Thursday, September 13, 2018

Lost in the jungle of internet marketing, sounds familiar?

Funnel marketing, backlinks, link out, link back, link this, link that, guest posting, content marketing, affiliate marketing, reaching out, influencer marketing, social media, social messaging, email marketing, online networking, forums, google analytics, programmatic marketing, visual search, business plan, google lens, micro-moments, voice search, crawling robots, chatbot, viral, adwords, popups, exit intent popups, automatic emails, landing pages, hashtags, CSV files, SEO, SEM, PPC, WTF else... Suggested use: squeeze every single drop out of it.
Business on the internet sounds like a mad rat race and a ton of self-induced stress and worry leading to possible heart disease or cancer or some kind of early onset of Alzheimer. You're better off smoking and drinking and not exercizing. If you're already smoking and drinking and not exercizing, please do not add digital marketing to it, as studies show it is fatal in most cases!
Is it really true what they all say? Do we really have to do all these things? Do we also have to have popups all over the place so that nobody can ever leave a website without being reminded that they are making a mistake? Do all website visitors care about the 15% off if they do this or that? I want my visitors to roam the website in peace and leave it whenever they feel like it, even if they were in the middle of checking out. Isn't all this harrassment? mmmm... Are we website owners the internet police or what? We should start giving it a name, like purchase harrassment or something.
I am a simple person. I've been in love with bags and weaving arts my whole life and I was always attracted to quality. When I was in preschool in the early 60s, I loved my little leather satchel I carried every day. I still remember exactly how it looked and how much I liked it. I loved it as much as my cat. I remember the weight, the feel, the closure and even the sound the closure. One day, my cousin Florence was wearing a pretty light blue dress. We were about 4 years old. I felt the material of her dress with my fingers and I fell in love with it. I wanted this dress. I still remember the feel of this dress to this day. Oui Florence, c'est vrai!
I started crochetting with my grandma in the South of France at age 5, or maybe 4. I loved it. My grandma also knew how to make embroidery and lace! She said weaving lace was very complex. The wooden ball she used for lace had tons of wood pins that she knew how to organize. I thought it was too difficult for a little girl like me so I never gave myself a chance to try it. I started knitting at age 13 with my step mum. I was fascinated by my creations. I made 200 gorgeous sweaters by the time I was 25. Some of them were works of art that should have been framed or put in a museum.
This love for bags and for the feel of woven materials led me to create my own backpack in 2016. Something that I had been looking for for 15 years on the internet and in stores but never found. The inspiration was to go to Oaxaca and have it done there. This backpack is now for sale here, it is called Hazaña ("feat") because it is very difficult to sew together. 
Some weavers rejected this project and I don't blame them. The pearl weaver who is able to make this backpack is Gloria. It takes her 12 hours to make one backpack from the time she starts preparing the loom until she sews the last pocket. She lives in Santo Tomas Jalieza, close to Oaxaca and weaves with her family members. My next article will be about her.
The design of this backpack was finalized early this year (2018), with the acquisition of special metal parts for it. The last touch. Gloria feels confident now and is ready to hit it. She made many trial backpacks until they came out perfect. Her ideas and suggestions were a valuable contribution to the design. Her patience was infinite. The few customers who already bought a Hazaña backpack think it is beautiful and practical. Gloria also weaves the SAKADO backpack, a more simple design with only 2 pockets, as well as many other products on the website.
My goal is to sell this backpack only through the internet. I am not interested in marketing this product locally. Now let's face reality. Our niche - hand woven backpacks - is not even a Google keyword! I want to succeed organically - another term I learnt about recently.

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