Fabulously Frugal Dolly

I bought myself a treat of etsy a while ago, a needle felting kit, which I just adore!  It’s easier than I’d thought, after just a bit of playing I’d made a couple pieces, small ones, but still, they’re fun to do.  It just takes a puff of wool and the special needle- and ideally a mat to work on so as not to poke your table or worse- your hands- with the very sharp and barbed needle.  Supposedly the needles break easily, but it hasn’t happened to me yet.  I’ve made a couple jewelry type component pieces and 2 critters, a tiny little teddy bear and a partially unfinished goat.  The bear will probably go to my mom, as I know she’d just love stabbing wool with the specail needles too, and she’s got a soft spot for little bears.  The art of stabbing something into a cute little something else is perfect for me, I love it.  Once I’m able to do so, there’s a few other wool sellers on etsy whose shops I’ve been eyeing, wonderfully hand-dyed wads of wooly fluff awaiting stabbing into cuteness.  Some of the items that caught my eye are sampler packs of wools, different colors and whatnot, and the grab bag- my favorite way to buy something when I’m not quite sure which kind I want, if only there were grab bags of everything.  It’s the best way to try new things I think, get a good mix and often a good discount of something to see if you like it.  I remember going to the gem and mineral shows as a kid hoping to find the booth with grab bags- there were always great stones in those bags, and you got more for your money than picking out individual rocks for your collection.  Sometimes there’s be repeats if I got more than one bag, which I usually did as I saved up allowance for such occaisions.  It didn’t matter though, I loved the stones, I’d look at them all and keep what I liked and sometimes share a few extras with a friend. 

I’ve made five sales *and counting? knock wood* in under a week from posting my first item on Etsy, and I’m just giddy about it. My first customers haven’t gotten their items to leave feedback and people are buying more- it’s so very exciting that I’ve been just annoying the pants off my hubby with announcing every sale- there was one while I slept last night to a girl all the way in Australia! There’s a good number of people on Etsy having trouble getting their first sale, and to these folks I’d like to say one word- PROMOTE! Whether it’s message boards, a blog, or just shouting to passers by, promotion is a big thing in selling, and it’s not nearly as hard as one would think. Start with one thing and get that thing to be part of your daily routine, like posting to a message board, either on etsy or elsewhere if there’s a message board pertaining to your products. Make use of the ‘etsy mini’ feature, it shows off things in your shop and the code is dead-easy to cut and paste where you’d like to put it. Don’t be shy- it’s not hard to let people know you’ve got a shop with great things inside, just link to it anywhere and everywhere you think it might get clicked, keeping in mind that some places are more appropriate than others. Linking to handmade soaps from a page about your dog might be weird, but if you think the folks who look at your dog might like to see your soaps, do it.

I’ve made five sales *and counting? knock wood* in under a week from posting my first item on Etsy, and I’m just giddy about it.  My first customers haven’t gotten their items to leave feedback and people are buying more- it’s so very exciting that I’ve been just annoying the pants off my hubby with announcing every sale- there was one while I slept last night to a girl all the way in Australia!  There’s a good number of people on Etsy having trouble getting their first sale, and to these folks I’d like to say one word- PROMOTE!  Whether it’s message boards, a blog, or just shouting to passers by, promotion is a big thing in selling, and it’s not nearly as hard as one would think.  Start with one thing and get that thing to be part of your daily routine, like posting to a message board, either on etsy or elsewhere if there’s a message board pertaining to your products.  Make use of the ‘etsy mini’ feature, it shows off things in your shop and the code is dead-easy to cut and paste where you’d like to put it.  Don’t be shy- it’s not hard to let people know you’ve got a shop with great things inside, just link to it anywhere and everywhere you think it might get clicked, keeping in mind that some places are more appropriate than others.  Linking to handmade soaps from a page about your dog might be weird, but if you think the folks who look at your dog might like to see your soaps, do it.