Christmas Spice Cold Process Soap

Chocolate Mint Cold Processs Soap

Erin of Inner Earth Soaps lives in Bondi Beach, Australia. She has been making handmade soap since 2006. She enjoys the process of designing new soaps and coming up with new and different color/scent combos. She uses a lot of additives such as clays, botanicals, silk fibers, honey and sea salt.

To see more of Erin’s soaps, visit her Etsy Shop and her blog.

Sonnee posted about this fabulous looking soap on The Dish Forum. Inspiration for “Zebra on the Beach” came from her swimsuit! Just goes to show you that inspiration truly is all around us. Sonnee tells us how she made it using real silk cocoons on her blog: Duffin’s Soap Bakery

Handmadeology University has a nice collection of detailed articles/tutorials on marketing your products online. If you haven’t read the articles yet, read them today and put the info to good use for the holiday rush.

Day 1: Mindset: Business and Technology

Day 2: Facebook

Day 3: Why Blogs Build Your Customer Base

Day 4: Get 100+ Twitter Followers in 24 Hours

Day 5: Time Management Tips

Many soap/candle/handmade crafters do not use special packaging for the holidays. It could be the time and effort involved to design and implement seasonal packaging or it could be the expense. I believe that swapping out simple elements in your current packaging is probably the safest and less time consuming way to go.  Here’s a few examples:

Yummy Suds Soap Company has simply wrapped a holiday themed paper around simple soap boxes to give it holiday flair. These soap boxes happen to be made from seeded paper that will grow when planted. you can find and purchase at Of the Earth if your interested. You can find holiday themed paper to use for the cigar band at almost anywhere these days and the cost is minimal.

Here’s another example from Humble Beads:

This technique can be used on anything really. Lotion bars, tins etc. You can tie a ribbon or wrap a cigar band around just about anything.

the following following examples of Kate Spade, Mandel Bros., Marshall Field & Co., and Carson Pirie Scott boxes are pre-printed but you could easily achieve the same effect with stamps.

And if none of that grabs you- just wrap the entire product in holiday paper and tie some ribbon around it. You’ve been wrapping presents since you were a kid. Should be easy enough.

I know that some of you are groaning at the extra work and so do I.  Personally, I’m a gift bag gal because I HATE HATE HATE wrapping presents. But going the extra mile for your holiday shows will pay off. Details like these will set you apart from the soapmaker next to you. Think of shoppers like me. I hate wrapping presents and have little time for it. If I have to choose between two products of equal quality – I’m going with the one that’s ready to put under the tree.

Essential U Blog – Sitting on the Social Media Bench
Great article written from an industry leader on why you need to get into the social media game to grow your business.

Twitter and Facebook Updates to Show in Search Engines — Are You Prepared?

If you use Twitter and Facebook to promote your business, this news can be good or bad.  Good – because it can boost your chances of being found in a sea of Bath and Body Web sites. On the flip side – this could be BAD because it can boost your chances of being found for interactions that you’d rather not be found for.  How are you representing yourself and your business on Social Media sites? What are others (who can also be found) saying about your products and services? How are you promoting good reviews of your products? How are you dealing with negative comments about them? Are you dealing with them at all? This news makes the first article I posted by EssentialU all the more relative to your online business.

For more info:

Google blog post announcing they will include tweets in search.

Confirmed: Twitter and Facebook to Be Part of Bing Wave 2 (Not to Be Confused with Google Wave Beta)

Read teh article: Twitter and Facebook Updates to Show in Search Engines — Are You Prepared?

TOOLS YOU CAN USE

Etsy Hacks

Anyone that uses Etsy knows how labor intensive listing can be and will understand why I was thrilled to find Etsy Hacks for FireFox. Installation is painless and in the end you will be able to do the following and more:

• copy listing – create a new listing based on an existing one.
• item zoom – adds a zoom icon to images in search and shop listings.
• edit this item – edit or delete a listing from the View Listing page.
• buyer info – add extra information to the “buyer” box on a receipt page.
• forum wrangler – add extra features to the Etsy forum pages.

Etsy Hacks are free to use and can be found here: http://www.etsyhacks.com/ (For FireFox only.)

Magpie Twitter Ads

Thinking of  advertising on Twitter? Magpie may be for you. You select the Twitterers, approve/disapprove the tweets and decide how much you want to spend. You can spend as little as $20 on your campaign and you can allocate how the ad dollars are spent: on an entire campaign; per day; and even per keyword, placing the budgetary control entirely in your hands.

For more information, visit the Magpie Web site.

The Official Etsy SEO Guide:

http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/etsy-guide-to-seo-5224/

A well written  summary of the guide in plain English can be found here:

http://handmade-business.blogspot.com/2009/10/etsy-seo-cheat-sheet.html

Keywords are King! Adding keywords to your product titles and descriptions is the most important step you can take towards improving your shop’s search engine ranking. In addition to this – using all fourteen of the shop tags that Etsy provides you will better your search results within Etsy searches. SO! Keyword research is important! Find out what Internet users are actually searching for before adding your keywords to your listings. Here are two keyword research tools for you to use:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

http://www.wordstream.com/keywords/

Google Base – Now Google Merchant Center

Beginning on December 1, 2009, individual sellers on marketplaces like Etsy will no longer be able to submit their own shop feeds to Google for placement in Google Product Search. Instead, marketplaces (Etsy) will be required to manage feeds for their sellers under a single account.

Etsy is on the job and will soon start managing the feeds for Etsy sellers. Find out more here:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6300865

If you’d like to upload your shop feeds until the policy changes, the following tutorial link will show you how.

http://www.gotogreatpanes.com/blog/google-base/

Link Building

Google is big on inbound links. Find out more here:

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/10/good-times-with-inbound-links.html

http://www.techcrafter.com/content/importance-link-building-seo

Track your efforts with Google Analytics

Etsy and Google have provided shop owners a way to track their incoming traffic with Google Analytics. I found three tutorials to get you started:

Step by step tutorial on how to set up Google Analytics for your Etsy shop. If you are brand new to Google – setting up a Google account is also explained.

Tutorial: http://timothyadamdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/01/installing-google-analytics-for-your.html

Once you have Google Analytics set up you may want to check out these other tutorials…

Google Analytics and Your Etsy Shop

http://timothyadamdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/01/google-analytics-and-your-etsy-shop.html

Google Analytics: Tracking Time Trends

http://timothyadamdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/01/google-analytics-tracking-time-trends.html

OK-so I know it looks like a lot of work and it is. There’s no denying it. But not doing the work can directly impact your sales. My advice is to commit a few hours a day to it until it is complete. The Etsy guide will take you step by step through the first part of the process. The additional info listed here will help you through the rest.

First up – Mini Ghosts by LoveLee Soaps. TOO CUTE! They remind me of the little Pacman ghost.

These Halloween Monster soaps by Sherri’s Scents & Soys are apple scented with fun finger puppets to entertain after the soap is gone.

Halloween themed cupcake soaps by Machine Gun Alley.

What’s Halloween without candy Apples? These sweets can’t be eaten though I don’t think you’d know the difference until you took a bite out of one.  Sun Basil Garden has done a terrific job with these.

And finally – this Prowling Cats Whimsical Woolies Felted Soap by Persnickety Pelican must the finest examples of felted soaps I have seen so far. I chose this soap because of it’s Halloween theme but they have MANY gorgeous felted soap designs. Do check them out.

Sorry – I couldn’t resist, I had to post one more felted soap by Persnickety Pelican.

How about you? Have you come across noteworthy Halloween soaps you’d like to share? Tell me about them in the comments section!

1. A Smartphone with a good Internet connection – no connection no joy.

2. A Twitter application for the phone.
There are many applications out there and I believe ALL of them are free. Find one that works best on the phone that you purchase.

3. Local followers

I may have lost several of you just by typing the word “Smartphone,” You’re thinking you can’t afford it and wouldn’t know how to use it. Yes – there will be a slight learning curve to using it but nothing you can’t handle. It’s very much like computing and if you navigated your way to this blog I feel certain you can learn to use a Smartphone.

Most mobile networks offer wonderful deals on the price of a new Smartphone with a new contract. It’s usually the monthly Internet fees that turn people pale. But here’s the thing, most of you are working from home in order to be around for your family. A Smartphone offers you way more flexibility than a computer does. I can take my daughter to the park and send and receive important emails via my Blackberry while I’m there. I can Twitter during long graduation ceremonies or boring sermons at church. Oops! Did I say that out loud?

If that’s not enough for you, a Smartphone will make accepting credit cards at craftshows, markets and parties a breeze AND you can deduct business phone expenses from your taxes.

Let’s talk about local followers for a minute. I know that many Twitter users do not focus on locale for their online businesses but if your doing business offline and locally, it’s very important. TwitterGrader displays a list of top Twitter users in your area. Connect with them to start building your local list if you haven’t already. To find local users on TwitterGrader, type in your Twitter name to get your score. Once your score displays, you’ll see a list of info displayed below – including your location. The name of your location is a link to others that share your location. Click on it to display the top Twitter users in your area.

So now that you have the phone, the Twitter application and the followers, how do you use Twitter at a craftshow or market?

1. Tweet dates and times of your shows
2. Offer free stuff to Twitter followers that show up at your booth
3. Hold special drawings for Twitter followers
4. Work with other craftshow vendors to host a Twitter scavenger hunt at the show. I’d go to any show that did that.

The list I posted isn’t very long but it gives you the general idea. The key is to be creative and offer your followers and shoppers a new experience. YOU will have a lot more fun while you’re there too.

How We Reduced Chargebacks by %30 – 37 Signals
37 signals reduced their chargebacks by changing the way their charges showed up on customer credit cards. Great idea!

1000 True Fans
Build your business one fan at a time. This article really hit home with me. Don’t miss it!

ToldYa – Mashable
Mashable reviews ToldYa – a social media storefront to sell on Facebook, My Space and more…

Google’s SEO Starter Guide
Straight from the horse’s mouth…Google tells you how to get better listing on their site.

That’s it for today. Happy reading and see you soon!