Etsy Shop!

 

To Etsy or not to Etsy?

That is the question?!

Sadly, there is no simple answer to this question! There are tons of sights you can use to sell your items, like Craigslist (free), Ebay (fee based), eCrater (free), and Wix (free or fee), just to name a few! The question is; how much do you want to work? The simple answer is, if you want to make money, you will have to spend some time promoting your work. Some sights drive more buyers to you automatically (eBay, Craigslist) but you have to use the right descriptions and ad words. The same is true of Etsy or any other site, but some sites have more built in promotion. Of course if you don't advertise; you can't gain an audience and you won't get sales.

So how do you get more sales? I've researched this a little, and this blog is one attempt to drive more potential buyers to my site. Blogs are one way to promote your sites for free. You can even add ads to your blog to bring in a little money to offset the costs of your Etsy or other sites. That's important because if you choose to use a site like Etsy that has more built in promotion and social features, it will cost you some money. You can open your own site on any of the above examples (and I'm sure there are others I failed to mention), but to promote that site you should certainly use the others! For example, I have an Etsy site (as you can see above!) that I have connected to my Facebook page. That nifty little feature allows you to sell directly to your contacts on Facebook, and your contacts grow more contacts for you by sharing! I actually have a separate page linked to my personal Facebook page where I can post new jewelry and items directly to my followers. https://www.facebook.com/TrinketsByTherese?ref=hl

The cool thing about that is, I can post to those who have specifically liked my page or who have signed up as followers, without bothering some of my friends and fam who aren't necessarily interested. The connectivity with that page and my 'Easy Social Shop' are the real reasons I'm still on Etsy. I also like that I can connect to my fellow artists through Etsy via those social networks. I have students and friends who have Etsy sites because Etsy is so well known and so easy to use. 

I started out many years ago with a GeoCities account, then moved to Ecrater. Geocities acted more as an ad site and is now defunct, and the only issue I have had with Ecrater is that it doesn't offer the connectivity that Etsy does. I love that Ecrater is totally free, but sometimes you get what you pay for! I have to promote a lot more for Ecrater to be effective, so being employed full time while doing my artistic endeavors on the side, I just don't have the energy to do that. I have made sales through Etsy (though currently not as much as I'd like), but have not made any sales through Ecrater - though I've had that site much, much longer. 

Some good advice I've seen elsewhere is to promote through social networks, and to use sites like Craigslist to advertise, or Ebay to sell some items but advertise for others. I personally found this to be true!

So, the overall idea is to have one central site to focus on, but to use many of the others to promote. The 'you can't put all your eggs in one basket' line of thinking. After all, you probably have friends who use Ebay but not Craigslist, or vice versa. It's also important to get out and find those buyers who won't necessarily find you via Pinterest or other online methods, but who will frequent art shows, festivals, and craft shows. I always have my business cards at these shows for those who aren't yet online. These shoppers will sometimes call to buy an item they saw in person but for whatever reason, they didn't buy right then and there. And often they buy more than one item!

If you open an Etsy site, be sure to check out your competition when you start. Price accordingly and competitively! You don't have to be cheaper than your competitors, but if you choose to be cheaper make sure not to undercut yourself just to sell. Buyers on Etsy are willing to pay for quality. The best thing you can do as an Etsy seller is be unique and/or willing to customize items. 

My Etsy site:

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/TrinketsByTherese?ref=si_shop

My Ecrater site:

 http://tlo575.ecrater.com/

Feel free to add comments and thoughts below! The idea of this blog entry to was to give some basic advice for new sellers and to start a conversation to support one another as small business owners! (Yes, that's what you are! Own it!) :)

Trinkets & Treasures By Therese: How-to-make a Recycled Custom Birdbath

Trinkets & Treasures By Therese: How-to-make a Recycled Custom Birdbath: So around Mothers day, I was shopping with my Mom at a really neat local outdoor and oddities store in the Grand Rapids area. She was to pic...

How-to-make a Recycled Custom Birdbath

So around Mothers day, I was shopping with my Mom at a really neat local outdoor and oddities store in the Grand Rapids area. She was to pick out her own Mother's day gift, because she wanted 'stuff for her yard,' but didn't specify what she wanted. So I gave her my budget and she shopped quite successfully! Mission accomplished, right? Right, but....

So herein lies the issue;  I'm busy working more than full time hours most of the year so I don't get out to shop much. So unfortunately when I do get out to shop, I am amazed by all the wonderful things that I've been missing! I love to look at all these lovely things, and am amazed by all their glitz and glory! Until one thing happens (suspenseful pause).... when you flip over that price tag! And then all the glory is gone! For a while, anyway. Then some time goes by, and I see something somewhere that makes me think, 'hey, if I can only find a _______, I could use that ________ to make a _________ (like the one I saw in that shop)!

OK, I know I should be shopping local and supporting my local artisans, and I often do. But with my tight school teacher budget, sometimes that gorgeous, ornate $90 birdbath (+ the stand is another $30 on top of that?!) is out of my budget. However, sometimes the bird bath I couldn't afford inspires me to reuse and recycle to make a custom birdbath (or whatever) of my own. And you can do it, too!



So the first step is to find and assemble whatever it is you're going to use to make your birdbath. I bought the glass top from a resale store for $3 (it had a slight hairline crack in the glass). The nice thing about the glass was that since it was originally part of a light fixture, it already had a hole pre-drilled. I bought an old mirror topped table from a garage sale for $10. It was an ugly green flecked finish that I painted with Rustoleum in Oil Rubbed Bronze finish. I like dark furniture; but beauty is, you can paint yours any color you like!

My next step after painting was to disassemble the table to get to a smaller flat topped surface (trust me, I tried just setting the blue bowl on the table top - but that looked way too cheesy). So to remove the overlarge top, I flipped the table over to remove the screws.... (You can see the original color here - ew!)

Then my next step was to pull this square off - in retrospect, I might have pulled the table apart first then painted, and that way I'd only have painted the parts I was using. Well, first time = rookie, next time I'll know better!

P.S. The reason I wanted to remove this square base was the same as for removing the actual table top, the bowl I was using was much (and I mean MUCH) smaller at the base of the bowl than this base of the table, and it just plain looked stupid.

I took a pic of the close up of the square base so you can see the screws. Once I removed them, the 'square' wanted to stay intact with the base, but a rubber mallet (and some help from my super handy and stronger-than-me husband) solved that problem! P.S. Yes, I tried doing it myself, tapping the opposite side from what you see here to release the glue, but I couldn't get it to work. My husband did the exact same thing, just a lot better than I did!

After the square base was removed, we ended up adding an old pot lid I got for free (for another project, so don't be afraid to scavenge your scraps or supplies to use unexpectedly - I like to think that's the real reason I happen to have that object on hand to begin with) to stabilize.

And voila! The glass is not as fancy as the glass I coveted in that cute little shop, but I still think I scored for $3! ($13 total). I've seen plenty of objects I could also have used since then; like the glass from those old lights that might be considered outdated (pictured below). Also, there are gorgeous glass plates at Marshall's that would look very similar to the fancy bowls at the shop, though not quite as deep, for between $7-$15. The only issue I see with using those is that there would be no pre-drilled hole, but you can drill glass (one of my next projects), or I also thought (if you happened to find a table similar to mine) you could skip pulling your table apart and just place the plate on the table top, (if the size worked) or go down to the 'square' and secure with E6000. (I apologize and yes I am aware that the previous was a run on sentence).  ;)

So, like said, lots of possibilities! Good luck!

P.S. I was thinking if you have and use glass like this ^, you could paint it either with spray paint or with more transparent paints then seal with spray shellac, varnish, etc. Just a thought - enjoy!