New stationery and a dilemma

It's been a long time since I added anything new to my Etsy shop Well no more, I finally received the new greeting cards I ordered and will be adding them to the shop this weekend.

Here are a samples of the the new cards, I hope you like them!

They will cost 4$ each and arrive with a matching envelope. I also relisted my puppet stickers, as I got a whole new lovely batch. They are already available on my shop.

As for the dilemma, I wonder if I want to reopen my jewelry and art shop or simply list those items on my main shop. On one hand, it is a nuisance to manage two shops, but my jewelry style is very different from my puppet design, and I think it does not comply with my branding. I simply can't decide. Here are a examples of my designs, what do you guys think?

Finally, after 9 months, a shop update!!!

You guys probably know the past few months (months? what am I talking about, years is more like it) have been a general hell as well as a creative hell. Caring for my mom then losing her 9 months ago left me completely listless. It took me quite a while to realize I also felt if I will continue with my creative work, I will be betraying her memory or that it will somehow mean I am not really mourning her loss (which I am, daily).

But finally, I am happy to inform you that I just completed a shop update, with several new items. How exciting is that? Trust me, it will not take 9 months till the next one, I promise you that.

So what's in store for you?

Two new Flutterbutt (or Puppet Mobile) ballerinas - Odile and Eleonora

Happy Birthday postcard that doubles as a greeting card and decorative print.

The long awaited Love is in the air postcard set (which also doubles as decorative prints). Only two sets available!

And last but not least, for this batch, another postcards set entitled Boys will be boys.

That's it for now. There will be another mini update soon. I hope you like my new creations! I will share some of the process of creating Odile in an upcoming post.

1 day sale on my Art & Jewelry shop

I am holding a single day sale on my Art & Jewelry shop today - Sunday the 5th of December.

All items on the shop are 25% off. In order to enjoy this discount, enter the following code on checkout - 25offDec5th, as shown in the following image.

1. Step 1 - Enter the Shop Coupon Code on checkout and click Apply.

step 2. The price now reflects the discount and you can continue to check out.

Here are some examples of what you will find. There is still time for international shipping in time for Christmas!

Jackie the four wheeled giraffe will cost 27$ instead of 36$

The rose quartz and brown hues necklace will cost 56.25$ instead of 75$

Bird in the nest headband will cost 21$ instead of 28$

Lotus and dove earrings will cost 22.5$ instead of 30$

Is it me or is Etsy less attractive these days?

For the past few days I have been wondering if it's me who have lost the passion for the Etsy community tools, or are they simply less attractive.

Once upon a time, I used to roam the forums, read the Storque (which is now boringly titled "Blog"), hunt for treasuries featuring me and my friends, look for cool new findings using Pounce and curate as many treasuries I could get my hands on.

These days I can hardly find any interesting topics on the Blog, since most of it discusses local affairs directed to Europeans or US citizens. The forums seem empty and tired, and the treasuries, with the new mechanism, lost all interest to me. I almost never click anything, despite the fact I used to click all items on a list before. I feel the community either moved on to Facebook, or maybe the interface changes celebrating Etsy's 5th anniversary overdid it. Or maybe it is my general lack of handmade passion these days reflecting on a poor defenseless Etsy?

On top of that, my sales are low, as they usually are in the month of June. But I do admit I have not been actively promoting lately. Just don't have the energy for it. In fact, I am contemplating putting the shops on vacation till my family affairs are less energy consuming. Not sure what to do about that..

I would be interested in hearing what you, my Etsian readers, think.

Oh almighty Etsy Sales Fairy 

spread your sales dust on me

I am proud!

Happy weekend all! I plan to do absolutely nothing this weekend. In fact, It's after 4pm and I'm still in my pajamas.

I wanted to introduce to a new Etsy shop I am especially proud of -  Orit Hadad's handmade jewelry shop.

Orit opened her shop after purchasing my Etsy for Hebrew readers - Everything you need to know on opening and maintaining a successful Etsy shop guides pack.  And what a great student she is! Check out her crisp photos and accurate item descriptions. She is already making successful sales, and I am sure she will have great success with her shop. Yay Orit!

Crochet knitting fine silver lava stones necklace

אני שמחה להציג לפניכם את החנות של אורית חדד, תכשיטנית מוכשרת שפתחה את חנותה אחרי שרכשה וקראה את המדריכים העבריים שלי לפתיחת וניהול חנות מוצלחת באטסי. יש כבר כמה וכמה חנויות ישראליות שנפתחו בידי אנשים שקנו את הדריכים שלי, אבל אני חייבת לומר שזו החביבה עליי. צילומי המוצר החדים והבהירים והתאורים המפורטים שלה תרמו ללא ספק לעובדה שכבר עם פתיחת החנות יש לה 2 מכירות.

אם גם אתם רוצים לפתוח חנות למכירת תוצרת ידכם באטסי, אתם מוזמנים לרכוש את המדריכים בחנות שלי או ישירות דרכי. אני מקווה שהם יעזרו לכם כמו שעזרו לאורית! במילותיה שלה:

רציתי להודות לך על המדריכים שקניתי אצלך.
הם היו לי לעזר רב ואני עדיין קוראת בהם מידי פעם.
עיקר העזרה בשבילי היתה בעיקר בפתיחה וזה היה הזרז בשבילי.

A gift of a guide and a romantic couple

This week was blessed with custom orders thanks to being on the Gift Guides. Unfortunately, one of these customers bought the original item instead of asking for a custom listing, and so the Gift Guide, dozens of hearts, and almost 2000 views are all gone. But I must not complain, it really was an amazing week.

Huge jump in views, now it's down again

All I can hope is that all the people who hearted this item will see it sold and heart the relist as well. BTW, I offer express shipping, so you can still get your purchases in time for Christmas Eve.

Back to this week's orders, another fun project was making a custom made married Flutterbutt couple (Puppet Mobiles this time). The couple are look alikes of the customer's brother and sister in law. I loved the photos she sent me, and Mr. Flutterbutt was definitely a challenge, since none of the ready made glasses I had at home fit. Eventually I made him little glasses out of my Bluetooth headset plastic wrap. He also got a nice aqua colored feathery tutu and a sky blue satin tie. His gorgeous wife got a tan complexion and a complimentary strapless peach dress decorated with a big beautiful sequined gold heart.

Both mobile cords are decorated with Czech glass, plastic, glass, lampwork, stone and some of my late Grandmother's rose quartz (for luck in love) beads. I have to say, they looked very much in love with each other since the moment I completed my work. It truly was love at first foam!

Why on why my sales have die(d)

Traditionally, November and December are excellent months for my Etsy shop. I am not a full time Etsian, and my items appeal to very certain audiences (which I like to call "silly grownups", like myself) so I don't aim to sell 300 or even 30 items a month. A 10 sales month is great for me. A 16 sales month is excellent.

But this November was my worst ever (in fact, it was the worst sales month of 2009). I also got very few new item and shop hearts. Less than half of my usual rate. I have to wonder why.

This is what I've come up with so far:

1. My short vacation cost me a week of promotions.
2. I did not invest any money in paid ads this month.
3. Etsy's SEO "improvements" cost me my Google ranking - it plummeted from 3/10 to 0/10 which effects my search engine result.
4. In previous years I did some trades that showed up on my sales total. I no longer do that.
   

I am not quite sure what to do about this. There is a limit to how much I can invest in forum promotions, I already do too much of that. I want to spend less hours on this, not more. As far as the ranking goes, I contacted Etsy support after reading articles on the site and they just directed me back to articles I already read, which probably means there is nothing I can do.

I want December 2009 to be the best sales month I had this year. I want it to exceed 2007-8 sales rate for December. My last international shipping date for Christmas Eve is Sunday 6.12.09 which doesn't leave much time, as far as Christmas gifts are concerned (of course I offer express shipping that arrives in 4 workdays, but still).

Since I hardly had any revenue in November, I cannot invest in paid advertising now.

I find it hard to believe my shop suddenly fall out of taste, so I don't consider that as a possible reason. Perhaps my recent diversity in item categories (Flutterbutts, jewels, cards, headbands, and so on) has a negative effect?

Your thoughts, comments, ideas and of course - purchases are most welcome.

Update - is it possible the name Flutterbutt turns people off? Recently I found some nasty websites using this term. Maybe it is not as cute as I thought. Should I change it?

Thank Moo notes

I see there is an ongoing discussion in the Etsy forums about thank you notes, what to use, and how to write. So I thought I should take exceptionally bad photos of my thank you notes and share them with you!

Some of you already know I am a big fan of Moo. I love them cause they allow you to print as many different images on your cards as you want. Order 100 cards with 100 different images if you want. I have been using them for printing for about two or more years now, and am quite content (even when they print bad, they fix it ASAP and their customer service is simply excellent).

Now, this is the second time I do the following - I order a set of business cards (not mini cards, which I also have) and on the back of them I print a little greeting followed by a blank space, just enough for a handwritten note, before the rest of my text (get in touch info).

So this is a little part of the batch I recently ordered

The black promo line is because this was a free gift pack, which means it comes with a Moo ad on it

This is the back, with lots of space to write a personal note for the customer

Attached to a package and ready to be shipped

And now seriously - I promised you bad photos. Did I deliver or what?

Looking for promotional items

It's time to get my promo packs in order in time for the upcoming holidays. I send a promo pack with each of my orders, and am almost out of my current batch. This is a nice chance to get your shop introduced to a new audience.

If you have promotional items you would like to send me, please email me at and I will send you my shipping address (in Israel).

I am looking for items up to the size of a standard business card, such as:

• Coupons
• Buttons and badges
• Magnets
• Charms
  
• Stickers
• Moo cards

Festive promo packs from last year

Common courtesy, Etsy style

Boy, I am furious. Full of rage. As I already wrote before, I am bombarded by non payers and approaches that end up in disappointment. I just canceled another sale on Etsy 2 minutes ago..

Look, I myself approach sellers about trades and sales that don't eventually come through. Everybody does. The question is how you turn people down. So instead of sitting here enjoying my heartburn and expecting a heart attack at my tender age, I decided to share my view on how to treat sellers and approaches with courtesy even when you are not interested in further communication.

1. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you
   This is indeed the golden rule. Calm down, and think how you would like to be treated if you were the sender of the undesired offer, then proceed to step 2.
   
2. Always write a short and polite reply
   Never leave a message unanswered, it can really hurt the sender. Got a trade offer from a shop you are not interested in? Send a nice reply saying "no thank you". Got a convo telling you you are in a treasury? Thank the sender. Got an offer you are not interested in? Reply and say "thank you, but I am unable to accept at this time". Remember, nobody can read your mind or guess you taste, even with the best intentions. So be nice to people who took the time to tell you they appreciate you. You don't have to get into debates, or promise things you don't mean. Just..
   
3. Say what you mean (and don't say it mean)
   Never leave people hanging. If you asked for an offer for a custom listing, and didn't like what the seller suggested, just tell them so politely and thank them for their time. If you asked to reserve and item, and find you cannot afford to buy it this month - let the buyer know ASAP so they can release the item for other potential customers. If you are not interested in a trade, just say no. You don't have to say "your shop is so ugly I couldn't find anything I want". Just say "thank you, but I am unable to accept at this time" (I repeat this phrase, make it your mantra).

I think that's about it. See? I managed to turn my disappointment and rage to something positive. I would love to hear what you have to add to this list.

And now if you excuse me, I have to start smoking.

Etsy Tips & Tricks Guide - מדריך מתקדם לאצי בעברית

I recently completed my new guide to opening and maintaining an Etsy shop. The first version is sold in Hebrew, and I will translate it to English shortly.

Unlike my first set of Etsy guides, this is not a technical How-To but a more theoretical guide (though I do tell you where to find the features I am talking about and what to do with them), which covers many important issues, such as:

• Opening and maintaining your shop (I opened a shop, now what?, Payments and fees, Great photography, Tagging your items for success, Canceling a sale, and more)
• Excellent customer service (How to provide top notch customer service, Feedbacks, and more)
• Marketing and promotion (Showcases, Treasuries, Why don't I make any sales??, and more)
• Miscellaneous (Hearts and favorites, Trading on Etsy, What you definitely don't want to do, Useful resources, and more)
  

In favor of my Hebrew readers, I will continue detailing the contents in Hebrew.

המדריך הזה, להבדיל מקודמיו הטכניים (מדריכי צעד אחר צעד טהורים) הוא מדריך תאורטי המכיל מידע רב שנרכש מנסיון (שלי ושל אחרים) ומלימוד. המדריך מכיל טיפים רבים ובכללם עצות לנושאים המטרידים מוכרים רבים: מהו מבנה העמלות באצי וכל כמה זמן משלמים? למה החנות שלי בלתי נראית? מה אפשר לעשות כדי לשפר את המצב? אילו מבצעי קידום מכירות כדאי לי לבצע? איפה ואיך מפרסמים? איך לבצע מעקב אחר הזמנות? איך להבטיח שהלקוחות שלי יחזרו אליי פעם נוספת? כל זאת ועוד בהישג ידכם ובעברית.

הנושאים במדריך החדש יתעדכנו כל אימת שיעלה נושא חדש ומעניין שאראה לנכון להוסיף לו, על מנת להעשיר את הידע של קוראיי. בין הנושאים במדריך תמצאו:

• פתיחת החנות ותפעול שוטף (פתחתי חנות, עכשיו מה?, תשלומים ועמלות, מתי ואיך לבטל מכירה ועוד)
• שירות לקוחות איכותי (איך לתת שירות לקוחות איכותי, פידבקים ועוד)
• שיווק ומכירות (למה לא קונים ממני?, תיוג הפריטים בחנות, צילום פריטים איכותי, Showcases , Treasuries ועוד)
• נושאים כלליים (ניהול מועדפים, מה לא כדאי לעשות, איך לעשות החלפות, מקורות מידע מועילים ועוד)

כל זאת ועוד בצירוף טיפים, איורים, הערות והארות.

אני מוכרת את המדריך בחנות שלי, ושולחת אותו באימייל לאחר התשלום. אם ברצונכם לרכוש אותו אופליין, צרו איתי קשר.

About to expire sale

Today only - About to expire sale!

Buy these items today, before they expire and enjoy a 10% discount
(prices already revised, so go ahead and buy)

Puppet stickers great for crafts and fun - 6$ instead of 7$
(I have two sets available)
Barack and Michelle O'Flutterbutt - 59$ instead of 66$

Let me know if you want them in puppet mobile form or left as is upon purchase

How to (lose and) get a boost in sales for summer

May and June are annoying months, economically speaking. Also known as "the months of renewing annual car expenses" (insurance and test, with an overall of about 1250$) they always seem to get me anxious for some extra income. Ahh, where are the happy days of leased high-tech cars. I always miss those boring Mazdas this time of year. Add to that the idea of a little Etsy get together near Glasgow in July and you get a Sharona who worries about money 100% of the time.

I don't like worrying about money 100% of the time. It doesn't leave me time to stress about other things I like to stress about and that stresses me out even more.

The obvious solution to this issue is increasing sales on my Etsy shops. That should be easily done! Selling more in the hardest months of the year, where no holidays are anywhere in sight, people are stressed about their taxes, and global economy is in recession. Oh yes.

I have a lot of useful ideas how to (not) earn more during these months. Each of these ideas will hurt my income directly or indirectly. Here are just a few:

• Offer free shipping on both my shops for a month
  Free shipping is the worst sales boost you can offer. It eliminates your only fee free income, one you make no profit on to begin with. It's like sweeping a rug from under my own feet. Not to mention the fact my shipping expenses eliminate any incoming on my ribbon shop.
• Offer huge discounts on items on my shop
  Nothing ever sells on sales, from my experience, plus it will only decrease my income. I may reduce prices as much as I like, but my investment in each item stays the same. Right? right.
• Plea with people to help me out by buying my stuff
  The most embarrassing, degrading way of finding customers. They may buy from me, but I will feel guilty and ashamed.

I do have some good ideas though, that are based on generating more traffic to my shops. These include:

• Promos
  I already took advantage of Moo's special offer, and ordered two packs of mini cards for both my shops. These will turn into a large batch of promo packs which I will send to other top-selling Etsians to ship to their customers upon purchase.
• Create an independent website
  Work is already on the go. First draft of the website is prepared (and I mean a beautiful bilingual Flash website designed by a pro, as opposed to the old website made by me). This will also help attract Israeli buyers who are not comfortable with the English Etsy interface.
• Buy ad space
  There is no way to go around this. I need to get paid advertising space. I think it's time to check Project Wonderful and other advertising opportunities.
• Making freebies for my customers
  This may be a good way of giving an added value to shopping at a specific time, most needed for me, and still not losing or bagging. I can make a batch of a special edition item that will be added to every (?) purchase on my shop during the problematic months. Will that be a sales boost?
  
• Start an ad exchange
  You put an ad on my blog (or website, when it is ready) and I put one on yours. That is a good idea, in websites that generate traffic and blogs with a lot of followers.
• Start selling tutorials
  This is am excellent way to boost sales, just ask Yoola.
  

I think it's time for a poll. I will post one on this blog in a little while. I will also love to hear ideas, your past experience, promotional opportunities you are aware of at this time, and so on. Let your voice be heard! Mama needs a new set of wheels, and she wants to buy them in the UK.

Shop makeover Wednesday

My new ribbon shop, Ribbonzella, had only three sales and halted. I have great expectations from this shop, so it was obvious something is wrong with its setup (advertising and promotion will be held after shop makeover is done).

I did some research and asked people for advice, and finally came up a plan which includes:

1. Adding a second item image, showing the actual spool (people commented the primary images are brilliant, but don't show the details of the ribbon).
2. According to the advice given on Danielle's latest "Etsy success" email, I did the math to realize what minimum price I need in order to return my investment (it's easy with this shop, cause have all the ribbon is already at hand).
3. Changing the price for the majority of the items, mainly increasing the amount of ribbon from 3 to 5 meters.
4. Changing the banner to match my shop styling (will be done soon). Pitty, cause I like the current banner which my friend made for me..
   
5. Find more unique ribbon to add to the shop.
6. Notify my potential customers of these changes.

I thought I would take advantage of this, to show you guys how to improve your item iimages. I am a very poor graphic artist, so if I can do it withouht even using Photoshop, so can you!

I took photos of my ribbon spools, in natural daylight (on the roof, as usual) on white background. I got horrid images, since I had to use low exposure, or else the picture would turn out "burnt" from all the white.


I edit it in MS Photodraw, but you can use other tools, such as the wonderful free online editing tool Picnik). First, I turn the image into a square, since Etsy shops a square thumbnail, and I want it to show the entire spool. I crop it, to remove as much as possible of the dark background.

I place the item in the middle of the square, and fix the tinting, to make sure the color pallet is correct. I want the white to be as white as possible.

Now, I start fixing the brightness and contrast. My goal is to eliminate the dark background, and make the spool "pop out" of the screen. I increase contrast and carefully play with the brightness till I reach the point where further brightening will hide the details and change the actual color of my ribbon.

Now I use a faded erase tool, to get rid of the left over dark spots. The fading edges will eliminate deleting parts of the actual spool, and will leave a nice shade which helps to highlight the very bright item.

And here it is - a nice crisp item image. Who would have ever believed it used to look so bad to begin with?

Pink organza ribbon with red hearts available at 3.60$ for 5 meters (5.46 yards)

My main problem remains that shipping price makes the ribbons less attractive to the buyer, while I cannot reduce them without hurting myself. Any ideas to go around that will be most welcome.

Shop improvements and a big sale

This week I attended an online tagging workshop as well as a shop critique session on the Etsy virtual labs, hosted by the lovely and bubbly HeyMichelle (who is, without a doubt, my favorite Etsy admin). There were some great tagging tips - the main one, I think, was to use your tags as an upsell opportunity by suggesting additional uses for your item.

Michelle also critiqued some shops and items, during which she commented on one of my items and several items on other shops which gave me an excellent insight on how I should be shooting my items. Mainly - shoot the item on a contrasting colorful background, so it pops out of the screen.

So I took the weekend, full of remnant coughing and headaches, and the wonderful much anticipated summer day time (there is still enough light to shoot outside at 19:00!) to take some new pictures of items that should have been sold long ago. I think these two before and after shots will help make the point clear.

In the first example, Apple Flutterbutt was shot in front of a pale gray background, which made her look blend as well. I shot her on a new background, this time more colorful and with colors that compliment her pale color scheme, to make her pop out.

The second is a little different method of creating the same effect. My Blushing Flutterbride was shot on a rose pattern paper I had, which I thought matches her character and scenery. I didn't notice, though, how she gets lost in that background. Today I took new pictures of her, this time against the pale wall of our roof garden, with the first of the new spring roses (still so weak and small and pale, on the dry thorny branches). I used a low exposure, to make the image dark and edited the image to give a little extra contrast to the rose, which made her white wedding dress and vail pop out. It even managed to keep the original romantic vibe I wanted to convey in the original picture.

Now, for some shop news - I am having a huge weekend sale on my main shop, since sales have been low thanks to the "terrific" state of global economy. Some of the items are down by almost 50% and the sale lasts till Sunday the 29th. It includes some wonderful magnets, mobiles, paper goods, home decor, and jewelry. If you wanted to buy from my shops, but wanted to save money, then this is a great opportunity. Especially since I am emptying my shop for a fair next weekend, and what you want may be gone after that.

All prices on my sale section have already been revised. You can see the original price and new one on the item descriptions. Barack and Michelle O'Flutterbutt, for example, cost 50$ instead of 62$ is that a deal or what?

March of the goals

Or is it goals for March? I keep confusing the two..

The 1st of March is here, and as my previous months on Etsy prove, it is important to set business goals, so I can check myself as the month progresses and see how I can work better towards reaching and exceeding my goals. Last month, for example, I set no goals and just "went with the flow" only there was no flow. February sucks big time, sales wise. So..

For my puppets & crafts shop, by the end of March..

• I want to earn at least 240$ .

For my new ribbon shop, by the end of March..

• I want to reach at least 15 sales.
• I want to recieve at least 100 hearts.

For the Etsy Israel team, by the end of March..

• I want to arrange a home sale for Passover.
  This includes arranging at least 6 vendors, setting a date and place, advertising and promotion, and whatever else needed.

The new Etsy Israel Team banner, designed by members of the team

What are your goals for March?

Etsy Superstitions

When going on a dolphin survey, there is a well known rule which says "nobody takes their camera out before we see the first dolphin". Everybody at IMMRAC know that when a newbie gets their camera out too soon, we will be getting back ashore 5 hours later with zero dolphin observations.

Much like this, I have developed my own superstitions when it comes to my Etsy shop. The most obvious two are the following.

There will be no new sales till all old ones are shipped
Every now and again I get a back load of custom orders, or a couple of days with many sales. Until I go to the post office and am then able to check all of my "shipped" boxes, there will be no incoming sales.

No items are ever sold while on sale
From time to time I get discouraged of selling something and opt to have a sale. No matter if it is a buy one get one 50% sale, free shipping (never ever offer free shipping, that is the worst decision an online seller can make) , discount, whatever - no one never buys anything on sale. I even had a few incidents when people bought an item that was on sale the day after the sale ended.

My recent large custom order. Nothing sold since I had them made.
Thank God I finally shipped them the other day, hopefully I will get some sales now.

Do you have any Etsy superstitions? Please share them here if you do.

First we'll take the post office then the world - Global shipping 101

If you want to increase your market, you have to offer international shipping to your online customers. That is a must in cases such as mine, shipping from the middle east, but also for US residents. After all, what is the use of an online market if it is not made global?

I see many sellers are asking about international shipping, trying to gather as much information as possible while they consider adding this service to their online shops. I hope my experience can help not only Israeli sellers, but sellers worldwide.

So, this is what I've learned about international shipping:

1. Use bundles
   Ship as much as you can in bundles (using padded envelopes in different sizes) as opposed to boxes. Boxes cost more to ship.
   
2. Be responsible
   Use registered mail to provide excellent customer service. Save the receipts (bearing the tracking numbers) in an orderly fashion and make notes of expected delivery dates. This will enable you to rescue "lost" packages, and be proactive with your customers.
3. Canada??
   The most expensive country to ship to is Canada. I have no idea why that is.
   
4. Peace dude!
   Make sure you are not trying to ship to an enemy country (happened to me only once, with Malaysia of all places..).
5. Express shipping prices
   Express shipping (EMS) to the UK costs 1/3 more than express shipping the US and rest of Europe. That is not the case for regular registered air mail. Again - I have no idea why that is.
6. Offering express shipping on Etsy
   You are not allowed to sell an express shipping item. Instead, you are requested to advise your customers you offer this service on your Shop Policy Shipping section and instruct customers to convo you for details and pricing. Then you should either edit your item price before they purchase, or send them a money request via PayPal (or whatever service you use).

I think that's it! If you have something to add, please comment.

Pinky shops both online and offline.