Etsy Tips & Tricks #1: Etsy Text

For my very first post on my brand new blog, I wanted to write about Etsy. Monday marks the one-year anniversary of Literary Tease on Etsy. I made my first sale on December 12, 2009, and just a minute ago, I made my 100th sale*. (* How did I freaking know my 100th sale would be the Twilight collage sheet?) While 100 sales in 1 year might not seem like a lot of sales, and it's really not, I'm pretty psyched about the progression that I've made in the last year. I'll write soon about that progression, but for now, I want to share a cool Etsy app that I love: EtsyText.

EtsyText.com

EtsyText is a free application that is free to all Etsy sellers. The application connects with your Etsy shop to send you a text every time you make a sale or when someone leaves you feedback. It's awesome because if you are without internet access for a while, you can still know if you made a sale. I found out that I made my 100th sale because I checked my phone and saw the text. The app is completely free, and if you have unlimited texts on your cell phone account, you don't have to worry about being charged ever.

When you make a sale, EtsyText will send you a text that says what you sold and for how much. So you don't have to wait until you get to your computer to find out what sold. I like this because I can have a game plan in my head of what needs to be done before I even get home to my desk.

The other really great thing about EtsyText is that you can set the time that the app can send you notifications, excellent for anyone with a job that frowns upon cell phone use! I have my EtsyText account set so that I don't receive texts during the jewelry classes that I teach. When the "Etsy Quiet Time" is over, you'll get a text that summarizes any activity that occurred during that time. (The other day I got a text telling me I'd made a sale during quiet time, and I couldn't wait to get home to find out what it was! That's the only very slight drawback -- the quiet time notification doesn't tell you what sold, only that you made a sale. I can deal with it!)