New to my shop...

Invitations! And I'm so excited to begin this new endeavor. I love the idea of being able to customize something to someones specifications. I can tell I will really enjoy it, because I'll be able to mix my handmade crafting skills with my printing and publishing skills. I've always enjoyed printing up fliers, invites, and other paper media, but this time I can use so much more of my card making and crafting skills. I'm very very excited about this new idea and I just hope that its a success. Check out my Etsy shop listing for details:http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9745418

Here's one of my samples:

It's a double sided invite and can be customized by color, typeface(font), picture/clipart, etc...

When Do You Shop?

I was just on the Etsy Community Forums in the Crafting & Business section and someone posted a thread that asked when majority of people did their shopping on Etsy. I saw in a thread yesterday that someone asked when majority of sellers list new items. From what I hear the best time to list new items on Etsy would be between 12-3 pm on a given day. ON the weekends, however, I hear that it is a good time to list any time throughout the weekend, because more people have to time to surf the net then and catch up my their Internet activities. This is crucial for anyone who is both a buyer and a seller, because as buyers we want to see the most recent, updated, and newest items, yet as a seller we want to know those peak times for selling. Anyhow, just thought that this was something to try to get to the bottom of. I hear that Etsytools.com is a valuable resource for all the stats that Etsy produces as far as buying, selling, peak time for both, and so on and so forth.

What do you guys think about this? Are you concerned about peak times? When your new items? When to shop for the most recently posted?

I will be following up on this post! I think we will all find some tips on when to buy and sell.

Ebay vs Etsy...is it really even a competition?

I've been seeing lately where Ebay has lowered their fees and that potentially a slew of Etsians are going to selling over at Ebay. I, myself am not sure what exactly sure what I want to do. I know Ebay is lowering their fees, but the duration of Ebay's listing period maxes out at 10 days where as Etsy let's you list an item for maximum of 4 months. Listing on Ebay will definitely get a seller more views and recognition, but you gamble with the idea of your listing expiring before you sell in a shorter time frame. Etsy has spurts from what I've come to realize, where sales peak. Over a 4 month period you could potentially sell a good bit depending on these spurts. On Etsy there's a lot of promoting and self advertising to do, on Ebay not as much.

Which one do you prefer or has had the most success on?

Promote less, craft more...

That's what I've been seeing throughout the forums on Etsy. It seems as if everyone is getting a tad bit, or maybe more frustrated with their lackluster sales. There are so many good products out there for sale and no one is buying. Its January and tax returns will be coming up in Feb, but how do we stay encouraged until then? Do we just keep crafting or do we take this downtime to promote. If we craft we're using supplies and materials, however if we promote we're using time.

How much do you promote versus crafting and vice versa?

So Many to Choose From

That's what I've been hearing about dwindling card sales. I figured that this would be a time of the year in which people would be buying a good bit f cards, b/c of Valentine's Day coming and Spring and whatnot. I have a few Valentine cards up, but I didn't want to make a million V-day cards and have them leftover from not selling them. I can always give them to friends if they don't. That's the thing, everyone being worried about making a sale, when in actuality you always have a card for a friend's b-day, special occasion, shower, etc... I know many of us card makers do not make cards to give them away, but if they never sell, what would you do with them? Just a thought I figured I'd put out there.

Waiting on a Sale(s)

I don't know how everyone's luck has been lately with making sales, but I've yet to make one. I'm not frustrated or discouraged, as I said in my post yesterday. I was featured in some one's Treasury and that really made me feel really good. I know that in time I will gain more exposure like many of my counterparts. I have a passion for card making and I will continue to make cards no matter what. The key to making a sale is recognition. Many of the top sellers on Etsy and on others sites, makes many of their sales b/c people know who they are and are interested in what they sell. Anyhow, the thought ran across my mind and I just wanted to chat about it for a sec.

Have a wonderful day!

~Tennsley

Slow Business?!?

I was reading a post of Etsy forums and the poster asked if anyone thought that sales had been slows for card makers. Honestly, I can't really say b/c my shop is still pretty much brand new and so I didn't expect a tremendous amount of sales the first week. I really do hope that I start making sales soon, but through the forum I've found out that some sellers have been trying to make a sale for months now and still haven't. I also have quite a small inventory, in which I'm still deciding on which ones to list. I've a lot of cards that I just haven't posted, but I figured why post all of my cards at one time, instead of posting them gradually, like Etsy suggests that you do. Anyhow, this was on my mind, so I decided to drop a line about it.

Feel free to share you comments.

~Tennsley