Omg!!!!!!!

[MerrilyMe]

For 2 years, i've wondered if i'd ever fill a whole OSC page with orders from one day... today, just before 8.30 - i did it. i got 20 orders in a day.

And then the site went completely mad and i'm now only 2 orders away from 40 in a single day!!!! I've taken over £1000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hang in there everyone; there is magic in the air!

Merry
xxx

[Tanya]

wow that's fantastic, can you send some magic this way please!

[sadierhianne]

Oh you make me sooooo jealous - well done you!!!!!!!!!!

news like this makes me want to carry on - can you remember how many orders you were getting after the first 6 months? Just so i can compare how bad i might or might not be doing.

Anne x

[MerrilyMe]

After i moved to an OSC cart (so had pictures) i went up to 2-4 orders a day; before that i had an orderform with no pics and i was happy with 1 or 2. So i started my OSC cart with a bit of a name, some loyal customers and a bit of experience with adwords etc.

Last year i changed which page my adwords landed on and that instantly doubled my sales; it used to land on an html page with patterns etc and just a link to the shop but i was still really please with 6 a day; that was 2 years in.

In the summer i redesigned, via a kick from Claire and Meg's expertise and it immediately improved dramatically. BUT that is 3 years in, almost to the week. With having 2 babies in that time, my learning curve was neccessarily slow.

Also i think now it is growing differently because having reached a particular level i get postage discounts and stuff of that nature which of course, drives down the costs i pass on to customers. I rather impressed myself today though by bargaining with a Sales Director of a company for a discount off their goods! It has taken a long time to see myself as someone who they want to court, rather than me being desperate for them to take notice of me :)

[funkyfish]

It has taken a long time to see myself as someone who they want to court, rather than me being desperate for them to take notice of me :)

I identify with that...

Well done....it looks like you are set for a fabulous Christmas this year.

[sadierhianne]

I know that feeling.

I am getting people sending me samples though now and want me to sell stuff for them - this is nice - i'm just not selling enough to shift the stock quick enough. I am desperate to get the postage reduced, i think that things will really take off then.

I could do now with 10 days of good sales, last month was my best month, this month isn't too bad but the sales are mainly low priced sales so not making the amount of dosh that i need to - last month was excellent for large orders but not enough to pay the blummin advertising company.

I have decided that this is a time to learn, i will give it till next July to see what happens and then i really will have to get my act together - if i didn't have to buy in new stock form so many different suppliers i wouldnt feel phased about how many orders but i have to have income to pay for new stock when some items have getting low. I feel like i am robbing peter to pay paul at the moment.

It is clear from your income today that you are selling an awful lot of stuff too - i think that i just need to be seen in the search engines and am kicking myself now for advertising in what i consider to be the wrong place even though i am told by others that it is a good move - i think that se optimisation would have been loads better.

Still learning ;-( The hard way. I suppose i have to make mistakes or take risks to get it right?

I will definately have to be taking some advice next year on the info that you have just given above and work out how to get myself up there.

I have one item that was on page 50 odd, very suddenly it rose to page 30 odd and again sudenly to page 14, i was so made up - yep i know that page 14 is rubbish but it's an improvement - went yesterday and it's dropped to page 20 - how does it do that?

I am baffled completely by search engines - on a plus, i now have 6 extra search engines crawling my site just this past few weeks and that has to be good.

Well i live in hppe of £1000 a day. I'll be amazed if that happens but i can dream.

Thank you!!!!

Anne x

[MerrilyMe]

I think i was really lucky to spend some time working for Carphone Warehouse when it was really only just getting a market presence. I'm a huge admirer of their CE (or whatever he is now, i think he might be on a yacht somewhere!). He stuck very firmly to his idea of unique selling points... what makes you special and different and worthy of someones custom?

5 years in high street sales was good for me, 18 months cashiering in a bank gave me lots of contact with small businesses, as did growing up with a self-employed dad. 3 years as a Slimming World rep taught me an awful lot about the often fake profit in only sort of working for yourself and the realities of what you really take home with a small business. I also learned a lot about what advertising brought very little return. But i think you are right, lots of it is learning from mistakes and an awful lot of it is learning how to take a set of stepped risks that are just achieveable with a stretch and a deep breath.

Ramble ramble...

[Daffs]

Fantastic! Loads and loads I will be buying when I get my act together, both of my kiddies are fanatical about Fimo and am thinking about Hama beads for Lexie although she will only be 4 in January, what do you think? She is very grown up and LOVES craft and beads, etc...

[sadierhianne]

I used to work in Littlewoods on a till - couldn't work it very well but i gave it my best ;-)

I came into this without a clue, have no experience as such - worked with kids all my life - i know what i want to achieve, i am just not very confident that know how to do it. I know what i want to have on my site and i am convinced that once i am up the search engines and have reduced postage i can do well - it;s just getting there.

[MerrilyMe]

Daffs, if you know she can be relied on not to chew them - yep. Josie, my 2 year old plays with them loads. There is a chunky size too - and i have some gorgeous pony bead sets that i just love! You'll have to give me a ring and i'll talk you through them :)

Anne; reduced postage is tricky; they want you to be sending 5000 parcels a year! (Terrified me to even think of that; i shut my eyes while i signed!)

[sadierhianne]

My three an half year old would have a field day lobbing them all over the house ;-(

I actually hid our hama beads, i could never het them to iron and stick, we have millions of them stuck in floorbaords and under skirting boards - they drive me insane but kids love them - they keep my ledest dd busy for hours and hours, then they bring me creations that other kids have made - all stuck nicely and i realise that it mujst be me who can't iron very well.

I do love fimo though and i actually remember my mother buying me it - or similar when i was a kid - i have bought some for this Xmas - i sually make home made playdough but i think that dd 8 is ready for something more sophisticated. I am looking forwards to making models on Christmas day.

I want to make wallace and grommit ;-) Ok, i bought it for me.

[MerrilyMe]

giggle.... yes well, some of my best custoemrs are addicted adults!

[sadierhianne]

Is that with RM?

I want a cheaper courier - just got one at £9.50 ish for up to 25kilos - i can get discounts but until i am sending loads more - it's a catch 22 situation.

The prices of my products are really low and i am paying paypal costs on cutomers postage - if i have an order for heavy products that don't cost much i lose more on the paypal for the postage than - well i just lose completely.

I do postage by weight - i couldn't have a set postage price - if a customer orders an essential oil i can't charge say £1.50 postage - ideally i'd love to have a maximum £5 postage cost for orders but then i can't charge that for smaller orders. Having orders in for one item costing 69p - and i have one customer who keeps on ordering just the one item - i'm going to be bancrupt at this rate - anyway it's not working well - thankfully ia m getting nsome decent orders i am not sure if i had a sliding scale - say orders up to £5 incur a £1.50 postage and so on - i think this would also work out bad 'cause i have items that can cost over £8 to post but only cost £4 in product - and i do get people lacing orders where their postage is more expensive than their order.

Tis a major dilemma.

[sadierhianne]

I actually went to college to learn how to play ;-)

[littlesheep]

Well done :)

I'm really pleased as it took me a 16months (and a baby!) to get to 100 orders (thought I'd never get there) and then in two months I've got to nearly 150 :)

I'm just chipping away though really as I haven't got the time to devote to it - you must be super woman with four at home, it's hard enough with 2!

[Lemon]

Well done and I bet it's all because you have worked so hard to get there. My site has been live since March this year and I do have some slow times, but that is to be expected. I am going to spend after Christmas some quality time on my site improving it to the best of my ability, then look at an adwords campaign - that's the plan for now anyway !!!

[Al1x]

**WellDne""
Wow that’s fantastic Merrily .. you’re an inspiration to all of us just starting out.

[pattacake]

first of all well done you !!!
I have had a quick look through and i will be making an order when dh gets paid my ds has been on about these for ages!!!!(and i mean ages!!!):ac39: and I keep saying yeh yeh later and never actually get him any,so I will get him some and I like the girlie ones so I might get my DD some too!!

[obscure]

wow! Fantastic achievement Merry!

I can imagine you must be bouncing off the walls seeing that kind of ordering levels :)

My 2 have both bookmarked hama kits on yours and Claires sites LOL! Bad idea letting a 5 & 6 year old lose on the net when I have these tempting sites open :D

They're being bought kits from a few family members and I've directed them in yours and Claires directions :D
Sadie

[babybiz]

That's a fantastic success, I remember back to when I was getting one order every few days and wishing I'd get two or three every day. Took absolutely ages to get there but I'm not doing anything near to what you are that's impressive :) Well done!

[whirl]

Well done you!!!!

OMG!!! I hope that the extra cash helps you to have a fabulous christmas!

If I had that many orders I would have a heart attack!!! And have sew all day and night for weeks! lol


Well done!

Jazz.

[NikiJ]

Well done that is fantastic!

Niki
xxx

[Chell]

Well done, I'm glad to hear that your hard work has paid off.

[knotjustjigs]

Well Done!! i would have a heart attack if i had half, no make that a quarter of that!!!
Toniann x