MilosCandles

So I setup a way for people to advertise my products and get paid when a sale is made. Anyone have any good ways to post this? Have websites to advertise this on? I found a couple websites, and many sites that are dead and just poor.

I will say Etsy does cater to their bigger better sellers. I will admit that 100%. How do I know? I did a test a few months back. I did not offer free shipping. When I did a search sure enough my items were very low on the search result list. This hadn't been the case a few weeks before that. So I adjusted my pricing and offered free shipping on orders over $35. About a month later is when I was being promoted on Social Media and the order started to pile in. To curb sales (and make more money) I stopped the free shipping. I haven't offered free shipping since Nov. I can do a search for some of my products now and I am often in the 1st few search results (just below the paid one). I do not pay for advertising either, well I wasn't paying for it, now they will force me to. It is interesting, I am thankful. I do not always agree with their changes. BUT as long as I am still making money I will just keep rolling with the punches. I would like to think they know more than me.. I just make decisions on a whim. LOL. Now I would like I think I know how I want to spend my money, and forcing me to pay another 12% may be bad. 2020 is another year and more challenges.

I am in the "Mandatory Club" with Etsy right now. BUT I get a discount. 12%. LOL In the past I have used advertising in 2 ways. One was to increase sales during slower times, and other times I have turned it off to curb sales. In the past year I have done NO advertising as I haven't needed to. I haven't wanted to. Why would I want to spend $1-$10+ a day on it when I haven't needed it. Secondly I do advertising on Facebook, Google, and Google Shopping for my own website already. Now I will be competing with my own ads on Etsy. SIGH! @Laura C I do not see myself leaving Etsy. The user base they have there is enormous. I will continue to adjust my prices to accommodate their fees. I will try to continue to grow my own website. If I am doing $10k+ a year on Etsy why would I stop that revenue stream? One interesting thing that Etsy has started that has tremendously benefited me is an Affiliate Program. (https://www.etsy.com/affiliates) I have a few websites that every now and then promote my candles and I get a ton of orders from them. They are Etsy Affiliates. I pay nothing for the advertising and they make money with every sale they push to my Etsy site.

So this has been a crazy few months. The 1st wave of Social media came Middle of October with Mountain Dew cans. Then about 3-4 week later an old post about Dr Pepper cans took off. I made it through Christmas and took some time away from my basement. Well then some news stations updated the article again. https://www.13newsnow.com/video/features/trending-today/candles/273-4e026337-cf11-46a3-8f81-25767fb81d9b?jwsource=em Nothing like it was a few months ago but it is amusing or old posts can get brought up again and again.

I do various consignment agreements. One is 60/40, others I "Rent Space" and they take 10% to cover credit cards fees and have a little incentive in selling also. Because of the type of candles I sell I almost prefer consignment, it is so much easier for me.

I need to let people know what I have found. 5 Months later I have found a solution. FREE Solution. YES FREE. No catch. It is Called Wave Accounting https://www.waveapps.com/ How it is free?????????? Wave makes money from financial services that make running your business faster. We offer payroll services in Canada and the U.S. at a super affordable price. We also allow businesses to accept payments online so you can get invoices paid faster; we charge a competitive 2.9% + 30¢ fee to process credit cards, and 1% for bank payments (where available). I have been using it for about a week. As the end of the year is approaching I figured I would give it a try. The 1st thing I tried was uploading some of my scanned receipts and WOW, that worked amazing. Upload about 50 of them, it identified them in about a minute, I then categorized them and I was done. I am now 100% invested in this software. It did integrate with Etsy, but I stopped that. It is easier to just put monthly numbers in from Etsy, then let it try to figure them all out. Etsy's numbers are just a mess. Next I need to get the app on my phone and try scanning receipts with my phone. Currently I am using Dropbox for this and that already works great. Their website has been very fast and responsive almost as good as a desktop app. Give it a try and see what you think. So nice I can now see some monthly stats and do some reporting. No more spreadsheets for me.

If I set up a free shipping guarantee, will it apply to my entire shop? Yes. Your free shipping guarantee will make all listings in your shop eligible to ship for free to US buyers if their cart value (excluding applicable taxes) totals $35 or more. It will also apply the guarantee to new listings in your shop. You can also select individual listings in your shop to ship free and they will have priority placement in US search results. What you may want to do is create a 2nd shop for your candles. Not 100% ideal but solves the issue. https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017604474-How-Do-I-Open-a-Second-Etsy-Shop-?segment=selling

OMG! https://www.wthr.com/article/online-shop-selling-soda-beer-scented-candles Read this article, LOL This is making me laugh A Dr. Pepper scented candle is breaking the internet. So much that it sold out. No word yet if the company plans to relaunch and offer the Dr. Pepper candle to the public again. PS No one reached out to me. LOL

I am debating "charging" sales tax on Credit Card Purchases. 1 - to help cover the costs associated with everything. 2 - To encourgae cash.

I thought maybe this social media craze was over. Well today it just took off again. https://www.facebook.com/delish/posts/10158769955127437 Today this post which was posted on 10/22/2019, slow 3 weeks ago. Today at 2:15pm (Eastern) had 19k shares. just over 2 hours later at 4:30pm it now has 44k Shares. My etsy site is blowing up again. I am glad I just got back from a week in Orlando. Back down to my basement for the next 6 weeks. See everyone just after Christmas.

@TallTaylThis is good advice. In the past I never printed packing lists, but since I started having people work for me this year I did start and I was just throwing them away after shipping. Maybe they just need to go in the box going forward. Especially for the orders that make no sense to me.

More of the problem that I had was that people just do not understand Etsy. They thought when they were on the product that said Mt Dew Can and then selected the Scent as Dr Pepper that the can would some how magically change also to match. Really it just comes down to reading and verifying your order which I have come to realize is VERY difficult for people.

@SebleoExactly. If I am at a 1%-2% of my orders have an issue, I will be pretty happy. When I am not in control of the entire process from making, to shipping and have people working for me I full expect a higher percent of mistakes. When the people are getting paid minimum wage people just do not care like you do.

Now the next part... The complaints.... Surprisingly only 6 so far. 1 - Lady complained she got the wrong items. When sent her a screen shot of the order, she apologized and blamed her husband. LOL 2 - Another lady called said the tracking showed the shipment was delivered but couldn't find it. While she was on the phone with me she found it. 3 - Some said the candle did not smell. Just gave her a refund. 4 - Someone else complained they received the wrong items. Emailed them their order, never heard back. They got exactly what they ordered. 5 - Someone left a negative review and then emailed me. Never responded to them. I am happy to work with people. Probably give refunds when I probably shouldn't, but message me 1st before giving a review. I realize not everyone is going to be happy. 6 - Someone received a broken candle. Opened USPS claim, they wanted a refund rather than another candle. Fingers crossed they are not too many more. (Knock on wood)

Right down the drain - Sadly. Usually I try to get used cans from the recycling center but when it is that many not much of a choice. I am covered by the "first sale doctrine". I am not creating or reproducing their cans/logos, and I am not reselling soda in the can that I made calling it by there name. I was on the verge of losing it. The range of emotions was crazy. I am glad it was in October and not late Nov. LOL. I may have just checked myself in. Or got on a plane a flew far away.

I can finally breath. WOW. After a week of craziness. I needed to mark the items as sold out as of Friday. The stress was getting to me. It gave me the weekend to really catch up and get things under control. By Monday I was able to re-list the items with the extras I had made. So many people helped me out (paid). From box folding, to packaging, to sorting out orders, to shipping. Felt like I had a "real" business for a week. LOL I do not think there is any Mountain dew 24 packs left in Buffalo, NY. So many websites wrote (copied) articles about them. This is what I could find. (This does not include any social media sites. I can only imagine the shares). https://www.bestproducts.com/lifestyle/a29516615/mountain-dew-soda-scented-candle/ https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/buy-candle-smells-mountain-dew-210456944.html https://comicbook.com/irl/2019/10/20/mountain-dew-scented-candles/ https://www.delish.com/food-news/a29522663/mountain-dew-soda-scented-candle/ https://diply.com/99003/this-mountain-dew-scented-candle-will-give-your-home-that-aroma- https://odditymall.com/candles-that-smell-like-coors-light-mountain-dew-fireball http://twistedfood.co.uk/you-can-now-get-a-candle-that-smells-exactly-like-mountain-dew/ https://www.myrecipes.com/news/mountain-dew-candlehttps://guiltyeats.com/2019/10/21/mountain-dew-scented-candle/ https://countrymusicfamily.com/mountain-dew-candle-customers-say-it-smells-just-like-the-drink/ https://www.geeksaresexy.net/2019/10/20/these-candles-smell-and-look-like-your-favorite-soft-drinks-mountain-dew-dr-pepper-and-more/ https://1063cowboycountry.com/finally-your-casper-home-can-smell-like-your-favorite-soda/ https://1029thewolf.radio.com/blogs/mandys-blog/716-candle-company-selling-mountain-dew-scented-candle https://alt987fm.iheart.com/content/2019-10-26-heres-a-candle-that-smells-just-like-mountain-dew/ https://www.thegreenhead.com/2019/10/mountain-dew-candle.php https://www.animatedtimes.com/mountain-dew-scented-candles-are-now-available-for-you/ Crazy!

OMG, this is crazy. I am sure there is more. I am trying to ride this wave, but I am not sure how long I can do it. https://odditymall.com/ https://mymix945.iheart.com/featured/traci-james/content/2019-10-21-mountain-dew-soda-can-candle/ https://www.myrecipes.com/news/mountain-dew-candle https://www.animatedtimes.com/mountain-dew-scented-candles-are-now-available-for-you/ https://guiltyeats.com/2019/10/21/mountain-dew-scented-candle/ https://comicbook.com/irl/2019/10/20/mountain-dew-scented-candles/ https://countrymusicnation.com/mountain-dew-lovers-can-have-a-candle-that-smells-just-like-the-soda https://www.thegreenhead.com/2019/10/mountain-dew-candle.php https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/buy-candle-smells-mountain-dew-210456944.html http://twistedfood.co.uk/you-can-now-get-a-candle-that-smells-exactly-like-mountain-dew/ https://country1037fm.com/2019/10/21/get-all-jacked-up-on-these-mountain-dew-scented-candles/ Attached is what my basement looks like right now.

The power of Social media is scary. Friday night I a few orders for one on my candles. WAY more than normal but was good. Enough that I went home and made some. I found the "Blog" and then the facebook post about it. Woke up Saturday morning and shipped as many as I could that I had made. Went and did some running around, my Etsy site quickly sold out, I updated the inventory. Fast forward to Monday morning. I have sold more on Etsy these past 3 days then I did in Nov and Dec last year. More than I have ALL this year so far. The orders are still coming in. So some whole new sets of problems have came of this. 1 - I do not have enough boxes both brown boxes and USPS boxes in stock for the quantity of orders that came in a single weekend. 2 - Ran out of wax and FO. Called on many of my friends to come help out. Much of much supplies have been slowly increasing for the holiday season but not ready for a weekend of chaos. I have no idea who the person is that wrote this or why. Here was the blog post from Friday https://www.bestproducts.com/lifestyle/a29516615/mountain-dew-soda-scented-candle/ and the realted FB post - https://www.facebook.com/808287332621941/posts/2565029993614324/ Since then I have found 3 more articles about it https://crafty.diply.com/99003/this-mountain-dew-scented-candle-will-give-your-home-that-aroma- https://comicbook.com/irl/2019/10/20/mountain-dew-scented-candles/ https://1029thewolf.radio.com/blogs/mandys-blog/716-candle-company-selling-mountain-dew-scented-candle Unfortunately I am someone that can not say no to the orders. I have already increased my production time to 3-4 weeks. Anyone else ever deal with something like this?

@Marleigha In past years I did as many as 40 shows. This year I will I think I will be doing 12. When I started I did every school and church show I could go to. This is exhausting and I have become MUCH more selective. No disrespect taken. I appreciate the input. In the end I am limited to a 10x10 space. @pughaus In one of my early pics of my tent, I have 2 end caps with a few product on display (most popular items) with little signs encouraging people to touch and smell. This draws most of them inside. Even after 100's of shows I still trying to figure out a better way. I have tried many different ways. Here was a setup at my show a couple weeks ago. In person it is not as overwhelming as it seems. Make it life size and waist high it works pretty well. Little different that my typical setup cause the ground in the back on the tent was like 10" higher than the front. Lots of leveling.

I assume it is just to help with the high and lows vendors have over the year. Encourages them to buy more. And is flexible for which month they first purchased in.

My day time job moved basically across the street to a new office, it was a new zip code **201 to **202 and shipping with most of our vendors dropped a few dollars.

Just got this email 99% of the time I use Paypal Payhere (2.7%) which was always lower than Square (2.75%). The only reason I liked square was there was it allowed me to process transaction offline. There are 2 places I would do shows that get so crowed with people that the cell towers could not handle everyone and Paypal would just fail. Square fixed that for me. When my Average ticket price at a show is just under $20 this ends up costing me more. SIGH

I wish so much I lived closer to a place to go pickup my items. I have tried to rationalize going to pickup supplies soo many times but in the end can just not do it. The closet place to me (I think) is Natures Garden which is just over 4 hours away. I just placed a large FO order from them and it was ~$80 Shipping, and then If I place a larger wax order It would not be over $200 shipping. So I could save $280 but spend 8+ hours and in my SUV I would spend ~$85 just in gas, maybe more with a full load on the way home. OHHH and have to take a day off from my real job cause none of these places are ever open on the weekends. 2 Hours ( 4 hours Round Trip) I could totally justify. How far do you travel to pickup items? What is your limit? I did contact Golden Brands last year (AAK) about a wholesale purchase of wax. LMOA One of the statements was.. "We do have a minimum of 21,600Lbs of wax that must be ordered per order." Yes that is 432 boxes of 50lbs wax. I did not continue to email them after that. I have no where to even put that much wax right now. Unless they could just leave the tractor trailer in my driveway for the next 2 years that would be OK Maybe in January I will analyze my wax usage from previous year and shipping costs, how much I could legitimately fit (volume and weight) in my SUV and make a large wax purchase that way.

Is this new? Did I not realize this? They are now selling wax and carry what I use! And with shipping it is cheaper than what I have been paying! https://www.fillmorecontainer.com/candle-supplies.html It amazes me that over the last 4 years I have been using the same wax and this would be my 4th provider for wax. Anything to save a $.01.. Per ounce. Yes I am now at the point I look for pennies. Which translates to a 3%-6% lower cost on most common candles. Just by ordering wax from a different supplier.

This should help