Newbie Etsy Lab Recap

Here are some of the things I picked up at the Etsy lab. Or, first things first, what is an Etsy lab? Or even what is Etsy?

Right at this moment Etsy is like eBay without the auctions and the bad pictures and the occasional mean-spirited buyer or seller. Very very briefly it is a place where handmade items (and vintage items) can be bought and sold. I promise to devote a whole blog entry to Etsy when I have time. For now, I hope this article will be helpful to Etsy sellers.

Tags: Use specific color tags (royal blue for example). No tags are allowed for specific use (such as gift, stocking stuffer, etc). May use 'man' or 'woman' however. Use shop name in tags so customers can find shop more easily. Use style tags: modern, romantic, sophisticated or whatever. Also tag for free shipping.

Consider using Treasuries, which I don't know a lot about. Consider using free shipping which I have already decided to do. Reason being, when people view an listing (and price) they have already accepted the cost. When they scroll down and see shipping costs they may feel disappointed.

Consider using international shipping. 1 in 3 etsy sales involve a buyer not from US. Most common: buyer's from English speaking countries such as UK, Australia and Canada. Others include Asia, Germany and others. Etsy allows you to list shipping charges for the US and outside the US. I have to think about shipping charges in regard to this.

Promotion: Get involved in etsy community (forums, etsy labs). Comment on etsy storque articles. Write articles for storque (such as craft how-tos). Join etsy team (if team leader doesn't respond try someone else from group). Also check team site because team might be inactive. Try other teams. Real-time business cards, friends and others. Blog and blog comments. Something called the pitch forum.

Listings: Once the listing is completed it may post on etsy right away or within 24 hours. Etsy still recommends picking a good time for target time zone. List 1 or 2 items at a time. Be seasonal. Have good pictures. List all the time. Set budget for listing and use 1/2 to relist items (this bumps them to the top of the etsy queue). Scatter items throughout categories (not sure I understand this).

PayPal Discounts: Sale items can be handled through a refund (reimbursement) through PayPal or a seller can instruct the buyer to purchase an item and not pay, then send a PayPal invoice (I think this is more professional but also more trouble). I guess if a customer doesn't understand and pays by accident you can always refund.

Other things mentioned: Weekend deals (forum thread?). Etsy Mini which can be added to blog (see FAQ). Google analytics (figure out bounce rate, time in shop, from where, when, keyword used). Note to self: Review all the URLs given in this lab. I'll try to post some of them for any future readers.

making an etsy storefront banner pt. 2

This is the just for fun banner I talked about in my previous post. I think it creates a very different mood. I chose a very subtle patterned background in this banner. It required a little tweaking but was not hard to do.

I'm hoping my boyfriend will decide to use it for his etsy shop. He has mostly used ebay but I have persuaded him to try etsy. We buy and sell vintage items together so I think it will work well. I may put some vintage items in my own shop but am planning to mostly work with him on his.

To make this banner I chose another free vector graphic but placed the decorative scroll work on each end of the banner by cutting, pasting and rotating design elements to frame the font. In addition to placing the scroll work on the page I copied, pasted, and altered the background of the original graphic to fill in the banner background.

This banner was a little more work but also fun to do. I think it has a nice vintage look.

Making Your own Etsy Storefront Banner

I had time to make the banner for my store this weekend. It wasn't difficult and I think it turned out pretty well. I enjoyed doing it so much that I actually made two. One for me and one for fun. Both are fairly simple but I think they work.

My first banner is posted above. If you'd like something similar and think you might and need help doing it, this article should talk you through the process of creating your own custom banner. It is a basic article aimed at people who aren't familiar with computer graphics. If you have a background you may get impatient with the detail.

There are only 5 straightforward steps. Creating a banner will take some tweaking. Remember that your banner is, essentially, a sign. And just like a 'real' sign, it's the first thing your customers will notice when they look at your store. You should reflect something about you and your shop.

You'll need a commercial graphics editing program like PhotoShop or a free program like Gimp. If you're not familiar with the tools in the tool box of your graphics editor you can just google any questions as you go along. Making a banner will be a good opportunity to become familiar with your application.

1. The first step is to select an image that you can as a focal point for your banner. View this project as you would a collage, decoupage or scrap booking project. Find something you like. I chose a free vector graphic of a woman and edited it. I added a dress, jewelry, hair, and rose petals. Resize your image to a height of 100 pixels. Save the jpeg to your computer as graphic_1 or whatever name you choose.

2. Create a new image in your graphics editor. Set the dimensions to 100 x 760 pixels and save it as banner_1.

3. Create the background for your banner. Choose a color for your background. I chose white because I wanted something that wouldn't clash with the etsy banner (which will display directly above your banner) but a color can be nice. Use the eyedropper to coordinate with your pic or choose a different color entirely. Keep in mind that the rust and gray (not all that attractive) etsy banner is one of the design elements of your storefront.

4. Pick a font and letter the name of your shop. This part is fun and just as important as selecting your image Use your graphics editing program to find a font that goes with your design and sets the mood of your shop. You will want to experiment with different fonts and different sizes. Use the eyedropper tool to pick a color from your design element that strongly contrasts with your back ground or pick your own color.

5. When you come up with a font that you like decide on a size and position and save it as banner + name of font. When you're done, you'll have at least a couple different versions to choose from.

Post your finished banner on etsy! It may not be the glitziest banner going, or maybe it is. Either way it's a one of kind design, reflecting your own creativity. I hope you are as happy with your banner as I am with mine!

new everything

I spent much of my labor day weekend shopping. There was a great sale on Swarovski crystals, something I want to start using more in my jewelry. Opaque semi-precious stones are nice. But I want more color and my concept of color filters light.

So now I have a hoard of sparkly multicolored crystals and a good stock of wire and wire working tools. I worked on and off all weekend. Just practicing really. I've got along way to go before I can do the kind of wire working I'd like.

I opened the new etsy account. Reactions to the new business name have been good so far. Which was not my idea, but my boyfriend's. I asked him if he could think of something in another language. He thought I meant Hebrew but I said, anything, even Croatian (his parents were Croatian). He said something with bijou. When I asked for another word he said bijoulerie (and pronounce it like it's French). I did and I like it.

So new name, new account, new crystals, new stuff to learn. I'm mostly feeling good about it.