Quite a Week for Sketch Maven 

(I said, I wasn’t going to be posting much on this blog and I guess I’ve kept my end of the bargain.  Seriously, for more timely information about comic art and Sketch Maven, fan us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.  That said I did want to discuss something that was going to take more than 140 characters.)

What a week it has been for Sketch Maven!  We have been seeing a significant increase in traffic and transactions on the site ever since WonderCon ended, but the buzz we got this past week took that to a whole ‘nuther level.

Let me recap.  Early Monday afternoon, I got an email from a fellow Cartoon Art Museum board member, Ron Evans, which basically said (and I’m paraphrasing) “Dude, you’re on Mashable!”  Samuel Axon of Mashable wrote a great little piece on Sketch Maven for their Microsoft Biz Spark series profiling up and coming startups.  That article was retweeted over 500 times by Mashable’s over 2MM followers and drove our biggest traffic day ever.  Then Wednesday came and Sketch Maven appeared in millions inboxes for everyone in the US who subscribes to their area’s Thrillist daily newsletter.  That said, for much of the Wednesday morning, Sketch Maven had slowed to a crawl from the mass of visitors (sorry about that everyone!).  And for good measure, earlier today, we hit the front page of the Google search for “original comic art”.  (From an eCommerce perspective, that is a “Very Big Deal” for a company that is still only a few months old.) 

While, of course, I am excited about the coverage for Sketch Maven, I am also excited about this from a general comic art community standpoint.  By my count millions of people across the US have seen emails, tweets, and newsletters talking about original comic art.  Some will ignore it and move onto something else, but thousands were curious and wanted to learn more! 

This week, I spoke to a lot of people over the phone that checked out our site for the first time and many didn’t even know what comic art was.  (Don’t feel bad if you don’t- I was there once too and we have a lot of info on our site to help explain it to you!)  Talking to these new fans, be it at conventions or over the phone might be my favorite part of my job!  About 75% of the initial sales to users on Sketch Maven are to people who have never bought comic art before.  We are introducing people to a new hobby that may not have heard about it otherwise and I get a real rush out of that.  I firmly believe that every lover of comics, sci-fi and general pop-culture needs to own some piece of comic art.  Original comic art is something that no one else in the world owns, all you fans need a piece in the office or den of where you live.  I promise to keep working until that is true!

It has been a heckuva week, and it is still only Thursday!  Now I’m off to my hometown of Chicago for the inaugural C2E2 convention.  I am confident that the Reed Expo folks will put on an excellent show and this will become a new Chicago tradition… now a note to Wizard/Reed- Chicago is big enough for two cons, let’s not put them out on the same weekend.  I hope to see many familiar faces at the show. 

Thanks to all of you for your support of Sketch Maven!

Mike

Shocked... horrified... helpless...

I think many of us have shared those emotions over the past few days when seeing what has happened to Haiti after the January 12 earthquake.  No country should have to deal with a disaster of this magnitude but Haiti really didn't need this. Haiti is the poorest country in this half of the world, a country where the average family makes less in a year than what the average American family makes in a week. Haiti was poor before, now the country is devastated.

Non-profit, for-profit and government agencies have stepped up to help Haitians and Americans have begun to give in record numbers.  It is important for us at Sketch Maven that we help in this effort (even if the magnitude of a month and a half old startup like Sketch Maven cannot come close to that of a GE).  For 48 hours, Sunday January 17 - Monday January 18, we will be donating 10% of all the sales on Sketch Maven to the Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund. Said another way, for a couple days all the money that Sketch Maven would have brought in for sales fees will go to the people of Haiti. There are also several pages that sellers are donating which you can view in our Homepage Showcase under 100% to Haiti (all that money will go to the charty). Over the next days, weeks and years Haitians will need more than our money and prayers... but this is at least a start.

I'm sure you have already received "asks" for donations from many places already, if you have already given, I commend you. But if you have not, and can find a way to spare it, please donate directly to the Red Cross or another reputable organization helping those in Haiti. And if you would like to buy something from Sketch Maven, please buy within the next 48 hours as we will be donating 10% of the proceeds to the Red Cross this Tuesday.

Regards,

Mike Todasco
General Manager
Sketch Maven, Inc.