Etsy Search Ads

This past week I've been trying to re-devote myself to my etsy store. I've successfully posted at least one new item a day, and found time to sit down at night to not only make new art and projects, but to do the pictures, scans, and item descriptions portion of the job that I particularly love to avoid. Also, I decided to try out Etsy Search Ads. For $5 a week, my items will be placed at the top of search listings about 5,000 times. With the great statistics tool, I've really been able to view how my page is viewed, how often, where people are finding me, and which items are viewed the most.

As for results of this first week on ads, my views are up, for both my newer and older items. But it looks like my overall views are up mostly because I've been posting so regularily for a full week. Let's see if I can keep it up.

Another new tool I've been working with is www.fotofuze.com. I don't find it an absolute perfect service, but it's a really fast and easy way to clear out the white backgrounds of items, remove shadows and give items a more polished look from the store view. My main complaint is regarding crispness. Once in awhile, a photo ends up blurred when viewed very large. But I've just found upping my photos to a higher quality takes care of this easily. My only other big tip for using Fotofuze is to choose 'no' for the auto-cropping tool. Overall, a big thumbs up for Fotofuze!

Before:


With Fotofuze:

Nightmare

 

Click on image for larger view.

I seriously thought about taking some time to flesh out this cartoon strip, but to be honest, I probably won't be able to give it much time, and I like some of the qualities a quick sketch toon has. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about my Etsy site and trying to find some more real-life stores to carry my wares. I love 'I Like You' in the cities, but I need a venue close to home too!

circle business cards

 

So I navigated the yudu last night. Sure, I'm using it mostly for a light table, but it wasn't so bad. After hearing awful reviews of their expensive emulsion sheets that are easily ruined, I was pleasantly surprised that this project turned out so well on my first try. I will say that I intended to use the screen longer, I printed about 20 pages of these cards in the black ink, but wanted to do another run in another color. But as I was washing out the black ink from the screen (with cold water only), the emulsion in several spots started to degrade. It was a little bit rubbery in a couple spots. I'm unsure if this might have been a drying issue with the emulsion before I burned it?

Regardless, I'll be avoiding buying the pre-made capillary sheets and looking for my own emulsion spreader ASAP.

 

stickers!

I want to make sticker packs with my new silk screening skills too! I tested these stickers on full-page label paper I picked up for sale at Office Max. Although it's a little bit hard to peel off the backing, I think they're cool. I simply copied these, but the ink toner rubs off too easily with handling. Printing them through silk screen will be uber awesome. I think :) Simple markers will give them a little life too.

business cards and yudu

Okay, I've seen a ton of negative feedback (here and here ) online regarding the Yudu silk-screen printing system. I agree, the retail price is very high, but I didn't pay nearly close to that price ticket. Plus, I am not planning on dumping the tons of cash needed to create items by only buying the Yudu branded materials. My first project that I'm going to attempt is business cards. Any idiot with a couple dollars can go to Vistaprint to have the freebie or near free business cards created, but that's just not my style. I'm going to create them on my own with a personal, imperfect, and high quality handmade style.

Guess what, even with the most expensive, professional printing gear, silk screen printing takes a lot of practice and has a learning curve, just like any new art project. I think having this thing, the easiness of burning the screens is going to be great!

I'll be printing the design below with my Yudu (updates on my progress to follow) on thick cardstock kraft-brown paper I picked up with an awesome company: ReBinder. I'm thinking I need to print in a thick opaque white or off-white (maybe an off-white seafoam green tone?). They'll be 3 inch round circles, the circle indicator on the picture won't be in print, it's just a guide for what the dimensions will be.

new cards up on etsy

Goodmorning!

I've been up late every night this weekend cranking out rainbow stuff for the Duluth Superior Pride festival at Bayfront Park on September 3rd. The vendor fee was $110, which seems like quite a lot, but I want to get my work seen by people here in the area. I'm sure I'll at least be able to make my investment back and make a bit of cash. I'll be doing shrinky dink pins by the handfuls, felt items, cards, and more.

welcome to the gayborhood

 

hey there cutie-cakes