Recently : Writer’s Block n Opening an Etsy shop ft. Deactivation Part 1

Recently, I’ve been writing a lot of draft posts. After the first sentence, I just stare at the blinking cursor, backspace everything, and repeat. ( I just did that a couple of times ) But !! Today !! There’s going to be a real post on opening an Etsy shop and getting deactivated in 3 days !! What ?!!

I wanted to sell a drink holder that I designed and shared on youtube. I used it ever since I made it and it works. Makes me feel good each time I use it cuz all the sea turtles I’m saving .

My plan was to sell on Etsy, because it is a popular platform. There’ll be traffic from people who likes original handmade products. I did some research, there are other sellers also selling their own drink holders designs , also for the cup I made it for ( yeti 20 & 30 oz ) . There is a niche market demand for handmade drink holders ! So I went on to tweak my design so that the hand held handles can be turned into an over-the-shoulders style :

Next, I sew up some samples for the photoshoot. And went crazy for a couple of days getting the photos ready :

 

If you are opening an Etsy store, it is recommended to get a business account on PayPal if the country you are in does not support Etsy Payments. I did that too, my husband now have a business PayPal account and he’s going to take care of the finances.

If you have writer’s block and spent weeks wringing out your brain to craft a detailed description of what you are selling without sounding like a lifeless robot, you should save a copy of what you wrote. Trust me on this, cuz I’m so bummed out I didn’t.

I listed my drink holders, opened my shop and got a congrats email from Etsy on my shop’s opening. Yay !!  Then 3 days later my shop was deactivated. Can’t log into my account. No warning email, NOTHING.

I have no idea what I did wrong. My drink holder is designed and sewn by me. Totally handmade. Was it because I use the word “Yeti” and got in trouble ? Was it because I have the word “bomb” in my description ? ( I wrote in the description : “If you are a cyclist, you can hang this holder on your handle bar and not worry about setting off a coffee/tea bomb since the strap goes securely around the bottom” ) I thought that was so smart.

It’s all a mystery until I get an answer back from their support team. But this gets me thinking, what if in the future I have many products listed and  my store gets deactivated without any explanation ? So many things to think about.

If you have been thru this and have any advice to share, please do. Meanwhile, I’m going to sell it on my website. I hate doing nothing, waiting for the unknown. If you are interested, please click –> here <– to jump to the page. 

Part 2 –> Here