Balancing work, a blog, and an etsy shop

Balancing work, a blog, and an etsy shop

by | Aug 1, 2021 | Shop, Social Media

Juggling work (where I'm down a co-worker), taking care of my disabled mother, running a popular blog AND an Etsy shop is NOT easy.

Let's make that very clear. But, I like to stay busy.  So how do I manage it all? Planning. 

Unless I have plans on the weekend, I try to get all my errands done on Friday afternoons so that I can spend my Saturday and Sunday working on Etsy shop or website things. Sometimes it ends up just being Sunday if I can't get everything done on Friday.

Since 1998, I've ran some type of fan site. Whether it was BSB fan fiction, fiction in general, NASCAR, or again, just Backstreet Boys, I've had some type of website. I think I would feel incomplete (no pun intended) if I didn't have a website. Thankfully I have a set of girls, one in particiular, Emilia, who helps me with the blog. She's had websites almost as long as I have and I've brought her own as a co-owner. 

With the website, I can do things throughout the week unless it's some huge undertaking. However, the Etsy shop isn't the same.

While I can pack, make, and send some orders throughout the week, I do most of my orders on the weekend so that they aren't a) rushed and b) rushed. Any small orders, such as stickers, I handle throughout the weekend, but bigger orders such as cards or T-shirts, I take care on the weekend. I try to make one shopping trip to get T-shirts because either of the shops I get them at isn't just right up the corner. One is near the Atlanta Braves stadium and if there is a Braves game going on, then I head more north to the next location, but during the week after I get off work, it's a traffic cluster there. 

Something else I plan? Social media marketing. 

I use two different tools to marketing for my social media accounts - Facebook Business Suite and CrowdFire. While Facebook is free and you just need a business account, I subscribe for a small fee for CrowdFire. This is where A LOT of the planning comes into play for Etsy and my blog. (I'm not even talking about social media for my job here.)

BSBFangirls.com

For both this site and BSBFangirls.com, posts are sent out when a new post is posted automatically. Also on BSBFangirls.com, I use a plugin that will tweet out recent articles randomly throughout the day that are within a certain time period. I can also block ones out that are time sensitive. 

I also use Facebook Business Suite to schedule Instagram posts (Instagram is now owned by Facebook) and you can use FBS to do that. So I post two BSB photos a day, and one that is related to my Etsy shop on the @bsbfangirls Instagram account. 

Just A Fangirl, Inc. on Etsy

For Etsy, I use CrowdFire for Twitter. You can sync your Etsy shop up to it so that your listings will show up and you can schedule them out. During the weekend, I schedule them out for the entire week, until the next Sunday.If I add something new during the week (which is rare), I insert that in randomly throughout my scheduled post. 

For Facebook and Instagram, I again use Facebook Business Suite. Just like I do for @BSBFangirls on Instagram, I do the same thing with @JustAFangirlInc, except only once a day. I also try to schedule one post on Facebook a day. 

TIP: Never go over 3 posts on Instagram a day or 2 on Facebook. 

So that's how I do it. Do I have much of a life? Right now with COVID-19 flaring up again, no, I do not. I'm vaccinated, but I'm not taking any risks with my Mom. 

So my best advice is planning. Planning. Planning.

Did I say planning?

Why I Focus On Plus Size Fangirl Merch

Why I Focus On Plus Size Fangirl Merch

by | Jun 12, 2021 | Shop

I have always been plus size, even when I was a kid. I've always been fat. My weight has gone up and down over the years and whether I lost a lot of weight or not, I was always a fat girl, at least inside. I've come to kind of embrace it.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a fashion designer. I would buy wedding dress magazines and look at the dresses and draw them. I would check out fashion books at the library and draw things and learn how they did design clothes. For a while, I was even kick-ass at sewing (thanks Home Ec!). Over the years, thanks to computers, I lost all of the drawing and sewing stuff.

Lately I've picked it back up. And I think that's why I enjoy my Etsy shop so much, especially now that I'm designing T-shirts and stuff.

No, I will not have a show at next year's Fashion Week, but I kinda like what I'm doing.

Yesterday, while shopping for T-shirts to design at a local store, I noticed something and then remembered something - bigger sizes do not get the attention they deserve. I could get black, white, neon pink and I think red in 2x or 3x. None of the pretty teal colors or green.

And then I remember how shopping for band merch can be. I remember going to the Jonas Brothers show two years ago and the shirt I wanted came in nothing bigger than a 1X. I could wear a 1X, but it would be hella tight and I like my T-shirts to have a little room. I ordered a retro album cover shirt from them online this past summer and it's a 2X, but it fits like a 1X.

Backstreet Boys and NKOTB are two of the bands that do cater to fans of all sizes for the most part and maybe that's why they are my faves. Taylor Swift has also more recently been catering to bigger sizes (I love my Taylor era t-shirt!).  Marvel is very good about bigger size also, mostly probably they have a high male audience.

That's why last night, I made a decision about my Etsy shop.

While I will still design smaller pieces, especially custom orders where they pick their size or vinyl color (such as the BSB Army shirt, which I also offer in bigger sizes) I'm going to try to do more pieces for the bigger fangirls who wear 2X and 3X. Us bigger fangirls deserve cool stuff, too.

I've already kind of done that with my "This is HOWIE do it" T-shirt in 2x and I've had a few others that have already sold. And I'm going to be doing that more. I will still have the smaller sizes, because, let's face it, they are cheaper to buy.

But I'm gonna give a little extra focus to my bigger girls. <3