I was amazed at the power of online marketing! I was recently been 'superbusy' bending wirename keychain for a school in Singapore. I will relate the story here.
I started my wirename keychain business since April 2008. Initially, I grow my business through word of mouth and direct referrals from friends and friends of friends. And then in July 2008, I went for an internet marketing course done by Bearnerd Bondly (www.panduanweb-advanced.com) and I started to pick up from there. I was always looking for ways to promote my wirename keychains to wider market and not limited to Sabah, Malaysia alone.
During the month of April-November, I was learning to bend wirenames by surfing the internet and searching for images that I can 'copy and learn'. Some people may say ,'fake it til' you make it!'..heheh..I think that was what I was doing..I was copying the proper way to bend names and I came up with this thought. Most of these wirename crafters are selling their wirename using gold-filled or sterling silver wire and most of them are selling name pin, bracelet and many more. At that time, I didn't have enough money to invest in a gold-filled wire, quite expensive.. so I decided to use wires that I can buy cheaper from the local stores near my house.
I bought a few roll of stainless steel wire and I started bending names, and trying to look for my own wirename designs. I was improving and people started to notice my keychain..
My main product is PERSONALIZED WIRENAME KEYCHAIN.I decided that I need to go online and promote my wirename keychain. So I went head on using the internet. I went to ebay, to lelong.com.my, i even use OLX to promote my wirename. Then one day, one lady from www.88db.com called me up..she asked me whether I am interested to promote my wirename keychain in their website. She even offered to list the keychain on behalf of me. Of course I said Yes..I was flattered that someone online noticed the uniqueness of my keychain and wanted to put it up in their website.
So far, most of my customers comes from www.88db.com...a lot of them also comes from ebay, mudah.com and through my blog(my other blog at www.wirename-craft.blogspot.com).
Then in February 2009, one student from singapore called me up. Her name is ZY. I was impressed and was excited with this opportunity to do business with international customers. Previously, I declined to make a few wirename keychains for an Australian students because of the high cost involved in shipping the keychain. I felt that it's just not worth it:-)so I had to decline. Anyway, ZY emailed me a day after that to confirm her order. It's for her school's Valentine's Day celebration. Unfortunately, I can't agree on the time given for me to bend the wirename keychain. It was a rush and I wasn't confident that I will be able to finish bending the wirename on time.
I was the only 'experienced' wirename crafter in our team while the rest are still learning from me about how to do the keychains. I was given about 2 weeks by ZY to finish the wirename. I agreed. But little did I know that I need more than 2 weeks to finish about 300+ wirename keychains..so many challenges came up. Mind you that I'd never done BIG orders before. So, I have to juggle my time because during the day time, I still got to work and needed to go out during the day time. So it was very taxing for me.
I started going to work at about 8 am, and during the afternoon, I will go out and meet people. I will only reach home at about 5-6 pm.. and then I will rest and take my shower and be prepared to do church ministry on Tuesday, Wednesday ,Thursday and Saturday(cell groups, prayer meetings, music practice).I usually come back home at about 10 pm. So during the period, I did not have enough sleep.:-) I was bending wirenames until 4 am in the morning and quickly catch up some sleep and wake up again at 7 am and get ready for work.
I was doing this until my body cannot stand the pressure I was putting on myself and I got sick. SO I had to rest and the wirenames was delayed for a few days. I learned a lot of things during this time. I believe that ZY also learned heaps on how to do business online.
To cut the story short, I finally made it to the post office and I had to pay them a huge sum of money to send(using pos laju) the 2.5kg wirename keychain package to Singapore.
I told ZY that I need their testimonials and comments so that I can improve on my wirename keychain. I am open to constructive criticisms and suggestions. If you know of any suppliers of wires, you can add it in your comments.
These are some of my wirename keychains that I made for a school in Singapore.I hope they like my wirename keychain.
WireName Keychain-Victoria
Wirename keychain~Shirley
Wirename Keychain~Petrina
Wirename Keychain~Jenny
Wirename Keychain~Karen
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