Here at Felt, we measure our success through your success. We see our role as helping more customers find each of you through promoting the collective, and helping you to put your best foot forward. Success for sellers like you on Felt is 100% a partnership – with other sellers and with Felt.
Every month we have hundreds of thousands of connections with potential customers. We want those connections to reach you, and there are a few ways that it can be easier for both of us.
1. Understanding the listing tool
When you create a listing on Felt, it lasts for 120 days (roughly 4 months). The mathematicians out there will realise that this means you should be updating your Felt Shop at a minimum three times a year. Also note that you can list each item in multiple categories, which you really should do whenever you can. This creates more pathways for buyers to find you and gives you more exposure!
2. Making it easy for us to feature you
As a team, we select items to feature based on the quality of the images, the quality of the description, and the number of items available in your shop (more is better). Consider from the perspective of a buyer, getting a promotional email that features a beautiful item, like the ones you make, and clicking the link only to find that the shop is empty. Do you click again next time, or even open the next promo email? We prefer to feature items that sit in well-stocked shops, so that we’re able to keep your potential customers coming back.
3. Working the calendar
Making, photographing, listing, promoting, packaging, and then shipping an item takes time. It tends to take much more time than any of us think it will. Don’t kid yourself on these things, set up a calendar!
We recommend adding new listings to your Felt shop often to keep new items showing up and maintain your presence on Felt, and to keep your admin workload low. Adding two or three listings a month is a LOT less painful than adding 25 listings in a mad rush for Christmas. For some of us, listing on a weekly or monthly cycle is realistic and for others it isn’t – whatever is realistic for you is totally fine, there are ways of working with any amount of time.
Below we have laid out some ideas for cycles that you might want to follow through the year, no matter where you sit along the designer/maker spectrum.
A creative living is about three key things: designing/making, promotion and marketing, and running a business.
The Hobbyist
Some of us just like making things and subsidise our hobby by selling things every once in a while. This is great! Sometimes we’ll need to clear up some space, or want to save up to buy a fancy new thing, or decide to have a go at making our making a part-time job. Whatever the motivation, selling things every once in a while is likely to be more successful if you think about the key dates below.
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr |
List by 7 Jan, play with design ideas | Designing / making | Write descriptions and take photos | List by 12 April and refine designs |
May | Jun | Jul | Aug |
Designing / making | Designing / making | Write descriptions and take (better) photos | List by 2 September and prepare for Christmas |
Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
Designing / making | Designing / making | Write descriptions and take (better) photos | Do what you can! |
The Side-hustle
Most of us, when we start out, are making and selling things sporadically, as and when we have the time or energy. Writing your descriptions and photos in the early days is an exercise in finding out what your customers are looking for. Try different styles and approaches, and consider making multiple different listings for the same item (if you have several to sell) as you might find that one sells more frequently than others. When we find ourselves with more time to dedicate to creative work (and are more intentional about trying to actually make income from it) we can be more structured with what we do. Knowing what to do (or what to do next) can be really hard, so if you only have small slices of time here and there, you might want to try using your time in these ways throughout the year:
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr |
Listing, thinking about design ideas and customers | Designing / making | Descriptions and photos | List by 12 April for Mother’s Day |
May | Jun | Jul | Aug |
Designing / making | Descriptions and photos | Listing for Father’s Day and Christmas | Designing / making |
Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
Descriptions and photos | Listing for Christmas and Valentine’s Day | Do what you can! | Do what you can! |
The Part-timer
Treating creative work as a part-time job means that we’re doing it every week, or at least committing regular time every month. There are a lot of very successful part-time operators out there whose customers don’t always realise they are only part-time. Some part-timers enjoy balancing creative work with other forms of traditional employment, and others see part-time as a transition step towards full-time. In either case, building a viable lifestyle from your creative practice will involve a good monthly or weekly business rhythm as a valuable and necessary step, so consider scheduling some regular ‘admin time’.
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr |
Designing / making and taking photos | Descriptions and listing | Designing / making and taking photos | Descriptions and listing (by 12 April for Mother’s Day) |
Business admin | |||
May | Jun | Jul | Aug |
Designing / making and taking photos | Descriptions and listing | Designing / making and taking photos | Descriptions and listing for Father’s Day and Christmas |
Business admin | |||
Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
Designing / making and taking photos | Descriptions and listing for Christmas and Valentine’s Day | Do what you can! | Do what you can! |
Business admin |
Full-time creative
Being a full-time creative is, essentially, running a small business. There are many considerations beyond the creative practice itself, and many of us are quite good at leaving these things to the last minute (or never getting around to them at all *cough* accounting *cough*). Having rhythms that keep a steady level of ‘important but not urgent’ tasks ticked off is a valuable and stress-reducing approach. For full-timers out there it can be worth considering a weekly cycle of making, photography, writing descriptions, listing online, and maintaining social media, supported by a monthly cycle of tending to your business and promotional strategies. All of this can be underpinned by systems to make photography easy, standardise packaging and shipping, and prompt your ongoing professional development and learning. Here are some ideas:
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | |
Creative cycle | Playing with new designs and ideas | Stocktake old stock for clearance | Hone new skills | Designing / making |
Business cycle | Reviewing Christmas | Who are my customers and what do they want? | End of Financial Year | Budgeting and planning |
Promotional cycle | Fresh start, Valentine’s Day | Celebrate the seasons | Autumn Sale | Mother’s Day |
May | Jun | Jul | Aug | |
Creative cycle | Designing / making | Designing / making | Upskill in photography, review descriptions | Big listings month |
Business cycle | Back up planning (if things go wrong) | Tools and equipment maintenance | Experiment with new ideas | Systems for Christmas |
Promotional cycle | Mother’s Day | Snuggle into winter | Snuggle into winter | Father’s Day |
Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
Creative cycle | Big listings month | Designing / making | Do what you can! | Do what you can! |
Business cycle | Buy and plan packaging and shipping | Big shipping month | Big shipping month | Big shipping month |
Promotional cycle | Father’s Day | Christmas | Christmas | Christmas |
Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
Weekly Routine | “Business admin” day | Designing / making | Designing / making | Designing / making | Photography, descriptions and social media | – | – |
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | |
Monthly Routine | Designing / making | Photography, descriptions and social media | Designing / making | Business admin and planning | Designing / making |
Designing/making photo by Philipp Lublasser on Unsplash | Promo & marketing photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash | Run a business photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
OMG a brilliant post. Juggling all the different balls is what I struggle with most. I really appreciate the thought that has gone into this – it will be a huge help. Thanks team!
Great stuff – thanks Jenni!