Gotta get work done and apply for jobs and study herbalism and name blends and promote shops and...
I just sold another item on Half.com. Groovy! Now to divvy up the proceeds between charity, myself, and ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
theycallmeboy.
Ugh...I have so much stuff to do. I have work to do. I have an LJ news community to create. I have jobs to apply for. I have products to make and prepare for selling. And I have a shop to promote.
I think you know which one I'm talking about.
I'm starting to wish I paid more attention in PR and marketing classes back in college. Maybe if I had, I'd have some sort of idea of what I could do. I don't know how much businesstheycallmeboy has been getting, but whatever the numbers are, I'd like to see them increase.
I was thinking today that one good way to start might be with a contest, with the winner getting an item of their choosing from the store. At first, I was thinking some sort of design/slogan contest - make something that can go on a shirt, sticker, button, mug, etc. If you win, you get your design on some products, as well as the URL to your site/store/LJ/whatever on there along with the Forever Fifteen URL. Another idea I had was a prize for creative marketing - get out there and make some noise for the shop, get a free item if your idea is the most creative one we see, or drums up the most business. (There would have to be some way we could measure that - a special code or something.)
That second thought led me to another idea: a street team. You know how every band on MySpace has a street team, the fans that post posters, hand out buttons, and generally promote the group in exchange for free tickets and swag. This would be the same principle, only minus the tickets, as there are none to be had. But hey - if you can drum up interest and drive up sales by talking, handing out stickers and buttons, or whatever, then you'd get some sort of reward. Not a bad idea, as long as I can figure out how I'd afford to buy swag for everyone.
Another thing I considered was buying ads in zines in exchange for paying a certain amount of the printing or shipping costs, but that might not fly in the zine community. I'd have to approach it very carefully.
I could always go the route of getting some business cards and/or postcards printed up. Overnight Prints appears to be having a sale, and I've been very satisfied with their work in the past. I could get the minimum number, then start passing out the little cards and sending out the big ones. I don't know if I know 100 people, but I'm sure I'd figure something out.
Another good investment might be buying some banner space over at GothicAuctions. Of course, that would mean that one of us would have to design the banner. I don't know how to make those animated ones. And I'm the only one of the two of us who has Photoshop. And every time I use Photoshop to do just about anything, my blood pressure spikes and I go into a homicidal rage. So unless someone wants to play around on a graphics program for us...
At the very least, I could buy some pins and hand them out. That's certainly better than nothing, but it still doesn't seem like enough.
I guess the key to making this work will be making people understand that they're not just buying stuff for the sake of buying it. When people buy stuff from the shop, they're helping invest intheycallmeboy's projects, like his films and zines. I wish there was some way to convey this without having to spell it out, because that always sounds like a hokey attempt at covert begging. I also need something that's going to work for me while I do all that other stuff I mentioned above. Sadly, I can't be on top of this 24/7. In fact, I think I'm supposed to...attempt to relax. theycallmeboy said something along those lines to me earlier this week. So somehow, I have to get all this other stuff done and relax. So...um...
...does anyone out there have any bright ideas for promoting a CafePress store? Or how to relax? Or how to get my heart to stop beating so damn fast? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
rushedtheycallmeboy.Ugh...I have so much stuff to do. I have work to do. I have an LJ news community to create. I have jobs to apply for. I have products to make and prepare for selling. And I have a shop to promote.
I think you know which one I'm talking about.
I'm starting to wish I paid more attention in PR and marketing classes back in college. Maybe if I had, I'd have some sort of idea of what I could do. I don't know how much business
theycallmeboy has been getting, but whatever the numbers are, I'd like to see them increase.I was thinking today that one good way to start might be with a contest, with the winner getting an item of their choosing from the store. At first, I was thinking some sort of design/slogan contest - make something that can go on a shirt, sticker, button, mug, etc. If you win, you get your design on some products, as well as the URL to your site/store/LJ/whatever on there along with the Forever Fifteen URL. Another idea I had was a prize for creative marketing - get out there and make some noise for the shop, get a free item if your idea is the most creative one we see, or drums up the most business. (There would have to be some way we could measure that - a special code or something.)
That second thought led me to another idea: a street team. You know how every band on MySpace has a street team, the fans that post posters, hand out buttons, and generally promote the group in exchange for free tickets and swag. This would be the same principle, only minus the tickets, as there are none to be had. But hey - if you can drum up interest and drive up sales by talking, handing out stickers and buttons, or whatever, then you'd get some sort of reward. Not a bad idea, as long as I can figure out how I'd afford to buy swag for everyone.
Another thing I considered was buying ads in zines in exchange for paying a certain amount of the printing or shipping costs, but that might not fly in the zine community. I'd have to approach it very carefully.
I could always go the route of getting some business cards and/or postcards printed up. Overnight Prints appears to be having a sale, and I've been very satisfied with their work in the past. I could get the minimum number, then start passing out the little cards and sending out the big ones. I don't know if I know 100 people, but I'm sure I'd figure something out.
Another good investment might be buying some banner space over at GothicAuctions. Of course, that would mean that one of us would have to design the banner. I don't know how to make those animated ones. And I'm the only one of the two of us who has Photoshop. And every time I use Photoshop to do just about anything, my blood pressure spikes and I go into a homicidal rage. So unless someone wants to play around on a graphics program for us...
At the very least, I could buy some pins and hand them out. That's certainly better than nothing, but it still doesn't seem like enough.
I guess the key to making this work will be making people understand that they're not just buying stuff for the sake of buying it. When people buy stuff from the shop, they're helping invest in
theycallmeboy's projects, like his films and zines. I wish there was some way to convey this without having to spell it out, because that always sounds like a hokey attempt at covert begging. I also need something that's going to work for me while I do all that other stuff I mentioned above. Sadly, I can't be on top of this 24/7. In fact, I think I'm supposed to...attempt to relax. theycallmeboy said something along those lines to me earlier this week. So somehow, I have to get all this other stuff done and relax. So...um......does anyone out there have any bright ideas for promoting a CafePress store? Or how to relax? Or how to get my heart to stop beating so damn fast? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
busy
annoyed
*headdesk*
sleepy
bored
mischievous
geeky
disappointed