I’ll start this off with the good news. I had tried for several years to get into the Women’s Club of Newburgh Arts and Crafts Show. I was either too early, too late or they already had too many soapmakers. After several years I finally gave up on it which was too bad since this was one of the prime shows of our area. I suppose that was all I had to do was give up because this past summer I was approached by 2 different members of the Womens Club and asked to apply to the show, which I did naturally.
The show was on Feb. 27 and it was fantastic. Not only did I do well, but I had a great time and met some very talented and nice people. And of course I came home with a lot of goodies!
Unfortunately, I will have to tell you the bad news now. I have been so excited and hyped about the new Zibbet shop that I opened for Pigeon Creek Soaps. It was supposed to have all the bells and whistles for the shopowners that Etsy lacked. Plus, I had gotten in early and the rate for a Premium shop was extremely reasonable.
Sadly, after spending hours and hours building the shop and creating the marketing, plus the money for the ads and new labels, it turned out to be a disaster. A number of people told me that they could not join in order to purchase and of the actual purchases each one had something major wrong with it. I have decided to close my Zibbet shop when this payment period is over which is in just a couple of days. In the future I may consider opening a shop on ArtFire, but I am going to put a great deal of thought into it before I make the leap.
Those of you who also have shops may understand my reasoning behind my desire for a different sales venue. I definately love Etsy, but with the price of almost all of my materials having increased, then I have to pay to list on Etsy, pay when it is sold on Etsy and then PayPal gets its' share. On a venue like ArtFire or Zibbet you pay a monthly fee and nothing else except your PayPal when sold.
If you have any thoughts on this, send them my way. Tell me how you have handled this changing economy or if you have any suggestions, let us hear them.
I would like this blog to be a place where people feel free to drop in and say hi and tell us how they are doing and what they are thinking. Tell me what you would like to see here!
