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Joanna from rainbowofcrazy says

I started selling since the summer and I’ve spent so much time learning the ropes on this forum. I had my fingers crossed this month that I’d finally make my hundredth sale and I finally did it! I’m so excited. I’m always excited with every single sale, but this, next to my very first sale, is making me do an extra special happy dance!

Honestly, I don’t really think there are any tips I can really give that hasn’t already been shared over and over on the forums.. I still feel like a novice seller. Now I feel like I need to work that much harder to make the next hundred sales.. but now to make them more quickly and efficiently.

But some of the most helpful things I’ve learned so far..

* Don’t give up. Seriously. Keep trying. No one usually finds success after a week or a month or even several months. You NEED to be patient. I can’t tell you how many posts I’ve seen with people asking why they haven’t sold any items.. and they’ve been opened for less than a week. These things can take time.

* Don’t expect to list a few items and expect everyone to flock to you. I am not the greatest at advertising offsite but I do have a facebook page, a twitter account, I’m on deviantart, tumblr, pinterest, etc. Social marketing is not my forte though but they are helpful. I remember one time I listed one of my prints on tumblr and found that someone reblogged it, saying that they just bought it and how happy they were! I was BEAMING that day!

* You need more items. Period. Keep listing new items as often as you can. Have as many listings as you can possibly manage. This is vital. You can’t be seen if you aren’t listing. I don’t tend to renew, but I have tried to list new items every day, and now that I’ve been opened X number of months, I also have a steady stream of items that expire daily. This way if I don’t have any brand new listings, I still have about-to-expire items that I can relist. See what works for you.

* if you’re not listing new items, constantly tweak those old listings. Tweak titles, descriptions, tags. Brush up on your SEO, and if you don’t know what that means, learn as much as you can about it. Take more photographs. Then retake them. Use up all of those 5 photo slots. Take photographs from different angles. From all angles. I’m in the process of redoing photos right now and it can be such a mindless task but it’s important. And please use lots of natural light, turn on that macro button, and don’t use flash unless you really know how to use it well.

* Be polite and prompt with messages and inquiries. Stay professional. If you don’t take your shop and service seriously, no one else will. This also means quick shipment. These things get noticed! Try to be a little personable with your shipments too. Something as small as a little ‘thank you’ note can be greatly appreciated.

* Be as informative as you can in your descriptions. Describe as much as you can about the item you’re trying to sell. How it looks, how it feels, the colours, the size, the weight, how the items are packaged, how they’ll be shipped. Your customers want to know all this and more.

* Get a scale to weigh your packages. You don’t want to come up with shipping charges off the top of your head because you’re more than likely undercharging. Don’t fall into that trap.

* Don’t sell yourself short. Don’t price your items so that you’re making $2 an hour. Your time and your craft is worth much more than that and great customers know this.

* It doesn’t hurt to ask for help. One of the best things I did was to look for critique teams. Fellow Etsians are so helpful and they can catch things that you can work on that you may have never thought of before.

* Always keep trying to learn. If you think you know all there is to know about selling on Etsy, then you are wrong. There is ALWAYS more to learn and do; that’s what makes this site so great.

Lastly.. have fun! If you’re passionate about your craft, it really does show. Have a little fun, relax, breathe and maybe have a cup of tea. It helps.

Day 28 - The walk-in clinic

While it was kind of sad when our trip to Niagara was over, I was relieved at the same time because that meant we could finally get home and get some much needed medicine. We went straight to the walk-in clinic the next day to try to get fixed up and got some meds. Ah, more fun things to do as a couple!

The next few days were nice, lazing in days as we rested and tried to get better. Lots of TV and movie watching. I didn’t really expect much in terms of Etsy sales, but I had a few; so it was a nice surprise.

Also during the wine tour, we learned that these things called “wine sticks” exist.. tasty baked goodies that are made with actual grape peels that have been dried and grounded up. This totally blew my mind, and the wine sticks were delicious. I picked up a bag, and only wish I bought more because damn am I craving them now.

Day 29 - Still shipping orders

Day 30 - No more wine sticks left! Might have to order some..

Day 24 - Our hotel room at Niagara (:

A little while back, I found an awesome deal on one of the Niagara Falls wine tours. I had never been on a wine tour and couldn’t pass up the opportunity; so near the end of January, with my boyfriend visiting, the two of us went on a trip to Niagara Falls.

Day 25 - Our view of the falls

We had been there a few years ago on another little trip together and had a lot of fun; so this was a great second time for us. Though we were not feeling great and got more sick during the trip (figures!), we ended up spending a lot of time inside, lazing around in our hotel. But hey, nothing wrong with a little room service, jacuzzi and the hotel’s pool/sauna, right? (:

Day 26 - Wine tour haul

The wine tour was fantastic, by the way. No surprise that we were the youngest couple there, but everyone was nice and our driver/tour guide was so incredibly entertaining, charming and fun. We visited 4 different wineries as well as a chocolate factory.. and I can’t help it but I have to write about the chocolate factory first, because man, oh man, was that chocolate factory dangerous. I was.. finally.. that greedy fat kid let loose in a candy store. They had free samples. Let me say that again.. FREE. SAMPLES. What would you do if there were dozens of open containers of all kinds of chocolate covered goodies, and you were told that you can try as many different ones as you wanted? Any inclination to eat healthier or in moderation that I had.. FLEW out that chocolatey smelling window! I swear I ate the most chocolate out of ANYONE on that tour. (I guess older couples just aren’t that into chocolate??) The chocolate covered jujubes totally did me over near the end, ohmygosh. I swear I had sugar and chocolate in my veins for days afterwards.

No regrets!!

Oh, and yeah, those wineries. They were lovely too!

The two of us had a lot of fun on the tour, trying different wines and enjoying the experience. Though to be completely honest, I would not have gone on that tour had we paid the full price. It wouldn’t have felt like it was worth it. But if you can find any kind of deal on this sort of tour, you should definitely go for it because we had a lot of fun, and bought a lot of wine (and chocolate) as seen in that pic above.

It was still a great trip down. We spent more than we originally planned (whoops!) but it was worth it (:

And then of course, we come back home to be greeted by our little friend that was still trying to trudge along!

Day 27 - Snowbunny carnage.

Taking photos.. and retaking photos.. and retaking photos..

We had such a mild winter this year.. and I think it’s over already! But that’s okay; I’m so happy there’s been more sun the past while. I’ve been waiting for great sunny days again to retake some photographs and pretty up the Etsy shop.. something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Taking these photos is probably one of my least favourite things to do sometimes, but today has been great since it’s a sign that winter is going to end!

Day 22 - Snowbunny!

Catching up with Project 365. With my boyfriend visiting last month, we were patiently waiting for a good snow day so we could build a snowman! That particular day was perfect; so we bundled up (or rather, I bundled up and he just threw on a hoodie because he’s like freaking Iceman and the cold has like zero effect on him, sigh) and headed out to the backyard to build an awesome snowman. It went from a lumpy unidentifiable pile of snow to an awesome snowbunny. Some small twigs for whiskers and two button eyes and our snowbunny was super silly and super cute (:

Day 23 - Fluffay!

On day 23 we were at the mall and I picked up this amazingly huge and fluffy pair of earmuffs. They’re massive and loud and totally suited my quirkiness. Best purchase ever (:

Day 20 - Tea!

I spent a very much needed month with my long distance SO and just got to return to “real life” this week; so I hope to catch up with my Project 365 as well as writing more and creating more art. There’s a lot of little ideas running through my head so I’m ready to get back into it.

Day 21 - Wine & Cheese (and Dessert)

Day 20 and 21 pictures are some food images. Chinese tea for Day 20 (he likes it with a bajillion teaspoons of sugar, I swear..) and Day 21 we had a ‘Wine and Cheese’ get-together so it was a LOT of eating that night! Lots of cheese, lots of wine, food, and plenty of dessert (like this amazingly gooey cake. Mmmm!) After all this eating over the last few weeks, I think I probably need to get back into shape too.. gah!

Day 18 - Sexy Poutine

Day 18: I promised my boyfriend some tasty poutine; so we went to Smoke’s Poutinerie for some artery-clogging goodness. He ordered the Philly cheese steak poutine (a large just to see how big it really was) and I had the beef peppercorn. Much noms were had.. and when we finished, the poutines.. still pretty much looked untouched. *pats belleh* I think I’m still recovering from that meal.

Day 19 - Firefly Marathon!

We spent a few days watching the Firefly series since I never watched the show. (I watched the movie once but it kinda got lost on me) I’m actually not a big sci-fi kind of person but I got hooked really quick and was super sad when we finished the last episode and the movie. Why do they always cancel good shows? So sad.

Day 16 - Snow! Sort of.

More snow! Sort of. This has not been a very wintery winter. This particular day was a nice lazy day for us. We went on a short walk to pick up some much desired snacks. (Chips and dip, yum!)

Day 17 - Tale As Old As Time~

Beauty and the Beast was released in 3-D recently so we saw it on the 16th. I was pretty excited to see it because it’s been one of my favourite Disney movies.

I actually really am not a fan of 3-D movies. Personally I think that out of all the 3-D movies out there, only a few actually look good in 3-D. But I wanted to have the chance to see Beauty and the Beast on the big screen more than anything else and it was worth it just for that. I have to say though that I thought the 3-D was just plain weird at times. Flat 2-D artwork molded out into 3-D just didn’t work for me and looked really really off at times. For me, CG movies tend to work much, much better with 3-D, and the ballroom scene in B&tB definitely worked for me (and oh yes, I revelled in every moment of it!) But all in all, it was definitely worth seeing just to have it on a huge screen once again.. even though I had “Be Our Guest” in my head for days afterwards.

I actually snapped the above photo off a picture on my computer screen. Kind of a cheat, but to make up for it, here’s a bonus pic of a bottle of tasty apricot beer we had later that day (:

Day 17 - Wheat Ale. Yum!

Day 14 - Snazzy Case

Day 15 - Gotta catch'em all~

Slowly catching up with the Project 365! Sorry the blog won’t be updated with much art over the next few weeks as my boyfriend is in town (I’d like to work on some sketches and ideas though!) but I’m going to try to keep Project 365 going. On Day 14  I saw a fantastically nerdy Game Boy iphone case in a shop, while Day 15 the two of us were at the mall and picked up Pokemon White for me to play. Can NOT wait to get my bulbasaur from him!

Day 13 - Snow!

Dear Snow,

what took you so long?!

Love, me.

P.S…. I’m staying in today! Mmm blankets and hot chocolate..

Day 11 - Pocky!

It’s a food post tonight. My little midnight snack on Day 11 (: I loove Pocky. One day I plan to buy the giant Pocky. One day, one day.. for now, I’m good with the regular sized Pocky. Plus I think we have the almond ones floating around somewhere..

Day 12 - Quiche!

Day 12 – Pie crusts were on sale the other day so I made a quiche tonight for dinner. I think I have to make them more often! Maybe tweak the amounts a bit and add in an extra egg too. (And I seriously can not wait for winter to end so I can get lots of natural light for photos again!)

I really really wanted to work on my Etsy shop more over the last few weeks, prep as many listings as possible and create more art, but the fibro pain in my fingers has really hated me (not to mention the fibro fog! It’s been really hard to concentrate, ugh) and well, yeah, typing more is prooobably not helping any; so lets end it here and maybe do some stretching instead (: