Butterfly Chic Boutique Blog

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.

Here is the first of the elaborating follow up posts I promised. If you missed the original post you can read it here.

The most important thing in selling is what you are selling. Your product!
I mean you can have great photos, list regularly, great prices and promote your butt of but if you are selling chocolate covered rabbit poop, it ain’t gonna sale. If you are making the same, exact thing as 285 billion other sellers, you aren’t going to sell as much because you have more competition.

Do you have a usable product?

What do you mean by usable product? By useful product, I mean things that serve a purpose. Practical items. As the USA is in a recession, and the majority of buyers and sellers on Etsy are from the US, and have less and less disposable income, and become more prone to save than spend, it will start effecting companies that sell non-essential items.

Like if you sell art or photography, especially if your price points are in the high-end range, I’m sure you have already seen sales start to taper off, try putting your art onto items people can use, and you can offer at a lower price point, coasters, hair ponies, totes, shirts, cards, those types of things.

Not to say that all people who sell non-essentials will not have great sales stats, but the more useful or unique the product, the easier it is to market and sale….

It also helps if you sell a disposable product, one in which the customer will use your product for it’s intended purpose and then need to come back to you to replace that product. Things such as soap. You don’t buy a bar of soap and keep it forever and never need another bar of soap. It gets used and must be replaced by another bar of soap.

Do you have a unique product? Can they find the same thing everywhere else? Are you one of 15,469,034 zillion jewelry makers? If so, you know what I mean. Jewelry is probably the most competitive handmade market out there, so you really have to do something to give yourself an edge over the competition.

Do you have a style? Do you only work with sterling silver and Swarovski crystals? Do you offer clip earrings? (an often ignored market) Do you work with gold vs silver? Do you use only the finest, most expensive beads and findings, or do you specialize in quality made affordable jewelry?

What makes your product unique or better than those they could buy elsewhere? Do you do something special? Are your cards hand cut by you rather than precut store bought blanks? Are the envelopes handmade? Is that fabric used to make that purse brand name? or vintage? Why would the buyer not just go to wal-mart and buy the same thing cheaper? Why would they not go to one of the other 50 shops on Etsy that sell the same thing you do? Why would they not just go to their local craft show and buy from their instead of you?

Continually improve your product. So you make an awesome product that sells like hot cakes. But what happens when your target market all own your hot seller? Sales drop if you haven’t improved upon it or added to it in some way. Never think you ‘got it’ always look for ways to improve all of your products. There is ALWAYS room for improvement in every aspect of your business. The market is constantly changing and business and products should constantly be changing to meet those needs. That is what makes a successful business.

So, what makes your products special?

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?

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?