Thanks to all who enter the contest! The winners have been chosen via random.org

Grand Prize winner of the 1 year portfolio subscription to That’s My Folio:
Lisa McGriffin

^spread from my latest halloween book Poke-A-Dot 10 Little Monsters

Halloween is this week and I have no idea where the month of October went. It’s supposed to rain all day here on Thursday so I might have to come up with an alternative trick-or-treat experience for my super hero and “Pink Lady.” I think a movie and popcorn will be in there somewhere! So, with Halloween upon us, to celebrate, I’m excited to be hosting another giveaway with That’s My Folio! It’s a great website for artists to promote their work. When I did a giveaway with them in 2011, I interviewed the brainchild-ren (is that a word?), Patrick & Lanette on why they stared it and what type of advertising they do for the site. You can check it out here.

The prizes are:

• Three $50 dollar Barnes & Noble gift cards

• A one year subscription to Thats My Folio

To be eligible to win, all you just have to do ONE of the following:

This is a great prize for any illustrator looking to promote their work. I will pick the winners this Friday, November 1st. Good luck everyone and thanks for spreading the word!

There are many ways to connect with us:

That’s My Portfolio
Website
Twitter
Facebook
Flickr

Holli Conger
Website
Twitter
Facebook
Flickr
Instagram

It’s almost May and that means it’s almost May 5th and that means “Cinco de Mayo” and that means you can learn all you ever wanted to know about the holiday from my new book with Lerner Publishing written by the fabulous Lisa Bullard called Marco’s Cinco de Mayo! I love how the completed book turned out. It’s a colorful 9.5″x9.5″ hardback.

Our family loves Cinco de Mayo simply for the fact that we love Mexican food. LOVE IT!! The Woog would live off of quesadillas if we let her. When I had Ocee, the hospital had some killer quesadillas so I ate them for lunch and dinner every day while I was there. 5 meals of them I think. Every since I have been on the search for quesadillas as good as those and I think I finally found them at Chuy’s. Ahh…

So in celebration of Cinco de Mayo and yummy food, I’m giving away 3 signed (by me your loving illustrator) copies to 3 lucky people. But there’s a catch. You have to give me your favorite Mexican food recipe to enter!

I’ve closed comments on my blog after months of dealing with spam ones, so you will need to go and “like” HOLLi CONGER studios on facebook and look for the post with the Marco image above. Then, leave a comment with your favorite Mexican food recipe (it can also be a link to it on the web). That’s it! On April 25th, I’ll randomly draw 3 winners and announce them on facebook.

So most of you all know that I love to test things out when it comes to marketing. I like to see what works and what doesn’t and then evaluate it. We’ll I came across a new site I found via twitter called That’s My Folio. It’s brand new and get this, it’s only $12.50 a MONTH for 15 images. With that low a price, any illustrator (even newbies trying to break into the field) can afford to test it out and they give you your first month free (use promo code 1month). Since I only subscribe to one online portfolio listing site right now, I though I’d give it a try. I love how easy and clean the site is and how big the images show and since it’s just starting up, you really have a chance to get noticed on there.

I was so impressed with the site and since it’s new, I thought I’d help Lanette and Patrick out by promoting it on my blog so I asked them a few questions so I could post about it:

Do you have a background in illustration or publishing?
Patrick has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in marketing. He has done some marketing for Prairie Breeze Gallery in Mitchell, SD. He has also been working on website marketing independently for the past 7 years.

Lanette is an admirer of art and creativity in many forms, with an Accounting diploma and over 20 years of customer service and sales experience (6 of those with a local bookstore). She is learning more about marketing by attending local business conferences and workshops.

Why did you decide to start a portfolio site with all the others out there?
It started with Lanette’s desire to start her own business, grew as she and Patrick brainstormed on what types of businesses either or both of them could do, gained substance as they focused on what they wanted their lives, careers and world to be about, and jumped onto the World Wide Web as an easy-to-use, professional site that still maintains a personal feel, geared to help illustrators get their talent shown to the world.

We are not planning to overtake all (or any) of the great portfolio sites that are already available. We just want to offer a smaller, more personal and affordable site where illustrators can feel like more than “just another artist”.

What type of advertising do you do to promote the site and the artists there?
At this time, we are focusing on social media advertising and have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We also believe word-of-mouth communications via blog posts and articles and networking are very valuable. We have recently begun placing ads online on some blogs, also. Our site has been developed to be as search-engine friendly as is currently possible, including an opportunity to upgrade with mobile web use in the near future.

We are networking at local book fair/festivals as well as small business conferences and workshops.
Within the website itself, we are using a featured artist spotlight and a blog area that we hope will help create some “buzz” about us.
We do welcome any suggestions for marketing and advertising that anyone might have!

AND Lanette and Patrick were so nice to allow me to offer a free one year portfolio to another illustrator. So, it’s Giveway Time!! All you have to do is enter in one of 3 ways:

And the winner of the 1 year subscription to That’s My Folio is the fab, ! Congratulations Wendy!