If a tree falls in the woods - or in the yard...

Today is the tomorrow I talked about yesterday. Confused?

Remember, you were all witnesses to my plan to definitely up my promotional efforts beginning today. Well, I did do some promoting on the Etsy forums today , and a bit on Twitter. I didn’t exactly knock myself out, though.

Okay, I’ll admit I got a little sidetracked. While on the Etsy forum, I found a new blog roll and, of course, had to stop and read. Yes, I added a few more to my list of blogs to follow. And then there was that posting about some new Twitter folks, so I had to go and look at their profiles and add a few of them, too.

I just felt a bit off all day. Early this morning, a tree fell in our yard. It has been dead for awhile and was at the back of our yard on the edge of the woods. We’ve had plans to take it down for about a year but life got in the way and one thing ran into another and , well, it was still there. It’s actually been dead for a few years. We expected it to come down with the last hurricane that went through this end of the world but it was apparently a lot stronger than we thought.

**I took these pictures from my second story window today while it was raining.

When we first thought about it, the tree was probably 75 to 80 feet tall. I feared it would hit the house or our neighbor’s house if it fell. I figured it would surely take out the fence or the neighbor’s pool. As time went by, the upper branches and limbs simply crumbled and fell, one at a time, landing in the open yard. It had lost a bit of it’s height and The Big Guy assured me it wouldn’t reach the house. He also believed it would simply fall apart as it fell based on the crumbling branches.

Well, it made a fairly quiet exit this morning. It didn’t hit the house, the shed or even my lilac bush. The Big Guy thought he heard something just before he left for work, but didn’t look out there. I didn’t even hear it fall. (Bear in mind, we live very close to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds where the Army tests various weapons and bombs all day. We’re used to loud booms and rumblings that shake the house. Most of the time we simply ignore those noises.)

At some point this morning, I glanced out and saw it in the yard. (It did make quite a dent in the yard!) The smaller limbs did break off and a few did crumble. It seemed to have simply broken right at ground level. It was probably 45 to 50 foot tall at this point.

The Big Guy turned to and began breaking it up as soon as he got home from work this afternoon. He was able to clear up all the smaller branches and pieces that broke off, dragging them deep into the woods. He got out the chainsaw and worked on the trunk for several hours. Turns out the main part of the trunk was pretty sturdy still and a challenge to saw through. He got through about a third of the trunk before he ran out of steam and daylight.

As this was more than I could physically handle, I stayed inside and made him a special dinner. He had worked up quite an appetite with all that extra physical labor. This was normally his nap time! Needless to say, he hit the sack fairly early this evening.

Once all the big stuff has been hauled out of the yard, I’ll set to work cleaning up all the little junk that would really jam the mower. Once we get that all out of the way, we’ll need a load of dirt to fill in the ditch the tree created in the ground when it hit.

It’s funny, I’ve never been real close friends with that tree but I feel like I miss it. (There are plenty more in the woods. I mean, it’s not like it was my only tree.) It’s like I’ve lost an old buddy. Since I worried about it so much over the last few years, I checked on it every time we had a storm or a heavy wind (which has been really frequently this year!)

Now, I’ll have to find something new to worry about out there!

"Tomorrow is another day..."

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans.

I had decided I would begin super-promoting my Etsy shop again beginning May 1st as I had allowed those efforts to drop off in April and my views had dropped accordingly. Like I said, it was a good plan. Today is the 5th and I really haven’t done a lot in that direction. I had good intentions but just didn’t act upon them. I seemed to get distracted very easily these last couple of days. Maybe I’ll blame it on the cool, gray and dreary weather.

So, I’m setting a new date to begin. I swear I will begin working at promoting again tomorrow. I feel like Scarlett O’Hara, “After all, tomorrow is another day.” Or maybe, I’ll just burst into song and do my imitation of Annie. (Don’t worry, I won’t risk shattering all the glass in my house by singing.)
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*** TRIVIA QUESTION***Quoting Scarlett tonight made me think of this question for you, dear readers, - do you know what other fairly common phrases came directly from Gone with the Wind? Think carefully. (You’ve got to be fairly familiar with the story.) **The answers are at the end of the post.
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Back on topic:
All was not wasted. I did work on some new designs today and I’m working on painting some new merchandise to list within the next few days. I also computerized my inventory list. I’ve been doing it on paper until now. It took me until this evening to figure just how to design a list that allowed me to add the promotional notes I have been adding on the handwritten list. It needed to provide flexible notation areas but still maintain an orderly, easy to view listing. It was like a light bulb suddenly went off and the form suddenly flowed easily. I guess that will be another month-long experiment to see how well this new form works for the long-term.

I have one more brainstorming session to work on - I have a piece of merchandise that I would love to list but haven’t figured out the shipping angle on it yet. It is fairly large and I’m having trouble finding an appropriate packaging method. I hope to resolve this soon as I love creating that particular item. It sells well in live sales and I’d love to be able to put it online. It also has a fairly decent profit margin. I’m still working on this thought.
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***TRIVIA ANSWER: “Fiddle-dee-dee!” and “Great balls of fire!” Both were phrases also uttered by Scarlett.
FUN FACT: Not a common phrase these days, but probably the best known Scarlett quote is, “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again!”
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Okay, y’all go out there and be creative today. Maybe make some great outfit from a heavy set of drapes or something.

Hangin' in the Etsy forums...

We’ve reached the end of another month! I’ve also completed an experiment and developed some answers from that study. I’ll share some of this with you tonight.

While Etsy represents a very small portion of my sales at this time, I’d like to see it carry a larger percentage as it is one of the easier methods I use to get my stuff out there in the public eye. It gives potential customers a way to reach me if they’ve seen me at a show or have come across some of my products elsewhere and want to order or just see what else I do.

I was one of those folks who simply set up the Etsy shop, threw some merchandise on there, told just a few folks about the shop, and sat back and waited for buyers to stumble upon my shop. I had a lot of other bricks in the fire and couldn’t take a lot of time for promotion. Okay, a few folks found me and bought a few things. I kept telling myself I would promote as soon as I had time.

Along about mid-February, I finally found some time to begin doing a little promoting. While I had worked up an elaborate plan for many promotional angles, I began working on one thing at a time. In this manner, I would be able to see what worked for me and what didn’t. (I’m still working my way through that list, by the way.)

I began with the absolute easiest for me. I started doing more frequent postings to my blog and I posted some things about my merchandise. I mean, I already had a blog though it wasn’t very active. Prior to that time, posts that directly concerned my shop were rare. Most were more life related. Next, I became active on the Etsy forums. I had doubts about how many buyers would find me there. I added my shop url to my signature line on other forums that I participated in. I also joined a few new websites that also let me mention my shop.

I stuck with these few methods on a regular basis for about 7 weeks straight. My views increased tremendously. Sales improved but have not been overwhelming but, at the same time, February and March are not the best retail times in any market and this year, they have been particularly slow months. My shop did get noticed. I was mentioned on several shopping sites and on other blogs. I’ve been approached by a number of brick and mortar stores that want to carry my merchandise (both wholesale and consignment) and I’ve been asked to write some articles.

So, for the month of April, I’ve spent some time catching up on those opportunities and have not done anywhere near the amount of posting on forums and my shop-related posts on here have not been as plentiful. Views of my listings have slowed down. (Luckily, my off-line sales have been pretty good in the meantime.)

At this time, I think I can safely say posting in the Etsy forums DOES increase views. I still believe increased views will eventually lead to better sales. It also forces one to see what everyone else is up to and others share lots of ways to promote. I’ve continually added to my list of promotional ideas I want to pursue - as soon as I find time. Starting tomorrow, May 1st, I will again be devoting a fair amount of time to posting on the forums.

If you are an Etsy shop owner and you’re not spending any time in the forums, you really should make the effort. I find the Business and the Promotional sections the most helpful. There is also a Site Help section that has been very informative, too. Even if you feel you don’t have the time to hang out there very often, you should at least check in occasionally and have a read. There’s a lot of great ideas floating around.

Well, I’ve gotta run - goin’ over to the forums for a while tonight. Maybe I’ll see you there!