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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Are you looking to increase your sales?  That’s a funny question, right?  I know everyone would love to have 5 extra sales this week!

I’ve compiled a list of tips that I hope will help you get off to a great start or improve your sales.  It’s not rocket science, but you do have to spend a little time on your shop to see those big results! 

Here are a few tips to get you thinking…

1.  Review Your Shop – Take a step back and really look at your shop from a shopper’s perspective.  Can you find the products easily using your categories?  Do you have enough items or options to keep a buyer interested? If you sell knit hats, maybe add some sets including mittens or headbands.  Make it easy for them to create great gifts for holidays.

2.  Know Your Market – Who is going to want what you sell?  Focus on who your buyers are and promote directly to them to grow your customers with less effort.   If you have a super slim group of folks that would even want or need what you’re selling…be ready to wait a bit longer for those sales.  Specializing is great, just don’t get carried away.  Cast a wide net and then bring it in…ever hear of that?

3.  Photography -  Show your products in the best light!  Take multiple shots of each item and edit them to stand out in a crowd…not blend.  It’s easy to use free software like Picnik.com for photo editing. You might want to check out How To Photograph Your Work for Sale on Etsy for more photography tips.

4.  Great Descriptions -  Describe it with feeling!  Great descriptions can really nudge a browsing shopper to hit the “buy” button.  Be descriptive with your words and give them ideas for displaying or using your product.  Explain why they would want to purchase this from your shop.  Maybe you use all natural ingredients for your soap, or you raise the sheep to create your wool.  People love stories…give them one!

5.  Product Selection -  How’s your selection?  Keep it simple…shops that are full of similar products tend to do the best.  You want them to remember your shop for bags, pottery or greeting cards.  Make products that you love and others will love them too!

6.  Research -  What works for others?  Are there shops on Etsy that sell items like yours?  Do they offer special color selections or sets that might attract buyers? Researching what works for other shops doesn’t mean copying what they sell, you just need to have an idea of what sells.  Take the time to research what tags are used and the prices…you won’t regret it!

7.  Stock Up -  Do you like to shop in stores with only 10 products to choose from?  No, of course you don’t.  Expand your selection based on what sells the most.  Create multiple colors of that items and list them or try a slightly different design.  Read Increasing Etsy Sales – Mind Your Item Count for more information.

8.  Price it Right!  There are many ways to determine the price of an item, but the bottom line is that you have to come up with a price that works for you and the buyer.  I’ve priced items low in the past and then increased them slightly until I found the best price.  You can also try including free shipping or discounts for multiple orders.

9.  Show your Cards – Business cards are a cheap way to reach new customers.  Hand them out to everyone you know…give them a few to share.  Add extra cards to each order.  Mail them to family with a note about what your selling.  They can’t buy from you if they don’t know what you’re selling! {13 Creative Business Cards}

10.  Giveaways – Promoting your shop with a blog giveaway is a great way to introduce your shop or a new product.  Don’t be afraid to approach bloggers about doing a giveaway on their blog.  Some might charge, but others will be glad to promote your shop in exchange for a product for them to review.  You’ll also receive links to your shop…don’t underestimate those links!!  This is a great way to grow your shop, but it doesn’t always equal immediate sales so keep that in mind.

11.  Great Customer Service – Make each sale count and get a repeat customer with great customer service.  Send emails to confirm their custom color selections, have a friendly return policy and always answer their convos quickly.   Show them that shopping on Etsy is so much better than going to the store for their next gift.

12.  Package it Up – The packaging is the first thing they see when your they open your box or envelope.  Make it count…first impressions are big!  I usually  add a colorful bow and a small thank you gift, but over time you’ll find out what works best for you.  A small gesture of appreciation can give you great results…try it.

13.  Give a Discount for Referrals – Giving a buyer a discount or free shipping on their next order could be that extra incentive they need to spread the word about your awesome shop.  Try a few different ideas and see what gives you the most referrals.

14.  Blogs – A blog can really help you promote your shop!!!  Have a blog already?  Great, just make sure to spend time each week growing your blog.  Blog about your products, favorite recipes, how to make your products, great new products in your shop…whatever.

Once you get the hang of blogging you’ll find it to be a valuable tool for your Etsy business.  {Compare WordPress & Blogger for your business.} Oh, and don’t forget to add your Etsy mini to the sidebar!

15.  Use Facebook – Facebook is a great way to easily tell your friends, family and past customers what’s new in your shop.  Connect your Etsy shop to your page for easy shopping.

16.  Twitter – Twitter is a fun way to spread the word about your products and meet new people.  Just be sure to tweet about other things too.  Tweeting about ONLY your shop and products might not give you the response you want.

Grow your followers by following people with the same interests.  Most of them will follow you back and might even take a peek at your shop.

17.  Go Team! – Join teams on Etsy!  It’s a great way to get tips on selling and promote your shop.  Try a few and be active in promoting other members.  We have a team for Etsypreneurs like you…check it out!

18.  Treasuries – Treasuries are a fun way to get your shop noticed and share beautiful items you’ve found through teams or by search on Etsy.  If your item is included in a treasury that makes it to the front page you will be shocked at the traffic you get…shocked!

19.  Comment on Blogs -  Visiting blogs and leaving thoughtful comments can lead someone right back to your shop by clicking on your name in the comment.  This works, but you’ll want to avoid being “spammy” by leaving links to your shop in the comment {unless they ask for links}.  Try commenting on 5-10 blogs a day!

20.  Keep Improving – Sales can go up and down for no reason at all…stay positive during slow times and work on your stock and photos.  Get creative and try a new idea or two.  Think ahead to upcoming holidays and start planning for huge sales!

You might enjoy this infographic…How To Build An Online Empire Starting With Etsy!

21.  Have fun with it? Your creativity shines through when you’re enjoying your work.  Don’t get caught up in what you’re not doing, just take it one step at a time.

Are you still reading??  I can go on and on about this! {obviously}

Etsy is a wonderful place to sell your beautiful handmade products!  You can’t beat waking up to sales in your shop or working on your next new product while watching a movie on a rainy day.  This is my kind of business!

These are just a handful of ideas to keep your shop growing…care to share a tip of yours???

~Kim

Visit our section on Etsy Business for more tips and information to help you grow your shop!  Etsy rocks!

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Lots of Free Etsy Banners for Every Season!!

Announce your Fall specials!

We have tons of free Etsy Banners that can help you welcome in the season and put your visitors in the shopping spirit!

If you need help personalizing your banner or adding it to your shop, we have some posts to help you handle all that…so what’s stopping you?

Click here to see all the Free Etsy Banners

Have fun adding a bit of Fall charm to your shop!

~Kim

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See below for an Audio Podcast with Kim & Tim!

How many Etsy shops turn into long-term successes? What percentage of people who start selling on Etsy with big dreams end-up watching that dream fade away?  It’s probably pretty high.

What about you? Do you want to actually see those dreams come to fruition?  Do you want to actually experience the feeling of waking up in the morning and seeing that you had a dozen sales while you slept?  Do you want to see your work printed on the page of a magazine one day?  If you do, our upcoming post series will  help you tremendously!

To Succeed Online, You MUST Have a Blog!

I’m not a big fan of statements that include “You must” or “You can’t”.  I’m kind of a brat that way.  But this is the truth.  Your blog will eventually be a key component to your success online.

So we’ve prepared a series of ten posts on everything you need to know about the essentials of blogging for success on Etsy.  If you’re ready to rock your blog, follow along with us as we share the most important things we’ve learned after three years, thousands of posts, and millions of visitors.

Posts In The {BLOG} Series:

September 12th – Blogging Leads to Online Greatness! {audio}
September 19th – Setting Up Your WordPress Blog on Your Domain {video}
September 26th – Make It Your House – Themes, Styles, and Plugins for WordPress {video}
October 3rd – Content is King – 10 Secrets of Great Blog Content
October 10th – Using Social Media to Support Your Blog {video}
October 17th – Using Your Blog to Promote Your Etsy Shop
October 24th – Using SEO to Build Your Blog and Business {video}
October 31st – How and When to Make Money from Your Blog
November 7th – Must Have WordPress Plugins for Etsy Sellers
November 14th – Planning For Greatness – Tips For Advanced Blogging and Selling Online {audio}

Blogging Leads to Online Greatness

We’re not talking history book greatness here.  We’re talking about reaching a point where you feel successful with your efforts on the Internet.  Working through, past, over, and around the points (and they are many) when you want to quit.

For me, overcoming the temptation to surrender is greatness.

Follow along with us in this series.  We’re pulling out all the stops and including videos, audio, infographics, the works!  All completely for free as one way of helping you reach your own personal greatness.

To take advantage of this series, sign up here to get EverythingEtsy.com emailed to you once daily.  The post title is in the subject line, so you will immediately know which post is of interest to you (and not waste your time with those that aren’t).

Enter your email address:

 

Our First Podcast!

As an intro to this series, Tim and I have recorded our first audio podcast!  We’ve done an interview format with Tim interviewing me on my experiences with blogging and more.  A few highlights…

• How I got started on Etsy
• How we got into blogging
• Why blogging is important for success online
• What challenges I’ve had to overcome
• What I would do differently if starting today

You can just hit the play button and it should play right from this page, or use the links below the player.

As always, I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments!

~Kim

We mentioned a couple of recommended services in the podcast. If you decide to purchase them, we’d really appreciate you clicking through our affiliate links! Every little bit helps! For hosting, we love Bluehost and for email marketing, our favorite overall is iContact. These links won’t cost you a penny more and we’ll get an affiliate commission. Thanks!

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{Wychbury}

If you are anything like me you might be an Etsy seller, but you’re also a major Etsy shopper!  Once you are hooked on handmade creations you really can’t help yourself!

One of the fun parts of ordering on Etsy is opening the package to find something beautiful…you know, nothing like what you find at the mall.  Etsy sellers take such care with their items because they made them with love and care just for you.  I soooo love handmade!!

Anyway, I gathered some packaging inspiration for those of you with shops.  Even if you don’t have a shop it might inspire you to take a few extra moments with the next gift you give.  The packaging can really add that extra-special “Wow Factor” to a simple item.

Copy book pages for wrapping paper…black and white looks great!

Vintage wallpaper tags {from moo.com} can add instant beauty and style to any box.

{Bluhour}

Oh, the power of twine!  This is simply pretty!

{Stella and Hodge}

I think this button on the top of the package is just the cutest thing!  Why didn’t I think of that?!

Layla Amber hair pins come displayed on their own custom cards.

Pillow boxes are are pretty way to package quickly.

Paloma’s Nest sends ornaments in these beautiful bags…so classy, don’t you think?

These bitty bags are a simple packaging solution and they come in so many colors and styles.

{just lovely things}

Whatever you do, I’m sure you’ll come up with something that says “thank you” in your own way.

Do you have any packaging tips to share??

~Kim

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Autumn can’t arrive in Florida fast enough!  I just bough a Pumpkin Spice candle to help me while I wait.  Oh, and don’t even get me started about Pumpkin Spice Lattes…soon, real soon!

While we wait for cooler days why not browse Etsy for beautiful Autumn finds like these…

{Paper Butterflies}

{Coral Grid Ring}

{Modern Aloha Pillow}

{Fall Necklace}

{The Everyday Bag}

I need that bag…just sayin’!

Since it’s Labor Day here in the United States we’ll be enjoying ribs and cheeseburgers on the grill in just a bit.  Holidays seem to always involve lots and lots of food, don’t they?!

Have a wonderful day and don’t work too hard!

~Kim

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The Entire Recently Listed Section at the top of this page is all one shop!

Stop the presses. Gasp. I was wrong! (Actually it happens all the time, but don’t tell Tim.)

Last week we were talking about the new Etsy Search results and how they could/would impact sales. I made the comment that renewing your listings was “done”, over, yesterday’s news.

(Read that post and comment discussion here.)

Grouped Listings Can Dominate Search Results Pages

The very top of the Etsy search results includes recently listed items, but I didn’t consider that very useful because it was only four items and I figured the chances of appearing there were too slim to be worth the effort.

Maybe I was wrong. Keeping in mind that those four items are based on the same search query but only searching new listings, the chances might be better than I thought.

And then look at what can happen if you renew the listings on a group of items one after another (you can renew multiple listings simultaneously). The photo at the top shows that it’s possible for your shop to own the entire top row on the results page.

That can’t be a bad thing! Is it worth the effort and cost? I’m not sure…

What are your thoughts?

~Kim

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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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{August Blossoms camera straps}

Hello friends!

My name is Kristen Duke, and I am a portrait photographer in Austin, Texas.  I am also a big fan of all things crafty, some of which you will find featured on my site. I am often asked to photograph items for those with Etsy stores because everyone knows that a well photographed image is what sells.

I can offer a few tips for those of you out there who are struggling to get great images.   When photographing products for your Etsy store, think of these 5 rules:

{Onsie by The Wishing Elephant}

1.  Be as close to natural window light as possible. Don’t have the window behind the product or you will get backlight/dark product images.  Stand at the side of the window and shoot your products with the window light shining on it.  Baby is facing the window and it is behind me, but I am to the side photographing.

{The Wishing Elephant}

{3 outfits by La Tee da Kids}

2.  Have samples up close as well as pulled back along with something “average size” to compare the product to.  If it is a child’s product, have that product in their hands or on them.  Think of magazine ads, having someone use the product shows it off so much more than just a sample.

{Headband by Ruffles n Fringe}

3.  Design a background to make the product more interesting instead of just on a solid surface.  You can use fabric, scrapbook paper, tablecloths, even clothing laid out flat as a background. Below, I have a colorful quilt in the background.

4. Use a white poster board on the side of the product (but outside of view) to add to the window light, as if it is a reflector.  Anything white in the area will add more light to your setup.

5.  Always put your name, watermark, website on your images in case they get pinned (or taken without permission) others will always know to come back to you because your name is on the image.

If you try all of these tips and still aren’t getting the best results, I can help you with your photography skills as well! My book is written for the very beginner in photography, teaching steps to take your camera off of the auto and into the manual settings.  To learn more about it, click on Say NO to Auto:)

Photography help is always appreciated around here!  Thanks, Kristen!

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