Welcome Scrapbook Update Readers

I wanted to take a moment to welcome new readers from Scrapbook Update. I’m really excited to start this new chapter in my scrapbook-industry work.

For the curious, here is my history in the industry and with the hobby:

I have always created variations of scrapbooks. In high school, I made collages, took hundreds of photos (in the days of film), and organized all my school memorabilia into rudimentary scrapbooks. I started scrapbooking in the in the way we think of it now in about 2001. About 97% of my scrapbooking is paper-based and just a minor portion of my scrapbooking is digital.

I started working in a local scrapbook store in 2003. I worked there until 2008 when the store closed and I moved across the country. From 2004-2008, my hours were limited as I had a full-time job teaching at a university and was attending graduate school for most of that time period.

In 2008, I became a direct seller. I wanted to see what it was all about and continue to get a discount on scrapbook supplies. I stopped selling after about 18 months.

I founded this website in 2010, shortly after earning my doctorate in sociology. The primary purpose of this website is to share my results from my doctoral research. I studied scrapbookers. I interviewed 58 people who scrapboooked, worked in the industry, or were a family or friend of a scrapbooker. I also write about other scrapbooking-related topics on this site, including minimalist scrapbooking.

In 2011, I published the e-book, The Scrapworthy Lives Guide to Market Research. This e-book was written for people who are thinking about working in the scrapbook industry or  already working in the industry. The market research currently available is quite limited and not real useful for most industry workers. In this book, I help you brainstorm marketing strategies, collect your own market research, and provide marketing insights based on my doctoral research.

Anyway, this is a little bit about my scrapbooking background. Here’s seven ways you can get more out of Scrapworthy Lives:

1. Get a free copy of The Scrapworthy Lives Guide to Minimalist Scrapbooking and a sneak peak at The Scrapworthy Lives Guide to Market Research by subscribing to the Scrapworthy Lives newsletter.
2. Subscribe by RSS.
3. Connect with Scrapworthy Lives on Google+.
4. Become a fan of Scrapworthy Lives on Facebook.
5. Follow scrapworthy on Twitter.
6. Follow me on Pinterest.
7. Buy my e-book, The Scrapworthy Lives Guide to Market Research.

Stephanie