GCU Forum - no sales :( how about you?

GCU Newbies
artist

Posts: 4

no sales :( how about you?
Nov 19^th, 2007, 10:51am

I've had a shop here for a while....no sales....except to myself, I've ordered cards & the quality is great.

I've sent emails to friends & family, I have a link to the store on my other websites, I promote GCU on my blog, myspace etc...links & widget.....what am I doing wrong?

All of my cards are blank inside....does that have something to do with it? I'm finding it discouraging. Anyone else feel this way?

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Corrie_131338

Gold Member

Posts: 1610

Re: no sales :( how about you?
Reply #1 - Nov 19^th, 2007, 11:23am

Hi Bridget -

It's been our experience that cards created for a specific purpose - for example, a picture of a baby or a pram as a baby announcement, or a wedding cake as a congratulations on getting married card, etc. - tend to do much better than multi-purpose/any occasion cards.

Also, putting text on the inside is a good idea. Cards without inside text are not eligible for promotion in appropriate email reminders to Big Dates clients.

You may want to add more cards to your collection at some point. You never know what a customer will be drawn to. The more different cards you have, the bigger the chance of making a sale.

Our motto is, if it ain't there, the customer can't buy it. Wink

Corrie
http://www.corrieweb.nl

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P.V._132378

GCU Newbies
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Posts: 4

Re: no sales :( how about you?
Reply #2 - Nov 19^th, 2007, 11:39am

Your images are wonderful! I know it's not a sale but I have added a number of your cards to my favorites. You are very talented. I have only been at GCU a short while and I haven't sold any either - only have 10 cards at this point but plan on getting more loaded. The inside message thing can be frustrating to concoct but I agree, they add to the desire for the card on the part of the public (saves them from having to think of something). Have high hopes and keep on plugging away!! Best of luck, PV

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_132335

Full Member
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Posts: 211

Re: no sales :( how about you?
Reply #3 - Nov 19^th, 2007, 11:50am

Hi Bridget

I too have had my shop here for quite a while now, and seemed to do what's been said and adviced in this wonderful forum, and have lots of clicks in cards both my blanks and my cards with text, but no sales either ??? Am starting to wonder myself if I am wasting my time and effort

But there are still this little drive in me there makes me go on, the hope

I have given myself a deadline, and if I haven't had any luck then then I might stop and just give up, I don't want to kill my creativity by hopes and dreams there won't be fulfilled, but I like it in here so it's a hard decission to make.

Try a bit longer too and see how it goes, who knows we might be lucky too some day

Big Huggs
/Inge

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Bridget_131767 GCU Newbies artist Posts: 4	Re: no sales :( how about you? Reply #4 - Nov 19^th, 2007, 12:01pm Thank you all very much for your replies. I appreciate you taking the time to view my store & to comment.
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Emily_132117

GCU Newbies
artist

Posts: 19

Re: no sales :( how about you?
Reply #5 - Nov 19^th, 2007, 1:18pm

I've been here since September, have 100+ cards and only 1 sale Sad

I find it hard to promote myself here compared with other sites, also SEO is practically impossible Sad

I hope that I will get more sales when I get my photography site up n running, oh and get around to building it lol for way of promotion.

I just started adding text to the inside and outside of my cards so hope that will make a difference but we'll see.

In the meantime let all of us "non sellers" stick together Wink

Goodluck everyone

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_131847 GCU Newbies artist Posts: 50	Re: no sales :( how about you? Reply #6 - Nov 19^th, 2007, 4:20pm Hello Bridget, Don't get discourage, beautiful work you do... keep painting !!! I list cards here as additional things I create in my site. sale are low here but I believe has potential.. will see Good luck t o All!
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Oma_132016

Full Member
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Posts: 240

Re: no sales :( how about you?
Reply #7 - Nov 19^th, 2007, 4:52pm

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted you guys to know that you shouldn't lose hope! I almost did! I kept wondering if I was doing something wrong, maybe my cards weren't really that unique or special as I wanted them to be......but I never stopped creating!

I've only been with GCU since early September and believe me... the anticipation of that first sale was overbearing. I have to admit that I didn't sell a single card in September! cry

But I did make my first sale in October and then the sales seemed to increase (sold over 100 cards) Grin

Now it's November and again, no sales so far! But the hope is still there and the passion is overwhelming!

Good luck to you all in the future!

Oma.

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Bridget_131767 GCU Newbies artist Posts: 4	Re: no sales :( how about you? Reply #8 - Nov 19^th, 2007, 5:07pm Thanks everyone for the hugs, lovely words & encouragement. I very much appreciate it. I've been here since July....but...I won't give up & I'll get working on putting versus in the cards.
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Jehanne_132596

GCU Newbies
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Posts: 11

Re: no sales :( how about you?
Reply #9 - Nov 19^th, 2007, 10:48pm

Hi Bridget,
Your cards and art are lovely, really gorgeous and unquie. I worked with selling physical cards for a couple of years and what I found is basically what Corrie has said, cards with text/ a message sell the best. People tended always to look and finger the blank cards but very few bought them and instead tended to buy those related to popular buying seasons sell even better eg birthdays, Christmas, get well, sympathy etc.
cheers
jehanne

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Christophe_132450 GCU Newbies artist Posts: 4	Re: no sales :( how about you? Reply #10 - Dec 13^th, 2007, 1:28pm No sales here too even though I've put a widget on my website as well... I need to be patient I suppose, or I need to make better cards
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Catherine_131549

Full Member
artist

Posts: 141

Re: no sales :( how about you?
Reply #11 - Dec 14^th, 2007, 6:17am

Hi,

I had lots (hundreds) of cards and weren't selling much for months (about 4 months) then I spent about 4 hours one day going thru them all putting verses inside of them (originally most of my cards were blank). It too ages, but it made a huge difference. I've made so many more sales since then so I really believe its worth putting your unique verse inside your card.

Also, I feel the other key is keep adding more cards - the more you have the more change a customer will find something they like.

Good Luck Wink

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Diana_131906 Full Member artist Posts: 123	Re: no sales :( how about you? Reply #12 - Dec 14^th, 2007, 6:23am Hi Bridget... your art is wonderful...I think you need more quantity... I have to agree that people like to see a specific card for an occassion...so make them more specific and see how things go.... Happy desigining! Cheers, Diana
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Kerra_131306 Senior Member artist Posts: 263	Re: no sales :( how about you? Reply #13 - Dec 18^th, 2007, 3:46pm I know that sales do happen on here---and I see some discouragement from lack of sales at first--but they do happen. Hang in there! I'm wondering what a realistic number of sales per month is? If we knew that, we could get a realistic goal to try and shoot for. Any ideas how to compile this information? -Kerra
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Corrie_131338

Gold Member

Posts: 1610

Re: no sales :( how about you?
Reply #14 - Dec 19^th, 2007, 12:52am

Kerra, there are far too many variables for there to be an 'average' amount of monthly sales per artist, and even if someone crunched the raw numbers, the info wouldn't be useful in a practical sense. Each artist's shop is unique and individual. Some people will always sell more, some people will sell less depending on how appealing their designs are, whether they target niche markets and other factors - knowing a statistical average isn't going to help you in your own sales efforts.

What you can and should do is keep track of your own store's numbers (to be found in Manage Store>>Sales Report). Once you've got a year's worth of stats, you can go back and decide which designs sold well, which didn't, and which designs might need tweaking or re-thinking. You can also check Bulk Sellers and Best Sellers to see what is actually selling and get ideas.

Corrie
http://www.corrieweb.nl

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