merkal2005: Hi Tali, please tell us about yourself and your experiences

Tali: I've always been the artistic type and my parents always encouraged it. I guess you can say they made their one bed,and now they have to lay in it, because I went on to study art, in college, and needed a lot of help with money.
When i graduated, though, I realized there's more to life than art (namly money), and so I started to look for better opportunities to sustain myself.
There was a long string of painful experiences with odd jobs and it seemed my little private hell may continue in its vicious cycle forever.
As fate would have it, sometime along the line, I met my spouse, who would one day tell me about a website called CafePress.com: "You paint on cups and stuff and then you sell it." He told me quite casually. That day changed my life.
Cafepress was built for artists with no means or knowledge to built a business. I opened The Pinup Shop (www.cafepress.com/the_pinup_shop)three months ago and never looked back.


merkal2005: When did you open The Pinup Shop blog? How is it going?

Tali: The Pinup Shop Blog (thepinupshop.blogspot.com)began as a marketing effort for The Pinup Shop. Very quickly, however, it took on a life of its own and became a separate entity. I have a passion for pinups and write about them as vigorously as I paint them. The blog, like the shop, is only 3 months old- still in its infancy. I have yet to decide exactly where it's going, but I am planning a big renovation and definitely moving to my own domain name, as it's obvious to me, by now, that blogging is a career path, for me.


merkal2005: Are there any other projects you are involved in?

Tali: My studies of internet marketing, began two years prior to opening my shop, as I realized I MUST learn how to market my business. These studies spawned an interest in all things internet marketing. My first blog was The Marketer Review (marketerreview.wordpress.com). It was launched almost a half year ago, so one could say it's still a child, as well.As I've fallen in love with blogging, I also contribute on a weekly basis to SEMHints (semhints.com/author/tali-shapiro/), BlogHer (http://www.blogher.com/blog/tali) and Helium (http://www.helium.com/user/show_articles/342435).


merkal2005: What are your 2008 goals?

Tali: I'm still at the start of my road, so my goals are pretty humble. My number one goal is to achieve a stable income, that completely covers my monthly expencess. My secondary goals are to get my name and businesses established and make network connections in my field.


merkal2005: What are your suggestions to new bloggers?

Tali: Have patience, learn new things all the time. Understand that if you want to make money off of your blogs, you have to treat it as a business.
To people just starting out, try it out first, understand the work involved- all aspects of it. Then re-plan: Do you want to do everything yourself? Maybe someone else should do the design? Hell! Maybe someone else should do the writing?!
Now, that you know all that's involved, you cn finally make a business plan.
Good Luck! :)