Getting the word out

Ever since I opened my shop end of last year I've been thinking a lot about where to advertise, for how much and when. Especially now that my tax consultant has put the pressure on and in no uncertain terms told me I absolutely must increase my sales.
I've advertised twice on the craft cult site. Each time traffic to my shop increased dramatically and resulted in shop hearts, item hearts and a sale on each occasion. I went for the carousel ad at the top of the site as opposed to the sidebar, because it's far too crowded on there, and I feel only a few people will actually take the time to scroll down to see all the ads and click on them. Most visitors are probably Etsy shop owners who check out their stats and/or treasuries. But the eye is drawn to the moving ads at the top anyway.

I've joined Total Art Soul. Members have the opportunity to upload  photos of their items to the gallery. TAS jury selects members to be featured on their blog. TAS is very active on twitter and frequently tweets about members' products. Another good way of getting the word out plus it doesn't cost me a thing!

I'm currently drafting my story for the Art Saves series on a site called Crescendoh by Jenny Doh. Featured stories get linked to the respective shops. Jenny is associated with the "big guns" in the crafting business: Heather Bailey, Amy Tangerine, Serena Thompson etc. Getting picked for the feature will bring lots and lots of views and hopefully sales. Fingers crossed.

I started sending out my newsletter to my lovely subscribers. Most are already familiar with my shop, but I'm hoping it will get passed along to friends and acquaintances ;-)
What else do I do? I pass out business cards at every opportunity. I've created flyers and I've asked overseas friends to print out and distribute them. What else do I need to do? Increase my facebook fan page activity!
Another thing I'm considering is offering bag-making classes at the local educational center. I stand a good chance of getting into their program for next year, which means more local people will get to know me and my products.

I've also started interacting more with German blogs. Something I neglected when I started blogging in 2008. Doesn't hurt to exchange links. And last, but not least, I might run a teeny ad in a quarterly magazine called Romance ~ it's a local magazine filled with romantic interiors, clothing, decoration, vintage, shabby chic...I think my sleepwear would fit in well :)

Why I joined Etsy

print by the olive bird on Etsy

Recent changes on my new selling venue Etsy have led to animated discussions in the forums. Some of my readers will know that Etsy is rolling out individual homepages for UK, Germany, France and Netherlands. I have mixed feelings about this, because part of the attraction of joining Etsy was the international flair the site presented and the feeling of being part of a huge global, crafty community.
I also liked the fact that everyone everywhere saw the same frontpage - always a topic of conversation between me, my international friends and customers. Moreover, my stats show that 70% of visitors to my shop are from USA. Followed by UK, Canada and Australia. Italy and Germany tie in fifth place.
I tested the local (Germany) homepage, and the front page items on there is made up of just a handful of European sellers (not me) over and over again picked by admin. Sounds a lot like DaWanda to me (where I am gradually phasing out my stuff), where favouritism is the order of the day! Plus the German version of the Storque (blog) leads out of Etsy altogether! On the flipside there are US sellers who market to Europe extensively, and will most likely become invisible once European buyers set their language and homepage preference. Most of my teammates feel exactly as I do. We've put in our two cents hoping that we will be heard by the powers that be over there in Brooklyn, NY. I'm just glad I've built a strong connection to my US customers and the USA in general via my blog! Here's hoping I won't fade into obscurity...

Everything Etsy :)

So I figured out what was wrong with my FB widget, as judging by the comments to my previous post it only affected me. Turns out that it only works when I'm logged in as my profile - as soon as I log in as my page the widget goes blank. Whatever.

Etsy is being really, really good to me. What can I say? Ich liebe Etsy - that's I love Etsy in German. An assortment of my products have been included in five more treasuries - I'm not going to list all of them here - just my favourite one by MySuperSweetBoutique.

My French Knickers are in the second row, far left. Also, I listed some sleepmasks, including this lovely Vintage inspired birdy one - and it's the last one! Hurry, if you want it. Remember - I reduced international shipping to only USD 6,- on small items.

Up next - A giveaway! Stay tuned to find out more soon...

cheers,

Small/home businesses require business plans too

A few years ago while planning my online selling (ad)venture I sat down at the kitchen table and wrote a business plan - starting with a mission statement. Then, being the neat person that I am, I put the sheets in a colourful file and placed it in my desk drawer rarely to be looked at again! Maybe I should have, and I was reminded of this big time when I came across this blog post on writing a business plan on Etsy recently. Tricia McKellar, the author of this post has even more great tips on her blog and I recommend any aspiring indie seller with an Etsy shop sign up for her free Etsy Shop Tune-Up.
I did, and now I receive essential information in a compact format in my inbox every couple of days, which also serves to remind me to focus on the important stuff and stick with my plan (recently revised I might add)!
I also read the book The Boss of You, which is geared toward women entrepreneurs and written by two lovely and funny ladies who also have a highly informative website. If you're serious about starting your own business I believe there is no such thing as too much information. The important thing is is to weed out the superfluous and retain the relevant; network and don't be shy to ask for help or advice from experienced sellers if you need it! There's no denying that starting your own (small) business and becoming your own boss is hard work and challenging, but I find it's far more rewarding and gives me greater satisfaction than any activity as an employed person. And you know what else? It's fun!

Welcome to the World of Dunibagz ♥

Hi everybody!

before I introduce you to my new website, I'd like express my admiration to all professional people who build websites/online shopping sites for a living. Wow, once is absolutely enough for me! And a word of advice to any non-professionals (like me) contemplating building one: plan months and months ahead! It is an ongoing process!
When I started out in January of this year I naively thought I could fix one up in a jiffy, much like a blog really. Well, I know better now. I probably should have started working on a product line before setting up a site, instead of the other way around.

Anyway, on to the important news...

I would very much appreciate if you could spare some time to take a look at my new site! Feel free to comment/advise/critique or give me a couple of pointers. I'm still learning, after all. As mentioned in my previous post, there is the option of rating and reviewing the products (note: some products sold already), but you will need to log in to do this. I know it's a pain, and believe me I fiddled around with that quite a bit, but the shop section won't allow that to be removed. Oh well.

So, I have a special prize for one lucky person who makes the effort to actually log in* to the shop section and rates/reviews any of my products! The prize will be a beautiful, handmade clutch similar to this one, and will be revealed on my Facebook Fan Page. One review = one entry. Chances are good, since I doubt a lot of people will make that extra bit of effort...Winner to be handpicked by me this Saturday, 4th September.

Thanks!!!

* your log in details will be removed once this special giveaway is over

Featured in cherry blossoms trends & themes

One of my cosmetic bags (bottom row, 2nd from left) is included in this month's trends & themes on Dawanda. The theme is all about cherries and cherry blossoms and I think it is one of the nicest they have done so far. Dawanda is available in three languages - German, English and French - and this is actually the very first time one of my products is featured in the German version. Funny, since I'm registered here. Anyhow, it's always fun to see my products featured and it sure keeps me motivated!

have a great day,

New year, new ideas, new plans - my head is spinning

I have about a million ideas zipping round in my head at any given moment. Some are realized quickly, others in due course, and some are scribbled in my many notebooks - to be implemented at a certain time and date. Then there are those that have been stewing in the background for years. One of these (and I may have mentioned it a couple of times before) is to have my own website. Yes, this is the same goal I had last year and the year before that, but 2009 was not so good for me health-wise, so I had to postpone it indefinitely. Well, today I can say that my health has improved. I feel I have enough energy now to tackle this fervent idea of mine, even though I know there will be days when I will not be able to get up out of bed.

Actually, I'm kind of glad I started my online selling venture on a small scale. It gave me time to hone my customer service skills, analyze markets and trends and to create an 'image'. I also had time to learn a number of important things from other, more experienced online sellers. Naturally, 'going it alone' presents different challenges. To take the pressure off  I have decided not to start from scratch, but to delegate the web-design to people who have the experience and superior know-how. That will free up some time for me to concentrate on what I do best, namely designing and sewing. Along with a new website I will be introducing a completely new bag line (more on that in future posts) exclusively for my website.

Just a quick note...

...to thank you, dear blogging friends, for all your helpful advice, support and encouraging words on my previous post. I have been listening, and now know both sides of the coin. After careful consideration I have decided that I will give the established online selling venue 'Etsy' a go - joining teams sounds exciting, and will be a new experience for me! All this after our vacation, though! Right. I'm off to the doctor's office now... Thanks again to all! I really appreciate your support! take care,

Calling all Etsians :)

Picking up where I left off in my last post... Judging by what I have read in the Dawanda forums, I don't think I'll be relieved of my problem anytime soon :( Time to consider other venues, i.e. Etsy. The fees on Etsy seem reasonable enough, and the selling process is pretty straighforward as far as I can tell. I'm just a little daunted at the overwhelming number of handmade bag shops, plus I'll be catering to an entirely different market with different demands, expectations etc. On the plus side, Etsy definitely gets more business overall than Dawanda. Then there's the matter of shipping. My shop may be on a US-based selling site, however I'm still here in little old Germany. I've reduced the cost by shipping the make-up bags flatpacked in padded envelopes, but it's probably still high from the customers' point of view. Here's where I need your help and honest opinion. Do I have a snowball's chance selling my products on Etsy? I appreciate any advice you might have for me! Thank you.

Dawanda feature and technical stuff

I have been on Dawanda, my online selling site, for almost a year now. No complaints, so far. Recently though, there have been a number of technical problems - power outages, templates not working, statistics not updating etc. Even worse, I finally figured out why my new items are getting so little views - it's because they aren't even showing up in the new listings! I've done a search by title - but nothing, nada, zilch. Annoying, since I'm paying listing fees. What I find even more annoying is that I haven't had any reply to my emails. I wish there was some sort of technical helpline or other customer service I could contact (because yes, I'm a customer too), but there is only this one email address, and I really wonder who handles them all. The Dawanda team is fairly small, and I get the feeling they only have one poor techie guy handling everything... The only bright spot appeasing my frazzled mind is the fact that my cupcake pencil case was included in their recent back to school feature. But until my problem is fixed I won't be adding any new items, unfortunately.

More changes at Dawanda

The team at Dawanda have been busy restructuring the site, and commencing August 5th (this Wednesday) will be introducing a new selling category: Vintage

I have quite a number of vintage clothes, so this is definitely something I'll be looking into. I'm going to wait and see how buyers respond first. In Germany, the term 'vintage' is not that well-known, and many buyers don't speak English. It's difficult to convey the meaning, without potential buyers thinking you just want to get rid of 'old' junk! I also own some vintage jewelry; obviously I won't be selling any of that. It's just too precious and I'm too sentimental about it. This brooch is one of my favourites. In addition there will also be a new function that lets me specify the shipping costs for each country individually. And about time too! I always thought it was a bit silly to lump all countries together as 'international', because the pricing varies greatly! The downside is that shipping still remains quite high, especially to USA/Canada and Asia. Other good news is that Dawanda is finally taking action against sellers who continue to list obviously mass-produced items - and selling them successfully I might add, because unfortunately there are plenty of buyers who don't care as long as it's cheap!

Technical thoughts on Monday

What have I done lately? Well, for those who have been reading along will know that I'm trying to set up my own website. I have been researching the internet and checked out some books on the subject, and have narrowed down the options available to me. Of course, hiring a company to do it was out of the question from the start! They cost from Euro 1.000 upwards and it's not guaranteed that you will be able to manage the content. Some companies charge extra for that. Another option would be to ask a friend of a friend of a friend who is a techie to set it up for much less than that, however I would have to make do with a basic design lacking any sort of originality. But you know me...just like this blog I have my heart set on a unique template that is totally me. At least I have done two important things on my 'to do' list. I have registered my domain name and I have secured web space. There are a few online sources that provide a complete package - template plus installing a programme that lets you have complete content management - for about 200 US$. You will need to learn how to use and optimize the programme by yourself via a handbook, which you can download for free. The programme most commonly used is Joomla, and I found out that they have a German version since beginning of this year - which is useful since I happen to live here and would mainly be targeting the German-speaking market. Hubby, who is much more adept at all things technical installed Joomla and a couple of other technical applications which are necessary for this programme to run. My next job will be to study the handbook and see if I can, in fact, create my own template. That's the challenging but also exciting part. The programme lets you do a 'test-run' before you actually transfer the data to your web space. So, I will be fiddling with that in the coming weeks, learning by trial and error as usual :) I will blog about my progress every now and then, and let you know what works and what doesn't. Hopefully, I will keep my sanity while I embark on this endeavour! Have a good week!