When I placed the Flora Quilt on Etsy, I put a little higher price than normal, just to see what happened. We're not talking a lot here, just a bit more than usual. Etsy has a new way of placing items, attempting to make them more relevant category-wise, not relevant as to how many people have viewed the item. At least that is how I understand it. Maybe it is working, I just sold this to someone in Canada.
Now when I list a new item, I have more questions that need to be answered, such as:
Who made this? Some items are vintage and not handmade
When was it made? More vintage info
Who was it made for? There is a big list of holidays and specific people the item could be intended for
How can it be described? This is where it gets interesting, there is a long pull down menu of item descriptions, and some of them are quite interesting: steampunk, funky, urban, hip hop, shabby chic, mid-century, sci-fi, geeky, edgy-the list goes on and on. The only one Flora fit into was shabby chic, and then I got to make up my own category and I chose Romantic.
I go back and forth between getting mad at Etsy and loving Etsy, Right now I love Etsy. I have decided there are zillions of people in the world, and when they want to buy a handmade quilt, they either go to a craft fair or they go to Etsy. I don't have enough quilts to warrant doing a craft fair at this point, so Etsy is my place. And I can't complain that there is too much competition, I am part of that competition. I just have to keep making them, trying to get good photos with my little dorky camera, writing good descriptions that will pop and just let them be discovered. Fall is around the corner, the weather will be getting cooler, quilt season is just about here. Oh, and the biggie, I am still underemployed, That is the best motivator of all.
