Expanding a product line when sales start to dip

Using a Red Bubble shopping cart with a WordPress storefront

A Note: There was some interest in the calendars below. However, RedBubble decided to get out of the calendar business, and as the other items on the site that sold were available elsewhere, I decided to abandon the RedBubble site and stick with SmugMug for merchandise. Still it was an interesting idea!

As traffic has built up over the years, and prints sales are always tough to make, I decided it was time to add a storefront on A Gothic Curiosity Cabinet. Because after all, it’s where all the people are. Thus the Wytchery was born.

From the beginning I’ve had a SmugMug site to sell fine art prints and stock photography. That market unfortunately became saturated over the years, and sales have slowly dwindled, as I haven’t put the time into it I should.

People have limited space on their walls and don’t buy prints often. When they do, they tend to keep them up there for a long time. While I’d love to offer other products by other artists – crafts and fine art as well, that means fulfilling orders and buying stock. Green Man keeps me a bit busy for that.

After looking at a variety of services, I settled on Red Bubble. Since this is a site focused on writing, literature, history and travel, I wanted a product line which has a literary bent to it. Red Bubble offers journals – both hardback and spiral bound, as well as calendars and greeting cards, and seem to do quality work. So it’s a natural fit with the images that are found on the site, as well as those in the archives.

Calendars are a good fit for photographers and artists. They only last a year and quite often people get a new one the following year. I can provide all the information to make the sale here on the site, and clicking the link takes you directly to the Red Bubble product page. I’m not a fan of Red Bubble’s design, so it’s comforting to make that a last step of the process.

Though I have a site dedicated to selling art prints and stock, once again it makes sense to offer some of these images here on A Gothic Curiosity Cabinet. The traffic is already here, and the SEO value of a WordPress site far outweighs that of a SmugMug, or any photo website service.

Creating a gallery of images which reflect what is found on my SmugMug site is quick and easy, and great for spreading through social media. Cate Davies creates wonderful images of misty Britain, and in a short time I can get her work in front of a few thousand people, who are more than happy to spread it around.

While my WordPress site doesn’t have the flexibility that my SmugMug site has in displaying galleries, with the popularity of phones and tablets, that’s not so important any longer. Simply displaying the images full width, one above the other fits today’s viewing habits better and have more impact than thumbnails with need clicked to be seen large.

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