It's been a long time since I posted on this blog, but I'm still alive and kicking. Unfortunately, the arts and crafts business has not been so great. I used to do a lot of art and craft shows, but once the economy tanked, so did sales at shows. I struggled along for a while, reducing the number of shows a little each year. After doing only two shows last year, I finally decided to take a complete break in 2014. At least from the show circuit.
I am still selling my jewelry on Etsy, and last year I added in my decorative boxes that I used to sell at arts and crafts shows. The boxes have done pretty well and I've actually had some more sales on Etsy. Nothing spectacular, but I had some decent sales this year. It's amazing how hit or miss it is on Etsy, but the funny thing is that I paid for keyword search ads for a while on Etsy, but my hits kept up about the same once I stopped paying. So, I decided that the pay to play was a waste of my money.
I need to work on adding new items to Etsy. I haven't really made a lot of new things lately, but I already had a huge inventory of items that have not been posted. So, I just need to block out some time to photograph some new items to add and then work on writing the descriptions and posting them all...a time-consuming affair, but one you need to take the time to do right.
How has the show circuit been for you lately? Are you selling on Etsy or another online site? Let me know in the comments.
