Let the Trolling Begin!
Yesterday, as part of the end of the advertising season, I set up an ad for the Mage's soap through Facebook. What. A. Joke. Let me preface this by saying this is definitely the final time I use FB to advertise anything. It didn't target my 'target audience', as instructed, and I got trolls whose comments I had to delete immediately before they snowballed. How is it that FB can target what I've been doing online with near pinpoint accuracy and send me ads on my feed that scarily echo searches and whatnot, but they can't do this in reverse for an ad I'm paying for? As I said, I'm done. Prior to this last ad, I had used FB sparingly for advertising as the results were never as promised. You would think I'd learn, yeah? When they predict an ad will be sent to 1,100 to 2,200 people, I'm lucky if 700 see it. Lucky. Usually it's half that, including the trolls who like to talk sh*t about the price of a bar of artisan soap. The ads usually target people with zero interest in what I'm doing.
This brought something up for me, something that makes me feel a little uncomfortable. The prices of what I sell are 'up' there sometimes, like this $28 bar of soap I've got on the site. It's $28 for a reason, and not because I'm greedy, but because it cost me just that to make it! But what the trolls were saying about my soap made me feel like crap -- like in some small way I should be attempting to cater to some of the people who could never, and would never, buy a bar of soap for $28, but might be willing to buy a $4 bar of soap as an extravagance, because, let's face it, store bought, mass produced soap is cheap and by that comparison, what I'm selling is in the upper atmosphere of costly soaps. I'm going to have to think about this a while. The problem with trying to make less expensive soap is that I refuse to use inferior raw materials, which means I'm ultimately giving away soap. This has never been a get-rich-quick scheme for me, it's always been about art and challenging myself to make something beautiful, but at the same time, I have bills to pay, just like everybody else. And I do a fair bit of soap donations throughout the year, when interest in a particular soap diminishes, or I've got it coming out of my ears, I trot it on over to the local women's shelter.
On the other hand, I totally see where the trolls are coming from.
It's a conundrum.
And I've cancelled the ad with just pennies to go before it was over because to hell with FB and their janky shenanigans.
This brought something up for me, something that makes me feel a little uncomfortable. The prices of what I sell are 'up' there sometimes, like this $28 bar of soap I've got on the site. It's $28 for a reason, and not because I'm greedy, but because it cost me just that to make it! But what the trolls were saying about my soap made me feel like crap -- like in some small way I should be attempting to cater to some of the people who could never, and would never, buy a bar of soap for $28, but might be willing to buy a $4 bar of soap as an extravagance, because, let's face it, store bought, mass produced soap is cheap and by that comparison, what I'm selling is in the upper atmosphere of costly soaps. I'm going to have to think about this a while. The problem with trying to make less expensive soap is that I refuse to use inferior raw materials, which means I'm ultimately giving away soap. This has never been a get-rich-quick scheme for me, it's always been about art and challenging myself to make something beautiful, but at the same time, I have bills to pay, just like everybody else. And I do a fair bit of soap donations throughout the year, when interest in a particular soap diminishes, or I've got it coming out of my ears, I trot it on over to the local women's shelter.
On the other hand, I totally see where the trolls are coming from.
It's a conundrum.
And I've cancelled the ad with just pennies to go before it was over because to hell with FB and their janky shenanigans.
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