Indie Seller Tips - Social Sites

 So many of you have been told to post your product on tumblr, pinterest, wanelo, or make friends on Facebook or Twitter and get a good following so that you can get more exposure and sell more. Get a link on blogs or even get your own website. What is the right thing to do?

Here  is my experience.

I have posted my merchandise on many sites. If you are lucky to get posted on a well read article, like a LOOKBOOK for fashion or a jewelry or home magazine if that's you product, fantastic. This will bring you a lot of business. It not it has been recommended that you post on tumblr or Pinterest. From my personal experience, I have not received any business from either one of those sites.

I definitely do believe that making a store twitter and Facebook account are important to support whatever other social site you are using. But don't just rely on the autobots to post for you. Show up in person and leave a little bit of yourself there. Say hi to your friends. Share yourself, but don't share too much. This is a tricky subject and best left to another post. Just make yourself real and likable.

As for where to post? I am positive that it is different for different types of merchandise. I find that I get the most direct sales from Wanelo. I can see direct correlation from my visits to my sells. I actually get a lot of visits from google shopping, but those rarely make sales. Wanelo makes sales.

I also get a LOT of visits to my shop from RebelMouse. It's a nice little social network that just reposts sharing tweets or facebook posts. Seems to bring people into the shop.

I also get a lot of visits from my website and from blogs I have ads on. If you have a website, make absolutely sure that you are using your metatags to show what you sell on your shop so that people can find you in a search. Also make sure to occasionally post your website socially, even if you don't sell directly off of it. Any posting you do will rank you up on search engines. The more visits you get, the higher your ranking. Remember, your website is there should you decide to switch selling venues. People will know where to find you.

Remember to give Wanelo and RebelMouse a try. You'll like them I think.

Life on Mars - Just another Manic Monday

I've been so behind on my posting lately. I really should keep you all up on my latest adventures. I guess I've just been busy with....drum roll please..

a. extra sales (money - thank you)
b. baby sitting (money for Poppy - thank you)
c. finally finishing the bathroom
d. getting the garden planted

I love to garden, didn't know if you got that. So far the garden is doing great, other than that the slugs really like lettuce and cucumber sprouts. They didn't make it. Next year I'll make copper rings for the cucumbers and plant the lettuce in pots. Although slugs will climb the pots too I think. Once the garden gets big, I'll post pics of it. I think I cursed mine last year by posting early pics.

This year I added junk to the soil, put down more landscape fabric, and bordered the garden on one side with potted herbs and the other with corn (no corn sprouts yet, and I saw ants trying to carry away some of the seed ) I'm thinking the corn will act as a fence if it grows and it runs East to West so won't block the sun on the garden.

My Marvel comic Bow tie made it to the front page of Wanelo this week, but I think it got pulled, because maybe they were afraid it wasn't legal? But it is legit to use and resell this licensed fabric. Anyhow, I got a lot of views and a few sales too. Wanelo seems to be a good spot to post too.

We had a power outage this week, and I got an offer to go to the store during it. It turned out not to be the best trip I've ever been on. It was a little more intense than I expect. But I made it home safely.

I almost finished the bathroom this week. Just need to paint the ceiling and finish a bit more trim. It looks finished, but I want baseboards that I didn't get up yet. I'll make a post on what I did, because I did very different shower walls, I think you'll like to hear about. You can try it too, because I think they are awesome and they are NOT tile.


Oh yeah. I won these awesome vintage Dr Scholls exercize sandals. I'm hoping I can wear them on my pitifully flat feet. I used to love them. I bought them because I just love the shoes with print fabric wrap ties, and I thought I could easily alter these. I may just use them as is though. They are so cute.

That's all I care to share this week. Hope you have a good one, and I'm hoping for a little less excitement in my life this one myself.