An interview with POPPY

This is the first of many interviews. I chose Poppy, because she has been selling on Etsy for over 4 years and was easy to find. She lives in the same house. At this point she is the more successful of us, as I am living in her house. Find out how she got so successful in this interview.

Tell us a little about your stores.

poppyswickedgarden is my main clothing shop. It was my first shop and is packed with beautiful fun clothing and accessories. I also have a more fun character and tutu shop Xpoppyswickedgardenx.etsy.com and of course we (my mom and I) share Poppysgardengate.etsy.com for home goodies and poppysprouts.etsy.com for the kiddos!

I started on Etsy over 4 years ago when I needed a place for my more unique clothing items that didn't fit into my Auction based shop. I heard about it from another designer friend and I was greeted by another clothing designer of about 10 that were on Etsy when I started

How has Etsy changed since you started?

Etsy has drastically changed in many ways since I started. I actually started before the changeover to Etsy beta. In general I think that aesthetically it has grown greatly, in most part due to the individual artists trying to better themselves.

Over the years I have had to adjust my clothing line from one of a kind to custom orders for most of my creations. It has become more desirable to have a custom made item since the economy has changed. I also have to do a lot more networking on Twitter and facebook where I used to use myspace.

How many hours a week do you put into your business? - manufacturing? - listing? - marketing?

I seem to always be working I would say that I sew about 20-25 hours a week 6-10 hours listing 10-20 hours of marketing 8 hours packaging and shipping of course my workload usually doubles between September through January.

Any great tips for newbies?

You can always improve your shop, take a really good look at your shop and compare them to shops that are doing very well. Ask yourself... Do your gallery photos look as nice as theirs? Are your descriptions clear and precise? Are you tagging your items with the right tags? Are you promoting as much as they do?

Also always remember that you need to keep making to get people interested, You may have an amazing creation but if you have 5 items in your shop they will likely be missed amongst the sea of other creations out there. I usually list or relist 3-5 items a day in each of my shops.

If I knew then what I know now I would.....

Take better pictures, otherwise I wouldn't change a thing. It has been a wonderful journey to get where I am and I feel very lucky to be doing what I love!

Next week I will be interviewing the ever Snarky VintageEye