Day 28 Monday June 15 2009 Tell us What Worked

[Northern Girl Jewelry]

Oh, and I wanted to ad, according to GA, the traffic to my icraft shop is different than the traffic to my etsy shop.  
- For example, 2/3 of my visitors are from Canada, rather than the majority being from the US.  
- In the same period (June 7 to 15th) on etsy my traffic sources are 55% referring, 28% direct, 12% replacement engines and 5% other while here on icraft it is 34% referring, 53% direct, 14% replacement engine.  
- my bounce rate is about the same, but only 10% of my visits to etsy are new (in the 9 days).

I'm happy my traffic is different in my two shops.  I have two shops to help me reach out to different people and will use them differently when I do promotion.  I don't believe it needs to be an either/or situation, but rather it's nice to branch out a little.  

Julie

[PillowThrowDecor]

Two shops two audiences. Tapping into the Canadian market! That is really helpful information.

Keep this good stuff coming!

Do you think it would make any difference as to USD or CAD???

[BeauMonde]

How do I sign up for the new session of bootcamp that starts on July 1st?

I'm looking forward to learning more and doing more ~ can you believe it?

[designsbydebra]

First off I would like to thank Christine for talking me into bootcamp and all her hard work! Thanks to icraft admin too for backing the bootcamp program!
I had two sales as a result of putting ads on Craig's list and Kijije and two inquires that were time consuming.
I have spent more time with Twitter and Facebook and started Kaboodling and Stumbling. I love the idea of cross promotion!
I have been handing out 10% discount cards with each purchase on icraft and etsy with all my shops participating more cross promotion going on. My business cards list all my shops as well and I hand them out at every opportunity.
I got alot out of Derrick's ebook too.
I'm still learning about Google Analytics and my etsy shops have more traffic but icraft is still new and there's not alot of data to compare.
One question how long is the indiesmiles promotion?
I'm definitely interested in joining the next session of bootcamp!
Thanks again Christine and Linda!
Deb
icraftgifts.com/designsbydebra

[mountaindreamers]

My wrist is now 90% still in the brace just to be carefull.

All the bootcamp suggestions were really great, I managed all except the kaboodle , but I know it is there and now will go explore , I still want to visit all the shops signed up but the process is slow as the rate the pages change is really agonizing slow to reload.

I have more on icraft and signed up for an expanded listing amount for the year.

I have two blogs up , one on blogspot http://www.mountaindreamers.blogspot.com and

one at wordpress but still working on sprucing that one up , at least it is a presence out there.

I have handed out cards and feel more confident when people ask me questions about my jewelry and not so shy to point them to the web sites.

Thanks to Christine for alll the good suggestions and sticking in there with some of the stragglers ( me )

thanks Laura  https://icraftgifts.com/mountaindreamers

PS no one ever asked me about the tasty Canadian thing ; )

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Sorry I dropped off on the last day of bootcamp!  It was my first week back to my day job after my vacation and there was lots piled up for me.  I had to bring work home every evening.

I have been checking google analytics.  It started too late in bootcamp to really give me enough info, but I'll keep watching.  My bounce rate is high - 74%.

41% of traffic is direct.  Referring traffic was mostly google, facebook and twitter.  Being as I avoid facebook and twitter like the plague, I have no idea how those views came - maybe from admin!

My own website had only 1 referral.  So, I need to go add that widget to it.

Other referrals came from blogs.  On my Etsy shop, participation in blog contest entries seems to give me good clicks.  Now that I have my own blog, I plan to post my contest entries there.  That should give me organic blog growth - and hopefully store views too!

Most of my traffic is from Canada and the US.  Since there is a larger Canadian audience here, I'm going to try to make a few things slightly more catered to that market now.

What helped from bootcamp:
Well, Kijiji didn't.  What helped the most was motivation!  The notion that people are "checking in on you" motivates me to work. The single biggest view catcher is LISTING something regularly!  Huh, so simple.  Why can't I just do it all the time?!

Second thing that helped, idea sharing: the marketing forum and photography forum.

I made my only two sales during bootcamp: one was for the buy'n'sell party and one is a mysterious blessing.  The person registered that day, purchased, and never left feedback.  So, no knowledge gained from it for me, but a sale is a sale!  I'll take it!

I just wanted to echo everyone's THANK YOUs to Christine for all your hard work, and for taking the initiative to bring us all together! And to admin for your support too!

ME TOO!

[PillowThrowDecor]

I am so glad you got some sales.

Many more will come.

Thanks so much for your kind words.  It has been fun and productive!!! I have been swamped with custom work this week and snooping around for Bootcamp 2 ideas.  Some new stuff on deck!!! so for all you that wnet around the first time there will be some new stuff!!!

Arggggh... I need 48 hours in each day right now.

Yahoo....