Create goals for your Etsy business and kick off 2012 with a clear plan for success!

Everyone’s idea of a successful handmade business isn’t the same.  Some people have Etsy shops as a hobby or to fund their ever- growing craft habit {ha!}, while others are striving to grow their handmade business into a future dream job.  Whatever your idea of success is, goals are a great way to get there.

Your Handmade Business Goals

1.  Know what you want from your business and keep your goals in line with what you want.

2.  Create exciting goals! Be ambitious and set challenging goals that you’ll want to strive toward all year long.

3.  Try using a vision board to keep you on the right track.  Something creative could help you more than the latest computer software or daily planner.  Use what works for you.

4.  Take baby steps.  Larger goals can seem overwhelming if don’t break them down into smaller steps. Try starting with a year-end goal and working backwards to create monthly or weekly steps to get you to your goal.

5.  Meeting even the smallest goals can give you a sense of accomplishment, so don’t skip the small things.

Write down your goals, paint your goals on the wall, or sew your goals on your clothes…whatever it take to keep you on track…ha!

What’s one of your goals for the new year?

~Kim

{Awesome Art by Artsyville}

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Whew! What a holiday season!

My first year selling on Etsy I was thrilled and surprised to have some extra money to put toward my Christmas shopping list. When the second year came along, I had a lofty goal that I would sell enough on Etsy to completely cover my list, and I did! This year, I hoped to do that again.

My Etsy sales set records in both November and December and for the first time ever actually exceeded our entire gift budget! We don’t go crazy with the gift buying, but it still adds-up fast and I was so happy to be able to cover it all with Etsy sales.

Yet I’m glad the New Year is here! I’m ready to start tweaking my systems and improving how I sell online.

And what I sell online!

The first of the year is an excellent time to take a hard look at what you offer to your customers. I say a “hard look” because some of those things need to go away and it’s up to you to be the ruthless bean-counter and pass-out some pink slips!

If you take a look at what you make and what you sell you’re bound to see that some of your items clearly outperform others. This is a perfect time to get a clear picture of what products you should focus on in the coming months.

Things to look at:

• Which items sell the best?
• Which items require the least effort to make, package, or ship?
• Which items have the lowest raw material costs?
• Which items have the highest sale price and profit margin?

If you want to build your business this year, focus on the top products and drop the bottom 20% or so from your store. Don’t think about them, don’t pay to list them, don’t try to market them. Forget them and focus on what’s really working best.

If you go through this periodically, maybe twice a year, you’ll focus your valuable time, effort, and money on the right things and your Etsy business will be better in 2012!

Best wishes for a prosperous new year!

~Kim

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The Internet has been likened to a gold rush and it’s really not a bad analogy. The truth is, there are thousands of ways to make money online. Some are better than others and there are lots of people trying to hit the mother lode.

The truth is that the majority of successful Gold Rush prospectors didn’t hit giant deposits of gold. They found a decent spot, made their claim, and worked hard. On the flip side of this shiny gold coin are the many prospectors who actually found gold but eventually failed anyway. Why?

For a great many of them, it was because they tried to prospect in too many places at once. The mountains and deserts were full of great spots and even though they were onto gold, the idea that their might be more just around the next bend in the river was too tempting.

They ended-up wearing themselves out starting mines, getting a little gold, and impatiently moving on.

Stake Your Claim and Work Hard

Selling online really is a gold rush. The opportunity is so real and so big that it’s not easy to mentally grasp for little people like me. But it’s real nonetheless.

And just like in the Old West, you can see the next great spot from where you’re working now. And you might worry that someone else is going to get there first and “steal your idea”. But if all you do is start mines, you won’t ever get to the next level where things really start to flow.

If you’ve already found gold, then you know it’s there. If you focus on the thing you’re already doing you can get better at seeing where it comes from and learning how to get more of it in your pan.

——–

Have you experienced this prospector dilemma yet? Ever had a hard time staying focused because of a new idea? I’d love to hear your story in the comments?

~ Kim

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Bundle up!

No, I don’t mean put on a sweater.  I mean bundle up your items to sell!  You see it all the time in the stores and fast food restaurants.  Everyone loves a great deal, so offer your customers a great deal by bundles!  It may help increase your sales at the same time…that’s a winning combination!

Here’s a few ideas to get you started…

• There’s always the buyers that are looking for a great value.  You can attract them by including one free item or a slight discount if they purchase the bundle.
• You can help the gift buyer customer by providing coordinating items to make their shopping easier.  Keeping it simple can give them that extra nudge to purchase right now.
• Package your bundle like a gift.  Pretty packaging can tip the scales when they’re shopping around.  You save them time…that’s always a good thing.
• Use the right words in your description, title, tags and other promotions.  {Try gift set, collection, bundle or package deal.}

I like selling gift sets because it saves me so much time on shipping.  Try it out and see what you think.  With the holidays coming, you’ll want to be ready for all those shoppers.

Do you sell in bundles?  Any tips you’d like to add?

~Kim

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Twitter is a valuable marketing tool that’s FREE!

Over the last couple of years I’ve become quite comfortable with using Twitter to promote my Etsy shops and blogs, but it wasn’t an easy thing for me in the beginning.  It was a bit out of my comfort zone and I felt out of place during each of my first 50 tweets.

Now, I have about 14,000 Twitter followers and I actually enjoy tweeting! 

I’ll just tell you how I use Twitter on a regular basis and maybe you’ll find a tip or two to help you with your Etsy business.

I use Hootsuite because it really helps me to keep up with great tweeters and find information I would have missed.  You can set up columns to watch certain groups of friends or keywords on subjects you’re interested in…like “Etsy” for example. 

This has also helped me with the amount of time I spend on Twitter…we all know how valuable our time is with running an Etsy shop.  Any social media can really eat up time if you don’t have a few guidelines.

I usually check my tweets in the morning, around lunch, and in the evening.  When I’m really movin’ and shakin’ I set up tweets to post throughout the day. I highly recommend that!

I tweet about cool things I’ve read on blogs, retweet others, tweet about new blog posts, items in my shops, sales and a bit about what I’m working on or eating…lol!

I’ve met some fabulous people on Twitter!  Over time I’ve found out who tweets the coolest stuff and the latest information, and who’s really helpful in spreading the word when I have something to share.

One common mistake I see is Etsy shop owners only tweeting about the items in their shop…constantly.  You have to mix it up a bit or people will kinda zone out to your tweets and they won’t be that effective in promoting your business.

The best advice I can give is to only tweet 1 time to promote yourself to every 10 tweets that are helpful to someone or sharing great information.

Using Twitter the right way won’t take up too much time and your contacts will be worth the effort…who couldn’t use a little free promotion?!

You might be interested in reading Using Twitter For An Etsy Business.

If you have any Twitter tips to share or questions that I might be able to help you with, just leave it in the comments. 

You can always tweet with me by following @EverythingEtsy on Twitter.  

~Kim

Are you listed in the Everything Etsy Directory, yet???  Click here for details.

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Every once in awhile a wave of change rolls through the community of Etsy Sellers.

Here’s what happens:

1. Etsy decides to change the way they do something, like they did last week by switching to a relevancy based search results, or like they’ll be doing soon with a new option to purchase a promotional space alongside those search results.
2. The Etsy forums explode with people moaning and complaining, half of whom seem to have not bothered to even read the first post of the thread which is the genesis of the discussion.
3. Rumors fly. People get all excited. Anyone who might have something to gain by bad-mouthing Etsy comes out of the woodwork. A few people close their shops. The rest wait and see.
4. The dust settles and the change is the new norm, and everyone forgets about it and continues on.

Rinse and repeat.

Etsy is a business. They’re going to make changes as the business grows and they learn what’s working and what isn’t.

If we, as sellers, would think of our shops as businesses too, we might not be so upset because it’s probably a good thing for us.

The recent and upcoming changes remind me of a few really important points. If you’re serious about making a business out of selling your handmade or vintage items online, then these three common sense concepts should never be far from your mind.

1. Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

Everybody knows this saying and it might be a little over-used, but it really applies to this situation. You can’t put all your marketing eggs in one basket.

When it comes to the relevancy search and the upcoming paid promotion within the search results, we’re talking about marketing. Nothing is changing with your actual shop. This is about getting people to your shop.

Etsy is a venue, like the mall. It attracts people for sure, but stores still advertise and have a Facebook Page.

If you were counting on relisting your items as your sole marketing tactic, then this would hit you really hard. You had all your eggs in the “relist to get sales” basket.

Good Etsy shop marketing should include a number of sources of traffic. This could be a blog, your social media sites, offline advertising and marketing, online advertising, other websites you control, etc. It’s really a pretty long list and you want to be in it.

That’s not to mention SEO, which this shouldn’t effect. Though SEO is another thing that can change at any moment at the whim of someone else. Which is why you should remember the next common sense rule:

2. Don’t Count On Someone Else To Promote You!

People change stuff on you. Especially when those people have to answer to other people and especially when you don’t really know any of them.

Unless you’re in a paid contract, you really can’t count on anyone to help you promote yourself and market your products.

You’ve heard the saying, If it is to be, it’s up to me. Well that’s pretty accurate when it comes to getting your name out there online. You have to take the initiative and just do it.

3. If It’s Good For Etsy, It’s Good for Makers

Have a little faith in the fact that Etsy is doing what they’re doing to improve the bottom line. People in the forums say things that sound like they think Etsy is stealing from them somehow. I don’t get it.

If Etsy Sellers aren’t successful…bye bye Etsy. They know that.

Don’t you agree? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

Post image is a Giclee available on Etsy, click here.

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Some of you are already aware of Etsy’s new Relevancy Search and how it might change the way you need to list your items.  I will honestly tell you that I’m not always that keen on changes, but I usually adapt.  Here’s a bit of information to help bring you up to speed and help your shop be successful…

• Etsy has changed their default search from Recently Listed to Most Relevant.
• Etsy believes this will help shoppers find exactly what they are searching for and you should think like a shopper as you title and tag you items.
• Put the most important keywords and phrases at the front of your titles.
• Use a variety of strong keywords and phrases in your titles and tags, and vary what is at the front of the title (be sure to always use the most important keywords and phrases, though). Don’t name everything the same thing! Each listing is a chance for a buyer to find you, if you diversify your keywords you’ll be found by lots of different searches. For example, you might start off a few listing titles with each of your strong keywords or phrases, then use other great terms on other similar items in your shop. Eg:
  Girls Dress – etc etc
  Children’s Dress – etc etc
  Toddler Dress – etc etc  {From Etsy.com}
• Recently Listed items do play some role in search results sorted by relevancy.  They want to keep it fresh.   Shoppers can still choose to shop by recently listed.
• The top of the search page will show the last four Recently Listed items.
• Use all your tags keeping in mind what a buyer might type in the search box.  Tags and titles will help determine your relevancy.
• All tags will have equal value so it does not matter what order they are listed.
• Recently listed items will also continue to appear at the bottom of the Etsy homepage, and the category pages will continue to be sorted by most recent.
• You can find more information about this here.  I’m sure there will be slight changes as they receive feedback from sellers.

What are your thoughts about the new Relevancy Search? If you have found any ideas that have helped your shop, please share it in the comments.

I realize this might be a touchy subject, so please try to keep your comments kind, objective and relevant.  Thanks!

~Kim

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Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young. – Henry Ford

When I look at some of the things I’ve had to learn in order to sell online I’m often a bit surprised by it all.

Some of the things we talk about, like Etsy Shop SEO, or how to create an etsy banner, or how to make a pinterest button, are things I never would have thought I would learn in this lifetime.

I just didn’t see it coming. At all.

Yet I’m so happy about it because I’m working this whole new part of my brain. I’m constantly learning new things and always yearning for more!

Just like the quote says, I think it keeps us young to learn new things.

Embrace Learning and Avoid Frustration

One of the challenges I’ve faced is getting mad at myself, life, or the world in general because I don’t know how to do something. I’m facing that exact thing right now with my maddening quest to learn to use our fancy digital SLR camera. I can’t get a poloroid quality shot out of the thing to save my life!

It’s funny how as adults we somehow think learning should be easier simply because we need to fit it in our schedule!

Ok, I’ve got an hour to spare here, 90 minutes tops, I need to learn professional digital photography in that window of time.

Hah! Right, like that’s gonna happen.

The cool thing is that when I take a step back and look at the big picture, I’m really amazed at how much I’ve learned in the last 2-3 years since I’ve started all this “online” stuff.

Even given the time constraints of being a wife, mom, and trying to work, it actually added up! Yay!

Thank God for coffee…

Give Yourself a Break and Carry On!

So next time you’re trying to learn a new thing, like maybe how to do a little HTML on your blog or how to sew, don’t give-up! If it takes a little while, that’s ok. It’s learning, and it never has been all that fast.

At least not for me!

What new things are you proud to have learned since starting all this “online” stuff?

~Kim

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While looking for a picture to use in a recent post about how to share your etsy shop address, I came across this picture:

At first (and second, and third) glance I thought: nice card. But just another nice card. No big deal really.

Until I clicked through to the source website for the picture, which is a design firm called Flow 14.

It was there that I found out what I was really looking at. The blue part of the card is a sticker!

That is just so cool and creative I had to share it with you. Think of the possibilities!

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A recent question popped-up in one of the Etsy Team forums that was essentially “What is my shop address?”

It reminded me that things that seem second-nature to me now, aren’t quite as obvious to those just getting going on Etsy. I remember what it was like, and I still call “uploading” photographs “downloading”, to the great annoyance of my wonderful, sweet, and patient husband.

So, here are a few simple tips on sharing the website link to your Etsy shop with others.

1. Use the “sub-domain” address to your shop.

When you see a website, like our Everything Etsy Directory, that has words, then a dot, then more words, followed by a .com, or .net (or whatever type of domain it is) then that address is known as a sub-domain address. The directory, for example is: directory.everythingetsy.com and it is a sub-domain of everything etsy called “directory”.

When you get an Etsy shop, you automatically have an address like this and your username/shop name is the first part of it. So, for my shop: Kimberly Layton, the sub-domain address is kimberlylayton.etsy.com

This is the address you should always use for two important reasons. It’s easy to remember and it puts your name in front which is good branding and subliminal marketing.

2. For Print Documents – Don’t worry about the WWW

Believe it or not, the address www.EverythingEtsy.com and EverythingEtsy.com are two different addresses. It’s entirely possible to put two totally different websites on each. In fact, you’ll sometimes find that you type in a website and nothing comes up (an error screen), but you know you’ve been there before. Often adding or deleting the www from the address you typed in will fix it.

Most well-built websites will automatically forward to the correct domain. Etsy uses the www, but you don’t have to type it in to get to the site or to your shop.

On print documents it’s easier to read and takes-up less space without the www. It works without it, so leave it off.

3. To Capitalize or not to Capitalize?

It’s totally up to you. There is a strong movement, of which I am not a part, that seems to think capital letters have gone the way of the DoDo Bird (or is it dodo bird?) If that’s your thing, feel free to leave all capitals out. I usually prefer to highlight the individual words in a website address with a capital at the beginning of them. EverythingEtsy, for example.

But the bottom line is that it does not matter. You can type in everytHInGetsY.CoM and it will work, so you can write it however you wish, but not everyone knows that it doesn’t matter, so you pRobabLy dOn’T wanT tO GeT tOo CUTE!

4. When creating a link online use the HTTP://

If you’re commenting on a blog or putting your website into a form online, you always want to use the preceding http:// before your address unless otherwise indicated. From a computer’s perspective, this is a very important part of the link and many times the link will not work without it. (trivia to make you look like a smart nerd: http stands for Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol)

5. What about redirects?

You’ll see, as you browse around, that some snazzy folks have figured out how to get a domain that they own to forward to etsy. So you would type in myshop.com and get myshop.etsy.com. That’s just a simple redirect of the URL (uniform resource locator – or website address) to the Etsy shop. This is done through your hosting company and is a great marketing tool.

The advantage of doing this is that you can buy your domain and hosting for relatively low cost early on in your business, and get your customers used to going to your own domain. This way, if you ever decide to expand from Etsy in the future, you already have people coming to your website address.

We have a tool to check and see if the name you want is available at our post on Picking a Name for Your Etsy Shop

Have a great day! I’m going to Disney World for Tim’s birthday!
Tim’s Facebook Page

- Kim

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