My Amazing Online Robo-Shop

Greetings from the future!

I have traveled here at great expense, to share a small part of our advanced knowledge and technology with you.  For example, in my time, we enjoy vending and shopping from elaborate "cloud" malls.  These are places that do not exist in real-space, but where a multitude of wondrous and handcrafted items may be bought and sold.

However, as amazing as these cloud malls are, what makes them so useful are their robot caretakers.  These clever 'bots liberate the artisan from the drudgery of store maintenance and enable them to pursue their craft.  

So what kinds of services do the robot shop managers provide? I have listed several below. Set these up once and free yourself to do other more interesting things.

• Use statsy-clockbot to schedule your relistings. Set up all of your renewals a week or more in advance. You can pick the date and the time for optimal exposure.
• Send your Etsy shop's RSS to twitter. Look on the bottom left of your Etsy store front. There is a link for the RSS feed from your shop. Twitterfeed is an app that will convert this into a tweet automatically for you.
• Tweet your Facebook posts using the Facebook Twitter app. Everything that you post on your Facebook Fan Page will be automatically tweeted to your followers.
• Use Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to consolidate your social media accounts. You can selectively tweet or post to any of your accounts. You can also schedule your posts so that they are sent when your followers are most likely to be online.
• Use hashtags like #etsy and #handmade to catch the interest of 'tweeps' who might not be following you.
• Use Craftopolis' Edit Express. This tool lets you easily edit multiple listings at a time. So add text to titles and descriptions, and change prices to quickly set up sales and discounts.
• List your coupons on Etsycoupon.com. Its a clearinghouse for Etsy sellers to promote their coupons.

Read on for more tips and links to these tools.  http://www.squidoo.com/artsy-business

The Bulldozer's Guide to Selling on Etsy

A few weeks ago, an Etsy colleague made a remark about my approach to business. She said that I was always pushing pushing pushing, like a bulldozer, through obstacles and putting my Etsy shop out in front of people. She said that she was probably too shy to be that aggressively self-assertive.

Well.

At first I was sort of taken aback. Am I really that pushy? And apart from being rather attractive big yellow pieces of machinery, are bulldozers really all that pleasant to be around?

But I've decided to embrace it. Hell yeah, I'm a bulldozer. A big yellow bulldozing monster of an Etsy entrepreneur. Grr. Rawr. And what does a big yellow bulldozing monster of an Etsy entrepreneur do? She makes her own road and drives it.

So here are some notes and tips from the cab of the yellow monster truck on doing business on Etsy.

1. Etsy entrepreneurs are dead serious about business. They are not flirting and they are not fooling around. They have business plans and promotions and financial statements. They may be perfectly nice people, but make no mistake, they are thinking about how to build their business all of the time.

2. Whatever book you read on how to succeed on Etsy? About ten thousand other people have read the same book. When everyone is following the same rules, it only levels the playing field. To win, you have to do something exceptional.

3. You are already exceptional. You are an artist who is also an entrepreneur. That's a hell of a unique skill set. Conventional wisdom is you know, conventional and common. That's not for you. You're creative, by definition. Do things that work for you even if they're uncommon -- especially if they're uncommon.

Now go out there and create your own model of business. You don't have to be a bulldozer to move mountains. Even a drop of water is powerful. Look at the Grand Canyon.

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Got a Brand New Bag?

Just finished a couple new psychedelic new bags with fabric that I got for my birthday (Thanks, Sweetie!)  I love these.  They make me happy just looking at them.

The ironic part is that as I was creating these, I was receiving custom bag requests from two people who wanted something 

"more reserved".

More reserved?!  I don't know how to do 'reserved'.  I am all about the funkadelic and quirky accessories for the eclectic soul.  

SIGH.  Somehow I will persevere.

PLACEMENT, PRODUCT, PERAMBULATIONS

Yesterday was a day full of advice for me. 

 

First, the wonderful women of Columbus Team Etsy gave me some good feedback and encouragement on my All-in-one Purse Experiment.  Lenny made a great point about how difficult the transition between the Conjoined and the Separate forms might be.  A couple people mentioned that it might be a good design for mothers.  Initially I thought that they were thinking of the Momma bag as a diaper bag, but I now realize that you can be a busy mother long after the diaper phase of childhood.  Doh!

 

Then I stumbled on a Shop Critique lab on the Etsy site.  The admin was HeyMichelle, who is an Etsy employee that helps with site and business issues.  Over three hours she reviewed about eight shops in great detail.  (the technology was very cool.. with streaming video and audio)  There were some fine shops and some really simple shops.  It was a very interesting lab.  HeyMichelle didn't get to ArtsiBitsi until about 11:30 pm, which is about an hour after I usually go to bed at night.  I was still awake and alert, so that's a good indicator of how interesting the discussion was. 

 

Anyway, she said a lot of very nice things about my banner, my writing, my products, my photographs... I was beginning to think that there wasn't going to be anything for me to fix!  Finally she said that I might want to think about focusing my product line a little more.  She suggested that I find a theme and stick with it.

 

Oh lordy.. talk about the story of my life.  I said, 'heymichelle, it would be easier if you would just tell me what my theme is'.  Apparently finding my life's purpose was not going to be a part of the lab though.

 

So, I now have some ideas of things to do.  I want to make a completely new All-in-one bag system, with pretty ties instead of clips.  With an improved docking system for Baby.  With more ways to configure Momma, as a slouch bag and as a portfolio!  I want to find my theme too.

 

But for now, I've got to go pack for Hubby's and my long weekend to the Smoky Mountains.  (I'll be field testing the all-in-one.)  We're staying in a cute little B&B, without internet access.  So all things Etsy must go on a shelf for now.  I'll pick up the sewing again on Wednesday, Sept 3rd!

 

See you then.

:-)