A new month - fresh efforts.

A new month, and hopefully, lots of new sales. A girl can dream can't she?

I'm trying to remain upbeat and positive about selling but it's been hard. Sales have been really low the past month or two and I'm putting a lot of time and effort into promotion. I've been working on replenishing stock as I believe some of the problem was I had not stocked new merchandise at the rate I should have and really didn't have anything new to push. I've been trying to add 3-4 pieces a week. Here's a sneak preview of what I've been working on today.I've been trying to expand the size selection in my shop, too. I had very little to offer the bigger children so I'm working on some new T-shirt designs in children's sizes as opposed to just toddlers and infants. If I want to really capitalize on repeat business, I need to acknowledge that those babies they bought for are growing and will need bigger sizes.

One of the big issues on Etsy lately has been the way new merchandise is presented and it's limited exposure on the front page of the new listings gallery. Unfortunately, there are just so many people out there trying to sell their work that the sheer number of new listings in just about every time slot pushes things through very quickly.

I watched one of my new listings this week. It did appear on page 1 of the children's section almost instantly but within 9 minutes it had dropped back beyond page 12!! Not surprisingly, there had been no views by that time. it was like it was put on an express conveyor belt! I then took a few minutes to post in the Promotions Forum about the new item, adding it to maybe 4 or 5 threads. Checking back a half hour later, I found it had finally received a few views but nothing overwhelming. I turned to Twitter and mentioned the new listing. Within 10 minutes, it had 14 views. I do firmly believe many views lead to more sales.

The next day, I listed a new item and immediately went to the Promotions Forum and posted it on 10 threads. I also immediately mentioned it on Twitter. It got a much better reception with a respectable number of views within the first hour. This is now my new listing procedure.

Twitter was not intended as a marketing tool. I have heard it's founders discuss this a number of times. It seems many folks use it strictly for marketing, sometimes ad nauseam. I have actually un-followed two folks on Twitter because their constant plugs were really getting on my nerves. Both were pushing online marketing systems to the tune of 10 or more tweets an hour.

I resisted using Twitter for marketing at all for a while but have come around some. (To be perfectly honest, I resisted Twitter altogether for a while. It just didn't make much sense to me. I'm still not sold on it 100% but I felt I was losing out, business wise, not to be on Twitter.

I make a real point of mixing plugs for my shop or blog with lots of general discussion or commentary on news or life. My routine is to wish fellow tweeters a good morning and I try to reply to several posts before creating some new conversation. I am limiting myself to no more than 5 or 6 "marketing plugs" per day. I think it is getting my merchandise more views but the jury is still out as far as sales go.

If you're interested in following me on Twitter, click here.

Well, I've got to get back to my painting. Hope y'all are out there being creative this week, too.