The Right Place to Be

byBarbaraN

842 followers

2 years ago

A lot of creative peple live where I live. Most of us are retired. But that doesn't mean that we have given up our talents. In fact, in retirement years, we often have more time to give to our creative outlets. The staff here encourages our talents and provides outlets for us to show them off.

We have many retired musicians, and there are choirs, and musical programs for the musically inclined.

For people who are into arts and crafts, we put on three or four craft fairs each year.

Since I make beaded jewelry and work with Macrame, I was delighted to find out about the opportunities to show off my work and make a few extra bucks. The first craft shows I participated in were very well attended, and I sold some of my things.

I have lived here five or six years and the last two or three years, attendance at our craft shows has dwindled to almost nothing. Some of us were ready to give up. It takes a lot of work to hand make and create one of a kind articles and put on a show-when hardly anyone comes.

Then somebody came up with an idea. Why don't we show our wares in a different place? The room we used for our craft shows was located in an area that had very little traffic. But where?

Somebody suggested the front foyer of our building. It is a big, bright area with lots of room and everybody knew where it was located. Our bistro area was located there, and everybody knew where the Bistro was. Nobody could go to their apartment, or to eat, or to meet friends without passing through the foyer to the Bistro.

Our fall craft show was this past Friday. People were lined up before opening to get started shopping. We had traffic all day. Some crafters who had their tables piled high with goods, had almost nothing left at the end of the day. Everybody had big smiles on their faces and money in their pockets.

The year before, I had sold almost nothing, and went home with $10 dollars for the day. This past Friday, I came home with $70 dollars.

All we did was go where the traffic was.Our merchandise was the same. It was displayed much the same. Our prices were about the same. The hours were the same. The one dynamic change was location. We went where the traffic would be.

Tryng to make money on line isn't too different. We took our craft show to the traffic. Our websites are online. That's where the traffic is supposed to be. We are there and the traffic is there. The question is how do we attract the traffic to our website? With our niche? With our content? With socia media? with email lists? The answer is yes. Yes, do it all. You can't try one without trying all ways to reach all that precious traffic. Don't give up. Just find the traffic.