BadBob

I can confirm that USPS 1st Class does include tracking when purchased from Etsy. I let my customers choose the shipping method they want as long as it is USPS. Only once has a customer asked for priority mail. I use priority mail when I get an order that is too heavy to ship first class. If you use the priority mailboxes, USPS provides. I installed and maintained for several years a system that used thermal labels from Zebra. We had everything from small desktop printers to large industrial size. One thing I learned while researching thermal printers is, the reason they use the thermal printer for shipping labels is that the address and bar code doesn't rub off. Toner can rub off. Many inkjet printers don't use water-resistant inks. I discovered by accident that some thermally printed labels could be erased by spraying them with alcohol. All of them have their issues.

@John B I have made quite a few toys from MDF. It holds up surprisingly well. You need to understand its weaknesses and build accordingly. MDF is surprisingly strong. I made a spider for my grandson with MDF thinking he would soon break it. Three years later, and it's not broken yet. I have made cars and puzzles too. One advantage it has over wood for toy making is that it does not splinter. Many commercially produced toys are made from MDF. My grandson has a toy hammer that has an MDF head. He has used it extensively. The hammer is beaten up but hasn't broken.

The only shipping problem I have had was when I had a browser problem and had to go back into Etsy and retrieve a label I had already paid for. I printed the same label twice, and someone got two packages instead of one. I told her to consider it a gift. I contacted the other customer and reshipped it for her. The USPS system missed the duplicate label and did not track it. I never figured out what happened.

My primary reason for watching stats is to see if my created data is working. I can't see trends in Etsy stats without plugging the numbers into a spreadsheet. I'm hoping Google Analytics will do this for me.

The most labels I have printed in a day is 3 or 4 and that is rare. If you print 70 labels at once, how do you keep track of them?

Etsy had support for Google Analytics Data Streams. I just finished configuring mine. I don't know what I'm going to get out of it but I'm all hooked up and only need to wait until I can get some data collected.

@Denny Knappen What method do you use to hold the pieces after you dip them in the shellac?

I use these: MFLABEL Half Sheet Self Adhesive Shipping Labels for Laser & Inkjet Printers, 200 Count For a long time, I printed them on paper, cut them out, sprayed the back with adhesive, and stuck them to the package. I have never liked taping them on. I have a Brother Laser printer, and I manually feed the labels once for each label. I only print one label at a time and turn the sheet around for the next label. The cost works out to about $0.06 per label. Thermal labels are much cheaper, but you would need to add the cost of maintaining a second printer that only prints shipping labels. I can buy a lot of labels for the cost of a label printer. The most I have printed in a day are three labels, so the laser printer is cheaper for now. I would not recommend printing shipping labels with an inkjet printer. The ink is expensive, and you should use waterproof ink.

@kmmcrafts My Google Analytics is working. I Configured a view for my shop and it is collecting data. Google changed something and my old views were not working. Now I have to figure out how to filter my access out.

@kmmcraftsI'm a babe in the woods when it comes to Google Analytics. I configured my analytics as soon as I got the shop up. I checked the Etsy settings an the settings for Google Analytics is still there. When I looked at Google Analytics it look like it was working to me. I saw someone in my shop in real tome mode and its looks like it is counting hits for Etsy. When I look at the hit counts in the property settings they jive with the Etsy stats. I don't know how to do much with the reports and such, but it is getting those counts from somewhere. I'd much rather have a log output and generate my own reports. TikToc should show up under the Direct & other traffic provided TicToc is sending a properly formatted request and Etsy isn't filtering it out. If they are only sending the source IP address and Etsy doesn't do a reverse lookup it will not get listed. I wish they would list the source IP addresses so I coulds look them up myself.

Look in your direct views and see if TikTok shows up in there. I have been wondering if it would. I know from experience running web servers since about 1992 that every hit on a web page has a source address, which is logged by default. However, for some reason, Etsy chooses not to give us all the info. I wish they would give me my logs. I can run my stats. I guess I am going to need to teach myself google analytics.

Etsy sale rook a nose dive for lots of people about the same time as school started back. I had just had the largest month ever and then nearly nothing, but still more than last year at this time. Since I am home/virtual schooling my grandson, 3 to four days a week, I think I know why. They are too busy to shop.

I've been on eRank since the beginning and pay for the pro version. I have not found it to be inaccurate. I would not belive anyone pro or amateur stating this claim unless they could provide me with real data. Inventory Value on eRank is slow to update. This might be Etsy. When I used to work with web servers, we did not allow updates to the real database. Applications used a copy that was synced periodically. I can't speak for accuracy since I have never totaled mine. Personally, I consider this as trivia. If they dropped it I might not notice. The keyword tool has all of these: Search Trend, Character Count, Average Searches (US), Average Clicks (US), Average CTR (US), Etsy Competition, Google Shopping Searches, Google Searches, Google CPC, Google Competition, Long Tail Keyword, SERP Analysis, Search Trend, Google Competition, and Google Trends. There may be more. I just took a quick look. You can also look at search trends for Etsy, Google, eBay, Pinterest, and Amazon. Some of this stuff you may not see if you are only using the free version. Are your Etsy sales down 1% or are others just selling more? Yes, the ranking is done on the Etsy search. Most of my views come from off Etsy social media and direct. The items that I sell the most of are all coming from Etsy search. I find the ranking somewhat useful. Sometimes I'll add a new listing and the first person that sees it buys it. So how did that one rank? I use listing scores for new things, but ignore it once the listing is established. The scores help me to find things I missed. I love the spell checker since I can't type worth a damn due to some nerve issues in my hands and for some reason, my spell-check doesn't work in all the fields. eRank support I find lacking. It used to be very good. If I had an issue I communicated directly with the developer. Some of the things in eRank were my ideas. Since they have got bigger and hire minions to help. The support has gone downhill. Most of the time the support people don't understand what I am talking about. I was in IT for 40 years and this is what always happens.

I don't expect to get rich, but I would like to make a profit. Enough to offset my reduced income and pay for itself. It is easy to find toys for sale that I know took days sold for crazy low prices. I know because I have made the same toy many times. I also see lots of toys offered for sale that I would toss into the kindling bucket. I don't consider these sellers as competition. I make the highest quality items I possibly can for people who care about the quality. If I were batching out 100 toys a day, I would not be happy doing this. It seems to be working. My sales keep going up.

I make Halloween items every year to sell and give away. Sales are weird. Sometimes something will take off and sell more than I have time to make. Others don't sell at all but get lots of views and likes. One of these is currently my best seller. Can you guess which one? For me my favorite would be the skeleton, he is awesome. I would think the kids would go for the Bat just above Boo. He looks a lot like Batman. I love them all. Too many to choose from. Are those your patterns or where do you get them? We have two neighbors eac of which have two little children. Would love to make some for them. Love your work! I posted these in the wrong place. I intended them to go into the October Challenge. I bought some of them but the rest are from Patrick Spielman's books. I have almost every one of his books. The rest are from this set. Thanks. I'll have to check out his books. So, which one is your best seller? From the pictures they look small. I assume you know of choking hazards for kids or anyone else thinking of cutting a little pattern for kids. RJF I believe as long as it doesn’t pass through a toilet paper roll tube it’s safe. Does anyone have toilet paper? Use to subscribe to a newspaper. Now that their mostly gone and the news is on the internet I've had to go to used computer screens. RJF Hi Rick: Makes sense using your computer (screen) to read the news - Most of it is crap anyway Now, back to our regularly scheduled post Fab4 Some I recognize as Patrick Spielman patterns;

I like eRank because it checks my listings for errors and missing parts and tests key words. The more experience I get, the less I use it. I track a lot of things in spreadsheets, but I let Etsy keep track of the sales.

I just recently discovered the "Halloween Wedding." Its a thing. When posting videos on Pinterest, it's one of the approved tags you can add to your video.

If you subtract you 98% from 100% you are in the top 2%. eRank doesn't mention anything about the category. Quote: "Did you know that you have sold more items than 83% of other shops on Etsy?" 100-83=17. The only ads I am using are the offsite adds. I wanted to see if it worked. I sold one thing with the adds. If I keep them, I will adjust prices to cover the advertising cost. I do not make $10,000, not even close, so this is optional for me. I saw the mail pickup. When purchasing labels on Etsy, I've never done it that way because USPS tells me that the request needs to be sent the day before. Most of my sales are late at night or early morning and do not get packed until morning. Too late to request the pickup that way. It's a rare thing for me to need a pickup. I have a large mailbox, but not that large. I can get a 7x6 box in it. I'm sure I'm going to replace it at some point. I brought up the transportation cost because most people I know only count the gas, not the true cost. I don't track mileage any more because what little deduction I get isn't worth the effort. I order most things online and they get dropped on my front porch. The only thing I travel for is wood and the stores are five miles away. The last year I tracked mileage I had less than 100 miles to deduct. It's not worth the effort for me.

If I had the room and the time to mess with it, I would have a laser and a CNC Router. I make toys. Occasionally, I need to make wheels. After you have made a 1,000 wheels, making wheels gets old. I find the idea of having a CNC Router cut 100 wheels while I'm doing something else very appealing. Not to mention carving some fancy wheels that I could not make on a scroll saw. I've have done extensive research on CNC Routing, and I know it is only a cutting tool. You still need to prepare the wood and do all the sanding and fining work. They don't make things for you that don't need any work. CNC routers precisely cut parts. When making toys, I see precision cut parts as a great thing. I can cut 100 parts and have all be the same size. If I did my prep work well, they would fit perfectly. If I cut 100 parts on a scroll saw, no 2 of them will be the same. I can get them close but nowhere near perfect. I think that this would eliminate a lot of sanding. There are things that I can't see any way you could make them on a CNC router. Puzzles, for example.

Don't forget to factor in the real cost of transportation. For my truck, using numbers I got from AAA, the cost to operate works out to $0.75 per mile. I used to go to the post office with all my packages when I had a day job. It was no big deal, a left turn into the parking lot on the way home. There was rarely a line; I was in and out in less than five minutes. After I retired from my day job, I still went to the post office until I calculated the real cost. It took me up to an hour and cost about $4.00. I don't go to the post office now unless I have to. I stopped there yesterday because I had to go to the dentist and the post office was on the way. I had three packages to ship, and one of them would not fit my mailbox. Usually, I just put a note on the box when this happens and they come to the house to get it. I have a spreadsheet I use for calculating my sale price. It factors in all of these: Part Count Length Width Thickness Finish Transportation Uniqueness Insurance Wood Type Internal Cuts Packing Materials Consumables Hardware Gift Box It calculates these pricings: Base Price $35 Free Shipping Price Etsy Advertising Advertising & Free Shipping Special Order Fee Special Order Total I run everything through this and then decide what price I want to sell for. It gets tweaked every time I open it. I just changed something again. I'm currently in the top 17% of Etsy sellers and I'm not making money.

I make toys mostly, so my method is geared more toward larger holes around 1/4-inch and upward. I have a sets of very high-quality brad point and forstner bits, but I use a lot of twist drills. With the fractional, letter, and number size bits, I can get precisely the size hole I need. Use a Quality Sharp Bit. Dull bits do not cut; they tear. Use the correct speed for the bit you are using. It seems like most people never change the speed on their drill press. It makes a difference. Smaller the bit, the faster you spin it. Drill slowly. Most people tend to force the bit through the wood, which causes the bit to clog and not clear the chips and increases tear-out. If your bit is clogging and not clearing the chips, you are probably drilling to fast, or the bit is dull. Do not drill completely through. Set the depth stop or table, so just the point of the bit peeks through. Setting the depth is easier with good brad point bits because the point is longer than the cutters, but you can do it with twist drills. When using a twist drill bit, I adjust the depth stop to where it just touches the backer board. Now, turn the wood over and finish drilling from the backside, letting the bit find its way. Do this slow and careful. You will sometimes get a piece of wood that you can't drill a smooth hole into, no matter how careful you are or how sharp your bits are. I learned the hard way, making toys, to drill all the holes first if possible.

Rubber Stamp work pretty good and they are cheap. You can get ink that will stick to about anything.

Both Gimp and Inkscape will import directly from PDF files. You don't need to convert them.

Not a step backward.

Do you have a recommendation for tack rags? The last ones I bought left a sticky residue and little bits of lint in the wood. I usually blow the dust off with compressed air or a blower. I like 3M Painters tape because there has to be a lot of dust to make it not stick.