Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Websites Blogs Venues Market Places For Online Sales

 Website, Blogs, Venues, Market Places For Online Sales

Hi! Welcome to LilacsNDreams Everyone! Ever get into one of those funks that you know you want to make a change, not sure how much change you want, and if you do change things what is maybe the best way for you to go? I, like many others, do Online Sales. Not only do I deal with different venues/platforms, but I also like some of the social networking with it too. 

I use Etsy, Ecrater, Artfire, and sometimes Ebay too. With changes that keep happening with different places, the rules, how they do things, the expenses, how visible you are in searches, and of course dealing with the search engine changes too I often wonder if I am better doing things on my own. If not completely on my own, what is it I should do? What is the equation so to speak that one should follow?

Like many others over time I have signed up with different platforms to sell with. Some have done well for me, and some is like you are non existing. Many of them take work with titles, descriptions, keywords, links, and working with SEO. Seems like you do what you know to do, what you are told to do, and then something changes. When those changes happen there go your views, the traffic gets lower, and along with that comes low sales also. So, how does one get through this?

Many of us do have, or wish to have our own websites. I know those take a lot of work, and can become spendy as well. You do more work with them with SEO, and trying to place in search engine searches than you do with some of the platforms already set up by different places. Then, if you use the free websites like weebly you can hear good, and bad about them as well. Some have websites with a blog included. There are some that use wordpress, and you often hear good about that too. For me wordpress is good I understand, but it is also kind of complicating to me. I have also seen some use blogger blog as their site, and do sales with them too.

Often people will use their blogs, show their merchandise they are offering with links back to where you can buy them. Doing this you avoid having to deal with a shopping cart on your site. At least for a little while till you build more, and move on. The same is with some of the social networks too. The popular one is Facebook of course. That is one place I have not been the most active with. Some of the social networks allow you to show your goods with the links back to the shops you have them in, or you can offer to sell right from there. One place that has been doing this, and is growing is The Vintage Village where they have also been working with another addition called Vintage Rising. Vintage Village is for those dealing with vintage, and antiques while Vintage Rising is for items that are not quite vintage, crafts, handmade, supplies, and things like that.

So, what do you think a person should do? If you deal with Online Sales what is it that you do for yourself, your business, your brand that you have found to work? I have come to kind of a stand still myself, and have been thinking things through more than I have working with my shops. I have more pieces to list, have taken pictures, have revised the pictures, etc, and etc....I have things sitting out to work on as well making some new pieces too. Unfortunately, I am being slow with it all lately. 

Would love to hear from others on what they are doing, what they have found to work for them, some ideas, some suggestions, and a lil bit of this and that. 

Thanks so much for sharing your time with LilacsNDreams. It is Wednesday, and a Happy Hump Day to all! Enjoy, and see you again soon. 

2 comments:

  1. Facebook is the place to be promoting right now. But it takes work to get noticed. I have had a business page for a few years now and it has taken a long time to build it up.
    The one thing I did not see you mention is the Blog shopping link ups. There are several that have great traffic and will get you hits to your venue

    http://TheFridayFlea.com (new list every Friday--always open)
    http://Commonground-do.com (every Monday)
    http://EtsyCottageStyle.blogspot.com (first Monday of the month)
    http://cinnamonrosecottage.blogspot.com/ (every Saturday)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Debbi, thanks so much for visiting, and also for sharing those links with us. Greatly appreciated, and interesting too.

    Take care, and wishing you many sales!:)

    ReplyDelete