Wednesday, April 6, 2011

My New Strategy





I'm going to start putting the new things that I've listed on Artfire here in my blog complete with links, blah blah blah, all that SEO stuff.  I've decided I really need to make a push to generate sales because I'm tired of treading water (oh and I'm broke).

For someone who's really laid back, I can be very competitive.  I seem to have lost that competitive oomph for the last few years, but there was a time when it was a driving force for me.  Of course, after achieving the goal, I would get bored and have to start from the bottom with something else.  Hopefully that won't happen this time, but yesterday, I was excited to feel  that little defiant surge of "if other people can make x amount of dollars per month, so can I" attitude.

There are two main things I'm going to do.  First, I'm developing new products. The funky art pendants which I'm making with mini wallet sized prints of my digital energy art are really cool and affordable.  Plus, I'm incorporating my prints into ready to hang wall art.  I'm not talking frames and mats, I'm talking airbrushed embellished wood "mats" to enhance the presentation of the print in an affordable way. 

I don't know about other people, but I'd be more inclined to buy prints that are ready to hang as opposed  to matting and framing them myself.   I'm thinking that presenting them differently from the other prints out there might set mine apart.

Second, I've decided I'm going to try Artfire's 45 Day Success Guide.  I'm not the most self-disciplined person in the world, so I thought maybe if I announce that I'm going to do it, I'll actually stick to it.  Gee, wouldn't that be novel! 

The first week is mostly getting your shop set up and a getting a few things listed, so I got to jump to day 8 which is about writing in the provided blog.  (Really?  Another blog? Oh maaannn.....) Actually, they say that if nothing else, just write an introduction post about yourself and your artwork,  plus include a link to your main blog, so I guess I can do that. 

Melinda, from Inspiration Earth did a feature on me a few weeks ago, and I was thinking (with her permission, of course) that I would use excerpts from that interview as my introductory post, providing links to her blog and  her Artfire shop  Inspiration-Earth.  Melinda's questions were so insightful and thought provoking for me, she really was the trigger for me pulling together my intentions into written form. Thanks Melinda!

Another important thing that was mentioned in this success guide, is how important it is to get as many products listed as soon as possible.  That way, your products will be indexed by google much faster and will show up in a google search.  This is different from the Etsy strategy of listing one thing here and one thing there in a futile effort to be seen at the top of the listings (for a whole, what? 5 minutes if that?)

Other important strategies, tweet your listing, post a link to your new listing on facebook, put a link on your blog, add it to stumbleupon, kaboodle, and something new called pinterest.  I haven't actually checked out pinterest yet, but I've started doing the other things.  Oh and post in the forums three times a day. I tried that yesterday and got Nuthin'...no views, no nuthin'!

So we'll see how it goes.  Such a beautiful day today, maybe I should wait to start everything tomorrow.....oh nooooo, get a grip, Laurie, remember the word "BROKE."

Have an awesome day!

Later,

Laurie

15 comments:

  1. Good luck!!! Let us know how everything works out, and if it was worth it. Though honestly, I don't think I'd get ANOTHER blog, LOL! I've got two right now, and one's a business blog. I'd say that's good enough! :D

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  2. Oh, this was a great help, thanks Laurie. I'll have to check out the 45 day thing, it's what I've been waiting to fall into my lap, not having had the extra time to search it out! I'll shamelessly let you keep pointing me in the right direction! ;) I know nothing about Stumbleupon, Kaboodle or that other one, so I'll have to do some research. I discovered that I hated the forums on Etsy, so I'll probably skip that suggestion. I love my Artfire Studio but have been stumped as to how I can get it seen...

    I know I've said it before, but it really was my pleasure doing that interview with you. I love your spark and was immediately drawn to it. Sometimes you just feel a connection, even if it happens to travel via the Internet! Too bad you didn't live closer, so much to share! :)

    P.S. Think 'abundance', works for me everytime! ;)

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  3. Haha, good luck with everything!! I can't believe that your wall arts are selling like mad! They're amazing! I guess they need just a little push ;) You'll get there! You're probably doing better then me :D Haha *hugs!*
    Jorda

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  4. aren't* selling like mad. My bad. ;)

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  5. Thanks Tay, (may I call you Tay?). Blogs can be really time consuming, but I have confidence that you'll be able to stay on top of it and it'll benefit your business in addition to being fun for people to read.

    Hey Melinda, I'm not into the forum thing much either, although Artfire's seems to be a little more congenial than Etsy. I'll put up the summary of the Success guides guidelines for the day so maybe we can all benefit. (Although knowing me, it might take uh, shall we say, a little or alot longer than 45 days to complete)

    Wouldn't it be awesome if we lived closer! One of the surprises for me of being on the internet is the discovery of kindred spirits.

    By the way, how do you get seen on Etsy? I get almost as many views on Artfire (sometimes more) as I do on Etsy, but maybe that says more about my low Etsy views than anything else.

    Aww, thanks for saying that Jordan! I appreciate your encouragement. Is today your birthday? Didn't I hear that somewhere? Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!

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  6. Oh Wait! Wasn't your birthday in March? So it must be Riley's birthday today! Oooppppsss! Tell her I said happy birthday!!! Darn this 50 year old memory!

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  7. Laurie ~ I go through my shop and renew items each morning, it keeps me at the top of certain pages. Items like my personalized clipboards stay up there much, much longer than say the beauty care, not as much competition. Of course, that costs money, daily, which I why I loved the idea of the locked in price on Artfire. I just have to figure out how to get it to work for me, I haven't been able to generate nearly as many views yet. I'm very happy that you're getting found though. :)That's why I was so thrilled to see your post with the tips. Can't wait to have a spare second to check it out! ;)

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  8. Yes, you can definitely call me Tay. :) I hope my blog will do that, LOL! Maybe it'll send some people my way if I share some photos and they say, "Ooh, how beautiful! I want that for my wall!" ;D

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  9. Good Luck - Love that abstract. Great colors.

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  10. Haha, yup, it's Riley's birthday :) She says thanks, by the way! And, I'm sure it's not the 50 year old memory ;) I mean, Riley's now 11 and has a worse memory ;D Teehee

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  11. I think that's exactly what will happen Tay!

    Jorday, so I guess you pulled yourself away from the chicks long enough to have a party? LOL

    Charm, thank you so much, I really love the colors in this one, too.

    Melinda, thanks for the pointers. I knew about that renewing thing, but I'm so stingy. I've found that if I twitter a listing using the share button on Etsy and the twitter this button on Artfire, that my views will jump by 20 to 30. I don't know if that will ever translate into sales, but no views definitely won't.

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  12. Ummm... yeah, it was hard ;) But, there were enough stuff going on, so it kept my mind of it! We had a relay race, and played “Jumpsies” and “Murder”! And... I can't forget "Capture the Flag"!! :D Man, that's like the funnest game EVEN! But... now me and mom can barely walk today ;) Teehee
    *Hugs!*
    Jordan

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  13. I figured you had probably come across the renew advice somewhere in your readings! I allot myself a dollar a day. ;) The two items that I just sold were two of the ones I had just renewed that day (or maybe the morning before). Twitter definitely does increase my views, but I wonder if renewing works better because it will be seen by potential buyers searching through Etsy, rather than just the curiosity factor on Twitter. I'm not sure, just a thought. With enough perserverance, we'll get this figured out! ;)

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  15. Sorry for the deleted comment! Anyway, I hope the blogs work for both of us. :) Good luck with all this, I hope it works AWESOMELY for you!

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