Tag: life

Posted in life, My Etsy journedy, Thoughts, Trying to build a business, Uncategorized

Sometimes I Feel so Inept: Starting a Shop on Etsy

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

Its 8 days into November, almost the middle of the much hyped quarter 4 and my heart is on the floor. I have been listening to You Tube videos about Etsy, and hearing how this or that item has had 20, 30, even 260 sales in the last couple of days, or how this person was able to use the brand new Everbee email that connects to Etsy to not only collect over a hundred new subscribers and make over 500 dollars in sales on one campaign. Meanwhile, after pushing myself to the breaking, my shop is full of loudly chirping crickets, and I fell like an inept, useless, daydreaming fool.

I do not know if it is my lack of design skills, my poor understanding of how to write a product description, my choice of keywords, heavy use of budget friendly mock ups, or all of the above; but it could be the middle of summer instead of nearly the middle of the most longed for quarter of the year. After so many weeks of hoping, planing, prepping, and doing all in my power to make this season a big success, and yet I have not made even 1 sale this month.

I have had some of the You Tube videos that talked about how popular the something, something, repeat style design was so I thought I would give it a puzzle themed twist. I do not know if it is the font, keywords, or my budget friendly mock up, but for me this design has proven to be a flop.

Talk about the ups and downs, especially the downs of having an Etsy shop. I was so sure that now that I had a few POD items, and had even made my own puzzle version of some of the designs that were currently popular like my Thankful for Sudoku, Cozy Puzzle Season, and Farm Fresh Pumpkin Mazes that this year was going to be at least a little bit better than last year. Besides introducing a line t-shirts and sweatshirts, I had added mugs, totes, tumblers, and even a couple of glass cutting boards and an apron.

Besides listing multiple t-shirt and sweatshirts, I had created some fun puzzle designs, including an adorable series of animal detectives, that would make great, kid friendly gifts.

After watching dozens of hours of Etsy videos, researching keywords, and searching for a few popular demands to tweak to my niche, I thought for sure I had started to learn something. That my knowledge base was growing, and I was finally starting to get a slight hand on how to improve my Etsy shop. But after today, after hearing about all those sales, I feel like I am still back at step one.

No, make that step negative 1,000 or even 1,000,000. Yup, that sounds about right. 8 days into what is supposed to be one of the busiest months of the year, having more than doubled my listings from this time last year, and not 1 sale, and it really feels like instead of gaining the knowledge needed to move forward, I some how managed to lose what little I had and fall off a cliff.

Deep down I know this feeling is due to taking my eyes off how far I have come and instead focusing on others. But as much as they say don’t compare yourself with others, that is almost impossible to do.Its impossible to watch an Etsy tutorial where someone talks about how they did this, designed that, listed that, advertised this way, created xy sale, and made hundreds of dollars, without comparing your hibernating snail progress to their glowing accounts of how much they tutored this person or that person to making hundreds of dollars a month, without wondering what is wrong with you.

No mater how educational the video, it is hard to repeatedly hear the success of others, and compare your stagnate state and think that you must be the most inept, thick brained person on the planet who will never learn what it takes to move their shop forward. But eventually, I know, that if I keep trying, a sale will come, and hope will spring up again.

If you are thinking about starting your own Etsy journey, click this link to get 40 free Etsy listings. https://etsy.me/3MhfyfA

Click here, if you would like to check out my Etsy shop.

Posted in life, Thoughts, Trying to build a business, Uncategorized

Beware of Emotionally Counting Your Chickens Before They Hatch When it Comes to Your Etsy Shop

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

At this moment I am not sure if I consider the old adage of never count your chickens before they hatch to be wiser than I thought or more frustrating than I can ever imagine. Because since I started my journey on KDP and Etsy, I have found it to be both. On the one hand it has repeatedly proven itself to be true, which has become a source of intense frustration.

Month after month it has felt like there is some unseen rule that stated that with only a couple of exceptions, my shop could only get 1 sale a month. For my first year, except for 1 month where I got no sales, 1 month where I got 3, and another where I got 6 the rule did not deviate. So far for my second year that number has been bumped up to a mind boggling 3 sales.

And like last year, there was a thrilling month where the numbers suddenly spiked and I got 8 budget saving sales. I remember how excited I was that month as for a short time I got a sale every 3 1/2 days. For a few weeks I was able to open my laptop with a sense of eager expectation. Every time I got a sale I would pull out my calculator and crunched the numbers to determine how many visits I would need before I would get a sale with that new conversion rate and how much I might earn after Etsy fees if I got x amount of visitors a month divided by the number of visits needed to translate into a sale with my current conversion rate.

Yes, it was a bad thing to do, it went against every rule I had set for myself. But after the first 3 or 4 sales, I began to dream what I would do with so many sales. I let myself imagine how this sudden boost in sales would slowly but steadily snowball from making enough sales to cover Etsy listing fees, then adds, then an etsy Seo aid like Everbee and Erank, to a program that let me sell custom products like Hello Custom, then the paid version of Canva, etc until I not only could pay for my business expenses, but all my other expenses and a few wants as well.

Oh how hard it was when the next month came and I got more views than I had ever gotten, yet my sales plummeted back to the seemingly newly set in stone 3 sales a month. What a bitter pill it was to realize, that even though I had told myself that I would never allow myself to do so, I had counted my eggs before they hatched, and as usual, it was a big fat zero.

That month I promised myself I would not let it happen again. But then came all the videos talking about Q4 and all the holiday sales that come with it. Last year, had not been very amazing. I only had a handful of digital download puzzles. I think that at the peak of Q4 or quarter 4 I had a total of 40 or 50 listings so it was not a big surprise that q4 went by with only a small bump of 2 extra sales.

But after watching all those videos, and realizing that this year I had added a variety of POD items such as puzzles, t-shirts, and mugs, I began to feel very excited. While my digital download puzzles and coloring pages had appealed to those who were traveling or looking for some project to keep their young holiday guest busy, there had been nothing that would appeal to someone looking for the perfect gift to give a loved one or a friend.

But this year was different. Thanks to the addition of POD items like puzzles and mugs, I now had a growing collection of gift-able items. And after watching hours of videos of people talking about how they would make more in Q4 than any other time of the year, sometimes making in those 3 months as much as they had made all year long, I was overflowing with excitement. Because I had worked slowly and steadily throughout the year, my collection of 40 or 50 items had more than doubled.

Continue reading “Beware of Emotionally Counting Your Chickens Before They Hatch When it Comes to Your Etsy Shop” →
Posted in Faith, life, Religion, Thoughts, Uncategorized

Discouragement: Choosing to Be a Joseph or a Murmuring Israelite

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

If I were to write a poem right now the title would probably be discouragement. It would certainly sum up the mood of the day. Not only for me, but for my business as well.

Here we are, nearly a month into Quarter 4 and after weeks of pushing myself to the breaking, I made 3 whole sells on Etsy for $18 dollars. I know what you are thinking, how will I ever manage to spend so much money. A new car, a house, a vacation, or all of the above? Ha ha, it really is enough to take the wind right out of one’s sales.

I know that I have a way to go to develop really good designing skills, but even though I did not expect a rush on my products, I had hoped that at least 1 or 2 of my designs might get a couple of sales. I was sure that some, like my Turkey’s protesting Against Thanksgiving and insisting that you should play Sudoku instead was not only colorful but humorous as well.

Sadly, even though my Mother helped me to purchase a mockup to give it more appeal, it has gone over as well as bag of potatoes filled with bricks.

If that were not discouraging enough, in a few days we have to move from our temporary rental, and we still have to find a new place to move too. And between the holidays and the arrival of the winter birds there is a good chance that we could find ourselves on the street.

It is hard to believe that when we put our home on the market almost 1 year ago, there were multiple homes in our price range. Even more amazing, it is hard to believe that at the time, interest rates were low enough that we could get a house for $300,000 and it would have cost less per month than the house we were living in. Why at the time we put our house for sell, there was a 4/3 manufactured home on 3 acres for $180,000 that we were hoping to get once the house sold.

But fast forward a couple of months to when our house finally sold, and it was as if a vacuum had come along and sucked up every descent price home and then spit out a bunch of higher priced fixer uppers. Almost overnight anything that was descent disappeared from our price range or shot up in price along with the interest rates. Before we sold there were dozens of halfway descent places under $250,000 and even some under the 180,000 mark. Then our house sold and their were only a handful of fixer uppers remained. It has been six months since we sold our home and 4 since we had to move out into one temporary rental after another, and the market has become even bleaker. Now, with the our down payment dwindling and the competition for housing rising, it seems as if it will not be long before my mother, sister, and I shall soon be homeless.

As each day brings us closer and closer to this possibility, I find myself pondering the story of the Israelite and their years of wandering in the wilderness. From the day beginning, as we moved from our house to house with the remains of my beloved father and a few weeks later placed the remains of our sweet pup Happy by his side, I was reminded of how all through their wilderness wanderings they had carried the remains of Joseph.

Continue reading “Discouragement: Choosing to Be a Joseph or a Murmuring Israelite” →
Posted in life, Medical, My Etsy journedy, Thoughts, Trying to build a business, Uncategorized

Enduring the Hidden Drop of the Etsy Roller Coaster

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

I have been trying all morning to create a post about the struggle of trying to build an Etsy shop while dealing with poor health and a slumping economy. There is so much I could say now that I have passed the 1st year mark with my shop about the importance of listening to old adage of if it is not broke don’t fix it, the importance of listening your body and knowing when to give your body the rest it needs, accepting that not everyone will be an overnight success, and more.

But today my brain is just to tired to focus. As much as I would love to write an article saying that if you just think positive there is delay or disaster that will stress you. But that is not true.

Like it or not there are days that you will wake up and say to yourself, what am I doing? Why am I even trying when nothing I do work? And you will be tempted to give up. And strangely enough, some of those days might come the day after you make a sale.

Sure there are going to be many great days when your mind will be full of hopes and dreams. Dreams that are bolstered by the remission of your symptoms and encouraged by a few sales. Like a well designed roller-coaster, there will be a period of steady climb with only a few mild dips that are perfect for lulling you into a false sense of confidence before a blind turn reveals a stomach shattering dip.

With a new high of 8 sales, July was one of those months. Finally after months of getting only with 1 sale and only 3 months where I got 2 or 3 sales, my slow but steady work was starting to paying off. With a few sales now behind me, and more than a hundred and fifty listings, my business was on the cusp of taking off as each new listing, sale, and the occasional review only adding to the growing momentum. With each sale I was calculating the conversion ratio to estimate what my sales would look like if I got x amount of visits and how may visits it would take to pass the next mile marker of 10 sales per month.

After such an exciting month I was eager to see the progress that August would bring. Now that I had close to 160 listings, 30 sales, and 2 reviews, surely I was set to see my biggest month ever with 9, 10, or even 11 plus sales. And from the amount of traffic, which was 4 times the amount of my normal traffic, it seemed like that hope was going to become a reality. Day by day I eagerly looked at my inbox hoping to receive a message from Etsy letting me know that this massive (at least for me), influx of traffic had converted into sales. Morning after morning I woke up filled with hope, eager to see how much money I had made overnight, only to be met with disappointment.

Continue reading “Enduring the Hidden Drop of the Etsy Roller Coaster” →
Posted in life, Thoughts, Uncategorized

Tired in Bone

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

Tired in bone is definitely the sentiment of the day. After weeks of pushing our bodies to the breaking point as we struggled to move all of our belongings into storage, my body is desperate to curl up in a ball and not move for at least a month. The problem is that in spite of the deep fatigue, the barrage of problems has not given us a break.

For the first few days after moving I was in so much pain that I could not bare to move. The effort to stand or sit nearly caused me to scream from the intense pain. But before I could recuperate from that misery before our little dog Happy became so ill that we had to rush him to the emergency vet. Not only was he not eating, but he his temperature had spiked to 104.5 and his sugar was back up into the 400’s. We arrived at the emergency vet by 6PM and did not get home until nearly 3AM.

But worse than the exhaustion of a night of almost no sleep, was the fact that we had to leave Happy at the clinic because he had bacterial hepatitis and the doctor was not sure if he would make it. For the next 2 days we were constantly gathering in prayer, pleading with God for Happy’s life. Thankfully he pulled through and they sent us home with antibiotic and told us to visit his vet the next day to have him tested for Cushings disease.

Long story short we were relieved to learn it was Cushings because the alternative C word was not what we wanted to hear. The good news was in a few days with a few pills Happy would be feeling more like his old self. And the cloud that had hung over our head was ready to evaporate and we could get back to the important business of finding a place to live.

Last week was a very scary week for Happy as he spent the whole week fighting for his life. But praise the Lord who answered our prayer and granted us more time with our precious bundle of fluff.

Nope, two pills later and we were rushing Happy to the vet due to an adrenal crisis. Not only was this bad news because Happy was once again fighting for his life, but it meant that there is a high likely hood that Happy has the big C, and no one knows how long he has.

His condition was so bad that the vet warned us that he might not survive the night, but if he did he needed to come back early in the morning so she could continue the fight for his life. Needless to say any thought of moving was moved to the background as we once again gathered in prayer for our little pup.

The funny thing was, that while the vet felt Happy had a high chance of not making it through the night, the moment I saw him I had peace that he was going to make it through the night. But even with that peace, I knew that the danger was far from over. So at every change we prayed that if it was for God’s glory, that he would bring Happy through the crisis.

The next day was hard. Once more we had to leave Happy at the vet and spend the day waiting to find out if Happy was going to survive. The good news is that to the vet’s surprise, Happy made it. With a smile she declared it a miracle, telling us that she really thought he was so bad that he was not going to make it. With joy I declared that we had been praying for him.

Happy is not out of the woods completely. He is still a rather sick pup. His liver enzymes were through the roof thanks to the hepatitis, and he is on prednisone to help with his reaction to the cushing meds. And the growing concern that he has cancer is still hanging over his head. But he is hungry again, his fever is down, and he is walking, all things which were not true this time last week. We do not know how long he has, but thankfully the Lord heard our prayer and granted us the precious gift of more time.

Now that the stress of moving out and Happy’s life hanging in the balance has subsided, our energy has dissipated. And like the poem, we find ourselves tired in bone and tired in spirit. And for some much needed rest we plead so that we can get the energy to pick up and continue the seemingly impossible task of finding a place to live.

Posted in Dog, life, Thoughts, Videos

Happy and Grandpa Having Fun My First Attempt at Making a YouTube Short

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

I was watching a video about increasing Etsy sales, and someone mentioned that they used Youtube shorts to help advertise their items. I had already been mulling the idea of making a short, and decided that now was the time to learn. Since I had absolutely no idea how to make one, I decided to make a few practice videos using some of Happy’s old footage to see how it works.

I found an old video of my father playing with Happy. The video is short, but dear to my heart as at it is one of the last clips of my father sitting up looking energetic and so Happy. Sadly, after he fell and broke two of his ribs his health was never the same. Thankfully we got a few more years with him, but every time that I see a clip like this I long for those hard, but comforting days when I had all my loved ones close. And I cannot help but long for the day when we will all be together again. That feeling has definitely been heightened after a tough week where it seems like everything that can go wrong, is going wrong and many things have happened to create a great uncertainty about the future.

Yet even in all this God has been gracious and granted us comfort. I can watch this video with tears in my heart because I miss my father, yet I can also have great joy as with deep longing I look forward to the happiness of the resurrection morning when Jesus will call my father and so many other loved ones from their resting place. With a great shout He will call his sleeping servants from their dusty beds, transformed into his pure image, never again to come under the dominion of pain, suffering, sickness, or death. Oh how I long for that hour when the dead in Christ shall rise first and then we who are alive shall join them.

Oh how I desire to be part of that rejoicing throng. How I pray that I will let the Lord cut, prune, and weed out every sin from my heart so that I will hear the blessing, “Well done my good and faithful servant” and my heart will leap with joy to know that I have been counted worthy to sing the song of the Lamb, and spend the rest of eternity thanking my Savior for his unbelievable sacrifice so that my sins, the sins of my loved ones, and all who desire could be washed cleaned. So that we could once again walk the streets of gold, eat from the tree of life, and have an endless lifetime to make and enjoy more memories with our loved ones.

I hope that as you watch this short little clip of my father and Happy playing together that you will not only recollect some of your dearest memories, but that the prayer of your heart would be to except God’s great gift and that nothing this world offer would stand between you and becoming a part of that rejoicing throng.

Posted in Bible Puzzles, Faith, Find the Difference, Fun Puzzles, life, Thoughts

Sabbath Afternoon Fun: Find 3 Difference Romans 5:6-8

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

I hope that you are having a Sabbath afternoon. And that you are enjoying this chance to learn better how to keep your heart rested in the promises of God. I know how hard this lesson is to learn, but before the last great battle we must learn this lesson fully if we hope to stand. Yet learning this much needed lesson is painful.

Currently God is teaching our family this lesson. Between the death of my father and the change in the economy our house became too expensive for our tiny budget to support so we had to sell the house. In the months leading up to our home going up for sell the market was full of good homes at a price we could handle. But within days of our house going on the market most of the homes were gone. But every so often a seemingly good home would appear. But as soon as our house sold and we could finally put in a bid, the competition became so fierce that there were times I found a potential home in the morning and before I could show my mother and sister a few hours later, it was sold.

Over and over we would call about a home to find out it was already pending, or after a few days of discussion and prayer we would decide that it was time to call the realtor to see the home, and it was gone. The first few times we were not worried, but after days turned into weeks, and the time to move drew dangerously near, we began to worry. Finally we decided that we would have to put our house hunting on hold and find a place to rent. But to our dismay we found out that even though we will have the money to rent a home for a year while looking for a new house, because our income is too low, we cannot find a home to rent.

Now we are only days away from having to leave our home, and we still have no place to move too and no idea where we are going to put our belongings or how we will move them since none of us have the health or strength needed to move hundred of boxes or heavy furniture. It is a very unnerving position to be in. One that I would not wish upon another. Living on the street is hard for someone in good health, but for a diabetic dog who requires refrigerated insulin and three sickly women, it is a potential death sentence.

I wish that we could say that we have reached this point without questioning or murmuring. Our trust in God so complete that like Peter we can fall into a sleep so deep that even the glory of an angel in our room cannot wake us. But that would be a commandment breaking stretch. At times our blood pressure has reached dangerous levels, our nerves have gotten so taunt that we had to apologize for our tense and irritated words, and at moments the fear has become so strong that we could not help but with tears wonder if God had abandoned us.

Yet at the same time, after gathering in prayer to ask for God’s strength and help, peace filled our hearts. While we were worried, our trust in God outweighed that fear to the point that smiles replaced tears as our minds were pointed to all the ways that God had helped us in the past. Promises from God’s word were recalled to our minds and as our trembling hands reached out to grasp them, He made us stronger.

At this moment we cannot fully say where God is leading us or why He has chosen to take us down this frightful path, we have no clue if we will have another roof to go to when we leave this home or if the car will become our new home, but we can say that God has been faithful to His word and is holding our hand. Here and there doing little things to prove that He taking care of us and to help strengthen our trust in Him.

It is my hope that for whatever future test God is preparing us for, we will prove faithful. That in some way this test of our faith, of painful muscle building, will not only draw us closer, but will in some way become such a testimony to others that it will help others to find the courage to stand firm and bring others to the Lord.

As you enjoy today’s find the difference verse about God’s love for sinful man, it is my prayer that God will help you to hide this verse in your heart. So when your test of faith comes, you will have the words of love and hope that you will need to help encourage your faith and to be a light to your feet keeping them from falling off the narrow path that leads to light.

Posted in Bible Puzzles, Fun Puzzles, Word Searches

Sabbath Afternoon Fun:Bible Quiz Word Search Edition Psalms 139:13-14

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

Happy Sabbath. I know that I am feeling extra grateful for the Sabbath right now as things have been rather crazy around here. Our house is sold and we have to find a new home within the next few days, but it seems like as soon as our house sold the market dried up. It is a very discouraging situation, but we are determined to put our trust in God as we lift our voice in prayer and pleading to Him multiple times a day.

During this time of stress it is a great blessing to be able to put aside the stress of house hunting and simply commune with God. How wonderful it is to have a day where the stress of this life can be laid aside for a few hours, yet still able to lift up our petitions to His compassionate ear.

May you find rest from your burdens this Sabbath day and know the pleasure of laying all your cares and worries upon Him.

Posted in Fun Puzzles, Thoughts, Uncategorized, Word Searches

19 Sales and Learning the Lesson to Leave Well Enough Alone

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

Ten months into my Etsy journey and I have made 19 hard earned sales. For months at a time it seems like there is an unwritten rule that I can only make 1 sale a month, no matter how many visitors come to my shop. Then, thankfully, there is a month like this one, where I get a slight boost and make 3 sales, and then back to crickets for weeks.

So, after listening to some You Tube videos, I have been trying to work on improving SEO and making a few changes to some of my pictures that I felt could use a better background. I still have a long way to go to make the needed improvements. But one lesson that I quickly learned, thanks in part to some mistakes that I have made in the past on KDP, is that the saying leave well enough alone or if its not broke, don’t fix it, is a very important saying for your Etsy shop.

If a listing is doing well, don’t tamper with it. After making a couple of changes to a listing that was doing fairly well, and experiencing a sudden slow down (you think I would have learned my lesson from KDP), I heard some very valuable advice from an Etsy youtuber. If you want to see if you can improve it, and there is another category that it can go under, make a copy, change the first picture, and make one or two tweaks so you know if the changes you made improved your listing or hurt it. Kind of like an A B testing at the optometrist office where the doctor ask if you see better with A or B or they are both about the same.

For now, since I do not get many sales, if my listing recently had a sale or two, I leave well enough alone and give that listing a chance. That way I do not sabotage a listing that might have taken off, but thanks to my tweaking instead ends up sinking like a lead balloon. Instead, if I want to make changes, I will see if I can add it to another category and make a change or two and hope and pray that at last one of my listing will take off and I can stop spending months wondering who wrote the invisible rule that I can only get 1 sale a month even if if it is only for$2

If by any chance you are looking for some fun word games, then you might enjoy my Fun Word Games Digital Download Activity Pack, Word Search Puzzles, DecoderRing, Word Scrambles, Alphabet Soup, Zigzag Puzzles, Anagrams, pack.

Posted in life, Thoughts, Uncategorized

Another Important Lesson for Trying to Start Your Own Business: One Hundred Percent Effort Does Not Always Equal Success

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

How many times have we been told that effort is the secret to success. Your grades are slipping all you need to do is study harder. You want a promotion at work just work harder. You need to take off a few pounds, diet better and workout harder. No matter the problem, the answer to all your problems is to give your 110% effort and like magic, all your problems will be solved.

Well this might be true if the reason for your few extra pounds was that extra slice of cake or two that you liked to indulge in after a hard day, and not a hormone problem. If your grades were slipping because you were not completing your homework and forgoing that needed hour of study in favor of hanging out with friends or binge watching your favorite You Tube channel and not because you had an undiagnosed learning disability like dyslexia that made it hard for you to understand what you were reading. As much as we want to believe that effort always means success, there are areas of life where we can work our fingers to the bone, only to fall short of the mark. But what about things that you have absolutely no control over, like how many people buy your books or from your Etsy shop?

We can spend hours creating the perfect shop banner and creating professional looking designs, take pictures that look like they belong in magazine, and have all the right keywords and yet the success we seek may remain a step our two out of our reach. Our little shop might seem like it is about to take off when changes to the algorithm brings our rising graph crashing downward for days and even weeks. Sickness could put such a damper upon our effort that a car without gas being pushed uphill by the father of knew born with colic and a bad case of the flu looks like a blaze of glory compared to our empty tank of energy.

Or after spending months preparing products, creating photos, and trying to brainstorm tags, and mere days after celebrating the opening of our shop, we can wake up to the fearful news that interest rates are rising, stores are closing, banks are failing, and the economy is on the brink of a financial disaster not seen since the great depression. Bringing the traffic in your shop to a slow drip instead of a quiet but steady stream.

Yet for all of that, there is something satisfying knowing that even though your dreams of financial greatness did not come to pass, or have been put on an extra long hold, that you have given it your all. That you have done all in your power to learn, grow, and work towards your dream. Because

So if you have a dream that you believe is worth giving your all, what are you waiting for? Who knows what you can do or where you will go if once you pick up your feet and begin the journey of a thousand miles. There are no guarantees that you will become the millionaire of your dreams, a doctor, a best selling doctor, etc. But one thing is for certain, a hope never pursued will forever remain a dream.

Click here to check out these fun designs about how 100 percent effort does not always equal success.