I think I've had my shop open for about a week now. I've not had any sales. I'd read that a lot of people go several months before making their first sale, so I wasn't really expecting to sell anything. My shop has 49 views and 16 visits so far. I think half of those visits were from family though! A few of my nappies have been viewed 5 times now. Someone also marked my shop as a favourite which was really exciting!
It's all quite nerve wracking really. I keep checking the stats and worrying I'll never sell anything, and at the same time I'm hoping that I don't sell anything in case people don't like my stuff and leave bad feedback.
I found a site called Etsy Rank, which analyses your keywords etc. Apparently there is a low demand for pocket nappies. I kind of figured that. It says the competition is medium, although it includes the whole of Etsy, and I know there aren't as many UK sellers as American ones.
I joined the dreaded f-word. That's Facebook. And as I thought, that's where everyone is. There are still people interested in cloth nappies and buying WAHM goods. I guess I just need to find a way to drive them to my shop. I'd thought about self publishing my novels before but the marketing part put me off. It looks like owning an internet shop is pretty similar. Marketing seems like something you can't avoid. However, if I avoid marketing, no one will come to my shop and buy stuff so I'll never have to deal with difficult customers or complaints...
I *will* do some marketing. I want to add some more stuff to my shop first. The nappies I have are pretty good basics, but if I'm going to market I want to have something special to market. You can buy pocket nappies anywhere. Even Aldi sells them sometimes! I need to have something you can't buy anywhere else. I have some really beautiful embroidered nappies to finish, but I'm out of some of the snap parts. Here's some pics of them so far... (they're phone pics so I'm sorry about the quality)
A dream catcher wolf in varying shades of blue.
A deer with leafy and feathery designs around him.
A feathery heart in pink, orange and purple. I might do this design in bolder colours next time.
My kids all said I should embroider something more baby related. Maybe I should have, since they're for babies, but I thought they were all lovely designs. Sometimes baby stuff gets a bit boring. I suppose these designs are more for the baby's grownups to look at. There's another nappy I haven't taken a picture of. It has 'wild' embroidered on it. I have a beautiful moth embroidery I'm planning to do, and two cute kitty ones that are much more baby-ish. I'll probably be out of white PUL by the time I do them.
Oh wait, here's wild.
I can't afford to put out any more money on this venture though, so the snaps will have to wait. I really need to sell a couple of items so I can reinvest the money. I made these nappy covers just to give my shop some variety. I can't say I really loved making them, so I'm not sure if I will make more. The blue one is bigger than the turquoise and pink one.
I made this one first. It's made with 1mil PUL and very lightweight microfleece, so it feels like it weighs almost nothing. The blue is from a custom milled lot of PUL. I think it was called denim blue. The colour of the snaps matches pretty well. Better in real life anyway.
After I made the blue one I decided three snaps on each side wasn't enough. I was just trying to be frugal with the snaps since I was running out, but I think four looks much better. There's nothing I can do about the blue one now because there will be holes in the PUL if I take the snaps off. I think this one is 1mil PUL but the microfleece is a bit thicker so it doesn't feel like it's about to float away in the wind.
I wanted to overlock the seams inside but that seemed to make them bulky and rough feeling. I decided to unpick it all, which wasn't fun! I ended up top stitching the seam down. I don't love the way it looks but it's better than leaving it unfinished.
These are unfinished. I have to hem the sides and put snaps on. The orange one is the biggest size I made and the yellow one is the smallest. I feel like these need a bit more height in the body, if that makes sense. They need maybe an inch more in the front and back so that they'll sit higher. I'm not sure I'll make more though.
I used to have covers like this (16 years ago!) but they seem to have stopped making them now. I suppose these are kind of unique so they might sell. Or maybe there's a reason they stopped making them. Maybe no one likes them! I liked the ones I used to have. They're not exactly trim covers but they definitely prevent the red elastic marks that other covers can cause.
It's all quite nerve wracking really. I keep checking the stats and worrying I'll never sell anything, and at the same time I'm hoping that I don't sell anything in case people don't like my stuff and leave bad feedback.
I found a site called Etsy Rank, which analyses your keywords etc. Apparently there is a low demand for pocket nappies. I kind of figured that. It says the competition is medium, although it includes the whole of Etsy, and I know there aren't as many UK sellers as American ones.
I joined the dreaded f-word. That's Facebook. And as I thought, that's where everyone is. There are still people interested in cloth nappies and buying WAHM goods. I guess I just need to find a way to drive them to my shop. I'd thought about self publishing my novels before but the marketing part put me off. It looks like owning an internet shop is pretty similar. Marketing seems like something you can't avoid. However, if I avoid marketing, no one will come to my shop and buy stuff so I'll never have to deal with difficult customers or complaints...
I *will* do some marketing. I want to add some more stuff to my shop first. The nappies I have are pretty good basics, but if I'm going to market I want to have something special to market. You can buy pocket nappies anywhere. Even Aldi sells them sometimes! I need to have something you can't buy anywhere else. I have some really beautiful embroidered nappies to finish, but I'm out of some of the snap parts. Here's some pics of them so far... (they're phone pics so I'm sorry about the quality)
A dream catcher wolf in varying shades of blue.
A deer with leafy and feathery designs around him.
A feathery heart in pink, orange and purple. I might do this design in bolder colours next time.
My kids all said I should embroider something more baby related. Maybe I should have, since they're for babies, but I thought they were all lovely designs. Sometimes baby stuff gets a bit boring. I suppose these designs are more for the baby's grownups to look at. There's another nappy I haven't taken a picture of. It has 'wild' embroidered on it. I have a beautiful moth embroidery I'm planning to do, and two cute kitty ones that are much more baby-ish. I'll probably be out of white PUL by the time I do them.
Oh wait, here's wild.
I made this one first. It's made with 1mil PUL and very lightweight microfleece, so it feels like it weighs almost nothing. The blue is from a custom milled lot of PUL. I think it was called denim blue. The colour of the snaps matches pretty well. Better in real life anyway.
After I made the blue one I decided three snaps on each side wasn't enough. I was just trying to be frugal with the snaps since I was running out, but I think four looks much better. There's nothing I can do about the blue one now because there will be holes in the PUL if I take the snaps off. I think this one is 1mil PUL but the microfleece is a bit thicker so it doesn't feel like it's about to float away in the wind.
I wanted to overlock the seams inside but that seemed to make them bulky and rough feeling. I decided to unpick it all, which wasn't fun! I ended up top stitching the seam down. I don't love the way it looks but it's better than leaving it unfinished.
These are unfinished. I have to hem the sides and put snaps on. The orange one is the biggest size I made and the yellow one is the smallest. I feel like these need a bit more height in the body, if that makes sense. They need maybe an inch more in the front and back so that they'll sit higher. I'm not sure I'll make more though.
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