Six Fairy Tales for the Modern Woman

Call me a bit behind the times, but I just figured out how to follow blogs on Tumblr.   Here's my first brilliant find, Six Fairy Tales for the Modern Woman that was posted on the blog Funkademic.  

My sister picked up this beautiful edition of Robert Louis Stevensons' A Child's Garden of Verses at a Value Village in Saskatoon. It has no date and I can hardly find anything about the specific edition.  Illustrated by Charles Robinson, it's just divine.  Take a look:

Are you lusty for words? Come hither!

My boyfriend and I are planning to play our first game of scrabble together tonight.  So, in order to ensure my own victory, I searched for "two letter scrabble words" only to get totally distracted by a website called The Phontistery.  

According to the site's purveyor, The Phontistery is "The International House of Logorrhea (an online dictionary of obscure and rare words), the Compendium of Lost Words (a compilation of ultra-rare forgotten words), and many other glossaries, word lists, essays, and other language and etymology resources".  

Holy cow, huh?  I know what you're doing tonight!

The site is pretty addictive.  So much so that I didn't study my scrabble words and now I'm going to lose.  

Education Rebellion for the Internet Generation

I recently came across this awesome website, UnCollege, that is filled with resources for those of you who felt, like I did, that the traditional educational system just wasn't for you.  And for those of you frustrated with  the education your own child is receiving.  This site is like rebellion for us older people (don't we all sometimes feel the need to stick it to the man?  admit it).

A Free Treat from Lost & Taken

Check out Lost & Taken's free graphics pack here.  Caleb Kimbrough's site just keeps getting better and better.  It's always my number one stop when it comes to free textures.  Thanks Caleb!

If I could pick my neighbors

I'd pick these two, a real life couple, Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn who form a musical duo called Pomplamoose.  Could you possibly have more fun than they do?  I really doubt it!

I'm approaching my 500th order (woo hoo!) in my Etsy shop, Exceedingly Well Read.   I've made my share of mistakes running my business, but I've learned a few things along the way as well.  I thought I'd share a short list of my best tips for selling vintage on Etsy.  

1. Maintain an inventory that sells.  Pay attention to what sells, not necessarily what you like best.   Do your research and figure out what the market wants.
2.  Sell what you know and find your vintage niche.   If you never read, don't sell books.  If you've always loved and collected pottery, sell that.   You don't have to only sell within your niche, but you'll be most successful there.  
3. Don’t get on Etsy’s bad side, even for a second.  That second can equal weeks of closed shop.   Make sure you read all policies before you set up shop and then review them from time to time. 
4.  Marketing is all about getting your name out there and getting people to your shop.  Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and the gazillion other social networking sites are great venues for this.  Make a social networking plan and stick to it.  
5.  Use Google Trends to make sure your item keywords are relevant. To me they are "children's books", but to the internet community, they're more often called "kid's books".  So now to me they are "kid's books" too.  
6.  Make treasuries of other people’s work, but don’t spend hours and hours on them. Treasuries are nice to make and nice to look at.  They’re nice for making friends on Etsy.  However, when it comes down to it, they take a lot of time and don’t usually lead to sales.  I look at them like a source of good karma:  If I don’t ever make treasuries, how can I expect to have my items treasured? 
7. Run Search Ads.  I spend very little a week for a lot of exposure.  I noticed a big jump in sales when I started running search ads.  
8.  Etsy on Sale is a great site for handling all your Etsy sales needs.  And sales are great for sales!
9.  Pay attention to packaging. Customers like to receive a package that’s been wrapped with care.  Make it like Christmas for them and you’ll be rewarded in feedback. 
10.  Be prepared for success.  Although you may not make a lot of sales right away, have shipping supplies, and any other supplies you need in excess so that you’re not caught with your pants down. 
11.  Make an effort to reach out to customers on a personal level.  Etsy is really all about the personal touch.  I love hearing about why a customer chose a certain product and they often have stories to tell.   And the personal touch is what keeps those customers coming back to Etsy.  
12. Make sure you give customers reasonable expectations when it comes to estimated shipping times.  This will spare you lots of time, will save you from having to refund to clear a case, and will keep your approval rating high.
13. Accept credit cards.  It's easy to set up and will definitely increase your sales.   

And that's my two cents on making a buck on Etsy.

Warmest regards,

Laura