Any Questions for me? ✽ GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

As we've been going through this month, we've barely started scratching the surface of what is involved as you sell on Etsy. My posts have, for the most part, been things to get you thinking about what is involved, and though we dug pretty far down into some of it (SEO and filling out your listing, right ;)?), the topics are so large that it probably created more questions than it answered, didn't it? So, come this Saturday, I'd like to write a Q&A post, and add a few little things I meant to mention along the way that just never really fit with anything else or were big enough to put in their own blog post :). So, please! Let me know what Questions you may have for me, and I would be delighted to answer them!

And, what if you aren't and do not plan to become a seller? Please feel free to ask questions anyway about anything that interests you, about either what it's like to sell on Etsy, questions you have about my shop, or anything else!

And now....

It's time for that giveaway we mentioned at the beginning of the month :D!

Who wants this gorgeous, 8x10 wall canvas?! I thought that this canvas was a fitting one to use for my Write31 giveaway... because my first Write31 series was on Romans 12 :)!

One randomly picked winner will receive one canvas like the above, and will be USA only. The giveaway will run from tonight, the 25th, until Sunday, the 29th! I'll announce the winner Monday, and the winner will have 1 week to claim their item. If I do not hear from you by then, I will choose another winner.

Ready for the fun :)?!...

Follow (or let me know you already follow) Forget Not His Benefits, share this giveaway on your favorite social media, and then some bonus entries will open up, too; you can share on your blog, leave comments, or even purchase from Under The Tapestry, to get extra entries... and you can do multiple things each day to help you get even more entries :)!

...So go enter, and lets have fun :)!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Selling on Etsy ✽ With a Smile

Somewhere in between coming home from your family house hunting out-of-state to find you need to make 22 bookmarks in two days, the customer changing their mind three times on a custom order, getting no orders for a month and then several *custom* orders in less than a week, the usual designing, creating, listing, sharing, finding the best keywords, and grimacing at the camera yet again, you do get plenty of enjoyment out of selling on Etsy. It's uphill work most of the time, I won't lie... but you get your share of encouragement that it's worth it!

I thought I'd do just a "short" (or, not technical, haha) post today, sharing some of my favorite moments selling on Etsy :). So, without further ado, some of the best moments I've gotten from selling on Etsy have been...

-That first time order, that was so exciting to me just starting out!
-When someone leaves a review and you realize that other people love what you've made and you've made their life a little brighter. It's just so awesome!
-Learning that my double string bookmarks were going to be given out to a bible study group. I thought that was really sweet, and it helped the fact that my eyes were burning ones I was done, hahaha!
-Last year I had a mom buy a turkey hat for her preemie baby boy's first Thanksgiving <3. It was precious!
-The satisfaction of working with a customer to create a perfectly custom item as a gift, and their excitement over getting to give it. 
-Running my first giveaway earlier this year, thanks to Maddy, and all of the sweet encouraging comments people shared about my crafts!
-Getting an order for canvases that were going to be hung up in a special education classroom. How neat is that, given that I love to work with people with special needs <3?!
-Seeing little babies wearing the baby sets I've made. Do you know how nice it is to see something you've worked hours on improved on by the sweetness of a little being made in the image of God? I love it!
-Making up a canvas with gorgeous colors and my favorite fall quote, and Mama falling in love with it. Y'all are too late, it's hanging up in the living room now, hahaha! But I can make one to order if you like ;)...

Also, Etsy has played some shenanigans that have made me laugh...

Etsy Stats Announcement one morning: "These stats will not be displayed accurately until 1696 12:00 a.m. EST."
Thanks for that heads up Etsy (???)

Etsy: "Your customers have also looked for origami necklaces! Maybe you could add these to your shop to widen your sales!"
Does anyone remember the story of the frantically texting teen and the very bored tweens? Well, yeah. My customer's are just going to have to go somewhere else, because the time it takes me to do those projects would make this medium of art expensive for me to sell ;).

Etsy usually: "Good (morning, afternoon, evening, etc), Bri!"
Etsy when I checked it at 1:15 in the morning one night: "Hello, Bri."
I guess the wee sma's have no name to to be "Good (anything)ed" with, ha...

Oh, and there was the time the creativity I use in my crafting took over while I slept, and I find myself very vividly counting stitches and re-brainstorming the design of some crocheted doll headphones in my sleep, haha!

What is your favorite part about selling on Etsy? Favorite moment? Has anyone ever sent you a picture of your items put up in their home or in use :)?

Selling on Etsy ✽ My Favorite Resources

 Here are some of the places I use to learn all I can about bettering my Etsy shop! Most of what I have shared this past month is because of what I have learned from these places, and I think you'll really enjoy getting to know the loops better through them, as well!

Eshop Marketer. Now, you do have to pay for their stuff. And I know that, even though I'm sure it's worth the money, a lot of us just can't do that starting out. But, their blog is free, some of their videos are free on YouTube, a they run specials on their stuff quite often, so if you snag it right, it's not that bad. I think I paid 5 dollars for five hours worth of video lessons this summer? And it TOTALLY changed my shop! I finally set it up "thoroughly", as I encouraged you to do earlier this month, and I learned how to SEO better, which was very needed... it was the first time I felt like I knew what I was doing. So check them out!

EtsyRank. I shared a couple of posts on that earlier in this challenge, and you can read those to get a better idea of their worth. But I have to say that it is one of the neatest tools I've seen for SEO, and it's fun to look at the numbers... if yours are good ;). Haha! And it's free, so it's always worth a try, right?!

The EtsyRank blog. There's not too much on there, but I'm sure more will be added, and I enjoyed the articles I did read. And it looks like they have a video to learn how to use the site! That would be helpful! (They also emailed me some points when I signed up, just so you know you don't have to totally wing it if you sign up :).)

Etsy's Forum Section. While it's not the most helpful place, and there's a lot of nothing to sort through sometimes, it is the first place I go when I have a question that I can't seem to find an answer to, because it's nice to have more experienced and "older" sellers help you decide what is best to do. You just have to know how to tell which sellers are the ones who know hat they are doing, and those who just want to seem like they do ;).

 Morgan Nield's Blog. I just found her blog, and I haven't had time to peruse it too much yet, but what I have read has been AWESOME, and I've saved it and already learned from it (it's what finally made me take the plunge and try EtsyRank... though she prefers Marmalade), so I thought I'd share it with you!

And then I would just really advise joining either an Etsy team or an Etsy Sellers Facebook group, so that you have another place to get answers to questions and opinions on what you sell or how you sell it, from other sellers. I don't ask too many questions... but I read everybody else's and the answers they got, and it's really taught me a lot as I just observed!

Which one is the most intriguing to you? What is your favorite resource to stay up to date about selling on Etsy?

My Favorite Etsy Craft Supply Shops ✽ Reviews on Some of the Shops of Etsy

Today I want to tell you about some Etsy shops I have ordered from :)! I might sell on Etsy... but even a seller has a need to buy from Etsy :)! Maybe you want something you can't make, or you need a pattern or craft supplies that you can't find in just any store, and you want to support a fellow Etsian. These shops have been wonderful to purchase from, and especially if you are a crocheter (most of what I bought has been patterns, haha), you might want to check them out too :)!

Coco and Cocoa - I ordered a hat pattern from Julie's shop CocoCocoa earlier this year. The pattern was well written, easy to use, and the finished product was fun. I was concerned when I asked her if I might use the pattern to create some hats for my shop and she didn't answer. I left her a review after I finished the hat, and mentioned in passing that I had asked a question and not heard back from her. As soon as she saw my review, she contacted me to let me know that she never saw my question, and wasn't ignoring it. This would be easy to happen with all the orders she gets selling digital items, and she was apologetic and kind as she answered my question, so I was more than happy to give her a 5 star review! She has some mittens that went with the hat that I just may go back and get sometime!

Elena's Times - Do y'all remember me saying I made an adorable giraffe for Noah for his birthday and he hated it? Hahaha! He didn't like anything soft that day, it was hilarious and sad. But anyway, that was made from Elena's Times Giraffe pattern! This pattern was SO. MUCH. FUN. I want to take her pattern techniques and turn it into all kinds of other projects! The feet are all made separately... but then you start crocheting around the outside of all the legs, and most of it comes together as "one piece" from there. So symmetrical, and soooo much less sewing, taking off, sewing again... I might have loved It just a little bit, haha! It took less than three hours from start to clean up, too, so it was really nice, haha :). And her things are so cute, too. I like accurate but cutesy crocheted animals :)...

Crochet Spot Patterns - I bought the little bunny pattern. I improvised the pattern a little bit, but this wasn't the patterns fault, but because I needed it to look a very specific way (I was making the bunny from Salina Yoon's "Found" book, because Peter loves the book so much). So, while I can't say that I totally used the pattern, it WAS the perfect starting point, and it was well worth my money. One word for the faint of heart: miniature crochet is just that; crocheting in miniature. Not getting through your project faster, haha. I expected it to take as long, since it was just smaller hook and yarn, not less stitching... but it actually took longer because it's so hard to work that small! So plan accordingly in your crocheting schedule ;). (Which I did not... but it worked out okay in the end!)

KatiDCreations - I bought the peacock pattern. And y'all. I loved it. I made the feather pattern and the background they go on, and then I put those with a baby set that I was making for a custom order, instead of making her headband and leaving it at that, because it was just so much fun to make it a big deal, haha!. It was a good bit of work, but it was the cutest little baby girl set I have ever made, even though I wasn't sure about the colors until I finished it, and I want to make another! I mean, look at it... haha...

I'm really thankful for KatiDCreations offering this pattern!

Bitsy Nest - A small craft trinket supply shop, there is a LOT listed here that you can't find in Hobby Lobby or Walmart! I wanted buttons to put on a towel dress, and couldn't find some I liked, so I came to Etsy and I was not disappointed! My buttons came quickly... and with a whole bag of assorted sample buttons! It was so much fun, and it's nice to have a large shop with unique things I can choose from, when wanting to make something that will start out :).

Which of these shops looks the most interesting to you? What is your favorite shop you've purchased from on Etsy? Do you know a little girl who might need a peacock photo shoot? Haha ;)...

Selling on Etsy....

....Or how about we don't today. Because after a full day, I'm tired, and don't have time to post about said selling on Etsy.

Lol! In all seriousness, though, even this can be used as a lesson in running your Etsy shop. You will be setting the hours; you will be doing most of the work yourself (all, unless you are able to hire help or have a business partner), it will all be on you. This means that it will be easy for you to fall into one of two things (or even waffle between the extremes). You may be one of those who only messes with your shop when it's exciting, when it's fun, when you are bored, or you just think, "huh, it's been a while since I worked on that hobby". This is dangerous for your shop if you want it to be a success. Remember, an active shop is a recognized shop. Then you have to think about the fact that SEO changes, and there is always something that you could improve on. If you don't take your shop seriously, you won't even "know what you don't know", and so you won't be able to fix the areas you are lacking in. To have a good chance to make it on Etsy, you want to always be trying to improve yourself!

But the other side of this is that you are going to have to set your hours off, as well. No one can tell you, "that's enough; time to close shop." It's all on you. And while you feel a responsibility to keep it all going, to fix everything at once, to not stop until you get it right, you have to make that choice to prioritize, as well. Don't let it get in the way of the people around you and the jobs given you by the Lord.

So "take Sundays off". Close Etsy in the evening and relax with your family. Read a book to a toddler, spend some time in the Word of God, clean the bathroom and bake cookies, just for fun. In all things do the best you are able... But in all things, moderation. Put the Lord and His kingdom before all that you do <3.

And that's truly the best advise I can offer you as you run your shop... And do everything else in your life. So maybe today doesn't count as a write31 fail after all <3.

Blessings in Christ,
Bri