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@chameleon54 wrote:I know of a specialist comics shop in a small lane off of a small mall in Adelaide that is a hive of activity. Comic collectors seem to gather there to meet and discuss their hobby, check out the stores items and basically hang out with like minded people.
I dunno if any of this will be of interest, they're mostly just the semi-cohesive ramblings by a quasi-successful seller (by which I mean I'm doing ok, but not as well as I would like and at the same time I acknowledge there's more I could be doing to get to where I want to be....) collected from a couple of different observations over the last 2 years.
Social media will never be able to replicate 'vibe', but I reckon it's the next best tool for internet marketing of niche areas and to a wider audience, though I use the term 'marketing' loosely.
I do have a FB business page but it's poorly maintained, so I can only speak from the perspective of observing my favourite and/or most successful business pages, which rarely post advertising material on their pages. Instead, they engage people by talking about broader (but related) areas of interest, post guides (how-to's, where applicable, or other information of interest), ask people to talk about their own experiences, memory, share expertise, and also what else they'd like to see instore. People love to talk about and share their passions, knowledge etc - online and off 🙂 - so it is possible to create a thriving community of like-minded people who remain consistently engaged with a particular business (meaning, that's the first place they go to when they need or want something, and instead of moving on if it's not available, they'll ask if you can get it and then wait until you do).
It's another thing that takes time and consistent input to build, but likely well worth it in the long run if you sell something that could even remotely be referred to as specialised interest, and a great supplement to a webstore (be it on eBay or not), because it will ultimately function as an interactive customer feedback page. (I also often look up webstores on FB if I haven't dealt with them before, I like to see how active they are if I can't find any online reviews, if / how they handle customer complaints etc, it's actually saved me from making a bad purchase, as I found an Aussie webstore with exactly what I wanted at a bargain price, but their FB page was with filled with unanswered customer queries & complaints, mostly referring to non-delivery).
I tried an independent webstore of my own nearly 18 months ago, and already had a blog / FB page in place. My blog doesn't specifically advertise my items, I just sporadically share things like announcements, tutorials and musings on the creative process, and soon I'll be adding in some product reviews on 'tools of the trade'. I listed just under 30 products in the webstore, then did absolutely nothing else (not intentionally, my computer died right after and for a couple of months I only had access to the web via an old iPod with a cracked screen, or a laptop when the owner wasn't using it, so I really only had time to concentrate on eBay 
)
Anyway, that was out there floating in the web for 2-3 months, never got a sale, but when I decided to close it up I checked the stats and was surprised to see an average of 100+ hits a day (from google and my blog), which is not bad for a jewellery store with a very limited number of products in fairly niche area and a relatively unestablished brand, and even though I didn't get a sale from it, that kind of traffic makes me think if I actually worked on it even just a little bit more, I could build it into something worthwhile (I was just using a site that gives you a customisable storefront with PayPal integrated checkout, so it wasn't a 100% independent store).
I guess what I'm getting at, is if you put your mind to it, you can use a whole bunch of different kinds of 'baskets' that function as support for a much larger one (i.e. brand, and it's definitely possible to "brand" a business that offers things on the more generic side, in that case you don't brand the products, but the business itself, its philosophies, customer service promises etc).
