Living a non traditional life

I never wanted to work a 9-5 desk job, I would have been a miserable person if I ever had to do that, I would rather pluck my eyeballs out.  I have worked 12 hour shifts most of my life and was able to get that down to 2 12 hour shifts a week.

Now I would stick to that until I was hobbling around with a cane, but I hate the Northeast with a passion.  You get maybe 4-5 months of nice weather if you are lucky, and I do not do snow, or cold, or miserable dreary days.

So, dear hubby and I have worked our butts off ( granted we have no kids), so that we can get out of here the end of next year ( fingers, and arms and legs and eyes are all crossed).  We already downsized to a 2 bedroom apartment ( above our friends who converted their upstairs into an apartment).  We have purged most of our belongings to the bare minimum and will do a final purging this winter.

The plan is to buy a small home in Florida and stay in our trailer in the summer in Maryland.  The challenge in Maryland is it is about 400 square feet.  Now that would not be too bad, but the plan is to do my signs full time.  So we have been getting creative in getting a small area of storage for me to put all my supplies.  I think we have that ready to go.

I love our little place in Maryland, and you would be amazed at what you really do not need once you are in a small space.  In fact, we realized that we have never used the stove, ever, in 7 years.  We steam crabs, we grill our meat, and if I bake something small, I use the toaster oven.

So, if all goes well, by the age of 50 I will be doing my passion full time, that is creating home made items and selling online and craft shows.  I already know the hours will be way more than I am working now, but 25 years in the medical field has been long enough, and I am more than ready to work 7 days a week to do what I really love to do.

The basics of Etsy SEO

Now I am by no means an expert, but since I spend most every minute of my free time learning how to run an online business, I have picked up a few good tips.  Every new Etsy seller I come across does exactly what I did.  I made cute stuff and listed it and crossed my fingers.  My first shop opened in 2010 and to be honest, I have been running it wrong until a few months ago.

It was so bad, my husband wanted me to shut it down.  I love doing graphics, and once they are made, folks just download them and I am good to go.  Well, I don't want folks waiting 6 years to find they are doing it all wrong.tr

Now again, I am NOT an expert, but these little tips should at least get you going in the right direction, as opposed to my wrong direction.

1.  SEO is tricky, it changes, and you cannot just make a listing and ignore it ( guilty as charged).  You need to keep monitoring your listings as trends come and go and make sure your items are staying on the first 5 pages.

2. What the hell is SEO?  Search Engine Optimization.  Basically it is how your wonderful stuff gets found on Etsy.  Now how do find those magic words?

3. The search bar, now this is a debate, in reality, the search bar only shows the MOST RECENT searches, but I have found it still matches up fairly well with my choices.

4. Google keyword tool, they just changed how it works, it is FREE, but a little tricky, it will make you think you need to pay for ad words...FALSE.  But is is a little awkward.  You can google how to use it for free.

5. Marmalead, there is a free version and a paid version.  I did the paid version for a month and kept a notebook of the good keywords.

6.  Now you have gathered your keywords, you need to get that listing going.  There are different kinds of keywords, long tail keywords and "regular" keywords.  You want to use both.  A long tail keyword is 4-5 words and should be near the beginning of your title.  You then want to REPEAT that exact keyword phrase in the beginning of your item description.  You then want to REPEAT that phrase again in your tags.  If it is too long, do the best you can.  By repeating that phrase it
is giving that phrase a lot of strength.

7.  The title of your item should have that combo of keywords separated by a comma or dash.  Do not run all the words together, it hurts the eyes, and well, it looks terrible.

8.  Use all that space in your title if you can, the more options folks have, the greater chance you will be found.

Here is an example:  You are listing a boho style silver statement necklace, do not just say Silver necklace, boho necklace, statement necklace...you want to link them all together into 1 long tailed keyword: Silver boho statement necklace- now folks looking for more general terms will still find you.  For example if they look for silver necklace, silver statement necklace, silver boho necklace, those are all included in your 1 long tailed keyword. After the long tailed keyword, fill in with other keywords you may have found such as gift for girlfriend, or mother's day gift, Christmas gift, etc

Now, silver boho statement necklace is too long for a tag, so try boho necklace, silver necklace, statement necklace

Now this is just a starter, there is so much more, but it is a lot more I knew when I got started.

Happy listing!

FREE chalkboard digital art print, just because

September has been the worst month since I opened, for the sign shop.  My graphics shop took off, well, for me, at least, it has been a terrific month.  I measure success by how many happy hours I can go to, and this month would have left me in the drunk tank.

So, while I lament my signs, I celebrate my graphics shop, so I am going to give you something for free, yes, free.  Chalkboard art is hot right now, and so are typography prints.  What is awesome about digital prints is that if the trend changes, as it always does, you can change as well, and it does not cost you an arm and a leg.  For a few bucks you download the print and frame it on your lovely walls.

Need a last minute gift?  Bam, download and print and run to the dollar store for a frame ( I won't tell about the dollar store frame).

So, in honor of my graphics, and just because, here is your freebie, now do a happy dance. Oh, and just print this little guy out as 8 x 10.

.https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4J1keODfzWxQnBpNXZxUzZ1QUU/view?usp=sharing

Want to see more? Come visit my shop on Etsy- groovy graphics.

September sales suck

Not only am I am terrible blogger, September hit and sales went down the tubes.  I was warned, it was repeatedly said September will be a terrible month.  Yep.

So what is a girl to do?  I poured myself into my graphics shop, and holy cow, I have had the best month since I opened.  I am so excited, I have added the digital prints to expand my shop and the whole shop is doing well.

I have also taken most of my photos over, again, and did SEO yet again, so let us see what happens with the upcoming holiday season.  Again, the word is, the holidays are a crazy time, so fingers crossed that it is.

Meanwhile our plans are moving forward to make this our full time business starting January 2018.  I am working harder and more hours then I ever had at any other job, it is no joke.  It is definitely a labor of love.

Meanwhile, I am working hard on getting some new products out in time for Christmas.

Taking the bad and learning from it

So I had that 1 star review that totally freaked me out.  I love what I make, I have my signs in my home, and it is hard not to take those bad reviews to heart.

I since had a 4 star ( good quality and nice sign, but again not happy with the non crisp letters), and then two 5 stars.  The one raved about the quality and how cute the sign is.

So we decided to learn from the comments and just move forward.  I know take a close up photo with every sign we make, and while it is drying and waiting to be assembled I send it to the buyer.  This gives them an opportunity to see the actual sign they are getting, and if they are not happy, I can fix it before the item ships.

We then upgraded our wood, we purchased select pine, which is $6.30 more per length, or .71 cents per sign.  We stopped free shipping, so we are absorbing that cost.  The select pine is more smooth and I think the results are nicer.

We then added a disclaimer to every listing in bold letters that with ink transfers the letters will not have the crisp look of vinyl letters and that the signs are meant to be rustic.

So hopefully that should help with our future reviews.  Live and learn!

The good, the bad, the ugly

I need to grow a thick skin.  My husband has skin like an elephant, my skin is like tissue paper.  I made a sign last week and shipped it in record time.  It came out so cute.  The customer then leaves a 1 star review without ever contacting me,  She stated it was cheap and poor quality and the wording was blurry.

My signs are created from good quality pine, the listing states it is meant to be rustic and that wood has grain and flaws, so imperfections are all part of the appeal.  I would gladly refund her money, but she never responded back.  I know that people can be difficult, but as a online buyer, if I have a problem, I ALWAYS contact the seller before leaving a negative review.  As a new online seller, I depend on those reviews.  What is frustrating is that the folks who love my products do not leave reviews.

So here is the poor quality sign....the font has a "fuzzy" look, it is part of the font, but I love the sign.

Then I did a custom order for someone who absolutely loved her order, left no review, but at least made me feel better...."My husband was just arriving home from international work travels the day after it arrived, so it was perfect timing! He loves both the signs and I have referred you to several others that I know and are looking for somethings like this!

                                                               We love it, thank you!"

Well, as my husband says, you cannot make everyone happy, but I really do want everyone to love whatever item they order.

So moving forward, I decided to send a picture and a quick message to each buyer before shipping their item if it is not a ready made item.  I guess you just need to learn a lesson, grow thicker skin, and move on!

Keep cool as the heatwave continues!!

Graphics and sign making

I love designing graphics, and that is how we started making our signs.  I was contacted yesterday by a customer who absolutely loved her camper sign ( good job hubby).  I then spent 2 days designing a new sign for her.

I should have charged more, but what the heck, we are still a new little business, and at this point am just happy having a repeat customer.  I am so thrilled with this design, that I may make it as a regular item in the shop.

Here is the design:

Now we will take this design and transfer it into the pine wood.  I cannot wait to see how this turns out.  I will take pics once it is done.

I also listed this little guy on Facebook, this is hand painted, so a different technique, but I love the black and white, this one sold the day I put it in our group. 

I am really proud of not just the sign, but the pure white background that I managed to capture. Normally I think it is a boring look, but I think it looks great with the black.

Well, record heat is heading this way, everyone keep cool!