shop door sits quiet
waiting for the bell to ring
window entices
senryu by M. LaFreniere
I’ve created a blog shop. Producing is easy for me. I can write and photograph all day long. Marketing, now that’s tough. In an internet world where there are literally millions of websites, helping people to find your teeny tiny one is difficult. In fact it is a pain in the butt.
So I’ve been taking a couple of online classes. I’ve resisted for about a year because I thought there are a lot of tutorials out there which there totally are. I find that taking a class helps to keep me more focused. Marketing is tough for me because I’d rather be writing poems, taking pics or playing with my cats.
In a couple different free online courses, several people mentioned Pinterest as a great way to increase sales. Okay, I’m not ready to take on another class. Right now I’m taking an Instagram course because I’d like to get my Instagram where I have 5,000 followers — I still want to go on a poetry road trip with my cats and I can’t afford an RV. I am hoping that Instagram will not only drive traffic to my store but when I get enough followers, that I can convince an RV manufacturer or sales lot to lend me one for a few months. I’ve gotten to 200 so far but it’s tough. See why it’s hard for me to do marketing? I really want to go on a poetry road trip instead. Ah well.
Back to Pinterest. So I read an article on optimum size 600×900 and made my first ad today. I am posting it below along with the text. Even though Zazzle is having a 50% sale on cards, I can’t put that on because Pinterest images last forever and are often repinned. Time-limited events don’t really work if someone sees it next year.
Let me know what you think of the ad. Do you like it? Or not? I put the little text bit from my description under it. Does it work or does it need to be jazzed up somehow? I plan to do a series. I’ll make a new one like this with each new set of 3 cards I make.
Cool coffee blank notecards from Cactus Dreams. Each Coffee card comes in a choice of 3 styles: no text on the cover, a Daily Dose Coffee Haiku, or with customizable text so you can write your own words in the haiku space.
References:
RDP for Sunday= RING
Sundays from Gizzylaw
on Ragtag Community
The Ragtag Daily Prompt now has it’s own blog site called the “Ragtag Community“. Each day of the week a prompt is presented by a different person. Come and participate by posting writing or images evoked by the word and add your pingback
Are You Using the Best Pinterest Pin Size for 2018?
by
The next is my instagram and pinterest. I like Pinterest and was doing it for awhile but have been busy lately so except for Dreams, the boards are pretty random. If you want to follow me, I’ll be happy to follow back. But if you follow me in Instagram, then unfollow, I will likely unfollow. The way instagrammers unfollow irks me no end. It’s like 50%. Many follow to get a follow then unfollow the person after they start following. Weird, right? Thank fully the other 50% hang around. That’s why building a following is so slow. It’s two steps forward, one step back.
Instagram Cactus Catz (daily coffee haiku, photos on Tucson murals and food)
Pinterest Cactus Haiku (not focused. boards on haiku, cats, poetry, coffee, book quotes, quotes, art, whatever)
Pinterest Cactus Catz (not focused. similar boards to Cactus Haiku on haiku, cats but also has 1920s & Victorian costumes, Jules Verne, and drinks)
Pinterest Cactus Dreams (focused, probably because I just started it this week : coffee & geocaching. That’s it)
Pinterest Hapa Foody (this one I’m doing with a friend of mine. We’re planning on starting a Hapa Foody blog together. Basically fusion recipes. It’s pretty new so not a lot there.)