Amazingly after being sick for a week I had one day of action and then went down with a cold ! It could be because my recently returned traveller son has been ill upstairs for the last few days and guess who has been waiting on him? Hmmmm!
Anyway I haven’t been able to do any creating or making for days now but have used the time ill to read a couple of marketing books. First I read Commercial Creatives by Mike Carthew and Anna Ward which I bought for my Kindle after reading about it in Wendy’s Handmade Harbour giveaway. I enjoyed the book and it has quite a lot of good advice, some of which a lot of us already know, but it sometimes takes reading it in print to bring the points home! This book is good if you want to grow your business to be more than just a hobby and, I felt, was more targeted at people who were already having a degree of success.
I have already put into place some of the advice from the book in regards to marketing and next I will be redesigning my online shops to make things more streamlined and improving my product pictures!
Another book I would recommend if you have an Etsy shop is “How to create an income from home with a successful and profitable etsy shop’, by Rebecca Garlardo. This is very good for new, and experienced Etsy sellers who aren’t getting enough sales. It has some valuable advice about not accepting sales commissions without doing all the maths first to see if it is a) possible in the time given, and b) profitable.
Both these books are fairly cheap on a Kindle which is a bonus but you may find that some of the text in tables, or links is very faint. I think these must be coloured text and my Kindle is only black and white.
So that was my creative week! What’s been going on everywhere else I wonder? Time to pop over to Handmade Monday and see what all the other crafty folk have been up to!
Really sorry to hear that you have been poorly but you have certainly made very good use of your time. I shall check these books out. Thank you 🙂 Hope you get a bit more creating done this week.
Hope you are feeling better very soon. I love my Lindle but find it frustrating when reading the sort of books which need to be thumbed through with bookmarks in all the best bits!
I have a Kindle, not a Lindle, oh dear…
Hope you both feel better soon!!
Mmmm it’s funny that we mums are always the nurse 🙂
I like a bit of a read so I’ll be checking out these books. Your links are in blue so they stand out. 🙂
Hope you’re feeling better soon.
Jan x
Sorry to hear you’ve been ill Ali 🙁 Thanks for the feedback on the books – I had been wondering about getting the first – think I will as I could do with a bit of a kick up the bum, having become a bit complacent! Hope you feel better this week. Simmi xx
Not nice being ill. Hope you are on the mend now and will soon feel able to do a bit of crafting again.
Boo to being ill but hurray to making the most of the downtime! I agree about reading sometimes reinforcing what you already know – and helping you make the most of that.
I hope you are feeling better soon. Thank you for the book recommendations, I will have to treat myself to them.
Sorry to hear you’ve been under the weather. Hope you feel better soon.
I haven’t yet read Commercial Creatives but it’s on my ‘to buy’ list. I have though read the other one and like you thought it had some invaluable hints and tips.
May have to read that Etsy book. Trying to get my Etsy shop off the ground. I look with envy at other shops that seem to have hundreds of sales, and wonder if there is some trick of promoting mine that I am missing.
Hi Ali, I hope you are feeling better. I too have a Kindle which great to download free classic books. But, sometimes its a little too high tech for me! I hope you get well and have a nice week!
I like the sound of the Etsy book – I’d love to boost my sales there, so thanks for the tip. Hope you’re feeling better soon!
Hope you feel better soon and that illness stays away for much longer this time.
Hope you feel much better soon. There are so many nasty bugs around right now. I have made a note of the books you have mentioned for my reading list.
Wendy x
Hope you feel better soon .. good to have some reading time though!
Some good tips. Thanks.