Leos, it is, apparently, your month. Your time to shine. Your time to be the commanding, warm-hearted and loving grumpy cat we all know you are around your birthday.
So to alleviate some grumpiness, I have put up my Fear Cats tee on Threadless for sale (usually $20, currently $17). That’ll go nicely with the free-shipping code, FREESHIP7197cca8e.
“It’s OK, my dear,” said Little Horn. “Plan A may have failed, but we have another twenty-five letters in the alphabet. Be calm. We will get there.”
Hurrah for a cheesy motivational. The funny thing about motivational quote things is that there’s often a snip of truth in them. I think I’m currently on Y. On my fourteenth run through the alphabet.
In all fourteen run-throughs, I have found a couple of plans that work. Implementing them is often trickier than I’d hope. Either way, when a plan doesn’t work I just move onto the next. No point getting hung up on what won’t work.
I had no background in marketing, but I did get the job of marketing several brands a few years back. One of the old brands I worked for was a retro-hair product. I’d get us everywhere. We’d have banners at the Brighton Burn Up motorcycle events; displays at barbers show’s; I’d get it into the hands of footballers for Instagram posts; onto the bathroom shelves in TV programs; into the GQ men’s awards; reviews in papers, magazines and blogs. Yeah, I’d get us everywhere. Some things worked, some things didn’t. But it never deterred me from trying everything once. Even if plans A to K do not work out.
I guess what I’m saying is if something doesn’t work, keep trying new things. Plan T might be the plan that works for you.
And with that, Little Horn’s available on my Etsy store. She’s an original ink, not a print. If you fail to set her frame level the first time, she won’t mind you having another 25 attempts.
I’ve often said, it’s hard earning a living from an online blog or business. The real money comes from the real world and paying clients. Earning entirely from the Internet can be done, but it’s something most of us won’t ever achieve.
My art prints for example. I can take them to market stalls with greetings cards and earn more in a day than my Etsy store earns in weeks. That’s partly my fault for not promoting it enough, and, from the feedback I’ve gotten, it’s also the price.
At markets, I sell them for £12. On Etsy, they’re £15. The reason for the price jump is post and packaging. You have to offer free shipping or Etsy dumps you down in search. I have to incorporate a max of £4.20 into every sale. That’s the shipping to the USA cost. I have hard backed envelopes cost, listing fees, print cost and transaction fees on top of that. Expenses stack up quickly selling Etsy. All that compared to a market stall, £10 for a day, sell as much as I can.
But look at my Etsy shop. Two years and thirty’ish sales. Actually, ignore my shop, that says fourteen. There was a digital hiccup and I lost feedback and sales last year. All the same, you get me? My Etsy store is just sitting dormant.
So, with listing fees needing to be renewed for the next three months, I’ve taken a view. Revised things a bit. The prices on all art prints have been dropped from £15 to £12 including free shipping to anywhere in the world. I also need to start working at my Etsy store. Not just dropping links to it in posts, but getting new art things on there. New original art, ACEOs, new prints like the “Drink Tea” design I have on Threadless. Not just more character images, because they just aren’t cutting it online.
This post might read like a bit of a downer, but it isn’t. I have probably broken even between sales, shipping and listing fees over the last couple of years on Etsy. So it’s cost me nothing to find out selling on Etsy doesn’t work unless you work it hard. That’s fine by me. Lessons in life, business and the Internet are rarely free.
If you fancy visiting my now slightly cheaper Etsy store, hit the following link: littlefears.etsy.com
If you want to get into Etsy yourself, I cannot recommend Melanie Greenwoods course on Skillshare enough. It’s three hours long and covers, quite literally, everything.
It is a premium course, but if you click my link to it, I believe you get two free months of Skillshare premium. https://skl.sh/2kvcAJi
No matter what you write, draw or create, people who view, read or watch what you’ve made will often come away with a different view than yourself.
My triffids have been seen as Demagogues (I still haven’t seen Stranger Things). They were also recently compared to a wind farm (hah, yes!).
At markets, when you see people face to face, you often find out where your art is headed. Red’s a popular one for children’s bedrooms. The insect queen gets compared to the Spotify logo (crab nabbit, she originally had an orange head and nobody said a thing!) Leo goes to cat lovers and Fuen and the chicks just get everywhere.
But the one that always baffles me, is the Buglies are regularly bought for kitchens.
I don’t… Get it… I mean, I kinda do. They’re cute, fun and playful. But why the kitchen? Do people see them and say, “oh hey, big insects! Maybe they’ll scare the mice off!” Why buy them to hang in the kitchen?
Well, if you want to hang a pack of bugs in your kitchen, or if you just enjoy my ham-fisted marketing posts, you can find them at the Little Fears Etsy store: etsy.com/uk/shop/LittleFears
The sprites and one of the whales have been drawn onto 240 gsm acid-free acrylic paper for some lovely texturing. They weigh in at a size of 7 inches tall by 10 inches across. Pens included in images for size reference only. They do not come with the illustration. Neither does the black table. It’s pretty minging. Also lopsided if I’m honest… They come with free first class shipping within one business day so will arrive on your doorstep in a speedy fashion.
And here’s a shop link if you fancy browsing some of my other arts.
WordPress needs to have a parent page for drop-down menus on the website. So we needed a new Shop & Tip Jar page. Following advice I was given long ago, ‘artist, market thyself!’ Main page link: littlefears.co.uk/shop
“You’re right,” replied Fluffeh, “we have multiple shopping outlets and experiences for our fans.”
“Multiple!” gasped Masks. “I know we might get accused of marketing if you answer this out loud, but where can I visit these Fear filled shops and experiences?”
“Well,” pondered Fluffeh, “a lot of things, but obvious examples would be designing posters, creating unique logos, writing articles or creating book covers.”
“How many more ways can the illustrator say “said”?” asked Masks.
“I don’t think we should test that,” replied Fluffeh.
“I guess not,” laughed Masks. “But listen, if there was a way of personally supporting the illustrator, how would I do that?”
“You can visit his Patreon or Ko-Fiand drop a dollar or two into his tip jar,” said Fluffeh.
“Do you think anyone’s going to read all this?” asked Masks.
“Probably not,” sighed Fluffeh. “But you know the illustrator. He ain’t writing a normal shop and tip jar page.”
No #Colour_Collective again this week, so I’m drafting in Aquarius for this weeks portrait. Spooky-horoscope-sea-beasts gonna be spooky-horoscope-sea-beasts, yo.
Spooky-horoscope-sea-beasts also gonna be on my Etsy store. Just saying…
Weekly shout out to my $10 patron, Warren from IWrite. Without people like Warren, I wouldn’t be able to wake you all with my little fears and you’d probably cry a lot less in the morning than you already do. So please do check out Warrens blog.
‘She watched the roots reach up out of the ground. Twirling around each other. Tying themselves together, standing tall. She would have run when she saw her face forming in the organic ballet if the roots holding her hands and feet would loosen their grip…’
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Don’t rip up flowers willy-nilly. You never know if a dryad will be watching. So, yes, Durthi has arrived at the Little Fears Etsy store. She’s available as an original art piece, not a print. On 220 gsm canvas card. Inked with a Faber-Castell PITT artist pen – Black. Free first class Royal Mail worldwide delivery. I also have Leo the lioness and the Siamese kitties in my shop if Durthi doesn’t tickle your fancy.
I know there are quite a few artists out there, like me, hawking their wares over on Etsy. So a wee titbit from this week.
“Effective July 16, Etsy’s transaction fee will increase from 3.5% to 5% and it will also apply to the cost of shipping. All other fees, including listing fees, will remain the same. “
If you looked at the forum this week you’d think this was world breaking armageddon time. The horror of a 46-page thread on the topic…
Three things are happening here. The first, we can strike straight off. People complaining about the introduction of subscription packages to help shops. Folk believe they will create an advantage for power sellers. They won’t. They’re awful.
The second thing to address is the increase from 3.5% to 5% on sales fees. A 1.5% increase. That’s going to increase your sales fee per £ from 3.5 pence to 5 pence. It’s nothing really is it? It’s also the first increase in 13 years. Etsy is still one of the cheapest places to sell all but the most expensive of wares.
Then we have the 5% fee on shipping. That’s annoying, but unfortunately necessary. You’ve all seen people pile on to the price of shipping. It still happens on eBay and Amazon to game search. Humans are feckers for finding ways around things and taking things to the extreme of taking the piss.
If the new fees are going to damage your income, consider just raising your prices by 1.5p per £ and incorporate the 5p per £ on shipping into the costs. It’s not a huge amount. It’s also certainly worth paying the 5% for the convenience of selling through Etsy. Although I sell 90% of my prints through messages on the site, Etsy does make the whole sales process easier.
If you want to start selling on Etsy or want a refresher course, consider trying a Skillshare course. For a 100% free course, sign up, skip payment info, and click the link below.
You can join for as little as $0.99 for your first two months, and you can cancel any time before the two months are up and you’ll never pay another penny. By joining Skillshare you gain access to thousands of top quality classes, including the epic Etsy class by Melanie Greenwood.
Melanie delivers a four and half hour epic course covering quite literally everything a newcomer to Etsy needs to know. Plenty of things old hats could do with re-learning too.
And of course, I have to get a plug into this post for my own Etsy store, etsy.com/uk/shop/LittleFears. There you can buy prints of my astrological series, the well-chirped birds, the cats at the top of this post and other fearful critters.
Introducing Leo for this weeks #Colour_Collective. Funny thing, based Leo on the Siamese kitties from a few weeks back. Had a look at some lion photos and noticed how much their ears resemble teddy bears. I had to scale back on the pointy-ness, and of course, give him green eyes. I like the look of him in the portrait shot, but zoomed out with the whole body, I ain’t keen. The mane looks too much like a dodgy beard.
So, Leo joins my astrological lineup and this lion changes to a lioness. It’s going to be an all-lady zodiac at this rate. Funny how the Little Fears has gone 100% female over the last 6 months. I do hope I never end up in a ‘men writing women badly‘ tweetstorm.
Little Fears 