Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Granny Blanket
Monday, February 27, 2012
I want to interview YOU
Hi everyone I am putting together a speech for my speech class and I want to interview a few Pinterest users and I thought I would just post this here for anyone who would be interested. Here are my questions:
When did you start using Pinterest?
How did you first hear about Pinterest?
What kinds of things do you Pin?
Have you used something you saw on Pinterest to make anything?
Has Pinterest helped change the way you do anything in your life?
You can email me your answers at amandareed20@gmail.com Thank you in advance for anyone that participates you are doing me a huge favor. Also if anyone would like me to send them a Pinterest invite email me or leave a comment.
When did you start using Pinterest?
How did you first hear about Pinterest?
What kinds of things do you Pin?
Have you used something you saw on Pinterest to make anything?
Has Pinterest helped change the way you do anything in your life?
You can email me your answers at amandareed20@gmail.com Thank you in advance for anyone that participates you are doing me a huge favor. Also if anyone would like me to send them a Pinterest invite email me or leave a comment.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Valentine
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Love Hate Relationship with Etsy
As some of you know I recently started listing items on Etsy after being away from there for a few years. I came back because I love and respect all of the sellers and buyers of handmade items but I have mixed feeling about Etsy itself. I have always felt like it was big business wearing a mask and pretending to be one of us. I have a problem with the fact that Etsy doesn't believe in advertising it's own site but encourages us site users to promote, promote, promote. I like to keep my mouth shut about it because there is always a backlash from the Etsy cheerleaders in the forum and Etsy doesn't take anything we say into consideration anyway but an etsy seller posted this in the forums and I thought she did a good job of articulating the concerns that many users of the site have. Many people commented and agreed with everything she said and there was even a comment from an admin for once but of course all she did was post links saying read this and maybe it will help (it didn't).
jill from jill2day says
When I started on Etsy, I was thrilled to find a site where I was not required to be an e-commerce expert, but could still present my craft in a professional manner to the audience to whom I would be marketing. I viewed it as a Blogspot or Wordpress - an application/venue/template; not as Amazon, ArtfulHome, or Ebay which are destinations. A place where I could get started and the success or failure of my shop would largely be left to my products and my successful marketing of them. While it also had the advatage of a community of both buyers and sellers
The venue/template sites, work at making the user’s life simple, and are not concerned with what the user is saying or doing. (obviously within reason) They also market themselves to the user and continue to update and improve with the user experience in mind. The marketing they do is to that user group.
The destination sites, however pull audiences to their sites for a particular experience, and thus do/should have more control over the selling participants. The sellers/users benefit from this and pay accordingly through fees, etc for the push that the destination give to their customers. Whether it is for the auction experience or the choice of many venues, or high-end artwork, they market actively to bring in a customer (buyers) base to their site,for the sellers to benefit from if they offer the right products/service for that audience.
Over the past three years, Etsy has made many changes. Some have been great for the Sellers’ experience and interface. Some have been focused on the Buyers’ experience. Some are a mystery! As these changes have taken place, the exact purpose and goal of Etsy has gotten fuzzy for me.
Increasingly we, as individual sellers, are seemingly taking a backseat to the ‘good of the community’. There are many more portals and connections out of and between shops. DIY projects are promoted when sellers are selling the exact same goods. Preferences of products and photography promoted are evident. And now, we have the Etsy direct checkout, which will, like Amazon I assume, reflect a buyer’s purchase as being from Etsy, not from a particular shop. Additional communal living arrangements can not be far off!
However at the same time, Etsy continues to encourage each of us to actively promote our individual shops, while they remain fairly low key in advertising or marketing efforts.
Lest you think otherwise, I am not saying this is, by itself, bad or good. I am reflecting on the changes and the lack of communication regarding the ultimate goal and identity that Etsy sees for itself and thus for us as users. If they aggressively marketed and protected Etsy as THE place for handmade, vintage and supplies, and took the marketing responsibility of being a destination site - I could be all over it, even with a lesser shop identity or freedom, or higher fees.
OR, if they worked at becoming strong user interface with more tools and potions and connections to other applications. I would love that too.
But what I am very uncomfortable is a constant “morphing” with no stated goals or objective, timelines or plans.
As a business person I am figuring out my annual strategy. I want to open a second shop, but am willing to hold off until shops can be coordinated. However I have been holding off for almost a year now, and nothing seem to give us any indication that will be changing. I am trying to decide what priority I should put into promoting on-line sales vs. shows. But with little understanding of what may be happening with promotional possibilities for my Etsy shop, that is also hard to plan. Yes, there is still an advantage to having the audience that Etsy provides on any given day, but other than that, the advantages to having this over my own site are starting to become vague, and their position as a strong business partner degenerates.
My perception is that Etsy is having a real identity crisis! Whether that is caused by growing pains, leadership changes, lack of actual plan, or just plain bad communication, I don’t know. They seem to want to stick their toe in many waters without any real investment or commitment (i.e. phone support or definitive answers!). Many times I am starting to feel like a pawn in someone's hobby, not a business partner.
My fear is that Etsy will lose credibility with buyers if they do not take more control over the resellers and other term violators on the site and if they do not form a strong and unique identity - and then market it - in the marketplace. I also fear that they will lose quality sellers, as the benefits for selling decrease or degrade and sellers find being associated with Etsy a disadvantage to their own branding.
What I do know is that there are many of us who are here on Etsy, and want to support and grow with it, but are feeling at a loss about where we stand in the plan and getting both nervous, and sometimes hostile, about the lack of consistency, communication and concern that is shown by the public voices of the administration - our business partners.
Sorry for the length of this. But I yell because I care. Thoughts?
Here is a link the that post.
jill from jill2day says
When I started on Etsy, I was thrilled to find a site where I was not required to be an e-commerce expert, but could still present my craft in a professional manner to the audience to whom I would be marketing. I viewed it as a Blogspot or Wordpress - an application/venue/template; not as Amazon, ArtfulHome, or Ebay which are destinations. A place where I could get started and the success or failure of my shop would largely be left to my products and my successful marketing of them. While it also had the advatage of a community of both buyers and sellers
The venue/template sites, work at making the user’s life simple, and are not concerned with what the user is saying or doing. (obviously within reason) They also market themselves to the user and continue to update and improve with the user experience in mind. The marketing they do is to that user group.
The destination sites, however pull audiences to their sites for a particular experience, and thus do/should have more control over the selling participants. The sellers/users benefit from this and pay accordingly through fees, etc for the push that the destination give to their customers. Whether it is for the auction experience or the choice of many venues, or high-end artwork, they market actively to bring in a customer (buyers) base to their site,for the sellers to benefit from if they offer the right products/service for that audience.
Over the past three years, Etsy has made many changes. Some have been great for the Sellers’ experience and interface. Some have been focused on the Buyers’ experience. Some are a mystery! As these changes have taken place, the exact purpose and goal of Etsy has gotten fuzzy for me.
Increasingly we, as individual sellers, are seemingly taking a backseat to the ‘good of the community’. There are many more portals and connections out of and between shops. DIY projects are promoted when sellers are selling the exact same goods. Preferences of products and photography promoted are evident. And now, we have the Etsy direct checkout, which will, like Amazon I assume, reflect a buyer’s purchase as being from Etsy, not from a particular shop. Additional communal living arrangements can not be far off!
However at the same time, Etsy continues to encourage each of us to actively promote our individual shops, while they remain fairly low key in advertising or marketing efforts.
Lest you think otherwise, I am not saying this is, by itself, bad or good. I am reflecting on the changes and the lack of communication regarding the ultimate goal and identity that Etsy sees for itself and thus for us as users. If they aggressively marketed and protected Etsy as THE place for handmade, vintage and supplies, and took the marketing responsibility of being a destination site - I could be all over it, even with a lesser shop identity or freedom, or higher fees.
OR, if they worked at becoming strong user interface with more tools and potions and connections to other applications. I would love that too.
But what I am very uncomfortable is a constant “morphing” with no stated goals or objective, timelines or plans.
As a business person I am figuring out my annual strategy. I want to open a second shop, but am willing to hold off until shops can be coordinated. However I have been holding off for almost a year now, and nothing seem to give us any indication that will be changing. I am trying to decide what priority I should put into promoting on-line sales vs. shows. But with little understanding of what may be happening with promotional possibilities for my Etsy shop, that is also hard to plan. Yes, there is still an advantage to having the audience that Etsy provides on any given day, but other than that, the advantages to having this over my own site are starting to become vague, and their position as a strong business partner degenerates.
My perception is that Etsy is having a real identity crisis! Whether that is caused by growing pains, leadership changes, lack of actual plan, or just plain bad communication, I don’t know. They seem to want to stick their toe in many waters without any real investment or commitment (i.e. phone support or definitive answers!). Many times I am starting to feel like a pawn in someone's hobby, not a business partner.
My fear is that Etsy will lose credibility with buyers if they do not take more control over the resellers and other term violators on the site and if they do not form a strong and unique identity - and then market it - in the marketplace. I also fear that they will lose quality sellers, as the benefits for selling decrease or degrade and sellers find being associated with Etsy a disadvantage to their own branding.
What I do know is that there are many of us who are here on Etsy, and want to support and grow with it, but are feeling at a loss about where we stand in the plan and getting both nervous, and sometimes hostile, about the lack of consistency, communication and concern that is shown by the public voices of the administration - our business partners.
Sorry for the length of this. But I yell because I care. Thoughts?
Here is a link the that post.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Roses
My sister had her birthday party this past Saturday and it was pure insanity. Several girls didn't RSVP so I ended up having to make an extra tutu on the spot and I had to decorate cookies with the girls. We gave them all the tie dye shirts and I had my mom buy glitter and fabric glue so they could all write their names on the shirts but my mom got glue that took 2 hours to dry so by the time the party ended there was glue and glitter everywhere. We had a pinata and when they broke it open all hell broke loose. The pinata looked like a platform shoe and one of the girls had the broken shoe in her arm and was grabbing handfuls of candy and throwing them in the shoe. My camera battery died so I only got a few pictures but I took pictures of these rose brownies I made for my sisters class the day before.
These are some rose mirrors I made for my etsy shop.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Etsy and a Birthday
I now have 20 items in my shop YAY!!! But no sales BOOO!!! I know it can take a while to start getting customers on Etsy and you have to promote yourself so I am going to keep working on that and of course making sure that I only make and list items that I love and use and wear myself. I started redoing some of my pictures and I am going to finish the rest of them tomorrow.
I just had my first day of school today and less than half the class was there because we had a snow storm last night and the roads weren't cleared yet. I am glad to be back in school because I am so bored at home.
I have been making party favors for my little sisters 11th birthday party thats next Saturday. I made tie dye t-shirts and multi color tutu skirts for all the girls. I will post pictures next week of everything. I am so proud of the things I made because I have never done tie dye or made a tutu before and they turned out really nice. I did try to make a heart tie dye design on two of the shirts but they just look like circles.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
More Items and Blogger Problems
I have listed 6 more items in my shop over the past few days. I still haven't sold anything yet. I am going to be patient though. I plan to have a sale starting in about a week for valentines day. I haven't figured out the specifics of that yet but I will post about it here when I do. I made a photo collage of some of the items currently in my shop.
I was trying to add one of those esty mini things to the side of my blog but the htlm widget on my blog isn't working so I went to the help section on blogger and the only recommendation they have is to not use the broken widget :-( If anyone knows howI can get the etsy mini on my blog I would really appreciate your help. Thanks :-)
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Etsy Shop Now Open!!!
Long time no post. I have been missing my blog but I have been busy with life as I'm sure you all can relate and even though I do have the time to blog I just don't have the energy.
I just hope people like what I am making now and customers can find me. I had a bad experience with using Etsy a few years ago and completely got turned off from the site but I have decided to give it one more shot.
I mentioned months ago that I wanted to open my Etsy shop back up but never got around to it because my digital camera had been stolen and I had no means of taking pictures except for when my mother let me borrow her iphone but that was not convenient. Lucky me, my boyfriend bought me a camera for Christmas so I have been taking loads of pictures and I have now posted my first item. It is a knitted ring made from wool yarn.
I got the idea to start making knitted jewelry a few months ago when my boyfriend asked me why I never wear jewelry and I explained to him that it's because I find it very uncomfortable. I had looked online for knitted jewelry but nearly everything I found was to clunky looking so it became my goal to make simple, classy, and sophisticated knitted jewelry pieces.
Friday, August 26, 2011
What I Want from Etsy
I have been wanting to learn how to do cross stitch for a long time and this kit is super cute and it seems like something a beginner could easily handle.
Little cloud pin embroidery kit made by TakoFibers
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