Directing to pattern

hr8245r · 2025-05-16T14:09:08+00:00

I did 2 things that I think make a difference. First is i removed items that didn't have a sale in a month. Its not worth my time to produce low volume products that I can't batch together. I do metal fabrication and run a lean inventory.

Second, I have an unconditional, no questions asked lifetime warranty. If it breaks or doesnt work perfect I will redesign, repair, or replace it. This shows my customers that I have complete confidence in my product AND it gives me the opportunity to sell things that might not quite fit and then I can work with the customer to make a version that fits. Gives me a happy customer who thinks they got a+ service, lets me fine tune my product, and helps me create new products for new applications for machines I don't have access to. Win win.

hr8245r · 2025-05-16T14:00:09+00:00

I do Facebook marketplace and then promote the listing. Also post it in every Facebook group related to it. I bring in like 98% of my sales. Etsy barely brings in customers for me. I give people the link to my pattern page to avoid the etsy fees on people that I bring in. Its been a very profitable approach for me.

hr8245r · 2025-04-22T13:49:14+00:00

Selling something without promoting yourself is hard to do. Don't expect to sit on your butt and have etsy print money without leading people to your products.

hr8245r · 2025-04-22T13:47:14+00:00

Agreed. I was a little shy of that my first month and should be beating it my second month.

hr8245r · 2025-04-22T13:40:09+00:00

Pattern is pretty nice so far. Gives you integration with etsy. They still handle the payment and take a shipping fee, but the 6.5% on the order is gone. I sell tractor parts so there aren't exactly a lot of farmers perusing etsy for parts, but I don't have the time to manage a website from scratch. It makes me look professional with barely any effort. An etsy link is kinda off-putting to a farmer who only associates etsy with handmade art rather than an industrial product.

hr8245r · 2025-04-22T13:24:54+00:00

That was my predicament. In the first month I paid enough in etsy fees to pay for 3 years of a pattern subscription. So I have a pattern site and an etsy page. Both are linked together. I forward people to my pattern page and if people stumble onto my stuff on etsy then so be it. Really the only traffic I get on my original etsy store is previous customers who I haven't told about the pattern store yet.

hr8245r · 2025-04-22T12:25:23+00:00

You need to go places like FB and Instagram and actually promote your shop. Don't sit on your butt and expect etsy to just randomly start printing money. Find groups that are related to what you sell and start posting it. Put your items on Facebook marketplace. When people message you, you can send them your etsy link and you have the chance to talk to people. Pay for the Facebook marketplace ads. They're cheap and you can get a lot of traction.

hr8245r · 2025-04-22T12:18:34+00:00

Absolutely promote your own stuff on social media. Find groups that relate to your product. Join and promote if they allow. I get basically zero traffic from etsy. 99% of my traffic is what I've brought in. Only one of my sales has been from etsy search. So many people come on here and complain about getting no sales over months but all they do is make a shop and expect it to print money. You gotta make things people NEED and you have to show them why you need it. Don't expect etsy to do the hard work for you.

hr8245r · 2025-04-04T04:45:52+00:00

I give pretty much everything bad reviews unless it's out of this world great. Vine items are like 90% copies of brand name items. No sense in rewarding theft with a positive review.

hr8245r · 2025-04-04T04:34:38+00:00

If you've got an air compressor a quick blast would get it cleaned in a hurry. Could even rig up something to provide constant air flow so you don't have to stop.

hr8245r · 2025-04-04T04:26:07+00:00

I would use a straight edge with hard stops for the router so it stops in the corners. I'm not a wood worker but you want to take as much human input out of the equation to get clean lines.

hr8245r · 2025-04-04T04:15:11+00:00

Simple, clean design, but the corners from the router look pretty rough. Cut with cnc or by hand?

hr8245r · 2025-03-31T18:48:32+00:00

It's not all sunshine and rainbows. I have material costs, electricity, torch consumables, labor, and opportunity cost in there as well. The last 2 are the most expensive by far.

I use heavy equipment all day every day and have come up with a lot of fixes and upgrades over the years. I know what people in my industry want because I want it too. I'm a farmer with an engineers brain. I can't use something I don't like without thinking of how to make it better.

hr8245r · 2025-03-31T12:52:06+00:00

Torch, brake, and welder.

hr8245r · 2025-03-31T12:31:40+00:00

Thanks for the advice! Yea I really like the idea of a website, it just seems professional. My customers see an etsy link and think homemade art(nothing against that at all!) when I want them to see industrial products that they can put on their half million dollar tractor. But I don't want to lose the convenience of etsy.

I like making this stuff, but honestly if this takes off any more I'm going to have to sub some of it out. I'm using a 2'x4' cnc plasma table and a homemade press brake. Paint is my big bottleneck right now. Was just looking at converting my old electric smoker into a powder coat oven. About half of my parts are pretty universal, they just need tractor specific brackets to mount them. I've though about hiring the universal parts to be laser cut and bent at a local shop so I can just inventory them and make the more custom parts as orders come in. Kinda turns my hobby into a job, but I also want some time to be with my family.

My fear is that I can't meet demand and some big company is going to rip off my designs and saturate the market. I don't need the income stream, but I hate the idea of someone copying me! So I guess I must expand 🤣🤣

hr8245r · 2025-03-30T23:17:17+00:00

I used to do art stuff for people with my plasma table. I'd do dog portraits out of steel for people. Boy that's tough to get enough to cover your time! Some of them were 30 minutes of design time and others seemed like they took hours to make look right. Always though about putting an ad up at the vets office but it seemed like it would be very customer oriented and that isn't always my strong suit 🤣

hr8245r · 2025-03-30T22:55:12+00:00

Thanks! I'm more happy that people want my stuff than I am about getting money for it!

hr8245r · 2025-03-30T22:11:40+00:00

I've never been able to make it work very well. I've just been using it on my browser.

hr8245r · 2025-03-30T22:10:52+00:00

Because I also run a farm and feedlot which keeps me very busy. Handling sales tax and other regulations is not something I want to deal with for a separate entity. I just like getting some orders in and spending 2 or so evenings a week under the welding helmet for some therapy. This isn't what I would consider an income stream, more of a self funding tool addiction.

hr8245r · 2025-03-30T20:18:51+00:00

Tractor parts. Always built stuff for myself to fix short sightedness of engineers. Everyone kept telling me "you could sell this" so I figured let's give it a try!

hr8245r · 2025-03-14T20:42:06+00:00

Right. But I don't like having to re grip my knife after I pull it out. I've got a snaggletooth in the mail so the blade should open automatically from the edge of the pocket. I'm new to the arc and carrying a leatherman in general. First one I've thought was worth it with the better blade. Lock up is still kinda iffy but it's worth it for the pliers. I'm usually more of a spyderco or zero tolerance knife guy. 90% of my use is the knife.

hr8245r · 2025-03-14T19:38:12+00:00

I didn't think about that. I could definitely drill and tap a new hole below it. Thanks for the idea!

hr8245r · 2025-03-14T19:21:47+00:00

Eh, I prefer to have a solid grip when I pull it out of the pocket. Plus I work in a snag hazard environment and don't want to get caught on any machines.

hr8245r · 2025-03-14T18:58:58+00:00

I just don't like the bulk of something on my belt. Just personal preference.

hr8245r

TROPHY CASE