It’s Just a Word!

Because of US Government regulations, my creations must all be labeled to include specific information. One of these pieces of information is location of manufacture.

Most of you know that I recently moved and changed states in the process. Ever since I started doing this, my labels have simply included my zip code which satisfied the location requirement.  But since I moved that needed to change.

I could have easily just changed the zip code in my label file.  Problem solved!  But in looking at it, I started to think that it was impersonal.  So I toyed with the idea of writing out my new location, and then decided to embellish that as well.

At first, I settled on Handmade in Cedaredge CO.  I certainly liked that more than simply a zip code.  No matter where the ultimate owner was, they would much more easily understand those words over a five-digit zip code.   But then I started thinking about the word, handmade.  Would handcrafted be better?

So out came the dictionary.  “Handmade: made by hand, rather than by machine.”  “Handcrafted: something made by manual skill.”  Comparing the two definitions side by side, it seemed to be a no-brainer that the word I needed was definitely handcrafted. I feel this word selection conveys more of a personal investment in the item and that a level of skill/technique was required to complete it.  So all of my labels will now read Handcrafted in Cedaredge CO.

This process evolved over the course of perhaps a week of mulling it over to making the final decision.  And then it occurred to me that one word can make all the difference.  As you do, I write item descriptions online all the time.  And like you, my items tend to be in the same genre, so those item descriptions tend to be remarkably the same, one to the next.  I rarely, if ever, stop to consider each word in a description any more.  Good grief!  What a horrible mistake/over-sight to be making!

I think it is time for all of us to take a good, hard look at our descriptions and make sure that we have all chosen the most perfect words to describe our creations!

Tags: Handmade, item description, sell online, selling online, small business

Posted in Discover Handmade, Handmade, Handmade Mode, Information, Promote Handmade, Selling Tips