Don't be afraid to try something different. Brainstorm. Think outside of the box. What have you searched for and couldn't find? Can you develop and market it? It just might be your cash cow!
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Often, sellers ask is anyone making sales at this or that site? Is this site good for sales? Do you get a lot of traffic and sales at this venue? Long-lasting success is not based on the website or selling venue or any other entity or person. Sustainable success happens according to the person's unfailing commitment, acquired knowledge and savvy efforts.
Unless you got in on the ground floor, even Etsy is no longer a venue where you are likely to list products, do nothing and get sales. Nowadays, new Etsy shops have to promote themselves ceaselessly to obtain regular sales. Etsy used to be the go-to venue to list creations, do nothing much and rake in the sales.
Earlier in Etsy's history, a person could join and by virtue of the traffic alone selling success could be had. Because of the changes in the purpose and direction of the owners, competition is now so varied and stiff that even those with great products have to pull their own weight in marketing. This is something that sellers should have always been cultivating. Why? Because that type of self-generated success is lasting.
To successfully market and promote our brands, we have to believe in what we do and believe in ourselves. We have to see value in all of it and we have to be determined to show others that value. Sometimes, we have to change products and direction or reevaluate our goals.
If we don't possess that do-or-die attitude, we will depend on others and their websites to give us success. Eventually, we'll quit. If this is the case, them maybe we should not have been pursuing this type of success anyway. Maybe it was always just a fleeting hobby that we mistakenly saw as a driving purpose.
A creative person who is driven and burning with the love of creating and the determination to show others the value of it will work tirelessly. They will press on until they find the correct techniques and products or services to get that point across. Like they say, a good seller can sell ice to Native Alaskans.
We should all want sustainable success, rather than success that is attached to any one e-commerce site. If a website begins to fail or if the owners take a direction that is no longer compatible with our beliefs, we can leave and take our success with us. Without fear, we can take self-built, sustainable success where ever we go.
Success =
I've succumbed to the temptation in the distant past. When I realized that true value was not achieved through these staged social interactions, I decided that my creative time is too prized and limited to devote to these types of games.
The reciprocation is false inflating of stats at worse and giving to get at best. The increased stats are not from potential customers who discover our shops organically or through our savvy marketing skills. Smart marketing has value and attracts potential customers without requiring reciprocation.
These social trains are not an authentic way to realize appreciation for our creativity. I doubt if most of the likers and followers ever darken our shop doors again after the initial rush. Why fool ourselves by basking in fake accomplishments? Why strive to receive a flurry of activity only to be ghosted the day after? Likes for likes and follows for follows are a lot of precious effort for hollow shop interaction and inauthentic stats. When we think about it, it's really being deceitful to our potential customers, isn't it? It's painting a contrived picture.
Our time is better spent improving our target marketing and SEO skills, and learning how to better promote our brands. Social media trains, blog hops and the like cannot successfully compete with intelligent growth. The effort devoted to improving business skills has long-reaching effects that guarantee long-range selling success.
Here is some info on SEO, an area in which we can all improve.
SearchEngineLand says:
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In simple terms, it means the process of improving your site to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business in Google, Bing, and other search engines. The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to garner attention and attract prospective and existing customers to your business.
SEO is a fundamental part of digital marketing because people conduct trillions of searches every year, often with commercial intent to find information about products and services. Search is often the primary source of digital traffic for brands and complements other marketing channels. Greater visibility and ranking higher in search results than your competition can have a material impact on your bottom line.
SearchEngineLand is chock-full of info on SEO, what it is, why it's important, how it works and how to learn it.
Press on in the thing that you love to do.
If you love it, you won't stop.
If you don't love it, change it.
Be flexible and adjust to what your heart is telling you.
Don't lose time, effort and money on something that you don't love.
Success comes to those creatives who are determined and flexible.
Failures are teaching grounds.
Failures are clues about changes to make.
Failures are tools to use to our advantage.
Failures are vital and critical keys to success.
Stay awake!
Pay attention!
HAPPY CREATING!
Hashtags turn topics and phrases into clickable links in your posts on your personal timeline, Page or groups. This helps people find posts about topics they’re interested in.
I'm getting better at using them in every post. I and some of my creative friends have made sales because Facebook visitors found us and we weren't even using Facebook Ads.
How Do I Use Hashtags On Facebook?
Six years or so ago, Twitter was used daily by me and my crafting friends. Though I was not a faithful participant, I remember fondly the tweeting events, Twitter bombs and striving not to be sent to Twitter jail. I also had fun using Tweet Deck for awhile.
Over the years, Twitter seems to have fallen into disuse by much of my crafting community. I run by my profile occasionally to update my banner and weed out my following and followers lists. I have even tweeted infrequently but I never liked Twitter very much. The tiny posts images and the abbreviated posts lengths always annoyed and constricted me too much.
Recently, I checked on some of my creative associates and found that
many had not tweeted in years! I was not surprised but the discovery left me saddened. It was a reminder that so
much online activity has declined among creative groups, social sites
and selling venues. It seems to have happened swiftly within the last few years and never recovered.
During my visit, I ran across a link to this post on how to better use Twitter. I was surprised that one of the suggestions is to use only one hashtag in tweets. The article author explains why. If you find yourself still using Twitter or wanting to, read this short help article to better promote your products and services when tweeting.
Six Things You Should NOT Do on Twitter by the social media strategists at the award-winning NYC-based Likable, LLC, a 10Pearls Company