Marketing... oh the horrors!

So, back to the battle of the beads v. me!

At this point, I have about 100 pictures. I'm not exaggerating. Flipping through them is like flipping through your grandparent's scrapbook of their Aruba trip. "Oh look, a beach. Oh look, another beach. Oh look, my grandfather in a funny hat. Oh look, a beach..." only this times it's "Oh look, that necklace I made 20 minutes ago. Oh look, that necklace I made 20 minutes ago. Oh look, the other necklace I made..."

I have to weed through the pictures to find the absolute best ones of each item and I'm really splitting hairs at this point. I have to get 20-30 down to five. It's like American Idol, but I have no Ryan Seacrest to announce which ones to vote off. Delete, Delete. I do, however, have an internal Simon Cowell who chimes in around now.

"Seriously, that necklace is bloody awful. What were you thinking? No one will ever love that piece. It's like the red headed step child of the jewelry world. Why did you think it was great? Why on earth did you like that? To be frank, that bracelet reminds me of armpits. Unwashed armpits. You have no taste. You are NOT going to Hollywood."

I muscle through and start editing anyways. It gets tedious to go through each picture, it's an endless cycle of:
Crop. Resize. Lighten. Change saturation. Change brightness. Change contrast. Sharpen. Hold item up to computer screen. Does the picture match the actual color? If the answer is no, please turn to page one and start over. If the answer is yes, please turn to page one and start over with the next picture. This is most definitely not an adventure I would have chosen.

The worst part is yet to come! Oh... the posting... (dun, dun, dunnnnn)

Here's where I have to do the fantastic math to price the items. Ok- material cost + overhead (10%-15% of material cost) + my "hourly wage" ($15 an hour) TIMES 2-3.

Whhaaaat?? No way. Too much. I can't price it that high!

Math re-do. Material cost + Overhead (5%) + Hourly wage ($9 an hour) TIMES 2.

Nu-uh. No way. Still too much.

Math re-do. Material cost + Hourly wage ($4 an hour) TIMES 1.5

Um... Minus $5.00....

Okay, I've reached a price where I think people will buy and I'm working for half of minimum wage. I post that and click next. Oh, the description. Etsy advice from veterans:
"Keep it simple, don't overwhelm the buyer"
"Describe the item in detail, as though there were no picture"
"Be as thorough as you can! Short desciptions don't sell"

Alright. So I post what I hope is a dreamy and fun description of the item with Simon Cowell ranting in my head, calling me a cheeseball and telling me that I have to remember to include centimeters in the dimensions because the British are people too. He's also mocking the fact that I cannot get a single description written without the words "mix", blend", delicious", and "beautiful". I am no longer describing a necklace, I've drifted into a recipe for angel food cake. I cut myself off before I start to type "add two cups of flour".

Upload the pictures, click the blue FINISH and then the waiting begins.

I click over to my public shop and stare at the views. Click Refresh. Still at 0 views. 30 seconds pass. Click Refresh. 0. 30 seconds. Refresh. 0. 30 seconds. Refresh. 0. Crap. Refresh. 0.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Endlessly.

The first view is a little victory dance of joy. It's after about half an hour after this that I share it on facebook, twitter and stumbleupon.

There is a lot more clicking, refreshing, and a little bit of the pook face. My boyfriend looks annoyed, my soul mate (my cat Loki) tries to sit on the laptop because I have been ignoring him for a full day. I remove him and continue to click until roughly midnight.

Then I get up the next day and the process starts anew.

I look forward to beading time more than I can express. I love picking the colors, I love the act of creating something that is going to make someone feel a little more beautiful. I go through all the posting and clicking of both my camera and my laptop for the peace of little beads sliding down a silverplated wire. I risk the trip to the nuthouse courtesy of my befuddled neighbors so I can have the chance to make you something. Because I like you. Really, I know we don't know each other but I really am a cheeseball just like internal Simon Cowell says. So I guess this is farewell for now and I hope to be back soon.

Yours-

-the little miss milyssabeth

PS. To avoid all confusion: The shop's name is La Femme D'Esprit. My official name is Melissa. My nickname or nom de plume in all things creative is the little miss milyssabeth. People do occasionally call me this. People also occasionally call me Michelle as well, but that's just because they are bad with names and I usually tell them that I will answer to most "M" related names. So there you go.