Don’t Rile Me !

Yesterday I was messing around on the ‘puter and decided to see what was out there in Google Shopping land. I searched for a few things that interested me, noticed the high prices and then thought to myself…hmmm, let’s see what pops up if I put in bottle cap pincushions. Talk about being shocked! The very first one on the list was one I made. Only thing, it was being sold by someone else for $14 plus shipping. I sell mine for $6 or $7 plus $2 shipping. She has 6 of my pincushions for sale in her online shop. Well, let me tell you, this didn’t sit well with me at all!

Last summer I suspected a lady in Illinois was reselling them. She was buying them up as fast as I listed them. She even had me send them to her needlework shop. So I thought no problem, she’s reselling them in her shop…kinda cool. Well, it wasn’t so cool when I saw them being sold online for more than twice what she paid for them. She even used my picture and part of the description I had on my etsy listing. I will say, she included my shops' name, but it wasn’t like she was advertising it or anything.

So I decided to figure out how to get my etsy shop to appear in the same search! After doing a lot of googling and learning a little about xml I think I’ve got it! It takes Google several hours to process things. I’ve got my fingers crossed that soon, my $6 pincushions will appear on the same page as the ones she’s reselling for $14.

It takes a lot to rile me up and this did the trick. The nerve! Man, I’m still steaming about this!

Later on, I noticed that on at least one of the pincushions, by copying my description, she made it sound like she made it herself. Now that got me all riled again! So I sent her an email, letting her know how shocked and disappointed I was. She just answered back saying she'd take them off her website. I'll be watching!

The first time I tried to get my stuff to appear on Google, didn't work, so I tried again. I think I've got it now! Keep your fingers crossed for me! Yes! I just checked and the upload status is SUCCESS! So now I'm officially on a Google search! Yeah me!

I’m going to start putting a watermark on my pictures and maybe even add my initials to the bottom of the pincushions.