As part of my effort to get out there and sell my art, I’ve been expanding my footprint in the increasingly voluminous cloud of social networks built by and for independent artists and crafters. Some you may have heard of, like deviantArt, and many others may be entirely new to you: Indiepublic, We Love Etsy, and Craftster.

Like any social network, these places are crowded and noisy. They are full of thousands of people from crafty geniuses to hopeless hacks and everyone in between. But crowded as it is, it’s a decidedly smaller cloud than Facebook or Flickr, and it’s a group of people organized around a shared purpose. Plus, like any networking mixer, there’s bound to be at least one or two people worth meeting. In fact, these networks are the perfect place for the independent artist to meet the independent online art promoter.

“What the heck is an ‘independent online art promoter,’” you ask? I’m not sure. I may have just made that up.

But what I’ve found is a small group of people who have started blogs and online galleries devoted to promoting small and independent crafters and artists. And they’ll actually look at your work. And feature it. Awesome.

One of my favorites so far is the husband and wife team of Brandy and Jed Steen at the recently launched luellaluella.com. They have an eclectic collection of design and crafts, from green interior design, to handmade jewelry and prints. Brandy and Jed know first-hand what it’s like to run your own shop and are genuinely dedicated to supporting and promoting independent artists and crafters. Read more about Luella on their about page.

A review of my monsters should be up on luellaluella.com by the time you read this. Sweet!