Keeping everything in one spot

I really like the saying: Don’t keep your all eggs in one basket. It is on my mind, especially now when I see so many changes around me and in the POD world. This is something I am more aware of now than a few years ago – and making changes based on it.

I have selected platforms that I think are fairly stable – for me, it is still Amazon and Etsy (and testing Zazzle) but I have started my own albeit tiny blog, that will be only mine, not dependent on anybody else. It is growing very slowly, actually, the growth has been so slow that it is highly discouraging. When I log in, I am greeted only with spam comments and bot visits. Ahh, patience, patience girl – that is all I can say to myself at this point. I was very tempted to spend some money on Jasper (Jarvis) AI to help me grow but now I am holding my horses, so to speak, after Google stated very clearly – no AI-created content in its vicinity…Personally, I think, that it will change in the future but at the moment Google is the doorkeeper – so not worth messing around with it.

On that note, I do think that the internet space that seemed years ago so vast and egalitarian, will become segmented among the biggest few and the access will be a lot harder to get for free. I have tried to utilize more visibility with some Ads but it did not deliver and I am too small to through my money at it. While we are talking about the future, yes, I do think, there will be new options for small businesses and I am sure, lots of clever people are drafting it now as we speak. But it will take time to materialise. Until then, I have to rely on my strategies and productivity.

With regards to Social Media, I am devoting my time only to Pinterest and YouTube. The other media ‘just ask’ too much in return for exposure. And I don’t have hours and hours to feed the greedy algos.

And of course, the last piece of the puzzle of my strategy is self-education. I really spent a lot of time on that. Currently going through a really good and inspiring course. It is from someone I have been following on Youtube for the longest time. That is also the reason, I finally signed up for a course. Even if I don’t make what the course promises, I am still happy for that person to get the sale. Just because of this ‘relationship’ that is based on trust. This is actually also a very valuable lesson for me. If you are able to have a small audience that resonates with you, that is actually enough. But you do have to keep certain qualities that are different from big companies:

1. You have to be authentic and really be yourself, companies are not able to do this as it is always a massive group of faceless people, they try to make up for it with an influencer/celebrity face but here you have a massive advantage – it is really you, normal human-like your customers
2. I know that everyone is advising this – brand yourself, make yourself into a brand, and yes, it works especially if you want to turn into a big company. But for me personally, it is a turn-off. I do not like people turning into a brand as they sooner or later lose that personal touch. I really prefer ordinary people making their craft or doing what they do best, and I do not need to hear their ‘value proposition.’ So yes, be yourself and tell your own story as it is.
3. Big companies will drop anything that does not bring big bucks but the small guy can thrive here and is very specialised and focused.

So that is all, I have been thinking and working on this summer. I have included a little schema as some of you prefer visuals 🙂

Have a great summer dear friends and keep on going!

2024:

The beauty of blogging is that you can simply revisit a very old post and updated it.

And here we are – two years later. First, let me react to my own statements:

1. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket – Yes, I still agree with this. I have seen too many changes on platforms that had no regard for the creators or small shops. But I have also realised that doing too many things fragments your focus, dilutes the effect, drains the energy, and makes you feel like a hampster on a running wheel

Solution: Use Ikigai or just simply make a list of things that are both – attractive to you and you know something about and then just focus intensely on the top three for about a year. The result should show you where to go and what to focus on next.

2. Amazon and Etsy. So this had changed. I use Amazon to buy things but that is about that. I did invest too much time and resources into building a brand on that platform and the results were so bad that I do not have any motivation to give it any more of my time. I do keep the assets that I will revisit and see if I can do something with them but please, don’t ask me to do it now. I need a break 🙂

Etsy – Etsy and all its controversy…don’t get me started. But I do not see the point of closing of my shop, yet. It does not cost me much to run it and I have more sympathies for Etsy than for Amazon. I use it more as a testing ground, what brings traffic and what does not, which product catches attention and so on. But I am leaning towards making my own online shop in a near future.

3. Pinterest and YouTube – still yes, just because I see results there. Not big ones but I do see something and that by itself is encouraging enough. Pinterest Algorithm seems very fickle and I am not sure where is it going but I like the platform, so I am sticking around. Same with YouTube. I have already accepted that YouTube is a marathon and can be a drag. Shorts don’t work for me at all but never mind.

Anything I did not mention then?

One of the biggest take-aways, create your own email list, have your own platform that is purely yours, create your own community, and support its members.

New kids on the block – I am looking into Medium and Substack but it seems that if you don’t have big following, the monetization is not enough to sustain you. But as a community building block, yes, it seems good enough.

Cara for artists – I really like that they will not allow scraping and they go the extra length to protect artists’ work – rare to see nowadays.

X and Lindkin – I just don’t like X, it is my own prejudice I did not overcome, yet. I think that there is lots of accent on recency, producing million pieces of content in an hour, good for workaholics maybe…and for people who like to shout into the void and argue over the smallest things. Very offputting atm. Lindkin – too corporate and not authentic enough (for obvious reasons) but with more integrity than Facebook/Insta. Think of it as your business card or a resume – chopped into posts. So if you need that, please don’t be discouraged and start creating there.

Here is my up-date board. Still hideous design (hahaha) but I just wanted the same aesthetics.