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)
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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

I’m happy to introduce my newest product Mint Thank Yous!!

3 types to chose from, currently listed in my shop as a 26 piece combo set.

Interested? Use code BCB Blog at check out and get the set for $9 instead of the $11 listing price!

If you missed the 1st post on Tips for selling on Etsy, you can read it here other articles are linked within that post.

So we’ve talked about your product, now lets talk about listing that product.

Your customers can not pick up your product, touch it, feel it, examine it, turn it to see it from all angles, so they need YOU to do that for them with your photos and descriptions. The better you do this the more sales and happy customers you will have.

Photos -

Buy the best camera you can afford. It is a great investment in your online business. You camera should be as many megapixels as you can afford and have a macro setting and you should be able to adjust the white balance. Then get to know your camera! Play with settings, lighting, angles, zoom with one product (especially if you have a product type you make over and over with variations, such as earrings or cards) and see what works best.

You need good, clear, crisp, well lit photos in your listing. Be sure to use all 5 photos.

I take about 30 photos of every product I list, at least two of every angle, then I pick the 5 best and edit them to show off my items. Always take each picture twice, in case one turns out fuzzy for some unknown reason.

Capture your product form all different angles. Get close ups of details. Show the product in use if appropriate, this is NOT appropriate for earring and hats. Show scale by using a ruler, but never in the 1st photo.

Use a light box or take photos outside, being careful to avaoid casting shadows on your product. Don’t photograph your products inside under bright lights, natural light is best.

Use interesting props.

Don’t use a background that will compete with your item or one your item will blend into. Your background should be simple and contrasting so your item pops.

Use the macro setting on your camera (the little flower) for close up shots to show texture and detail. Don’t zoom in when you are in macro setting, just move the camera closer to the item being photographed.

If you don’t have a macro setting, turn your flash off and get as close as you can and still get a clear photo. You can crop the picture later to show detail.

Jewelry photo tip, having something in the background with detail, such as laying your earring on an open book or placing your bracelet on a patterned scrapbooking paper, will help your camera focus on your items better.

Having problems with fuzzy or blurry photos? Try propping your arm on a sable surface to give your arm, hand and camera more stability.

Photo editing software is your friend. Find one and learn it, work it and use it! There are free options you can download http://tiny.cc/s03Nw

Set up your own mini photo studio. Fasten two pieces of 12″x12″ wood together to make a 90′ angle (adjust for the size of stuff that you shoot) You can use different papers and fabrics to have lots of background colors and textures. Wrinkles in the fabric add texture to a background without over whelming your product as does paper wadded up and then flattened back out.

Place your mini studio with the light coming in behind it with no hard light (glare, shadows) hitting your paper or product.

If the photo needs some extra punch, take a piece of paper and fold it in half and set it just out of frame of your shot this will bounce a little bit more light on to the item you are photographing.

Descriptions -

Give details, lots of details. Use lots of adjectives. Write your listing as if you are talking to someone. Be sure to use the word “you” a lot and avoid “me” statements. Your customers want a product made for them. Instead of “I love this print” say “YOU will love this print” Describe it as if there were no photos, as if you were telling a freind about your new creation over the phone.

Statements like “this item will add warmth to YOUR kitchen” are what sells. Cheesy I know, but I paid big bucks in my first business venture to have a marketing guru help me with my copy on my website, and this is what she told me :0)

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS give measurements and sizes, in inches and centimeters (or mm, which ever is appropriate) There are buyers from all over the world shopping online.

Be sure to tell the buyer everything they need to know in the listing. Don’t assume that they will read yourshop announcement or profile for additional information. If they need to know it, put it at the end of the description.

Check your listing for grammar, spelling and typos.

Tagging- use every tag you can without mistagging. Use the obvious, jewelry, earring, sterling silver, then pull those adjectives you used int he listing to your tags, use colors, patterns, styles, ect such as pink, retro, rockabilly, fun, sparkle, fuzzy, ect you never know what a customer might search for. Also be sure to use different variations of tags such as promo and promotional or ad, ads, advertising, advertisement.

And I’m sure there is much more I have missed, as there is tons you can do to your photos and listings to make them better. I would love for other sellers to leave comments with tips I missed.

Never settle! Never get comfortable! Constantly try to improve your photos and descriptions.

Stay tuned for part 3! Now go retake some photos and punch up some of your descriptions!

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.

This is not my first business venture. I have had an online shop selling my handcrafted goods before. One of the problems I faced in my first online business venture is one I think many small business owners who ship packages face, what to do when a package is lost/stolen/damaged.

A recent thread on the Etsy forums (Etsy is ‘your place to buy all things handmade’ an eBay for only handmade items and craft supplies if you will) brought this question up. An Etsy seller Classic Designs by Theresa Mink started a thread asking what to do about a string of lost packages.

What is a small business to do? You sell an item. You package the item and you pay the USPS to ship the item. But what if the item never makes it? Or what if it’s damaged when it gets there?

It’s easy enough to say put delivery confirmation and insurance on every package, but it’s not always feasible when shipping international. If you’re selling a$800 product, the buyer probably wouldn’t blink at international shipping that includes insurance, but when you ship a $5 or $20 or even $50 item, charging $23 for shipping can put customers off.

How cost effective is it to insure the package verses sending a replacement, or issuing a refund? Well that depends on the price of the item(s) and your profit margin.

For me to ship a 5 oz package valued at $50 to California will cost me:
$1.48 for first class postage and $1.65 for insurance and $0.65 for delivery conformation. for a total of $3.78

For me to ship that same package to Australia it will cost me:
$4.50 to ship first-class international postage and $1.50 for a certificate of mailing and $10.15 for registered mail for a total of $16.15

So what am I paying that $10.15 for??? Well, according to the USPS website

Registered Mail™
	Registry service provides security and limited indemnity protection for First-Class Mail® International and Priority Mail International Flat Rate Envelope items. Items bearing an address in pencil or any erasable format are not accepted as Registered Mail. This optional special service is not available with Priority Mail International flat rate or variable weight parcels, or Express Mail International® services. Registered items can be sent to all destination countries except the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Federated States of Micronesia, Iraq, and Republic of the Marshall Islands. All destination countries have an indemnity limit of $43.73 and a registry fee of $10.15. For detailed information about Registered Mail, see the International Mail Manual. Effective January 2006 the addressee is the payee on claims for registered items delivered in damaged condition or with contents missing, if addressee accepts delivery of the item. If addressee waives their right to payment, in writing, or the item is returned to sender, the sender then is eligible to file a claim.

“

Or, I can send the same package priority international and pay $21 plus $2.40 for insurance for a total of $23.40

So what is the small, home based, run by one person who makes and sales and ships all their own items and works a full-time job supposed to do?

Some would say a lost or damaged packaged should be replaced in the name of good customer service, part of the costs of doing business. But is it? Should it be? Once we place the package int he hands of the USPS, shouldn’t it be THEIR responsibility? Shouldn’t the a package they lose or damage, be part of THEIR cost of doing business? Lose sales by not offering international shipping?