Get More Customers

"if at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again". I know our beloved Aaliyah (R.I.P.) wasn't the only person to use these words, but these words ring true... right now... today. Last year, I set in my mind that I would start an online business which features my artwork. Well....it was a bust, barely any traffic and no sales - zip, zero, zilch. None. I got a couple of "good jobs", and "I like it, getting something with my next paycheck"...but no one feeling that they needed anything I offered right then and there. I could have easily seen this as failure, but really this was a learning experience.

After the heartache of feeling that my dream would never come to fruition, I started doing the leg work I should've done in the first place. Establishing my brand. Learning more about the business end of online sales and getting all of my eggs out of one basket. I needed to focus less on the website I was building and more on the reasons why success was passing me by.

Just a quick note: In no way, shape or form am I an expert on this subject, I'm still a new student, learning while I'm doing, Hopefully with this article, I can help someone avoid the same mistakes I made.

Grow your audience with recognition

I spent a modest amount of dollars on marketing in attempts to drive traffic to my site and in turn generate some revenue. Initially, I thought I wasn't spending enough money on marketing and thought this was the reason for my lack of sales. In actuality, I could have driven thousands to my site and still not made a penny because I didn't grow my audience. What I mean by that is, no one knew who I was. If my store was brick and mortar, I may have had a chance. People could come in, view the products, get to know me and become familiar with my brand. With online sales, people are already apprehensive. We have to deal with scams and sometimes questionable quality. It's no wonder why my business did so terribly. Think about it, would you order a product online from someone you've never seen, on a site you've never heard of, with no reviews to read through, no site reputation, and no true indication of if the site is even real? No, and neither would I.

Before getting too caught up on the look and items offered on our websites, we should focus more on establishing our brand. Let customers get to know us, learn to trust us and in turn trust our products and our websites. Word of mouth is powerful marketing strategy. As long as we are persistent, trustworthy and honest about ourselves the possibilities are limitless.

Resources on Youtube

You can find great information on Youtube. In particular Lisa Irby's Youtube channel. This channel offers a broad range of topics from creating a beautiful website, to working with affiliates and almost everything else in-between.

I hope this article has been helpful. Good luck in your pursuit of financial independence.