February 2020

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5 Tips For Selling Successfully Online!

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Are you someone who has something special you make, that everybody LOVES to get as a gift?   Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could make that item, or those items, over and over again and have buyers everywhere just waiting to see them and BUY them!  Do you have a website now where you are trying to sell those items?  Are you selling a few or a LOT of those items?   Sometimes we all have to take a second look at HOW the website is set up, and what are we saying about each product.  Today we’re going to talk about 5 tips for selling your products online that could help throw you into the big league when it comes to sales!

  1.  Product Title.  Research 2-5 word keyword phrases that buyers might use to find your listings.  Think of the color, size or shape, who it would make a good gift for and where the item can be used (office, living room, etc).

Decide which keyword phrase describes your product the best and put that keyword phrase at the beginning of your title.  This will help buyers know exactly what you’re selling.  Separate the keyword phrases with commas (example: Tissue Box Cover, Square, Valentine Décor). 

2. Body/Descripton.  Break your description down into paragraphs.  Customers that are browsing your product will most likely scan through the description.  With this in mind, break the description down into 2-3 sentence paragraphs for easy reading.

Answer as many potential buyer questions as possible.  What is the size or shape of your item?  Would it be a good gift item for a woman or man?  What is the item made of?  Is it a set of resin coasters?  A wooden sign?  Fabric tissue box covers?  Think about any specific questions customers MIGHT ask and be sure they are answered within the description of your product.

3. SEO – Search Engine Optimization.  This deals with what keywords search engines will pick up when somebody does a search for products similar to what you have.  The keywords used in your title and throughout the body of your description will be picked up.  Make sure the keywords you use accurately describe what you offer; tell what your product can be used for (office, gift, baby shower, etc) and if color and size are important, be sure that is noted somewhere in the description.  If you have done your research on appropriate keywords buyers would be using while looking for your type of products, then you should have no problem with the SEO of your product.

4. Sell on Multiple Platforms.  Whether you’ve gotten your website to the level you want or not, we suggest you put your products on other platforms as well.

ETSY:  Etsy has millions of buyers searching every day for products like yours.  Setting up a store on Etsy is not difficult – they walk you through the process as you go.  They do charge 20 cents for each product listed, in addition to sales transaction fees and re-listing fees for each product you sell.  We have 2 stores on Etsy – http://Etsy.com/shop/PatternsThatFitYou and http://Etsy.com/shop/SewWithSarahCom, which make extra sales for us, as these shoppers may or may not find our websites http://PatternsThatFitYou.com and http://SewWithSarah.com.

AMAZON HANDMADE:  Once again, Amazon has MILLIONS of shoppers that are also searching for products such as yours and ours.  Amazon takes you step by step in setting up your store.  One great thing about Amazon Handmade is that there is no listing fee or renewal fees – only one transaction fee when an item sells (and they tell you exactly what that fee is when you list the price of your item).  My Amazon Handmade store is http://Amazon.com/handmade/SewWithSarah

We get tons of sales from our “other platforms”, and as you can see the names of our stores on Etsy and Amazon Handmade are the same as our websites, so you don’t have to come up with new names for them.  Check out our stores on Etsy and Amazon Handmade and think about how you can set up your own store.  NOTE:  As a side note, let me say that if you have been making all those gift items, and perhaps don’t have a website but only sell a few here and there, or do a craft show once in awhile, you should STILL get set up with stores on Etsy and Amazon Handmade and see how your craft business can excel.

5. NEVER GIVE UP!  My favorite “saying” that I have printed and taped to the wall behind my computer is “If it’s to be, it’s up to ME”!

Anything worth doing takes effort.  Each of us is 100% responsible for our success or our failure.  Success in online selling is NOT an “overnight” thing.  It takes a lot of work and may take months to get to a point that you see the effort paying off.  In the meantime, keep working, try using new keywords in your SEO or take some new photos if you think some of yours may not show your product as well as you’d like. Once the orders start coming in, you will see that all the hard work was worth it!  You will then be wondering when you will have time to make all those beautiful items that shoppers are ordering so you can get them shipped as soon as possible…….what a GOOD feeling that is!

How To Repair Burns In A Carpet

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This is the time of the year that those of us with woodburning fireplaces can have problems with flying sparks that burn small holes in the carpet near the fireplace.  OR, even those who smoke can drop hot ashes from the cigarette and again singe or burn a hole in the carpeting.  Actually these small burn areas are not difficult to repair.

The first step in the repair job is to use sharp scissors and cut away all of the damaged pile, or loop, depending on the type of weave.  Snip the pile off as near the rug backing as possible.

Figure 1 shows a cross-section view of the burn before the damaged pile was removed.  Figure 2 illustrates a cross-section view of a burn after the damaged pile has been removed.

If you are fortunate enough to have scraps left from the time the carpeting was laid, you can cut pile from this for repairing.  If not, the pile can be cut from a corner in a closet where it would not be noticable.  The pile to be used for mending should be cut off in the same manner which was used to remove the damaged spot – by snipping it off just above the backing.  Cut the pile in small sections, just two or three tufts at a time.  After cutting, lift them with tweezers and lay each tuft carefully onto a plate or shallow pan so they may be easily carried to the location of the spot to be repaired.  If your rug has several shades of one color in the pattern or more than one color, be sure you cut the correct shade or color of pile to make the repair.


Glue, the type that is white in the container and dries transparent, is used for the repair.  Use a bottle with a nozzle dispenser and squeeze the glue onto the backing of the rug where the burned pile was snipped away (figure 3).  Be generous with the glue, but also be careful not to get it on the pile around the edge of the hole.   The rug backing will soak up the first application of the glue, so after a few minutes, put on another heavy application and start filling in the hole with the little tufts of pile.  Again use tweezers to handle the pile, and start filling in around the outer edge of the hole, so that the undamaged pile sill support the  tufts which are being carefully set into the glue.

Keep working round and round setting the tufts in rows (figure 4), working toward the center, until the entire exposed area of the rug backing has been covered with tufts of pile (figure 5).

It may become necessary to add a little more fresh glue as you work toward the center of the area.

Naturally, you will want to keep any traffic off the repaired spot until the glue has completely dried.  This can be done by placing a small chair, table or even a box or pan over it.

You will be happy to discover that if you repair a burned spot in your rug or carpet in this manner, it will be practically impossible to find where it has been mended and it will withstand both wear and vacuuming.

WAIT A MINUTE!  Something tells me that this is the kind of repair job that could bring in some extra money!  Whether you actually have a burn hole or not, there are probably dozens of homes in your town or subdivision that DO have unsightly burn holes.  People tend to try to cover the burn spots with area rugs, but the burn hole is there!

The entrepreneur in me says “dig out a small piece of extra carpet, make a burn hole or two, then repair them per the instructions given and become an expert in repairing burn holes in carpets”.

After you’ve become an “expert” in repairing burn holes, put a small classified ad in the local newspaper, put little flyers in fabric shops, dry cleaners, and don’t forget to give information to the local carpet dealers as well.  Figure out how much time it takes to do the repair and charge accordingly.  Some homes may have several burn holes for you to fix, so I’d suggest that you don’t give a repair price over the phone – wait to see how many burn holes there are that need to be repaired, then figure the repair fee.

How To Stay Motivated While Working Your Home Business

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Family and friends can be the biggest motivation robber to those starting or trying to maintain a home business.  They probably don’t even realize what they are doing to your motivation and business momentum.

Because you are at home and not at an office downtown, people have the idea that you are not really working, and therefore are available for neighborhood coffee get togethers, available to babysit the sick grandchildren so their mother can “go to work”, as well as chit chat on the phone half the morning.

I learned many years ago that the only way to let people know that I was at home because I was WORKING, was to learn the word NO!  I’d explain that I wouldn’t be available to go shopping because I was over my head with a project and was on a time table to get it done, or that I was behind on getting craft items ready for the next craft show, therefore had to buckle down and keep with my schedule of WORK that I’d set up for the day.

You will find that those people who have the opinion that just because you’re at home, you’re not really working will make comments like “what do you mean, working? You’re at HOME, aren’t you?”  That’s the time to inform them that you are indeed working at home; that you run a business from your home and that your working hours are such and such.  If you make yourself a regular work schedule and insist that people, including family members, respect your work schedule, they will realize that you do mean business with your home business!

You can also cause your own lack of motivation by picking up small, but deadly, non-work habits.  That second cup of coffee and reading the paper for 30 minutes can be a great time waster. Running back and forth to the kitchen to refill your tea glass or realize you hadn’t cleaned off the breakfast table so rush out to take care of that will waste more time than you think.

Take care of the kitchen table and prepare a large drinking cup of tea or water BEFORE going into the office area to work, then stay in the workshop/office once you’re there and WORK.

There’s a simple strategy you can use to keep most of this from happening. It’s to make the important project you’ve been procrastinating on a priority and working on it first thing every morning. The whole process starts the night before. Before you call it a day, sit down and make a simple plan for what you want to get done the next day. Identify the three most important tasks. These will be things that start to move the needle. Maybe they are all focused on one main project, maybe it’s several things you know you should be getting done.

The greatest statement about working at home is that you can “work in your jammies all day”.  Some people can indeed work in their pajamas, while for other people the idea of being in pajamas doesn’t give the feeling of work, but of relaxation.  In that case get the jammies off, take a shower and put on REAL clothes so you can get the feeling of WORK, not rest and relaxation.  By creating a feeling of work you will find yourself getting into the schedule you have set up and sticking with the program until you get finished what you’d set out to do that particular day.

A jet leaves a vapor trail in the sky as it completes its work – what kind of mark are you leaving so others can readily see that your home business is working?  To tell others you are working at home means there must be visable signs of accomplishment that others can see.