New Places to Submit your Item Photos

Flickr has become the standard place to upload your photos and share them with your friends, family and fellow crafters, but there are a few other places where your items photos can reach a larger and more targeted population (targeted if you remember that handmade artists are also buyers of handmade). Also, the terms and agreements of Flickr does not allow you to post a link to your item. Below I will introduce you to three websites where you can submit your item photos with a link to the item in your shop. Please note, the sites are listed in order of difficulty for your item to be accepted and posted (easiest to hardest).

Yaami Handmade
Yaami Handmade is a new community of buyers and sellers of handmade creations. Yaami provides ways to help sellers promote their shops as well as tools to help in the running of their shop.

To add your shop to the directory and to plug your item, click on Promote your Shop in the right hand side bar and then click on the corresponding sub-navigation.

While you are at Yaami, don't forget to check out the forums, tutorials and the Etsy and Artfire tools that are being added as the site grows.


IndieSpotting
IndieSpotting is a gallery showcasing fantastic photos of indie and handmade goods available for sale online. It's a place to be inspired and "window shop" for unique, one-of-a-kind and cool products. IndieSpotting is a section of My Shopping Connection, a resource for people who love shopping for interesting, unusual or one-of-a-kind items from reputable online and local sources.

To submit a photo of one of your items, click on Submit Find and enter the requested information about your item. Keep in mind, your photos must be 200x200 pixels so crop your photo ahead of time. Also, Indiespotting asks that you wait one week between submitting items.


craftgawker
craftgawker is a gallery where anyone can showcase their art, crafting and photography skills. It's a place for you to discover new artists and handmade goods to inspire your own creations.

To submit a photo, click on Submit and enter the requested information. For craftgawker, your photos must be 250x250 pixels. At this time, craftgawker is only accepting one submission at a time to allow items to remain on the front page for longer. Once your submission has been reviewed and either accepted or rejected, you may submit a new item. As craftgawker is a juried site, do not get discouraged if one of your submissions if not accepted. Try to improve your photos and try again.

To check on the status of your submission, log in to craftgawker and click on "My Submissions" on the top right hand corner of the page. You can also set up your account to send you an email when the status has been updated.


If you know of any other sites where you can submit your item photos for free, please share them with us.

Happy Submitting!

New Year Updates for Etsy and Artfire

Let's welcome in the New Year with some updates and/or works in progress to Artfire and Etsy. Many of you may have already heard about these but I thought it would be nice for those who haven't to summarize the events in one place.

Artfire

Shopping Cart Updates
The checkout process should be smoother now for buyers. Artfire has made some upgrades to their shopping cart, including making it easier to contact the seller, return to their shop, and remove items from carts and add them to your hotlist instead. Customers will also have added opportunities to include a shipping note.

New MyArtFire
Artfire has begun redesigning the MyArtFire control panel. The team is working on building a more elegant graphic interface with more consistent navigation and room for the expansion of new features in 2010.

Unlimited Listings For All Members
There is no longer a limit on the number of items sellers Basic members can list on ArtFire.


Etsy

New CEO
Rob Kalin, a.k.a. Rokali, returns as Etsy's CEO, replacing Maria Thomas. It seems like there will be a bunch of changes and improvements coming along with this. We already see more transparency and the community's questions being addressed. Some of the improvements we can expect to see are: a new tagline, new category structures, more exposure to supplies and vintage categories, no more gift guides, no more Weekend Deals, a new About page with more detail as to who is responsible for what, less admin-curated areas (including the front page) and a bunch of new seller tools which are being disclosed and refunded fees for returned items. Increased buyer privacy will also be visited, as well as ways to crack down on resellers.

This is exciting! Hopefully we will see some of these changes soon. I'm particulary interested in the new tools and hoping they include tools for discounts, coupon codes and gift certificates.

If you have any questions you'd like to see answered, Rob will be following this thread - http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6384197. You can also ask your questions on Twitter - include @rokali in your post and/or the #etsyq hashtag.

To follow Rob's responses, visit the Announcements section of the forums and look for his "Answering your Questions" series.

Voter
This feature is not new but I just learned about it so I figured there may still be a lot of people who haven't heard about. The Etsy Voter was launched around the summer of 2009. It is an interactive tool that allows people to vote on their favorite Etsy items. At the end of the voting period, you can see which items come out on top. Etsy is using the Voter to conduct mini polls and featuring some of the winners in the Storque. The Etsy Voter can be found here.


If you know of any other advances and/or changes, please share them with us.

Newbies Ask Their Questions Round 8

Okay, I have no excuse this week for Newbies Ask Their Questions being late again other than I was too tired to post yesterday. Think I might make this post a Saturday thing. Much easier to get done than relying on myself to have enough energy Friday after work.

I think this week we do have some Artfire participation. Great! Please, if you have any selling handmade questions, please post them. You don't have to be on Etsy or Artfire. How you find this week's questions and answers helpful!

Question

"I am stumped with the best way to fairly charge for postage -not understanding the second purchase bit. Does this mean if someone buys more then one item from me they would only pay $1.00 each for them? Or would it be $5.00 if the first quote is $4.00 and the second $1.00? How do I charge properly without paying for it myself?"

- smallwonders4u (Artfire)

Answers

"If a customer purchases two or more items from your shop, they will be charged the full/higher amount for the first item and the 'if shipped with something else' amount for each additional item. So let's say you have items marked as $4 shipping, $2 if shipped with another item, your customer will be charged $6 for two items or $8 for three items.

A good way of figuring out what you should charge is bring your items to the post office and figure out what it would cost to send one item on its own and then the additional cost of adding an item. If your items all weigh around the same, this will be easy. If they are different weights, you may want to go by the heaviest item(s). If you have different types of items in your shop, you can set shipping costs accordingly to sending those items.

- Nature Manipulated (Artfire & Etsy)

---

Question

"When I read posts in the forums I often see people posting the work 'Marking'. What does that do? Is there a place in etsy that you can go to and look at all the posts that you marked?"

- SharpMtnCreations (Etsy)

Answers

"Marking is making a short post on a thread so when you come back to the forums, you find the topics you posted in in the right hand top corner."

- VeronicaRStudio (Etsy)

"Go to Forums and in the upper right hand side you should see a link called "Topics I've Posted In". If you click on that all the threads you've posted in will come up.

"On Artfire, go to your 'My Artfire' page; your latest posts are listed on the left hand side of the page."

- Nature Manipulated (Etsy & Artfire)

---

For those of you who are new to "Newbies Ask Their Questions" ... Every week I run a thread on Artfire and Etsy looking for new sellers and buyers to post their questions regarding the sites or general handmade marketing questions. From the threads I gather several questions to post in this weekly interactive series and encourage readers to provide answers and share their tips and advice.

PLEASE POST ANSWERS TO THE NEWBIES' QUESTIONS OR YOUR OWN QUESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST

Ongoing Artfire and Etsy Newbies Ask Their Questions forum threads can be found at:
Artfire Chatterbox
Etsy Forums

Newbies Ask Their Questions - Round 7

Round 7 of Newbies Ask Their Questions is a day late. I apologize! It was my birthday yesterday and on top of that, I haven't been feeling well the last few days.

The response to Round 6 wasn't too bad but we still have a ways to go to pick Newbies Ask Their Questions back up. On the Etsy thread, newbies and old timers were pretty positive and I have a bunch new questions for the upcoming weeks. The Artfire crowd, I'm working on them. I know they have questions. Luckily, some of this week's questions, can apply to both selling venues.

Question

"I attended a virtual classroom & they said to set up a blog, twitter, etc. I set up a blog, but still don't understand its usefulness. I'm not sure anyone is reading it. I have one follower. Am I missing something?"

- LiseWinne (Etsy)

Answers

"I have a blog which I started because I thought it would help me with sales. I was apprehensive, however, it has been so much fun! I have met the best people! To gain followers: comment on other blogs (more than one word, usually), follow other blogs, post your blog in the forums, join the etsy bloggers' team, participate in meme's such as Today's Flowers and SkyWatch Friday (every Friday)."

- SplendidLittleStars (Etsy)

"I haven't twittered, Flickred, facebooked or [social] networked but still I get sales. I think newbies panic at first and think they have to get into all these things when really they have enough on their plate just learning the in's and out's of Etsy. So, my advice to newbies is...relax and have fun; meet people on the forums; keep listing new items or renewing occasionally; and the sales will come."

- pincushioncrazy346 (Etsy)

---

Question

"I open shop tomorrow and trying to get my International shipping costs set up on PayPal. I've looked at the forums and have seen that many Etsians ship first class international because it is the least expensive way to ship unless the customer requests otherwise. My predicament is that I don't see first class international listed on PayPal's drop down menu. Is it called by another name on PayPal (such as International Economy or Standard Economy)?"

- LydiasTreasures4u (Etsy)

Answers

"As for my question on PayPal, I found out from another Etsian that PayPal does not offer this type of shipment. In fact, it is better not to fill out any kind of shipmemt on PayPal to avoid double shipping costs (Paypal and Etsy).

"I also had questions as to how I would give customers an invoice with shipping costs on it if PayPal didn't offer the kind of shipment I was looking for. I was advised from very helpful, fellow Etsians to 1) make sure shipping costs are input in your Etsy profile so shipping costs would be printed out on your invoices 2) there is a program called USPS Shipping Assistant available for download to help print shipping labels, etc. 3) check the United States Postal Service website for shipping prices."

- LydiasTreasures4u (Etsy)

The same thing goes with Artfire. To avoid double shipping costs, set your shipping costs on Artfire and leave your PayPal shipping profiles blank or deactivate them.

- naturemanipulated (Artfire and Etsy)

---

For those of you who are new to "Newbies Ask Their Questions" ... Every week I run a thread on Artfire and Etsy looking for new sellers and buyers to post their questions regarding the sites or general handmade marketing questions. From the threads I gather several questions every Friday to post in this interactive series and encourage readers to provide answers and share their tips and advice.

If you are a new seller or buyer to Artfire or Etsy and have a question, don't hesitate to post it in the comments. Also, if you have questions regarding other handmade online marketplaces such as Dwanda or 1000 Markets, post your questions here too. I'm sure some of NM's readers may be able to help you out. Please, post as often as you'd like. This is meant to be an interactive post.

PLEASE POST ANSWERS TO THE NEWBIES' QUESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST

Ongoing Artfire and Etsy Newbies Ask Their Questions forum threads can be found at:
Artfire Chatterbox
Etsy Forums

Newbies Ask Their Questions Returns - Round 6

It's been awhile since I've posted the weekly Newbies Ask Their Questions. When I first started the weekly interactive post, participants were excited and the posts were well received, but after Round 4 the comments began to twindle and I stopped after Round 5. Well, now it's been over a year and my number of blog followers has grown substantially. Also, since then, Artfire has emerged and Etsy has revisited its Dos and Donts. I'm thinking this may be a good time to start Newbies Ask Their Questions back up. So ... here we go.

Question
"How do I get my artfire shop seen? My family and friends don't support me. How can I get people who dont know me to be interested in my products and what I have to sell?"

- - Pink N Lime (Artfire)


Answers
"It might help to have the text in your banner be something like 'PinknLime Graphic Designs' or 'PinknLime Banners and Avatars' just so it's clear what your product is. Also, the title of the product you have listed is 'Porch Flowers'. Because Artfire is very Google-search focused, buyers will be less likely to find you on Google if they type in 'banners and avatars' or similar search terms. The second picture you have uploaded is really a great demonstration of what you do so maybe it should be the first picture."

- - Coolstraps (Artfire)


"The more your name is out on the Web the more likely people are to find you in a search; go twitter, blog, chat in forums, put pics on flicker and promote, promote, promote."

- - CrochetAddict (Artfire)


Question
"I just don`t seem to learn how to take good pictures. They always turn out dark and don`t show the beauty of my crafts. My pictures make my jewelry look much worse! That`s how bad it is. Any advice?"

- - Unique Edition (Artfire)


Answers
"For my small items, if it is a good sunny day or grey overcast, I will take white printer paper, go outside and use the setting macro (flower icon) ... and take pictures. Natural light works the best for me. When I do this I turn the flash off though."

- - Liberty Doll (Artfire)


"I posted in my ArtFire Blog, DIY Light Box & Photo Tips"

- - Capricious Adornments (Artfire)


"I live in a tiny apartment and do not have enough light for photos (going outside is not really an option as I live in a major city). I use the EZ cube - it's pretty inexpensive, easy to store and works real well.

"Also, photo editing programs are critical. You can get away with using Microsoft Picture Manager if you don't have another one. Play around with midtone, brightness and contract, then crop to position your item nicely.

There are also some posts on my blog about photographing:

Lighting, Clarity and Composition - Photographing for Success

Boost Your Sales, Get Publicity and Maybe an Etsy Front Page Treasury (useful links in this post)"

-- Nature Manipulated (Artfire and Etsy)


For those of you who are new to "Newbies Ask Their Questions" ... Every week I run a thread on Artfire and/or Etsy looking for new sellers and buyers to post their questions regarding the sites or general handmade marketing questions. From the threads I gather several questions every Friday to post in this interactive series and encourage readers to provide answers and share their tips and advice.

If you are a new seller or buyer to Artfire or Etsy and have a question, don't hesitate to post it in the comments. Also, if you have questions regarding other handmade online marketplaces such as Dwanda or 1000 Markets, post your questions here too. I'm sure some of NM's readers may be able to help you out. Please, post as often as you'd like. This is meant to be an interactive post.

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

Ongoing Artfire and Etsy Newbies Ask Their Questions forum threads can be found at:
Artfire Chatterbox
Etsy Forums

Making the Most Out of the Holiday Shopping Season

Since my last post (approximately two weeks ago) on search engine optimization (SEO), I stumbled upon some additional resources for optimizing your listings, bringing outside visitors to you shop and increasing holiday sales. The coming months are the biggest shopping months of the year, and putting some of these tools to use will be important for having a successful holiday season. Although it is still September, it is NOT too early to start preparing for the winter holidays.

During the summer months there is generally a lull of sales activity, both online and in retail stores, but things start to pick up (especially online) in October. Shortly after, things get crazy and everything is sold out. That doesn't just happen at Toys R Us or the Apple store. It happens on Etsy and I'm sure it will on Artfire and other handmade venues. Things will pick up and for some, things will get crazy.

A lot of you may be thinking, "Holiday sales were slow last year", "I didn't do as well as I expected to", "It was probably the recession" ... Part of it may have been tough financial times but sales did NOT stop. Part of it may have been you were not as prepared as you may have thought. Having items to sell is only one step towards success. Having customers find your shop and products is another.

Here are a few things you can begin working on now to prepare for the holiday shopping season:

1. Update your listings and tags - I briefly discussed this topic in my last post on SEO and have a few more important items to add. Make sure your items are tagged for the holidays. That means, if an item is appropriate for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, etc., note it. Add the holiday(s) to your tags, titles and description. Let customers know why it is a great gift choice and who it would be appropriate for. Not everyone knows what to get as gifts. Online holiday shoppers often search for gift ideas and enter questions or phrases such "gift idea for middle-aged animal lover"... The more detailed your description is, the more keywords you use and the more appropriate tags you have, the more likely you will turn up in relevant searches (or at least not as the 342,984 result).

A useful tool for researching commonly searched terms is Google Adwords' Keyword Tool. The keyword tool allows you to find out how many times a month a particular word, phrase, question, etc. was searched. This lets you know how competitive a phrase it and may give you ideas for similar and alternative search terms. Find out more about the Google Adwords keyword tool - you can also read more about it on Artfire.

2. Create items with holiday themes and put them in a seperate holiday shop category so they can be easily located.

3. Chat in the handmade forums - The forums, especially Etsy's can sometimes get overwhelming but pick an ongoing thread or two to participate in everyday. Get to know the regulars. Remember, handmade sellers also shop handmade! If you are on Artfire,stop by the Item of the Day and Card of the Day threads in the Group Worktable section of the Chatterbox!

4. If you blog, post more often; add Handmade Holiday badges to your site (Artfire has a bunch); start a gift guide

5. Hand out business cards as much as possible - Place them in local shops, restaurants, participate in business card exchanges, ...

6. Advertise - Many blogs and Web sites offer different advertising opportunities. If you are new to advertising and want to try out a few different sites, Project Wonderful (PW) is a great place to start. You can search by target sites, site ad prices and more; monitor how many hits your ad gets; terminate an ad whenever you want. Many handmade blogs have PW ad space available - check the side bars!

For more helpful tips, read Artfire's new Holiday SEO guide.

If you have any additional tips and advice, please share them in the comments section.

Register on ArtFire.com

Search Engine Optimization, Increasing Traffic to your Handmade Shop

If you use Google Analytics to monitor traffic to your handmade shop, you may realize that the Google is the least common source of traffic. I'm sure you have all searched Google at some point and your search returned 20,000+ results. You probably looked through the first few pages, maybe skipped to the 16th page out a curiosity and then closed out of the window if you didn't find what you were looking for. Search "handcrafted jewelry" on Google. 687,000 results are returned and there are no Artfire or Etsy shops on the first few pages. Not surprising! There are TONS of handmade artists out there and many, if not almost all, use the World Wide Web to sell their work and promote their goods.

So what can you do to boost your Google page rank and increase traffic to your site? There are a bunch of things! ...

Optimize your Shop and Item Titles
The first thing that Google spiders look at when picking up your shop is the shop title and item titles. This is the title that appears at the top of the browser Window and turns up in Google search results. On Etsy, you can set the title for your shop home page under the Appearance tab in Your Etsy. Make sure your shop and item titles include key and descriptive words.

Tags
Tags used to be an important part of search engine optimization (SEO), especially metatags which are used to influence the description of your page in search engine crawlers. With so much pay-for and bidding on ranking these days, tags are less important for increasing your Google rank. Don't get me wrong though, tags are still important, in particular for internal searches such as on Artfire or Etsy.

Don't be scared to be creative with your tags. If you just tag your items "handmade", "jewelry", "paper goods" and so on, your items will probably get buried with items containing the same tags. In addition to these standard tags, use ones that describe who the item is for, for what occasion, shapes, colors, materials, inspiration, ... Use phrases and include your shop name and groups you may belong to. Including both singular and plural versions of a word is not necessary, and when Google does pay attention to tags, it is frowned upon. Use the singular for most tags unless the word is usually spoken in the plural. Think about how you would search for a item containing that tag! On Etsy, you are limited to fourteen tags but on Artfire, I think the limit is 10,000 words. Use as many as possible!

Item Descriptions
In addition to shop and item titles, and less so tags, Google also picks up on the first few words or paragraph in your item descriptions. Make sure your first paragraph contains as many keywords as possible. If you are listing a handmade carnelian necklace, you may want to start your description off with something like, "Handmade carnelian gemstone necklace with a brilliant orange color and intricate floral beads." If the necklace is one of a kind, add that into the sentence too! The first sentence of the example description is full of keywords such as: handmade, carnelian, gemstone, necklace, orange, intricate, floral, beads.

Submit your Shop and Listings to Online Directories
The more links there are to your shop or items, the better your Google ranking. This means you want to submit your shop and listings to online directories, and participate in link exchanges. There are a number of free online directories, some of them specifically for handmade. You can start by submitting your shop to the following directories:

- Handmade Directory

- Handmade Feed (Thanks to Timothy Adam, you can add your URLs to your Artfire, Etsy, 1000Markets and Dwanda shops, as well as add your blog, twitter, Facebook and Myspace URLs.

- Find it Handmade

- DMOZ Open Directory Project

- Search-O-Rama

Promote your Shop
Lastly (although there is probably a lot more), make sure to promote your shop. That means, do not limit yourself to the Etsy and Artfire forums. If you have time, start a blog, use twitter, build a facebook fan page, promote on myspace, add photos to flickr and participate on byhand.me.

Additional Resources
- "SEO" Tips for Facebook

- SEO 101: An Introductory Guide to Understanding Search Engine Optimization by Vanessa Ford

- A Beginner's Guide To SEO by Darlene Norris

Although Artfire's SEO is pretty good, and Etsy is supposedly working on theirs, it is not enough to depend on their SEO alone. Use all the tools available online to increase your traffic and boost your Google page rank.

Good luck optimizing your shop and listings. Hope this post makes it easier.

If you are not on Artfire and would like to register for a studio, click here.

Back to Artfire... Digging the New Features

Shortly after joining Artfire, I took a little hiatus from the site. It was hard to handle two shops at once and I wasn't sure if the monthly Artfire fee was worth it for my shop. Over the last few months, I have watched Artfire grow and the updates to the marketplace have been incredible. After reading about their latest updates, I couldn't resist upgrading my account to Verified. Below I outline some of these features and how to access them.

But first, to celebrate Nature Manipulated's return to Artfire, please take advantage of NM's BACK TO ARTFIRE SALE. 15% off all orders of $10 or more through September 2, 2009. Use coupon code BACKTOARTFIRE and the discount will be applied to your total. No more refunds through PayPal! Also, receive a free gift with every order. Happy Back to Artfire!

SAVE 15.00 % On Order Total (orders above $10.00)

Use Coupon Code:

BACKTOARTFIRE

during checkout.

Expires September 2, 2009
Okay, well the most recent updates to Artfire include the Facebook Kiosk, Coupon Codes and Gift Certificates, not to mention all of the updates to the site's userface and look and feel. These new additions are a gem for handmade sellers and if you haven't checked them out yet, you definitely should!

Artfire Facebook Kiosk

The Artfire Facebook Kiosk allows Verified Members to add their Artfire Fusion Shop to the tabs on their Facebook personal and business pages. Just like "Wall" and "Info" are tabs at the top of your page, now "Artfire Kiosk" can be too! Buyers can purchase items directly from your Facebook page without having to sign up for an Artfire account. You can also set the Kiosk as your landing page. This means when people click on your page, the first thing they will see is your Artfire Kiosk.

According to Artfire's Community Newsletter, "in the First week of rolling out the new Facebook Kiosk there have been over 3,000 Kiosks put up and reports of member sales increasing!"

To add the Artfie Kiosk to your Facebook Personal page:
1) Authorize the application
2) Allow access to the application
3) Enter your Artfire username and answer the security question
4) Go to your profile page and click the "+" button. Artfire Kiosk should appear in the drop-down menu. If not, begin typing in the available tabs search box.

To add the Artfire Kiosk to your Facebook Fan page:
1) Follow steps 1-3 above
2) Go to the ArtFire Facebook Kiosk profile page
3) Click the "Add to my page" button on the left hand sidebar
4) Go to your Facebook fan page and follow step 4 above

To set your the Artfire Kiosk as your landing page:
1) Click on "Edit Profile" from your fan page
2) Click the pencil next to "Wall"
3) Select "Artfire Kiosk" as the landing page from the drop-down menu

If you have any trouble installing the Artfire Kiosk, please visit Artfire's Kiosk Guide.


Coupon Codes

Artfire's new coupon system allows Verified Members to create customized coupon codes. Sellers can now offer discounts and free gifts without having to send revised invoices or send refunds through PayPal. Discounts are automatically applied when a registered coupon code is entered upon checkout. Members can offer discounts based on order totals, individual items, shop sections and more. Widgets can be created directly from the "Manage My Coupons" page and added to your shop and twitter feed, or sent to friends, family and customers via email.

According to a recent blog post by Timothy Adam, Artfire is the first handmade venue to offer coupon codes.

To learn more about creating coupons and managing your coupons, please visit Artfire's Help Guide and Reference Guide.


Gift Certificates

Last but not least, Artfire now allows Verified Members to create gift certificates and email them directly from your Artfire. Members can now list Gift Certificates in their shop and when one sells, members fill out the Gift Certificate form and send to the recipient. Artfire will keep track of the certificate's balance. This feature is convenient and GREAT for the upcoming holiday season! More information is available in the Coupon Reference Guide.

Hopefully, you find these features as exciting as I do. If you are not a part of the Artfire Community, be sure to sign up now. This site is headed in the right direction! And the staff are friendly and helpful too!

Working your Way into the Blogosphere

Everyone gets excited when their work is featured on a blog but how do you get someone to write about you? Although bloggers will sometimes contact the artist/designer they would like to feature, it is also very common for bloggers to be approached by artists. If you have a product(s) you think should be highlighted, make the first move and sell it. If you don't, the probability of it being featured is slim.



Before soliciting a blogger, there are a few things you should keep in mind when developing your email/letter.

1. Know your target blogs. Do not solicit a blog that does not cover your type of work.

2. Address the editor personally and casually yet in a professional manner. First names are almost always preferred.

3. Keep your correspondence brief but make sure to answer who, what, where and why.

- Who you are
- What you make
- Where your work can be found (provide links)
- Why should they be interested in your work

4. Make sure your shop is full and your photographs look professional. Make note of the type of photographs the blog exhibits. Determine if yours are of similar quality.

5. Write each blogger individually. Do not Cc or Bcc.

Some things you should avoid doing:

1. Over promote yourself

2. Submit the same item twice

3. Attaching large files to your email



There are tons of blogs online dedicated to handmade, fashion, design, DIY and the like. Modish provides a great list of blogs to start off with.

If you are a blogger who accepts suggestions, please tell us what you look for and the best way for artists/designers to approach you.

If you are an artist/designer, please let us now what has worked for you or post your questions.

Creating a Facebook Fan Page for Your Shop

I've been on Facebook (FB) for a while and have seen many people have pages for their businesses, also called "fan pages". It was not until yesterday that I found out how to create one. I've had a MySpace business page for years and have stopped keeping up with it because MySpace became too overwhelming and full of viruses. I'm in tune with Twitter and a bunch of other social networking sites. Now, Nature Manipulated is in tune with Facebook too and I am hoping it doesn't turn into another MySpace.

After creating my fan page, I did a lot of searches to find out what I can and cannot do with the page. Some of the features seem confusing as the page is linked to your personal page. By this post, I am hoping to clarify some of the confusion other people may be experiencing and hopefully find out about new features myself.

After looking through the Etsy forums, there were two common questions I came accross:
1. How do I find my page?
2. How do I put my Etsy mini on my fan page?

Hopefully the answers provided will help you out.

1. How do I find my page?

Unfortunately, Facebook does not provide an easy way for you to access your fan page from your FB home page. There are three ways of accessing it without driving yourself crazy. The most important thing is that you must remember what you named the page. Otherwise if you haven't posted anything to it, you will not find it. The easiest way is probably doing a FB search for the page name. If a lot of results show up, click on the Pages tab and look for it there. If you have already posted to your fan page, you can click on the Pages link (left hand sidebar or tab) from your personal page and it should show you the posts from your page. Click on the page name or the profile picture you selected for your page. Lastly, become a fan of your fan page and follow it in your updates. Click on the picture profile or name from the updates page.

2. How do I put my Etsy mini on my fan page?

The Etsy Shop application does not work on fan pages! If you download the application and set it up to appear on your wall, it will show up on your personal page wall. Not a bad thing but you cannot use it on your fan page so don't keep trying like I did. I wasted a lot of time before Googling it.

To place your Etsy mini on your fan page:
- Click on "Edit Page" (under profile picture) from your fan page. This will bring you to a page with your settings, applications and more.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the pencil near "More Applications" and select "Browse Applications"
- Search for "My Stuff" by Gigya and add to your page (option on left hand sidebar).
- Go back to your fan page and "My Stuff" should be one of your tabs. If not, click the "+" button and type My Stuff. This will add the application to your tabs.
- Once the tab is available, click on "My Stuff" and then click on "Edit My Stuff". You will see an option to "Add Code".
- Click on "Add Code" and enter the Flash version code for your Etsy mini.
- Click "Add to Profile" under the code box and you are all set. If you click the "Add to Profile" at the top of the page it will add to your personal page.

Please note the code for Artfire minis is not accepted in this application.

The things you can do with your fan page are pretty limited as most of the applications are for personal pages and you don't necessarily know that until you download and don't see it on your fan page. If you are unsure what works and what doesn't, either try it or Google it.

One neat thing you can do if you have a blog is import your blog into your notes. This will automatically update your notes every time you publish a new blog post. How do you do this?

- Click on "Notes" This will bring you to the "Notes" page
-If you do not see the option to "Import from blog" on the right hand side, click on "Write New Note". This will bring you to a page with a text box. On the right hand side there should be the option to "Import from Blog". I had to try two times before seeing the import link.
-Once you find the import link, put in your blog URL and it will import your most recent posts
-Click "Publish" and you are done.

One last tip, when you fan and comment on other people's fan pages, please note your personal profile picture comes up, not your fan page picture. This means if you comment, make sure to put a link to your fan page and/or write in your fan page name so the page owner knows where to find your fan page.

Remember, once you hit 101 fans, you will have the option to pick and secure your fan page URL. If you are under 100 fans, you may have noticed your URL is long and has a bunch of numbers at the end. After 100 fans, that can change, and you can shorten it to http://www.facebook.com/fanpagename.

Lastly, and most importantly, if you do not have a fan page and have no idea how to create one, visit this Etsy forum post for a very detailed step-by-step guide. It has screen shots and all.

Hope everyone found this useful!

How Do You Manage Keeping Up Your Shop While Working Full Time?

I've had my Etsy shop now for several years and recently opened one on Artfire. I've also been maintaining this blog and investing more time in promoting all of my endevours. But when does it become too much? I have a full time job and generally don't come home till after 6pm. I try and go to the gym which pushes me back to about 8pm. Then I have to eat dinner, which if I'm cooking takes away another two hours. When the heck do I find time for my hobbies and crafts? Lately, I've been finding it harder to do. I find myself needing down time, time away from the computer and from doing much of anything. I consider making things relaxing but it ceases to be when I start thinking of how I have to photograph my items, add them to my shops and then promote them. Sometimes that process takes longer than the creating part itself, and it's definitely not as exciting!

So how do you balance everything? How do you manage to succeed at your craft and crafting business while keeping a full time job? How do you do this while leaving enough time for yourself? Please share your stories or offer your advice. I'm sure there's a lot of us out here going through the same thing.


Photo courtesy of Point of View Photographic Art

Is It Too Early to Open an Artfire Shop?

If you participate in the Etsy forums often, you may have noticed a lot of talk about Artfire. Artfire is a relatively new online marketplace for handmade products designed by artisans around the globe. Similar to Etsy, it is designed for artisans to buy and sell their works, while celebrating unique handmade items and designs.



I'm a fan of any site that promotes handmade but is it too early to spend $7.00/month for Artfire? After reading many of the posts about Artfire in the Etsy forums, a lot of Etsy members would say "yes!" Artfire is still in the primitive stages of development, both in look and feel, ease of use and most importantly (because we all want to sell our creations), in buyers. According to the reviews I read, Artfire's user base is still rather small and most of the users are sellers. Views can be very low and discouraging and many people have closed their shops.

There's got to be something good about it though. I started a thread in the Etsy forums asking for positive experiences with Artfire. The responses were a bit more encouraging. I would love to have learned more but the thread was closed by Etsy because it violated some posting rule. Oops! The number one positive feedback was about the customer service. Many of the people who posted in the thread felt that it was very easy to approach the Artfire team and work with them to implement changes and resolve problems. According to users, the support staff are very friendly, quick to respond and accommodating. Although some of the responders said they have closed their shop or are thinking about it, most of them said they were happy with the site and/or willing to give it a try for awhile as new features and improvements are constantly being added or made.
Some of the recent improvements include: Customers do not have to sign up to make purchases (a BIG plus) and the launch of Rapid Cart. Rapid Cart is a widget you can install on your blog or social networking site that shows your product. Buyer can purchase directly from the widget without having to register and without being redirected to your Artfire shop. That makes shopping a lot easier!

Another pro is that there are no listing fees, no renewal fees and no sales fees. It is currently $7.00/month flat fee to be a verified user. If you list or relist and/or sell a lot on Etsy, $7.00/month might be nothing to you. There is a Basic User option which costs absolutely nothing but the features are pretty limited and there are some restrictions. If you are interested in signing up, the $7.00/month fee is only available to the first 5,000 accounts. There are currently 1,467 accounts available at this price. The proposed fee after 5000 accounts are opened is $20.00/month. A little steep! To open an Artfire shop now, click here.

Obviously there ae pros and cons to the new site. That goes with every site, new or old. But time will tell. It will be interesting to see what happens with Artfire and whether it effects Etsy sales.

If you decide to become an Artfire user and need help setting up shop, visit Timothy Adam's new site, Handmadeology. On this site, Timothy shows you step by step how to make the most of your Artfire shop.

Well, after weighing some of the pros and cons in this post, I have decided to open an Artfire shop and live the evolution of a new artists' community. Pardon my shops appearance as I begin to put it together - naturemanipulated.artfire.com


If you use Artfire, please share your experiences with us.

One Shop or Two?

I've been wondering for awhile now if it's better to have one shop or two if you sell a variety of items. I've seen lots of people on Etsy with more than one shop and wonder if I should do the same. It seems as if it is double the work and double the expense if you advertise, make business cards and other promo items. On the other hand, I think it looks nicer when you go to someone's shop and the items are all somehow tied together.

A while back I decided to post a thread in the Etsy forums and get peoples opinions on this subject. Since then, I have also searched the forums for similar threads. These are some of the thoughts and pros and cons for having two shops that I pulled out.

Pros
1. Your shop is more cohesive and professional
2. Your shop, mission and message is more identifiable

Cons
1. It takes a lot of time to promote two shops
2. With two shops your customers do not get to see all of your items

Thoughts
1. If you have one shop with many items, be sure to use the "Sections" feature.
2. Keep in mind that Etsy does not have a feature that allows you to link shops or switch usernames without signing on and off. This can become annoying when switching back and forth between shops.
3. As long as the general look and feel of your shop works together, it is better to keep it all in one place. Find a look that doesn't make the shop look all over the place.
4. Different sections brings diverse customers to your shop.
5. Make sure the name of your shop can apply to all the items you sell.
5. COnsider what you want to be known for.

From everything I read in the forums, it doesn't seem like too many people are turned off by a variety of items in a shop as long as the sections are clearly marked. If you are thinking about opening a second shop, you may want to first try adding the items that would go in the second shop to your original shop and see how it goes. The variety might add a great touch.

As for my shop, I don't think I have enough time to run more than one although I am still considering it. In the meantime, please let us know your thoughts on this topic. Also, if you haven't already, please take a look at my shop and let me know if you think there is too much variety. Your opinion really matters to me.

Thanks!

Write a Clear and Concise Seller Profile that Sparks Interest

Believe it or not, many buyers DO read seller profiles.

Writing a clear and concise profile that tells a little bit about yourself and your shop is key to reaching out to customers and drawing them into your shop. Don't be scared to tell a little bit about yourself. Let your buyers know you are human, not just another online store.

When writing your shop profile, there are a number of things you should keep in mind to make it both friendly and professional. There are ways in which you can strive to write a great profile page and maximize your opportunity to sell, while also providing critical info.

The first paragraph
Some would say the first paragraph is key, and that is true. Although, I would argue the first and second sentence of the first paragraph is most important. You want to grab your potential customer immediately. Many people do not read past a few sentences, and of those few sentences, they only retain a few words. Make sure your key messages are embedded in the beginning and you give the reader a reason to keep on reading.

Clearly defined layout
Make the remaining portion of your profile easy to read. Break things up rather than having long sentences and paragraphs. Use titles, making it simple for your readers to find the information they need or want.

Clear and concise wording
As silly as it may sound, when writing to a broad audience, write at an eight grade level. Remember that not everyone reads at the same level, and not everyones first language in English.


What should you include in your profile?

Tell readers a little bit about yourself as an artist/crafter - your background, history, how you started your business, what inspires you ...

Tell readers about your business and products - What is it that you sell? What makes them unique or special? What are you setting out to achieve with your business?

Most of all, include a piece of yourself in your profile, as you do in your art/craft.


Hope you found this informative.

Art used in this post:
LadybugArtStudio

Pricing Your Work Appropriately - How Not To Undervalue Your Work

Have you ever searched Etsy and found similar items at totally opposite ends of the price spectrum? It happens a lot! There are lots of shops with great items and they are practically giving them away. Other shops have items priced so high that you wonder who is buying their goods.

Pricing your work can be a challenge. There's probably a part of you that wants to get paid a certain amount an hour on top of your costs. At the same time, there's a part of you that wants to get yourself out no matter what. All you want to do is sell. When you find yourself in this dilemma, what do you do?

Remember, the price you choose says something about what you make.

There are a number of things to keep in mind when pricing your work - the cost of your supplies, the time you spent creating your items, the time you spent listing your items and of course, your competition and more.

Consider your direct and indirect costs
Your direct costs include: materials, packaging and fees (Etsy, PayPal, ...)
Indirect costs may include: rented space, machinery, website hosting and advertising

Consider the time you spend creating your itemsThe time you spend creating your items includes: the times you spend designing it, physically making it, photographing it, listing it and packaging it.

Determine your wage
This is how much you need or want to get paid for your efforts, time and talent.
Many people use formulas to figure out their prices. Common formulas include: 2x(cost + labor) and 3x(cost + labor).

Consider your competitionResearch the price range for similar items or items within a similar category. Evaluate your item against others. Determine who your competitors are. If you are a jewelry designer, not all jewelry designers are your competitors. Think about the materials you use, the techniques you use and who you are targeting. Ask yourself the following questions:

Why should a customer buy my product instead of the other products out there?
Is my product made of better materials?
Does my product have more intricate work or design elements?
How does my product differ from the others?
What makes my product unique and special?

Consider what your customers are willing to pay
This is called "Demand pricing". What will a customer pay? Demand pricing allows you to charge more for a product that is seen as valuable or unique. Before changing all your prices to the "demand price", test an increase in price on one of your products and track the progress.

Try to have a good range of prices in your shop. This will allow you to attract different customer bases, as well as test out what price points work best.

If items in your shop are not selling don't be quick to assume the price is too high. In actuality, the price might be too low. Experiment. See if raising the price helps! No matter what, DO NOT SELL YOURSELF SHORT!

Tweet Tweet ... Twitter - A Useful Tool or Not?

Over the last few months I have been hearing a lot about Twitter, a micro-blogging site that allows you to post updates up to 140 characters long from your computer or phone. It's name has been popping up all over public relations newsletters, newspapers and Etsy. I've looked at the site a few times - trying to figure out what all the hype was about and how "Tweeting" could be potentially useful for businesses.

The other day, after reading several New York Times articles about Twitter, as well as a few blog posts, I decided to give it a shot. I started an account and "tweeted."

Since I joined on Monday evening, I have accrued 23 followers - not sure where they came from or how they found me. I'll take them nonetheless, and I'll sing to them - like a bird, "Tweet, tweet. Rockin' robin."

I haven't been on Twitter long enough to determine whether it is useful for a business or merely another social networking site to get hooked on. I've wasted significant time on Friendster, MySpace and now Facebook. Although, I think all those sites have some benefits, they are clearly more time-consuming than anything else (at least for me). Luckily, Twitter only allows you to write 140 characters at a time. You have to learn to be brief. Not bad for someone always on the go!

Yesterday I decided to read about Twitter on Etsy and get some opinions from fellow crafters. It seems as if there are mixed opinions in the forums as well. I did obtain a bunch of potentially useful advice from Etsians who tweet. Below are the particularly useful posts and resources I found on Etsy:

Redpanda says, "TARGET who you're following. Use Twitter's search tool and search for people who have tweeted about your form of art or craft recently. Follow them! Also follow the people Etsy is following. These are people who know about Etsy, and like the concept but may not have been introduced to your shop. After a week, if you want to clear out those who aren't following you back, you can use www.lessfriends.com to do so."

Timothy Adam suggests determining what your long term goal is before you use Twitter. If you want to use it as a marketing tool, leave your personal posts out. Post updates on new items, sales, and blog posts. You can use Twitter to seek opinions and critiques. On his blog, Timothy provides some additional great ideas as well as links to tolls you can use with Twitter.

To read what Etsy's Carprichos and strangelittlebird have to say about Twitter, please read this Storque interview

Still confused about Twitter, watch this video posted by leelefever on Common Craft:




What is your experience with Twitter? Do you use it? Do you like it? Has it helped bring visibility to your shop and/or blog?

How-to Tag for Success on Etsy

In order for potential customers, treasury makers, and Etsy admin to find your items quickly and easily on Etsy, it is essential to tag your items appropriately and effectively. When listing a new item, there are a few questions you should ask yourself:

What words would I type into a search bar to find this item?
Who is the item for?
What color is the item?What adjectives describe your item?
What is it made out of?
What method or technique did you use to make it?
Where will the item be used
What size is it?
What style is it?
What shapes or imagery are on it?
Are there synonyms for your item? (A thesaurus can be helpful!)

Once you choose your main category, make sure you use the remaining thirteen slots with specific and intuitive tags.

Now go reevaluate your tags! Hope this helps!