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My Affiliate Marketing Journey

Years ago I dabbled in affiliate marketing and had a bit of success, but when I decided that I wanted one of my streams of income to be $10K a month in affiliate marketing I KNEW I had to get serious and dedicate a bunch of time to setting up a real system for promoting products.

That said, for “marketing” I get approached ALL THE TIME to promote affiliate products because I have been around a long time and have promotional posts on my site. These aren't all a good fit, so most I ignore!

But to help you I thought it would only be fair to start out clean with a new type of affiliate product bunch that was not related at all to my “main” business.

So at the very end of 2018 I started really focusing on my ArtsyFartsyLife.com blog (more about my timeline later!) and really dug into promoting art supplies (you can't get more different than marketing to small businesses and craft supplies for artists!)

As of today I am making about $2,500 a month on affiliate income, but that progression has been pretty darn fast and is doing the hockey stick thing now where I am making more and more each month!

Oh and I was just accepted into my “dream” affiliate program!

What Makes A Dream Affiliate Program?

So let's talk about what kinds of affiliate programs there are…

Amazon Associates

When you are starting out as a new affiliate marketer and don't have any kind of history with affiliate sales, the only program you are likely to be accepted into is the Amazon Associates program who takes anyone!

And that is okay! Their requirements are super low and to stay in the program you only have to “sell” a couple of things each month through your recommendation.

That said, the commissions are super low (mostly 3-4%) and your link only lasts for 24 hours so it is not my favorite affiliate program.

However, they DO have some things going for them… Amazon functionally has EVERYTHING available AND you get credit for EVERYTHING they buy in the 24 hours!

If you do the math and divide my total earnings ($155.47) by the shipped items revenue ($5,049.15) you get almost EXACTLY 3%!

Share A Sale Affiliate Network

My next step to growing my affiliate income for art supplies was to join the Share A Sale affiliate program who had a bunch of my favorite sites on it and whose cookies lasted more like 30 days or 60 days! Additionally Share A Sale pays affiliates for multiple programs all at once so you don't need to track as many links!

I started by joining the Joggles website's affiliate program. They are a littler website who might not have as many people promoting them so it was easy to get accepted.

The problem with promoting a little website is that they don't have the trust of the buyers that the big guns do! For example, my husband is super happy to buy tech supplies from a site called “New Egg” because he has shopped there for years, but you might not feel as confident buying a phone there as you would from Best Buy or Walmart which you probably recognize!

I have made a fair bit from Joggles, when I had some crafty sales under my belt I joined the Scrapbook.com affiliates… whoo whoo… moving on up!

You may not be familiar with these names, but think about your affiliate business as a stair-step. You start on the bottom step and move up when you gain more “clout” in your industry.

As you can see, my revenue from Scrapbook.com is almost 2X what Joggles is, simply because more people feel comfortable taking my recommendation about shopping there because they are a bigger site!

This last rolling month I have made about $150 from Share A Sale too!

Your Dream Affiliate Program

Most super successful affiliate programs are “closed”, meaning that they have to invite you to be a part with affiliate program offers OR they will review your application and give you decision based on reviewing your current affiliate results and what kinds of content you produce to promote their products.

I JUST got accepted into my dream affiliate program after replying to one of their newsletters with the following message…

First off, those paw things… so cute and so darn useful! I will be getting a couple to use on my desk! I didn't realize how many different products you have that are exclusives!

I do a whole bunch of artsy videos using products and would love to be able to recommend yours with affiliate links…:) Here is my youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX80rppct_5kb1PwlzuV9kw – My blog https://artsyfartsylife.com/. My share a sale affiliate number is XXXXX

They replied that they will review my application and let me know in a month or so…. getting into your dream affiliate program may not be fast, but it will be worth it!

Some of my best affiliate income has come from partnering with sites that are not easy to do, so they have fewer affiliates and often higher commissions if you show them you are a good promoter!

Timeline For Getting To My Dream Affiliate Program

Okay, the one thing that I would want to know is … how long is this all going to take to “start working”. So here is how my affiliate journey has been going for the craft supplies…

Late 2018 – Artsy Fartsy Website

In late 2018 I decided to start blogging seriously about how to deal with my Dementia mom and did some “non-marketing” affiliate links on Amazon, because I wasn't qualified to promote anything business-to-consumer at that time having only done business-to-business before then.

Things were going along pretty well and I got into Mediavine Ads when they only needed 25K a month views to qualify.

April 2020 – Artsy Fartsy Website

That date might hold some meaning to many of us… it was starting to dawn on me that my business website wasn't going to be as popular when everyone was stuck at home and having trouble with business so I better do a pivot to more on my artsy website!

I started posting about art projects and added the Joggles affiliate program to my site. Again, that was just a little program, but the only one I could qualify for at the time.

January 2021 – Artsy Fartsy YouTube

By now I was figuring out that I needed multiple, multiple streams of income in the lockdown times and decided to go all in on artsy stuff and affiliates this year!

I started posting daily to my Artsy Fartsy Youtube channel and including affiliate links in my descriptions.

April 2021 – Artsy Fartsy YouTube

YAY! I got my YouTube videos monetized and was inspired to keep going (it is October now I and I know I can make the whole year!

It is around now when I got accepted into the Scrapbook.com affiliate program because I could show them that I had a bunch of subscribers and people were watching my videos.

October 2021 – Dream Affiliate Program

And here we are today! I had a great website with lots of content about craft supplies, PLUS a popular youtube channel talking about craft supplies… whoo whoo!

With all of that I was able to join and affiliate program that I would never have qualified for even at the beginning of this year!

Now, none of this has been easy, but it is really a “one day at a time” kind of thing. Just keep plugging along and you can get there I PROMISE!

Affiliate Marketing FAQs

I had SO MANY questions when I was getting started with affiliate programs… here are a few that you might have too!

How To Make Money As An Affiliate Marketer

Now, you may be thinking that 150 bucks here and there isn't going to do anything to help your stream of income, you have to know that I belong to MULTIPLE affiliate programs and most of my “big money” is still coming from my marketing affiliates, but these art supply ones are growing steadily!

It is very unlikely that you will make all your affiliate income from one kind of promotion, rather it is a compilation of many different programs sharing in your income.

While I am relatively new to promoting craft supplies, I follow a gal, Debbie Gartner who paid off over $238,000 of debt with her affiliate income! (I HIGHLY recommend her “Journey to the Center of Amazon” course if you are just getting started!)

Monthly she earns about $18K a month from affiliate sales!

Do You Have To Have A Website To Be An Affiliate?

Years ago my answer would have been ABSOLUTELY, but I do think now that there are other ways you can promote affiliate products.

That being said, many sites don't want you to link directly to affiliate products so having a website that you can use as the go-between can really help!

Where Do You Make The Most Affiliate Sales?

I make the most of my affiliate sales from Youtube (I use tracking to know where my sales come from!)

I put affiliate links into my Youtube descriptions and tell the peeps that there are links down there if they want to buy what I am using in my products!

Some people make more on social media sites like Instagram or Facebook.

Should You Sell Digital Products or “Real Products”

You should sell the types of products that you use! For my artsy business I mostly promote “real” products and for my marketing business I mostly promote digital products.

Do You Have To Use Share A Sale?

Nope! I love Share A Sale the best, but there are also places like Commission Junction and other “aggregators” where you can join multiple programs at once. I was only a CJ affiliate for short time and never really did well with them so I can't give you too much insight into their program.

All my best tips and ideas for how to add printables to your business. Since I started selling digital downloads on Etsy, my own website and Shopify I have made 100s of dollars a month! Here are all my best tips and ideas for how to create printables to sell online that will help add other products to add passive income to your business!

Don't miss the part about selling something that other people are giving away for free!

About My Digital Downloads Etsy Store

2021 Update

While I no longer focus on selling printables, I just wanted to show that this can truly be a “set it and forget it” kind of passive income.

Here are my lifetime stats from today (October 7, 2021)

I keep my “sales history” open my Etsy shop so you can see my recent sales too!

And don't worry that I am going to try to sell you something or hook you into buying a big course! I have moved on from selling digital products to doing Artsy Fartsy Youtube, but I hated to leave all the knowledge I had gained about selling printables just in my head!

As you can see from the table of contents, I lift my skirt and show you everything you need to know about how to sell digital downloads (printables).

My Etsy Shop Story

I started my Etsy store in 2015 and opened a Shopify site in 2016 to sell printable planner pages and later services. I will talk more later about how I stocked my store at the start!

Here are my numbers for 2018 on Etsy when I was super active…

That averages to $561.64 a month!

Now, you may have much bigger dreams about your downloadable products business, but seeing that I added very few new products and did almost no promotions, over $500 a month in passive income is a great sideline business for me!

Here is one of my planners that I have been selling for a little over a year. I have helped lots of direct sales people do better work AND made some real money doing it!

Digital Downloads Products For Passive Income

I have heard lots of “passive income” ideas over the years and most of them are crap, but selling digital downloads can be one of the most lucrative and hands free ways to make passive income I have found. Within reason!

On Etsy

Etsy is my favorite place to sell digital products. They have the infrastructure to help buyers get logged in and accept payments and also provide customers to buy my products. Additionally they send emails to help remind people about my products, do a wee bit of retargeting ads for free and also have paid options available for promotions.

Over the last few years I have had very few problems either with delivery or customer service.

On Shopify

I had a Shopify store up for a while and have slowly let it fade away. Honestly it is not Shopify's fault, I am just not interested in doing customer support or helping them log in and find their products. Additionally, I have to generate all the traffic to my Shopify store and that can be a challenge.

Over the last few years I have had very few problems with delivery, but way more customer service is required.

On My Website

Probably my second favorite way to sell digital products is through my email provider. I use them to do my email marketing, which is tied to being able to purchase digital downloads and then to fulfillment. Check out Convertkit here!

Again I have to generate all my own traffic, but since it is a part of my regular cost of email, it doesn't need to sell as much to break even or even make me more money!

What Are DIGITAL DOWNLOADS?

Alrighty then, let's jump in and talk about digital download products. What the heck are they?

These can include:

• Printables (planners, stickers, party supplies, invitations)
• SVG Graphic Files
• Patterns
• Excel Spreadsheets
• Meal Plans
• Services
• Ebooks

More info about How To Create A Best Selling Digital Download On Etsy

Are Your Products Evergreen?

One of the best things about digital download products are their ability to generate passive income. As I said, I tend to “set them and forget them”, just letting them sit there and churn out sales year after year.

Here are some examples of Evergreen versus Non Evergreen products:

Planners

• Evergreen – Perpetual planner pages where they write in the numbers
• Non-Evergreen – Doing calendars each year with the numbers written in

Patterns

• Evergreen – A pattern for a super cute “ponytail hat” that lets the wearer pull her ponytail through a hole
• Non-Evergreen – Pink cat hats that liberal women were wearing at protest rallies

If something is a HUGE seller for you and it is not evergreen, then for sure it is worth updating frequently yourself or by hiring a Virtual Assistant to help. I am not saying you should make everything evergreen or not, just that if you want to keep it truly passive it is best to pick something that is going to stay “in fashion” for quite a while.

How To Brainstorm IDEAS For Your Digital Downloads

If you haven't ever thought of creating digital download products it can be REALLY intimidating to get started! But I bet you already have lots of things on your computer that you could launch today.

1. Start with what you already have!

For example, I started my store with worksheets that I had already made to use myself. I tend to make a new worksheet anytime I get stressed about my work so I just publish them as products as I go! I also had a few ebooks that I had created over the years that I put up.

2. Check out top sellers on your favorite site

I sell on Etsy so I like to use the site Craft Count to see what is popular. Now, this is NOT to copy but just to find out what other people have sold successfully in the past.

You can check out all the categories related to selling digital downloads and see what they top sellers are doing!

Note: Copying other successful people exactly rarely works. You could have your store taken down because of plagiarism. Additionally there is a thing called the “first to market advantage” which gives them a perpetual bonus for selling. It is better to look at what they do and find something comparable that you could do better than anyone else!

3. Ask your current customers what they want

I have found that asking my “peeps” what they want results in the best products. Send out an email asking what your current community needs and then make that. OR do a Facebook survey listing your top 5-6 ideas and ask which your people would like to see first.

When I started I heard this A LOT and never really paid it any mind, but as I have gone on I start noting down what people are asking about a lot and then create products to answer those needs as we go.

How To Create Digital Downloads

Now that you have an idea for your first product, I am sure your next thought is, how do I make this a digital download. Here are some ideas, starting from the easiest to the hardest!

1. Use MS Word, Excel or Powerpoint (or Google Docs)

Many people think that you have to get all fancy for your digital downloads, but you can start out easily by just having a Word Doc, Excel Spreadsheet or even a Powerpoint (just remember that not everyone has Powerpoint).

If you are unsure about how to do this I can't recommend this “fill in the blank” template to get you started! Remember, it is not the format but your content that they want to buy!

2. Save As A PDF

Another easy way to make digital download products is to simply choose the “save as” PDF function in your print menu.

This allows you to deliver a formatted, easy to keep file to your customers.

3. Use Graphics Programs

Some sellers like me will want to use Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator to create their products. this is generally only necessary if you are making “fillable” forms or graphics heavy products like patterns or SVG files.

You can also use the free program, Canva.com to make printable!

How To Make Products That Help Your Business

Many of us are using this type of lower ticket product to sell into a larger product. For example, some people who buy my $3.50 Etsy SEO worksheet go on to buying my $150 Industry Research SEO product (retired).

So with this in mind, you could make money passively by selling a “smaller” digital download product that would help them move down the sales funnel to your higher ticket item.

Tips For Upselling

1. Include a call to action at the end of your digital product.

If you did a great job on a lower ticket item, they may want to buy something more from you when they are done. Mentioning that you have another (higher priced) offering at the end of your product.

2. Add them to your email list

As you launch more and more products, some buyers will want to buy some or all of them. If you have them on your email list you can notify them when a new product launches.

3. Send them to a “survey” at the end

When I do work for people I like to send them to a survey to get feedback on what I did right or wrong. You could include a subtle upsell pitch at the end of the survey.

4. Give them a coupon or “credit” towards your higher ticket item. 

Sometimes all it takes to get someone who likes you to buy is a wee discount. Include a coupon for a discount or even offer to “credit” the cost of the digital item towards them purchasing your higher priced product.

Making More Money With Your Digital Printables

Most sellers start by selling lower priced digital downloads but there are easy ways to move that price point up!

I started with all products between $1-3.50 and that made making money a little challenging. But then I decided to start selling planners that were $17.50. This increased my income exponentially!

Here are some ways to increase the size/price of your printable products:

1. Bundle – you can bundle a number of related products together and offer a bit of a discount on buying the larger product.

2. Increase Size – moving from a single page to a whole planner let me charge more for my products.

3. Advanced – increasing what you offer. I have videos for each of my products, a pattern maker could include a video walkthrough too! A party supplies maker could include an “in the mail” copy so they can see what it is supposed to look like. Adding more to the digital download will increase the happiness of the person who buys your products which is super important.

Delivery

One thing about digital downloads. They can be scary to your buyers. Even though they have been around FOREVER in internet years, many people have never ordered or paid for one yet.

ANYTHING you can do to make people understand the process when you send your confirmation email will help. Make sure to include directions for how they will get your product and how to download it (say if it comes in a .zip file).

Reviews

You need to ask for reviews! When lots of happy people say nice things about your product that can make it way less scary (you can even include your reviews in your listing pictures!)

How Can You Sell Something That Other People Give Away For Free?

One HUGE problem I hear from people considering making digital download printables to sell is that other people are giving them away for free. How the heck can you combat this with your product?

1. Don't Worry! First off, you need to stop worrying about other people and focus on making your product AMAZING! People are more than willing to pay for something that is of value.

2. Make Yours Professional. The only way to prove your value is to provide something they can't get for free. Check out your competition and do more than they do for free.

3. Grow A Community To Sell To. This has been a big one for me. I have this website and an email list who I sell to based on what they need. Your tribe will be the people who start the buying ball rolling and then tell all their friends about your products.

4. Offer Guarantees. I offer a 100%, money back guarantee on everything I make, no questions asked. Over the years I have given back a handful of dollars, but that guarantee makes people so much more comfortable to buy!

Selling Digital Download FAQs

I get a lot of questions about selling digital downloads… here are some of the best ones!

How does selling printable's work….can you only use certain fonts/graphics? 

If you are creating your own photos or graphics you have nothing to worry about.

Stock Photos

If you are buying stock photos, check the licensing agreement. They will generally tell you the number of products you can create using their “standard” license. (look for “usage rights” or “usage agreement”)

This Big Stock Photos's current info….

You may not copy or reproduce any Content (in whole or in part) more than two hundred fifty thousand (250,000) times, either directly or indirectly, except as expressly provided in Part II hereof.

Big Stock Photo Usage Agreement

So, if you made a cute little mug design from one of their images, the standard usage agreement would cover you up to 250,000 sales BUT another clause in the agreement would get you!

YOU MAY NOT: Use or display any Content on websites or in connection with any service designed to sell or induce sales of user-commissioned “print-on demand” products using or incorporating Image(s), including, by way of example only, postcards, mugs, tee shirts, posters, giclée prints, wallpaper, artwork and other items. 

Big Stock Photo Usage Agreement

You may have to purchase an extended user license to cover your product that you want to produce.

Fonts

Fonts are much easier to get licensing for sales for! Whoo whoo!

I love Creative Market because even their big font bundles come with at least a basic commercial use license.

If you use their fonts in your products you can sell a fair number before you ever have to worry about crossing a line.

I would avoid the “free” font sites. Most of those give away fonts for personal, not commercial use.

Can I use the already made templates in CANVA and personalize them with info then sell them?

Absolutely! Canva offers templates to put your IP (Intellectual Property) into. Check out the video above to get more details!!!

Do I need a license to sell printable's?

You do NOT need a license to sell printable. Now, whether you have to charge sales tax varies a little bit state to state. That is the reason I sell mine on Etsy… they handle all of that for me!

Additional resource :: Get 40 free listings on Etsy!

How do I know someone won’t resell my items?

Truth is they might. They might steal your item and sell it as their own OR they might claim a copyright infringement and get your original item taken down (this happened to me).

Like everything in life, there is always a risk, but do a few simple things, like put a copyright notice in your printables and make your PDFs non-editable and you are a fair way to keeping safe (scammers are LAZY!!!!)

Is Etsy the best place to sell Printables? Why would I sell on my website if I could just point people there?

I would rather sell my digital downloads on Etsy than my own website (or Shopify store).

Pros to selling on Etsy… they do all the technical store setup and delivery of products, they have buyers already there looking for things like yours

Cons to selling on Etsy… there are other sellers you are competing with so you could “lose” your buyer you worked so hard for if they get the idea to buy something from you but like someone else's product better

You can mitigate this somewhat by having an Etsy Pattern website that is a “standalone store” featuring products you have listed on Etsy. So you get the benefit of being “on Etsy” and also having your own shop to send people to.

If a listing ends, do you lose your links from Pinterest?

If you have a listing on Etsy and you don't renew it, the links from Pinterest WILL break and Etsy will recommend other products that match your previous listing rather than pointing them to your shop.

Do I have to have WordPress, or can I use SquareSpace for my site since the SEO will likely come from a separate shop anyway?

This is a GREAT question that can be confusing for A LOT of people who are just getting into selling printables or doing internet marketing!

First you don't have to have ANY website if you are selling your printables on Etsy. You can direct people to your Etsy shop rather than to a website THEN a product. Many sellers never set up a website.

Second, if you are planning on blogging a lot about your process or doing a lot of SEO (search engine optimization) I would recommend setting up a WordPress site. If you are just looking to do giveaways and have fun social media posts, then I would pick SquareSpace.

Check out my Etsy shop to see all the items I have for sale!

Doing a Halloween marketing campaign? Here are my best tips and ideas for how to promote your business or products during the Halloween seasonal holiday! make sure to snag the free seasonal holiday printable included in this post!

Please note there are affiliate links included! We love advertisers who help to keep this great information free to our readers!

A Note About Halloween Marketing Before We Start

If you are reading this post having found it somewhere out there on the interwebs, you probably are not too concerned with offending your clients or customers with Halloween, but I think this bears saying….

If your client base is Evangelical Christians or more geared towards religion, maybe skip the witches and goblins and stick to a super mild pumpkin or some cute trick or treaters rather than hard core spooky Halloween themes and graphics. Here is a good post that talks about the history of Halloween and how it could be interpreted by the bible.

Halloween Is My Jam

Okay now that that is out of the way, let's just say that Halloween is my jam! I was born on October 29 so growing up I had two birthday celebrations, one where my family came over and we had cake and one where all my friends came over and we dressed up played games and trick or treated!

Now that I am a grown up marketing woman, I love Halloween even more (if that is possible)! The graphics are cool and it plays right into my “corny” side with things that I can say on my social media posts!

When Should You Start Marketing For Halloween?

I am a bit of a data nerd when it comes to marketing holidays so I tend to go to the source to find out when the Halloween “rushes” start!

For Halloween Blog Posts and General Interest

There is different “intent” when people are doing Halloween marketing. Some people (like me) are looking for awareness and trying to attract seasonal traffic. These types of peeps could include food or family style bloggers, authors writing articles, real estate agents planning open house parties, etc. This requires a longer lead time to get ready, get on people's calendars or to get indexed in Google so we should start at the early end of the scale.

According to Google, searches for Halloween in general start right when August ends and September begins.

Pinterest says it starts in August and ends in November, but that seems long to me based on years of personal experience.

For Ecommerce and Halloween Shopping

Shopping is a little different! If you are selling Halloween decor, costumes, or food products, you want to get out there when people are planning for the holiday.

My pals over Marmalead are awesome! They have started tracking real Etsy search data which lets us see when SHOPPERS are searching. I found it super interesting that the search term “Halloween Costumes” had a bigger spike in August than in September (shown) while “Halloween Decor” was starting in August but peaked in September & October.

Knowing this kind of data for specific type of product is great for knowing when to start promoting your items.

I did a search for Halloween posts on Facebook this morning (August 19th) and found that the WDW Magazine Facebook page had a post showing their Halloween “merch”.

THIS is why you want to post early and often! Consumers are asking questions about these shirts and now Walt Disney World has “dibs” on some of their spending dollars for the season!

For Services Business

I think that my service peeps can have fun with Halloween too, but maybe not expect a huge surge of sales as a result. It is more for branding and connecting with your customers on a more personal level.

You can just kind of “record” the fun things you are doing to gear up for the holiday. Do some Instagram or Facebook stories of picking your holiday costume. Snap a quick picture of taking your kid out to get their pumpkin or of your house all decorated with witches and pumpkins!

Your timeline is closer to the holiday than the rest of us.

Cute Halloween Sayings For Marketing

I am a total dweeb when it comes to marketing and love using cute quips and puns! When I was a real estate agent I used this cute little tag on Halloween popbys (fun little gifts to give your customers).

You can use cute Halloween sayings like these on your social media posts, postcards, in person or even as your email subject lines for your Halloween newsletters!

• The real estate market is fang-tastic
• No Tricks Only Treats
• Fangs For Being My Client
• Witching You The Happiest Halloween Ever
• Orange You Glad We Are Friends (with a pumpkin)
• We Are Having A Scary Good Sale
• Make Sure To Check This Out
• Back In Black (with a black cat)

Additional Resources: 100 Cute, Spooky Sayings For Halloween

Halloween Hashtags

There are three main social media sites that use hashtags heavily, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram (LinkedIn appears to be using them also, so worth putting them in there).

#halloween
#halloween2018
#happyhalloween
#halloweendecor
#halloweencostume
#halloweenmakeup
#trickotreat
#pumpkin
#scary
#spooky
#halloweenparty
#jackolantern

Halloween Graphics For Social Media

While I love writing blog posts for seasonal holidays, I know most of my peeps are going to be doing most of their online graphics on social media! With that in mind, here are a few different ways you can do that super easily!

Here are some fun Halloween graphics ideas…

• Pumpkins
• Witches
• Witch's Hat
• Broom
• Mummy
• Spooky Houses
• Gravestone
• Black Cat
• Spiders
• Bats
• Full Moon
• Skulls
• Ghosts

Instagram Halloween Posts

We all know that Instagram is all about the pictures, square pictures for the most part! But what you may not realize is that people also read the words and computers use the words and hashtags we include in our posts to decide what to show in our followers feeds.

The great thing about that is that you can pick a fun, obviously “Halloweeny” picture like this cute graphic witch from Shutterstock that is already formatted the correct way and not have to do even a little bit besides downloading it to be obviously celebrating Halloween.

Facebook, Twitter, & Google Plus Halloween Posts

These social media properties are a little more wide rather than square so you want to find a great, graphic picture that you can add some words to for a plain post like this…

photo source Shutterstock

It is super easy to add this kind of text using PicMonkey! Simply upload your picture and then add a layer of text with your fun Halloween message overlaid!

Pinterest Halloween Posts

A Halloween post that you use to promote your product should have more of a call to action like this one for my vintage shop where I feature “Halloween Decorations”!

Admittedly this is a more “designery” graphic than just overlaying some text. If you are not super web savvy it would be a great idea to use a site like Fiverr to have someone make it for you rather than taking a huge amount of time to do these yourself!

Ecommerce Pro tip: I tend to link this kind of banner to my category page rather than the individual item. That way if this exact item sells then the shopper can see the other items I have for sale in my store!

I did a search for “social media banners” and found a selection from $5-20 for graphic banners (skip the videos for this kind of seasonal holiday!)

Halloween Newsletters

One super fun way to participate in the holiday is to send your newsletter list an email for Halloween! You could use one of the clever headlines or something that makes sense for your business.

The nice thing about “holidays” is that you can get caught up if you haven't sent a message in a while (something that happens to us all from time to time!)

Here are some things you can send!

• Pictures of cute dogs wearing costumes
• Invite to your Halloween party
• Announcement of a sale
• “Weird and Interesting” things you find
• Funny great ready for Christmas message
• Recipes for Halloween cocktails

Additional Resources: Cool roundup of creative ecommerce email campaigns

Halloween Content Marketing Ideas

If you are in business you do content marketing, you just may not know that you do! Here are some Halloween content ideas for all different kinds of businesses…

Service Based (Realtors, Financial, Medical)

I could think of a 1000 different ideas of blog posts you could write with Halloween in mind for service based people!

• How To Avoid Getting Dinged By Your Homeowners Association For Your Halloween Decorations (real estate agents)
• Can Your Child Overdose On Halloween Candy
• Does Your Homeowners Insurance Cover Trick or Treaters?

Functionally what you want to do is write blog posts or social posts that coincide with subjects that are interesting around Halloween.

Etsy, Shopify and Ecommerce Sellers

It is easy to get stuck thinking about selling products, but if you are doing content marketing you want to get beyond that “buy my stuff, buy my stuff” thinking.

Here are some ideas for product creators for the Halloween season!

• 10 Fun Earring Styles To Upgrade Your Halloween Costumes (feature just yours if you have a big shop or do a roundup and show other kinds that would work too!
• How To Wear Just A Tshirt And Still Get Complimented On Your Halloween Costume (have some scary or clever shirts and don't forget this is about people realizing you have a shop, not just selling Halloween items)
• 5 Hot Halloween Decorating Trends This Year (include your product!… great for vintage sellers)
• Skip Trick or Treating, Treat Yourself To A Spooky Halloween Bath (feature your bath bombs, candles, etc.)

Everyone

Halloween Marketing Quotes – This is fun because it can be super creative! Find a great picture and a good quote to share on your social medias during the season!

5 Creative Halloween Marketing Ideas

1. Throw a costume party

If you are super social and love throwing parties then have a party! The great thing about having a party is that it gives you a chance to talk to everyone, even the people who can't come. Every time you get to “talk” with your peeps via email, phone or social media is a reminder that you are there and ready to serve them.

2. Make something with your own hands! 

These cute cupcakes from Sweet C's Designs are absolutely adorable and everyone appreciates when you take the time to do something yourself!

3. Take your best clients to the corn maze or haunted house

image source Shutterstock

4. Halloween popbys

Popbys are fun little gift bags that you can take around to your clients or customers. They are super easy to make with things from the dollar store or you can search “Halloween Party Favors” on Etsy and get a whole selection of them ready made to hand out!

5. Get some fun halloween treats to hand out to clients

How cute are these mummy cake pops from SparklingSweetsShop? Get a bunch of these and hand them out one at a time to your clients!

Halloween Marketing Campaign Wrapup

Well there you have it…all my best Halloween marketing campaign ideas!

I KNOW, sometimes it can feel like you do all this work for a holiday that will come and go, but come to find out that making your offerings at the right time in the right way makes it work.

Additionally it is cool when you do something this year and it pays off year after year like my Halloween quotes or this post will do!

Real life retailers… As you can see, Michaels Craft Stores PAID to show me an ad about Halloween in August! The big box retailers are spending A LOT of money and wouldn't be doing it if there wasn't some kind of payoff to them.

Real life results… I sold my spooky eyeball box two days after I listed it on Etsy. Whoo whoo! When you get these kinds of wins it is easier to get excited about marketing for the individual holidays.

Additional Holiday Marketing Resources

• Seasonal Marketing Holidays…. Dates, Hashtags and Keywords (Case Study Included)
• Black Friday Sales Worksheet | Map out your Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sales Plan
• Free Holiday Marketing Worksheet
• Halloween Quotes | Scary and Spooky Quotes With Pictures
• Shutterstock for Pretty Pictures 
• Halloween Picture Quotes To Post and Cheesy Halloween Email Subject Lines
• 11 Halloween Marketing Ideas to Scare Up Sales This October

Here are some of my favorite spooky and scary Halloween quotes with pictures!!! Boo!!

Each year Halloween rolls around and I think, I have enough quotes with pictures for Halloween, but then my inner spooky kicks in and I get all excited about getting some new Halloween pics to make spooky.

When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers, ‘tis near Halloween.
~ Author Unknown

At first cock-crow the ghosts must go Back to their quiet graves below.
~ Theodosia Garrison

There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.
~ George S. Patton

Hold on, man. We don't go anywhere with “scary,” “spooky,” “haunted,” or “forbidden” in the title.
~ From Scooby-Doo

If a man harbors any sort of fear, it makes him landlord to a ghost.
~ Lloyd Douglas

From ghoulies & ghosties & long-leggedy beasties & things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!
~Scottish Saying

Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them. ~ Brendan Francis

This inhuman place makes human monsters.
~ Stephen King, The Shining

So what, ghosts can't hurt you. That's what I thought then.
~ Stephen King, Bag of Bones

It's as much fun to scare as to be scared.
~ Vincent Price

I love finding things that scare me and doing them. That's how you grow.
~ Vanessa Hudgens

When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam, May luck be yours on Halloween.
~ Author Unknown

Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them… they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight.
~ Orison Swett Marden

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.
~ Samuel Butler

I also have always liked the monster within idea. I like the zombies being us. Zombies are the blue-collar monsters.
~ George A. Romero

He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.
~ George Carlin

I like to write in a shroud of secrecy because I have to keep finding ways to scare myself.
~ M. Night Shyamalan

Behind every tree there's a new monster.
~ Todd Rundgren

Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.
~ German Proverb

Ghostly things don't really scare me, but they really intrigue me.
~ Sophie Turner

The artist must bow to the monster of his own imagination.
~ Richard Wright

When someone asks, ‘Does success make you into a monster?' I always say, ‘No, it enables you to be a monster.'
~ Simon Cowell

I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear.
~ Rosa Parks

There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.
~ Mark Twain

Scare answers to scare, and force begets force, until at length it comes to be seen that we are racing one against another after a phantom security which continually vanishes as we approach.
~ Henry Campbell-Bannerman

Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile… initially scared me to death.
~ Betty Bender

I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life.
~ Corazon Aquino

An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself.
~ Charles Dickens

Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Fear is a darkroom where negatives develop. ~ Usman B. Asif

There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them. ~ Andre Gide

There you have it, my favorite Halloween Quotes with pictures for this year!!! Want more? Check out last year's Halloween Quotes or my first years Cheesy Halloween Email Subject Lines.

Multigenerational households are a growing trend in the US right now and real estate agents can capitalize on this for sales using Customer Demographics data like age, race, religion, geographic location and finances.

Pandemic Multigenerational Update

As you probably know, many more multigenerational households have cropped up since the pandemic.

For some moving in together was a chance to be “in the bubble” and able to see each other and for others it was a financial consideration as finances were strained or merging incomes allowed for a higher home buying opportunity. (additional resource… The Family That Buys Together Stays Together, source New York Times)

Lastly, the pandemic has increased the cost of housing in many areas of the country, requiring Millennials and Gen Z'ers who do not have real estate already to have to move back in with parents or even grandparents.

Reasons Families Might Live In A Multigenerational Household

Many families are again choosing to live in multigenerational households due to mixture of conditions:

• College aged kids carrying a lot of student debts may move back in with Mom and Dad following graduation
• High school graduates that do not have high paying jobs might need to live with their parents for longer
• Millennials are delaying marriage
• Married couples in financial straights might move back in with their families following the birth of a child
• Aging parents may move back in with their children if Social Security is not enough to cover their living expenses

Thirteen percent of home buyers purchased a multi-generational home to take care of aging parents, for cost savings, and because children over the age of 18 are moving back. One in five buyers aged 53 to 62 purchased a multi-generational home. Buyers 72 to 92 years was the second largest share at 17 percent. NAR 2018

Many adults right now are in that “sandwich generation” where they are caring for aging parents as well as raising children or taking care of young adult offspring who can't afford to move out on their own.

Population Living in Multi-generational Households Has Doubled Since 1980

Source Pew Research Center

Tips For Sellers Agents

While many of the things we are talking about today will apply to buyer's agents and their clients, it is important to look at them through the lens of helping your clients sell for the most money.

As they are listing their homes, it might be worth it to recommend adding a door to make a additional “suite” area rather than paying to upgrade an outdated bathroom or kitchen.

Use all of the fields in the MLS that are relevant for “features” that these families may be looking for AND make sure to include them in your descriptions. For example, instead of saying it could be good for an “office” say it could be good for a “office or mother in law suite”.

Tips For Buyers Agents

Okay, let's start right off the bat and talk about why it might be a good idea to make multigenerational households your niche!

First off, homes that can house that many people are generally larger and more costly. This could result in higher commissions for you.

Secondly, any time you can become the “go to” real estate agent for a defined group of people, you can more easily and affordably market to them.

Lastly, many times these types of niches talk among themselves and your referral income could become a backbone of your business.

Additional Resource :: Niche Marketing For Real Estate Agents Versus Agent Branding

Who Are Buying These Homes?

According to the statistics cited above from NAR,  one in five buyers aged 53 to 62 purchased a multi-generational home … 20%! That is HUGE!

The great news is that you can do a lot marketing-wise to attract that exact type of buyer!

1. Use “mature” people in your postcards and flyers.

Many real estate agents like to use pictures of young couples or families in their marketing materials, which actually target first time homebuyers rather that middle aged, move up or over buyers.

Make sure you are targeting “mature fun” images rather than “old decrepit” images. No one thinks they look as old as they do an you are trying to get business, not offend future clients!

source Shutterstock #promo

Additional Resources :: What Is The Lifetime Value of Focusing On First Time Homebuyers? – Real Estate Marketing

2. Target your mailings to mid-affluent neighborhoods

Since we only want to find people who want to MOVE to an intergenerational house, we will want to target neighborhoods that are currently good for families, good schools, etc.

You could use verbiage that speaks to their pain points.

• Kids moving back home?
• Is your “dream home” getting overcrowded?”
• Is it time to think about moving your Mom or Dad in with you?

The nice thin g about this tactic is that you could double dip the sale, selling their okay old house and finding them a larger, more accommodating new house.

Every Door Direct would be good for this as you are functionally doing blind mailings to a neighborhood. Instead of knowing WHICH people might be in this situation, you would want to use your marketing dollars to find out who might be considering this kind of move!

3. Use Facebook Ads To Find Your Perfect Clients

With the magic of Facebook targeting you can pick only people that are in your perfect customer demographic for buying a multigenerational house.

Using a combination of “location”, as a real estate agent you know which neighborhoods are likely to have people with older children

…and “demographics” like our perfect age range from NAR (53 to 62)

…PLUS married (according to the NAR report they account for 62% of home purchased in our target age range)

You can hone in very affordably on a segment of the population that would be likely to be looking for a multigenerational home!

Your ad could look something like this… (mocked up!)

One last demographic to think about is targeting women. Statistically women make 80% of the buying decisions for the home and (I feel) would be more likely to be a driving force behind getting all the people she has to care for under one roof.

Additional Resource :: Customer Demographic Categories For Facebook Marketing

Two Master Suites

This is becoming more and more a feature of new home builds. If you have a list of potential intergenerational buyers you might contact a local builder and see if they have that feature in their homes. If so, you may be able to negotiate a higher commission or additional free features for your buyers.

Ground Floor Master

If you are having an elderly parent move in, a ground floor master bedroom is almost a must have. This could also be a nice feature if an older child is living with them and comes and goes at all hours.

Separate Entrance

Always nice to have for the privacy of the person moving in with you. An older child might not want to have his/her parents knowing all their comings and goings.

Disability Upgrades

There are many accommodations that can be made for elderly people. Grab bars and non-slip flooring are just a couple that come to mind.

Multi Generational Real Estate Agent Expertise

Whew, that was a LOT to think about, but I wanted to talk just a little briefly about ways you could show your expertise in this area.

Knowledge of Available Properties

Make sure you are previewing or attending all the brokers opens for homes that might be good for intergenerational living. Set up a hot sheet notification for every home with a rental unit, income or two masters. Being the most knowledgable agent in the area about these types of properties will get you way ahead of your competition!

Ease of Buying and Selling At The Same Time

You should also let them know of your expertise in closing on multiple properties, including financing opportunities. You may have as many as 3 properties in the mix at any one time (the old house, the new house and the parent's old house).

Connections With Related Professionals

Last but not least, make sure you make connections with people who can help your clients before, during and after the move. You could make up a list that you give out in your buyers packet!

Also, these types of professionals may be able to give you referrals if they hear about people looking to have their parent or child move in with them!

• Estate Attorneys
• Mortgage Bankers
• Contractors
• In Home Care

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends Report NAR 2018
• In Post-Recession Era, Young Adults Drive Continuing Rise in Multi-Generational Living Pew Research
• Multigenerational Households Make Sense Why more and more adults are living with their parents. Slate
• Why multiple generations of families choose to live together and why it’s not such a bad idea Newsweek

2021 Update… How To Make Fast Pins!

Why Does Pinterest Want “Fresh Pins”

Before we go any further, I want to talk to my peeps… the ones that are NOT marketing gurus, but are just normal, plain jane business owners who are trying to get more eyeballs on their “stuff”.

Maybe you are selling a product or trying to get new clients or building your brand and you are thinking, “why should I spend all my time on making stupid new pins for Pinterest?”

Here are a few reasons I love Pinterest…

• I can drive my own views to my Etsy or Shopify stores
• I can find different kinds of people by using different titles on my Pinterest pins without having to write all different blog posts
• It is FREE TRAFFIC
• Making pins is super easy for me because I am a graphic artist

And that last one used to make me super sad…. for my non-graphic artist friends!

Like my marketing bestie who does Etsy and sells her planners on Amazon. How was she supposed to make her listing, sell her planners, AND then be a graphics guru, oh and spend all her time posting to Pinterest?

Pinterest Fresh Pins

So this year Pinterest decided to change the game in a way that made my little marketing heart happy. They decided that they want LOTS OF DIFFERENT PINS…. lots of different pins is my sweet spot… whoo whoo!

So we used to be able to make one pin for each post, product or whatever and that was it, job done.

Now Pinterest wants us to make all different pins, that target different users and different topics so that their users don't get sick of seeing the same pins over and over again. Makes sense.

By targeting different audiences with different kinds of pins you can increase your reach AND make Pinterest happy AND reach different audiences… win, win, win!

Additional Resource :: Read more about Pinterest Fresh Pins!

Tailwind Pinterest Pin Create Tool

Because of all of this, I was super happy when my pals over at Tailwind showed me their super secret new tool that you could use to make a gabillion pins all at once and then pick the very best ones to post to your account.

(I am special that way… but I had to keep my big trap shut until now when they let the cat out of the bag!)

This made me super happy because I LOVE making tons of different designs and then scheduling out the truly special ones that I think will attract Pinterest peeps the best!!!

Here is the “official” announcement!

And some pins I have made… super cute!

But wait, aren't all our pins supposed to look the same? What about branding for heck's sake!

Okay, when Pinterest was tiny, your followers “knew” you and could pick out your brand. But now they are GIANT and all they want to know is WIFM… what's in it for me! So you need to make pins that catch their attention in the feed and then give them a reason to click through to your products or posts!

How To Use Tailwind Create To Make Great Pins Fast

Okay, so that is great, but how does it work for my peeps? This is the way that I use the Create tool to make and schedule my pins!

If you do sign up for Tailwind I would love it if you used my affiliate link! https://marketingartfully.com/tailwindforpinterest (if you do sign up with this link I will receive a wee commission at no additional cost to you!)

Additional Resource :: How I make trackable URLs for my Pinterest Pins

Tailwind Create Best Practices

Okay, I can see it now, spammers flooding Pinterest with MILLIONS of pins… wah, wah, wah!

But we are not spammers, we are business peeps who know how to manage ourselves so here are some best practices for how to keep our Pinterest accounts safe!

Pinterest Best Practices For Posting

Pinterest doesn't tell us a whole lot about “THE RULES” for pinning on Pinterest, but we have found out some things over time! Here are some tips following best practices I know about…

The goal is to make super good pins… and then space out the scheduling! Okay, here is where we have to get creative! We KNOW we shouldn't pin more than about 30 pins per day total (I generally am in the 15-20 range), and we KNOW we should wait a bit between when we pin the same content out… SOOOO we can make a variety of pins for different audiences but don't bunch them all up!

We need to be more strategic with our pinning now that pinning 150 a day (or more) is frowned upon. Fewer amazing pins are better than hundreds of mediocre pins!

No more than 10 Boards – It used to be that “repinning” or scheduling to ALL of our boards worked, it doesn't now. Now you want to schedule each of your pins to ONLY the best, most relevant boards for your topic or product.

UPDATE: To be honest, these pins are SO easy to do that I don't repin anything…. I just schedule new pins out to the different boards instead of “repinning” the same Tailwind Create images.

You don't get dinged for scheduling pins – A Canadian Pinterest gal confirmed that there is no added benefit for “manually pinning” so it is fine to use the Tailwind scheduler to post your Create pins.

Pin your first pin to the most relevant boards – I have been using Create to make extra pins for my posts but doing one “real” pin for my posts first that I manually upload to Pinterest to the “right” board. That has been working well for me! Now I feel like you could skip that manual step if you picked the right boards in the scheduler.

Additional Resource : How I Use Manual Pinning AND Tailwind For Scheduling

General Best Practices For Posting

Make more pins for your best content – This one may seem counter-intuitive but it works! If you have posts or products that always show up in your top pins, make more pins for those! So my Artsy Fartsy post about how to get your dementia mom to take a shower does great, it is my TOP PIN. With that in mind I made and scheduled MORE new pins for it using Tailwind Create that had new images, different text, and a fresh description and title!

Make pins with different words – THIS is our chance to get creative and make pins that work for different audiences! Instead of using the same words on all your pins try to target different audiences or buyers with each of your pins.

Use different pictures – As you use Create more you will see that some of the templates work well with some pictures and others with different layouts. I upload at least 3 different pictures each time I do a set of pins. If you need more pictures, here are Free Stock Photo sites to check out. I like to pay for my pictures but if you can use your creativity to make free photos fancy, that will work too!

Tailwind's Create Pin Maker and Scheduler Wrapup

Hopefully this helps! As I use it more and get more best practices I will add them in here to help you too!

Right now Create is in Beta and they are giving preference to Tailwind Customers (makes sense) so sign up here for Taiwind using my affiliate link!

>> Sign up for Tailwind!

As an Etsy seller it is hard to know what storybook characters are copyrighted and which are not. Added to that is the fear that Disney will come after you hard if you are using one of “their” characters in your designs, titles or tags.

This post is an overview of Disney Copyright, combined with a list of storybook characters you can use in your designs “legally” because their copyright has expired and they are in the public domain.

Updated December 20, 2019

Disclaimer… I am a marketing person, not a lawyer. Please do not take my word for this, if you have a question, research it yourself or retain legal counsel. 

According to the Copyright.gov website, copyright lasts for the life of the creator PLUS 70 years. Super, that makes everything really easy right? Maybe not so much!

What about Cinderella and Aurora who were made into Disney movies? Does Disney have “dibs” on those characters? What about the Beauty and the Beast franchise, that they just rebooted with a full blown movie… is that their property?

Note: Baby Yoda is a protected Star Wars property… learn more on the Star How To Avoid Problems With Marvel Comics and Star Wars For Etsy Sellers page!

Common Sense Prevails

Most times you can use common sense to figure out if something is over the line “copyright” wise. Here are some live shot of current Etsy products… can you spot the ones that might have a problem passing the copyright sniff test?

The party package on the left from Popobell is a great example of using the Beauty and the Beast theme without using any of the Disney images. It has castles and vines and Belle, but nothing that steps over the line to annoy Disney.

The one on the right has a picture from the movie… sigh. Now, they may have gotten permission from Disney to use that picture, but I doubt it. Instead they are “stealing” the popularity of a specific necklace from a specific scene of a movie.

Here are a couple of examples from Cinderella… which do you think is okay?

The one on the left is from the PixelPerfectionParty store. It screams Cinderella and is a great example (I found that the party gals were super creative about making sure they stayed on the right side of the line!)

The shop on the right is using the EXACT images from the Disney movies. Now I KNOW they will say that they are using that fabric, but the license is with the company that manufactures the fabric, not with someone who makes a product from the fabric. Buying a product with proprietary images doesn't give you the right to use them for something for commercial intent.

Before you get all sanctimonious about “First Sale Doctrine” (meaning that buying the fabric is the “first sale” and you SHOULD have the right to use it to make products to sell), Etsy will not take the time to research all of this and you probably don't have deep enough pockets to fight Disney if they contact Etsy about your shop. 

How Is Disney Changing To Fight The Stealing Problem?

In doing my research for this article I found a great post on Quora about how Disney is now handling this problem. For example, they rebooted Rapunzel as “Tangled” and did The Snow Queen story as “Frozen”.

That is GREAT for us as it then makes the line super clear! But in the meantime, here are some of the public domain classics that Disney has made over the years (I focused on popular ones that we would use in making products):

• Aladdin (written in 1706 – source)
• Alice In Wonderland (written in 1865 by Lewis Carroll – source)
• Bambi (written in 1923 – source)
• Beauty and The Beast (written in 1740 – source)
• Christmas Carol (written in 1843 by Charles Dickens – source)
• Cinderella (written in 1697 – source)
• Jungle Book (written in 1894 by Rudyard Kipling – source)
• Little Mermaid (written in 1837 by Hans Christian Anderson – source)
• Peter Pan (written in 1902 by J.M. Barrie – source)
• Pinocchio (written in 1883 – source)
• Robin Hood (written in 1377 folk tale – source)
• Sleeping Beauty (written in 1697, note Disney named her Aurora, her original name was Briar Rose or Talia and her daughter was Aurora – source)
• Snow White (written in 1812 by Grimm Brothers – source)
• Wizard of Oz (written in 1900 by L. Frank Baum – this one is super convoluted source)

You are able to use ANY of these names and themes. You just cannot use any of the specific imagery or new parts that Disney specifically added.

Additional Properties Owned By Disney

• Star Wars
• Marvel Comics

Additional Resource: How To Avoid Problems With Marvel Comics and Star Wars For Etsy Sellers

How To Find Images To Use

As you start making products that are based on these stories you might want to get a bit of inspiration (that won't get you in trouble).

To find images for this you can do a search for “public domain images of alice in wonderland” or any other story.

This is the search results:

I love that some of them are in color so we can see things like this…

Disney actually based their Alice on the classic version so you would probably be okay making products based on the “classic” version that would match “new” Disney Alice colors.

When Mickey Mouse Enters The Public Domain

In 2024 Mickey Mouse will leave Copyright protection… YAY! But only the old versions… BOO!

It seems like some sellers are super excited that Disney will be losing some of their copyright protections in the coming years. This is true, but only for the older versions of Mickey, not the current day, colorful character we all know and love. 

As changes in his look occurred over the years, these will roll out over the the years. 

Losing their copyright doesn't mean that Disney will allow a free for all using current Disney characters that will not actually be in the public domain legally. 

A fun note about trademark though! I immediately thought to myself, well trademark will protect them, but that is not totally true. This has been brought all the way to the Supreme Court in Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. 

Twentieth Century Fox, which had owned the television rights before they expired, sued Dastar arguing that Dastar had violated trademark law by passing off Fox's work as its own. But the Supreme Court rejected that argument, noting that allowing the use of trademark law to restrict the republication of creative works would create “a species of mutant copyright law” that limits copying of public domain works.

Source Mickey Mouse will be public domain soon—here’s what that means

Just Because It Makes It Harder Doesn't Make It Wrong

It is funny, I hear Etsy sellers screaming all the time about how China sellers are stealing their designs while at the same time they have Disney pictures and inspiration on their own products.

Copyright protects you just like it protects Disney. Copyright starts at the time of your first publication of an image, piece of writing or work of art. You don't have to do anything to get this protection it is automatic. Now, defending that beyond just reporting it Etsy may cost more than you want spend, but it is available to you.

If someone steals your original designs or concepts you can report it to Etsy. They will then make a determination about whether they will support you.

Now that we have covered your rights, let's talk about Disney's rights. I KNOW it is harder to sell non-Disney products because they are so popular. But your job is to figure out how to use the public domain information to make your products appealing to buyers.

Inspired by… this one drives me nuts when I see it as an excuse. Sellers will say, “but I am just saying that it is inspired by a Disney movie. That is violating the Copyright act and is going to get you in trouble. Another “sneaky” way that sellers try is “similar”… also not okay!

But everyone is doing it… just because all your friends jump off a bridge, oh wait that is my talk with my kids, but kind of appropriate here. It is easy to find other people who are breaking the law every day in many ways. It is not worth putting your business in jeopardy by trying to take the easy way out.

Disney Fan Art Policy… let's talk a wee bit about fan art! Disney fan art is fine to do, of course. What is not fine is SELLING your fan art. I know, you are just trying to add to their company, but they are FIERCE about protecting their copyright and they want to control the products that are put out for their business.

Get Creative

You need to get creative with your product development. Do a wee bit of research and find out if something is in the public domain BEFORE you get far into the process.

Figure out if some of what is “Disney-esque” is actually based on public domain that you can use without fear.

Last but not least be flexible!

We haven't even talked about all the crazy trademark rights (Disney ONLY has the trademark on “Princess Aurora” for production and distribution of motion picture films; production of television programs; production of sound and video recordings.)

I KNOW people and companies are trademarking so many phrases and words that knowing what is fair game is a moving target.

Just do your best to make sure you are staying in compliance, take down anything right away that violates trademark or copyright and keep producing new great products!

Sept 2018 Etsy SEO Update… ack! Directly from Etsy… Getting great reviews, having complete shop policies, and adding an About section positively impact your search ranking, while recent cases opened against your shop and intellectual property infringement issues can hurt your search ranking. Not only can Disney request that your product be taken down, but there could be lingering SEO effects even after it is down!

Even More Info!

I am more of an expert on licensing for photos and written work than Copyright and Trademarks, so here are some great resources I found while writing this!

• US Government Trademark Search
• US Copyright Search
• Legal Zoom Use of Disney Characters
• Interesting Post About Using Public Domain Quotes In Your Work
• Search Public Domain Images
• Your Etsy Copyright Questions Answered (Podcast Interviews) Part One and Part Two
• Interesting post about how Disney “Black Market” items are thriving

Awesome comment from a reader!

One note. Disney did not name the Sleeping Beauty Princess Aurora. That character was named Aurora when Tchaikovsky’s ballet premiered in St. Petersburg in 1890. (And Disney used Tchaikovsky’s music for the film). I’m not sure if she was called that in any other tellings of the story before then, but 1890 should be thoroughly public domain, as well. Many balletomanes and dance companies were quite annoyed when Disney registered “Princess Aurora” … Larissa King from Entrechat Dance

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR ETSY SELLERS

• Free Etsy SEO Course on Skillshare – https://marketingartfully.com/etsyseossfree
• Free Etsy Shipping Course On Skillshare – https://marketingartfully.com/etsyshippingssfree
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• All the cool worksheets and planners for Etsy Sellers – https://www.etsy.com/shop/PaperlyPeople

As an Etsy shop owner trying to decide on keywords for your listing titles and tags, I am not sure there is anything more confusing than figuring out if you should go long tail or for keywords with high view potential. Here are my best tips & ideas for Etsy marketing efforts!

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What Are Long Tail Keywords?

In this post about Google SEO, I talk a lot about what long tail keywords are in “regular” SEO, but it is a little different when we are talking about Etsy.

That is because Etsy users are already on the site with intent to buy whatever they are searching for, while on Google they could be searching for how to make something instead of just to buy it. That said, it never hurts to check Google SEO when you are doing your research for long tail keywords.

So what are Etsy Long Term Keywords?

I think we need to back up a little bit and talk about what Etsy SEO keywords are! Because “word” is in there, many sellers are thinking about it one word at a time. But keywords are actually words OR phrases.

Here goes some that should help this make more sense…

• Jewelry – main keyword by itself (17,112,840 Results)
• Womens Jewelry – still a main keyword (1,344,952 Results)
• Boho Womens Jewelry – still a main keyword because it is a category of jewelry (271,561 Results)
• Boho Womens Silver Jewelry – STILL not long tail (116,367 Results) … I am checking in Marmalead, this wicked cool program that helps with Etsy SEO

If you were doing searches like this and came upon a phrase like this that seems like it should be long tail, you might get seriously frustrated and think, “how many damn words do I have to get in there before it is long term?”

But let's think about which words we were using… “womens silver jewelry” is pretty darn broad all by itself (577,585 Results). Let's face it, there isn't anyone who is going to go through a HALF A MILLION results looking for your product!

And really who is searching for “jewelry” in general… ahhh that was a problem to begin with that could have screwed us up bad!

Not to say that we shouldn't have it somewhere in the tags, but I for sure would not have it in my title!

So let's do another one!

• Gifts (15,559,233 Results)
• Gifts for Men (2,047,075 Results)
• Unique Gifts for Men (135,513 Results)

So if you are selling a super cool shaving kit and can't show up in the top 100,000 for gifts for men, should you give up?

Nope, but you have to think about how people search!

Say you are looking for a present for a Dad for Father's Day. You might search for “unique fathers day gifts” (32,967 Results) .. getting better! And then see a whole bunch of options. At this level of search you are going to be looking at LOTS of pages of results until you find something cool you think your dad will like.

THEN you will switch to long tails!

I got to page 4 before I saw something that I thought my husband might like from my kids… a “personalized wood phone st“…

Now I had seen “docking stations” before this but they were not as “dad-ish” as this one was!

Also, as a buyer I didn't really differentiate between ads or regular products… I don't care! I just want to find a gift for my husband!

So now… I would swing back up search and see all the “Personalized Wood Phone Stand” (1,729 Results) which is a MUCH easier to rank for than “unique fathers day gifts”.

So there is a big overview of long tail keywords… hopefully that is easy to understand!

What About Etsy Search Views?

All of that is well and good, but what about views? What good does it do to rank for a term that gets less than 25 searches a month? According to Marmalead both “unique fathers day gifts” and “personalized wood phone stand” are long tail phrases that get less than 25 search views per month!

While both of these phrases have less than 25 views, it is pretty obvious that “personalized wood phone stand” is a better choice because it has less competition!

Etsy Search Analytics

Etsy has a feature that shows you search volumes for your keywords (among other things that we will talk about!) It is under Marketing > Search Analytics.

As you can see my listings got found through 22.8 THOUSAND queries in the last month. 22 THOUSAND different queries based on about 350 listings… dang!

That tells us the same thing that many of us from the Google SEO world already know… every day 15% of all Google searches are brand new, never been searched phrases… wait, what? Yep, brand new, no one ever asked about information in that exact way before!

Interesting note, in that same time frame my digital products store had only 7,471 queries on 53 products. Probably because it is all the same thing (worksheets and planners) and this is not a big time of year for me, while my vintage store has a hodge podge of everything!

Sorting my digital products by conversion rates (views versus sales) we can see that ranking for high volume is good and for long tail is good too!

Now, this is a little janky, but walk through this with me!

As you can see, “poshmark list” has less than 25 searches a month for that exact phrase, I rank #4 and I only got 3 visits for the month, but one person bought so it has a 33.33% conversion rate… yee haw!

But what I find interesting too is that I rank #61 for “real estate” had way more visits and made more revenue on that search phrase!

Should You Try To Rank Etsy Long Tail or Higher Views?

So what is the answer? Long tail or high views?

With SEO there is no one answer, because we are not making a binary decision (this or that).

You should try to rank for long tail keywords that accurately describe your product in a couple of different distinct ways AND try to get some of that high views goodness too!

Let's do one last product… ephemera.

I KNOW, we all want to ignore the ads, but shoppers don't care whether it is an ad or not!

So looking at this search we have almost 200K results, there are printables and real ephemera. I am not going to to be doing downloads so I want to start trying to hone in on good search terms for packs of ephemera. Starting with just these “winners” (they came up first for me) I will be checking…

Honestly, when I started this I thought that I didn't have any chance with this as many people as have this listed (especially the digital downloads) but seeing this gives me hope!

For sure I will be using all these phrases in my listings to try and get the “high view” keywords that have lots of searches and engagement AND the long tail ones.

It is too easy to get frantic and try to find all high traffic, low competition keywords, but those are really unicorns, there are a few but they will not be the ones that will get you the most sales.

When we are talking about having 22K different queries a month like my vintage store does, I can't figure it all out! I just have to find the best keywords I can do and then refine them as I go along.

What About The Ads… We Are Doing Regular Search?!?

Okay, a couple of things about the ads.

First off, ads only show up for keywords related to ones you have in your listings! So those are valid listings, even if it makes me cranky (except when they are my ads… hahaha). If you need help with promoted ads, I suggest you try this free promo cheat sheet!

Second, buyers are interested in the ads too! I know we want to ignore that they are there, but it is important to understand that the shoppers don't care if they are finding ads or “regular” listings so we need to compete with them too!

A Formula For Your Listings

Okay, if you are the kind of person who wants a formula for EXACTLY how to do your SEO research, here is one that should work for you!

• 2 Strong Long Tail Keyword Phrases
• 3-5 High Volume Keywords That Match Your Listings
• Fill In The Rest With Synonyms And Related Keywords

I know this is not the most satisfactory answer for people who just WANT AN ANSWER, but SEO is funky and not straightforward!

Etsy SEO Keywords FAQs

SEO for your Etsy store is confusing so I am sure that you have some more questions… here are a few answers that I have given recently!

Should You Still Be Focusing on Titles and Tags?

I had a gal ask me yesterday in the Facebook group about whether she should still be focused on titles and tags… here is what I told her!

The title and tags are what they use for rankings (NOT the item description!) So for sure you need to use those as much as possible. I have been doing regular SEO since 1999 and I have found that you use what the platform wants to get views, so YES I would focus on tags and titles. Marmalead is amazing… it is like having secret access to keywords are working right now. When I found that as an Etsy seller it just made me even more bummed that Google didn't have that for real websites!!!!

How Should You Split Up Your Keywords?

So the best keyword… say “gold starfish earrings” is the first thing in the title AND in the tags. After that you should put the best keywords in the title and other ones in the 13 tags!

Now, the funny thing about Etsy is that the “tags” are not exactly tags, they are just ways to add keywords you might want to use. For example “gold starfish earrings” might not fit in one tag so you could do “gold starfish” and “starfish earrings” to split it up. OR you could do “gold starfish jewelry” and then “starfish earrings” getting one more keyword into your tags.

Functionally you want to use all the characters Etsy gives you!

Small business lead generation strategies are a big deal over here in our marketing world! We are really good at helping you fill your sales funnel, but if these leads never follow through to a conversion and a sale then it is a wasted effort.

Having worked with small biz clients and business owners, we often hear that they had gotten “no leads”. Huh, that's weird since I see leads coming across the email marketing, in blog comments and as requests for info on Social Media.

I think what they are saying is that they had gotten no “sales” or new clients. This can happen because of a breakdown between leads and sales.

Today we are going to look at all the pieces that go in making a successful lead to sales transaction.

What is a sales funnel?

A sales funnel (also known as the sales pipeline) is the term for the process by which we add A LOT of leads into the top of the funnel and sales come out of the bottom, losing some along the way.

The parts of the sales funnel can be called a lot of different things including prospects, target audience, suspects, and customers; leads, visitors and pre-qualifications.

We are going to look at some of the normal sales-funnelly things, but then we are going to talk specifically about where your process may be failing your conversions.

It can be VERY easy to get caught up in the labeling and not look a the practical aspects of going from prospects to a sale.

The Online Sales Funnel

Let's thinks about this for online prospects who don't know you at all or have just heard about you a from a friend or an interview on a podcast.

These people might have visited your website or Facebook page and think that you might be able to help them, but they may not be ready to jump on a phone call right away to talk! (I have some people I have worked with that NEVER talk to me on the phone!)

BIG POINT >>

I really want you to stop and think about how people enter your sales funnel. It used to be cut and dried, they saw your Yellow Page and called. Or they did a Google search, found your website and called.

The problem now is that they might have found you a million different ways. They might have seen a video of you on YouTube, be website visitors or have seen a share on Facebook from a friend of a friend of a friend.

You will need to make sure that you have an introduction process or a way to ONBOARD these people so they can get to know you and start trusting you before they even think about contacting you!

In my business (a blog) I have giveaways (lead magnet) that I offer that lead to an onboarding set of email that introduce them to my content. For example, I have a free shipping guide for my Etsy peeps!

Your business may not be blog posts, but you should have some way to keep in touch with your online prospects before they “officially” call in and ask for details!

Related Content :: How To Make A Sales Or Email Landing Page In WordPress

The Practical Sales Funnel

The practical sales funnel might be what you were taught in business school. A prospect comes in at the top and progresses down through the typical sales funnel stages.

1. Leads – Opportunity

High quality leads can look like many things. They can be a message sent through Facebook asking about your services, an email info request, a response back to your email newsletter, basically any time someone talks to you about the goods or services that you sell they are potential customers.

THE FIRST THING you should do after getting one of these messages is to add this person to your email list, or spreadsheet of prospects.

Make sure to note what kind of service or product they were interested in. Also ask how they found out about you so you can which of your marketing efforts are working.

This is the first step of your sales funnel and just consists of collecting their contact information so that you can communicate with them on an ongoing basis.

2. Making A Connection

The first time that you contact this prospect (whether it be by social media, email or phone), your goal should be to set an appointment.

An appointment for a formal phone call or in-person meeting where you can talk over your offerings at a time that is convenient and when the prospect will be receptive to listening to you.

I think that this should be over the phone as you have not pre-qualified this person enough to know if they are a good fit.

Can they afford your product or service? Are they ready to buy within the next 30 days? Have they researched any of your competitors?

These are all vital things to know and you are just wasting time meeting with someone who is not ready, willing and able to buy your product or service.

3. Follow Up – Timing

I am going to tell you something that you may find shocking. Most prospects do not buy right away, gasp. Honestly, I have asked some of our clients how many times they followed up on a sales lead and they say that they never followed up because the person did not buy after the first contact.

This is what we in the business call BURNING LEADS. The prospect raised their hand and said they were interested, but probably did not have enough information to take out their credit card and buy.

You should follow up a phone call with an immediate personal note or email, thanking them for their time. You should then reach out with offers of additional info at least two or three times more over the next couple of weeks (put it in your calendar).

After that, make sure they are on your newsletter list so they receive ongoing communications from you, which could remind them why they called you in the first place!

If you are a typical small business owner, you are probably a TERRIBLE salesperson. If this is the case (as it is with me) you are going to need to hire sales teams or even just an assistant to follow up for you.

You can pay this person a fixed rate or “spiff” them an amount for each appointment they set for you. DO NOT skimp on this, a good saleswoman can make you more money than you ever imagined possible!

Followup is the dead middle of the funnel and is the place I see most leads get lost!

4. Conversion – Obstacles

Okay, you have a lead and they want to buy BUT they have not pulled the trigger (ie paid you yet). This is the most frustrating part of the sales process and one you need to look at very closely because it is probably your fault that the sale is not moving forward!

First off, make sure it is VERY easy for your prospect to pay. Just this week we had a lady call and say she had been waiting for us to send her a link for payment.

Now I KNOW that we sent that link over a week or so ago, BUT what matters is that we re-send it to her right away while she is paying attention to us.

Another great example about how a process can fall apart is one of my bookkeeping clients. She takes her prospects, sends them to her salesperson to follow up, gets them excited about her services, they say they want to buy and then…NOTHING.

In my opinion, the sale is falling apart because she expects them to gather their receipts, bank statements and other financial documents together themselves.

To me it feels like, if they could do all that themselves, what would they need her for?!?!?! We suggested that she make a part of her services a two hour, holding-your-hand and getting your documents together startup meeting.

This way, she will get the client on board AND she will be losing less of them due to the fact that they are terrible at accounting tasks.

5. Sale – Persistence

Overall, sales takes persistence and can be absolutely, soul-killingly hard if you are not geared to enjoying being a salesperson. BUT, if you make it a game to see how many people you can move down your lead generating sales funnel, removing speed bumps along the way, you WILL make more sales.

Once you understand what closes the deal, you can have a strong call to action that tips the prospect over to a customer in the bottom of the funnel!

You want to make sure to track your “conversion rates”… how many people started at the top of your funnel versus how many eventually become customers.

This in turn will make it much more likely that you will want to do it again and and again!

Sales Funnel and Lead Generation Wrapup

Okay! That is a lot of talk about lead gen and it might be making your head spin right about now!

But it is super important to understand the process of your marketing from start to finish, down through all the lead generation steps.

Too often I see a marketing team recommend that a client get lead generation software BEFORE they know the actual stage of the sales process. Now don't get me wrong, I love a strong lead scoring software, but if you are just fumbling around without a strong funnel in the first place, all you will be doing is collecting an email address without any hope of getting a sale!