Smart Shopping for Digi Supplies

With everyone gearing up for Digital Scrapbooking Day (Saturday, November 5th), we thought it would be the perfect time to share some of our smart shopping tips. Heddy and Katie have teamed up on this post in order to help you navigate the digi shopping world. We are lucky to be digital scrapbookers at a time where the pool of talented designers is overflowing with creativity and incredible selection. There really is something for everyone in digiland and we do our best to share that with you each and every day here at The Daily Digi. We are shoppers and customers just like you are, so we know how much it helps to have a few tips and tricks to make digi shopping easier. Here are our shopping secrets:

Finding New Designers

There are so many great digi designers and great stores – the trick is finding them! Here are some tips:

• Check out gallery standout (GSO) blogs like Gallery Standouts, MeSoScrappy and OneStoryDown. When you see a page you love, check out the credits to find out which designer’s products the scrapper is using.
• When you find a scrapper you love, either bookmark their gallery or mark their gallery feed in your blog reader. (Google Reader is our favorite) Their newest pages will show up in your feed as they become available. Then you’ll have inspiration and find out about which products your favorite scrappers are using.
• Periodically check in the new product galleries, like this the one at DigiShopTalk, to see the newest releases from a variety of designers and stores.
• Many creative team members post products from their designers alongside layouts made with those products in forum threads called “CTM Enabling”. DigiShopTalk and MyScrapbookArt are two sites that I know of that have forums posts for CTM enabling.
• Browse the list of past sponsors of The Daily Digi. You can always find the link to “Past Designers” in the left column of the site, as well.
• As you read the designer interviews on The Daily Digi, use The Digi Files, and read the playbook, you will quickly discover designers and products that are a great fit for you. The Digi Files are the best way to try out A LOT of designers for a very low price.
• Many of the articles here on The Daily Digi feature layouts, or even product previews to help you find related digi designs for your projects.
• Listen to The Digi Show podcast. We regularly chat with designers and others in the digital scrapbooking community and we often talk about our favorite kits and products.

Get Signed Up For News and Savings

When you find a designer you like,  take a multi-step approach to making sure you hear about their best deals and sales:

• Sign up for the designer’s newsletter. This ensures that you will receive notice of new products and sales. Many designers also include coupon codes for newsletter subscribers, too. (If you want, you can use “email rules” to automatically store newsletters in a folder until you’re ready to browse through them, to avoid cluttering your inbox.)
• Follow the designer’s twitter feed. Designers will let you know when they’ve released something new and will tweet about special events, such as a contest on their blog to win their new release.
• Follow The Daily Digi on twitter to keep up with great deals and finds from our favorite designers
• “Like” the designer’s Facebook page. Usually designers have their Facebook page auto-populated when they tweet or blog. Some designers have fan freebies on their pages, as well.
• Add the designer’s blog to your blog reader.
• Check The Daily Digi designer feature posts for the current month. Sometimes there are coupon codes!

You can stay informed about your favorite stores by following many of the same steps.

Know When To Go Shopping

• Most stores have one day a week when they release the newest goodies. The new products are on sale (often 20-30%) for the first day or first few days of release.
• Mark your favorite store’s anniversary date in your calendar. Many stores have huge “birthday” sales. Other stores have quarterly sales that you’ll want to know about in advance. (It’s no fun buying stuff and then having it go on sale for 30% off the next week!)
• The Funtastic Friday posts we do each Friday are a great guide to use for shopping. We do a lot of the footwork for you so you can find new goodies and great deals (sometimes there are freebies and coupons as well). It takes hours to put together these posts, but we know how much our readers appreciate the help in finding all the good stuff!
• Big sales like Digital Scrapbooking Day (DSD) require pre-planning. Since DSD is coming up this weekend  Heddy has started using Pinterest to make her  DSD wish list, which will help her decide how to best use her DSD budget. Katie has been tagging her wishlist items in delicious so she can easily find them when it’s time to shop. Many stores have wishlist features where you can save the items you plan to purchase. Remember to follow your favorite designers and The Daily Digi on Twitter to hear about some of the awesome sales coming up. It’s also a good idea to check out DigiShopTalk DSD forums. In the past, sales have been summarized and organized by store in the forum threads. (To our knowledge, there isn’t a 2011 list yet, but here is the link to last year’s list to give you an idea on where to start.) Of course, we will have an extra big Funtastic Friday post this week to help you get ready for a great DSD!

Go Google

It’s worth taking 5 seconds to Google the designer’s name + coupon code. Sometimes the designer will be a featured designer at another site and may have a valid coupon code posted for the month. (PS – this is great to do with other online purchases! Heddy has saved so much on books for her eReader by doing this!)

Earn Savings

Many stores have customer reward programs, either based on purchases or participation in challenges. If it’s a store you love, this is a great way to earn savings.

PayPal is your Pal

The great thing about digi shopping is that it’s instant! If you need a princess kit you can search for, purchase, and download it, all within a few minutes of time. Most digital scrapbook sites use PayPal for processing payments. Some sites also accept major credit cards. If you don’t have a PayPal account, you might want to take some time and get one set up. Your purchases will go through quickly, and you won’t have to wait for e-checks to process. Most people will only need a personal account and you won’t have to pay any fees as the customer. You can link your PayPal account to a credit card or a bank account. There are a lot of benefits to using PayPal so be sure to check out the Top Ten Things to Know About PayPal for more information.

The digital scrapbooking community is a fun place for shopping. You are buying useable artwork to make your own special keepsakes. Many times, you can interact directly with the designer through blogs, social media, podcasts, and forums. There are many extras such as coupons, freebies, and kit add-ons for loyal customers. On top of all of that, the designs are very affordable, instantly available, and so much fun! We LOVE digi shopping!