web life

I LOVE FACEBOOK... and trying to learn it as well as i can www.facebook.com/greenoakantiques my daughters is working the best of any ive seen....bella chic... we have over 1200 fans now.... so im pretty thrilled with that....

AN IKKY SITUATION....im on an all female forum for girly stores and boutiques.... well one is opening a new store and another is asking the rest of us for small donations for flowers for her opening....heck i can hardly manage my own pathetic social life,,,,i dont want to mess with anything like sending 3$ to a paypal account for flowers to a forum member....... and there are about 50 women on the forum.all with life events and changes and celebrations...i cant deal with it...i can say good luck on line but thats about all im up for...
.....so now im feeling like the oddball..especially if im the only one who doesnt do it... ..but i just dont want to start all that....
i feel funny about it.... im already weird because im past year 5 in business,and a bit bigger,and im not really what they call a boutique, and have what i would say is a lot harder view of business,


BLOGGING... I like it,,,,but facebook is getting way more interaction and interest.... the blog world is so wonderful and rich....and if your path is towards national celebrity or getting into magazines or even finding kindred spirits its a good path... ...but for driving people to my store its not really a very strong part....... what ive found is my favorite folks who ive met blogging are so dang far away from indiana!!! they will probably never get here... i still love hearing from them/you tho!!!

so ive kind of changed my view of blogging , maybe either for

my own entertainment and expression and at the same tme maybe try and make http://www.magpiecottage.blogspot.com/ ... more and more about the actual store and hope to appeal to my customers and folks who come to us...

..so i guess i m going to think about my blogs as for store and all about the store experience and the fun people who come thru our doors......i dont see the value for GREEN OAK , the store, for me to try and cultivate a big blogging network out there in the blog world...i have to remember that my thing is local not national.... but with some wonderful national cyber friends..who i love to hear from....
i love brainstorming and wonky store talk.... im so disappointed that this blog and the forum i tried to start didnt turn into that.... i just dont think you can beat real back and forth among others in the same boat...getting feedback from others is so good.. but its not happening very much.......if anyone ever finds a good active store forum i would love to hear...one more like me .furniture, gifts, garden rehabb, ..not mainly clothes and jewelry...

new website.... heres what we picked... i just love it..my daughter in law did the hard work .... i critiqued!!! .i just dont know!!!! http://www.greenoakantiques.com/

i want to talk talk talk...and not be the oddball...but maybe i really a the oddball...whatever!!!
hugs...

selling on line....we are trying it again...in a teeny way...seems like every january we get that bug....ITS NEVER WORKED SO FAR...EXCEPT EBAY IN THE OLD DAYS...

THNKING ABOUT.

...GOOGLE AD WORDS

...CRAIGS LISt

FACEBOOK.... any ideas?

making a store calendar with store pictures to give away

learning curve....trying to use vista print better..

.trying to learn how to get cool images from my ipad onto my computer...

..im having fun with moxier collage on my ipad..

.;i still cant lay out my pictures like i would like to on my blog....

my imaginary board of directors and back up and cyber helpers have all come from me being out here on the web and luckliy bumping in to them....... and i am so thankful,

MY SON JON , WHEN WE HAVE A STIKKY SITUATION TO TALK OVER OR DECIDE ON STILL ASKS WHAT DO YOUR INTERNET BUDDIES SAY ABOUT THIS?

event theory.....

we are in the middle of our annual february sale.... its going great and feels like a better year all around!!! lets hope..... his year we dropped most of our newspaper ads and no radio ads...and sales went up..

..we used our wonderful customer list to send out postcards,.... our email list....our facebook and spent 60$ on local targeted facebook ads.... and the weather was good for a change....so what worked? who knows..

our events have been great...we do them over and over...and hopefully the customers know its real and worth coming to...i wouldnt do spur of the moment events.... ours are february sale....garden party....yardsale and the holiday openhouse...each has its own personality and reasons for being....

im just thrilled with facebook and trying to learn the best ways to use it.... www.facebook.com/greenoakantiques

also this year we have revamped our website..... i hope it doesnt mess us up in the search engines..... links to the old website are probably gone.... its over my head... heres the new one.... http://www.greenoakantiques.com/

the main thing about repeating events is that it had to be good enough the first time so that the buyers wanted to come back and do it again the next year. ... our 4 are so good and crucial to us, i would be scared to add a 5 th...dont want to rock the boat.... we really have great customers!!! and dont want to overdo it...

i put a hat on our hairdressers dummy for this event....

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS....

THIS IS FROM A FELLOW JUNKER OVER ON The JUNK REVOLUTION forum..... there is a lot of good friendly junk talk over there.... http://www.junkrevolution.com
SHE GOES BY Blossom and HER NAME IS GREta... AND THIS IS HER RECIPE FOR SUCCESS IN A MALL BOOTH........

.... I constantly am thinking of ways to sell/attract repeat buyers. Here are some quick tips; PLEASE take them with a grain of salt.

Stage your booth. Little vignettes here and there help folks visualize how your item(s) can be used in their home. I notice that most gift shops do this. Use your creativity to your advantage.

Buy cheap! You already know this...I read your Goodwill post!! Give yourself a little wiggle room when marking prices...people almost always ask for a discount.

Sell cheap! You will establish a reputation pretty quickly if your merchandise is appealing and affordable!! The silver-lining of our present economic state is that an antiquer can find items that are much more affordable than they were a few years ago.

Carry some unique pieces. You may have to invest a little more $, but the payoff will come when you attract customers to your booth.

Carry smalls. Too many large pieces with large prices can lead to large "outstanding-rent amounts" at the end of each month.

Pay attention to what sells. For instance, glassware does not sell too much in our mall. I stopped buying it.

Notice successful vendors booths-- and pay attention to their items, prices, arrangement of booth, etc.

Advertise. Right now I am advertising items from our storere on Craigslist. It's free. I advertise every few days by genre: Primitive items, shabby items, lamps, pottery etc. It REALLY works and has increased store traffic. You can take four pictures of items in YOUR booth and give your booth location and store location/ store phone numb.

shopping......

just s returned from chicago gift show where we bought and bought.... w e even did christmas ... poor chicago , its being usurped by atlanta.... the show at the merchandise mart gets smaller and smaller.... still i buy heavily from 4 companies who were still there.....

it was a ball!!!

but we will be pinching pennies till june.... the orders will start coming in this week....theres about 20 of them...