Wednesday, January 20, 2016

So you want to retire that pattern?

Sometimes designers decide they no longer want to sell certain patterns. 

Made using PicMonkey Royale


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 For me, it was really basic designs I came out with at the very beginning of my career. They weren't anything special. Plus, the photography was TERRIBLE and I no longer had the sample models to rephotograph.

Some of them were so bad, I no longer wanted any association with them, but, there's a problem...

Ravelry doesn't let you delete your listings!

So now what? Well, here are a few things you can do to remove them from your current listings. They won't be gone out of your life forever, but they will be hidden in the back!

First, make a fun new cover image for your retired listings. I made mine use PicMonkey Royale

Then, follow these steps:


1. Change your source. The source is where the pattern can be found. When a pattern is for sale, your source would be your shop name, like how my original source says "Blackstone Designs Ravelry". If you were to be published in a book or magazine, the primary source would be the name of that publication. So, make up a new source, where all of your retired patterns would be found. I could have done BDRetired, RetiredPatterns, Unavailable15...whatever you want it to be called. This name will show up just under the pattern name, which you will see shortly, so make sure it's nothing that will embarrass you!

2. Change the publication date to one that is earlier than the first available pattern in your shop. I have a pattern that is available starting November of 2012, so I made my retired patterns publication dates all January of 2012. This makes them listed first and therefore they show up last.

3. Remove the buying information. If people get to the listing and they get links saying "Buy it now" or "Free Ravelry download" and they click it and go nowhere, you will get messages!

4. Add a little note that let's people know that this pattern is not available. You can explain why and where it went or you can be very general like I was. Then add what you changed, save it, and voila!

However, if your patterns are for sale or they were a freebie in PDF form, there's some extra steps.

 1. Click "edit in pattern store".


2. Click "deactive product". Then click "save changes". All done!

3. You can also scroll down and delete the file, but you don't need to do that if you've deactivated the listing because this removes the link for people to buy the pattern.
When you go back to your shop overview, your retired patterns will be listed very last on the last page of your shop. If you give people a direct link to your patterns for sale, these listing won't even show up! Woot woot!


I hope you found this useful...or better yet, I hope you never need it!

Thanks for stopping by!
http://www.ravelry.com/stores/blackstone-designs

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for these tips. I would suggest using a graphic without words because of Ravelry's new restrictions about words on listing photos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for these tips, going through my teenage amigurumi patterns got a little too painful...

    ReplyDelete