Like so many other sellers who've been posting in the forums recently, October has been very slow for me. I don't attribute it to any of the changes here, per se, more just a general seasonal slow down, though I can't compare to last year as I've not been open that long.
So with life giving me lemons, I started making lemonade. Over the last couple of weeks, I took the time to go through all 220 of my items and add in backlinks - one to my shop, one to bow ties in similar colours (pink, orange, purple etc.), and one to bow ties in similar styles (floral, paisley etc). I also rearranged my shop so that it was a little less higgledy-piggledy and more grouped, so that it was a little more pleasing on the eye to look through.
In addition to those, I started taking new photos of some of my stock (I've lost count of how many times I've rephotopraphed some of them LOL) and started running some ads on facebook with whatever spare pennies I had.
And today, I'm actually feeling grateful for the slowness, as hard as it's been financially. I'm much happier with how my shop looks. And sales have really improved...I had three sales on Saturday (one off Etsy, via facebook), a sale on Sunday, two yesterday & one today (so far). I've made well over a third, nearer a half, of this month's income in just these past four days. It's a huge relief.
So if you're feeling the slump, don't just sit there and bewail the fact. By all means, have a good complain and a little pity party if you need (I did), but take a good look around...there's always something to be done in business.
