Treasure Treasuries

Do you wonder why I push treasury making so much? Treasuries give you exposure in many ways:

1. To Etsy sellers. Many Etsy sellers are also Etsy buyers because they want to support other Etsy sellers.

2. To Etsy buyers. Treasuries that Etsy admin likes are put on the front page--a new one every hour--so when people go to etsy.com your item may be the first thing they see! I have had 3 items in front-page treasuries. My views were very high those days. I think I even got one sale from them. (You can see if you have been on the front page by entering your username under "search for member" here: www.craftcult.com/vault.php)

People can also search for treasuries as collections for one-stop buying. For example, they can search for a woodland wedding treasury to find an already put-together collection of great items they may like for their wedding. It beats browsing through hundreds or thousands of items that result from a regular Etsy search!

3. To other sites. People post treasuries on their Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, Pinterest boards, and blogs. That's a lot of potential customers being exposed to your shop!

Thanks, everyone, for making this month the best in team treasuries! Keep it up!

Google Shopping Policies

A highlighted thread in the Site Help forum reads:

On Oct 17, Google replaced Google Product Search with Google Shopping, and -- at the same time -- replaced free syndication of listings with all paid ads, called Google Product Listing Ads. We announced the change in this blog post.

Knowing how important referrals directly to listings are during the holiday season, Etsy made the decision to purchase ads on Google Shopping on behalf of sellers through the end of the year. Our goals were to maintain traffic from the Google marketplace through the holiday season, and to better understand ad performance when we evaluate whether we should use these ads in the future. We’ve been working closely with Google, and we’re excited to see how this progresses. Most of all, we are committed to understanding the value these ads provide to sellers.

An Etsy seller commented on the importance of following Google Shopping Policies in order to be included. The most common mistakes sellers make are in their titles and descriptions. Google's policies are as follows (read their policy site for further explanations, examples, and exceptions):

Capitalization
Google Shopping doesn't allow product listings with titles or descriptions that use excessive or gimmicky capitalization. These guidelines also apply to promotional messages.

Punctuations and Symbols
Google Shopping doesn't allow product listings that uses gimmicky or unnecessary punctuation or symbols in title or description, including promotional messages, like the following:

• Exclamation mark in the product listing title
• More than one exclamation mark in the product listing text
• Repeated punctuation or symbols
• Symbols, numbers, and letters that don't adhere to their true meaning
• Bullet points

Repetition
Google Shopping doesn't allow text that uses gimmicky repetition of words or phrases.

Spacing
Google Shopping doesn't allow text that contains inappropriate spacing between words or punctuation, like the following:

• Extra spaces that make the text difficult to read
• Extra spaces between letters when used in a gimmicky fashion, like "G r e e n R u n n e r s"
• Missing spaces between words or punctuation, like "TheEnd" or "GreenRunners"

Grammar and Spelling
Google Shopping doesn't allow product listings with incorrect grammar or misspellings in title or description. These guidelines also apply to promotional message. Examples include:

• Wrong words
• Wrong verb tense
• Incorrect subject-verb agreement
• Misspellings

We do allow certain exceptions, for example:

• Common misspellings that the majority of users would understand (like "nite" instead of "night")
• Abbreviations that the majority of users would understand (like "info" instead of "information")
• Commonly used informal words or phrases (like "lovin it" instead of "loving it"
• Misspellings used as puns (like "grate savings on kitchen utensils")

Relevance, Clarity, and Accuracy
Product listings must be relevant, clear, accurate, and descriptive of the products offered. Requirements:

• Product listings must directly relate to the content on your landing page. When users see your product listing, they should be able to understand what kind of product they'll find on your site.
• Product listings shouldn't include additional details about free shipping, billing information, promotions, stock information or your store's policies.
• Product listings shouldn’t contain any promotional text, boilerplate text or simulate email inbox notifications.
• Product listings can't use call-to-action phrases such as "click here" or "click +1" that could apply to any product listing, regardless of content. This includes phrases in the third line of your product listing that lead into your display URL, such as "See this site."

Review these policies and make any necessary changes to ensure your listings appear in searches in preparation for the holiday season!

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

How to Use Your Personal Facebook Profile for Business

Because much of Facebook is used to connect with family and friends, many of us don't know how to approach them to buy our products. Here are a few tips to help you move forward in sharing what you do with those close to you:

• Share the personal story behind your creation or vintage item.
• List the ways it will help accomplish some goal for others.
• Explain what your goals are in selling items in your store, such as saving for college or a mission. [Avoid sob stories or mentioning charities, as those may make some people believe you are a scammer. -Francesca]
• Share when you get a heart or someone features your item in their treasury list.
• When items have been in your shop for a while, ask for opinions of the photos or advice on how to market the product better.
• Always remember to keep things light and friendly so that others will enjoy talking to you and you will be a welcomed contact. 
• Never be afraid to share; get rid of the fear that others will steal your ideas and customers. Who knows--maybe sharing your talents with others will cause someone to gain the courage to share their talents as well.
• If your items are pricey, go into detail on the time it takes to create an item as well as the quality of the materials used. Once people understand what it takes to create your items, they will understand and value them.
• Offer to give your contacts a break in the prices, but make sure you include directions on contacting you first so that you can create a special listing for them with your new price that is just for them.
• Offer to put their name in a drawing for free products if they share your store on their wall. Have them contact you back with the listing once they have done so.

These are just a few ideas I have found to work well in sharing with my contacts on Facebook. Happy sharing everyone!

Note: Many of these tips work well for business Facebook pages too.

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