Day 20 What's happening

[PillowThrowDecor]

As promised, I said I would do my story post but kept getting error message in my blog so will plunk it here for now.

Title
Icraft Online Sellers' Bootcamp... Is it worth the Work?

Undeniably Bootcamp is a lot of work. Homework, often done late at night, bleeds into my precious sleep time. But tonight, I couldn’t sleep anyways as I am still doing the happy dance while working two screens and 5 conversations with Tweeps.

Some of you may remember a number of months ago, in a previous Bootcamp, that I grudgingly integrated Twitter in our program.  I was not convinced it was good use of my time or my intelligence but as the Bootcamp leader I would never ask anyone anything that I was not prepared to do myself. Some days, so help me, I think it would be a lot easier for me to sell a shopping mall than a piddly pillow.

Around 1300 followers I twittered with  a Vancouver interior designer.  We tweeted and eventually met for coffee next door to a new home décor store her designer friend was opening. The store designer hired me to make a curtain for her store. (ka ching) She suggested when I would come to deliver the drapes that I could  bring some pillows for her to see. Grin grin.

Today, I installed the drapes. Gorgeous! I brought in a tote full of my pillow covers and a huge bundle of inserts.  Shyly, I laid them out on a display bed.  I nervously fumbled through a ‘sort of’ presentation.  It was when I held up my newest African animal pillow that a shopper who had been peaking at us from behind a Christmas tree, came around  and interrupted us with “I want that pillow. (ka ching)  And, I know you haven’t done your pricing or anything yet but I want it. Actually I want two of them. (ka ching) Do you have a matching throw?  I want it like that one (she points to my throw)?” (ka ching)

Both the store owner and I said “no problem” at the same time.  The three of us laughed.  The shopper got her wallet out and asked further…”Do you do drapes and bedding”. (Ka ching)

Paid actors wouldn’t have been as convincing as this very real shopper.  When the store owner finished with the shopper and resumed our meeting, I asked her “How many would you like?”
She said, “All of them”

http://picasaweb.google.com/PillowThrowDecor/Icraft#5406149672677211618

[storybeader]

I tried to #FF and some of my people didn't come through.
What am I doing wrong:

"some favorite followers #FF @VerreDesign @Patrizia Tager @Lois Stifel @Callidora @PillowThrowDecor @Bliss Street @Three Fates Design"

No spaces allowed :?:  :?:

[PillowThrowDecor]

Some days Twitter just gets goofy... overloaded I guess.  I will try and do a FF on these people too and see what happens.

Cheers
Christine

[storybeader]

That's great, Christine!  Those unexpected sales are to die for!  And that must have been a pretty penny, all together!  

Sorry, for the early post!   :oops:   I'm just so mad, my #RRs won't work correctly.  What am I doing wrong  :?:    Anybody  :?:  I know it has to be me!  Looks like the two/three words without a _ won't work, but then.... there's no underline in their name  :!:    Grrrr....  {:-Deb

[PillowThrowDecor]

Odd... I copied exactly what you wrote and pasted it in tweetdeck and it worked perfectly???

Re: Big pillow deal... needless to say she got wholesale pricing which is relief for me to not have to make umpteen trips to post office.

I think I am going to employ a policy on any inventory that is "odd sock" (last one left) or sits for longer than x months will get fired out on wholesale lot.  Need to think on this as a way to keep my inventory fresher.  Some of my stock will be "perpetual" though.  Hmmm.

What do others do about inventory that sits for a long time and not many views but is still nice saleable, current type  item?

[storybeader]

Christine - you can always save those items for your sales....
or for giveaways (those are usually connected to your blog, or someone else's blog...)  

[Naturliche]

Christine that is such an awesome story!  very encouraging.  Thank you for sharing it!

And congratulations!

I have to give away old stock - its the nature of my product.
I give away lots of it to friends and family & sometimes include a little something extra in my package when sending it out to customers.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Christine!  WOW!  :shock: ROCK ON, GIRL!

Today, I updated two listings for SEO.  Now I have to finish a special card for my father in law who has been in hospital for one week and is now scheduled for triple (possibly quadruple) bypass surgery.  :cry:

Tomorrow I'm teaching my Christmas Card Workshop and then a charity gala dinner.  And THEN, I promise to have something new in the shop by Monday morning!

[storybeader]

How do you follow/join a group, with the # ?
I forget where you're suppose to go to write that in....  :oops:

[PillowThrowDecor]

The hashtag is just a way of marking the tweet for that subject FF or Followfriday.

You can do a twitter search with #FF and every tweet that has FF in it will show up.  that is a good way of finding people to follow. But it doesn't mean you ave joined a group or anything

Does that answer your question?

Cheers

[storybeader]

so if I'm trying to find other icrafters, I could do a search, like #icraft, and I would find some other icrafters.    :shock:   cool!  I have Tweet Directory bookmarked - I'll start there.  I think we talked about groups or something, but that must have been the lists...

Going to the Comanche bird sanctuary with my camera today.  Very excited!         {:-Deb

[PillowThrowDecor]

One very easy way to find like minded followers is to see who someone else is following.  You could always look at mine or even Galleria Linda.  We both follow a lot of crafters.

Have fun with your camera today.

Cheers

[Weezi]

EEEE!!!!that is fantastic Christine! I could feel my pulse speed up as I read your story!!!!!!
That is why we do what we do! It is that thrill that keeps us going.
You must be still doing the happy dance... :lol:

Sorry I have been MIA the last few days...I have been trying to get caught up on sewing etc.
I have been following along and looking at all the posts.

I finally manged to get a blog up today....it is a cut and paste from my Weezi site but I don't really have time to write 2 separate blogs..one is hard enough.
https://icraftgifts.com/blog/fabulous-vintage-vogue-blog-108.php

I have a few new "friends" on twitter that I am "stalking"  and overall the whole twitter thing is going well except the time is sucks out of my already over loaded day and night.

Anyhow...all is good. Will get caught up over the weekend.
Have a great weekend yourself and once again a big congratulations.
Will look for you on Twitter!
Lisa




www.weezi.com

[Zs Knees]

Deb, I couldn't resist! I haikued a tweet (twaikued?) for you.  :lol:

And I realized that I'd probably be a lot more into Twitter if you had to tweet in 5-7-5! How fun :!:

[mountaindreamers]

Love the story , great to see your hard work pay off!!!