Butterfly Chic Boutique Blog

I keep getting this question… a LOT. People have been emailing and convoing me out of the blue to ask about it.

So, so that I don’t have to keep hunting it down in my “view topics you have posted in” on Etsy, I thought, hey silly girl, post it on your blog!

Here is a post I had wrote about RME. They aren’t doing the $25 for signup anymore, but I do think you still get the $10 for referring someone.

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Love it! Cause I researched it before signing up

I’ve been using them for a while and have had no problems. I’ve bought, sold, requested a check and transfered money into my bank account 3 times so far :0)
___________________________________________________

The main problems seem to be:
A) it asked for my SSN
B) it is still in Beta
C) Why no fees AND a $25 sign up bonus AND $10 referral bonus?

So I did a little research before signing up…

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/washbizblog/2007/09/steve_case_launced_revolution.html
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2007-11-06-ted-leonis-steve-case_N.htm
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/revolution_money_to_take_on_pa.php
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=atelniGmEhgM
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9045860&intsrc=hm_list
http://www.revolutionmoney.com/PressUpdates/SteveCaseBacksNewInternet-BasedCreditCard.pdf
http://www.profy.com/2008/02/14/moneyexchange/
http://geek-news.net/2008/02/revolution-money-exchange.html

why does Revolution Money need my social security number? I do not remember giving my SSN to PayPal. Revolution’s FAQ gives this answer:

“You might wonder why we ask for certain pieces of information that you may be nervous to share, such as your Social Security Number. We would not ask for any information that was not necessary to enable the security we promise to you. Also, to help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, Federal law requires all financial institutions to obtain, verify and record information that identifies each person who opens an account.With identity theft on the rise, we use your Social Security Number to confirm your identity by cross referencing it against other personal data you provide. This way, if someone were to get a hold of your Social Security Number, a MoneyExchange account could not be set up in your name without knowing your other personal information. So, sometimes it may seem as if you have to share more information about yourself, but in the end it actually protects your financial information to an even greater degree.”

How do I know that Revolution Money is not going to lose my information making me vulnerable to identity theft? I found this answer on their website:

“Your MoneyExchange account is held at First Bank & Trust in Brookings, SD (Member FDIC). Protecting your information is our highest priority.”
(PayPal is NOT FDIC insured, paypal answers to no one, RME answers to the FDIC)

Why no fees AND a $25 sign up bonus AND $10 referral bonus?

In truth, Revolution Money sees MoneyExchange as a loss leader for its real business, which is the RevolutionCard, its credit card that undercuts Visa and Mastercard. It has no intention of making money off of MoneyExchange by charging for transactions because in its eyes the online payment service is just a way to build up a valuable network of potential credit card customers. You can be sure that every MoneyExchange member will get an offer for the RevolutionCard. Steve Case is just seeding the market.

http://www.revolutionmoney.com/revcard.aspx?id=revcard

Contact me if you would like a referral

Please feel free to email or convo me with any questions about anything!

50% off my featured items today.

Items featured will be changed throughout the day.

Come check it out.

http://butterflychic.etsy.com

Use the “no follow” tag

What is the “no follow” tag? Well, glad you asked!

The “no follow” tag is a case where we don’t want to share and share alike. We don’t always want or need to spread the love of PageRank among our pages. Yes, they are all your babies, and yes you love them all just as much, but different childen…er…I mean pages, need different types of live. Let’s face it, not all your site pages can be the belle of the ball, so nominate the most popular ones for google homecoming king and queen and make the dorks stand by the bleachers with some lovely punch, spiked if need be.

The “no follow” tag is a great tool to make sure the PageRank of your site is shared between the most important pages (the google homecoming court) with none being given to the less important pages (the nerds). This means that search engines will not follow the internal links to that unimportant page (The nerdy ones like: about us, contact, ect) but your visitors (MIT, Yale, Harvard) will still be able to easily access these pages.

This strategy allows you to increase the chances of your important pages ranking higher in the results and the pages that aren’t important to you will not appear.

green neg foilage logo, originally uploaded by ButterflyChicBoutique.

I’m very excited to introduce my newest items, premade logos!

I sometimes will design 2-3 logos for a client to chose from and when they chose one I a unused logo left over that I worked hard to create, so I thought, why not sell them and let them and let them see the light of day rather than sitting here store in some deep dark folder in the back of my computer.

Plus, I know logo design can be out of many people’s price range when starting up a small business with your own money, so I thought this would be a great way to offer logos for a discount.

A custom logo is $45 but my premade logos are only $20! Great bargain!

And for blog readers only mention my blog and get a premade logo for $15

So check out my new premade logos here http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5529562&section_id=5454351

Wanna know what it is??? shhhhhhhhhhhh…….don’t tell anybody else……….the secret is………..

……….there is no secret!

I find a lot of people on the Etsy forums asking “why aren’t I making sales?” There is no “secret” to selling and being a successful small business. It’s just know-how and hard work.

Well, part of the reason might be the economy, but there are things you can do to increase your current sales stats.

I plan on making a list in this post, then follow up posts will elaborate on specifics.

Usable product - in a recession this is key to making sales.

Unique Product - Can they find the same thing everywhere else? If so, what makes yous unique or better than those they could buy elsewhere?

Photos - Good, clear, crisp photos. Use all 5 photos.

Descriptions - Give details, measurements, sizes and use lots of adjectives.

Tagging Properly - Use all the tags you are allowed and use them properly.

Sections - Use themt to make your store easier to navigate

Branding - Logo, shop banner and avatar that match the feel of your shop?

Pricing - Not too high, Not too low. Are you using a formula?

Shop Announcement - Is it short so your products can be seen?

Policies - Are your shop policies listed? Have you covered all the bases so the customer doesn’t have to ask?

Shipping - If you ship to other countries, are they listed in each listing?

Price Points - Do you offer different price points in your shop for people with more or less money to spend?

List/renew often - daily at the very least, but the more often, the better.

Stand out - go the extra mile, build repeat customers with nice packaging, fast shipping, handwritten thank you, freebies, discounts for future purchases, whatever you want to make your customers enjoy their buying experience and want to come back to you again.

Attitude - NEVER be rude, condescending, whiny or ugly in any public forum (related to crafting or not), email, convo or anywhere your potential customers could see and be turned off from buying from you. Be professional at all times, in any avenue that your business name is attached to.

Read - everything you can on and off Etsy to learn how to plan, set up, run and market a small business. (this blog is a great place to start!)

Promoting & Networking - Are you promting your shop? Not just on Etsy but outside venues as well? Buying ad space on other sites/blogs? Other websites? Have a flickr account? a MySpace page? IndiePublic? Photobucket? Posts on other, not craft related forums? Your own blog? In Person? Plugboards? Stumbleupon? Project Wonderful? Sending out promos for others to pass out? Are you on any street teams?

In short, there is a ton of time, effort and work beyond creating and listing your products. It is the internet, you are competing with MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of other shops online as well as B&M shops for every sale. You have to stand out from the crowd and draw customers in and give them a reason to buy from YOU.

Check back often as I go into detail and feel free to leave a comment and add something I might have missed.

Good luck!

I am SUPER excited about this guest post. I’ve been meaning to touch on branding since I started the blog, when I stumbled across this post on the Etsy forums I HAD to convo Electric Boogaloo and ask if I could use it here. She very graciously said yes, and I’m so glad, she went way more in depth than I would have :0)

And be sure to check out her super cute shop too :0)

At my day job I work for a marketing agency and just finished an article about branding for software startups. It occurred to me that the same principals apply to building an online art/craft business. So I thought I’d share some of the tips on branding… I cut out a bunch of stuff about start ups and dealing with agencies etc. but the basic meat of the article is here:
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WHAT IS BRANDING?
Branding is the persuasive message that you send to customers at every touch point.

Humans tend to personify everything. We’re social creatures, and we look for everything from cars to laptops to have a personality. That’s crazy, a company isn’t a living person with its own personality, but it’s the way we’re wired. Or more to the point, it’s the way your potential customers are wired. So they are going to project a personality onto your business entity no matter what you do. That personality is your company’s brand.

The act of branding means that you are taking control and actively trying to shape what people view as that personality. When you control it, you can use it to make your company memorable in a good way – and ultimately in a way that persuades people to buy from and invest in your business.

So okay. What are touch points? Branding touch points are all of the obvious things like your logo, your brochures, your web site, and all of that fancy creative jazz. But it’s also things you might overlook: the design of your billing, the tone of every email and letter that is sent out, the way people answer the phone, the automated system and hold messages. Think of it in terms of your own personality: you are a very intelligent, nice person (we don’t actually know you, but let’s assume for this exercise that you are intelligent and nice). But if you wear giant red and yellow clown shoes, or have a habit of blowing your nose into your bare hand, or mumble into your shirt whenever you answer a question, people will roll those details into their picture of who you are.

It’s much easier to control your company’s brand if you start from the beginning, before customers and investors start forming opinions. Think about your touchpoints. If you make software then your interface, manual, training, help, and support are all touchpoints where you are communicating something about your company to your customers. If you sell a widget, then touchpoints include packaging, the product itself, customer service reps, sales, and even the invoices and inventory process for wholesale orders. And no matter what you are selling, every person in your company is potentially a touchpoint. Every time anyone says “So what do you do?” – that’s an opportunity to sell.

So branding really carries down to every level of everything that happens every day. It’s much easier to do this from the beginning. But you don’t need to throw money down a mysterious well to get started. You can do much of the work yourself, right now.

THE BRANDING WORKSHEET
Brand your company right here and now.
1. Print this out and fill in the blanks.
Imagine the perfect potential customer standing in front of you, ready to hear about your company. Fill in the blanks to form a brief persuasive pitch:
The Product:
You should buy ______________ from my company because ___________________________ _______________________________ and _______________________________.

The Personality:
We are a __________________ (forward thinking, cutting edge, innovative, high-energy, kind hearted, high quality, cost-cutting, family oriented, friendly, intelligent, high-class, elegant, comfortable, etc) company that ______________. (cares, pushes the boundaries, is here to make your life easier)

The Promise:
We promise that if you buy from us, you will be happy because now you can _____________________. (Stop worrying, feel good, simplify your life/job, impress people, etc)

Congratulations, you have just articulated your company’s brand.

2. List all of your company’s customer touchpoints. Every piece of communication that customers and prospective customers see:

3. Look at each of the touch points and ask: Does this touchpoint help make our brand promise? Does it convince people that we are what our brand claims? How can we change it to make it more persuasive?
Examples – redoing the forms, changing the tone people use when they answer customer questions, thinking about the wording of emails, making the software easy to use.

Many people who are new to online buying and selling are scared of PayPal. If you’ve never used it before and know nothing about it and happen to stumble across one of my favorite websites http://www.paypalsucks.com/ the thought of entrusting your money to this evil company could be enough to terrify The Terminator himself.

Now many large companies such as PayPal have hate sites built about them buy former customers scorned. Hell hath no fury like a paying customer scorned! Just ask anyone who has ever worked in retail. You have to take these sites with a grain of salt. Yes, PayPal probably did wrong the site builder in some way shape or form but as I always say there are 3 sides to every story, his side, her side and then what really happened….

While some stories may be totally 100% true, others will contain half truths and outright lies. But when you think about it, as long as PayPal has been around and as often as it is used DAILY by so many people they do pretty good.

There are some things to consider when signing up for PayPal as a small business or online seller, even if you aren’t a ‘business’

• If you plan to sell online, you must hold a business or premier account.
• PayPal can (and will) freeze any account at any time for any reason they deem fit.
• PayPal can (and will) freeze your checking account tied to your PayPal account to do an investigation
• Consider PayPal fees (and any Esty or Mindt fees) when pricing your items. This can really affect your profit on small ticket items without you realizing it. (that’s a WHOLE ‘nother post)
• Consider having your PayPal account tied to a separate checking account that isn’t tied to anything else, and that no bills are paid out of, to protect your money from PayPal freezing it.
• Consider keeping your PayPal balance to a minimum to avoid losing money in the event of an investigation.
• Consider a PayPal debit card to withdraw your money from PayPal or pay for purchases in the ‘real world’

With few other options out there, none of which are supported by the checkout process at eBay orEtsy, PayPal is a necessary evil, but there are steps you can take to protect you and your money. In all the time I have been selling online (at a rate of 1-2 sales per day for almost a year) I’ve only had a handful of people ever choose or ask to pay any other way.

There are upsides to PayPal, printing of a shipping label without entering any info other than package size/shape and weight, increase in sales as opposed to NOT offering PayPal, Easy, online records of you income and expenses , customers credit card info never been in your hands (this protects both you AND your customer)

In the end, PayPal makes the world of ecommerce go ’round and there isn’t much you can do about that fact, but you can educate yourself and protect yourself going into it.

I have been frequenting the Etsy forums quite a bit the past few day. The forum is open to anyone to read, whether they are signed up to buy and sell or not. Sellers use the forums frequently and from reading, many buyers only don’t post much but do read often.

Something I have noticed on the forums is a LOT of drama. Unprofessional behavior. Rude comments. People fighting, name calling, rants….

Many people leave the forums because of all this commotion, others seem drawn to it.

It seems some people don’t understand that this is a business, and you are the face of your business. Many people get a false sense of courage with the internet stand between them and others, but when you are running an internet business, it is only your attitude standing between you and potential customers.

Whether you have a B&M store or an internet shop, you should conduct yourself the same…professionally.

In my internet business, I have a philosophy, I don’t post anything on forums I wouldn’t say in front of a store full of customers and other local business owners if I were in my own B&M store. I don’t say anything in emails or convos I wouldn’t say to a customers face in the real world.

If more people would run their business like this, I suspect there would be a lot less drama on the Etsy forums.

So what do people see as the face of your business?

I want to thank Karina of Soap That Makes Scents™ at http://kreatedbykarina.etsy.com

For being my first guest writer for the blog. She did a great job on the article and I look forward to working with her again. Be sure to go to http://kreatedbykarina.etsy.com and check out her shop.

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*Tips On How To Sell Online*

After speaking with many craft persons in business, I hear over and over again that they want to put their work for sale on the Internet, but they don’t know how or where to begin.If you have ever browsed the net and ended up at other sites than the one(s) you were looking for in the first place, you know how easy it is to get distracted. This is even more true, when setting up your business on the Internet.An approach that I have found that works best is to start by making “to do” lists of the different online marketing avenues. For instance, your major activities should include:

* sell your work at online auction sites
* get listed in the major search engines
* seek links from other sites
* write articles to get publicity
* add affiliate programs to your site
* set up an organized email campaign to follow up with your site’s visitors.

Create a list of activities to be accomplished under each of those marketing tasks. Every day, plan to accomplish a group of tasks to promote your site. For instance, here are a few suggested actions to be taken daily:

* seek links from 5 craft related web sites
* post two auctions for your craft products
* resubmit your new web pages to the major search engines
* post an article to at least one media outlet about your craft site as publicity
* post a helpful comment on at least two discussion groups
* weekly, send an email newsletter to visitors to your site

I know many craft artists who never give much thought to marketing or planning offline or online. They just do the shows or get their store accounts and go along merrily until trends change and all of a sudden sales drop and they don’tknow what to do. With a little time spent planning, one can determine several alternative markets for sales. If one avenue slows down, you have other options for staying afloat.Answering the following questions will help you begin thinking about your marketing plan.

* What does your site do? What is the main benefit to your visitor? Do you want it to educate, entertain or sell? Do you want to create new prospects or stay in touch with regular customers? Do you want to attract more wholesale buyers? Are you looking for international buyers?

* Who is most likely to be your customer? What type of person is she/he? Example: age, sex, income level, education. Give serious thought to determining who are the visitors to your site(s). This is a big part of learning how it should be designed. You may have more than one type of visitor. For example, you may have U.S. retail customers, wholesale customers, catalog buyers, and international buyers.

* What other kinds of sites are your visitors likely to visit? For instance, if you make and sell quilts, people visiting your site might also be reached through sewing web sites.

You want your site to get visitors to do the following:
* interact with your site
* leave their contact information
* purchase something you are selling
* refer others to you

Create targeted goals for your online business and measure the results you get whenever you complete a phase. By working in measurable steps, you can pace yourself and track which efforts are worth pursuing further and which activities you should abandon. If you don’t work in stages, you may find yourself overwhelmed, scattered and consequently disappointed in the whole process.

Karina-
Soap That Makes Scents™
http://kreatedbykarina.etsy.com

Before starting out, list your reasons for wanting to go into business. Some of the most common reasons for starting a business are:

Next you need to determine what business is “right for you.” Ask yourself these questions:

Then you should identify the niche your business will fill. Conduct the necessary market research to answer these questions:

The final step before developing your plan is the pre-business checklist. You should answer these questions:

What business am I interested in starting?
What services or products will I sell?
Where will I be located?
What skills and experience do I bring to the business?
What will be my legal structure?
What will I name my business?
What equipment, supplies or tools will I need?
What insurance coverage will be needed?
What licenses/training/certifications will I need?
What financing will I need?
What are my resources?
How will I compensate myself?

Your answers will help you create focused, well ­researched business plan that should serve as a blueprint. It should detail how the business will be operated, managed and capitalized.

I think often times, when individuals start a small business, they know they want to start a business, work for themselves, live the American dream. But what they often times don’t understand, is the American dream takes planning, and lots of it.

The planning in small business should start even beofre the business starts. 50% of small business fail. It think mostly due to lack of planning. too often, individuals “happen” into a business, they have a hobby or a marketable skill and someone say “you should go into business” and it sounds good, so they jump in with both feet and take off running before their feet ever hit the ground. If you try to run before you even learn to stand, chances are you will fall flat on your face.

Many think the 1st step is to pick the business, then the business name. While these are obviously critical to starting a business, so much has been skipped. The 1st step in opening a business is writing a business plan. Yes, it seems very formal and many think it is only for those taking on a large business venture, or those who must sell everything including their house, car, spouse, kids and pet, just to have the money to open the doors. But it isn’t. Every business needs a business plan.

The first step in a business plan is to do some market research. Did you ever think “we should open up a (insert business here) there isn’t one for 50 miles” Well, maybe the reason there isn’t a (insert business here) for 50 mile sis someone did some market research and learned that the current market for said business just isn’t there. Just because there isn’t a dry cleaners, or a bakery or a pet spa around for 50 miles doesn’t mean there is a customer base for that type of business in that area. There might not be one there because the consumers wouldn’t support the business and it would go under.

Even if you have already opened a small business, you can still write up a business plan weather your business is growing by leaps and bounds or not breaking even. Companies change their plan all the time. If you are growing well, a business plan will help you look to the future and plan for the growth. If you are your only employee, what happens when you can’t handle it all yourself. What part of your job will you outsource? If your business isn’t doing well, it’s the perfect time to step back and draw up a business plan. Do some research into your market, talk with other small business owners and make the changes you need to so your business will grow and thrive so you don’ty become one of the 50% of small businesses that don’t make it.

There are great resources online and even free business plan templates you can use to get you started. Google ‘business plan templates’ to get started today.

Currently, Butterfly Chic Boutique is just in the planning stage. Stick around as I open my own business for the 2nd time