Thursday, April 30, 2009

yay!money!

yay!-money!

Remember when a while ago I won 250$ in the apartment therapy tutorial competition?!that was about a month ago and the money stayed in my paypal account till now, I already had one nightmare about not spending it fast enough. There were just too many choices and wonderful things on Etsy that I want and I just couldn't decide.

And so, though the reasonable thing to do would be to spend it on some heirloom piece that would service me for a long time, like a leather bag or spend it all on 25 pounds of fudge, this money kept making me think of the first sale I ever had on Etsy. It was on late November, when I decided to pick up my long abandon store and make and list at least one thing every month to see what happens. Now, making one thing and listing it a day look like an easy work day, but then it looked like quite a challange. I've been doing it for 2 weeks, trying to promote and getting pretty discouraged, and then I sold a sock puppet I made to the awesome Queancy Pearson. It suddenly made all this making-money-of-art thing looks possible and that though it was a bit of a rude awakening to list things that I loveingly made for pretty small change and still not having people rush to buy everything, a little reality worth so much more then a hige fantasy.

And so I thought that the best thing I can do with a 250$ in Etsy money would be to give this awesome experience to other sellers and make them realise that they to, can make some money from making stuff.

So, for the next couple of weeks i'm going on a shopping spree in stores who never had a sale (I might bend the rules if I see something I really want and the store had very few sales so far), I'm going to try not to spend more then 25$ in each store, and try ot give this cool experience to 10 people. Also, I'm going to review the stores I'm buying from and hope that the blog feature will get them some more exposure.

I'm going to try one more thing in my search of stores that didn't get any sales yet - If I come across any that don't make sales for a reason that look obvious to me, I'm going ot critique them, again hoping the exposure would get them some attention.

If you are or you know any cool shops with no sales yet that you would like me ot critique or buy something from, please comment here. I can't promis to buy or critique any of those, but I will take a look at what they make, so at least they'll get some views out of it.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

hey this is a great idea! if you have some time, my shop has 0 sales haha and is waiting for its first sale, who knows u might find something you like! congrats on the winnings and i'll be following ur blog! :)

Unknown said...

oops forgot the most important part:

my shop is www.origamiboutique.etsy.com

La Beq said...

What a fun idea! I've done the same thing from time to time, even without winning any money. Sometimes I do it on my own, sometimes as part of a Sneak Attack.

I have less than 10 sales, but I don't know if that might be too many to fit your qualifications...I'm LaBeq.etsy.com if you want to take a look.

Maggie Hurley said...

I think this is a wonderful idea. I would love a sale... or a critique... or both!

http://maggiehurley.etsy.com

Kii said...

Yayyy for you. Hope you can find something you like in Etsy and happy shopping!!

Check out my shop too ^_^

http://www.kiiss.etsy.com

Mics AKA Lunatiger said...

I think this is a wonderful thing your doing and I'm sure it's pretty fun as well! I'll be following up on what you find!

Diana said...

Great idea. I have no sales, please check out my shop.

www.dianacorpus.etsy.com

Brad said...

This is a sincerely thoughtful thing to do for many etsy shops. Please check out www.peeweeswoodshop.etsy.com. He's been open for nearly two months with no sales yet.

I opened my shop just a couple days ago - www.worldofwoodwork.etsy.com

Sharon said...

Hi Aya -- I think this is such a lovely idea ... I actually think you were my very first customer and how happy I was ... even though I'd actually solicited the sale and it was for supplies rather than anything I had made. I was equally thrilled when I made my first sale of something that I'd actually made (and unsolicited). Since then it's been slow going so if you have time I'd welcome a critique ... and I think it's great that you are helping more people to have that first sale "high"

Sharona R - שרונה ראובני said...

This is one of my favorite shops on Etsy, her purses are so beautiful (I bought a couple for my mom and me) and yet hardly any sales, God knows why. Please take a look!

brookiellen said...

what a great idea- very thoughtful! I only have 7 sales, but I know you are looking for shops with none! Just in case you wanna check it out:
http://brookiellen.etsy.com

Jennifer L. said...

What an amazing idea! I haven't had a sale either so please come check my site out...btw I just added you to my treasury.
www.jenniferloiselle.etsy.com

Unknown said...

I too think this is a great idea. I haven't had any sales either - even though I have been asked for a custom order - and she hasn't even bought that yet! I would love to have a critique and know if there is anything I can do better.

Check me out at pinkwhimsy.etsy.com.