The Facepalm Moment

We all have them, the moments where you ask yourself what the heck you were thinking, how you forgot that, or why did you think it in the first place?

Well, I just had one.

I've been advertising One Stitch Designs for a while now on various fashion and fiber artists blogs. My ad has a coupon code in it, same one I've used in my Etsy shops when I have advertised before.

Well here's my facepalm moment.

I made the code in my website and went on with my life. And today when I went to add a customer specific code (for joining my mailing list), I realized it wasn't active. I forgot to triple check everything and make sure it was active!

That was smart. I wonder now if anyone had gotten to my cart and when the code didn't work, they left. I know I've done it in the past.

Moral of the story: always check everything.

Now, in recognition of my stupidity.

*FacePalm*

Finding advertising that works....

While Karen's been looking into SEO, I've been on my continuous hunt for advertising.

I'm keeping them for now, but the usual route of advertising for a small business (and even for a lot of larger businesses), Twitter and Facebook, are not working for me. But I think it's partially because I do not go around following everybody and anybody, which I refuse to do.

So I've been doing small, inexpensive targeted ads. Things like advertising goth stuff on goth sites, soap savers on soap makers blogs, etc. So far, I'm not even getting many clicks.

I'm thinking maybe the targeted advertising isn't working because my ads are not so good. A high possibility, as I'm not a marketer by any means.

Experiment #1: Make new, brighter ads with words on them instead of just words that pop up when you run your mouse across them. Run on the same blogs as before to gauge the effectiveness of new, brighter ads.

Wish me luck!
Stephanie

Ways To Advertise For Free

I'm someone who's perpetually broke, and always on the lookout for ways to advertise for free.

After a lot of searching, I have found 2 ways to do this that doesn't include social networking or making connections.

Way 1: free trials:

I have run a free trial for Google Adwords. You need a coupon code to do it, and every one of them is unique, but many places are advertising free trials of Adwords now. I have seen the advertisements on blogs, Youtube, and on Google search. It's always worth a try.

Way 2: Project Wonderful:

Project Wonderful is an advertising platform for blogs and websites. While most of the ads are paid, quite a few are free. it's really easy to get set up with ads there. Today, I'm running ads for soap savers on 4 different soap blogs.

You can only run a free ad for up to 2 days, and it can be less time if someone bids higher than you.

Both of these are fairly easy to set up, and like anything, takes a little bit of research, but can pay off big.

I hope these methods of advertisement help you as much as they have helped me, or more.