Christmas Plans For Your Etsy Shop

Christmas is coming! Are you ready? I am certainly not! I am so busy I even missed Halloween for Etsy. I am trying to formulate a plan for the upcoming weeks. With the economy picking back up slowly many people will be buying online. Your marketing campaign is more important than ever this close to Christmas.

I am still trying to get a couple of articles written for you guys. I just seem to have been super busy falling in love and planning a marriage! I hope you'll forgive me. We set a date of January 10th so I am feeling the crunch of that on top of all the Christmas stuff!

In the coming weeks I am going to try and write as much as possible when I can and schedule the posts for you guys. I am open to any and all suggestions on what you have done in the past for your Holiday Marketing Plans. I even want to know the things that didn't work for you. Learning from your mistakes can help the whole gang!

Anyhow, post comments about your plan or send me an email to MarketMyShop@gmail.com

Christmas On Etsy

Yes, believe it or not it is time to start thinking about your Christmas sales campaign! It's time to start thinking about what items you are going to be featuring, what type of gift wrapping services you are going to offer and much more!

I generally offer to do free wrapping. For me, it is quick and easy and helps to add that little extra something that gives your customer a smile. You can purchase inexpensive wrapping paper from the dollar store so you won't be out much and it might just be that extra something that makes the sale happen!

You may also want to think about posting mailing times. Most people forget that the mail slows down a bit around Christmas. So you might want to post cut off dates for your customers to get their items in time. With Etsy allowing mailing upgrades it is a good idea to have a link to your mail upgrades in each listing.

Of course there is a lot to think about between now and then. It is just time to start switching gears and getting ready. I am sure you're all going to have a Black Friday sale too! That is something that really needs to be in your planning stages right about now.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting articles specifically about getting you7r shop ready for the holidays so I would really appreciate any and all suggestions and questions. As always you can leave them here as a comment or send me an email to MarketMyShop@gmail.com

Etsy Christmas Tip: Gift Boxes

Assorted Jewelry Boxes on by displaydiva Etsy

I thought I would mention gift wrapping again. When you wrap a gift it does not have to be boxed and papered and taped. When I gift wrap items I put them in a nice small box and tie a hemp or jute string around it. That gives it the old time look from years gone by. Of course this can become very expensive depending on the boxes you use.

I came across the above pictured boxes on Etsy recently. There are 100 boxes for $25.50. That makes it affordable enough for putting every item in. Of course these are smaller jewelry size boxes. If you search around on Etsy and eBay for "paper gift boxes" you'll find plenty of boxes in every size and shape. You really don't have to spend a lot of money to go the extra mile.

That is it for today. I have to keep my tips short this week because I am swamped with orders. Hopefully I will be swamped for the rest of the year! I will do my best to keep the tips coming. Though I never seem to run out of ideas it would be great if you would send suggestions for future blog posts to me. Just email me at marketmyshop@blogspot.com

Christmas Tip: Free Gift Wrapping

One great way to encourage people to buy your items is to offer to wrap it for them. This will make it easier for your client. It does not cost much for you to wrap a present. I wrap all of mine in plain brown paper with a hemp string. This gives it an old time look. It takes me maybe an extra 2 or 3 minutes. I put a tag on it for them to fill out or offer to fill it out for them. If you plan to wrap a present with a bit more expensive look you can offer to wrap their purchase for an additional cost.

On Etsy it is against their Terms Of Service to charge for something contingent on the purchase of another item. So, in other words you are not allowed to sell Christmas wrapping as a separate listing. The same thing applies to shipping upgrades. You can however, in your listing, offer to upgrade shipping or charge for wrapping by saying that you will create a custom listing just for them.

I prefer to offer gift wrapping free of charge because people love to get something for free. It is probably a good idea to add a picture to your listing that shows how the gift will look. It isn't necessary unless you are offering multiple types of wrapping paper.

That is the tip of the day. Come back tomorrow for more.

Etsy Christmas Tips

The closer we get to Christmas the more items will be listed on Etsy for Christmas. So, the question arises, how do you make sure that your item is seen? The answer isn't a simple one. There is no guarantee that you can put your item in front of the right people. There are a few things that can help. One thing is to make sure that your items will get into a lot of treasuries.

Let's look at the above picture of a chainmail covered blue glass ornament. Notice how the title reads "Blue Christmas Ornament......" A lot of people have already started doing treasuries titled "Blue Christmas" and I have already been in four of them. Why? Because the item is optimized for "Blue Christmas."

Try to think ahead and optimize your items for popular Christmas themes. Be careful though. Do not use copyrighted or trademarked phrases or characters. For example it would probably be okay to optimize for "nightmare Christmas" but not for "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

In other words, try to optimize your items for popular themes but be vague enough that you won't have a lawsuit on your hands. Also, make sure whatever you use is to describe your item is accurate. Don't tag or title your item "Twelve Days Of Christmas Wrapping Paper Handmade" if your wrapping paper has nothing but evergreens on it.  Now if it depicts aspects of the twelve days of Christmas song by all means do it.

That is it for today. I will have more tomorrow. Feel free to leave some tips in the comments. BTW- today is my birthday. I don't really celebrate it. In fact I just realized it. That goes to show how busy I have been lately.

What Are You Doing For Your Etsy Shop For Christmas

Again I am swamped with some orders and really have to get them out. So I thought today we would get your input. The question for today is "What are you doing for your Etsy shop for Christmas?"

Are you going to have a killer Black Friday Event?

Are you going to have a Cyber Monday Sale?

Are you going to add some additional advertising?

I really would like to know what you plan to do to put your shop on top for this Christmas. Let the commenting begin!

Christmas Tips for Etsy Shops

We have been talking about getting your Etsy shop ready for Christmas. One of the things you can do is change your banner to reflect a little more Christmas feel. There are several people out there that offer this service if you don't have the time or know how to do it yourself. I certainly fall into the "don't have time" category.

Curious Crow Creative does all of my graphic design work including all the graphics for my blog. She is reasonable and has an attention to detail that just cannot be beat. So, if your graphics need a makeover she's the one to do it for you.

In addition to changing your banner, you may want to update your Shop Announcement to reflect the coming holidays. I even know a few people that have started a countdown to Christmas on their Shop Announcement. In the very least you may want to put something like "The Holidays will be here before you know it."

That is all for today. Have suggestions or comments or questions? Let me know.

Getting Your Shop Ready For Christmas

It is no lie that Christmas is not my favorite holiday. That honor falls to Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, my chainmail does not lend itself well to Thanksgiving decorations, although, I do keep threatening to make a chainmail cornucopia complete with chainmail fruits and vegetables. Maybe one day, but today I am getting my shop ready for Christmas, Yule, Kwanzaa, etc.

Halloween is pretty much over when it comes to mail order. Anything you would ship out right now would be hard pressed to get to someone by the weekend. So, it is time to start changing some of your items out for the Christmas holiday season. I set up a section just for holiday items. That helps me to organize them along with making it easier for people to find them in my shop.

Etsy frowns on people using certain tags during the holiday season. They do not like for you to tag your items "Christmas Gift" or "Stocking Stuffer" even if they are perfect for that. So, one way to get around this is to put those terms in your title and most certainly in your description. No, Etsy does not look at your description but Google most certainly does. You know who else looks at your descriptions? Your customers.

The description should convey the many uses of your item. Using it as a stocking stuffer is something that perhaps your customer had not thought of and that might be what puts them into the buying mode. When writing your description be sure to use action words and phrases. "Put this in your loved ones stocking this Christmas." has much more weight than "Makes a great stocking stuffer." It calls the customer to the action of putting it in the stocking. It is subtle but it works.

For the next couple of weeks I will be talking about ways to increase your holiday traffic and ways to convert that that traffic into sales. If you have suggestions please feel free to share them. If you have questions ask! Let's make this holiday season the best that it can be.

ArtFire Online Marketplace

ArtFire recently had a face lift and went through some changes. The redesign has made it much easier for customers to find their way around the site. I have to say I think it is going to help them to grow. While they may never reach the same prestige as Etsy, they will continue to be a great place to consider as a second selling location.

I have an ArtFire Studio and I make a few sales there every month. There are several things I like about those guys. They do not charge you every time you list an item, nor do they charge you every time you sell an item. They charge you a flat fee every month. It is only $11.95

Artfire also has a great Referral Program. For every person who signs up through you, you get one month free with no limits. The person who signs up through you also gets a free month (their 3rd month). So, you could actually have every month free if you have people sign up through you.

Now, ArtFire is a little different than Etsy in a few ways. They do not have the community traffic that Etsy has. However, every account will have their items added to Google Shopping, Bing Shopping, The Find and many more places on the web where people shop. Artfire also gets your listings into Google Search Engine and other search engines making it easier for people to find you.

Artfire also allows you to link to your Etsy shop, your blog, your Twitter, your Facebook and more. They feel that you should be able to sell wherever you want to sell. The Holiday Season is fast approaching and it might be a good idea to have a secondary site to sell your products. If you do decide to sign up for ArtFire please consider signing up through me, that way we will both enjoy a free month. Sign up for ArtFire Here.

If you sell on other online market places I would like to hear about it. Write a comment about it or send me an email marketmyshop@gmail.com

Selling Holiday Items On Etsy and ArtFire

When do people start buying for the Holiday Season? There is no simple answer to that. Hobby Lobby and other supply stores leave some of their Christmas items up all year. There are even Christmas stores that keep their doors open all year long. I started working on my Christmas Ornaments, pictured above, in August and plan to have them up for sale next week. After that, I plan to leave them up all year long.

It is a good idea to use one of your 10 shop sections on Etsy for Holiday and Seasonal items. It is a little easier on ArtFire because they allow many more shop sections. I think it is worth it to keep the items up all year, even if it will cost you $0.80 a year on Etsy. It is free to keep your listing up on ArtFire all year long.

The rest of the Holidays, other than Christmas, should also be left up all year. There are plenty of people out there that decorate for Halloween all year long, believe me, I know a few. You just never know what people are going to buy. People may stumble onto your item in May and bookmark it to buy it in November.

Leaving items up all year long will help to prepare you for any and all Holidays. It will give you a bit of a head start on everyone else, too. Etsy sent out a newsletter that was a preview of Christmas and that will get customers started to get into the Holiday spirit and just maybe get into the buying spirit!