Friday 14 January 2011

on the road again...

Yes it's me and pig in the fattie van :) driving home from Brighton where we went to take Dave and Gemma's stuff back to them... now it's us driving to Bristol to go and move all our stuff - out of the mould and into the fresh, free air of Linden Lawns! Hoo-bloody-ra! 

Been listing on Etsy like freaks the last week or so. There's so much that it is neccessay to do if you want an online business which works. So far have figured out
1 - you must be ACTIVE, i.e. get on the Etsy forums, have a blog (check!), list every day..., twitter, facebook, blah blah and it must all link up. Hoping to get Flickr sorted out soon
2 - you must have photo's that look like they just came out of a magazine, even if that magazine is called 'Hippy Today'... otherwise people just don't see them. They can't - too much conditioning in this slick slick shiny world. So we got a mannequin (cats do NOT like posing for photo's) and we're going to get a jewellery hand next too for bracelet displaying. It's all got to look right. Luckily at Lawns there are, well, lawns... and a pond and trees aplenty for us to have a beautiful pixie setting for our lush pixie products to get a stylish photo shoot...
3 - everything has to link up - you must have a brand that works for you. So we are the Innerspiral brand. We think our image works well for us - it's simple, recognisable, monochrome and stark, effective. It does sum up who we are, which is why we chose it and the name - simply put, we're trying to evolve ourselves and our life paths up the spiral, be who we choose and not conform - work in spirals, not straight lines! Plus, spirals is what we do - hula hoops, spinning wheels, record decks, felt making - spin spin sugar!
4 you gotta have products that are innovative, different, beautiful, are complementary to each other, work together, provide a choice for a customer, don't overlap the competition too much... find your niche and work it baby
5 Promote yourself but don't spam... be brave and a bit more pushy than you would normally feel comfortable doing, perhaps.... after all, its faceless, the internet. So we have a signature on our email linking to our Etsy shop, and we are looking for sites to link into for more promotion opportunities... this is something we're still strugling with, to be honest!!
6 Don't stop doing markets! Don't do too many either-they can be a massive waste of time and creative energy. Find the ones that work for you - for us, it's specified craft markets - and stick at them, build a reputation, get your faces and product known - and relentlessly promote your online activities...!

That's about as far as we've got. We're not expecting miracles - after all, it is January! We're just trying to get all polished up, spick and span for when shopping levels do start to resume their normal pace.

I made a treasury on Ety which was so much fun, it's called Pixie Wonderland! But of course! Check it out here if you like...
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d2b8de117058eefcb91585c/pixie-wonderland?ref=pr_treasury

Think will make another one soon, maybe make one on the Bristol Creative Massive I think.... after all, this city is humming with creative explosion, it needs to be seen by the world! It aint just Banksy who's a good artist from these here parts we'll have you know!

Treasuries are good cos although you don't put your ow stuff in them, it gives you a way to communicate with fellow sellers, the ones whose stuff you really like, you get to big them up and then tell them you've done it... then hope they return the favour if they like your stuff!! 

Approaching Bristol at Fattie speed... so over and out for this cat and pig until next time

oink squeak miaow!!

1 comment:

  1. sounds like you've got it all sorted. I agree about the pictures, they need to be extraordinary. That's one of the reasons my etsy account has nothing on it! I am waiting to do awesome photo shoots with a decent camera. Loving your motivation and activity. See you next weekend x

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