My hope with this installment of my blog is to (eventually) help other people trying to get their work out into the world. Problem is, I'm just beginning myself so I don't feel like I have any words of wisdom to impart quite yet. So please bear with me while I get going! In lieu of any great words of advice, I thought I'd just start out by reporting on what I'm doing.
The last month has been one of just trying to get the work done and up on Etsy. I'm always so surprised at how long this takes between chasing after my kiddo, doing a bit of freelance design, and all the daily stuff that falls in between. I have a binder full of ideas I'm just itching to dive into, but I am trying to be patient with the time I have now and work with that.
Now that I have a few things up, I really need to focus on marketing. It doesn't come naturally to me. I was the kid who would apologize to my neighbors before trying to sell them those fundraiser candy bars for youth soccer. Being a freelance designer/illustrator has helped me out a lot as a big part of my job is 'selling' a visual solution to a client. So I am trying to apply what I have learned from that experience to my own work.
One great suggestion I read about marketing on Etsy is here, written by popular Etsy seller tinaseamonster. Tina suggests dedicating 30 minutes a day to marketing. She tried it for a month and doubled her Etsy sales. When I think about how many 30 minute blocks of time I can waste in a day on Facebook, or checking other blogs, or watching a bad TV show after the kiddo is in bed, or starting into the fridge for a piece of cake I want to magically appear, I realize I might actually have more time than I think I do in a day.
My goal was to start on Febuary 1st. I hadn't even touched my keyboard when I got an email from an editor over at Babble.com that they were going to review my Happy House Family Tree Poster on Feb.2 (you can see the mention here). Thanks to a good friend of mine who tipped them off to my shop (big thank you K), I got a little free press today. No sales just yet but I had a ton of hits on my Etsy page which was exciting to see.
So we'll see how the 30 minutes a day goes. Of course the goal is to increase my sales and visibility but I think it will also make me better and a little less scared of marketing my wares.
