Round 4: Newbies Ask Their Questions

Round four! Maybe this week will be better than the last. There weren't too many participants last week. I was a little disappointed but hopefully this week we can redeem ourselves.

For those of you who are new to "Newbies Ask Their Questions" ... Every week I pick four new Etsy shops (shops opened after October 2007 and with ten or less sales) and have the shop owners ask their Etsy-related or business-related questions. It is up to everybody else to answer them.

PLEASE POST ANSWERS TO THE NEWBIES' QUESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS.

If you are a new seller or buyer to Etsy and have a question, don't hesitate to post it in the comments. This is meant to be an interactive post.


Here are this week's sellers and their questions...


Linda's Things
Joined: February 2008
"Express your individuality and style while protecting your cell phone at the same time!"

Question:
1. How do you properly tag your items so they show up under the appropriate colors in the color section?














The View Up Here
Joined: April 2008
"I primarily do low altitude aerial photography using a camera suspended from a kite, and large format ground photography using a 4x5 camera."

Questions:
1. When offering photo prints (what I do) what formats are people mostly interested in? The one face-to-face I had with a buyer, they wanted very large prints. But these tend to be expensive, and tough to ship. Am I out-pricing my buyers this way?

2. I'm on the shy side of things. Provided I get business cards printed with my Etsy URL on them... er... how do you strike up a conversation and hand someone a card? (I hope that didn't sound too desperate. I really am shy.)

3. How far is too far? At what point does networking and marketing cross the line? (This ties back to #2... right now I feel like anything I do is crossing the line.)

4. How much do you mix online marketing with face-to-face marketing?















jaC Jewelry, Arts and Crafts
Joined: March 2008
"Your source for personalized handmade jewelry, arts and crafts!"

Questions:
1. I've heard that listing and relisting frequently is key to be seen UNLESS you make jewelry (and that's what I happen to make.). Other than blogs, flickr and myspace and handing out business cards, what method of standing out have you found effective?

2. For those who have been on Etsy for a while and have developed niche customers, do you find that most of your customers are repeated, new ones, or a mix?












Sudio's Studio
Joined: February 2008
"I've always had a fondness for mixed media collage and assemblage, and the great Dada artists from the early decades of the 20th century, who paved the way for us to use anything and everything to make art. I work intuitively to build my collages using found objects and images that I have collected, saved, or specifically searched for to apply to the work."

Question:
1. I try to take pics that show accurate color of the work, and on my monitor they look fine. But on others, WAY too bright. Is there any way to compensate or get a true reading, or suggest the art is viewed with certain monitor settings?















Please post your answers in the comments. Also, join us next week for
Round 5 of "Newbies Ask Their Questions."



Thanks,
Nature Manipulated
www.naturemanipulated.com
naturemanipulated.etsy.com