|
I apparently need to spend more time in DIY&Hobbies. This is my shop, full of girly stuff http://www.etsy.com/shop/MountainMusings . I think I spent a few minutes hyperventilating when I got all my tax forms and realized I actually owned a legitimate business.
|
#
¿
Jan 7, 2011 07:15
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 09:57 |
|
|
You can actually run into problems if you price your items too low on etsy (people might assume there is a catch). I think your prices look fine, but it wouldn't hurt to do some researching in other weaving shops. Also, I wouldn't worry about no sales yet. I didn't have more than one or two sales a month for almost the first five months. Things seem to pick up the longer you're there, the more items you make, and the more feedback you get.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 18, 2011 04:36
|
|
|
zoecore posted:That link doesn't work. And no shops by that name comes up in shop search. Otherwise, I'd check it out. Well, I'm flat broke for spending money this month, but I do love your happy day/crappy day rings! Your whole shop is awesome.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 23, 2011 06:45
|
|
|
samyt posted:That's it. Thanks for correcting the link. I just posted a few more items today. Awesome! It's a cute shop, and I like your jewelry designs. One thing though, that I noticed while reading your profile is that you mentioned "test wearing". I think you may want to define that more since I know some of the etsy buyers get really squicked out if they think there's even a possibility that ear wires have gone into other people's ears. Also, use as many of your picture slots as you can. You get five chances to capture the essence of your item, and you can never be sure exactly which picture will sell it to your buyers. Best of luck! I know jewelry takes a while to break into, so don't get discouraged if sales are slow to nonexistent for the first few months. It seems to go that way for a lot of the jewelry crowd.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 24, 2011 09:48
|
|
|
e6000 is awesome, but ventilate when possible. Also something to possibly consider is felted wool (far more expensive I know) but I love the heck out of my wool pin cushion. Didn't think I would, but that thing is the bomb. Also, buy e6000 at a craft store and not through etsy. I can get a (relatively) big ole bottle for 3$-4$ at most any ole craft store, and of all the glues I've used, it works the best but is most likely to have issues straight from the package. It's just so much easier to return a dry bottle of glue when you can drive to the store.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 3, 2011 06:59
|
|
|
razz posted:What can I do if I see somebody selling something illegal on Etsy? There are a number of people on Etsy that sell animal skulls which is mostly fine, but I just came across someone selling a real skull of a bird species which is illegal to possess and WAY illegal to sell. You can also press the link for "contact seller" from the listing and it will bring up a conversation box with the link to the item in it, and you can tell the seller directly what the issue is. That is if you don't want to immediately get them in trouble. Reporting them to etsy likely won't get it taken care of in a timely fashion (they're horribly swamped), so that might be the best first step, and if they're rude to you, you can always report them to the authorities in their state.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 7, 2011 04:45
|
|
|
I really would urge that if you think it's a case of the seller being ignorant. I know I would want to know if I were selling something illegal before possibly getting in trouble with the law/etsy. But I'd definitely contact the fish and game authorities in their state if they're rude/dismissive/ignore you before I'd go to etsy over it. They're so swamped any response is usually slower than molasses covered snails attempting to go uphill on black ice.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 7, 2011 08:41
|
|
|
Selling things as sets might work well for you then. If you were to give a small discount for hair pins that you were selling as sets of three, four, six, what have you, that might also have good results. One other thing is to put up a listing for a brooch, photograph all your brooches together or in groups, and state that the customer should tell you which brooch, earring, hair pin, etc they would like at checkout. Sometimes you have to prompt the customer with a convo, and it has more of a potential for involving conversations, but if you don't have time to photograph everything individually it might work well, especially since you can just cross off what is available when you sell out on one of the things/colors in the picture and just relist the listing. I've seen it work for other sellers.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2011 01:21
|
|
|
Flat rate priority isn't the best option (in my opinion) unless you're shipping heavier things. If your general shipment only weighs an ounce or two it would only cost you a couple of dollars to ship even overseas if you go first class USPS. My average package weight is about 1.2 ounces, which costs approximately 3$ to ship to France or even Australia. My domestic shipping usually isn't more than 1-2$. Or, if you can get more than one skein in a box, consider just charging the initial shipping and nothing extra for the others if you still want to go flat rate.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2011 09:00
|
|
|
Drunk Bettie posted:Could you ask your mom why the price to ship outside the US is so high? I was about to order two cases when I saw the shipping price to Canada is triple that of the US, which isn't remotely right. It could very likely keep international buyers away (like me, sadly). She's shipping priority. Perhaps you could ask her if she'd be willing to ship first class with the understanding that you're willing to wait longer and forgo tracking.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2011 08:01
|
|
|
The more stuff you have the more likely you are to have a sale. It makes me sad to see people list one or two things, never sell anything, and then get discouraged when really they would have done just great if they'd had more to offer. So keep on keeping on and cute budgie!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 29, 2011 07:14
|
|
|
I'm lucky and have a west facing double windowed studio (ie an extra bedroom) that gets enough light for decent photos. And an ok camera my parents gave me when they got themselves a nice new one. I really should read through the manual and see if it has a macro setting.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2011 23:38
|
|
|
I figured that you guys could appreciate the geeky! I am so excited I found a place that will custom order dice from chessex for me. I must not go overboard, I must not go overboard, I must not go overboard...   my shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/MountainMusings?ref=si_shop
|
|
#
¿
May 20, 2011 05:07
|
|
|
Thanks Lealoo! And zoecore, I was on etsy last summer, but my kanzashi making was still just getting off the ground and I was more focused on just hair sticks  . I love your snowbells Lealoo, and I think your crappy day/happy day rings are just too awesome zoecore. I wish my stupid eczema would go away so I could wear more rings again .
|
|
#
¿
May 20, 2011 19:59
|
|
|
I've been considering posting some things on artfire, so I'd love to hear what any sellers there have to say.
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2011 21:07
|
|
|
Thanks for the info on Artfire zoecore. I wasn't sure how I felt about Artfire the few times I've ended up there as a shopper. It seemed much harder to navigate than etsy and more cluttered. I'm still not sure about putting my shop up over there as well, but your information has convinced me it's not something just to do on a whim in an afternoon. It's going to require more thought.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 5, 2011 02:02
|
|
|
This isn't for sale in my shop, but I'm ridiculously proud of my obnoxiously large prototype. I've wanted to do hair fork kanzashi for a while, but just now came across some hair forks that I could afford to play around with.   Bonus "so what do you do with an obnoxiously large flower hair fork" horrible photo.  My shop, which has large clips, but no large forks yet. http://www.etsy.com/shop/MountainMusings?ref=si_shop flutterbyblue fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Jul 16, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Jul 16, 2011 01:12
|
|
|
trickybiscuits posted:Recently I cleaned out a bunch of stuff- quilting fabric, trim, beads- from my sewing and crafts stash. Would it be worthwhile to put it up on Etsy? It doesn't seem like there's a lot of yard-saley sellers on there and that's a little intimidating. If you are selling cheaply then it might not be so bad, but etsy is definitely geared more toward long term shops than yard sales. I would be concerned that your items might sit for quite a while. It's not uncommon to have listings that won't sell for months.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2011 07:09
|
|
|
Dabbo posted:So I made some chickens for my Mom and Stepdad and pretty much everyone who's seen them so far also wants chickens or other paper birds. I want to set up an etsy, but I don't know how much I would charge. I still have the stencils I drew so they'd only take about an hour each, and together only use a few bucks worth of paper. What else should I keep in mind when coming up with prices? Listing fees (.20 an item for 4 months), paypal fees, etsy transaction fees (3% of total cost of the item), and shipping costs. Also, you have to figure in time spent photographing and listing time depending on how profitable you want to make this venture. Cute chickens!
|
|
#
¿
Jul 23, 2011 06:24
|
|
|
Dabbo posted:Also remaking the chickens is a lot more tedious than I thought, would charging around $50 be considered too much? I don't know what the average etsy customer is usually willing to spend on stuff. Yes! Custom is totally possible. I offer some custom items, especially ones that are big, tedious and I can only make a limited number of. Lealoo covered that well. As for the chickens, it would depend. I know that there is a paper cut artist who does very well selling expensive, high class paper cuts. I think you could definitely sell some as long as they are done very well and very professionally. the more expensive the item, the more high class and professional people expect it to be, so be sure to take very good photos.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 26, 2011 08:03
|
|
|
Hoooooly cow! That was quite a run on those puppet pal pendants! 
|
|
#
¿
Jul 29, 2011 05:11
|
|
|
SassySally posted:Argh! I've been open for 7 months and have 11 sales. What am I doing wrong? Don't get too down about it, really. I had about one sale a month for six to seven months, and my sales didn't take off until earlier this year. Now I've sold over 200 items. Grink Helch has some great advice, so I'd definitely at least consider it. Some shops just take off because of their specialty, the friends they have, their marketing technique, etc. Sometimes I don't know, but don't be too down. The longer you are on etsy and the better stocked your store (yours is stocked fabulously by the way) it seems the more you get noticed.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 19, 2011 18:42
|
|
|
It might be worth looking to see if you can get some kind of app for credit cards to use on your laptop. I don't know if something like that exists, but I think it would be worth looking into since both logging into a paypal account on someone else's lap top and having someone take an imprint of your card have the chance of looking kind of sketchy. The credit card issue is a big part of why I haven't really done any craft fairs. Taking checks would probably also help, but then you run the chance of one of them bouncing. Also, if you go the computer route, play up that you can use your credit card through paypal without creating an account. That might seem more secure than asking the customer essentially giving out the ability to clean out their bank account (assuming you had a key logger, which I know you're more upstanding than that, but it's the first thing that comes to mind with "other person's laptop). On the plus side, a lot of people that go to craft fairs are not all that tech savvy (in my experience attending craft fairs), so it might not even occur to them that it could be a risk. flutterbyblue fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Aug 24, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Aug 24, 2011 18:48
|
|
|
^^ Oh sweet! That's really good to know. Thanks for the info.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 27, 2011 19:22
|
|
|
BurnE201 posted:anyone here do any Custom Embroidery work? Check around etsy for people that do embroidery or custom embroidery. If you find something you like, shoot the shop a convo and see what they say. Most etsians are pretty great about getting back to you, and if they don't, move on, it's not worth the hassle and there are generally a ton of shop options. Unless you really, really, really like their work, then give it another go.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 31, 2011 07:00
|
|
|
zoecore posted:I don't pay attention to views / favourites / keywords or anything. Maybe I should.. But if it's working, then why create more work for yourself? I haven't changed a single thing about my shop and I'm still getting more sales than I was last year and my sales spiked after they changed the search features. I'm leaving well enough alone for now.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2011 04:14
|
|
|
Ambrose Burnside posted:What's the usual trajectory for small-time artisans in my position? Etsy then independent website, something like that? I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants so I don't know what resources exist (beyond Etsy and its community, which I'm only familiar with in passing). I've found that etsy is pretty good for making a little money if you don't want to necessarily want to invest a ton of time, energy, and money into getting started. Jewelry is oversaturated though, so that could make things harder for you if you want fairly frequent sales. If you plan on pricing low, it might be good to put "I price at cost because I want people to enjoy my work" or "priced low because I think people on a budget should have nice things too". Low prices can sometimes make people think "shoddy". The really nice thing about etsy is that the low cost to entry means that you can fold shop fairly easily without worrying about losing your shirt. It is good to know your area's tax laws before getting going though. Happysafer posted:I listed it at $12 because these things really do take forever to make, but will anyone pay that plus $4.00 shipping? Should I charge more for my glass ornaments? (This one is plastic.) Seems good to me, but it wouldn't hurt to look at other people's prices to compare where you sit. What is most important is what you are comfortable with/that you make what you feel is fair. If you build it, they will come (most of the time). If you can afford free shipping on more than one item or offer a buy one/get one of some form it might not hurt either. I have a buy one get one half off policy on some of my products because it's actually beneficial for me to give them a break if it means only one packaging stint and trip to the post office. I make money and save some time, they get a deal. Also, if you can use glass frequently it might help (in my perspective). I see glass and I think "better than plastic" almost all the time. Glass ornaments also are fairly inexpensive around here (by which I mean totally clear bulbs with no decoration or anything) so they're great for supplies. Also, it might help to include the size of the bulb and a picture of it in your hand for scale comparison. I've seen sellers get negative/neutral feedback because something was "sooo tiny" in their opinion. madlilnerd posted:Fair enough. I think you would be better pricing based on what you paid for your raw goods, the time it took to make it, and what you feel is a decent profit. That does seem low, but people will not often pay a ton for kids clothing because they outgrow it so fast. Also, some people knit crazy fast so I have no idea how long that took to make. To give you an idea though, at minimum wage where I live, that sweater equals about 5 hours of work. I don't think you should pay yourself minimum wage or anything, but it might give you a bit of scale based on the USA. I've also thought people in Britain/the EU must think etsy is crazy cheap. flutterbyblue fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Oct 1, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Oct 1, 2011 23:19
|
|
|
Also, I wanted to show these off because they were hard to make and I am crazy proud of how they turned out.   This one was not so hard to make, but yay sugar skulls! 
|
|
#
¿
Oct 1, 2011 23:27
|
|
|
madlilnerd posted:As for people in Britain thinking Etsy is crazy cheap... hmm, I don't know about that. I do think that craft stuff in the USA is very affordable, especially fabrics. When I was in Hawaii, where everything else was 1.5 times the price of mainland stuff, fabric was still only $5 a yard for printed cotton. But people in the UK are very used to having extremely cheap, throwaway fashion, so the average person would probably find Etsy extortionate. Interesting! I thought clothing there was fairly comparable with the stuff over here (granted, I only got to hang around for a couple of weeks). I did end up paying 10$ for a key chain from Buckingham Palace and I think that probably skewed my perception. Am I right to think it was a tourist trap kind of thing? As for the sugar skull clip, it's 13$ (shipping included). I'm glad you like it! And linky http://www.etsy.com/listing/82975705/life-from-death-dia-de-los-muertos
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2011 02:29
|
|
|
madlilnerd posted:If you go somewhere like Primark, you can get a tshirt for £1.50, and a pair of jeans for ~£9 which I think is even cheaper than Walmart. And yeah, you got ripped off in the gift shop, if you're going to buy junk then don't buy it from the official gift shop- get thee to one of the ones on Oxford Street where they're always doing deals like 3 keychains for £6. Haha, I figured I must have been getting ripped off. Ah, but it was fun being the dumb tourist. Crazy awesome vacation.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2011 22:10
|
|
|
Happysafer posted:Yeah even using cheap dollar store nail polish I've resorted to bumming more off of my female friends. I was kind of surprised how much nail polish people have laying around in crazy colors that they're never going to wear. But yeah some goon tried a bunch of different paints last year and nothing seemed to work like nail polish. Nah, many shops (and etsy itself) gears up for the holidays about right now. Haha, yeah, nail polish gets expensive fast if you're using much of it. I think people think "cheap" because a single bottle isn't very expensive and you apply it in small quantities to a part of your body that often sees a ton of wear and tear on a daily basis. I consider it an amazing victory if I can go one day without chipping the hell out of a painted nail.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2011 03:35
|
|
|
MallcoreMotion posted:As for the food, my brother's girlfriend is a baker and was planning to make wedding cakes on the side so I was hoping to try working with her on getting a certification and kitchen. I know food on etsy is kind of skeezy, but I was hoping that by having an actual baker on my side, it would be a little easier. I mean, it's a goal right now, but it's not a priority. Yes, most places require that you have a certified kitchen, most etsians don't, just like a lot don't report on their taxes. However, food does really great. I do love to see that a kitchen is certified, which is why I haven't bought from most food vendors. However, just look how many sales a lot of the food sellers have. It's a hot item (a lot like soap) and something people will always need more of.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2011 06:02
|
|
|
Different states have different rules on reporting (I think). And there's a minimum in sales you have to make before you can be taxed, so it's just good to be aware of where the line is and report to the best of your ability. As long as you are making a good faith effort to report, the IRS can't fine you out the rear end (as much).
flutterbyblue fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Oct 7, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Oct 7, 2011 03:17
|
|
|
I'm glad you liked the clips
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2011 02:48
|
|
|
wildlifeatlas posted:Greetings, fellow etsy lovers! Inspired by this thread, I've been rooting through etsy, finding a totally awesome parasol that I absolutely must have (great deal, even with the shipping) and went to check out. It won't let me. I'm paying with a credit card (no paypal account. I've heard horror stories)and it keeps saying that I can't use the card for that item. Sometimes the checkout system seems to have hiccups. Try again later? Also it wouldn't hurt to e-mail the seller if you keep having issues and ask if they'd reserve the item while you try to figure things out, especially if you're really really set on getting the parasol. Paypal wouldn't let me use our credit card because it was a joint card and already attached to my husband's account. For what it's worth, I've never had any issues with Paypal, but it's probably just because I'm lucky. You can also go get a prepaid visa gift card with the amount you need on it and use that. That way it's a one off card and you don't even have to worry about your cc number getting stolen or something.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2011 22:19
|
|
|
A wee bit late to the game I think, but I'd like to pitch in on the banner this year if it's still possible. Just tell me what I gotta do.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2011 19:35
|
|
|
The Snoo posted:
She has 1188 sales, so she's definitely doing something right. But yeah, my tastes run more complex for those prices, but that's a personal thing.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 17, 2011 05:27
|
|
jesus loving christ I think this woman is full of herself
|
Well, I made far more than I realized every month. A huge chunk of it went right back into supplies though, so there's that.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 3, 2012 21:38
|
|
|
Aw, thank you! I've done a few wedding commission pieces in the past and it's one of my favorite things to do. Plus I'm always just hugely grateful that someone would think my stuff is good enough to wear on their big day.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 18, 2012 02:56
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 09:57 |
|
|
Banner ads are not very expensive compared to a lot of other ways to advertise. If you feel like it at a later date you should jump in. I only ended up paying about 8$ to be in this month and I've had two goon sales so far, so it already paid for itself.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2012 05:47
|
|