Steve Slatin on thu 1 dec 05
Linda --
It isn't that we get icky-faced, it's the ceremonial purification ritual required
after viewing the site that's the issue. All that scrubbing and stuff ... it's
worse than switching from red stoneware to porcelain!
-- Steve S.
Linda Ferzoco wrote:
Kelly,
I have to tell you that when I saw your site I thought that there would be a significant number of male-type folks who would get all icky-faced and get the hell outta there. Tony-san confirms it.
Steve Slatin --
And I've seen it all, I've seen it all
Through the yellow windows of the evening train...
---------------------------------
Yahoo! Personals
Single? There's someone we'd like you to meet.
Lots of someones, actually. Try Yahoo! Personals
clennell on thu 1 dec 05
I'm only speaking as one guy here, but I for one would feel uncomfortable
staring at womens feminine hygiene products in the drug store.
Well, Kelly if you want to double your sales I wouldn't put the womens
hygiene pad pots in the front window of the electronic store . Half of the
people out there are men and I don't know but I don't feel comfortable
gazing in the womens section of the drug store.
Walk your local drug store- high priced wants in the front and needs at the
back. When I open your webpage I am confronted with pad pots and I feel
uncomfortable. I'm not sure how many women out there feel like it's in their
comfort zone either. CC is on the same train as Sheila, so CC am I off
track here?
If this product represents a major part of your yearly sales, and the
granola crowd is your target market then I guess you're on track. When you
start writing for CT many more will read your webpage and I think you ought
to dress up the front of the store with your one off wants and leave the
needs to a more discreet and private part of the store.
No one here is trying to change you, just offering ideas. I did teach
Marketing in another life.
Cheers
Tony
I'm a man. I can change, if I have to! -Red Green
Tony and Sheila Clennell
Sour Cherry Pottery
4545 King Street
Beamsville, Ontario
CANADA L0R 1B1
http://www.sourcherrypottery.com
http://www.sourcherrypottery.com/current_news/news_letter.html
primalmommy on thu 1 dec 05
Tony, I just had this same conversation on the phone with my brother,
who could sell sand to desert dwellers.
My income last year from the website -- pretty good numbers -- was 100%
women's pots. I have never sold anything but my niche market women's
pots off my website, except maybe clay classes to locals. I publish in
Attachment Parenting publications/sites as well, and most of the links
to my site I find while ego-surfing are on earthy-birthy granola mom web
pages.
My understanding is that potters don't sell much work over the internet.
At least that's the song on clayart. It surprises me, since a lot of
workshop presenters don't bring pots for sale and I would gladly pick
one out on line -- and I'd slam dunk Christmas gift hints with attached
links if I could pick an Aernie pot off the web. But I've got my little
weird niche and it's made me a good chunk of money.
My brother (bless his uninformed little heart) says, "So other potters
don't sell their pots on their websites. Your pots are BETTER than
theirs. YOU could!" He insists that I only sell pad pots and women's
stuff because I only market pad pots and women's stuff. Frankly, until
recently, my site has always been a girls club and I have had no worries
about whether men felt squirmy over my main cash cow. Maybe I should
pull out my masters thesis and put up some slides of rodeos, tractor
pulls and timber carnivals for balance ;0D
It just doesn't seem sensible to put my best moneymaker under the
counter in a plain brown wrapper. There are a lot of women out there
with good income, buying something for a daughter's coming-of-age party
or indulging themselves with celebratory luxuries.
After the holiday shows I am going to put my extra inventory -- and the
good stuff I am firing now that wasn't done in time for the show -- on a
shelf in my studio for sale, and put the mug shots on the site because
it doesn't cost anything, and why not? I suppose I could divide my
traffic somehow when I get more mainstream stuff up there, but I'm not
convinced enough that it will sell to take a chance in undercutting my
sure thing.
Business on pad pots is feast or famine, in ways I can't predict --
sometimes they sit there, and other times there's a rush and I get
impatient emails saying, "They're all sold! When will there be more?"
When my site statistics show me that a few dozen people have showed up
all at once, I track where the hits came from and it's always a
conversation on some granola women's board -- cloth diapering or
breastfeeding or voluntary simplicity or something. Somebody says, "Go
check out these pots!" and there's a mass field trip.
So it ain't broke, and I'm not sure it needs fixing, unless somebody
convinces me that whistles and dishes and such can be a hot market on
line. Pad pots alone pay my trip to NCECA every year, plane tix and
restaurants and all. So I'm flexible, but when life gives you granola,
you make granola bars. I'm all out of wine-soaked rich tourists in my
town -- though we're having a special on laid off factory workers. Sure,
you can sell pots in Toledo -- but if the trendy manhattan shops can
charge three times more, I'll sell pots to manhattanites, too.
That's the other thing about my market -- I don't think I have ever sold
one to my own state. I have shipped to California and Maine, Ithaca and
Oregon, military bases on Guam and wherever a pocket of hippies settled
a few decades ago. I couldn't sell these things to in-the-door locals.
My mom won't even SAY the words pad pot. But they are out there, and we
find each other.
I did take the chicken tractor off my site and some of the general
blather, though I am getting complaints about having removed my recipe
for homemade tofu.
I'm off to the pediatrician. My littlest has a fever and looks like
something the cat dragged in. I maybe shouldn't have been buring the
candle at both ends this week, because I don't want to get her cooties
for the weekend sales. We'll come home, make a fire and some warm
ginger-lemonade and maybe have a big family nap. Life is good and it's
snowing, which will make the toledo botanical garden look like a winter
wonderland for the sale this weekend, and not a frozen rainy swamp like
last year.
Yours
Kelly in Ohio
where Tony's assessment of my dorky pitcher caused exactly 111
clayarters to visit my site yesterday ;0) Hope nobody fainted over the
girly stuff...
_______________________________________________________________
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Linda Ferzoco on thu 1 dec 05
Kelly,
I wanted to buy pots from you online but the site is not conducive to it. There is not much pottery to view and the site is all over the place in its content.
I appreciate the women's pots and that you do sell them online. Have two websites and keep the content exclusive on each one. Since you already have customers on the present site, leave it alone and establish a new pottery-only site.
I have to tell you that when I saw your site I thought that there would be a significant number of male-type folks who would get all icky-faced and get the hell outta there. Tony-san confirms it.
And I would love one of those pitchers; name your price, well almost!
Linda Ferzoco
Northern California
primalmommy wrote: Tony, I just had this same conversation on the phone with my brother,
who could sell sand to desert dwellers.
My income last year from the website -- pretty good numbers -- was 100%
women's pots. I have never sold anything but my niche market women's
pots off my website, except maybe clay classes to locals. I publish in
Attachment Parenting publications/sites as well, and most of the links
to my site I find while ego-surfing are on earthy-birthy granola mom web
pages.
My understanding is that potters don't sell much work over the internet.
At least that's the song on clayart. It surprises me, since a lot of
workshop presenters don't bring pots for sale and I would gladly pick
one out on line -- and I'd slam dunk Christmas gift hints with attached
links if I could pick an Aernie pot off the web. But I've got my little
weird niche and it's made me a good chunk of money.
My brother (bless his uninformed little heart) says, "So other potters
don't sell their pots on their websites. Your pots are BETTER than
theirs. YOU could!" He insists that I only sell pad pots and women's
stuff because I only market pad pots and women's stuff. Frankly, until
recently, my site has always been a girls club and I have had no worries
about whether men felt squirmy over my main cash cow. Maybe I should
pull out my masters thesis and put up some slides of rodeos, tractor
pulls and timber carnivals for balance ;0D
It just doesn't seem sensible to put my best moneymaker under the
counter in a plain brown wrapper. There are a lot of women out there
with good income, buying something for a daughter's coming-of-age party
or indulging themselves with celebratory luxuries.
After the holiday shows I am going to put my extra inventory -- and the
good stuff I am firing now that wasn't done in time for the show -- on a
shelf in my studio for sale, and put the mug shots on the site because
it doesn't cost anything, and why not? I suppose I could divide my
traffic somehow when I get more mainstream stuff up there, but I'm not
convinced enough that it will sell to take a chance in undercutting my
sure thing.
Business on pad pots is feast or famine, in ways I can't predict --
sometimes they sit there, and other times there's a rush and I get
impatient emails saying, "They're all sold! When will there be more?"
When my site statistics show me that a few dozen people have showed up
all at once, I track where the hits came from and it's always a
conversation on some granola women's board -- cloth diapering or
breastfeeding or voluntary simplicity or something. Somebody says, "Go
check out these pots!" and there's a mass field trip.
So it ain't broke, and I'm not sure it needs fixing, unless somebody
convinces me that whistles and dishes and such can be a hot market on
line. Pad pots alone pay my trip to NCECA every year, plane tix and
restaurants and all. So I'm flexible, but when life gives you granola,
you make granola bars. I'm all out of wine-soaked rich tourists in my
town -- though we're having a special on laid off factory workers. Sure,
you can sell pots in Toledo -- but if the trendy manhattan shops can
charge three times more, I'll sell pots to manhattanites, too.
That's the other thing about my market -- I don't think I have ever sold
one to my own state. I have shipped to California and Maine, Ithaca and
Oregon, military bases on Guam and wherever a pocket of hippies settled
a few decades ago. I couldn't sell these things to in-the-door locals.
My mom won't even SAY the words pad pot. But they are out there, and we
find each other.
I did take the chicken tractor off my site and some of the general
blather, though I am getting complaints about having removed my recipe
for homemade tofu.
I'm off to the pediatrician. My littlest has a fever and looks like
something the cat dragged in. I maybe shouldn't have been buring the
candle at both ends this week, because I don't want to get her cooties
for the weekend sales. We'll come home, make a fire and some warm
ginger-lemonade and maybe have a big family nap. Life is good and it's
snowing, which will make the toledo botanical garden look like a winter
wonderland for the sale this weekend, and not a frozen rainy swamp like
last year.
Yours
Kelly in Ohio
where Tony's assessment of my dorky pitcher caused exactly 111
clayarters to visit my site yesterday ;0) Hope nobody fainted over the
girly stuff...
_______________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________________________
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Richard Aerni on thu 1 dec 05
On Thu, 1 Dec 2005 09:41:40 -0800, primalmommy
wrote:
> It surprises me, since a lot of
>workshop presenters don't bring pots for sale and I would gladly pick
>one out on line -- and I'd slam dunk Christmas gift hints with attached
>links if I could pick an Aernie pot off the web. But I've got my little
>weird niche and it's made me a good chunk of money.
>
Hey hey hey! Stop it! It's coming, albeit at the speed of a glacier, but
the website is coming. But, dear Kelly, anytime you want to check out my
work, just drop me a line about stuff you may be interested in viewing and
I'll snap a quick digital pic and email it to you. I just built a
professional (at least I hope it's professional) photo setup, and as soon as
I learn all the various digital settings, and spend time adjusting seamless
droop, softbox angle and distance, and reflective/reflector peculiarities,
I'll have the stuff for websites.
Meanwhile, keep up the good work. You seem like you've got a hell of a lot
of energy and ideas, and now you just need to make it happen. I know it's
tough...jeez, if it were easy, I'd be making a living wage now, I guess, but
it's mostly about belief and perseverance, in my opinion. And, nothing like
the wolf at the door to make you work a bit harder at what needs to get done
(sure you can't make it up til 4 am most days??? )
I'll talk to you about this more offline...
Richard Aerni
Rochester, NY
Chris O'Reilly on fri 2 dec 05
I am fascinated by your pad pots!! Missed the link to your web site. Could
you please email me your web site details.
Thank you
chris
New Zealand
----- Original Message -----
From: "primalmommy"
To:
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 6:41 AM
Subject: Re: Femine Hygiene Products
> Tony, I just had this same conversation on the phone with my brother,
> who could sell sand to desert dwellers.
>
> My income last year from the website -- pretty good numbers -- was 100%
> women's pots. I have never sold anything but my niche market women's
> pots off my website, except maybe clay classes to locals. I publish in
> Attachment Parenting publications/sites as well, and most of the links
> to my site I find while ego-surfing are on earthy-birthy granola mom web
> pages.
>
> My understanding is that potters don't sell much work over the internet.
> At least that's the song on clayart. It surprises me, since a lot of
> workshop presenters don't bring pots for sale and I would gladly pick
> one out on line -- and I'd slam dunk Christmas gift hints with attached
> links if I could pick an Aernie pot off the web. But I've got my little
> weird niche and it's made me a good chunk of money.
>
> My brother (bless his uninformed little heart) says, "So other potters
> don't sell their pots on their websites. Your pots are BETTER than
> theirs. YOU could!" He insists that I only sell pad pots and women's
> stuff because I only market pad pots and women's stuff. Frankly, until
> recently, my site has always been a girls club and I have had no worries
> about whether men felt squirmy over my main cash cow. Maybe I should
> pull out my masters thesis and put up some slides of rodeos, tractor
> pulls and timber carnivals for balance ;0D
>
> It just doesn't seem sensible to put my best moneymaker under the
> counter in a plain brown wrapper. There are a lot of women out there
> with good income, buying something for a daughter's coming-of-age party
> or indulging themselves with celebratory luxuries.
>
> After the holiday shows I am going to put my extra inventory -- and the
> good stuff I am firing now that wasn't done in time for the show -- on a
> shelf in my studio for sale, and put the mug shots on the site because
> it doesn't cost anything, and why not? I suppose I could divide my
> traffic somehow when I get more mainstream stuff up there, but I'm not
> convinced enough that it will sell to take a chance in undercutting my
> sure thing.
>
> Business on pad pots is feast or famine, in ways I can't predict --
> sometimes they sit there, and other times there's a rush and I get
> impatient emails saying, "They're all sold! When will there be more?"
> When my site statistics show me that a few dozen people have showed up
> all at once, I track where the hits came from and it's always a
> conversation on some granola women's board -- cloth diapering or
> breastfeeding or voluntary simplicity or something. Somebody says, "Go
> check out these pots!" and there's a mass field trip.
>
> So it ain't broke, and I'm not sure it needs fixing, unless somebody
> convinces me that whistles and dishes and such can be a hot market on
> line. Pad pots alone pay my trip to NCECA every year, plane tix and
> restaurants and all. So I'm flexible, but when life gives you granola,
> you make granola bars. I'm all out of wine-soaked rich tourists in my
> town -- though we're having a special on laid off factory workers. Sure,
> you can sell pots in Toledo -- but if the trendy manhattan shops can
> charge three times more, I'll sell pots to manhattanites, too.
>
> That's the other thing about my market -- I don't think I have ever sold
> one to my own state. I have shipped to California and Maine, Ithaca and
> Oregon, military bases on Guam and wherever a pocket of hippies settled
> a few decades ago. I couldn't sell these things to in-the-door locals.
> My mom won't even SAY the words pad pot. But they are out there, and we
> find each other.
>
> I did take the chicken tractor off my site and some of the general
> blather, though I am getting complaints about having removed my recipe
> for homemade tofu.
>
> I'm off to the pediatrician. My littlest has a fever and looks like
> something the cat dragged in. I maybe shouldn't have been buring the
> candle at both ends this week, because I don't want to get her cooties
> for the weekend sales. We'll come home, make a fire and some warm
> ginger-lemonade and maybe have a big family nap. Life is good and it's
> snowing, which will make the toledo botanical garden look like a winter
> wonderland for the sale this weekend, and not a frozen rainy swamp like
> last year.
>
> Yours
> Kelly in Ohio
> where Tony's assessment of my dorky pitcher caused exactly 111
> clayarters to visit my site yesterday ;0) Hope nobody fainted over the
> girly stuff...
>
>
>
>
>
> > style="font-size:13.5px">_______________________________________________________________
Get
> the FREE email that has everyone talking at > href=http://www.mail2world.com
> target=new>http://www.mail2world.com
> color=#999999>Unlimited Email Storage – POP3 – Calendar –
> SMS – Translator – Much More!
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
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