Business Cards For Etsy

If you don't have a business card, maybe you should! Even if you do not do any shows or have items in any shops having a business card is still very important. It will give you an air of professionalism that you cannot put a price tag on. Plus it gives your customers your contact info!

There was a time when business cards were price prohibitive. Then came print your own business cards. It was cheaper to buy ink for your printer and card stock back then. Now with the insane price of ink it is cheaper to have your cards printed!

I am sure you've see the Vista Print add where you can get 250 cards for $10 or 100 business cards free. Personally I use Got Print. They have been very consistent for the three years I have been using them. Right now, until the end of February, they are running a 10% off sale using code ITSVDAY2014 at check out.

Last month I was able to order 2500 business cards for less than the price of one black ink cartridge for my printer. My cards are two sided. Side one is full color and the second side is black and white. They are heavy card stock and look much better than anything I could have done on my printer.

I like the two sided card for a couple of reasons. First, my front is a full color image of one of my products with just my business name. It is almost like having a little piece of art. People tell me they put it on their fridge and see it every day. The front isn't cluttered with contact info. The back does have all my contact info. It does not distract from the product image on the front.

So, if you don't already have business cards let me suggest again that you get some. You can get around 1000 business cards for under $20 with shipping paid. It will increase your business and help to build repeat customers. You may also want to put 3 or 4 cards in so that your customer can hand them out when they get complimented for your beautiful work.

Packaging Your Etsy Goods To Build Repeat Customers

Believe it or not your packaging is as important as your crafts or vintage goods. Having a positively memorable packaging experience can mean the difference of another order or not. I am a minimalist when it comes to packaging. Maybe it is because I am a guy, who knows.

I put my items in a Ziploc jewelry bag and staple my business card to the bag. I place the item(and sometimes a free gift) into a bubble wrap envelope. I usually include a handwritten note asking for my customer to add to my review count.

I would really like to hear what you do with your packaging.

Can Etsy Help You Quit Your Day Job?

So, you hate your day job. Can selling on Etsy really help you quit your day job? The simple answer is YES! Unfortunately it is a bit more complicated than that. The real answer is that Etsy can REPLACE your day job. You might want to consider how much time you have to put towards your new 'Day Job' of Etsy.

I generally spend 10 hours a day between working on my Etsy shop, social networking and making products for my shop. I am in a hard market- Jewelry. It is often times difficult to put myself out there above everyone else. Of course I do have a small advantage since I have been a jewelry maker for over 25 years.

Running an Etsy shop is a full time job. In fact it is 1 1/2 to 2 full time JOBS! At least until you get a good rhythm going. What is your typical Etsy day? What do you do? How long do you spend on each part? I want to know what you do with your time. Share with everyone here. Tell me about your Etsy day.

Yes, I said I was going to continue the Etsy Shop Makeover Challenge but it seemed that no one was participating so, I am putting that on the back burner. Just to let you know though, I have tripled the amout of daily treasuries I am in from just rewriting a few of my listings. If you wish to have me continue that series just let me know.

Etsy Success How Do You Measure It?

My Etsy sales are down from last year at this same time but my views are way up! What does this mean? The high cost of International shipping has hurt my business overall. And with shipping costs going up again yesterday I imagine my International business is going to decline even further. However, I still feel that I am successful.

Four years ago when I started selling on Etsy as a newbie I made a grand total of $1025 for the year. Last year I topped $10,000 in sales. Sure, it isn't enough to make a living 100% on Etsy just yet. But I have managed to increase my income almost by double each year. It would be nice to double last years income this year but I don't know that is possible. Still, I will try.

How do you measure YOUR Etsy success? I would really like to hear what you have to say. Tomorrow I will be continuing the Etsy Shop Makeover Challenge Series. Have you done what I challenged you to do?

9 Tips To Help Your Etsy Shop

Today I am taking a break from the Etsy Shop Makeover Challenge and going to do some Tops and Tricks to make your Etsy shop shine! Please feel free to add any tips or tricks that you may have to this list!

1. CHECK YOUR STATS EVERY DAY- Log into your Etsy account each and every day and check your stats. See where people are coming to your shop from, see how many people visit your items and shops, see how many favorites you get each day and more!

2. CHECK WHAT'S TRENDING ON ETSY - This is a great way to know if you have any items in your shop that are 'trendy' and could use a little boost. If there are similar items in the Etsy Trends Feed check the items and see what tags they are using and change a few of yours to match.

3. BE PROACTIVE - Join teams and be active! Join the forums and let your voice be heard. Know what is going on around you on Etsy by being proactive!

4. CHECK OUT FRONT PAGE TREASURIES - This is how you can keep a finger on the pulse of what Etsy wants from you. These front page Treasuries are hand picked by members of Etsy and reflect what they think is trending. Knowing this can help steer you to create more popular items.

5. A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS - Make sure your best photos are your main photo! Don't be afraid to switch the photos around a little to see which one works best for you.

6. NEW CONTENT IS KING - Google loves pages that change and hate pages that are static. Rewrite your Titles, descriptions and tags at least once a quarter. I try to do this as my items need renewing. This will always insure that my items are fresh and ready for Google to take notice!

7. DOT YOUR I'S AND CROSS YOUR T'S - Nothing is worse than reading a title or description with misspelled words and incorrect grammar. We are all guilty of it from time to time. Employ the help of a friend or family member to proof your work!

8. MISSPELL ON PURPOSE - Add commonly misspelled words to your tags. If one of your tag words can and is commonly spelled wrong, add it to catch traffic from those who type it wrong. I m not suggesting using a ton of misspellings but a few won't hurt and may just help! (Please note #7 above is talking about titles and descriptions)

9. USE ALTERNATE SPELLINGS - As with the suggestion above, if you are marketing to the whole world, use alternate spellings on your tags. JEWELRY is also spelled JEWELLERY and COLOR is also spelled COLOUR and ARMOR is also spelled ARMOUR! So, make sure you are caching all your audience by adding common alternate spellings.

I would love to hear what you have to say about all of the above tips. Please leave me a comment- ESPECIALLY if you have more tips and tricks to add!

Etsy Shop Makeover Challenge Part 3

Alright, so, by this time you should be 10% up to speed on my Etsy Shop Makeover Challenge! You've studied popular Treasuries. You've reworked 10 of your listings. And your ready for the next step. The next step is a simple one. I would like you to comment on 25 or more active Treasuries.

Simple enough, right? Here, let me complicate it just a little for you. I want you to only comment on Treasuries that match the following criteria:

1. You are NOT featured in the Treasury
2. Your comment MUST be on the first page of the Treasury
3. Your comment MUST be relevant to the Treasury (No generic comment like "love it")
4. You MUST comment on one Front Page Treasury

Okay, of that list, the hardest one will more than likely be commenting on a Front Page Treasury, on the first page of comments with a meaningful comment. You have to time yourself to get it in there. Meaning, you may have to camp next to your computer at the turn of the hour. By 3 minutes after the hour Front Page Treasuries usually are already up to 2 or 3 pages of comments.

Step 5 which I did not mention above is an important step as well. Follow the curator and favorite their shop. Many people who have their Treasury picked for the Front Page get picked again and again! This is not so much favoritism by Etsy as it is people who seem to have a pulse on the Etsy Trends Heartbeat!

This part of the challenge is one that I would like you to repeat each day for a couple of weeks. Actually, it would be great if you could just do it every single day but I know how taxing that can be for you. So, just do it as often as you can. If you cannot hit 25 Treasuries aim for 5 to 10 a day.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments! See you all tomorrow!

An Interesting Change To Your Etsy Shop

We've been discussing your Etsy shop in my Etsy Shop Makeover Challenge. First I asked you to look at some trending and hot treasuries. Next I asked you to pick 10 items and completely rewrite them. It's funny how I didn't even notice a very important change to your Etsy shop that can affect you in many ways!

It would seem that Etsy has changed how many items default to your front age of your shop. It used to be that you had 4 Featured items and then 20 other items on your front page. Now it seem they have changed it to 4 Featured items and 80 other items! This makes it super important to have your best items in the front of your shop!

If you have less than 80 items there isn't anything you can really do except make sure that your best items are at the top of your shop. If you have more than 80 items you NEED to put your best items on your first page. I currently have over 400 items and am in the process of rewriting 80 descriptions and titles and tags to insure that my best items are at the forefront of my shop. Yes, it is a daunting task but one that is much needed.

On a related note, I suggest making sure your listings are diverse on your first page. Give your customers a showing of what you do. I try and not have two of the same type of item next to each other on my first page. This means spreading my rings out with my bracelets and necklaces to insure a more broad view of what I do. You want to show potential customers as much as you can without seeming too disorganized.

That is all for today. I will get back to the challenge tomorrow. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments!

Etsy Shop Makeover Challenge Part 2

Hello, everyone! Hopefully you had the time to spend looking at some of the HOT Treasuries yesterday. Maybe you even had time to look at some of the individual items in the Treasuries. So, it is time for Part 2 of my Etsy Shop Makeover Challenge!

I want you to take your BEST 10 items and edit them. Make sure your TITLE is enticing and contains strong KEYWORDS in your first 3 words. Re write all of your description, making sure the best parts of the description are at the beginning and will be shown in your Google Preview. Make sure that your TITLE and DESCRIPTION in the Google preview do not truncate words or leave partial sentences. Make sure your title has every word starting with an upper case letter. It looks clean and nicer this way.

Then redo all of your TAGS. Make each word in the Tags an upper case letter. So "yellow yarn" becomes "Yellow Yarn" and "red bracelet" becomes "Red Bracelet", etc. This adds a look of professionalism to your listing. You'll note that the tags now show at the bottom of each listing.

Next, once you have changed and published your listing, RENEW it. It will only cost you $.20 and will jump your item to the top of the RECENTLY LISTED section on Etsy. After you renew it, Tweet it, Pin It, Facebook it or post whatever social networks you have. This will help people to know that you have something new to show them.

Lastly, if you are a member of Etsy Forums and or Teams, post it to any thread that says new or renewed items. This will help provide you with a little visibility. Every little bit counts! Keep track of how many more views you get on the items and in the shop as well.

Come back next week to share your results and find out what the next part of the challenge is.

Etsy Shop Makeover Challenge

I have a challenge for you! Don't worry, this is a relatively easy challenge and can greatly benefit you. Let me start over. I was reading article on the Etsy blog about how to attract more Treasury Curators so that more people will feature your items in their Treasuries so that you gain a better chance of being featured on one of the Front Page Treasuries...

The moral of the story was a simple one: Have great photos! Have great titles! Have great descriptions! Have great tags! Yada, yada, yada... I mean, I am not taking their message lightly. It is just everyone seems to push that same info down our throat on a daily basis. I too, promote those things on a regular basis. It just always seems so overwhelming that sometimes I don't even listen to the message and hear only the words.

I get put into a treasury about once every three to four days on average. That isn't many opportunities to get onto the front page. I have only ever had an item in a front page Treasury twice in the three years I have been selling on Etsy. I decided to go ahead and actively try to make my items more appealing so I could get into more Treasuries thus giving a better chance to get on the front page.

When am I ever going to get to the point, you're probably asking yourself. The point is simple, I want to challenge you to get into more Treasuries on Etsy by only doing a couple of simple things. No, I don't want you to join a Treasury team that would be just far too easy! I want you to make your shop catch people's eyes and cause organic want to feature your items in Treasuries.

Today I just want you to get into the planning stage. Go look at popular Etsy Treasuries. Go to https://www.etsy.com/treasury/ and sort by Hotness. Study these treasuries. See if you can figure out what makes them so hot. Look at the pictures in the Treasury. Look at the tags used to promote the Treasury. Study everything. Learn what you can. Come back tomorrow for the next part of this challenge.

Feel free to leave a comment or question.

Share Your Etsy Shops

We all need a little help from our friends. Today let's share our Etsy shops! Here are mine:

Chainmaille and Steampunk Jewelry: http://TangledMetal.etsy.com

Supplies and eBooks for Crafters: http://CraftKraken.etsy.com

Handmade Journals and Jewelry: http://www.PerpetuallyYoung.etsy.com

eBooks for Marketing your Etsy shop: http://MarketMyShop.etsy.com (here only for a limited time)

Feel free to share your shop in the comments section and have a great day!

What are your Etsy goals for 2014?

If you have not yet set any goals for your Etsy shop for 2014, there is still time! Setting goals is a very important part of owning an Etsy shop. I would like to know what your goals are this year. Here are a few of mine:

1. Double m sales for my Tangled Metal Shop Yes, that seems like a huge goal but I am finally to a point in my life where I can dedicate the time and energy to my shop and doubling my sales this year seems like a very reasonable goal.

2. Get Craft Kraken off the ground and generating income. This is a relatively new shop for me. The shop sells crafting supplies of all kinds and will be expanding as I get the chance to work on it. It is also where the Market My Shop stuff is going as I make the transition.

3. Have better customer service all around. This is probably the easiest of my goals. I am going to try and beat my 2 day turnaround average on shipping. I am going to start working on building repeat customers in all my shop. I want the customer experience to be above and beyond what most have received elsewhere.

Thos are my top 3 goals for the year. What are yours?

Etsy And The New USPS Pricing Increase

I remember a time when it only cost me $.20 to mail a letter. That was around 1984. Today that same letter will cost me over double what it was then. It seems that shipping prices are always going to increase. The United States Post Office is increasing their rates again. So, you may want to go ahead and set up a new shipping profile and get all your mailing options changed.

If you'd like to see what your new rates are through Etsy or PayPal, Etsy has set up a chart that you can view here: New Postal Rates For Etsy For 2014 Please keep in mind that these prices are for postage purchased through Etsy and PayPal and they will be HIGHER if you go to the post office.

SO, it is time to calculate your shipping costs and change your listings. Don't forget that your shipping cost should not only reflect postage but packaging and the cost to take it to the post office. Be sure to factor in the full price of shipping as if you were paying for it at the post office as you will never kno when you have to actually do that.

Have a great weekend and I will see you all next week!

New Year Sales For Your Etsy Shop 2014

I am having a sale just for you, my wonderful readers! For the rest of the month of January I am taking 50% off all of my eBook at http://MarketMyShop.etsy.com just enter code: NEWYEARSHALFOFF at checkout and you'll get any of my eBooks at half price! As of February 1st the eBooks will no longer be available through the Market My Shop Etsy Shop but will be available in the new Craft Kraken Supplies Etsy Shop.

I would like to invite you to share any sales that you may be having with all of us here. Just comment with your shop name, a link and a coupon code.

Release The Kraken

Release your your inner Kraken with Craft Kraken! (Coming soon) Market My Shop is changing its name to Craft Kraken. Some of you may have already taken advantage of my supply shop on Etsy: Craft Kraken Supplies. If not, I would like to invite you to do so.

Market My Shop on Etsy will soon become a part of Craft Kraken Supplies. I will be setting up a new section in the supply shop for eBooks and guides. I will also be recreating this blog over at the new Craft Kraken website http://www.CraftKraken.com

This will be an ongoing process so please bear with me! I will be leaving this site up for a time but eventually will be bringing over all of the info to the new site. I am not sure if I will be able to transfer the comments over as comments or will have to append them to the articles. I will do my best to make that a smooth transition.

Just keep in mind that I am a one man crew so time is always split between the many business endeavors I have going on. I will do my best to help all of you with the transition to the new site. I do not have any time frame in place but I am going to try and have this all done by spring. Maybe sooner if I keep getting snowed in at my place. :)

If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email to MarketMyShop@gmail.com

2014 Brings Exciting Changes For Market My Shop

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” 
― Winston Churchill

I have always been a fan and advocate of not changing something that isn't broken. I have also been a STRONG advocate of branding. It is usually taboo to change  any major branding in the middle of the game. However, I have decided to take an exception to that rule. So, Market My Shop is about to undergo a complete change- including the name! Here, let me explain...

There has become a stigma surrounding 'marketing' on the Internet. Many people now associate any business name containing 'Market' or 'Marketing' with scams for get rich quick schemes and other not-so-legit business practices. As you all very well know, that is NOT something that I would want to be associated with. Therefor, I am going to be changing the name of this little company and start branding anew!

There is a huge benefit for you, my loyal readers. You will get to see first hand how some of my marketing practices work. As I begin from the ground and start to build this new persona you'll be right there with me. I hope that all of you will benefit from seeing it all first hand.

I will be talking more about this in the next few days so keep an eye out!

2013 Year In Review And Changes Planned For 2014

First off let me say that I hope all of you have had a happy and prosperous Holiday Season. With the coming of the new year, I hope that all of you will have an even better 2014!

My 2013 was the best year ever. Though my shops did not show the growth that I had projected my personal life experienced huge growth! Here are some of the highlights:

We decided on a 0 for our wedding cake topper. Each Year we will add candles.

On December 14th, 2013 I got married to the woman of my dreams. I won't bore you with all the details or anything but I will say the wedding was perfection. I am quite possibly the luckiest, happiest man on the planet. In addition to gaining a wonderful wife, I also gained a wonderful 7 year old son. My life is wonderfully complete now.

Me and my new son, Nathaniel

Me and my new wife, Cinnamon

I made a major move to my new 'Forever Home' with my new wife and son. I got a new building for my art and jewelry studio. It is much larger than my 'third bedroom' studio in my old house and I am very excited to get it all set up.

My new 12 x 30 Studio

I have some announcements coming later this week that will let you know what I have planned for 2014 for business! I am ready to help grow your business and make some positive marks on the new year!

How was your 2013? Leave me a comment and let me know!