Little Thing 273 : Passive Income

If you are curious about selling ebooks on Etsy as a passive income, let me share this with you. To be fair, they do all the charging and tax paying and fees and segala benda for you lah so you don't have to worry about the messy part. 

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Here goes:

I am selling the ebook for $6, that's around RM 30.39 last week.

• processing fees (4.5% + RM 2.00) = - RM 3.37
• VAT (remitted to tax authorities) = - RM 2.76 
• transaction fee (6.5% of item total) = - RM 1.84
• VAT transaction = - RM 0.11
• VAT processing fees = - RM 0.20
• deposit fee (to bank) = - RM 8.00
• VAT deposit fee = - RM 0.48
• auto listing fee = -RM 0.94
• VAT auto listing = -RM 0.06

So from the RM 30, I finally got RM 12.63.

I've been selling these ebooks since 2020, and I let it roll by itself because it never really makes that much money for me and I just wanted to make these zines available all over the world (that was my main intention). Since 2020, I got around 40 orders, accumulated to roughly less than 300$ USD - that's it. So, mende lah sgt kan, in case LHDN ingat kita buat beribu2 kan, yg berapa sen ni pun da setel bayar tax. The buyers are random from Etsy users so I don't even have to promote or do anything as long as the listing exists in the Etsy realm. 

But then, I guess people started traveling again and they are searching for travel zines to Japan - and so the sales came up lately. Hence, I stopped by at my Etsy and looked around. One thing that I changed is the deposit schedule from once every fortnight to once every month to reduce the transaction fees. Other than that, I can't do anything else. 

These are mediocre zines that as an artist, I don't want to see anymore because of how ugly they look in my eyes after several years. But still, useful for some people. 

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Sure, there are other options:

• like selling on our own website 
• also sites like Gumroad

But I'm too lazy to promote, do any selling, or become active on social media to let people know or urge people to buy these mediocre ezines, and to think about tax fees and everything. I just want them to exist, attract their own buyers, run their own course, and Etsy seemed to do the job. Lagipun org luar je yg beli ezines, org kita nak physical copy..

Etsy is a huge platform, it is reliable, but it is pricy and nowadays you need to pay extra to be seen by mass users. It's a love-hate relationship lah.

Again, I just do it for fun, dapat RM 10 per ebook pun ok lah. 

Boleh laa buat beli eskrim utk family. 

Event : Comic Play + Etsy Made Local 2017

November was a busy month. I joined 2 events in a week, activated the Etsy discount month for Christmas and we had a fully-packed weekends throughout the whole 2 months until the mid of December (because Comic Fiesta also coming real soon). 

Preparation :
The preparation took around 3 weeks, to restock all my sold out items from Jesselton Artisan Market and Machi Mochi Market during the previous month's events. I am still hand-cutting some of the sticker sets (not all anymore), pack all the items and hand-paint laser cut stuffs, so I'm pretty much occupied almost every day. 

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Comic Play, Publika :

I think it was a 5-days event, but I joined for 3-days including the weekends under Animangaki (there were several organizers for the event) - is it fair to say that I never really know about them before this because I'm not fully into the anime/manga fever as I grew older?

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Things that happened at Comic Play :

• On the first day, we lost our parking ticket and we had to pay RM 60 for the fine. It was a lot of money, and I felt really sad thinking that we've been working so hard. Never keep parking tickets in your pant's pocket ever again - lesson learned.  
• I forgot to bring the pencil leads so I can't doodle in my book on the first day. 
• On the second-day, as a present for ourselves for the hard work, we bought lattes. I had the worst stomachache and diarrhoea afterwards because Af bought for me a venti green tea latte at Starbucks - I am now lactose intolerance and I shouldn't drink that much milk on an event day. I rushed to the toilet at least 3 times on that day - lesson learned. 
• I met a lot of old friends - I hardly meet people that I knew at events so it was a bit uncomfortable for me. 
• There weren't many interesting things for me to buy, so I just bought several cute stickers to add in my doodle book.

Thank you for visiting us at Comic Play, Publika last weekend ! • We had a lovely time ❤️ Things that happened at #comicplay2017 : 1 • We lost our parking ticket and had to pay RM 60 😑 2 • I forgot to refill my pencil and bring extra pencil leads, so I can’t doodle. I had to use @ahmadfarikarim ‘s 0.7 pencil ✏️ that day 3 • Bought myself a green tea latte at Starbucks and had the worst stomachache and diarrhoea 💩 (I’m lactose intolerance 🥛👎🏼 4 • Met some old friends, thanks for stopping by guyyys ❤️ 5 • Bought several stickers for my book 😊 Personal thanks to @animangaki ❤️🙏🏼 #doodlediary #illustration

A post shared by azreenchan (@azreenchan) on Nov 21, 2017 at 1:41am PST

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a week later at Etsy Made Local :

I was excited, been waiting for Etsy Made Local since I applied (because it is a yearly event, and I've been using Etsy for almost 7 years now). But the worst thing happened, I had another episode of vertigo (the sensation of whirling and loss of balance, dizzy and nauseous).  This was the third time this month, I'm not sure the exact reason yet (I need to do an ear check-up if this continues). I didn't feel good, because the world was spinning so bad, I get nauseous and I can't walk or function like a normal being. Of all the busiest days of the month, it had to chose to appear on Etsy Made Local day :F 

So I had to prepare the booth with Af's help, all my strength and patience to slowly put out all the items on the table. Every few movements lead to me feeling like I was going to fall down or puke. It was really bad, so I had to ask my sister's help (she took care of the booth, while I went back to rest and sleep for awhile, then came back to pack everything later that evening). I felt better after the sleep.

Here are some photos I managed to snap when I came back later (the place was beautiful !) :

I didn't felt like I joined the event because I wasn't there most of the time. 

But Aja said the crowd was over-whelming, we got a lot of supports and love, and our sales was really great. Thank you so much to Af and Aja for helping me with the event (I never thought I would be sick on my important day, I always thought I was some-what invincible) :F

Kudos Etsy team & volunteers ! ❤

Little Things 222 : 2nd Haul from Taobao/Ezbuy

I'm thankful for the website where I can buy many cute stationaries like this exist : Taobao/Ezybuy/65daigou. Not quite sure why they got so many names but they are actually the same company. 

This time, instead of washi tapes, I bought label stickers and postcards specially for my Etsy buyers *because I love to make them happyyy. I chose the slowest shipping possible so that I can reduce the shipping fees and I also chose McDonald self-pick local delivery for free. Unfortunately I forgot the exact date of the delivery : which was the first week during Raya and I was in Pekan. So they picked another date and texted me that morning of the event instead. I had to call ma and asked her to wait at McDonald for the delivery van at 12pm sharp.

2 nights ago, I stopped by at the apartment to pick it up. Here's my happy happy stuffs for my nice Etsy customers all over the world. If you noticed, 2 of the label stickers are the same stickers that Kiwa sent to me, I like it so much I had to buy it for myself. Note : Most of Kiwa's washi tapes were used to send all Etsy stuffs : 

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And these cute postcards are used to write some notes to people that buy stuffs from me online and choose to use snail mail to receive the items ordered from me. I used up all my pattern papers and cute paper stationaries in all previous posted items so I thought to buy nice illustrated postcard that people would enjoy this time. 

Note : So if you appreciate the joy of waiting for snail mail and would like to exchange cute stationaries which me, don't hesitate to tell me :D

2nd Note :
Also got additional free box of postcards with various of sky images as well. Not quite sure why they sent it up to me. So I'm also going to pass this around too. Let's exchange stuffs with me!

Work Related : All things printed

I'm planning on joining my 23rd event, celebrating the 6th year in this small independent business. It isn't that far off from where I started, but I definitely learned a thing or two about doing things that I like for fun and making a small income out of it :)

244 orders / 348 sales from Etsy and 22 booths all around later, here I am ❤

I was doing a stock checking of what's left in my sticker library. I need to reprint some of the sold-out stickers and cut more finished stickers from my stock. 

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Postcards are selling super slow on Etsy and I'm too latzy to do a proper photo shooting for some of the art prints, so i'm still keeping them all :

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I'm still cutting up stickers every now and then, especially when I have the latest series of Grey's Anatomy to watch. Or I can do with Breaking Bad - I'm currently watching the season 2. I still have several hundreds of this sleepyhead stickers that are still raw and need a good cutting :

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Here I'm using the left over envelopes from the postcards that I ordered. I don't think I'm going to be using the envelope so I'm using it for other things like a nice small packaging for our ESKP car sticker. So 1 envelope can be divided into 2 little packaging and we printed the small sticker to put it on the packaging as well. It looks decent enough for a hand-made packaging, so I'm going to stick with it for now :

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I printed the camera sets in mini edition. 

I kinda like them all, so chibi <3 p="">

By this time I finished all my uncut stickers stocks. I no longer have any stuffs to cut. I finished 2 seasons of Breaking Bad and I need more new stuffs to make before the events :

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Work Related : All the nerdy stuffs as designer & illustrator

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Stickers :

Here are my latest sticker packs that I manages to illustrate, print, cut, pack and put up for sale up in my Etsy. I personally like the geeky light bulbs and also the mini ESKP by Af *because it is square and mini and so cute.

I managed to cut and pack these stickers during Af's game play of 'Until Dawn'.

Look at these geeky light bulbs ! :D

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Spotted :

I'm a Backpacker Korea by Halian Azurin at our local Popular bookstore :

I can't wait to find the Europe version in the bookstore.
Note : And I'm in the process of doing the illustrations for another new upcoming book ! Wihuu. 

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Branding :

Two big branding project I did for a startup called Bfab.my & a teaching place in Bangi called Didikan Sakura. Ditto Hello Kitty Gourmet Cafe and Begadang Backpackers last year. I am really happy these full-package projects turned out fine. I created almost everything from the scratch T^T I can finally tell myself that what I've been teaching myself in becoming both designer and illustrator is going quite well. Who would have thought T^T

For all self-learners, don't give up, don't compare yourself with others, and don't feel demotivated. If you really like to learn new stuffs, just do it. One day, your efforts in learning those skills will pay off. You might take several years or even lifetime, tapi takpaaa, as long as you can still grow :D I still got a long way to go, but I'm really happy with where I am now. Imagine from that geeky IT girl, to this. Now I can create all those beautiful colourful things using graphics compared to using boring codes.

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Work Related : Etsy Air Mails

My little hobby still picks up customers from all over the world :D

Training to improve your Wacom tablet skill shouldn't be all serious and work-work. I always find illustrating random things that I like helps me make an effort to finish up any illustration.

And to make any practice worth the time and effort, I sell it in my Etsy - because why not?  If I try to create something entirely up for sell, I would definitely be having a mental-block, just because I want to create something really perfect - which is ridiculous la kan? =.=

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It marks my 319th sales :) 

I am so happy ❤

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Illustration : Etsy, Big Stamp and New Stuffs

New things I ordered for items on my Etsy just arrived during the week I was sick :D 

It was like early christmas presents. 

I sold over 200 items in Etsy since I first open it in 2011, almost reached 500 admirers and 23k viewers all around the world. I never thought it would get that much hits :D The famous items sold in my Etsy are : my Vintage Camera Sticker Pack and Game Boy Sticker Pack that I illustrated some time ago and also Be Strong Sticker that I originally illustrated to help my brother's friend. I got bored with those old stickers and make some new ones but they never really got as many hit as the old ones.

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2 weeks ago I finally ordered custom-made big sized stamp. I thought it would be easy for me to chop-chop-chop all packages with my name on it compared to writing it one-by-one on each envelope/packaging =.= I've been doing that for years. I still personalize each package when I got the time and most of the time, it was out of rush-too-sleepy-too-exhausted-tomorrow-is-workday, so they will be as normal as usual enveloped letter. But now I got this :D

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I also ordered some new printed art-prints for "Be Strong" and "Explore" illustrations. I ran when I saw the Ta-Q-Bin lorry parked in front of my apartment, knowing that it must be those stuffs that I ordered. I really love the glossy printed paper compared to previous fine linen for all my postcards T^T The 'Explore' artprint didn't came as I planned, so I'll stick to my original plan : that is to give it away for people who buy "Explore : Totebag" and Tokiyo Trip Travelogue, if I managed to finish it =.=

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I am still working on completing all characters from Sailormoon series for my next Sailor Soldier Sticker Pack BUT, it might take longer than I hope it would be due to my Mac's condition. I should also consider doing fan-art stickers for : Kiki, Arriety and Chi from Studio Ghibli and also Sakura Kinamoto from Card Captor Sakura :D And to help me buy a new machine to support my never-ending learning process, do buy stuffs from my Etsy. 

Doodle : Le Petit Chef Sticker

Remember this post?

Well I printed these stickers along with the Kuro Neko sticker pack and put it up on my Etsy. Too bad for us Malaysians, the Ringgit rate is quite low nowadays so the converted price is a bit expensive! T^T To make up with this, you can just request to buy these sticker packs via email : azreen_31@hotmail.com and I'll give you special price for all the stickers on Etsy plus free postage in Semenanjung :)

Buy this little chef stickers and
you can stick it on your recipe book with your hand-written name on the hat :

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Sprawling black cats :

Things : Things I Love to Love

Links :

Vintage Folded Binocular from Raffello Vintage

Silver Pinecone Necklace from Julie Garland

Little Critter from Coffee Morning

Wooden Feather Brooch from The Twenty Fingers

Kaonashi Miniature from Green in HK

Vintage Magnifier by Nautical Place

Agate Gemstone from Oliki

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Random Post

Didn't know people were buying this Dynomighty wallets until I received money to my Paypal account early this week. Thanks for your support guys ❤ 

I've been using this wallet for almost a year now,
still looking fine :)

And for everyone in my Etsy, I can't thank you enough.

184 sales, over the years ! (❤ .❤) 

Little Things 98 : Paulo's Etsy

It is very very fascinating to find out that Paulo Coelho uses Etsy to sell his products in Oiticica & Coelho. A very humble and simple way to open an online shop. 

"I want to sell my things online".

*zappp* 

and we get an online shop ready in Etsy.

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Doodle : Etsy & the World

I sold 99 104 items using Etsy since I opened the online shop,
and they went all over the globe to addresses I can't even pronounce.
For that, thank you again dear Etsy-bitsy.

US : 36 times
Malaysia | Australia : 8 times
UK | Canada : 5 times
Singapore : 4 times
Greece : 2 times
Russia | Poland | New Zealand | France | Denmark : 1time

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And they love free gifts & notes I sent as well, you can read their reviews here.

Visit my Etsy here.

Oh Hello Etsy !

Hello May !

Check out my ETSY shop and enjoy a 10% discount !
Coupon Code : HEYITSMAY .

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Have I ever told you that Etsy is the best online shop platform available, so far? If it's not for Etsy, I wouldn't dream of sending countless stickers to all over the world. By far most stickers went to the US and UK. Others went to France, Greece, Singapore, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and the latest was to Poland ! 

Some addresses were not even readable by me :D 

For that, I thank thee, Etsy, for giving me a chance to explore the world through my stickers. And for being a great platform for people like me to meet other unique artsy-fartsy peoples of the world. 

The only reason I love hand-made things so much is because I feel like the thing was made specifically for me. The human flaws, the personal touch, the love and time - I appreciate those the most. 

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