http://community.theswitchboards.com/index.php?app=tutorials Thu, 17 May 2012 04:14:33 +0000 1800 Tutorials from all available categories. http://community.theswitchboards.com/tutorials/article/24-advertising-payoff/
Here is what you are looking for:
Return on Investment (ROI)

Well, I could write a thesis about ROI, in fact many people do write their thesis about ROI and advertising case studies. But in simple terms. VERY simple terms...by no means is this ALL of it. WARNING...VERY READERS DIGEST VERSION....

Here is what you need to do to track your ROI-
1) ask how people found out about you on your website or on the phone.
2) track your sales according to media outlet
3) track your traffic from those media outlets-easier said than done! Personally I have a guestbook contest where i ask a referred by question
4) figure out your gross sales from those media outlets
5) figure out your net sales from those media outlets
6) figure out your advertising % is. (if you grossed $100 amount and your advertising cost $10, your advertising cost was 10% of your gross)


Sounding pretty hard to track...yep it is. Especially if you throw in there the intangible aspect of advertising. To give an analogy... with advertising, you have planted a seed. The example I like to give about advertising is the seeds in deserts or forests that require specific requirements for germination (to get the person to purchase). You might plant the seed now, but 1 year (or 2 years) from now they germinate (place their first order). After something happens to trigger them to grow(buy). But by advertising you have spread out a whole bunch of seeds just waiting to germinate (buy) given the right requirement.

How do you make sure those seeds will eventually grow?
1) Continue to advertise to the same magazines. Repetition is key. There are many marketing books written on the psychology of buying. Many books say it takes a person 3-5 times of seeing a marketing message to act on it. Which is the BIG reason we are trying to repeat ads in the same magazines for multiple insertions.
2) Market to them internally via newsletters. After they make it to your site. GRAB THEM. Get their info and put them on your monthly newsletter list. So if you don't already have a newsletter....consider it. Some of my best ROI comes from my monthly newsletter.
3) Continue to advertise within the same demographic. If a certain type of customer reads Bust and Unsigned. (which I think is the case, I'd love to see demographic overlap!) They will be seeing your message twice as often.


Then, make sure they continue to buy from you by:
1) Having a great product
2) innovations and new product introductions
3) great customer service
4) mark your products with your name, every piece of my jewelry has my logo clearly marked. So every time a customer wears my jewelry they are reminded of Amy Peters' Studio. My little advertising seeds out there!
Why are repeat customers so important? In general (again very basic and simple terms here...) it is said to be 5-10 times more expensive to gain a new customer as it is to sell AGAIN to an exising customer. So repeat customers are what you are looking for. Getting new customers is hard and expensive. Silly (and scary) example...but it makes sense....this is why drug dealers make the first high free...after they hook you, you WILL continue to buy.

A good advertising plan is well thought out and requires patience. MOST people don't buy the first time they see your ad. But, with repetition and the right requirements....they will. So look at advertising as a part of your overall marketing. If you are having to put your advertising on a credit card...think again. Set a % of overall sales that you are willing to put towards advertising. So say you gross $10,000 a year with your business and you are wanting to GROW your business. Then your advertising would be a larger %. If you are happy with your current volume...you could use a smaller %. And how to figure out a % would be a whole other thesis!

As far as case studies go....
1) I have had places where I have advertised and my ROI was actually a negative figure. I paid more for the advertising venue than I made. That tells me that the media outlet wasn't a good fit for me.
2) I have had places I have advertised for $100 and I made $1000 in profit from it.
3) I've had places where I invested $50 and made $8000 in profit from it.

So it can be ALL over the place. You can't just say if I invest X amount I will get X amount in return. BUT...you should set a % of gross sales that you want to spend on advertising and what you EXPECT to gain from it.
But DON'T forget the intangible aspect of advertising.......planting seeds. The more seeds, the more potential for future sales.


This article was originally published on Amy Peters' Studio Blog and had been republished here with full permission.]]> Fri, 30 Sep 2011 03:02:34 +0000 24 Amy Peters 2 http://community.theswitchboards.com/tutorials/article/23-getting-started/ So you hate your 9-5 job and want to pursue your passion? You think that if you just made jewelry ( or insert your craft/art here) you life would be perfect. First realize that life is not PERFECT no matter what job you have. Start from there. Realize that life is about movement, change, ups and downs. OK....got that.
Now...starting from a realistic point. You love making your craft. You enjoy being in charge of your own destiny. Setting your own hours. If all of that sound great and you really have to do it...be realistic. Don't expect overnight success. It does happen sometimes, but more often than not it is a 5 year overnight success story! With a lot of hard work and setting your own hours doesn't mean that they are short hours. It all takes balance, hard work and a good business plan.

A good business plan requires that you ask yourself a lot of questions and make some hard decisions.

How do you want to sell your craft?

To individuals via craft shows or fashion events?
How will you find the best events to target? Are there some in your area or are you going to have to travel to attend them? How will you finance these shows? And what if they are a flop?
To individuals via your website?
How will you get the traffic to your website. It is not as easy as if you build it they will come. You need a plan of how to get people to stop by. Adwords? Offline advertising? Links with other crafty related artist's sites? Paid advertising online at Ezines or other sites?
Do you want to sell to stores?
Are you going to take your work into each store yourself or are you going to sell to stores through reps? How are you going to find the reps?
To stores through trade shows?
How are you going to finance your trade shows? Which shows are the right fit for you? How will you get the trade show attendees to stop into your booth? Can you handle the volume if you product is a huge success? Can you handle it if you show is a complete flop?
All of the answers to these questions are some of the basics to a business plan. You need to first create your product and then figure out how to sell it. Then you need to figure out how much it is going to cost to make your product and market it....
Do you have a husband or partner that can cover the bills until your company is making money? Or do you need to go for a loan? Or can you do your craft part time until you can afford to really take the leap into a full time career.
All of the questions are are ones that only you can answer, but when you do you will have more information so you can take the next step...or should I say LEAP!

This article was originally published on Amy Peters' Studio Blog and had been republished here with full permission.]]> Thu, 29 Sep 2011 23:42:36 +0000 23 Amy Peters 2 http://community.theswitchboards.com/tutorials/article/22-creating-a-line-sheet/ When I was first starting out and I could not afford to make a 4 color printed catalog I hand drew my images. My jewelry lends itself to that style since they are basically flat with an image and wording on them. Not a lot of texture so the words and the images are the most important design elements.

Here are the basics that a line sheet has to have:
1) All of your contact information-This is simple, your address, phone number, fax number, web page and email address.
2) Images of your designs-Make sure that if you are doing color photographs of your designs that they are professional quality.
3) Prices for each of your designs-Make sure you are noting wholesale prices on a wholesale line sheet.
4) Your terms of sale-This includes: how you accept payment, how long you will take to produce and ship the orders, shipping charges, return policy, if you will offer Net 30 on repeat orders.
5) Some added information that is helpful, but not necessary are; Artist Bio, Description of how your craft is made, history of your company and any press you have received.
That's all, it doesn't have to be a confusing thing. Really it is quite straigtforward.

This article was originally published on Amy Peters' Studio Blog and had been republished here with full permission.]]> Thu, 29 Sep 2011 23:27:42 +0000 22 Amy Peters 2 http://community.theswitchboards.com/tutorials/article/21-how-to-get-celebrities-to-wear-your-jewelry/
a) You can use a service like contact any celebrity to find celebrity addresses for agents and managers. You can to send your work directly to the agent for the celebrity you are interested in contacting. These are not home addresses for the celebrities. That would just be kinda creepy in a stalker kinda way. If the celebrity is nice they might even send a Thank you note. I have been amazed by some of the thank you notes that I have received.

b ) You can send your work to costume designers for televisions shows. Then, hope that they use the designs on the show.

c) You can get lucky and just see someone wearing your work in a magazine or on tv.

d) If you have any friends in the entertainment industry, ask them if they have any connections with celebrities that could wear your work.

e) Put your designs into gift bags. This can get really expensive! There is usually a fee for placement into the really big gift bags. You just have to consider if the payoff will be worth the expense.
f) Donate your work to high profile charities that have celebrity ties. I actually get requests for donations on a regular basis for this now. But, I pick and choose only charities that I would normally support with cash donation. The causes that I support are: Cancer support centers, Ovarian Cancer, Parkinson's disease, Art in Schools, Science in Schools. All of these causes are near and dear to my heart, so in lieu of volunteering time (which I don't have extra of...) I donate my jewelry. And for many of the donations I also get some PR...this makes it possible for me to donate more, since I can write it off in both the donation and PR columns of my Profit and Loss statements.

g) You can send it to stylists that dress the celebrities.

h) You can host a promo party during awards season and invite celebrities and the press hoping that they will come and fall in love with your designs.
I have done or had almost all of these happen with my designs. However you get your work into the hands of the celebrities isn't as important as what you do after it is in their hands. No one is going to come knocking down your door after they see your work on TV or in a magazine on a celebrity....You have to promote it and make sure that everyone knows it was yours! Put the thank you notes on your site, put up pictures of them wearing it on your website and at trade shows and send out press releases to anyone that will listen...and hopefully publish an article about your successes. I just recently had my jewlery on 4 episodes of "the OC" and now I have had multiple articles written about it....But it doesn't just come easy it takes work!


A note on celebrity gift bags.

You have to decide if it will bring you as much PR as it is going to cost you to do the event. Say if it costs you $3000, is it going to translate into the same amount of PR as if you sent out $3000 worth of samples to magazines. Probably not. So I recommend not all eggs in one basket. If this is the avenue you want to pursue...then go for it. It can be good and heck also lots of fun especially if you get invited to attend the events. But make it part of your PR campaign not the entire PR campaign or you will be disappointed. Every once in a while a designer will hit it big from one event or one great placement...But there are hundreds of events out there with celebrities....I get about 1-2 a week in my email box.
Visit my celebrity pages now


This article was originally published on Amy Peters' Studio Blog and had been republished here with full permission.]]> Thu, 29 Sep 2011 23:21:02 +0000 21 Amy Peters 2 http://community.theswitchboards.com/tutorials/article/20-how-to-increase-business-by-increasing-traffic-to-your-blog/
Much of my blog traffic comes from google - which is great. But I've recently increased by readership to over 20K unique visitors a month - that's over 400 unique visitors a day - with a few tricks and submissions. I've been playing around with a lot of different options like kaboodle, craftstylish and blogher blogs to pull traffic back to my own blog. I also share my posts on facebook and twitter. Additionally I have added several options for following my blog - google friend connect, networked blogs, email subscription, and blog lovin'. My top traffic sources, however, for http://www.soapdelinews.com come from the following:

Google - make sure you've submitted your blog and use lots of keywords in your content and your title.

Stumbleupon - Stumble your posts. Have others stumble your posts. It works.

Pinterest - They're still new, but when you pin something crafty and fabulous a lot of repinning goes on and your work gets shared over and over.

Craftgawker - They're picky about photos, but if they like what you've got, they will send you a good amount of traffic. Don't just share posts about your products, share other content as well. Your blog should have an obvious link back to your shop so you shouldn't feel you just need to promote your stuff with them. If you have wedding lovelies, check out weddinggawker.

IShareCrafts - Very similar to craftgawker. Less picky about photos. But it must be a craft project of some kind. They also have spin offs like craftgawker does for food but also for printables.

OnePrettyThing blog - If you have craft tutorials this is a great place to submit them. They'll link to your project and send traffic your way. It must be your own original project though - not a link through to a tutorial on another blog.

Blog Lovin' - A blog directory that also lets you follow your favorite blogs and check out the daily feed of your favorites in one handy location.

Giveaway sites - If you run a giveaway and submit it to giveaway sites, your traffic will soar. You can also use giveaways to grow your social networks and blog followers.

Tumblr - I don't use tumblr as my main blog and I was VERY reluctant to give it a go. But now that it's established I've found it can work. I often blog a photo from my main blog with a short description and a link back to my blog. Be sure to TAG with keywords. I've gotten a lot of hits to specific articles through tumblr from people doing a key word search ie. DIY While it's not consistent, if your article gets featured in a keyword search the traffic surge is obvious.

Hopefully you will find these sites as useful tools as well. Also, if anyone else has had success in bringing traffic to their blogs using specific sites or techniques, I'd love if you would share them here!

If you don't blog and are reluctant to blog on a consistent basis, I would recommend starting with tumblr. You can simply reblog content on days you are not feeling motivated. I read an article not long ago that says blogging increases inbound links for businesses by 55% or something like that. And I believe it based on my own personal experience.]]> Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:00:48 +0000 20 soapdeli 2 http://community.theswitchboards.com/tutorials/article/19-changing-your-forum-display-name/
Enter your new desired name, as well as your password for security and if the name is available it will be yours.

Please note that changing your Display Name does not change your log in details. You will still use the same username/password combo to log into The Switchboards after changing your Display Name.

Members can change their Display Name twice a year (rolling 365 day year), which allows for normal changes and typo corrections.

It is recommended after changing your Display Name to add a small note to your forum signature to let other members know that you are still you, just with a different name. For example, a signature note saying "Formerly OldUsername" or "This account used to be called OldUsername but now I am NewUsername" would help fellow members identify you.]]> Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:07:40 +0000 19 Kitty 3 http://community.theswitchboards.com/tutorials/article/17-topic-prefixes/ Topic prefixes are currently used in the Resources forum, and the Private Suppliers & Supplies forum.

When you create a new thread in either of these forums, a small dropdown option will appear right above where you normally type in the thread title. Select either "Looking For" or "Sharing" for your thread, depending on whether you are looking for a resource or sharing a resource with others.

Please see the Resources forum for examples.]]> Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:08:11 +0000 17 Kitty 3 http://community.theswitchboards.com/tutorials/article/16-forum-notifications/
You can also turn on/off notifications for individual threads by using the "Watch Thread" button at the top of every thread.


To turn on topic notifications while you are typing up a post, hit the green + sign in the Options section below the reply text box and select your preferences.]]> Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:03:43 +0000 16 Kitty 3 http://community.theswitchboards.com/tutorials/article/15-reporting-spam-and-inappropriate-posts/
In the lower left hand corner of every post, there is a little Report button (). This will alert a Moderator or Administrator to check out the post and handle it as needed.]]> Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:02:57 +0000 15 Kitty 3 http://community.theswitchboards.com/tutorials/article/14-breadcrumb-links-forum-navigation/ To show where you are currently reading, and to easily navigate back from there, the breadcrumb trail is in the grey footer on the left side. Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:00:09 +0000 14 Kitty 3