New to icraft Gigi Designs

[GiGiDesigns]

Hi everyone,
I am new to icraft and basically new to posting on the blogs, boards and stuff like that.  Pretty interverted that way.  I have been on this site for about two months and no sales.  Just wondering what kind of suggestions are out there on how to get sales!  I love creating and would really like to keep going.  Feed back would be great!  I am open to anything!

[PillowThrowDecor]

You have some gorgeous cards and beautiful jewelry items too!

Congratulations for venturing out into the forums.  It's not hard at all and it is a pretty friendly helpful group here so ask if you ever have a question.

Sales don't always come overnight but it sure helps to network with other sellers as other sellers are sold on "handmade" and may be one of your future customers.

Do everything you can to get traffic to your store. Traffic means views and the more views you get, the more likely you will have a buyer see your work.

Gets some business cards made, either by yourself or some online ones and start handing them out. A lot of your customers could be right around you, people you work with or within your community.

There's some really good ideas in the Bootcamp forums that will get you a head start on self promotion in an organized way but always feel free to come to the forums and ask questions... we all do and we all need words of encouragement at times

Cheers
Christine

[GiGiDesigns]

Thanks so much for the advise.  I will definately try.  It is very comforting having such friendly sellers out their.  Thanks again!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Hi Gigi!  Welcome to iCraft.

Number one piece of advice - LIST LIST LIST!  I always try to picture walking in to card shop (or you could say a jewellery store too) and considering how much choice i have.  Then I ask myself if I have that choice in my shop.  Not really volume-wise, but variety-wise.  Variety of.... style?  Colour?  Price?  The variables you can mirror, the better!

The marketing forum here is also a good place to read up for introverts like me.  I found some good advise there.  (Not that I have used it all but it's another tool in my belt waiting to be used!)

Hi and welcome to iCraft!

We outlined some tips for holiday selling in our last Newsletter to sellers that was released earlier this month. Did you receive it?

In case you didn't, here are the selling tips we listed to help with holiday sales (but these are good general tips to use year-round ):

10 Tips for your Store to be Holiday-Ready

1.   Post your holiday products on iCraft well in advance. We recommend at least one month before the holidays (start now!).

2. Make it easier for people to find your holiday gift products.

Suggestion:  in your product titles and product descriptions, write how your products are a great holiday gift. If you sell hand-knitted socks, suggest that they would be a perfect gift for the outdoorsy types as well as for curling up by the roaring fire.

3. Be specific. Mention age, sex, occasion and product attributes like “eco-friendly”, “hand-stitched”, “winter-warm”, “soft”, “safe for sensitive skin”, “nickel and lead free”, “complementary for dark hair”  etc. People will identify with these descriptors.

4. Do some keyword rereplacement. Find out what Keywords or Key Phrases people use for holidays and your products specifically. Read more on Holiday Keyword Rereplacement (URL https://icraftgifts.com/forum/1295/holiday-keyword-rereplacement//) on our Message Board.
5. Tag your products with the Keywords from your Keyword Rereplacement. Better still, tag your products with words like “Christmas”, “Christmas Gift”, “Christmas tree”, “Christmas ideas”, “Holidays”, “Gift for him”, “Gift for Her”, “Gift for kids”, “Christmas Decoration”, “Snowflakes”,  “Santa” etc. to make it easier and faster for people to find your products using popular holiday keywords.

On iCraft people also can navigate the site by clicking on the relevant Tags.

Tip: don’t overdo it. Only use keywords that actually describe your products.

6. Use keywords in your product Titles, as well as in your product Descriptions. Product Titles is the first thing people see on Google’s replacement results page. Google also shows an excerpt of your product description, containing a replacemented term in bold. Grab buyers’ attention: make sure your Titles and Descriptions are full of valuable Keywords.

7. Don’t forget value propositions! (Why they should buy from you- the little details that you pride yourself on.)
If you offer free shipping, mention “Free Shipping” in your product Title. Buyers love deals (who doesn’t?), so “Free Shipping” might be enough of an incentive for buyers to click on the purchase button.

E.g. “Blue dress for a teenage girl - Free Shipping to US” or “Blue dress for a teenage girl - Free Shipping” (if you waive shipping charges to any country).

8. If you offer special discounts for the holidays, make sure to specify that by adding a discount to each product on the “Product Edit” page or by setting the same discount to multiple products by selecting them using a checkbox beside each product on “View All Products” page https://icraftgifts.com/member_products.php. All Sale items will also appear on this page, giving your products additional exposure  https://icraftgifts.com/handmade/on-sale/

9. Let us know about your best Christmas-related products on the Message Board https://icraftgifts.com/forum/1294/looking-for-best-holiday-products/. We’ll include selected products in our Newsletter to Buyers. Deadline for submitting ideas is November 10th.

10.   Blog it. Use the iCraft blog to feature your holiday gift products. Every iCraft member can use it via the Blog Central. It’s free publicity for your products and will enhance your web presence. You can also blog and link to your own blog and your special products, creating additional exposure for your goods and adding new links to your product pages, improving your page rankings. Read about ideas for holiday blogging (Still working on the Post).

Good luck and keep us posted! (and keep posting! )
-Johanne