AAA Cafe' Daily Chat 02/11/2014

[naturepoet]

Welcome to new members, welcome back to returning teammates! If this is your first time here - this is a place to ask questions, share your most embarrassing secrets, or just chat about the slow and boring bits of your day…we want to hear from you!!

Be sure to check out the discussion board. There are games to be played and threads to explore. The more you promote your fellow team mates, the more you get promoted, so be sure to participate on a daily basis. Check out our blog and our Facebook page, as well as the other links provided below.

IMPORTANT LINKS:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/301427606658253/
Etsy Calculator: salecalc.com/etsy
Etsyology: www.etsyology.net/
Online Photo Programs: fotoflexer.com/ or www.picmonkey.com/
treasurypin.com./
Etsy Craft Tools: www.mycrafttools.com/
Etsy Gadget: www.estygadget.com

Hi everyone. Well, it's still cold in Ontario, but at least we haven't had anymore snow for a few days and none is expected for the time being.

Today is problem day. Problems with your shop, marketing, listing, promotion or anything else you'd like an opinion on. Feel free to share whatever you please.

QUOTE of the DAY:

"Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines."
~ Robert H. Schuller

[Former_Member]

Good morning !

Great quote Mary !
My main problem is that all my items require a lot of time to be created, so I can not add new items to my shop as often as I would like.
I also hate the promotion and marketing ... but it's part of my job here, so I try to do it the best I can.

Time to go to work now. Wish you all a very nice day ! :)

[NaturalClocks]

Good morning all!

The thing I hate the most is when I want to add a link or some bit of information to each of my listings and I have to do so by manually editing each individual listing, very time consuming grrrrrrrrr. Not a problem, no, but nevertheless irritating in my books!

A fierce wind woke me up this morning, luckily it's all gone quiet now. Better get cracking now, I'll pop in later on.

Have a great day everybody!

[Viyoli]

Hi , Good morning, I wish for snow , here no rain , a little cold, but the sun is shining.

Now I really don't have problems, just want to try and help, Val there is an
http://www.craftopolis.com/#com=ee&use this can help you, hope that i put correctly the link
I also don't have enough time , to do all I need , so I do it slowly , I make a time table , for what I plan for the day . week.
today I'm in love with my shop , so I spend lots of time in....
I work for two month all the time correcting lots of wrong things, and since it's better , the sales grow !!!!
So have a great day and lots of sales, sorry that I'm not here enough , ..........

[Former_Member]

Good morning -

Great quote today Mary. It is also still quite cold here as well. They keep saying a warm up is coming but so far nothing but bitter cold air.

I am in agreement with Nuria when it comes to items taking time to be created. My items each require different stages of finishing or producing and it is a lot of times time consuming and so I can't put things into my shop as frequently as I want to.

Also, it seems that my sales have come to a screeching halt again so I have literally gone through every listing checking three things to start with. Tags, titles and categories. I thought they all looked good but now I am doubting myself. Plus pricing too because I feel I have decent pricing and I really can't lower prices much more than I have already.

Vicky: Thank you for that helpful link. I marked it for later and yes you posted it correctly. Maybe Mary can add it to the links above for later use too at some point.

Have a good day!

[TheEclecticInterior]

Good morning, great quote! I think starting each day with a positive quote helps to get you going in the right direction.

My biggest problem is that there is not enough hours in the day to get everything done that I want to get done. I really need to get more pictures taken and get things listed, but....... I also need to get out in search of more treasures, I haven't been picking in quite some time.

Have a great day and I hope the sales fairy pays a visit to each and everyone one of you!

[Former_Member]

Hi everyone,
Still raining here.

I like todays quote Mary, my biggest problem is prioritising, there's so much to learn and so much to do it's difficult to stop myself getting into a mess by charging in like a bull at a gate. So I've had a couple of days off thinking about Etsy and concentrated on crafting instead, which has been great. It's cleared my mind and allowed me to make a list and set priorities and deadlines instead of trying to do everything at once.

I had a look at your shop Nuria, I'm not surprised your things take time to make - so much love and patience must go into working with all of those tiny, tiny beads. The results are worth it though - your work is beautiful.

Have a good day all.

[DerBayzVintage]

Good Morning All,

Great quote today! My biggest problem is shipping costs I think. As a general rule I send everything out using flat rate boxes and I think most people feel that the shipping costs are too high and maybe that is why I am not getting as many sales as I could. How do you calculate your shipping costs?

On a person note, my 10 year old daughter gave me a Valentines present this morning. It was a THT bear that she purchase at the estate sale this weekend. She said she looked it up on the internet and it is worth $150 and she wants me to have it for the store. She said if I sell more expensive items, then I could stay home with her and not go to work. She further said if I don't have to go to work, I will have more energy and she won't have to hate the MS as much. LOL She really is a great child who thinks of other people.

[GlensWorkshop]

Good Morning Everyone,

Mary - great quote!

My most frustrating problem right now is that my photos have gone from pretty good to yuck! Somehow they are all turning out way too dark as if the White Balance is out of whack. I've already tried several things to fix this with no progress. I have three Stylus pens ready for listing and three more nearly ready so a solution is needed quickly. I will just have to keep trying.

Have a great day everyone!

[Former_Member]

Good morning all.

My biggest problem is not having inventory nor the time to build inventory. This has been my issue for the last year.

I have read many times that having a couple hundred items is optimal. I'd be lucky to hit 25. By the time my inventory starts to grow, I've sold items (not complaining about that) or items have expired. I'm back down to 15 items right now.

TRIAL SOLUTION: For 2014, I have decided to change MY outlook on this problem. It isn't the number of items I have in inventory, it's the value of the inventory.
Therefore, I am trying to increase the value of my inventory by $100 per week. Which could be 1 item valued at $100 or 10 items valued at $10. I thought this way I would avoid wasting too much time on things that won't be worth my time.

This week I've been working on 2 pet beds plus I'll relist an item to reach the $100 mark.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/128497839/gothic-coffin-shaped-pet-bed-for-small?ref=shop_home_active_1

[Former_Member]

Good morning, everyone!

Excellent quote, Mary.

My biggest problem right now is I'm transitioning from cotton totes to polyester ones. The cotton ones are cheaply made and of pretty poor quality. I just receved the new totes, and they are much nicer. They're larger, have a zipper, and are made of 50% recycled material -- all good selling points.

I'm seriously considering putting my shop in vacation mode while I transition. It is going to take a while to embroider those totes (we're talking about 65 or so). I'll do maybe 10 or so, then reopen.

So I'm talking about a pretty major overhaul of my inventory. I'm probably going to be in vacation mode for ten days or so. But my views have been hovering at only 20 per day, so I won't be losing much in terms of traffic. I'll continue to chat, but won't play any of the games.

I'm hoping to offer an improved product -- one with 10 different colors rather than six. Hopefully, that will increase my views and sales.

Have a good day, everyone!

[4my4creations]

Wow y'all hit the nail on the head when it comes to the troubles. I guess running a 'micro-business' is hard work. The not enough hours in the day is mine. And to prioritize what to do first then next. I have been blessed with many sales lately so I have been just getting those done and nothing else which is great and frustrating all at the same time.

[RedRiverValley]

Great quote Mary! Something to keep in mind this time of year when sales are slow and the weather is less than desirable! I would have to agree that I could use a few more hours each day to get more done. I think some of it is the weather. It has been so cold, snowy and dark that it is hard to get going sometimes. Luckily spring is on the way and hopefully that will improve things for everyone! I have listed a lot of items in my shop the last 2 weeks but still no sales. Hopefully soon!

Adele what a wonderful gift from your daughter! She is a great problem solver!

Alanna - I'm sure it is going to be a lot of work to get the new totes done and ready for customers but it will definitely be worth it to have a larger selection and higher quality product. Good luck!

[Former_Member]

My problems are photographs. I've come a long way since I first opened my shop (I'm due to have my first anniversary on Etsy in a week or two) but I need to go through and retake most of my photos.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/179042164/destash-6x6-scrapbook-paper-30-sheets?ref=teams_post

https://www.etsy.com/listing/179053669/destash-silver-pewter-large-hole-charms?ref=teams_post

https://www.etsy.com/listing/179051907/destash-silver-beading-and-beader-charms?ref=teams_post

I also have a craft show this weekend that may get snowed out. I really hope that won't happen! I also owe Isobel a few pics of the toy rabbits with my baby nephew, and that won't happen either if I can't travel. :( I also spent most of my store budget for the month on upgrading my show displays. Protip: go yard sailing for show display supplies and take your friend who can help you can find Longaberger baskets!

[DCArtandPhotography]

Good Morning Everyone!!

I probably wont be on here much today either, but I did wake to find I sold a pair of earrings!! Yay! I added more daft listings last night, and now I have almost 80 drafts to edit..... gives me a headache thinking about all those descriptions to try and enhance. (thats what i get for not listing items as i create them, and letting the list pile up) I think I am getting a hang of the tagging, and its the decriptions that need most of the work now. Some of the pictures could use some clearing up too. So much to do, so little time!

Some of the new items are Dream catchers, so I can't wait to see how well they do!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

[Former_Member]

Good luck at the craft show, L.E. We're not supposed to get snow until Thursday, so hopefully things will be better by Saturday.

[DoorCountyVintage]

More time in a day would be great. I will be starting a new thread soon, trying to catch up on old ones,list another 15 items,try to make more people aware we exist,welcome new members oh and try to have a real life..

Also considering a retweet the tweet above you thread idea..

More hours indeed :)

[RedRiverValley]

Chris you do so much for us! We are so grateful to have such wonderful leaders on this team!! Thank you!

A side note, a post an item and repin the 5+ about you would be good too :) when you get those extra hrs each day of course!

[chickydoddle]

Good morning. It's freezing cold here, but sunny. I'm not looking forward to heading out to the post office.

I too wish there're more hours in a day to do things. It's so difficult to balance between work and looking after the whole family.

I need to vent as I had a very rude customer from overseas. Her post office attempted to delivery her package but was unsuccessful. Since tracking was available, looked like they left her a notice but she didn't claim the package. Now the package is returning to me. She is blaming me for everything. She even did a claim on PayPal to put the funds on hold and I had to give her a full refund (including postage!!) to get the case closed. It's so frustrating to have customer like that.

Anyway, I guess there wasn't much I could do about it.

[homecraftframing]

Time and focus, do not have enough of either and some days it shows it. Life getting in my way but no one has a fix for this problem. If anyone who has children in school, advise them to go into computer repair, I have paid quite a bit over the years.

As for problems with my shop, right now I am happy with how things are going. Sales are steady but I believe mostly it is due to price point and repeat business.

On occasion I will go to the forum and recently I read a thread about Too Much Information in Your Descriptions. When you write your description, make sure the important product information is in the first two paragraphs along with keyword rich information. These are more likely the only paragraphs that will get read, if read at all. After these keyword rich paragraphs, write for the Search Engines. If the Search Engines cannot find you, what are the chances a potential customer will?

I am going to start placing links in my descriptions to see if I can increase my relevancy on Etsy. I am going to frame a photo I bought from Brandon TheFancifulGardener and link it to the photo in his shop.

Have to head downstairs and pack some frames and go to the post office. Have a nice day everyone!

[KrochetKingdom]

Sorry about your experience Chickydoddle. It will make you stronger and hopefully you never encounter another customer like that. Unfortunately they are everywhere.

Great quote Mary.

Everyone have a blessed day.

[Former_Member]

Good morning all. I'm still sipping my second tea here. Going to be a many cups of tea day.

I'm with Adele, shipping. I only use priority flat rate boxes to help me cut down on time dealing with shipping but I too am wondering if it's driving away business. I'll be re-examining this in the next month...

[naturepoet]

Lots of good points brought up in this thread.

John, I will do my best to remember to add Vicky's link to the list.

Adele, I always take my items to the post office. When possible, I put them in envelopes so they can go first class mail. I'm in Canada remember, so I think our postal system is a little different than yours. We don't have flat rate boxes. I add peanuts and bubble wrap to my items and find the smallest box I can that will allow the item to be shipped safely. I then estimate at Canada Post. Our postal rates are based on destination, size and weight.

[Former_Member]

Chickydoddle, I'm wondering if the buyer had to pay duties on the item, either by value threshold or random inspection, and chose not to do so. I read about that on the main forums all the time.

[naturepoet]

Glen, good luck getting the camera adjusted.

Dawn, you may have found the perfect solution to your problem.

Alanna, your new totes sound wonderful

LE, be sure to try fotoflexer or pic monkey to brighten your photos before you retake them all. If you can adjust them, it will be much easier and take far much less time. The link to these are on page one. Good luck at the craft show. I hope it isn't cancelled.

Charlene, congrats on the sales.

Chris, thanks for all you do. Your mind must be a whirlwind constantly thinking of how to make our team better.

Chicydoodle, did Pay Pal find in her favor, even though the post office in her country had attempted to deliver it?