I made a big decision! I decided to open a second Etsy shop! I opened it 2 days ago now and I feel like it's going to go well!
The main reason I opened it was because I didn't feel like the products I was selling in my first shop went together well. So my original shop is now going to be dedicated to my hand painted name signs, while the second shop will have my baby shower gifts!
I'd love it if anyone reading this checked it out! The new shop is at http://sweetbabyminebysh.etsy.com/.
I had VERY promising beginnings with this shop! I hope it continues! I started by listing 3 items. They were sets of cupcake onesies in neutral, girl, and boy colors. 3 hours after I had opened the shop, I was already featured in 2 different treasuries! My other shop has only been in 2 treasuries and it's been open a month and a half! My shop was also added to someone's favorites in that time!
So that was a much more exciting first night than I expected! I'm adding an Etsy mini shop on my blog now for that shop along with my hand painted signs shop!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Craigslist
After reading more in the forums, I decided to list on Craigslist and see how that goes.
I heard a lot of people saying there stuff had been taken off because they gave a link to their Etsy shop though. But then others talked about having a Craigslist listing that basically gave shop info and what they sell with links and wasn't for a specific item at all and had been doing it for months without having it taken down.
I made my listings for 2 specific items. One for a diaper cake and one for the animal name sign. The sign was done first and hours ago, but I still can't find it in searches, even when I type in exactly what my title was. The diaper cake shows up just fine now. Wonder what's going on there. Maybe the sign has to be reviewed before being posted? It was the first thing I've ever listed on there, so maybe.
Ebay is definitely not working out how I had hoped. I've only had 21 or so views so far. And I'm pretty sure at least 4 or 5 are me. That's alright though, because the fees on there are completely crazy! I also haven't had any traffic come to my shop from there yet according to Google Analytics.
I'll update with how Craigslist is going once I have some more information! Wish me luck!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
I heard a lot of people saying there stuff had been taken off because they gave a link to their Etsy shop though. But then others talked about having a Craigslist listing that basically gave shop info and what they sell with links and wasn't for a specific item at all and had been doing it for months without having it taken down.
I made my listings for 2 specific items. One for a diaper cake and one for the animal name sign. The sign was done first and hours ago, but I still can't find it in searches, even when I type in exactly what my title was. The diaper cake shows up just fine now. Wonder what's going on there. Maybe the sign has to be reviewed before being posted? It was the first thing I've ever listed on there, so maybe.
Ebay is definitely not working out how I had hoped. I've only had 21 or so views so far. And I'm pretty sure at least 4 or 5 are me. That's alright though, because the fees on there are completely crazy! I also haven't had any traffic come to my shop from there yet according to Google Analytics.
I'll update with how Craigslist is going once I have some more information! Wish me luck!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Keeping Myself Entertained
Well, I haven't had anything going on as far as sales, so I've been reading up on ways to promote my shop and increase sales. So far there are a few things I'm trying.
The biggest thing I've heard is to list or relist something every day. Why? That keeps at least one item from your shop toward the top of searches, which are unfortnately automatically organized by how new the listing is instead of search term relevancy. I feel like this is a mistake on Etsy's part. Yes, it should definitely be an option, but by default it should be relevancy. For example, I typed "diaper cake" in search yesterday to help me decide where to price my diaper cakes. The first few pages contained very few diaper cakes. Maybe 2 or 3. It pulled up the most recent things listed that used the words diaper or cake as tags. Not helpful at all. Typically when I'm searching for something, unless I'm a VERY frequent shopper, I don't care what the newest thing is. I care about what items are most relevant to the words I put in the search box. But that's just my opinion.
Anyway, I had a ton of fun a few nights ago making more onesie cupcakes and putting together some diaper cakes! So much fun, in fact, that I stayed up until 3 working on it! Probably not a good idea since I knew the baby would be waking me up somewhere between 4:30 and 6:30. Oh well. I survived! I just went to bed early the next couple of nights to make up for it! Here are some photos of the diaper cakes!
Thanks for reading!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
The biggest thing I've heard is to list or relist something every day. Why? That keeps at least one item from your shop toward the top of searches, which are unfortnately automatically organized by how new the listing is instead of search term relevancy. I feel like this is a mistake on Etsy's part. Yes, it should definitely be an option, but by default it should be relevancy. For example, I typed "diaper cake" in search yesterday to help me decide where to price my diaper cakes. The first few pages contained very few diaper cakes. Maybe 2 or 3. It pulled up the most recent things listed that used the words diaper or cake as tags. Not helpful at all. Typically when I'm searching for something, unless I'm a VERY frequent shopper, I don't care what the newest thing is. I care about what items are most relevant to the words I put in the search box. But that's just my opinion.
Anyway, I had a ton of fun a few nights ago making more onesie cupcakes and putting together some diaper cakes! So much fun, in fact, that I stayed up until 3 working on it! Probably not a good idea since I knew the baby would be waking me up somewhere between 4:30 and 6:30. Oh well. I survived! I just went to bed early the next couple of nights to make up for it! Here are some photos of the diaper cakes!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
Sunday, March 20, 2011
A Line of Baby Shower Items?
I have had so much fun with making new things since the last time I wrote! I decided to start making the cupcake onesie and washcloth sets I have had in the back of my mind for awhile! Here's some photos of how they turned out!
Aren't they SO cute?! It makes me want to give nothing but these for baby showers from now on! Each "cupcake" is a onesie wrapped up with a washcloth surrounding it. They're even packaged in a cupcake box! I can't wait to see how they sell! These sets even have a hidden 5th onesie surprise underneath the cupcakes!
Some of the other baby shower gift sets I want to do are thing like burp cloths and spoons wrapped to look like suckers and shaped into a bouquet, and diaper cakes, which are absolutely adorable!
As far as my letters and signs, I don't have any new orders yet. There seem to be several people who want them, but just haven't gotten around to ordering yet. And then there are a few people who contacted me asking if I could do a specific theme and after I tell them yes, I never hear from them again. Strange. Oh well. What can you do?
I have been working on my 10" letters a little bit. I have one started with a space theme that is the same idea as my space themed sign. I plan to have that one done tomorrow to list on Monday during the day. I've been researching what other people seem to think is the best day to list in Etsy's forums, and quite a few people seem to say Monday. So we'll try it and see! The other letter I've started is a ladybug theme. That one is taking awhile because I'm making it striped, and I have to wait for each one to dry completely soI can tape over it to do the next stripe. Painter's tape works wonders for making a straight line! Such a life saver! That one will probably be a few days, so maybe I'll be able to list it Wednesday. Then for my other two samples of the 10" letters I am doing a lavender letter with butterflies and flowers in bright spring colors, and a monkey theme with greens and browns. I'm excited to show them off once they're done!
I also came up with some new ideas. I was thinking about ways to accomodate longer names, because my sign boards only fit up to 7 letters, and that's pushing it to be honest. So I found some plaques in the right size to fit the letters perfectly. I'm going to paint the plaques in my themes and paint the letters a solid color and put them on top, and then hang the whole thing with a ribbon. One plaque for each letter. I have several shapes, too! I'll be using circles, ovals, hearts, rectangles, squares, and anything else I can find. I will also be able to use the curly font from a couple of my other signs on these plaques, since it will be the background that is decorated! Finally able to use a girly font!
My final thought for the name signs is to use the same letters and plaques and decoupage them with pretty scrapbook papers to coordinate with various bedroom and nursery themes and colors! Now I'm just waiting for sales from my suppliers so I can stock up on all the goodies I need!
As always, thanks for reading!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
I just love doing all these custom and exciting baby gifts! So much fun to give, receive, and create a personalized and unique baby gift!
Some of the other baby shower gift sets I want to do are thing like burp cloths and spoons wrapped to look like suckers and shaped into a bouquet, and diaper cakes, which are absolutely adorable!
As far as my letters and signs, I don't have any new orders yet. There seem to be several people who want them, but just haven't gotten around to ordering yet. And then there are a few people who contacted me asking if I could do a specific theme and after I tell them yes, I never hear from them again. Strange. Oh well. What can you do?
I have been working on my 10" letters a little bit. I have one started with a space theme that is the same idea as my space themed sign. I plan to have that one done tomorrow to list on Monday during the day. I've been researching what other people seem to think is the best day to list in Etsy's forums, and quite a few people seem to say Monday. So we'll try it and see! The other letter I've started is a ladybug theme. That one is taking awhile because I'm making it striped, and I have to wait for each one to dry completely soI can tape over it to do the next stripe. Painter's tape works wonders for making a straight line! Such a life saver! That one will probably be a few days, so maybe I'll be able to list it Wednesday. Then for my other two samples of the 10" letters I am doing a lavender letter with butterflies and flowers in bright spring colors, and a monkey theme with greens and browns. I'm excited to show them off once they're done!
I also came up with some new ideas. I was thinking about ways to accomodate longer names, because my sign boards only fit up to 7 letters, and that's pushing it to be honest. So I found some plaques in the right size to fit the letters perfectly. I'm going to paint the plaques in my themes and paint the letters a solid color and put them on top, and then hang the whole thing with a ribbon. One plaque for each letter. I have several shapes, too! I'll be using circles, ovals, hearts, rectangles, squares, and anything else I can find. I will also be able to use the curly font from a couple of my other signs on these plaques, since it will be the background that is decorated! Finally able to use a girly font!
My final thought for the name signs is to use the same letters and plaques and decoupage them with pretty scrapbook papers to coordinate with various bedroom and nursery themes and colors! Now I'm just waiting for sales from my suppliers so I can stock up on all the goodies I need!
As always, thanks for reading!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
I just love doing all these custom and exciting baby gifts! So much fun to give, receive, and create a personalized and unique baby gift!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Another Day
I finished up the design painting on the animal sign for Karter! I decided I didn't like the elephant footprints on the letter for the elephant, so I looked up "elephant print" on Google image search and found a pattern! Aparently Nike sells shoes with that pattern... I thought it was pretty fitting for my design, so I tried it and loved how it turned out! I hope my buyer likes it! Of course, I'll offer to change it to the footprints if he wants, but I don't think he even saw a photo of what I do for an elephant letter. I'm still hoping to get it finished tomorrow night so I can deliver it on Friday. I'll post a few pictures once it's done!
I know I said I was going to talk about my survey taking experiences on this blog too, but I just don't feel like it fits well with the tone of this blog. So I've decided to start a second one focusing on surveys and other ways of making money at home, and I'll leave this one with just updates on running my store and the things I learn there. I'll post a link to it once I get it up and running!
Speaking of learning, last night I read some articles about taking better photos, and I' excited to learn more! I read about adjusting things like the white balance and exposure value on the camera and did some practice with it. I just bought a Sony Cyber Shot H55 earlier this year and have been enjoying getting used to it. It seemed like the photos I took while adjusting these settings didn't make the photos better (acutally, they were worse), but I feel like it will help out a ton once I really figure them out.
I also started thinking about ways to get things lighted correctly. Right now I don't have a wall to hang the signs on that gets good enough light, so I've been placing them on a blanket on top of my coffee table and pushing it against the glass slider door to the deck to get some natural light on them. That seems to be working the best, and I'm guessing it'll be even better once summer comes and the light is stronger. So many days are dark and overcast now! I can't wait for spring!
Thanks for reading!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
I know I said I was going to talk about my survey taking experiences on this blog too, but I just don't feel like it fits well with the tone of this blog. So I've decided to start a second one focusing on surveys and other ways of making money at home, and I'll leave this one with just updates on running my store and the things I learn there. I'll post a link to it once I get it up and running!
Speaking of learning, last night I read some articles about taking better photos, and I' excited to learn more! I read about adjusting things like the white balance and exposure value on the camera and did some practice with it. I just bought a Sony Cyber Shot H55 earlier this year and have been enjoying getting used to it. It seemed like the photos I took while adjusting these settings didn't make the photos better (acutally, they were worse), but I feel like it will help out a ton once I really figure them out.
I also started thinking about ways to get things lighted correctly. Right now I don't have a wall to hang the signs on that gets good enough light, so I've been placing them on a blanket on top of my coffee table and pushing it against the glass slider door to the deck to get some natural light on them. That seems to be working the best, and I'm guessing it'll be even better once summer comes and the light is stronger. So many days are dark and overcast now! I can't wait for spring!
Thanks for reading!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
What's New Today
Well, my first news is that I finished the flower themed sample sign! I love it! I'm giving it to my (adult) sister, and she's really excited to get it! Here's a photo!
My other news is that someone requested a quote on a custom item to match their baby's antique fire fighter nursery theme! They got cute custom made bedding and want a sign to match it. I hope I get to make it for them! It sounds like it'll be a cute nursery!
Still waiting on the order from the lady with the rock and roll themed room. She said it'd be about a week or so before she placed the order officially, so I'm not concerned about it yet. I can't wait to get started though!
The animal sign I am working on for Karter should be done in a couple of days. I'll probably be able to deliver it on Friday! I got 3 of the letters done last night, so now I just need to do the other 3, varnish it, paint the background, and attach the cutouts and hanging ribbon.
On another note, I found something else I'd like to do as a sample project. I found 10" letters in a really cute font for a good price, meaning I can hand paint them and still be able to charge a good price for them! The font is called Ravie, if anyone wants to Google it and see what it looks like! I'm going to hang each letter by a ribbon. They actually come with keyhole cutouts in the back so they can be hung by themselves, but I think ribbon is a nice touch.
Finally, a question for anyone willing to answer. I have suddenly been getting spam e-mails from people who have had horrible sad lives and only need me to donate some money by giving them my credit card number or something equally stupid. (Never believe these, by the way. They're taking people's money and running with it. I got 2 today that were exactly the same except the name of the "person" sending it was different.) This has never happened to me before, and I'm wondering if it's from Twitter or from here. I'm guessing Twitter, because it seems like there are a bunch of shady people on there and it would be easy to collect e-mail addresses from people you don't know and spam them. I'm taking my e-mail off of there and telling people they can message me if they need more info to see if that helps.
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
Sunday, March 13, 2011
A Break From Creating
In the last few days I haven't had a specific order to work on, so I've been working on other aspects of the business, like making my shop easier to find with search engines, some hard core price analysis, and other things like that. I've also worked on a sample of a flower themed name sign which should be finished sometime tomorrow. I'm excited to see the finished product!
Today I decided to list one item on eBay to see what happens. I've never used eBay before, so that was an interesting experience for me. It's been up for several hours now and has only had 2 views, but it's scheduled to be up for 30 days and eBay says listings don't usually show up in item searches for a few hours.
Another potential business building thing I did was sign up for Google Analytics. It's a free service and it will tell me where my business is coming from. I only have one day of data so far, but it looks like a promising tool. It tells me how my visitors got to my shop, so I can see if they're just using search engines, coming from within Etsy, or from other places like my Twitter or Facebook pages, or the new eBay listing I put up!
I think Google Analytics is going to be my new favorite tool!
On another note, I'm going to the craft store tomorrow to pick up the supplies I need for another animal themed sign for Karter! So I'll be starting on that tomorrow night! I'm also getting some 10" letters to paint when I have some time so I can list those too! I'll be selling those as individual letters hung by ribbon, and I'll probably do some of the same designs I've used on the other signs. Of course I'll be able to do many other things as well, but I feel like that will be a good starting point. That will be something for me to do with the next lull in paid painting projects!
I hope there's someone out there reading this! Follow my blog to continue to hear about my journey running my new business!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
Today I decided to list one item on eBay to see what happens. I've never used eBay before, so that was an interesting experience for me. It's been up for several hours now and has only had 2 views, but it's scheduled to be up for 30 days and eBay says listings don't usually show up in item searches for a few hours.
Another potential business building thing I did was sign up for Google Analytics. It's a free service and it will tell me where my business is coming from. I only have one day of data so far, but it looks like a promising tool. It tells me how my visitors got to my shop, so I can see if they're just using search engines, coming from within Etsy, or from other places like my Twitter or Facebook pages, or the new eBay listing I put up!
I think Google Analytics is going to be my new favorite tool!
On another note, I'm going to the craft store tomorrow to pick up the supplies I need for another animal themed sign for Karter! So I'll be starting on that tomorrow night! I'm also getting some 10" letters to paint when I have some time so I can list those too! I'll be selling those as individual letters hung by ribbon, and I'll probably do some of the same designs I've used on the other signs. Of course I'll be able to do many other things as well, but I feel like that will be a good starting point. That will be something for me to do with the next lull in paid painting projects!
I hope there's someone out there reading this! Follow my blog to continue to hear about my journey running my new business!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
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