At last after alot of dithering I have finally opened a Folksy shop. Not sure if I have done the right thing or not, it seems to be very slow over there I wonder whether I would have been better off putting my wares on the auction site! Could some of you kind people visit my shop and give me some feedback please I haven't done a shop banner yet so it is looking a bit plain. I also need to add to my profile a bit too. I would like to know if you think I have priced it right please. Machine embroidery can be very time consuming but of course with crafts, you wil never get paid by the hour. I have priced things by researching folksy and what I myself would pay for the items I have made. Things like the poppy picture take absolutely hours to sew.
Looking forward to your feedback, click on my blog ling and you will see the folksy button. Thank you so much.
Your stuff looks beautiful and for the buying side I would think priced right. But I don't know whether you are making a profit taking your time into consideration. The poppy picture is beautiful and I assume you have machine sewed it. Because if it is hand sewn, which I do similar, it would have taken a long time to do. Plus the cost of framing etc. I do wish you the very best of luck Meg. Wendy
Your stuff is lovely and I thinkg the prices are very reasonable.
The problem with crafty things, and I have had experience myself of trying to sell cards, is that if you price the things properly, adding in the cost of the materials, the labour (and I think my friend and I only allowed ourselves minimum wage per hour), overheads (like cost of heating, lighting, share of mortgage) etc, the way business courses tell you to, then you add on a bit for actual profit, you find the cost is pretty high. Our cards ended up between £2.50 and £4.50 each, and although everyone said how lovely they were, they were not prepared to pay the price. You are in competition with other people who have not thought about the costings and will be selling similar products for next to nothing. To say nothing of the "handmade" items made in sweatshops overseas and sold here for very low prices.
I don't mean to put you off, just warning you of what it's like out ther in the big bad world! All that said, if you find the right venue to sell in, that is absolutely vital, and you will get the right sort of buyers who will be prepared to pay good money for good quality and unique crafted items.
The main thing is to get your website noticed so to get trade outside of family and friends etc. Unless you send money, it takes time to get noticed on the web.
Could you not do indoor boot fairs. Maybe you'd sell a lot easier that way whilst you are building up the online side.
Good luck with it.
Richard
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Thank you everyone for taking a look and giving me your opinion. When I costed the items, I have mainly taken the materials into account with a bit of profit for me but certainly not much. Making things especially pretty things is a labour of love for me. If I sold anything that would be a bonus obviously I can make three to four of the tissue cases in an hour with another hour maybe finishing them off with bows and buttons and ironing them. As for the poppy picture, if I said that took all day to embroider I would not be far wrong. It is sewn layer by layer to build up the photo effect. Obviously I don't sit there watching every stitch being stitched out, I am normally doing housework or sewing something different whilst the machine is sewing. The initial outlay of embroidery threads works out expensive but I have now got cleverer with time and now buy the bigger spools rather than the small ones I have a beautiful framed embroidery of a country garden with a gate and rose arch that I want to put on the Folksy site but can't because I have done my Mum one for her birthday and don't want her to see it yet If anybody is interested in purchasing a framed embroidery picture of your choice then I would be happy to do custom orders....maybe I should add that to my shop profile
Ilona came up with a good idea in a comment on my blog a while back, about finding a local shop that will take my wares on a sale or return basis. Although wouldn't this cut my profit margin even more? I have sold one pincushion, the retro owl one which is on my blog, to my Mum who wanted it for a present for her SIL who actually loves it So quite chuffed that somebody like my auntie who is an avid sewer thought it was great. Funny thing is, is that she has an embroidery machine too but doesn't know how to work it so has never used it for anything other than a 'normal' sewing machine
I've had a look Sharon, I think your prices are about right. Initially I thought your pin cushions were small, but now I see they are quite big, a plus point. Pricing is important, too cheap and people will think they are tat, too expensive and they will get passed by.
Can you add something bold to your blog banner to make your shop stand out more? Or start every blog post with a link to the shop, saying something like, SEE MY LATEST CREATIONS.
Can you cut down your blog list a bit, and use the side space to put photos of your best pieces, to encourage people to explore further?
Your photo and profile will improve your shop. Reading your descriptions, some of them, not all, are lacking in passion, a bit flat, just describing what you can see in the picture. Perhaps add words like, stunning, my favourite, gorgeous, superb, etc. I look in my thesaurus when I want a better word.
You need to drive more lookers to your blog. I suggest you spend time looking at similar blogs, and posting comments on as many as you can, because that puts your link onto their blog. I often browse and see what other bloggers are reading.
It's very hard to sell stuff like this in todays world. If you are quick you could see if you have a village hall type Christmas Fair coming up in your area, just to test the waters. You don't want to pay more than £10 for a table, or spend money on travel or drapes for the table. I think your customers are middle to well off people.
My suggestion of offering them sale or return to a shop will not bring in loads of money, because the shop keeper will want a 50% profit on them. They have got the shop overheads to pay for. But if they have the right kind of customers through the door it might be worth a try. You need to scout around, stand outside any shops you think might fit the bill, see what type of people go in. The downside is that your stuff might not sell for a year, and will it be looked after while it is in the shop.
Loads of things to consider, I wish you well, good luck. It wont happen overnight, but try and keep a positive attitude.
i looked at your pretty things. A few small quibbles. There is no size in the hen pincushion. Can you get your descriptions to start at the far L. The wording 'Tissue case in Cath' is fairly uninformative to me. Does Cath Kidson mean a lot to most people? Maybe it does to people who make things, but ??? to people who might buy them. Or am I out of touch. I couldn't understand your postage charges for initial item and subsequent item.
You are right Mo, thinking about it Cath Kidston wouldn't mean alot to people who don't know who she is. Her shops are very much along the lines of Laura Ashley. I will definately have another think on that one. The postage charges I listed were for the one item to be sent. I wanted to put that I would send worldwide but can't work out the postage pricing to send abroad! Wouldn't it be different prices depending on what country its going to?? I don't have a clue there. I am assuming (perhaps wrongly) that if somebody outside of the UK wanted to purchase something they would email and ask me if I send to their destination. this is what I do on Ebay. Mmmm another thing to look at. I must have forgotten the size on the hen cushion... I will do it right now I didn't realise I had missed it off.
Ilona I will definately have to use my blog to publicise it a bit more. Good idea about the photos down the side. I didn't realise that shops would take 50% of profits
Lol@Kate that made me laugh I needed cheering up actually as I have been messing with my machine all day and it won't do what I want it to do I am in the process of trying to find out why it will sew horizontal stitching fine but won't do vertical satin stitch It was fine yesterday!!
Linking is a very small part of it - it's about title of website (it should be what it's about). If I started again, I wouldn't call this site 'Down the Lane', I'd call it something like the-simpler-life.com. The title of the page, this is imperative - not the title that's written, the title it's called in the coding. The description of the page in the coding. The keywords ie. if you're selling handbags, you put handbags, buy, colour etc in strategic places of the content.
If you right click on any DTL page and look at either 'info' (in Firefox) or 'properties' in IE., you'll see the title, the description, the keywords etc.
The problem is trying to write as yourself, but get the phrases and sentences in which will attract search engines.
The only problem with links is that if you post a lot, the search engine comes along, see's a huge amount of links from the same site and doesn't even recognise any others.
It's a personal thing, but I don't post on any Blogs and other Forums, I just have reciprical links from your good selves, the odd link on some Media Web Sites and that's it.
I made some mistakes earlier this year and lost about 25% of visitor numbers, I've worked hard and just about got them back again now.
The only one thing I would say is, have a website and not a Blog, or have a blog, but own it rather than it being part of a large concern. Blogs don't attract search engines any near the heights as actual websites. I think because a Blog is seen more as a personal thing rather than a professional thing.
Sorry, sounding off, but I've been up and down, down and up and spent countless hours trying to get it right.
Google - 'Search Engine Optimization' or 'Using meta descriptions and keywords'.
Cheers, Richard
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Meg. Regarding postage the Royal Mail website has a postage calculator that is easy to use and covers the whole world. You can play around with different weights, sizes and countries and even see how much with or without insurance etc. failing that, if you have a local post office they are very helpful. Just remember to include the weight of the packaging in you calculations. I've posted stuff all over the world and have only been a few pence out on a couple of occaisions. Dom
kate egg wrote:I think quite a few people would know Cath Kidston - her designs are very popular and also copied a lot too
I'm just out of touch then. I have heard of Laura Ashley, but I hardly shop any more, combination of frugallity and inertia. I dash to any supermarket that I pass on my way home from dance club. For anything else the things I've got "will see me out".
I wasn't just quibbling about Cath Kidson though, it was more the fact that you only see half of the description (with a gap to the left). So it might look better if it started further over, or the description was fitted to the space.
Meg wrote: I didn't realise that shops would take 50% of profits
I suppose you would have a price that you could sell to the shops at, discounted slightly from your on line price, and they will set a shop price to give them their profit. There must be a slice that goes to the online shop too.
I really like the little violet wreath pincushion but like Kate, I'm afraid it would never get used!
As an idea, what about some little embroidered hanging lavender bags with lavender spray or wreath on? Perhaps made out of plain linen? Or covered hangers? Both would be for a different market, ie non-sewers.
I think cockerels or chickens on anything useful will sell too.
I wonder whether I would have been better off putting my wares on the auction site! 
I haven't done a shop banner yet so it is looking a bit plain. I also need to add to my profile a bit too. I would like to know if you think I have priced it right please. Machine embroidery can be very time consuming but of course with crafts, you wil never get paid by the hour. I have priced things by researching folksy and what I myself would pay for the items I have made. Things like the poppy picture take absolutely hours to sew.
I can make three to four of the tissue cases in an hour with another hour maybe finishing them off with bows and buttons and ironing them. As for the poppy picture, if I said that took all day to embroider I would not be far wrong. It is sewn layer by layer to build up the photo effect. Obviously I don't sit there watching every stitch being stitched out, I am normally doing housework or sewing something different whilst the machine is sewing. The initial outlay of embroidery threads works out expensive but I have now got cleverer with time and now buy the bigger spools rather than the small ones 
If anybody is interested in purchasing a framed embroidery picture of your choice then I would be happy to do custom orders....maybe I should add that to my shop profile 
