#Find Best-Selling Products on Etsy

[onrainynights]

OK, so:

my parents and younger siblings are losing their health insurance on June 1st. They found out yesterday. It will cost my dad $400/month PLUS $40 copay every visit to insure him and my mom. My brother is a minor so my parents can pay for state insurance for him, I don't know how much that will cost. My sister will have to find a full-time job or be uninsured. I live with them, and have been struggling to find work since my seasonal job ended in October. Normally I pay them $200/month to help with rent and expenses, and I buy most of my own food/groceries. Right now though, I have less than $1 in my bank account and they have been fully supporting me. They can no longer afford to do so as of June 1st.

I've been working to set up an Etsy shop selling handmade needlepoint patches. My older sister is a professional photographer and since she owed me a photoshoot, she's taking product photos for free. However she's also in the middle of moving so she's only done some of the photos, so I can't open the shop yet. HOWEVER. I can make custom order listings without the fancy photos if anyone would like to order a patch before the shop is really open. I am still trying to find a job, but any order I receive would be an incredible help. Just one order is half a week's groceries. I could afford to stay here and avoid becoming homeless with 15 orders a month. I'm not expecting that number, but really anything helps.

Here are the patches. I don't have close up shots of all of them and some of them are upside down. The wide shot includes all the options (just the flags, although if someone wanted to buy a bigger piece that could be arranged. not all of them would be suited as patches though)

(also, that specific bi flag patch is defective and won't be sold. I meant to take it out of the lot before I gave them to her to photograph)

they work best as sew-on patches, but for an increase in price I can include an iron-on backing. I don't recommend iron-on if you plan to affix the patch to a heavy material like canvas. It hasn't been tested with denim (mainly because I don't own any denim and cannot touch it without gloves) if anyone is interested please DM me, and I can set up a custom listing on etsy and send you a link.

sew-on patches are $20, iron-on patches are $23. shipping is calculated at checkout on etsy. the patches are about 1 inch x 1 inch (not exact, they're obviously rectangular)

and if you don't want a patch or can't afford one but still want to help, please reblog this so it can reach as many people as possible. thank you

[askmovieslate]

Hiya Guys, I know you don't hear from me very often!

I'm @bethiebo and I've been helping with the more behind-the-scenes things that you don't really see too often like sorting out website things (but that's a spoiler for another day ;) ) and keeping track of the physical items store.

Right now what we want to make you all aware of is there's a lot of James' older artwork and leftover prints that we're selling off over on Etsy. Also, some newer things coming soon, such as Movie Slate's Best Bits of the Month stickers!

We have plans to add lots more in the future but selling the backstock does help us make room for new ideas and maybe even products in the future, time will tell!

You can find everything that's currently available below these lines. We look forward to seeing and hearing any and all feedback!

~Bb

[cozylittleartblog]

hey, so I'm trying to figure out what places would be good to sell my own art at, and I'm wondering- what has been your experience with selling on etsy? I've heard mixed reviews from people, and I want to know your perspective as an etsy seller.

etsy is not perfect but i think it gets a little more shit than it deserves, i've thought about opening my own website but generally i'm actually pretty okay with the services i get on etsy compared to what it costs so i'm just gonna make a subjective pros/cons list for you under the cut (because its loooong)

oh and if anyone else has experience selling on etsy and would like to add their two cents in the replies/reblogs please do!

Pros

⭐ The search function - this is etsy's biggest selling point. it already has a dedicated userbase of millions of people and a search feature to help them find your shop, which takes a lot of the load of marketing off your shoulders, and marketing is a huge factor for pushing sales. i am not good at marketing and a lot of my sales just come from people searching my stuff up lol

⭐ Purchase protection program - if USPS loses or damages your package, you file a missing package report and they confirm they don't know where it is, Etsy will refund your buyers order out of their own pocket (under $250). this is my favorite etsy feature because USPS likes to eat packages every now and again. delicious keychains. if you had your own storefront, you'd just have to replace the order yourself.

⭐ Share & Save program - every time someone makes an order on your shop through a special Share & Save link, etsy will refund you 4% of the fees. it's a nice perk to doing some of your own marketing and it helps combat the moderately high etsy fees!

Trackable letter mail - selling stickers but think it's insane to charge $4 shipping? you can buy letter mail labels for about the rate of regular postage, which is like .65c. this tracking is done through etsy though so you can't track with usps, but it does give customers a little peace of mind. this only works in the 50 US states though.

Customs forms built into your shipping label - shipping internationally is a nightmare. etsy makes it easy though, generating everything you need to ship internationally on one label that you just have to sign and date and slap on your package like normal. for some countries they will actually just have your package sent to a domestic facility where they literally do all that for you. this is miles easier than having to do all that paperwork yourself.

buy shipping labels directly from etsy - related point, and just what it says on the tin. when you fulfill an order, you can buy your labels right there on Etsy so you don't have to mess around with a third party website. it comes out of your sale funds so you don't need to charge a card or a bank account or anything.

star seller program - some people say this is completely useless but i actually disagree! it's incredibly easy to earn this badge, and it lets buyers know you've got some of the best products, shipping, and customer service around. it helps you stand out from some of the more... questionable shops on the website.

sales tax - they remit sales tax for you. i don't think any of the other online platforms similar to etsy do this but i could be wrong. doing any kind of taxes sucks so i consider it a perk if they do it for you.

website promotions - every now and again etsy likes to host sales out of their own pocket. you get all the perks of having a sale without eating into ur profit margin. HUGE sale booster

generally the site is just very easy to learn and use and it's very beginner and dumbass friendly. i say this as a former beginner and current dumbass 👍

Cons

❌ the fees. oogh the fees. they claim it's just a 6.5% fee per sale, but on top of that you have to pay .20c automatically for every individual item you sell, plus there are processing fees (3% + .25c) that apply both to the item you sold AND the cost of shipping. i think it comes out to like 10% total in fees on average @ > @

❌ but wait, there's more fees! if you make more than $10k in sales a year (very easy number to hit actually) you are forced to participate in offsite ads, which i believe takes 15% of your total sale on top of the fees in the previous point. these kinds of sales are not as common as you'd think, but it's still annoying having a couple bucks shaved off your profits a few times a month because of them.

corporate bullshit - etsy is like renting a space in a mall. you don't own your lot, nor the mall itself, so if upper management decides to make any stupid ass decisions, you just have to deal with it or pick up and move. if they decide to raise fees again, you just gotta Deal. you are a little bit helpless on this website unfortunately

the push for discounts - etsy is constantly shoving it in your face that they want you to do discounts. they want you to have free shipping on orders over $35, they want you to do 25% off or more on sales, they want you to have returning customer discounts and abandoned cart discounts and 'you recently favorited this item' discounts - but you already have to compete with the steep fees, and when a customer gets free shipping, you still owe USPS that $4-ish bucks to send the package. you don't have to do any of this, but they do reward participating shops by favoring them in the algorithm and search results, so you can feel like you're missing out.

there aren't as many cons imo but they Are steeper cons. generally etsy is very beginner friendly and easy to get into and set up, and in spite of everything i do actually recommend everyone looking to get into online retail start on etsy and perhaps move to other platforms in the future. plus, you can combat all the fees by just... making your prices a dollar or two higher than you initially wanted to, and using your 'save and share' link as frequently as possible. the fees are a little bit much, but you have to think about what you get in exchange:

the search is invaluable, you could argue the fees are partially a marketing budget lmao. if you have a private website you alone have to push traffic to your website, and not as many people know about things like shopify and bigcartel so they might not be as trusting putting their card details into it. i miss out on a lot of REALLY COOL STUFF because artists only advertise on instagram and i don't hear about them, meanwhile if i want some cool owl house stuff i can literally just search that in etsy and find a lot of TOH stuff super easily. i cannot highlight enough how GOOD the search function is, especially in this day and age where social media like instagram and twitter will blacklist your posts if you say words like 'shop' or 'sale' and now nobody can find your stuff in that website's search either. its very hard to do your own marketing now a days :(

being able to refund customer's lost orders out of the company's pocket is such a nice thing to fall back on if you have to and worth its weight in fees. USPS lost like... four or five packages of mine in december. that's like $100 or more worth of stuff that Etsy Covered Completely, and a lot of the times the customer will take that refund to make their order again. don't abuse this system, make sure you check with usps that the package is actually Gone, but it's a godsend when you don't make billions of dollars and eating the cost of lost orders would otherwise sting a bit.

if etsy did not make international shipping easy i simply would not ship anywhere but the US to be honest. shipping to europe is still a headache though but that's because europe is stupid

that's everything i can think of, but tl;dr yes please open an etsy 👍 i recommend it completely in spite of everything

⭐ if anyone wants to open their own etsy shop, use my referral link to make your first 40 listings for free! :)c ⭐

[fatphobiabusters]

Does anyone know where to find 3-4xl tradgoth fatshion? /nf

Sorry if this is the wrong blog to ask

Hi! This isn't the wrong blog to ask! I've separated this answer into parts to make this post easier to read.

Option 1: Independent Artists

I'm not super knowledgeable about where to buy fatshion myself. If I'm not simply buying from Torrid and hoping for the best, I'm probably buying from @mayakern. She's mainly known for her skirts, but she also sells shirts and I think is branching out to even more clothing types. These two skirts of hers may work for a goth aesthetic, and I think one is still available as a miniskirt as well.

A similar store is @freshhotflavors. They have an online store here along with their Tumblr. I haven't personally bought from them, but they work with Maya Kern. I've bought many a skirt from Maya Kern over the years and know her dedication to quality. She also has been very understanding with me about exchanging one of her skirts I accidentally got double of for christmas. So the fact that she works with Fresh Hot Flavors encourages me to trust FHF as well. I believe they sell some of her skirts in maxi length, but they sell a variety of other stuff too!

An artist that FHF works with who seems to make a lot of goth clothing is @vetiverfox. This is their website. I haven't bought from this artist either, but their skirts seem to be similar to Maya Kern's with the sizing, elastic waistband, and type of fabric used. So if their clothes are anything like Maya Kern's, I would give them a shot. Each of these three artists sell skirts that go up to a 6XL (though I think Maya has mentioned having some skirts that go up to 8XL too). I've only been talking about skirts, but each of these artists sells more than that.

Option 2: User Suggestions

I'm hoping our followers may have some advice for you about where to buy goth fatshion. @fine-ass-fatshion has knowledge about fatshion for sure. We've also recently reblogged some great goth fatshion from @wisteriaawillow, so I would definitely suggest asking them for advice on where to buy goth fatshion too. @iridessence wears a lot of pretty fatshion on her main blog, but her side blog @luxus-aeterna would be more your style. I don't know if the clothes she wears on that blog are technically goth or simply make me think of gothic clothing due to being historical clothing with generally darker fabrics, but look at her side blog just in case. I believe her FAQ mentions that she gives detailed information about how to find the clothes she wears if you donate to her work.

Option 3: Tailoring and Getting Creative

A lot of fat people have to resort to sewing and making their own clothes, but this can include taking stuff and simply making adjustments to them. For example, dyeing a shirt a more goth color, taking dollar store trinkets and making them into jewelry, etc. You can even do some clothing adjustments without needing to know how to sew! That's how I used to make my cosplays. People have suggested before to not discard the idea of going to a tailor either. If you happen to find some clothing you like but doesn't fit you, a tailor can help.

Option 4: Etsy and Commissions

Websites like Etsy sometimes can be a goldmine for specific aesthetics. However, Etsy tends to be expensive due to shipping and/or items being handmade by artists. I also hate that a lot of artists on Etsy charge fat people more money for the same product. Additionally, Etsy is probably a better store for accessories rather than your main outfit.

If you're willing to pay for the quality of handmade clothing fitted specifically for your body type and measurements, I've honestly considered the idea myself of commissioning cosplay artists for clothing, which can be done through Etsy or by meeting cosplay artists at anime conventions. If you go to a local anime convention and meet an artist there, you may even find an artist so local that you can try on the clothes during the process of making them so that you know they definitely will fit you at the end. I've thought about this usually regarding cosplay, but a cosplayer who does commissions would probably be able to make clothing that isn't for cosplaying a character as long as you gave them references.

Option 5: Online Stores and Our Pinned Post

Lastly, our pinned post has a link to our FAQ Google Doc, and that Google Doc includes links to online stores that sell plus size clothing. And here is a link to a post we shared about a month ago that has resources for buying jfashion. A lot of of the photos on the post include fatshion that could be useful for a goth aesthetic, though I say that without much knowledge about goth clothing.

I hope one of these suggestions will be of help to you!! Have a good day! cx

-Mod Worthy

[rawvnoisevcruster]

(I'm finally doing the thing I said I'd do)

How to be punk

Distros! Distros! Distro!

What are they, why are they integral to punk, and why I love them

1. What is a "distro"? A in the punk scene (although not exclusive to punk) is a store/seller that distributes merch and or jewelry whether official or bootleg. They can be both done my a physical shop/seller or more now a days a online store front. Often time a distro makes there own products but some will sell office merch or will act as a hub for the artists items or sell general items ie, studs, laces, non band shirts, etc

2. Why I think there good, first it's good to support non music artists in the scene. They make are gear, shirt, tapes, and big bags of studs, they are a big help to people who can't diy certain items, bands to sell merch, and artists to make a life of there art, and its just a great way to get shit you like. Diy or die and all that but we'd all be hypocrites if we said we'd never bought a band shirt, or a bag of studs or a pin. Plus the quality and craftsmanship ship of these item is much more professional as these people specialize and have heavy duty equipment for there products

3. But where do I look? First (if you live near a major city) look around your scene and see if there are ones near you, support your local scene first if you can.

If not there look online as there are many online. I find it best to look on ig/Facebook/Twitter as many have a social media, then look through recommends, mentions in there posts, other shops they follow, and the such.

Next try etsy, there's a large amount of them on etsy as it's a great hub for distros, look up for specific band or items like "black flag patch" or "cone stud belt" and look for one you like a check out the shop for stuff you might also like.

It just a thing you need to set aside some time and you will learn some

But I'm going to tell you some now (note you might need to add distro or etsy at the end of these to find them) I'll be making more of these up the note distro list

Black squeegee

Maggot death

Flip the record

Pin up 77

Celtic rockers

Insult to injury

Grindfather

Machine cuisine

Drunk with a press

Pogo shop

Portland distro

Crust punk dot com

Punk tribe

Pin head

Iron lung

Cash 4 chaos

Tank crimes

Head noise

Black crow

Gay Halloween

Criminal medals

Chaos tribes

(Tw for sh reference in the name but this distro is super cool)

Slit wrist distro

Please like and reblog

I hope you have a nice time with this and stay punk you fuck

[kosomolski-dolls]

How to spot a Recast store.

First of all, what is a recast?

A recast is an unlicensed copy of a BJD, a knockoff, a fake. Usually the dolls are bought from a legit company (sometimes not even from the recast company itself, but from supporters), a mold is made (either making a physical mold or a 3D scan) and then the dolls can be mass produced. Usually made in China, but there are exceptions to this.

I'm not going into detail here on why they are a big problem, there are tons of posts about this on the internet. They are bad, they destroy the dollmakers and artists that I love, if you're fine with that, this blog isn't for you.

This blog is for those, that want to buy legit BJDs and don't want to accidentally buy a recast, which is getting harder and harder.

I'll put this under a cut, because this is gonna get a bit lengthy.

What not to do: Google "buy BJD", you'll literally get a ton of Ali Express listings of knockoff BJDs.

You will have to do some research up front, you need to know what company you want to buy. For that, you can go to the BJD hashtag, here, on instagram, sometimes even Twitter, and see if there is something you like. Usually people also tag the company and sculpt, and if not, asking usually gets the reply.

You can also go to one of the many official dealer pages and just click through their dolls to see if you find something that you like.

Stay away from Ali Express and Amazon. Both of these pages are riddled with knockoffs. Idk if there are actually any legit sellers on Ali, if there are, they are few. I think Dollzone sells on Amazon, but seriously, most of the dolls there are fakes.

Ebay and Etsy are also full of recasts, but you can find some legit dolls there.

So, how do you spot a recast store? Let me show you some hints, that are usually a dead giveaway.

A lot of different styles.

This is the header of an etsy shop. While the two on the left might be from the same maker, the other two are very different. (The one on the right is a doll from Fairyland, one of the, if not the most recasted company out there).

Different styles only make sense, if the seller is a distributor/dealer. If it's not a dealer, back out.

Which brings us to the next point:

Generic names.

If a shop were a dealer, they would give you the names of the companies and sculpts.

Example from an official dealer:

See how you can choose the company, size, and then the sculpts? Recast shops don't give you that (there's one exception, that I'll mention later).

They give you "1/4 BJD Doll MSD", "Girl BJD 1/6" or if they wanna go all out "1/3 BJD Doll 60.5CM Full Set BJD Doll With Clothes Resin Toys Best Gift for Girls Hand Made Doll Custom Dolls OOAK Art Doll diy Dolls".

They want to stay as generic as possible, so the newbies that google for "buy bjd" will be redirected to their pages.

If you find generic names, back the hell out of there. I don't know a single company or dealer, that do not tell you what doll exactly you're buying!

Short production time

BJDs take time to make. They are not mass produced dolls, they are casted, sanded, strung and packed by small companies. Even the big names in this hobby usually are just a hand full of people. So it takes time.

Usually between 2-6 months. I don't know any company that actually gives you an estimate below 60 days. Sometimes they ship faster (maybe it's a popular sculpt and they have actually made some for stock, maybe they didn't have a lot of orders during that time, etc), but they don't usually give you a shorter timeline.

If your listing claims the doll will be shipped in 1-2 weeks? Bad news for you, that's usually a recast store.

Price

I hate to say it, but this is an expensive hobby. Dolls usually cost at least $200, oftentimes more. There are some companies that have cheaper prices, but if it goes below $150, I would definitely have a closer look.

Now, the price is usually the last thing that I mention, because before the price tag, you should check for all the things mentioned above. Only if you have a consistent style, specific names, and a timeline that makes sense, then you should check for the price.

I say that, because I know of one Recast store, that tries so hard to look legit, they actually put effort in it.

And that is the BJD Shop.

Look at that. You have company names, you have sculpt names, it looks like a legit dealer (if you ignore that their production time is 1-4 weeks).

But now look at the prices.

Not taking into account that this specific sculpt isn't even available from Fairyland anymore, the price? Is not even $100 (for blank doll).

Now let's look at the actual price by FL:

Rule of thumb: If a price is too good to be true, it very likely is.

So I recommend actually looking for the doll company, if you find a dealer you're not sure is legit, and compare the prices.

A good page for information is Den Of Angels. It's a forum, but a lot of things are easily available without account through Google. For example their dealer list. Is it complete? I don't know, maybe not, but it's a good start.

I hope this is helpful for anyone who isn't sure about a shop they want to buy from.

[theambitiouswoman]

Hello there! I am starting a business!

I would love to have some tips or even @ on tumblr or in another platforms that will give me guidance. I am going to start a jewelry business, resealing and feels a little bit scary. I am researching a lot already made a virtual account. But would love some tips even tho! Thanks a lot! 🩷

Hi baby,

I don't know what you have actually already done, but first pick a platform you want to sell on. Etsy is great for jewelry. Alternatively shopify is best platform to build an ecommerce store. I would post on tiktok and instagram reels. Research other brand companies similar to yours, and find their best converting posts. study them and recreate for your own brand. It is very important to focus on getting traffic so that people can discover your products and know that your brand exists <3

I can answer better if more specific questions cause there is alot that could be covered.

[zytes]

Question from someone just starting with creating and then posting art to Tumblr, do you think I should be watermarking my pieces?

I’ve always disliked watermarks as they naturally tend to dissuade people from interacting with art in a natural manner; it depends very heavily on the size and placement of the mark, obviously. BUT, often times an artist will overzealously obscure their work with identification and it has a somewhat repulsive effect on the average viewer - a wall has been erected between the viewer and the art, in a sense. Watermarks, to me, exist to prevent very specific situations from unfolding with your work - almost all of those reasons seem to be financially motivated, like preventing strangers from printing your art out at home or reposting without attribution. Situations that could affect your ability to profit off of your work.

Admittedly, much of my perception about this issue was inspired by an article included in the book “Context” by Cory Doctorow, wherein he writes about how he’s benefitted from “thinking like a dandelion”, which is an idea that was inspired by conversation the author had with Neil Gaiman — I’ll try and summarize the parts of the point that are more relevant to visual arts; since portions of the allegory refer more specifically to certain qualities of written media.

He begins with, “Mammals worry about what happens to each and every one of their offspring, but dandelions only care that every crack in every sidewalk has dandelions growing out of it. The former is a good strategy for situations in which reproduction is expensive, but the latter works best when reproduction is practically free — as on the Internet.”

So how do you “think like a dandelion” then?

“Your work needs to be easily copied, to anywhere whence it might find its way into the right hands. That means that the nimble text-file, HTML file, and PDF (the preferred triumvirate of formats) should be distributed without formality — no logins, no e-mail address collections, and with a license that allows your fans to reproduce the work on their own in order to share it with more potential fans. Remember, copying is a cost-center — insisting that all copies must be downloaded from your site and only your site is insisting that you — and only you — will bear the cost of making those copies. Sure, having a single, central repository for your works makes it easier to count copies and figure out where they’re going, but remember: dandelions don’t keep track of their seeds. Once you get past the vanity of knowing exactly how many copies have been made, and find the zen of knowing that the copying will take care of itself, you’ll attain dandelionesque contentment.”

The rest of the allegory more specifically applies to written work, but I’ll link it here for the sake of posterity. Essentially: every wall or pre-requisite that you establish before allowing a fresh set of eyes to fall upon your work actually may deter people from engaging with the work and sharing it with others. Signatures, subtle watermarks that are “baked” into the work, or maybe like.. a well-placed QR code that links people back to you — all of those would be my suggestion for someone who wants to leave a lasting, linking thread between a given work and it’s artist. If the right person sees your art and connects with it, there SHOULD be a way for them to follow that thread back to you and discover more; but if you over-prioritize demonstrating ownership over your work, you’re likely to drive those coveted genuine connections away.

On the other hand, if your primary goal is to sell prints or other products, brazenly watermarking your work will protect your bottom line from the kind of low-level art-scraping that drives all those shady redbubble shops and etsy stores that sell stolen works on cheap t-shirts and hankies. For me, art is a primarily social interest in which I prioritize the sharing of culture and ideas. I don’t want financial factors to take precedence and alter how/why I created something; it feels like I’d have to take much of myself out of my art in order to make it palatable for consumer spaces.

You should determine your priorities and then strive to make art that fulfills those priorities without compromise. I think you’ll find that self-satisfaction manifests readily at different points in the midst of that process.

[in-pleasant-company]

Hello new friend,

I'm a 41-year-old white queer femme who has just recently retrieved my three AG dolls from the attic where I put them away before I went to college. I have Kirsten, and the original release Felicity and Addy. I brought them out to clean up and give to my daughter, but have found they have released a great deal of stored up energy, and I have been deep diving into the world of AG since I put it down in 2001. I have been working my way backwards in your Tumblr, and am in 2020 now. I want to thank you for your clear love of and dedication to American Girl, and I really appreciate your various thoughtful perspectives, especially as it relates to the historical PC and current Mattel relationship with race and ethnicity. As an Elder Millennial, I don't really know how to Tumblr, but you can find me on IG as quiltereina (my public account), so you can see that I'm not a total weirdo-in-a-bad-way - just a domesticated rebel with grandma hobbies living in a hippie suburb of my hometown of Washington, D.C.

I found my dolls, but not their clothes or accessories yet, which is a devastating. I received the dolls as gifts, but I earned all of their clothes through chores. I have already sewed more clothes for my girls (plus the three new ones I have purchased since Jan 1) than I had the entirety of my childhood, having leaned to sew in the intervening years. I am balancing the desire to recreate all of the clothes I had, using time-period appropriate prints and patterns, but in my own preferred color schemes (mostly pinks and purples), a sort of alternative history recreation for my own inner child, plus the desire to make fun and frilly costumes for my five-year-old's enjoyment. In these pursuits, I have not only saved the Pretty Dresses PDF from AGPlaythings, but have been searching for patterns that will as closely as possible replicate the Meet outfits for my girls; I have found Addy's from doll-princesse, and think I can wing Kirsten's from her school dress, but Felicity? Still searching.

So I have one very specific question - a woman in a 18" doll facebook sewing group claims that there was 1992 Pleasant Company book of patterns released, which included Felicity's Meet Dress. I have searched the ends of the internet; she is not referring to the PC Pretty Dresses Patterns; there is no record in the AG Wiki or in the Library of Congress for this book. She said someone on Etsy was selling copies of the book and the FB poster got blocked for harassing the Etsy seller for selling a book still under copyright, but I cannot find the like on Etsy or Ebay. Have you ever heard of such a book? Or is _someone_ -lying- on the internet? And if you have any other deep-dive pattern suggestions (I've seen everything on Etsy, PixieFaire, Pemberly, etc), I'd be grateful, and also happy to compensate pattern makers/recreators.

If you've made it this far, thanks for your time reading this, and again for your insightful and informative Tumblr-blog.

Best,

LaLa

Hi, welcome! It's wonderful that you're giving some love to these old dolls once again!

As for the book with Felicity's pattern, it sounds fascinating. I will keep a lookout for it. It's possible the book was an internal, company only creation that was meant for creating the mockups before the doll clothes went into production in West Germany (and later in China). I will say that there was a set of doll patterns (or possibly multiple sets?) that were briefly available from Colonial Williamsburg that the person may have been remembering as Felicity patterns. It could also have been a pattern that was made available for special events at places like the Madison Children's Museum. I know of a pattern for Felicity's Bedding that is associated with the Madison Children's Museum.

The patterns available from Colonial Williamsburg were from Past Crafts patterns (labelled Evoking Period Style for Dolls), and I'm almost positive that there was a set of doll clothes patterns designed by someone who worked in the textiles department of Colonial Williamsburg, but I haven't been successful in tracking them down.

Edit: Could it be they were talking about the GIRL sized pattern for Felicity's Meet Outfit? It wasn't in a book but a paper envelope like commercial patterns.

Edit 2: I reached out on the AG Playthings message board and got some answers. Yes, the pattern does exist but it was never available for sale from Pleasant Company. I imagine it was an internal document that was somehow leaked/stolen. Mystery solved!

[merchdominator]

How To Find Best-Selling Products on Etsy

How To Find Best-Selling Products on Etsy

Etsy is one of the most popular ecommerce marketplaces with over 95.1 million active buyers and 7.5 million sellers on Etsy, making it a perfect platform for the best sellers, artists, and creators to join its huge community. Be it a business or individual seller looking to drive huge traffic and boost sales on Etsy, it’s crucial to find the best-selling products, popular trends, and keywords that improve overall visibility and drive more sales and conversions. 

But you might be wondering how to find the top products that sell well on Etsy. All right! Finding the top-selling products on Etsy requires competitive research, a well-planned strategy, and most importantly the best product research tool like Merch Dominator to streamline the research process. Well! You no longer need to worry about it. In this blog post, you will learn how to find the best-selling products on Etsy using the best product research tools. 

So, let’s get started!

How To Find Best-Selling Products on Etsy

Here are some tips and tricks to help you find the top-selling products on Etsy; 

1. Use Product Research Tool like Merch Dominator

Product research tools are a great way to stay updated with the latest products, trending topics, and hot designs that sell well on the platform. Merch Dominator is one of the most popular product research tools based on cutting-edge technology and advanced AI to help you find the best-selling products, latest trends, top-ranking keywords, and much more within a few seconds. 

With this AI-based research tool, you can unlock the most profitable trends, trending design ideas, and popular tags that drive sales on your Etsy store. Last but not least, Merch Dominator offers all-in-one solutions for your print-on-demand business and helps improve overall visibility on Etsy. 

2. Do Competitive Research

Conducting in-depth competitive research is another way to help you understand and validate top-selling products and offerings your competitors are following in the marketplace. With the right competitive research in place, you can find everything else from the best-selling products, trending t-shirts, and other personalized print-on-demand items that can drive sales to your Etsy store like never before. 

3. Rely on Etsy

Etsy is one of the largest ecommerce platforms, which not only allows you to sell products on its marketplace but also helps you provide valuable information on the best-selling products to maximize your business growth. Thanks to Etsy searches, it is pretty easy to discover a wide range of products while allowing you to narrow down your search to unlock popular trends and get found on Etsy. All you need to do is click “Popular right now” or “Trending now” to discover all the top-selling and hot topics within the marketplace. 

Conclusion

There are a number of ways to find the best-selling products on Etsy, but leveraging a product research tool like Merch Dominator can help streamline and automate your overall product research journey with ease and convenience. Merch Dominator is an advanced research tool that helps you find top-selling products, popular tags, low-competition keywords with average monthly searches, emerging trends, and much more to grow your business on Etsy like a pro. Try Merch Dominator today for free! 

[taffybuns]

Hi Taffybuns! Thank you for being you and artist that has passion to make. My brother told me that he bought two shirts out of it and he loved it, i was surprised you were the artist drew design! (the pokemon ones!)

Though I am curious and i hope you'll able to respond, do you have advice to make my art for merchandise in the future? I don't mind if you want to simplified explaination, a tumblr posts, or dropping a youtube link video; since you're busy with conventions.

I'm picky when it comes youtube art videos that are always give me the vibes of elitism, clickbait videos or others. You're the first artist I wanted to ask, so i hope it's fine if you can reply or not.

Sending my best regards to you. Take care and love your art as always. (I hope i can buy your pokemon hawaiin shirt!)

hello! thanks so much for the sweet message!!

apologies for the confusion, though! the pokemon shirts arent mine! i share a joint storefront with my friend and tablemate, you can view all his designs here! we have our store bio set to say we are two artists, but it's hard to see on the shopee site format, haha. i'll pass this message along to him, and i hope you can buy his shirts in the future too, they're very well made! i'm glad your brother enjoys them!

(if anyone is reading this, he also has them listed internationally on Etsy! my items aren't here though, sorry!!)

i assume you're PH based aswell if your brother got our shirts, so i'm gonna link some resources and basic advice under the cut-

i'd be glad to help where i can, though my basic advice is to just start.. i began selling merch with dann (friend who made the pokemon shirts) when we were just classmates in college, and we started at small anime events selling small prints with our table falling apart hahajkfghjk.. but even back then everyone was so friendly, so it was very encouraging !! the art community is very sweet and there is a lot of support for you !!

first, you'll want to find your market! this will determine what conventions you want to apply to and what kind of merch you want to make. do you want to make fanart, or original art? are you doing mostly stickers, tote bags, or anime merch? or do you just want to sell online?

second, what is your budget for merch production? starting out is expensive, personally my funds always circulate between profit and spending on restocks again. this will determine what kind of merch you can make, and then you expand later! i started out with only stickers and art prints, then keychains, and then bags and t-shirts later on!

if you're into original art, some events i recommend for beginners are Patrons of the Arts, Buzzart, Komiket. they have regular events throughout the year. if you're into stickers, there's Stickercon and Sticky Expo!

if you're into fan art, you can try ozinefest (sales are slower but table cost is cheaper), or if you have enough money, split for cosplay ph events

of course these aren't the only events, though they're the ones i regularly attend! if you have a more specialized market, there are dedicated cons like philifur, the grand lason, pokecon, etc. for all of these events you'll either have to keep your eyes peeled for table openings on their pages (rare), or email them to be added to their mailing list so you'll be told when they're open

if you don't have any suppliers yet, you can apply to join Artist Alley Group Order on facebook ! people regularly post about suppliers for all kinds of merchandise that you can look up. if you want any recommendations you can message me off-anon!

as for the merchandise itself, this varies person to person. my market is more obscure fanart that other people don't sell, and cutesy original art! i sell big illustrations as prints, though other people report on having a hard time selling prints. it depends on the content and art style. you'll have to experiment and see, or look around other shops to see what sells! visiting art markets yourself is also a huge help, to see the market, make friends in the artph community, and support artists!

i'd recommend starting out with stickers and prints- they're the cheapest to produce, and people often buy stickers because of their low price at cons. when you get more familiar with the market you can try going onto more expensive things to reproduce!

again if you want details, let me know! this is very vague and general advice, if u have any specific questions i'll do my best if i'm not busy! don't be afraid to surf thru some videos too, a lot are very helpful n not too elitist!

gl and take care aswell anon!

[creaturecomfortsva]

some old things i made.

i used to call my crochet shop "sadgirlcrochet". i started posting and selling my crochet stuff in late 2020, was dealing with some serious depression, and had only come to terms with being NB a few months earlier. calling myself a girl still felt right back then, or at least not painful. i put frowny faces on everything.

this was the flagship product, the depressed daisy bikini. I'm thinking about re-designing these because they were always my best-selling product. honestly, as someone who works in marketing, "sad girl crochet" was branding gold. I could make any design that was popular with the tiktok crochet girlies but trade a smiley face for a frown and BOOM. iconic piece. hundreds of instagram likes. for example, my 420 creations in 2021:

these are some of my favorite creations from that year. and while they're adorable, they're also simple. i wasn't exactly challenging myself on a technical level - more of my energy was going towards figuring out how to market via the instagram algorithm. because sadgirlcrochet was, above all else, marketable. the clothes weren't for crocheters. they were for followers.

i redesigned the depressed daisy bikinis in 2021. i sold close to a hundred of these, maybe more. i didn't track inventory too closely (but i DID track my instagram followers, obsessively, at the time)

i also had a really shitty phone camera, so i edited the fuck out of my photos to make the blurriness and low resolution into a feature instead of a bug. it worked for a little while. also, my living situation was hellish at the time, but we had a giant yard with this 70-year-old dogwood tree, and it made for an excellent backdrop.

a commissioned witch hat i made for a friend. one of my favorite things i have ever made. after a while, i realized i liked doing commissions more than just creating products to sell to the masses because it let me push myself on a technical level.

this was my most-liked photo of 2021. partly because of my boobs. that's fine. they look great. i created this top because of a commission that went viral, and it spawned so many copycats and fake etsy listings.

my feelings toward the top itself are mild. it's cute. i made it so that people would like and share this photo. there's not much heart in it, if i'm honest. i look back at this top and know that it was made almost algorithmically. granny square bralettes + halter straps + strawberries were all Very In right then so my hands produced this.

the picture above is one of the first photos i took of myself and felt like i looked like my gender. gender euphoria, i suppose, though the stress of my life at the time dampened the joy. it was then that i started really questioning how i felt about having my online image so tied up in my girlhood. in my feminine body shape. i was 24 and recently estranged from my relatives and working through childhood trauma, including all my preconceptions about gender, and whether or not i owed girlhood to anyone.

i owed girlhood to my followers, though.

when i announced that i would be killing the sad girl crochet brand, a lot of people were genuinely upset. i lost over a thousand followers in three months. people didn't care what i, tabby, was creating. they cared about seeing Content under the Sad Girl Brand. that's okay.

when creating for sad girl crochet i felt beholden to both sadness and girlhood. my primary mode of expression and self-understanding, my crochet, started to be incongruous with what i actually needed to express. instead of contending with my sadness and seeking to understand it, i exploited it. instead of finding my own version of girlhood, i recreated the girlhood that was shown to me online. it led to a pretty significant creative drought from mid-2022 till about three months ago, in late 2023.

when you make the art people expect of you rather than the art that is true, you kill a part of your soul. i know this now.

i did my first craft fair in summer 2022 and immediately after, i was creatively bereft. what little bits of creative energy i had left were spent. a few months later my husband and i moved across the state, away from the hellish house with the beautiful yard, a fresh start. once we moved, i told myself, i would feel at home with sad girl again. and i kept waiting to feel the way i did in 2020 and 2021. but the more time went by, the less sadgirl felt like a creative outlet, and more an albatross round my neck.

and weirdly...i started to feel guilty about ever marketing my sadness in the first place. to grapple with the fact that i was making money off of other women and femmes with depression - and marketing to them on the basis that they were as depressed as me. the more i thought about it, the squickier it felt.

i barely posted anything in 2022 and 2023. i signed up for pattern tests and immediately dropped out of them. i made promises i didn't deliver on. eventually, i just stopped logging on.

a lot of life went by. i crocheted for my family, my loved ones, myself. journaled. got back on tumblr. deleted twitter. started trading screen time for books. got outside more. made friends in the new town. and the longer i ignored sadgirlcrochet, the less i wanted to go back.

see, the thing was, i was actually healing and growing, finally. our living situation was stable. my family found our own little village. i came to terms with being trans-er than i'd let myself admit. sad girl was dead. i'd killed her. and that was healthy for me.

creature comforts was born of a desire to be truer to myself and to live with more love. to craft instead of sell. to share instead of market. to be online without wearing a mask. to be active on tumblr instead of instagram. to be a creator and an artist. to let these desires be misunderstood by others. to love, unabashedly.

i'm excited to see where this takes me in 2024.

[keshetchai]

@highlighteretcigarettes okay so just posting tags separately because that post was getting long and this is now a whole side topic BUT!!! Re: witch-washing.

Bullet points just to organize my thoughts:

Wrt to the marketing of it all, this is something I noticed first in bookstores as someone who used to constantly hang out in the religion sections as a tween. It used to be that in chain bookstores "New Age" was either right next to general religion (aka mostly Christianity and then small spots for everything else), OR one aisle over. Nowadays I've noticed chains like B&N put MUCH more distance between the two areas - like one of my local ones has them in wholly different floors. And it's now "Spirituality" I think? A lot of the category labels seem to no longer say neo-pagan/pagan or even new age, it's just "spirituality" and "astrology."

Actually I think this is very intentional. I think I've seen this in indie bookstores too, but B&N is a definite for this: they shelve next to diet, health, and cookbooks now. Not religion. Keep in mind I grew up in a red state in a heavily Christian area, and back then, new age was still in the same general area as the rest of religion at the local Borders or Walden's or B&N. Now, it's holistic health, diet, exercise, cookbooks, and spirituality.

It doesn't escape me that this is entirely "things we can market as lifestyles that someone can buy into." These publishers clearly broke into the capitalist market and have thrived there. I suspect that for the booksellers and publishers, the distancing from the rest of religion (a "status quo") is intentional. It's like what hot topic is to goth subculture.

Although like you said, I don't think this is limited to chain stores even. I've seen plenty of small new age/spirituality/pagan shops irl, and can't recall a single one that didn't also sell tons of cheap mass produced trinkets, often hyping up their hand crafted quality or the exoticness of the item obtained. Cheap mass produced junk is probably in every religion of course, but yeah, there IS a bigger sense of "buying things" in some religions more than others. Christian evangelicals do this with precious moments figurines and their wall o'crosses decor. Pagans have their own versions of that kind of spiritual consumerism. I do often walk away with the sense that if there was a market population to support it, it would be just as capitalistic and hallmark-y. Lots of shit on Etsy is mass produced and repackaged too.

Idk if it's also free elsewhere off the top of my head, but there's an article you could read free on jstor if you sign up - search "plastic shamanism" and man oh man. 10/10 article about cultural appropriation and mass marketing of indigenous religions to non-natives.

(You probably relate to this sentiment): I am Begging EVERYONE, pagan or not, crystal bitch or otherwise: STOP BUYING LAPIS LAZULI!!!! STOP. WHO EXACTLY DO YOU THINK IS EARNING MONEY FROM MINING IN AFGHANISTAN? PRAY TELL?? Stop buying this one expensive blue rock for your energy aura or whatever.

(Also this one): Also as the child of a parent who grew up in a mining company town, and whose grandfather was a chemist for the company, (and who loved me a shiny rock long before crystal everything): stop buying overpriced rocks constantly. At least CONSIDER how they obtained these particular rocks before you buy them willy nilly. Don't buy 30 million crystals and geodes and whatever else mined and polished and all of that, and then claim to love the environment without any sense of irony. The best and coolest rocks are the ones you find and pick yourself anyways, everyone knows that.

I think this is true of any religious objects but like, the best ones are either personally crafted OR made by small artisans and it just sucks that a lot of small businesses try to pass off their goods as things they actually personally designed (even for factory production) or made, when they didn't do either. I personally have taken a lot of time purchasing/obtaining my permanent basic Judaica for a variety of reasons, my feelings about consumption and things (and Jewish thoughts on craftsmanship and beautiful things), being part of that. I think a lot of people have that struggle, where religious objects so often are kinda...produced like they're just future garbage - again, in any religion.

[hidden-among-stars]

Buying a set of wearable claws would fix me I think

ok but for real i desperately need a set of claws lmao my lack of claws is one of the worst points of dysphoria I have that I could actually do something about and i had a set that i had ordered that looked really good and were super cheap but then it turned out the guy who sold them is like the most transphobic mf dude ever and also like a literal n*zi???? anyways apparently some people in the furry fandom hacked his computer about it and deleted all of the 3d printing files for his products off of it literally a day before i bought the claws or something lmfao. which like. honestly thank you to them, dodged a bullet there. got a refund and everything, glad i didn't end up supporting that guy (though it still makes me nervous af that he has my name and address - also, don't worry, right now this person isn't selling anything and it looks like they don't plan to start up again any time soon - and if you already bought from them it's ok, you didn't know, just like I didn't know when I initially made the purchase. if they do pop up again though their etsy is/was xyzcostume). but like. anyways. i need some claws. and the best equivalent i can find is A. from a f*tish shop which like... ok whatever but also feels weird to buy them from a f*tish shop as someone who isn't using them for that purpose. and B. like over $100 for a full set of ten. cries.

Anyways if anyone knows of a good place to get wearable claws from that wouldn't cost me like over $100 for a whole set please do link them to me

[artist-diaries]

I have an important question for all the self-employed artists out here.

My question is: Do you think I am trying too hard?

I am an unemployed artist working to start up an etsy shop this summer. I'll be selling crochet decor and items like bags, tablemats, coasters, etc. Maybe a few plushies?

I've been spending hours learning about tax law for small businesses, specifically a sole proprietor like myself. As someone with interest in graphic design, I'm also thinking a lot about logos, branding, social media marketing...Basically, I am putting my all into this.

I only plan on running this crochet business for a few years at best. The plan is to get some income in to help pay the bills and go back to college. I want to eventually shift to illustration and graphic design as my main source of income.

Now that I am getting serious about my plans to run an online shop, I worry about what I'll do if it fails. I mean, I can put so much work into this, have the best marketing and quality products and it might still flop.

Should I just get a normal 9-5 at a fast food place or walmart? There are problems with that too; only have access to a single vehicle and I can't drive anyway.

This etsy shop is definitely something I want. I've been leaning towards self-employment for years now- ironically in part due to my anxiety making it difficult to find work. I feel guilty though, and worried.

I feel like I should just push myself into getting a "normal job," ya know? I feel like a lazy bum sometimes- I have responsibilities to myself, to my pets, to my family and I'm too scared (or maybe lazy?) to find a steady job.

I dunno, what do you guys think?