Blue Eyed Sun

Blue Eyed Sun - gorgeous greetings cards

TGCP

  • The Greeting Card Project - December Review

    #TGCP December Review

    This is the final month of The Greeting Card Project where I visit a different shop every week this year and buy and send more greeting cards to see how it improves my relationships and enhances my sense of well being.

    Here are the final episodes for you to catch up on:

    This week I buy thank you cards for guys from from Saffrons of York.

    Sixty second bonus episode illustrating the difference between sending digital messages and cards.

    This week I bought Christmas Relations cards from John Lewis on Oxford Street in London.

    Buying beautiful cards from You in Stamford, Lincolnshire.

    Buying Christmas Packs from Fortnum & Mason in London.

    The twelfth month of the channel had 581 views with viewers watching over 16 hours of The Greeting Card Project for an average of 1:43 per video. The channel gained 1 more subscribers,  14 shares and accumulated 40 likes and 0 dislikes. The total lifetime channel views is now 10,589 with over 352 hours watched and an average view time of 1:59.

    December's Facebook video views were 1,859 totalling with 12 hours view time. Lifetime Facebook views are 10,190 with 75 hours viewed since I started posting natively in Facebook mid-June.

    If you do watch and enjoy the videos please pop over to YouTube and subscribe. I'd also love it if you followed the project on the new Facebook Page. Keep up to date on other platforms via my personal Twitter account @JeremyCorner and my personal Instagram @JeremyCorner.

    Where possible there are hyperlinks to all of the featured companies beneath each YouTube video.

    November Review of #TGCP

    October Review of #TGCP

    September Review of #TGCP

    August Review of #TGCP

    July Review of #TGCP

    June Review of #TGCP

    May Review of #TGCP

    April Review of #TGCP

    March Review of #TGCP

    February Review of #TGCP

    January review of #TGCP

    Learn why I started #TGCP

  • Looking Back on The Greeting Card Project

    Looking Back - The Greeting Card Project

    On Sunday 31st December I will post my final video at YouTube.com/TheGreetingCardProject on a personal quest that has taken me far and wide as I have explored the magic of greeting card sending each week this year.

    At the start of the year I confessed to the world that, despite having published cards for the last seventeen years, I didn’t actually send that many greeting cards myself. My New Year’s resolution for 2017 was to change this and send more cards. I would also document my experiences on video and share them on YouTube and social media each week.

    Why?

    At the start of the project I wanted to explore how it would change me and how it would affect my relationships. I also wanted to explore the nature of giving cards.

    It has been quite a journey. I’ve been through all sorts of ups and downs on the project. I’m proud to have nearly completed it and I’m pleased that it’s also inspired others to send more cards, create their own videos and to be more supportive online.

    I am hugely grateful to everyone who has contributed to the videos with video replies and help, to those who let me film in their shops and to everyone who shared the content online. I’m indebted to my 10 yr old son, Sam, whom I dragged around post boxes and shops when I needed help filming. Mostly I am grateful to all of you that take the time out of your busy lives to watch my short films. Thank you.

    The stats

    This year I have purchased and sent over 250 cards from over 150 different publishers in 52 different stores in the UK and Europe. I’ve spent around £250 on postage, £750 on cards and £600 on travel to complete the project with a total cost of £1,600.

    Creating and sharing the videos online has taken approximately 400 hours of work this year (Interestingly, the total watch time for the videos is 427 hours).

    The videos on YouTube had 10,589 views by the year end with an average view time of two minutes each. Halfway through the year, I started testing the videos in Facebook and other platforms and the total views of the videos during 2017 on all channels was 20,779.

    I’m really pleased with these stats. I never expected the channel to go viral and this wasn’t my intention anyway. I wanted to create something that was of interest to our community and to people who love cards. Whilst I’d love to have done more with the format, I was restricted by the time I could dedicate to the project (around 6-8 hours per week). For the time, budget and resources I had the project has been a success for me. More importantly it’s changed me personally as I’ve grown from the experience.

    How I’ve changed

    When I started my first video I was pretty nervous. The first shot on Brighton beach took me about fifty takes. I felt so self conscious walking and talking to my phone as passers by looked on. My face felt tight (although it was pretty cold on the day) and the more takes I did, the harder it was to stay relaxed. I got a lot better at this with practice and I feel very at ease in front of the camera now. It’s actually a lot of fun.

    Over time I got more organised. I didn’t plan the project particularly well. I thought of a format that I could achieve and that I would find interesting and then went for it. I’m writing this knowing that I only have two videos left to shoot and how and where I’m going to do them. Being ahead is a lot less stressful than shooting, editing and uploading all on the same day (yup, I did that twice).

    The biggest shift for me personally is the discovery that the real pleasure comes from buying and sending the cards, not the reciprocal receipt of any cards. It’s like sending rays of sunshine off into peoples’ lives. I love it and I love that I don’t rely on replies to feel happy or content within. That said, it is lovely to receive cards too and I’ve loved every one of the dozen or so that have come through my door this year.

    My Relationships

    The quality of our relationships comes down to the quality of our communication. Whilst greeting cards will never be a panacea for fixing relationships, I do believe they can really help us to communicate and to connect powerfully with one another. Card sending is an act of service, a gift, a way of spending quality time with another, they’re tactile and they often contain words of affirmation and affection. They can light up a person’s day in a way that is uniquely wonderful.

    The biggest change for me has been a personal shift within that has come from spending more time thinking of others and more regularly feeling grateful for my friends and loved ones. It’s been a challenging year for me personally and this practice has been invaluable to my sense of well being. I have experienced and changed so much I can’t even begin to tell you about it all. I also can’t honestly tell you if I am actually closer to my friends or to anyone else in my life as a result of sending more cards. I do feel better for doing it though.

    What I've discovered is that the real moment is here and now. When I choose a card for you and I hand write a message to you I am with you in this moment. Even though we may be many miles apart. Even if we are the best of friends or we hardly know each other, I am here with you. Thinking of you. This is the real gift: presence.

    What Next?

    I need your help to send more cards and deliver more smiles in 2018. Are you up for it?

    The mission, should you choose to accept it:

    Agree to send more cards during 2018 and to share your stories using #TheGreetingCardProject on social media.

    You don’t have to make a video. You can simply share a photo or write your greeting card story.

    I do hope that you will get involved and look forward to hearing your experience.

    Join the Facebook Group to get started: www.facebook.com/groups/TheGreetingCardProject

    Watch The Greeting Card Project weekly videos at www.YouTube.com/TheGreetingCardProject

    Why I started the Greeting Card Project

    14 Things I've learned making The Greeting Card Project

    My top Technical Tips for Making Video for your Business

  • The Greeting Card Project - November Review

    TGCP-NovemberReviewThis is the penultimate month of The Greeting Card Project where I visit a different shop every week this year and buy and send more greeting cards to see how it improves my relationships and enhances my sense of well being.

    Here are the latest episodes for you to catch up on:

    This week I buy cards for guys from from Cadeaux in Morley, Leeds.

    Shopping for baby girl cards at Bijou in Elgin, Scotland. Click on the image to watch the video.

    This week I bought some special cards from Cornucopia in Worcester.

    Buying unusual cards from my Rawhide on Hay-on-Wye in Wales.

    This month I also made an special bonus episode on the cards I received for Thinking of You Week.

    The eleventh month of the channel had 866 views with viewers watching over 24 hours of The Greeting Card Project for an average of 1:40 per video. The channel gained 8 more subscribers,  17 shares and accumulated 35 likes and 0 dislikes. The total lifetime channel views is now 9,953.

    November's Facebook video views were 5,200 totalling with 42 hours view time. Lifetime Facebook views are 8,300 with 63 hours viewed since I started posting natively in Facebook mid-June.

    If you do watch and enjoy the videos please pop over to YouTube and subscribe. I'd also love it if you followed the project on the new Facebook Page. Keep up to date on other platforms via my personal Twitter account @JeremyCorner and my personal Instagram @JeremyCorner.

    Where possible there are hyperlinks to all of the featured companies beneath each YouTube video.

    October Review of #TGCP

    September Review of #TGCP

    August Review of #TGCP

    July Review of #TGCP

    June Review of #TGCP

    May Review of #TGCP

    April Review of #TGCP

    March Review of #TGCP

    February Review of #TGCP

    January review of #TGCP

    Learn why I started #TGCP

  • The Greeting Card Project - October Review

    #TGCP - October Review

    The weeks are flying by on The Greeting Card Project where I visit a different shop every week and buy and send more greeting cards. I had a fun time visiting shops in Scotland, London and Switzerland this month.

    Here are the latest episodes for you to catch up on:

    Buying baby boy cards from JP Pozzi in the fishing village of Buckie, Scotland.

    Shopping for cards at a wonderful papeterie called Brachard in Geneva, Switzerland

    This week I bought birthday cards from Globus department store in Lausanne, Switzerland.

    Buying lovely cards from my favourite Paperchase on Tottenham Court Road in London.

    The tenth month of the channel had 747 views with viewers watching over 23 hours of The Greeting Card Project for an average of 1:49 per video. The channel gained 10 more subscribers,  26 shares and accumulated 48 likes and 1 dislikes. The total lifetime channel views is now 9,100.

    October's Facebook video views were 628 totalling with 4 hours view time. Lifetime Facebook views are 3,100 with 22 hours viewed since I started posting natively in Facebook mid-June.

    If you do watch and enjoy the videos please pop over to YouTube and subscribe. I'd also love it if you followed the project on the new Facebook Page. Keep up to date on other platforms via my personal Twitter account @JeremyCorner and my personal Instagram @JeremyCorner.

    Where possible there are hyperlinks to all of the featured companies beneath each YouTube video.

    September Review of #TGCP

    August Review of #TGCP

    July Review of #TGCP

    June Review of #TGCP

    May Review of #TGCP

    April Review of #TGCP

    March Review of #TGCP

    February Review of #TGCP

    January review of #TGCP

    Learn why I started #TGCP

  • The Greeting Card Project - September Review

    #TGCP - September Review

    Another busy month on The Greeting Card Project. I've now completed over three quarters of my goal to visit a different shop every week this year and buy and send more greeting cards. I can't believe how far I've come. It's amazing what you can achieve with weekly practice.

    Here are the latest episodes for you to catch up on:

    This week I shop for quirky cards at the Paper Turtle in Lewes.

    A Thinking of You Week special filmed at the Laughing Dog gallery in Brighton Marina.

    Shopping for Retirement cards at Halls of Llandaff in Cardiff, Wales.

    This week I bought gallery cards from The Golden Sheaf in Narberth in Wales.

    Buying Birthday Friend cards from The Oyster Gallery in the Mumbles in Wales.

    The nineth month of the channel had 726 views with viewers watching over 23 hours of The Greeting Card Project for an average of 1:52 per video. The channel gained 5 more subscribers,  26 shares and accumulated 31 likes and 1 dislikes. The total lifetime channel views is now 8,358.

    September's Facebook video views are well up at 1,300 totalling with over 9.2 hours view time. Lifetime Facebook views are 2,500 with 16.6 hours viewed since I started posting natively in Facebook mid-June.

    This month I tested the Thinking of You Week special as my first native LinkedIn video gained 73 views, not differing much from Youtube hyperlinks shared with my 1,480 followers on LinkedIn.

    If you do watch and enjoy the videos please pop over to YouTube and subscribe. I'd also love it if you followed the project on the new Facebook Page. Keep up to date on other platforms via my personal Twitter account @JeremyCorner and my personal Instagram @JeremyCorner.

    Where possible there are hyperlinks to all of the featured companies beneath each YouTube video.

    August Review of #TGCP

    July Review of #TGCP

    June Review of #TGCP

    May Review of #TGCP

    April Review of #TGCP

    March Review of #TGCP

    February Review of #TGCP

    January review of #TGCP

    Learn why I started #TGCP

  • The Greeting Card Project - August Review

    The Greeting Card Project - August Review

    It's been a busy month visiting a variety of shops around the UK. I've now completed over two thirds of my goal to visit a different shop every week this year and buy and send more greeting cards. I'm having a lot of fun sending more cards, I hope that you are enjoying the videos.

    Here are this latest episodes for you to catch up on:

    This week I test my friendships with some rude cards from Creased in The Lanes in Brighton.

    Shop for Birthday Girl cards at House of Elliott in Hemel Hempstead.

    This week I bought Art Cards from Design at Six in Wetherby.

    Buying Get Well Soon cards from Vinegar Hill in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

    The eighth month of the channel had 821 views with viewers watching over 26 hours of The Greeting Card Project for an average of 1:53 per video. The channel gained 4 more subscribers,  30 shares and accumulated 42 likes and 0 dislikes. The total lifetime channel views is now 7,615. August's Facebook video views up at 620 totalling over 3.7 hours view time.

    If you do watch and enjoy the videos please pop over to YouTube and subscribe. I'd also love it if you followed the project on the new Facebook Page. Keep up to date on other platforms via my personal Twitter account @JeremyCorner and my personal Instagram @JeremyCorner.

    Where possible there are hyperlinks to all of the featured companies beneath each YouTube video.

    July Review of #TGCP

    June Review of #TGCP

    May Review of #TGCP

    April Review of #TGCP

    March Review of #TGCP

    February Review of #TGCP

    January review of #TGCP

    Learn why I started #TGCP

  • The Greeting Card Project - July Review

    The Greeting Card Project - July ReviewWow. I've now shot, edited and published over 31 episodes of #TGCP. It's been an amazing year recording and sharing The Greeting Card Project each week. I love visiting all the different shops and send lots of greeting cards to people.

    This month has been busy with five new videos and more being posted natively on the new Facebook page. Here are this latest episodes for you to catch up on:

    I had fun buying humour cards from Magpie in Harrogate this week.

    Buying anniversary cards from The Token House in Nottingham and discussing Gary Chapman's 5 Love Languages.

    Excited to be buying my friends 'Parents to Be' cards from Daisy Taylor's in York.

    Etcetera in Rugby had a great selection of handmade cards.

    This week I was in Leigh on Sea in Essex visiting Natural Edge to buy birthday cards.

    The seventh month of the channel had 882 views with viewers watching over 31 hours of The Greeting Card Project for an average of 2:07 per video. The channel gained 12 more subscribers,  34 shares and accumulated 42 likes and 0 dislikes. The total lifetime channel views is now 6,794. July's Facebook videos racked up 379 views totalling over 2 hours view time.

    If you do watch and enjoy the videos please pop over to YouTube and subscribe. I'd also love it if you followed the project on the new Facebook Page. Keep up to date on other platforms via my personal Twitter account @JeremyCorner and my personal Instagram @JeremyCorner.

    Where possible there are hyperlinks to all of the featured companies beneath each YouTube video.

    June Review of the #TGCP

    May Review of #TGCP

    April Review of #TGCP

    March Review of #TGCP

    February Review of #TGCP

    January review of #TGCP

    Learn why I started #TGCP

  • The Greeting Card Project - June Review

    The Greeting Card Project - June ReviewThe Greeting Card Project is my year of sending more greeting cards and recording a video diary of my experiences, the shops I visit, the cards I send and my own personal journey.

    Amazingly I have reached the halfway point of this year long project! A big part of my New Year's resolution to send more greeting cards is sticking to it and making a video per week. So far so good. I've also started posting the videos natively on a new Facebook page. Having taken over five months to gain 100 subscribers on YouTube, I managed to reach 100 followers on Facebook within five days. Here are this month's videos to catch up on if you missed them:

    This week I visit beautiful lifestyle store, Dulwich Trader, to buy New Job cards for friends of mine at Sage Plc. I also talk to their CEO, Stephen Kelly, about why he uses greeting cards and why he finds them so powerful.

    Clintons had a huge selection of Father's Day cards, so I visited their branch at Lakeside in Essex to see what I could find for my son's Grandpa and Grandad. I also talk about the importance of fathers and Father's Day cards.

    I found some lovely wedding cards on my recent trip to America where I was speaking at Sage Summit. This week I buy cards from Posman Books and Archer Paper Goods in Ponce City Market, Atlanta and head to three weddings.

    This week I visited South Downs Garden Centre. It's my local and I love shopping there. They have recently had a refit and have an excellent new cafe and deli. The Garden Centre Buyer Magazine loved the video and featured us here.

    The sixth month of the channel had 792 views with viewers watching over 27 hours of The Greeting Card Project for an average of 2:01 per video. The channel gained 18 more subscribers,  36 shares and accumulated 49 likes and 1 dislike. The total lifetime channel views is now 5,970. The first two Facebook videos racked up 190 views totalling 74 minutes view time.

    If you do watch and enjoy the videos please pop over to YouTube and subscribe. I'd also love it if you followed the project on the new Facebook Page. Keep up to date on other platforms via my personal Twitter account @JeremyCorner and my personal Instagram @JeremyCorner.

    Where possible there are hyperlinks to all of the featured companies beneath each YouTube video.

    May Review of #TGCP

    April Review of #TGCP

    March Review of #TGCP

    February Review of #TGCP

    January review of #TGCP

    Learn why I started #TGCP

  • The Greeting card Project - May Review

    #TGCP - May Review

    The Greeting Card Project is my year of sending more greeting cards and recording a video diary of my experiences, the shops I visit, the cards I send and my own personal journey.

    Hooray! Thanks to everyone's support, this month I finally reached 100 subscribers and claimed my custom URL, find it at https://www.youtube.com/TheGreetingCardProject. I'd love your feedback on the project so far. Please tell me what else you'd like to see in the comments beneath the videos on YouTube. Click on the images below to watch each of May's videos.

    I'm late, I'm late. This week I send some belated cards, which I purchased from a small independent shop called Box of Delights in Flitwick. In keeping with the theme this is the first video I've loaded up late too!

    This week I visit Waterstone's flagship store in London's Piccadilly Circus and buy congratulations and well done cards from some lovely American greeting card publishers.

    This week I visit the Tring branch of a small independent chain called House of Cards and shop for birthday milestone cards. Some lovely reactions to the cards from recipients at the end of this video.

    This week I visited the branch of a small chain of independent shops in Berkhamstead called Temptation Gifts and bought some funny birthday cards for old university friends.

    The fifth month of the channel had 750 views with viewers watching over 25 hours of The Greeting Card Project for an average of 2:02 per video. The channel gained 11 more subscribers,  13 shares and accumulated 51 likes and 1 dislikes. The total lifetime channel views is now 5,000.

    If you do watch and enjoy the videos please pop over to YouTube and subscribe. I'd also love it if you followed the project on my personal Twitter account @JeremyCorner and my new personal Instagram @JeremyCorner.

    Where possible there are hyperlinks to all of the featured companies beneath each YouTube video.

    April Review of #TGCP

    March Review of #TGCP

    February Review of #TGCP

    January review of #TGCP

    Learn why I started #TGCP

  • 14 Things I've learned on The Greeting Card Project

    #TGCPDespite my best efforts to focus on the journey rather than the outcome of my YouTube channel (The Greeting Card Project) I have found myself distracted by the numbers of late.

    Whether you set up a Facebook page, Twitter Account, YouTube channel or add Google Analytics to your Website, those cunning geeks from silicon valley provide you with a raft of information on how your particular digital poison of choice is performing. In the case of YouTube, you get to see the number of views, minutes watched, average view duration, likes, dislikes, shares and subscribers. The list goes on.

    I guess the idea of this is to have some KPI’s (key performance indicators) that will help you measure the success or failure of your channel. Which is fine, so long as you define the success or failure of your particular project in those terms. Last month, my dashboard was full of red downward pointing arrows (with the exception of my dislikes which has a perky little green arrow pointing upwards). As a result, I have been doing some real soul searching with regards to my project.

    Here are things I’ve learned personally whilst producing The Greeting Card Project so far this year:

    1. My fears have indeed been realised: A weekly video visiting different card shops is time consuming to make, load up to YouTube and share on social media (4-8hrs per video on average - even if all done on your phone). Don’t do it. Seriously. You have to be nuts to add this to your workload. Especially when the jury is still out on adoption rates of new tech by our industry (I still cannot get over how many business don’t have a simple web page).

    2. Your friends will only watch so many of your videos to support you. I have been paying it forward in our industry for a number of years now and have helped a lot of people. I’ve been speaking at the Ladder Club since 2004 and serve on committees for the GCA and the Giftware Association. Even with an army of support you cannot expect people to stay and engage without quality content that’s relevant to them or their friends and followers.

    3. Going into shops and choosing cards and talking about who you are sending them to might not be interesting enough to get more than 200 views per video on average. I need to accept this or evolve. It’s enough that I personally find it interesting visiting different retailers, selecting and buying different greeting cards, and working on my relationships. Numbers are not the only thing that matters to me.

    4. Weekly watching is as much of an ask for people as weekly video making. Peoples’ time is more precious than ever. The videos must be really good as they compete with so many other things vying for attention (content that’s funny, cute, weird or emotional). Note to self: I must get more kittens into my videos.

    5. I need to truly understand my 'why' on this project and project it even more clearly than I do. I believe card sending can help us to feel closer to one another. I do feel that the message I am broadcasting is important.

    6. Let’s face it, card sending is a pain in the backside compared with the ease of social media and texting. Honestly. If you don’t believe me, join me and send more greeting cards every week. You’ll see. Don’t be cheating with franking machines either. Buy stamps every time. Card sending is time consuming, expensive and laborious and you often don't even know if your card arrived safely through the post.

    7. When the card does arrive, it can feel really wonderful for the recipient, perhaps because we all know it's not easy to choose, buy, write and post a card (the feeling the recipient has is what keeps me going).

    8. Expecting positive reactions to a card, gift or video makes it all about me. The true purpose of a gift is that it is about the recipient, not the sender. You need to let yourself go and focus purely on the other to truly give. True love is a love of giving.

    9. I'm stubbornly sticking to my New Year's Resolution to do one video a week for the project this year. This is despite my better judgement at this stage. I feel that quitting this goal is a bigger personal failure for me. Discipline is key to success.

    10. It is unhelpful to me to measure the success of The Greeting Card Project in terms of views. If views plummet to next to nothing then it can seem like failure. Having said that, failure can be an important part of what builds our experience. Experience helps us make better judgements in the future.

    11. I'm seriously doubting the concept of being Open, Random and Supportive (ORS) at this stage. This is a driving principle for me in doing my project and something I am testing. The project is not about my business. Every week I promote my competitors cards by choosing them in the shops I visit. I’m also giving my competitors a free sales lead by promoting retailers to them each week. It might seem a little crazy, but it also feels incredibly liberating not worrying about this. Control is fear based. I refuse to live in fear. I have to let it go.

    12. Interestingly, people that I promote in my videos won't necessarily share the videos online. I don't understand why this is... yet. So far I’ve been assuming it's because they are just too busy or haven’t seen them (despite my emails and tagging on social media). It may be that they don’t trust my intentions, they don’t understand what I’m doing or they don't see the bigger picture. i.e. We are all in this together.

    13. Up to half of the shops I visit have zero web presence. Not even a simple website, never mind social media profiles (i.e. free websites). This is making each video harder to share to the niche greeting card audience that might be most interested. Websites and digital marketing are a must for small businesses.

    14. I'm becoming obsessed with post boxes. I love them. I love their bright red colour and the variety of types of them. What’s that all about? I'm working on a special post box episode for later in the year. A love of something so mundane is a source of genuine surprise and amusement to me. It’ll be postage stamps next!

    This month, the numbers on my YouTube analytics have really been challenging my reasons for doing this project. Yet the numbers are arbitrary in many respects. They don’t really matter. For some strange reason The Greeting Card Project is all I want to do right now. Making these little videos about cards. I feel it in every part of me, compelling me forward. Like it’s bigger than my company, bigger than myself.

    I’m so grateful to you for reading my blog. If you’ve watched even one of my videos or taken the time to offer feedback - thank you so much. I love what I’m doing. It really is the journey and the interaction with people along the way that makes all the difference to me. Do watch the videos though. Seriously. I’d be lying if I said the number of views didn’t matter at all.

    Watch all the videos on Jeremy’s blog at www.blueeyedsun.co.uk/blog/tgcp

    Subscribe to The Greeting Card Project on YouTube

    Discover why I started The Greeting Card Project

    Five ways to improve your retail business

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