Butterfly Chic Boutique Blog

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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.

Thanks for reading and I hope this post was worth the wait!I was going to save this post for the last in the series as before spending time and money on promotion and advertising, your shop should be in tip top shape, but I have had several request to go ahead and post it, so here you go :0)

Do you like pushy car salesmen? You know the one’s I’m talking about. The ‘I can get you in this new car you don’t need and can’t afford TODAY’ they play the ‘woe is me, my kid needs braces, my wife lost her job, my mom needs surgery’ card to tug on your heartstrings and try to get sales.

Don’t be like that. And yes, there are Etsians like that. They are so desperate for a sale because they haven’t made one in one day, two days, 2 weeks or 4 months, doesn’t matter how long, it’s always too long. But when you look in some of these shops begging for sales you see dark, blurry pictures, no measurements in the description, no details about the materials used…you can’t expect your promotion to work if your shop isn’t up to par. As Etsy grows, this is going to become increasingly important.

Promotion is not screaming “LOOK AT MY SHOP!! I have JUST what you need. I know you’re looking for a crocheted hat, but here are a pair of my earrings you might like. Not your style? Ok, well what about this painting I did?”

Q: So what do you do to promote and advertise your shop? What are your questions about way to promote and advertise you’ve heard of?

A: I list/relist/renew often. Several times a day in fact.

• I’m sure you have noticed it has not been working as well over time, as Etsy grows and more and more people are doing the same thing, it becomes more and more useless and a waste of time, effort and money. While it is still a good option in some categories with less items, it is already pretty useless in the larger categories such as jewelry.

A: I post my newest or most relevant items in several promo threads a day. Plus I start my own promo thread some days.

• Ever notice how quick your promo thread sinks? Like the jewelry category, it is overwhelmed with sellers trying to be seen. How often do you go to promos to find what you want to buy? How often have you bought from a promo thread? If you have bought from a promos thread, what percentage of your buys have come from seeing someone in a promo thread? Most sellers are in the promo forum to promote their own shop, not to buy. Most of the time, you are going to be missing your target audience by posting here. That section of the forums should be renamed ‘fight to the death for a sale’

A: I spend all the time I can on the Etsy Forums, in all the forums.

• It’s great that you aren’t spending all your time in promos, but you are still putting all your eggs in one basket, it’s just a larger basket than the previous answer. The only potential customers you are reaching on the Etsy forums, are other Etsians. People who already know about the site, most likely have already bought a few things, and people who might already be loyal to one of your competitors. As Etsy grows, it is becoming more and more important for sellers to bring their own customers into Etsy, instead of relying solely on Etsy’s existing users.
• The exception to this rule is people who sell items geared toward other sellers. Etsy banners and avatars, seller supplies, craft supplies, such as beads and paper, your customer base IS other Etsians, and this is a great option for promotion, although it still should not be your only form of promotion

A: I buy a showcase as often as I can.

• You know, I spend a lot of time on Etsy, shop there, browse there, sell there, I lurked and window shopped long before I started BCB, and to this day I have yet to look at the showcase. I’d venture to guess I’m not alone on this. Nothing against Etsy or Etsy admin, or anyone who has bought a showcase spot, but it seems rather silly to me to PAY to advertise on the very site you pay to sell on and can advertise in other ways for free on that same site. It seems to me, your advertising dollars would be much better spent outside of Etsy.

A: I have a blog.

• Blogs can be a great way to promote your shop, if you use it right. Most people don’t use it right though.
• Don’t blog about every cute little thing your kids say and do, while it might make a great read for grandma or aunt Becky, most people aren’t dying to read about every little thing your kids (as cute and sweet and funny as they are) do.
• Don’t rant and rave and throw a temper tantrum on your blog about something everyday. Especially not other sellers, your venue, competitors, suppliers, or customers. No one wants to read a blog daily where the writer does nothing but bitch about life (we all have our own problems) or berates others or their work. This is a very unprofessional approach that won’t work for business.
• Don’t make your blog all about you, your shop, your site, your designs, your craft, your products, your listings, your ideas, your art, your…..get the picture? It gets old when it’s all about you. If someone wants to see your new products, they can look at your shop, they don’t need to go to your blog daily to see what you listed in your Etsy shop that day. Posting about your own shop/products is fine, just don’t ever do it.
• Do feature other artists, crafters, sites and items on your blog. It’s a great way to network. It also often turns into a return feature on their blog, or a thank you post on their blog with a link back to your blog and or shop.
• Repost other peoples posts/articles/advice/quotes with their permission. A great example is the post on branding here on BCB blog. I had every intention of posting one about branding and was actually working on the rough draft when I went into the forums and saw a fellow Etsian, who works in marketing, had started a thread on branding. Her post was much better and went into more detail, and, obviously, her words held more weight than mine would. I immediately convo’d her and asked if I could repost it here, giving her credit and linking back to her shop. Most people are excited to be asked if you can repost their words/works/advice if you ask permission and give them a link, it’s free advertising.
• Do share your knowledge. Etsy is full of people who have had their own business or been selling online for years and people who know nothing about computers and just signed up for Etsy yesterday and have no idea what PayPal is. Some people get most of their business from wholesale orders, others have never done wholesale. Some signed up after years of craft shows or doing consignment, others have been selling online for years and are just starting craft shows and consignment. Plus, in our time selling, no matter how long or short of a time, we all learn different things. Some people may have a non-paying buyer their first month, others may not have one for a year. Share what you know with those who know less, or don’t know the same things you do :0)
• You can use many blogs blogger, wordpress, typepad

A: I’ve been thinking about getting a Flickr account to promote, but I’m really sure how that will help my sales…. and is a pro account worth it?

• Many people think Flicker is just about posting your photos and hoping someone sees them and likes them and stumbles into your shop, but it’s much more.
• Post your photos, spread them out. Use your title, tags and descriptions just as if you were posting them on Etsy.
• DO NOT put your shop link anywhere but your Flickr profile. DO NOT put it in your photo descriptions. It is against the rules and your account can be shut down if you do.
• Make friends, the more friends the better.
• Join groups. Not just Etsy groups either. Joining only Etsy groups will only expose your photos to the same people as posting in the forums or chatting or buying a showcase. You’re still only reaching people who already know about Etsy. Join groups for shopping, handmade, colors, you craft (not Etsy specific) The goal with all these outside sites, is reaching people who haven’t heard of Etsy yet. When you join a group, post pictures to them, check out the discussions and mingle.
• And yes, a pro account is worth it. With a pro account you get unlimited upload and unlimited storage (you have a monthly upload and a total storage account limit of about 100 photos with the free flickr account) and you also get unlimited sets to seperate your photos into with the pro account (you get 3 with the free account) and you can get a Flickr pro account for only $24.95 a year. Also, a new thing to Flickr pro accounts is stats, stats come in VERY handy.

A: I have a MySpace page, but I haven’t gotten any sales from it.

• Have a profile layout that matches your shop. Whether you generate your own layout, or use one of the many premade ones, make sure it matches the feel of your shop. If you are very gothic and you sale little girls hairbows, you don’t want a black profile with gothic images on it, someone looking for a hair bow for their 2 year old is going to pass you by. Keep it professional. I chose to have a seperate business and personal MySpace, but it is a matter of choice.
• Don’t fill your page with slideshows, flash, videos, music, lots sparkley flashing graphics and other things that slow down a page loading. Remember, some people who might very well be a potential customer, may be on dial up on an older machine, you don’t want your potential buyers leaving before they even see your page because it took too long to load. If you must have something, pick one thing, let the rest go…. (I have music on mine)
• IndiePublic, Facebook, We_Love_Etsy and others- these sites are much like MySpace, MySpace just seems to be the biggest market. Use them all or pick one or 2 of your favorties that best suit you and your shop. Again though, the we_Love_Etsy site, is gearing your promotion at people that already know about Etsy, so don’t let that be the only one you use.
• Add friends. Search MySpace for people in your town, people with the same interest, people who graduated from the same schools you did, add friends like they are going out of style!
• Join groups. Just like with Flickr, join groups that are geared toward your target audience, not just groups about handmade, Etsy, crafting, card making, jewelry making. You not going to make a living selling your jewelry to other jewelry makers.
• Use the bulletin board. Don’t over use it posting sales and new listings, people will remove ‘pushy car salesman’ types from their friends. Once a week or so is fine, gets your name out there, but you aren’t like a corny commercial that makes you want to flip the channel.
• Always post a “thanks for the add”comment to new friends. I do these in batches about once a week or so.
  • You can get free graphics by searching for them, but these don’t say a lot about your shop.
  • An Etsy mini will work, but it won’t make you stand out as everyone is using them now. If you do use an Etsy mini, don’t use on that has 25 of you items. use the thumbnail view and 2 across at most, so you don’t blow up your new friends comment section and make their page look all ugly, and 4 items doesn’t look too pushy, but will show off your featured items and your newest listing.
  • A custom graphic is best. One that is no more than 300 pixels wide (that page bomb thing, ya know) It should represent your shops feel and have either what you make written on it, or even better, have a picture or two of your work on it. I sell these in my shop for only $5!! (Hey, it is my blog, and I am giving all this great info, I can pimp my own shop a bit if I want! LOL)
  • Always link your graphic to your shop or website. You can mess with the code to do this if you have your own graphic, but should not do so with the free graphics, those are set to link back to the site you got them from and should remain that way.

A: What is a plugboard and how do you use it.

• So glad you asked! Plugboards are FREE advertising. There are pay to plugboards and there are different size plugboards, but the most common are teeny tiny graphics, that are usually animated, and are easy to do. You upload to your photobucket or flickr account, then find plugboards and simply copy your plug URL, paste it in the plugboard and type in the URL you want people to go to. (another shameless promo, I sell animated plugboard ads starting at $5.75 email me at sales@butterflychicboutique.com )

A: I’ve thought about buying ad space on websites and blogs, is it worth it?

• Yet another wonderful question. Yes, I personally think it is worth it. Some don’t think so, but I have my own website and I can see where my visitor come from, so I know which ads I buy work, and which ones don’t. Like I said, stats are VERY handy. I have a few on other Etsian’s blogs and a few on other non Etsy craft related sites. Some work, some don’t. The main question you want to ask when buying ad space isn’t “how much?” it’s “how many” you want to know how many unique views/visitors/hits) that site averages per day. Unique views/visitors/hits means each person that visits, no matter how many times they visit, are only counted once.
  • For example, one day last week on my blog I got 969 page views (or hits) but it was only 402 UNIQUE views/visitors/hits So while my blog was viewed 969 times, it was viewed 969 times by 402 different people.

• You want to think about where your target buyers would be online, and buy ad space there. Buying ad space on a site about frugal living if you sell high end art, probably isn’t a wise investment of your advertising dollars. But if you sell beads and jewelry findings buying ad space on a blog about how to start your own business selling handmade jewelry is a great fit!

A: I post my link everywhere, does this help?

• Yes, Yes, YES!! The more people that see your links or ads, the more people will actually click on them and visit your shop, the more people that visit your shop, the more sales you make. It’s not unusual to have hundreds of views of an item before it sales. I’ve sold things that have gotten over 1000 views and I’ve sold things that have gotten under 10 views, it’s all about the right person viewing that item. The more people you get into your shop, the more likely that the right person will come along. Drive traffic to your site anyway you can, then make sure your items, photos and descriptions keep them there for a while and hopefully, they buy.
• Putting your shop link or graphic (with a link) in all you email signatures is a good way to get people into your shop.
• Putting your shop link or graphic (with a link) in forum post siggys is a great way to drive traffic to your shop. I get a large percentage of my hits from this method. Probably my best free advertising. If you frequent a non craft related site, something you’re into, whether it’s breastfeeding, cars, music, religion or whatever, if you have something in common with these people, there is a good chance they might like your shop. Plus people are more likely to click on a link an ‘online friend’ posts.

A: Is project wonderful worth it? Is it expensive?

• ProjectWonderful is a great way to pay for advertising on a budget! You search for sites that fit your criteria, and you may be able to get ad space for free, but often it is for pennies a day. You bid for a spot to advertise on that site, and can even set up a spending limit so you don’t go over your budget. You ad stays up until you reach your budget or someone out bids you on the space.
• Site or blog owners sign up for ProjectWonderful and place a ProjectWonderful ad box on their page. The specify to project wonderful how many and what size graphic they will allow on their page. They are standard web size graphics. ProjectWonderful offers ad space in 7 sizes. (guess what’s coming now? That’s right, I can design all 7 ad sizes for you! email me at sales@butterflychicboutique.com and no I’m not just trying to sell stuff, search project wonderful on the Etsy forums and you will find many sellers who don’t sale graphics rave about projectwonderful)

A: What does it mean to ’stumble’ someone or to be ’stumbled’?

• This is referring to StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is a great way to get hits. It is a site you join, then download a toolbar (works with FireFox and IE) and if you find a site you like (even your own) you click a little button to rate it and it is added to the stumbleupon base of websites. Now when you have this toolbar, you can set up your preferences and you can “stumble” other sites and this is where your hits come from, others who use stumbleupon can click stumble, and if your site fits their preferences, they can randomly be taken to your site. Your own website, your blog, Etsy shop, or even a specific listing. A great way to bring in new traffic.

A: What do you get out of joining a streeteam? How does that help promote my shop?

• Well, it depends on the street team, as each is run separately by Etsy sellers, not Etsy admin. But joining a street team can help in many ways.
  • Some teams have dues and purchase ad space as a colaborative, you use that street teams tags in your listings and when people come to Etsy and search that tag, your shop is one of the ones that pop up.
  • Some teams are done by locality. This might increase your sales to other local Estians who don’t make the same craft as you.
  • It’s good to talk with others who make the same craft as you to bounce ideas off of and tolear from each other the things that help increase sales for your specific craft.

A: What do people mean by sending out promos? What are good promos?

• Promos is a promotional item, it can be anything with your website on it.
  • A business card is a promo in it’s simplest form.
  • Earrings
  • Key chains
  • Magnets
  • Samples
  • Bookmarks
  • Cell phone charms
  • Mini Note Cards
  • Stickers
  • Pins/buttons
  • Soaps
  • Matchbook notepads
  • Pens/Pencils
  • Lip balm
  • Post cards
  • Tags
  • Mirrors
  • Candy
  • Use your creativity! Samples aren’t possible for every craft, but they are for many.

A: Should I promote my online store offline?

• YES! Just because you have an online store doesn’t mean you are bound to selling only online. There are many great ways to advertise offline, whether the person buys offline or you direct them to your onlilne site.
  • Hand your business card to EVERYONE you meet. The cashier, the gas station attendant, people you wait in line with, other people you meet in the craft store, your mailman, PO workers, your bug man, your coworkers (if allowed) your child’’s teacher or coach, anyone you speak to.
  • Leave your business cards laying around where someone will see them (great if you are too shy to hand it to them) leave on in public bathrooms (yes I actually do this) with the tip you leave your hairdresser, waitress, nail artist, leave them in the craft section at walmart, leave one on a table at starbucks, leave on one the pump at a gas station, if there is a flat surface or a push pin, magnet or clip, stick a business card there!
  • Use/wear your craft. If you make jewelry don’t go out of the house with a pair of your earrings in your ear or one of your bracelets on your arm, if someone comments on it, tell them you made it, you sell jewelry and whip out a business card!
    • ok, this is probably really bad, but I have went so far as to go out with a friend and when people are within earshot she will say “ooo, I love your earrings, did you make those yourself?” It gives strangers an opening to approach you if they like your work…. I’ve made 2 sales like this! LOL
  • Wear or carry something with your URL on it. It can be a shirt,a tote, a purse, whatever, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve handed out a business card when people see my “I love Etsy” tote.
  • Buy a vinyl cling with your URL on it for your car. I think it really helps to spend the extra money for aline about what you make if it isn’t in your URL (like JanesJewelry.etsy.com does need a lot of explaining, but JanesShop.etsy.com would benefit from having a line saying ‘handcrafted jewelry’ above it’
  • Look into a local newspaper or radio ad. Some are cheaper than you might think.
  • Ask local business owners if you can leave a stack of business cards, brochures or post a flyer in their establishment. I have a stack of business cards in the lobby at my local HoJo and Super8.
  • Offer to supply some freebie promo items to a local business with your URL on it. Maybe your local bakery could use napkins with your shop name on them, or your local dry cleaner could give a mini candy bar wrapped in a custom label (like you see for weddings and babies) out to every customer.
  • Try to find local business that have the same target customer as you and promote each other.
    • Like if you do jewelry, call your local formal wear shop and florist and offer a discount if you shop at all the places. Make custom pieces to match one of their dresses and leave it or a photo of it in the store, hand out each others cards and brochures, switch small photo albums with each other to share with your customers, offer them a link on your website or blog.
    • If you make pottery plates, see if a local bakery will let you advertise or consign some of your plates there.
    • If you make baby clothes or cards, talk to the hospital gift shop
  • • Find your nearest tourist attraction and see if you have anything to offer a local shop in that town.

There are things I know I have missed or forgotten to put in this post. There are so many ways to promote your shop. More ways than most people use or even realize. I know it sounds corny, but you do have to spend money to make money. Do your market research and plan where to put your advertising dollars. It will be worth it in the end, when you have repeat customers who found you through an ad or promo.

In slow times, buy another ad space or two, had out more business cards, try a new venue for advertising and wait for sales to pick up. :0)

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!

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?

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 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

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.