Web Site, Paypal, and Etsy Anxiety

Tweet I have been working on some general business-y things the past week or so.  I kinda had a flurry of sewing inventory, and since that's calmed down a little, I've been working on other stuff.  Most importantly, I've been adding a LOT of stuff to my Etsy shop.

First, I bought a domain name!  Hooray!  I think it makes me look a lot more professional to be able to send people to bobalookids.com than to have the mile-long blogger address.  And, included with buying that domain name, I have my own email addresses, too!  Yes, multiple ones!  Despite being reasonably up to the times on technology, I'm am NOT knowledgeable about what actually goes along with a domain name, so this may be news to only me.  I even gave my husband his own fancy bobalookids.com email because it made me feel like the big boss lady.

As I mentioned before, I somehow stumbled across this great post about setting up a custom domain name through Blogger.  If it's something you're interested in doing, definitely go read that post.  It was so very easy.  You basically pay $10 a year for the name, and everything else is pretty automated.  I did have a little trouble setting up all the Google Apps that come along with it, but once I realized I don't even need to use half the stuff that's available I stopped trying to figure it all out at once.

I also got my business Paypal account all set up.  I had to set up a new one with my sweet new business email address, so I had to go through all that bank account verification stuff that takes a few days.  I have a personal Paypal account that I basically only use to buy stuff on Etsy, but I'm trying really hard to keep my business stuff separate so it just made more sense to open a new one.  This article on Etsy really helped me figure out the difference between the different Paypal accounts and clenched the deal on opening the business one.

Last but not least, can we please discuss the anxiety that results when you open an Etsy shop?  I started listing on Thursday, got featured in about ten Treasuries through the weekend, and got lots of hearts.  But sadly, I am still waiting for that first sale.  I'm sure all you Etsy sellers can commiserate - intellectually, I know it's only been a few days and I am a very small fish in the very big Etsy pond, but emotionally it's TORTURE.  I'm just going to keep on listing items and obsessively checking my email!

Open Up Shop?

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I know it seems like you just heard this whole song and dance about a month ago, but I have a super busy week this week!  Again, a kiddo's birthday party (a space theme - that's the back of the invitation) and craft night fall a few days apart, and again, I have stuff to sew for the Irvington Iris Tea Room.  You'd think I could spread this stuff out, right?

I am throwing around the idea of going ahead and opening up the Etsy store sometime this week.  According to Google Analytics, the blog has had around 850 visitors and 1200 page views over the past month or so.  While this is kinda unbelievable to me (in a good way!), I really feel like I missed some exposure by not opening the shop earlier.  Also, my empty shop has had 180 views and I'm sure only about 100 of those were my mom.  But realistically, is opening the shop a week and a half early even going to matter?

As a side note, if you have a new blog, try and get featured on a big blog.  I have no doubt in my mind that this mad surge in blog visitors is due to one link on One Pretty Thing.  I have GOT to find a way to get on more blogs if this is the result!

My big hurdle to opening the shop is the product pictures.  I think I mentioned this before, but on Etsy you can post up to five pictures with each listing.  I currently have 80-ish items made, which means FOUR HUNDRED pictures.  It makes me throw up a little just to think of that number and I really like photography.  I had yet another photo shoot on my kitchen table on Sunday and I'm still not thrilled with the results.  It was kind of gloomy that day and I think I just didn't have enough natural light.  Here's the most recent setup - it's one of those big cardboard science-fair poster things set up in my bay window.

I think I probably just need to use the darn pictures and stop being so picky.

Oh my gosh, I almost forgot!  I bought a domain name - bobalookids.com is now mine!  Right now it redirects to this blog.  I followed this advice and it worked like a charm.  I'll post more about it soon!