Interview with Scrap In Style TV’s Jeanette Herdman

Thank you so much to Nina  Patena of  Craft Journal for allowing me to post her interview with Jeanette Herdman.

You can get to know her more by reading her profile here:

Scrap In Style TV, or SIStv for short, has got to be on your crafter’s cool sites online. If it’s not, then here’s just some of what your missing out on:

1. awesome videos showing tips, techniques, interviews, and a whole lotta fun

2. a very cool boutique filled with the latest and funkiest stuff for your crafting pleasure

3. a friendly community of “SISters” who create stuff that will blow you away and will be nice enough to leave comments in your very own gallery as well

4. awesome Fashionista design team members who are the cream of the crop in the scrapbooking industry

5. affordable and useful classes offered by names you may have heard of in the scrapbook industry

SIStv wouldn’t come to be if it weren’t for the passionate driving force behind it, Jeanette Herdman. 

1. What is Scrap In Style TV in a nutshell? How did it start?

Jeanette Herdman: Since this is kind of a long story, I hope you don’t mind if I link you to a page on our site that tells it.  http://www.scrapinstyletv.com/aboutus.php

2. Could you give a rough estimate on how many members you have  now and how fast the site is growing?

JH: Sure, we have just under 15,000 registered members right now and our average growth rate has been about 500 new members a month. We’re continually working on new ways to attract new members to the site, and we have some big changes and new features planned for the next few months. Also, our second season of Scrap In Style TV premieres on March 9. One thing that we have been adamant about is trying to keep down any type of anonymous or doubled memberships. Every membership requires an email validation before it is activated, as well as a first and last name. We’ve always done it this way, which is why we’ve been able to keep a lot of the anonymous posting and spam type messages off of our site. It’s not 100% foolproof, but you’d be surprised at how little of a problem we have with non-qualitative posting.

3. How do you choose which information, products, industry experts to feature in your site?

JH: First of all, I realize that we are not a mainstream scrapbooking site. Our members are very product savvy, and demand the most current products from the best manufacturers. Also, our members tend to be more involved in the Indie Crafter scene in addition to scrapbooking, so they’re very into art journaling, kitschy crafts, and DIY home decor. We want to keep them interested at as many points in their crafting journey as possible, so I take all of that into account. When it comes to style and taste, I use myself as a gauge. For the most part, I won’t carry things that I personally wouldn’t use. Sometimes that can go against me because my tastes are quite left of center and sometimes I try to introduce things that don’t always fly. LOL

4. How are you able to sustain Scrap In Style TV? Do you rely on advertisers? How can members/readers help out?

JH: This is a great question. I think people forget sometimes that it costs a lot of money to sustain an operation like ours. Up to this point, we have not sold any advertising space on the web site or within the show’s webisodes. We have been wholly funded by boutique sales. While we are thrilled to be growing, with that comes higher operating expenses, and with the economy the way that it is, we are beginning to explore other options for generating revenue. Some of these things we always knew we would venture into at some point, but we are now looking into them sooner than originally planned. I never want the web site to be ridden with banner ads and the like so we’re trying to be creative with the options that we’re offering manufacturers. For members who want to help out, the best thing is to buy our products and take some of our First Rate online classes. That’s obviously direct funding that helps to keep the site going. We also really appreciate grass roots, cyber marketing. Since we have spent a minimal amount ourselves on advertising, the best way we can spread our name is to have our SISters advertise for us. We provide a really cool widget where members can showcase one of their layouts from their gallery on our site, as well as link up directly to their full portfolio. It’s a really cool item for someone to have on their blog, and it promotes the site as well.

5. If you could recommend a list of essential scrapbooking sites for scrapbookers of all levels, what sites would you recommend? I’m thinking of including the following on the list: Scrap In Style TV, Scrapscene, Pubcalls, Twopeasinabucket, Scrapjazz, Scrapbook.com, Blue Bazaar, UKScrappers, etc.

JH: Well, you’ve mentioned a lot of great ones here already. I would have to add www.jennibowlin.com which is a great site with fantastic products, Scrapblog is a fantastic site where people can dabble in the world of digital scrapping without having to install any programs or elements on their computer – it’s all done online. I would also recommend some non scrapbooking sites for the purpose of gaining inspiration. Design Sponge is great, Domino Magazine’s site is always inspiring to me as well. FlickR is a great place to get absorbed in photos and learn great tips and techniques for photography.

So what are you waiting for? Come visit SIStv today. See you there.