time saving hints for etsy sellers

This great portable crafting hint comes courtesy of a thread by littleputbooks who worked out how to save listings to finish at a later date. I use it when I have lots fo free computer time to stack listings up for days when I'm running on empty (as most of the summer holidays seems to be right now!).

Basically all you do is complete all the listing steps up until the final page, and then instead of hitting 'Finish' and seeing your listing go live you bookmark it! Then when you are ready to make the listing 'live' all you do is pull up your bookmarked url, and hit 'Finish'. The listing appears at the right place in the category page and is available for buyers to see. Simple!

Littleput's suggestion is to make the bookmarks portable by emailing them to yourself and then copy/pasting the url of each listing into the browser bar to complete the process. Mine are static as I just bookmark them on my computer in Internet Explorer or Mozilla but I'm thinking of using my Google Home Page bookmark widget to keep them too as occasionally I use a laptop rather than the desktop around the house (ooh luxury!)

Read all about it here.

there are some jobs which are not portable ....

guest model, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

.... and product photography is one of them!

I have a window ledge set up as my photographic studio. It's north facing so the light is usually bright but diffused even on sunny days. I use a piece of vellum to further diffuse the light over the item. This can work really well or flop about and be a total pain! Photographic sessions can also be accompanied by lots of swearing - another reason to only attempt them when the wee guy is out of the house.

Taking product shots takes (me) a long time. I click, I run to the computer with my batch, upload, check and re-shoot as neccessary.

.... and then there's the editing! Once I'm pleased with the pictures I settle down in front of the screen, notepad in hand, jotting down the files of the images I want to use.

Then it's off to the photo editing software. I use PhotoStudio 2000, a program which came with my scanner and it's worked well so far. I also have the Adobe Photoshop thing and have downloaded GIMP but just haven't had the time to play with and familiarise myself. One new program I am spending more time with is the Flickr-associated Picnik which is also available for free download as well as within Flickr (NB: you can now batch upload into Picnik for editing at the same time as Flickr Uploading!). I like its 'intuitiveness' as it means I won't have to spend ages working out how to complete my task list, and I like the results. There are lots of special effects!

Photo editing isn't really a portable task either but I am a little more mobile within the home since acquiring a new laptop and wireless internetting! If you see me lazing on the deck I'm probably lazing with the laptop these days.

Every little helps!

Portable crafting hits the beach @ Barnet Marine Park. Fun in the sunshine for all. Just don't tip your beads in the sand!

Portable crafting hits the beach @ Barnet Marine Park. Fun in the sunshine for all. Just don't tip your beads in the sand!, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

Portable crafting hits the beach @ Barnet Marine Park. Fun in the sunshine for all. Just don't tip your beads in the sand!

Portable crafting hits the beach @ Barnet Marine Park. Fun in the sunshine for all. Just don't tip your beads in the sand!, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.