But I am so burned out on the whole thing. To stay competitive on Etsy not only does one have to keep prices pretty low to compete with all the inexpensive reproductions but now one must keep listing or renewing at least four or five times a day it seems just to get seen by new buyers. And now there is a $7 a day Category Showcase that looks a lot like a feature that was free back in Beta. And this of course makes the newly listed pieces even harder to find. It is expensive and tiring and I refuse to buy a Showcase spot.
The promotion is so much work. Making the work itself is such a small part of it. Then there is the scanning, backing up the high resolution version and uploading a low resolution image, listing and then promoting and networking. There are so many social networking sites now that I am feeling very overwhelmed by all of them. I have yet to scan a good part of the pieces I did not this past weekend but the weekend before. And now the burnout there is starting to translate into my work.
I gave this piece to my father's wife to give to my sister for her room. She also took a piece to hang in their house. And Liz took a piece the day before. I don't normally give away my work but I couldn't say no, especially to Sara. Giving one to my father's wife was weird since it was her that took down the painting I did (that won various awards) in high school many years ago.
My poor little sister was crying so much when they left yesterday she threw up grape juice in our hall. I felt so bad for her and yes, I did cry after they left. I hope my father saw that coming to Boston isn't so bad after all so they visit again. I want to go to Chicago as soon as we can. Seeing the new great grandparents is first on our list of people for us to visit.
