*Using our kitchen to advertise my products*

This June marks our twentieth year of living in France. Our visits back home to California have been few and far between during those years since, for so much of that time we were hosting people at our bed & breakfast. For the last three years we have been working madly on fixing up our retirement house in Burgundy. Now, however, we have shifted our gaze back towards home. We would like to spend a lot more time in the States. To this end, because the cost of living in France is so much less, I have tried to think of a business where I could begin to make a little extra cash. I’ve had an Etsy shop for 15 years and I’ve sold my handmade prints to over 300 people all over the world. This has been satisfying, but hardly self-sustaining.

These days lots of people have what is called a “passive income” selling digital products. Once the object is listed the idea is that it can be sold cheaply to many people over and over again and it will require no other action from the seller. No packing up, no shipping costs. Etsy is one of the largest market places on earth for this kind of item. They sold over $3 billion worth of handmade real and digital products last year. Since I had an Etsy shop already, it seemed practical to start there. I decided to convert my Etsy store into a digital shop where I could sell my own art, papers and clip art suitable for crafts people.

I created some pantry labels to sell in my shop just like the ones I use in our own kitchen

Listing items in the shop requires coming up with ideas, scanning, making the digital product as pages which can be downloaded by the customer, taking photographs to advertise the items, creating a video to show them in use and writing long descriptions. Not to mention marketing on social media. It is consuming.

One thing I’ve learned over the last three weeks, working at least eight hours a day, is that a passive income stream is anything but passive to launch. There are dozens (and dozens!) of Youtube videos out there telling you how you can make a small fortune just following these 7 steps, or 5 or 10. I think I’ve watched just about all of them. I’ve learned a lot and taken much of the advice dished out.

I can report that my small fortune has not yet been achieved. But I’ve pledged to carry on working at it up until the date we leave for an extended stay in California, which is less than a month away.

*I enjoy making still life arrangements for my shop photos.*

I certainly have a lot of beautiful old papers that I can scan and I also enjoy making simple prints which can be used as decorative paper for any number of projects. The competition for this kind of thing is a bit staggering and the trouble with Etsy is that if you sell a lot you get promoted, but if you don’t, you won’t and then no one can find you. Getting discovered as a beginner is daunting, but I have decided to do my best and then not to worry, but be happy.

In the course of making my product photos, I have made a number of decorated book covers and nice tags.

It takes a very long time to create a listing as it is suggested that you have ten product photos and a video on each one, not to mention the description required, some, but not all of which can be cut and pasted. It is also recommended to have 100 items in your shop. I am not even half way to that goal.

The advice most people give is that you have to find your niche. That’s easier said than done. It takes a certain amount of soul-searching to discover what you have to offer that might make you stand out from the crowd. It finally dawned on me that my best angle is probably the French connection, since so many Americans, not unlike myself, romanticize the French life style. And certainly Americans are the primary buyers from Etsy. I have only just now rearranged my shop to highlight this idea, using a photograph I took of Paris years ago as a banner and a photograph of myself (also taken years ago, before I turned gray). Check it out here. I would certainly appreciate your feedback.

I had to make a logo to use with my product photos. At least I can use my own house to make my mock ups. Many creators have to buy images of rooms to digitally place their products in. I have such a nice environment to stage my shots.

When I first opened my shop in 2009, we lived at the Maison Conti, thus the name of my Etsy Store. Now, since I have followers and historic buyers, comments and stats I want to maintain, I can’t change the name without losing all that, so even if it is no longer relevant to me, I’m stuck with it.

When I’m not sitting in front of my computer, I am probably relaxing in the fish pond garden, surrounded by the verdure that the rains of May brought to us. Spring passed us by. We have gone directly into summer! The days here this week have been bright, warm and delightful.

*You can see that I haven’t been spending my time weeding.*

I have gone back to my Squarespace website, which is part of the whole marketing strategy. It’s so much nicer for blogging too. When I published my blog late last week, my correct domain name was not yet attached and my site had only begun to be put together. The links at the top of the page take you to the site in good process and all my social media accounts are clickable. Pinterest is a major source for traffic from my kind of audience.

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Next week Rick’s son Chandra and family come for a visit. If I can steal the time to post about our adventures, I will give you a very different kind of report next time. We have some nice destinations in mind. Some we’ve never been to before.

*The pink wild rose that volunteered this year*

At the end of a busy day, my favorite way to relax is with the Spritz de la Maison. Here’s the simple recipe:

Take 3 parts sparkling wine, 2 parts Aperol (or Campari), 1 part sparkling water, pour into a glass full of ice and stir. Add a slice of orange. Sip it slowly. Good humor guaranteed to follow.

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