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Comment by Teresa Wooden on December 12, 2011 at 12:38pm

Learned from my daughter's vintage shop, set up one year ago (now closed because she is going to grad school):

You must have 90-plus items in your shop.  Then add more.

Yu must list at least one item every day, so you are always in front of the customer base.

If you can't list a new item, renew an old one.  Preferably at peak hours on the East or West coast.

You must ship internationally.

You will take a  hit on shipping.  Calculate it into your overall prices.

You should buy a feature spot at least once a month or two.  Holiday weekends and weekends in general go fast.  They will tell you when the next slot of feature spots opens up...sometimes it is in the wee hours for your region.  You have to reserve your spot as soon as the slot opens for prime times.

Tags, tags, tags.  Hit the key words for search.  Underneath your shop title, where you get to describe your shop, hit the key words for Google search engines to pick up within the first sentence.

Sell only smaller items that are easy to ship.  The rest is just a headache.

Research, research, research.  Stalk other merchants.  Compare items.  Compare prices.  DO NOT undersell your premium work to match up with the price of mediocre work.  The buyers are out there.  If it looks like you don't value your work, they won't value it either.  If you feel you need to reduce the price, give them free shipping.  But let your work maintain it's value.  Also be aware that your art fair patrons will be checking your Etsy site.  If the same item is listed there at a lower price to accommodate Etsy, they will be annoyed.

Photos!  It's all about the photo.  Your photo has to grab the customer and make them want to click to see more.  Study how some of the successful merchants stage their photos.  Watch your lighting.  Edit them with photoshop and lighten them up again so they display well on screen.  The Etsy blogs are FULL of tips and advice for taking better photos.  Just search.

How much can you make:  Go to the Etsy Craftcount page to track statistics of other merchants in your medium (link, I think:  http://www.craftcount.com/category.php?cat=3&subcat=24 ).  Study what the most successful merchants are selling and what their prices are on their listing page, go to their "sold" page and count how many sales in a specific amount of time and see what they are making.  Take note of whether they are charging shipping in addition or including it in the sale price.  For my daughter's vintage shop, her average was around $500 per month gross.  Take out of that inventory price, shipping, time spent researching, etc.  But it paid her rent without much time spent in doing it.  Some of the most successful ceramics sellers in statistics actually sell pretty flea-markety stuff.  So you might search for sellers who post more professional work to get a realistic idea.

Etsy works as a small part-time job on the side.  As a supplement to your other marketing.  As a simple store-front option on your professional web site.  It does take a considerable amount of time to learn the in and outs, take the photos, do the research, do the marketing.

I do admit, after searching Etsy crafts last night to create a treasury, I came away almost ashamed to put my work back up there.  :P  But...know that there ARE professional artists and craftspeople on there, with outstanding work.  Really, really outstanding.  You just have to help the customers sift through all the flotsam and jetsam to find you.

Comment by Victoria Cochran on December 12, 2011 at 12:30pm

I decided to stock my shop to 90 pieces, minimum, starting at the end of this past June. I also began to post notices of new incoming work and "out the door" items regularly to: flickr, FaceBook business page, and twitter. Up to that time, I'd made about $230 via Etsy in the year and a half, prior.

In the 5 months since stocking, I've made nearly $400. During 12 weeks of those 5 months, I took on some full time contract work and did not promote. I only added a few new items, & posted when there were in/out changes.

That's not "a ton of money," but it is a significant percentage increase over past performance. I'm encouraged to continue. 

I think my best decision has been to target a particular market: custom clothing makers. Nobody wants to put commercial buttons on handmade work. "Solving the buyer's problem" is a good approach. How does your work solve a problem?

At this point, I've also attracted collectors. Collecting books is about the author's story. A lot of my work has a story, a history. Collectors are acquiring the story, as much as the object itself. What's your story? Why you made it is more interesting than how, for most people. As in writing, answer the "So what?" question.

I put up a blog post on my page here about saving time by doing online promotion using syndication. It might be helpful.

http://cone6pots.ning.com/profiles/blogs/marketing-via-social-media...

Comment by George Lewter on December 12, 2011 at 11:54am

Could we get some numbers from the group.  Approx monthly revenue. Breakdown of values that move or don't.  Types of things that move or don't, etc.  As I said previously, I am yet to make my first sale on etsy. (Yes, I know I only have 4 items in my shop! More on the way)

Comment by Patricia Bridges on December 12, 2011 at 10:25am

I use etsy as a reference sight mostly. I get some sales from it but it's pretty slow. It's a huge pool of unwashed crafties. many of the potters are selling pretty low end stuff - hard for the untrained eye - but on further inspection you can see pitting, crazing, uneven, patchy drippy pots. It's a lot of noise to break through. You need LOTS of inventory to get any traction. It's not great but it doesn't hurt.

Comment by George Lewter on December 12, 2011 at 8:44am

I think putting a credit card number out on many merchant sites would open your information to more risk than keeping it behind the paypal fire wall where it does not get exposed to others. Hacking is always a threat and has been experienced by many merchants and banks. Walking down the street with a wallet also exposes you to financial and other risks.

Comment by Nancy Krug on December 12, 2011 at 8:39am

I also have used PayPal for many years without problem. 

There have been many pfishing incidents where bad people have sent out emails allegedly from PayPal, but that can happen (and has) with many credit cards and banks.  The simple solution is never to follow a link in an email allegedly from a bank or credit card or money service, but instead go to the site directly. 

My tip for PayPal: transfer your money out of it as soon as you get it, using the free transfer to your bank.  PayPal is not a bank.

There is nothing I know of as easy to use for international transactions, since they can handle the currency issues.  They are less costly for credit card transactions than a merchant account if you do not process credit cards every month.  You can offer your customers a secure way to use their credit cards. 

I treat my PayPal account like my other sensitive banking and money information.  I protect my login information, like an online bank account, and I balance my bank and PayPal accounts regularly.  There is no 100% safe way to manage money, but there are a lot of ways to reduce risk.

Comment by Victoria Cochran on December 12, 2011 at 8:13am

I've been using PayPal for at least 10 years...never any problems.

Comment by Sharon Ivy on December 11, 2011 at 7:36pm

Thanks for the Treasury tips, Teresa, and the book info, Carl.  This group has been such a help to me, especially during this busy Christmas season.  My first real attempt at selling on Etsy during the holiday buying season and I am much encouraged to continue!

Comment by Carl Ray Crutchfield on December 11, 2011 at 7:04pm

I have been help greatly by the recent postings in this group, thanks.  Also, I have been reading How to Sell Your Crafts Online - Guide to Etsy and beyond, by Derrick Sutton.  Got a copy from my library.  Wealth of info and you can digest it at your leisure.  Well laid out and easy to understand, highly recommend it.  -carl

Comment by Teresa Wooden on December 11, 2011 at 1:14pm

Cute treasury, Sharon.  :)  Just a tip:  to increase the chances of a treasury being picked up for the front page of Etsy, it should be an eclectic mix of items based on a theme.  We are pushing ceramics, so maybe half or less ceramics and half made up of vintage, handmade, soaps, 2D art, fiber art, etc.  All based on a theme like Sharon's, or a color, a holiday, a season, etc.

BTW trending tags for upcoming treasury picks include the following (according to Etsy blogs):  New Year, purple, home decor, grape, winter white, romantic, 2012, tangerine, party, mint, flower.  Think about building some treasuries around those themes with a few good ceramics choices included.

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