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!)

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!)

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

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.

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!)

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!

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!

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!}}

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}}}

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!!

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!