Proprietary

I am, I'm afraid, one of those people who walks through a craft fair and quietly notes all the things I can make myself. I get ideas browsing through the stores at etsy and have on occasion, made items I've seen for myself and family. I would however, never make those things to sell. It just doesn't seem like the right thing to do, but I know there are plenty of people who have absolutely no problem knocking off everything they see for a chance at profit. They are often disguised as curious customers or beginners that claim they just need a little help and are huge fans of your work.

Nearly every day someone complains of being copied and even disregarding the natural hive mind that has many coming up with the same idea independently of each other, too many of the complaints are genuine. The other day I noted someone who was distraught that her product was being reproduced my many people using the name she came up with for it. At first blush it seems like a blatant case of theft until you read on to discover that she has published a how-to on her blog for this product. Seriously, are you kidding me, what did she think was going to happen with that?

It really is wonderful that the handmade community is so sharing with each other. We like to help others learn new crafts and improve their skills, but we can't afford to forget that not everyone is in the game to learn and grow. Lots of people are in it to make money and will take advantage of every opening they get. People are always asking how to respond to people who convo them asking how they make something or where they get supplies. Some are even bold enough to ask while explaining that they want to make your product to sell. Why on earth would you want to share the very details you may have spent years working on to a relative stranger to help them compete with you? I know that you want to help and you don't want to be rude, but the answer to the question should be, I'm sorry, but that is proprietary information. Then you can send them off to Google or the library so they can learn through hard work, like you probably did.

It is a fine line we walk between community and competition. I started my tatting challenge to not only expose tatting to new people as a way to sell more pieces, but also to populate the world with more tatters. I'm working on the principle that the craft getting more popular will allow us all to succeed. I am however acutely aware that the move may inevitable bite me in the arse by gifting me with more competition. Look, I don't tat to make money, but it is a motivating factor in the creation of new patterns and designs. I would be a liar, if I said that I wasn't happy that they aren't hundreds of tatters on etsy. I like that I don't have to worry about people copying me. I have no problem sharing a pattern or two, in fact I plan on offering a few here at some future point, but I'm certainly not going to sell my most popular designs as patterns to tempt fate. I'm glad to help and I like to share, but I've developed a degree of paranoia from watching others suffer that I just can't ignore. So for now, most of my patterns will remain proprietary information.

Yawn

I'm tired, too tired I'm afraid to come up with something clever or even remotely interesting to write about today. I'm sorry to disappoint all those of you who expect more, but apparently, without the proper amount of rest, I am not a bottomless source of opinion and information. You see, my Grandfather was in town visiting the last couple of days from Utah. The visit created an opportunity for all my family in the area to get together at my house for the evening. While I am always happy to have all my siblings and nieces and nephews visit, this results in six children under the age of 9 running about my house. I became exhausted just watching them and more exhausted convincing them to clean up the enormous mess the 12 handed beast just created.

The mess was cleaned, they all went home, but I am still tired. So very tired. So I'm not feeling clever or even awake this morning. Tomorrow will be another day, in fact tomorrow is the last day for entries for the tatting challenge. I know there are still several left to be entered and I'm antsy to see them all and get some winners for this thing. So if you still need to list your piece, get on it!

From the Top to the Bottom

Yesterday, I hung out for almost an hour waiting to get a treasury spot. I wouldn't normally spend that much time waiting, but I had an idea that I needed to bring to fruition. It didn't turn out quite as I imagined, but that's probably because I can't seem to spend hours picking the perfect items. I think it's still pretty good though and I love if this one would actually get popular. Mine never seem to get a whole lot of attention.

In other news, one of the challenge participants waterrose, wrote up a great little article for the challenge on a site I was not familiar with, but it looks great. So, thanks for that. I'll take all the free press I can get. You can check it out here at MyItThings.

There are just a couple of days left for the participants to get their entries listed and I have to say that I am getting antsy. As soon as all the entries are posted, I'll try and snag a treasury for the ones for sale at etsy for a little more attention. The forum thread I've been babysitting for the challenge has actually drawn a little late attention so I have hope that the next challenge will be even bigger. At this point, I think the next will be after the holidays and with most likely use a simple edging. I don't know how long or what design I'll use yet, but I've got plenty of time for that, right.

The Non Paying Buyer

Well, I'm still doing a pretty good job of staying out of the forums, but as I lurked over the weekend, I ran across a very familiar topic. A term that I imagine makes sense only to those who frequent the etsy forum, the non buying buyer. Although I'm fairly certain that the term qualifies as an oxymoron, it is thrown around consistently. It refers to a customer that completes the buying process for an item, but then fails to click through to paypal to send payment for it. While I have had a few slow paying buyers, I've only experienced this phenomenon once. It seems that many other sellers attract these events like tuna attracts cats, because they seem to always be complaining about them. What, I wonder, makes some people marks for these uncertain shoppers?

I wish I had an answer to that question, but what I do have is a little perspective. When I worked in retail, we would hold items for customers. The items were taken off the shelf, labeled for the customer and held for three days. Most customers came back within the time frame and purchased the items, but many would not only not come back within the time frame, but would actually return weeks later and ask if it was still on hold for them. If the buyer came back, waiting a couple of days for a certain sale was no big deal and we generally did not lose any sales from those who did not buy their item either. The process of holding an item only hurt us when it was the last in stock of a hot selling item. This is the only way a non paying buyer can hurt you. If the item they purchased is the only one of your best selling item or a one of a kind item that someone inquires about right after the false sale. Be honest, how often are either of those the case.

A lot of people blame the non paying buyer problem on a confusing checkout process, but I think it's much more likely that they are the same kind of people who like to put things on hold and never come back to buy them. They don't see the seller as a person inconvenienced by their inaction. They see you as a shopping cart that still has something sitting in it, that they may return to or not. Instead of letting these events bother you, I suggest treating these unpaid purchases as held items. When a time limit you're comfortable with has expired, simply cancel the sale and put the item back on the shelf. Sure it's disappointing, but it's not the end of the world. I've been lucky that my slow paying buyers all made their payment before I felt the need to cancel the sale. I certainly hope I don't start smelling like tuna anytime soon, but if I do, I shall try to take it in stride.

The Great Curator

I've been making a lot of treasuries over at the etsy lately. It all started innocently enough. I was trolling the treasuries for that coveted gold star that indicates one of my pieces has been featured when I realized that the ability to create new lists would be occurring in a couple of minutes. Since I was already there I figured, why not. I grabbed a list and quickly filled it with items from the Esty Steam Team. Then just a few days later virtually the same thing happened again. This time I had a few more minutes, so I came up with a theme and tried to create a cohesive image. Then I found myself figuring out when the next opening would be so I could return to make another list. Apparently, I am now hooked.

An interesting side effect to all this list curating has been an extreme decrease in my forum time. Sure, I've visited the forums, but mostly to just take a quick look around, drop my blog link and move on. Curating a Treasury takes far less energy than constantly posting in the forums and I think I will be adding it to my cycle of addiction. It seems to be acting as methadone to my forum addiction. Will I get sick of making lists? Of course I will. I can already feel the decrease in the need to snag a new list and I'm still out of the forums. The bonus of course, besides the free exposure to my team mates, is the extra time I have to actually create things. I've had a few large projects recently and I've managed to knock them out in record time.

I still have a few more treasury ideas to try out before I let this new addiction go, but I know that I will see it again. There is a decidedly cyclical nature to my relationship with etsy and all the ancillary activities that seem to go along with it. I seem to get addicted and subsequently sick of almost every aspect of it. I've gone through brief addictions to the forums, treasuries, shopping, running sales, other social networking sites and street teams. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this too shall pass and return and pass again. I'm sure it's the same for many of you, right? I've learned to just go with the flow, it just takes to much energy to fight the great cycle.