Improve Your Etsy Sales! Etsy Business Tips Blog

Etsy in Australia!!

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:26:00 +0000

Typographic Australian City Print by ButtercupInk

Oops....I'm a bit late with this but most Aussie readers would hopefully know about it already (and you should have received the newsletter I sent out about it if you're in the Sydney Etsy Team).

Etsy admin Matt Stinchcomb is in Sydney right now! Tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) there's a special 'Etsy meetup and chat with Matt' @ the western foyer of the Opera House (outside the playhouse theatre). It starts at 4pm and there'll be a chance to ask questions and share your etsy experiences.

Hope to see some of you there! I spotted Matt this evening, so can confirm that he does indeed exist, and is in the country right now! :)

Matt is heading to Melbourne on Sunday, but it appears that the Melbourne meetup is full.

Info on the etsy blog here

June's Merchandising Themes

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Tue, 24 May 2011 11:56:00 +0000

Now is a great time to be checking out Etsy's merchandising themes for June so that you can create new items, tag your existing items appropriately, and make treasuries that fit in with some of the trends. Hopefully this will maximise your chances of being featured by etsy, and it also gives you clues about what buyers might be searching for currently (and buying!).

You can find full details of June's themes on the etsy blog here.

Trendy finds for June:


Vampire Fangs Necklace by asilomarworks

Rustic Woodland Chalkboard Hearts Place Cards by BraggingBags

Surf Bubble Terrarium by Terradctl

Vintage Black Patent 1960s Clutch by ForestDaydream

Fathers Day Brass Washer Key Chain by IHeartThis

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Top 5 signs that you need an etsy break

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 10:39:00 +0000

Ya Miss Me Greeting Card by bjoytomac

So I fell off Planet Blog for a little while there- I was finishing my PhD thesis and had to take a break from etsy and all things etsy-related. I'm back now (sort of) so will be getting back into writing blog posts to help sellers with their etsy sales!

Given that this is just a quick and rather random post, I thought I may as well include this additional piece of randomness...in case some of you might need a bit of time away from etsy as well ;)

Top 5 signs that you need an etsy break:

1) You accidentally say 'lol' or 'ROFL' in conversation instead of laughing

2) You melt/burn something on the stove because you are reading the etsy forums (setting fire to something also counts)

3) Writing an 'Etsy I'm breaking up with you' letter seems like totally normal behaviour

4) You have been on etsy at 2am more than once in the last month and/or you have spent more than 4 hours straight in the forums in the last two weeks

5) You might consider buying your partner/family this card:

I Love You More Than Etsy Card by StoreyShop

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The Australian Flood Disaster

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:18:00 +0000

As many of you would know, Queensland in Australia has been affected by massive floods. The floods have affected 75% of the state, and the disaster area is twice the size of Texas! The death toll so far is sadly at 20, and the damage bill is expected to reach up to $20 billion. Many people have lost everything.

Flash flooding in Toowoomba- Daniel Munoz, Reuters

Many Australian sellers on etsy are working together to try and raise funds to help those affected by the disaster, and there are lots of ways you can help- either by donating an item, buying some cool stuff with the proceeds being donated to the flood relief fund, or by helping to spread the word about these efforts.

The Australian Etsy DUST team has established a shop taking donations from sellers all over the world, with all funds (minus etsy and PayPal fees) to be donated to the Queensland Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal (over $3800 has been raised already). There are new goodies being added all the time, but you have to be quick before someone else snaps them up because things are selling quickly! You can visit the ausdisasterrelief shop on etsy here.

A couple of my favourites from the shop:

Customised Amigurumi Toy by rosieok

Visual Journal Slip Cover by iheartcharlie

The Queensland BrisStyle team has also launched a Handmade Ark Flood Appeal, where participating members are donating proceeds from their sales. You can find out info and browse the lovely things for sale via the team's blog- they have raised over $2000 already!

Picks from the Handmade Ark Appeal:

Follow Your Heart Garland by LittleMaryMoo

Banana Cupcake Soap by warmsigh

Etsy's Picks: The 21 Best Resources from the 2010 Business Blogosphere

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 12:21:00 +0000

Autumnal Library Necklace by TheBlackSpotBooks

Etsy admin Danielle, who puts together the Etsy Success Reading Lists, has posted an article on etsy's blog sharing the top 21 resources from 2010.

With so much content out there on the web and so many experts out there telling you how you can and should run your business, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Where to start? Who to listen to?

My small business blog reader is bright with light bulb moments from creative and inspiring entrepreneurs. Every week I put together an Etsy Success Reading List, featuring must-read small business blog posts from the blogosphere. I also ask you to share the best tips you've come across in your online travels in these forum threads. Between us we've come up with quite a list of links, so I thought I'd share my top 21 resources from 2010.

These are blog posts, slide shows and guides that inspired me this year.

- Daniellexo

The article covers advice on getting started, product development, pricing, getting found, building your brand, selling on etsy, and small business lessons.

Keep an eye out for my self-service critique, which was included in the list!!

Wishing everyone luck with their stores in 2011, and I hope you'll take a look at Danielle's article and find some useful tips.

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Ways to extend the Christmas rush

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:17:00 +0000

Greeting card Christmas Tree by PocketCarnival

It's getting disturbingly close to Christmas, and the gift-buying rush is starting to slow for some shops (personally I like to leave my present shopping until the 23rd or 24th, but obviously there are some very strange organised people out there)...this blog post offers a few suggestions to help you bring in some last-minute sales.

Set your google map location
Etsy has introduced a brand new feature allowing buyers to search for local items (yay!!). This can help buyers looking for items that will reach them quickly. You need to make sure that you have set your location properly on the map in your profile so that your items will be found in these searches. You can find more info and instructions here.

Don't forget to also enter your country and city in the location boxes in your profile so that you also appear using the Shop Local tool.

Offer expedited shipping
Offering expedited shipping might encourage some last-minute buyers. Etsy may promote sellers offering this option, so don't forget to tag with 'expedited shipping'.

Tag with your country
This may be more important for international sellers, but tagging with your country and perhaps city, can also help local buyers looking for speedy postage. Most shoppers probably don't know about the new ability to search for local items, so this can be helpful.

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Top 5 Etsy Mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 09:03:00 +0000

I've done a lot of critiques for many different kinds of etsy stores, and I've noticed that the main issues that come up are often the same. I've put together a list here that people can use to take a critical look at their shops - a lot of these things aren't very difficult to fix, but can make a huge difference to your sales

Polaroid Camera Brooch by craftyfolk

1) Average Photos
This is a big one. You have to have great products, but presenting them in an appealing way is absolutely critical. A good tip is to have a look at items that have made the front page using craftcult's vault feature and think about how your pictures compare. Also, a very common mistake I see in a lot of shops is that pictures don't look great/are chopped off in gallery mode. That is the version that they appear in for treasuries and features by etsy, so you are hurting your chances for free exposure if your pics don't look good. Another common issue is when earrings etc are not arranged carefully. Think about the angles you're using and take lots of pictures so that you can pick the very best ones- experiment with different positions with your camera.

A final common problem is with backgrounds. Generally, the item should be the focus rather than the background being used to create interest. Some sellers can successfully use interesting backgrounds, but it needs to be done very carefully. When choosing backgrounds, it's also important to think about how they will fit in with other items if being considered for a treasury or front page feature. If you're having trouble getting good shots, you can make or purchase a light box. You don't need a fancy camera- mine was only about $200 (you can see the one I use on the right side of this blog). Bomobob shared some great picture tips on this blog if you're looking for further tips.

2) Lack of Keywords and Short Descriptions
A lot of sellers who are struggling to make sales don't include much information in their titles or descriptions. Buyers need to know what the item is, all the essential information (eg measurements in mm and inches), and it's also great if they can get a feel for the creative process and the artist or designer behind the piece- that's part of the appeal of buying handmade! It's also important to think about how buyers will find you both on etsy and through search engines. Try to use keywords they might be searching for, and repeat the most important ones in your shop title, item titles, tags and descriptions where relevant. Each new keyword you use gives you another chance to be found, and repeating your main chosen keywords can help boost your ranking in google searches.

Shopping Cart Photo by jennifersquires

3) Shop Image Issues
As well as having fantastic photos, it's important to also have a clear non-fuzzy banner that fits with the overall image/branding of your shop. It's often the first impression a buyer will have of your shop, so it's worth spending some time on. Don't forget to also fill out your profile- that gives you a chance to provide buyers with some insight into the person behind the shop, and also allows you to share the story behind your creations.

4) No Policies or Feedback
Often sellers who approach me for help haven't filled out their policies and don't have any feedback. It's important to have shop policies in place to help you run your store effectively, but also to make buyers feel confident in you as a professional seller. I often also see statements like 'lost packages are not my responsibility', which will prevent some people from purchasing. Also, it's often not true legally, and PayPal will refund buyers if they do not receive their package, so it's best not to include statements like that. Regarding feedback, buying a few things to get some feedback can also encourage buyers to purchase from a new shop.

Custom Logo Cupcakes by shortbreadnyc

5) Small Number of Listings and Lack of Promotion
These are two major factors that can influence the number of sales you make. Having at least two pages of listings can make a huge difference- partly because it gives you more chance of being found in searches, but also because it gives buyers a selection and makes your shop look full and attended to. Once your shop is looking great and is filled up with cool stuff, the next thing to do is focus on promotion.

Some shops are lucky or have very searchable items, so don't need to promote a great deal. However, the majority of sellers are pretty much invisible without promoting off etsy. Certainly that's the case for my shop- I'd have about 3 sales without twitter and facebook I think- seriously! An important thing to keep in mind is your target audience, otherwise you might feel like you're 'promoting' all day and getting nowhere...other etsy sellers are often not a good target audience and you might spend all day every day trying to get sales from chatting in the forums when you could spend an hour promoting to non-etsy people and make more sales. You can find the article I wrote about how to do this with twitter here. Apart from not-so-great photos, lack of promotion is usually the biggest thing holding people back from making lots of sales.

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Twitter Power- How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time
from amazon.com

Improve your blog and make more sales! Special Offer

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 13:15:00 +0000

I've written previously about an excellent resource to help you massively improve your blog and drive more traffic to your etsy shop- the Build a Better Blog in 31 Days workbook by Darren Rowse, a blogger who earns 7 figures a year from blogging!!

Darren has also released an additional resource- the Copy Writing Scorecard for Bloggers. I have purchased both and plan to work through these ebooks thoroughly as soon as this pesky PhD is out of the way (sigh...VERY soon). The Copy Writing Scorecard is a workbook teaching you exactly how to write great blog posts that attract lots of readers and rank well in search engines, increasing your blog traffic.

I'm not usually that big on paying for information because I spend a lot of time researching things on the interwebs to do with ecommerce, social networking, blogging etc, and find I'm usually aware of a lot of the info out there (and quite enjoy spending time on that- odd I know). However, Darren provides some of the most valuable information I've come across, and the difference these resources will hopefully make to my blogs and sales makes it well worth it in my opinion (I consider it an investment in my business)...I have even purchased his book as well (available through Amazon), so I suppose I'm an official problogger fan :)

I meant to write this post a while ago (oops) because Darren is offering a special discount this month, which is not being run on his own site, where you can purchase one or both of these ebooks for 25% off. The discount is only available for a few more days though, so don't miss out! To take advantage of the offer you just need to use the code november25 during checkout and purchase one or both resources here or through the links given above. The offer ends on Nov 30.

Darren does a much better job of explaining what's in the workbooks and how they can make a huge difference to your blog, so if you'd like to find out more about the books, just visit the problogger ebook info page.

I'll definitely do some posts early next year reviewing the problogger book and discussing some of the lessons I've learned from the blogging ebooks in applying them to my own blog. I'll be looking to feature tips from readers as well (including their etsy shops of course), so if you are using the workbooks as well, keep an eye out so that I can include you.

(I have used my referral links to support this blog, but that doesn't influence my opinion at all and I'm recommending these ebooks because I think they are the best blogging resources I've come across.)

Happy blogging!

Etsy Teams: Etsy Dark Team

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:41:00 +0000

Bunny Tea Party by GrandOleBestiary

This is the first in a series of blog posts showcasing some of the awesome teams on etsy!

SWStitchery, team leader for the EtsyDarkTeam, kindly agreed to answer some interview questions about the team representing the dark side of Etsy...

Cirque de noir black and white veil by SistersOfTheMoon

1) Can you tell us a little bit about the team and how it started?
The group started out of the need for a dark team on Etsy. There wasn't one, or if there was one it never really took off. It started collecting like minded artisans on what is now our private team site then offically became an Etsy team a couple years ago and has been gathering more and more ever since.

Batling Ornament by SWStitchery

2) The dark team has a pretty strong online presence- what are the main team sites and events that people should keep an eye out for?
Our main public forum is on Facebook with over 1500 followers: http://www.facebook.com/EtsyDarkTeam
The brand new, up-to-date, Etsy Team page can be found here: http://www.etsy.com/teams/5820/etsydarkteam
And, our public online hub of all things EtsyDarkTeam will be: http://www.etsydarkteam.com/ (under construction but projected to be done before the end of the year)

Gothic Neo-Victorian Statement Necklace by EJPCreations

The event to keep an eye out for are the Black Friday weekend deals (11/26 to 11/29)! Be sure to follow our team blog or join us on Facebook so you don't miss out. The sneak peek blog post will be up by 11/19.

Gothic Spider Purse by RavenOfSkys

3)I'd love to see more of the dark side of etsy- what kind of cool stuff can people expect to find if they search for items from dark team members?
Type "etsydarkteam" in Etsy's search box and you will find everything from vampire dollhouse accessories to offbeat wedding items to coffin couches, missing nothing in between. There are gifts for your kids, gifts for your pets, and - believe it or not - even gifts for your mom! Our members currently have items in 28 of Etsy's categories which means that whatever you are looking for you can probably find it!

Monstress Zine - Malfunction by MonstrousIndustry

4) How can etsy sellers get involved if they'd like to be part of the team, and what is the basic philosophy behind the group?
As I mentioned there is a shiny, new, up-to-date Team page on Etsy which will have all the needed info when the Team is open for applications here: http://www.etsy.com/teams/5820/etsydarkteam and the "Captain" of the team (moi, SWStitchery) can be contacted via that page also.

In the Twilight of the Evening by RusticGoth

Our philosophy, in short, is best said by our tagline "Some call it odd, we call it Art!" We are a group of Etsy.com sellers made up of Artists, Seamstrix, Jewelers, Miniaturists, Milliners and much more that cater to The Dark Side of Life. Love zombies? Sunglasses at night? Tim Burton? Vampires? Taxidermy? Midnight walks through cemetaries? Black, black and more black? Twisted cuteness or down right spookiness? So do we!

Custom Couple's Zombie Portait by CustomZombie

Quick- 72hr 30% off Moo sale!

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 01:18:00 +0000

I thought readers might be interested in this- Moo.com is having a 72-hour sale (ends Sunday night) and is offering 30% off all printed products!

This includes stickers, Christmas cards and business cards as well as other goodies.

You don't need a promo code- you can find all the details here.

You need to be quick though....the sale ends on Sunday night (Nov 14) at 11.59pm GMT

Mini Moo Cards by FashionFucsia

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Would you like a chance to be seen by 13 thousand people?!

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 02:04:00 +0000

Would you like some free advertising for your shop- to an audience of over 13 thousand?

I don't think I can hear too many readers saying 'No thanks' through the interwebs :)

I'm offering a chance to subscribers of my brand new Etsy Business Tips newsletter to grab a feature (in a blog post about their etsy shop) on this blog and promotion of that feature across my three twitter accounts- that's currently 13,088 followers!

It's super easy to subscribe if you'd like a chance of winning the spot, and I only added a subscription box to the blog recently so there's a good chance of snapping up the feature.

I'll only be mentioning this opportunity to my current blog, twitter and facebook followers because I'm hoping people will only subscribe if they're actually interested in getting some help with their etsy sales (the newsletters won't be sent out too frequently if anyone's wondering about that). Please feel free to tell your etsy friends if you think they might find this blog helpful :)

Subscribe to the *NEW* Etsy Business Tips Newsletter here or in the subscription box on the top right of this blog.

I hope you'll find the tips useful! :)

Be quick- I'm going to pick a winner sometime within the next week!

PS If the winner can't be contacted, I'll choose another winner, so please make sure the newsletter doesn't hit your spam box.

Make more sales- subscribe to The Etsy Business Tips Newsletter

The Brilliant Marketing Tricks Blog Series

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:36:00 +0000

Don't miss out on this! Some of the big creative entrepreneurs on the interwebs are getting together to present a Brilliant Marketing Tricks Blog series this week and next.

Here's a list of all the events, provided by Tim Adam:

Monday Nov 8: Introduction to the Blog Series – Mayi Carles from heartmade
http://www.heartmadeblog.com/blog/introducing-the-brilliant-marketing-tricks-blog-series

Tuesday Nov 9: E-books – Tim Adam from Handmadeology
http://www.handmadeology.com/e-bookology-the-formula-for-a-killer-e-book/

Wednesday Nov 10: Collaboratives – April Bowles from Blacksburgbelle
http://www.blacksburgbelle.com/2010/11/why-relationships-matter-more-than-any-other-marketing-tactic/

Thursday Nov 11 (double dose): Podcast + Interviews – Srinivas Rao from The Skool of Life / Stylish Marketing
http://theskooloflife.com/wordpress/
+ PR Services for Small Independent Businesses – Jena Coray from Miss Modish
http://www.missmodish.com/

Friday Nov 12: Services + E-courses – Tara Gentile from Scoutie Girl
http://www.scoutiegirl.com/

Monday Nov 15: Online Shops – Mayi Carles from heartmade
http://www.heartmadeblog.com/

Tuesday Nov 16: Events + Shopping Parties – Mallory from Miss Malaprop
http://www.missmalaprop.com/

Wednesday Nov 17: Video – Nathalie Lussier from Raw Food Witch
http://rawfoodswitch.com/

Thursday Nov 18 (double dose): Facebook + Twitter – Irene Zuccarello from Imaginative Bloom http://www.imaginativebloom.com/

Social Photo Catalogs like Flickr + Pinterest – Nancy from Wolf and Willow
http://www.wolfandwillowblog.com/

Friday Nov 19: Building your Brand – Brittni Wood from Paper N’ Stitch
http://papernstitchblog.com/

Rivet Series Camera 2 by TimothyAdamDesigns

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6 places to advertise your business for free online

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:42:00 +0000

Here are six suggestions for places where you can advertise your business for free online (some are more effective than others):

1) Free online classifieds such as Craigslist

2) Free business listings on YellowPages.com

3) Google Local Business Listings

4) Project Wonderful- free ad spots are often available on various sites

5) Google Adwords- keep an eye out for free vouchers. They often appear on blogs with google ads (I've seen a few on this blog)

6) Crafty or indie sites with directories eg Bust Magazine

Personalized Piggy Banks for Kids by cherryblossompaperco

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How to add a 'you might also like' suggested posts widget to your blog

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:21:00 +0000

To make sure your old blog posts don't go to waste, there's a cool blog widget called LinkWithin that suggests other posts readers may like (you can see an example at the bottom of this post). It's really easy to install and you can choose the number of blog posts you want it to recommend.

If you'd like to add one to your blog, just visit LinkWithin and follow the instructions on the site. You just need to enter your blog's details and an email address, then it installs it for you and you can drag it to the correct location. Super easy!

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What do you think about the new profile changes on etsy?

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:08:00 +0000

I'm very interested to hear what everyone thinks about the new changes on etsy, and particularly those just made to the profile page.

I don't get particularly worried about most of the changes that etsy brings out (especially now that I'm focusing on my own website), although I have to admit that a lot of them make me do this:

However, the changes that have just been made to the profile pages really do have potential to impact negatively on sellers in my opinion. Profile pages now feature all of your favourites and treasuries in a way that does not distinguish them clearly from your own products, and they are featured quite prominently.

I can see how this is a great idea for buyer-only accounts because it should help to promote sellers. It is also probably a very clever move for the site as a whole, as it might increase the chance of buyers spotting something they like from a different shop and they'll make a purchase. Not so great if you bring in your own traffic and lose buyers because they click away to other shops featured in your profile!

MagicJelly made some great points in an etsy forum thread- if this is part of the move towards etsy becoming more of a 'social' site, why couldn't seller profiles feature blog integration, press appearances, CVs or artist statements and links to our twitter and facebook profiles?

I've made all of my favourites and treasuries private and I guess that's the end of me making treasuries. The fact that these new changes weren't made optional just explodes my brain a little bit ( ...perhaps due in part to previous episodes of *headdesk*-ing).

What are your thoughts? Love? Hate? Indifferent?

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Moo-rific business cards!

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:55:00 +0000

My latest batch of Moo mini business cards arrived in the post today- always very exciting!! (yes I know that's a bit sad and nerdy) I'm going to be using these ones as product tags for a *very* exciting wholesale order...

My Morphologica Mini Moo Cards

If I were more organised, I'd look into some more creative ideas- I read on the Moo blog ages ago that a portrait photographer gives her clients personalised cards with different portraits of their children to hand out to their friends to encourage referrals- brilliant!

I also love what this jeweller is doing with hers:

Mini Moo cards by Abigail Percy

...and a clever etsy seller even makes necklaces with moo cards!!

Milkshake 3 Moo Card Necklace by 3Squares

"Moo MiniCards are little works of art and deserve to be seen. This necklace is the perfect way to carry a few, and display them at the same time" - 3Squares

I'd love to hear your ideas for creative things to do with business cards or how you use them to dress up your packaging. Feel free to post a link in the comments if you have pictures of how you use your mini cards and I'll pick some to feature on the blog. Don't forget to leave your shop URL so I can link to you :)

If you want to grab some moo cards for yourself, you can find them on the interwebs here

Top 7 Twitter Mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:40:00 +0000

Twitter can be a very powerful tool if used correctly, but there are a few common mistakes people make that can get in the way of using it to successfully promote your business.

Scrabble Tile Pendant Celebrity Twitter by ThePendantFactory

1) Tweeting only listings
If you only tweet links to your etsy shop, nobody is going to be interested and you'll find it difficult to get genuine followers. Twitter is all about building connections!

2) Setting up your account with auto DMs
A lot of people set up their accounts to automatically send a direct message to any new followers- usually saying something like 'Check out my etsy shop! I sell cute stuff shopname.etsy.com'. This irritates a lot of users and might make them much less likely to visit your shop.

3) Tweeting your listings directly @ other people
Yes- some people really do this and it's not cool (or likely to be effective). Plus you might get reported for spamming.

4) Complaining about your customers
I actually see this a lot and it always suprises me because they might be listening! It also doesn't create a very good impression for any of your twitter followers who might be considering purchasing something from you.

5) Not building up a follower base
A lot of people only have a couple of hundred followers, and wonder why twitter isn't doing much for them. Personally I recommend having at least a couple of thousand in order to make it work for you.

6) Tweeting to the wrong audience
As well as building up some good follower numbers, it really is critical that you are reaching the right kind of audience. If all of your followers are etsy sellers, you're unlikely to get very far with it (unless you sell supplies).

7) Using True Twit validation service
This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make if you're trying to use twitter to promote your shop to lots of new buyers (in my opinion). It's a service that automatically sends a DM to anyone who tries to follow you, asking them to click a link and confirm that they're a real follower. A very high percentage of people will just ignore the link and you'll lose a lot of potential followers.

Needle Felted Tweet Grey and Blue Chick by FeltMeUpDesigns

Update: I've had a few questions about how to use twitter effectively- you can find all the info on that in this article.

You can find more business tips on twitter @etsysellertips

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Twitter Marketing- amazon.com

3 very good reasons to buy your shop's domain name

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 12:30:00 +0000

Have you purchased your shop's domain name yet? Have you thought about what the impact of not doing this might be? Here are three important reasons to consider snapping up your domain name...

Business Perfect URL Stamp by LetterGirl

3 very good reasons to buy your shop's domain name:

1) If you don't, someone else might grab it!! This might impact on the way you come up in google search results, and means you can't use the name later if you decide to start your own website.

2) It can look more professional to have a .com address on your business cards etc, even if it just leads to your etsy shop.

3) This one is very important and I only really realised its impact when I recently set up my website morphologicadesign.com . We spend so much time and effort driving traffic to our etsy stores and building links etc over the years, but all of that is tied to etsy. If you ever want to change to selling on your own site or if etsy ever disappears, all of that hard work will be lost! By having a domain name that points to your etsy shop, you can take all of your links with you if you ever want to and you have control over all of that traffic (links also impact generally on your google standing). The same applies to your blog- that's why I changed over from the blogspot name to a .com URL.

So where can you get hold of your domain names? I use GoDaddyfor my .com domains because they're cheap and well established/reliable (they're good for domains but I'm not sure about their other services). For Australian domain names, jumba.com.au seemed to be the best when I was researching it, so that's what I use for my .com.au addresses.

Don't forget you can pick up more business tips on twitter @etsysellertips

How to remove the navbar from your blog

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 03:24:00 +0000

Instructions for how to remove the navigation bar from your blogspot blog

Laser-Cut Nerd Necklace by Morphologica

I have removed the navigation bar that is normally present on blogger blogs because I think it looks more professional, and thought others might like to know how to do that as well. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's the bar right at the top of your blog allowing people to search your blog, log in etc.

Before doing this you might want to backup your template- always a good idea if you're going to be changing the code.

You need to go the the 'edit html' tab, which should be under the 'design' option.

Look for the bit that says
/* Variable definitions

Now immediately above that, paste in
#navbar-iframe {
display: none !important;
}

Before saving these changes, it's important to preview your blog first to make sure you have inserted the code correctly and that everything is working ok (and if you want to get the navbar back again, you can just delete the code you inserted).

Hope that's useful!

Want a chance to be featured in hundreds of etsy treasuries?!

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:38:00 +0000

I heard about this great 'NonTeam' idea on the forums and thought a lot of Etsy Business Tips readers might like to get involved. Dottyral kindly put some information together explaining the concept:

A new treasury team has come to etsy! Sort of. It's not a real team because there's nothing to join. It's an ever-changing group of buyers and sellers working together to promote others through treasuries and having fun while doing so. Everyone is welcome to participate at any time.

Emery Pincushion Felt Cup of Coffee by Dottyral

Participants are promoting others but they receive a nice bit of shop exposure themselves and have the potential for some amazing exposure!

Each week a new Treasury Challenge is posted on their blog. http://treasurychallengenonteam.blogspot.com Participants create treasuries based on and including that week's "Inspiration Item". At the end of the week, the treasuries are judged. The winner chooses an item from her own shop to be the Inspiration Item for the next challenge. Imagine that! Everyone has an equal opportunity to have one of their items in tons of treasuries! There were over 125 treasuries entered in their first Challenge!

Alphabet Cool Personalized Notecards by FlutterbyeNotes

If you enjoy creative challenges, enjoy creating treasuries, would like to help promote others, are looking for a new way to get your shop noticed, and want to have some fun - how about joining in?

All you have to do is read their Guidelines http://treasurychallengenonteam.blogspot.com/p/guidelines.html and the details of the current Challenge. Then jump right in.

The next Inspiration Item just could be yours!

Green Blue Pink Lampwork Disk Beads by NomadCraftsEtc. . .Find more Etsy business tips on Twitter & Facebook

Dot Point Critique: eefink

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 10:43:00 +0000

This post is part of series providing brief critiques for etsy sellers having trouble making as many sales as they would like. Hopefully it will also be useful for others, and you can find a really detailed self-service critique on my blog if you'd like some further tips.

The 'Dot Point Critique' shop for today is eefink.etsy.com

Ok- I love eefink's shop- it's super cute and original, which is always an important factor. The photos are also great, which is often one of the major things holding sellers back. The only thing I'd recommend in relation to pictures is to make sure no edges are chopped off in gallery mode, as this is how items appear on the front page etc.

Number of Products
The first problem that immediately jumps out is the number of products- I always recommend having a minimum of around two pages of products as a good rule of thumb (at the time of writing there were about 7 products listed). This is for a number of reasons- it gives your customers choice, it makes your shop look active and like a complete store, and each different item has different keywords associated with it, so each ones provides a different chance for you to be found by buyers searching on etsy or google. Also, having more products means people might buy more than one thing!

Keywords
Another thing that could be improved is the use of keywords in titles and tags. Colour is something that's missing from both, and buyers and treasury-makers both often search using colour. Both areas could also contain keywords relating to the illustration on the cards- for example the card above says nothing in the title or tags about what the picture is beyond 'comic' or 'cartoon'. You really need to use specific keywords so that buyers will find you in searches both on and off etsy- there are so many items listed that are comics or cartoons, so extra keywords will help you stand out. I would also include the number of cards in each set in the title so that buyers scanning through lots of items don't have to click on the listing to find out how many cards are being offered for that price.

Profile and Pricing
The profile for this shop could contain a little more info to give a feel for the story behind the illustrations- part of the appeal of buying handmade is often that there's a bit of a story behind it. In relation to pricing, to me it looks as though some items are a bit underpriced, although that's obviously a matter of opinion. Some sellers who are having trouble making sales think that they need to have low prices to sell, but this can sometimes actually work against you. When pricing your items, don't forget to take all etsy listing/relisting and PayPal fees into account- I've seen a lot of new sellers who are actually paying for people to buy their items! In eefink's case, I think people would be happy to pay more for such cute stuff!

Promotion
It's immediately clear that the main reason for the lack of sales in this case is very low traffic- nobody's finding the shop! You can see this in the low views recorded for each item. One thing that would help a little is keeping the shop up to date a bit more- relisting some items can help keep them in the etsy search, although whether or not frequent relisting helps depends very much on your shop (I don't relist a great deal for example).

Mainly though, off-etsy promotion is going to be critical here. I can pretty much guarantee that with more products in the shop, building up a substantial facebook and twitter following would start bringing in regular sales- probably quite a lot! Both FB and twitter can be used very effectively, but they need to be done correctly. I would advise building up twitter first, and then using that to gain a facebook following. You can find detailed information on this blog about how to get more twitter followers, and I recommend having at least around 2000, otherwise it's not likely to have much of an effect (and I'd be aiming for at least a few hundred facebook fans).

Hope that's helpful for eefink and other readers! I'll be posting a call for other people who would like a shop critique soon, so keep an eye on the blog (you can subscribe by email above on the right side panel).

If you'd like to help eefink build up a follower base, you can find her here:
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Posted by Morphologica

www.morphologicadesign.com - Laser Cut Jewellery Inspired By Science

Things are a bit quiet around here...

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 02:56:00 +0000

Laser-Cut Steel Nerd Necklace by Morphologica

I thought I should post something in case anyone's wondering why things have been a bit quiet on The Etsy Business Tips Blog. I'm submitting my PhD this month (yay!!), so have had to take a bit of a break from the interwebs (although my shops are still up and running). I'll be back very soon though, with lots of new articles and critiques of readers' shops, Q&A sessions etc.

In the meantime, some of you might be interested in the etsy success bootcamp being run by etsy at the moment, where emails are sent out each Thursday with tips on how to improve your shop and prepare for the holidays. You can find information about that here (and the first two emails are linked in the relevant etsy forum threads).

Don't forget to check out my self-service critique post for other ideas on how to give your shop a makeover in time for the xmas rush!

Twitter Party! Do You Need More Twitter Followers?

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:25:00 +0000

Little Birdy Earrings by Angelene

This is just a fun post to help any interested readers build up a bit more of a follower base on twitter. I don't recommend focusing on other etsy people when trying to find followers, but having a few 'friends' on twitter that you know or share common interests with can help you get started, and might help to encourage some twitter chatting (especially if you don't quite know what to do with this crazy twitter thing).

Please post a comment at the bottom of this post if you will follow people who follow you, and then go through and follow the people above you on the list (don't forget to include your twitter link).

I'll go first- I follow everyone back on both my morphologica chatty account and my business tips twitter channel etsysellertips- if you're not following that one already, I tweet lots of useful links so you should ;)

This post will get tweeted out to my 8000+ followers across three accounts, so hopefully we'll get a few takers...

Product Trends Series: Nautical and Black Lace

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Some more of the hot product trends on etsy and elsewhere in the retail world:

NAUTICAL

Sailor Swimsuit by FablesbyBarry

I Spy Working Telescope Necklace by PennyMasquerade

Stockholm Navy and White Pleated French Messenger by ikabags

Sailor's Lover Blouse by esoneofone

Stop the Ship- A Sweet Antiqued Anchor Necklace by FleurAvenue

BLACK LACE

Vintgae 80s Black Lace Sweetheart Bodycon Mini Dress from MidnightFlight

Black Elastic Lace Trim from Lovepea

Gothic Gray and Black Lace Clutch with Striped Bow by BeanBun

Stella II in Lace- Custom Made by MyBlackDress

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The Secrets Behind Building a Successful Blog!

noreply@blogger.com (Morphologica) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:00:00 +0000

I've been planning to write some blog posts on this e-book that I purchased recently, but I just saw that the author is offering 25% off the already discounted price for the next few days only, so thought I'd better share the discount offer (even though I'm a bit jealous because I've already bought it)!

The normal retail price is $39, so this discount offer brings it down to just $14.95

It's a detailed and clear workbook/guide on how to make your blog more successful at your own pace, and I highly recommend it- I'm planning to work through it thoroughly to pick up some tips for improving my own blog as well.

The e-book is 31 Days to Build a Better Blog and it's written by an extremely successful blogger.

To get the discount, enter the code chrisjuly25 during checkout. Get more info and purchase here. Remember to be quick though...the offer ends this week!

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(ref links included which support this blog)