Shwe-shwe gift cards

How great are these shwe shwe gift cards (available on Etsy) from JacciR? She also has other stationary.

Advice from the Etsy forums

From the Etsy success newsletter (which I blogged about before) - 20 questions your buyers are asking - advice on how to make those item descriptions perfect.

Kiradesignn

My friend Kiradesignn has started her etsy shop selling bags. She makes cute handbags from interesting fabrics, fabric combinations, and cute applications. This bag is made from some awesome south african fabric which has a ginko flower print.

Attention to detail

I love buying stuff from Etsy - there is often something extra thrown in and the sellers generally have spent some time on the small details, which makes it perfect for present buying (especially when your friends are posting distance away).

These are the things I have appreciated
- something small and free (stuff from the shop, magnet)
- business card (to keep in touch)
- Etsy receipt (just printed out from the site)
- nice packaging (recyclable envelope, paper tissue, handmade jewelry bags)
- personal note

I must admit that I didn't spend much time on making the parcel but I almost always sent something small along.

Scraps

I can't wait to get to Cape Town. It seems there are a few like-minded people around - like scrapskisskiss who makes boys clothing from scraps. Doesn't sound that appealing, but it's not the kind of scraps you use for rags - it's something for us eco friendly folk. Anyway, what got me interested was her mention of the Waldorf market. - definitely going to check that one out.
ps: She has an etsy shop, but it seems rather empty (perhaps the market went well?)

Your shop is so popular

If your shop is so popular you can't keep track of all the treasuries, gift guides, then these two sites are for you:
craftopolis - find out if you are in any treasuries or gift guides
featsy - find out if your product has been featured

Origami inspires

Now I have no sewing machine, I am thinking of other ways to keep my hands busy (besides typing). Since origami is an old passion (I blogged about that before), I have been thinking of that a lot lately and just need to get inspired. So,
Browsing through the origami listings in Etsy, I came across so many different ways people were inspired. From fabric to silver, outrageously expensive to how is that profitable, and mostly very personal. Here goes

• I love that you're my friend, a peace crane + postcard sent to your friend
• silver origami dog earrings, I wonder if she uses a sheet...
• paper napkins prefolded peacocks, perfect for weddings.
• origami vinyl wall decals, I will have to have these
• fabric flower brooch, not too fond of the fabric, but the idea is great
• bonsai it's exquisite. Just perfect for 1 year wedding anniversary presents
• money rose made from $100 bill - insane (but she sells a $5 one too)
• crane mobile - this one is also insane, but wonderful, worth every penny (but you could even make it yourself)
• set of 100 stars - last but not least and a good deal (see picture)

New stuff

AfricanCotton has listed a lovely set of 8 shweshwe skirt panels in brown, so if you have been waiting to make my strapless dress/skirt, here we go...

Optimise your Etsy shop

I have subscribed for the Etsy Success newsletter and today I read an interesting article by stellaloella about optimising your Etsy shop for searching. If the acronym SEO means nothing to you, the article tells you how to help people find your site when they search in Google (or another search engine such as Yahoo) and how to control the summary text they see in the search results.

The highlights

• choose your shop title wisely - this is part of the heading when your shop appears in a search result
• the first 1-2 sentences in your shop announcement is the search result summary, so it's best to start off with a description of what you sell (use lots of important keywords)
• your shop sections are now also important keywords used to help direct people to your shop (and of course item tags).

Treasury about rain

The sun is shining here, but my Etsy 'umbrella' wax print fabric has been featured in a treasury about rain. Thanks magnolija

The sad news is that my sewing machine was packed yesterday, so no action for me for at least 6 weeks, I think realistically probably 9. I must admit it was a relief to get our stuff finally shipped - now I can focus on the important stuff, like getting Mittens (our cat) back home and renting out our apartment.

Etsy success PDF book

Thanks to the Modish Biz Tips blog, here is a free Etsy PDF book "Secrets of savy Etsy Sellers" compiled by On the Dot Creations. I learnt something - when selling clothes, take photos of side and back views.

Pricing on Etsy

The art of pricing is always tough thing to get right. If you are priced too low people will think your stuff is inferior (this is the internet where people can't touch and feel) and if you are too high that is obviously an immediate turn-off.

Shipping can also be something that stops people buying, but they do understand if you are honest about how much it costs (packaging and shipping costs) and tell them why you are charging more than the shop next door (FedEx, special packaging, etc).

This is how I do it.

First work out your costs - include materials and then your time (e.g. going to the shops, listing the item, photographing) and don't forget about Etsy and Paypal fees.

Then search for similar items and see what they are selling for - remember to look and see if the shop has actually made any sales at that price.

Think about whether you would like to be on the cheap side and make more sales or rather be higher priced, better quality with fewer sales.

If you would prefer bulk sales, then offer a bulk discount and write that in your shop announcement.

Finally, I always say start high because you can always decrease your prices. Experiment - some people say .99c is a bad idea, while others say it works well for them.

Have fun!

Resources
Etsy fee calculator
Chris Parry's spreadsheet on pricing

Testing the Etsy API

[removed script due to complaints of going over my quota (from etsy)]

I found the Etsy API the other day and had some time to fiddle ... this is a stupid script that loads my favourite shops and looks at the featured items of their favs (well only a selection otherwise we'd be here all day).

Do you all have any suggestions for cool scripts I could write?

South Africans are also creative and online

If you're living in South Africa and want to open an Etsy shop, there are a couple extra hurdles. South Africans can't open PayPal accounts and receive money (unless they have overseas bank accounts). So enter Setcom and 2CheckOut...

I haven't used Setcom, and 2Checkout is ok. Because Etsy isn't integrated with these payment solutions, only PayPal, you as a seller will have to generate links to direct people to sites where they can pay.

2Checkout has a "create invoice" page to send an email to your buyer, but you must first create your product and be careful with the weight, so that the shipping works out the same as on Etsy. There is a complicated weight set-up process, but once you have worked out your postage costs you should be fine. The other option (instead of the weight/shipping price table) is to just include the price of the weight into the Product in 2Checkout. The fees are ok - 5.5% + $0.49 per transaction (including shipping), $49 setup fee (obviously more expensive than PayPal, which is 3.9% + $0.30) but they do allow your customers to pay with their credit cards directly, and they don't need to sign-up. Downside: 2Checkout will only pay you in batches of $300 or $600, and you will probably get charged by your bank for an international deposit (Absa charges around R100 I believe).

I don't have personal experience with Setcom .. all I know at the moment is that other South Africans use it, like skinnylaminx, and are very successful. By looking at their site it seems like it is an alternative PayPal (so potential customers must sign-up) but the fees are quite high - 4.9% + R2.50 and then on withdrawal too - R8 (because I bet there are very few places you could use the cash, unlike PayPal).

I really think South Africa have stuff to offer the world, especially handmade stuff sold from the person who made it (a rare treat), so I hope other creative and crafty people are able to open their own stores despite all the extra complications. Actually I know they are - it's going to explode soon looking at the number of shops that have popped up since I started selling. A previous post on ZA Etsy shops.

Use the Etsy shop local flash app to browse active shops in your area (or in South Africa, Durban, Johannesburg, or Cape Town)

If you are starting a new shop, you might be interested in my experiences with promotion on Etsy, advice from buyers to sellers, or browse my other posts about Etsy.

Quilters, get your shwe shwe charm pack here!

Want to make yourself a shwe shwe quilt but don't have enough different pieces? AfricanCotton to the rescue - she has a charm pack (in indigo) for sale.

Etsy Seller workbook

It's a simple but sweet Google spreadsheet - the Etsy seller workbook. I could have done with keeping better records - than stashing my receipts in a cardboard box and not knowing what went with what.

It was the first time I used Google spreadsheet so it took me a bit to get used to something other than Excel. First thing you want to create your own copy, so click on File then "Create a copy". I called mine 'Etsy-sellerworkbook-diggitydugs'. Don't worry about where it is saved (somewhere in the cloud).

Now you can get to business - widen the columns on the 'Instruction' page. Always read the how-to:) To get to the instruction page (known as a sheet) use the links at the bottom of the site.

I would imagine that the non-US user would find the following sheets useful:

• etsy sales - download your sales data and copy and paste into this sheet (well part of it - the other part I find really useful to keep track of the actual postage and any tracking numbers - these you will have to fill in manually).
• etsy expenses - luckily you don't need to enter this by hand - simply download it from "Your Etsy bill" - go to the specific month and then right at the bottom of that page is a link to download your bill as a CSV file to copy and paste
  
• other expenses - a very useful page to track how much you spend on raw materials. You need to enter these manually.

Thanks to earthskyfirewater.etsy.com.

Sorry, another Etsy related post

Handmade Marketing, a blog I recently came across, has lots of tips for people who sell handmade.. Subscribe to their feed here.

I found the post about How to Read [a] Google Analytics Report quite interesting and informative. I have set up analytics on this blog and my etsy shop and it's interesting (and kinda addictive) to watch the numbers roll by.

Lucky for me I have an in-house online marketing expert to explain bounce rate (how long people are on your site), visitor loyality (how often the same people return). I also find the referring sites (sites linking to you) interesting, and have discovered some new websites that way. When I was experimenting with listing at different times I used the numbers to figure out which were more effective.

Take note - the data is updated once a day, so don't check too frequently.

My Etsy book

I have no idea when this would be useful (if you have any ideas let me kn0w), but how about making a book from your shop - http://www.myetsybook.com

I made myself one, unfortunately there aren't many templates, but if you work on it you can upload your own images for the background.

My experiences on Etsy promotion

I had a fun time selling on Etsy, and I learnt a lot. Hopefully I have another shop in the future and perhaps it might be useful to put my Etsy experiences on record. If you have anything to add, please do comment :)

This is how I improved my listings

• for popular categories - such as fabric I listed at specific times of the day (e.g. USA lunch and dinner time).
• I also staggered fabric listings over several days and different times to maximise exposure at the top of the search list.
  
• I continually tried to improve my photos so they were (mostly) clear, good quality and show all possible angles of the product. My biggest lessons were to avoid using the flash as it distorts the colour and use macro to get closeup.
  
• worked on the first image so it enticed people to click and view my listing. (take care that when your images are cropped into squares by Etsy, that the photo still looks ok (to solve this simply crop the image yourself into a square)
• I added short and fun descriptions (something you would say to a person if you were actually standing in a shop)
• and descriptions that tell told buyer stuff they can't see in the photos - dimensions, weight, smell, texture, history/background
• looked at descriptions of similar items to see if I had missed out anything - especially shops that are doing well. When I added some information about how I refund shipping and that I only ship single pieces of fabric I got more sales. These are things that people buying fabric find important.
• updated my featured items for my regulars so they could easily see when I had new stuff
• if an item wasn't being received well, then I would change the photos and the description and eventually you find out what works
• renewed items if I had nothing new to add
• Adding measurements in cm and inches

How I helped people find my shop

• blogged and blogged just about almost daily
• linked my blog to my shop (using the Etsy mini tool)
• commented on other peoples' blogs (especially if they had anything to do with african fabric. And this was fun for me)
• told my friends and family
• put up links on Facebook - using the My Stuff application. (Do this with any other social networking sites you use e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter)
• posted in the forum (mainly in the critiques and promotions sections). Look out for posts with subjects that are relevant (e.g. if you sell fabric please post here). If you start your own posts remember to use subjects that tell people exactly what you are posting about because then people who are interested are directed to you.
• found shops that sell similar stuff to me, or used African fabrics to make stuff and made them my favourite. This meant they noticed me and could become my customers or their customers could maybe spot me.

Tags are important because they are how you drive people to your products. They are the words people use when they search. These are my tips

• you should use all 14 if possible
• think about what people who would buy your product would search for
  
• think of words that mean the same thing (especially American vs English vocab)
• include materials, location (African), theme and main colours

I also learnt that showcase doesn't necessarily generate sales (you can buy a spot for $7) - renewing your items a couple times was recommended (I never managed to prove this). And it helps if you buy things on Etsy because you know what you look for in the shops you support and you can see what the experience is like on the other side.

Why I love Etsy so much and want all my friends to have their own shops

Every time I think of Etsy I get this warm and fuzzy feeling. It's like a happy home filled with people who are like me (like to make stuff), probably all female too. So the main attraction is the community, which is evident in the forums (and I do like forums). People here really want your shop to succeed and will offer free critiques (of your store), advice from successful sellers, loads of free tools (more to come in future posts), storque and reams of self help guides to making your shop a success. If you are selling handmade items this is the place to sell - people here appreciate good quality, uniqueness and don't mind to pay the true value (once you factor in a living hourly wage). Now whenever I come across someone making cool stuff I always recommend Etsy.

Here's one more handy source of information:
The Etsy Seller Handbook: All Our How-Tos about Selling