Fan Conversion to Repeat Customers

One of the hardest and most challenging things for folks in selling online is how to build their Facebook page followers. Here is an angle, you need people to come back to you for updates with interest. Be a guru but not exactly on how to make what you sell, or you end up creating competition for yourself.

I have always preached three important things:
 #1. Target your audience to people interested in your product and not those that makes products like yours.
 #2. Offer free stuff to the target audience that is highly valuable and unique that most won't get from anyone else!
 #3. Don't look desperate for a sale!

So..here is how you build your audience on your social network and on your store website. First, lets take a look at one of my hobbies. I'm a passionate bubbler. I love bubbles. But to get people to follow and ultimately buy your products(especially a common commodity as bubble solution) is to share head knowledge that not your everyday Joe knows with your audience in exchange for their email addresses to send them more info and cool deals. Make it fun.

Once you start building your email contacts through offering info via email, you can start directing them toward your page on Facebook for updates on what's new. Use your blog rss to help with posting updates on your Facebook page. Mailchimp has RSS newsletters that send out your posts for you each week. Wordpress and Blogger has an email subscription.

Here is an example of how to target your audience:  most people who love bubbles are kids. Moms are online looking for better bubble recipes and bubble tricks. So what else do Moms love? Craft ideas for kids, cool birthday party ideas, costume ideas, things to do in your area with your kids..etc..Think like your prospective customer. So what do I blog about? Stuff Moms are searching for online. When you become a plethra of info for your audience, then you become the go to for everyone on that subject.

To refine your keywords for that audience, see what they are searching for most by using the Google keyword tool. So if you sell jewelry, what kind? Jewelry is a dime a dozen on the internet and thus your competition is severely high. So refine your keywords to a higher search with medium to low competition. Make sure you use the keywords in your content too for higher search rank. So if I sell bubbles..that is pretty vague. But if I sell big bubble solution, that is a lower competition with search per month. And use the words together in keywords. Mix your keywords in the tool to find the best ones for you.

Martha Stewart's site is an awesome resource for women who love to craft. She has lots of ideas for crafts of all kinds..from cooking to kids. What does she sell? Craft supplies!! But her target audience for her scrapbook supplies is really Mothers and Grandmothers who love to scrapbook..and..love to craft with their kids and for their kids.

So if you sell jewelry, offer how to clean your jewelry, how to find quality jewelry, where to find cleaning supplies, etc,. Ask yourself who likes your jewelry and what else do they like via lifestyle. If you sell wire wrapped religious jewelry, offer up inspirational verses and encouragement. If you sell handmade mugs or cups, offer up recipes for awesome hot drinks. Educate your audience, give them freebies. If you sell quilts, target to what type of quilts..lets say baby quilts. So offer info regularly on topics for taking care of infants, how to change a diaper, dangers of medications for infants, etc...If you offer heirloom quilts, offer up free info on how to wash them for years of keeping. Offer up how to repair old quilts, etc.

You have to stand in your customers shoes, think like them. Once you do that, you have loyal followers via subscribers. Then, you can send periodical emails about what's new in your shop with coupons and deals. Link to your Social media pages for up to the minute 24 hours deals or special offers via Facebook fans only.

So if they don't like email they can see you in their newsfeed via facebook. This is how you build your audience and likes. Think differently and offer valuable info that is not giving your business away, like how to make what you sell, but other stuff that is pertinent to what you sell.

Guest Post: Editing Photos with Susan

Did you know that our beloved Susan is a genius? And that's she's perfectly willing to share her knowledge and expertise with a bone-head like myself? 'Tis true.


I was fooling around with my blog, which is usually a pretty bad idea. Don't get me wrong...I can write a post. I can even add pictures to it! I can add a widget (provided it's a widget that's right there on blogger and all I have to do is hit the "add" button). But when it comes to anything more technical than that, I'm lost.


I'll give you a good example. Editing photos for my Etsy listings. I recently downloaded Picasa (on Susan's recommendation!) and have been trying to learn how to use it. Trying being the key word there. And I thought I was doing pretty good! Here's what I would do:
*Take a picture.
*Upload said picture.
*Open up Picasa and click on picture.
*Hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.
*Maybe crop, maybe not.
*Close Picasa.
*Open Paint.
*Resize picture.

See? I couldn't even figure out how to RESIZE a photo in Picasa!!


So, being a bone-head, I sometimes...well, forget that I'm a bone-head and I try to do things that I am perfectly UNcapable of doing. Like adding a Pin It button to the bottom of each blog post. Oh, I had a Pin It button. But it didn't actually pin anything! Who caught it? Susan. So I added her as an admin on my blog, because I trust her completely, and in the process of fixing it she realized what a bone-head I am and had me call her. 


And THAT is why I will get absolutely NOTHING accomplished today! She managed to cram about two weeks worth of graphic design tutoring into a one-hour phone call and I'm on fire to go back and make a collage! Oh yeah...I know how to make a collage now. I also know how to make an Etsy banner...FROM SCRATCH, Y'ALL...using my own photos! I also know how to resize photos in Picasa. 


I know a BUNCH of stuff.


So, do you have questions? Of course you do. We ALL do. Contact Susan Adams here on Handmade Jargon or at one of her many Facebook pages (see links below) and ASK her, for goodness sake. She'll most likely explain it to you and tell you how to do a bunch of stuff you never even thought about, too!!


To visit my Etsy shop, go here ---> Glitter Frog Designs on Etsy
To visit my blog, go here ---> Glitter Frog Designs Blog


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LInk Farms and Why you just Don't!

While in my travels of searching for information on how to create great ads, I ran across a post about link farms. Never heard of such a thing! But I remember our head CEO at ArtFire talking to us about how to avoid content farms. This is when someone copies and pastes the content from one blog into theirs for increased content and better rank.

Link Farms work the same way.  Even though our traffic is pretty descent, it may be that we are new. I did a comparison chart on a blog I barely do any posts at, but the posts I have are rich and relevant. The Page rank is higher than those with link lists who do regular link list blog hops and such.

So before we get penalized, I'm removing the Inlinkz tools. A site that is unaware they have been penalized, could link to our tool and we can get penalized for linking to them.  I will manually add our member stores again to avoid being seen as a link farm.

Google only counts relevant links in which the page rank is 3 or more out of 1-10.  Links in blogs are not as important to Google's indexing rules.

So as a rule of thumb, we will only link to our shops and social sites.

Now I understand why Etsy's link rules are so strict.

Susan ~ ArtFire LInk
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