News Flash - www.foundhandmade.com 10 FREE LISTINGS!

You get guaranteed on the home page if you take advantage of the free listings.!!!

Dude, this is sooo cool!

So, I mentioned below about the www.etsyhacks.com site and the tools that were created to make maintaining your shop easier..., well, I tried them out.  Specifically the Greasemonkey add ons.  Honestly, it was so easy even a Greasemonkey could do it and they are sooo awesome.  They are saving me a ton of time in updating my site.  Really, if you haven't, try them out. All you need to do is get the FireFox browser, an easy download. Then follow the steps on etsyhacks.com.  You won't believe how easy and cool this is.  DO IT, I TELL YOU, DO IT!

Etsy Web Tools

There is a special group of people, who as a web designer I consider my guardian angels.  These people are Web Developers.  They are the ones that can figure out all the cody, scripty, geeky stuff that sends all of us right brainers running for the hills.  A very generous developer, the husband of an Etsian, has created a really neat blog with all kinds of "etsy apps" and info on tools to make our shops easier to update and maintain. It's called http://www.etsyhacks.com/ . I highly recommend you check it out.  I plan on implementing some of these tools and will report back on my experiences with them.  If you are familiar with this site and some of the tools mentioned, please do tell...

If you know of any other cool Etsy Apps, feel free to share.

Happy New Year

Well here we are in 2010.  A lot has traspired since my site launch on March of 2009.  I've learned a lot, and made a bunch of new DList friends.  I'm happy and proud to say that that DList forum is up to 60 members.  (Thanks Christy - http://www.etsy.com/shop/HippieChickBoutique... you rock).   We've had DListers on the front page, in treasuries, and most of all really doing what they do best, helping each other and shining on. 

I'm taking this slow time, after the holidays to re-evalutate my shop, buy some nice gemstones and work on getting my shop to the point of regular sales. I had a lot of fun over the black friday-cyber monday week, but now it's time to get back to putting in time and effort to improve my shop. 

Happy New Year to you all and I wish you much success in the 2010 year!  And... as I've still not made it to the Etsy front page... I trudge on and hold my DList flag high.  Maybe this year will be the year!

So, what are your Etsy New Year resolutions?  hmmmm???

WHAT A WEEKEND!

Wow, what a weekend.  I've sold 10 items since Wednesday, had several inquiries for modifications and a few custom order requests!  I have to tell you, I'm loving this BlackFriday, CyberMonday sale thing!!   I went away for the Thanksgiving weekend and was only able to check my shop once in a while.  Every time I did, there was another sale. I really hope this keeps up for the holiday shopping season. This rocks!  Congrats to FiberPuppy who can no longer call herself a D-Lister since she made the front page on Friday!  I'm so proud ;-)

I'm wondering if this weekend successes will help  my shop positioning overall?  Will the traffic cause my shop to rank higher on the searches?  Will the sales that show on my shop help entice buyers?  This all remains to be seen.  Can't wait!

So, how did you all do?  Any big successes?...

Your Relationship with Your Buyers

Hi everyone. I'm finally back to the blog. I've been so busy. Mostly life stuff but also, my shop activity is picking up.  I've been making regular sales, but ... I've also been getting custom requests.  Which leads me to this post.  I'm noticing that when I communicate with my customers by convo'ing them when they make a purchase, that these customers are leaving good feedback and even contacting me to talk about future items that I might be listing.  Or, they just convo me to tell me who they gave the item to etc.   It's becoming apparent to me that treating your buyers as if they were friends is an important part of having a successful shop.  I've had several buyers refer me to thier friends who ordered because they were told I give really good service. I don't think my service is any better than most of us DListers, but it really matters to my buyers.  It makes them feel special, and to me, they are.   I've always thought customer services was extremely important but I think on ETSY it really is important because it's not just a place to buy stuff, but a community. Communication on a friendly basis makes a difference.  I think we "low sales" sellers want to develop a relationship with our buyers because #1) we are so happy to have a sale we want to reach out and give them a vitual kiss, and #2) most of us are new to ETSY and want to learn from our sellers and create a connection that is more than just a merchant and a customer.  So, I ask you... how do you feel about the relationship you have with your buyers?  Have you made any suedo freinds?  Have you had buyers return because they like their buying experience at your shop?  Do tell.....

Collaboration

I ran across another etsian crowhavenstudio (http://www.crowhavenstudio.etsy.com/), who made stained glass window panels with photos in between two pieces of glass (featured to the left on this blog).  I thought that was really a cool idea, and then I thought, how cool would it be to her put one of my images (I'm a graphic artist also and do photoshop family collages and fantasy images for fun) into her stained glass window panels.  Then, going off on a tangent as I often do - a lot - , I thought, it would be cool if she would collaborate with me, to put some of my graphic pieces in her stained glass and sell them on etsy.  She is not currently able to make that happen, but it made me curious as to how many etsians collaborate with other shop owners.  When you think of it, there are so many d-listers who could collaborate to make some really cool things. 

So, I did some research and found some interesting articles on collaboration.  I'm sure there are many other resources for collaborating on etsy, and intend to keep looking, but for now... this is what I have found....

There is a section in the etsy do's and don'ts page that mentions collaboration:

http://www.etsy.com/dosdonts.php

Here are some examples of collaboration teams:

http://www.etsy.com/storque/handmade-life/an-international-crafting-fairytale-824/ (love this one)
http://sneakycollaboration.blogspot.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5206751

Anyone else have any experience in collaboration?