Hillary DePiano's Blog, page 30

State of the Seller for December 2015

Here’s where I am with only half a month left in 2015…

Photo by fhwrdh

The follow-up to eBay Marketing Makeoveris partially written but isn’t anywhere finished enough where I can tell you a release date. I’m aiming for next year but there are a bunch of others things taking precedence. Once that book is finished, I’ll not only be releasing it as a standalone eBook, I’ll also combine the two books into a paperback release.

My next non-fiction release will likely be a book about NaNoWriMo, co...

Identify your ideal customers and tailor your selling to them

There’s someone out there who just loves what you’ve got for sale, and it’s time to zero in on them.

Here’s what to do:

Let’s start with your current customers. Who are they? Write up everything you know about the people currently buying from you from a broad perspective, such as what language they speak, to the specific, such as complimentary interests and related items. What’s their gender, race and ethnicity? What links or search terms are bringing them to your items? How many are returnin...

Focus your marketing & selling efforts by setting up visitor tracking & traffic analytics

Even if you aren’t selling as much as you’d like right now, you’re selling something. Who’s buying your items now? The more you know about them, the more effectively you can work on satisfying them so they’ll help you increase sales. Everything you’d love to know about your buyers, from exactly who they are to the other websites they frequent and the keywords they used to find your site, is available to you. It’s time to start using that information to tailor what you’re doing and make sure y...

My NaNoWriMo 2015 Debriefed

I signed up for NaNoWriMo and LOST… and I mean big time didn’t write a single word BLEW IT for four years straight. I came in with such good intentions and then completely failed to show up and get down to writing. WhenI won for the first time in 2007 (and I have no idea what my word count was exactly because I didn’t keep records back then other than it was around 65,000) it was the most I had ever written in a single project ever,let alone in a month.

2015 marksmy 8th NaNoWriMo victory and...

Looking back on 5 years of writing goals

Ah, the end of November. When young woman’s fancy turns to… spreadsheets!

I’m not joking. I actually started getting this gleam in my eye as I realized the month was coming to an end. I was just positively itching to start working on them.

My crippling addiction to spreadsheets is well documented but if you’re just tuning in, I make a LOTof spreadsheets in an effort to organize / control / gameify my life / career / hobbies. I’ve even one to tell me if I “have it all” from mathematical standp...

Work to keep & grow the customers you have now before you look for more

Encouraging Repeat Business and Word Of Mouth

Before yougo nuts trying to get new eyeballs on your store, do a little work to both keep and grow the ones you’ve already got. If everyone who buys from you now came back and bought more, that would mean more sales too. And a repeat buyer is more likely to develop brand loyalty, which can lead to even more purchases in the future. Beyond the additional sales, repeat customers are also your best source of Word of Mouth marketing, and the more ofte...

A peek at my To Do list through the end of the year

I don’t usually share my To Do list because I assume no one cares but I’m in the weird position where I owe a lot of people various things and rather than try to email everyone an update, it seems simpler to just do one big pots of where I am right now and when you can expect what to be finished.

I finished the Polar Twilight MG novel adaptation, henceforth referred to as WoC1 for simplicity, on November 14th. I raced to finish the whole book that early because I wanted to let it sit for at...

30,000 words & the “Get this novel out of my face” stage: A NaNoWriMo Pep Talk

I have a special relationship with 30,000 words. Before that point, it’s a long slog, plodding uphill with a story that feels like dead weight hanging over my shoulders. But once I hit 30 large, I reach what I call the “Get this novel out of my freaking face” stage where all I want is to be done. Then the mine cart tips downhill and no matter how many loops I hit or times I jump the track, my writing velocity just keep increasing. Even if I’ve lost a wheel, got to jump a few spots where the t...

Know your limits: Sometimes it’s better to hire someone

It probably wouldn’t occur to you to open up your skull and take out your own brain tumor. You wouldn’t want to risk messing up something that important. That’s a skilled job and one you’re not necessarily confident enough to tackle without some professional help.

Photo by brain_blogger

But what about something we encounter every day? Things like writing, proofreading, design and other things we see and maybe even do every day seem simpler because of their familiarity. When you’re running yo...

A Tale of Two Murder Mysteries

A few years ago, I was obsessed with the question: What would happen ifFrosty’s magic hat had been put atop something other than a snowman? What if you put it on a coat rack? Would that come to life? I started writing a play about it with a very clear idea of who Frosty the Coat Rack was… but not what he was going to do in the story. I couldn’t get it off the ground. I put it away.
Some time later, I was working on a different idea about the way we get possessive about years we have a good fe...