The Secret to selling your items in online venues like Etsy, Artfire, Made it myself, Zibbets, or any other one you may be part of or thinking about joining. What I found may not be a secret  only a realization that the truth is you must be serious and available and know you are going to have to work hard.

I did a lot of my research through Craftcount.com I visited this site for over the past 4 weeks to find out what the top sellers are doing that makes their shops sell so much.

Know what I found? Lot’s of items listed and I mean some of them over 2000. No kidding either most had at least 200 depending on the item they were selling but I only found a handfull that were selling under 130 and those shops have been there a long time to finally get over 5ooo sales. Some must be from when Etsy first started.

Now during my research in no way was I looking to find the top selling item to copy it. If you are going to do this it’s first off rude and down right wrong. I didn’t do any of this to copy anything just to see why I am not selling like I want to. In any business it takes time and a lot of hard work. You can find threads all over the place about whats the best way to get your shop seen and selling. I have seen all these threads here are some of the ideas from some of the busiest shops.

• Pictures- must be the best you can get. Clear close up shots and a way to gauge size of the item and a model if you can or the items needs one.

What I found some of the tops sellers didn’t have the best pictures but they did have decent shots and used all the spaces for pictures, most included a shot of the packaging all so. Their pictures were clear and bright and most on white or grey backgrounds but some just used the same background for all their pictures. I think that is key to have it all the same once you get a nice set up that all your items will show up in.

• Items people actually want- make something people want to buy or need not just another thing for them to set around. If they can buy it in walmart they will not buy it from you.

Although this may be true a quality product no matter what is good. What I found in my research was this. Most of the top selling items where customizable. Meaning they either could put your name, your dogs name, a photo of your choice on them or what ever. Items that can be made to ones liking really are at the very top of the list. Even lunch bags with an embroidery name or picture sold well over 4000 in less then 3 years.

I also found that some of the top sellers didn’t actually make the items but did assemble things or change them up to make them better or custom. To me this is not handmade so why they are under handmade I have no idea.

Although I know it takes a lot of talent to put beads on a string I do not consider that handmade unless you actually make the beads. Putting ear wires on a hook or jump ring is a design item not handmade item.  Before you throw stones at me I know it takes a good eye to do these things and I think that every ones style is different so I do love the work. I just think it shouldn’t be in handmade.

• Advertising your link- You need to get the traffic to your shop. It’s work this business even though your on the internet you still have to tell everyone where you are. One of the best ways is with a blog or facebook. Some like twitter and it can be a great way to spread the word

There are lots of free ways to get your link out and about so people can find you. You must remember to get your link to those who want what you have. Think about what you make who buys it? Ask that question then go there and start promoting. Nothing makes more sense than advertising and paid advertising can be much better if you can target those who are your actual peeps. So do some searching and looking. If you make things for kids get on some mommy blogs and start commenting and maybe even run an ad with a busy one it makes a lot of sense to do this if you get the right buyers.

My findings also came across a lot of articles about running a great Face book page do a search and you will find a few. If I have time I will list them in a later post. Check this Link out a wonderful forum if you can buy Earthegy’s book it’s full of lots of great information.

• Policies, Profile, Bio- Important so there is no trouble down the road

Yes get those policies wrote up and make sure you have covered everything you can think of. Profile most everyone who buys handmade wants to know where you are from and who you are. How did you come up with your idea or item? Tell the world how much you love making what you make.

I found that most of the policies have been filled in profiles are about the creative process and each of the top sellers have a simple return refund policy. Thats right you lost a sale you don’t get to keep any of the money. Be sure to always get the item back and be sure you stress this in your policies. Just remember even if someone doesn’t like your item they may come back if you are easy to work with.

Fast shipping- Yep I said it and I will say it again ship same day if you can!

This is something that should be in your policies and in your announcement if you can when you will ship. If you make custom items be sure to make the item and get it out as soon as you can. If it can be made in a day do it and get it shipped. If your item is ready go to paypal pack weigh and get your item shipping label printed and on the package. This may seem premature if it’s a Saturday afternoon but do it. If you have ever ordered something you know how much you want to get it soon. Be considerate and get the item out. Paypal shipping has free confirmation so they will know right away.

1. So all these things are great but during my research some of the key things these all miss is you still have to have items in your shop. Lot’s and lots of them no kidding well over 100 is great over 200 even better.
2. Another finding was most had all the same items in their shop. For instance if it was soap all they had was soap, if they sold wallets they only sold wallets. This was my finding for all shops in the top 10. Most of these shops sold well over 20 items a day. Custom orders as well if they sold custom buttons that was the only thing they did. There was nothing else in their shops.
3. Supplies I wasn’t going to do supplies and leave them out but while doing the research I decided to dig into that too. Supply shops do very well but the same goes for them only if they have a ton of stuff. The top selling shops top 10 have well over 3000 items. Most of these shops were jewelry supply shops but some specialize in things like metal, resin, beads what ever. Even in handmade supplies they had well over 400 items listed.
4. Specializing in an item and sticking to it. You may have a shop now and see that you sell that one thing that keeps selling, don’t fight it go with it. Can you make a bunch of them? can you make them different but the same? can you customize them? Raise your prices and go with that item all over your page. Make a crap load and get them listed.
5. Pricing oh boy here we go. Most of the handmade items that sell the most are in the 30 to 50$ range but I will give you a hint even the top 20 sellers sold items well over 100.00 and that is in the last few days. Don’t under price yourself and having a price range that is too spread out. If you make really nice items and the price is $ 80.00 charge it. Keep your price range not to scattered around if you sell items for 80 it would not be good to have $6.00 items in your shop. Although depending on what you are selling you can throw a few 20$ items in there.
6. A low or no shipping charge most shops did have very low shipping charges but I didn’t see many without. This is up to you but add your shipping, shop fees, paypal fee and your packaging into your item price or half it in and use the other half for the shipping charge. This way it will look like your shipping is cheap and everyone likes that. If your items are heavy half in the item and half in the shipping will work also. Do international and try to add metric measurements to your items.
7. Pictures all were very clear and cohesive and a great banner that was clear and clean. Don’t over do it in your banner keep it simple and nice. Buy one is the best way in my opinion. You need to play with your camera and light and backgrounds. Get a good editing program and once you get just the right thing stay with it. The top shops were not fancy but used all the photos included every angle of the item. Clothing was on a person, bags on a person hook or back of chair. Nice bright light makes your item easy to see.

Over all my findings were quit extensive but I think it will post these in many series as there is so much info and I am so not done.

To wrap this up to what I posted here is this. Find an item or 2 that you love to make and make a lot of them. Take great pictures and get them listed. Make a goal to list one a day or 3 a day what ever it is. If you can’t list and are on etsy relist but not to much. Make your descriptions clear as to what you are selling( I didn’t mention this before) Pretend you are telling someone about your item and they can’t see it. Use your titles to say what it is.  Big red purse with a denim strap, Creamy shampoo that conditions, ect you get the point.

I didn’t find that the top sellers were making anything that others did. Not saying they didn’t make things like soap, jewelry, handbags but they all had their own style. Get your brain working and start thinking bout what you make. Can you make a lot of it? can you make 100 or more? if so get going and get them listed. Get your camera book out and study it. Take some pictures and see if you can’t get them to be all the same and see how that goes. Once my cold goes away I will be doing this myself so look out.

If you get a lot of items in your shop and want to make something else go for it test the waters and see if it fly’s. Do this once you get over 100 items and some sales. Be very good to your new customers and be sure to thank them. I will follow up with some detailed things I found that are hot sellers and ideas of things I didn’t find that maybe a hot seller.

until next time happy creating.

Then the wind came and my entire tent took a flip, well I caught it in mid air but wouldn’t you know it I broke a mirror. Some one yells 7 years bad luck. I just rolled my eyes and said what was the last 7 about then? I think it’s wrong to yell out 7 years bad luck to begin with. Who should get the bad luck me or her?

So our show this weekend was fun and the weather held out for us. We had a great crowd but I am being to think the my luck has run out. I have added new items made old items better and increased my line Pure bath and beauty. I even changed the name of my business thinking that was the issue. My jewelry has only become better but for some reason has faltered. Ok jewelry really isn’t something anyone needs but soap? Come on?

As I was driving home a feeling came over me and it hit me like a ton of lead. Maybe my luck is all used up?

Why would I say such a thing? Well I have survived 3 open heart surgeries, lived through several very bad car accidents, that others never walked away from. I never got pulled over by the cops after having a few drinks. I have done some crazy stupid things but didn’t get hurt. Most of my friends have had a few bad things happen to them but it’s all worked out in the end and actually made their life better.

So all my wining and bitching about having a not so good day in my shop or at a show is falling on deaf ears. As I have used up my luck. Just like fishing how many big ones will you catch in your life? I just read a post on etsy about how to get more views? Is it listing many items in a day? One person posted it’s everything and bit of luck.

Well my luck has run out but I wish all the luck in the world for all of you who are trying to make it on etsy or artfire.

Tell me what makes you lucky. Do you have a lucky stone? Rabbits foot? or has your luck run out too………………….

I wanted to give my displays a unique and rustic look just like my jewelry. All the materials were purchased from Lowes.

Well I do buy silver to make jewelry and I bought lots of it. Now my supply is low and by what I just found yesterday I think I will need to stock up now. I wanted to share this with all of you because it is full of great information.

This article explains why silver has sky rocketed and what is going to happen to the market. I hope you find it useful. Article Here

When I log into my Etsy account I see the front page, just the very top. I have things to do so I just get my shop open as soon as I can. I also see I need to leave feed back for one item. Ok so I think, I didn’t sell anything. I have been sitting here with my e-mail open for an hour. Sure enough I did sell my horseshoe. Next thing I know I get another e-mail about the same item. Asking if she could see a picture of it on someone. I think well let me get my gorgeous model out of the closet put the right clothing on her and I am right on that. Should be able to edit and down load those pictures in about a year! LOL

I explained that the item had been sold and I have no access to a model. I have tried to find one, not easy.

I then go to look at my activity feed. Holly Cow Man my horseshoe is favorite ed  like 25 times. I go back to my invoice so I can let my sale know I will ship this out tomorrow. I go back to my shop and holly Cow Man again I have 600 views of this little horseshoe. Ok so I go edit the listing as a made to order item. Guess what? I sold it again. So I relisted it again. 1062 view by this morning.

So I am thinking what the heck is up. I can’t figure out where all this traffic is coming from. I am not in a treasury, I didn’t send out an

Finger less gloves

e-mail. I didn’t face book I was just listing some items in my Bath and Beauty shop. So off to google anylistics I go. I had to really look for it and couldn’t tell you how the heck I found it but there it was. ETSY FINDS is the traffic link from page. WOW! now how do I get that e-mail. I had to go ask someone in the forums and a very nice person helped me out. Angela is a Peach!

Check out her shop it’s really cool. Be sure to check out her profile page she has other shops too.

So how did I get into Etsy finds? I have no Idea except that my picture was good and it had a garnet in the title. So the title of the e-mail was January Jewel. It is a good place to be if you can get into it. I thanked Cristine for putting me in the e-mail but never heard back. I was really thrilled when my shop was on fire. I know lots of shops get that kind of traffic but not mine. West Wind Creations really was hot last night. So I also noticed that there are lot’s of people favoriting items. Also adding people to there circle. I don’t often get involved because I have so much to do. I think I will have to start working it a bit more.

I believe e-mail marketing is a great way to get your items out there. You need 2 things for sure, great photos and a list to e-mail too. I have an e-mail News Letter and find it very helpful. I do not have the list etsy does so when I get a sale from my news letter I am very happy.

So the excitement is over but love the fact that I was picked to be in Etsy’s Finds News Letter. I am now signed up for it and suggest you do the same. You never know when you will be picked and you don’t want to be searching for where you are.

So take good pictures look into the future with your listing titles and you could be next.

Well I got money from several people like my father (never knows what to get us) my mother in law who knows I love to save up for big things. My grandmother who just doesn’t shop. So cool I get to buy a camera of my own. I started searching online and decided when I went to town to put my tires on the truck I would stop and get one.

Hate to tell you all but they are out of everything. (another story on my other blog)

Every camera was on sale but none in stock. Hmm so I started looking online deeper. It was all so confusing they all looked the same to me and I couldn’t really tell a huge difference between them all except the price.  Ok I did recognized a few things that I might need but wasn’t quit sure. So I started looking for reviews and here is what I found. I am sharing this so whether you need a new camera or need help using the one you have. I hope some of these links can give you a bit more information then what you get from others on Etsy or Artfire or where ever you sell online.

First is a great place to start that gives you some very wonderful suggestions and direction of what type camera you might actually need and what is best for you photograph types. Click Here to go to this awesome site! Very Helpful! Be sure to answer as many questions as you can. It takes a bit of time but it is well worth it.

I found that site above on this site Click Here I found that has some really great information. First let me share the lessons I found that Link is for a great way to balance light and there is so much information. Best thing is it is in plain English and not too hard to figure out. Don’t forget to have your camera and the book with it so if you are not sure what they are talking about you can look it up in your camera book.

That book that comes with your camera is a great thing to have around. Dave’s Picks  has lots of info on it so be sure to poke around. I found his reviews of each camera to be very helpful. I also did a search for taking great macro shots and found a ton of information. I won’t list them here you can do that search on google and find the same things.

I wanted to share this with you because I know we all struggle with taking great photos. Now this doesn’t mean mine are any better but I am going to try some of these tips and tricks I have found and see how it goes. I am also excited to get my new camera that was #1 of my recommendations from this site. Looking forward to actually seeing how right it was and using my awesome new camera. I actually got a great deal from amazon. Paid less than half what I paid for my fiance’s and it’s almost the same thing only a bit upgraded.

Would love to hear about any sites you use to help with photos. Leave the links in comments so we can share them with everyone.

I said no silly you don’t eat them you put them in your bath tub. These cute little fancy macaroons are actually bubble bath. I started just using a spoon and made half moons. I thought that was fun and they worked really good too. I had so many bubbles it over flowed my sink with bubbles. I then found an old cookie cutter and made some mint chocolate macaroons. Every part of them is made of soap. How cool right. The chocolate part will float around in the tube but eventually melts away and make the entire room smell like girl scout cookies. Yummy!

Then I got brave and took out my pastry bag I bought to fill lotion bottles. You better believe I had fun making these. Just like making real cup cakes but I don’t have to worry about forgetting them in the oven. Ha Ha have done that way too many times. While I wait for my cup part to set up I mix up the soap for the top. This is a bit of whipped soap and a melt and pour soap. Any sprinkles on top are made of salt. Very good for your bath time relaxation because salt helps your skin balance and absorb moisture. The cocoa nut butter makes your bath water like silk. You have to agitate the water to get the bubbles started but once they do you will get lots of them. Careful getting in and out of the tub, It can become slippery like with any other kind of soap.

So here are my new creations. I would love to see yours too.

Don’t forget to follow our blog for more updates and new ideas. We also have News Letter that comes out 2 days a week with special offers and updates. Also Remember if you are a crafter and have a website you can go to my hand made page and leave a bit about yourself and craft or specials. Be sure to only submit once a month I will feature one artisan each month.

Until next time Happy Crafting!

Do you love to create and sell your creations to others?

Are you in it for the money or just to buy more stuff to make more?

Are you a serious business and love creating and putting food on the table, paying the bills or do you want to some day?

No matter what your answer is for any of the above questions please understand something. This is not my opinion but fact. There are some of us who love to create. I would some day love it to be the only thing we do.  It may even be the only income others have.

So what is my point. Price your items as if you are a business. Even if it is just a hobby or a pass time it is not fair to under price those of us who want to grow or need to feed our kids(even if they are 4 legged). It was very hard for me to understand this until talking with both my mother and grandma. Both of them at one time had their own craft shop and sold their creations to earn a living. They did well too.

Now they both still create ( a bit) and sell to a local museum. They sell way too cheap and I get very upset with this. They told me they are not trying to make a living at it. I explained that it is so unfair for the other shops that are trying to make a living and pay the rent to under price your items. Yes they sell them, yes it is for a good cause but another shop next to it has to pay the rent and sells sweaters. My gram sells a very beautiful sweater with a beautiful pattern on it. Full size like a medium womens for 25.00. Sorry but it makes me very sick to see this. The sweater should not be sold for less than 60.00 and she knows it.

Here is another example of the same thing going on at Etsy and Artfire and many other selling venues. I sell cosmetics on Etsy, I have been there since February. I see some shops selling body butters for $5.00 for 4 oz and I just don’t see how. I have added it up and gone over it a million time. I would love to charge less and by no means do I get paid for all my time. The price of not only the raw material (shipping for all that), the bottles,( shipping for them), the labels( shipping), designing, program for labels,ink, printer,computer, advertising. You get the point. At some point if I want to be in business they will have to be replaced (they could be upgraded now). I know these people know how much goes into this business. Why do they want to sell them selves short? Why would you?

No matter what you make be sure to research your items. Get off etsy and artfire and go look around the net. You will see that handcrafted items need to be priced accordingly. I get some comments about my prices being high but those who do buy from me either my jewelry or cosmetics know they are buying  quality not production. It has taken me 3 years to get my jewelry business built up and running smoothly. I am actually firing orders right now. Guess what they never even asked how much the items would be. They wanted them and that was it.

So when doing your pricing be fair. Be fair to customers and to your fellow craftors and artisans. Some of us depend on this for our rent and we want you to make money too but lets do it together. Make a great product and you will get what you should be paid for it.

Lets work together and make some money!

I am an online shopper and I love to hear a bit about what something was made of and how they chose the colors but I don’t want a book before I get to the real details. How big is it and what is it made of? That is what I want to know first and foremost. Is it durable and crafted for long wear or is it delicate?

Since starting on Etsy and Arfire I am not rolling in the dough like I thought I would. I do have some great customers For PonyDustCosmetics but it has been slow. I have been creating new and wonderful products that will be out in time for Christmas and some great little cosmetic and Bath and Beauty bags for gifts and stocking stuffer s. I am excited also that I have so many off line real world customers that keep coming back for more. Where did I get them? Craft shows and some private showings of my jewelry.

If you have items that make great stocking stuffer’s  be sure to put that in your tags. Create list and create some more. If you can get lot’s of your wonderful creations listed before thanks giving you should do well.

I need to get to this myself so see you all in the just listed box in a few days. I am hoping for a sunny day to get pictures too. Some of them I did the other day where not very good. To the trash they went so a do over is needed. Wish you all the best of luck with your creations and holiday sales.

For Part 4 we will be setting up some of the back google annalistics. This way you can see how much and where your traffic comes from. It is a great tool to use for Etsy. Artfire has a stats page that is really great so it isn’t as important to set it up. Although it is a good idea.

We will go over descriptions and I will show you some picture trick not to mention a list of resources to get you started on taking great pictures.  You will want to read that little book that came with your camera. No matter how much you paid for your camera they all have one and to take great pictures it is a good idea to become very familiar with your camera. The book does have information in it to help you understand all the buttons what they do and how to use them. Set your camera on macro and go outside in a shaded part of a porch or inside a window. Take about 5 pictures with each setting write down where you have it set, then take another 5 and so on. Up load them to your computer and see what works best for where you are taking the photos.  Best thing is to take lots of them and you can crop them to the size you like.

I always save mine to 1000 pixels and they seem to load well and look really crisp.

Until Monday when I get back from Boston you all take care and start photographing your items. Work on descriptions too.

See ya Monday