Twitter: Are you doing it wrong?

Twitter. We've all heard of it. Many of us have tried it. Many of us are doing it wrong.

Eager to promote my new shop, I set up a Twitter account. I'd read that I should tweet my listings on a regular basis, so I started tweeting like a madman. I looked at forum posts in crafting communities, and happily followed every Twitter account listed. (Oooh, more people to see my listings!) At first, I was excited because I appeared to be getting views. Until I

realized that the 15 views in 10 seconds were indeed bots.

It did not take long before I became very discouraged with Twitter. Everyone I was following was doing the same obnoxious thing that I was doing! It was like deliberately logging on to a spam-a-thon! My news feed filled up rapidly with everybody's new listings, everybody's friends' new listings, website after website trying to sell me things. Like a crowded room with everyone in it shouting "Buy my carp!" This was not a place I wanted to be. In fact, I wanted to
run from it, screaming.

Then, of all things, I read an Etsy newsletter. There was a link to a really wonderful forum post by Chrisof Copper Leaf Studios. I read the post and it was as if I'd seen the light.

She suggested that we use Twitter in a social way, to make friends and have conversations. No spamming. Nobody likes spam. So I re-visited my Twitter account and removed all of the well-meaning but spammy accounts that I was following. Then I set to making my own tweets right. I posted about my cat, I posted interesting articles. I posted funny things. I added people that were not crafters, as well as some crafters who kept link-posting to a minimum and also posted interesting things from their own lives. I added other moms. I replied to posts about cool recipes.. Occasionally I do post about my work, but not repeatedly all day and not in a spammy way. Anybody who gets to know me can easily check out my website, and they probably will, if they think I am interesting. They will want to know "What is HonkusGrogana?" I'm meeting new and interesting people and sometimes, checking out their websites. And best of all, I am enjoying my Twitter account.

Check out Chris' post about Tweeting HERE. You'll be glad that you did. I've just barely touched on what she says, and she says it much better than I. I hope you will be inspired by her post, as I was.

And if you want to give her method a try, I'd sure love to have a new Twitter friend. ME

Buckling Down

Holy time warp, Batman! It feels like it was just Monday! I had made it a goal to blog 3 times per week; Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Turns out I didn't do so well this week with that endeavor. It's funny, I was just about to write here about what I have been doing, when the phone rang and totally reinforced my game plan. It felt a little like a blow to the stomach, but I needed it.

It was a nice gentleman who is a client at the law firm where I work. His wife had come in to drop off some paperwork for him, and she saw the sterling silver green agate ring that I was wearing and really liked it. I told her that I made it, and she asked if I also sold the jewelry that I make. I told her about my Artfire shop, and explained that I could make her a ring very similar to the one I was wearing. (She needed a larger size than that particular one.) So her husband called a few days later and asked me to email him a link to my website. He just called back to ask me to make her a ring and earrings from sterling silver and green agate, but he also said this: " I checked out your shop, and it was really nice. I had expected to see more in there, but the things you have are beautiful." I thanked him and told him that it's a new project for me, and that I am adding new things every day, still a work in progress.

Which brings me to what I have been up to while I have been neglecting my blog: Making new jewelry! That has been my game plan for the week, and I have made quite a few new things. I still need to get more, more, more items in my shop! I need to photograph and list the ones that I have already made. Sometimes I get caught up reading and learning about how to market my stuff, SEO, and what's going on in the Artfire and Etsy communities, and I feel like I am doing something productive. But the truth is, while learning is nice, and while promoting is important, my shop will not be successful until I get a nice respectable amount of items there. No way around it.

This weekend and all of next week, create and list, create and list. I can dig it. But hopefully no neglecting my blog this time. Please feel free to chastise me here if I do not make some sort of interesting contribution here by Tuesday next week!

Holly
Honkus G.

Opened an Artfire shop

I've only just opened my Etsy shop, but I have been looking around for an additional place for my items to be available. Many artists recommended Artfire, so I decided to give it a try. I opened a basic account for now, and if I see that I have a nice flow of traffic and a good amount of sales, I'll be upgrading the account to a paid one.

HonkusGrogana @ Artfire

If you are an artist or crafter and you are interested in opening a shop at Artfire, you can do it by clicking my referral link below and you and I will both get our 3rd month free.
http://www.artfire.com/users/HonkusGrogana/sell-crafts