Coupon Co-op

I saw this cute little ad today and clicked on it - turns out IndieSmiles.com is coordinating a giant co-op ad campaign. For only $2, you can feature a black-friday weekend coupon on her site. She is doing a Project Wonderful ad campaign for the event, so hopefully it will generate some traffic! Check out this page for more information.

Etsy 2009 Gift Guides

Would you love to be featured in Etsy's popular Gift Guides? The editor's of this year's guides are accepting nominations right now, so if you haven't already, head over to this thread in the Etsy forums and nominate your shop or an item in your shop to be included this season. I hope all of you are featured!

(Swarovski Rivoli Montana Blue Crystal Pendant Necklace by jFrances Design. Thanks Jillian!)

Time Your Listings to Peak Hours — Get More Sales

Everything Etsy has an interesting post up about timing your listings to get more sales. They list the exact time frames that they believe are the best for getting more views and sales. I am curious if your experiences match up to the advice given here. What are your favorite times to list?

Another note - I am running low on product pictures to feature along with my blog posts. If you want to be featured, or I missed you this time around (sorry if I did, was just an oversight!) please send over your shop information to my email. Thanks!

we have a winner!

Congrats to kiddo (Suzanne Gregg) for winning Amanda's giveaway!! I have given Amanda your info and she should be in touch with you shortly.

--Jordan

Customized Shop Analysis

I am very excited to announce my new service available on Etsy. Please check out my shop for details on the customized shop analysis. Thanks!

etsy photo tips

Etsy has a great series on the storque from last year I believe titled "How-Tos for the Holidays". I wanted to share with you the video on photographing your items - it is chock full of great tips and ideas for taking great pictures of your work.

Also - don't forget that today is the last day to enter the giveaway. It seems that Amanda's cards are quite popular around here. good luck!!

(Every Picture Tells a Story hand stamped necklace by Kristen's Custom Creations. Thanks Kristen!)

Free Accounting Software & Tutorial

If you are like me, business accounting is something that always seems to end up as a bottom priority. We are already heading towards the end of the year, and I have a LOT of catching up to do! I am happy to say that Holly from Accounting Spot comes to the rescue once again! On her fabulous blog, she points out that Quickbooks offers a totally free solution called Simple Start. Holly is offering a free tutorial that walks you through how to set up Quickbooks Simple Start to work with your Etsy shop. I now know what I am doing this weekend :) Thanks Holly!

Five ways (under $15!) to boost your Etsy business

I am really so impressed with the business savvy of Amanda from Social Circles. As you probably know, she is offering an awesome giveaway for my readers. She contacted me again and offered to give you even more fun stuff ! First she wrote this wonderful article on 5 really smart and economical ways to market your Etsy shop. Also, she is offering my readers 12 free cards on their orders by mentioning Handmade Success. Thanks so much Amanda!

--Jordan

Five ways (under $15!) to boost your Etsy business
by Amanda of Social Circles

1.(FREE!) Get some constructive criticism from your family and friends. You’d be surprised how informative they can be- ask at least 3 family members/friends to view your site and offer you 3 things that they like about it and 3 things that they think you need to improve on. Include someone who has never really been to your site before so that you can ask them how easy your listings are to understand, etc. You’d be surprised at how helpful this can be! Now you will have a list of things that you are doing right, and things that you may need to work on. Also, if you want to take it a step further, and have specific questions about your site, you can even create a free survey (www.surveymonkey.com)

2.($10-$15) Invest in the branding of your business. If you don’t already have a professional looking banner, get one asap! Business branding is one of the keys to success. If your shop doesn’t scream “professional”, chances are that your clients won’t think your work is professional.

3.(FREE!) Do you have a mailing list? No you say? Wait a min--- if you use paypal and have Microsoft Excel- then you may not know it--- but you do! Just follow the steps below. Use your new mailing list to market upcoming sales and events. To make it more interesting to your clients, include an article, jokes or tips relate to your field.

Log into paypal click “view all of my transactions” on the right side. When the screen comes up you will see a small link on right side that says Download “CSV” click it! Choose “tab delimited – all activity” from the box that pops up. Once you have chosen this, the file will take a minute to download. Then a screen will pop up that says “Do you want to open or save this file” click “Save”. Save the file to your desktop. Now open Microsoft Excel. Click “file” then “open” and locate the file on your desktop. When you choose the file a window will pop up. Make sure “delimited” is checked and click “next” until you are all done. “POOF!” Like magic you will have your own mailing list of all your customers! Here is a link on how to open a tab delimited file in Microsoft excel if you need help. http://www.sabine.k12.la.us/instruction/guides/tab_and_comma_delimited_files.htm, just scroll down to “Importing Tab or comma Delimited File”

4.(FREE!) Have any happy customers? Use their testimonials! Have you received any great feedback from your customers? Ask them if it is ok to use their feedback for your site. On the front page of your site in your shop description write “a few words from some of my happy customers” or “featured feedback”, and include their feedback. Talk about credibility! Not every etsian knows that they can read “feedback” or has time to do so. By placing feedback on your main shop page for everyone to view, you just added a huge amount of credibility to your site. This is especially important when starting up a new business!

5. ($14.95) Get a unique one of a kind business card that stands out from the rest- and then pass it out like crazy. Your business card is one of the first impressions of your business. Make it a lasting impression with a fresh new design. One of my favorite new shops on etsy offers super chic cards: socialcirclecards. These one of a kind round cards come complete with their own carrying case that clips to your bag- so they will travel with you wherever you go. Now when you meet a new mom at a park, or see a bulletin board, you won’t be caught without a card. Pass out your new cards everywhere- give them to your friends, pass them out at the playgound, give some to your hairdresser, the possibilities are endless! These little cards are great attention getters and ice breakers because they are different! Tell Amanda that you read about her cards on the “handmade success” blog and she will even offer you 12 free cards with your order. www.socialcirclecards.etsy.com

business/calling card giveaway!

GIVEAWAY SPONSOR:
I was so excited when Amanda of Social Circles contacted me for a giveaway. Amanda's cards are unique and noticeable - a great marketing tool themselves! There are countless ways that you could use these cards.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS FOR:
Amanda is graciously giving away one free starter set of cards (24 cards and case- a $18.90 value w/ shipping. I know the hardest part about winning this giveaway will be actually choosing the right cards, they are all so adorable.

HOW TO ENTER:
After you visit Social Circles, post a comment to this blog post letting me know what your favorite item is from Amanda's store.

Please be sure to leave an email address (if not in your profile) so I can contact you if you are the winner.

EXTRA ENTRIES - For each of the following you will be given one extra entry in the contest:

*Blog about this giveaway and post a link in the comments of this post.
*Send out a Tweet about this giveaway and post a link in the comments of this post.
*Subscribe to the Handmade Success blog email or RSS feed. Leave a comment on this post indicating that you have done so.
*become a fan of my Facebook page (if you are already a fan, let me know) and leave a comment on this post indicating your Facebook user name.

GIVEAWAY RULES:
END TIME - This giveaway ends on Friday, OCTOBER 30, 2009, 9:00pm PST.
WHO CAN ENTER - Anyone with a valid email address (will be notified this way).
PICKING WINNER - Each entry will be assigned a number. After the contest is closed, a number will be randomly generated. The entry associated with that number will be the winner! If I do not hear back from the winner within 5 days of notification, a new winner will be drawn.
WINNER NOTIFICATION - The winner will be notified via email within 24 hours of contest end, as well as, a post here on the blog.

SO, Good luck!

we have 5 winners!

A warm congratulations goes out to the following winners of a 30 minute marketing consultation with me:

Jewels of Hope
Jillian Frances
TwinMum2006
Serendipity Handmade, and
Michele

I must say that I got SO excited while looking over your shops. My head was swimming with ideas for ways I can help you improve where you want and need to. I will be contacting you shortly to schedule your consultation!! To the rest, thank you so much for your entries. I wish all of you the best as always. If you would like to purchase a consultation, email me for details.

etsy holiday open house

Looking for a creative holiday marketing idea and a way to find a new audience? What about finding some other local crafters near you, and hosting a Holiday Open House for all of your friends? You could have it at someone's house, or find a local shop who would also love the traffic. You would all share the cost of light beverages and appetizers and have your work on display. You could advertise it to your friends as a holiday "one-stop-shop" event with the added benefit of supporting local artists and friends. You could use the Etsy shop local tool to find people near you.

Has anyone ever tried this? This really doesn't just have to been for the holidays. You could do a Valentine's Open House, a Spring Open House, etc, etc.

(Red hot rose fascinator clip by Sara Peach's Hair Accessories. Thanks Sara!)

let's help each other

Danielle from Twist21 emailed me to share a cool forum link. She created the thread "let's help each other" on the Etsy forums, and I think her idea is really resourceful and brilliant! You pick an item that you like from someone above you on the list and share it for them via Facebook, Twitter, or blog. Then you post about it and you are on the list for someone else to return the favor. This way your product gets shared with an entirely new channel of people. Great idea Danielle!

(Eco Bamboo Tote Bag by Avendano. Thanks Mildred!)

Cross-promoting your Etsy shop

Wow, you really have to check out this fantastic article. Double Your Marketing with Cross-Promotion is a concisely written how-to guide for increasing your traffic by collaborating with another Etsy seller who shares a similar audience as you. Bonus - the author will help you find someone to partner up with! I highly suggest working on this for your holiday marketing campaigns. Please share with us if you have tried this strategy and how it is working for you!

(Fuchsia Crystal Spiral Necklace by Christine's Beadworks. Thanks Christine!!)

FREE Etsy Business and Marketing Plan Consult wtih Jordan Moore of Handmade Success

I am a very lucky woman to have met all of you over the past year. I am blown away on a daily basis by your talent, motivation, effort, and most of all by your kindness and mutual support of one another. I am proud to be a part of your community - thank you so much for welcoming me with open arms!

I would love to do more for you and have been searching over the past few months for ways to do this. First, I wrote the free Etsy 30 Minute Social Networking Kit which, judging by the feedback I received, proved to be useful to quite a lot of you. Now, I am so excited to announce that I am launching a consulting service - and to kick it off, I am giving away 5 free sessions!

The Service:
The Handmade Success Consultation is a 30 minute telephone conversation with yours truly. Over the course of the consult, we will review everything and anything related to running your handmade business - your product line, your Etsy shop branding and copy, your marketing efforts, and your advertising strategy. I will listen to your concerns and craft a strategy for you to improve upon each of these areas and give you advice on how to streamline your efforts so you can spend more time creating your product and less time on the computer. We will talk about your goals for this month, this year, and beyond. At the end, I will follow up in writing with a concise marketing plan for you to refer back to. Sound good? The charge for the consultation is normally $75.

The Contest:
To enter to win one of the free consultations, you must respond with a comment to this post describing your biggest frustrations in running your Etsy shop/online business. You will get one (1) extra entry if you blog, tweet or share this contest on Facebook and post the link in the comments.

I will be selecting 5 entries at random to win the free consult. Entries must be received by midnight PST Friday, October 16, 2009 and I will announce the winner on Monday, October 19th. Good luck, and I really can't wait to work with you!

50 Ways to Market Your Shop

I just came across this really fantastic list of 50 marketing ideas on about.com. It was written for retailers, but most of these will apply to you and your Etsy shop. Happy Friday everyone!!

(Camphor Bowl by The Norsk Woodshop. Thanks Patrick!)

5 Tips for Getting More Facebook Fans

I received an email from a customer who was particularly daunted by the idea of building her Facebook page wondering how she would ever be able to build a big fan base. She asked me for some extra tips and I thought I would share them here too. She has an etsy shop and also a tanning salon, so you will see I came up with some ideas for the salon as well. (names have been changed)

1. The best trick I can reveal to you about getting fans is to have as much interactive content as possible. This means that when you post something it should be an item that makes people want to mark as "like" or comment on it. When they do one of these things - every single friend in their network will receive an update that "Jane Meyers commented on a post from Debbie's Tanning Salon". Then their friends will click the link out of curiosity, and their friends, etc. This is how you go "viral" on Facebook.

2. I would suggest doing special Facebook-only campaigns. Come up with special offers for Facebook fans only.

3. Post polls, quizzes, facts about your industry...you could come up with some funny posts like "overly-tan celebrity pictures" and then you could explain how to end up not looking like that! You could do a contest for a free session, etc, etc. Just get people engaged and the rest will follow.

4. You may seriously consider paying for a Facebook page ad up front. $10/day will really help you lay your foundation for your fan base.

5. Don't wait for your old high school friends to find you--find them! And after you do, invite them to become a fan of your page. You need to try and become "friends" with everyone you have ever met, and then send them an invite to become a fan of your shop. Now is not the time to be shy!

I hope this helps some of you too...and let's make THIS an interactive thread. Please share with the group what has worked for you in building your page!

(Pick a Peach print by WozArtStudio. Thanks Florence!)

free business workshops!

I just read about this great series of free business workshops over at Design Mom. The Hands On Small Business series will be taking place in 20 cities around the country in October and November. I think I will sign up right now! Let me know if any of you in the LA/OC area will be attending, I would love to meet up :)

Jewelry Designer Quits Her Day Job

We are recuperating from a bad cold over here, but I quickly wanted to share a link to a particularly inspiring Etsy "quit your day job" post - jewelry seller Garnet Girl Designs shares lots of great info on what helped take her business to the next level. Enjoy!

Cheat Sheet: Running a Great Giveaway on your Blog

Some of you may remember the giveaway from a few weeks ago sponsored by Holly of the Accounting Spot. Well, I have a little secret. The giveaway format I used was graciously made available for public use by Holly herself right here on her blog! She has done all of the hard work and made it super simple for anyone who wants to host an Etsy giveaway. Please make sure to check it out. Thanks so much Holly!

{{Retro Summer 4x6 Fine Art Photo by Dream by Day. Thanks Octavia!}}

20 Ways to Promote your Etsy Shop with Discounts

Everything Etsy has a great post listing twenty ways to promote your shop using discounts. I have discussed many of them with you in the past, but there were some pretty creative ideas in this list that I wanted to share with you!

Project Wonderful Animated Graphic Tutorial

How many of you are using Project Wonderful for placing Etsy shop ads? If you haven't yet, be sure to check it out - there are so many sites out there that have an audience of Etsy/handmade fans. Many of the ads run for only pennies and there are even some for free! Here is a great tutorial on starting your own PW ad campaign.

For those of you who are already familiar with PW, I found a really awesome tutorial on creating an animated ad (versus just the plain ad most of us are running). I love the idea of updating my own ads to the animated kind - those always catch my attention when I am on a blog. Thanks to Vinyl Rocks My World for the tutorial!

my etsy journey

Kelly Rinehart of Purple Lemon Designs has a great series up on her blog entitled "my etsy journey". Kelly shares some really fantastic advice - especially regarding business cards and talking about your business. Make sure to check out her Etsy shop as well - it is clean, neat, well-branded - a perfect example of a thoughtfully planned and executed shop.

Top 20 Etsy Sellers

I just stumbled upon a pretty neat new site for Etsy and Artfire sellers called yaami handmade. In addition to hosting a handmade market, directory, and providing some useful tools, yammi also provides an up-to-date list of the twenty top Etsy sellers.

You may have seen this list before. Have you noticed that is comprised almost completely of Etsy suppliers? I would like to see a list of top handmade sellers, has anyone seen a list like this?

My question to you - have you ever thought about adding supplies to your shop or creating a sister shop for supplies? I know some of you have already done this, do you have any advice or tips to share?

The Etsy 30 Minute Social Networking Kit

I am so very excited to announce the release of my newest Etsy marketing guide. I wrote this one for all of you who are feeling overwhelmed and frustrated by the amount of time marketing your Etsy shop takes. This guide lays out a practical and methodical system for organizing your social networking efforts. And, are you ready for the best part?? This guide is FREE! I wanted to share this with you as a special thank you to all of the wonderful customers and friends I have made over the past year. Your comments, emails, and posts are all so inspiring, and you all make such beautiful work. I am truly in awe of your talents!

You can download The Etsy 30 Minute Social Networking Kit right now! If you like my site, the guide or both, please help me spread the word about this free guide by sharing it on your Facebook page, blog, or email using the "share" button below or just by including a link. Thanks so much!

Shhhh... SECRET Etsy Tips

This morning I wanted to point you over to a really great Etsy forum thread started by Etsy seller mikiep. It has been going on for over a year and is chock full of interesting tips, secrets, and ideas from tons of Etsy sellers. I like to check it out once in a while to see what new things people are posting. Enjoy!

{{surf and turf necklace by Etsy seller Jape!}}

we have a winner!

Congratulations to Ariela who will win one of The Accounting Spot's fantastic accounting spreadsheets! Thanks again to Holly for a great giveaway!

3 Ideas for Attention Grabbing Headlines

If you want to tweak your headlines a bit to see if you get more views, I have some examples of time-tested strategies for you to try. Each of these has been used in advertising for years.

1. A testimonial in your headline. This is a simple and effective way to create an emotional response to an item. "my favorite fall outfit", "my child will play with this for hours". This would work especially well if you had a model in the picture your item.

2. A "how-to" message is also a great way to get people to click on your item. Examples: "update your fall look with this one easy piece", "get the baby gift that every mom wants". These headlines solve a customer's problem and speak directly to your target audience.

3. Ask a question to your audience. Examples: "are you looking for safe toys for your children?", "are you tired of soap that dries out your skin?". Again, you are addressing a customer's problem and letting them know that the solution lies inside your product description.

Once you have implemented these strategies, don't forget to carry the message throughout the rest of your description. If you decide to try this out, post a link in the comments section below so that we can all see!

{{Personalized Spoon Bracelet available at Ruby Vegas. Thanks Robbie!}}

GIVEAWAY - AccountingSPOT Software!

I am very excited to announce my first product giveaway for you! Please see the details below. Thanks Holly!

GIVEAWAY SPONSOR:
This giveaway is sponsored by Holly of The Accounting SPOT. In her shop, Holly offers some great user-friendly tools for organizing your business accounting. I asked Holly to give me a little background about how and why she started her fantastic Etsy business. She writes:

I am Holly, wife, mother and owner of Accouting SPOT. After working in the corporate accounting world, I became a stay at home mom of a little boy (and soon a second little boy). I was an ansty SAHM, so decided to start my own business. My goal was to create a business that would allow me to express my business side, while remaining the main caretaker of my little guys. So that is what I do! :)

THIS GIVEAWAY IS FOR:
Your choice of any one (1) of her excel accounting spreadsheets (No. 80, 74, 73, 20)

HOW TO ENTER:
Visit The Accounting SPOT, and post the following in a comment to this post:

1) What is your favorite item from The Accounting SPOT store?

Please be sure to leave an email address (if not in your profile) so I can contact you if you are the winner.

EXTRA ENTRIES - For each of the following you will be given one extra entry in the contest:

*Blog about this giveaway and post a link in the comments of this post.
*Send out a Tweet about this giveaway and post a link in the comments of this post.
*Subscribe to the Handmade Success blog email or RSS feed. Leave a comment on this post indicating that you have done so.
*become a fan of my Facebook page (if you are already a fan, let me know) and leave a comment on this post indicating your Facebook user name.
*Subscribe to The Accounting SPOT's blog email or RSS feed. (Hint, Holly has tons of great business tips for you on her blog!) Leave a comment on this post indicating that you have done so.

GIVEAWAY RULES:
END TIME - This giveaway ends on SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2009, 9:00pm PST.
WHO CAN ENTER - Anyone with a valid email address (will be notified this way).
PICKING WINNER - Each entry will be assigned a number. After the contest is closed, a number will be randomly generated. The entry associated with that number will be the winner! If I do not hear back from the winner within 5 days of notification, a new winner will be drawn.
WINNER NOTIFICATION - The winner will be notified via email within 24 hours of contest end, as well as, a post here on the blog.

SO, Good luck!

customer service

We should all know by now that superior customer service is a fantastic way to secure repeat and referral business. I have also explained that fostering repeat and referral business is much more cost-effective (and satisfying I may add) than recruiting brand-new customers.

With the holidays around the corner, it is time to start ramping up for gift giving. Could you afford to include free wrapping and gift note with every order? What a huge luxury for the customer! Offering this service lets them know that you go the extra mile, and makes their buying decision a bit less complicated. Since they are ordering the gift online, they can have it shipped directly to the recipient and they know it will look nice and pretty. If you feel that it would be too expensive, you could add it as an option for a very nominal fee.

One more way to reinforce the idea in your customers minds that they should come back and visit you more often.

{{gumball mahcine magnet by Christine of Lilly Bug Boutique}}}

a few announcements

I know that this is a very busy week for lots of us: school is starting, labor day weekend is upon us, etc. I have an exciting giveaway for my readers that I will be saving until after the holiday, so be sure to check back Tuesday for more details on that!

Also, as you can see many of my posts don't have pictures and they feel a bit plain for my taste. I would absolutely love to include your product pictures peppered throughout to spruce things up! Of course, you and your shop will be credited. Send me an email to set it up.

Thanks and have a wonderful weekend,

Jordan

{{update: thanks, Kim of B.B. Bellezza for being the first to volunteer product photos! The Amore Mio necklace is available for sale in her Etsy shop.}}

launching a new product

I was reading a really interesting post on a blog that I follow called The Art of Nonconformity. In the post Chris talks about the process of launching one of his new products. Much of this won't really be relevant to Etsy sellers, but there was one very relevant point that I wanted to share with you. Chris writes:

"The single most important principle of product launches is to make them special. Over a period of weeks beforehand (sometimes longer), you want to tell people all about what’s coming, why they should care, and how they can help spread the word if they’re so inclined."

Do you make your product launches a special event? What do you do to get your customers excited about what is coming next? I would love to hear some of your ways in the comments below. This is something to think about for all of us.

5 easy ways to get more Etsy traffic for your blog

Do you have a blog? I know many of you do, and they can be a wonderful tool for connecting with others online. Here are some easy ways to start driving more etsy-related traffic to your blog.

1. Comment on other Etsy seller's blogs. Bloggers (and even blog followers) are usually curious about the people commenting on their page, and often click on profiles to see who they are. Hint hint!!)

2. Share a tutorial or how-to on your blog. Cross-post it with a link to your blog on various forums like the Etsy forums, Crafster, Indiepublic, etc.

3. Create a weekly column that people will come back for. For example, you could have a weekly roundup of your favorite 5 pieces of Etsy Jewelry. When you let the sellers know they have been featured on your blog, tell them they can post a link to the feature on their shop's front page. Now you have traffic coming from the visitors of 5 different Etsy shops per week on your blog!

4. Interview another Etsy seller that you respect and post it on your blog. The seller may post it on their site, and also your blog will come up in the search results when the seller is searched for.

5. Offer to guest blog on another Etsy seller's blog (ideally one with more traffic than yours). Contribute a piece (such as a tutorial, roundup, etc) to their blog and you will be exposed to a whole new audience.

Good luck and please let me know how it works out for you!

get this done - google base

I just returned from vacation and am getting settled in to a very hot house right now, so I will make this post a short one with a great link. There is lots of buzz on Etsy forums about Google Base and how great it is, but many people don't exactly know what it is used for. Google Base gets your products into Google's product database. So when someone searches for "heart shaped soap" on google, your heart shaped soap can get to the very top of the search results page for free under "shopping results for heart shaped soap". It is very cool, and free, but it can be a little tricky to figure out.

Etsy Seller Go To Supplies has put together several extremely comprehensive tutorials on how to get your products into Google Base, along with answers to several FAQs. I recommend you check it out and cross this one off your list. Imagine being at the top of a Google search page for free!! Let me know how it goes for you.

the time is now!

Believe it or not right now, during these last lazy days of summer, you should be thinking and planning your holiday marketing strategy. Over the coming days and weeks I will have lots of neat holiday marketing ideas for you, but for right now I want to talk about the one that needs the most planning and foresight. Submitting your product for magazines and bloggers to review needs to be done well in advance of December - in fact many magazines work on a 3 month lead time for new issues! That means that in September you should get serious about organizing your contacts, press kit, and submissions. This small amount of work could yield you huge rewards if someone decides to feature you in their publications.

And now for a little plug - Although you could definitely research and find all the info you need about PR online, my DIY Publicity Kit and Jewelry Shop Publicity will save you the time and energy. It is a concise guide geared towards Etsy sellers just like you. Good luck!!

5 ways to market to your existing customer base

Often when we think about marketing, we think about finding new customers for our business. The truth is, it costs a lot more money to convert brand-new buyers than it does to market our products to our existing customers. The existing customer has already indicated that they are interested in our product, they know the quality of our work, our fulfillment time, our attention to detail, etc. It will take a lot less decision making on their part to buy our work than that of a complete stranger.

Have you been consistently reaching out to your existing base? Have you had repeat sales? Many of the top Etsy sellers will tell you that a large percentage of their business is from repeat customers. Here are 5 easy ways to reach out to your existing clients.

1. It all starts with a mailing list. Mail Chimp is a free service that will help you create and maintain your list. Once you have this list, you should update your clients with news about your shop on a regular basis (not too frequently or customers will feel spammed).

2. Try a birthday promotion. Ask customers to include their birthdays with their orders to join your "birthday club". Then send out a "happy birthday" coupon to them to be used during the month of their birthday. They will feel special and will probably have some extra cash to spend during that month. Several big retailers (like Banana Republic) have been using this for years.

3. Offer some sort of a "secret" promotion to existing customers. Even if it is only a small token of an offer, it will bring people back to your shop. The fact that it is exclusive will help to create excitement and a sense of urgency.

4. Send all of your customers a Thanksgiving holiday card, thanking them for their business this year. You will be fresh in their mind for the upcoming holidays.

5. Make sure to include flyers, business cards, and perhaps even a little extra in every order shipped. When people are excited about opening a box, they will likely read through accompanying information.

These are just a few of many ways to strenghthen the relationship that you have with your existing customers. Remember them the next time you are working on your shop marketing!

handy tool

I just found a neat little tool online. With the Etsy Fee Calculator, you can plug in the profit you want to make after all Etsy/PayPal fees and helps you work backwards. Pretty neat! I don't know about you, but these fees always end up sneaking up on me. Found via The Best Etsy Blogs, which is another useful site full of great bookmarks.

link - promoting & selling fine art online

Design*Sponge does a great feature every Tuesday called "Biz Ladies" and if you don't currently subscribe to these posts, I highly recommend them. Biz Ladies posts are geared towards running an independent creative business, featuring experts from all over the design world. The experts give advice on just about everything you can think of when it comes to running a tiny business and they are full of insight.

Today's post was entitled "Promoting & Selling Fine Art Online" and I thought some of you would find it very interesting.

Etsy co-op advertising

If you haven't heard about Etsy co-op advertising, you may want to head over and check it out. It is an opportunity for Etsy sellers to advertise their shops in a national magazine at a discounted rate. Etsy even pays for half of the ad spot for you. Pretty cool, and if the magazine fits your demographic, it seems like a super deal to me. Let me know what you think!

great idea - holiday promo video

OK, I have to admit, I am a bit obsessed with Etsy seller Little Brown Pen's video below. I love the music, and am completely floored by the amount of detail that went into creating it. The video currently has about 23,000 views on YouTube. Right now is a perfect time to start thinking about your holiday marketing efforts, and I think a fun and catchy video should be near the top of your list!