Stephanie's Guide to Setting Up an Etsy Shop

So maybe you've been thinking about opening an Etsy shop, there is a lot to do when you decide to do this.

Having set up 4 shops, I wish i had a list like this for the first 2

Here's the list broken down into steps.

#1 have product. I'm assuming you already have this

#2 take awesome pictures of said product, search the Etsy forums, there's tons of awesome advice. there

#3 Use one of these pics as your avatar and write yourself a profile, shop policies, announcement. again, there's tons of advice about that in the fora as well.

#4 look up shipping. if you are in the US, go to postalcalc.usps.gov, and find the pricing for 1 oz, 2 oz, etc (use whatever weights you will be using) to the US, Canada, mexico, and austrailia to start, you can add more later.

#5 make shipping profiles with the shipping information you just gleaned For more on shipping, there is a really good thread started in business topics about the subject, (written by GoTo) here's the shipping thread

#6 read up on SEO, basically, you want the beginning of your announcement, your "shop title" (or the words under your shop name) your titles, tags, and beginnings of your descriptions to be descriptive of what you sell, again. This is SEO at it's most basic.

#7 Start listing! make sure your tags are accurate, your descriptions are descriptive, etc.

The reason I say listing last is because you want everything else in place first, I made the mistake of not having it in place.

Interesting Story About Perceived Value

Perceived value is a real thing-seriously!

In the area where I live, the vast majority of people are hunters, gun shops are big business, and 2 out of 3 Walmarts have rifles.

But half of the hunters will not buy a NEW rifle at walmart for $200-$300.

They will go to the gun shop and buy a used rifle (same rifle, same manufacturer) for $300-$400 or a new one for $500 and up!

There are several gun shop owners I am friendly with. And I learned that sometimes they need a rifle fast. the customer wants a specific rifle that can be found at walmart, but will not buy "that cheap crap"

So what does the gun shop owner do?

He goes to walmart, buys the rifle, and sells it to the customer at the price they are expecting.

And the customer is happy!!!

Why Dear Hubby Doesn't Help

Steve decided to help me with my tags for StephanieREMakesAll.

I have trouble being able to use enough force to use the hole punch, so we decided to assembly line the pieces.

 I was to punch out the shape, and he would put the hole in it for the string.

 After punching for a little while, he decided to punch 2 at a time.

Since this was successful, he tried 3, and bent my punch. It's not exactly a weak punch, and that cardboard's thick!

He bent it back, but I'm having a hard time punching cardstock now.

I need a new punch now. 

The importance of backing up everything

My computer crashed the other day. had to completely wipe the drive and start all over again. if it wasn't for keeping a backup of all of anna's pictures (I just kept them on the camera), I would have lost every single one of my baby girl's photos!

Everything from my shop could be retaken again, but anna's birth pics, the pics from the day we brought her home, etc., they would have never been replaced!

So back up the irreplaceable stuff people! 

paper mache and plaster

I have been wanting to do several projects that would include paper mach or plaster. have no money for supplies, so I figured I'd find a way to do these without spending any more money.

Seems everyone has water and flour, so here are a couple DIY recipes!

Plaster of Paris:

3 cups flour
2 cups warm water
a pinch of salt

Put the four in a large mixing bowl, with a little bit of salt.

add water, starting with 1 cup, mix until the plaster is a thick consistency, and is smooth. Use this quickly!


Paper mache glue
1 cup flour
2 cups water
a pinch of salt

put the flour and salt in the mixing bowl, add the water, mix until the consistency is like runny glue.  If you cover this, it can sit for a day.

 NOTE: salt is optional on both recipes, it is only for mold retardation.

 
Easy squeezy, right?

New Shops

I'm betting that you have been wondering where I have been....

I've had so many awesome ideas, that I just needed to get them all down. And as my main shop, stephaniemakesall is  getting convoluted again, I decided to just expand.

My shop list is growing! I now have StephanieREMakesAll , which is all recycled stuff, and StephRecycles , which is going to be recycled stuff too, but thing i don't want associated with the other shops, like tags i make out of cigarrette cartons (I do not smoke, nasty habit, but I save the cartons from being trashed at the convenience store) some are quite pretty.

so back off to my creations!