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

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!)

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!

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!)

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!}}

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!

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!