That is the question. I’ve had my “shop” on this site for a few years and never really plunged into it full time. At least more than twenty hours a month, I mean! I dabble at best. I’ll list some fabric I’m tired of looking at in my stash or make something to sell, but sometimes it’s a chore to just keep up an appearance. I will admit, I feel it’s gone a little too commercial in the last year or so. For example, now some of the vendors “send” their creations to warehouses to have them mass produced. Excuse me? It’s a handmade site, not a sweatshop. Now they have a category for handmade.
Although, I did love the vintage category. I would go into antique shops and find little goodies to either list as-is or I’d recycle them into new things. The only problem with that is I’d never want to sell what I did. And, all the little gems I’d come home with, I’d keep for myself. In this little Etsy venture to sell antiques, my shelves in the house are filling up with all my brainchildren ideas for the shop. But, they look so good in my own house:)
I did sell a rather large quilt that I made. It was like two hundred dollars. I was over the roof excited!! But, when I looked at it as I prepared it for shipping, I became sad. I worked a lot of hours and put a lot of my soul into that thing. I went to the quilt boutique and held up endless swatches to see what worked, I pieced and quilted the entire thing…and then I hand stitched the binding! It took me many hours to put that lovely summer quilt together. I just wondered if the recipient would appreciate all that went into it.
When I quilt for family, I know they realize the love that went into it just for them. And, I have a lot of joy giving my creations to people I know. I’m just not sure I want to keep putting my things out there anymore. But, I do love it when I see the little app come up, alerting me I have another sale! I’m so conflicted over the whole thing. Maybe I’ll put my next quilt up on the shop and see what happens. When it doesn’t sell I’ll be depressed and when it does I’ll be depressed. Is there any point?
I’m also thinking about having an etsy shop one day. I didn’t know you could have a shop on wordpress though? ;o is it complicated? 🙂
I’m sorry, that was confusing how I worded it. I have a shop on the actual Etsy website. It’s super easy, the trickiest part I’ve found to it all is the shipping prices. Do your research. I’ve lost more money in that mistake than any else. But, it’s rewarding, too. When I get feedback about how much they like what it is they purchased, it gives me great happiness. I think if I marketed better, I’d like it more. Marketing is a full time job! There are so many shops on the site, you have to stand out in some way and get on as many collections as possible. It’s just another type of media that sucks a lot of time out of ya!! Thanks for the question:)) Good luck to you with your future shop!
I see ! I completely understand what you mean with marketing, it really is a full time job. Even just trying to get some followers to my blog, I’m suprised as to how much time it takes! 🙂 I can understand that I’ll have to research the shipping prices, I’ll definitely do that. Isn’t it so that you also have to give a percentage of the profit you make? is it much? And thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question! 🙂
My pleasure! It’s like twenty cents or so for each listing. That gets you three months worth of exposure. Then if it sells, the money gets directly deposited into your Paypal account. Etsy then bills you for their share. It’s very little. I wish I could remember, but on something I just sold for $14.00, they billed me .98 cents for selling it on their site. Works for me!!
That’s so awesome! 🙂 I really should look into it ! I Thank you so much! 🙂 I might open a shop sooner than I planned!
This was great to reead
Thank you so much!