Take Interest in Pinterest

For those of you who have not yet joined Pinterest, here are three reasons to have an interest in Pinterest.

1. You can create leads back to your store by posting pictures of your items in your store.  You can upload every photo by the web address where it resides, and when people click on it, they are led to that site. If you have a blog, you can lead them there as well. 
2. You can connect with other like-minded people and invite them to like the items in your store. The more visible you become on the web, the greater your chances of being successful in your business.
3. You are able to create files from the photos of others and thereby be inspired by their creations.

The one drawback is that to join you need an invitation from someone who is a member. If you need an invite, just convo me your email address and I'd be happy to send you one. In my humble opinion, it is worth it!

 

Happy marketing, everyone!

Linda from www.ruoiled.com

 

Note from Francesca: Include in your shop policies whether or not it is okay for others to pin (post) your photos to Pinterest and if they need your permission first. Do not pin other sellers' items without asking; some people are not okay with it. Be very careful what you put on Pinterest because you take all responsibility for copyright issues. For more information, read this article.

Why Choose Etsy?

Some time back I went to our Facebook page and read someone's entry that they were thinking about joining another crafting site. I checked out the site and wasn't too impressed, and since then I have been thinking about the benefits of joining and selling on other sites that are similar to Etsy. Here are three reasons why you might want to choose to stay connected with Etsy.

First thing I did to find out how well Etsy is established on the search engines was google the phrase, "Best sites to sell your crafts on." The first thing that popped up was a direct link to Etsy.
The second was a Yahoo article talking about the 3 top sites and the third link listed 29 craft sites, both putting Etsy in the #1 spot. What that means for your business is when people search for a particular item on any search engine, the first place the search engines will look is Etsy.

The second thing to consider is if you choose to open a shop on other sites, include a link back to your Etsy store [Note: Make sure it is allowed on those sites. Etsy does not allow you to put links to your other off-site stores.] The fact is the more places you are located on the web, the bigger your personal web presence becomes, which enables you to attract more customers and be noticed by the masses and search engines. Just remember to keep your style and brand the same because others will recognize it and come to rely on it.

The third point is that there are over a million people who are connected on Etsy: you can never run out of leads for potential customers. Learn how to engage with other shops so they come to value you and know you as a friend they may eventually buy from or refer their friends to, even if you sell similar items. I realized this when I asked one shop owner if she could help me with some illustrations and she said she was too busy, but referred me to another shop who did similar stuff.

Hope this helps clear things up for some of you who may have questioned the value of joining another craft selling site.

Happy marketing, everyone!
Linda

Doing Good While Doing Marketing

Teaming up with a non-profit organization is one way to attract the attention of potential customers, but is often not considered something small businesses do. Many of us are barely selling 10 items a month; however, with a little word of mouth, that can definitely change by deciding to bless a non-profit with a percentage of your net income.

One idea is that you could do a benefit by yourself, or join up with some of our team members and blast the word on all the social media sites, as well as in your community. A lot of papers, such as the Penny Saver will advertise for free, if you are doing a benefit. The way I saw one person do it is he said he was trying to raise money to buy computers for a children's school in Ecuador by selling hard copies of his book. People had the option to download the book for free, as well as choose to donate money to the non-profit without buying anything. I think he raised close to $100,000 for the non-profit and made close to a million on his hard copies of the book in over a period of 12 weeks.

Many of us are not equipped to make something that big go forward; however, that doesn't matter because just being able to bring attention to a chosen organization as your goal to support them will start the ball rolling to increase your business because most of us want to do good when we spend money for the things we like.

A few weeks ago I called a person about advertising in her magazine and as we got to talking she brought up an auction she was part of for a non-profit and asked me to put together a course for them to auction off. She said that she would love to share what my business was about and that she felt my course would be something of value to benefit not only the organization, but also the people who heard about it. I never thought about providing a specific item for donation for the benefit of an auction, but I share it with you so that maybe you too can find ways to do the same.

These are just some ideas to consider as you seek to bring income into your home from your Etsy store.

Happy marketing, everyone!
Linda from www.ruoiled.com

Make Marketing Manageable: Twitter

Many of us get overwhelmed when we even think about marketing. So often we think we will pay the extra money to Etsy so that our items will get more views in hopes that will equal more sales. This is not necessarily true because you are tying to appeal to what marketers refer to as your cold market.

The best way I have found to make sales happen is to connect with the different social networks. Today I just want to give you a few pointers about the platform Twitter.

• I have found that the best way to grab the attention of my followers on Twitter is to assemble a newsletter on the different products I sell and how they can benefit from them. Then I tweet about the value it contains and I allow it to do the work for me. One month I received a $250 order from doing this, just to give you an idea of how well this works.
• Some points to write about in your newsletters are the trends your items address, or how your items address emotional or physical needs. People buy what makes them feel good, either about themselves, or about you, so allow yourself to share in your newsletter what compelled you to create your product.
• I have found that the less tweets I do a day, the more attention I get when I tweet because my followers have found that I only talk when I have something interesting to share.
• Did you know that you can connect with the contacts that you follow on Twitter simply by going to their websites, if they have one, and finding their contact information?  This is something that has been helpful for me when I've wanted to increase my followers. To make the connection a good one, make sure you have something in common that your conversations are ones you can build a relationship on.

 

These are just a few things to try, if you haven't already. There are a ton more ideas coming as I really find joy in marketing! Just remember to relax and enjoy yourself as you share your items with the public.

Have a blessed day,

Linda

Why Treasuries?

I've written two posts on treasuries: how to be featured in a treasury and how to make a treasury. But what's the big deal about treasuries anyway?

Treasuries get you sales!

1. Attractive treasuries, especially for holidays, get high views and hearts. Even mediocre treasuries will get high views and hearts if they are made by people in lots of circles or promotional teams.
2. Treasury views get you clicks: people clicking on an item or shop in the treasury.
3. Clicks get you sales! Even if you don't get an immediate sale, clickers are very likely to heart your shop or item(s), making it more likely for them to return for a future sale and promoting you to other potential buyers.

Several sellers have thanked me for featuring them in treasuries because they resulted in sales. So please don't write off treasuries! Help each other out by making them. And show support when you are featured; it only helps you and you can always un-favorite it later.

How to Be Featured in Treasuries

Would you like to be featured in many treasuries, especially in those with high views? Here are some tips to increase your chances of that happening:

1. The better quality photos you have, the more likely you are to be featured in a treasury and the more likely people will view the treasury.
2. The more shop items you have, the more likely you will be featured in a treasury.
3. Increase your circle. Many Etsians make treasuries using shop items from their circle of friends. And if you feature your friends and favorite shops in a treasury, they are more likely to return the favor.
4. Join a treasury or promotion team. Teams often make treasuries featuring their members, as our team does, and some require that you comment on treasuries posted before yours in discussion threads. They also have other categorized threads for you to post your items, making it easier for members to find things to put in their treasuries (our team does that too!).
5. Promote treasuries you are featured in. Heart it, comment and say thanks, and share it with your teams. I know I'm more likely to refeature a seller who appreciates my treasury than one who does not, no matter how awesome their shop is or how many circles they are in.

Happy treasury making!

BNS & BNR Treasuries

Ever wonder what BNS and BNR treasuries are? They are treasuries created by teams (or individuals) in order to promote and sell the members' shop items, though you do not need to be a team member to participate. The idea is to buy something from one of the featured shops in order to be featured in the treasury and then have someone buy something from your shop.

BNS stands for buy and stay, meaning that even if someone buys from your shop you stay featured in the treasury until the round ends, either after a certain number of sales or a time period. Once the BNS closes, all the people who shopped will be featured in the next treasury. (Some are not consecutive, but most are.) If you do not sell, some curators will carry over your shop one or two more rounds.

BNR stands for buy and replace, meaning that you immediately replace the shop you bought from in the treasury. If you are the last one to buy in before the round closes, you usually are featured in the next round since your shop didn't have much feature time. There are also PNRs, promote and replace. Instead of buying in, you promote the featured item.

Be sure to read the rules before buying in! Every curator does it differently. Some you need to call out the shop you want to buy from and wait for the curator's okay (usually for BNRs so that two people don't buy from the same shop since they both can't replace one shop). Some have a minimum amount of money you have to spend to get in, some don't. Some are open for a long time, some for a short time. Most have ways you can earn free spots: being the top promoter, being chosen in a random drawing, winning a trivia game. Also, if you spend a lot of money or buy from certain shops you get featured in more rounds.

Once you buy, you comment with the shop you bought from, the transaction link(s), and the amount spent after coupon, before shipping (ac/bs). Some curators will ask you what item you want featured, some choose it themselves. It doesn't matter, though, because you can buy any item from the featured shops, not just the featured items.

BNS treasuries are great opportunities for multiple sales since you stay in the treasury the entire time. BNR treasuries get more views since the items are constantly changing. Both are great forms of advertising. Even if you don't sell anything, you get more views and hearts. The advantage of BNS/BNRs over other advertising is that you get something for your money, which is like free advertising if you were going to buy an item anyway. Happened to me twice--I was going to buy something from a shop, happened to find them in a BNS later, and then bought it so I could be featured. The other time, I found an item I wanted to buy at a lower price in a BNS.

Also, the featured shops are encouraged to post coupon codes, so you will usually get good discounts. The best time to participate is during holidays and when you need to get a birthday gift. Then you can shop for what you want at a discount and also get featured, a win-win situation. That's how I got all my Mother's Day gifts and two sales!

The best thing about these treasuries is everyone is super friendly and supportive. You make friends and return customers and promoters. Try it out to for yourself. To find a BNS or BNR, seach for "open bns/bnr" under Treasuries or "bns/bnr" under Teams.

If you have any more questions, let me know!

How to Manage an Effective FACEBOOK Page

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, just about every business has a Facebook Page.  Businesses don’t have a page just because it’s the popular thing to do; it’s a way of getting into the world of your potential customers.  A Facebook Page centralizes quick links to your main website and contact info, it showcases desired photos, and can even connect customers who can share personal stories of success with your product.  Best of all – it’s free!
All you need is a little bit of time to set up the page and then spend a few minutes a few times a week to check how things are going.

Facebook Page Set-Up

If you want a Facebook Page, but don’t have one yet, here is a great link specifically for Etsy Sellers.  Be sure to set up your “MyEtsy” section.  Here’s what mine looks like:

Click Image to Enlarge

The MyEtsy application shows your banner with your shop items.  If they click on an item, it will take them directly to the item’s listing in your shop at Etsy.  Also, if a page visitor clicks on “Share,” then their Facebook post will include a link to the same item’s listing at Etsy.  Handy, don’t you think?
When you have at least 25 fans, you can get a shortened link address.  This makes it much easier to share your site address.  When logged into Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/username.  Select the Page that you are giving a username.  If you click “Check Availability,” it will automatically assume you want it if it’s available, so be sure to pick something you like and can easily remember.

Regular Check-Ups

Now you’ve got a page. 
Here are some tips of what to post and how to encourage visits and comments on your page.

• Post Lots of Links
• Etsy Treasuries (featuring you, one’s you like, some you’ve made, etc.)
• Blog posts (if you keep a blog, this is a great way to announce that you’ve posted something new!)
• Blog features (include links when other blogs are featuring your shop)
• New Items in your shop
• New shops (promote friends, family and fellow-sellers!) – tag their Facebook Page in your post by using the “@” symbol just before their page name

Click Image to Enlarge

• Showcase “1000 Words” (Photos) – Pictures are a great way to get people to look!  For most people, it seems to be easier to process photos than reading words.
• New items
• New logos
• Current Items (sometimes posting a photo of an item that’s been sitting in the shop can give it new activity.  Better yet, post a new photo of the same item)
• Plans – sometimes you can spark interest by sharing a photo (just give them a hint, not the whole plan!) of something you’ve got in the works

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• Be a Person, Be Personable
• Respond to comments left on your page in a timely manner. 
• To quickly check if anyone has made a comment, click on “Notifications” in the menu on the right side of the page. 
• If there is anything new, there will be a number (how many notifications you have waiting) that will be floating at the end of the word “Notifications”
• Be friendly
• The Etsy world gives us a unique opportunity to give personalized customer service even to people across the world
• Show that you care about them as a person as well as a potential customer
• Share Success
• Ask select customers if they wouldn’t mind taking a photo of the item they purchased from you and linking it to your page.
• They can also share by uploading a photo to your page

Click Image to Enlarge

Those are the three main things that I do to keep my page engaging.  I’d love to get more ideas!  If you do something on your Facebook Page that works, please leave a comment and share with our readers!

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www.annavirginiafashion.com

www.facebook.com/annavirginia

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