So Saturday evening, at about 11 p.m., I posted my first item. I had time to post some basic shop policies, but decided that I would have to leave a shop announcement and a profile until later.

And so, my first item, a 4 pack of pastel origami flower cards:

My decisions:

The item title: Pastel origami flower note cards - set of 4

I tried to be descriptive and also incorporate SEO principles for Etsy titles, so that my cards will show up in search results.

The description: I tried to have a more titled description that would show up in Google, and then give more details (size of card, matching envelope, background to creating the cards, etc.)

Cost: I spend 30 minutes browsing cards, trying to look at the prices of users who successfully sell their cards. I decided for a fancy 4 pack to sell it for $10.00 and to sell an individual card for $3.00 or $3.50, depending on the cost of the card.

Photos: For a 4 pack of cards, the limit of 5 photos is perfect--one that shows all the cards next to each other, one of the card pack (with the packaging), and one of each of the other cards.

I had troubles setting up a homemade light box (as you'll see, I didn't manage to make it work properly). So the photos look better than if I had just taken them, but not as good as light box normally looks. But I can sub out the photos later... I will figure out how to make them look better!

I've posted 5 more origami card sets in the past 2 days, and posting the first item is definitely the hardest. It was a relief to get an item up and to meet my goal. And I think it's better to get started and keep refining my process than to keep pushing it off until I feel truly ready (which could take forever). So the journey has really begun.