Assignment 5, Bootcamp #5 - The Popularity Factor

[Jewelry by Kat]

Just had an awesome review done from canada
http://www.withourbest.com/style-fashion-beauty/jewelry-by-kat-has-incredible-prices-mothersdaygifts/
she even says what a great website icraftgifts is.  she really wows the store and me  I have had an increase in facebook likes
now SHE is popular!

[iCraft Admin]

Wow, that's a very nice review, Kat!  and the links look good too. Amazing job! Looks like this lady is a more experienced blogger. Congrats! So happy for you. 

[JaJeJems]

Congratulations Kat.  A great review for sure.

[Jewelry by Kat]

JaJeJems,  Good article on facebook

[iCraft Admin]

Any more success stories? How is everyone doing this week?

[Jewelry by Kat]

Because of these 2 reviews , one last week and one this week, I have had over 782 page views on my store-huge for me.  I have had 12 likes on facebook this week.  I found a very popular reviewer!  My giveaway is doing better.  I have been sharing my giveaway page on google,facebook,twitter and rebelmouse.

[iCraft Admin]

Those are impressive stats, Kat! And all the work you are doing promoting your store and your giveaways is amazing. Keep up the good work! 

Just a reminder for everyone that all these different promotional activities that we are trying every week, as part of the Bootcamp, are meant to be done on regular bases. I know it takes a lot of time and not an easy thing to do, but do you feel that it gets easier with time? Do you feel more comfortable approaching and connecting with people online?

[Jewelry by Kat]

I feel good and find that I am doing this everyday. The results are encouraging and exciting.  I have made many improvements on my website and am blogging weekly and am getting comments too.  I am meeting lots of new people.  I even changed my krafty cat store to The Earring Express - trying something new, a result of new encouraging feedback from another site.
           We need to make links to our store page so we will be more popular so google will find us faster, one of the top ones

[JaJeJems]

Well I haven't had the same success as Kat has but I am certainly getting connected with more people.  I am also getting better at blogging - I am aiming for twice a week but am succeeding in once a week and have seen an increase in views to my website because of that. Not getting a lot of comments on my blog.  I am getting a lot more requests for connections and friends from Facebook, LinkedIn and other places.  I am finding that I am much more "engaged" with the people that I am connected to but there are still lots of people who don't respond to my questions.  Yes, I am getting a bit more popular, I think!

This week I have done a lot of reading about the social networks and how to make them work better for me so I am slowly working in that direction.
Now I just have to implement some of these things!

I got one comment from a review I did last week for a handmade site.

Not stellar but plugging away.  I am still not convinced that this can all be done in 30 minutes a day  and I am not sure who told me that!  It seems to be consuming my entire life but I keep reminding myself that years ago when I owned a store I was working 12 hour days, 7 days a week at one point!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I'm not getting the time off work I was hoping for this May.  I can only steal a day here and there.

I find these activities work only when done consistently.  I have hit the glass ceiling.  I don't have time to do it all.  I haven't even created anything new in a while.  What good is promoting if I cannot make anything to promote?

The sites I like are popular because:
1) They have new content nigh religiously on a set schedule, which keeps me coming back.
2) They offer free tips, advice, or lessons.
3) They are graphically pretty (well branded visually).
4) They feature a video from time to time which I find brings another level of engagement.

Most of them are also on trend, which is not particularly important to me, but I'm sure it plays a big part what draws the masses.  I don't plan to ever be a trend bandwagon-er in my shop though.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

P.S. I once downloaded a spreadsheet (in PDF) that someone offered about defining your target market.  It has a bunch of categories down the side and you add the description of your "ideal buyer".  If anyone wants it, send me an email through the shop.  (I have never used it myself.  Never made the time.)

[JaJeJems]

By the way, planning to make my report for the week tomorrow since I just realized that it is only Sat and I still have some time to shape up!

I also had a thought about your question regarding linking to your store.  If I remember correctly in the last bootcamp we got our store page fully optimized but we did not necessarily fully optimize all of our products. S,would that be why we would want our links going there?  Oh now I am asking a question not answering one!

[Jewelry by Kat]

Here it is in a nutshell.  I might repeat myself.  But I had a good week working on being popular.  What I liked about others' websites and blogs is they are connected to many , did challenges, wrote well detailed interesting blogs often.  
      I had a wonderful review by someone VERY popular because with her review and last weeks review, I had 795 store views in 10 days, awesome for me.  I had 12 likes on facebook.
      I learned that to get popular be in alot of quality places, blogs, groups and reviews.  
      I have a giveaway on my website and I have been posting the giveaway page on google, twitter and rebelmouse and have LOTS of traffic nd only 13 signed up so far, seems low for all the traffic I am getting.
     This getting popular is long, hard continueous work!!

[Red Rock Designs]

Ok, so now that the book-learnin' is out of the way (darn you day job!), I see that I have a bit of catching up to do!

Regarding blogging, I have posted more blogs that I use to when I first started, but it's been hard trying to come up with new topics. Some days I post a photo with a small caption, other days I share a link to an interesting article.  I'll have to do some product reviews myself to get a product review in turn.

Kat, love the review from Canada.  And I like your Earrings Express idea....for customers looking for something specific.   

[JaJeJems]

Well here are my final thoughts for the week.  From what I have read and observed over the past few weeks being popular has less to do with constantly promoting yourself and more to do with being active in all kinds of discussions and activities.  I have been watching a lampworker on Facebook who has hundreds of fans and I noticed that she was posting often but very infrequently about her own beads.  She always seems to be busy supporting a cause or doing a giveaway or having a contest, sometimes involving her beads but not always.  She always seems to be interacting with people and promoting other people.  Somehow you need to move on from just your own circle of friends  who like you just to be nice and supportive.  I think that building up a fan base like that takes a lot of persistence!

I agree with Kat that is is a continuous process and you need to be there regularly, answer comments in a timely fashion and constantly be seeking out contacts, friends or connections.

When I checked into LinkedIn today I was surprised to see that I was the top influencer in the glass group I belong to so that made me feel a bit more popular! That was because I asked if there were any lampworkers in the group and got quite a response.  Finding discussion topics though is about as challenging as finding blogging topics  but the discussion groups do generate a lot of connections.