Happy Halloween From Market My Shop

May your Halloween be a happy and fun event! If you are taking the kiddos out Trick-R-Treatin' be sure to be safe and check that candy!

Etsy Cyber Monday Sales

Of course you've heard of Black Friday but a newer, not as well known sales event is Cyber Monday. It is the Monday after Black Friday and it is primarily for online sales events. Many people on Etsy tend to combine the two for a full weekend of sales. This is generally what I do because I usually do not have the time to create two different events!

Any sales event you plan to have on Etsy this Holiday Season needs a plan. You need to have a bit of a schedule set up so that you can share the info with your social media outlets. Don't forget that with Etsy you also have a shop announcement that you can publicize your events through. That is a very underutilized tool on Etsy.

Feel free to share your Cyber Monday experiences and plans here through a comment or send me an email to MarketMyShop@gmail.com

Time For Black Friday On Etsy

It is time to start thinking about your Black Friday Sales events. The day after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest shopping days in the year! It is a good idea to jump on the band wagon. Whether you plan to offer free shipping, percentage discounts or dollar amount discounts you really need to get in gear now!

Leak your potential sale to your social media. Play the game like the huge retailers do. Start getting people ready for your sales now. Drop hints and give teasers. Make it a huge deal for all of your customers. You may even want to change your "Thank You" coupons to Black Friday Coupons.

I will be talking more on this in the weeks between now and the actual Black Friday Event. If you have suggestions or experiences please feel free to share with a comment or send me an email to MarketMyShop@gmail.com

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

Exciting News From Me

Last night I asked my girlfriend if she would be my wife. She said yes! So, we are getting married! I am very excited. This week has been pretty amazing. I have yet to find the time to write the promised blog on bulk listing editing on Etsy but I am going to work on getting that ready on Sunday for publication on Monday.

Anyhow, I just wanted to give you guys the scoop on what has been going on and why I haven't written. May your weekend be a wonderful one. See you all next week.

-Eric from Market My Shop

Busy Is A Busy Does

As some of you know (and many probably don't) Making jewelry and working metal and writing articles on marketing is not my only life skill. I am also a master stone mason. So, from time to time I go work a job to help make ends meet. I started one of those jobs today. That means that my posts this week will be sporadic at best. I did start writing a short tutorial on how to append information to your Etsy descriptions and will have that finished and up by Friday- I hope! In the meantime please enjoy this picture of a baby hedgehog!

Share Your Etsy Shop With Everyone

It is once again time to share your Etsy Shop, Your Facebook Page, Your Twitter Account and/or your Pinterest Account! I love growing my social networks! Every time I get a new follower/subscriber/reader it makes me happy! It also increases my exposure as it will for you!

If you already are a part of any of the networks listed, try and pass on the love by favoriting an item, ReTweeting a post, Sharing a link on Facebook or Pinning an image on Pinterest! The point it the more you share the better it is for everyone involved! Here are my links:

Etsy:
Tangled Metal http://TangledMetal.etsy.com Chainmail and Steampunk Art and Jewelry
Perpetually Young: http://PerpetuallyYoung.etsy.com Paper Crafts
Craft Kraken Supplies http://CraftKrakenSupplies.etsy.com My Supplies and Findings Shop
Market My Shop http://MarketMyShop.etsy.com eBooks for Etsy users

Facebook:
Tangled Metal http://www.facebook.com/TangledMetal

Twitter:
Tangled Metal http://www.twitter.com/TangledMetal
Market My Shop http://www.twitter.com/MarketMyShop
Craft Kraken Supplies http://www.twitter.com/CraftKraken

Pinterest:
TangledMetal http://www.pinterest.com/TangledMetal

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I will see you all next week!

How Do You Edit Multiple Listing For Your Etsy Shop

Yesterday I wrote about starting to get ready for Christmas. One of the points to my post was that you might want to add a link to your existing listings to a postage upgrade listing. I received an email from a reader wondering how to modify their 80+ listings without having to do it one by one. That brings up such a great point. I currently have over 400 items in my main shop and dozens of items in my other shops. It can be a daunting task trying to update multiple listings. Fortunately there is a way to do it very easily.

I use Craftopolis for bulk editing. In fact I wrote an article on this very site here: http://marketmyshop.blogspot.com/2013/01/craftopolis-friend-for-etsy-users.html I do not go into a lot of details on the description edit tool they call "Edit Express" but it is the right tool for being able to edit the descriptions on all your items at one time.

Next week I will put together a small tutorial for you, detailing how to use their editing tool. In the meantime, please feel free to read the post and get a head start! The tools on this site are very helpful! I am always on the lookout for Etsy tools that make my life easier so if you use an app or a site that is helpful please feel free to share it here with a comment 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

Love Your Etsy Shop

Sorry for disappearing for a few days. Very recently I found true love in my life. You know, the air sucked out of the room, weak in the knees, romantic love. The kind most of us only ever read about in books or see in those romcom movies. It is a very wonderful feeling that I have never felt in all my 40+ years on this planet. It makes the small menial tasks seem less menial. It makes cleaning the dishes less like a chore. It makes everything better.

Now, I have been thinking about this quite intently over the last few days. It occurred to me that your relationship with your Etsy shop should be the same. You should not feel like it is a chore to go in and constantly tweak your key words, or clean up your descriptions, or share your listings on social networks. It should be a joy.

If you approach your Etsy shop like it is just a job, well, then you are not ever going to fully be happy. Unless of course you are one of those people that LOVE your job! I think you can see what I mean though. Your Etsy shop is an extension of you. Whether it be a love of art or a love of vintage goods or a love of providing crafting supplies for others to make art, your Etsy shop should be all about love.

So, I would like to know what you love about your Etsy shop.

I'll start. The thing I love most is taking pictures for my Etsy shop. It is frustrating and sometimes I take 100 pictures and only one or two turn out the way I want them to. I end up going back to the camera and trying again until I can come up with five shots that are just right. I am constantly trying to better my pictures. In fact, I have been in the process of rephotographing just about everything in my shop. With 400+ items it could feel like a chore. Fortunately, for me, it doesn't. It is worth every moment I spend doing it because I love my shop.

Now, I would like to hear from you. What do you love about your Etsy shop. Leave a comment here and share the love! Or if you'd rather keep it quiet, send me an email to MarketMyShop@gmail.com