O hai

[clothdoll]

Oh look, I have a livejournal. It's nice that it's here when I want to vent and be emo-style. Meh. I've been keeping up the blog, miracle of miracles! I post about once or twice a week, and am gaining followers at a staggering rate of... 3 people a month. Ha ha. But it's fun. Dave and I are working on tweaking the photography (and just

Comments

[freecake]

The photos are really lovely, i think that the sense of style is just unique not bad by any means but, i think it's hard to find buyers for a strange sense of style, ya know..so it's likely delaying your sales. another thing, you're tall and lovely skinny. i think it may also be a body type that is hard to fit. could you put your dresses on shorter/stouter or chubbier models show how theyd fit on someone whos a little off in sizing instead of lovely model-sized like you? just a thought

[clothdoll]

Thanks so much for your feedback, Sara! I appreciate your honesty. I'm glad the photos are good; we've really been working hard to try and make them work (especially Dave - he's taking the photos and adjusting them, at least for now). Not sure what to do about the style; it's just the way I dress. I get lots of compliments on my style in real life, but it's been proving difficult to translate that to the internet. You would think vintage-wearing girls would be used to a strange sense of style, though?

You are completely right about needing models with different body types (and probably some larger-sized clothing, too). I've heard that criticism before, and I'm trying to come up with a solution, since I don't really know many people here right now and can't afford a model. I might just need to find a dressform or something!

Hoot hoot!

[smashblocked]

Hey, I've been following your blog and your shop updates and your photos have definitely improved. I love a lot of the stuff you're selling. The only trouble is that (as you know), you and I completely different sizes. I'm not sure how much you really want your shop to blow up but have you considering putting some $ into advertising? Like on other ppl's blogs? On a local level, how about printing an ad in Block Club 'zine?

Re: Hoot hoot!

[clothdoll]

Aw, I didn't know you were following me! Yay! Thanks for the feedback. I have considered advertising, and will probably do it once I have more stock listed. I'll have to look into Block Club; not quite sure what it is! My downfall when vintage shopping is basically the fact that I shop for myself, then I sell whatever doesn't fit. Lately I've been trying to keep an eye out for other sizes, so hopefully that'll be fixed soon! If you weren't moving, I'd ask you to model for me and then try to pay you with dinner. :(

Speaking of dinner, are you available this week some night, by any chance? Merge?

How about tomorrow night?

[smashblocked]

Or Thurs? Call/e-mail me with a date/time and I'll meet you (& Dave) there.

It's not too late. If you do have anything that you'd like me to model, we can try to do it before I go. If we can do it before I go to the Bahamas, we can do it right after I get back.

Tomorrow would work!

[clothdoll]

How does 6:30 sound?

[porcygloworm]

Dude, etsy is a never-ending mystery. I just switched up my whole shop's look and I'm so nervous that it isn't going to translate into sales! I honestly am not sure if it's possible to have a successful etsy shop unless you're treating it like a full-time job, and updating a ton. I have over 200 listings right now (actually a bunch just expired, but it's still almost 200) and I have to constantly list, at least a couple times per week, or my sales dwindle FAST. Your styling is cute and the photos keep improving, so that's rad! As for the whole "you're skinny and people won't buy that stuff", well, that's just wrong. Small sizes sell the best for me, and I have tried selling larger sizes using different models and that stuff NEVER sold, so I gave up on it. I still sell stuff that is bigger sometimes, but small/medium sells the most for me.

As for ads, I bought one with Sally Jane Vintage last month and got over 500 hits from it.. pretty cool!

[clothdoll]

Although I miss your papercut forest (so epic), I really love your new look! Your items all look like your frock paintings now; it's perfect. I hope it works out for you! If not, you can always go back. I think you're right about treating it like a full-time job, and constantly updating. It's a lot of work! For instance, I love DearGolden's shop and she's super-successful, but I follow her twitter and blog and that girl works ALL THE TIME. I just can't dedicate a whole lot of time to the shop right now, and I realize that's a big reason why I'm not, er, selling anything! I wish I could, though.

Thanks for the kind words and awesome advice. And if I ever flesh out my store with more stock, I'm totally buying an ad - thanks for the tip! I'm already making a mental list of blogs I might want to advertise with (yours being one of them, if you've got an opening down the road).

[changeofthemoon]

So I like the pictures a lot! If I had to give feedback I'd say that some of things feel a little bit pricey. Actually, a lot of the clothes on etsy are not in my price range anymore so I think you're meeting the etsy price points for these things relative to other sellers, but people overall might have less to spend on vintage.

I also usually buy from sellers who have at least two pages worth of stuff for some reason. When I see more items my brain somehow goes, oh well they must be legit sellers!

I was also looking at the tags for the circle skirt
"vintage, 1950s, nautical, pirate ships, spanish galleons, boats, novelty print, high seas, pinup, good girl, seafaring, chartreuse, coral, chocolate"
I don't sell on etsy so I could be wrong, but wouldn't you want to have skirt in there?

[clothdoll]

Thanks for your feedback, Linnea! That's an interesting point about the prices. And you're right about having at least two pages worth of inventory! I know I've got to work on stocking up the store. It'll get there someday, ha ha. Thanks also for checking the tags; I think "skirt" still counts since it's in the title. But geez, coming up with 14 tags for each item is HARD - I've really got to reach for some of those keywords ("good girl"? "seafaring"? erm... yeah, Alicia, sure...).

[changeofthemoon]

haha I was actually impressed with the other tags! Yeah, I don't know how the searching works for those thing, but it makes sense that they use the title too!