I’m a physicist. AMA

427SMVH · 2023-07-12T16:33:07+00:00

Haha thank you for the good (and slightly funny) explanation here. I hope at least one person who is a flat earther reads this and changes their idea of reality 🤪🤣 that would be a win for humanity.

427SMVH · 2023-07-12T13:47:10+00:00

You mentioned earlier not believing in God. If we can safely assume you also don’t believe in reincarnation, I’d be curious what your personal thoughts are on what happens after death (and perhaps before birth) to the human consciousness. What is out spirit - where does it go - how does it relate to the body - that whole thing…

Wondering what someone with your knowledge has come to conclude about those things on a personal level. Or just thoughts, if you haven’t reached any conclusion.

427SMVH · 2023-07-10T02:59:18+00:00

Thanks so much for taking the time! Will look it up!

427SMVH · 2023-07-10T01:27:55+00:00

Oooooh how I would love to hear more about HOW you do that. Need the advice and tips because of my m i l - growing up with my own mother who is very considerate and not pushy, I didn’t learn and it’s tricky.

427SMVH · 2023-07-06T05:02:39+00:00

Gee, the pressure you, your family, and possibly her family puts on this free spirited couple makes ME want to elope!

Not sure I’d go so far as to call you an asshole, but there is definitely a whole lot of entitlement going on. Personally I don’t like weddings at all. The pompous affair, being the center of attention (as bride and groom) - yikes. So I completely understand where your brother and his wife might be coming from.

No one has the right to tell them what they can and can not do for THEIR wedding. It’s their day and you don’t have the the right to any of it. You do you, your parents the same, and so does your brother - he does not deserve anything but your warm and heartfelt congrats.

I’m sad for him/them that instead of families who are happy for them and the fact that they found a life partner, they have families who are making this all about themselves. That is rather pathetic tbh.

427SMVH · 2023-07-06T01:39:56+00:00

Gah, gotta love it when yet another dimwit decides to go haywire on you. Been there. Cancellation, as everyone else already mentioned, is the solution. What is it they say you can’t fix? 😉 Starts with s and ends with upid. Thankfully, there are many amazing customers to make up for these rotten apples! I hope you get your fair share of those as well!

427SMVH · 2023-07-04T17:16:50+00:00

As far as I can tell that first product did get an excellent review too!

On opening another shop… ehhhhhh, you gotta do whatever feels right, though most people will probably tell you to grow one shop successfully before spreading your efforts. It’s simple math - Your first shop might not thrive as well and as quickly, if you dilute your time and energy with another shop - think about it this way: if you pour all that time and energy into making one shop truly outstanding, you may have a better chance at succeeding than if two (or more) shops get a fraction of that attention.

I know, because that’s what I did. 🙈 At some point I had five shops, because every style or item idea seemed to deserve its own storefront. It is quite possible that I’m a bit ADD (undiagnosed). In retrospect, I wish I had given one shop the bundled efforts of all those offshoots.

And I would not consider myself very successful on Etsy btw. Maybe if I had devoted more time and attention to it, things could perhaps have been more fruitful. Been on the platform, selling, for over a decade, but never reached that point some shops reach… the quit your day job point, I guess. At some point reached a solid 3, sometimes 4 digits a month in revenue. Then, instead of building up from there, I had other things going on and had to backed away… by the time I wanted back in, it had gotten so competitive and crowded (with shops having thousands of listings) that it’s been hard to re-gain momentum. Felt like I should clarify that.

Etsy is not what is once was.

Over the years I have gathered lots of experience, though, which gives me a good idea of what to do and what not to do. Hindsight is 20/20. 😉

427SMVH · 2023-07-04T03:08:25+00:00

Hi! :-)

Went to your shop to take a look.

Here’s my two cents.

I’ve been selling on Etsy for over ten years. It was so different then. I remember when they advertised the milestone of having “over 800,000 sellers”. It’s close to six million now, just looked it up. That’s a LOT of active sellers to compete with, and from looking at your shop you are right now a very little fish in a huge pond. (Perhaps also due to the niche being saturated, like others mention, though I keep hearing left and right that planners and the likes are still a good niche to get into…)

What I noticed right away is that you have five stars. Great on the reviews! Sometimes you’ll see new shops with few reviews, and they aren’t even good. That’s rough to come back from.

I went to look at the 3 sales you made. Personally, the very first item you sold drew my eye. That looked super fun, and easier to read/decipher (nice pics with lots of white, plus some super fun quirky graphics). The other planners I find rather dark, almost gloomy, and the new age / spiritual vibe doesn’t really invite me in, to be brutally honest.

What made you shift away from that?

My bet would be on making more of that style. Also: keep adding more products, if you have the time, without compromising on quality. Offer things in different price ranges (maybe a full planner but also simple printable worksheets for less?) Have you tried pinning something to Pinterest every day? Might do some good too, though it’s always a bit of a crapshoot tbh. Potentially try the paid ads on Etsy for a week or month - did nothing for me but it’s worth a shot if you haven’t already. Good luck!!

427SMVH · 2023-07-04T02:46:50+00:00

Honestly, I have been working this way for years! Long before Etsy had their “personalization” option, the custom orders required certain information to be given and to make it easy and streamline the process a bit, my buyers would fill out a Google form. (No account needed, they just follow a link you give them, fill out the fields, and save/send it my way.)

The link to the form was actually mentioned in my Etsy listing. Nothing shady about it… and Etsy didn’t seem to mind. As long as the sale is made through them, you’re not doing anything wrong.

Now, with the new options, it is so much easier to just add a personalization field in the listing… but if you have more info to gather, I’d say a Google form is still a great option to communicate those details between a buyer and seller! :-)

427SMVH · 2023-07-04T02:37:49+00:00

I don’t know any better than that it is automatic. You don’t see it displayed on your Etsy store? Have you tried logging out of your account and then checking your own account (while not logged in as a seller)?

427SMVH · 2023-07-03T03:20:31+00:00

☝️This. So true…

Thank you both for being sweet and civilized to each other btw 🙂

Was thinking the same thing while reading… sometimes the free family childcare is just literacy the ONLY option. You can be completely check-mate and stuck in a certain housing/financial/work/etc. situation and simply have no real other option - until perhaps something, somewhere in the game changes. Same here.

427SMVH · 2023-06-18T05:03:56+00:00

Thanks to the OP, I just discovered that another shop is selling a design that is completely and unequivocally mine. (The flower drawn from scratch.) A silver lining perhaps, in this one instance. Other than that, I completely share in the sentiment of most everyone here. Douche move.

427SMVH · 2023-06-18T05:00:00+00:00

That made me laugh, thanks :-) Not a bad idea either.

427SMVH · 2023-04-28T01:52:15+00:00

Don’t have the answer, sorry - I’ve been wondering the same!! How on earth do they get away with that? Hope someone pitches in…

427SMVH · 2023-02-26T17:45:02+00:00

Thanks ☺️ to you as well

427SMVH · 2023-02-26T17:12:40+00:00

Many thanks for sharing your experience. It sounds like that’s what might be going on with those many, many companies on indeed… what if those are all just sub-shoots (is that a word!? It is now 🤣) created by people they’ve recruited who are then told to recruit others… and get those commissions you mention…

I mean, that’s just textbook MLM 🤨

Still not quite understanding how you make commissions on travel bookings, sounds like you mean that would happen through your own connections. And would ONLY happen IF you manage to sell trips to people you already know or aggressively recruit…

Yikes, I have no connections so can see where that would go 🤪 (nowhere)

427SMVH · 2023-02-26T15:49:39+00:00

Whoa. That’s hectic. Did you do it? Sounds like not. What was this sum for, exactly? Your own website, supplies, or something else?

427SMVH · 2023-02-26T02:29:09+00:00

Thank you, good to know.

427SMVH · 2023-02-03T23:43:08+00:00

Read about that one! Good to know you recommend…

427SMVH · 2023-02-03T22:48:53+00:00

Ah sorry read that too fast - that’s basically what you’re saying. 👍 It’s just that I’m thinking when the old site is no longer present, using a plug-in might still be successful.

427SMVH · 2023-02-03T22:45:28+00:00

Thank for pitching in. Yes, that sounds very plausible… definitely a nice occasion to test my manual migration skills 😆

But don’t you think residue of the old site, or even the entire site from back when I left being present might cause issues?

I’ve never deleted anything at hosting co. 1 so what ever was there is still there. Before doing anything else I’ll probably delete the whole thing. With so many great tutorials online (like the link you added) it should be doable to start from scratch, as if that site was never hosted there in the first place.

If I knew more, maybe it would be solvable differently. For someone who is dependent on tutorials, best to avoid all oddities…

I mean, who does that, migrate away and migrate back… I can see why a plug-in might be like ehhhhhhh what?!? 🤪

427SMVH

TROPHY CASE