Introduce Yourself and Your Shops

[Former_Member]

Hi!
I'm Paula and I joined Etsy in 2007 with my first shop UxCritter. I love "critters" and beading and so I wanted a shop that was based on animal themed jewelry & crafts. I lived in Uxbridge at the time and the name fit.

I then found myself branching into many various aspects of handmade projects and I felt that these other projects needed to be represented individually.

In no particular order, my shops are, RingsHandmade, opened when I discovered a love for wire wrapped ring making.

FineEssentials came about after I decided to share my aromatherapy passion for healing essential oil blends. Which soon took on a new twist with Fine Essential jewelry & crafts finding their way into my essential oil shop and taking over from the essential oil blends. (I'm a true beadaholic) ;-P

AffordableFUN came about as one Christmas approached and the economy was getting so bad that I worried about those who wished to spend money on loved ones for gifts but who couldn't afford to spend very much yet still wanted to find something fun and appealing for gifts or even just for themselves.

My 4 shops:
===========
UxCritter.etsy.com ~ critter themed jewelry & crafts
FineEssentials.etsy.com ~ essential oils & fine crafts
RingsHandmade.etsy.com ~ Wire Wrapped Rings
AffordableFUN.etsy.com ~ Inexpensive jewelry & crafts

*I do not encourage others to take on more than one shop. It's a lot of work and a real juggling act.

* I do encourage anyone who is interested in discussions revolving around multiple shops to come in and find answers, share ideas, suggestions, experiences and help those who already have multiple shops, or are thinking about opening more than one shop.

Multiple shops on Etsy for one seller is a lot of work for certain, but it's doable. lol ;-)

~ Paula

[StymiepieStudios]

UX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hi , i'm leslie..and i have two shops here..StyniepieStudios features unique handpainted items for kids of all ages, and RockandRollHart faetures original art and loving rock prtraits of musicians i've known and loved..hope to see you ..come over and i'll make coffee!
http://www.stymiepiestudios.etsy.com
http://ww.rockandrollhart.etsy.com

[JulsSewCrazy]

Hello, Paula!
Hi, Leslie!
I am Jules... also Jul, Juls
I have two shops. This one focuses mainly on the "sewing items", my embroidery:
www.julssewcrazy.etsy.com

My second shop is "everything else"
www.JulsCraftCrazy.etsy.com
and it has Hanging Crystals, Magnets, Mirrors, Ornaments, FAIRY DUST, polymer clay items, cards/mini cards, craft books and destash items... and more. I love all modalities of art and love to mix and match and play.

[JulsCraftCrazy]

My name is Juls.
This is me in my second shop.
I love working with my hands.
When I don't have electricity, I love to make "Fairy Dust" and Hanging Crystal Ornaments. I am working on my "photographing" skills to get better pictures for my shop and just bought a lightbox.
I juggle between both shops and sometimes feel like I neglect one or the other on various days. But, my items were so different, they needed their own place to stand out amongst the 200+ embroidery items in my other shop.

[rockandrollhart]

PAULA! JULS!!!
this is so funny!! now we have to stand up and say "hI i'm Leslie and i have two shops on etsy"..like an internet anonymous meeting!LOL!!☻

[Former_Member]

Hi everyone!

Hey Paula - I'm happy to join your team! My other shop is http://www.brynnalex.etsy.com which is mostly cards, jewelry and lavender items - which have been made in memory of my Brynn. The funds from that shop are used to help students go to art school.

Have been here at etsy since May 2007.

(This shop is vintage jewelry and also supplies for jewelry making.)

Nice to meet you all!

Elaine (from just outside Vancouver, B.C. Canada)

[Former_Member]

Hey Everyone!
Welcome!
(((Hugs-a-Bunch))) And Great to see you all.
hehehe, on the "...internet anonymous meeting!LOL!!"

ROFL..... sure sounds that way doesn't it. ??? hahaha...

But really, it's so super to hear about all these great shops you all have.
:-)

[JulsSewCrazy]

I was at my son's event yesterday with clay, and I only had my business cards from this shop... oops. (Clay is for the other shop.)

Do you think that I should have ONE SECTION in THIS shop that has one of each item from my other shop? Just to show a sampling?
The section could be called JulsCraftCrazy and each item in there could have the link to my other shop...
For example: one crystal, one mirror, one magnet, one fairy dust, etc.

Or do you think that is too confusing?
My profile has my second shop... should that be the first thing there, so people can see that? or should my profile talk only about this shop and just mention I have the other one?

[Former_Member]

Hi Juls,

Addressing your first point "business cards"... I discovered over the years of keeping up with more than one shop that what worked best for me is to have ONE BUSINESS CARD with all my shops on it.
(that might be helpful for your dilemma)

As far as having a section in one shop show another shop's wares, I am not sure. Perhaps a bit confusing, but at the same time, giving a sampling may be something to consider? I really haven't tried anything like that myself and I can't say for sure what it'd be like.

I do however cross-market whenever I am able to. Like the new line of feather jewelry that some of my customers asked me to start creating more of....I find that line of jewelry can fit in 3 of my shops quite nicely and I can cross reference the listings from shop to shop in an effective way.

Your ONE SECTION idea might be a really good 'test project' for you to try. I am in test mode constantly for one thing or another. lol :-)

Your Profile query, ... personally I think your profile should focus on the shop first and secondly what you can offer outside of that shop. This is just my opinion.

For me, I link to ALL my shops in each and every listing I create at the end of each listing description. I find this 'test practice' of adding all my shops has proven very effective.

A new idea I have just discovered that is going to be very beneficial to me will be to keep all 4 of my shops links as a standard focal point in any of my promoting.

Meaning, that not only my business cards are geared to all my shops, but also any "Handmade by" stickers will include all my shops.

ie: Instead of having something I made be specific to a shop, I'll have it specific to me "Paula" and the links to all my shops.

I was filling an order for UxCritter the other day and found myself putting a Handmade by AffordableFUN sticker with the order. I then realized it's time to have one standard set with all my shops, but focus on "me" as the artisan foremost.

[Former_Member]

Hi everyone, I am Andrea an I opened SaltCityPatisserie in 2009.
Business has been slow... not a lot of people want to purchase baked goods online.
I used to be a photographer (weddings mostly) and have been thinking about getting back into photography. All of the pictures in my shop were taken by me. I have been considering opening up another shop that is just photographs of food, mostly my baked goods in interesting locations, angles etc.
Is it worth it to open a new shop for that, or since the photographs I'm thinking will be mostly food related, would it make sense to just list the pictures in my current shop... or does that get confusing because there is real food for sale & pictures of food???
What are your thoughts?

Thanks!!

[foradultsonly]

My other shop is qbranchltd. It sells "normal" craft items. It has been on Etsy for many years and I have seen a lot of changes on Etsy over that time. With the worst being the most recent with the elimination of the forums and the removal of any free way of reaching potential buyers. Let's face it - buyers don't join teams. .

This shop is relatively new - and If you are easily offended don't come look around.

[JulsCraftCrazy]

Thanks, Paula!

Profile will stay the same. I think I agree... talk about the shop they are visiting.

I will experiment with the section, I think... When I have time? hehe.

Cards - YES! Definitely. Thanks!
When I opened the second shop, I put the first one's website... but I have 1000 of the first shop... tacky to just pencil it in? maybe a small sticker on the back... hmmm... Thank you!

[JulsCraftCrazy]

Hi, SaltCity!
I love having two shops. I just don't spend as much time "chatting" in this shop as my other shop - julssewcrazy.etsy.com . I think it is great for me because of the variety I have.

Before I opened my second shop, i had sections in my first shop that specifically said "Embroidery, or crystals, magnets" to have people search for the item that interested them. Eventually, I got so many items in my embroidery section (and they needed to be separated), the crystals were overlooked... people don't always browse through 13 pages. But, when people did random searches, they found my crystals. A second shop was logical.

You might want to try a "Photography" section in this shop.
A drawback is that the feedback will all be in this one shop if you ever decide to open a second shop later.

I would suggest that you are VERY clear in the description to explain that "THIS IS A PHOTOGRAPH" or "YOU WILL RECEIVE 24 COOKIES, ready to eat" or something of that nature. Your pictures are so good that you want your description to be just as crisp and clear.

(I am easily confused in some shops - one item for sale but 12 are in the picture, or... pick the one you want - and it's sold already, etc.)

[Former_Member]

SaltCity, Welcome!
I agree with Juls that you might want to put your shop into "test mode" on the sale of the combination of real food and photographed food, with very specific, clear descriptions so there isn't any possible confusions. That's a tall order though it may indeed be worth the effort.

With your real food listings triggering 'at first sight, drooling' you know you have succeeded two-fold. In creating such luscious confections one can eat, and two, in your ability to photograph & capture the pure essence of your mouth watering delights on film. ;-)

Your ingenious 'bonus' is that you saw this great opportunity to add to the "photo op" side of baked goods as a selling point, as well as the actual baked goods themselves. Kudos!

[Former_Member]

Juls says: Cards - YES! Definitely. Thanks!
When I opened the second shop, I put the first one's website... but I have 1000 of the first shop... tacky to just pencil it in? maybe a small sticker on the back... hmmm... Thank you!
=======================================================

I did the sticker thing and it looks very neat and still professional. I did this for my cards and for my hubby's cards.

[Former_Member]

Thanks Juls & AffortableFUN-You're comments were incredibly kind AND helpful-thank you so much!!

I am still debating what I want to do... two shops or one.... but your suggestions were very helpful. I might play aroung with one or two photograph listings on this shop and see what happens.... but in the end I am leaning towards it being much easier to have them separated, I think the photographs mixed in with the real food will become very confusing. And Juls, like you said all of my feedback will end up staying with this shop if I do branch out with another shop in the future, and I don't necessarily like that I'd have to start over with feedback.

Thanks so much!!

[JulsCraftCrazy]

Thanks, AffordableFUN! Sticker it is.
(I was worried about the professionalism, but glad it worked for you and I will do it too.)

[ohmay]

Hi.....

I have been with etsy since July 2007 with my original shop Ohmay. I then opened a destash shop called ohmayzee, then another for my knitting patterns called Ohmaydiy. OhmayDIY came about because my patterns are doing well and I discovered Paypal micropayments. Micropayment rates are cheaper if the total price is $12 or less....so there you go.

[Former_Member]

Hi Ohmay,
Micropayments is something new to me. Never heard of that term before. Is there somewhere that I can read more about that?

It's wonderful to hear that your diy shop is doing so well! Congrats. :-)

[Former_Member]

I began with original art and papergoods featuring calligraphic gestures of cats and dogs called CalligraphyPets.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ecstewart

Later, I expanded my line to feature my illustrations on other works of wearable art. I now have a second shop featuring leathergoods:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LisaStewartHandbags

My work isn't vintage so I'm having difficulty getting 'seen.'

Thanks for reading!

PS. @rockandrollhart -That's funny!

Lisa
Fellow AA, or AE?

[Former_Member]

I as well mulpitable shops serendipityjane, serendipitoustwist, and twistoffaterewind it is a juggling act but needed. Please check me out. I do some questions but don't have time right now as I'm getting things redy for a show at 5pm. I'll be back and thanks for having a place for us. Terry

[Former_Member]

hi everyone.
im new to etsy.
at the moment i make hand cut art and books, also find myself branching into jewellery and have always had a passion for photography.i have 11 cameras!!!! so i can share my moments with the world :)

so watch this space.

amrita
:)

[TheCatBall]

I'm a pattern maker and clothing designer.
Most of the work I'm doing right now is women's lingerie: garter belts and waist cinchers.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JennasRedRhino

I want this store to keep a clean look that allows focus on the clothing designs, so I opened up a store that is just about extreme embroidery:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/InsanityLand

I also opened up a store that is vintage, mostly supplies and sewing patterns:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/rotarydial

It's hard to have three shops.

[Former_Member]

Hi Guys & Welcome!

This is so cool meeting all of you with Multiple Shops on Etsy.
I'm learning new things and seeing new sites.
Very cool!

Keep 'em coming.
& Happy Sales Everyone!

~ Paula

[LadyDylana]

Hi I am Lady Dylana to most people:
I have two shops, the first Dylana Designs www.etsy.com/shop/dylanadesigns sells my handknit and crochet designs

The second: The Joy of Knitting www.etsy.com/shop/thejoyofknitting sells all knitting yarn, books, patterns, needles, accessories