Hidden treasure...

OK I know I've said it before, but I have a little bookshop... and like any bookshop it has treasure within, in the form of books. So the mission is ongoing to draw people into my bookshop.

I've tried links and keywords, sharing, posting and tweeting, and what have I learnt...?

I've learnt that people will follow a link to my blog, but rarely to my website, I'm beginning to think that my bookshop is hidden by some sort of invisibility shield...  or someone bigger is stood in front of it, so no one can see it. Well this little bookshop is breaking out, going on the rampage... and going to get noticed.

There's a competition running - everyone loves something free right? It started on page 4, but maybe I should bring it out into the open, put it on the homepage - in the window...!

I can't be the only one struggling to get a little online shop noticed - if you have one too, leave a comment and we can share ideas...

Ramblings of an author trying to crack the clicking code

Is it just me, or does everyone come up against these constant learning curves...?

So what is the latest one? Well to get people into my bookshop - it's a little bookshop with big ideas, I think I've mentioned that before but hey, you might have missed it... 

So where are all the customers? They seem to be flocking past on the world wide web, on an endless treadmill of shoppers, all heading for the main shopping outlets.

But I believe there is a growing trend of people who are tired of the endless pushing of goods we probably don't need, and if we search something on the web, then that product turns up on every facet of what we're doing. 

A prime example would be when I recently bought a safety gate at a mainstream online outlet - well the search engines, or whatever causes these things to pop up didn't know what to do with this uncharacteristic purchase, and started sending me adverts for baby products and dog products - I have neither a baby or a dog, so they had failed to second guess what I needed a safety gate for... and I'm quite happy to leave it that way, I don't like to feel spied on, and certainly don't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing the answer to that little mystery...

So... how to play the search engines at their own game...? Gathering clicks in the right place - clicks are the new footfall. OK, now I have a theory - and a bigger mystery than ever... arhh

So help me crack the code - click on my Little Bookshop with big ideas and help me buck the trend... or leave comments below.

More attention needed to prevent banana deficit

It has come to my attention that whist internet shopping may be very convenient - especially if your car decides to take a day off and not start at all, it is necessary to have a different level of attention ordering food online, than it is to walk around a shop picking things up.

The first time I ordered my groceries online I received a small but perfectly formed sliced loaf, of the sort I would probably never have noticed if I'd been walking around the shop. Today, in the middle of a bag of apples there was one lonely banana! Now, when I saw bananas priced per kg I assumed I was ordering by the kg, I even changed my initial plan of buying 2kg of bananas in favour of just 1kg so when I pulled my 1 banana out of the bag I had to smile - I wonder if the pickers in the shop have the occasional laugh at the customers expense when such obvious errors occur...

So The thing I have learnt today, is to pay more attention when ordering my groceries online - or face a banana deficit.

...and all this actually proves is that leaving myself time to market my book leads of random ramblings about bananas...

Supporting small business

We hear a lot about supporting our local shops in the community, which is great, I like to support local small businesses, but what about supporting small online business?

We could be a business you've met at a local show or fair, you probably even picked up a business card, or in my case a bookmark. But do you ever follow it through...?

I get a wonderful response when I go out and do book signings, I even get asked if I'm there every week at some events, well the truth is I'm not there every week, I lack the time, and the money it costs to have a stand at such events every week, but my website is always there, and I've now got a shop on Etsy, both of which are my online book signing, and I don't even add postage, so you pay the cost of the book and get it delivered to you free of charge.