SHHH! Etsy Secret Hot Picks!

The Etsy Secrets members are a talented group of handmade artisans and have an incredible amount of talent to showcase. Here's my HOT PICKS for Saturday:

Colorful Floral Bracelet from Ask Designs

Fused Glass Necklace from Eccentricity

Zebra Fever from Pink Girlee
Peace Sign Mini Pen from Mandi Beads

Starfish Art Yarn by While Tangerine Dreams

Visit these great sellers!

Get Visible- Be Seen! 18 page report

I recently celebrated my 1 year Etsy Anniversary at Jesse Janes. During that time I have had over 2700 sales and feel great having accomplished such a feat.

How have I had so many sales? First, I believe it is about your product, but it is also about how dedicated you are to promoting your shop outside of Etsy. I have spent a large amount of time planning a marketing approach that I can manage with my time constraints. I’ve decided to put all of my ‘secrets’ into paper in hopes that the information packed in these pages will help you Get Visible – Be Seen!




What is in this 18 page lesson?

1. Having your own business website

2. Optimizing your website for Search Engines

3. Blogging for visibility

4. Using social media outlets

5. Building relationships with other popular sites

6. Using your local connections to build visibility & customers

7. Create repeat customers – keep them coming back for more

With 3500+ words, and numerous screen shot photos, I take you through all the various steps I have taken to advertise my shop outside of Etsy.

Artfire Rainbows

Easter's a Hoppin'

Random Acts of Curiosity

Alice In Wonderland

Get $10 bonus--- that's even MORE Scrabble Tile Pendants...

Be my 1st sale at ARTFIRE & I'll add $10 worth of bonus items!

Visit JesseJanes's ArtFire Shop

Just tell me you found me on twitter!

Do you twitter? Come follow me... jessejanes

Looks good enough to eat....

Delectable goodies from Artfire sellers that look good enough to eat...

Check out this spotlight and many others at found-handmade.blogspot.com

Excellent Customer Service - a necessity

How do you stand out in the midst of your competition when the economy is influencing how your potential customers are spending their dollars?

There are several ways:

• Have an Excellent Product
• Have a Competitive Price Point
  
• Excellent Photos ( I'm working on this myself)
• Get the word out! advertise, promote, twitter, blog, etc
• Have Excellent Customer Service
• Ask for Referrals
• Offer services that your competition doesn't
• Communicate with past customers
• Offer a special for returning customers
• ___________ (fill in the blank)__

I'm sure there are many more things to be added to this list. I participated in the Etsy Chat room the other night, something called the 5 minutes FS.... What is the 'FS' mean? It stands for "Featured Seller". For 5 minutes you get to promote and everyone in the chat visits your shop, views your products and helps promote you, andhopefully sales result from your time in the spotlight. I was in the FS position twice that night and I did have 1 sale, along with many new hearts and potential customers that had never viewed my shop before.

One comment I received was regarding my number of sales. I have had over 2600 sales on Etsy in the past year. In fact next month is my 1 year Etsy anniversary, which I will be celebrating with special deals!

Many asked what I did to get such a high number of sales. I gave them the list that I have posted above. I also mentioned that my sales where quite high before Christmas and things have slowed down since the first of the year, as they have for everyone. I also have seen in many forum threads that historically February is the slowest month of the year. That is good information to have as well.

What can you do when things are quiet?

• Promote, advertise, blog, twitter, chat, etc
• Create new designs, new product lines
• Get organized
• Prepare a plan for this years sales
• Work on enhancing your photos (this is what I'm doing)
• Enhance your Customer Service
• ____(fill in the blank)_______

Excellent Customer Service is extremely important to the health and longevity of your business. Customers are not purchasing just a product that is handmade. They are purchasing the craft of the artisan that created that product and they want to 'feel' the energy of the artisan when they purchase. Excellent customer service includes the beautiful packaging and timely shipping as well as the email confirmation, thanking them for their order and assuring that it will be shipped promtly. Also, that customer service is continued in the packaging, by including a personalized note, instructions for the care of the product if required, etc.

Customer Service continues beyond the purchase and initial shipment. It is extended to any further communications with the customer, especially if they have difficulty with their shipment, with USPS delivery, etc. I make it a priority to make sure each of my customers is satisfied and happy with their purchase and experience of shopping handmade with Jesse Janes. If I lose money on a sale in order to rectify a shipping problem or any other difficulty, I generally create a return customer because they appreciate my prompt attention and the fact that I go out of my way to assist them. I call this "Excellent Customer Service". It pays off in the long run. It's better to have a custmer who returns several times and tells their friends and family to shop with you, rather than have an unhappy customer who will never return, leave unhappy feedback and possibly share that experience with others.

How could you improve your customer service?

...into Twilight....

Twilight inspired creations by Etsy & Artfire Sellers.

Has Etsy seen the light?

Beta testing starts today on a new function-- paying your Etsy bill with Paypal! How long have sellers been asking for this option? ...a long time...

According to the Storque article today, the beta testing will begin with a small sampling of sellers and will be available to all sellers soon. It only makes sense that we want to pay our bill from the account that are sales dollars go to! DUH!

I ran into an interesting event when attempting to pay my etsy bill yesterday... I wanted to split the payment onto 2 different cards, but etsy wouldn't take the 2nd payment. Did you know this? You have to wait 24 hours before a 2nd payment can be made... ??? One would think they would make it easier to give them money... they certainly make enough from all the sellers..

I've been working to enhance inventory in my Artfire shop... I feel the site will take some time to build to really compete with Etsy, and I do like their set up.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has been selling on Artfire. If you have a shop, please comment and let me know your experience.

Well, I'm off to bed early tonight. I was up early to make sure my boyfriend was up in time to get to the airport. He's off to the UK for a week... lucky him! I'm still here... hopefully I'll get to California in May. That will be nice. I haven't been to the west coast for 5 years. I really do need a vacation! LOL

Made by Hand -

Have you checked out Made by Hand. By ME ???
www.byhand.me

It's a cool new community for artisans to display and promote their goods. JPATPURSES is on the front page now as the Featured Artisan. I love her work! I have a beautiful owl print pouch made by her... I love it!

Made by Hand has community forums, chats and even an area to create your own spotlight photo mini's. I am in the process of setting up my profile there... you can spotlight your items from etsy, artfire, silkfair, 1000markets and more.