As I talked about in this post, actually starting a business on line is pretty damn easy. For people who want to sell their handmade goods, there are a plenty of excellent, well set-up host sites out there, where it only takes a few minutes and a few clicks to get yourself an online shopfront. Etsy, Minted, Madeit, Society6, quicksales.com.au and many more are all pretty easy to find your way around. They all have their own advantages and disadvantages, and it is definitely worth doing your research to find out which one suits your purposes best.
{hello world – zunodesign}
SO NOW, you’ve got yourself a product, you’ve got yourself an online presence. What else can you do to get your product out in front of the eyes of all those thousands of customers?
Time Management
Firstly, it takes LOTS of time to do the internet presence thing properly, and unless you are fabulously organised and have no other commitments like kids and family, I would suggest you choose only a couple of social media and/or blogging outlets to concentrate on. You might like to keep some others but only occasionally pop in on them, or you can ditch them completely.
Secondly, get yourself a notebook or diary, and jot down your to-do list. Refer back to it often. It is very, VERY easy to get lost in internet-land during your day, and run out of time to do the things that you need to.
There are lots of other strategies you can use to get things done.
- Set yourself up with coffee, snacks and whatever else you need, so you aren’t constantly interrupting your flow because you need a drink/snack/coffee.
- Get yourself a timer, and apply the 45/15 technique of 45 dedicated minutes on-task, then have a 15 minute break – set the alarm if you have to.
- Tabs on your browser are great, but don’t have one up for Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/email because you’ll be constantly checking the notifications as they pop up. Your workflow/train of thought is interrupted; an interesting link catches your eye and… yet again you surface to find you’ve lost another half hour in internet-land.
Photographing your work
Make your images fabulous! This is SUCH an important part of getting people to like your work and share it around through social media. Successful online shops rely heavily on great images to quickly grab the potential customer’s attention, even before they get down to the compelling description. Look at any online shop that has sales of 100 or more, and you’ll see what I mean.
So, it almost goes without saying that your images need to be crisp and clear, with good colour and light. Soft daylight, like that outside under a verandah, is good. A room inside will do at a pinch, but you may need to tweak the brightness and contrast on your image more. Don’t photograph in direct sunlight, as it can bleach the colour of your photograph, and create dark, harsh shadows. Inside or outside, you can help minimise dark spots and shadows by using large sheets of white board (or a board covered with foil) off-camera to reflect light onto your object. While it’s true that you can tweak your images in Photoshop or one of the many other image-editing programs out there, it’s always best to start with the highest quality image you can manage.
Use a tripod if you have one. You might be able to alter the light and contrast of your image, but you will NEVER adequately remove blurriness.
If you’re totally new to all of this, then keep your backgrounds simple; plain white is often the best backdrop. If your items are small, photograph them on a sheet of white paper; if they’re larger, you could hang up a white sheet as a background. Have a quick check through of other shops that sell things similar to yours. Which images do you like? Why? Get a pencil and paper, and jot down what you like and don’t like about other people’s photos. If you’re a great stylist, you might like to add in a minimal amount of props (e.g. a sharp pencil or pretty pen if you’re selling giftcards), but don’t go overboard. Less is more, as they say!
Have a fabulous product
MOST OF ALL, it comes back to this. You can have the best photographs, be able to work social media like there’s no tomorrow, be fabulous at writing descriptions of your handmade item… but it is all nothing without a product that you have worked hard on, that you believe is the best you are capable of. If your product quality is not up to scratch, do not expect your business to thrive, do not expect word of mouth to carry you out there; if your product is poor, you can probably even expect negative word of mouth.
Don’t fool yourself that because you’ve been working with a technique for a month, or even a year, that you’re an expert and there’s no need to push yourself any further. Assembly of manufactured components does not make you an artisan. If you do these things, your success will be limited; but worse than that, you will not feel good about what you have to offer because it lacks integrity; you know it’s not your best work.
Hone your skills, keep working at producing better and better work – quality in the design, and quality in your workmanship. Beautiful work is compelling; your passion shines through, and that is what people respond to.
This takes time, and consistent effort.
Then, do those other things, and your biz will start to roll.
What have been your experiences in setting up an online shop? How long has it taken to get things rolling? What are the dos and don’ts that you’ve discovered? What is the biggest mistake you’ve made, and what’s the best thing that’s happened?? I would love to hear, leave a comment below.
Julie 🙂 x
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{Disclaimer : tractorgirl partnered with quicksales on this post.}