Pricing is something I’m still feeling around on because it’s not just the cost of the materials but also my time in coming up with the design and then making all the elements from scratch. My cards are larger than others and the majority are very labour intensive so take a long time to make - some cards I have yet to put into my shop took me half a day each to make. The majority are also decorated on the inside which adds to the cost and time but makes them much more luxurious than what you would get in a high street shop. It’s tricky to blend the price of cards that take me four hours or more to make with cards that are two hours or less to make, and the cost of materials needs to be added of course.
I downloaded the Folksy calculator before I started listing and ran the numbers through that (very handy tool!) and the end result comes out as a negative figure on everything I make. That was quite an eye opener.
You are right I do not want to sell overseas, I couldn’t see an option to say no international sales so I thought putting a silly cost in the postage section would deter overseas buyers, so thank you for telling me how that works!
Re your interior decoration could I suggest that you should have photos of that against each listing so people can see that it is not just blank inside. It is Always recommended that you make use of the 5 pictures available for each listing.
Photographing the inside of my cards is something I have been agonising over. As you pointed out there are literally thousands of cards on sale on Folksy so I want my cards to really stand out and be really different from everyone else’s. I have put in the description whether the card is decorated on the inside, but I know that a photo would be better.
So my dilemma with photographing the inside is a tricky one between giving my potential customer the full experience of what the card is vs giving too much away to my competition and then having my ideas and designs copied. If everyone else starts copying my ideas and decorate the inside of their cards like I do, then I will lose my uniqueness. It’s a tough area of crafting and I would love some advice on how to resolve this dilemma!
Your cards are beautiful but i also thought that they were pricey…I hand paint a card and the most expensive is only £4.50 and some of them £2.50.
Of course , the decision and choices are yours but for me I would rather sell loads at small profit than wait weeks for one higher priced sale…(some of the world’s millionaires got rich by selling at low prices…and now look at Lidl and ALdi…they are romping home with the profits from the Bigger names)…Yes, I am sure you will get sales and I KNOW how long some of these things take to make…there is often a big debate on folksy about pricing and people get very heated about it.
At the end of the day, only YOU can decide which way to play it.
Whatever you choose, your work is awesome and your items are beautifully made…keep chatting and sharing…everyone here is lovely
Good Luck xx
Hi, Your shop looks great & I love your cards. As a personal option as I shopper I would want to know everything I’m getting for my money - if you say in the description that they are decorated on the inside I’d like to see this on the photos! I appreciate your concerns over giving your ideas to the competition however if they do copy your idea of decorating the inside, it’s probably better to view that as a validation of something you are doing right rather than worrying about losing your uniqueness! Your cards will still be unique as they are the only ones made by you.
It is a tough one. Even removing my labour from the equation most of my cards cost a lot to make. I use expensive materials because I want to create beautiful keepsakes that people will treasure. For example I print my papers and images onto very expensive specialty paper and cardstock using high quality ink, and I hand cut my toppers and embellishments from high quality materials. I also use high quality finishing-embellishments that I can’t make myself, eg gems and ribbons etc.
I’ve attached a picture of a card I made earlier this year for a friend to give to her sister-in-law. I don’t mind sharing how I made this card because cards featuring Disney characters are not allowed to be made and sold.
The sister-in-law loves all things Minnie Mouse so this is the design I came up with. To make Minnie, I had to work out the individual little pieces and then hand-cut each one out of different coloured cardstock and then carefully piece her together to make her 3D. That in itself took me nearly a whole day. Then I spent a good few hours creating different designs to put her onto before I got what I was happy with, then I printed the papers, hand cut all the other layers, hand cut the bows and sentiments and constructed it all together on the base card. Then I decorated both sides of the inside of the card to match the front. It had so much depth to it I then had to make a box to put it in.
Overall, it took me two full days to make the card and a lot of materials. Now imagine if I wanted to sell a card that took me two days to make - it would be an impossible price!
The other thing too is I think that it’s hard to take a really good photo of a 3D card to sell online. It’s not like having a stall at a craft fair where people can pick a card up and see exactly how much work and materials and skill has gone into making it, my photos are done on my phone and don’t do me much justice!
Folksy does try different types of advertising, including online videos, printed magazines, and Google ads. Different things will attract different customers. But you do also have to help your own type of customer find your own shop, otherwise you are in a lottery against everyone else on Folksy.
Check the “theme of the day” tags and see if any fit - for example “affordable art”, “personalised”, and “luxury” for this month.
As for your designs being copied - sad to say that if you design something lovely and unusual somebody will copy it. The cheeky ones will buy your item to study how you made it, and the really cheeky ones will return the item! But meanwhile you will have attracted people to buy your cards because there are photos of the special insides, close-up shots of quality decoration, etc
I don’t have a Pinterest account so I can’t see any pictures on there and I have never heard of anyone called Jo Parry. But I will tell you that the cat and dog cards I have made are using a paper pad I purchased from Hunkydory Crafts.
It’s very unpleasant that you are insinuating I have copied someone’s art, and I would respectfully ask that you check your facts before doing that.
I am sure that Joy is just trying to help…I know that she is a lovely lady…
I also know how long it takes to make cards, I have made and sold them myself for over 30 years…sadly you never get sufficient pay for the time spent and it always baffles me that you can make a picture (as in your Minnie mouse) and get a good price for it, but the moment you put it on card stock,. add an enveloped etc…it seems to lose value…
People will pay more for a picture than for a card…very odd…
I would never order items from HunkyDory because they are not always willing to let you buy their products and resell items made from them…oooh, I just looked at their policy which has changed (long time since I last looked) and they have an angel policy , so yes you can make and sell (limited and not mass produced items) but interestingly they won’t let you sell them on the auction site…lol
You mention Disney and so I am very aware that you know of the copyright laws…and I always wonder how they can sell so many Disney dies on the shopping channel and then tell people that they can only use them for family and friends or give them away…yet they seem to sell loads…another thing that baffles me…life can be strange…
If all the elements on your cards are individually hand cut by you then I would highlight this in your descriptions and put something like “papercut card” in your titles. At the moment it’s not clear that you haven’t just got a load of ready made embellishments and assembled them (your cutting is obviously very good quality!) and this will help potential customers understand the cost and that they’re really buying something special. I wouldn’t just say “the card takes a long time to make”, but “as each part of this card is individually cut by hand it can take a long time to make”. That’s not giving anything away to your competitors (you can’t give away that skill with a few words), but it will help your buyers understand how much work (and therefore cost) goes into each card.
I agree with @JOYSofGLASS, that when I saw your description saying the inside of the card is decorated, I was really confused why there wasn’t a photo of it. You can write it in the description, but we’ll have no idea to what extent it’s decorated or to what quality. It could be a quick messy stamp, or hours of delicate papercut work, without a photo we could imagine anything.
You say it’s the unique thing that really makes your cards stand out from the rest, but without a photo we just have to take your word for it. You’ve got something that you think is a reason potential buyers will want to pick your cards over others… but not letting them see it, so then they’re not as likely to buy it because they won’t know how wonderful and unique it is.
True competitors might see it, but would you rather have more people buying your items and possibly have someone attempt to recreate it, or no one copying but also not buying?
If you’re having trouble showing how 3D some of them are, then an additional photo at an angle might help show the depth? (particularly if it’s close up, but I understand that might not always be easy with a phone).
If you have your own website there are fees associated with it - buying your domain name, hosting fees, shopify fees ($30 a month but there might be cheaper ones), payment processing fees - and you have to work out the interface yourself (or potentially buy a template or design services), upload photos etc and make sure all the behind the scenes stuff is up to date. $30 per month is $360 per year (~£300) or the folksy plus account is £60 per year plus their commission. Assuming the payment processing fees are the same (not necessarily true but it makes the maths easier) that means folksy commission of 6% +vat (7.2% total) would need to equal £240 per year to make having your own website cheaper - that’s £3335 worth of sales. It took me several years to reach that point.
Selling through a platform such as folksy means that you do have the opportunity to sell to the people who know about the site and browse it looking for items - the majority of my sales are to these people and not ones I promote to via social media. Also since google changed its algorithm to reduce clumping (multiple hits from the same source) it is worth being on multiple different sites (including potentially your own website) so that you have a greater chance of being seen in a google search.
With respect to using commercially produced card stocks/ fabrics etc it is always worth checking that you are allowed to sell items made with them - I know fabrics made by eg Orla Kiely are labelled as ‘for personal use only’ on the selvedge meaning you can’t sell something you have made from them as Orla Kiely don’t want the items you make being mistaken for or competing with products they have made (ditto for much of disney’s stuff). Once you’ve checked that it is OK to use card stocks/ fabrics/ whatever then it might be worth name checking the designer as it could attract sales from people who are fans of the designer and indicate your use of premium materials.
This posting has taken a really dark turn. I originally wanted to know how Folksy advertises itself because I had never heard of it before I joined a few days ago.
The topic has since gone from “where does Folksy advertise itself” to me having to justify why my cards take so long and cost so much to make, and then to what feels like veiled accusations from @CraftedByEcho and @JOYSofGLASS that I am infringing the copyright of someone I’ve never heard of.
I am very open and receptive to positive advice and guidance such as showing photos of the insides of my cards etc, but personal attacks without any basis whatsoever, really sting.
Personal attacks? Veiled accusation? I asked you if your graphics were yours because you made the statement that you make and design from scratch…if you did it could justify the price. Joy, who is a wealth of information and a lovely woman here gave you some free and valuable advice about your pictures and prices. You are concerned of people stealing your work. The work on the left is yours. The work on the right is made by another crafter who owns her own website. Yours is £9.99 and hers is £4.99. @JOYSofGLASS gave you good advice, I simply asked you a question that you ignored.
Poppy Kay I wholeheartedly apologise if you thought I was insulting you or are in any way offended. I will remove the above comment just to say so.
What I was really trying to say, but hurriedly as I actually have quite a lot of work of my own to get on with…is that many of the cards on here are the shop owner’s own art albeit painting, drawing, embroidery and this clearly shows in the description on the listings.
Most do not bother to make any fuss about copyright, just take it as a given as I do with my hundreds of unique designs. Your listings give no indication as to the source of your artwork so I curiously ( sorry but I can be a nosy B ) Googled a couple of the images and they did indeed appear.
As you purchased them from the card supplies place then they must of course be correctly licensed so not a problem. So sorry again I had no wish or intention to offend just wanted to be clear .
Thanks Joy, I really appreciate that and I accept your apology.
I have a mix of different types of supplies that I have accrued or made myself over the years, some going back more than 15 years. So I have a huge mix of different types of cards, some made with bits and pieces that I purchased from craft suppliers which I’ve turned into my own designs, and others made with embellishments etc that I have created from scratch.
I am very familiar with the law around copyright and would never steal someone’s artwork or images or do anything even remotely like that. I am an individual and I strive to make unique things.
@CraftedByEcho has put up a picture of one of my cards (that I actually made three years ago!) and a picture of a card someone else has made using a similar scene. I wasn’t going to dignify the post with a response, but I will. The two cards are similar in that they are using a similar scene (a red breasted robin on a snowy bird bath), but they are completely different in design and therefore each card is unique, not a copy. I have used a different background to put my 3D scene on, a great deal more additional design and elements that I cut from expensive materials and the inside is decorated with a matching insert. Since I don’t know where @CraftedByEcho copied the other person’s picture from I don’t know whether the inside is decorated or not in their card. The point is, the two cards look nothing like each other. We have each taken a similar scene and created two very different designs.
It must have taken @CraftedByEcho a long time trawling the internet to find a card similar to one of mine, so I’m going to take that as flattery. And regarding the price difference I would also pose the question - if someone was presented with both of these cards without knowing the price, which one do you think would they prefer to buy/receive?
As I said in my last message, this posting has turned from “where does Folksy advertise itself” to someone feeling they need to trawl the internet to try to find cards identical to mine, so I am going to go and get on with making my cards.
Thank you to you and everyone else who has encouraged me with good advice about my photos and descriptions which I have taken on board.
In fact, it took less than a minute. I will ignore your insulting tone. Your statement “it’s not just the cost of the materials but also my time in coming up with the design and then making all the elements from scratch” leads us to believe you design it all. And you do not. And that’s absolutely fine! Your assembled cards are lovely, but just at least be honest when someone is offering you good advice. Good luck with your shop.
Hi @konyskiw thanks for your good advice too. I’ve just listed a new card with photos of the inside and a better description. I would be interested in your feedback on whether the listing is an improvement. My photos aren’t in the best lighting but there’s only so much I can do with a phone!
I’d suggest using the variations option so that there is a text box that customers have to fill in with their desired initial before they can complete the order that way you won’t have to chase them before you can make it. I’d also like to see a photo of the card standing up.
Not sure if anyone has pointed you in the direction of the folksy blog - there are some really good articles on how to tag your items so that they show up in searches. You can use multiple words in tags eg ‘steampunk birthday card’ and if someone searches for ‘steampunk birthday card’ an item tagged with that phrase as one tag will rank higher than something tagged with ‘steampunk’ and ‘birthday card’. Here’s a link to the blog http://blog.folksy.com/category/seller-tips/product-listing-tips (there are also sections on how to do product photography with your phone and how to set up variations).
) Googled a couple of the images and they did indeed appear.