business buzz 12-24-09

A weekly round-up of craft, design, and business related news and links*:

1,000 True Fans – This 2008 article seems to be getting a lot of recent coverage, and its a must read for every craft business owners. It looks at where you need to situate yourself on the long tail to make a living. (Hint: its not the head or the tail.) Aren’t familiar with the long tail theory? I highly recommend you read Chris Anderson’s book: The Long Tail, Revised and Updated Edition: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More

Should Designer Knock-Offs Be Illegal – It’s Complicated – an interesting look at the eternal intellectual property debate.

The Protocol Society – now we make sets of instructions instead of stuff. But how does handmade fit in?

Hobbyists Use Etsy to Trade Day Job for Hard Work – ok, so this came out last week. Still a really interesting look at making a living on Etsy. Plus 2 more related links:

How to Make Money on Etsy – good advice from Design*Sponge founder Grace Bonney

Design and Craft: A History of Convergences – September 2010 conference in Belgium. And there’s still time to submit a paper.

Really great tips for artist blogs (don’t be scared off by the crazy picture – its actually useful), commerce blogs, and ecommerce blogs to help drive sales from Remarkablogger.

New Retail Landscape Starting to Emerge – Trend Bible’s predictions for the changing face of retail. They think it will be more customer driven, for one thing.

*Note: this column will normally appear on Fridays, but because of the holidays will be on Thursday for the next two weeks.