Jun 10, 2011

Fight Back Against the Slumps!

Vintage Clock Face by VintageInspiredVt
Lots of talk recently about sales. Or rather, lack of sales. Is it a slump? Is it the site we sell on? Is it us? Is it the time of year?

While those factors are worth considering, at the end of the day there are many elements we have direct control over. Not everyone heads out to the sun when summer comes! Millions of people work on their computers every day. Thousands of blogs are gaining new eyeballs every day-often at a very rapid rate. So we know the people are out there. The question is, how do we get them into our shops?

Crab Pendant by GeneralWhimsy2

Are you blogging? I don't mean once a month or once a week. Are you blogging every day? I know that sounds intimidating-and I'm certainly not a champ in this department. But I watch and I learn. I know from watching successful blogs that it takes frequent content to not only keep an audience but to continue to grow it. People want freshness. They want new. They want something great to look at every day when they sit down to their computers.

Vintage Soutache by AddVintage

What's the content of your blog? I admit, I still haven't found the voice for mine. I don't want to be a salesperson, shoving my shop finds down throats all the time. But I also don't want to ignore that I do have a shop. Find a way to keep your blog fresh: take your camera along on your estate hunts, write about the history of an item, or showcase items from another vintage shop. Mix it up and do it often. That's the best way to get found.

Barkcloth Folk Print Jacket by marybethhale

Are you making treasuries? Do. We all know they bring eyeballs in and we NEVER know where those eyeballs lead. Just this week a treasury brought me to a customer-in the most roundabout way. A woman saw an old wood saw of mine that was featured. She mentioned it to her father in law. He looked at it and went to my shop and left it up on his screen. His wife came along, saw some paintings I had and emailed them to a friend in Russia. The woman in Russia loved them and bought them. Now she's having me ship them to her best friend in Louisiana. Huh? From a treasury?

1930's Bantam Typewriter by YesterdaysSilhouette

Are you updating your Facebook page daily? Do you have a Facebook page? Again, not with just your latest finds. Solicit input from your viewers. Ask them questions. Have them post photos. Get them involved! And then sprinkle in your latest finds on a regular basis.

Rare Childrens Book by wonderdiva

We cannot just sit back and hope our shops are found. We should not depend on whatever website we're selling on to advertise for us. Yes, the site has a role to play, but we can greatly influence how much traffic comes to our shops. If we were just selling on our own websites we'd have to! So let's work just as hard as if we were all alone in the vast wasteland of the web, hoping to be noticed.

6 comments:

mbh said...

motivating article! thank you so much for the nudge. :)

nora - treasurehuntvintage said...

Great advice. I personally use a different on-line venue to sell most of my goods, as I simply don't have the time for intense social networking. (I also have a personal chef / catering business PLUS my handmade business) It's all about time management. Happy sales to all.

cindy-the vintage hat shop said...

Hmmm, now you got me thinking, Maybe I really should get that blog going. Soon, very soon.

Mary said...

Great ideas and the push in the right direction. Blogging is hard for me, as is doing a journal. I will continue to find that comfortable shoe. Sign me Goldilocks.

wonderdiva said...

I resumed blogging over here on Blogspot and I've resumed putting things up on my Tumblr page... I'll keep plugging along! (And thank you for including a photo of my book in your entry!)

Yesterday's Silhouette said...

I've said it a million times, I need to blog. I've actually already begun one in fact, but it's still under construction and I just can't find the time to dedicate to doing it right, so to the back burner it goes. This definitively motivated me to find some time to get back to it though. Thanks so much for the feature!