already spread the word, tweeted, done blog posts etc. In fact, if you blog about FAF, tweet about it, or spread the e-word about it in some other wonderful way between now and midnight on Sunday, 6/28 and come back and comment here with proof of your efforts, you'll be entered to win a $25.00 gift certificate to my shop, Risky Beads, and a free month of advertising on this blog.

Thanks and good luck,

Lori & FAFO (the middle-man)

P.S. please leave your email address when you comment so I can contact you if you win. :-)