For those of you who don't know, I have running my own art based business since 2011. This has been a voyage of discovery full of highs and lows, confusion and clarity, feast and famine. A word of warning before I start. I am not an expert on anything, except perhaps eating, breathing and toileting. Take what I say with a technical pinch of salt. This is my take on a very confusing and frusrating area that you have to take seriously if you want to sell online successfully.

I am forever being contacted by "experts" telling me that with their help, they will make my business fly. I like to do things for myself though, so email offers get deleted. My paintings evolve and grow, which is something I've always wanted from my business. That's probably why I'm still a small scale seller, struggling with seasonality and not fulfiling my potential online.

So I'm not one to lecture. I will say this though. If you want to increase visibility and thus increase sales potential, then you need to know about SEO and use it to your best advantage.

I'm currently wrestling with SEO on my sales platforms; website, Etsy, Folksy, Google and the like. You need to understand that each one is different. The requirements confuse and until you understand each platforms individual requirements, you'll continually be eating bread and jam.

I have learned more from looking at what other people do, searching out similar businesses to mine that are clearly performing better than mine and learning. Not copying, because that's cheating. I look at pages on Google, using a variety of different search terms for my own products, look where and how they turn up, if at all. I look at how others present themselves to the world. I try and absorb information, so I can speed up the SEO process and spend more time doing the good things I see for my business, rather than the continuous torture and struggle caused by not properly understanding and acting on this understanding.

I have failed so many times, it's unreal. I have wasted so much time and missed so many opportunities because I've ben blind to the serious, albeit tedious needs of good, consistent SEO. I'm looking for consistency to create strength and increase my engagement and sales.

Everything needs re-reading and rejigging. I know I'm doing something right because my listings and posts turn up through my very targetted searches. But there's room for improvement.

And this time I'm going to get it right...or better at least, as there's always room for improvement!