Grow your Business

I’ve been painting in watercolor for several years and successfully monetized selling my work through Etsy and my own website. In all honesty, I’ve never thought it a priority to seal my watercolors. However – it’s worth knowing how to seal a watercolor painting, as the colors do fade with time. Like me, you might have several piles of discounted work, bad paper choices, and mistakes, which would be a waste of money to protect, but If you plan on storing your work for the long term – you should seal your watercolor artwork to give it…

Engaging in creative activities is an experience many people try to check off their bucket lists. You can do the activity indoors and outdoors — mainly when your chosen activity is watercolor painting. A group of family and friends can enjoy watercolor painting together. Arts and crafts are beneficial for both kids and adults — painting provides people with learning and healing. Aside from being a recreational activity, painting is food for the brain — your cognitive skills are enhanced by conceptualizing ideas and learning various painting techniques. Daily watercolor painting engagement can result in mastering the…

When I started painting in watercolor, I simply chose the best paper I could afford at the time with the prettiest label. (Kind of how I still choose Wine in the supermarket) And that’s how I carried on until I noticed the paint didn’t work the same on all papers. Choosing the best paper for your watercolor painting can take you anything from 1-100 paintings before you genuinely decide this is the paper for you. Once you have done this – you will stop buying paper because you like the packaging. To find the most appropriate watercolor…

You can find a hobby in different things — the best way to spend leisure time and develop a particular skill. Creative activities such as Rock Painting are wonderful hobbies for kids and adults, but where can you find Rocks to paint? Art is indeed physically, emotionally, and mentally stimulating. More so when you bond with your loved ones and enjoy the activity in a fun way. People are finding great ways to express art through the years, and the rock painting was one of those discoveries. Who would’ve thought that a natural element could be an…

Have you ever thought about how creative people become creative, and is it something they can turn on and off at will? Learning how to be creative is simple if you can let go of your inhibitions and just be you. New ideas are sometimes not great, but hard work and spending the time to tap your creative thinking can be a bit of a journey some days. It is not always easy to be inspirational when life throws many curve balls, especially if you have family and work full time. But here are few ideas for…

Many of us have discovered that prioritizing family and home life might not be as far-off an idea as a few years ago. A new market for self-employed is on the horizon. If returning to pot plants and white lighting isn’t for you, there are fortunately many options if you want to earn money from home. Working from home means that we can still be super effective at Emails, direct messages, voice calls, and video calls and still maintain our sanity because we are getting better and better at combining these with our daily lives. Not forgetting,…

If you are struggling to get any sales on Etsy, it could be that your potential buyers are hanging out on social networks you haven’t tried yet. There are many ways you can use social media to promote your Etsy shop and this post will help get you started. Imagine if you could set up your social media marketing once and forget it. The best return on investment when it comes to social media is to learn one platform really well – then set it up in a way that still achieves what you want, but with…

Managing an Etsy shop is not as easy, even if your products are in demand and you have consistent sales. On the other hand, it’s pretty tough for many of us to get sorted, this is why Organizing your workflow in Etsy should be a priority. For some, this is easier than actually completing the order, for others (hands up), it’s the most significant barrier to creating a business you love and enjoy.  We have to work fast and accurately to ensure that each order and inquiry receive the attention they need.  If you haven’t started an…

Why you should move to Flodesk My review of Flodesk, the new email service provider, is taking the online world of internet marketing by storm. It’s easy to navigate, wonderfully intuitive, and is breaking the barriers of annoying emails. Here is why I moved from Convertkit to Flodesk. Note: This post has been updated in July 2021. I felt that Flodesk has moved on significantly enough to warrant an update. In this post, I will cover why I moved from Convertkit to Flodesk, How much Flodesk costs, and what features Flodesk has. I’ll also cover why I…

As an Etsy shop seller of Digital prints, I’ll be the first to admit that digital sales are not the ‘win-all’ game-changer people claim they are. But you can make some serious money if you follow a few rules. How can you quickly increase your sales on Etsy without breaking into your piggy bank? Here is a quick list of some of the things I recommend you do to gain a little traction in the sea of sequins. My shop, Once upon paper co, has been on Etsy since 2013. Do I sell stacks of items each day?…

After running my Etsy shop for several years, it became clear I needed something else to drive traffic. So I decided it was time to start a website and grow traffic to my Etsy shop on autopilot.  Well, not quite autopilot, but it would be much more valuable traffic than what I currently get from Etsy search. This post will look at how easy it is to start a website and ways to get started. There are many reasons why a website is a brilliant way to send traffic to your Etsy shop. It’s a great way…

Many of us purchase on Etsy and fail to leave a review even though we are thrilled with our purchase. Reviews are very important for Etsy shop owners; they provide value for the next customer and improve their performance in search. Here we will look at leaving Etsy reviews in detail, how to leave a review and what do if you can’t.  Often if you are not entirely happy with the purchase, you would rather not leave a review since it feels like complaining in a restaurant. No one wants to be the first to complain.  It’s…

If you like wood and have a hankering to start something new, why not begin learning woodwork, making small woodworking projects that sell is a great way to keep busy and make money from home. There are 100’s of items selling now on Etsy made out of wood. Many of which have a high-profit margin and can be sold online or in person. Even Dad can try to work these brilliant ideas for woodworking at home. In this post, we will discuss how to begin selling items and give you a few easy small wood project ideas….

To complete the free coloring pages, you will need some colored pencils. Ensure your work is perfect each time with these best-colored pencils for coloring. Everyone loves to color – maybe it’s a reminder of simpler times and our need to be less productive and more creative. These free coloring pages are a great way to distract yourself and destress. Simply click to download the free PDF of coloring pages below. First of all, let’s get those free printable coloring pages. Sign up below. This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you…

Etsy is a vast marketplace, and it’s almost impossible not to notice how some shops just seem to look tidy, neat, and sophisticated all at once. We are naturally attracted to them and more than once I’ve visited a shop and just had to have something, anything because it just looked so delicious. Well, this all comes down to branding on Etsy.  This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more) Click here to…

We can use Goals as a road map to move our business or life forward, but how do we create Smart goals and what does it take to accomplish them? Goal setting has long been one of the best possible ways to move your business, your life, or your body forward to the next stage. It helps us overcome procrastination and improves our ability just to get things done.  Learn how to set goals and achieve them. There is also a FREE goal setting worksheet included at the end. We will look at why we should set…

I opened my Etsy shop around 2yrs ago – I’ve sold just over 4000 items, and I have less than 90 items in the shop. The reason for this is I have a couple of items that have the Best seller on Etsy badge. In this post, I will show you the best practices to get a Best Seller badge on Etsy and why it’s not necessarily a good thing.  What is the best seller on Etsy? The majority of best sellers on Etsy have several things in common. Some which are within your control and plenty…

It’s not easy emailing your list each week, many of us put this action off for weeks or even months. It can feel frustrating and often we feel shy in sharing our thoughts and ideas with others. This leads to procrastination and the longer you leave it, the harder it is to get started again. The solution to this is to create and use an email template. Removing the barriers which might prevent us from taking action makes the process smoother and well, less hassle. How to Create a newsletter template Do you have an email list,…

How to collect email address on Etsy from your customers and browsers to start your email list. Ever heard ‘the email list is where it is at’ or ‘start your email list off as soon as possible’ because ‘all the successful business have an email list’? If you are looking to start an email list for your Etsy shop, I’m going to show you how easy it is to get started and what to do with it. If you haven’t yet opened your Etsy shop, these articles will be helpful Create a Newsletter template in Flodesk Why…

Yes, I love Pinterest. I deleted my Facebook app off my phone to concentrate on promoting my Etsy shop on Pinterest. When I’m on Pinterest, I am learning; I’m always finding things to try and read. Like a sweet shop, you can find something to satisfy every tooth. So it seemed natural to use this visual media platform to take my Etsy shop to the next level. Some people call Pinterest a search engine; some say it’s a social media platform, but whichever way you wish to call it – it’s growing, simple, and enjoyable to use….