So, obviously I haven't posted in quite a while! I had high expectations of myself when I started this blog, thinking I could "easily" push out a quick blog post every day :/ I don't believe that I was setting a realistic goal for myself! Quick over view of what I've been up to over the past year: finished a grueling Health Information Technology program online and achieved my Associates Degree (this is where a lot of my computer and online time went), had another son (that makes two), sold on ebay some, started an Etsy store, and adopted another feline friend in our household!
As you can see it was a packed year, and time for this blog was nil. However, I'm on still on my quest for making $20 a day. Yes, it's a year later and I still have not achieved this goal. Truth be told I became discouraged for quite awhile and even mostly quit trying for a little while. It's hard to try and make extra money without working another "real" job, which from one on my previous posts you can see I did. Unfortunately that is merely a temporary solution, school and my degree was a more permanent solution, but of course I have to FIND a job now that I'm done lol. I'm sure many of you realize that is easier said than done :) So, here's a quick over view of what I did try this year.
As I said I did sell on ebay, and made around $500 for the year, and I sold for about 5 or so months. Of and on for the rest of the year, mostly if I stumbled across something I was sure would sell. So. Why did I quit? A few reasons. One of the reasons is that sellers from China are slowly overtaking Ebay, and they charge ridiculously low prices and often free shipping :( Which was great when you want to buy something, but be aware that shipping generally takes a minimum of two weeks and often longer. Once I ordered some feathers and they took over a month. Apparently I ordered during Chinese New Year, during which for the entire month (yes the whole month) they do not run their postal service! So, competition on Ebay is fierce and dirty in some categories. Secondly, trying to sell clothes is quite a bit harder than you would think. A lot of customers want full sets of measurements, which take considerable time to achieve for every item, and customer dissatisfaction is higher, because, well, it's clothes, and it's hard to buy clothes online and get the perfect item every time. Which leads to another reason, the time it took to photograph, list, write descriptions, and price the items is also very time consuming. Lastly, working night shift, and a rotating schedule I found it VERY hard to get to the post office in a timely manner, and had quite a few knocks on my seller account because of it. Overall my biggest stumbling block for Ebay was T I M E! It is in high demand but low supply for me.
Next I decided to start an Etsy, and really it was quite successful overall, I made over $1,000 last year with it! Again, you're thinking, why did you stop? Honestly, for much the same reason I quit Ebay, time. Now, the time for listing and such is shorter, because you create a listing for an item once, then reuse it for your products. You're not selling all the stuff you found for the week (well you can sell vintage items, so you could), you're selling an item(s) that you made and that you will remake when the order comes. So, that is easier and less time consuming. The biggest problem for me was, once again, making it to the post office. By this time my second son had come and was a newborn, which added another layer to the post office challenge. After Christmas, when the weather got bad, I closed the store for what I thought would be a little while. In the end though, I just didn't feel like reopening it. The time and stress of making the items, and shipping them quickly for customer satisfaction was more than I really wanted to handle, so I never did reopen it.
Okay, so why am I back, and why am I sharing this all with you? Simple, I have stumbled across something that I do feel will work out much better for me! This post is already long, so I will write another post talking about it, so stay tuned for that. Also, if you notice I did still make money with Etsy and Ebay, and there's absolutely no reason that you couldn't as well. We all have a different life,with different challenges and skills and needs. Don't be afraid to try either of those avenues for yourself, just remember that each model has it's own pros and cons, and honestly weigh them within yourself to make that decision. I'll also do a quick review on Etsy and Ebay in future posts as well. Going more in depth with the process and challenges, and good things of both, for those of you that are interested in either business model.
Until next time friends!
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