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Etsy Selling Strategy {Listing in Groups}

Kim — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 05:01:08 +0000

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

5 Blogging Tips for Etsy Sellers

Kim — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:37:45 +0000

{Lavender Sachets – The Lavender Road}

Yes, that’s right, you should have a blog! I know there are a million things to do, but if you plan on growing your handmade business you shouldn’t put off starting or improving your blog for another moment.

Here are a few simple tips to start you on the road to blogging success…

1. Be yourself! People that read your blog want to know a bit about you! You don’t have to share all your family details, but share your personality with your readers. Only listing the details of your latest listing isn’t going to grow your blog. Your work is more beautiful to them when they know you.

Trying to do what another blog does to be successful might not work for you. Write about what you know and enjoy…it will make blogging easier at the same time.

2. Keep it simple! Share a few photos from Etsy,flickr or Pinterest with a bit about them. Try a Wordless Wednesday post with a photo of anything you’ve done or saw that week. {Wordless Wednesday is a blog party where you share a link to your post and visit others on the list.} It’s an easy post and you’ll meet new people through a blog party like this one.

3. Comment, comment, COMMENT! Visit 10 blogs a day and comment on their posts. Do this every day for a week and you’ll have new followers and more comments than the week before.

When readers leave a comment on your blog posts don’t forget to go and check out their blog. You’ll end up finding new friends this way…trust me, you should comment a bunch!

4. Photos make your blog POP with color! Creative people like creative looking blogs, right? Use clear and bright photos with every post. They can catch the reader’s attention and keeps them coming back for more inspiration.

If you use a photo from somewhere else online be sure to link to your source. If it’s from another blog it’s best to email them to make sure they approve of it being used in your post.

5. You don’t have to post daily, but a few posts a week will help you build up the content of your blog. You’ll be shocked at how much information you have on your blog in a year! Try writing a simple tutorial, share something you’ve just discovered, write about the inspiration behind your work or share a photo of your dog…LOL!

Write what you would like to read!

There are so many little tips you’ll learn as you go, but I hope these will help you out a bit on your road to successful blogging. Blogs grow slowly so don’t stress over it. Be consistent and you’ll grow it into something that will help you in the future.

Meeting nice people along the way is an added bonus!

Care to share a blogging tip? I’d love to hear it!!!

~Kim

Customizable Etsy Widget for WordPress {Tutorial}

Everything Etsy — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:51:06 +0000

This post is a little on the techy side – if it helps you, great! If it bores you to tears, blame Tim (he wrote it)! ~ Kim

This widget is fully customizable for your creative enjoyment!

If you’re an Etsy Seller with a self-hosted WordPress blog, then you might be interested in a neat new plugin for displaying your Etsy shop items in your blog sidebar.

I’ve been playing around with the Customizable Etsy Widget plugin to see just how customizable it is and I’ve taken a few screenshots along the way to show you what I’ve done and how you can do the same thing on your WordPress blog.

The Problem With Etsy Mini’s

Is that they all look the same. That’s why the CraftCult Widget is so popular. It’s great if you like one of the available options. But what if you’re all into the exact colors matching? What if you’re totally neurotic about using your logo in everything you do? What if you’re just a control freak. (not that I would know anything about any of these)

For whatever reason, you may want to be able to automatically display your Etsy products on your blog or WordPress website and have it look exactly the way you want it to. Then this is the widget for you.

You can see the current rendition of the “test dummy” widget I’ve been working on for this post to the right. It’s also live at the bottom of the right sidebar here at EverythingEtsy.com. Just scroll down the page to see it.

I’m not totally satisfied with this. I don’t love the black border or the grey background, but I ran out of time! The beauty of something like this is that once you know how and where to do the customizations, you can change any time you like with ease.

At the risk of getting way too technical for this blog, I’m going to explain the steps involved in what I’ve done.

Step One: Install the Plugin

Installing plugins in WordPress couldn’t be any easier.

In the WordPress Dashboard, look to the left side and find “Plugins”
If you need to, click the little dropdown arrow to expose the options, click “Add New”
In the box on the next page, type in “Customizable Etsy Widget” and hit search.
On the following page, you should see something like this:
Since you haven’t installed the plugin yet, you’ll be able to click “install now”.
Then just go through the next couple of screens until you have activated the plugin.
That’s it – plugin is installed

A word of advice: whenever you install a plugin, check your website before continuing to make sure you didn’t just break it. Rarely, a plugin will conflict with some other aspect of your site set-up and things won’t work. If that happens you usually just delete the plugin you just installed and go back to life without it!

Step Two: Install A New Widget

This plugin creates a new “widget” available in your WordPress Widget’s panel. You reach that by looking on the left side of the WordPress Dashboard for the section titled “Appearance” and the choice under that called “widgets”. When you click on that, you see a screen like this:

Click to add the Customizable Etsy Widget. (it’s possible your screen will look slightly different. I have the drag-and-drop widget arrangements disabled. You may be able to just click and drag the widget into the sidebar where you want it)

Once you’ve placed the widget in a sidebar, you can adjust a few settings:

That’s it for the initial set-up. Once you save the widget, it should be live on your site. When you check it, it will be there, but look plain!

This is where the really techy stuff starts….

If you have experience with CSS (Customizable Style Sheets) then this will be nothing new to you. If you don’t, this might be a good item to start with.

Step Three: Modify the CSS

Before you can get started with modifying the CSS coding for this widget, you need to know which file to modify. With many themes, you can follow this path to find the right place… Dashboard > Appearance > Editor >Select Theme to Edit (top right) > Styles > style.css

Then you can go about the process of figuring out which CSS Elements you want to change. For this tutorial, I used the “inspect element” feature in Google Chrome, which is reached by right clicking over an object when using the Chrome browser.

CSS Elements and Code Shown Using Google Chrome 'inspect element"

If you enlarge the photo above, which you can do by clicking on it, you’ll see that I’ve highlighted the CSS elements we want to change.

I want to change the font of the Shop Title, and add a background image behind it.

Here is the CSS code related to the shop title:

/*Customizable Etsy Widget Customization*/

.widget_customizableetsywidget h3{
font-family: 'Irish Growler', serif;
font-size:19pt;
text-shadow: 2px 2px 2px #aaa;
color: #D57373;
background: url(/images/widgetheaderbackground.png) no-repeat;
height: 60px;
margin-bottom: 0;
padding-left: 45px;
text-align:right;}

The first line: .widget_customizableetsywidget h3 tells the browser that we’re only modifying the Etsy Widget and of that, only the H3 (heading three) portion.

After that we include a font from the Google Font Directory. There are some extra steps involved in this which are explained at the Google site.

Following the font options, we include a custom background image behind the title and set the height of the area large enough so that the whole image displays (60px). We override the default white space below the image with margin-bottom: 0;

Finally, we make sure that the words don’t appear on-top of the fish in the background image using padding-left: 45px; and text-align:right;.

Then we modify the lower portion of the widget surrounding the pictures using the following bit of code:

.etsyItemTable {
margin: 0 auto;
background: #e9e9e9;
border: 2px dashed black;
padding: 5px 5px;
}

In the future, I’ll modify this further with a background image and some customizations around the pictures themselves by adding some rules to .etsyItemTable img

Watch Out For Internet Explorer Issues

When you’re making design changes like this, you want to be sure they work in all browsers. When I first thought I was done, I looked in Internet Explorer and this is what I saw.

I had to go back into the CSS and play around with the font size to get it to fit on one line without going over the fish.

You’ll also notice that in Internet Explorer, the dashed line is different and there is no shadow around the letters as there is in the other pictures. It all depends on which version and which browser, but it’s good to check your customizations in a few when you finish.

Infinite Options

This is just a quick example of the basic customizations available to you using this Widget and CSS.

If you’re still reading, and thinking… “I really need a WordPress blog to help promote my Etsy Shop“, we can actually help you with that! The company that Kim and I run together, Crazy Tree Media, can register your domain name, provide hosting, and set-up your WordPress installation for you.

WordPress sites are really incredibly powerful and plugins like the Customizable Etsy Widget are just an example of why we love WordPress.

Etsy Photo Tips & More – Weekend Project

Kim — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:36:20 +0000

There’s spray paint involved? Count me in! Learn how to make beautiful photo backgrounds at A Lemon Squeezy Home. You’ll find some great ideas in this post and discover a few new ways to take your products and make them shine! Christie also has a cute Etsy shop you should check out!

Visit I Heart Faces for tons of photography tutorials! There’s more there than you can even read this weekend, but you will learn something…I’m soooo sure of that! While you’re there you can enjoy all the beautiful photos that will make you want to be a professional photographer. I heart this blog!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! It’s a bit too cold here for me, but I just bought tons of food and I’m planning on staying inside…ha!

Are you working on any new projects this weekend?

~Kim

Success on Etsy {It’s a Sure Thing}

Everything Etsy — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:38:30 +0000

Being successful on Etsy is a sure thing.

Hmmpfff…you say? Don’t scoff, it’s a true statement. Would you doubt any of these statements?

Someone is going to move-in to the new house being built down the block.
My husband is going to get a speeding ticket because he always drives 20mph over the limit.
I put a dollar in a jar every day. I’m going to have $100.00 in my jar in a few months.

Okay, then how about these:

I research what products people want. I look for places where my skills meet-up with what people want. I’m going to develop a product that I can make and people want.
I make my products every day. I add three new products to my shop every week and relist the ones I sell. I’m going to have over 150 items in my shop in one year.
I look at the photography in the shops that have great sales. I take my pictures at different times of day with different backdrops and lighting. I’m learning to use software to make my pictures better. I’m going to have better pictures than my competition.
I think about the way buyers will feel when they open the package I send. I put a little extra work into packaging my sales to make them feel great. I’m going to get repeat business and referrals.
I’m always paying attention to be sure I don’t miss customer testimonials. I save them in a special place all together. I’m going to have a huge collection of testimonials soon.
I have a blog that talks about the things my customers are interested in. I write on my blog every week (at least). In a year, I’m going to have an information resource that my customers will enjoy.
I have a Facebook Page for my business. I put my blog posts on Facebook and I interact with people on Facebook. I promote my Facebook Page on my blog and in my Etsy shop. In a year, I’m going to have hundreds of Facebook fans.
I’ve noticed that many successful online sellers have large Twitter followings. I watch how they use Twitter and I’m learning how to do be a good “Twitterer” myself. I follow new people every day, I retweet other’s tweets, and I promote my Twitter account on my blog and in my shop. I’ll have a large Twitter following in a few months.
I interact with and get encouragement from other Etsy sellers at Etsypreneur.com. I’ll learn from the experience of others and build relationships by being helpful.

It’s a Sure Thing!

These are a few of the essentials of being successful on Etsy. They may be somewhat simplified but the point is obvious. Just like the first example of building a house, if you follow the steps and repeatedly work at it every day, you will build a successful online business. No doubt about it.

So if your goal is to build your Etsy shop into a full-time business, just work smart and take heart, it’s a sure thing!

Go Etsy!

~ Kim

Etsy as a Household Name – Why you want to sell on Etsy

Everything Etsy — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 02:31:43 +0000

Why Etsy has a great chance of being as widely known as eBay or Amazon.com and why that matters to us.

Part of your mission is to sell your products.

I was spending some time the other day thinking about the “business mission” of EverythingEtsy.com (and a new related site to be announced very soon!). As websites that exist with a goal of (at least a little) profit in mind, our mission is something I need to understand clearly.

The main thought that always lives in the forefront of my mind is the idea that we can have a real and positive impact on the lives of people just like us who want to make money selling the things they create. The ripple effect of a little encouragement and help can go a long way, right?

The natural next question when you want to help someone is: What’s best for them? In this case, I asked myself as kind of an internal check point: Is Etsy the best option for sellers?

Based on research and experience I already had, I knew that the answer was yes. But I went ahead and grabbed a couple of screen shots to demonstrate just one of the reasons Etsy is best for you.

Etsy is dangerously close to becoming a household name.

I’m sure most Etsy sellers will agree that it isn’t uncommon to mention Etsy to someone new and have them say “What’s Etsy?”. Even though, as you can see on the graphic above, Etsy is more popular than all but about 341 other websites in the entire world, and within the top 100 in the US, it’s still not a household name. Not yet.

Ask that same person if they’ve heard of eBay or Amazon.com and you’ll almost invariably get an “of course!”.

Ask yourself these two questions:

How long will it be before the majority of people say “Of course I’ve heard of Etsy!”?

How long before almost everyone has heard of, and purchased from, Etsy?

One year? Two?

I don’t know, but what I do know is that having a firm and secure presence on Etsy at that time will be very valuable to your business. I also know that given the options available to you right now, Etsy is by far the best choice, even before reaching the “household name” status.

Take a look at the same stats for Artfire.com, a selling venue similar to Etsy.

While these numbers are impressive compared to most websites (like the one you’re reading for example), they aren’t really even comparable in terms of opportunity for sellers.

Get in now!

The bottom line here is that if you’re serious about making a living or a real business out of your handmade sales, Etsy is the place to be and the time to start building your brand on Etsy is now.

Soon, you’ll be able to say to someone at a party “I sell on Etsy.” and have that met with a response of “Wow, really? That sounds great!”

Etsy Shop Spotlight – Ayca {Giveaway}

Kim — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:37:11 +0000

Today’s Shop Spotlight is on Ayca!

You are going to love this shop! Isn’t this hand-knit bulky neckwarmer fabulous?! Each warm and cozy goodie comes straight from Istanbul to you…super fast!

Need this neckwarmer in a different color? There are 14 colors to choose from, so you can match your favorite outfit.

Let’s take a look at a few more beautiful things from Ayca that you’ll want to mark as favorites…

A neckwarmer set! One for you and one to share…you can mix and match the colors. And I love the coconut buttons!

Her photography really shows her work well. This photo makes me want to travel…with my neckwarmer and gloves packed, of course!

Alright, I couldn’t make this in a million years! This scarf is made with a mohair blend. BEAUTIFUL!

Shipping from Ayca is not what you would think! I had my order in 2 DAYS! I was shocked!

This is the fantastic beanie that Ayca sent me! I love it and only wish I had my coat unpacked so I could show you a photo of me all decked out. {But this photo is better}

It’s a super soft, non-itchy, bulky, chunky hat!

Ayca has been sweet enought to give away one just like this to a lucky Everything Etsy reader!

All readers will get 10% off anything you purchase with the code “Everything Etsy” in the note section. Get a head start on your Christmas shopping!

Here’s how to win…

Visit Ayca and leave me a comment about your favorite item. That’s the fun part! {1 entry}
Heart Ayca by adding it to your favorites list. {1 entry}
Spread the word of this giveaway by Twitter, Facebook, or blog post. {1 entry each}
Keep up with our new Etsy shop spotlights by following me on Twitter or Like us on Facebook. {1 entry each}

***This giveaway has ended. The winner is Karla from The Soap Addict! Congratulations!

Please leave a comment for each entry! This giveaway ends September 22nd at midnight. Good luck!

~Kim

Etsy Artist Spotlight – Earmark Invitations

Kim — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:13:53 +0000

Today’s Etsy Artist Spotlight is shining on Bridgette from Earmark Invitations! You are going to love this shop, and she has tons of tips that you won’t want to miss!

Here’s Bridgette….

What inspires you?

Pretty much everything! Nature, Friends, Family, Colors, Travel. We can pretty much find inspiration in anything from the small and mundane to the obvious – train ride through a foreign country!

What’s the best thing about where you live?

The beach for sure! We just moved into our first home this past December and it is 2/10 mile to our private neighborhood beach, it may be a bit rocky to some, but to me it is awesome! I am so sad that summer is ending soon… I did not get to use it nearly enough!!

Is your shop a business or hobby to you? Did you start out that way?

Business. Started out as a favor to some fellow brides and turned into my business very quickly from there. I thought to myself “I just might be able to do this for a living!” and went with it! Now here we are almost 8 years later with a full fledge invitation and stationery studio!

How do you promote your shop?

Everywhere that is Free! Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Flickr, Forums and so forth. I talk about my company whenever I can. I never go anywhere without my business cards! Sometimes I will just leave them in random places, on airplanes, in bookstores… you never know who will be standing or sitting where you just were!

What advice would you give to new Etsy sellers?

• Keep going! Do not stop, if items are not selling than something is not working, figure it out and never look back!

• Think, rethink, and do not be afraid to make a change or two, could be as simple as the title of your product.

• PHOTOS are the most important part of your listing, make sure to put much thought into them! They are what will sell your items. Constantly make sure they are as good as they can be!

• Network each item. Typically, every time an item sells, I go and relist it, then tweet it as “sold and relisted” and sometimes I will go and put it in Facebook too. This brings in a bunch of initial views on the item and in turn gets a lot more potential buyers in your shop. You can use sites like tumblr.com and it will tweet it, blog it and facebook it for you automatically!

• Sometimes it is worth it to relist a few items each day, keeps your shop fresh in each section, keeping you on the first few pages of each search and category.

• Make sure your keywords are relevant and will come up in the most searches.

• NEVER price your items too low! I know first hand that it can scare a buyer to purchase the cheapest item, automatically, you put yourself in a lower bracket, when your item could actually be worth much more!

• Join a couple of teams. Etsy has such a wonderful selection of teams and they can be so helpful! Choose a couple and be active within them.

Could you share with us a couple Etsy shops that you love?

I could share a ton of my favorite etsy shops! ha ha! But here are a few that I love and each one is a tremendous person and seller. They are a tremendous inspiration to me.

thepeachtree.etsy.com | muyinmolly.etsy.com | narikosnest.etsy.com | mpaperarts.etsy.com | windsongessentials.etsy.com

Where can we find you? {shops,blogs,Twitter, Facebook…other links}

Website: www.earmarkinvitations.com
Etsy Shop: Earmark Invitations
Blog: eigreetings.blogspot.com
Twitter: twitter.com/earmark
Facebook: facebook.com/EarmarkInvitations

Isn’t Bridgette wonderful? You’ll love her shop and don’t forget to check out all the neat party banners!

Earmark Invitations makes me want to throw a PARTY!

Thanks Bridgette for all your helpful information! I can see why your so successful!

~Kim

SWEET — Simply Wonderful Everything Etsy Team!

Kim — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:21:24 +0000

Have you been wondering what the plan was for that “sweet” button?

We just opened our Sweet Gallery where we’ll be featuring beautiful finds and wonderful friends!

You can always see what’s new in the gallery by clicking on the “sweet” button at the top of the page! I’m so excited about this!

Here’s a peek…

We love Etsy and thought this would be a fun way to help promote the wonderful shops we come across. Our Simply Wonderful Everything Etsy Team will be growing on a regular basis, so check back often to discover more beautiful handmade treasures!

Now….go check it out!

~Kim

Free Etsy Banners from Everything Etsy!

Everything Etsy — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:58:47 +0000

We love talking about the fun of Etsy! We love the dream of Etsy! We love the idea of Etsy! But we also know that making stuff to sell, or seeking out vintage finds, or packaging supplies all day long is work! Hard work! We want to be an Etsy Blog that helps you with that work!

So we’re going to be offering regular updates to a growing list of free Etsy banners. They’re totally free, and you can do whatever you want with them. I (Tim, not Kim) made them all myself and I’ll keep making them for you!

How To Personalize Your Free Etsy Banner

I’ve made each banner to be flexible for use in all sorts of shops, and I’ve made them the right size, so you don’t have to worry about that. I’ve left room for you to add your text and additional graphics on Photoshop.

No Photoshop? NO PROBLEM! I’ve done a complete and detailed tutorial, for free, right here on the blog, that shows you step-by-step how to personalize your banner using an online image manipulation tool. It’s free, it’s awesome, and there is no download (no catch at all that I found). (the online tool, I mean… the tutorial is good too though)

How To Personalize Your Free Etsy Banner Tutorial Here

How To Upload Your Free Banner To Etsy Here

You can click the link under each banner to open up the image full-size in your browser. Then you can right-click on the image to save it to your computer.

————————————————————-

Without further ado, the first seven banners:

Click Here to Open The Full-Size Banner Above

—————-
Three more Free Etsy Banners Here

We sure hope these are useful for you! If you use one, let us know so we can take a look at your shop! And please spread the word if anyone you know might be able to use these.

If these are useful, we’ll keep bringing new ones all the time, so be sure to subscribe to EverythingEtsy so you’ll know when we do!

Seeing as how they’re free… no warranty is available, and I can’t promise particulars for the future, BUT if you have a color request or an idea, I’ll be listening!

The Tutorial on Personalizing Your Free Etsy Banner is here.

Update: All of the free banners are in one place now on the Free Etsy Banners page