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Dutch Dwellings: Etsy tips and the selling of Dutch houses

During my trip to the US, I met the loveliest fellow Etsy’ers. Amongst them were Elles Lanfer and Saskia de Winter. Both Dutchies, living abroad in California.
(sigh… California!)

Saskia had just delivered a baby (three weeks old!) when I met her. And still she took the time to see me and share her advice on being successful on Etsy!

ellen vesters etsy

From all the inspiring conversations I had, I gathered the following Etsy tips:

  • Say goodbye to the fear of being commercial. Try to identify with Etsy buyers, investigate what they are looking for and adjust your listings to this knowledge
  • People tend to look for gifts when cruising Etsy. Make products, not only prints!
  • Popular products are products that tell a story, for instance about your city or country
  • Work on your photography skills, good product photography makes all the difference (still working on this one…)
  • Get over your wedding allergies (thankfully this intimate wedding did the job)! Weddings pay the bills!
  • Make sure your shop looks full, have a large array of products ready for people to choose from, but still retain a simple (visually quiet) and cohesive look overall
  • Be open to customizing, and tell your crowd about this option!
  • And then for a good-old-sneaky-commercial-thinking-bastard-trick: use Statsy Clockbot for regular relisting to get more views

 

All this resulted in me deleting all my old stuff from my shop and putting in new prints, but also my first product: Dutch Dwellings, or “Hollandse Huisjes”. You can now buy five varieties of little Dutch houses, each representing another Dutch city (Leiden, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Volendam and Lutjebroek). More versions to come!

And guess what… they have been blogged about already! I am so proud.
As well as very happy that there are people out there that are doing a much better job at product photography than I am…!

(the Dutch Dwellings, or Hollandse Huisjes, are for sale at my Etsy shop: ellenvesters.etsy.com).

 

Oh Marie:

ohmarie dutch houses

Enter my Attic:

ellen vesters dutch houses

 Mintstudio Creations:

ellen vesters dutch houses

Zilverblauw:

zilverblauw dutch houses

zilverblauw dutch houses

Retro weddingcard frontpage at Etsy International!

Wow…! So happy that jewelry artist Barbera Ploeg was so kind to inform me I was featured on the Etsy International FB Page today…

Twice!

Once with my Golden-Oldie retro weddingcard (http://on.fb.me/J3TTz0) and once with the special postcard stand featuring 15 Dutch Etsy Illustrators at the Amsterdam Museum, also featuring an old favourite: the bearded man! (http://on.fb.me/KOIeVU)

 

retro weddingcard by ellen vesters illustrator graphic designer

 

not so perfect people beard man by ellen vesters illustrator graphic designer

 

Etsy Open

Maybe you have already heard me shouting it out on facebook:

 

Etsy NL is opening their doors in september!

 

They will be doing this in collaboration with Open | makers on the market.

This month Dutch Etsy entrepeneurs can be found in a cute pop-up store in Leiden, where we will sell our stuff, and give workshops.

Definitely worth a visit (eg to find delicate, simple lamps by Studio Snowpuppe, upcycled design by Babongo, and the coolest illustrations by Marloes Kroeze and the always admired Kim Welling). It’s a wonderful chance to get acquainted with the Etsy community outside the digital highways.

 

Come and meet me there!

 

 

My work on the wall behind the counter: