It took me hours and hours. Love it.

My husband and I are trying to make it to the Miami game (Bills vs Miami). We’ve been every year since we started dating (4 years) and this is the first year that we might not be able to make it.

So I am reaching out to Bills Mafia! If you want a Buffalo Bills Football Bracelet with anything on it, please consider me! I can make it with a player’s name and number, tag line, or the team name. Whatever you like!

Take a look at the bracelets I have here and buy if you like! Contact me if you want something special!

So many people are upset with this but I am ELATED!! I’ve had handfuls of people asking me – an outspoken advocate of renewing in my ebook – if renewing is still as important. In fact just three this day have responded to a Twitter comment I made today.

My answer is YES! And DO NOT despair. This can be better for you as a business owner.

Have you ever renewed/listed an item and looked it up a little later to find it buried beneath pages and pages of competition? Sometimes the pages are filled with things that don’t even match the search!

Have you clicked on some of those items to find tags that irritate you because they’re not proper for the item being sold? Perhaps the person is using every tag from here to eternity to attempt to draw in large customers (a big mistake).

Also horrible, perhaps you looked up an item to find one of your constant competitors updated half their store at the same time and they do this on a regular basis.

NOW your item has a chance. So do NOT despair the recent change, renewing STILL keeps your *relevant* tags higher up every time you renew. If this should change ANYTHING it should be a lazy or lax attitude towards proper tagging.

Need another reason to keep renewing regularly? Okay, here:

RELEVANCY is ONLY how Etsy designate your customers by default find you.

Google & other search engines still find newer links. I know people think they can come to me with arguements to the contrary: meanwhile THEIR shop has 20 sales in 4 years. I have almost 750 in over one (including a decent amount during Etsy’s infamous dry period of June-September).

I know what worked for me. I am sharing it with you. Proper tags have ALWAYS been important, just as important as renewing items. I’ve seen my shop come up again and again and AGAIN on Google’s front page after renewing and it stays there for a decent amount of time.

I don’t know about your shop but almost 3/4ths of first time customers with me were NOT searching for stuff on Etsy. Instead they come in from Google, Yahoo and recently a few from Bing. Many signed up SPECIFICALLY to buy my item(s).

My renewal rate will not slow down due to the in-site Etsy change.

I hope I have answered this concern with sufficient information.

I’d love to know what you think of the description I’ve got up there now.

“Product Description
In this tough economy, having extra money coming in can be the difference between getting by and falling through the cracks. And if you have crafting skills, you can use them to bring an income that makes a difference to you, just as this author did when both she and her husband found themselves out of work at the same time.

In “How to Create an Income from Home with a Successful and Profitable Etsy Shop” seller Rebecca Galardo (freehippie) tells you exactly what she did to create an income from home with very basic skills. Rebecca tells you how you can – with little to no experience selling items online – make at least a part-time income with your own products.

Rebecca provides you with shortcuts and tips that can make your selling in the handmade market that much easier:

*Increase your customer base
*Keep your creativity flowing
*Create a shop (or shape the one you have) to attract YOUR loyal customer base
*Avoid the BIGGEST and most prevalent mistake that Etsy Shop Owners (even the SUCCESSFUL ONES) make with customers.
*Create lifetime customer loyalty with ease and increase repeat buyers.
*Simple Shipping & Packaging
*Basics in getting your store’s name out (marketing) for little to NO money!

People love to buy handmade and no matter what you make if it’s a product people want, you can learn from this book.

Rebecca Galardo started on Etsy from scratch and learned the hard way. As a seller who became a full-time Etsian not from choice but from necessity, she had to make it work.

Now she wants to help other sellers to create the same (or better) success. Because she wants to help others in the same situation she was in, she’s priced this book to help ANYONE who wants to make their Etsy shop successful.”

Oh, I also have it in the Barnes and Noble Nook!

Quality can come in large quantity.

Writers write.

Being a writer first, this is obviously most helpful. But I also create jewelry, photographs, paintings, drawings, hats, clothing…

And a lot more.

The point here is the ACTION. Writers write. Knitters knit. Booger eaters eat boogers.

Just because you have a talent doesn’t mean you can call yourself by an adjective describing that talent unless you USE that talent. Pretty much every day if you can.

Yes, I understand a busy work schedule. I used to work 40 t0 80 hour work weeks. I used to work 50 to 60 hour work weeks AND go to school. I worked two jobs. I did all of this and STILL carved out time to create. To write. To draw. To create jewelry. I didn’t “wait to get motivated”.

My brother just came back from 10 months overseas in the Air Force, busting his ass at work. He has two finished screenplays that he wrote in his spare time.

I’ve been talking to an online friend that is wanting to get her Etsy shop going and get her poetry published. She uses EVERY excuse in the world. Not just “I work all week” but everything. Sure she has to clean her house. She has to make meals, take her kid somewhere, grocery shop, etc. But then comes the past. She blames past events on her not being motivated now. And when you try to get her to understand that the past is the past and only YOU can decide to live for now, she says you “don’t understand” her.

The problem here is most likely fear to create because what if it’s not good enough?

Okay, ask yourself, what happens IF it’s not good enough? Does the world end? Do you die from embarrassment? Do you go all emo for a week and act angsty?

You can pretend to be anything in the world, but if you want to live it it’s more work, isn’t it? And if you don’t actually do anything, then you don’t have to see yourself fail.

I have another friend, a great guy, talked forever and a day about how he could have been a great actor, a star, if only his life had given him the opportunity. Said, if he could just get into the business, he’d be amazing. So (this is several years ago) I told him I’d create a role just for him in my short. The script was already written, but I had a great idea; I’d create the role around his professed talents. He’d have a great bit part.

He said he was too busy. Um… We had the exact same work schedule. I was shooting on our days off.

FEAR is going to get in your way. It’s an obstacle. You’ve gotten over obstacles in the past. You didn’t come out of your mother walking, talking and driving. Right? So learn how to get over it. Read self-help books. Read books on creativity or a preferred hobby or craft. Start small and move on.

The point though is that “waiting for motivation” is a bullshit excuse made by people that are lazy, afraid or both. Not waiting for motivation doesn’t make Stephen King, Danny Gregory, Holly Lisle or ME any less of an artist.

Get off your ass. Create something. Carve out time in the day for YOU. This is YOUR life. LIVE YOUR LIFE.

Take a single step towards creation. If you knit, pick out a pattern. If you write, come up with some characters or a vague plot. If you draw, pick out a subject, pull out your sketchbook and materials and ready it for tomorrow.

Even if all you can do is spend 30 minutes a day on something. I used to write in the bathroom and during my lunchbreak when I had two jobs.

Create your own motivation. Stop using it as an excuse.

Please don’t automatically respond YES to anyone asking if you would like them to do a review in exchange for free merchandise!

I get requests from anyone and everyone with a camera and access to YouTube or a blog. How many have I said yes to? One. And I liked her blog and her personality.

Think before you agree!!

You work HARD for your business! You are creating, writing, taking photos, packaging, making sure everything is perfect. So do a little, tiny, EENSEY-WEENSEY bit of research into the person asking for the FREEBIES!

Are they’re hitting your target market? Meaning can you see the people that are buying from you watching this person? Are there other similar products? Styles? If you’re a punker chick and some girl with crocheted cupcakes and Hello Kitty reviews wants your stuff for free, take a good long think about whether your people will even see it.

Do they have plenty of subscribers?

If it’s a blog are the reviews well written and thought provoking? Are their pictures fantastic and cover everything from packaging to the product itself? Are there a ton of other entries that are related? Or are those other entries inappropriate?

If it’s a YouTube channel are they well-spoken? Is there good lighting and can you see the products clearly? Is there a nice setting? Let me tell you right now, if it’s a young girl whose out of focus face fills the majority of the screen, but you can see her dirty laundry/messy kitchen table/kids screaming in the background in clear relief, maybe this isn’t a professional. What about what they’re saying? Does it make sense? Does it sound like they know the ins and outs of the product? Like they’ve tried other kinds? Do they just tell you how “I got this product and I really like it and I really kinda think you should try it to because it’s pretty awesome” and the like?

Stay away from these “reviewers”. What they are is people that just want your stuff for free. That’s it. Sure, freebies are nice but think about it: If you pay for a product, you’re going to give a real review. If you get something for free, what does it matter if it’s crap? It was free. Free crap. Awesome.

Don’t have crappy videos with pointless blathering about your blurry & hardly seen product. There is enough of this going around. Don’t LEAP at the chance for a review! Too many people just want free stuff & could care LESS about YOU and YOUR BUSINESS. They contact people BY THE DOZENS asking for free stuff.

1 Week. 3 Winners. 3 Prizes. All will be announced Next Hump Day, May 4th!!

The Prizes:

Prize One: Free Hippie Grab Bag!!

Prize Two: Unisex wrap!!

Prize Three: Intention Coin with the upgraded hole & chain!!

How To Enter:

- Visit my Etsy shop and share your favorite product here. Tell me why it’s your favorite product!
- Tweet this giveaway! Share a link to your Twitter here on this blog.
- Share this giveaway on Facebook
- Follow me on Twitter
- Like MoonWiseProductions on Facebook
- Click the Like button on the site, freehippie.etsy.com
- Blog about the giveaway, linking back to me either here, Facebook or Twitter. Make sure there is at least on link back to my shop as well. Include the link to your blog in your comment here.
- Purchase an item.
- If a friend of yours purchases an item from me because of you during this week write to me. I will confirm that purchase and your connection and you can add that as a comment below!

Be sure to add a separate comment for each entry! The winners will be chosen at random thanks to Random.org!  Good luck!!

I want to share what I’ve done with this shop for anyone this might help:

1. I decided on a niche (hippie) with low cost supplies (hemp, beads, etc) and products that I am fairly quick at making. Anything past your basic hemp items (like my hand stamped stuff) was me branching out, trying new things with the profits from my sold items.

2. Researched my competitors for all SORTS of things!
A. to make sure my items were unique not just to me but different from them. If you had been watching my shop from the beginning you’d be amazed at the difference.
B. To see what their price ranges were. Remember to check to see if they’re selling anything or not.
C. TAGS. I wanted to know how they tagged their most popular items. NOT to copy but to get ideas for my items. For example, I noticed many tagged not only their target markets but tried a few slightly outside their target.

3. I set a firm MINIMUM renew budget. I try renew everyday and more than once. My minimum was at LEAST three renewals a day on a day with no sales. This only totals to $18.00 for my main source of advertising. That is for a slow month. I have never paid this little. I tend to pay more around $30 a month (in renewal fees only) and that’s $1.00 a day.

People REALLY underestimate the power of renewing. Some people put their items up on their pages and don’t renew until it’s about to expire – or only renew once a week. Get your stuff OUT THERE!

4. Never renew all your items at once! Spread it out! For my minimum, I would renew in the morning, mid day and right before bed (sometimes midnight).

5. Don’t just renew, branch out. Try different items, look at what is hot not just in Etsy but in fashion magazines and figure out a way that you could make your own version – with your own personal flair – in your store.

6. If something sells, try it again. If it sells again try it again AND try one more in another color. You may have a great repeat seller!

7. I Tweet (though I rarely advertise there anymore, it’s more just a place to BE) have a blog, a Flickr account and Facebook page. I use all but I don’t badger people with products, products, sales, “buy my stuff”. I try to put content first, product second. SHOW YOU! Help your customer’s see the “behind the scenes.”

I have sold things thanks to all of these and it’s because I am ME, I am honest, I make my products interesting and my customers relate to me.

6. I’ve done Giveaways on my sites and with others. My tips here are:
A. Make sure the blog is related to what you’re selling.
B. Make sure the blogger updates a LOT – at least 2 times a week.
C. Make sure they have a LARGE following and will do at least half of the promo work for the Giveaway.
D. Make sure you can afford the Giveaway in the first place.

I just wanted to let everyone see some of the “bigger”, more helpful things that I have been doing. Thanks to Etsy I have been able to pay most of our bills, keep food on the table and survive during the unemployment of both myself and my husband! YAY!

First, I am tackling the thought that the fact that I am unemployed is the reason for my accomplishments. WRONG. When I was employed (between 40 and 80 hour weeks employed) I still found time to go to school, date my now husband, move, make films with friends and other film students, go to the gym on my moped (a 40 minute ride one way in the best of conditions) make jewelry, SELL jewelry, have a SECOND JOB, spend time on my photography, read, draw, write a TON…

The list could go on and on. And a HUGE BY THE WAY: Now that I am SELF-employed (not UN-employed) I have LESS time for leisure activities or doing what I “want” because the money that is coming in is less. It’s directly related to what I put IN to the business, so if I am taking off for fun I am losing money that could pay a bill, for a belt for the lawn-mower, for my camera repair, for supplies, etc. I have LESS time for all those pursuits that I had before, because when you are SELF-employed with your own business, EVERYTHING is your responsibility.

Second is the MYTH that you cannot find time. No, NOT a myth. It’s an excuse. It’s an excuse out of the “SAFE NEVER STARTS” Mindset (see “How to Think Sideways” for more crushing mindsets and how to overcome them but please keep reading my blog for now) where you can always use everything in the world to keep yourself from investing time in YOU and in creating something.

I have been buried under prototypes, giveaways, daily runs to the post office, accounting, making jewelry and transcription work, design, HOUSEwork, exercise, spiritual studies, two very sick pets, (etc). Inside my days I struggle to find time to write like anyone else. BUT I DO WRITE. My once “2 hour in the morning blocks” had to be readjusted. Just like with everything else in life, plans don’t last forever. The best way to survive as part of the fittest is to learn to adapt, change, go with the flow.

Others want nothing more than to be able to block off a couple of hours to write. They say their lives are too busy, too hectic and can’t see how professional writers ever got published. They make excuses. “Oh, they had time to make time. They must have had a spouse taking care of the bills, or not many bills to begin with. They must not have had kids.”

But I know how untrue this is. My mom ran through the gammit. She wasn’t published until my brother and I were born and well into our abilities to cause havoc. She had a job as a nurse in the ER and anyone who has ever met a real, honest to god “I give a shit” nurse will know how hectic and demanding a job like that is. Then she was a single mother with crap raining down on her head and two really rambunctious kids. Once my brother and I were in school and old enough that alone time was preferable (snooty teens) she had another kid with what is now her husband.

So my mother never had the uninterrupted hours upon hours. Throw in the writers’ conventions, the writers’ groups and the thousands of hours she later spent on a website giving everything she knew away for free and I honestly have no idea how she does it all.

I have heard people say that about me recently. “How do you do it all?” Ha. That’s NOTHING. My mother did it all. Not me. I’m a slacker. Truly.

So when my mom sent this pick me up out to the people on her list, I thought “hell yeah” because this is one person who isn’t saying “Sure, sure, I know your issues and can solve all of your problems” from their fancy home empty of kids or obligations.

This is a woman who has had to fight tooth and nail for everything she’s ever earned. She’s had to overcome tremendous obstacles. I see people complaining about their lives when they have NO idea what real issues are and how damn lucky they are to be alive. While they’re busy not accomplishing a damn thing with those lives they only have complaints about, I am looking up to a woman that struggled more than she ever should have. I look for the blessings, for the things to be grateful for.

I have to say that every day I am around it only makes me more proud to be my mom’s daughter

This is her really quick message to her writers:

“You plan your writing time like you’re setting up for D-Day, you have materials laid out and organized, you have your story ready to start…

And then you remember that thing you forgot.

For me, THIS time that thing was website prep. I had to create template pages for lessons so I could show people HOW I do what I do. How I write novels, how I plan them, how I come up with ideas,
how I decide which ideas are worth pursuing and which are garbage.

Template pages might not seem like a big deal. But these were special. They had to link from existing lessons, they had to be coded so only students can reach them, they had to be set up so
they’ll work with the old site AND the new site, they had to work across all browsers, they had to present audio and video and PDFs and site links, they had to load quickly (because a lot of my
students are on dialup in parts of the world remote from broadband).

And each section’s multiple pages has to to link to each other, but not link to other lessons, so I couldn’t just create one neat header for the whole project and be done with it.

So what I thought was going to take half an hour took TEN hours. One whole workday plus overtime.

Ten hours of must-do work right square in the middle of what WAS planned writing time.

BUT there is ALWAYS something. Something that comes up, that you legitimately MUST do because you cannot do the other things you want to do until you create the foundation upon which to build them.

How do you deal with this in your writing schedule? How do you add in parenthood, the full-time job, sickness, survival tasks such as grocery shopping or paying bills, and still write?

You do SOMETHING every day on your writing. And you structure it so that something will be good, will still count, will be enough that you can honestly say you have made progress.

HOW? On days when your schedule goes to hell, instead of getting nothing, write for ten minutes. Open your document. Set a timer for ten minutes. For those ten minutes until your timer goes off,
write without stopping, without correcting, with questioning.

Get as many words on the page as you can in that ten minutes, knowing that they are not perfect but that they are real, existing, written words and you have done them.

Your story has progressed. If you can squeeze out another ten minutes, either right then or later in the day, do it.

If you can’t, it’s all right. You can honestly say you wrote. You accomplished something that mattered, in spite of your exploding day.

Not every day has wings. But even ten minutes of airtime will bring you happiness.

Write with joy,

Holly

People are lucky if they share this kind of relationship with a sibling. And even though we’ve been apart for many years now we’re still so very close.

He’s in the Air Force. He’s been through so many personal ups and downs and I hated it when he was just a few states away. Now he’s on his third deployment and he’s not happy. I want him to come home. His friends want him to come home, get out and join them.

We all just want him safe and happy. Ugh. Tears. I hate being an emotion June baby, but that’s what Cancers are – loving and loyal and EMOTIONAL.

So because there is nothing I can do and I think of him LITERALLY several times a day, I made this keychain for myself.

And I wasn’t going to share. It wasn’t going to make one for anyone else. I felt selfish and like I was the only one that missed someone so much that it hurt.

Because we’re all human and we all feel sad and alone. But after my meditation I thought if this helps me, maybe it can help someone else. And as people know with my Intention Coins, I love helping others. I love making custom, personal items for other people that can help to change the direction of their thoughts and hopes.

So maybe meet a few other people that share my pain and maybe I can help soothe it a little.

If you want one, there at my Etsy shop.