The importance of advertising

Yesterday I learned a very important lesson.  If you're offering something for sale, you need to advertise.  The biggest difference between those who sell their product for a lot of money and those that don't? (Besides quality, I mean)  It's number of views.

I had spent a lot of time putting together a pattern to make ponies from My Little Pony.  There were no commercially available patterns, and the few free patterns available had obvious flaws.  Based on what I observed with Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon, a market was there. Hasbro released very poor quality plush, the show was wildly popular, and people wanted toys.  A pattern lets a lot of people make their own plush for kiddos, friends, or themselves.

So I made a tutorial, added lots of pictures, explained all the details.  I mentioned it on my DeviantArt, where I post all my finished products.  Then I uploaded it to Etsy.

And sold 4 in two weeks.

There is another wonderful lady on DA who also made a pattern. She released hers last night and had sold 24 in the first 2 hours.  Why?  She spent the last few months posting about her pattern.  She posted all her WIPs and linked her shop.  Her journal was nothing but pattern progress.  And then two big-wigs in the MLP community found her stuff and gave her free advertising.

Am I jealous?  Hell yeah.  Am I bitter?  A bit, yeah.  But I've always learned it's OK to have emotions, what matters is how you respond to them. So you know what?

I've listed a pony pattern AND tutorial, complete with pictures, to my Etsy shop! http://www.etsy.com/shop/munchforlunch    
Check out some of the awesome ponies I've made with this pattern!  And hey, it's cheaper than the competition!  Not to mention I'm releasing patterns for the mane and tail of the main characters, which so far isn't available anywhere.

And hey, Derpy's for sale here!