Like many crafters, I occasionally sell a piece or two of my jewelry to friends, family, or co-workers. While I do have a bag of jewelry priced and ready to hand to someone who is interested, I don’t always have it with me, or it might just be too awkward to load someone up with so much at one time.

Granted, some people will ask if you sell your work just as a way to be courteous, but very often they are sincerely interested in buying a piece or two, especially if they have been seeing you wear some of your work (like jewelry) around the office.

In comes the handy business card that includes the URL to your on-line shop. Even if you are like me and too busy to spend the amount of time necessary to run your shop at a high volume level, just having a small number of items in one of those free crafting networks like Artfire, Efreeme, or Etsy can be a good solution for this situation. Most shops allows like these are free to set up and charge a nominal fee for selling. Some, like Efreeme.com, charge nothing, even if you list items for sale or make a sale.

Just the other day, I sold a few pair of earrings (one pictured above) to a co-worker who I directed to my Etsy shop. Both pieces were items I can easily remake, so I was still able to keep the listings. In fact, the earrings above are only in my shop as kits, but she wanted the finished earrings.

If you have been saying no to yourself about opening a web shop to sell your arts and crafts, maybe this is a reason to reconsider.

Recently, I chalked up sale number 50 in the Crafty Princess Shop over at Etsy. For me, I find this a significant number. While I have  been an Etsy member since spring of 2006, I didn’t open a shop until a few years later in April 2008. Even then, I was just testing the waters and trying to learn more about how it all works. I was not seriously intent on trying to sell that much. Since I write about jewelry making and many jewelry people sell over there, I knew it was important to be part of the conversation. This was my primary incentive for finally opening a shop over there.

As it turned out, sales did trickle in, even when I was not actively promoting it. Some how or another, people found me, friends purchased items, and so on, and I did make a few sales over time, nothing huge but some sales at least.

This trickling in of sales made me realize that, gee, if I actually had time maybe I could make a go of this shop. I knew I didn’t have the time to go crazy over there, but if I could at least get the shop looking better, more listings, etc., then maybe I could get some semi-steady sales from it. So, that’s what I decided to do over my summer break from my teaching job this year.

I think the time I spent on it has paid off to a certain extent. Since May 8, 2010, when I started concentrating on my shop make-over, I have made 22 sales. Before that I had made 28 from March 2008 to January 2010. That means in 4 months I came pretty close to making the same number of sales I had made in almost two years.

Looking back, here are a few things I feel I learned that helped me:

• Take critiques with a grain of salt. There is a critiques folder on the Etsy forum, and I have had a number of Etsians give me their 25 cents over there. Some of it has been really helpful, like when I got a big thumbs down on my banner. Some of it, well, not so much. For example, one recent suggestion was that I accept alchemy requests, which means you agree to make customized items for people.  Special orders take a great deal of time, which I don’t have, so that’s why I didn’t include that on my shop. Obviously, this person who suggested it wouldn’t know that.
• Learn by looking. This is a little related to my previous lesson above. While people can tell you their opinions, I think you can learn much more by looking around Etsy (or whatever network you may be a part of) and taking note of successful shops. In fact, many of those who will give you critique suggestions aren’t necessarily burning it up in sales. Sure, things like photos are really important, but they are not the end all be all. I found plenty of successful shops that had one or two clear photos and that’s it. They aren’t some super fancy artistic artwork, just a clear photo of the product.
• Success is relative. For me, a few sales a week would be what I consider successful (repeat, for me). I have a job, actually two jobs. I just want to make a little extra income from my shop. Also, there are lots of Etsy shops that have high sales, but when you look at their products, they are super low end as far as prices. Selling $1 items, even if you sell hundreds of them, well, is not a huge amount of money considering all the time you have to put in to list them.
• Good photos do help. While I said previously that they don’t have to necessarily be perfect, still, you want clear photos of your work. You are asking someone to buy an item from you, and other than your textual description, all they have to base their purchasing decision on is a photograph. I spent a crazy amount of time working on getting my photographs clearer, better, etc., and they still aren’t necessarily perfect, but they are so much better.
• Describe what the heck it is! I buy on Etsy too now and then, and boy, I’m amazed at how many sellers will have their super long, drawn-out stories about a product but almost no basic information: What are the materials it is made of? How big is it? Where did it come from? Don’t just tell me the earrings have pink beads. Are they plastic, wood, stone, crystal? I would rather know that the earrings I’m looking at are made of sterling silver and are 2 inches long than read a stupid story about how some fairy came down and inspired the artist to make them.
• Have a decent selection. I don’t know what the magic number is for me or anyone else for that matter, but I can say that the more I have in my shop, the more I have available to buy. I’m not talking about a thousand items, but if you only have 10 listings, then you don’t have much there for people to look at or buy. If a person only has 10 items to look at, I would think that’s going to be a very brief trip to your store.
• Define your shop the best you can. Most of the shops I find that have high sales seem to have a clear focus about what the shop is all about, a kind of personality to it. I don’t necessarily think you have to be super quirky, like one shop I found that sells women’s silk screened panties, but I do admit that when you go to a shop like that, there is no doubt about what the product is. She clearly has a strong focus and is doing well with her product line. For me, I try to focus on jewelry products: kits, tutorials, supplies, and finished jewelry. Sure, I crochet, but it would just not fit in to have my crocheted baby hats in there.
• Price it right. I’m still working on this, but after making a few low-end sales, I realized that it is not worth my time to sell a $2 bead, pack it, and drive to the post office, even if I do add shipping and packaging costs to each sale. The PIA factor alone, for me, is not worth it. I sill have some low-end items in my shop, but as I list and relist, I try to make sure that my prices are at least within the $10 range. This may mean combining items, like creating a bead assortment rather than selling one or two beads alone.
• Promote yourself. You don’t want your friends and family to run the other way when they see you, but do not expect the network housing your shop to promote you. Have business cards handy to pass out. Include a link to your shop in your email signature. If you blog, well, blog about it. Use social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Twitpic. I can testify that it does bring in sales. How many sales? I can’t say for sure, but I have had the occasional immediate sale after mentioning a new listing on Facebook and Twitter.

While I don not have the time now that I did earlier this summer to devote to my Crafty Princess Etsy Shop, I have been trying to keep up with it so that it does not turn into the shop with 3 things in it like it was earlier this summer! I sell an item now and then and do my best to relist and add new items. I also keep an eye on the Etsy forums and read helpful articles over there as well.

One issue that I see often popping up is the use of tags when listing an item in a shop. The Etsy forums have a “critique” folder, and while it is so busy that it may be impossible to get seen at times in that folder, I try to help out when I can. I’m not an expert, mind you, but I feel I know more than the average newbie. Tags seems to be one of the major things I see that newbies are not very savvy about.

To make a comparison to writing on the web, “tags” are like the key words or meta information. They help get the attention of those who are using a search tool to find a product. For example, if I list a pair of earrings in my shop, then I want to be sure to not only use the word “earrings” in the title, but I want to make sure that word is listed in my tags as well. There are 14 tags, and it is very important to use them all. When a potential buyer is looking for something, she will go to the search box on Etsy and type in words like “gold earrings.” If you don’t have these key words listed in your tags, she won’t find you.

So tag, tag, tag, and try to use words that properly describe your products. To help break down this important topic even more, I suggest reading this article in the Storque area of Etsy, Seller How-To: Tag-o-rama With Descriptive Keywords. Another thing I have found helpful to get the brain thinking about tags is to cruise around the Etsy network and look at other shops and the tags they use, especially shops that have high sales numbers.

Well, I told myself I wasn’t going to open another on-line store, no matter what, but I finally caved and listed a few of my pdf file tutorials over at Efreeme.com. It is free to list hand-crafted items, supplies, and vintage items, and while it is not as sleek as Etsy, hey, free is free. Now, it goes through PayPal, so there is that little fee to consider, but after listing my three items, I ended up selling one of the three shortly afterward.

Like I said, it is not as fancy as Etsy or Artfire. I found it a little kluggy even that I had to constantly stick in my email address and password while setting up a listing or making changes to my little shop, but it really only took me a few minutes to set things up over there. I think for anyone selling on-line that is worth checking into, and of course, buyers are welcome too!

My first jewelry kits are complete and listed in my Etsy shop.  Both are earring kits using ceramic Raku beads, natural mother of pearl beads, copper beads, and copper findings. One jewelry kit is what I call a “full” kit because it has all the materials (except tools) needed to make the jewelry piece as well as a detailed full-color instructional tutorial. This is a beginning level kit designed for someone who has made little to no jewelry at all.

The second jewelry kit makes the same earring design but is geared towards someone with more experience who may want to make the earrings but doesn’t need the tutorial included the the full kit, so the kit includes all the materials but no tutorial.

I have two more earring kits in the works that are now in the testing phases where I actually have people make the kits and follow the instructions so I can make extra sure they are super clear before I start selling them. And then, the fourth earring kit I have plan is still in the design stage.

What do you think about this first kit? I’d love to hear some feedback, and if you know of anyone who has wanted to start making jewelry but wasn’t sure how to get started, please pass along the links to the kits above. These earrings are very easy to make, so it would be a great way for a newbie to get started with this fun hobby.

I have been working on a new jewelry related project during my summer vacation, and until I got to a certain point of completion, I didn’t feel comfortable discussing it here. However, I have made some major progress and see my vision coming clearer ever day, so I finally decided to spill the beans, at least some of them.

Drum roll please…Tammy Powley (aka the Crafty Princess) will soon be offering jewelry kits for sale. This is a project that I have been dreaming about for way too long and decided to just buckle down and do it this summer.

Of course, it has been way more work than I expected. For example, my husband is helping me with the photographs since it is basically impossible to take photos of your hands making jewelry since, well, you need your hands to operate the camera. On our first photo shoot, he asked me how many photos I thought we would need to take. This shoot was for two of the kits, so I said well, maybe two dozen pictures or a tad more than that. How many did we end up taking? More like 100 pictures!

When I get further along, I will reveal more details about the designs I’ve created for the kits, but for now, I can say that I’m just starting with a small number to test the waters. My vision for the kits I think are a little different than what I’ve seen available so far. In fact, I’ve been pretty surprised at what I’ve seen as far as kits in general. My goals when putting together the designs for each kit include the following (in no particular order of importance):

• Use quality materials, some of which are not available at the average craft shop
• Develop a “class in a kit” approach where each kit covers specific skills
• Provide step-by-step instructions tailored for each specific kit
• Incorporate high-resolution photographs for each tutorial that accompanies each kit
• Generally create kits that are appealing to beginners but also appeal to intermediate level jewelry makers
• Offer convenience to buyers, no going to the craft store, bead shop, or ordering a huge list of supplies on-line.

I’m really hoping I get these all together and ready to announce properly, yes, with lots of fan fair, press releases, and Hollywood parties (okay, maybe not a party but you get the picture) by the time I start back to school, which is (yikes!) only a few weeks away. So stay tuned!

I found a web site called ESellersAds. It lets you make up ads quickly from your Etsy shop by just typing in your Etsy username and clicking on an icon.

Victoria Tillotson sent me a link to this interesting article on The Entreprenette Gazette, “The One Tip that Changed my Business.” (You will find Victoria listed there in tip number 6). The article includes 67 different tips from small business owners - many of them in craft related business such as making jewelry and other accessories. Participants were asked what one piece of advice they would give or have been given that when followed changed their business (for the better I’m sure). If you have been thinking about expanding your crafting business from your kitchen table to maybe a department store, you might find some of these tips helpful, or at least worth getting your wheels turning in the right direction.

I did it! I managed to go through a large bag of jewelry I discovered while spring cleaning, and some of the silver charms I found (many of which I cast or my husband did) are up for sale on my “Sterling Charm Sale!” page. I actually have a lot more than what I posted. Plus, there are gobs of unfinished ones we still need to clean and polish. Those were discovered in the garage. Amazing what you can find when you start doing a little reorganization around here.

Some of these are just charms you can slip onto a chain and wear and others (like the mermaid above) would be perfect incorporated into finished jewelry pieces.

I’m going to attempt to sell these here via paypal and just see how that goes. I may put some other ones up on Etsy at a later point.

I normally keep my political opinions to myself when it comes to talking on the web, but after my experience today, I feel compelled to talk about it. I have a little Etsy shop that pretty much limps along because I just don’t have time to pay much attention to it. Somehow, I luck out and sell an item now and then, and that happened yesterday. I sold a pair of very cute earrings (if I do say so myself).

Today, I packed up the earrings and headed out to mail them. Normally, I mail my packages through the college’s post office, but today, I’m home grading papers and working on the book, so I figured I’d just pop up to the pak mail place, about 15 minutes from my home. I used to go there all the time but hadn’t been by in awhile.

As I pulled up, I noticed the windows were dark, as were that of about half the other small businesses in the plaza. It was closed. The sign said: “Sorry, due to the economy we had to close.” The sub shop next to it was also permanently closed, as was the shop next to that, and so on. How depressing!

The people who ran the pak mail were a man and wife team who worked their you-know-whats off and were just down right good people. This really brought home to me how all these small businesses are linked. Someone like me, a person with a small business, sells an item, and I go to another small business to ship it out. Next door to that small business is a sub shop, that I might buy lunch at while I’m there, or the people working in the pak mail might also get their lunch there on occasion. The sub shop guy might need stamps and go next door to buy them. Well, you get the picture.

This is also not an isolated incident around here. I know a number of folks without jobs. I read students’ papers that talk about how they have lost their home and it is now in foreclosure or how they have come back to school because they need to train for a new career after being laid-off. I just heard a few weeks ago about a restaurant I went to fairly regularly, and have been for at least 10 years, going out of business. All of these incidents are not separate. Like the pak mail closing, it is a domino affect.

The politicians in Washington don’t seem to “get” this. They are bailing out huge businesses that are corrupt and are also fixated on health care reform, something I do agree needs to be done but not now when there is an economic crisis going on all around us, or at least, all around those normal people who aren’t politicians. Let’s get people back to work, and then let’s fix the health care system. And by “fix,” I mean let’s work towards a system that at least the majority of voters can understand and agree on, not ram a bunch of new laws down our throats and tell us that it’s good for us and we should just do what we’re told because the powers that be know what we need better than we do.

Washington now has its eyes on a bullet train in my home state of Florida. Why would we take this train? Are we going to go to work? How can that happen when there are no jobs? These folks have zip idea of what it is like in this state. We don’t have a great deal of public transportation; however, many areas are super spread out. For example, I take the interstate to work, which takes about 20 minutes one way. I also have a crap-load of stuff I bring with me. Just making it from the parking lot to my office with all of it takes an effort. Can you imagine me lugging all of that stuff on a train or bus? We aren’t like large cities where you can walk a few blocks and buy an apple at the little grocer. There are huge subdivisions and anything considered “close” as far as shopping or work is at least a 10 minute drive. That equates to about 5 to 10 miles.

While the powers that be are all in a flurry about this train, they have decided to ax the country’s space industry, an action that will have huge financial repercussions in Florida as well as many other states. All of the money spent on programs like the Space Shuttle and Constellation will be flushed down the toilet. I read some place that Washington feels that is won’t matter much because all of those lost jobs basically belong to the elite and educated, not the masses. Again, they are showing their arrogance and ignorance. There are tons of people who work for the space industry who are not engineers. There are the folks who clean the offices, run the gift shop, work in the cafeteria, mow the grass, work as security guards, and so on. Technicians who assemble and test equipment are trained, but most are not at the level of an engineer as far as education. These are everyday working people who need to feed their families. However, rather than see this program into the future (like John F. Kennedy had the foresight to do), our new administration would rather scrap it, let foreign countries take over, and give us a train.

We have been sinking our tax dollars into the Wall Street elite and car industry (which has been heading in the wrong direction for decades), and yet, no one in Washington will give the little business owner a break. Our president spoke the other evening, and I’m sorry, but I’m tired of listening. I want to see some common-sense action. I want to see the people we elected do something other than hand out big wads of cash to the idiots who got us in this mess in the first place. I want to see the local sub shop and pak mail place open for business again!