TeachStreet™

Happy weekend, everyone!

I just wanted to fire off a quick post before heading off to the San Juans for a quick weekend of island relaxation (and a little bit of wi-fi enabled laptopping!).

It’s so easy each week to get swamped with work issues, product requirements, fixes, meetings and the like. But, I had a great conversation with Christa Hinshaw on Wednesday that I wanted to share. She’s been managing the Washington Dance Club for north of 17 years in downtown Seattle (only several blocks from TeachStreet headquarters!) and she became one of our newest schools — so, if you’ve been thinking about learning tango, ballroom dance or some salsa and merengue dancing in Seattle, definitely check out their new classes on TeachStreet — we already had students reaching out to her — it’s so much fun to see these meetings taking place because of what we’re trying to build.

Anyway… have a great week — we’ll be back at it on Monday (and over the weekend), trying to make things even more useful for teachers and students. We hope you learned something new this week!

Dave

Craigslist isn’t pretty, but people are used to it. And it works. Really, it’s the gold standard. I mean think about it, when you need an apartment, a bike, a job, a strange encounter, or anything else, where’s the first place you look?

Many folks have been using Craigslist for years, but I’ve had a number of teachers ask me recently about about ways they can improve their postings. In fact, last week one the first teachers to register on TeachStreet, Chris Lewis, over in Ballard, asked me if we could design him an HTML templated ad to help his tennis class listings stand out amidst the river of other posts.

So we did. And after hearing back from Chris about how effective the ad was at helping him find more students, we thought we’d make the Craigslist template available for all our registered TeachStreeters. So now you can reach into teacher toolbag, too. Just send us an email letting us know that you want one and we’ll send you a customized template of your own

Get More Students on Craigslist

• Update your Profile: Make sure the information on your TeachStreet profile is up do date.

• Email Us: Send an email to Sam@TeachSreet.com. Or, you can call here at the office 206. 381. 0652.

• Copy / Paste: We’ll send you a customized HTML formatted template that will help drive students to your website or profile. All you have to do is copy / paste, and put the ad into your post.

Other Good Classified Sites for Teachers

• Backpage
• Oodle
• Kijij
• Seattle.net

Though there are a million out there, some listings are geared more at e-commerce, or employment, than they are at classes or lessons. A couple of these sites include Google Base, Facebook Marketplace, MySpace’s Classifieds, and Yelp. Don’t waste your time here. Pick sites that with categories that are consistent with what you teach.

Congats on the new students, Chris. Glad the ads helped. Best of luck with your lessons this summer.

Craigslist isn’t pretty, but people are used to it. And it works. Though we at TeachStreet hope to one day become a one stop shop for pottery teachers and poker coaches alike, there’s no avoiding the fact that Craigslist is the gold standard for online listings. Think about it, you need an apartment, a bike, a job, a strange encounter, or anything else, where do you look?

Though many folks have been using Craigslist for years, I’ve had a number of teachers ask me over the last couple weeks what classified sites they should post to. In light of this, I thought I’d mention a couple teacher friendly classified sites.

Though there are a million out there, some listings are geared more at e-commerce, or employment, than they are at classes or lessons. A couple of these sites include Google Base, Facebook Marketplace, MySpace’s Classifieds, and Yelp. Don’t waste your time here. Pick sites that with categories that are consistent with what you teach.

5 Best Classifieds for Teachers

• Backpage
• Oodle
• Kijiji
• Craigslist
• Seattle.net

Also, avoid Mistakes that will cause you to lose your audience.

• Title - It’s a river of ads on these sites. Differentiate yourself by coming up with an interesting title. Don’t assume being vague is enticing. It’s not.

• Typos and Misspellings - This goes without saying, but different from a text message, you’ll likely not get a response if you have a sloppily written ad. So take an extra pass and proofread what you post before you post it.

• Contact Info - Obvious as this one is, it’s amazing to me how frequently you see people not list their contact info.

And for those who are neither copywriter, nor web developer, we’ve added a new resource to our teacher toolbag: customized classified templates. This was a request from one of our registered instructors who wanted a more professional ad she could copy and paste into her posts. More features to come, but hopefully this helps for the classified postings. Thanks, Mary.

If you want a customized template for yourself, let us know. We’d be happy to send you one.

E-mail: Customer-Service@TeachStreet.com

Phone: 206.381.0652

If you’ve ever read “The Long Tail,” you’re familiar with the idea that niche items, though small parts of the overall whole, can become statistically significant when looked at in aggregate. Though I’ll spare everyone the economics speak, or facts about Netflix, iTunes, or Amazon, the fact is, each of these companies has applied the idea of the long tail to e-commerce. And in doing so, each has forever changed the conventional brick and mortar shopping experience in their respective industries.

Creative Commons: The Long Tail | Tim Wilson

Though we at TeachStreet aspire to do for classes what Amazon did for books, we realize full well that we’re a month old. And though close with respect to geographic proximity, perhaps that’s where we’d draw the line.

Although the comparison does hold true in one way: just as the sum of the less popular books on Amazon comprises a large portion of overall sales, the sum of niche classes on TeachStreet comprises a large portion of the classes on the site.

• “Fights, Squibs, & Car Crashes; how to make an action movie” - taught by ASUW (in Ravenna).

• “Soap Making” - taught by Seattle Free School (downtown).

• “Argentine Tango” - taught by Sonny and Nancy Newman (in Greenwood).

• “Mold-O-Rama” - taught by Jen Mills (in Seward Park).

• “Group Chess Classes” - taught by Checkmater (in Sammamish).

Though the majority of the classes on the site are taught by yoga teachers, guitar instructors, and Spanish tutors (all of whom have hundreds of great offerings in their own right), folks are also discovering a number of other classes that might not necessarily grace the pages of your typical directory

So whether you want to be the next Steve McQueen or Gary Kasparov, hopefully you’ll find a class among this week’s featured classes that fits the bill.

Though TeachStreet is here to help you find those sewing classes and pottery classes here in Seattle, there are numerous folks around the country, in verticals other than local learning, seeking to help people filter local listings. Here are some folks down in the Bay Area whom you may or may nor already know about.

Laborfair:
Laborfair, a San Francisco based company, is geared at helping folks find local service providers, be they landscapers, carpenters, or plumbers. Craigslist is out there, yes, as are numerous other directories, but the idea behind Laborfair is to improve the experience, both for consumers as well as for service providers.

How? Well, on the consumer side, they do this by furnishing personal references and reviews to help people make better informed decisions before they hire someone and bring them into their home.

On the service provider side, Laborfair provides web presences to workers whom may not otherwise have websites and essentially acts as a lead gen service to help them grow their businesses.They are currently only in California, but will be rolling out nationwide in the coming months.

Yelp
And of course, not to be overlooked is Yelp. Just as many of you are, at TeachStreet, we’re huge fans of Yelp. Though they’re a bit further along in the ol’ process :-), Yelp has done for restaurants seekers what, in many ways, we’re seeking to do for class takers: provide a filtered, map integrated, local search experience complete with reviews.

By creating a very active community (not to mention implementing some pretty good SEO!), Yelp has emerged as the preeminent place for restaurant reviews and has assumed the web presence that Zagat and CitySearch were probably better positioned to achieve several years ago.

Friend Connect
Though from a feature standpoint, Google’s latest addition to the Open Social platform doesn’t do nearly what the above sites do, the Friend Connect app is very much in line with the idea of using reviews to educate consumer decisions.

Basically, as mentioned in Google’s press release, the app allows developers with an easy way to bring in social networking components to their sites, even if the primary function of their site is not necessarily social networking. (hmm… think Google knows about Beacon?)

When I spoke with Sheila Bender, a local poet, writer, essayist, early TeachStreet adopter, and one of the nicest folks you’ll come across, I couldn’t help but admire her career.

She’s written numerous books, which have been published by McGraw-Hill and others, ranging from collections of poetry to instructional books on how to write a college application essay. But more so than her writing credentials, what’s impressive about Sheila is her love of teaching writing, something she has done for three decades.

In talking about her career, Sheila speaks with a sense of fulfillment. She’s a writer, a teacher, and for her, it’s just that simple. So she has pursued a life cultivating both of those talents. Regardless of whether or not you aspire to be a writer yourself, it’s inspirational, not to mention reassuring, to hear someone speak with such validation about their life’s work.

And thankfully for those of us who are aspiring to be writers, or improve our writing, Sheila has a number of ways to help us do just that.

1) Writing it Real

• A great magazine and online resource which has been published (with the help of her husband Kurt) since 2002.

• For a $30 annual subscription, you can get access to weekly content, as well all magazine archives.

2) One-on-one Help

• Either by phone, email, or snail mail, you can get private instruction on from Sheila.

3) Live Seminars

• In addition to teaching a number of local classes, at the Hugo House and elsewhere, she speaks at a number of seminars.

4) Port Townsend Writers Conference

• This is a five day writing conference in Port Townsend limited to 50 people. It’s a great place to spend a couple days, commune with like minded folks, and of course, improve your writing.

5) Teacher Training

• You don’t need to be a student to take one of Sheila’s courses, teachers need help, too!

• Inquire with Sheila regarding teacher training opportunities.

To contact Sheila regarding any of her writing opportunities, you can email her directly at info@writingitreal.com, or give a call at 360.385.7839.

And from all of us here at TeachStreet, thanks again for all your feedback and support, Sheila!

Sorry… we couldn’t resist that syrupy title.

DailyCandy.com Seattle did us the nicest favor by featuring us in today’s Seattle DailyCandy Teachy Keen e-mail, and on the DailyCandy website, and the impact was incredible!  They pretty much boosted our traffic through the roof (our lawyers won’t allow us to give specifics, but the technical term is that the pop was awesome!), but what’s even better is that their audience resonated perfectly with what we’re trying to achieve with TeachStreet — helping to connect inquiring minds with great local teachers, school and classes.  We set records for new reviews, new classes and new registered members, which continues a nice growth trajectory that we’ve seen since launch.  And, it looks like our most popular searches from the DailyCandy crowd today were for knitting classes, learning photography, tennis lessons, plus some summer sailing classes — we love it!

Thanks to everyone — our new teachers who have been helping us since launch two weeks ago, and today’s recent arrivals — we’re having a blast, and hope you are too.

And, for those of you not familiar with DailyCandy, head on over to their site and sign up for some Seattle DailyCandy — really, we received so many e-mails from friends today who (a) wrote to ask us if we knew about it (uhh… yeah ) and then (b) to tell us that it’s their favorite daily, must-read email subscription — so, what are you waiting for?!?

In light of Google using themes from local artist Dale Chihuly in their logo last week, I thought I’d make mention of a thriving local community we have here in Seattle: glass blowers.

From Dale Chihuly to Lee Rhodes (founder of the Green Lake based candle holder company glassbaby), there is no shortage of talented glass artists who call Seattle home. And thankfully, for those of us who can’t afford our own Chihuly chandelier, many of these local artists also teach classes where we can learn to make our own.

If you’re interested in learning glass blowing, here are a couple of local studios worth checking out.

Picture: Creative Commons | Calypso Dragon 13

Seattle Glass Blowing Studio - (downtown)
They offer both private and group classes. On weekends they have workshops where anyone can try their hand at casting and annealing, no matter what their level of experience. With the weekend workshops, you get eight hours of studio time (four hours on Saturday, four hours on Sunday) and they cost $275, which includes all of your studio rentals.

For more info call 206. 448. 2181

Pratt Fine Arts Center - (Central District)
With over 17 instructors and classes offered in both their hot shop and their cold shop, Pratt is a great place to learn glass blowing. Though they have classes all year round, their Summer classes are coming up soon, if you’re interested in signing up. One cool thing about Pratt is that once you’ve demonstrated basic proficiency, you can rent studio time and go in on your own.

For more info call 206. 328. 2200 ext. 22

Edge of Glass - (Fremont)
Though you can sign up for six week beginner course, you can also take a two hour introductory glass sculpting course just about any day of the week, weekends included. In these classes, you can learn to make a paperweight, a starfish, or in my case, an off center wad of glass that only a Mother could appreciate.

For more info call 206. 632. 7807

Though jazz appreciation month has come and gone, May is as good of a month as any to take saxophone, Piano, or singing lessons here in Seattle. Where to find a teacher though? Alright, fine, that was a bit of a setup. In addition to TeachStreet, however, there is also a vibrant community of local musicians in Belltown at Seattle Musicans Association.

What they do?
Seattle Musicians Association is essentially a community of musicians. They’re run by musicians and provide resources for other local musicians. Whether your forte is woodwinds or guitar, and whether you are looking to perform or to teach, they are a great local resource with a faculty of over 50 musicians specializing in a wide array of instruments.

Quick History
Though we’re proud of our own history (10 days and counting!), the Seattle Musicians Association has been around much longer.

• March 1898 - The American Federation of Musicians Local 76 was chartered.

• January 1958 - African American members of the segregated AFM Local 493 combined with those of Local 76, forming a single integrated “Local.”

• December 1994 - Their title was officially changed to “Local 76-493,”celebrating the history of their members.

For Teachers and Students
If you’re a local musician, or you are in search of a local musician, Seattle Musicians Association is a vibrant local community and a great place to check out. In addition to being music lovers, Monica, Josh, and the rest of the folks over at Seattle Musicians Association are great folks and they’d be happy to help you out.