Let’s get organized!  Whenever I organize and update my craft room I end up finding lots of beautiful supplies that I forgot about can’t wait to try.  I feel much more creative working in a clean area and all those long lost supplies inspire me to get CRAFTY!

 This is the second post with tips to organize your craft room, so if you missed the first one just click here!

Ready to be inspired???

12.  Take a look at these beautiful canvas storage bins I found at Holly’s Street.  I use baskets for storage, but this looks so much better. Don’t you love how pretty the colors look popping out of the top? I could have some fun with this little collection of fabric!

13.  Great shelves rock!  Can you have too many shelves??  I think not!  I could use a different section for each project I’m working on these days!  It seems like I never have enough time to complete something all at one time.  I know I’m not alone with that!

Visit Vana’s blog to see more photos of her studio and check out all her work at  Le Papier Studio.  You’ll love it!

14.  Decorate paint or soup cans with wallpaper or scrapbook paper for an simple and sweet way to add a touch of beauty to your room. {bhg.com}

What a great way to recycle and save money…love it!

15.   Don’t hide your beautiful ribbon in a box! Here’s a creative way to hang rolls of ribbon…a towel holder! You could put this anywhere and it’s bound to look great! {Creating Keepsakes}

16.  Cubbies make great storage…I’ll take a wall of them!  You can mix and match yard sale finds and create your own unique cabinet like this one from Debee at Art as Life .  I love the drawer pulls!

I’ve also seen stacked shoe organizers used to create a bunch of cubbies in small areas.  Try a couple for your craft room or closet.

17.  The Sometimes Crafter will show you how to make these cute fabric scrap baskets. I hate to throw away pieces I might be able to use later. They’re a great way to store some of those fabric scraps you’re saving!

18.  Visit Mamie Jane’s to see the booth display she’s working on.  These are paint sticks with ribbon and trim wound around and pinned.  It’s so creative and a great way to keep them organized!

19.  Use vintage finds for unique storage containers!  Hang an old lunch box and use it for little supplies.  This is a great creative space!  I love the three-tier basket that’s perfect for ribbon or stamps…I seriously need one!  {bhg.com}

20.  Low on space?  You can take a small bookcase and turn it into a craft cabinet.  Check out the details at MarthaStewart.com.

21.  I’d love this collection of colorful ribbon!  This is one craft supply that can be really hard to control.  Learn how to make this awesome ribbon organizer at Craftzine!

22.  Got closet space??  Use a selection of pretty storage boxes and containers to keep supplies separated.  This will keep everything easy to find when creativity strikes…that’s a good thing! {bhg.com}

Still need more inspiration to get your craft space organized???  Check out these…

• Craft Room Inspiration
• 7 Great Craft Spaces
• Scrapbooking Storage Closet
• Ribbon Collection Inspirations {Get Organized}

I’d love to see pictures of your space! You can post photos of your work or your work area on our Facebook Page. Just write on our wall and attach a photo!

~Kim

 This is the second post with tips to organize your craft room, so if you missed the first one just click here!

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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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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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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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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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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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So, I found out this morning that FedEx is offering Etsy Sellers a pretty decent discount. 21% off on Express {won’t be using that much} and 20% off on most other shipping services that are used by the typical Etsy seller.

For me, the main draw is FedEx Ground as an option to UPS or my normal go-to service, the Post Office. I’m not human shipping rates calculator, but I think this is going to make FedEx a better deal on larger packages around 3-5 pounds. But I don’t think it will work out as a savings on small packages which are often only a couple of bucks with the USPS.

FedEx does have much better tracking which is helpful to both seller and buyer, and the online shipping tool at FedEx.com is easier to use than the USPS Shipping Assistant.

I went through the process to sign-up for a new account with FedEx and it was relatively simple, though look below for a big bold important tip.

Starting Point

Check out the Etsy Program Page at FedEx.com.

I read through most of the FAQ’s etc. and it all seemed pretty straightforward. I then just clicked on the link at the bottom of the white portion of this page that says “Apply Now” and chose to set-up a new account.

When I was done, it automatically brought me to my new account.

This is where things got a little bit annoying for a Monday morning! I went all over the place looking to see if the Etsy Program discounts were being applied. There is nothing there.

I was about to call the 800 number when I noticed that I had an email from FedEx…

I can think of a few better places for THAT information.

So, I’ll check back tomorrow and see what I see.

Here’s that link again: FedEx Etsy Discount Program

Have you had any experience shipping with FedEx? How has it worked out? Cost comparisons, anyone?

~Kim

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Selling on Etsy and only on Etsy? I think it’s entirely “smart thinking” for a new company to form with the idea that they will only sell on Etsy. Forever.

The first and most important reason I think that is because of the Etsy brand. If you make a great product and take great pictures and put them on Etsy today, then your “store” will look just as good as the store down the block that’s been there forever. In fact, it will look the same. I think that’s good for you as a start-up.

As the Internet grows, I think it’s going to get tougher for independent websites to differentiate themselves and get sales. People like to buy where they’ve bought before. When they have made one successful purchase on Etsy, no matter who the seller is, they become confident in purchasing ON Etsy.com. This is a huge hurdle for new websites that you don’t have to deal with selling on Etsy.

So, reason number one… The Etsy Brand.

Other reasons include ease of use, reasonably low cost, good (and sometimes instant) presence in search results, and a great community of like minded people in one place. Not to mention the gravitational pull of a site so huge. You just get lots of people there.

Did I already use reason number one? {I’m thinking about “simplicity“}

Sure, there are circumstances when you’ll want to branch out and build your own site on your own domain. For example, I just opened up a felt shop on my own domain {shameless plug}. It seems much nicer to me to be able to sell $2.00 sheets of felt without paying 10% for listing the item (.20 listing fee) every time it sells and I want to be able to sell downloadable felt patterns automatically without having to physically send an email.

No doubt, there are times when you want to sell in more than one place, or not sell on Etsy at all. It’s not perfect for every single circumstance. But, often, selling on Etsy is the perfect solution.

What do you think? Is “putting all your eggs in the Etsy basket” a bad idea? Is the Etsy brand still on the upswing?

We’ve got a one questions poll here, and would love your opinion. And let’s not stop there. Let’s talk about it in the comments. Feel free to speak your mind!

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