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Saturday 31 March 2012

March the Monotonous Month


Not sure why the month of March is so affected as being the last month in the budget year and, historically my least busiest time. I could actually go on a holiday and I don't think customers would notice whereas the rest of the year, if you go on hols and close shop, the consequences are disastrous to your e-commerce business ie if your listing aren't kept active then they go way down the ratings etc. Any holidays must have internet access.

So this year I've learnt to Twitter and felt very excited as everything I tweeted seemingly got more views. Only to read that often links on twitter are opened by 'Bots' and don't count in the ratings ladder. Not sure what logic is behind this but I'm sure someone somewhere must be making money out of it. Should I keep tweeting I now ask myself, not sure yet, I'll give it a bit longer or at least until business picks up again and I don't have the time to sit tweeting any more.  I also started a business page in Facebook but I can't say it's done me any good, even though I'm on various forums that I can add my listings to. Another experiment is Pinterest ie pinning pictures with short descriptions. I must admit I do prefer Pinterest to Twitter cos there are some lovely pictures out there (although not work related at all). Pinterest is a pleasure to the eye but not necessarily to the pocket as not sure this is much good for PR either, but I'll keep at a bit longer yet. I'm also not spending as much time on my website shop and concentrating more on my ebay shop. Even with their frustrating policies and rules, I still make most of my money there whereas my website seems to be going nowhere. I think I'm convinced that I need to pay an expert to give my website a kick-start. Haven't got the money yet but it's something I'm considering for the future. I then need to ask myself how on earth I find a good reliable SEO expert from the millions advertising out there. I have tried to read up about the hows and whatfors but it really is a minefield. Maybe if we start to learn all about this subject at school as part of the curriculum then the subject will not be so unbelievably complicated. As for us oldies, well we just have to pay someone to hopefully do the right thing for us.

Still enjoying the ceramics and dresses but the jewellery's not doing so good. I'll drop this product shortly which is a pity as I enjoyed buying pretty shinies. Also not doing as many articles on my blog that I should be doing for PR purposes. It's difficult to motivate oneself when you think no-body is reading it anyway. I feel the same with the tweets, they move down the page so fast who is going to read them, I hardly read anyone elses so it's probably likewise. For any newbies who might happen to come upon this rather negative paragraph, I do still believe it's best to keep your hands in all the baskets so yes, I think it best to keep these things going even though it feels a waste of time. Why? Because it's what the experts say we should be doing and seeing as I know nothing of ratings etc, then I can only trust in those who do know what they're doing. I've also still got a few 'freebie' shops on the go. Again I feel they're a bit of a waste of my time and effort to list items in them but until I find a better way of free PR then I'm sticking with them.

I started this blog mainly because the experts say links from a blog are treated as valuabe by the 'bots' & 'spiders' and can put you higher up the ratings. I decided it would be like a diary of my successes and my downs. So, If you're lucky enough to find it and read through it, then you have to put up with my moans and groans. I'm allowed because that's the whole point that I inform you of the different methods I'm trying and the effects they have.

Finally whilst I haven't increased much on last years income, I haven't gone down either. They say it takes 3-5 yrs to build up a business. BUT - and here's the moan .... I wish it would build up quicker so I can feel like it is an adequate income for my family.  So here's to 2012/13 - please let it be a better year for my income, I really do work hard and long hours so I think I deserve an increase. I'm ending the budget year with a small smile but certainly not with a leap of joy.

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Carlton Ware Pottery History


Whehey - I'm back. Haven't been able to sign in to my blog for reasons beyond my technical understanding. Anyway it's POTTERY HISTORY time as follows
CARLTON WARE, ENGLISH STAFFORDSHIRE

*1890 - Carlton Ware began as Wiltshaw and Robinson & owned by the same family for 75 years.
*Early products Victorian Blush Ware and at the turn of the century Crested Ware. 
*Brightly coloured lustre ware fired at a lower temperature and more economical than true lustre ware, called ‘lustrous’ with Royale range: Bleu (Blue), Rouge (Red), Vert (Green) and Noire (Black).
*1960s - taken over by Arthur Woods 
*1970's - Walking Ware range introduced
*1990s went into receivership
*carlton ware backstamp information found here - as well as a more comprehensive history