There’s a couple of big elements to running a successful business. You need a quality product to sell, a place to sell it, good customer service to keep your customers coming back and, most importantly, customers to actually buy what you’ve got for sale. Because the most beautiful products in the world, the most efficient webstore, and the best customer service all amount to exactly nothing if you don’t have anyone to actually sell your products to. 

English: Anvil, photo taken in Welsh Museum, S...

Marketing. It’s not supposed to be like this.

This applies no matter what kind of stuff you have to sell. An author needs readers to buy her books just as much as a life coach needs people to purchase his service or a webstore needs customers to order their products. Whether you call them fans, readers, clients or something else entirely, they are all customers and they’re the most important element of any business. But connecting with those customers and helping them to find your products is, for many people, the hardest part of selling anything.

How do you get the people who want your product to your stuff? That’s why marketing is so important and such a popular topic. There have been hundreds of books written on this topic and it’s exhaustive coverage can be a little overwhelming especially because it’s not a one size fits all solution. Besides, you’ve got stuff to sell and you don’t have the time to pour through a lengthy tome on the philosophy of promotion. That’s where I come in.

This is is the first post of a new series here on The Whine Seller (which I hope to eventually compile into an eBook) designed to give you at least 100 quick, easy and free ideas of ways to market your stuff without spamming, scamming or being a pain in the ass. Try these ideas in any order you want and feel free to mix and combine as you see fit! One thing you’ll see echoed throughout those big marketing books is that you should be doing one thing every single day to market your stuff and I’m here to make that a bit easier.

Instead of dropping an anvil weight of info onto your head all at once, this series is designed to be a collection of little things you can try whenever your sales are flagging, smaller things that could easily be that one thing you do to market your stuff every day. If you try every suggestion in this series, just doing a single one a day, you’ll be amazed at not only the way these small things add up to a big differences in how customers find you, but you’ll also have a better understanding of what does and doesn’t work when marketing your stuff from practice than you’d ever have gotten if I’d just lectured at you.

Who’s this series aimed at? Specifically, I’m going to tailor suggestions to…

  • authors looking to build up a fandom of readers and sell books
  • online sellers from marketplaces like eBay and Etsy to standalone webstores
  • content providers like freelance writers, artists, graphic designers and publishing services like editing
  • consultant and coaching services

Because I’m blogging this book live as I write it, please feel free to chime in with suggestion, additions or questions as we go. The more feedback I get from you during the process, the more I can tailor the finished product to something that best suits my audience. You’ll notice specific series navigation on these posts to better help you navigate all the posts in this collection.