Despite having previous experience with online entrepreneurship, Etsy is totally new experience for me. I think I have put a lot of pressure on myself with regards to details of my Etsy products and store. This has made it difficult for me to make a lot of decisions for my store.
I had a very hard time naming my store. I wanted something fun, and girly, but I still wanted my name to sound professional. I had to chose "Sparkles in Motion" because my first choice, Sparklemotion, was already chosen. While I like this name, I was not completely satisfied with it. However, I do know that it is easy to spell, and also reflects the type of product I will have in my store.
When developing my store policies, I did not have too many challenges. I have done this before, so I knew what type of basic information to include. My difficulty was in making these policies not sound to serious or restrictive. Ebay and Etsy have very different seller climates, with Etsy transactions being a lot more warm and friendly. I tried to make sure that my policies sounded friendly while still being clear. I had my brother, who is Etsy seller, and my aunt, who buys a lot on Etsy, read them and make sure they sounded good.
Writing my bio was also somewhat difficult. Ebay does not really use bios, because there is little personal connections to the items most people sell as auctions. However, Etsy bios are valuable because Handmade items are such an extension of a person. When starting to write my bio, I tried to balance getting important information about myself in there, trying to create a personal story that endears possible customers to my item, and still sounding professional. I also did not want my bio to sound self absorbed. What I did to stay on track was refer back to the articles with tips for writing bios, and then some guidelines I created for myself. I wanted to make sure that customers reading the bio would know a little bit about what made me unique, and how those unique characteristics made my items seem more valuable and unique. I wanted the customer to feel like they were getting a present from a friend, rather than just a purchase.
My main problem with writing product descriptions is writing way too much! I know that you need a good description that could be used to envision a product in lieu of a picture. However, I tend to write way too much and not know when to reach a stopping point. I made sure to read my description once it was finished and look for unnecessary information.
Most people think that taking pictures of items is the fun, or easy part. Even though I do this all the time, I still think pictures are very frustrating. I am a perfectionist sometimes, and got discouraged that I did not have access to a digital SLR. I have taken lots of pictures of my stands with a regular digital, and I dont think that the lighting makes the rhinestones pop. Consequently, I found a friend who has a SLR. He will be helping me take better pictures and show me how to use his camera.
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