April 26, 2012

This week should have been all about the flowers and finishing my design website, but it was all about the bread and butter shop. Father's day is coming soon and I had to whip up a lot of Chef's Aprons and list them. Then eBay had a surprise - Free fixed listings and they can be for a month long. I had to take advantage.

Yesterday I spent almost the whole day listing Aprons and clutches. I'll be spending most of today and tomorrow, doing the same. If I can list a lot there for a month for free, I can get a lot of traffic. I don't like to sell there, because fees are high, but the more I list the more traffic I get and I used to sell more there. I think that I get a lot more traffic on Artfire though with their great SEO. I've been selling much more on Artfire. It's too bad that eBay doesn't support artists and crafters more. When all their DIY sellers moved to Etsy, it was like they couldn't show you to the door quick enough. We used to do very well on eBay, some sellers still sell there, but for the most part, Etsy is the place to sell now.

I have to admit that eBay does have great services, but you really pay for them. Their shipping service is fantastic, and I can't wait till it's working on PayPal. Their listing feature is very nice and you can even create your own html page, which I've done. But as far as getting any help for anything, it's all electronic unless you join a peer group. They rely on the community to provide the information you should be able to find on their site. If you have a problem it is very hard to get an answer.

I was hoping that I would be able to make a choice between one of three of my businesses. I foolishly thought that it might become clear in a few months. It hasn't. For now have to work all three, until one outweighs the other.