So far what I have done is trying to get my product out. Just not seeing very much in sales. I want to do festivals; local events just didn’t work out on timing. I have Etsy Plus now; I do see more people visiting and adding items to their cart.
What is everyone else doing for marketing and sales? Is it worth it to buy Ads on Google, Bing, and Facebook?
I’d also suggest selling you files! here is my Etsy page where I only sell the files because you don’t have to deal with any shipping. Etsy ads are good as well.
I mainly use Facebook marketplace or word of mouth for physical orders because I’m blessed to have enough local business.
I just poked around on your web page for a bit.
Here are my impressions as a guy that has has been selling stuff for about 18 months I dont know a ton about things but We do okay I guess. . Take it or leave it but t will be honest, and direct, nothing against you. Doing a thing is hard and we get invested in both heart and money.
Some of your stuff seems pricey,
50 bucks for an engraved tray, IDK man that seems like a hard sell. anyone can make a tray, but your phone holder and tray is only 12 bucks?
That Aztec Star Wars thing is rad, but Its all over the internet, and not to hard to find it for less money.
I think its better to do a few things well, and make it so its routine to make, so its perfect. and boring even. if you want to get paid its got to be amazing. having a ton of products makes it hard to be perfect ( or close to) I see lots of tool marks on your cat tray
Take more/ better photos that show the entire product, and have it lit well.
Its a ton of work and sleepless nights. if its just for the occasional faire, or friends then have fun with it. But I really think if you are trying to make a living or supplement income, you got to do the same thing hundreds of times over, and make something that can replicate flawlessly each time. You have an amazing machine that can do that, it just is up to you to do it.
If it is to become a Job, at some points it should feel like a job. the barrier to entry to be a “maker” is thinning, the hard part is to separate your self
Hope that helps, and I wasn’t too abrasive, I want people to be good at what they do and love doing ti.
Kevin thanks for your perspective. I looked at others shops & posting and asked around about shop time plus materials to get the totals.
Aztech Star Wars is 24" I have sold 5 of them. For the time it takes to make the cost is at the right price point. Only found out after my third one about pirateship. Saved a lot shipping from NY to CA.
Cat tray does not really show that way in person, need a better photo. Will update that with a new picture. I did order a photobooth from Amazon to get better photos.
Phone holder price it at similar products on Etsy and other online places. It took no time to make.
Also working on more unique products that I came up with, but I do understand what I think is good is not for everyone else.
I have sold a lot of digital files, working on more.
I was not really looking what wrong with what I have but more what are people doing to get your name / business found. People won’t know buy from you if they don’t know about you. I do understand the balance of flow of good product list and cost. Not every product will sell or maybe too many people are making the same thing.
I did have one person find me for a custom carve for words they wanted to hand on a wall. They didn’t have Instagram or Facebook. She only did a Google search to find local woodworker.
The thing is, I should not be making comments at one in the morning.
Perhaps I was too abrasive, sorry.
But I do think that the most important thing is how your store/webpage looks and feels.
It all depends on your clients and what they want.
and its slow. for us we push hard in for the holidays and we know in july we are going to be so slow.
It’s an interesting topic, and your comments were (as you promised) direct. For those of us working with tools that can hurt people, direct is fine.
I’m hopeful that a). I can figure out how to make the CNC do what it’s supposed to do, b). that my projects are unique enough to find little competition. As for the second item, I’m making custom dials for clocks in brass. My first project is very traditional, but came about when I couldn’t find clock dials in anything but aluminum. They were once found easily from Germany, but even those had monotonously similar embellishments.
The set-up costs have been so high that I don’t include them in calculating what a product will be worth. A lot of those decisions had elements of pride and ignorance.
An elite clock maker might charge $1-3k for the entire item, but there are $300-600 in the works. So that elite guy might pay up to $500 for an awesome dial. But most clock makers who buy at Etsy are grandfathers making their first or second clock. I don’t see them paying more than $200 for a dial.
If I’m going to settle for $200, then the materials need to cost me less than $60, and my set-up time needs to be 2-4 hours.
I have interacted several times with Shane Peters of shaneshardwoodllc on Instagram. If you are not familiar with Shane, he is the epoxy guru and people wait for months just to get one of his projects (for big money). I am a channel member on Mark Lindsey’s CNC channel, and Shane was a guest one evenning, he mentioned he has an Instagram coach / handler that keeps his content more visible which keeps him in high demand. In my opinion, Etsy shoppers want good stuff for cheap. I tried selling some stuff that I thought would move quick, but that was a fail.
As for me starting promotion my business in insta was the best decision, it’s a big platform with lots of tools. But in order for sales to be active, you need to very carefully monitor your account - clean it from bots and inactive followers, protect it from a ban. This site https://spamguardapp.com/ can be a great help in doing this, and save a lot of money on a SMM specialist. Highly recommend