Welcome

Okay, so I decided to start a blog. I am a seller on  Etsy and it is not an easy task. It is a great affordable avenue to showcase your work but directing traffic to you site is hard. I am hoping this blog will help get the word out!  In return for your views of my shameless promotion I aim to share my recent projects, techniques, tutorials and any photography related words or pictures that you might find interesting.

Comments are always welcome. Anything I can do to improve chances of getting my work out there is okay by me. In the meantime you can also find me at www.icandyprints.etsy.com.

Please note that all Graphics and Photos on this site are copyrighted.  Please do not use without permission of the artist. Thank you!

New Work!

I love this photo of Burlesque star — Catherine D’Lish — She is seen here performing at the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly festival.  I loved her electric blue Ostrich feather outfit, so dramatic! This 11x 14 print is now available in my shop.  This print is available in sizes from 5×7 – 16×20.  Go here to view the image in my store.

May Artist of the Month – New Interview!

Oh Sandy - 50s top -$18.00

This month’s shop — Call Me Chula — is a wonderful Vintage find.  This store is definitely a family affair, with Sisters, Nieces and Aunts helping out with anything from scouring estate sales – to keeping their fans updated on Facebook.  I love this store because they offer great Vintage items at a very reasonable price – Read More Here…

New Work!

Finally recovered from Viva Las Vegas #14! Had a blast – came back with lots of lovely Burlesque photos this year. You can see a few below, I will be posting more to my shop this week. In the meantime , click here to check the current additions.

          

April Artist of the Month – Sacchetto

NEW ITEM! Black Clogs with Hand Painted Design - $50.00

This month’s Artist is Edward Bach of  Sacchetto.  I am completely in love with the bold colors and graphic artwork. Edward will also be debuting several new designs, like the one above,  right here on this blog! Click here to read more and don’t forget to visit his Etsy shop at www.sacchetto.etsy.com.  Enjoy!

Buy and Support!

A fellow Etsian’s daughter has started her own shop to help raise money for the Fresno Bully Foundation.  The cute charms are $5 each and a percentage of the sale will go directly to the foundation. Go on…treat yourself and support a good paws…oops..cause!  You can find her shop at www.poppycharms.etsy.com.

 

Hearts for Paws - Blue Flower Charm - $5.00

Treasury Winner!

Win all 16 items in this Treasury!

I am very excited to be a part of this Treasury Contest put together by fellow Etsian Ellemoss.  The Treasury consists of 16 items created by the ‘Female Photographers of Etsy’ team, a stunning collection worth over $240  Click here for a chance to win ALL of the items, including my ‘San Francisco Street Car’ with FREE Mat.  All you have to do is leave a comment then the names are put into a hat and picked at random.  Take a chance and enter to win a beautiful art collection for your home. Good luck!

 

Congratulations to Rebecca Jones for swooping the grand prize of ALL Sixteen fabulous prints, in the Female Photographers of Etsy Treasury.  My print is on it’s way to you as we speak!  The FPOE team have decided to keep this contest going, I will post here when I know more.  Next time, make sure you enter.  It really is a great way to get some awesome art on your walls.

 

Re-Listing, is it worth it?

Is it really worth the time, trouble and let’s not forget money, to re-list your items? I have read several blogs on this subject (including Etsy), and as far as I can tell it is very hit and miss.  For the past three weeks that I have been re-listing I haven’t really noticed a huge difference in my number of visitors.  Now, I am not going crazy like some and re-listing every hour – my budget (or my sanity) really doesn’t allow for that. What I am doing is checking my stats on Google Analytics and trying to get an idea of when I get my most visits and plan my re-list schedule around that.  Last time I checked it was Thursday thru Sunday, so I re-list five items on Thursday and five on Saturday that is it!  The re-listings I have done so far have got me into a couple of treasuries and into a couple of visitors favorite items.  No sales though.

Pretty lame you might think, and I have to agree that the more time and money you throw at re-listing the more chance you have of being seen, but who has that kind of money? I read somewhere that one Etsy seller actually hires people to re-list for her! For us mere mortals that can only dream of living in Etsy land a budget is key. My budget is $2 per week, that is only $96 per year, kind of worth it if you get more views and possibly more sales out of it.

Here are my top five tips for re-listing:

1. Budget: Very important!! Some sellers spend hundreds of dollars re-listing their items, look at your sales and figure out what you can afford. Don’t get hung up on the re-listing game and put all of your profits back into Etsy’s pocket.
2. Google Analytics: If you haven’t got yourself hooked up to this yet, do it! A great free service that will show you how many people visit your shop, where they are from etc.  Use this tool to determine when it is the best time for you to re-list. Click here for the link.
3. Favorites: Go through your items and find the items that are the most popular (favorites) and re-list them.
4. Space: Don’t re-list everything in one day.  Space your re-listings out according to your most popular viewing days. See # 2! Don’t get too obsessed with it, some customers find it off putting if you are just re-listing and not creating new work.
5. Holidays: Definitely re-list more over the holidays.  People are looking for gifts, so make sure you take holidays into account when you are making your re-list budget.