Ever feel like that? I know I do! I am gearing up for the holiday shopping season in my online stores. My regular job, taking photos of children in day cares is super duper busy, and on the side I work part time for an online auction company MAXSOLD, taking photos of the items to go online in the auction. (Need to downsize, have an estate to settle and want an easier way to do - message me will be glad to give you MAXSOLD info.) See there I go getting side tracked again.
So in the midst of all this, Etsy decides to change a few things. Some good some not so great ideas, but it's Etsy and they can do what they want with their service and site. So I decided to explore other options for my vintage store. I opened an Artfire store - and a store on Zibbet - all under the same name FLEAOSOPHY - Problem is
I was already set at Etsy, now trying to get 2 other stores at least presentable creates a bit of a challenge, with my limited time.
I have a ton of new products to list, most I have already taken the photos of. Now however I am stuck, do I list it all on Etsy, transfer over to the other sites or wait until after the holidays...oh the choices. For the most part I am listing things on Etsy - still have about 200 items live and ready to go, I have another 100-200 items waiting to get added, so I think I will add them to all the stores and measure the success of the holidays.
Having been through this with several other online stores in the past, the new startups need the shopkeepers, want them to be happy and are pleasant to work with, then they get successful - Cafepress was my first venture over 12 years ago. Once the website is successful, the owners sell out to raise money to expand and then they are beholden to investors, not the original customer base. Yes the shopkeepers are the customers of Etsy, Cafepress etc.. but once they get too big, then they lose sight of their original customers and believe that the shopkeepers' customers are their customers and that is where they start to go down hill.
Eventually I will start a standalone website - have one working now, just too close to the holidays to launch it and hope it does ok. And on top of that someone somewhere bought my name - and wants to sell it for over $1200. So no, thanks, not gonna do that right now. Almost feels like someone stole it and wants me to pay them for it back. That's how the interweb (as they say on one of those cartoons or was that in congress?) works.
The one thing I do know is if I want something done my way, I have to do it myself. Otherwise I have to be grateful others took the time to build something I can use to make some money, even if after I built my business up they take it away... At least I had it for the time I did.
Here's hoping Zibbet pays off, and I may even try Ebay again.
Ww will see...
So everyone stay in touch subscribe to the blog, like my page on facebook and keep me posted on where you are too!
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Monday, September 9, 2013
How I improved my sales on Etsy ...
I decided early in the summer I wanted to get better traffic to my store, make
more sales and be noticed. I started studying the treasuries that were on the
front page, made notes of who consistently had treasuries and products featured.
Started following a few that I really liked.
My first treasuries on Etsy well they sucked. I didn't know what treasuries were really about, and I fell into the trap of doing all vintage, or all owls or all one thing and it usually wasn't a great theme. Not that all the items I picked weren't great! I loved them that is why I picked them. But they were usually fellow team members to promote something and actually at first, I didn't have a clue what I was doing. You can see my treasuries here from the most recent on back go ahead look at the last page ...
Patti's Treasuries - Go to the Last Page to see first ones!
I started to take a good hard look at my store photos, and began making changes. I blogged about it -
http://fleaosophy.blogspot.
I joined a few teams that made treasuries, I made lots of treasuries, looked at lots of treasuries and fav'd and followed those I loved. I made some treasuries that seemed to follow the Front Page recipe - and some treasuries I made to tell a story (those are the ones I love to do) and then while I was sleeping a treasury I had made for a vintage team I was on was on the FRONT PAGE - it told a story - the theme of it was the Ghost and Mrs, Muir - it was a bit romantic, nostalgic and vintage - and not at all what I
expected to get chosen for a FP. the-ghost-and-mrs-muir
I also had a print from my second store on a FP treasury, which was awesome! my print on the front page!!
But the most important thing I have gotten out of all this - is the networking with other shops, finding great items, and the fun of great treasuries. The bonus my stuff is selling, my views are WAY UP, my sales are up when a ton of people are complaining about slow sales etc... my store is growing!
Every day I have several items featured in treasury, sometimes I don't get notification my the maker, and I have to search my feed to see them all and I think I miss a few of them because it has been so many!! That's FREE ADVERTISING!! I don't do the Etsy ads, sorry Etsy, I pay enough with listing fees etc... and I make treasuries featuring items I love and that sells for those stores - I know I get messages saying thanks! since that treasury was up the item sold in 20 minutes!
I honestly believe it all comes down to the photos I have in my store, helps other people find and market by treasuries, and my making treasuries shares my love of the items I find, and all that I made it to the front page - TWICE so far ... My Second FRONT PAGE treasury!! WHOO HOO!! # 2
and some of my favorites that I made and others have done No Exit
The Most Interesting Man in the World
dragon slayer
unearthed
a secretive man
nights in constantinople
water nymph
My first treasuries on Etsy well they sucked. I didn't know what treasuries were really about, and I fell into the trap of doing all vintage, or all owls or all one thing and it usually wasn't a great theme. Not that all the items I picked weren't great! I loved them that is why I picked them. But they were usually fellow team members to promote something and actually at first, I didn't have a clue what I was doing. You can see my treasuries here from the most recent on back go ahead look at the last page ...
Patti's Treasuries - Go to the Last Page to see first ones!
I started to take a good hard look at my store photos, and began making changes. I blogged about it -
http://fleaosophy.blogspot.
I joined a few teams that made treasuries, I made lots of treasuries, looked at lots of treasuries and fav'd and followed those I loved. I made some treasuries that seemed to follow the Front Page recipe - and some treasuries I made to tell a story (those are the ones I love to do) and then while I was sleeping a treasury I had made for a vintage team I was on was on the FRONT PAGE - it told a story - the theme of it was the Ghost and Mrs, Muir - it was a bit romantic, nostalgic and vintage - and not at all what I
expected to get chosen for a FP. the-ghost-and-mrs-muir
I also had a print from my second store on a FP treasury, which was awesome! my print on the front page!!
But the most important thing I have gotten out of all this - is the networking with other shops, finding great items, and the fun of great treasuries. The bonus my stuff is selling, my views are WAY UP, my sales are up when a ton of people are complaining about slow sales etc... my store is growing!
Every day I have several items featured in treasury, sometimes I don't get notification my the maker, and I have to search my feed to see them all and I think I miss a few of them because it has been so many!! That's FREE ADVERTISING!! I don't do the Etsy ads, sorry Etsy, I pay enough with listing fees etc... and I make treasuries featuring items I love and that sells for those stores - I know I get messages saying thanks! since that treasury was up the item sold in 20 minutes!
I honestly believe it all comes down to the photos I have in my store, helps other people find and market by treasuries, and my making treasuries shares my love of the items I find, and all that I made it to the front page - TWICE so far ... My Second FRONT PAGE treasury!! WHOO HOO!! # 2
and some of my favorites that I made and others have done No Exit
The Most Interesting Man in the World
dragon slayer
unearthed
a secretive man
nights in constantinople
water nymph
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
EEK ...Photos ... I am a photographer this should be easy ....
So, I am a photographer, not the I take pictures because I got a camera for Christmas photographer. An actual I go to work, lug heavy equipment sweat my butt off and get great photos photographer. I work for a large company, and that specializes in photos in day cares and preschools - and I LOVE IT!!
I am great with the kids, I get great smiles - not those cheesy smiles you see in most school photos - I don't work for THAT company - I work for the one that captures the smiles in the child's eyes, and I do! We as a company pride ourselves on that -(wish I could show you some but I can't due to privacy etc... ) so what's the problem ? PRODUCTS do not Smile!! they don't laugh they don't giggle and well posing a product just isn't the same as getting a two year old to look so darn adorable and cute!
I have been tweaking my product shots at the store http://www.etsy.com/shop/fleaosophy and you can see a difference from the older products to the ones I am currently listing.
I have reworked my little studio - gotten a cute little table - and some awesome crates and wooden props and today I painted the walls - the white paper backdrop was just BLAH...
I have been using some actions for photoshop I currently LOVE LOVE LOVE -Freshwonderland2 by Paint the Moon - I purchased the Fresh Wonderland2 there are a few freebies to try out (but I LOVE all the actions they have too!) http://paintthemoon.net/blog/tag/free-actions/ I love Wonderland 2 because I can run the action and see how all the options will look on an image and then run all my photos with that action -
I also have a great model - Bree - is a love who will come over and model for me anytime - she was in some of my early digital art photos as a fairy
Now here is how the studio is looking - stay tuned for some new photos -
I am great with the kids, I get great smiles - not those cheesy smiles you see in most school photos - I don't work for THAT company - I work for the one that captures the smiles in the child's eyes, and I do! We as a company pride ourselves on that -(wish I could show you some but I can't due to privacy etc... ) so what's the problem ? PRODUCTS do not Smile!! they don't laugh they don't giggle and well posing a product just isn't the same as getting a two year old to look so darn adorable and cute!
I have been tweaking my product shots at the store http://www.etsy.com/shop/fleaosophy and you can see a difference from the older products to the ones I am currently listing.
I have reworked my little studio - gotten a cute little table - and some awesome crates and wooden props and today I painted the walls - the white paper backdrop was just BLAH...
I have been using some actions for photoshop I currently LOVE LOVE LOVE -Freshwonderland2 by Paint the Moon - I purchased the Fresh Wonderland2 there are a few freebies to try out (but I LOVE all the actions they have too!) http://paintthemoon.net/blog/tag/free-actions/ I love Wonderland 2 because I can run the action and see how all the options will look on an image and then run all my photos with that action -
I also have a great model - Bree - is a love who will come over and model for me anytime - she was in some of my early digital art photos as a fairy
 |
| first set up - white sheet on wall - an old table for display |
 |
| getting ready to paint |
 |
| $15 table I got at flea market - painted with chalk paint |
 |
| this is the current version - a few crates and my $15 table with the walls painted the same as the table - |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)