Lately I've seen many Etsy re-sellers defending themselves by saying they didn't know that they couldn't sell on Etsy
How is it possible to open a shop and list, and not know that you cannot sell something that isn't handmade, vintage, or supplies?
When you make a listing, There are 3 questions to answer at the beginning of each listing:
*Who made it? Possible answers are:
- I did
- A member of my shop
- Another company or person
*What is it? Possible answers are:
- A finished product
- A supply or tool to make things
*And the last question is When was it made? and it gives you different date ranges.
If you answer that an item was made by another company or person, you can only list in vintage or supplies. if you also answer that the item is a finished item, then the form will only allow the vintage category to be picked, and if you pick a date that is 1994 or newer, then this pops up in red
"Oh dear, you cannot sell this item on Etsy. Learn about what you can sell on Etsy.
Etsy is a marketplace for items handmade by you, crafting supplies, and vintage goods."
I can see the confusion in things like plain t shirts, onsies, bibs, and whatnot that are used very, very often for crafting, and even sold in the crafting aisles- and items that the person listing thought was vintage.
I can even see some confusion on the collectives issue- as it pertains to when a factory is selling direct through etsy.
But I don't see how anyone can be confused with something like a bracelet, watch, other jewelry, dresses, and other obviously new obviously non supply items that they purchase and do nothing to.
Is there something I'm missing? The way I see it, you'd have to just plain lie.
And that's why so many legitimate sellers on Etsy are so quick to get angry. because there are lots of places where people who make their living buying and selling new non supply stuff can sell without lying, and they are lying when they sell on Etsy.
Showing posts with label Etsy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Etsy. Show all posts
Friday, July 12, 2013
Thursday, May 10, 2012
In Support Of Handmade
(all items shown on this blog post are 100% handmade items)
Today is the day where many shops are closing their shop for the day in protest of etsy's decision to allow a seller who claimed to have a handmade shop that could not have been handmade in any one but etsy's definition to stay open.
I will not mention names, or put a link here, miss perfectly manicured pretty hands carpenter has had more than enough exposure.
I understand why these people are closing shop for the day, the silent protest, hoping that their approximately 0.5% of shops closing for the day will put a large enough blip on etsy's radar to tell them something.
But Etsy knows what we want, and closing our shops for the day isn't going to hurt anyone but ourselves. I know I cannot afford to lose out on even one tiny sale, literally every penny counts!
Some of the shops closing today have been bashing those of us who have decided to stay open, it's sad.
Many of us have devised a way to show support of handmade in our own ways (after all, isn't this why we are in business for ourselves, so no one can tell us what to do?). These other alternatives are positive.
*There's the Stop, Then Shop movement, which will refrain from buying today (May 10, 2012), and buy everything they wanted to buy tomorrow.
*Some of us cannot afford to buy anything, those of us in that boat are doing a whole lot of promotion for people we know to be handmade sellers. This is done on pinterest, twitter, facebook, in treasuries, on blogs, and wherever else a person may promote
*Some of us are going to go ahead and take the plunge on some items we've had sitting in our carts and were on the fence about.
There are so many ways you can support handmade any day, not just this week.
Buy and promote handmade by the seller in anyway you can. On etsy, on any other site, even on the sellers own websites. If they have one.
Q: How do you know it's handmade by the seller?
A: Sometimes it's hard to tell. I usually do a search for that item. if it's a reseller item, or "charm on a chain" (which in my opinion is not handmade unless you made the charm or the chain), you'll usually see several other sellers selling the same piece. Many people add a few beads or dangles to the necklace, this is OK, as it shows a little bit of creativity. On higher priced stuff, it's not always so easy to tell, though usually a Google search can bring up the original maker
Both Karen and myself are 100% handmade (although I do have a supply shop where I sell some knitting needles and yarns that I didn't make)
Today is the day where many shops are closing their shop for the day in protest of etsy's decision to allow a seller who claimed to have a handmade shop that could not have been handmade in any one but etsy's definition to stay open.
I will not mention names, or put a link here, miss perfectly manicured pretty hands carpenter has had more than enough exposure.
I understand why these people are closing shop for the day, the silent protest, hoping that their approximately 0.5% of shops closing for the day will put a large enough blip on etsy's radar to tell them something.
But Etsy knows what we want, and closing our shops for the day isn't going to hurt anyone but ourselves. I know I cannot afford to lose out on even one tiny sale, literally every penny counts!
Some of the shops closing today have been bashing those of us who have decided to stay open, it's sad.
Many of us have devised a way to show support of handmade in our own ways (after all, isn't this why we are in business for ourselves, so no one can tell us what to do?). These other alternatives are positive.
*There's the Stop, Then Shop movement, which will refrain from buying today (May 10, 2012), and buy everything they wanted to buy tomorrow.
*Some of us cannot afford to buy anything, those of us in that boat are doing a whole lot of promotion for people we know to be handmade sellers. This is done on pinterest, twitter, facebook, in treasuries, on blogs, and wherever else a person may promote
*Some of us are going to go ahead and take the plunge on some items we've had sitting in our carts and were on the fence about.
There are so many ways you can support handmade any day, not just this week.
Buy and promote handmade by the seller in anyway you can. On etsy, on any other site, even on the sellers own websites. If they have one.
Q: How do you know it's handmade by the seller?
A: Sometimes it's hard to tell. I usually do a search for that item. if it's a reseller item, or "charm on a chain" (which in my opinion is not handmade unless you made the charm or the chain), you'll usually see several other sellers selling the same piece. Many people add a few beads or dangles to the necklace, this is OK, as it shows a little bit of creativity. On higher priced stuff, it's not always so easy to tell, though usually a Google search can bring up the original maker
Both Karen and myself are 100% handmade (although I do have a supply shop where I sell some knitting needles and yarns that I didn't make)
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Further Adventures in E-commerce
It sure has been a busy month for me with all sorts of good things going on as well as getting some eye-opening advice from a marketing professional that understands my demographic very well. First for the good news:
- I have over 600 Facebook fans now and they're starting to interact with my page and talk to me. I'm hating it less every day.
- People are also commenting on and sharing my posts on Google+ but it's still a ghost town compared to Facebook.
- My stand-alone shop has done more business in 2 months than my Etsy shop has done in the last 6 months and those months included the winter and holidays.
- I've started a new blog to go with my shop and as soon as I get more content out there I'll let you all know about it so that you can visit me there too.
- I learn more and more about SEO every day from being a leader on the SEO team and even though it's a lot of work I love seeing people start to get great results because they took it seriously and really researched their keywords.
- I'm eventually going to be featured on a plus sized blog for professional women (yay!) and will probably have another feature done by a popular plus size blogger during the holidays. The best part of this is that they have nothing to do with Etsy and are out there in the real world of advertising.
The rest isn't exactly good news but it definitely goes under the heading of useful advice.
- I was told by a well-known plus size blogger that my stuff was too white and middle aged to appeal to her audience. After I scraped my chin off of the floor I realized that she was right. Although I wouldn't have phrased it that way and would have referred to things like "youthful urban fashion" without bringing skin color into it I did appreciate how blunt she was. It helped me to focus on where I should be marketing and it isn't to trendy young women on a tight budget. I already reach that demographic on Etsy and it's virtually useless to me. The average person under 30 probably isn't shopping in my price bracket and I avoid trends like the plague. If I invest a lot of money in clothing I want it to last for years and years and not look silly in it by the next season. She also said that people my size don't understand plus size shoppers and I was tempted to send her a picture of myself in a 3X from a few years ago but there was no point in arguing with her.
- I was lucky enough to get a professional marketing review for free and boy did it open my eyes because she was simply brutal about Etsy when it comes to older women. She felt very strongly that older women do not see Etsy as a place to buy clothing at all, never mind high end items, the plus size categories are a disaster of a mess of mislabeled stuff and that I'm setting myself up to look like a tacky amateur if I stay there. She said that she would be much less likely to buy my items if she were aware that I also had an Etsy shop and that I should eradicate the word "crafts" from my vocabulary because I don't make macaroni art. Her strongest advice was to shut down my shop there and if I wouldn't do that I should at least open up under a new name so that I don't taint my real business name. Yikes. I have to think about this because I can add a "for the home" section to my own shop to put the blankets in but I still have a few straight size sweaters that don't fit with the plus size theme of the shop. Leaving Etsy altogether would probably be great for my blood pressure also because they're the most outrageously immature, rude and obnoxious entity that I've ever handed money over to. It isn't like I make much money there anyway and it falls far behind local sales and sales from my own website. (She also asked me if Etsy sold anything that wasn't white or beige and that was my best laugh of the day.)
So, my adventures in learning about e-commerce continue...
A few hours later... Hmm - that certainly seemed to hit a nerve. I'm not much into replying to abusive anonymous convos so I'll take a stab at it in public. My comments about Etsy are certainly not meant to be a universal criticism and I wasn't implying that everyone that sells on Etsy should be ashamed of themselves or of the site. The marketing expert was talking about one specific type of product targeted to one specific demographic that Etsy doesn't try to serve. For the people whose products target the same demographic that Etsy does and whose work falls within the traditional craft categories and and pricing of the other types of items there Etsy is probably just fine. All of that long convo blather about hating me and unliking my page is sort of childish, don't you think? I'm sorry if anyone was offended but it would probably be better for your blood pressure to just ignore me. Sheesh.
- I have over 600 Facebook fans now and they're starting to interact with my page and talk to me. I'm hating it less every day.
- People are also commenting on and sharing my posts on Google+ but it's still a ghost town compared to Facebook.
- My stand-alone shop has done more business in 2 months than my Etsy shop has done in the last 6 months and those months included the winter and holidays.
- I've started a new blog to go with my shop and as soon as I get more content out there I'll let you all know about it so that you can visit me there too.
- I learn more and more about SEO every day from being a leader on the SEO team and even though it's a lot of work I love seeing people start to get great results because they took it seriously and really researched their keywords.
- I'm eventually going to be featured on a plus sized blog for professional women (yay!) and will probably have another feature done by a popular plus size blogger during the holidays. The best part of this is that they have nothing to do with Etsy and are out there in the real world of advertising.
The rest isn't exactly good news but it definitely goes under the heading of useful advice.
- I was told by a well-known plus size blogger that my stuff was too white and middle aged to appeal to her audience. After I scraped my chin off of the floor I realized that she was right. Although I wouldn't have phrased it that way and would have referred to things like "youthful urban fashion" without bringing skin color into it I did appreciate how blunt she was. It helped me to focus on where I should be marketing and it isn't to trendy young women on a tight budget. I already reach that demographic on Etsy and it's virtually useless to me. The average person under 30 probably isn't shopping in my price bracket and I avoid trends like the plague. If I invest a lot of money in clothing I want it to last for years and years and not look silly in it by the next season. She also said that people my size don't understand plus size shoppers and I was tempted to send her a picture of myself in a 3X from a few years ago but there was no point in arguing with her.
- I was lucky enough to get a professional marketing review for free and boy did it open my eyes because she was simply brutal about Etsy when it comes to older women. She felt very strongly that older women do not see Etsy as a place to buy clothing at all, never mind high end items, the plus size categories are a disaster of a mess of mislabeled stuff and that I'm setting myself up to look like a tacky amateur if I stay there. She said that she would be much less likely to buy my items if she were aware that I also had an Etsy shop and that I should eradicate the word "crafts" from my vocabulary because I don't make macaroni art. Her strongest advice was to shut down my shop there and if I wouldn't do that I should at least open up under a new name so that I don't taint my real business name. Yikes. I have to think about this because I can add a "for the home" section to my own shop to put the blankets in but I still have a few straight size sweaters that don't fit with the plus size theme of the shop. Leaving Etsy altogether would probably be great for my blood pressure also because they're the most outrageously immature, rude and obnoxious entity that I've ever handed money over to. It isn't like I make much money there anyway and it falls far behind local sales and sales from my own website. (She also asked me if Etsy sold anything that wasn't white or beige and that was my best laugh of the day.)
So, my adventures in learning about e-commerce continue...
A few hours later... Hmm - that certainly seemed to hit a nerve. I'm not much into replying to abusive anonymous convos so I'll take a stab at it in public. My comments about Etsy are certainly not meant to be a universal criticism and I wasn't implying that everyone that sells on Etsy should be ashamed of themselves or of the site. The marketing expert was talking about one specific type of product targeted to one specific demographic that Etsy doesn't try to serve. For the people whose products target the same demographic that Etsy does and whose work falls within the traditional craft categories and and pricing of the other types of items there Etsy is probably just fine. All of that long convo blather about hating me and unliking my page is sort of childish, don't you think? I'm sorry if anyone was offended but it would probably be better for your blood pressure to just ignore me. Sheesh.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
My Experience With Etsy Search Ads
Ok, so I did those search ads, just to try them.
spent $4, got 26 views, and 1 favorite
In my supply shop, Onestitch.etsy.com, I spent $2, got 5 views, and one of those views led to a sale for $5. though the buyer looked through my shop a little bit before buying, so it doesn't come up in my stats.
While not a complete waste of time and money (of which I don't really have, so I'm wondering why I did it in the first place!!), I notice several issues that need to be addressed.
The main one is the keyword choices. While they are based off of a person's keywords, The keywords you get are often a part of a perfectly Etsy-legal keyword phrase.
It would be nice to choose your own keywords, even if they aren't on the list of keyword choices. Maybe automatically value anything that's not on the list at $1 per 1,000? then modify the list as time goes on.
And the ads themselves could be more smart. if your item is a baby boy's blanket in blue, and someone searches for a men's tie in blue, your baby blanket will come up if you used the keyword blue. Now those are not your target customers. Therefore, the impression is totally wasted.
spent $4, got 26 views, and 1 favorite
In my supply shop, Onestitch.etsy.com, I spent $2, got 5 views, and one of those views led to a sale for $5. though the buyer looked through my shop a little bit before buying, so it doesn't come up in my stats.
While not a complete waste of time and money (of which I don't really have, so I'm wondering why I did it in the first place!!), I notice several issues that need to be addressed.
The main one is the keyword choices. While they are based off of a person's keywords, The keywords you get are often a part of a perfectly Etsy-legal keyword phrase.
It would be nice to choose your own keywords, even if they aren't on the list of keyword choices. Maybe automatically value anything that's not on the list at $1 per 1,000? then modify the list as time goes on.
And the ads themselves could be more smart. if your item is a baby boy's blanket in blue, and someone searches for a men's tie in blue, your baby blanket will come up if you used the keyword blue. Now those are not your target customers. Therefore, the impression is totally wasted.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Advertising on Blogs
I promised myself that I would learn about and start one new marketing task every month but I haven't started one for September yet. SEO will be an ongoing task but it doesn't take up enough time any more to give me an excuse to skip a month.
I'm still feeling very resistant to setting myself up on Facebook and twitter. Doing an unscientific poll of all of my friends and family that are over 40 and finding out that not one of them had ever even bothered to look at facebook was not encouraging at all and the last thing that I need is a new time sink on the internet.
Now I'm considering paying for an ad on a well-known plus size fashion blog but I have to learn all about it first. I get confused when I see a rate sheet that refers to text links but then can't find anything that looks like a simple text ad on their site and all I see are banner ads with pictures. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing yet.
Stephanie, can you tell us how you go about designing your ads and anything else that you know about how it all works?
Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com
I'm still feeling very resistant to setting myself up on Facebook and twitter. Doing an unscientific poll of all of my friends and family that are over 40 and finding out that not one of them had ever even bothered to look at facebook was not encouraging at all and the last thing that I need is a new time sink on the internet.
Now I'm considering paying for an ad on a well-known plus size fashion blog but I have to learn all about it first. I get confused when I see a rate sheet that refers to text links but then can't find anything that looks like a simple text ad on their site and all I see are banner ads with pictures. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing yet.
Stephanie, can you tell us how you go about designing your ads and anything else that you know about how it all works?
Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com
Sunday, September 4, 2011
I'm Starting to Not Hate Google
Stephanie's prayer to the gods of google might just work because now that my pages are slowly but surely getting crawled I'm getting some very good placement in my most targeted google search. Thanks to Oprah plus size sweater coats are popular this Fall and I get more hits on that keyword phrase than anything else. If I run a search today on "plus size sweater coat" I have one item on page one and another on page 2. I have a pretty good idea now of why the third one is buried. If I do the search on the plural "plus size sweater coats" I get one on page one and one on page 3 but unfortunately they're the same coat but one is on Zibbet and the other on Etsy. Still - I BEAT Lane Bryant and Roamans!
Oh yeah - I listed a new item this week. I love this one because it's casual and warm.
Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com
Oh yeah - I listed a new item this week. I love this one because it's casual and warm.
Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
SEO - Learning about Keywords
(Warning! I'm just starting to learn about SEO so you really shouldn't follow my advice about anything based on my bumbling around here . At any given moment half of the things that I say could be completely and absolutely incorrect.)
Today I'm starting to learn about which keywords and phrases are best to use to have my items come up in google. Mostly I'm reading all sorts of articles to get myself oriented. I don't have much to say yet other than "I dunno" but here are the things that I'm looking at today. The first one is the google adwords Keyword tool and I found three posts on the Handmadeology blog that seem helpful so far:
Etsy SEO Made Easy Part 1
Etsy SEO Made Easy Part 2
Etsy SEO Made Easy Part 3
Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com
Today I'm starting to learn about which keywords and phrases are best to use to have my items come up in google. Mostly I'm reading all sorts of articles to get myself oriented. I don't have much to say yet other than "I dunno" but here are the things that I'm looking at today. The first one is the google adwords Keyword tool and I found three posts on the Handmadeology blog that seem helpful so far:
Etsy SEO Made Easy Part 1
Etsy SEO Made Easy Part 2
Etsy SEO Made Easy Part 3
Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
SEO - Inbound Links to Your Shop
(Warning! I'm just starting to learn about SEO so you really shouldn't follow my advice about anything based on my bumbling around here . At any given moment half of the things that I say could be completely and absolutely incorrect.)
One of the things that I found out yesterday is that links to your shop help to increase your visibility to search engines. No one has to actually click on your link - it just has to be there. That sure makes it a lot easier! The first thing that I did was to copy and paste the same links to both my shop and blog at the bottom of each of my Etsy items and in my profile. Something to remember is that we each have 2 working URL formats. The first for my shop is http://www.etsy.com/shop/MirabilisColors?ref=si_shop and that is what is seen in the URL line of my browser. The second one that will work for me is http://www.mirabiliscolors.etsy.com and I use that on my business cards but unless I'm missing something Etsy won't turn that one into a live link.
I was also told that when posting our links to our shop from outside of Etsy that it's better to label the link with searchable keywords instead of just showing the URL. So, Handmade Sweaters from MirabilisColors would be better than http://www.etsy.com/shop/MirabilisColors?ref=si_shop
I'm also going to go back in and edit every one of my blog entries to have the link to the shop at the end of each one. It might be kind of annoying but hopefully not too much.
Stephanie adds:
Actually, Karen, all links to anything on etsy are made live, it's just off site links that are dead.
Karen adds
LOL - I wonder if you saw that before or after my edit. I should stick a warning on every post that I might be wrong about everything and will be correcting myself along the way. For some reason I can't get it to show a live link for this blog. Can you and if so what format do you use?
Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com
One of the things that I found out yesterday is that links to your shop help to increase your visibility to search engines. No one has to actually click on your link - it just has to be there. That sure makes it a lot easier! The first thing that I did was to copy and paste the same links to both my shop and blog at the bottom of each of my Etsy items and in my profile. Something to remember is that we each have 2 working URL formats. The first for my shop is http://www.etsy.com/shop/MirabilisColors?ref=si_shop and that is what is seen in the URL line of my browser. The second one that will work for me is http://www.mirabiliscolors.etsy.com and I use that on my business cards but unless I'm missing something Etsy won't turn that one into a live link.
I was also told that when posting our links to our shop from outside of Etsy that it's better to label the link with searchable keywords instead of just showing the URL. So, Handmade Sweaters from MirabilisColors would be better than http://www.etsy.com/shop/MirabilisColors?ref=si_shop
I'm also going to go back in and edit every one of my blog entries to have the link to the shop at the end of each one. It might be kind of annoying but hopefully not too much.
Stephanie adds:
Actually, Karen, all links to anything on etsy are made live, it's just off site links that are dead.
Karen adds
LOL - I wonder if you saw that before or after my edit. I should stick a warning on every post that I might be wrong about everything and will be correcting myself along the way. For some reason I can't get it to show a live link for this blog. Can you and if so what format do you use?
Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Great Free (or Super Cheap) Etsy Tools I Have Come To Love..
Over time, I find ways to do things that are faster, easier, or just plain neat.
Here are a few of my favorite apps.
Quick editing:
Titles, prices, and descriptions. www.craftopolis.com
Be careful with this app, I have heard stories of people accidentally deleting their descriptions for their entire shops before. Do one or 2 as a test to make sure you have your settings right before doing the rest. Craftopolis also is a little difficult in the undoing the changes. You have to go in to each listing to undo any additions (like those for a sale)
Tags, prices, and adding to titles- sales www.etsyonsale.com
Etsy on sale is no longer free, but the first time you use it, you are given 5 credits to try it out-enough for setting up a sale and adding one tag to the end of your tags. EOS will automatically change your prices, and add a sale blurb to the beginning of your titles-and even better, it will undo those at the end of your sale. Watch for adding custom orders while using the tool with the automatically add all listings setting turned on.
Easy way to find out how much you are loved (a.k.a. favorited):
www.craftopolis.com. also has a place to show page views, hearts, and sales for any given day. It can be buggy sometimes though.
Fee Calculators:
These both do exactly the same thing. I keep both bookmarked just in case one goes down.
www.rolbe.com/etsy.htm
http://www.gregledet.net/efcm.html
How much is your shop worth?
http://www.etsyhacks.com/shop_value/ Just type in your shop name.
Keyword tool:
Find out how often your keywords are searched for-invaluable tool in the dreaded SEO fight.
Google keyword tool
Web Analysis: www.google.com/analytics
Not easy to get the in depth information, but a very useful tool for finding out how many people are finding you and where they are coming from.
Not free, but definitely worth it
Taxes
http://www.etsy.com/apps/80311372/taxtime This app breaks down all of your on etsy info, just stir in paypal fees, local sales, other expenses, and bake at tax time :)
RIP
There used to be a series of tools for makers of treasuries on Etsy. Sadly, the schmetsy tools no longer work. Hopefully, Etsy will allow them back soon.
These are all of the apps I use on an almost daily basis, I hope you get as much use out of them as I do.
Here are a few of my favorite apps.
Quick editing:
Titles, prices, and descriptions. www.craftopolis.com
Be careful with this app, I have heard stories of people accidentally deleting their descriptions for their entire shops before. Do one or 2 as a test to make sure you have your settings right before doing the rest. Craftopolis also is a little difficult in the undoing the changes. You have to go in to each listing to undo any additions (like those for a sale)
Tags, prices, and adding to titles- sales www.etsyonsale.com
Etsy on sale is no longer free, but the first time you use it, you are given 5 credits to try it out-enough for setting up a sale and adding one tag to the end of your tags. EOS will automatically change your prices, and add a sale blurb to the beginning of your titles-and even better, it will undo those at the end of your sale. Watch for adding custom orders while using the tool with the automatically add all listings setting turned on.
Easy way to find out how much you are loved (a.k.a. favorited):
www.craftopolis.com. also has a place to show page views, hearts, and sales for any given day. It can be buggy sometimes though.
Fee Calculators:
These both do exactly the same thing. I keep both bookmarked just in case one goes down.
www.rolbe.com/etsy.htm
http://www.gregledet.net/efcm.html
How much is your shop worth?
http://www.etsyhacks.com/shop_value/ Just type in your shop name.
Keyword tool:
Find out how often your keywords are searched for-invaluable tool in the dreaded SEO fight.
Google keyword tool
Web Analysis: www.google.com/analytics
Not easy to get the in depth information, but a very useful tool for finding out how many people are finding you and where they are coming from.
Not free, but definitely worth it
Taxes
http://www.etsy.com/apps/80311372/taxtime This app breaks down all of your on etsy info, just stir in paypal fees, local sales, other expenses, and bake at tax time :)
RIP
There used to be a series of tools for makers of treasuries on Etsy. Sadly, the schmetsy tools no longer work. Hopefully, Etsy will allow them back soon.
These are all of the apps I use on an almost daily basis, I hope you get as much use out of them as I do.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
I'm so proud of myself....
So a few months ago, when I had some money, I decided I was going to learn to spin yarn.
I bought this drop spindle:
top-whorl-drop-spindle-double-whorl
And this roving:
domestic-56-wool-roving-8-oz
I used the spindle to do my handplied yarns, but the roving sat unused until earlier this week.
I'm not going to post a tutorial on how to do it, because there are a bazillion other tutorials out there and I watched many of them. But here is the finished product!
I bought this drop spindle:
top-whorl-drop-spindle-double-whorl
And this roving:
domestic-56-wool-roving-8-oz
I used the spindle to do my handplied yarns, but the roving sat unused until earlier this week.
I'm not going to post a tutorial on how to do it, because there are a bazillion other tutorials out there and I watched many of them. But here is the finished product!
 |
| Before plying with thread |
 |
| The finished yarn, 36 yards of wooly goodness! |
Saturday, July 2, 2011
I think that my shop has a split personality...
but I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. It's probably bad because the items appeal to two entirely different audiences and where I want to go isn't where I started out. The hats and bags appeal to latter day hippies who generally don't want to buy a $250 sweater and the people who buy the sweaters wouldn't go near a hippie store. So, option one is to take all of that stuff out of my shop and just aim for a high-end audience but if I do that my shop will be practically empty and that doesn't look good. Option 2 is to leave them there permanently so that I have some low-priced items and hope that the big spenders aren't turned off by them. Option 3 is to replace them with sweaters as I make them so that the shop at least stays the same size for a while and work on thinking up some lower priced designs that are at least somewhat unique. So far I don't have a single idea for hats, scarves, necklaces or hand warmers that someone isn't already making. Option 4 is to open a second shop for the hippie stuff but that seems like a waste of time since I'm not planning on making any more of them. I don't know - what do you think?
Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com
Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com
Friday, July 1, 2011
Deciding whether or not to sell...
I've been crocheting for 18 years now, and I'm only 24 (yes, I'm that young). I started with making thousands of thousands of yards of chain, so I'm pretty good at it. Then mom taught me a couple basic stitches, and then I could make misshaped.... I don't know what they were. They were supposed to be hats.
Over the years I got better, made a whole bunch of afghans, then found out that almost everything my mother taught me, was wrong. No wonder nothing looked quite right!
Everything she taught me was the extended form of the stitch, so I had to learn everything the right way.
This didn't take a long time, as I knew my hook pretty well.
Before too long, I was making and designing some seriously awesome patterns.
But I never thought to sell my stuff. Not for a long time anyway. I gave some stuff away, but after I found a coaster set I had given my mother in my sister's yard sale, then later found those same coasters in the dumpster where I worked. Then find out that the gold (real gold) and sapphire ring I gave her for her 18th birthday was pawned, I decided to never give another thing to any member of my family (told to show the lack of support I have).
And my house was starting to get filled with stuff from my hobby.
I've sold on Ebay in the past, so i checked there to see what was selling in handmade-uck, 99¢ and free shipping for a pair of fingerless gloves?? I think not! (was tempted to buy them, and reclaim the yarn, though!).
I got to thinking, there's a site for everything, and I found this article about places to sell handmade stuff. Etsy was on that list. After 3 weeks of peeking around the site, I signed up, then had to wait for the chance to get a camera. and listed my first item! Which is still in my shop, weirdly enough.
I was not the "dreaded hobbyist" though, I had plans, I was going to be rid of my boss with the 6 year old mind once and for all:) Those 3 weeks looking around included some lessons in business 101 and pricing.
Over the years I got better, made a whole bunch of afghans, then found out that almost everything my mother taught me, was wrong. No wonder nothing looked quite right!
Everything she taught me was the extended form of the stitch, so I had to learn everything the right way.
This didn't take a long time, as I knew my hook pretty well.
Before too long, I was making and designing some seriously awesome patterns.
But I never thought to sell my stuff. Not for a long time anyway. I gave some stuff away, but after I found a coaster set I had given my mother in my sister's yard sale, then later found those same coasters in the dumpster where I worked. Then find out that the gold (real gold) and sapphire ring I gave her for her 18th birthday was pawned, I decided to never give another thing to any member of my family (told to show the lack of support I have).
And my house was starting to get filled with stuff from my hobby.
I've sold on Ebay in the past, so i checked there to see what was selling in handmade-uck, 99¢ and free shipping for a pair of fingerless gloves?? I think not! (was tempted to buy them, and reclaim the yarn, though!).
I got to thinking, there's a site for everything, and I found this article about places to sell handmade stuff. Etsy was on that list. After 3 weeks of peeking around the site, I signed up, then had to wait for the chance to get a camera. and listed my first item! Which is still in my shop, weirdly enough.
I was not the "dreaded hobbyist" though, I had plans, I was going to be rid of my boss with the 6 year old mind once and for all:) Those 3 weeks looking around included some lessons in business 101 and pricing.
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