Sneak Peek: Providence Arts Festival

]

Getting Started on Meylah

So, I signed up for Meylah a few months ago and never did anything with it. I like the idea, in theory, of expanding my online offerings, especially since Etsy is packed full of sellers, but in actual practice, I have no idea what to do with Meylah. The whole thing is a little confusing. So my storefront has languished, empty and unloved, with me thinking about it every once in a while without any action.

Enter the Meylah e-Course. In a newsletter last week, Meylah offered a free e-course to a limited number of people who responded. They were, apparently, flooded with responses from people probably equally as lost as I am. A few days later they said that the course was full and sent apologies to anyone who hadn't gotten a confirmation email. Well, I didn't get any email, so I figured I didn't get into the course... until I got an email about it this morning. Well alright!

This week's lesson of the Meylah e-course is all about setting up your storefront. I'm halfway through the initial steps, and I'm looking forward to continuing. I've wanted to make tutorials for some of my projects, ones I've designed for my students and for myself, so I'm hoping this will give me the incentive to actually complete them! Hurray! (Um... I just logged back into Meylah to figure out my storefront link... and the site's down for maintenance. This does not bode well.)

I'll keep you posted and write about my experiences with the site.

Etsy Tips & Tricks #7: Be Legit

Becoming a legitimate business is easier than you'd think!

If you are planning on growing your business and really committed to being a business person, you'll need to be legit. Sure, you can probably get away without filing all the proper paperwork, at first, but why not save yourself some potential headaches by starting off the new year as a legitimate business owner? It's free, fast, and surprisingly easy!


How do you become legit?


First things first, you need to apply for a EIN, or Employer Identification Number, from the IRS. Do you really need an EIN? While a lot of people think that you don't need this number if you aren't going to hire any employees, that's inaccurate: the IRS website says that if you are starting a new business, you need an EIN. You'll need this number later to apply for business retail permits, a business bank account, and for wholesale accounts. While this all sounds quite scary, it's actually a really easy process. The hardest part, I suspect, is remembering to to click the link during the available hours, since the IRS EIN application is only available on certain days and times. I just filled out my application and it took all of five minutes. I printed out the pdf file and now Literary Tease is a legitimate business. Woohoo!


Confused about all this stuff? I hear ya! Check out etsy seller, JJMFinance, for ebooks on all the nitty-gritty financial details about being a seller on Etsy.   Jason says, "I am CPA (Certified Public Accountant) and have worked as an international accountant, not-for-profit accountant, and treasury professional (cash & banks). I also have helped countless small business owners with their financial needs." Jason's positive feedback and the recommendation of a friend convinced me to try his product. 


I purchased the Whole Financial Tamale for $50, which I know is going to pay for itself in no time. It's informative and easy to read/understand. I was feeling really scared about taxes for 2010, since it's the first year that my business actually pulled in profits (I think!) and I'm a lot calmer now that I have Jason's eBooks to guide me through the process. This year will still be scary, but I know that next year will be much smoother because I'll be organized and tracking my expenses all through 2011.

Etsy Tips & Tricks #6: Testing Your Tags

If you're committed to consistently spending time growing your Etsy business in 2011, make sure to spend some time working on tags. Tags are the lifeblood of your Etsy shop: if you aren't using the right tags, your potential customers will never find you.  While every single Etsian seems to have his or her own theory about how to use tags most effectively, one thing's certain: you gotta have tags to make the sale.


First and foremost, don't use inappropriate tags for your items. If you are selling a pair of rainboots, don't tag them with the word "umbrella" in the hopes that someone looking for an umbrella will find them. While that could work, you're more likely to find your item getting flagged for having bad tags. If, on the other hand, you are selling a painting that includes a girl holding an umbrella, by all means, use the word "umbrella" as a tag.


So how to figure out the best tags to use for your items? First, think like a buyer and imagine that you wanted to buy your item. What words would you search for to find it? Try the search and see what comes up. If you find a bunch of items that are close to yours, you are on the right track. If there's nothing close, you are either completely unique and original (which is possibly, but honestly, unlikely) or you need better tags. Ask your friends and family what words come to mind to describe your items. Try searching for those.


Learn from others. Find someone selling an item similar to yours and see what tags that are using. I'm not saying you should completely copy someone else's tags, of course, but you might get inspired by seeing how someone else described a similar item. A word of warning though: just because someone else is using those tags doesn't make those tags automatically the best tags to use. Use your best judgement.


Speaking of tags, don't always use the same tags. You can use the same basic tags, but mix 'em up a bit. You'll find that some items get lots of views and some don't get any. When you sell an item, analyze your tags to see how they differ from the items that keep getting relisted without selling. If you offer free shipping, use a tag that says free shipping. (Don't use that tag if it's not free shipping though!). Use the most relevant tags you can. Not sure what tags to use? I keep a "tag recipe" next to my computer, use these in order as relevant to your item:

item
material
type
color
design
size
style
occasion
use

Try to think of other words that people might use to describe your item. Sure it's a purse, but maybe it's also an evening bag, a hobo slouch, or a wristlet? If one of these "ingredients" isn't relevant, skip it and add something that is. I try to use a lot of different color names, if I can. It's not just pink, it's salmon pink. It's not blue, it's cerulean or turquoise. Using good colors seems to get my items into a lot of treasuries, too.


One final thought: Etsy allows you to include 14 tags with each listing. Use 'em all! Do your best to come up with as many good tags as you can. Analyze every little detail about your item so that you can use tags to your best advantage.  Check out Craftopolis to track what tags people are using to find your items. Stick with what works and find something new to replace what doesn't.


Want to learn more about tagging? Check out the Etsy forums and you'll find LOTS of information from lots of sellers. Here's a great post with 6 tips for tagging. Here's the official Etsy tagging rules.

Etsy Tips & Tricks #5: Consistency is Key

If your New Year's Resolution is to kick your Etsy sales up a notch, you've come to the right place! I've been actively running my Etsy shop for just over one year now, and I've definitely learned a lot in the past year. If I had to give only one piece of advice to a new Etsy seller, it would be this: Consistency is Key. 


I'll admit it: I haven't been a particularly consistent Etsy seller. I tend to get all excited about something, like selling on Etsy, put a lot of time into it for a few days or weeks, and then promptly forget all about it. While there's something to be said for the idea that having something listed on Etsy is better than nothing, you'll fare a lot better as a seller if you are consistently listing new items and renewing old ones.


If possible, it's definitely best to add new items often and consistently. I don't always do this, but I make the most sales when I do. Instead of posting 20 items all in one day and then nothing for a few months, you'll have much better luck if you post one item every day for 20 days. This ensures that your listing stays close to the top of searches. Once you get buried, it's really hard for your potential customers to find you. If you don't have that many items to sell, but you sell multiples of that item (like custom necklaces or something), relist that same item a few times, but maybe vary the first picture with the listings. I currently have my custom dictionary brooches listed about three times.


How to maintain consistency? Set a schedule for yourself and stick to it. This is something that I didn't do in the beginning, which is why I had sluggish sales. Sure, I sold a few things a month, sometimes a few things a week, but I could have been doing a lot better all long if I'd be more consistent about my time spent on Etsy. Think of it this way: the more time you put it, the more you'll get out. Try and devote at the very least one hour a week to working on your Etsy shop. Very likely, you'll find yourself spending more time, but stick to that one hour a week thing on the weeks when you are insanely busy. Tell yourself it's only an hour and just do it already!


What to do in that one hour? Add new items, renew current items, and research tags. Find people who are selling items similar to yours and see what they are using to tag their items. Check out Shades of Color on Wikipedia and make sure you are tagging your items with the best color words you can. Improve your photography skills. Build a lightbox if you don't already have one and practice, practice, practice. You don't even need a fancy digital camera: mine is a Fujifilm A205 which sells for about $40 on eBay. I love it! Improving your photography skills is probably the number one thing you can do to improve your chances of success of Etsy, so add it to your to-do list.


Make a commitment today to spending at least one hour every single week this year working on your Etsy shop. Stick to you and come back 52 weeks from now and tell me how your year went! I'm willing to bet that if you commit to actively improving your shop, you'll see improved sales numbers to match that effort!
That being said, there's definitely merit in sometimes posting a whole crapload of items all at once. Over the most recent Black Friday weekend, I decided to take the opportunity to really beef up my store. I had tons of items in my inventory from my summer sales and have been meaning to post 'em online for months. I posted over 100 items on Black Friday alone, which was, well, crazy! But you know what? I made 12 sales, the most I've ever made in one day (or, hell, one week!), so the overload strategy must have worked. In the week following Black Friday, I made over $500 in sales, which was probably more than I made in the whole year prior to that one crazy overload Etsy day.

I read in the etsy forums a post by a successful seller who said that if you aren't paying a lot in fees, you aren't listing enough on etsy. That totally makes sense to me! My etsy bill is currently $75 or so, but I easily covered that from my Black Friday sales & all those items are still good for 4 months, if they don't sell sooner. Totally worth it.

Etsy Tips & Tricks #4: Improve Your Photography Skills

When I was in high school, I went through a black & white photography phase. I have a simple 35 mm camera and I bought the black & white film because I thought it was cooler than lame-o colored shots. I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I knew nothing about lighting or angles or background/foreground. I just took pictures of anything that seemed interesting. In the many rolls of black & white film that I went through from 11th grade until I was too busy partying it up during my freshman year of college, I did manage to snap a few really great shots... but most of them were, admittedly, crap. (Some, literally, including my infamous "toliet flushing" art shot. Doh!) I made a few albums, put the rest in a box, and promptly forgot about them.

Later, I upgraded to a digital camera. My first digital camera was a pen cam, some crappy flash-free number that only took decent pictures if I shot in the bathroom (which crazy bright lights) or outdoors on sunny days. Oh, and I had to keep the pictures tiny on the web or they got all fuzzy. My friends and I definitely had a blast doing crazy photo shoots with the good old pen cam, including the photo comic strip "The Air Conditioner from God" and things like that, but after the best photo shoot of all time was lost due to a glitch in the camera's design that caused it to lose all saved photos if the battery died, I quickly lost interest.

A few years later, I had finally saved up enough money for a laptop computer, and Dell was running a promotion at the time that included a free Fujifilm FinePix digital camera with all the accessories, and I was psyched. I started taking pictures again, mostly of my friends doing stupid things and random scenic vistas, and when I went to Europe, the digital camera came with me to dialogue the most epic adventures of Mr. International and me. (I must have had a nickname, too, but for the life of me, I can't remember it. Note to self: Ask Mr. International!) Out of that came a cool web project called, um, Moira Does Europe, followed soon by the Phonebooth project. [Man, I really should upload these old projects, because I still love them. The only project from that era still online is Roses.]

So, yeah, I graduated from college, tried my hand at writing with minimal success, and somehow ended up as an artist/teacher. I still  use a Fujifilm to take pictures, mostly of my students being silly now, and of their projects, but I'm usually handing the camera to them. We even used my old Fujifilms (I have two now, long story) for a digital scavenger hunt that I designed this past summer for Hope High School's H20 program. But a photographer I am definitely  not.

So imagine my chagrin when I realized that my success selling my work online, as well as getting into galleries and shows, depends on my ability to either take fantastic products shots or to pay someone to do 'em for me. Ack! I've been doing okay shots, and I found a few templates that make it look like I can take a decent photograph, but a huge stalemate to my success as an etsy business is that my pictures look like crap. I learned about lightboxes a few months back, and I made one out of a cardboard box. It worked okay, but it's been annoying to find somewhere to store it and it's actually a little too small to shoot anything bigger than, say, a bracelet. Necklaces? Forget it. I thought about making another larger box, but where the heck was I going to keep it?

Things changed when Carole Ann showed me her collapsible photo light box made out of white foam core. Fantastic! You can make the box any size you'd like and when you aren't using it, you can take it apart and store it somewhere out of the way. The tutorial is on Snickerdoodle Creations. I'd love to tell you that it was insanely easy to make, and in fact for me, it was... because I didn't make it, Nick did. Still, he didn't seem to have any problems and now I have a lovely giant light box.

Just for fun, I posted some before and after shoots of my images after applying the technique shown in the Snickerdoodle tutorial. The first is my pencil tin, the second is an art piece I made, and the last is a random plastic butterfly that was floating around in my studio.

I've been working on improving my photography skills in the last few months, and I think that shows in the images in my etsy shop, Literary Tease. Here's an image from my Bonjour Paris Magnet set, the very first item I sold on Etsy:

Here's an image I took recently, from my Choose Your Own Word Dictionary Ring listing:

Dictionary Cocktail Rings
copyright Moira Richardson 2010

I don't know about you, but I think there's a world of difference between those two pictures. The dictionary ring image is far superior. I've learned how to avoid light flashes by the way I position my light. I use a full-spectrum lightbulb in my light box. I've also learned how to adjust levels in photoshop so that the colors show up properly, instead of yellowed out like in the Paris magnets shot. I'm sure there's still room for improvement, but I'm quite happy with my photography at the moment, especially considering that I'm still using my crappy point-and-shoot.

Etsy Tips & Tricks #3: Craftopolis

If you already have Google Analytics, you know it has its limitations. Sure, you can see how many people visited your Etsy shop or blog each day, but wouldn't it be great if you know exactly which tags they searched in order to find you? Wouldn't it be great to know how many page views each item in your shop gets each day as well as the total number of page views? Want to be able to see all your lovely hearts in one place?

craftopolis.com

Enter Craftopolis, which is several great Etsy seller tools in one. First, you have Shop Lovers, which shows you who's loving your shop and which items are getting the most attention. You can see all of your page views and sales for each month in one easy to read chart. You have the option to allow Craftopolis to connect to your Etsy shop and to your Google Analytics account for the best functionality.

If that's not enough to woo you, Craftopolis also offers a Tag Report, which shows you how people found your items by giving you the specific tags that they searched as well as the page number that they found your item on. So, if you see that your locket was on 6th page when someone searched for lockets, you know that you should either relist or renew soon so that your item will appear higher in the search listings.

To make it easy, Craftopolis has Edit Express, which is a fantastic and easy way to adjust your store's prices, item titles, descriptions, and/or quantity. You can edit every item in your store at once or check only certain items. You can completely change the description or modify by adding an extra line of text. You can change the prices on sale items by a set dollar amount or a percentage. The functionality is amazing. I can't vouch for how well this function works just yet, but I will be trying it out soon & will be sure to report back.

Have you used Craftopolis? What do you think?

Etsy Tips & Tricks #2: Shades of Color

I've been showing up in a lot of treasuries lately, and I've decided that the reason why is that I've recently discovery something cool on Wikipedia that I call Shades of Color. The entry includes different shades and color names in each color.  So, now, instead of just putting "blue" I try to find a more accurate color name, like "cerulean," "teal," powder blue," or whatever. Having accurate colors in my tags means that potential buyers can find myself item when they are searching for a certain color. I try to use at least two different color names in my listings if I can.

Here are some of the Wikipedia entries:

Shades of Blue

Shades of Green

Shades of Yellow

Shades of Red

Shades of Violet

Shades of Orange

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!)