More thoughts on online selling

Yesterday I waxed poetic for a while about my "adventures" selling - or trying to sell - tie-dyed stuff on Etsy.

I do appreciate having an online venue, don't get me wrong. It's nice to be able to tell people to "Check out my Etsy shop" so I don't have to display my wares all over my house all the time. Problem is, I've been relying on it to make my sales, and that approach has definitely had some big-time shortcomings.

Let's say I'm a buyer on Etsy and looking to buy some tie-dye. I type "Tie dye" into the search and up come pages and pages and PAGES of listings - sorted by "Most Recently Listed." If I haven't listed anything new lately, then my stuff is probably on Page 50 - or higher!

AH, but there's a way past that: RENEWING! Yes, for a repeat of the 20-cent listing fee, I can "renew" an item, basically listing it as new, and it'll show up closer to the top of the search. Theoretically, anyway....

Y'see, if 4 or 5 shops are all renewing items, the first page or two aren't big enough to hold all the new stuff AND the renewals, so even renewals and new items can end up on Page 3 when they FIRST appear. And that's just the tie-dye - the people who really get hosed by this are the jewelry makers, because there are so many of them.

To try to get more "hits" in the search engines, I try to make sure my items have helpful "tags." I get up to 14 of them to use! I do try to keep them relevant, but I'm also competing with people who use the tag "tie dye" whether ot not their item actually IS tie dye. Something knitted or crocheted with variegated yarn, for example, has a tie-dyed look, so it's not really out-of-line to use the tag to snag people hunting for that look - but it does have the result of pushing actual tie dye further down the list. Blatant mis-tagging makes it hard for sellers to reach potential buyers AND for buyers to find what they're actually looking for.

Now, whether the "Search" feature on Etsy is really working properly at all is another story entirely, and it's way beyond my personal scope and ability to write clearly about. Suffice it to say that if it isn't working, then tags and search terms are pretty useless and I can only hope that tie dye comes up as often in jewelry searches, thus sending people to my shop on a whim, as jewelry shows up when I search for tie dye.

Musings about Online Selling

OK, it's gotten ridiculous. I love my Etsy shop, or at least a lot of things about it, but the process of going from a completed tie-dye to getting a picture of it out there on Etsy has gotten to be so time-consuming that I'm guessing not even 2/3 of my stuff is listed in my shop.

I can make an entire batch of tie-dyed garments in a day by tying a bunch of things I'd like to use in one or two color sets, soaking them for 20 minutes minimum in soda ash, living life with my family while that happens (it may turn out to be 2 weeks in soda ash! LOL), and then dyeing them all in one fell swoop while the kids are having a rainy afternoon in front of a video or are playing Go Fish or some such. That's maybe 8-10 items dyed. Then they set, or "batch," for 2-24 hours, so the dye and the soda ash can react and the dye can chemically bond to the fabric. I don't have to be right there for all of this either; it can happen without me.

Once it's been a "while" (technical term for 2-24 hours, depending on temperature, dye colors - some dyes need longer to fully react than others - and personal availability), I rinse the garments under running water so I can see what I've got and to get the majority of the loose dye off. This can take 5-20 minutes, depending on how big the garments are; onesies are pretty quick, XXL tees and full skirts are another story altogether. Then they go into the washer in HOT HOT water and again, I don't have to be right there for that part; if the washer finishes in the middle of a game of hide-and-seek or a homeschool lesson, I get it into the dryer when I can, with any luck, the same day. LOL

Once it's out of the dryer, that's when it all goes to pieces for me.

I need to photograph the garments. When possible, I like to photograph them on a live person. My live person choices include immediate family members. When possible, I also like to photograph them outdoors - but can't do it so well at night, and the days are getting shorter, so optimal daytime picture-taking is when hubby is at work and I also have 2 kids to be Mommy to and to be Teacher to, so not the best option. Kids can take pics of Mom if and only if they ever work out how that viewfinder thingy works.

OK, let's assume that it's a lovely day with no kids so I can take photos of garments at least on a background of some kind. That's about 3-5 minutes per garment, depending on how many shots and how much detail I want to show in the Etsy pics; multiply by 8 garments and that's a MINIMUM of 24 minutes I need to get it done. (It's been known to take an hour if I have to get back to the kiddoes on a cranky afternoon and mediate fights, by which time good daylight might be gone.)

OK, got the pics in the camera: now to get them to the computer! Attach cord, load pics - go do something else for the 10-15 minutes that can take. Yes, it's my own fault I keep so many pics on the camera card - find me 10 uninterrupted minutes to prioritize better and delete more of them! I could always use the time it takes to get the pics to a program where I can crop and edit them, brightening the color/contrast that sometimes comes out mysteriously different from one picture to the next in IDENTICAL lighting, cropping to show detail, and THEN exporting them to a folder for uploading to Etsy; this exporting is also the step where I resize them to their size standards. The editing, cropping, and exporting can EASILY take up to an hour on a tired computer that's nearly as old as my second-grader, and I often end up doing it in 2 batches of about 45 minutes each, assuming I get through the FIRST batch while I'm still awake that day. More often than not, I'm not.

So, to recap: maybe an hour of actual hands-on time to dye and rinse out garments, put them in washer, move them to dryer. (Maybe more if there are complicated patterns involved.) Then more like 2-3 hours to get them from newly-laundered ready-to-sell garments to actual listings that other people can see. YECH!!!

Next post: once on Etsy, then what?

I'm baaaack!

I'm officially re-opening my blog! It's ast time to start doing this a little more often, keeping in touch with people and sharing the stuff that makes this craft so much fun!

It'll take some fiddling with layouts and things, but give me time and be patient!

Almost Summer!!!!!

OK, we survived Memorial Day with only Fifth Disease as a blip on the radar. Thankfully no pregnant mommies here recently. Oy.

Had some fun at Target today picking up some more stuff - a whole basket FULL to the brim (and over) of white cotton stuff. Tops, leggings, even towels for the beach. Now I'll HAVE to dye them and sell them to make up the cost..... :)

The other thing that's kind of got me a little torqued is that in order for me to make any money at this, I'll have to raise my prices if it's going to be for actual profit and not just for fun. I don't want to soak the customers, but at the same time, till I get done paying self-employment taxes and Social Security and increased postage and all the other stuff that'll come with going "legit," the way I'm doing things now isn't going to cut it. *sigh*

That said, though, it's giving me a lot more appreciation for the other artists and crafters out there - and I think that can only be a good thing. :)

Shortest listing ever!

I think my "Green Sweep" lasted just a few hours on Etsy before it got snatched up. WOW. It was the first plus-size I put up there and it seems that the people who had asked me to do more tie-dye in larger sizes weren't the only ones who wanted some!

On the bright side, that means more income - gotta pay for that pricier gas somehow. It also means that this tie-dye thing is getting to be more job and less hobby, meaning I'm gonna have to make it official pretty soon. Heh-heh - I actually kind of LIKE that idea. :-) I'll take that as a good sign.

Goodwill ROCKS!!!!

I've been buying most of my tie-dyeing tees at Target since they have such great cotton clothes. Can't seem to get cotton tees at craft stores, even the ones that sell dyes - Michael's, ACMoore, JoAnns - ARE YOU READING?!?!? *sigh*

So for Mother's Day I requested and got some "retail therapy" time at the Goodwill in the next town up the road. I'd found some good stuff there a month or so ago but their registers died just before I got to the counter so they weren't taking credit cards, and I didn't have nearly enough cash to get the stuff I'd selected. Bummer. THIS time, though..... BOOYAHHH!!!! Even managed to pick up a couple things for myself, including a SWEEEET all-cotton French-made blouse and a cute lingerie-type tank; the tank has already been dyed in 3 different shades of green, and I don't care if it's snug, I LOVE IT!!!

Found some of the same toddler dresses I had to leave last time, and they'll be so much fun for Winter wear, being made of waffle knit and all, like long underwear. And the long-sleeved women's stuff? Perfect for Fall and Winter! :) Even managed to find some Target shirts on sale there!

Oh, and a cute pair of toddler pants I HAD to get! Dyed them in patches sort of like a jester's outfit, red and pink and some blue. Definitely girly, with cute trim at the bottom of each pants leg, but unique too, one of a kind.

THEN.... I went to the fabric store and found these neat-o cotton skirts on sale, the peasant skirts in all-white cotton. They're all tied and ready to soak in soda ash for some cool experiments in color.

Now, to find a few spare minutes to actually put something new on the website..... *guilty grin*

Welcome to my blog!

From time to time I feel like adding a personal touch to my Etsy site, updating folks, or just chatting merrily away, so I've decided to give blogging a try. I may be an old dog, but I can learn new tricks. :-)


We've been dealing with chickenpox here. First the older DD, and now the younger is breaking out all over the place - when it rains it pours. Having a clingy spirited child can certainly put a kink in one's crafting time, for sure - and let's not think too hard about the rest of the house (laundry? what laundry?).

On the other hand, I do find that my children are by far my very best teachers, so it's important to me to remind myself to listen to their lessons - even if it means setting the rubber bands and bottles of dye aside for as long as I can stand it.

Looking forward to warmer weather and bigger batches of tie-dye out in the back yard...... *happy sigh*