Reading up on posts and blogs and other assorted pieces of paper that are created to inform me the "Best tips and tricks for selling online" has made me start to question my own 'shop' that I have on madeit.com..
Predicament #1:
Alot of the - lets call them articles for time saving sake - have said that a successful tip is to update your store often so that you will keep appearing into the 'recently added' section of the site. At this current stage, I am not making enough items quickly enough to come under the classification of 'updating often'.. Actually, lets be quite frank, I haven't updated the stall at all (maybe twice, I think).
I have also been informed that it is important to not upload all of your items at once, but do them slowly so that when the 'recently added' page rolls over, you will still be featured amongst the other artists but won't have every single addition be yours! A good stall will start selling when you have a few pages that people can browse through ie. 100 items *gasp*
Aside from my lack of motivation, which has thankfully returned-ish, I am finding that another one of my main issues is lack of funds.. I have PLENTY of beads at home, don't get me wrong, but not enough quantities of each particular bead to create something. Which is getting incredibly frustrating as this means that my box of UFOs is forever growing because of said lack of quantities *SIGH!*
Predicament #2:
Advertising... Now I have a facebook page and when I first started my madeit.com page, I was forever posting "Hey! Check out my page! Blah blah blah" And I would get the occasional friend *like* the shared post, but whether any of them actually went online and had a look is totally another question.. And I don;t exactly have any other means of advertising.. apart from my loyal readers here of course ;)
Of all the things I have made.. I think only 3 things I have actually made for myself to wear.. I think I need to start beading myself something so that I can wear them out and people can ask "I love that! Where did you get it?" I can then gush on about how "I made it myself" and hand them a business card (now that I actually carry them in my bag now.. you never know!
Your brains are probably bleeding by now, threatening stroke, BUT IM NEARLY FINISHED MY RANT!!!
Predicament #3:
This is probably my biggest predicament and one that I have been umming and ahhing about for a few weeks now.. Who on this site has actually heard of madeit.com? And then on the other hand, who has heard of etsy.com?
Madeit.com is pretty much the Australian version of Etsy but not as well known.. The reason I chose madeit over etsy is because while it may not be as well known, not very many people make the sorts of jewelley that I make, so the compitition is not as tough.. but on the other hand, Etsy is more well known (lets face it, EVERYONE knows etsy) but the compitition is incredibly tough! This is sort of my catch 22 situation.. and I'm not sure whether I should shut down my site and give etsy a go or whether I should keep going with madeit.com and play my cards with them..
Decisions, decisions...
Well, I know one thing is for sure.. My items on madeit.com are only able to be listed for a certain number of days - those days of which have mostly been used and the majority of my items will be expiring on the site.. When they do, I am not going to upload them back on straight away.. even if my page needs to sit in silence, Ima start to buckle down and get some things made!!! Then when I have enough stock to post an impressive page, slooooowly upload them to either shop A or shop B (whenever I deceide what to do) This in turn will solve my predicaments 1 & 2..
End of rant!
Emma
xXx
I have the exact same problems 1&2. It would take me forever to get 100 items in my shop. There's only so fast a girl can bead!
ReplyDeletePlus theres the money thing. I'm trying to get creative to use up what beads I've got, but it's not easy. I've just put a whole lot of beads that I no longer like on trademe (nz ebay), so hopefully that will give me some $. And I'm hoping that having less beads will reduce the overwhelm factor when trying to get inspired.
I have a friend in Wellington who has craft stalls so I've given her 17 pieces to sell for me, complete with price tags, organza bags and business cars, so I'm hoping that will generate some sales. I'm also planning to ask some beauty salons if I can put some business cards in their waiting rooms, but I have to build up the courage, I'm really shy :/
I've found twitter generates more traffic than facebook, because it's quicker. As long as you follow lots of people and make sure you comment on their tweets, they tend to follow you back.
Also I recently got some great advice on beadingdaily. It's under "business" and the thread is called "what am i doing wrong". I realised that my blog was geared more towards the fellow beader, rather than my potential customer. Beaders aint' gonna buy beading. Lol. I also don't wear my pieces because they're for sale, and it seems rude to the future owner. I'm gonna have to make something for myself eventually.
I'm getting lots of traffic on Etsy, but no sales yet. You have to be prepared to ship internationally on etsy, because out of 500 views, you may not get any Aussies. They say you need to relist often to get noticed, this costs $.20 each item.
Sorry that was long, I better get beading.
*sigh* its a never ending problem isn't it =P lol. Ima kinda hoping that once one of my problems sorts itself out, the rest will just sort of sliiiiide into place and be all better!
ReplyDeleteBUT! I shall not sit idly by and wait for the problem to sort itself out.. NEVER! I have to work myself to the bone to fix it for myself!!!
I never really got into twitter.. It just seems like a mini version of facebook, just the whole thing is status updates! lol
Yep! Once I finish work (yeah right, 10am i only just started!) ima finish tidying the house (we has an inspection tomorrow) AND THEN TO BEADS!!! HAZAAAAHH!