Will I ever take my own advice?

Not likely, is it... ;-)

A few days ago, I had a message from someone, saying she thought she'd met me on a forum run by one of her friends. I didn't remember, but said it was entirely possible because I belong to so many...she replied that she couldn't remember which forum it was either.

And that reminded me...

Way back in January 2010 I blogged about Waggleforce. I'd listened to a free hour's talk by an American motivational speaker - not my usual pastime. Sadly the link to the talk is broken, but you can read my key points back on my blog here and here and here.

The absolute bottom line was to STOP rushing around spreading myself too thinly, spraying little promotions across lots and lots of networks. Instead, the speaker suggested finding three that work for ME and dig deep, really network with people.

So what have I done since then?

I now have four online shops
Niftyknits on Zibbet,
NiftyVintage on Zibbet,
Niftyknits on Etsy, Niftyknits on Folksy
twitter
facebook (three pages LOL)
stumbleupon
I've been active in the Zibbet community and Zibbet facebook group and since the latest changes on Etsy forums I've joined several (not saying!!) new teams (I'm even a leader on one!) and still add my voice to the forums.
I use youtube
I know I belong to several other forums, but only remember them when I get messages saying someone wants to be my "friend"
somewhere there is a myspace page with my name on it...
Then of course there is my blog (funnily enough, I haven't found so much time for it lately)
and my newsletter
micromanaging my Project wonderful adverts
and
and
and

So - this is me...



Something has to give...I've realised that among other things I didn't include "design and knit my creations" in that list! Neither did I add sleeping, eating, enjoying being with my husband and family and all-round LIVING.

So - watch this space! Tomorrow I'm going to give you a knitting pattern :-)

Getting noticed... wear a big hat?

I don't know about you, but sometimes my online shops seem to be wearing a cloak of invisibility.

I blogged a while back about Waggleforce and Project Wonderful - plenty of ideas there about getting your name out - but today I want to suggest adding a signature to your emails.

It's EASY, really really EASY - and it's free. Everyone I email (yes, even the guy who gave me a quote for a roof repair!) gets my website address and an invitation to sign up for my newsletter - you can put whatever you wish. It's possible to include pictures, but many recipients will have blocked them as part of their security protocol, so in my opinion it's better to stick with text.

I use Outlook Express - at the top of the page there is a menu. Choose Tools, then Options, then Signatures.

click "new" on the right, then "text" and type in whatever you wish to say.



Click OK - and you're done! Next time you write an email, your signature will appear as if by magic - never again (assuming you've typed it correctly!) will you type out your web address and get it wrong. Or maybe I'm the only person who mistypes their own address ;-)

If you have more than one person using the email account you will need to click the "Advanced" button and tick the account for which you wish the signature applied.

***IF you use a different email service the process may be different - but reember, Google is your friend. Someone, somewhere, will have a free tutorial for you!***

If you'd rather use a picture signature - maybe your online shop banner - I will blog about that tomorrow.

Getting your name “out there”

In January I was introduced to Waggleforce and learnt that rather than concentrate on “getting my name out there” it was more important to develop the contacts I already have – and I still believe that. This post was about the ways I work my social networks!

However, I’d also been hearing a lot about Project Wonderful. It all seemed very confusing, so I asked Rose, an experienced PW publisher and advertiser, to help me understand what it was all about. Many of the answers to my questions below are taken from Rose’s blog (with her permission).



How do I start?

Signing up for Project Wonderful is free. You can deposit money into your account (minimum of $5 by Paypal) or you can start like Niftyknits did, by seeking out FREE advertising space.

How do I know where to advertise?
Start by searching for blogs or websites that you think fit what you are trying to sell. Keep in mind that you don't have to advertise on sites that are similar to your market, the best practice is to find sites that are outside of your genre, but attract your potential buyers. PW groups its publishers in categories, so it's not quite as onerous as it sounds!

Right – so I don’t have to look for knitting blogs? That makes sense. Is it expensive?

Advertising can cost nothing, pennies, or dollars per day. Obviously, you want to find the best places to advertise at the lowest cost. What you will be doing is actually bidding on an advertising position. If you look at the right column of my blog or Rose’s blog and find the project wonderful ad spots, below that is the amount it currently costs to advertise. In the "bidding on my ads" queue on Project Wonderful are many more people vying for those ad spots. That is how the price to advertise is determined and the reason it fluctuates. Also, not all of those spots are going for that listed rate, some are less, but that is the amount to buy into my advertising space now.



But how will I find good blogs to place my advert?

Rose explains: When I place my advertising, I search out spaces that look like a fit for my product. Then I place my bidding range. I look at the advertisers stats and place my bid accordingly. I will start my bid at .00 up to what I deem reasonable. Here is the important part and where brokering comes into play. I always place my bid for a month or more. Usually three months. You may be saying, "well I can't afford that!" Well, you probably can. The reason is that your ad is not going to be up all of the time and you only pay for the space if it shows up that day.

OK – so how do I “make” an advert?

First of all you have to choose your format from a range of options. I chose to make 125 x 125 pixel picture ads, and this is also the size I offer. Many people use their Etsy avatar or a product photo. I’ve made several, for different audiences. I also had to decide whether to add text to the picture. You will decide later what text you want to appear “hovering” over your ad when it’s moused over, but do you want actual writing on the ad? Some do, some don’t. I think it depends whether your product is instantly obvious.

Next, I needed to decide where the advert linked to: my blog, my website, my shop (which one?) or maybe directly to one product? I can see reasons for each of these, but decided to link to my website, hoping people would then choose whether to move on to either my Etsy or Folksy shop.



My examples here are my Alice in Wonderland meerkat, which links to my website and is timed to link in with the release of the film. The Harry Hill meerkat has my "real" name on it, because I wanted to encourage people to vote for me in the K factor competition. The last one, of a Wolverine Meerkat, is intended to be placed on comic book blogs.

Rose continued: Keep in mind that on the blog/website that you want to advertise on other ads are going to expire. When those ads expire and if your bid fits, you have the opportunity to get your ad on that space, at least until it is bumped by a higher bidder. It may also appear at the least cost that you bid. So you may be getting great exposure for almost nothing. If the advertiser has more than one ad space you should always click on each space for advertising potential. While the top or bottom space may seem to be a premium position, in this case it doesn't really matter. What you want is to get your ad up there at the least cost and most exposure. I believe on blogs as you are scrolling down, if that space catches your eye, you are going to look at all of the ads anyway and decide to click or not.

Brokering these ad spaces is a lot like the stock market. You want to buy in at the lowest price possible and get the most return on your investment. Putting your ad up for only a day or two generally means you are going to pay the highest price that you have bid. Putting your ad up over a period of a month or more, means that you will get more exposure for either a lower or equal cost. Just like in the stock market, you generally get a better return the longer you can leave your investment grow.

To recoup your costs you should also consider putting advertising on your own blog or website for people to purchase from you.

OK – so I’ve done that now! I decided to go with just two ad spaces. Project Wonderful splits the spaces across 4 geographical regions though: USA, Canada, Europe and Everywhere else. So at any one time, although I have only two ad spaces, I could have up to 8 advertisers. I now have a "pot" of funds with which to place paid ads.



As a publisher, PW gives me the option of setting a starting price. I’ve chosen to start at zero. My reason for that decision is that I’d rather see an ad than an empty space, and although some spaces with higher starting prices do well, I have also seen some with empty boxes and I wanted to avoid that.

I still have a LOT to learn about PW, but I know I can turn to my network, and to Blogject Wonderful for answers! Many thanks to Rose for being so generous with her information.

In the meantime, if you're looking for somewhere to place an ad (apart from here of course!), why not check out these blogs? Remember to check each geographical area - where do you want to advertise to? It might not be where you live.If you are a PW publisher, please leave your blog addy in a comment.


http://waterrosez.blogspot.com

http://alibalijewellery.blogspot.com

http://zaftigdelights.blogspot.com/

http://breezybead.blogspot.com

More about Waggling :-)

Following on from yesterday's post: I am learning to find my red spoon!



(Apparently in American ice-cream parlours, customers are offered tastes of available flavours using tiny little red spoons. The ice-cream vendor isn't saying "buy this flavour", they are giving away a taste, showing the taster how lovely it is - and then they buy!)

Try to identify *your* red spoon - instead of going straight for the sale, what can you give your potential customer for free, to show them how wonderful your work is?

For some online sellers this will be easier than others, I think. Tiny samples of new soap or candle scents, a sample of beads or ribbons, - I'm still pondering this one. What can I offer as a sample? (All suggestions gratefully received!)

No one night stands!

By this rather startling phrase we're reminded that the seller/buyer relationship is most fruitful to us (as sellers) if it's ongoing. Follow up your sales - has the package arrived safely? Create an expectation of a continuing relationship by offering a discount next time, or asking the buyer to sign up for your newsletter.

If you've chosen blogging to be one of your three focuses, remember to make blogging interactive.

• Run a poll - you are an expert at what you do. If it's fashion, then run a poll about the new colours.
  
• Visit other blogs and leave a comment...not just once, often!
  
• Follow up comments left on your own blog.
  
• Share your information, share your networks.
  
• If you're now looking at your blog in a whole new way, are there some earlier posts you can rejig and repost - now that more people than just your mum and best friend are reading your words of wisdom?

If it matters - measure it!

Have you heard yourself saying "oh but I haven't got time to do that..." or "I'm too busy..." ?

Nobody has more (or fewer) hours in the day than I do. I know there is no point spending every waking hour knitting meerkats if I don't make them available for people to buy. Equally, there is no point me polishing my photos and descriptions unless I also knit some stock!

Measure and record how you're spending your time. If you've been on facebook for an hour - fine. It's your choice. How did you spend that hour? Were you networking, building relationships, playing games? Did you suddenly notice it was lunchtime?

You may well find (and we ALL know I'm talking to myself here, don't we?) that your time could be better spent. Remember the advice yesterday - choose THREE. How will you know which three? Check your records. In my own case, twitter has become a great source of contacts, friends, ideas and support. Twitter friend @KToogie gave me the caption for this Emo card when I was stumped!



My final nugget of gold from the FREE Waggleforce seminar was to spend time with my email inbox and go back through past mail. Are there some enquiries that I never got around to dealing with because I was "too busy"? (yes!)
Are there people I could be reminding of my existence by wishing them a Happy New Year? *NB be aware that unsolicited emails on Etsy are spam, and not allowed.*

So - a whole lot of new and not-so-new ideas to consider. I strongly recommend listening to the whole session, and having a wander around the site. There is a section of resources for entrepreneurs which is worth checking out - and above all, do not be afraid that you are missing out if you decide twitter (or whatever) is not for you. Whatever you choose to focus on, do it well and have fun! Life is too short to waste :-)

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Please sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know about new Meerkats and special offers ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Check back tomorrow for a VERY exciting competition!

Macro or Micro? FOCUS!

I had a shock this week. I listened to an American Motivational speaker...and not only did I understand what she was saying, but I decided to put some of it into practice!

I heard about waggleforce on an Etsy thread started by my friend Waterrose

The Waggleforce site links to an hour-long mp3 which is FREE. I like free. My notes here are just the parts I feel I can use, for my online shops in the UK. I strongly recommend you listen to all of it, your needs may be quite different to mine.

So - what have I learnt?

Firstly - it is no good starting up an online shop (mine are Niftyknits.etsy and Niftyknits.folksy) and sitting back and waiting for the buyers to flood in.



The number 1 obstacle, according to the Waggleforce speaker, is growing beyond your own "inner circle" of friends and family.

The traditional approach is to try to get your name *out there*, in the outer space inhabited by complete strangers, bypassing all those inner rings of friends and friends of friends.

Maybe...by buying an advertising space and sitting back? No - it is up to *ME* to find those buyers, and the easiest and most effective way is to work outwards from the core.

Don't advertise to your poor friends and family directly, don't spam adverts to every social network contact. We've all seen them on twitter.

tweet #1 "I'm making a gorgeous wotsit"
tweet #2 "I've just listed my gorgeous wotsit"
tweet #3 "Why isn't anyone buying my gorgeous wotsit?"

Nurture your current buyers, your friends.



If someone emails you to say how much they love their purchase - ask them if they have a friend who might also like to find out about it.

*NiftyKnits action point* I've just created a new discount card to give to buyers to give to their friend

Encourage your current buyers to come back for more - we already know they love your shop

*NiftyKnits action point* I've just created a new discount card to give to buyers for their next purchase

Become a "local hero" - by this, the speaker meant for you to become known locally for something other than selling, then when it comes to making a purchase, you're already known and approachable.

*NiftyKnits action point* The Etteam Meerkat World Tour has been in my local paper several times now, sharing the fun!

For online sellers, I think this translates to being active in the forums, not just popping by on a "hit and run" mission to tell us what you've just listed, but by helping people out by explaining how to get noticed or how to use twitter

*NiftyKnits action point* I run regular interviews with other sellers on my blog - in fact, I need some fresh victims right now. You only have to ask!

It's quite hard to let go of the idea that I *must* get my name *out there*, so consider this: Would you pay someone to stand on a street corner shouting out your store url? Of course not. So why do it on twitter?

Would you, though, wear the gorgeous wotsit you made earlier? And when someone compliments it, would you then tell them about your shop and slip them a business card (or better yet, a discount voucher)? I hope so!

Great, you're thinking, how many social networks are there? How many shall I sign up for?



It's tempting to try to be seen everywhere (goodness only knows how many networks I'm registered with!)

But that just leads up back to the "hit and run" posts I mentioned earlier.

The Waggleforce recommendation is to pick THREE and only three. Don't spread yourself thinly like too little butter on too large a slice of toast. Go deep, be generous, do it properly!

If you've chosen twitter, fill out your profile, add a good avatar picture, be committed to posting often, build relationships.

*NiftyKnits action point* I change my avatar regularly, always a meerkat but not always the same one. I am very aware that the advice is often to use a portrait photo of yourself - but frankly, my buyers don't care what I look like, they know the meerkats are way more attractive than me! And my avatar is an indirect invitation to check out my shop.

More tomorrow!! In the meantime - why not sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know about new Meerkats and special offers