Here she is...
Feb 2018
29/1/18 - 4/2/18:
I had a tough January for personal reasons, but I began February with a renewed sense of purpose and determination!
- I found this free content calendar via Facebook and started trying to fill it in - I haven't made much use of it yet but it could become useful in the future: https://laurabelton.co.uk/2018/01/16/how-to-plan-your-content-for-2018/
- I took a look at my visits to orders ratio and found that I had a great conversion rate - my husband had mentioned to me before that I did but I don't think I'd ever really understood what he was talking about! You look at one month's stats, take the number of orders, and divide it by the number of visits. A good figure to get is 2-3%.Mine ranges from 4% - 10% so I must be doing something right! Now to work out how to use this knowledge...
5/2/18 - 11/2/18:
- I felt like I was a bit out-of-practise drawing on my ipad as I'd barely used it (for anything except Candy Crush) in January. So I joined in with an Instagram drawing challenge #zoolligraphylettering run by Stacey Thompson and The Lettering Fern. I drew this Markhor. It was fun to draw something just for the fun of it (I'm usually drawing with specific products in mind). Though of course it might end up on a product one day:
- I joined in with the #LoveYourShopSweeps Etsy Contest which I found out about via the Dorset Team Members Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1514236692123255/ You had to share 2 photos on Instagram using the hashtag - one photo from your own shop and one highlighting another Etsy shop. For a different shop I shared some earrings by Studio Pickles, another Dorset Team member. It was hard to choose as there are so many great shops in the Dorset Team!
- Best thing this week - I bought a Silhouette Cameo 3 using a Hobbycraft 20% discount code. I've wanted one for ages to try and make stickers for my Happy Scatter shop. I have a Cricut Explore already, which it is possible to make stickers with, but not the way I want to make them. So I was very excited to get the Silhouette. It arrived on 10/2/18 and I started making stickers right away... well I tried to, but I did have a lot of problems getting the cut lines in the right place, the first ones kept going wonky (see photo below). I worked out a solution in the end, it's a bit fiddly as I have to adjust all the cut lines, but it works!
12/2/18 - 18/2/18:
This week is half term holidays for my 2 kids. I plan to
work for a few hours in the morning while they amuse themselves, spend time
with them after lunch, then work a bit again after they've gone to bed in the
evenings. We'll see how it goes!
- I spent too much time on Monday looking at suppliers for a new product idea. When I start searching for suppliers online I tend to fall down the browsing rabbit hole, and I don't emerge until hours later with a long shopping list of things I'd love to buy...
- I got into the swing of things with my sticker cutting - drawing new designs and cutting them straight away. I was having so much fun with it that I danced around the lounge one day singing 'I love making stickers, I love making stickers' to the tune of 'let's all do the conga'. My kids just laughed at me.
- I had a fun custom order request to draw someone's guinea pig to put on a mug, which I worked on in the evenings this week.
19/2/18 - 25/2/18:
- I bought some more procreate brushes for my ipad pro from Ipad lettering, as they had a discount code and I wanted to write some more quotes. This led to a day spent playing around with my new brushes. Sometimes you have to take a bit of time to learn something new, right?!
- I had a couple of discussions online explaining to newer shop owners about how they should fill their titles with 2-3 word phrases, making sure they use as many of the available characters as possible. It's so important for SEO, to get your shop found on Etsy and it surprises me how many sellers don't realise it.
- I had 2 orders this week for my new bridesmaids mirrors, which I'd only listed on the 13th of Feb. Yay for finding a new product that works! I checked my stats and it looks like they found me searching for terms like 'bridesmaid gift', 'bridesmaid proposal' and 'compact mirror' so my tags are working too.
What did you get up to in February? Don't forget to let the Dorset Team know about your successes (and failures if you need some advice or comiseration!) via the forum, FB group, or by tagging #DorsetTeam on social media!
See you next Wednesday for another new blog topic.
Great read, thank you! Not sure I want to look at my conversion rate as I know it will be terrible. However, on the positive side it will focus me to make some changes to improve the visits to order ratio.
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