Raspberry Lemonade Shea and Cocoa Butter Cold Process Soap

By: soapdeli

Giveaways are fun. They create excitement and can be a great tool for getting consumers to visit your online shop. The more traffic you can bring to your shop, the higher your chances of making a sale. And while all giveaways don’t mean sales, what they do equate to is great exposure, name recognition, and possible sales down the line. Running a successful giveaway, however, can be trying and I know a lot of indie business owners who have been disappointed by how little traffic their giveaway has yielded. Because of this I’ve decided to share my tips on how to run an effective giveaway for promoting your shop.

Decide on a prize. First and foremost you need to decide what type of item you’d like to offer as a prize. While it’s tempting to offer that bracelet that never sold and sat in your shop until it expired, this is not the type of item you want to give away. Look over your shop or inventory and pick a product that has gotten a lot of positive attention. Even pick an item that you have sold and re-create something similar. Why? Because you want people to want to take the time to enter your giveaway and most will only do this if you’re offering a product they like and can use. Think about who your target market is and what they would want. Also, be sure to keep in mind the retail value of your prize. People like big prizes – things they wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford or justify buying without knowing the business or the product. Further, the broader the appeal of your prize, the more entries you’re likely to receive as well. Remember that if you can’t get consumers to enter your contest, then you’re missing out on potential new traffic sources for your shop. Then decide on a prize.

Host your contest. Now that you’ve decided what you’re going to give away, you’ll need to decide how to host your contest. If you have a blog or website, that’s the best place to start. Not only will you increase traffic to your blog and potentially gain new followers, but you can set the terms you want for entering your contest as well. Don’t discount having other sites host your contest for you though. Other blogs and sites often have different audiences which ensures you are reaching new people and not the same ones over and over again. If you don’t have a blog, now would be a good time to start one with the giveaway giving you a big introductory push. There are free blogs that cost little to nothing such as Google’s free blogging platform, Blogger. I highly recommend using Blogger for a first time blog as it’s easy to work with and will automatically be indexed by Google.

Setting up your giveaway. Setting up a giveaway really isn’t difficult. Writing the copy is the easy part .After all, you already know everything there is to know about your product. However, what you do need to think about is what you want to gain from the giveaway. Do you want to increase traffic, gain sales, expand your social network? All of these are important things to consider. Personally I’d never pass up the opportunity to expand my social network through sites like twitter and facebook. Friends share things that interest them with their friends and so on, which can lead to a lot of indirect marketing the larger your network grows.

Read More Here:  Be sure to check out the rest of these great tips.

The Etsy forums are packed full of amazing information.  Etsy Forum Rewind brings these buried posts back to life so more people from the community can benefit from the information.  Read, Learn , Apply!

Love Writer print by dekanimal

In the next edition of the Writers Spark series, we meet the multi-talented Brenda Salzano.  Brenda works in a dizzying array of mediums – throughout her creative life she has sculpted, painted, made jewellery, spun, weaved (woved? woven? weavened? help!), and taken photographs!  She is an animal lover and she also loves to write (she maintains three blogs, as well as writing articles for Squidoo and Handmade Spark).

I hope you like!

1. Tough ask but…give us a bio in one sentence!

I am a blue jean, t-shirt wearing, third generation artist, inspired by nature and all things at the sea!

2. What do you create?  What drew you to this particular craft?

I am a multi media artist, meaning I do lots of things.  I love sculpting best, forming anything from kiln fired clays. Designing second, especially wearable art (aka jewelry) with a big focus on doing something not found anywhere else.  Photography third.  I also know spinning, weaving, pottery and I have done a lot of acrylic paintings over the years.

I grew up on a homestead in Alaska and a huge ranch in eastern Oregon.  The wilderness, animals, nature inspires everything I create.  I am a hopeless artist in that even when at rest my hands are making something, or I am reading about how to make something new.

Dragon fly choker by Brenda Salzano

3. What inspires you?  How do you keep your creative spark firing?

I cannot stay indoors too long.  I take a drive to the beach (which I am blessed to live near here on the Oregon coast).  I will meditate on life, my goals and God; take a walk down a trail, and snap a lot of photos.  By the time I get home, I am ready to create again.

I am also a member of an Etsy team too, and we have regular challenges that keep us creative.

4. Tell us about your day job…

I work completely at home, with the exception of weekly volunteering for the local Salvation Army.  We should all give some of our time somewhere each month – this will help your soul be balanced and creative also.

I spend the first third of my day writing for my spiritual inspiration blog and answering emails from people who seek encouragement in their spiritual life.  The rest of the day is for my art.  My husband sells a lot of my things when he is on the road, he is a professional musician.  A lot of the time I eat lunch at the ocean, but I am a real home body.  I love being alone!  I create best when I am completely alone.

Leaf earrings by Brenda Salzano

5. What kinds of things do you enjoy writing about?  Where do you get your ideas for blog posts?

It seems that everyday circumstances will spark my writing.  I am very opinionated.  I tend to be kind of an ‘alpha’, if you are a dog owner you will know what that is!  Life is so full of things to share, and I think people want to know about how other people handle things – what do they feel in similar circumstances, or how did they do that?  Plus, when my husband gets home I don’t get a word in edgewise so blogging is my outlet, LOL!

6. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt from running a handmade business?  What advice can you pass on to other Etsy sellers?

Find your brand – who are you? – and reflect who you are.  Don’t make things you hate making, and never give up.  You might have to rest for a bit but do not give up.

I am almost 60 years old and two years ago I did not know what Twitter was, Facebook or much online lingo at all.  I have now improved my photography, learned how to make a light box and I network.  I still have not attained the sales I want on Etsy, but I am doing well in shops in Las Vegas and Oregon.  I do not even consider that I will not make it on the internet.

Bold choker by Brenda Salzano

7. And for blog writers?  Any advice on writing posts and engaging readers?

I am new at blogging, less than two years, but so far I can only share that it takes time and that fast results are not lasting results for faithful followers.  I used to own a small gift shop and I know that it is important to slowly build a customer base from authenticity and truthfulness.  I have learned that people like to know other real people who inspire them, uplift them and help them.

8. How do you market your business?

Craft fairs = YES!

Twitter is working well for me, I recently reached 1000 followers!  Facebook has been great for finding old friends but my fan page is not anywhere near where I want it to be.  I am working on that one…I also write on Squidoo and I’ve found you can make a small impact there.  I listed two ‘how to’ videos on Squidoo.  Plus YouTube uploads – I am working on getting more videos of jewelry making posted.

You can have a look at my article ‘How To Make A Visual Marketing Plan For Your Etsy Shop‘ which shows you my hand drawn circle of networking goals.  I think everyone could and should do this.  Write it out and add to it.  It has really helped me focus – I need to update it already, so much has grown in a year!

Glass flower necklace by Brenda Salzano

9. Time to pay it forward!  Tell us 3 of your favourite Etsy shops that we should support…

Guy Melamed – with the best lamp work frogs!

Glass bead set by Guy Melamed

Nadine and Kathleen – for greeting cards and art photography

McCullogh Bridge photo by Nadine and Kathleen

Pchickki’s Treasure Barn – mixed media collage art

'In Country' by pchickki

Thanks Brenda!

Salzano’s on Etsy

Brenda’s website

Brenda on Twitter

Brenda on Facebook

Brenda’s handmade art blog

The Bella Wallet in Parisian Damask

Reaching your first 100 sales on Etsy is a great milestone to reach.  It can however be a tough one to reach, but with the proper knowledge it can be done.  Here are few tips from an Etsy seller that has reached and passed the 100 sale milestone.

By: blissbyheather

I know that alot of posts are written asking for advice on how to kickstart or improve sales. I thought I’d share some tips that I have used over the past 4.5 months since I started selling on etsy. Please feel free to add your own too, as I’d love to get some new ideas!

1)Spend some time on your pictures: You don’t have to be a great photographer, haha I’m not, or have an expensive camera to do it. I’ve found that white backgrounds seem to show off my products the best. I purchased 2 pieces of white bristol (or poster) board for less than $2. Now I photograph most of my items in front of, and on top of this board. I then use the free editing software that came with my camera to crop the photos, zoom in and adjust the brightness of the picture

2)Come up with a detailed description of your item: Note the dimensions of your product. If it’s difficult to tell the “true” colour of your item, mention what colours it really is.

3)”Sell your item”: Remember you can have an awesome, unique product but because you don’t have the opportunity to speak to your customers in person you you need to try and convey this message through your description. Instead of saying “small zippered bag”, you could talk about all of the numerous uses the customer could get out of your bag (change purse, makeup bag, ipod pouch, cellphone protector etc.)

4)Buy the domain name for your store. My etsy store address is http://www.blissbyheather.etsy.com but the etsy part is difficult for strangers to remember. I spent $9.99 to purchase the domain name www.blissbyheather.com and now when I run into friends or random people who ask about my purses I can now tell them an easy to remember site address. (After I purchased the site, I chose to redirect it to my etsy store)

5)Post new items in the forums once in awhile. I think that a certain portion of my sales (maybe 15-20%) have come from fellow etsy’ers. It’s helps to show off your new items once in awhile (major emphasis on once in awhile). I don’t know about anyone else, but I ignore posts from sellers who have 15 new posts in one day. It seems like a bit of overkill. On the otherhand, I’ve run into stores with incredible products, good prices that have a low number of sales and I can only imagine it’s because people don’t know about their store, or else they’d be buying it out

6)It’s possible to advertise without spending a dime! I have yet to spend a cent on advertising although I’m off to go order some business cards on Monday. I’m not suggesting that people go this way, but for those of you who are just starting out and don’t want to put a large initial investment into your store (as was my case), know that it is possible to not spend money, but still make sales. Ways that you can advertise include myspace, facebook, livejournal, posting on different forums etc.

Click HERE to read more.

The Etsy forums are packed full of amazing information.  Etsy Forum Rewind brings these buried posts back to life so more people from the community can benefit from the information.  Read, Learn , Apply!

If you are looking for a inexpensive yet stylish alternative to your old bathroom towel bar, here is a great how-to just for you.

By : by stephanie lynn

I’m back in my little guys bath trying to pull things together as it is still a work in progress. I needed a towel bar that could hold up to rough and tough tugging little hands. We have a wall along side the tub that seemed to be the perfect spot, until we discovered the placement of the studs. From experience, I do not put a whole lot of trust into the plastic wall anchors for items that will be yanked and pulled daily. This quick little solution works perfectly, plus it added a little shelf for more decor!

We began with 1/2 inch thick select pine boards. The width of your boards will determine the width of your shelf {we used 4 inch} and the length can be as long as you need. Our boards came in 24 inch lengths which fit perfectly on the wall so we did not even need to cut them. The 1/2 X 4 X 24 Pine Boards costs only $2.20 each and we picked up two at our local hardware store for this project.

Read the Rest of This How-To HERE:

1. running your business vs. pursuing your hobby
2. Get a website in a weekend
3. 6 ways to beat the SEO blues Part 1
4. 6 ways to beat the SEO blues Part 2
5. Use Benefits to Pump Up Your Product Descriptions

By: Flamingo Toes

Can a person have too many pillows? I sure hope not. Maybe so though. Have you seen “Never Been Kissed”? I’ll try not to get to that point.

But I have an addiction. I’ve managed to hold it off for about a month – but I had to give in. There’s only so much you can do against pillow yearnings. Ready to see what I fed the addiction with?

It’s an Embroidered Linen pillow trimmed in jute. Isn’t it pretty? I reaaaallly love it. I saw one at Target that was a little similar but not really. I don’t have a picture though – sorry! I just tweaked the idea to come up with my own creation.

Would you like to make your own? Here’s how. . .

You’ll need:

• 12″ x 16″ Pillow Form
• Linen – 1 12″ x 16″ piece for the back and 1 12″ x 40″ piece for the front
• White Embroidery Thread
• Jute – Around 62″

Start by pressing in the folds of your pillow top. Some of this is guess work, you’ll be making smallish folds spaced irregularly over the rectangle. Vary the length and size of the folds until your pillow top measures 12″ x 16″. It will help to pin them into place as you go.

Once your folds are all pressed in, run a basting stitch to hold them along the top and bottom.

Read The Rest HERE:  Be sure to click on over to Flamingo Toes and catch the rest of this great tutorial !

Snarky, Funny Friendship Card / Friends Forever | By: Neat Things

By: Neat Things

My dad used to always say, “Find what you’re better at than most people and do that for a living.” It was his recipe for success.

If you’re struggling with sales. If you’re not absolutely-fundamentally-in-your-gut clear on your identity or what you want your business to be. If you can’t quite manage to get yourself off the ground. If you are wondering what magical marketing trick is up some sellers’ sleeves. Here’s a zany idea. Try narrowing your business instead of expanding it.

“What is she saying!? If I narrow myself, I narrow my market!” You might be balking. But before you run away screaming, consider this.

There are tons of photographers on here. And, to people who don’t really know photography too well or buy it all that much (myself included – I prefer paint and sculpture), all photographers look alike. One pink flower is like all other pink flowers. It’s a clear shot, there’s a green leafy background, and there might be a bit of blue sky. Blah.

There are also tons of jewelers on here. And to people who don’t really understand the potential complexities in creating your own lampwork beads (I do, by the way. I took a class and quickly realized I should never be left in a room holding both fire and glass.), a lot of beaded jewelry looks alike. There’s some metal, there are some beads. Sure, a lot of stuff is really gorgeous, but unless it’s standing out like a 6″ tall spiked blue mohawk in a small town shopping mall (as I once saw in the 1980s), it’s not going to get noticed.

So if you’re in one of those difficult categories, consider putting a stop to creating random new stuff. Instead, find something to make your work really unique and different and focus on recreating that theme again and again.

For instance, if you’re a nature photographer, don’t just shoot all the flowers you see and list them here. Shoot all the flowers you see from all the angles you can imagine. Consider tweaking photos with some kind of signature (there’s a photog on here whose name I can’t remember who does that) and list everything that fits that theme — and only that theme. Become the best nature photog with that theme that exists on Etsy (and elsewhere).

Read more here:  Be sure to read the rest of Neat Things’ post, as there are a few words of caution you will want to read.

The Etsy forums are packed full of amazing information.  Etsy Forum Rewind brings these buried posts back to life so more people from the community can benefit from the information.  Read, Learn , Apply!

PATTERN - EASY CROCHET BEAR HAT SIZES PREEMIE TO 3 YEARS

By: Speckled Frog Crochet

When I first opened my Etsy store in October 2009 I wasn’t completely sure what I would sell patterns or product I did a little of both in the beginning but quickly found that I loved to create new items and being a stay-at-home with two very busy boys I wanted something I could do in my own time.

So Speckled Frog Crochet was born. Over the past 9 months and more than 1100 sales, I have learned so many useful things I want to share with anyone will to read this post.

First and foremost Etsy is an incredible site! I could not and would not do what I am doing if it weren’t for Etsy. Setting up my store was so inexpensive, professional looking and easy. I am not incredibly computer savvy but I was able to do it in just a few hours.

The opinions posted hear are only my opinion take or leave what you like but someone, may find this useful.
So let’s start at the beginning!
Deciding What to Sell
Because I do so many different crafts this was a little hard for me to decide. Like I mentioned before I am a stay-at-home mom so I needed something that worked in my time frame and was flexible. Also space was an issue I love to sew but with no area available to dedicate to that it really wasn’t an option.
Choosing to sell Crochet items and patterns was a great fit both time wise and space wise. All I needed was an area for my yarn and laptop. I worked on my patterns once the boys were in bed and sold some odds’n’ends along the way.

I now have another shop Offthehookphotoprops where I list a few items that I really enjoy making. Special mention here to OopsIknititagain for helping with the name.

So take into consideration the time, money and space you have to work with. If setting up is a chore every time this will infringe on your production time and you may not be working as efficiently as you could be.

HOW MUCH TIME AND MONEY TO INVEST
Well what I would say here is that expect to spend money and not necessarily make any in the beginning anyway. I was pretty frugal here. I did not invest in many extras till much later. Basically I paid for my listings and my yarn. However as most crafty people will agree it is very easy to overspend when investing in your favoured craft.

As your business grows expect to spend more time doing other things other than crafting. I would say I easily spend at least 6 hours a day doing something related to my business. It could be staying in touch with customers, reading the forums, organizing my work space, jotting down ideas (always keep a note pad handy if you are like me they will come and go in an instant), cleaning up my store, and finally crafting.

I made many items which were sent to photographers and those are basically a write off – no money made there (be sure to ready the section on professional photos)
I set goals for myself and would invest more money once those goals were met.

BEST INVESTMENT!
#1 Quality Materials whatever you are making will be far more impressive with quality materials. I see it all the time at craft shows. People buy cheap materials then spend hours at their craft why? Is your time and creation not worth it? Make your product the best it can be!

#2 would be my Blackberry – I love that I am alerted right away when I get a sale and that I can communicate with people immediately. I offer full support with all my patterns and if someone gets stuck or has a question for any reason it is nice to be able to respond quickly.

#3 best investments would be purchasing my domain name www.speckledfrog.ca which I forward to my Etsy store. It is short and really easy to remember.

WORST INVESTMENT
#1 Cheap yarn! Spend the money and buy good supplies – people are paying for what they expect to be quality items. Now I have yarn that I will never use. If your supplies are expensive work it into the price it will be worth it in the end.

#2 Would probably be my business cards – only though, because I sell patterns which are emailed – what was I thinking? I spent $60 glossing them up printing on the back side matching fridge magnets etc. Man does my fridge look good! Lol

#3 Items sent to photographers at n/c don’t do this – see the next section.

Read More HERE:

The Etsy forums are packed full of amazing information.  Etsy Forum Rewind brings these buried posts back to life so more people from the community can benefit from the information.  Read, Learn , Apply!

By:  Finding Charm

I came across this great tip or tool in one of my marketing email newsletters I receive. Some of you Etsy folks may know of Bill Walton. I typically use the Google Keyword tool to help me brainstorm possible keywords. It still doesn’t seem to display the right words. Often times I find myself double checking what words I keyed in because the results are nothing like what I entered.  So I utilize the Keyword Tool and now the Google Wonder Wheel. It is much like those brainstorm wheels we did in school. It can go on and on. Let me walk you through it.

1. Go to Google and enter your keywords, such as “Purple Flower Ring” hit enter

2. You will get the results page. Look to the left and you will see “More Search Tools” – click the arrow down/carrot button

3. Scroll down the list of tools until you get to “Wonder Wheel” and click it.

4. Google’s top rated related keywords to Purple Flower Ring are displayed.

5. Click on “Floral Wedding Ring” and you get that keywords’ related keywords. You will see another brainstorm wheel shoot off from the “Purple Flower Ring”

As you can tell, this can go on and on. Have fun, play with it. You’ll get the hang of it. Even if the words are faded blue, you can go back and click any of the words.  I think it takes some practice. But it automatically gives you the top related keywords.

Check out the original article HERE.

In the first post on Barn Quilts I told you about how to frame the wood and get the boards ready to paint.  Now we’re moving onto the more colorful side of things – painting!

I knew my color scheme was going to be bright – orange, purple, yellow and red.  When I went to the store I chose colors right at the bottom of each swatch for greatest impact – Jack O’ Lantern, King’s Robe, Bumblebee, and Poppy.

Normally I would start by painting the lightest color first but since I’m going to be crawling all over this quilt I wanted to start in the center and move my way to the edges – so I started with Jack O’ Lantern.

I have to paint four coats of each color.  This was a bit challenging with the crazy level of humidity we’ve had in Wisconsin this year.

But I just took my time and the paint ended up looking great.

One thing I learned about during this process is Frog tape.  It works better than the blue Painter’s Tape at creating smooth, straight lines.  I switched over to it for King’s Robe.

I’m not really sure why I chose to do Poppy before Bumblebee, but I did.

and I think it looks great.

I was down to the last color and the humidity went absolutely crazy.  No matter what I did I couldn’t get the frog tape to stick to the wood – not good.  So, I pulled out my trusty blue painter’s tape and it did the job.  The lines weren’t quite as perfect as the frog tape would have done, but remember – this is going to be observed from a distance – they won’t notice a few imperfections.

Four coats of paint and a few hours of wait time later – I pulled the last tape off to see what I created!  I think it’s going to look fantastic at our apple orchard.

My next, and final post, on making Barn Quilts will show how we mounted it to our barn – the last phase of this project.