The Power Of Twitter For Your Online Shop

Twitter is a powerful tool. Those who learn to use it can really bring more traffic into their shop. The problem with Twitter is that most people who use it for business are not using it right. If you constantly post links to your shop or your items people will start to ignore you. They may even report you for spam and Twitter could delete your account.

Twitter is a micro blogging platform that allows you to write 140 characters about what you are doing right now. 140 characters isn't a lot but it is enough to engage your customer base, tell them about a new product and carry on a conversation. Used correctly it can drive a lot of traffic to your shop and help you to convert people into customers.

There is no "fine line" when it comes to Twitter spam. Either you are spamming or you aren't. Twitter should be used as another way to show your customers and potential customers that you are in fact a human artist or someone who seeks out vintage items and puts items out there for people to buy. The key here is the word "human." People would rather hear about your thrift store finds or the process you go through to create an item.

If you don't already have a Twitter account, let me know and I will create a tutorial on how to set up your account, otherwise I am going to assume you already have an account. I am also going to assume that you have your shop URL listed under your website section and/or in your profile. If not, make sure you do that. That way people can get to your shop without you spamming your links.

So, what do you talk about? Talk about the new items you just got at the thrift store or yard sale. Talk about how you choose the color of fall line of crocheted baby hats. Talk about the fluctuating prices of sterling silver. And every 15th or so Tweet you can put a link to your newest item.

Tomorrow I will be discussing some great Twitter strategies, some fun Twitter tools, the Dos and Don'ts of the Twitter world and a few other things. In the meantime you may want to check out my article on Time Management because you can get lost in Twitter and end up tweeting all day instead of working! Be sure to check out the other archived articles as well. I hop you all had a safe and fun Holiday weekend.

10 Tips For Etsy Success

How do you measure success with your Etsy shop or ArtFire Studio or where ever you sell your items? Do you measure it through how many sales, how many views, how many favorites? No matter how you measure your success there is always room for improvement. Today I offer 10 tips that can help you become successful with your online shop.

1. Keep A High Inventory - Some say that there is a "magic number" of items to have in your shop before you start to really make sales. Most agree that it is somewhere between 50 and 150. This comes from the old saying "You can't sell what you don't have." Keeping your inventory up will help with sales. Giving the customer many choices seems to really help.

2. Organize Your Shop - Have you ever been in a store where nothing really seemed to go together? It was just a mess. You can't find what you are looking for in a messy shop. There are two ways to organize your shop and I suggest using both. First use your shop sections. On Etsy you have 10 sections and on ArtFire you have considerably more. Group like items together in the shop sections. A note about sections is that they have some SEO power with them. So try to use good keywords in your sections such as "Beaded Bracelets" or "Silver Earrings" so that the search engines will pick the sections up. Using just "Bracelets" or Earrings" works okay just for your shop but it does not help outside of that.

3. Never Undersell Yourself - People expect to pay more for handmade items. Having items that are very inexpensive in your shop will make your customer wonder if you are importing the items for resell. Now, some people go over the top and price things very very high. Unless you have made a name for yourself pricing a small painting at $5000 is probably going to cause someone to chuckle and move on. Try to stay within the competitive market with your prices but never try to undercut prices just to make a sale.

4. Add To Your Circle - Circles are a great way to gain more attention. Adding people who make things you like can help a lot. Many of the people that you add to your circle will add you back. When you create a new item it shows on the "New items from your favorite shops" of everyone who has added you to their circle. When you make a treasury or favorite a shop or item it gets published to your circle feed. When someone favorites you it gets posted to their feed. It is a way to become viral on Etsy.

5. Participate In Teams - Join teams that are within your type of shop medium. There are tons of teams. Joining a team isn't enough. You need to be active on the teams. Participate in discussions. Ask questions. Answer questions. Participate in team challenges. It is fun and will draw attention to you.

6. Spread The Word - Tell the world about your shop. Use social media to spread the word about your new items, shows or whatever you are trying to promote. Write a press release for your local newspaper. If you are going to be in a show ask the show to feature you in their advertising, provide them with a good write up and nice photos. Make it easy for them and they can hardly refuse.

7. Pay Attention To Your Stats - Check what keywords people are finding you with. See what time of day you get the most visits. That is a good way to know when yo release a new item. Don't just check your Etsy stats, check Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Google Blogger Stats and any others that give you hard facts about how you are doing.

8. If It Isn't Working Change It - If over a period of say 2 weeks or more no one has clicked on your items using the keywords you have optimized your item for it may be time to change your tactics. You might need to reevaluate your title and tags and try to figure out why you are not getting the traffic you want. You may need to optimize for a smaller niche.

9. Help Someone New - If you know a little, you know a lot. Helping someone to not make the same mistakes you made is not only a nice thing to do, it will make a friend. Helping someone out will show that you are a person who isn't just in it for the money. You never know when you might need a friend to give you an honest critique.

10. Ask Questions - Don't assume that you know it all. I have been working with the web pages since the internet was just a wee baby. I do NOT know it all. Things change in the blink of the eye. What worked great yesterday won't work today. If you find yourself in a position where you don't know what is wrong, ask a question. If you think you know the answer but are not sure, ask a question. The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked. Asking a question does not make you look bad, it makes you look intelligent!

I hope these tips will help you out. I am always looking for more great tips to add to my weekly top 10 so please feel free to share, I will give you credit. This blog is 100% free to you and I am always happy to answer questions so feel free to ask.

Making Facebook Work For You

This week I have been discussing how to set up your Facebook Fan Page and ways to get more fans. Today I would like to talk about how Facebook can make money for you. Facebook is one of the greatest promotion tools you can use to spread the word about a sale you are having, a new item listed, a show you are vending at or just about anything. The more fans you have the more potential customers you have.

I talked a while back about QR codes and how to get one for any website you have. (QR Code article) It is tie to start using that code to gain more fans. Put it on your business cars, print it on a piece of paper and put it in your booth at your next show, put it on flyers, put it where ever you print something dealing with your shop you can even put it on a sticker and put it next to your return address on your packages.

Adding the Etsy Facebook App is a great way to make money with Facebook. People can buy directly from your Facebook page. The app can be found here: My Etsy for Facebook It is easy to set up and starts working for you as soon as it is live. You will have to switch back to your profile page to install it, just make sure you install it on your Fan Page. Some people set the My Etsy App page as their default landing page. I do not recommend this.

Speaking of landing pages, there is a neat way to get more likes to your page. You can set up a landing page that encourages people to click on the "Like" button. You then set your default landing page to the newly created page and every time someone new comes to you page they will see your custom page. I will not go into the creation of this but if you Google "How to set up a custom Facebook landing page" there are many tutorials. Please note that there are some free options out there. So, if you are on a tight budget you can still do it.

I talked about organic vs direct traffic the other day. When people find you organically it is more valuable than if you are found through an ad or you ask someone to visit. The same thing applies to Facebook Fan Pages. When people find you naturally and become a fan it is far more valuable than if you tell someone to come be your fan. I know people with few Facebook Fans that have a better customer conversion rate than people with thousands of fans. I am not saying do not advertise your page, just that natural fans tend to become customers faster.

This concludes the series on Facebook Fan Pages. Next week I will be talking about Twitter and how to make it work for you. In the meantime if you have questions please feel free to ask.