COUNT DOWN TO 2000

Here I am on December 4th at sale number 1901 on my Etsy site! My goal is to reach 2000 before the end of the year. Actually 2010 would be fantastic!!!!
How did I get here? A lot of marketing!!!!! I found out the hard way that "I" as in me and just me have to do all the marketing myself!!!! I paid for advertising on quite a few sites and I did giveaways on blogs. There is only one blog that has been a steady source of clicks to my site. I of course will keep up with that blog and continue to do giveaways etc. as long as she will have me! All of my paid advertisements were flops, including the $250 Design Sponge ad. Facebook does not work for me either.
What does work for me?
Twitter and Etsy forums. and they are both FREE!!!!!! However, you have to invest time and effort. Once the people come to your site you need to have atleast good pictures, decent descriptions, great prices and excellent customer service. I want people to be happy. I make my products because they are fun.
Come see what I am talking about: www.flirtbuttons.etsy.com
and if you make a purchase, write blog20 in the message to seller and get a 20% refund after purchase. and don't forget I also have buy one get one free pocket mirrors on sale thru December. Check out my announcement at the top of my shop for details.

Thank You for all your support, love my peeps!!! -Sharon

Getting to 1000

my first sale

Goals and more goals. I started http://www.flirtbuttons.etsy.com/ on June 13th, 2008. My first goal was to make enough money to buy a 2nd button making machine. I had deliberated and pained over the first machine purchase. Each machine makes a different size button. I wanted the one inch machine and the 2.25 inch machine. I settled on the 2.25 inch machine because I wanted to make pocket mirrors. So, I set the goal that when I made enough money using the first machine that I could buy the 2nd one. To my surprise it only took me 3 weeks to make the money!!! I got some big orders and voila, enough money to buy the one inch machine. Meanwhile my friends and family thought I was crazy. A button making business? They obviously had no idea the amount of thought and research I had put into it. Not to mention my online selling experience. I was totally stoked having both machines. I started making all kinds of stuff, and taking over the whole house with all my fabric and paper and supplies!!!

My next goal was to hit 500 sales by the 6 month mark. Which just happened to also be my son's first birthday. He was the reason I started the button business in the first place. The age old dream of staying home with your children and making money. For me it is not a dream, it is a reality. I also teach college online. Both of my jobs are done completely at home. Back to the goal, I made it. In fact I did more than 500 sales by the 6 month mark.

The next goal was the big 1000 by my one year anniversary, also known as an etsyversary on Etsy. I knew that I could do it, but it has definitely taken a lot of marketing. It is not easy to make money after Christmas. You have to really work hard at marketing your products. One of my advantages is that I don't get a lot of sleep due to all the different things in my life that take up my time. Therefore I can be online at all different hours of the day and night. This makes me accessible to the West coast, the East coast and overseas. My sales are from all over the world. If someone asks me a question at midnight, it is quite likely that I will answer them right away. Same story goes for 8 a.m and 2 p.m., sometimes even 4 a.m. Also, because I am online for my other job, I usually leave my Etsy site open so I can check on it while I am working. Needless to say, I have worked hard and I have made my goals for my first year on Etsy.

Now I guess I better set some new goals!!!