Fall Back

After a lazy summer of gardening and collecting , I'm getting back into sewing and creating new products. Sales have definitely slowed for me on Etsy, where I used to get new customers without even trying . When I first started making my laptop sleeves, there was only one other person making them and theirs was a true bag, one with a zipper and handles. Gradually more sellers started producing bags and sleeves. Some truly gifted crafters, like Alice of Flickabags and workingclass hero, have essentially closed shop and gone elsewhere. Now there are dozens of people making sleeves and laptop bags. Since etsy allows cottage industries, I can post a bag in the morning and find it 20 pages back by noon . Not much chance of being seen by the casual browser.
The one thing that really bothers me is that if you do a search for laptop sleeve you may have to sift through a couple hundred listings to find one . Many sellers migrated over from ebay and use ridiculous titles like
Custom laptop notebook briefcase backpack messenger diaper tote bag purse sleeve
in order to drive traffic to their pages. Personally,I wouldn't buy from someone with an ebay type title ( unless I was on ebay), but that's just me. I can't say that I blame them as etsy's search feature is virtually useless . I just think it looks tacky .
I've thought of closing shop there but I 'm too stubborn to give up and leave what little new business I have to these interlopers.
So I have started selling on Icraft a Canadian site that screens it sellers for quality and has truly handcrafted items for sale. I haven't sold anything so far but I really like the look and feel of the site and I'm sure I will soon.
I'll also be participating in a few craft shows leading up to Christmas. I've only booked a few close to the holidays because I need to build up some stock. I'll post links soon.

International Shipping Woes

The recent changes in international shipping rates have really put a crimp in overseas sales of my laptop sleeves and bags. To ship an average sized sleeve to the UK used to cost $10.50Now to ship the same sleeve cost $20.00 which is about half the price of a sleeve.
When a return customer ordered one for a gift, I worried about losing a sale. She asked if their was any way I could send it cheaper and I told her I would research it . Everything else was just as much if not more.
I decided to see if there was anyway I could fit it in a flat rate envelope. I squished it down as much as I could and managed to get it inside but just barely. Then I had an idea. What if I put it in a plastic bag and sucked the air out ? I used a normal zip lock bag and my vacuum and it did the trick.
Last week I had a custom order from Germany , this sleeve was for a mammoth laptop . The shipping would have been $25 .00 I asked if she minded getting it tightly packed, she would need to press it herself and she agreed it was worth the savings.
Try as I might I could barely get it folded to put in the gallon sized zip lock I've used for 13" and 15" macs which are slimmer than most . Finally I folded it in thirds and then in half and got it in the bag. It took a couple tries but I was finally able to get it compressed down to fit in the envelope and to be able to close it without tape ( a postal requirement.)

Indecision 2008 , should I stay or should I go?

Borrowing from the Daily Show, the year has started with a whole lot of indecision for me regarding Saltygal. I didn't start the business for any single reason , it was a way to keep busy, make a little money and feed my fashion and fabric obsession.
Etsy made it easy for me to have online storefront. I opened one up and made a sale the first day. I was hooked. When I started taking custom orders through Alchemy I stretched myself creatively, my business grew and I could be as busy as I wanted.
I didn't have a business plan but I made adjustments adding some inexpensive items and gaining wholesale accounts.
Now I'm at a point where I need to decide what direction I want my business to go in. Etsy has grown so large that getting any business from within the site is difficult. Alchemy is a distant memory. They have added a gift guide at the top of every page. In one click, it takes buyers out of my shop to a guide where the Etsy administration hand picks items to feature. All through the Christmas season I looked through the guides hoping one of my sleeves would be featured but they were not . I bought on site ads but never garnered any sales. My (Etsy) sales were down 75% over the previous December
When two new laptop bag crafters from Europe joined, Etsy ran features on them both and placed their bags in the gift guides. Another seller makes and sells hundreds of laptop bags, bags she does not make She lists 10-12 items a day and frequently sells as many. If I don't list or relist at least 3 sleeves a day they are buried beneath the others within minutes. Paying for on site ads didn't work and I can't spend my day at the computer trying to snag a treasury or smoozing on the forums hoping other sellers will check out my shop.
Since I'm not getting customers from within Etsy , I need to go off site. I'm not sure it makes sense to do this, it's like leading them to my competitor's door. I don't mind competing on a level field, but it doesn't seem that way anymore. I know I'm not the only seller having these problems. The forums are filled with sellers complaining about the influx of mass produced or imported items. The vintage and supply categories are Etsy's top sellers Should I stay or should I go? Should I switch to vintage and sell off all the stuff I've been collecting ?

Alice's set

Alice's set
Originally uploaded by Saltygal.

This order serves as a perfect example of the dangers of attention deficit crafting. I had an order for 2 sleeves from one of my favorite customers . She is a real peach and has sent business my way many times. I wanted to really make this set perfect. I made the outer sleeve and it fit like a glove. I started on the small sleeve. The small sleeve required extra padding so I used 2 layers of padding and was going to quilt it. I didn't want the quilting to detract from the fabric, so I hand quilted around each of the skulls.I wish it showed in the photo ( still using the broken canon) It came out really nice and I had a button that was a perfect match for the eyes on one of the skulls. I was ready to take the shot when I noticed I had made the sleeve with the skulls facing upside down. I had marked the fabric which side up in the interfacing but i used a fade away marker . I was distracted and left it on the table for a hour and when I came back, the marking had faded and I completely forgot that the fabric had an up and down. Well no problem I thought, I had plenty of the skull fabric. When I went to get more of the aqua ling I only had a small piece left. I dashed off to the fabric store, no more, I went to the next store none. So I came home and tore through my scrap bags and found another piece just the length I needed. I worked very carefully and got the bag out of it but what a waste of time and energy! I'll never use a fading marker for that again!

busy busy

This is awful. No posts in forever. All apologies. Damn, I have been busy. A good busy, a satisfying busy. I have been making lots and lots of the laptop sleeves. I need a new map. I have been tracking all my sales and placing a little pin on the map for each one. My "target market " has shifted considerably since the boingboing post . I have sold in the UK , Japan and Germany. I only have a North America Map and so I have a flotilla of pins in the Atlantic and a raft in the Pacific. I have been selling lots more sleeves to men, and it has been a pleasure. They are not afraid to ask for special things and several have bought bags not only for themselves but as gifts as well. The only down side is that I have little time for new ideas, and I have a bunch of new ideas. I can't seem to stop myself from buying new fabrics and trims so if and when it slow I'll be prepared. Well I promised myself an early to bed this evening and I'm already an hour into the new day so I 'd best say good night . Here's a picture of the newest laptop fabric, I am so in love with it. I have never has such a difficult time sewing anything, this may be the first and last thing I make with it . I call it amp because it reminds me of my dad's Fender amplifier. I wish I had a laptop, this would be the fabric I would choose for myself.

catching my breath

The summer is passing me by. I waited so patiently for summer, to have the luxury of time to myself, time to catch up on all those projects that require fresh air and warm temps. Somehow it hasn't worked out that way. Good things and bad have kept me from any routine and the bulk of my time has been spent just keeping up. I am free right now because I have just returned from the airport to pick up my son from his holiday in Hawaii. I am not going to go downstairs and sew the dozens of projects that are calling me. Tonight I will take off and just allow myself the luxury of catching up on my favorite blogs and posting this , as meager as it is. I guess I need to write about crafting. I have been doing lots of sewing but almost all for things I've made before , nothing particularly creative or new. I am not complaining . My small bags were featured on funky finds which brought me some new customers. Also waaaaaay back in June, I sold one of my laptop sleeves to Alice who bought it as a surprise gift for someone. I had to hold it several weeks so it would arrive on the right day and somehow it was returned to me. I sent it off again. This time it found it's way and I later received a lovely note from Alice telling me the recipient loved it, even if it was late. A few days later my Etsy mailbox was filled with requests for more.
It turned out the sleeve was for Cory Doctorow who showed it off and linked to my shop Views have slowed but I am still receiving more visitors from that one post that all my other marketing efforts combined . It just goes to show you that a satisfied customer is your best advertisement.