Marketing website, store, and product

Old advertising means seem out of date. The old "Buy this, it is great." no longer works. The man standing next to a car yelling "Come see our new, great car!" seems hackneyed; reminiscent of a medicine man that has come to town, yelling how great his product is. Social marketing, word of mouth, endoresement by others, is a newer, selling method being used on the net. To that end there are many different social platforms geared to viewing and voting on both products and websites. But to be seen one needs to be found. And for someone who wants to sell an actual item, and does not understand marketing as they have never had to before, it is difficult to weed through all of the different variables. And added to the vast amount of stuff there is about marketing, is the old medicine man approach of "If you spend only $49.99 I will give you the ultimate guide to being found on the net."

So, what is this about? What is someone to do? In the most simple terms. I have a website, from which I sell fabric. I want people to find my website, and my fabric. So, I need to market my website and my fabric. That, in a nutshell is what I need to do.

One other thing. Sometimes what works to be found is not a single item, it is a combination of things. I think of it as layering. So, just because something you try does not give immediate results, don't stop doing it, add to it, and see, if by layering what you try you get results.

        To market one's item, the first thing one needs is a name, the name one wishes to sell from. And yes, there are names that are better choices than others. On the internet, for SEO purposes, It is best to have what you sell in the name you chose.

        Brick House Emporium does not say much of anything, Brick House Fabrics says it all. So, think about it. And if you are in it for the long haul, go register your domain name, and make it yours. There are many different places to register. I use GoDaddy, but look around at pricing.

        Next you need a selling platform. And there are many. Amazon, Bonanza, Ebay, E-bids, E-crater, Etsy, Ruby Lane, and many other sites today. There are sites for artists, sites for antiques, and sites everything in between. One can also use Yahoo, Google, Big Cartel, and many other platforms to sell from. And one can, of course, have one's own website. You may want to start with one selling venue and then add others.

        Before setting up on one of these, make certain that the platform works for you and your product. For instance, on Amazon a seller is working for the parent company- Amazon. And the seller must observe the rules of shipping costs, times, and must accept returns. On Ebay one is working for themselves and can set their own rules of ship times, returns,etc. And what one can sell on certain sites also needs to be looked at. On Ebay one can selll basically anything, on Etsy one is limited to handmade, vintage, or supply items, which are defined. So, if you are selling I-pods, don't go there! So, match what you sell to your site.

        One of the problems with using a selling venue is you don't know, until you jump through all of the hoops how difficult that platform is to use. So, you might consider reading in the forums to get an idea of any issues. Etsy, for instance, did not have a way to copy listings until recently, so it was very tedious to duplicate listings. They now have a sell similar feature.

Alright, you have chosen a name, a place to sell, you have set up shop, and you are now ready to start listing items.

Being found on the net is a combination of things. Let's start with some basic facts. One gets found on the net by having content. Words, describing the item being sold. A keyword rich text is how you are found.

Let's start with the title. I want to sell a frog fabric. So, if I title it Frog fabric is that helpful?

NO! Upon googling Frog fabric 6,940,000 entries came up. So, give the search engines a bit of help here!

Is it a tropical frog fabric? A vintage frog fabric? A juvenile frog fabric? What would a person, wanting that fabric type in on a search? Define the subject of what you are selling.

THE TITLE

        Your title should be what a person would google to find the item. Approxamately 54-56 characters are pulled by most search engines from the title. The first two words are weighted the most heavily. So, fill the title with keywords. Never use the same word twice in a title. Do not use words that waste keyword character space like and, the, or, for, with, etc. Remember, you are not writing a sentence for a term paper. The first two words are the most important. How you choose to use them depends on what you are trying to emphasize. The title for this fabric could be:

        1. Frog fabric juvenile pink yellow
        2. Frog fabric novelty home decorating pink yellow
        3. Scalamandre fabric frog pink yellow

        What you use will depend on what you think a buyer would type in to find that item, and what you are trying to emphasize.

        If you think someone is going to be using a very exact set of keywords to find an item, such as Scalamandre frog fabric yellow pink then it is called a long tail keyword title.

THE DESCRIPTION

        The actual description should be filled with keywords. When a listing says frog fabric, 54" x 36" long and nothing more it does not give search engines anything to grab onto. Beef up the description. And again, the use of keywords is important, as is their placement. Use the keywords from the title in the first sentence of the listing. And use the main keywords one or two more times in the listing. Don't make it really repetative, as you will put your reader to sleep, and search engines are aware of keyword density, and don't like keyword stuffing.

        One other thing: search engines like keywords in bold or in italics. It makes them stand out. You don't want a whole description in those. Tt will make your audience go to sleep for one. And for another thing they would no longer stand out. So, use them descreetly.

A LISTING

        A typical listing of mine has:

     A Title: title with keywords. The first two or three are the most important, so put them first.

     A Description:

         1. A paragraph with a sentence using the keywords from the title. Basically I reiterate them in sentence form. And I usually add a short descriptive sentence.

         2. A paragraph describing the the pattern, the colors, and anything unusual about the fabric.

         3. A paragraph with size information, the scale of some important element, and a description of the fabric type.

         4. Last I list the length of the fabric being sold.

        Placing the keyword filled paragraphs above the paragraphs that just give numbers and specifics helps your item get found by search engines.

        I also, on each listing on a selling platform put a link back to my shop home page, of that selling venue, at the bottom of the listing. So, on the bottom of all of my Ebay listings is the URL of my Ebay shop home. I do the same on Etsy. One could also link to a category, or something similar. This deeper linking is supposed to help with search.

        Now the shop is set up, you are open for business, and you wait, and wait, and wait. And as you wait, you look at your things and go, but these are great! Why doesn't anyone buy them. The answer is no one has seen them.

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YOU HAVE TO MARKET YOUR SHOP AND YOUR ITEMS.

        It is that simple. It does not matter if you have a great website, a great store, a great product- the net is a large place, where things get lost, literally, in space.

        But, cries the artist selling on Etsy, I sell them at craft fairs. But, the craft fair does the marketing to bring in the people. And one pays for that service. You are now stuck with paying someone to market your goods, or doing it yourself. And a lot of the selling venues don't market you, they market themselves. Ebay, for instance, launched a program this year of ads on the front page that directed buyers off of their site to buy locally. And many venues have search issues. Ebay has rolling blackouts and geographical viewing. And Etsy's search is wonky at best.So, it is really up to the seller to market themselves.

        Being found on the net is not instant. While some things are published instantly, such as uploads to google merchant, others need to be found by search engines. And, it takes time to get ranking to be up in the first pages on google. For more about all this look around on Squidoo by typing in SEO in the search, or doing the same on Google.

        Alright, taking a deep breath, realize you need to take a look around and make some decisions about what you want to try. What tools might work, with your personality, with your items, your life. And realize, that it is trial and error. Try something, see how it fits, and see if you are going ahead. Then add something else and take a look.

        The point is to sell your items, while not killing yourself doing it, while being able to NOT be on a computer all the time to do so.

So, you have items listed, you are ready to pull in the money. While you wait, think about how you present yourself to others. Think about what you are trying to sell, and what you want that image to be.

Do you have a color scheme for your shop? A logo? A banner? An avi? How are you branding yourself?

I know, I know, you want the BUCKS. But, most people will shell out the hard earned money more easily if you appear credible, if you present yourself in a professional manner.

First you need a logo of some sort, or a banner. Even if you can't afford to pay for a logo, you can do a simple one of your own. You can upload a picture, and add text on many different photo editing site for free. If you google making a logo there is probably a tutorial to help.

Next, your avi. Avi is short for avatar. It is a small picture, used to identify you in forums, and other internet places. Some people change their avi all the time. I don't. I use it for branding. No matter where you see it, it means that I am doing the writing. It is an instant visual representation of you. And you can register your avis here:

http://en.gravatar.com/:

GRAVATAR
http://en.gravatar.com/

Continuing with the idea of branding oneself and doing advertising at the same time. One can buy business cards, stickers, personized tape, and note pads, as well as letterhead, and stationery. There are many places on the net that do custom business items. The question is what are your needs? And, what is their price point. Do some comparison shopping.

Let's start with business cards.
Before you go and buy the most exciting cards with all the bells and whistles, think about how you will be using them. The card is doing two things: sending a message, and giving information. Many of artists use them as a small showcase for their items. But, I think it is easy for a card's message to get lost if it is too cluttered. I wanted something minimalistic, that would have the information easily accessible. And I wanted it to have a certain style of solid reliability. I chose recycled paper, without gloss. The lack of gloss means it is easier to write on if someone wants to jot something down on it. I added the dragonfly to add a bit of color, and to add a bit of variety to the all text message.
I use 123 PRINT for my cards; it has an easy to use format; I just uploaded what I wanted there was a template so one could see what it would look like. And it was done. The turn around time to get the cards was about a week. They are here:

123PRINT
http://www.123print.com/

I made a mistake with my first cards.
I did not emphasize one of the most important features of the card's message,
my store's address.

My next set will be more like this:

A note of caution about business card use.
Many people like to really toss business cards around. People think it is great advertising to leave them in dressing rooms, library books, and on cars, in parking lots. This is just littering. And in some places this is illegal. So, before you plaster every car at your market with the business card consider how you feel when you find something on your windshield. And consider how the parking lot will look with all of your business cards lying on the ground. And would you really pick up a card that has been lying around a dressing room? If a store has a bulletin board for such things, great. But at times a less is more is best. The other thing some do is add a stack of them to a package. Does your customer really want or need seven of your cards? Or are you just irritating them by seeming pushy? What would you do with seven of someone's cards? Personally I would toss them. I use one per package. I think it is classy, without being spammy. And I think it gives the idea that you are a solid business.

A bit about stickers
I use stickers extensively. I LOVE my stickers. Every bit of fabric goes out in plastic ziplock bags. And every bag gets folded over to fit into a mailer, which is secured with a sticker. And the outside of each mailer also gets a sticker. They also go on the back of all envelopes, over the edge of the flap.

Shiney stickers remind me of what dentists hand out to children. So, I went for matt paper. Again, consider where you will use them. The non-shiny paper stands out well against the sheen of plastic. Again, I went for simple. And I wanted an oval. The oval is easier than a square or rectangular form to peel, without ripping, from the backing paper. Again, I added a little color to set it off, just a hint of blue for the border.

I use Webstickers for my stickers. I used them as they would make the stickers to my size, and they custom mixed the ink for my border. The thought of using 5,000 stickers that I did not like was more than I could stomach. I spent extra to get the color I wanted. They sent me a mock-up, and the turn around was about 10 days. They are here:

Websticker.com
http://www.websticker.com/

Other things to consider
The point is to consider what is useful for you, your product, and to get your message across. Do you need letterhead, labels, notepads, or tape? What will you use to brand yourself? I don't write letters, so I don't need letterhead, I don't need labels for packages as I have my stickers. But I could use note pads, of a certain size, to write a short note to be included with samples that get sent out. And I am considering customized tape. Putting your name and web address on tape is a great tool, if you use it. I am considering it for bolts, to wrap around the outside, in a spiral, as one is supposed to wrap the plastic securely, so it can't catch on things and rip.

It really comes down to what you will use to brand yourself and your product.

There are two things one needs to remember, when publishing on the net.

The first is:
RELEVENCY
make it your mantra!

        The object of search engines is to provide RELEVENT CONTENT.

        When a person types in something, the search engine wants that person to be able to find what they are looking for. To that end certain things help search engines decide what is relevent. They make a judgement.

        So, using the same keywords in a shop announcement, and again in a listing title, and then again in the listing, shows search engines that what has been published is real; as one would not be writing things that would not make sense to a reader seeing the same word usage throughout that progression. With that in mind, the same thing goes for tags, photo titles, photo alt text, and anchor text. By using the same keywords throughout an article or a listing, one is proving relevancy to the search engines.

        Say it again: R E L E V E N C Y

        

The second thing is this:
the net works off of new content.

        If one thinks about it as indexing things it makes sense. If I publish something on the net, it gets indexed. If I never change anything about it.... just set it and let it run, it will eventually be buried under all of the new things being indexed. Tthe search engines do not need to re-index it, as there isn't any new content. But, if I add, or change something about it, then the search engines re-index it. So, for a store or a listing something needs to be changed routinely, then the search engines need to re-index it. About once a month change something about whatever you have published- and that means a store, or an article like a Squidoo lens.

        So, change is good, as long as it is still relevant.

                     RELEVENT !
                        NEW CONTENT !

Relevent new content!

Ready for action? You need traffic to sell. To get that traffic people need to be told you exist, that your store is open, and what you have to sell.

Think of your store as the center of a web. And think of all the things around the paremeter of that web as places to use to drive people to your store. One of the things I found difficult is trying to put together a method that would work for me.

TWIT PICS

A fast, easy starting point is Twit pics. Even if you don't want to twitter it is useful. Twit pic is an extension of Twitter. With Twit pic you can upload a picture of an item, add a keyword filled message, and link it back to your shop. Many people will open a link to a picture, rather than just a link to a see my great new item tweet (Remember the medicine man of yore). And the message is published, and searchable, and the link is good! Great stuff. I would shorten the URL of the message by using Bitly, or another URL shortener, every other time; and on alternative twit pics messages I would leave your URL with the shop name unshortened to get your name out into the world.

PUBLISHING

One of the best ways to get traffic from search engines is to publish on the net. Blogging, Squidoo, and other sites where you can add keyword rich content are great for this.

So, your shop announcement, and listings are keyword rich. And you do a lens about your shop, also keyword rich, and you link it back to your shop.

Now what? Well, let's look at a few things you can do with the Squidoo lenses to help your marketing endevor. And some of these are applicable to other thiings as well.

TAGGING

The first thing is use all the tags you can for your Squidoo lens. While they give you three to start with, add as many as possible, but don't use the same word more than three times, or search engines view it as spamming. This applies to anywhere you can tag.

ALT TAG

When uploading pictures, or hosted pictures, use the alt tag. Alt tag is short for alternative tag. An alt tag is a bit of code that is added to the picture's code. An alt tag is picked up by search engines, as if there weren't a visual picture. If you hover your mouse over an image with an alt you will see text- that is the picture's alt tag. If the alt tag contains keywords that are used in the text on that page, the search engines assume that the alt tag is real and true, as you would not have a written description that did not match up with the picture's alt tag. Or, to put it another way, the search engines think that the alt tag is relevent to the text. This can help to strengthen search engine rankings. On some sites, like photobucket, and Flickr, when you add a title, this becomes the alt tag.

The code for this is:
<*img src="Your Picture Http" border="0" alt="Fern fabric" /> without the * right before the img.

Alright you snarl, so I go back and tag all of my lenses, all of my publications, and add alt tags to all of my pictures... and the point is, again...

The point is that the tags on things to be published, and the alt tags on pictures are searchable on the net. Images are not searchable by search engines. But, the alt tag, being text, is. Images on search engines, like Google images or Yahoo images are probably found through alt tags. Go to google images and search Angel fabric. Last time I looked there were six pics of mine on the first page, several pulled from Squidoo. So, this is a rather nice thing!

PICTURE HOSTING SITES

Other places that can help you be found are photo hosting sites. I use Photobucket and Flickr. And I have had people write me about specific fabrics from both sites. Photobucket is for business, Flickr is for sharing. There is a huge difference, and Flickr, will, if they feel you are using them for commercial reasons, close your account, without any warning. Trust me- I had it happen. I added Brick House Fabrics to my tags. I did not link, just added it, without thought. And they closed my account. I am back on Flickr- with their permission, but I only use them to showcase older prints for design purposes.

Again, the titles, description, and tags should be filled with keywords. And putting the most important words at the beginning of the title or description, and list of tags is best.

The object of search engines is to provide relevent search results.
And the mantra is: R E L E V E N C Y

We all know links are good. And there are several kinds of links.
There are backlinks, reciprocal links, no follow links, deep linking, and more. And, you will be glad to know, I am not even going start on them here. One can google links or look it up on Squidoo and get piles of information.

But, I think there is one thing it might be useful to know about linking, which does help the strength of a link.

When making a link to web page you have several options,

Let us say we are linking to Brick House Fabrics, and the URL is *http://www.brickhousefabrics.com/, (without the *), so I will be landing on the front page of the website. One could just say see: *http://www.brickhousefabrics.com. And that is a strong link, fine for SEO.

One could also say:
See the fabric HERE, with "HERE" the link.
This is a weak link, no keywords, or anchor text are used.

You could say see the NOVELTY FABRIC here. This is better as two keywords are used. And that would be fine, as long as "novelty fabric" is used somewhere on the page on which you land. I have a category that is Novelty Fabric. So, I could land on that category page, and that would make it a relevent anchor text link.

Or one could say:
See BRICK HOUSE FABRICS for all your sewing needs. Using the same words in the text for the link, the link, and the landing page make it a strong, relevant link for SEO purposes. This is called anchor text.

This would look like:

<*a href="http://www.brickhousefabrics.com/"><*strong>Brick House Fabrics<*/strong> for all your sewing needs.<*a>

You will need to take the * out from before the first and last "a", and in the strong attributes.

So, now you have goods that need to be promoted, a shop that needs to be promoted, a blog that needs to be promoted, and a Squidoo lens that needs to be promoted...

"NOOOOO!!!"

"YES!"

You need to link all of these things together in some sort of graceful way.

And this will be individual. How you do this will depend on YOU. This will a program that you tailor to your needs. You want a synergistic effect, where things are swirling around, feeding each other, but in actual fact funneling things to your shop.

Let's say I have a new fabric that I have listed.
And let's say the title is good, the tags- if there are any- are fine, the description uses the keywords from the title, and is keyword rich, and that the picture alt tags are relevent to the title, and are in place.

Now, we need to let the world now it is there, and by default your shop.

1. So, let us Twitter that there is a new fabric at Brick House Fabrics, and link it back.

2. Then let us upload a picture of it on Twit pics, and link it back to it's own page. Using the keywords of the title in the message, and linking it to it's own page, with the same keywords is better than just linking it to the shop's home page.

3. If you are selling on a venue that has a promotional forum, or place, you yell you have a new fabric, and add a link to it.

4. You blog about it, and link back to the selling venue, AND also to your Squidoo lens.

5. You do a Squidoo lens and link it back to the shop AND to your blog.

Those are givens, and easy. You are just telling people that it exists, in places that will publish it, so it gets found, and you are linking to it.

And on Squidoo, or where ever you publish more in depth things, you write about it; or you write about some aspect of it. Somehow you include it in an article.

6. And you add a SHARE button to the blog article, or Squidoo lens, making it easy for people to share it.
http://www.addthis.com/

7. You use Pingamatic to tell the search engines that you have written something with new content.
http://pingomatic.com/

8. You DIGG your article. Forget that it may not be included on the front page, it is a good link back to the article.
http://digg.com/news

9. You submit your article to EZINE
http://ezinearticles.com/

10. You TWITTER it. ( yes, you twitter the fabric, and you also twitter the blog article or the new Squidoo lens). You are trying to not only get the word out, you are trying to get links to both the fabric itself, and your store, but also the articles you wrote.

REMEMBER- you do not wish to duplicate your articles. One can be a longer more in depth article on the same subject, but they can not be copied. One, search engines don't like duplicate content, and two, you want all of the search engines attention on one of the articles, not on both, which will divide the attention in two.

1. FOR SQUIDOO add:
        A. BOOKMARK WIDGET- make it easy for people!
        B. SHARE button button- get it from http://www.addthis.com/
        C. TWITTER FEED module- to add new conttent easily.
        D. The RSS feed of your blog module- for more new content.
        E. LOVE WIDGET module- often people will leave a lens without favoring it...
              we want the lens favored. As it helps get exposure.
              And more exposure means more TRAFFIC!
        F. GUEST BOOK module- you want people to leave comments-
               you get points for it. Which can raise your level on Squidoo.
               And if they have nice things to say, take a look at their lenses and reciprocate...
               interact! More interaction means more TRAFFIC!

2. You also lensroll your second lens to your first lens

3. You link the second lens back to both the first lens and to your blog, and to your shop.

4. You comment on people's lenses that interest you to get points, to show you are part of the community, to raise your level,, so you get more traffic. More traffic means more exposure, which is what you are after.

5. You link your lenses together.

6. And you can add your lenses to Squid directories.
        A. Ilse of Squid.....http://isleofsquid.com/directory/
        B. Lensroll.com...http://www.lensroll.com/
        C. The Squidirectory....http://www.squidirectory.com/

I read that a person should aim for 5 backlinks a day for a website. That is a LOT!!!

I am trying this now..



I have been running ads with them. They are easy to use, and there are different tiers. And, one of those is free. You don't get much for that, but there it is. I believe pics are important on the net. So, I can run unlimited ads, that you can link back with, with a thumbnail and other pics, for $9.99/month. So far I am happy. You can set your ads to run for ever, but remember the old:

"THE NET WORKS OFF OF NEW"

I have my ads set to end, so I can edit the title and the first sentence of them so they get re-indexed.

As we have moved from the Medicine Man mode of selling to the word of mouth endoresement mode of selling, social marketing sites on the net have exploded. The sheer number of sites one can use is huge. But last year's top site is this year's dud. So, if you wish to get into social marketing choose a site that is not going to either to close, or become passe.

We have Twitter, Plumdrop, My Space, Facebook, Ning, and Etsy now wishes to joing the throng. There is StumbleUpon, Delicious, and yes, Squidoo. Do a search for social marketing and there are many, many sites. The problem with all of these is, to me two fold.

First, you need to make certain that the sites you use wish to use are a good match for what you are trying to do. The second is they take time to become effective. You have to build a following, and interact to be seen or heard. And, many of these are not for showcasing your own things... that is considered spam. And the other thing is... while spending all the time building your circles of friends... what are you actually doing? Are you creating anything? Or is it just another way to fritter away time on the net? Are you adding or receiving anything worth while?

Do you really wish to Twitter, blog, Facebook, join forums, and more? This is not a criticisim, it is just a question. Because all of these do take up time. And, it is easy to get sucked into a vortex of computer life.

By all means, look into the social marketing... it is huge! It is a powerful tool to help a person sell their product. But, chose carefully, as no one can do it all. And build things slowly- try one thing at a time, see if you like it, see if it works for you. And then in a month add another thing to what you are doing. See if those two things together are helpful. And keep building your own unique marketing technique.

Marketing on the net will always be changing, as the net changes constantly. What works today, may, not be effective in eighteen months. YOU may not be the same in eighteen months. So, every once in a while, step back and take a good look at things.

The fabrics used in this lens are to be found at Brick House Fabrics

Starting on at the top are:

1. Ballerina fabric
2. Exotic animal fabric cheetah aligator
3. Majolica china fabric
4. Retro fabric leopard
5. Fern fabric toile
6. Retro owl fabric
7. Venice fabric
8. Rooster chicken wire toile fabric blue
9.Spring flower fabric

The above and other novelty fabric can be found at www.BrickHouseFabrics.com

Seo

Page Rank

Keyword Density

Back Links

Long tail keywords

Reciprical Links

No Follow Links

Anchor text