I have set a goal to earn $25 from our website, looklovely.net during the month of September. The earnings from the first 5 days of the month totalled $1.58.
This article describes my activities on days 6 and 7 of the Quest to earn 25, and gives an honest report of the result.
On Saturday (Day 6) Tricia (my website partner) and I attended a garden party and networking event for women in business in our town. This was the first time we had attended such an event, and the woman who organised it thought it was the first ever networking event for women.
We live in a town with a population of about 20,000. It is regarded as a commuter/dormitory town, but there are a number of small businesses.
Tricia also has a Pilates business, offering group classes and one-to-one lessons. She was at the event to concentrate on her Pilates business, while I promoted looklovely.net.
We were told to bring our own table, and use it for items that would illustrate our business. I printed out sample pages from the website, and put them into plastic covers to improve their presentation (and also because the weather was expected to be wet).
As our page on ‘Fairtrade and Organic’ goods is very popular, I took along a Fair Trade dress and organic cotton top to display on our table. I thought they might draw more interest. I wore an organic cotton top with jeans that I had purchased from a boutique that we had featured. To complete my outfit I chose a Fairtrade necklace from Kenya that had been used to illustrate a website piece on Fairtrade jewellery.
Tricia also wore clothes that had featured on looklovely.net, and she brought along some exercise equipment used in her Pilates classes.
There were approximately 20 businesses represented at the event, with little or no overlap in types of business. We were situated between a driving instructor and a woman who makes and sells jewellery. One woman was there to promote her belly dancing classes, and gave demonstrations. This seemed to be particularly appreciated by the few men who had been brave enough to visit the event.
All business representatives had been asked to invite guests, and the event was very well attended. We gave away about 150 business cards, and talked to so many people that we lost count.
After the initial rush, Tricia and I took turns minding out display (and chatting) and walking around looking at what other women had to offer. I acquired some ideas for future content for the website and Tricia picked up some good leads for her Pilates business.
The predicted rain held off, although it was windy and we frequently had to retrieve items that had blown off our table.
The event lasted 2 hours, with everyone packing up promptly at the scheduled close, hurrying as the sky visibly darkened. Tricia and I had just crammed the last bit of Pilates equipment into the back of the car when the first big blobs of rain fell out of the sky.
I was tired, and Tricia must have been exhausted, as she had run a Pilates taster session in the morning. Fortunately, my wonderful husband had volunteered to cook dinner for all of us.
After a restorative cup of tea, I did post ads on one more Gumtree notice board. This is an online community site that covers a number of cities. I described it in a previous article, and will give the link at the end of this one.
On Sunday, I rested – at least from the website. I went to the family service at church in the morning and gave thanks for what I had achieved, and for all the blessings that are rained upon me on a daily basis. At the end of the service, most of the congregation came back to my house for an end of summer barbecue. Due to continued rainy weather, everyone was inside most of the time.
The revenue result for Day 6 was 28 cents, and for Day 7, 15 cents. Our total earnings for the first week of September were $2.01, an average of 29 cents a day.
Our total number of viewers for the site was better than for any week in July or August, so we are clearly moving in the right direction.
