It's ALIVE

Knits and Thats

Providing all the features Etsy couldn't including:

- color options
- size options
- shared categories (ie: an item can be listed in multiple categories without issue)
- subcategories
- CC info not defined by Paypal
- no listing or selling fees
- custom layout, messages, receipts, and newsletters from me, not me with a bit Etsy attached

Multitasking

Not only am I working on my research, writing my thesis, and the regular Etsy gig, but I've been building my own personal shop on top of it all. I get maybe an hour a day to work on it, though obviously it's not every day I get a chance to. Currently I have maybe 5 items listed, just enough to give me an idea of what tweaks I need to make to have it look and function well.

The shopping cart program I'm using is free and called Zen Cart and I highly recommend them. The only catch is that it has a rather steep learning curve, and I can honestly say I've learned more about CSS and style sheets than I cared to. Still, it's incredibly customizable and it is that feature that drew me to it. I like being able to have templates for products, streamlining the checkout process, and giving an option for proper coupons, gift certificates, and newsletters.

Hats!

Examples of my latest had creations, one knit and one crochet. I have a few others but am lacking the energy to list them all just yet.

It's about dinner time, yet another cup of coffee is calling...

Someone lost their head?

I got a Styrofoam head for the purpose of photographing and displaying the hats I've made. Since it shipped as a plane, oddly proportioned head I had to go through and even things out via papermache. The end result got blasted with some varnish and was air drying outside (propped up on a broom handle).

Thankfully a crack of thunder this afternoon gave me enough of a warning to bring it back inside before it started to rain. The finish is taking a little longer to finish drying because of the humidity, but hopefully I can start taking pics with it when I get back from lab tomorrow!

PLEASE - spamming Etsy will spoil it for everyone

There has been a lot of valid concern about Etsy shops and SEO/page ranking with Google. Times are tough and it makes running an online business even tougher when our tried and true methods are drying in the dust. An unfortunate side-effect of this is the "grasping of straws" so many of us do, often without realizing.

We might be bogged down by the distractions of the real world, and one-trick-wonders for improving page ranks and Google search results is even more tempting than usual. It'd be nice to think that spreading the word about your shop, or your Twitter or blog or Facebook would do no harm, but it does. Etsy urls have been banned from a number of social networking sites because of the insincerity and blatant disregard for the sites' Terms of Use.

When Etsy shops, either yours or others, are farmed out like this, it is considered spam. Because NO ONE likes spam, it puts Etsy in an incredibly negative light and cripples its reputation.

So please, take a little bit of time out of your day to read up on these things. Don't just take some guy's word that spamming your shop will get you sales. Here's a great post I recommend to everyone who's interested in learning how to promote and do it right:

Important Google Page Rank Information

"We are not so different, you and I"

As I sat down at my lab bench today, it occurred to me how incredibly similar my "academic" and "etsy" lives are.

Consider my thesis; a document containing the history of, methods behind, and future of the research I conduct. An entire chapter of my thesis is dedicated to spelling out step-by-step instructions on how to repeat my experiment. These directions need to be clear and understandable, as people may use it for their own research in the future. Missing one step, or explaining one process in a muddled way, could ruin their work and put all the years of mine into question.

While writing knitting and crochet patterns isn't so 'life and death' the same principles apply. Clear instructions. Precise descriptions. Explanation of equipment used and a guide to abbreviated terminology. Without any one of these the product would simply unravel...

Writing out Knitting Patterns

While it's generally easy for me to read patterns, I'm finding it difficult to write them. I have two down so far, and ultimately plan to make them available on Etsy as a nice PDF. I'm posting the current bare-bone patterns here in an attempt to get feedback and constructive criticism. All the details on needle size and yarn weight would come later, I simply want to make sure the actual patterns make sense.


[edit] Trimmed up as the revised and corrected versions are now available as PDFs in my shop

How Much Is Your Etsy Shop Worth?

I came across this nifty little #!etsyhack that will tally up how much all the items on your shop total, the average amount, and a few other neat statistics.

Here are mine:
Shop value for Zantie.etsy.com
total $1392.90 (97 items)
low-high $1.95-$60.00
mean $14.36
median $10.00
mode $6.50


My first reaction was "that high?" though the more I think about it, the less 'amazing' that total feels. It's less than what I make in a month as a graduate student, and it took more than a month to accumulate 97 items.

If anything, I've learned that I should to get even more items made to raise a sustainable amount. *and* I have to find a way to do so more efficiently. It's ok if I consider it as a "part-time" income, though it'll need to improve if it were to become anything more.