Any Creative Businesses Out There?

Ar_

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I recently relaunched my online art shop after a two-year break and am looking for advice on how to build/maintain momentum for making sales. Basically, I sell prints of my own artwork through my website, and while the initial relaunch period in January was positive, I feel like things could peter out quite quickly if I don't keep spreading the word. Thing is, once you've blasted social media a bit, what more can you do? Are there any others on here who run their own enterprise and could share some words of wisdom?

Any ideas or advice would be great :)
 

Jon

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I recently relaunched my online art shop after a two-year break and am looking for advice on how to build/maintain momentum for making sales. Basically, I sell prints of my own artwork through my website, and while the initial relaunch period in January was positive, I feel like things could peter out quite quickly if I don't keep spreading the word. Thing is, once you've blasted social media a bit, what more can you do? Are there any others on here who run their own enterprise and could share some words of wisdom?

Any ideas or advice would be great :)
Have you thought about selling on Etsy? It seems a lot of people use that to sell their creativity!
 

Ar_

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Yeah I mean I do have an Etsy but I've not really got into it cos of their fees etc. I'll bite the bullet and stick some on though, see what happens
 

Jon

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Yeah I mean I do have an Etsy but I've not really got into it cos of their fees etc. I'll bite the bullet and stick some on though, see what happens
Can you sell it on ebay? gumtree? facebook marketplce? Amazon?
 

Jon

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Never thought about Facebook marketplace, isn't that only for secondhand stuff?
No Idea, I thought it was just for 'anything' (though I've never sold or looked at it lol)
 

jonv21

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Your social media accounts don't seem to really be doing much promotion recently for your site and art works.

Why not make up some posts about your works, your site, Hashtags can work too (even seeing who else is out there using hashtags) or sharing an influencers work, but including your own work in the post, asking for a share, etc.

Many ways of wording it, even sharing your quote artwork using a question e.g. How you feeling today? Artwork - Because I'm Happy, etc.

Hope this gives you some ideas.
 
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luckyj142

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Any ideas or advice would be great :)

Hello, you can take or leave my advice but I opened an Etsy store with zero ecommerce experience 10 months ago & have made almost 400 sales in this time. I also sell prints.

I just checked out your website and it is great. I love your animal designs. However, the first pictures you see on your website are very low res and therefore appear a bit blurred. This is people's first impression of your store and your products and is going to be an immediate turn off for many people.

How are you driving sales to your site at the moment? If your sales are slow and you don't have the spare cash to do any paid promotion then I would initially work hard on creating a following and generating sales in a marketplace that already has a good customer base eg Etsy.

I'm by no means an expert but I have had a good first year & I'd be happy to take a look at your Etsy store and give you some pointers if you think that would be helpful?
 
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homie

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+1 for Etsy here too.

Yes there are fees but they are cheaper than ebay. The user base seems a bit skewed towards Europe and the States but that's not necessarily a bad thing if you don't mind shipping internationally. They usually rank quite high on google searches too.

Maybe instagram could help also
 
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Ar_

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Hello, you can take or leave my advice but I opened an Etsy store with zero ecommerce experience 10 months ago & have made almost 400 sales in this time. I also sell prints.

I just checked out your website and it is great. I love your animal designs. However, the first pictures you see on your website are very low res and therefore appear a bit blurred. This is people's first impression of your store and your products and is going to be an immediate turn off for many people.

How are you driving sales to your site at the moment? If your sales are slow and you don't have the spare cash to do any paid promotion then I would initially work hard on creating a following and generating sales in a marketplace that already has a good customer base eg Etsy.

I'm by no means an expert but I have had a good first year & I'd be happy to take a look at your Etsy store and give you some pointers if you think that would be helpful?


Ahh thank you for the advice, I hadn't realised that about the front page images! I do have an Etsy store but there's nothing in it right now as I wasn't sure I'd gain any visibility on there - thought it seemed a bit crowded for what I do.

I'm not really sure how I'm driving sales to be honest, I just stick my work on there and then try to tweet about it and post a bit on Instagram here and there. I'm not sure what I should be doing really!
 

luckyj142

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Ahh thank you for the advice, I hadn't realised that about the front page images! I do have an Etsy store but there's nothing in it right now as I wasn't sure I'd gain any visibility on there - thought it seemed a bit crowded for what I do.

I'm not really sure how I'm driving sales to be honest, I just stick my work on there and then try to tweet about it and post a bit on Instagram here and there. I'm not sure what I should be doing really!

You're right, Etsy is crowded but on the positive side they get millions of people searching and browsing their listings every day. Millions of people who could potentially stumble across your products if they were on there.

You've already got an edge in that you have your own store, you'll be able to funnel some of your new fans on Etsy to your own site.

The fees aren't that bad and you get your first few listings free so there is no financial risk at all - wow I sound like I'm working for them on commission. I'm not!

You are clearly internet savvy already so it would be a doddle for you to get up and running.

I'd be happy to chat about it and give you a few pointers if you are interested. Feel free to drop me a DM :)
 
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