Covid protection of my fire pit business

[jamesp]

Delving into a more expensive market since larger fire pits seem to be selling well in 2019.
Tooling complete.
Starting to sell these quite frequently.
Photos need serious attention, working on internet advertising and listings.

45" surround/30" bowl 2 heights
48" surround/36" bowl 2 heights
54" surround/42" bowl 2 heights
64" surround/48" bowl(custom order)
72" surround/60" bowl(custom order)

[fernwood]

72" OMG! Good for you.

[jamesp]

Jan 3, 2020 6:18:48 GMT -5 fernwood said:

72" OMG! Good for you.

The middle size (48") is the bread winner fernwood.

[Pat]

I wonder how a small fire pit would sell —- for roasting marshmallows, maybe about one foot diameter.

[jamesp]

Jan 3, 2020 8:23:44 GMT -5 Pat said:

I wonder how a small fire pit would sell —- for roasting marshmallows, maybe about one foot diameter.

Our small 24 inch fire pit has been a bone of contention with me and the better half Pat.
Yes they sell well and make perfect sense for the reasons you pointed out.
The problem is they take about the same amount of time to build as a large pit but sell for a small amount of money.
The small fire pit subject came to a head resulting in contention.

Contention:

My better half rubbed her better ETSY sales in my face for like 7 years.
She started the abuse, always having been a self proclaimed smart ass.
About 3 years ago I absolutely started smoking her sales when I opened a fire pit ETSY store.
I have always been the type of person to do everything big or in mass(production engineer type). And am competitive on cerebral level.
Now she had to eat crow, I felt sorry for her as my income quintupled(more accurately octupled) her's and 'allowed' her to put my smaller fire pits in her ETSY shop.
(She tucked tail and asked if she could list them).

Come to find out she was trying to sell my fire pits(that I built) on her ETSY shop at a substantial discount without telling to me.
Right there on the same ETSY page next to mine !! The gall !
Embarrassment struck hard when clients continued to by from me at a higher price. I told her they don't like imposters ROFLing.
This was very very humiliating to her but she asked for it for years of teasing me.
Asked if she would start calling me Big Daddy, Fire Pit King, The Master, etc etc. Talk about lady getting mad !
And I started mansplaining stuff to her to increase aggravation levels lol.

Meantime I have had enough spare income to hire web designer, web analyst, welder and take website advancement courses.
While she does the administrative work for my fire pit business.
I barely do any work with the fire pits now.
Talk about 'what comes around goes around'.

I have enough materials to build a few dozen 24's. I suppose I should build them so she can sell them to get them off the property.

[jamesp]

Google Analytics is a way to look at how your website is performing.
I hired a website designer to assist in setting it up for a high search standing when key search words are used.
Google is sorta divided up into 2 categories, the world wide search and local search.
Local search is important for a heavy product like a fire pit because customers can pick the fire pit up at my location and save $100 to $300 on shipping.
And save me time/money palletizing it and carrying it to the freight company.

It seems the web designers niche is local search. I have had her focus on local search since there are 6 million people within 40 miles.

This is a list of the top 10 'local' search terms recorded by Google Analytics for the past 2 weeks.
They have resulted in 4 nice local sales in these 2 weeks.
I was even able to print out the queries of each of the 4 customers as I learn how to apply Google Analytics to my website(home work).
I handed them a print out of the device they used, their operating system, location of their home, time spent on my web site, # of pages viewed, time of day viewed, etc etc.
They seemed a bit taken back as if they seem to act as if they had been stalked lol. Reminding them that the internet is public domain...

So the website designer has my site coming up strong for most of these local search terms(these analytics trip me out).
It was a fluke that I named my company firepitsatlanta.com long ago. (He he, my poor wife hated the name).
The name of the website happens to be about the same as the top local search terms, shear luck. Website title words hold #1 search priority.:



So keep that in mind if you are considering a website involving local sales.
cabachonslosangeles
agatesnewyork
tumbledrocksportland
mineralspecimensmiami
etc.

[jamesp]

This is interesting.
Note that sales follows visits to a tee.
This is a chart showing all visitors(users) in 2019.
Not many, about 2700 visits.
However these people had intention(organic visits), they were likely searching to buy a fire pit.
Look at the higher visits in May/June; these were the highest sales months for 2019.
Note an elevated visitor rate starting December 18th.
These visits increased because we started running a Google Ad Dec. 18.
But these visits arrived from ads and are not producing many sales.
Not all visits created equally...



There are like a 100 metrics(parameters) to look at on Google Analytics.
The challenge is to figure out which of them pertain to your situation as they relate to your sales.

[jamesp]

This is where visitors came from for 2019.



This is where the visitors came from in North Carolina during 2019 in geographical form.

[rockjunquie]

Jan 3, 2020 11:26:08 GMT -5 jamesp said:

Jan 3, 2020 8:23:44 GMT -5 Pat said:

I wonder how a small fire pit would sell —- for roasting marshmallows, maybe about one foot diameter.

Our small 24 inch fire pit has been a bone of contention with me and the better half Pat.
Yes they sell well and make perfect sense for the reasons you pointed out.
The problem is they take about the same amount of time to build as a large pit but sell for a small amount of money.
The small fire pit subject came to a head resulting in contention.

Contention:

My better half rubbed her better ETSY sales in my face for like 7 years.
She started the abuse, always having been a self proclaimed smart ass.
About 3 years ago I absolutely started smoking her sales when I opened a fire pit ETSY store.
I have always been the type of person to do everything big or in mass(production engineer type). And am competitive on cerebral level.
Now she had to eat crow, I felt sorry for her as my income quintupled(more accurately octupled) her's and 'allowed' her to put my smaller fire pits in her ETSY shop.
(She tucked tail and asked if she could list them).

Come to find out she was trying to sell my fire pits(that I built) on her ETSY shop at a substantial discount without telling to me.
Right there on the same ETSY page next to mine !! The gall !
Embarrassment struck hard when clients continued to by from me at a higher price. I told her they don't like imposters ROFLing.
This was very very humiliating to her but she asked for it for years of teasing me.
Asked if she would start calling me Big Daddy, Fire Pit King, The Master, etc etc. Talk about lady getting mad !
And I started mansplaining stuff to her to increase aggravation levels lol.

Meantime I have had enough spare income to hire web designer, web analyst, welder and take website advancement courses.
While she does the administrative work for my fire pit business.
I barely do any work with the fire pits now.
Talk about 'what comes around goes around'.

I have enough materials to build a few dozen 24's. I suppose I should build them so she can sell them to get them off the property.

That's some funny sh*t right there. Pricing them lower than you and STILL losing. OOOppps. All's fair in love and war, I guess.

[jamesp]

Thanks for wading thru my story. You would have to be onsite to really appreciate the Venus and Mars of it.
One of my few spousal victories rockjunquie. A big one though lol, and persists in past present and future.
I had not even paid attention to her prices till one day she shouts "Those SOB's are still buying yours".
I had no idea the reason for her aggravated tone but it sounded sweet !
She had to explain the situation to me lol only to find me on the floor laughing to point of ribs cracking.
She cringes with every sale. I even programmed my cell phone to make a loud cha ching cha ching cash register sound when a sale happens.
Sweet victory.

[RickB]

Love the story James, and those are great looking fire pits. I'm still using a galvanized washtub in the yard. I've made that $5.00 dollar purchase go a long way.

[hummingbirdstones]

Jan 3, 2020 13:46:28 GMT -5 jamesp said:

Thanks for wading thru my story. You would have to be onsite to really appreciate the Venus and Mars of it.
One of my few spousal victories rockjunquie . A big one though lol, and persists in past present and future.
I had not even paid attention to her prices till one day she shouts "Those SOB's are still buying yours".
I had no idea the reason for her aggravated tone but it sounded sweet !
She had to explain the situation to me lol only to find me on the floor laughing to point of ribs cracking.
She cringes with every sale. I even programmed my cell phone to make a loud cha ching cha ching cash register sound when a sale happens.
Sweet victory.

This story made me laugh out loud, jamesp!  I can only imagine the hell that will break loose if she reads this.  BTW, the ring tone is golden! 

[knave]

(Chuckling also) I must subscribe to this merry thread. Lol. Get my jamesp fix going....

[jamesp]

Jan 3, 2020 16:08:32 GMT -5 RickB said:

Love the story James, and those are great looking fire pits. I'm still using a galvanized washtub in the yard. I've made that $5.00 dollar purchase go a long way.

You must know I am doing my best to kiss up to the well-to-doers and rich/famous by selling these 'status' pits.
Hard to beat the heat output of a 55 gallon drum Rick ! Can I come over and sit in front of the wash tub pit ? More my style friend...

[jamesp]

hummingbirdstones rockjunquie knave
You guys would have to know my wife to appreciate this competitive arrangement.
She is a clever and colorful yet feisty character, hung out with and even dated Jeff Foxworthy in high school.
She says she was doing her male cousins a favor since Jeff could never get dates.
She was like the homecoming queen, I suppose Jeff was happy.
I believe she is the one in his book that he curled her toes(openly exaggerating) when he kissed her.
What a loser, girl coulda married Jeff Foxworthy instead got stuck w/me haha.

Any way, I am content being the analytical and her being the personality.
However my personality trumps when she is under my thumb in a competition she started and I finished he he.

Cha Ching Che Ching !!!

[fernwood]

Thanks for posting the analytics.

A co-worker is taking a 2 week, 3 credit, college class in marketing in the 21st century.
He showed me some of the online course materials. Saturday's assignment was marketing on social media.
The best days/times were listed for marketing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. I found it interesting that each platform has different recommendations.

For example. The best marketing day/time for sales is Friday at 3:00 PM. The best day/time for views was Monday at 1:00 PM.

I found it interesting that the analytics only go so far in predicting future views/sales.
This info was for general merchandise for a targeted audience, not seasonal.

[jamesp]

Jan 5, 2020 6:08:29 GMT -5 fernwood said:

Thanks for posting the analytics.

A co-worker is taking a 2 week, 3 credit, college class in marketing in the 21st century.
He showed me some of the online course materials. Saturday's assignment was marketing on social media.
The best days/times were listed for marketing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. I found it interesting that each platform has different recommendations.

For example. The best marketing day/time for sales is Friday at 3:00 PM. The best day/time for views was Monday at 1:00 PM.

I found it interesting that the analytics only go so far in predicting future views/sales.
This info was for general merchandise for a targeted audience, not seasonal.

I a became an analytics junkie. It is amazing how the trends repeat themselves from the year before fernwood.
2018 and 2019 were like mirror images making the future quite predictable in views and purchasing timing.
The fire pit purchases follow organic views to a tee so it greatly simplifies analysis. Get more organic views, make more sales...simple.
Even comparing say November 18' to November 19', monthly trends follow each other remarkably similar.
About 50% of the views comes from paying ETSY for ETSY/Google ads. So says ETSY anyway. Such stats can be deceptive.
GA is much more comprehensive and the real story can be analyzed if you can decipher the metrics. Often the tricky part.

I am sure that even the fortune 500 companies are educating employees to doctorate levels on this useful tool.
And as you mentioned it will be in marketing curriculums in colleges from now on.

[NRG]

Why pay Etsy for Google ads? Do they offer discount over going direct?

With such solid organic sales, why Etsy for anything?

Just need a woo commerce shopping cart on your website and keep the Etsy commissions.

Grow organicly thru AB testing of various ads of Google. With your analytical nature soon you will be top dog in the AdWords world of firepits and need a wheelbarrow for all your cash.



At least run it like a second business parallel to the Etsy store and see for yourself

[jamesp]

Jan 6, 2020 16:31:18 GMT -5 NRG said:

Why pay Etsy for Google ads? Do they offer discount over going direct?

With such solid organic sales, why Etsy for anything?

Just need a woo commerce shopping cart on your website and keep the Etsy commissions.

Grow organicly thru AB testing of various ads of Google. With your analytical nature soon you will be top dog in the AdWords world of firepits and need a wheelbarrow for all your cash.



At least run it like a second business parallel to the Etsy store and see for yourself

Keep in mind I only want to sell 300 to 400 pits per year.

Funny you mention this Scott. I just bought my first Google ads. Watching results.
Not impressed in 1st 2 weeks, paid ads are not having much conversion. Lots of visits, but lacking intention.
January/February is the deadest season so anything goes. My website is not even a commerce site, clients have to click thru to ETSY to purchase.
Will be changing website to commerce site. This may prompt the more fickle visitors from google ads to purchase. Maybe. I prefer motivated clients.

I never bought ads in the past. But fire pits have become big biz.
Competition may burry me on the big web, not likely on Google local because my site is named firepitsatlanta.
2019 was a record year but I think I am headed for problems in the future being found on www web.
The big players with deeper pockets and better search prowess are getting involved.


ETSY is a funny bird. It does behoove you to pay for ETSY ads so that your listings will appear on pages 1-2-3 of the #1-2-3 'fire pit' search term searches.
Recently ETSY combined Google and ETSY ads into one payment recently. You can not pay for them separately.
I must say ETSY has a massive www google group campaign. They have always had me front and center on www search.
I have been #1 fire pit seller on ETSY in volume and income however as of the past few months other seller's volume has probably surpassed mine because of their reduced pricing.
For this reason they have had a much better search standing than I. Ha, so much for loyalty.

My saving grace will probably be local sales because of the name of my website being a hot local search term. I own the title.
6 million people within 40 miles... Local sales make the most profit. Quicker. Simpler. Funner.

[jamesp]

firepitsatlanta.com has gotten lost on the world wide web. Not sure why but orders came to a screeching halt for 2 months now.
The website gal is trying to figure it out. First time in 3 years this issue has arisen. Competition is increasing in the fire pit arena.

However last month an order for 300 - 36 inch fire pits has been secured for 2020. Perfect timing !
Me and Alan can build these 50 in 4 days if I can get the lard out of his ass(he works me into the dirt).
This gives a year to solve the search engine issues.

The first 50 units less covers. They fit in a 22 foot U-haul and will head to a Tennessee mountain camping park.