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To enter into the Funky Monkey Giveaway do two things for me 1) Leave a comment in this post telling which is your favourite pillow. $25 gift certificate is DOUBLED if you are the winning person that has done both of the above things! Good Luck! 1)Follow 20 new people on Twitter. 2)Send at least 3 Tweets today. 3)List one new item on icraft. 4)Put your shop on 3 new directories 5)OPTIONAL… Let’s do some research on key words. Click on the links below and do some keyword searches appropriate for your shop. 1)List 1 item. 2)Go to this site and create an appealing background for your twitter page. It’s quick and easy and you can change it as often as you want. In your profile information make sure you list your website. In your bio, list the things that interest you and make them searchable words not flowery speech. Sound / look interesting 3)Go to the Business and Marketing forum, to gallerialinda’s post … Places For Business and Products to be Featured or Listed and pick any small task on her suggested list. http://icraft.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?t=857 4) OPTIONAL ACTIVITY Get some good reading material and a cold drink and lay around on the patio this weekend. Your good reading material is this… Download this ebook … secrets of savvy sellers http://onthedotcreations.typepad.com/onthedotcreations/secrets-of-savvy-etsy-sellers.html it’s a fun easy read. Bootcamp abbreviated. 1) Craigslist – Post at least one free ad . 2)Create a new listing in your store. 3)After you have created your “new listing” Tweet about it. 4) Add 50 names of people you want to “follow”. 5) Get your business cards out and explain to your family that you need their help getting your cards out there. For those of you that don’t have business cards yet you may want to talk to PolkaDotPixels.com. 6) Post everything that you get done and any comments in the Bootcamp What Happened thread right after this one… bragging is allowed. This is an abbreviated version of the day’s assignment. 1)Make it easy for people to go to your shop. Add your automatic store signature, your twitter address, and your blog address to every email in Outlook or Outlook express. For Outlook go to Tools, Options, then the Mail Format tab and start creating your NEW signature. There is a little link button in the small signature frame to add your shop name as a LIVE LINK in every email. In Outlook Express, go to Tools, Options, Signatures then click on NEW. As far as I know you cannot put a live link in here. If you need to add a second store then create the second link or shop url right below your icraft.ca address. Your signature might look like the example below. I use about 5 different signatures depending on my correspondence but my default one is icraft.ca Christine Skaley Reid 2) List your store in a free local store/business directory. Bootcamp emphasizes LOCAL PROMOTION as it is the easiest and the quickest way to generate retail icraft.ca sales. Find one… any where where you can park your URL… Here is a suggestion by Galleria Linda http://02d6485.netsolhost.com/default.asp 3) Open a twitter account using your shop name. 4) Get your business cards ready. Order some. Get some. Make some. Do what you have to do to get ready to start getting your cards out. I can recommend PolkadotPixels .com for the design part of it. Emily is very quick, reasonable and most importantly I liked what she created for me. She also did this blog, ads, banner, etc. 5) Bootcamp Goals – Spend some time thinking and writing down answers for the following questions. How many items can you reasonably produce and list in the next 28 days? Share what you are doing here with family, friends and other sellers that you know. encouragement is always a good thing! See you tomorrow with day 2! Welcome to icraft Sellers Bootcamp #2 Are ya ready ??? Wow more than 100 Bootcampers on the list. Many of you are back for round 2 because you miss all the smiling faces and the grueling pace. I want to assure everyone that we are slowing the pace and narrowing the focus. Objectives in Bootcamp 2 will be building sales and exposure for our shops by: 1)Listing new product daily With serious, concentrated effort the assignments will take around 45 minutes a day. Saturday and Sundays are off. Some activities build on each other so if you miss a day,catch up by skipping the “routine” activities. Bootcamp is a real opportunity for all of us to try new and different marketing ideas. Make notes of what works and what doesn’t… response will vary depending on product and geography. If you have questions, ask , ask, ask! If you’re stuck, share it, we’ll help you fix it. Don’t quit. Email me at pillowthrowdecor@gmail.com if you need a quick answer, otherwise post on the day’s assignment thread. We have experts to help us. Some of our experienced Bootcampers will “mentor” you through too. My goal for Bootcampers is that in the next 28 days you’ll establish a marketing routine that will feel comfortable and fun. For icraft.ca, my goal will be that we attract many, many, new sellers with lots of interesting high quality handmade products. With more “stock on the shelves” the buyers will come. I am so excited to have found icraft.ca because IT GIVES ME CONTROL OF MY STORE AT A PRICE THAT MAKES MY BOTTOM LINE LOOK GOOD! More importantly, I am building my business for the long term and I absolutely believe this is the venue that will lead the Canadian online market and be a prominent player in international markets. The gates are now open… fly at it!!! PS… If you are reading this and wishing you could sign up it is not too late… ask me about a referral code for 6 months free! Christine Decorative pillows aren’t my only passion. In fact, amongst the heaps of pillow fabric around my workroom are home decorating magazines, training manuals, sticky notes and other “stuff” that help me put together icraft.ca Sellers Bootcamp training assignments every day. Seller’s Bootcamp isn’t just for pillow makers or even just icraft sellers. ANY online seller needs to take some sort of action like this 28 day, kick-butt, get a plan, get it going program. One of the hardest things for most small businesses is accountability. They have no daily to-do-list or anyone to march them through it. There’s people like me, who have waaaaaay too many ideas, but not enough and therefore diddle around finishing nothing. I see a few smiles out there… you’re probably like me… hey, we are true creative artisans! So I started a group of like minded artisans at icraft.ca where together, daily, we encourage, mentor, share knowledge and “kick each others butt” and generally keep each other focused on a plan that is proven to work. We do it in the spirit of fun and the desire to make our businesses grow. It’s free… it just costs 45 minutes a day. How do we know it works? We have some great success stories from Bootcamp1 and many of our Bootcampers are back for more because they missed the structure and the discipline that Bootcamp provided. Statistically, we know we improved our views, number of sales and new listings! We increased our online presence with lots of new strategic links for our stores and our blogs… AND icraft.ca is climbing in the site rankings. The most important statistic of all is this… “80% of success is about showing up”. I’m not sure who said that first but it just simply means… doing something positive, even if you don’t do it well, increases your chances of success 80% more than doing nothing. That’s good news because there are lots of us that are brilliant artisans but we’re online newbies. Unless we can get the word out about our work and our store, we’re just a well kept secret. For the next 28 days, I’ll post Bootcamp tidbits especially our BEST OF THE BEST OF BOOTCAMP TIPS. So if you’re too shy to sign up at icraft.ca Bootcamp 2 you can peak here.. daily. Just FOLLOW ME or jump in and use this referral code and get 6 months free fees. There’s just a 25$ one time sign up fee and NEVER any sellers fees. It’s the best deal out there. Well I better get back to my pile of pillows, they are calling my name… oh yes, my pillows have so much character they can talk! See you tomorrow!
“Get your geek on with this decidedly nerdy pillow from PillowThrowDecor. The Geek Pillow is part of the Luxe and Found Collection, which focuses on eco-chic pillow designs that utilize remnants, upcycled materials and other “throwaway” items. This cute little guy is made with faux leather fabric and A/V cables, and you can purchase pillow inserts made with Ecofill luxury fiber fill (formerly PET bottles) separately. $69 from PillowThrowDecor” I am just about finished Super Geek’s family which includes Little Sis Maddie, Mom, Dad, Grampa and a really nerdy older sister. these guys all have so much character I swear they can talk! These are all originals so no two are the same. Check them out at http://pillowthrowdecor.etsy.com or http://icraft.ca/pillowthrowdecor
It’s been way too long since I last posted but there has just been so much happening at my new store at icraft.ca. I’m thrilled to say within the first few weeks I had 17 sales and for online selling that’s pretty awesome. I never realized that online selling was so different than traditional face to face selling. But boy am I learning fast! In fact, I am applying my years of experience as an instructor at the University of BC and sales trainer in a program for icraft that I’ve dubbed “Sellers Bootcamp”. It’s a 28 day program where I assign a list of activities that are designed for sellers to market within their local markets as well as their online communities. It’s about commitment and accountability too. A seed of an idea has grown to a whole team of approximately 60 people. Bootcamp II is already in the works! I have had a chance to meet some really awesome and incredibly talented people, not just as artisans but technological geniuses! With these people, we have quite an impressive leadership team so that we can all share our talents and support one another. Bootcamp isn’t just about marketing our own shops but promoting icraft.ca as a new and hugely remarkable selling venue. The beauty of icraft.ca is that it is all about handmade! No vintage stuff and no supplies so it keeps the site uncluttered and easy for buyers “to stroll the isles”. The site itself is fresh and colourful and Canadian (which is important to me and my local clients). There are however, sellers from around the world with an amazing diverse collection of goods. Icraft.ca is still very, very new so we are still looking to add a lot of sellers. More sellers means more products, and more products mean more traffic. LOTS OF TRAFFIC generates more buyers enthusiastically shopping for fabulous finds which is good for all of us at icraft.ca. So, I ask all of my faithful readers to pass the word on to sellers and buyers, that icraft is an up and coming, first class, HANDMADE venue to be watched and to be seen on! If you want to check out our forums and join the fun there is a live link in my picture at the top. I’m also including a link to all of our Bootcamp Sellers and I would love for you to stop by and preview their stores because we are planning a huge “OPEN HOUSE WEEKEND” in the very near future offering “ODD SOCK SPECIALS”. This introductory weekend will be offering items normally retailing for $10-$60 for only $5. Other items will be offered at an “Odd Sock 50% Discount”. There is so much more to tell you about this “OPEN HOUSE WEEKEND AT ICRAFT.CA” but I better not spill any more beans. Leave me your note in the comments that you want to be notified for some really “blowout deals”. I will ask sellers to stop by in the comments and tell you what their specialties are too. http://icraft.ca/sellers_bootcamp.php Until next time, which won’t be a long time… Cheers!…Christine Here’s our Class Pictures
I’m so excited to announce I have opened a Canadian store for my Canadian buyers. No more US dollar conversion, no fear about duty, brokerage fees or other border issues. There will be the same products just in Canadian dollars. Check it out at http://icraft.ca/pillowthrowdecor |
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