Customers Love It!

I thought today would be an AWESOME day to show in photos, my gallery of a few of my favorite customer photos! Enjoy and hope you all had a great weekend!

Thanks so much everyone! Have a great day and be sure to check out my Buy One Get One Shop SALE!!

I'm In A Treasury

Yay! I just got notice that I was in a treasury! Be sure to check it out Here and use your 12 clicks AND be sure to drop a comment too! This one is so colorful and fun! That is my Candy Sweets Bracelet in the bottom corner on the left.

Candy Sweets Bracelet by MichellesCharmWorld 25.00

I would like to send a big thanks to PinkPatrice, for curating this awesome treasury of candy colored goodness! Here is a little peek into her shop! Stop on by and look at all her fun creations!

Come Shop Lollishops Today!

Today we're off to shop a new marketplace! I have opened up shop on Lollishops this month and want to bring people to the world of girly girly goodness! There is so much to find and see here, that I thought I would bring you a peek at what is behind that pretty, pink, Lacy curtain!

From Left to Right in the gift-guide:
Row 1->
Pink Whipped Cream Ring by MichellesCharmWorld
Pink Patchwork Pillow by BStudio
Cupcakes Magnet Set by HeatherKnitz
Cupcake Card Set by ExpressionsbyDevin

Row 2->
Embroidered Lavender Sachet by BailiwickDesigns
Vintage Whimsy from FadedButDesiredTreasures

Row 3->
Knit Baby Booties by MonarchDancer
Flowers 5 Card Set by Pnkgeeni

Row 4->
Faux Petit Fours by RenegadeRose
Gift Card Sleeve by ArtbyNaomi
Roses Roses Fairy House by CarolineAlexander
Victorian Boot Sachet by NanasNest

More Lollishops Goodies!

From L -> R

Row 1:

Sequin and Flowers Cards set of 4 by PinkPatriceBoutique

Button Votive Holder by PinkyLouLou

Girl with Bird Notecard by HappyDayStudio

Seaside Picnic Print by AliceInParis

I'm taking a break from the world of social networking today! I will finish last weeks chapter with Flickr tomorrow! Feel free to open an account today or add me to yours now! This is ME!

The Faceboook Phenomenon!

MY Facebook Page! Feel Free To Add Me!

Today we are checking out Facebook as a way of social networking. This is a great way to meet up with old friends and new. YES, it is a place where those old pals from highschool and YIKES even gradeschool may find you, but it's fun! I was utterly and totally confused by all the widgets, add-ons and craziness that was in front of me when I started, but afterawhile I started to get the hang of it! No worries, if it takes you awhile to get out there too! Just start by signing up! Ready to add friends? Post the link to your site on the public forums of your selling venues! Mine is on the Etsy forums and the Lollishops ones too! Once in awhile I Tweet my link on Twitter too! (read my blog post on Twitter here).

Alright, on to the promoting! At the top of your HOME page, you will see a little status bar, much like the one on Twitter. You click inside of the blurb and type what you are doing at the moment! I use this to put big sales, Exclusive codes to my shop and anything else that is shop related. But take a look at it right now ^ I ALSO use it to really update about my life. I don't want to spam Facebook either. I want my friends to stay my friends and not tune me out. Yes, i've already had to tune out frequent spammers, they post link after link after link to their shops. Not just blogs, shops, life etc. It's ALL SHOP ALL THE TIME! This is NOT the way to use Facebook! Starting a Group about your business! I had a couple customers ask me if I was on Facebook, then they started asking me about groups so that they could link their friends! So last week I started my very own group! PLEASE join mine and I will join yours! To get started just go to your HOME page ( you can find this at the top of your Facebook page) Then click on the right hand side the icon that says GROUPS.

Next you want to click on +Create A New Group on the right hand side of the screen it will look like this:

Just follow the prompts from there and it's super easy! Post your link on your public message forums too! (Make sure they allow it!) This is a fun way of keeping former customers and new ones in the loop of what is going on with your shop and what is new! Be sure to add SALE information and EXCLUSIVE discounts too! Get the word out quickly and in a fun way too! Invite your customers to share photos of them wearing your goodies or putting them on display somewhere!

So not everyone joined your group and you still want to spread the word about sales right? Well another awesome way to get memos out is through their NOTES function. Go back to your HOMe page and on the right hand side box where you found the GROUPS button, click on your NOTES button. It may not be visible like mine is, so click on the tiny little triangle that says MORE and it will be in that pull-down list. Click on WRITE A NEW NOTE. It's on the right hand side again! Follow those prompts and it's pretty easy! Publish the whole thing and now your entire stream will see it! So see, it's not that hard to get started on Facebook! Hope I helped someone out there!

New in the shop is my line of Breakfast Treats! From 9.00-30.00.

Todays Reminder!

Change up those featured items! Go on, get the dusty ones in the back! Let's sell one of those items this week!! I'm spending 2.00 in my shop today to relist sold items, renew older pieces that have potential and list new pieces! I'm onto a good start so far!

Be the first to spend 25.00 in my shop today and get your goodies packaged in this AWESOME little jewel box that I embellished! It was listed in my shop, but finally expired today, I would like to give it as a cute gift box instead of relisting it!

Are You Doing All You Can?

MAJOR BOGO SALE at MichellesCharmWorld on These Items!

Morning everyone! I truly hope you all had a great weekend and are ready to make this week, the best ever! Let's get our selling hats on and get going! Todays post is all about putting yourself out there. It's time to ask yourself are your TRULY doing all you can? Are you making yourself known to the public? We are going to explore some ideas I have already mentioned in past posts and then come to a conclusion.

The No Holds Barred Critique. We can all stand to learn something from people we don't know. We need to realize that we are not selling to our fullest potential if there are improvements that can be made on our shops. Online people have a tendency to be more honest than people looking at you face to face. I started a thread today, asking people to check out my shop and tell me honestly what they think.

WEAR IT OUT! Are you selling yourself to the max in public? Wear your pieces!! This can work for lots of people, not just jewelry sellers. Have your prints or artwork made into fun buttons so that you can pin them to your bags or if you are selling clothing, do you wear it yourself? Do your children wear your pieces? Do you keep a mini-photo book of your pieces so that people can look at a 'portfolio' of your stuff if they are interested? NOT KIDDING! I made little collages of my pieces in my photo editing program and printed them out on high quality photo paper and keep them in a little album in my purse. By now you must realize with all the junk I carry, I have an enormous purse! hahaha!! I can do a whole blog post on this one alone! haha!! The point is to use yourself as your best advertisement and DO NOT be afraid to hand over that business card when someone compliments your work! I'm working on a new idea for my business cards, but I will get back to you on that, once I work out the kinks!

Social Networking, This is a biggie! Are you out there? Do people know about your shop? Have you created your business page on Facebook? Do you twitter every now and then about a great sale or cool item you listed? REad more in depth on social networking on my post about it here. This is HUGE depending on your niche market, but nowadays so many people are on the net, that you really will have no problem finding them in these places! Heck, husbands grandmother is 90 and she's all over the net! So put yourself out there and meet some great new people!! I will be doing an in depth promoting thread on EACH social networking site that I do coming up soon! One day of Facebook, One day of Twitter, that sort of thing! Are you signing your posts on Message Boards with your shop link (if it's allowed)? How about your blog link, since that should have your Mini on it? If neither of these are allowed, put an eye catching photo of something that will lure that type of person into your shop!

Photos. Have you made sure they are not too shadowy or too white? I have this issue with the too-white photos I am noticing. They are just blending in with the backrounds! Time to go with a pale pink maybe! Remember, they don't have to look perfect or even close to perfect, they just have to be a bit noticeable! This one of mine is AWFUL, it's really blending in too much! I made it last night in the dark and you can totally tell! haha! Definately going to fix that up today!

Blog? Are you blogging?! It's so simple to ust throw photos up and chat about them! Tell me what you did last weekend, show me what you made today! Get chatty! I talk alot and have like three friends, none of which live by me! So here is where I get it all out in any way possible! Where do you dream about vacationing? What would you do with 5000.00? What would you DO FOR 1 million dollars? just get thinking about anything and then get typing!

If you have been getting the word out, in your photos you can tell what the product is, you are promoting to the heavens, you have improved on what others have asked you to improve on and you still are not getting the sales you truly believe your product is worth, then it's time to call it a day and close up shop and give up. Go on, throw it all away and close the door. What are you still doing here? Go on now!! HAHAHHAH! NOOOOOOOO! Not at ALL!!!! It's time to just roll up your sleeves and get busy! (As if you haven't been already!). It's time to set yourself apart from the bunch and SPREAD OUT!

Do you make paintings? Time to turn those paintings into ACEOs, Buttons, Magnets, Cards, Postcards, prints! Start thinking outside of what you have and bring in customers that can't afford those oh so gorgeous pieces!! I fell in love with a lighthouse painting on Etsy and let me tell you if I had had the 300.00 in my paypal account I probably would have bought it, but I didn't and I wanted it in any form! If they had offered a notecard set, a print, something else, it would have been mine!

Do you make Jewelry? Clothing? Bags? It's time to come up with a SIGNATURE piece. Something unique, something that when pulled up in the search function looks NOTHING like the others. My signature piece on Etsy is my Lego Bracelet. It's my best seller still to this day on and off Etsy and when I first started on Etsy was the first of it's kind. Now people are getting close, but still nowhere near the same. You can look at all the Lego Bracelets here. I'm still trying to come up with something fantastic as my signature look on Lollishops. If there is something you do really well, make it specacular add little bits and baubles to make them really shine. If you make bags of any sort, add a zipper pull or purse charm! They are super easy to make and you can make a simple one for barely anything at all! Need help? See about ordering them in bulk from a jewelry person on the same selling site you are on! Want to learn how to make them? Ask me, I can try and tell you how! Set yourself apart from the others somehow!


Now, you have done all that and still nothing? It's time to sit down with yourself and really ask. Does my stuff belong here? There are some places that are a true niche market and if you can't find your niche, you will have a problem getting to them. I am asking myself this over and over again on Lollishops. That is a true niche market selling venue and I just don't think I have the second Frou in Frou-Frou! hahaha! I see it as a market for delicate and frilly pieces and mine are bulky and of course chunky! haha! That's why I need to think really hard about my signature piece for there. I don't want to give up at all, I just want to find a way to fit in WITHOUT compromising my style! I hope I have helped even one person today!! I'm off to do some shop critiques on Etsy!


SHOP NEWS! The Last Page of my shop is on CLEARANCE MODE! I want to clear out for the New Year! I have marked things down up to 50%! Check it out because it's ALSO BOGO TIME! Buy one from that page and get a second item FREE from that page! All the items shown in the first photo of this post are the ones on SALE!

New and Tasty Treats....

Tiny Candy Shop by MCW 25.00

Tiny Candy Shop Brooch by MCW 15.00

Lollipop Shop Earrings by MCW 8.00

Candy Shop Sign Necklace by MCW 10.00

Alright, so just new, because these new treats CANNOT be eaten! hahaha!! I wanted to follow up on my own challenge today just before I head out the door, so here are my new goodies! It's a line of non edible candies that makes my mouth water! I am off to Tweet about it and all that good stuff and then heading to Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago today!

Peanut Candy Necklace by MCW 10.00

Chocolate Candies Bracelet by MCW 12.00

Kissably Sweet Earrings by MCW 8.00

Chocolate Bar Necklace by MCW 12.00

Renewing!

Teddy Bear Bow Locket By MCW 12.00

Renewing is a vicious cycle that eats into your profit margin, so make sure you are keeping an eye on just what you are renewing all the time. I always build in 2 renewals of an item into the price of that piece. I then keep a spreadsheet with the item name, date listed and price I keep 2 blank colums where I add in the date of each renewal. If a piece sells before I get a chance to renew it both times, I toss that .20 or .40 into my advertising budget for the next month. .40 can go a long way on project wonderful ads and the like! I do not like to renew my items that are priced 8.00 and under. It just eats and eats away at these items profit totals! This is a short and sweet post because I don't want you devaluing your lower priced items!

Featured items in MCW

Pancake Breakfast 16.00

12 Months of MCW Gifts 95.00

Front Page making Tea Ring Set 12.00

When things get too lost in the mix, but are too inexpensive to renew or you have used up the allowance for renewals in your budget, FEATURE them. Change up the photos a bit, dust them off . Try and change your featured items on Etsy at least every week. It gives people a chance to see what's in the back without having to go through all the pages. I change mine up usually about once a week and sometimes every other day. If you have a blog try featuring them there too!

Blogging Tips and Tricks

My Diary Brooch by MichellesCharmWorld 7.00

It's nearly impossible to keep up with a blog right? Thinking of topics, finding photos, hoping for comments all that good stuff! I have so much that goes around in my head daily, but when it comes time to sit here and actually start blogging, I can never get it straight! I figured that there are probably other people out there like me that just need a little nudge in the right direction! These tips are for you!

Cute Can Be Dangerous Knife Earrings by MichellesCharmWorld 7.00

Topics are always the place to start, since without a topic there is no blog! Sometimes coming up with a good topic is like cutting down a tree with a knife, impossible! Just keep a notebook with you for when those ideas do pop up! Decide what kind of a blog you want to have, more personal or business like. I want to try and keep mine related to business as much as possible, but I will totally be all about personal stuff when good things happen! If you are going to promote your blog as a business tool though, keep an eye on the language and selection of topics, you may not want your customer base to know too much about you! I use the SAVE NOW draft feature a lot. When I'm up late and I get loads of ideas, I start NEW POSTS and just give it a title and tags and then in the body I put a few bullet points, so I know what to build on when I'm ready to finish that topic. Then when I'm stuck for ideas I head there and finish one up! There are some days when you just don't feel like typing anything at all, I'm a big fan of the wordless posts! (I've seen Wordless Wednesday, Things to Think About Thursdays, Word Free Friday) These are just posts of photos with or without captions. I usually try and do a Sunday post like this and call it: The Weekend In Photos. It's an easy way to not neglect your blog and give yourself a break. Just don't overuse that one, it's never good to not get any context out of a blog. Another good way to use up some posts is to do features on fellow sellers or reviews of recent purchases! People love to know all about what you like and buy if they are already following your blog!

Say Cheese Camera Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 13.00

On to the photos! These are HUGE! Even if you only have a one word post, use PHOTOS! Readers love having something to look at! Most importantly be sure your photos link back to something! If someone clicks on something from your shop, have it take them to that listing. If it's a photo of your kids in a playhouse, have the click take them to that playhouse for sale. Remember links are good! If you feel your photos are too plain, add some fun borders or a little text in them. If you don't have any photos to get your post across, promote other sellers by using their photos and have them link back to their listings! Featuring people is good! This is your chance to feature items from your shop, to show everyone a little bit of what you do! Keep the photos as relevant as possible though to keep your post flowing.

Typewriter Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 10.00

Link Links Links! Links are the most important! The more places you link to, the more people will find you. There are a lot of programs out there that are telling web owners who is linking to their sites and from where. It will get you traffic!! If your readers are falling in love with whatever you are talking about, you need to let them know where to find it!

The road to a friend's house is never long

Time! We never have time anymore. There is always something going on and believe me, I know all about being busy! I'm a mom to 3 kiddies (3,2,1) and they keep me busy non stop. Assign yourself a time to blog EVERY DAY! Even if you are only able to churn out 2 sentences (add 2 photos above and below the sentences and you have a post!!), do it! I blog every morning as soon as I get up. I wake up early enough to check my computer goings on and what not. It's quiet time before the kids get up and while husband is in the shower. I make it a point to blog at this point. Life does get in the way, but sometimes a pretty photo and a quote from somewhere will be great and just may make someones day. There is ALWAYS time for something. It's easy to say you will blog tomorrow, but then that becomes the next day and that becomes the next. It's a vicious cycle. There are so many blogs out there that I admire and love to read, the ones that keep me coming back for more all the time. I love those blogs! I want to be those blogs! I aim to help and really hope that this helps you all become great bloggers!!

MOST IMPORTANTLY Don't forget your Etsy Mini or a collage of your goodies and a LINK to get people to your shops!!! I go to so many blogs and CANNOT for the life of me figure out how to get to where they sell! Get going!

+++++++++HAVE A SECOND?+++++++++

Copy This link: http://www.Lollishops.com/Node/5709

Then Go here: http://lollishops.blogspot.com/2008/12/lollishops-gingerbread-contest-lets.html

and it will take you to a contest i've entered! To vote for me just click on POST A COMMENT and paste the link you copied before there! Thank you for your time!:

http://www.lollishops.com/node/5709 <----my gingerbread house

International Shipping, Do not be afraid!

Mail Box Earrings by MichellesCharmWorld 7.00

I have run into the CUTEST stuff on Etsy and lo and behold, they don't ship to my country! Or worse yet, they are charging 20.00 and saying they will refund the overage. I like to know exactly how much it will cost and if it is 10.00 I want to know why. Does it come in a box packaged nicely? Lot's of details should be placed here if it's higher than normal.

Love Letters Brooch by MichellesCharmWorld 8.00

It's fairly easy to dive into the world of International Shipping and does not really take much more supplies. In fact it just takes customs forms that come FREE from the post office. It will take a bit more time, so be sure to add that into your shipping price. You cannot ship International packages from home, they must be sent at the post office. PLEASE state your shipping dates in your announcement if you only go to the post office on certain days. I like to get my goodies fast! Ready for the wonderful world of shipping overseas? Let's get started!

Phonebooth Ring by MichellesCharmWorld 10.00

It's a scary start to begin the International shipping phase of a businesss, but once you've started you will never ever regret it! Over 90% of my business is International and i'm not kidding. You could be missing a mass market over there. First things First, get familiar with your local post office. Give them a call and find out their hours, then drop by with your questions if you don't know them all yet. Do they have an Automated Postal System? These machines are awesome for 24 hour posting of your products. Just keep in mind they DO NOT do International boxes or thicker envelopes. Be sure at your first visit to chat about International Shipping to bring a package of your typical sale. (for me I put in a necklace and ring and packaged it up as though it were a sale), AND I brought along another packaged box adding in another necklace and bracelet. I had a list of some of the more popular and expensive places to ship to and had the post office clerk give me quotes on what it would be like to ship to these places. It's a live and learn process, and I have made a couple mistakes. I just learned yesterday that Finland is pretty expensive to ship to. I also learned once that Singapore is almost right on with the shipping domestically in the US. Canada is also the same as the US. Higer priced countries are:

Australia, United Kingdom, Finland and Russia. Lower ones that surprised me were:

Norway, Singapore and Mexico. Be sure to seperate these countries as you go along, because many of them will not want to pay as much as the bigger countries if they have purchased online before and they know the typical amount. Checking the weight online is NOT always accurate for International orders. I HIGHLY recomend the field trip to your P.O alternative for the first time :) Also while there ask the clerk for a STACK of customs forms, so you fill them out at home! I also stamp all of them with my return address label while watching TV and fill out everything I can on it, so I only have to do the customer information when I sell something.

My New Ring, Earrings, Brooches and some Necklaces Boxes

If you have super cute or pretty packaging, be sure to include a photo of it in your listing, it will explain why your pricing is a bit high and may even get you a sale from someone that sees that it will not just come thrown in an envelope. Remember though, don't spend too much time or money on your packaging as you will have to be including the price of these items and your time into your products! Me? If your shipping is reasonable, I don't care if the item comes wrapped in toilet paper (clean of course), in a pasta box and wrapped with a brown paper grocery bag. I'm all for saving the environment! Just get it to me safely. I just started using new boxes that are not your typical cardboard box that still gets crushed by the post office and I love them! Infact I've had other sellers love them too! haha! I've even sold some of my stash to fellow Etsians! These are great and failry inexpensive to tag onto my shipping prices. Hope I have helped some of you lean more towards the International Shipping Market!

Open For Business

So I have finally got some items up in the new shop and i'm ready to roll! I'm going to limit myself in listings right now, because the site is new and a bit buggy still. I am totally willing to give it a chance since it's so fun to be a part of the lollishop community! I am reserving my review of this new selling venue until I have given it about a month. I will let you know how it goes! Don't forget first 5 people to purchase from me over on Lollishops and spend over 15.00 get a free swag bag! But for TODAY DECEMBER 3rd ONLY every purchase gets a swag bag! Yay! Shipping is included in the listings already, so no mystery shopping here!



A GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Ruth of chickedee-chickedee on blogspot for the AWESOME feature she did on me this week! She was such a sweetie and her questions were so fun! Check out her super cute shop of Buttons too!!

Photos...The Be All, End All?

Gingerbread House Brooch by MichellesCharmWorld on Lollishops

Ahhh....we've all heard it right? Go into the forums and ask about being a successful shop and at least 75% of the replies will be about photos. GO ahead, try it, I dare you ;) Yes, your photos should be clear and a bit bright, but don't stress over them! Don't take 10 photos of each and every one of your products hoping for the right one, or your items will end up costing 50.00 each! (Yes, you should be adding in your photo taking time into the cost of your items.) Don't go running out to take photography lessons and buying 50.00 lightboxes. HOLD UP! WAIT! Take a deep breath and have a look around. light boxes and lessons take money. Wait until you have it in your business account to do it if you really want these things. If you don't and just think it's a necessary thing to sell anything, then wait and keep reading.

Tea and Crumpets Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld on Lollishops

I have 1100 something sales or something like that, I do not have a lightbox, take my photos at night in a dark room sometimes, change my backround like all heck and worst of all? My photos are blurry sometimes! Go ahead, I will wait here, Check out my sold items section and go waaaay back to my last page. Did you see them? The blurry, pixelated messes I called photos? They were awful, dark and unedited. I made my first sale within an hour of being open! I knew right off the bat I needed a new camera, but it was not in the budget at the moment. I had a craft show lined up for a month after opening and until then I asked for advice. I started taking photos outside in natural light and that helped ALOT! Then the midwest reared it's ugly head and sometimes it was 100* outside and there was no way in heck I was going to photograph outside, so I started doing it by a window, this was also good!! Then sometimes my kids wouldn't take naps on some days and I was stuck waiting until my husband got home at 430 and sometimes it was already getting dark?! So I started using a photo editing program!! That has been my BEST FRIEND! My photos are still not great, not even good sometimes, but I'm selling regulary and you can at least see what it is you are buying :) MY new camera eventually was purchased after a successful craft show and though it was not the magic answer to my photos, it did help! (Macro setting was a must!).

Conversation Heart Rings by MichellesCharmWorld on Lollishops

Now take a look at some of the shops out there, some of them have THOUSANDS of sales and their photos are so dark, half the time I don't even know what I'm buying without reading the description. (Maybe people like the grab bag idea?! heehe). Some shops have photos that are excellent, but so overpropped, you don't know if you are getting the 5 strands of pearls are part of that bottlecap key chain, and yet they have loads of sales. I think it's all about a catchy thumbnail, combined with a CLEAR, DESCRIPTIVE title. (No need to get creative with your titles, I find my creative titles have the least amount of views). If you've been here yesterday, you will also note that I made the front page too! So see, just try hard, but don't overdo it. Perfect pictures are not always the answer. I've seen some FAB-YOU-Less photos out there in shops that have been open and avtive since 2005 and they still only have a few sales. It's all about your product. Work with what you have and don't stress!

Wasting My Time...

Hourglass Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 10.00
Sometimes do you feel like promoting is wearing you thin? You don't know where your sales are coming from? You are thinking that some places are a waste of time? There are some ways that we can figure what is working!

Notebook and Pencil Ring by MichellesCharmWorld 7.00

I leave codes in a lot of places, but the codes are each individual codes that I keep track of in a code notebook. In this notebook I can tell where I left a code, what the code was and who redeemed it. I leave these little codes on posts in forums, in my email signatures, on my blog (code corner)signatures on message boards, on fliers I hang up in places and on business cards.

There are also non-coded places I advertise such as blogs, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and social networking sites like this. I also consider relisting and renewing a form of advertising and I can't put a code there :) Feel free to add me as a friend or heart me on Etsy!

Taco Night Earrings by MichellesCharmWorld 10.00

How can I keep track of who is buying what other than my notebook? When you purchase something from my store, a little blurb pops up that is a message to seller. I have something like:

**TELL ME HOW YOU FOUND MY SHOP AND YOU WILL GET A FREE PAIR OF LOLLIPOP EARRINGS!!**

Not sure on the exact wording, but buy something and you can see it! haha! I will soon photograph a pair of the free earrings and put it in my Flickr account, I will keep track of the clicks there to see who is actually checking them out AND it gives the customer a chance to see what they are getting for free!

Relist, Renew, Repeat...

Present Stack Ring by MichellesCharmWorld 7.00

Ahhh....the mountains of items appearing on e-commerce sites such as Etsy and the like are making it harder and harder to get noticed! Right? Every sale is like a big present! I subscribe to the old method of promote, promote, promote. I have 1100 sales I think and i've been on Etsy a bit over a year now. I hang out in the forums to help people, promote my blog and read other blogs. I don't go there to make sales. I like making friends and chatting with people.

I figure it's my job to bring people to me, Etsy gives me a place to park and that's it. It's like when I rent a building for my B&M store. The landlord is not responsible for bringing my customers in, I just have to respect the place I am renting and not get rowdy or out-of-hand (darrrn). I promote my shop and my shop only. Greedy? Yes, I think so, but i'm working to bring them in, so I better reap the results! haha! They will find other shops once they've stepped in my doors.

Etsy Button by BauerDesigns 1.00

I always wear a piece of my jewelry, even if it's just a pair of earrings. I carry business cards with me and i'm on the hunt for an Etsy badge to have on my purse too. If people like something enough they will ask. It's happened so often, i've sold jewelry from around my neck to the gas station attendant! A ring on my finger to a lady at the mall shopping for a birthday present! I always keep a Crown Royal bag in my purse full of sample pieces and little organza bags. It's a mini gift shop in my purse! (could be because I carry around a bag the size of a small country since it doubles as a diaper bag too!).

I put up signs and business cards whenever I pass a bulletin board. (yup I have a small pack oftacs in my purse too! It's like a magic bag). I know my niche market and put up information where they are most located. I throw home parties inviting NEW people to my home about twice a year, from those parties I offer incentives for people to book a party with me in their home. At parties, I have a raffle and on the entry forms I have a little box to check if they would like to be on my mailing list. I ALWAYS offer incentives to buy more (buy 2 get 1 free kind of deals). The back of my business cards have coupons for return visits. I offer little secret codes around places for people to get extra goodies. (check out Coupon Corner over there<-----). All of my packaging at parties has my branding information on it. Even if it's just a stamp or a sticker.

Window Box Brooch by MichellesCharmWorld 9.00

Online it's a whole other ballpark. To get a piece of the random, accidentally stumbled on Etsy customer, I have to have: a dynamic product. No ifs ands or buts about it. It has to catch someones eye and make them do a double take. Make them wonder if in fact that was just a Scrabble tile they saw. We have one little window of opportunity to get that click and are you getting it?

Girly Scrabble Ring by MichellesCharmWorld 6.00

I like to think of the search pages as windows. Forget your longer than ever Ebay like title:Scrabble initial tile custom personalized brown square letter abcdefghijklmonpqrstuvwxyz alphabet adjustable ring one size fits all funky cool lolita rockabilly geeky girl funky ring. Those are just total turn offs and make a person dizzy! You don't even have to get too creative. I usually just say Initial Me Scrabble Ring or Girly Bow Scrabble Ring. Simple, Sweet! Why?

Because alot of people are not looking at your title. They are WINDOW shopping. They look at the windows (your photo) as they scroll down and they want something to STAND OUT at them. Even if it's not what they had in mind, if it jumps out and makes them think, you've got them. As you stroll a downtown area on vacation, do you look at the names of the stores or what's in the window? Get their click!

Now, get unburied from the back of those category pages and set a budget that your sales can handle. I set a budget of about 3.00 a day in relisting and renewing. I build the price of renewals into the price of my item. So my advertising budget comes from there. I do it at 3 different points in the day to spread the love all around. I try and keep interesting and unique pieces and also ones that are about to expire in all my promos. put them on signs, use them in my blog, promote them on twitter, that sort of thing! I could go on and on with more tips, because I like to chatter on, but i'm sure i've only told you all what you already knew! It's just a memory jogger! If you would like any other tips let me know!

Try a no-holds barred critique. Sometimes you need to hear the fluff about how cool your shop is when you are feeling down, but when it's time to bring in the sales....well then it's time to get real and take the critiques. Sometimes they hurt and sting, but they also could help. It's so easy to come up with excuses when someone offers a critique, but remember if you asked for it, just take it in stride and maybe change it up! I still have to work on my photos, I get told that alllll the time, and yet here I am blogging instead! If I worked on them, I'm sure I could sell more. I should look into a class at the college or the studio down the road! Food for thought on an early saturday morning...

3 Tier Pastry Server Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 25.00