Adventures in E- Commerce

I Thought the Rules Were Obvious?? The Etsy Reseller Issue

2013-07-12T21:56:00.001-07:00

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.

How to Set Up A Facebook Page For Your Business

2012-11-11T06:49:00.005-08:00

If you have a business, you may want to set up a Facebook page specifically for it for promotion. Here's how to go about setting up a Facebook page for your business.

You need a personal face book account first. If you don't have a personal account, create one at facebook.com. After you have an account, make sure you are logged in and go to this page.
www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

For a business, such as Karen's and mine are, you could choose“local business or place” or “brand or product”

Unless you have a local store, or are trying to get free face book advertising, I'd go with brand or product. You can change it to local business later if you come across free advertising (more on advertising later)

Then add a picture. This can be you, a product, or a logo. This picture is the avatar that pops up next to your posts, so you want it to be representative of your brand. In handmade items, a picture of you is sometimes a good choice.

Add some information: What they are asking for here is a basic description. What your items are about. You'll be able to add a whole lot more later. Start the about section with a link to your website, it'll show on the main part of your Facebook fan page.

And then the URL. When I started my page, you had to have 25 followers to get a custom URL. Now apparently, you are able to get one immediately :) Be sure the URL you set is the one you want.

After these 3 items are set up, you will be able to finally see your page. Facebook will take you through their tutorial on where everything is and you will be able to make your first post if you are ready.

Add a cover photo, face book says that this cover photo cannot be text based, or contain promo codes or sales information. Think of this cover photo as a tall banner, a sign on your page, and more opportunities for branding.

At the very top of your page, above where the cover photo goes, is the admin panel. Your visitors will not see this. This area shows your statistics, new likes, comments, shares, any messages your page received, etc. there is a small, grayish bar there where you can edit and manage your page. This is where you expand on the information that you provided at the beginning.

If you haven’t done so already, make your first post. This is a good time to welcome the people you are about to invite, say hello!

And now, invite people! If you've been on face book for a while, you probably have a few friends you can invite, click the build audience link at the very top of the page, and invite all of your face book friends! Many probably will not join, and that's fine.

Add your new face book page URL to your profiles everywhere, each place is another place to be found.

Come visit my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/onestitchdesigns

Hope this helps!
-Steph from One Stitch Designs

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

2012-09-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure when lazy became synonymous with sincerity but having people compliment your original ideas and designs only to attempt to replicate them is all part of the territory and everyone creative faces it at some point. It really does feel terrible and frustrating and it's hard not to get angry but there's nothing much that can be done about it. You can't copyright an idea or a technique and you can't sell your work and hide your ideas away at the same time. It seems to be the way of the world and even we tiny businesses have to face it. This must be my week because I've had one woman come right out and ask me if I would mind if she copied a design stitch by stitch and one of my Facebook followers has also started to try to do the same type of work. Luckily for me both of them are copying hat styles that are just a little side line for me and not my sweater designs. Once I get over my initial hissy fit and calm down the first thing that I try to do is feel sorry for them. It's sad to think that someone wants to be an artisan so badly that they would appropriate someone else's ideas to make up for their lack of creativity and ability to create anything original and I'd rather have someone copy me than have to feel that void in my life. They'll never know the joy of that creative spark or feel the confidence that comes from knowing that what you make reflects who you are and how you see the world. Somehow I doubt that the clink of the coins in their pocket measures up to that. I feel better about myself if I can pity them instead of feeling contempt for their lack of integrity.

The next thing that I usually feel is a cold determination to create even more complicated designs so that they at least have to struggle a bit to rip off my idea. It's not much consolation but it helps a bit to imagine the tangled mess that they're probably making as they attempt to recreate something very colorful. Another thing that's good to remember is that there is a huge difference between a real friend and the occasional online "friend" that really isn't one. Real friends are the people who you trust but a few of your Facebook followers are likely to be selling similar items and are just scoping out your work. I try not to take it too personally, I don't say anything to them or pitch a fit and I limit myself to nasty thoughts and giving their avatar the evil eye. I also think really mean things about how amateurish and sloppy their results look to me. It's a little bit of fun to "Like" their Facebook posts about it just so that they know that you've seen what they've done but chances are that they know no shame in the first place or they would have stopped themselves from doing it. They might even be ditzy enough to think that it was a compliment.

Even though there is nothing that any of us can do to protect ourselves against idea and design bottom feeders there are a few common sense precautions that will at least help in keeping them a few steps behind you. Keep your ideas to yourself for as long as possible so that you can at least get the item completed before they come out with the imitation. Don't share your great suppliers or tell anyone where you get unique materials and control your desire to help novices by showing them how to do more advanced work if they also sell their products. If you spend a lot of time doing research it isn't always necessary to share your findings with the world. Let them do their own work. Don't tell the competition where you advertise and never get caught up in a race to the bottom of the pricing range. If the market gets flooded with cheap imitations that you can't compete with then just accept it and move on. Your best asset is your creativity and ability to take your work to the next step so use it to leave them in the dust with something new.

If necessary find another outlet such as local brick and mortar shops to take your work on consignment at first and charge what the items are worth. You can also find a niche product that's harder and more expensive to replicate. For example, lots and lots of people sell handmade sweaters but very few of them make plus sizes, one of a kind designs or invest in high-end materials. I can't compete for bargain shoppers looking for acrylics but I'm not trying to. My customers are too smart to pay handmade prices for something that they can find in any chain store for far less money. They (and I) go to chain stores for common sense everyday purchases and then fill in their wardrobes with a few high quality pieces. I want people to buy my work because they want to express their individual style and indulge themselves a bit and not because I have the lowest prices in town or because they want to look like everyone else in the latest trends.

In the end all you can really do is suck it up, throw some rocks at a tree until you feel better and then get back to work on more original designs. At least what I do is too complicated to be showing up as imports on Alibaba that can be bought by the thousands for pennies a piece and that's some consolation!

Please come by and visit me on my Mirabilis Fashions Facebook Page, at Plus Size Sweaters by Mirabilis Fashions or on Plus Size Sweaters by Mirabilis Fashions on Google+.

Before You Ask for Free.....

2012-08-29T07:56:00.003-07:00

This is a post I found on another site, that is a re-posting from somewhere on Craigslist. The author is unknown, but I give her/him kudos.

This applies to all handmade, artists, designers, etc.

________________________________________________________________

Before you ask for free design services...

Every day, there are more and more posts seeking “artists” for everything from auto graphics to comic books to corporate logo designs. More people are finding themselves in need of some form of illustrative service.

But what they’re NOT doing, unfortunately, is realizing how rare someone with these particular talents can be.

To those who are “seeking artists”, let me ask you; How many people do you know, personally, with the talent and skill to perform the services you need? A dozen? Five? One? …none?

More than likely, you don’t know any. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be posting on craigslist to find them.

And this is not really a surprise.

In this country, there are almost twice as many neurosurgeons as there are professional illustrators. There are eleven times as many certified mechanics. There are SEVENTY times as many people in the IT field.

So, given that they are less rare, and therefore less in demand, would it make sense to ask your mechanic to work on your car for free? Would you look him in the eye, with a straight face, and tell him that his compensation would be the ability to have his work shown to others as you drive down the street?

Would you offer a neurosurgeon the “opportunity” to add your name to his resume as payment for removing that pesky tumor? (Maybe you could offer him “a few bucks” for “materials”. What a deal!)

Would you be able to seriously even CONSIDER offering your web hosting service the chance to have people see their work, by viewing your website, as their payment for hosting you?

If you answered “yes” to ANY of the above, you’re obviously insane. If you answered “no”, then kudos to you for living in the real world.

But then tell me… why would you think it is okay to live out the same, delusional, ridiculous fantasy when seeking someone whose abilities are even less in supply than these folks?

Graphic artists, illustrators, painters, etc., are skilled tradesmen. As such, to consider them as, or deal with them as, anything less than professionals fully deserving of your respect is both insulting and a bad reflection on you as a sane, reasonable person. In short, it makes you look like a twit.

A few things you need to know;

1. It is not a “great opportunity” for an artist to have his work seen on your car/’zine/website/bedroom wall, etc. It IS a “great opportunity” for YOU to have their work there.

2. It is not clever to seek a “student” or “beginner” in an attempt to get work for free. It’s ignorant and insulting. They may be “students”, but that does not mean they don’t deserve to be paid for their hard work. You were a “student” once, too. Would you have taken that job at McDonalds with no pay, because you were learning essential job skills for the real world? Yes, your proposition it JUST as stupid.

3. The chance to have their name on something that is going to be seen by other people, whether it’s one or one million, is NOT a valid enticement. Neither is the right to add that work to their “portfolio”. They get to do those things ANYWAY, after being paid as they should. It’s not compensation. It’s their right, and it’s a given.

4. Stop thinking that you’re giving them some great chance to work. Once they skip over your silly ad, as they should, the next ad is usually for someone who lives in the real world, and as such, will pay them. There are far more jobs needing these skills than there are people who possess these skills.

5. Students DO need “experience”. But they do NOT need to get it by giving their work away. In fact, this does not even offer them the experience they need. Anyone who will not/can not pay them is obviously the type of person or business they should be ashamed to have on their resume anyway. Do you think professional contractors list the “experience” they got while nailing down a loose step at their grandmother’s house when they were seventeen?

If you your company or gig was worth listing as desired experience, it would be able to pay for the services it received. The only experience they will get doing free work for you is a lesson learned in what kinds of scrubs they should not lower themselves to deal with.

6. (This one is FOR the artists out there, please pay attention.) Some will ask you to “submit work for consideration”. They may even be posing as some sort of “contest”. These are almost always scams. They will take the work submitted by many artists seeking to win the “contest”, or be “chosen” for the gig, and find what they like most. They will then usually have someone who works for them, or someone who works incredibly cheap because they have no originality or talent of their own, reproduce that same work, or even just make slight modifications to it, and claim it as their own. You will NOT be paid, you will NOT win the contest. The only people who win, here, are the underhanded folks who run these ads. This is speculative, or “spec”, work. It’s risky at best, and a complete scam at worst. I urge you to avoid it, completely. For more information on this subject, please visit no-spec.com.

So to artists/designers/illustrators looking for work, do everyone a favor, ESPECIALLY yourselves, and avoid people who do not intend to pay you. Whether they are “spec” gigs, or just some guy who wants a free mural on his living room walls. They need you. You do NOT need them.

And for those who are looking for someone to do work for free… please wake up and join the real world. The only thing you’re accomplishing is to insult those with the skills you need. Get a clue.

________________________________________________________________

As I said above, this is a re-posting and the author is unknown.

Helpful Tools To Price Handmade

2012-07-26T10:16:00.001-07:00

Handmade is by it's very nature, difficult to price.There are so many factor in deciding what the retail price of an item is going to be, and it doesn't help that we artisans tend to be more creative in thinking rather than business oriented.

Sometimes, pricing gets set based on emotions, because of what other people are pricing, or based on what the person setting the prices would pay for it.

None of those are good business (although it can pay to be aware what others are charging and selling similar items for).

Here are a couple tools that may help anyone set pricing.

http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/

This calculator takes in your yearly expenses, how many hours you'll work, how many of them are actually billable (IE, you work 1 hour making a product, and one hour getting it out there, you have a 50% billable rate), etc, and tells you how much you'll need to charge per billable hour to make ends meet, and how much you'll need to charge per hour to get what you want.

http://www.rolbe.com/etsy.htm

This calculator takes a potential price, what you charge for shipping, what you are charged for shipping, your materials cost, and tells you what etsy and paypal fees are going to be

To get true business profit, add your hourly wage to the materials section.

The calculator was originally built to calculate for etsy and paypal fees, but you can exclude either one and even change them to fit a merchant account or another selling site.

Between the 2 above, you can get a pretty decent view of what you need to charge to have a healthy business.

Copyright and Trademark differences and similarities

2012-06-21T09:28:00.003-07:00

There seems to be a lot of confusion about copyright and trademark

While the protections are similar, they are 2 very different things

So we'll get started with definitions. From Webster's dictionary

Copyright: the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something (as a literary, musical, or artistic work)

Trademark: a device (as a word or image) pointing distinctly to the origin or ownership of merchandise to which it is applied and legally reserved to the exclusive use of the owner as maker or seller

So copyright protects words, images, and sounds (books and other printed matter, music, movies, photos, etc.).

While trademark protects brands (McDonalds, Hello Kitty, Disney, John Deer, etc.)

Another difference between the 2 is that when you take a photo, write words, etc. you are automatically copyrighted in the US and the other countries that recognize the same set of laws. You can pay to have your item copyrighted, but this fee is mostly for extra protection in case you ever have to go to court over it.

But a trademark only goes into effect when you pay the money to have your trademark registered with the USPTO (US patent and trademark office).

Both sets of laws allow you to license some rights.

With both sets of laws, the copyright and/or trademark holder must enforce them. If the holder doesn't enforce the laws themselves, they can lose their protection, even if they paid a fee.

Not everything can be copyrighted or trademarked. Clothing, for example, a finished item does not have copyright and/or trademark protection unless said finished item has a decorative element (artwork, logos, etc)

I always assume that words, images, etc are copyrighted unless it says specifically that it is in public domain,to be extra safe.

As for trademarks, if you are wondering if a particular term is trademarked, check here: http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchss&state=4004:l6edhl.1.1

How to Get Started on Google+

2012-06-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

We’ve all been hearing about how Google+ is going to help our SEO and give us a boost to our google rankings so this post will tell you how to get started with it.

The first step is to create a personal profile. This is similar to your personal page on Facebook and if you use it at all it should be for social reasons and not for marketing your products. Just like on Facebook you have to have a personal profile before you can add a business page. This link will show you how to get started by creating your personal profile.

http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/how-to-set-up-google-plus

The next step is to set up your business page and profile. This is similar in concept to your Facebook fan page. This link will show you how to do that:

http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/how-to-set-up-google-plus-business-page

It’s a good idea to use a different avatar for your business page than you did for your personal page because that will make it much easier to know which page you’re on. You can change your avatar by going to your profile using the profile icon on the left sidebar, hover over your picture and it will give you a chance to edit it. You’ll see “Options” at the bottom left and under that drop-down there will be a choice to delete it. Once you delete it you can add another one.

When you sign into google+ you’ll be on your home personal page which shows all of the posts from the people in your circles or that you’re following. The way to get from one page to the other is to click on the Pages icon on the left navigation sidebar and it will give you a choice between your personal profile and your business page(s). Make sure to enter links to everywhere that you have an online presence like your shop, blog and Facebook page on both of your profiles. This link will show you how to do that:

http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1713826

Circles are the main way to share posts on google+ and you can find your circles by clicking on the Circles icon on the left sidebar. When you’re using google+ under your personal profile circles are like Facebook friends. You have completely different sets of circles for your personal profile and your business page and there is no connection between the two. The best way to think of it is that you have 2 completely different entities and you are the only one that knows that there is a connection between your personal page and your business page. The people that you put in your circles using your personal page won't see the things that you post under your business page and the people in your business circles won't see your personal posts. You can choose which of your circles that you want to share your posts with and you can also share them publicly so that they get found in searches. The most viewed and shared posts end up in the “Explore” area.

When you're using your personal profile you can follow or add any person or business to your circles and they get a notice and have the option to circle you back. You can +1, share or comment on anything using your personal profile name.

When you're using your business page you can follow or add other businesses to your circles, +1, share and comment on their posts using your business name. They get a notice and can follow you back if they want to. You can't circle or follow a person or comment on their posts using your business name unless they circle you first but you can +1 their posts and share them. When you try to add a person that hasn’t added you first to your business circles it doesn't give you an error but it doesn't add them either and their little card just floats back to the top when you try to drag it into a circle. You can tell that it didn't work because the number of people in your circle doesn't increase. You can always remove people from your circles if you decide that you don’t want to see their posts after all.

You can find things to add to your circles in several ways. The first is to search for subjects and businesses that you’re interested in or think that your target demographic will be interested in and follow them or add them to a circle. You can also search by twitter hashtags. The second way is to click on the Explore icon on the left sidebar and you’ll see a selection of popular posts and subjects and you can follow the ones that are businesses. People also share circles so when you see one that you like you can add it to yours. (This can be time consuming because you have to edit the people out of the circle because you can't circle people as a business unless they do it first.) One of the easiest ways to get noticed is to +1 and share posts that don’t already have hundreds of +1s because people are more likely to see you if there are only a few +1s there. Before you post think carefully about which circles you want to share it with. For example I’m following and in a few science and geeky circles that are almost all men under my business page to keep my feed interesting to me and they probably don’t care very much about my products and those posts might annoy them. Start out by organizing your circles as you add people so that you can target your posts.

Adding people to your circles and getting added back doesn’t do much to increase your google rankings but having your posts get +1s and shared does. I can’t reiterate enough that the way to help each other and get noticed by others on g+ is to +1 and share their posts with any of your circles that seem appropriate and publicly as well. I recommend creating an SEOteam circle with only people from here in it so that we can share our posts back and forth and only be spamming each other. Just like on Facebook the way to encourage people to share your posts is to be interesting, funny and post more than just product commercials. Bring in some new content and don’t just share what you see in the Explore area because everyone shares those and you’ll see dozens of them in your feed when you have a lot of circles. Just like on Facebook, pictures and videos are more eye-catching than posts with just text are.

We’ve already talked about adding your links to both of your google+ profiles and if you have your own stand-alone shop or blog it’s very good to link them back to your google+ account. You can add a g+ button to your site by following these directions:

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1634172&topic=1634169&ctx=topic

You can link your site back to google+ by following these directions:

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1708844

Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com Mirabilis Fashions Plus Size Blog and tell me about the things that you'd like to read about.

The Facepalm Moment

2012-05-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

We all have them, the moments where you ask yourself what the heck you were thinking, how you forgot that, or why did you think it in the first place?

Well, I just had one.

I've been advertising One Stitch Designs for a while now on various fashion and fiber artists blogs. My ad has a coupon code in it, same one I've used in my Etsy shops when I have advertised before.

Well here's my facepalm moment.

I made the code in my website and went on with my life. And today when I went to add a customer specific code (for joining my mailing list), I realized it wasn't active. I forgot to triple check everything and make sure it was active!

That was smart. I wonder now if anyone had gotten to my cart and when the code didn't work, they left. I know I've done it in the past.

Moral of the story: always check everything.

Now, in recognition of my stupidity.

*FacePalm*

Plus Size Blog

2012-05-21T07:43:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I learned from my marketing review was that I really should have my own blog in addition to this one that sticks to the subjects that are closely related to what I do such as designing clothing for plus size women, selecting and shopping for luxury yarn, sweater design and other plus size issues including my mixed feelings about my own weight loss. (Yikes!) I've got a new one set up now and I hope that some of you will come visit me at Mirabilis Fashions Plus Size Blog and tell me about the things that you'd like to read about.

In Support Of Handmade

2012-05-10T13:40:00.001-07:00

(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!

handpainted yarn from EweAndMeYarns, who is my go-to chick for all handpainted yarn

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.

1930s replica dress from P1xie

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

Wrist warmers by Shiv from Faded Lace (this is the chick who did a few of my pics)

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)

Further Adventures in E-commerce

2012-05-05T09:55:00.000-07:00

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.

2012-04-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

I know, I've been terrible about keeping up with this blog lately because I've been so swamped with work. I keep meaning to do a long post on how to design clothing with thread lace but I'm so tired of doing it that I can't bring myself to write about it in the little spare time that I have. I've also had some great shop reviews and gotten some great advice from a marketing exec that I want to tell you about too as well as to celebrate about how my new shop is already doing better than my Etsy shop is. So, instead of writing a real post I'm going to treat you to 2 of the funniest legal letters that I've ever seen. The short version is that Etsy has decided to allow factories to be called collectives and selected an importer to feature on the front page. Much drama and hysteria ensued and the legal threats started to fly around. The first letter is from the outraged reseller's "lawyer" and the second is a response from a real attorney. Here is the response: You've got to love a guy that can legitimately fit "intractably mentally ill", "bumptious", "malapropisms" "preposterous", "ridiculous", "empty thuggery", "freakishly unprofessional" and "gibberish" all into one legal communication. It almost makes me wish that someone would sue me so that I could hire him.

http://www.regretsy.com/2012/04/24/update-ecologica-malibu/

www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.regretsy.com%2F2012%2F04%2F25%2Fno-you-cease-and-desist%2F&h=PAQFINoqPAQH8eC7JkJ63ySTrVfFArCfuM4DR01_jjQh7yQ

Tips for Running Multiple Venues and Shops

2012-04-18T11:15:00.000-07:00

Most people agree that you need to run multiple venues to have a successful business.

While this is not always true (many successful businesses are run on one venue), it certainly helps for security, being found by a wider range of people, and sometimes even for hitting your target market better.

The more venues you are on, the more webpages you have, the more likely you are to be seen.

Also, having different venues helps if one closes.

I currently sell from the following pages:
OneStitchdesigns On Etsy (finished Items)
OneStitch on Etsy (supplies)
OneStitchdesigns.com (mixture of 2 shops above)
TraditionalByNature On Etsy (rustic home goods, wedding decor, business card holders)
Ravelry page
Craftsy page

So how does one juggle all of these different venues?

Well, It isn't easy!

Because I have different crafts in many of the shops, I devote certain days to a different craft. One day, I'll make a new design, another, I'll work on new colors of old designs. Some days I work on stitch markers, on others, I'll make paper stuff.

Every day I'm coming up with new designs in my head. The list of designs I want to make real is very, very long.

I spend at least one day a week doing computer work only.

Traditional by nature is the easiest, I just design the product, my fiance makes it, and he runs TraditionalByNature.com The etsy version caters to a different market, and I know Etsy real well, so I run that shop.

It's easier if you stick to one craft, but it's boring :)

I make sure to do a little bit of work in each shop everyday. And put at least one link back to each shop everyday.

Except forRavelry and Craftsy. I just list there, and leave it be. Both are for patterns, both have their own really good traffic. And neither take much work.

It's a lot of work, but the security is worth it.

Something Odd I've Noticed

2012-04-15T09:20:00.003-07:00

This seems strange to me. Whenever there is a thread with that Etsy game where you pick an item from the shop that posted above you as your favorite thing in the shop I see the same pattern. People who don't crochet always pick one of the most elaborate, difficult and expensive items in my shop. People who do crochet almost always pick the simplest, easiest and least expensive items. I suppose that the obvious answer is that they don't like the sweaters but you'd think that a few non-crocheters would feel that way too. I tend to be the opposite - I always like the crocheted things best that show the highest skill level with the most amount of effort put into them. Go figure - it's just another one of those "only on Etsy" mysteries, just like "custom made vintage" (huh?) and "She's copying my copies of other people's licensed trademarks!".

In other news, I figured out a way to send a message to an actual staff person on FB to ask why the last $150 in free ad money they've given me won't work. I didn't get an answer yet but it felt like a major accomplishment just to find the form.

A bit about Google+

2012-04-09T07:33:00.003-07:00

For those of you that don't know, Google+ is google's answer to Facebook. As usual google is being vague about how they plan to use it but the one thing that's clear is that they will use it as part of determining page ranking. It's not even half-baked yet and it's very confusing to use and once you figure it out you realize that it's a ghost town anyway with a non-stop parade of commercials. Essentially you have a personal page and you can add a business page and then you have to start getting into circles and hoping that people share your posts, just like on FB. It has a stream like the FB newsfeed that you have to narrow down to circles because otherwise every single post there is mushed together into one big list.

It's fairly easy to set up and it's probably a good idea to start to have a presence there so that you already exist when google decides what to do with it. One thing is very important to note. It might have been a coincidence but once I joined G+ I noticed that I was getting personalized results on my google searches. It was delightful - all of a sudden my most trivial stuff was covering the first 2 pages. Since hell would freeze over first I looked a bit harder and realized that I had to change the search from personalized results back to regular ones and then I went right back to where I had been. It might be happening to everyone now but you'll need to turn it off to test your SEO to get true results. Well, sort of true anyway because with personalized results no one knows what anyone else is seeing anyway.

Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com

What is a hobbyist?

2012-04-06T11:48:00.002-07:00

It seems that Karen and I have separate views on what a hobbyist is.

My views:

First of all, it's important to note that if you are selling anything, you are a business, and are subject to laws in your area governing your type of business, though the IRS does declare you to be a hobbyist if you do not come out ahead most years.

At it's most basic, a hobbyist is merely someone who does what they want to do, makes what they want to make, which could put about 90% of everyone who works for themselves into the hobby category.

But in my mind, a hobbyist who sells doesn't really need the income from it. Usually when a hobbyist sells their stuff, it's because the stuff is taking over their home, or they just want their supply money back. Anything extra is icing on the cake.

But there's more layers to it. Many hobbyists I know who sell their stuff are just trying to get some of their money back to make more. A few of these people drive me nuts. If your going to give it away, just give it away, get some money back in the form of a deduction.

These people don't make business plans or anything for a business, a lot don't even realize they have to pay taxes, much less know anything about CPSIA laws for kids products, etc.

But then there's also the people like Karen, who run their hobby like a full on business, all the promotion, taxes, laws, business plans, etc. (hell, I'm not a hobbyist, and I don't even have an official business plan for OneStitch designs).

While those people are still technically a hobbyist, they are actually somewhere in between.

What is the difference between a hobby and a business?

2012-04-03T08:24:00.004-07:00

Not much as far as I can tell...

Another never-ending opportunity for snark on Etsy is the age-old comparison of hobbyists to "real" business people. I really hate to break it to the more opinionated business folks but unless you're deriving a significant part of your income from this then you're just a hobbyist too but with aspirations to become more than that. That somewhat obnoxious posing in the forums makes one look a bit silly when anyone with a calculator can tell that the numbers don't line up with the arrogant attitude. (Yeah, I'm kind of annoyed but at least I didn't blast the latest smug brat.)

On the other hand, calling what we do a hobby doesn't mean that we're off the hook and that we don't have to do all of the things to operate a business as anyone else does. Business plans and budgets have to be made, legalities have to be covered, taxes have to be paid when due, marketing and advertising has to be done, SEO has to be mastered, social signals and backlinks have to be created and then (when we have time after all of that work) we have to make stuff so that we actually have something to sell.

Maybe in the end it comes down to how realistic our business plans and expectations are. I know that I want to design and create and not go into mass production, patterns or having other people make my designs so I know that I'll never get the economy of scale that it would take to bring in a full time income but I don't need one. If that means that I'm a hobbyist then that's OK with me. Now if I could only stop with the 12 hours days...

Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com

How many Etsians does it take to change a lightbulb??

2012-03-26T06:58:00.002-07:00

Hahaha, I was reading a thread this morning with the same title.

This is a really, really funny read, though it may not be 100% understandable to people who don't visit the forums often :)

How many Etsians does it take to change a lightbulb??

From Karen:

How funny - you beat me to it because I was just coming here to post it. You can thank her for the laugh by visiting her shop at LifeMeetsArt on Etsy. I guess that the forums aren't completely dead and tedious now after all.

Facebook Ads vs. Google Adwords

2012-03-20T07:20:00.004-07:00

Now that I've had a chance to use both of them I can safely say that I will never use google adwords again unless I find the magic keyword that attracts the demographic that has always bought my sweaters offline. I have a narrow target market of plus size women from 35-65 who have a significant amount of discretionary income and google ads just scatter-shot at everyone with no targeting. IMO that's a waste of money unless what you sell appeals to a very wide audience. On Facebook I got to use $50 in free ad money and target each version very specifically to people who at least have a chance of being the right targets. They're very fun to use because you can can have several versions of ads running and compare them to each other to see how they're doing. I found that the ads that used product shots did much better than the ads that used my logo and the ads that sent people to my shop generated much more interest than the ones aimed at my FB page. The people that came in from the ads that I specifically targeted to women over 40 that liked luxury goods had a much, much lower bounce rate than I've ever had before and the average person looked at at least 4 sweaters.

On the downside, after rushing around trying to get to 50 likes I needed for more free ad money I found out that only people who had never used them before were eligible. Oh well.

Update: Facebook doesn't seem to keep track of who has already used free ads because they gave me the $50 more anyway. For starters I'm using it as one of those "like this to enter" things with a hefty coupon and I got 6 new likes in 10 minutes. It sure would be nice if this keeps up.

Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com

Facebook ads experience

2012-03-11T13:53:00.000-07:00

I recently received some advertising from Facebook to use their ads.

I set up a picture of my mug cozies , and set the target as women who enjoy fashion and/or coffee.

Paying approximately 42¢ per click on average. And sending the traffic to my page, so that I can keep advertising to those people. I've had 243 new likes in a month and a half.

For the purpose of getting more followers on Facebook, and thus more potential buyers, I'd say the advertisement works very well.

I've also used some of my advertising credits to send people to One Stitch Designs where I can better see what is going on with people when they click through.

I did not have any luck with that. the bounce rate seems to be fairly high for that, and I have had no sales from directly advertising.

My search for good advertising continues..........

Learning to Use Google Adwords

2012-03-09T06:29:00.005-08:00

Most of us that work on the SEO for our shops are familiar with the free google adword keyword tool and we use it for analysis even if we never pay for an adword campaign. When you sign up for that account (which most people do to avoid that captcha stuff) unless you pay for ads within a few weeks they send you a coupon for $100 to try it out for free and they give you an adviser to help you set up the first one. I decided to take advantage of my free offer before it expired so that I could see how it all works without spending any money. I called their adviser and he more or less took over and walked me though the technical parts of how to set it up. It turns out that you do have to spend a minimum of $10 to use their coupon but it was still worth it to me. Then the guy took a look at my website, checked out some keywords and set up my first campaign. This is where you really need to be careful. These guys are experts at setting up adwords but not experts on what you sell or who you sell it to. He really pushed the keyword "trendy plus size clothing" because it's a popular one but the point isn't just to get views - it's to get the right views. Trendy is the last word that I would use to describe my stuff and people who are spending that kind of money don't want it to be out of style in a year. I decided to take his advice to see what would happen and sure enough - that very expensive keyword phrase was getting the most hits, eating up the most money and had close to a 90% bounce rate. (You find that out by linking your campaign to your analytics account and then you can track it like any other traffic source.) That's just what I expected - kids looking for low-end trendy clothing popping in, getting sticker shock, seeing no young trends and bouncing right back out again. Once I paused that one keyword phrase in the campaign and added a few that were much more targeted my hits dropped down but the bounce rate went way down with it. So, lesson one was to not let the ad guys convince me to use inaccurate but popular keywords and lesson 2 seems to be that Adwords are really, really expensive and I can do almost as well at getting near the front using normal SEO and that's free. I think that from what I've seen my money would be better off spent advertising on high end fashion blogs where my target demographic is than on random google searches.

Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com

Pathetically Begging for Facebook Likes

2012-03-05T07:07:00.002-08:00

I normally would be disgusted at myself for doing this because I would really rather that my Facebook likes come from people who like my stuff than those who do it just because I asked them to but this time there is money involved. If I get about a dozen more likes I can get $50 more in free ads and then have a chance to win $100 more. That's a lot of free money. So, anyway, if you haven't rolled your eyes and stopped reading by now could you go like this thing? I don't spam products much because it takes me too long to make them to be able to do it more than a few times a month.

Mirabilis Fashions on Facebook

My Item is in the Etsy Fashion Section!

2012-03-02T06:14:00.003-08:00

Quick - go look! I bet that it isn't there for very long. Then get out your woolies because I think that hell just froze over. This just goes to show that the admins that pick stuff don't read the forums. You might have to refresh the page a few times because they're rotating them but there aren't all that many.

http://www.etsy.com/buy/fashion?ref=hp

Busy, Busy Bee, Even When It's Dead

2012-02-27T07:27:00.000-08:00

So apparently my shop is on it's slow time.

General consensus has it that you should take your slow times to reevaluate what you are doing, work on new designs, do paperwork, clean your disaster zone (house), etc.

So that is exactly what I am doing. I am making a new design (see my other blog), working on my shop (views are up!) paperwork is done, and my house is still a disaster zone, but with a 15 month old, it's never gonna be pretty! and I'm whooped!!

I think I'm going to work on more shipping options for my .com I've only got the Americas done so far!

My SupaDupa Shop is Finally Open!

2012-02-25T07:34:00.002-08:00

Wow - that was a huge amount of work but I've finally gotten it open. It's not perfect, I've probably missed some good keywords, my pictures still more or less stink and there are probably typos and bad grammar sprinkled all over my listings in both shops but at this point I've looked at them so many times that I think that I have them memorized and no longer see exactly what's on the page. I'm never going to think that it's completely done or perfect so if I keep waiting for that I'll die of old age first. Now I just have to wait for google to crawl me so I can start testing.

Go check it out - the software is great and I love the little slideshow of images. I'll be eternally grateful to anyone that points out a mistake and I'm not proud. Feel free not to criticize my pictures though - it's depressing enough as it is.

Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com