Monday, August 22, 2016

Do You Even #HASHTAG, Bro...?

Gimmie a #Pound...


Wow! Trying to reach out to people is tougher than rhino skin stew when you're broke and trying to run a business on your own. Everywhere you look there are posts, listings, advertisements, and hooks for people trying to teach you the best ways to work the system, make more sales, increase conversions, etc. Most of it is filled with vague jargon about things you've already tried that didn't work or stuff that tries to get you to spend more money on one promise or another. Charlatans. The lot of them. Maybe.

One thing that people have told me should work like a charm is hashtags. A word or phrase preceded
by a hash or pound sign (#) is used to identify messages on a specific topic. #These #little #things #are #supposed #to #get #attention. Really? I've never been any good at remembering to use them. I'm not even sure if they actually work. But anything is worth a try. Right? What else can I do?

Everybody wants you to pay for everything. Air costs money. You better not get a flat tire without your credit card in your pocket. You'll be S.O.L., my friend. It's gonna cost you five bucks to say your own name at some point in the future. Someone might put a Trademark on it. Bobby™. If you just read this, you owe me $5. I'll let it go. This time.

What does it take? 


Having a good product is not enough. Hell. Having the best product is not enough. As if making your product wasn't hard enough, trying to get the tiniest bit of notice becomes a full time job in and of itself. What are you supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? 

SEO Speedwagon.


Facebook wants you to pay for people to see your posts. We're talking about people that already like your page. People that have already signed up to see what you're up to. And... Paying is no guarantee whatsoever that these people will actually see it. WHAT?!?!

Twitter is supposed to be a big deal. What if you have more to say than space allotted? NOPE! You ran out of characters. 

Email campaigns will cost you money, now. They're going to start filtering out messages that don't come from a business address. BlahBlahBlah@GMAIL.com won't cut it. You'll have to pay for a vanity address in order to avoid being trashed before you've even made the inbox. But how long will that work.

All of these things translate into charging your customers higher prices. It's the only way to afford to stay in business. The rate at which these things change is so staggering that it makes your head spin. How do you keep up? You don't. Or you pay someone to do it for you. That means charging your customers more money so you can stay in business. Vicious cycle, anyone?

It's a lot of work. It's even more work to make it worthwhile. Remember that the next time you encounter handmade goods and/or the artists responsible.



This time I'm being a bit selfish.

I normally use this section to showcase other artists that inspire me. This time, I have something I need to share for myself.

I wear kilts. So do a good number of the people with whom I work. No matter if it's in the Ren Faire circuit, or the Steampunk conventions, many kilt wearers in these circles have found it difficult to obtain kilt pins geeky enough to suit their personalities. I know. I've asked. Why stop at kilt pins? Earrings, tie tacks, cravat pins, etc. I want to make them for the con folk in need. I want to make them Geeky. I know how. You can help.

Take a look at the video. Then check out the link below.


See the Campaign here




See you on the Dark Side,