Shoe Leather: Behind the seams of Shoestring Magazine

Shoestring Reader Survey: Built by You

We asked, and you answered: the results of last week's first-ever reader survey are in, and we are so impressed by the passionate responses — thank you from the bottom of our "soles."

One thing that became clearer to us as we were sifting through the survey responses, however, was that most of you (67%!) are only getting your Shoestring fix through our newsletter or by reading this blog. While I love writing our newsletter each week and sharing with you a few of my favorite new stories and happening events, and our daily blog is a fantastic way to keep tabs on what's happening "behind the seams" here at Shoestring, we have SO much more in store for you online on our website, on our Facebook page, and especially on our Twitter stream. Please check 'em out -- we think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Speaking of surprises, we also asked you what you thought of our newly redesigned website, in which we completely redesigned our top tabbed departments — like Travel and Eat & Drink — to look more like our home page. We also created new landing pages for special topics, like Weddings, driven by the tag cloud found on the right hand side of every page on our site.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be taking it even further by launching totally redesigned tabs and editorial departments, making it easier than ever for you to find the content you love the most from Shoestring staff writers each and every week, including our new monthly columnists: Romi Lassally of TruuConfessions.com, writing our Recession Confessions column; Christine Koh of BostonMamas.com, writing our Minimalist Mama column; Mandi Gerth of ShoestringHome.com, writing our DIY Home Decorating column; and so many more new columnists to come in the weeks and months ahead.

We loved that, overall, all of you (minus one naysayer) love the way Shoestring’s been going and frequently share Shoestring with your friends (98% of you said you would recommend us! Did I mention how much we love our readers?) We hope that you'll continue to spread the word by emailing stories and links, especially later this summer, as we wean off of our syndicated articles from the wires and publishing partners, going to all Shoestring, all the time.

Here are the top 10 types of articles that you wanted to see more of, some of which we already had in the works for later this summer and fall and can't wait to share with you:

1. Frugality (63%)
2. Travel (61%)
3. "The Look for Less" (59%)
4. Food & Wine (59%)
5. Home Decorating (57%)
6. DIY & Crafting (57%)
7. Freebies & Coupons (57%)
8. Health & Fitness (53% — watch out for a big story in July!)
9. “Eco Cheap” & Green (53%)
10. Entertainment & Events (49%)

Expect some great issues covering these and more exciting topics between now and the end of the year, and make sure to read our newsletter and follow us on Twitter for exciting updates on new local blogs and Shoestring events coming to a city near you soon. :)

If you didn't have a chance to answer our reader survey but have ideas and feedback for improving Shoestring, please leave us a comment below — we want to hear from you!

Holy Crap: Shoestring Presented at Girls in Tech

Last night I presented a case study at the Girls in Tech: Using social media in your organization. I got up, and have a bumbling 15 minute presentation on how Shoestring uses Social Media. Our two main goals are boosting national readership, and generating revenue using social media. The four panelists were fantastic, but the one who really stuck out for me was Cappy Popp, co-founder of Thought Labs. Cappy really took us to task for not updating our facebook page more often.

This morning I spent two hours navigating the inner workings of facebook, to try and update all of our settings. The fact that we only have two full time employees, means that Melissa and I have to streamline our processes as much as possible. As we all know "Content is King" the more often you post, and blog, and tweet, and retweet, and comment, means more exposure, and quite frankly I for one have been slacking.

Step 1. Meghan must post on the blog everyday (see I've accomplished today)

One of the biggest pieces of advice we received was to post in one place, and let our RSS feed do the dirty work. We've had problems syncing our blog posts to our facebook page, but hopefully my frustrating hour using feedburner, and the blog RSS feed app on facebook should take care of that. In a nutshell, if I write this blog post it should update to all of my social media tools. (I admit that this blog post is somewhat of a test run to make sure that everything works.) If you read my last blog post, you learned that I'm a newbie to "public" social media. Or as I call it "social media with an actual purpose." Everything that I post should have the ulterior motive of generating buzz around Shoestring. I don't now if I'm doing an OK job. Lets be frank here: I say things that are not appropriate. Nathaniel has made me a list of appropriate topics and non-appropriate topics to talk about at his company dinners. We joke (sort-of) about laminating note cards that I can stick in my purse to pull out when I'm at a loss for conversation. I've been know to have conversations about politics, a woman's right to choose, and that time I retouched porn, all at a fancy restaurant with Nathaniel's boss. I would like to say it's part of my charm, but I'm sure others might disagree.

I apologize for saying "holy crap, and then "oh shit I shouldn't say crap in front of a room full of people." Yup I said it once, then I made it worse, and then I said it again. In truth I would understand if Nathaniel left me at home when he has dinner with his boss.

I want people to find me interesting enough to read what I have to say, but this is my business, and I don't want to offend anyone. Though for anyone who read Shoestring Saves, it might be a little too late for that ("climbing the ass-crack of Africa" anyone?)

So what do you say. Is my off-color brand of humor offensive, or funny? Do you think it's hurting my social media reputation, or giving me "indie cred."  Lastly if you have any ideas or suggestions for expanding our readership, or generating revenue, give us a shout out.

~Meghan

Behind the Seams: Next for Target Go International, Thakoon.

According to reports from Vogue UK, Glamour.com, and FabSugar, this fall, Thakoon Panichgul will become the 13th designer to create an eponymous line for Target, dashing the hopes of all whose fingers were crossed for Alexander McQueen, as rumored. (Although I love McQueen, I have to applaud Thakoon for joining the growing line of editors-turned-designer.)

For more information on Thakoon, check out New York magazine's designer bio for Thakoon, or the critics' take and runway coverage from Thakoon's Fall 2008 Ready to Wear collection at Style.com (the online home of Conde Nast's Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines).