Thursday, October 18, 2012

Courage taking the leap...

Here is one of the first pic's I used at etsy, its blurry!
This morning I am in a blog circle with my friends from Flying Lessons with Kelly Rae Robberts. This is my first one. Happy Reading :)

I have to say that I made my etsy account many years ago. I got the courage up to put my jewelry in a shop. I named it the name I would have given my son if he was born a girl. Juniper and I put Goods at after because I was not sure if I only wanted to do jewelry. Sad to say I only made one sale and it was to my Mom. So, I tried taking better pictures and adding more descriptive words so it could be found on a router.
The second style of pic's I tried, blurry as well.

But to no avail I still had not sold from etsy. I had my Dad come and take pic's with his nice camera, posted and still nothing. My courage was slipping away. I joined groups and tried to put more items in the shop. Let me tell you all of this extra work makes for a big bundle of courage to dwindle fast. Maybe my jewelry is no good? Maybe it's over priced, or under priced? I have no idea. What doI do? So I gave up on etsy.

 Now I am taking a class on promoting your biz with Kelly Rae Robberts and there is a lesson on etsy and how to make it work for you. I have taken a peek at it and glanced at the links to etsy for help. I still need the courage to go for it and promote my work, although maybe at the back of my mind I think it could be a better product. More this or that. So I am taking the leap.... I am going to take new pic's of my rings,

The current, older pic of my rings
earrings and bracelets post them on etsy and try all the promotional suggestions from Kelly and the etsy teams. I am going for it. So look for new jewelry posting soon on my etsy account.
The new pic's of my rings
What type of ring picture do you like? I will research pictures for jewelry on etsy to see what works best for most sellers. I am going to try to get the courage to add more pendants, earrings, necklaces and bracelets on etsy.


Courageously, Chandra

I am linking with Suzanne McRae check out her take on courage here

11 comments:

  1. Chandra I think you are very brave to not have given up totally on your Etsy shop. You will make it work for you. I'm so happy to hear that you have the right information from our class together that will help you. You will reach your goals. Your jewellery is beautiful. Keep at it. :)

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  2. Hi Chandra, I sell on Etsy too and it is so hard to keep going, well done for not giving up. Your jewellery is beautiful and I'm sure it will do really well once it gets going. My personal preference is for a plain white background for jewellery because I don't want to detract from the piece. I'm looking forward to seeing you over on Etsy :)

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    1. I know white is more preferable I just can't get away from color behind my pieces. I will work on it.

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  3. One step at a time and with each step you learn and know more to make the following steps better. One step and then another. You're taking those steps!

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  4. Wow. Your Etsy story is very similar to mine. Now I, too, am gearing up to give it another go. We can do this! We have so much more experience and information now. I'm excited to see you growing and persevering. Great job, Chandra!

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  5. We are all in this together. I had a similar experience a couple years ago, withdrew all my pieces, even gave some to the Goodwill! I am baaaack and ready to utilize the knowledge gained from our group. I love your current pictures but think I would go with a plain background too. Your call. The rings are beautiful!

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  6. Chandra, be strong and keep doing one step at a time. It takes a lot of work and time to make these shops profitable. Don't get discouraged. See what others are doing, what's working and follow. You don't need to be a copy cat but you also don't need to re-invent the wheel either. I'll be looking for you out there!!

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  7. Chandra,
    I love how brave you are. It reminds me of reading Vickie's blog post on courage: that we just have to keep going. That we don't fail. We just try again and again. And that's exactly what you're doing! I think that's so, so inspiring!

    You're very talented and your jewelery is beautiful. I am glad you are putting yourself out there again.

    You asked what kind of photos I like when looking at rings. I hadn't thought about it until you asked. So I looked around online and I hope these are helpful! :-) I learned that I really, really, really prefer the cover shot to be with a plain white background only with just the piece alone. That way, I can take a nice look at it, without any distractions at all. Like Anthropolgie does:

    http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/category/new%20arrivals/jewelryaccessories-new.jsp


    I quickly looked at this Etsy site. Some of her cover shots are on a plain white background, some are not. I was drawn to the ones with plain backgrounds. I've linked the piece where she used a plain white background and got nice shots of her piece. What is very enticing is then to see alternative views once you click on the item.

    http://www.etsy.com/listing/92531612/funky-jewelry-colorful-lucite-necklace?ref=sr_gallery_27&ga_includes[]=tags&ga_search_query=funky+jewelry&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

    I thought this page perfectly showcased the jewlery. The cover shot is just the ring on white background. The alternate shot (once you click on the piece) is of a person wearing the item. I LOVE this because then as a consumer, I have a sense of the size and what it would look like worn. I would like to see this as an alt shot, not a cover shot.

    http://www.twisted-silver.com/default.asp?256n675=qrsn7y6_241q7p65&c41q7p65gB2r5_VQ=I

    I really hope that helped! :-)

    Chandra, I also read a very good article on Houzz not long ago one taking good photos of products from home. I hope this is helpful, too! :)

    http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/2430017/list

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    1. http://meylah.com/meylah/the-anatomy-of-a-great-product-shot Here's another great post on taking pics of product! Also the blog itself looks fantastic for all of us because it's all about promoting your creative products! :)

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  8. Hi Chandra,

    Your jewelry is just lovely. I have been taking pictures of beads and jewelry for the last 10 years for my website SapphireGarden.com. It's not easy. A white background looks great, but tends to come out gray unless you're really good with photo editing and lighting. It's easier to get true colors with a gray-ish background, and they can look great too. I think a piece of slate might make a nice background and easier to fix the colors. You could probably pick that up at Home Depot or Lowes.

    Also, photos will always need to be corrected a bit in a photo editing program. Contrast usually needs to be upped a little and things lightened or darkened a bit. I run every photo through editing before using. If you don't have the right lights, take your pictures outdoors.

    If you have a camera with a macro setting, that will make your life a lot easier. Cropping your photo so the jewelry is front and center with as little background as possible is a good idea too. I like the picture with the pink background, but there's too much of it and it's distracting where the background ends up in the top left corner. That nice picture could be a great shot with a little cropping. :)

    Wishing you all the best! This stuff is hard. We have to wear so many hats and learn so much to run our little creative businesses. One step at a time...just do the next thing!

    Hugs!!
    ♥ Shelly

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  9. Thanks all of you :) I'll be working on it...

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