Quote of the day: “Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what’s not working. We all have lots of ideas, creations, and projects. When you present one to the world , and it’s not a hit, don’t keep pushing it as is. Instead, get back to improving and inventing.” — Derek Silvers in Anything You Want
One more quote of the day (this book is so great!): “When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than ‘Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!’ — then say ‘no.’ When you say ‘no’ to most things, you leave room in your life to throw yourself completely into that rare thing that makes you say ‘HELL YEAH!'” — Derek Silvers in Anything You Want
A Fairy Tale
When I was laid off at the end of April, one of my friends told me, “No problem. You just put your photos up on Etsy and start your own business. It’s easy. Anyone can do it.”
Almost five months later I can tell you, “Yes, anyone can open an Etsy shop. But … it may not be quite so simple as ‘build it and they will come.'” I put in a lot of up front learning time as well as figuring out business logistics (pricing, shipping, bookkeeping) before opening my Etsy shop.
And then I needed to work up my courage to actually open the shop and post photos and photo greeting cards in it. This business of making and selling your own art is like getting naked in public on a regular basis. At least that’s what it feels like to me (having never actually undressed in public in reality). But, I finally set a goal for myself that by the end of last week, I would have opened my Etsy shop. And I did it!
I spent a good part of Thursday through Monday posting my first items for sale on Etsy. I wrote titles that search engines will find (I hope). I set prices and shipping costs. I tagged my items creatively with multiple tags. I wrote crisp copy to describe my photos and photo greeting cards. I posted my shop’s URL on facebook. I tweeted my etsy shop URL. Sigh…I didn’t make any new photographs over the weekend (my “HELL YEAH!” activity).
(For those unfamiliar with Etsy, it is an internet marketplace for all things handmade. While it may have started small, Etsy has burgeoned into a huge internet marketplace with thousands of artists and craftspeople selling anything you can imagine and a lot of things you’d never in your wildest dreams imagine.)
And now I’m going to put my shameless plug in (and then it will be done with, I promise). You can visit my shop here: http:marilynlamoreux.etsy.com. Please let me know what you think of the items I have for sale. Aren’t you glad that’s over with? Me too!
I haven’t got statistics on how well most shops do on Etsy, but for every shop I see that is selling lots of items, I see many more shops with single digit sales or no sales at all. I love that so many people are doing what they love and setting up home businesses. And I love all of the amazingly creative things people are creating and selling on Etsy! But I don’t love all the “getting traffic,” SEO, and using social networking stuff that it seems to take to get your work seen on Etsy. If I have to spend all my time at the computer thinking up ways to get my photography seen that takes all the joy out of it for me.
I’m starting to entertain thoughts of “put it out there and then let go.” If people find my photographs on Etsy and like them and want to buy them, great! If they don’t, I’ll create new work. That way I keep doing what I love – photography – and over time I can learn how to connect with customers by creating photos that delight.
For awhile, I bought into all the hype about needing to become a social media and SEO wizard. But my heart isn’t into that. My heart wants to create beauty through making photographs. My heart wants to connect with people who get joy from seeing my work.
What’s your “HELL YEAH?”
(A note on the “Fairy Tale” photo above: I was playing with some new photography props today that I plan to use in the garden soon. This one captured the look I was going for today – soft and dreamy.)
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