GCU Forum - Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!!

GCU Newbies
artist

Posts: 33

Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!!
Mar 19^th, 2010, 5:02pm

Hi everyone!! I have been on GCU for a while but I have only put up 9 cards so far. I have more to put up, but I am reluctant to put any more up yet. Although I have had lots of visits and card clicks to my store, I have had no sales and no comments yet!?! I would love it if any of you wonderful artists have time to check out my cards and let me know what you think. Any comments good or negative (with constructive criticism) would be very welcome and helpful to me. Hope to hear from lots of you soon!!

Thanks, John

Here is the link to my store:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/cottagecreekgreetings

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The Village Greetings:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/thevillagegreetings

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candace_131548 Full Member artist Posts: 220	Re: Hi fellow Greeting Card artist!! Reply #1 - Mar 19^th, 2010, 5:21pm I love your cards especially the cartoon halloween ones. They are very good. The more cards you have the more choice you give people so my only advice is to keep uploading until you have a lot more. Candy
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Judy_139270

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 870

Re: Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!!
Reply #2 - Mar 19^th, 2010, 5:41pm

I agree with Candy - your designs are very good (and I'm very fussy about what I praise!). But when you think of all the thousands of artists who sell through GCU, some of them with thousands of designs in their stores, your chances of making sales must surely increase when you upload more designs.

You don't mention any promotion you're doing - maybe you need to step that up as well?

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Judy's Card Store:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/judyscardstore

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Prisiclla_134572

Senior Member
artist

Posts: 294

Re: Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!!
Reply #3 - Mar 19^th, 2010, 6:09pm

Hi John, I just had a look at your store and you are an amazing artist. Your artwork is so very bright and happy. Your verses are smart, touching. What you need to do is exactly what the artists before me suggested & that is create, create, create!! There are well over 3000 artists on this site with some artists having over 10,000 cards in their shops. I have over 6000 myself and usually sell several cards a day, although there are day when I sell nothing!

Your beautiful art and cards should sell themselves, you just need to start adding as many as you can add every day!!

Good luck,

Priscilla

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Periwinkle's Card Store:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/PeriwinklesCardStore

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cheryl_133782 Gold Member artist Posts: 1350	Re: Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!! Reply #4 - Mar 19^th, 2010, 6:09pm Of the cards you have up most are Christmas and Halloween....these occasions have passed so I'm not suprised you have no sales but the calibre of you work is fantastic so add those that you say you have many more of and watch the sales add up. I think you will do well here. Cheryl
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Doreen_137017

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 5274

Re: Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!!
Reply #5 - Mar 19^th, 2010, 6:31pm

Welcome John!

I too LOVE your cards! Ditto what has already been said. You want to work 3 to 4 months ahead of holidays to have a real opportunity for them to be found by the search engines, and I'm sure your cards will sell.

Here is a couple things I can offer for your consideration as well. The more cards you have on GCU, the more likely you are to have your cards found. Also, please take the time to visit this Squidoo Lens by one of GCU's biggest sellers. She offers lots of great info on working with keywords and titles, as well as great marketing tips.

Keep those cards coming, they are wonderful!

Here is a link to Corrie's GCU101
http://www.squidoo.com/gcu101

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Salon of Art:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/SalonOfArt

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John_138159

GCU Newbies
artist

Posts: 33

Re: Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!!
Reply #6 - Mar 19^th, 2010, 8:52pm

Thank you everyone for the very kind comments and great advice! I'm going to get busy this weekend and put some more designs up. I also have some new ideas for more cards I want to work on. I checked the Squidoo Lens link out and it will be very helpful, Thanks!! As far a promoting myself, I have my Twitter Account that's open to the public and I have links to my greeting card store on it. I make mention of it off and on to keep it on people's minds. I have my Illustration website with Carbonmade on which I mention my greeting card store with links in several places. I have my illustration blog which I plan to use to plug my store, and lastly I have my personal Facebook account in which I advertise my store with links all over the place. I'm thinking of starting another Facebook page for just my greeting cards, that's open to the public so more than just my family and friends (and all the great artist friends I have made on Facebook!) can be exposed to my art and links to my card store here at GCU. Does anyone have any other ways that they promote their cards and store? If so, I would love to here about them!. Thanks again everyone for the encouragement and help!!

John

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The Village Greetings:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/thevillagegreetings

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Corrie_131338

Gold Member

Posts: 1611

Re: Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!!
Reply #7 - Mar 20^th, 2010, 12:52am

Hi John! Those sound like excellent ideas for self promotion. For more marketing tips, you may want to visit another Squidoo lens on marketing GCU greeting cards:

http://www.squidoo.com/makemoresalesatgcu

Corrie
Need more info and how-to on GCU?
GCU 101 - http://www.squidoo.com/gcu101
Card Design Tips - http://www.squidoo.com/designcardsatgcu
Marketing Tips - http://www.squidoo.com/makemoresalesatgcu
Retail Sales Tips - http://www.squidoo.com/sellcardsretail

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Corrieweb Card Store:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/corrieweb

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Pamela_135500

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 1945

Re: Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!!
Reply #8 - Mar 20^th, 2010, 6:49am

Hi John,

I echo all that has been said, you have great cards!

I did notice that some of the text on your lovely snowman and boy card seems close to the edge. If you look in the GCU Wiki here it talks about the bleed area. I usually allow at least the 1/4'' but often more just to be sure
http://wiki.greetingcarduniverse.com/index.php/Creating_and_Maintaining_your_Car ds#Your_First_Card

There are also card templates below.
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/images/gcu/GCU_card_templates.zip

All the best with the store, can't wait to see more,
Pamela

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PamJArts:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/PamJArts

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frank_135176

GCU Newbies
artist

Posts: 2

Re: Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!!
Reply #9 - Mar 20^th, 2010, 10:15am

I'm in the same boat as you John, I have been here nearly two years, I have got 24 cards in my store. I get plenty of clicks but hardly no sales. It is a bit hard to understand card buyers some times, One of my cards have been clicked 1090 times but have only sold 3 copies, Yet another have only been clicked 30 times and sold two copies. I guess that customers are looking for spacific cards for a spacific indivuals on spacific occasions, And since most of us don't design by request it is a hit and miss situation. My only advice is to keep fireing til you hit the target.

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frank's Card Store:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/frankscardstore

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Tanya_135475

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 1008

Re: Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!!
Reply #10 - Mar 20^th, 2010, 10:21am

Hi Both

Well both card stores are fabulous really awsome cards, but a lack of them Sad

I found once I hit the 1k target I set myself, mine did start to shift in larger quantities, yes it's always going to be hit and miss as to what people like, but plugging away eventually you get a good few hits, all the help here is super and as there is nothing at all wrong with either stores, it has to be put down to being lost in a sea of so many artists, whichi s a huge shame, so more more more, is all the advice anyone can give, because your art certinly does not need advice they are amazing.

Encouraging Hugs
Moonie

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Moonlake Designs:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/MoonlakeDesigns

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Doreen_137017

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 5274

Re: Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!!
Reply #11 - Mar 20^th, 2010, 10:35am

Quote from frank_135176 on Mar 20^th, 2010, 10:15am:

I'm in the same boat as you John, I have been here nearly two years, I have got 24 cards in my store. I get plenty of clicks but hardly no sales. It is a bit hard to understand card buyers some times, One of my cards have been clicked 1090 times but have only sold 3 copies, Yet another have only been clicked 30 times and sold two copies. I guess that customers are looking for spacific cards for a spacific indivuals on spacific occasions, And since most of us don't design by request it is a hit and miss situation. My only advice is to keep fireing til you hit the target.

Hi Frank,

Isn't it interesting when that happens? Here's what I've done which has improved the sales of those cards. When I see a card that has been clicked on tons of times but never sold, I figure the front of the card must be catching their eye, but something about the inside text does not work well with the card front. I work on changing that and it results in sales. It works for me!

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Salon of Art:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/SalonOfArt

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Tanya_131398

Senior Member
artist

Posts: 388

Re: Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!!
Reply #12 - Mar 20^th, 2010, 11:30am

Ditto what everyone has said about adding more cards to your store. I've been here for three years but quit adding cards after the first year. The sales have trickled in though and now I'm creating cards again. I'm up to almost 400 now. Even with only about 250 cards in my store over those three years, I've still sold almost 2000 cards. So keep listing and I bet you will start seeing your sale increase.
When it comes to GCU more is definitely better. Wink

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Tanya's Art Design:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/Tanyasartdesign

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Delores_132508 Gold Member artist Posts: 978	Re: Hi fellow Greeting Card artists!! Reply #13 - Mar 20^th, 2010, 2:54pm Welcome to GCU, John. I'm sure you'll love working and designing here. You use wonderful happy colors in your cards. I can hardly wait to see more. Also, welcome Frank, although you've been here a while. I think your cards are adorable. The humor in your illustrations is wonderful. Love those airplanes and buses.
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