Evolution of Brooklyne

I started selling online in 2007. I stayed on Etsy for over 6 months. I listed regularly, I frequented the forums and I knew nothing of promoting, but that wasn’t as big an issue back then. You weren’t buried in all the people wanting a piece of the Etsy pie. What you were looking for was relatively easier to find in ‘07 than now. So, after 6 months and selling 3 of my items [2 of which were to the person who modeled the lips on the logo, so they don't count], I decided the online business wasn’t for me.

I have always been more successful selling my stuff in shops locally. People tend to fall in love with my wares and buy it all up. Okay, that was a little exaggeration, but compared to online sales, I have to fight local shops off with a stick. You get my point.

I came back to online business when I moved to a different town. I figured starting fresh and now being more stable, I’ll have more time to devote to production and promotion. I have promoted my little fingers off on twitter, flickr, etsy, artfire, indiepublic, commenting on blogs, facebook, myspace and making sure the link to my shop is on every profile. Still, I technically have had 1 sale of my crafts, 4 sales of my digital art and 7 sales of my destash items. 12 sales in 9 months in 4 different shops.

So, last month I move everything to one shop. If I’m only getting a few sales in each shop, I may as well just combine everything under one roof… this is my reasoning. I don’t see how not being consistent after 6 months of nothing would cause an issue, but there’s a nagging voice in the back of my head that says otherwise.

I feel like the only things I can bring out of this experience are the great blogs I’ve found, the good friends I talk to daily and the personal development and character that being ignored and undervalued can bring. I am not sure what the next couple months will bring. I have 67 items in my Artfire shop and listing more will only add to the craziness of that shop. I’m working out some things that will change my direction a bit. The snowball effect will be my online presence, including how often I post in this blog. I hope my regular readers will support me whatever I do.

Also, if you have any tips, I’d love to hear them. I know I’m not alone in this and any help given me in this public forum can also help someone else. Thanks.

[Via http://brooklynechaos.wordpress.com]