Etsy Shop Name

So yeah, I'm going to open another Etsy shop for all my cool vintage and antique treasures. Problem is I need a name before I can build it. I agonized over a name for my first shop. I knew the feeling I wanted to convey. The name had to be simple, easy to remember and one that would stick in your mind. Days went by. I went through every primitive, crow, country type name I could think of. They all felt so " already been done". I wanted unique.

I was sitting on my front step one morning, drinking coffee. I looked over at the old antique horse drawn plow that serves as a yard decoration. BINGO! That was it! Horse and Plow! (I have 7 horses too.) That didn't sound as smooth as I would have liked so I played with it a bit. That is how my shop came to be named The Plow and Pony.

Now I am traveling this road again. In brain agony over a name. I believe your shop name needs to reflect your work or whatever it is you're trying to convey. You then build everything else around that. Your banner,your avatar,your business cards. You want to put your mark on everything you do relating to that shop. You want people to remember you.

Blogging and the Learning Curve

As you know I am new to blogging. I did not realize how important it is to your business until I started doing it! I keep learning new things everyday. Well, except for the days I was caught up in the Twilight series books. If you scroll down towards the bottom of the page you will see I put in a slideshow of items in my Etsy shop! I was so proud! I find it amazing since I did not even know what a widget was until a couple weeks ago. LOL. I still have so much more to learn but am taking it one thing at a time. If you would like to leave a hint or tip..please do so in the comments.

Things I would like to learn:

How to do a blog giveaway.

How to make a button for trade with other bloggers.

Does this look like a blog where you would like to have your shop featured? If not, what would make it that way?

Thank you for any help you would like to leave here.

A Bit of Imperfection is a Good Thing

We, as humans, are constantly striving for perfection of which we will never attain in this life. Primitives strive for that bit of imperfection. They are never quite perfect and that is a good thing! That is part of their charm.

I love making primitives for that reason. I don't have to worry about being perfect. I made some awesome grubby candles this weekend. They are up for sale in my Etsy shop. Grubby candles are great for that early lighting look. My Grubbiest Grunge Dusted candles truly look 100 years old. They are 3rd from the right at top of picture. How cool is that?! Click on the picture and be wisked away back in time to my shop of imperfection.

ARTFIRE vs. Etsy Search Pages

I checked out the ARTFIRE search engine today. This being in response to a concern someone brought up in Etsy chat. It goes something like this. Etsy puts your items up in the top 5 search pages by time listed and this makes it so you have to list and relist constantly to get noticed. This generates money for Etsy and cuts deeply into your profits. It does not take long for your items to become buried somewhere below the "who Knows" x amount of search pages. If you do not list and relist, suddenly you see your views and sales fall! The concern about Artfire was this: O.k. So if you do not list on ARTFIRE daily won't your items get buried in 100's of search pages anyway? The answer is NO!!!! I checked this out for myself. Artfire has a different way of searching. They go by lowest price or highest price. You choose. I had my items come up on numerous pages of the first 5 of the word I searched. They came up on just about every page including the 1st page!!! I know people are seeing me! I haven't listed in there in over a week either! I believe they have plans to optimize their search even further but am not sure. Will blog when I find out! This is so much more FAIR! I absolutely love it! Want to find out more about how Etsy is operating? Go to: http://www.etsybitch.blogspot.com and see what everyone is saying about the new way Etsy is having your items NOT get seen!

My EBAY Selling Days

I have been so busy talking about Etsy and Artfire I completely forgot about my Ebay selling! I have some items listed this week that end tomorrow. A link is provided under My Links on the left side of the page. I have been a seller on Ebay since 1997. Long time huh? I have 1678 positive feedbacks. I have many many more than that but repeat buyers don't get counted. I usually list odd items that I find at garage sales, auctions and estate sales. Some of my areas of expertise are pottery, glass and vintage jewelry. These days I just tend to list whatever strikes me as odd that an ebayer might want to buy. Pottery and glass collecters have pretty much collected everything they need for their collections so the price of items isn't what it used to be. Ebay is also not what it used to be. They have high listing fees, the seller can no longer accept checks, they protect the buyer which is good but have really no protections any more for the seller. Yes, there are scams on the seller too! But all in all it is usually a pretty quick way to make some fast money to pay that electric bill. The shops, Etsy and Artfire, take a bit more time. I have NOT listed any of my homemade or re-worked items on there and hoping I never have to. For some reason I feel it cheapens them. I feel my work is quality and I want it to be seen as quality. I like the idea of a more specialized store for my Colonial primitive items. I do notice that I tend to put items I would normally put on Ebay into my Etsy shop, like a few of my finest pieces of vintage jewelry. Here is a picture of an item I have up for bid this week.

ETSY and ARTFIRE

I've started another store at Artfire. They are running a deal I can't pass up 7.00 a month membership to the first 5000 people. After those are gone it will be 20.00 a month. You can list as many items as you want with 10 pictures! It's so exciting to get in on the ground level of something! Especially when I think it will be huge. I looked over their business plan. It looks sound and the main thing that really impressed me is the fact that they are going to spend millions on advertising their site. They have already started advertising and targeted the kind of consumers who will SHOP! Here is a link if you are interested in signing up. http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=sevenforlife&afuid=4375

I would also like to say that their listing page is amazing! Everything is right there on one page! It takes me a 1/4 of the time to list on ARTFIRE as it does Etsy.

I have only been on Etsy a month and already have seen some major problems. The main one being their advertising. You can't get people to shop at the site if you don't advertise it! You the seller are responsible for getting people into your shop. Do you realize how much time that takes? On Etsy it seems to be mainly sellers selling to other sellers. The percentage of sellers to buyers is way out of proportion with sellers winning by a landslide! You simply can't sell at your best potential with a lack of buyers to buy! Sellers can only buy so much or what is the point?

I don't plan to close my shop on Etsy just yet. I put too much time into driving traffic to it already. I do plan on letting it phase itself out and making my Artfire shop as huge as I can get it!

Meanwhile, Artfire will be growing by leaps and bounds and I will be there when it explodes! I am so excited!

Some more notes..

ARTFIRE has awesome on the spot customer service. Artfire is working constantly to get their site the best it can be. Of course there are a few bugs to be worked out..it is new! Etsy has bugs too and when you go to forums to try and get them fixed..they tell you it is something to do with you! I have found that not to be true on several occasions, but try to tell them that!

You WILL get on the front page of ARTFIRE. It's almost impossible to snag a treasury on Etsy let alone get picked for the front page.

I LOVE ARTFIRE (I need a button to wear) I am so excited! It will be huge huge huge!