Hello! Let's start chatting!

[#1]

'Bopa' here under another guise.
Thought I'd get a general chat thread rolling ... while we wait for the 'big chop'.
Shall we get our knitting needles out - like the women who surrounded the guillotine?! (seems very etsyesque!)

[Former_Member]

**** HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENDA ***** have a great day and a nice 'normal' meal... lol...

Kim x

[Former_Member]

How did I miss that? Too concerned about snow!
Brenda, have a good one! It's only a number.

Cat x

[GwynnethRixon]

just about recovered from the weekend and the fair at Dyffryn gardens. Sunday afternoon saved it...customers AND nice early music from ContraBand.
They needed more actual makers there, but it wasn't too bad.

[Former_Member]

Did you have a good day yesterday, Brenda?

[FragmentDesignsEtsy]

Ooooh happy belated birthday.

@Gwynneth good to hear of a craft fair going well :) I've got one in Bristol this weekend and one in Cardiff on the 17th. Fingers crossed!

[Former_Member]

Happy belated birthday Brenda..
Im still trying to do a million things at once.. Im filling up my shop with all things under £10!!
Sales have been better for me on folksy despite all the changes and the site going all weird on me.. I had a sale of a textile card to Canada the other day.. we have big storms up here in Scotland and Im not going out to the post too scary!!!

[Former_Member]

Happy B day Brenda! & hi all - haven't been around for a while been busy with work & trying to sort out my divorce it is a nightmare. I did a craft fair last weekend & sold some scarves so cannot complain, well only about the ex lol

Hope everyone is well & keeping warm xxx

[GwynnethRixon]

I've just had the list of November sales from the Court Cupboard Gallery...going fairly well there. I'm on duty there on Sunday too, no hardship to spend a day with a nice woodburning stove and good coffee!!
Usk Farmers' Market on the 17th, a week tomorrow- hoping that the last one before christmas will be worth it!!

[FragmentDesignsEtsy]

Blergh just home from a Craft fair didn't even cover the cost of the table! Let alone the petrol and the toll to get to Bristol! I'm going to one more craft fair next week and if thats a bust too I'm out and its online all the way!

[Former_Member]

Iv been putting tons of things in my shop I decided to really go at it hard so for 3 days Iv been doing nothing else. I decided to try just mixing everything together because iv always tried to keep my illustration work and fibre work seperate and an interesting thing has happened.. instead of nil to 20 visitors today iv had 120 now I know its busy and everything but Im wondering is it because Iv mixed things up I have so many different tags now too and so many different things for people to see. iv now got 40 items listed but that includes workshops too...
Please have a look at my shop and please give me some feedback.. i find this very interesting and it may be helpful to others...

[Former_Member]

Sarah-Jane Egan Im sorry to read that its so upsetting when that happens and petrol is so expensive now... good luck with the other one...

[Former_Member]

I think that the more you list the better your chances of views. I'm probably the wrong person to give feedback. I like to arrange by colour in my shop.
Have you looked at your shop stats to see where your views are coming from?
It could be that somebody has including your items on Stumbled Upon or Pinterest.
I carried out an experiment last night. I added some items that didn't have many views and within an hour the views shot up because of Stumbled Upon.
@Sarah Jane - I've gone to so many events that have been washouts in my previous job. It's a gamble. Sometimes it pays off. Keep your chin up!

[FragmentDesignsEtsy]

@Morag, to be honest can't remember what the shop was laid out like before but I just clicked on to have a look and the fact that all the pics aren't similar cause different things really does make you more then glance at it. I think it keeps your interest more. I'd imagine that you will get more views because more tags but be interested to see if you get more sales or not, could go either way really. Oh and wanted to ask abot the gift vouchers can we do vouchers for our etsy shops do you know?

@Cat I'll give this one a go next week, fingers crossed, but it is really a lot of effort and expense and nothing to show for it, the last one at least I covered my costs, only just but still. This one has me out of pocket. Didn't help that there was a woman there selling glass for less then it must have been costing her to make! She was just doing it as a hobby and there was another glass seller who was nosing around and saw my few pieces of glass and just said thank you for pricing your stuff reasonably, we don't have a chance today. I was pretty glad I don't just do glass!

[Former_Member]

@Morag, gift vouchers came up in another team's thread. I'll see if I can dig it up!
@Sarah Jane, it's the same here. There' a site that shows the biggers sellers on Etsy. It you go to their shops their stuff is dirt cheap. It makes it all the more difficult for the rest of us that make quality items.

[Former_Member]

Sorry it was Sarah Jane who asked the question
This is part of a thread sorry if it reads badly
__________________________
I have been offering gift certificate since last christmas, I have sold 6 and none of them have ever been used? Weird or what?
________________________________________
I've been thinking about offering gift certificates in our shop but don't know anything about it. How does it work? Someone buys it and then what? He or she can choose anything in the amount of certificate. How about the shipping costs. It varies between items. If anyone can help me with the procedure I would be very happy.

___________________________________________
Oh no.... wait... let me try and explain again. Actually first let me answer your questions...

So when someone wants to redeem the certificate they choose other as payment and use the code listed in the certificate? YES.

If I understand correctly I have to make a coupon code with 100% off. Is that right? NO.

Why exactly do I have to set up my shop to accept "other" payment? BECAUSE. :)

You've got the first part down pat! You cannot make a coupon code for 100% off. The system doesn't let you. That's why you have to set up your shop to accept "other" as payment. When someone selects "other" during check-out, they enter the code you have given them.
Since you'll be super organized and have a list of all the codes you've given out, :) you'll know the amount of money that that code is for.
If the client buys something that is more money than the gift certificate, you send an invoice through paypal for the rest.
If they buy something that is less money, then usually, most people keep the balance on a credit so the client can use the code again (or you can issue a new code for the remaining amount).

I hope I made sense this time. :)

[Former_Member]

Hi

Thanks for feedback folks.. I liked to put things together by colour but I think that as long as it doesnt clash mixing it up might work.. Iv still loads page views and favs this morning ..yesturday was over 140 and 16 favs I think that you need over 100 views to get a sale.. 10% what do you think???

I asked etsy age ago if it was ok to sell workshops real live one sand they sid it was ok.. at the end of the day they make good money when I sell them you would think as im away up in scotland i wouldnt but it allows me to and out cards to would be students and then they can go and buy. The vouchers i have done have a code on them when they arive at the persons home they can go and click on link to my blog and go and email me the workshop they want to do or go to the booking page they have to put in a code so I know that its not someone at it 9 if you get my drift ) Sometimes i get people saying they would like to buy a family member a gift voucher because they wouldnt know what workshop to buy them. I guess I should really have done some for my shop too but most of my gifts are under 10.00 so its not like a mega big gamble if you bought the wrong thing.

I sold something last night another textile card, this time to uSA this i funny to me because the post is the same as the card but people dont seem to mind.. I will def do more of these cards for valentines...its funny becasue at the moment Im designing cards but painted illustrated ones for card companies.. so its comming at it from a different angle.

My stats show the visitors are from Etsy, pininterest ( as some nice person pinned something of mine) and facebook and twitter. My thoughts are that with Twitter you can loose people if you constantly bombarded with links facebook iv not got a fan page.. thinking about it.. pininterest.. now here is a thought.. if we stuck together on this how about... We help each other if you havnt got an account with them open one up.. if you have then choose some peoples work from the welsh team and pin it it really seems to work... stumble upon I dont really understand it??

[Former_Member]

sorry for awful spelling ooops did that in a hurry.. off to pin someones work...

[Former_Member]

I don't understand SU But I think there is a long standing problem with the amount of views that It shows you. It works that all I know. My crochet dumbbells had 72 views within minutes of my adding them to SU.
Here's me on Pinterest. I up for starting a Welsh board. I already have a Welsh blankets board.
Pinterst works by invitation but you can request one. It takes ages for it to come through.
http://pinterest.com/babancat

[Former_Member]

HI Cat iv added this onto my board

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85717171/christmas-tree-decorations

[Former_Member]

this is me http://pinterest.com/morag/

Cat can you let me know what happens if it makes a big difference.

Im up for doing a welsh board too but as that will takee a wee while and Im abit pushed right now thought Id do a few here and there but yes i think havning a welsh board is a brilliant idea.....!

[Former_Member]

Sarah-Jane iv added this on my pininterst can you watch your stats and see if it makes a differance?
http://www.etsy.com/listing/77340982/silver-constellation-pendant-the

[FragmentDesignsEtsy]

Thanks hun will def watch out, I'm stil waiting for my invite to P interest! I requested it about 2 weeks ago so I've requested another one last night. Looking into stumbled upon is on this weeks list too. If I get the inviet I'll def help with Welsh board. Also on my list is getting over 80 items in my shop! I hear for jewellery apparently 100 is the magic number, I don't think I'll get there this week but I'm working towards it.

@Morag just to check you know that the last date for posting airmail to the US was friday? I sent one sat morn and told the guy that would probably make it, but I'm not sure I'm willing to risk later dates. Western Europe is tomorrow which sucks! Then we just have the UK as our market and Christmas is over :(

Good look with sales today guys :)

[Former_Member]

@Sarah-Jane Egan Hi thanks forgot that Ill need to email them and ask if they still want the card... I dont know where time goes... one min its the summer and Im going like hammer and tongs for the london ehibiion and then its christmas.. my old head is spinning..!




@CwtchBugs iv pinned this on pininterst can you watch your stats see if it makes a differance to you... you might need to read the last few pages of this convo to get why!!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/87107613/ready-to-ship-chunky-crochet-baby-sleepy

[FragmentDesignsEtsy]

No problem, the time has just run away on us! Really wish I'd had more of run up to Christmas but oh well thats that!

[teabreaks]

Love that hat Cwtch !
Hope everyone is having a great weekend