Full Time Etsy Crafters Team

"How to be Successful on Etsy" by Prix Prix

2011-06-14T22:01:00.001-07:00

FTEC member Laura (Prix Prix) shares her Etsy Success tips with us today! Originally posted on prix prix blog on 6/13/11.

I get regular emails from folks who are just starting out on Etsy and want to know what the secret is to getting attention and sales in their shops. There is certainly no secret- it takes time and lots of work to build up a following. Luckily, there are a bunch of easy changes you can make to your shop, and strategies for promoting it, that will get your shop busy as quickly as possible. I figured out all of this through years of trial and error, and now you can skip repeating my mistakes and get ahead much more quickly.

And now… the secret to selling a zillion of your handmade widgets on Etsy!

Photos

Awesome photos are vital for getting attention on Etsy. Pretty photos make it into Treasuries (member curated galleries of products), and great Treasuries are featured on Etsy’s front page, getting you tons of visibility. Also, blogs will feature nice photos. Your photos need to be edited in a program like Photoshop, Apple’s iPhoto, Picasa (Google’s free program) or Picnik on Flickr. Increase the contrast and the brightness until the photos pop more. Look through items featured on the front page and in treasuries, and also in catalogs, to get an idea of what types of photos and how much contrast works the best. I really can’t emphasize enough how vital really amazing photos are for having any success selling your beautiful handmade goods on the internet.
Follow this simple tutorial on brightening photos: http://www.etsy.com/storque/make/how-to-brighten-your-photos-with-paperama-2900/ There is no excuse for blurry, dark, overexposed, or bland looking photos when it is this easy to fix them! This is the single most important thing you can do for your shop today.
In the longer term, getting a dedicated setup for photographing products is essential. A bright sunny corner with no distracting background items, for example, or even a large foamboard panel that you can set up in the background when you’re photographing. Avoid a busy background – the focus should be on your products. Different shops have their own style or background for photos. I use a white background, others might use wood or a textured background. Some use simple, attractively arranged props to enhance their photos. Here is my inspiration board for great product photography: http://pinterest.com/prixprix/product-photography/
Keep in mind that for getting featured on Etsy, the product should look fantastic in the large main thumbnail version (when you view the shop in “gallery” mode). Play with interesting angles, pay attention to cropping (I like to crop all of my photos to be square – they seem to look best that way), make sure your colors and your lights/darks pop.
If you have something meant to be worn or carried, think about working with a photographer friend to get some great, well lit model shots.

Descriptions & Titles

Avoid super short descriptions, and break up text into multiple short paragraphs. Write in descriptive sentences. Talk about who would use your product and how. Are they perfect for busy moms on the go? People also like to hear the story of how it’s made. On Etsy, people are really buying the photo and the story of the item.
Think about coming up with interesting product names or styles.
Use lots of descriptive words in the title and the text, especially colors, patterns, seasonal references, styles/trends (eg nautical, geometric, neon, etc), and seasonal things (I like to mention that my items are great Father’s Day gifts, for example). People making Treasuries will search for these terms to fit with their themes, and you want your product to come up in those searches if it would fit.
Always include the dimensions of the product. It’s a good idea to state the dimensions in both English and Metric for your customers abroad. Also include descriptive measurements, eg. if it’s a computer bag, what’s the biggest laptop that will fit?
Be consistent with capitalization in your product titles. I prefer titles to be first-letters-capitalized, personally.
Move a few important items from the Shop Policies to the bottom of the item description. Very few people read the policies. Mention in the item description if you take custom orders. Mention how the item is packaged and if it can be gift-wrapped. Tell people if it comes in other colors.
Example: Moop has great, clear descriptions to give you a sense of what types of info to include: http://www.etsy.com/listing/69699738/the-paperback-in-red-waxed-canvas (I want that bag!)
See if you can find a graphic designer friend to help create a great shop banner that includes both your shop name and an image of your products. I’d also use a great product photo for your shop avatar.

Strategy

Renew an item listing or list a new item at least once a day, at a time when people are generally awake. In general, don’t relist several at once. Listings get buried in Etsy searches very quickly.
Be social! Add people to your “Circle” on Etsy. Add their items and shops as favorites. Create some lovely Treasuries of your own with a theme & feature other peoples’ items.
Join an active Etsy team. There are lots of active teams based on artistic medium, location, lifestyle, and more, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find a great one.
Have excellent customer service. Use PayPal Shipping or Endicia to create shipping labels with tracking, and email the tracking info & a friendly thank-you to the buyer when their item ships. Take responsibility if anything goes wrong, even if it’s entirely the fault of the Post Office. People really appreciate it and will be on your side (and maybe will even tell their friends about your shop). Try to respond to emails within a day – the sooner the better. (And if you do sign up for Endicia, please use my referral code- 741192 -in the “promo code” field, and you will give me a free month! Thanks! http://www.endicia.com/)
Apply to a hip local craft fair. A very large percentage of my Etsy customers first found me at craft fairs. This is a great way to start word-of-mouth buzz about your products!
After your photos and descriptions are made as awesome as possible, send a friendly email to a blogger who features work like yours. Target only blogs that are a great fit. Here is a fantastic article about how to do this: http://www.modishblog.com/biztips/2008/09/how-to-approach-blogs-and-get-them-to-write-about-you.html Blog features, even on smaller blogs, do a ton to increase traffic to your shop & get you sales. Always send a nice brief thank you to anyone who features you.

cherry blossoms and tulips

2011-03-21T08:43:00.001-07:00

team treasury created by Phydeaux!

Handmade Guide to Buying Yarn

2010-07-13T03:06:00.000-07:00

You've picked a pattern and have an image of a beautiful knit piece in your mind. Your needles are ready, and you can't wait for the kids to go to bed so that you can start. The only thing missing to start your new project is the perfect yarn.

When I asked our lovely yarn spinners here at FTEC what makes handmade yarn great, good, or horrendous - I got a surprising answer. Nobody had a hard and fast rule about how to buy yarn online.

In fact, buying yarn, I was told, is an intensely personal experience. What makes one person love a type of yarn might make another hate it. Plus, the type of project will very much dictate the type of yarn. You certainly wouldn't want a scratchy blend that might be perfect for an afghan wrapped around your neck, now would you? On the other hand, some of the super soft artistic blends would bankrupt you if you made them into a full fledged afghan.

Bobbi, from Kittygrrlz hand spun yarn also had a few suggestions. She said that "the cost of handspun isn't really conducive to large projects - I think of it as a luxury for small projects or to be an added accent to a larger piece, but I've also had people use it for large projects."

So then, how do you buy it online? Well, like anything else you would buy online, look for a reputable seller with positive feedback. Looking over a seller's previous feedback is perhaps one of the best ways to get a feel for how past customers appreciated the yarn. Look for yarn that has been professionally dyed (not with some alternative dyes as they can run), and sellers that use only the best suppliers for their fiber. And finally, if you want to know about the yarn, simply ask the spinner! If it really is hand spun by that seller, they will be able to answer all of your questions.

- Photo courtesy of Kittygrrlz Hand Spun Yarn. You can visit her store www.etsy.com/shop/kittygrrlz

- Article by BS Art Studio

Book Review - Deliverying Happiness

2010-07-05T21:10:00.001-07:00

As a business owner, I am always looking for new inspirations for my business. When our FTEC member Eleen recommended the book "Delivering Happiness", I was intrigued by its title. We all want to be happy, but what exactly does Tony Hsieh mean by "Delivering Happiness?"

Delivery Happiness started as an informal autobiography, with stories of Tony Hsieh's multiple failed business attempts as a child as a result of big dreams, great concepts, and lack of experience and research. Hsieh's desire to make big money by owning a business was not deterred by his failed attempts, and eventually one of his business ideas (custom buttons) actually succeeded and generated good income for the teenager. From there Hsieh continued to have different businesses. He became a milti-millioanaire after selling LinkExchange (which he co-founded), got involved with Zappos as an adviser and investor, and then eventually became CEO. Within 10 years, Zappos grew from almost no sales to $1 billion in gross merchandise sales, and was eventually acquired by Amazon in 2009 in a deal valued at over $1.2 billion on the day of closing.

Just like many other great success stories, Hsieh's success almost seems too glamorous and too easy -- that is, if you don't read the book Delivering Happiness, in which Hsieh candidly shares his roller coaster ride with the readers. There were ups and downs over the course of 10 years, and it took a lot of courage, passion and wisdom to create an empire.

Half way through the book, just when I was about to start wondering, "ok, so this book is about the background of Hsieh's success story. And what does it have anything to with 'Delivering Happiness'?" the direction of the book suddenly changed.

The book was divided into three sections...

Section I - Profits

Section II - Profits and Passion

Section III - Profits, Passion, and Purpose

These three sections symbolically represent different periods of Hsieh's life. Before his business succeeded, all Hsieh wanted was profits -- "I just wanted a job that paid well and didn't seem like too much work."(p.29) Then, after his success with LinkExchange, the young millionaire realized that money alone couldn't bring him happiness -- "I didn't know exactly what I was going to do, but I knew what I wasn't going to do....I had decided to stop chasing the money, and start chasing the passion."(p.54)

A turning point of Zappos was when Hsieh and Mossler(Fred) decided to make the Zappos brand about the best customer service -- “…in the long run, little things that keep the customer in mind will end up paying huge dividends.”(p.128)This is where “Delivering Happiness” came in --“As we rolled out these additional services, we slowly realized that we were becoming part of a bigger movement. It was no longer just about Zappos. We were helping change the world.”(p.208) Hsieh talked about how Zappos delivers happiness through their unique culture/core values. Not only does Zappos try to make customers happy, it also strives to make the employees and vendors happy.

I had started reading “Delivering Happiness” hoping to learn to make profits, and it was nothing like what I expected -- It was much, much more.

If you are interested in learning more about "Delivering Happiness", check out their website, twitter or facebook page! (I especially love Tony's twitter page among the three)

mollie (aka muyinmolly)

Disclosure: I have received the book free of charge . I am honestly reviewing the products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received.

Reproductions vs. Originals

2010-05-25T23:48:00.000-07:00

I've been writing for another blog about the benefits of buying handmade. Tara over at Scoutiegirl had a wonderful blog post about why she buys handmade:

"... but I feel pretty good when I walk out of the house wearing something that no one else in my county has in their closet. No amount of Louis Vuittons or Chanel suits or t-shirts plastered with chain store logos make up for the sameness that the rest of the world lives in." - Tara from Scoutiegirl

Well said! Do you like to be 100% original? I get tired of seeing the same things everywhere. I hate walking into someone's home and seeing the exact same print that was available at Pier One, or Pottery Barn, or Ikea, or, or, or. Trust your instincts, be yourself, have an opinion and be original!

So what is the difference in between a print and an original painting? Well, a print is a reproduction of a painting. Virtually all of the artwork that you see available in chain stores are prints. This means that at least one other person, if not hundreds of other people, have the exact same thing hanging on their walls. On the positive side, if you absolutely love a very popular artist and their artwork is super expensive, prints are an affordable way to have something of theirs hanging on your wall.

An original painting is exactly what it says that it is - original. You can smell the paint, feel the texture, see the brilliant colors and brush strokes in a way that is impossible to capture with a print. You can feel the hard work and energy that went into creating the painting. Sometimes you can even see the process that the artist had in creating the painting when you look at the original. Many of the Great Masters even have brush bristles that got caught in the painting. Can you imagine having a brush bristle from Monet?!?! (But then again, I can't quite imagine owning a multi-million dollar painting by Monet either).

Perhaps the best part of owning an original is the feeling that nobody else has the same thing that you have. You, and only you, have that one piece of artwork, and you don't have to share. Others may like that artist as well, but no two will be exactly the same.

Photo Courtesy of Shelby from BS Art Studio. You can visit her website @ www.bsartstudio.com or her Etsy site: www.bsartstudio.etsy.com

Handmade Guide to Glass

2010-05-19T04:09:00.000-07:00

As the first article about buying handmade, I would like to introduce Annie Howes of Annie Howes Keepsakes. She posted this on her blog, and it has some wonderful information about buying handmade vs. manufactured glass pendants for jewelrymaking:

If you’re purchasing clear glass pieces for your creative projects, the two basic types of glass you would encounter are float glass and rolled glass. Most of the economically priced glass available is made overseas in China by large manufacturing companies that produce thousands of glass tiles each day and is made from float glass. Float glass is made by floating molten glass onto molten tin, hence the name. It's a process that imparts some of the metal properties into the glass sheets which can discolor or dull the glass. And while that glass may be hand cut and kiln fired, it’s 99.9% likely the glass isn’t hand cut and kiln fired by the seller. Just because the seller claims the glass is handmade, and I’m sure it is handmade by someone somewhere, that doesn’t mean it’s handmade by them.

Similarly, glass that is stated as “designed” by the seller doesn’t mean the seller made the glass. It just means they placed an order with a manufacturer in China who makes glass tiles to order. It’s a rather deceitful way of not being straightforward about who makes their glass because they want the customer to assume they made the glass themselves. For example, if you place a custom order with me for glass and I cut and fired your glass, would you claim you made the glass? Probably not. You gave me dimensions of the size you wanted and I cut and kiln fired the glass for you. The glass, however, is still handmade. Did you design the glass? If instructing glass to be cut to a 1” square is called “designing” then I suppose you did.

Why should you be concerned with any of this? Because there are obvious visible differences in the glass you’ll most likely receive if you purchase glass not handmade (ie. not hand cut and kiln fired) by the seller (float glass) vs. glass handmade by the seller (rolled glass). If you are spending your time and talents on creating beautiful jewelry or other pieces of art, wouldn't you want to use the most beautiful glass available?

What is the difference between the glass types? There are basically two different glass types available for glass pendants: float glass, and fusible glass. Float glass is typically used for tiling your kitchen or bath and architectural installations. Thin float glass is also used in soldered charms, and the glass you put your photos behind in a picture frame is also float glass. The float glass sold for use in glass pendant making is a low-iron glass. Low iron means the amount of green (iron) in the glass is reduced or removed. I, too, offer this economical glass as an alternative when high quality glass isn't important. While the glass is clear and colorless, it lacks the spectrum of light that you would see in crystals. It’s dull and flat and lifeless. And cheap.

The alternative to dull and lifeless glass is called rolled art glass, which is the type of glass used primarily in glass fusing. This is the good stuff, and not just because I said so. Rolled glass for fusing has such high clarity that it’s very much like crystal in its appearance. It shines, it sparkles and is alive with all spectrum of light. It’s breathtaking by comparison. Each piece is a work of art. Rolled glass is the same type of raw glass used in large fused glass platters, and glass vases, and such. It's art glass and is specifically created for use in fine art pieces.

How can you tell the glass you’re buying is quality art glass handmade by the seller? First, you can ask. I believe most sellers of glass tiles for jewelry and crafting are decent honest people and will give you an honest answer if asked outright about the glass they’re selling. Ask what type of glass it is, if it’s rolled glass (high clarity, used for fusing) or float glass (low clarity, lusterless used for architectural installations). Ask if it’s imported glass, or if they cut and fired the glass themselves on site. I don’t think anyone would be offended by these questions and most glass artists are more than happy to discuss their craft.

If you still suspect the glass is not handmade by the seller, ask if the artist can custom fire glass to meet your specifications. If they don’t make custom cut glass and only offer specific sizes, they probably are importing their glass and you should continue your search for quality handmade glass elsewhere.

If you have purchased glass and are concerned that it's not the quality of glass it was advertised to be, check to see if the glass is smooth on both sides of the piece. If so, the glass is float glass and was most likely not handmade by the seller.

Support true handmade supplies made by the artist who created the products you're purchasing. Your finished pieces will radiate with life!

Thank you, and next week is Handmade Guide to Art: Prints vs. Originals

- Shelby of BS Art Studio

Three Tips on "How to Make Money on Etsy" by Muyinmolly

2010-05-14T22:59:00.001-07:00

Last week I had a phone interview with Inc.com for a post on "How to Make Money on Etsy".The reporter Lindsey Silberman talked to a few Etsy sellers for this article and included a few pointers from me on running a successful Etsy business. Overall I think she did a very good job quoting me, but I would like to add a few words not mentioned in the article.

If you are interested in starting a part time or full time business on Etsy, be sure to check out Etsy seller tips on Full Time Etsy Crafters Team blog as well as my blog. One of my favorite posts is the post written by Susansheehan.

Back in 2007, after selling on Etsy for 6 month, I wrote a blog post on "Three Pointers about Starting on Etsy". A new Etsy seller SalvageNation told me that her shop took off after she followed my tips religiously. However, now that my Etsy shop is almost three years old, I feel the need to revise the tips I wrote two and half years ago.

If I am asked again to give you three quick tips on running a successful Etsy shop in the order of their importance, this is what I will tell you now..

1. You must have a niche, a special product

No matter what you sell, you need to do it well enough to stand out from the crowd. There needs to be something special about your product. This "something special" can be your design (e.g. a special color combination, or a special size), can be the material you use (e.g., a special fabric for purses), or can be a different skill (e.g. if you are extremely good at something that others cannot do as well as you), but it should not be being able to price your items lower than others.If you are able to give customers a very reasonable price for your products, that is always a bonus, but it should not be your goal to price your items as low as possible.

[cricketscreations] -- gorgeous color combinations

[jpatpurses] - her fabric selection will blow you away!

[BSArtstudio] -- "mixers" original art paintings.What a concept!

[nicholasandfelice] -- hard to find shawl pins with amazing wirework

2. You must have excellent, clear photos, and if they are stylish and show your personality, that is even better

In the Inc.com interview, I mentioned "Etsy-style photos". What does that mean? You may notice a lot of successful sellers shoot their photos from a different, interesting angle, with a special background, on a mannequin or display..etc. You will notice while every seller does them differently, successful sellers always have great and consistent photos that show their personality. On Etsy, the photos of your products are part of your products.This is important for all online venues, but on Etsy it is even more important.

We all know that since online shoppers cannot see and touch, or smell (if that applies) the products before buying them, you need to help them see, touch, and smell your products with your photos. Give them a sense of the colors, measurements, sizes, styles, fragrances, and functions of your products with your photos.

[pinkquartzminerals] -- help customers feel the texture of your products

[daisycakessoap] -- help customers smell your products

[muyinmolly] - life size mannequin helps customers gauge the sizes

People buying handmade like to feel a connection with the artists.Treat your Etsy shop as a big, 24/7 online craft show, and your photos are your booth. What would you do with your booth when you go to a real craft show? You do not just set up a tent, lay out your products on your tables, right? You dress up your booth.You arrange your products nicely on your tables. Or maybe you have some special displays on your table. People going to in-person craft shows like pretty booths. People going to online craft shows like pretty photos. Some sellers (including me) include photos of themselves either working at a studio, or wearing/using their products.This also helps customers to connect with the artist behind the lovely products.

[papercutsbyjoe] -- Joe holding his own papercut

[ileaiye] -- Cherylline modelling her hand knit

You do not need a fancy DSLR camera to take great photos.The styles and clarity of your photos are more important than the model of your camera. Practice with a decent digital camera and study the manual (they are all pretty good nowadays). Understanding your own camera is the first step to great shots.

3. Clear and SEO friendly titles, descriptions, tags and the whole shop set up

Now that you have the products and great photos, the next step to help shoppers find you by providing them the right search keywords in your titles, descriptions, and tags. If you are still wonder what SEO means, I would urge you to do a little research in the Etsy forum or Storque. I am not personally an SEO expert, but just "happened to be doing a few things right" from the beginning.

Even if you have great products and great photos, if shoppers cannot find your listings when they type in a keyword search, they are not given a chance to click your photos, not to mention making a purchase.

While listing consistently is a way to keep your items at the top of the search, you need great titles, descriptions and tags to keep your products on the RIGHT search pages. Other than product titles, descriptions and tags, your shop title, shop announcement and section names are also very important for SEO.

If you do these right, you should start to receive decent traffic from search engines, and, hopefully, sales. Do not blame Etsy for not making your shop SEO friendly -- YOU are the person who needs to make your shop SEO friendly, and you can.

[sudlow] - high search ranking on both Etsy and search engines lead to a continuous sales flow

[anniehowes] - high search ranking on both Etsy and search engines lead to a continuous sales flow

It took me more than two years to realize everything I wrote in this post, and I hope you find them helpful. Remember -- selling on Etsy is hard work. Everything I mentioned was easier said than done. I am always doing research on my category and developing new products. Most of my photos have been re-shot multiple times. I am always working on my SEO. In sum: I am always working.

Every once a while I would receive a convo from artists telling me they just lost their job and would like to try to make it full time on Etsy.While I always wish them good luck, I know how difficult this can be and how lucky I have been. In my interview with Inc.com, my story may sound like a fairy tale to many of you because I "made profit after selling on etsy for one month", but please do remember...

1. I had a year of online selling experience on Ebay prior to opening my Etsy shop, which gave me a small customer base plus a lot of chances to practice my photography.

2. I did not quit my day job until 10 months after I opened my Etsy shop, which means I saved enough money to float me through slow times. I did not start selling on etsy full time until my business was fully established and making consistent sales. If you are just starting, be prepared it will take you a while before you can make this a full time job.

Shortly after I became a full time Etsy artist, I started the Full Time Etsy Crafters Team. While our team is meant to be a support group for established full time Etsy artists, I often receive membership requests from brand new Etsy sellers wanting to join the team to learn how to become as successful as us. Now, I believe I have just shared my success secrets with you within this one single post. However, you will NOT become successful just by reading this post. You need to work on these tips I gave you.You need to work on them, work on them more, and then work on them even more.

If you are "trying to make Etsy full time" and have not read this "T en Things I Learned the Hard Way" post by Piddix, you really should. Corinna shows you what it takes to succeed.

best wishes to you all,

Mollie, aka muyinmolly

The Buyer's Guide to Handmade

2010-05-11T02:11:00.000-07:00

When we were 7 we were getting in trouble for doodling in the margins during class. Our feet were tapping, dreaming about getting home and opening up the craft closet to make friendship bracelets, crocheting, collaging - just creating - anything. Some of us took a detour through the corporate world, others figured it out earlier - but we all have learned to make a living doing what we love. It isn't easy, a thread running around our email chain is currently talking about how one of our members works from 12am-12am. Last time I checked, that was 24 hours. Another member counts it a lucky day when she gets 1-2 hours sleep. Me? I'm starting all over again, so the challenge is getting my store back up and running. Almost from scratch.

We do this full-time because we love it. We would have it no other way. If we were back in the cubicle, we'd be getting in trouble for doodling in the margins again. Daydreaming about creating when we should be filing a TPS report.

Handmade. It is what drives us.

So what makes handmade stand out from mass-produced items? It has to do with the individual vision of the maker. The care that goes into the entire process, from design through crafting, the hard work that we put in to ensure our product is made with the utmost care and quality. We don't ship our idea off to someone else to complete. You won't see our items in Target or Ikea or in every other person's house. That is a totally different market.

And yes, there are some casualties of things being handmade. But there are casualties of things manufactured everywhere. (Chinese drywall anyone?) Over the next few months I'm going to be working with the FTEC team to help educate everyone on how to be a smarter buyer - how to tell the good from the bad, the original from the mass produced.

But in the meantime, I'd love to know - why do you buy handmade? What is the value you see in it?

By the way, the image above is one of my teammates whose work I am currently drooling over - JPatPurses

- Shelby from BS Art Studio

Great reads for indie business owners

2010-04-15T00:39:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit behind in sharing with you great online business reads! Here are a few really, really great reads - I'd love to hear what you think!

From Seth Godin's blog: expose yourself (in a good way!)

From Craft Venture on papernstitch: creating a job, part III (finishing the job description)

From The Crafts Report: what you need to know about craft business insurance

Enjoy and please feel free to share additional great reads in the comments! Image credit: Daydreaming dodo set of five mini notecards and envelopes by Paper Victory

Brenda - Phydeaux Designs

Entrepreneur Group Interview on My Money Blog

2010-03-17T09:03:00.001-07:00

A few FTEC members are featured in the "Entrepreneur Group Interview: Etsy.com Shop Sellers" article on

My Money Blog . Check it out!

Great reads for indie business owners

2010-03-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

In addition to and in support of my own fulltime indie business, I'm continually reading about business, marketing, strategic planning, financial management, and the list goes on. Although I possess years of experience (and education) in the management of financial and administrative resources, my business education is never ending!

I'll be sharing with you all great business reads that I find online (blogs, articles, etc.) at least weekly. If you haven't already done so, developing the habit of continual learning and improvement via reading and practice of new ideas can only help you with your own business.

So without further ado, here are a few great midweek reads:

From Design*Sponge Biz Ladies: Biz parents - balance and time management (anyone can benefit from this post - I'm not a parent and I loved it)

From Crafting an MBA: Copyright, trademarks and patents

From Craft Venture on papernstitch: to hire or not to hire (okay, full disclosure, I write the Craft Venture column!)

From Ittie Biz: Michael / box of crayons (be sure to watch the video - good stuff in there!)

Enjoy - I'd love to hear what you think - and please feel free to share additional great reads in the comments! Image credit: Amazing anatomical brain tea towels from Girls Can Tell

Brenda - Phydeaux Designs

Getting Married? Plan a Handmade Wedding with FTEC!

2010-02-28T17:30:00.001-08:00

Written by papercutsbyjoe

Well everyone, it's that time of the year again. Mud season! Okay, seriously though, it's late winter, which means wedding season is around the corner and things are really kicking into high gear. I was there myself three years ago, and I REALLY wish I had known about Etsy as it would have made our wedding planning so much easier. As a proud member of the Full Time Etsy Crafters (FTEC) team, I am happy to present these gift ideas from our members for your enjoyment. As full-timers we take our work VERY seriously and I can assure you a happy experience from these folk. It's nice to work with real people when you're about five seconds from loosing your mind. I hope these gift ideas can take away some of the stress and help check off some of your to-buy list. Because of the broadness of our team's offerings, I have divided this post into several sections in order of when the event occurs: Before the wedding, Wedding Shower Gifts, Bridal Party and Groomsmen Gifts, and THE BIG DAY items.

Before the Wedding You're going to need invitations to the various parties and the main event, so head over to Earmark Gathering for some great shower and wedding invitations.

Wedding Shower Several months before the Big Day, all your friends and family will gather. Here's some great ideas for party favors and gifts for the Married-to-be:

The Prettiest Ring: Diagram Towels by Girlscantell $20

Fringed Throw Blanket by CricketsCreations $195

50 Custom-labeled Guest Soaps by dennisanderson $100

Glycerin Wedding Cake Soap by Daisycakessoap $3

Fork Picture Frame Holder by Monkeysalwayslook $10

Custom Hand-cut Paper Silhouettes from PapercutsByJoe $40

Bridal Party Gifts Here's some great ideas for gifts to give to your bridesmaids.

Sweat Pea Sets (various colors) by MuYinMolly $45-$47

Custom Labeled Eye Shadow by Pink Quartz Minerals $45

Lampwork Charm beads by Susansheehan $8-$35

Nightmare Snatchers and Worry Wollies Notebook/Journals by Spiderbite $20-30

Purses by JPatPurses $7.50

Groomsmen Gifts: As a guy, these would be the items I would like to get. I gave my Best Man art as a gift:

Build your own tinysaur kits by Kfarrell $7-16

Sweet Ride Scooter Diagram Wall Art by girlscantell $16

Keep Calm Parody Matted 8x10 Prints by Earmark $25

Necktie Wallets by Prix-Prix $30 (various designs)

Custom Sterling Silver Map Cufflinks by dlkdesigns $50

THE BIG DAY- Bride What to wear on the day of your wedding:

Elegant Pearl Drop Earrings by UnkamenWeddings $58

Pearl Jewelry by MuYinMolly $10-$92

Pearl and Crystal Bobby Pins by MarlaJDesigns $25

Veils by MarlaJDesigns $20-$60

Vegan Mineral Makeup by PinkQuartzMinerals $3-$14

Classic Pearl Earrings by South Paw Studios $10

Vintage styled Bridal Earrings by Realisationscreations $21

and here are a few ideas for your Something BLUE...

(in order of appearance) Blue Power pearl & Sterling Silver earrings by MuYinMolly $18 Chevrelle Knit Lace Neck Cuff by Phydeaux Finished $80 PDF pattern $5 Stearling Silver Cabochon Earrings in Blue by ElizabethJewelry $13.95 Light Blue crystal drop earrings by southpawstudios $24

THE BIG DAY- Groom Some great items to bring some character to the groom's attire

Create your own cufflinks kit by AnnieHowes $8.50

Vintage Map Sterling Silver Square Cufflinks by dlkdesigns $50

Thanks everyone, I hope this was helpful, and good luck with all your planning!

Tutorial -- How To Pay With Credit Card Through Paypal

2010-01-14T10:13:00.001-08:00

(written by Mollie Chen at Mu-Yin Jewelry)

You don't need a paypal account to pay for a paypal invoice. If you receive a paypal invoice but would like to pay with a credit card, here's a step-by-step tutorial.

Your invoice would be a separate email with a subject as "(Vendor's Name) would like to be paid through paypal".Open this email, and click "Pay Now", and you will be prompted to the payment page.

This page describes what you are being charged for.Review the charges and click "continue"

Ignore tha big "log in to paypal" box on right of the next page. Instead, you will see a small link on the left side of the page next to the credit card logos that says "Continue" .Click it.

Here's the page where you fill out all of your credit card info(left side).After you fill out the details,click "Review Order and Continue" to finalize the payment, and you're done!

This is a very secure way to pay for your online purchases.It is more secure than giving your credit card number to the vendor over the phone or in person, because the vendor will not see your credit card info when you pay through this method.Also, even if you have a paypal account, you can still use this method to pay with credit card.

I hope you find this tutorial helpful!

Member Profile- Realisation Creations

2010-01-10T17:03:00.001-08:00

Shop name: Realisation Creations (etsy ID: realisationcreations)
Category: jewellery and accessories
Specialty: Natalia of Realisation Creations designs elaborate
wirewrapped jewellery with a distinct luxe, slightly noir, style.

Special offer: please write "FTEC" in the "notes to seller" at checkout for 10% discount, FTEC members are eligible for a further 10% discount.

Member Profile-Purple Sage Designz

2010-01-07T14:32:00.001-08:00

Shop name: Purple Sage Designz (Etsy ID: purplesagedesignz)

Category: accessories, crochet beanies

Specialty: Purple Sage Designz specializes in crochet hippie hats, dread tams and patchwork skirts.

All hats are hand crocheted and Angelika's own designs. She also incorporates hemp and eco yarns to offer environmental friendly materials. Most of her skirts are sewn with recycled or vintage fabrics. She accepts custom orders and has a quick turn around. Professionally finished and with an even stitch tension her beanies will last to wear for many years. Styles range from skullcaps, berets to slouchy beanies and oversized dreadlocks hats.

Special offers: purplesagedesignz offers 5% to all FTEC blog readers. Use

Code FTEC at checkout to receive 5% paypal rebate. FTEC Team members

Receives 10% off on all orders.

Member Profile -- Inklore

2009-11-27T18:43:00.001-08:00

Shop name: Inklore (Etsy id: inklore)

Category: housewares, accessories, bags and purses, children

Specialty: Inklore specializes in artisan, well designed and eco-friendly housewares and accessories. Each item is block-printed by hand on high quality linen and cotton using environmentally sensitive, water-based inks. Everything is washable and color-fast, perfect for simple living. All Inklore goods are designed, printed, and sewn by hand so you can be sure that what you are buying is unique, well-made, and has a story.

Special offers: Inklore offers 5% to all FTEC blog readers. Use code FTEC at checkout to receive 5% paypal rebate. FTEC Team members receive 10% off on all orders.

Modern Mouse Grand Opening

2009-11-23T18:08:00.001-08:00

Finally! Some pictures from Modern Mouse's grand opening on 11/14. Thanks to our fabulous member Marianne of Mae Bee Jewelry for these photos and texts!

Monkeys Always Look markers on these shelves (bought one!). Rachel Austin's artwork (fantastic!) in the corner.

Eleen behind the counter...ca-ching! All of our biz cards on that table on the left. That's my hubs checking out my bracelets at the counter.

Girls Can Tell yumminess! Prix-Prix wallets on that far shelf! Guys your things are amazing in person!

Eleen's gorgeous bags on the far right wall. Tinysaurs cool tins in the left corner!

All jewelry in those nice white cases next to the checkout counter...Mu-Yin Jewelry, Realisation Creations, South Paw Studios, XO Handworks...together and in person, WOW!

There's Eleen on the right showing off Monkeys Always Look markers!

vodka bar...um, yah.

recognize these?! Really pretty in person.

My space in the store. You can see how she's got a display tent for each artist...so gallery.

Making Jewelry For A Target Market

2009-11-18T13:09:00.001-08:00

In the following article,Molly of Elizabethjewelry shares with us how she makes jewelry for a target market based on her extensive retail experiences.

In my years of working directly with the customers in a retail forum, I have noticed certain trends. As people are all unique, many people buy outside of these patterns. But a large enough portion of people do buy a certain style for me to make items for them.
Ok, first I start with the gemstone. I make a collection around each of these; peridot, red coral, smokey quartz, champagne topaz, Amethyst, white pearl, garnet, labradorite, and a multi color collection, mostly done with cubic zirconia. I dont have them all up on etsy yet, but that will soon change as I just hired a general assitant. She will be working on my wholesale orders off line, while I concentrait on Etsy.

Let start with Peridot. I have seen a trend that peridot wearers tend to be in their 40's, and are very dignified and rooted. They are professionals, with more disposable income. They enjoy nature, the outdoors and are generally optimistic people who enjoy art, yet are a bit conservative. ( I know this may seem like a sweeping generalization, but I cant help but notice this pattern over and over again). So I make for them a classic necklace that is both delicate and dignified, with just a touch of sparkle. 18". Not 16 as 16" tends to appeal to a much younger crowd. The toggle is a custom heart. It is branded with my name "elizabeth" on it as it has an unconditional lifetime guarantee. People like the fact that Elizabeth Is a brand that once they buy a piece, they own it for life. Especially for this customer. Mature people tend to remember when things were made to last forever, or at least a lot longer than most of todays "disposable" gadgets. I also use french wire to give
the piece a more finished look. Now, using french wire with a necklace strung on beading wire is widely used, however, I was using it at least 6 years before it became a widely practiced technique.

This was one of my first things I listed, so I could retake the photo I believe:

The red coral is another good one where I started with the end user. Men. That is right, as men are proven to be more attracted to red than any other color, and will buy red as a gift more often. So I made this necklace with the idea of men buying it for the women in their lives. Men like to obtain, not normally shop around. So I put it in my top featured items. I sell one of these necklaces to a man at nearly every show! I made it bold, yet feminine with the flowers inside the square. (men also like squares). I also made it simple to both go with many womans outfits. No silver spacers to confuse the matter. Just a great medium sized 6mm round red coral. I think the recipient of this necklace will always enjoy having a classic red accessory that can be worn with the neutrals ( blacks) that is in most wharedrobs. So she will wear it a lot, and make her "man" happy as he knows he accomplished buying her a gift she enjoys. The price is affordable for the craftmanship, yet at a price that is percieved as quality. No too cheap, not too expensive. Again the custom heart toggle. has been featured in a treasury or two.

The next item is for a younger demographic. The late teen to 35 crowd. The cost needs to be lower. I wanted it to be under $35.00 The cool "IN" theme is anything French, or Paris, and less of a beaded look but more of a fun cluster of charms off of a sterling chain. The Quality needs to look like they are buying perhaps their first piece of "real" jewelry. So I hunted down suppliers, finally having one make me the right findings I needed at the right price. Actually, may of my findings and beads are custom for me to provide the best quality at the right price. This has been featured in many treasurys. And we know that the people who are building treasurys are mostly under 35.

The last is my best seller. I sell about 60 or so a month on etsy. I knew that every person who has pierced ears wanted a good all purpose everyday earring. Something that is just a tad more than a simple plain hoop or stud. Something they could put on one handed, with their school books or small kids in one hand. A safe earring that was not boring. I have sold this to all ages from 4 to 96.
This is priced at an impulse buy price. Something they would buy just because they went to work without any earrings. They also tend to get worn a lot. These are the earrings that some people just live in. Some people really enjoy fancy earrings during most of the time, and need a more basic one for days off.
It needed to be strong, sturdy and simple. They are polished, but with a little less than perfect finish, so they don't feel like the earrings cant be worn if they get a little tarnished over time. Many people tell me they have lived in them day and night for years!

This comes in 18 colors to appeal to everyone. Often someone will purchase one color only to put in "notes to seller" that they want a different color than the one pictured, as I tell them to look at my photo of many colors grouped together for them to pick from. I just love that. That the earring itself sold them, no matter what color. So the extra group photo really helps. I do add some pictures of my daughter wearing her pair so people can see what it looks like on a person.

This earring has also been picked by admin once to be on the front page. That really made my day!

FTEC Members at Modern Mouse

2009-11-13T09:18:00.001-08:00

FTEC's member Eleen just recently opened a temporary gift shop called Modern Mouse in the Alameda Towne Centre. Throughout the holiday season you will be able to see many fabulous Etsy designers' works in person at Modern Mouse, including 13 members from FTEC --

Realisation Creations

South Paw Studios

XO Handworks

Tinysaur

Modern Mouse is holding their grand opening on 11/14(Saturday). Join us for the fun!

Your Own Domain + Etsy

2009-11-10T23:57:00.001-08:00

The following article was originally posted on our team member kfarrell's blog on July 16, 2009. You can find cute "tinysaurs" in Kelly's Etsy shop.

I'm slowly purging all references to my Etsy shop from my business cards, ads, etc because I want more control over by branding. Although I don't have any short term plans to set up my own shopping cart I want to be a little more prepared if I do decide to.

I've set up http://shop.everythingtiny.com as a redirect to http://kfarrell.etsy.com and thought while I was at it I would write up instructions for how other folks can to - and on the super cheap. I've seen a bunch of places that charge a monthly or annual fee for domain forwarding. The cost of my setup is about $10/year including domain registration.

Tools You'll Need

A membership with NearlyFreeSpeech.Net. If you know a little bit about what you're doing you can use this setup on *any* host, but for the sake of simplicity all my examples are on how to do this with NFSN.
An FTP or SFTP client. I like to use FileZilla.
A text editor. Notepad will work just fine.

If you don't already own a domain you can buy one through NearlyFreeSpeech.Net. It's a little less than $9/year for domain registration and unlike GoDaddy they won't spam you into getting a zillion of their other service. Deposit $10 into your NFSN account, purchase your domain name (it pulls from your account balance), and you're good to go.

If you already have a domain name there will be a little extra configuration for you, but we'll get to that later.

Setting up your site

Ok, there is a tiny cost to setting up the forwarding. While NFSN doesn't charge any monthly fees for sites, they charge for storage (how big your site is) and bandwidth (how many gigabites of files your site sends to other people). Since you're just forwarding your visitors on to Etsy, both of these will be very very low. Extermely low. But nonetheless you'll need to make a small deposit into your NFSN account, $1 should be plenty.

Creating your .htaccess file

A .htaccess file is a special file that tells the server how to handle requests for your site. Open up a new file in your text editor and copy/paste the following:

RedirectTemp / http://yourshop.etsy.com/

Save the file to your hard drive with the name ".htaccess", making sure there is no file extension such as .txt.

Upload the File to Your Site

Open up your FTP client and connect to your site (the connection information can be found by logging into NFSN and clicking the 'sites' tab and then the name of your site.

When you connect you'll likely see a number of folders such as "logs" "private" and "public". Upload your .htaccess file into the public folder. If it has a file extension rename the file so it is just ".htaccess"

Add Your Domain as an Alias

To make your domain work with your site you need to add it as an alias. Go to the site information page and click "Add a New Alias" on the right. Enter the domain you wish to use. I.e. if you want "http://shop.everythingtiny.com" to go to your Etsy shop enter "shop.everythingtiny.com".

If you purchased your domain name through NFSN you're done! It may take 24 hours for everything to start working, so be patient if it doesn't seem to be doing anything right away. You can test to see if your redirect is working by going to http://yoursite.nfshost.com, where yoursite is the name of the site you created.

If you purchased your domain elsewhere

You'll need to add a record to your DNS to get things working. Check your registrar's documentation for "how to add a DNS record." Once you've figured it out, you'll want to add what's called a CNAME record. It will look something like:
shop CNAME yoursite.nfshost.com.

Where "shop" is the subdomain you want to use (i.e. shop.everythingtiny.com) and yoursite is the name of your site at NFSN. The CNAME record may take a few hours to take effect.

Tada!

Our Saturday Market booth and life

2009-11-03T16:26:00.001-08:00

The following article was originally posted on our team member nicholasandfelice's blogon July 30, 2009. In this article Beck shares with us how she does her craft show displays at the Eugene Saturday Market.You can find their jewelry in Felice's Etsy shop.

Most Saturdays for the past 18 years or so we have sold at the Eugene Saturday Market. We have had our excellent reserved corner booth space on the corner of 8th and W Park Street across from the Farmers Marker for many years now that we earned by doing all those markets and getting the points. And being there when the very old couple finally decided to retire from their spot who had it previously. I imagine Nick and I will be hobbling on our canes too when we finally retire from that corner spot.Luckily Etsy has come along and changed our lives so that we don't have to be there every weekend, especially the ones that are brutally cold or hot. Now that we have Henry and Max, Nick stays home with the boys while I go to market by myself. (Until they are at least old enough to be somewhat helpful and not poop in their pants.That goes for Nick too.-just joking hun)It's a lovely hour long scenic drive on mostly back roads through the Willamette Valley from our home to Eugene. I start most Saturday mornings with my old timer marketeer vendor girlfriends and coffee. It is usually the highlight of my day. This year we revamped our Saturday Market booth display. We had been using the same display for more years than I can even remember.It is still basicly the same but we took off a whole top row of earrings so that I can now see over the top of the display and not be boxed in. We got rid of dud earrings that weren't really moving. We also got one of those new fangled light weight plastic folding tables instead of the super heavy plywood one we made back when we were young. Those are hanging vases across the front top of the

booth and we also have some on a display hanging on the other side of the booth. We love our EZ Up booth although I really think they should be called EZ Down as the process of getting those little metal buttons pushed into the top can require heroic efforts and leave me panting wiht exhaustion first thing in the morning.Taking them down is a breeze though. I replaced the old ratty purple background on the boards with a crisper off white muslin. It's really improved the visibility of the colored stone and glass jewelry. We still continue to use the method of having lace sewn on the bords in rows that the earrings hang off of. I can't take credit for the idea as we saw it in a store display in Santa Rosa about 20 years ago. But it works really well for us and we get lots of compliments on it from customers.

The is the Aluminum earrings display board. Notice the signs above it say "Light Weight! REALLY! Pick them up!" "Light Weight Aluminum" "With Sterling Silver Earwires".

Perhaps the signs aren't large enough or bright enough but all day long I have customers say- "Wow those look really heavy . I couldn't wear those." And I say- "But they aren't. They are aluminum- pick them up and see."(with a pleasant smile of course.) "Oh my god they ARE light." and then they hand them to their disbelieving friend who says- "Wow, they are" as if I was lying when I made the sign or told them. Silly humans!

The boards all slide off the display and fit into a suitcase. The display is made in two halves that clamp together in the back.

These are Henry's Lego pendants. He came up with the idea about a year ago. He told us where to drill the holes and then told me how to put the wire on it. We have Lego earrings too. They are a huge hit at the Saturday Market where so far no one else sells them. There are tons of people selling similar lego jewelry on Etsy though so we haven't added them to our shop. We have an ongoing debate about it.Someday when Etsy allows us extra shop sections we might add them.

Nick made the folding pendant displays out of aluminum. They also fold up nicely into a suitcase.He's so good like that!

One of our ornamental mirror displays.

There is another one on the other side of the booth. The shawl pins/hair pins hang on that scarf next to it. It's funny how online they sell really well as shawl pins but in Eugene they are clearly hair pins.(And don't sell quite as well.)

We have price signs on the end of each row with an arrow pointing to the row under the price. After 20 something years selling at the market and craft shows we know customers want to see the price easily without asking.

Assorted stone pendants. We don't sell most of these on Etsy because they are each so different due to the nature of stone and would require new photos for each one.That would mean raising the prices on them and more time which I don't have a lot of. All this stuff packs up in about a half hour into our trusty 95' Taurus wagon. Then I drive the hour home exhausted and get ready to keep up with my little hellions ( I mean sweet high energy boys) who still stay up way to late and get up much too early for any over 40 parent to endure.

Member Profile -- Prix-Prix

2009-10-13T20:14:00.001-07:00

Shop name:Prix-prix( Etsy ID:prixprix)

Category: accessories, jewelry, bags

Specialty: Prix-prix specializes in recycled accessories made from vintage materials, such as necktie and suit wallets, plaid shirt wallets, and necktie necklaces. Many designs are one-of-a-kind due to their recycled nature. Prix-prix designs are functional and minimal in their construction, and tend to highlight the unique patterns of the reclaimed materials.

Special offers: Prix-prix offers 10% off on all orders to FTEC team members. Mention the FTEC team at checkout.

Meet Us Face to Face -- Part III

2009-09-30T06:05:00.001-07:00

We finally got a few more pictures of the members for Part III !

Annie, aka AnnieHowes

Molly, aka ElizabethJewelry -- even tho she's very used to be called Elizabeth, it's actually her daughter's name. :)

Another jewelry designer-- Natalia,aka realisationcreations, modeling her gorgeous necklace and earrings.

Here's Jean-Marie, aka JM or daisycakessoap, serving us her gorgeous handmade soaps!

Cherylline, aka ileaiye. She's also the gorgeous model in her Etsy shop.

Welcome to our new member Laura, aka Prixprix.The photo is taken at a fair in Brooklyn this summer.Her dress matches those cool wallets perfectly.

Finally, today's "freak of the day" picture.Are you ready?

Allison, aka Monkeysalwayslook, and Mr Vivian, the Archduke of Rolando Village. You guessed that right -- she is a proud vegan and animal lover!

To meet more of our members, check out Part I and Part II !

Front Page again!

2009-09-29T14:29:00.001-07:00

Another treasury on the FP featuring multiple FTEC members this afternoon!

"Silver lining in the Clouds of .. ", created by StudioElan

featured members--

top row: mudpuppy(middle)

second row: ileaiye(middle)

third row(left to right): southpawstudios,pinkquartzminerals,kittygrrlz

bottom row: girlscantell(middle)

FTEC Treasury On Etsy Front Page!

2009-09-21T18:47:00.001-07:00

A few of FTEC members were selected in this Front Page treasury "Mellow Fall" (created by StudioElan) this afternoon!

Check out our featured member/items--

Top row: ileaiye(left), girlscantell(right)

Second row middle:Mudpuppy

Third row: realisationcreations(middle), JPATPurses(right)

Congrats to you all!

Etsy Seller Tip with Muyinmolly -- How to Use Postling to Save Your Time on Marketing

2009-09-17T16:48:00.001-07:00

This tutorial/review is written by muyinmolly using the "Create a Blog Post" function" through Postling.

If you joined Etsy in 2007 or earlier and was very active in the Etsy forum, you probably remember one of the Etsy founder "RevolvingDork", the geeky dude who gave us updates on tech issues of the site. Along with a couple other ex-Etsy folk, they've started a new company called Postling, a tool to help small businesses like us manage our social media. You can post to twitter/facebook/blogspot/wordpress/tumblr etc all at once, and it aggregates the comments for you so you don't have to check everything individually.

When I learned about Postling through our Full Time Etsy Crafters Team member tinysaur, I was almost as excited as when I discovered EtsyHacks.(P.S.If you sell on Etsy, you've got to use EtsyHacks.Period. It's full time Etsy sellers' life saver).Like many Etsy sellers, I have signed up for as many social networking sites as possible, and also have been neglecting most of them, simply because I don't have time--or maybe I just don't want to waste my precious time checking all of my sites.While I blog regularly and am on facebook all the time, my flickr account has long been ignored, and my twitter updates consist of only links to my new blog posts -- which have been fed automatically through twitterfeed.

I thought Postling may be a time saver for me to triple my marketing effect, but you never know something until you try it out.And why not?They have a 30 day free trial which doesn't even ask for your credit card info, so I signed up(I heart free trials :D )..Ok, so what happens next?At first I was surprised there wasn't an instruction page for my dashboard, but I soon realized it was so simple that you really don't need a lot of instructions to use Postling.You will need to be familiar with the functions of the social media you want to integrate -- in other words, you need to understand what "Update Your Status" or "Share a Link" means for your these social media, so you can select one to start.

After you log in your dashboard, the first thing you need to do is to click "Manage Services" and add all of your blog,flickr,twitter,tumblr,facebook account to Postling.Then they will show up on your right side bar when you work on your new post/update.In this post I wll show you how I manage a blog post through Postling.

Before I start that, I thought you may be interested to know that I use Postling to manage two blogs, three facebook accounts(one personal account plus two business/fan pages),two twitter accounts and one flickr ALL AT ONCE.

Did you read yesterday's post on our team blog? This post shows you how I created that post through Postling.First I click "Create a Blog Post", and check which where I want to post it to.

I usually just post it to my blogs, but you should also post it to your facebook fan page and/or personal page to maximize your marketing effect IF your facebook pages are not yet set up to import your blog posts automatically.(my facecbook pages are ALL set up to import my blog posts--this is an option in your facebook account)

When I finish the post, I publish it, and on the next page I will have an option to post the link of this blog post to any service I want to.You can use this step to do your twitter update.If this is what you want to do, click "Insert the link below" and select your twitter account on the right side bar.

I personally skip this step, because my twitter accounts already imports my blog posts using twitterfeed(since this is a review on Postling,I won't explain how to use twitterfeed).

But that's not what Postling is all about.If you don't need to do any update, you can click "skip to Photo Publishing"

This is the stage where you can do your photo publishing.I publish my photos to flickr AS WELL AS my facebook fan page and personal page.I must say this is one of my favorite part about Postling.People may not stop to read your imported blog posts on your facebook page, but many of they don't mind looking at your photos and leaving some nice comments :)

Just one thing to remember--if you want to publish the photos to your facebook page, you want to put the text under "description" instead of "title"-- it would be the best if you can do both title and description, but if you are as lazy as me and just want to do one of them, simply fill in a short description, and the text will show up on both your flickr and facebook.

So, after I am done, this is what my post looks like on FTEC blog..

and the photos published to FTEC fan page look like this --

Plus you know what photos look like on flickr.

Then, about 30 min later, twitterfeed updates my blog post, and facebook also imports my blog post.(or if you have used Postling to do these updates, they will all show up simultaneously)

We just finished 6 marketing tasks all at once.

Just a little side note. A little tool I really like about Postling is their photo resizing function.When I want to make the photo smaller but keep the same proportion, I only need to change one dimension and the other dimension will be automatically calculated.You can also easily enter the "Alternative Text" as well (note:if you don't understand this very useful little function, try google it)

Above is the tutorial, now here's what I think about Postling.

You will like Postling if you try to be active on many social media but don't think you have time, or you just absolutely hate logging into any one of them(for whatever readon) but still want to appear active on it just because you KNOW it's an effective marketing tool -- maybe you don't quite get facebook fan page, or maybe you are not so fond of twitter, or maybe you don't blog (hey--you can always use Postling to do a "photo blog")

You will not like Postling if you are very inexperienced at these social media that Postling manages, or if you only intend to be active on maybe one or two of them. Here's why --

- facebook business pages is now integrated with twitter, so your facebook updates will show up on twitter if you set it up in your facebook account (although, unfortunately, this doesn't work for personal pages.)

- facebook has an application for flickr(which I don't know how to use, but have seen other people using it) which will automatically display some of your flickr photos when you do a flickr upload.

- you can set up under facebook "Notes" to automatic import your blog posts

- you can set up twitterfeed to automatically update your Etsy new listings and blog posts if you don't want to do it manually

So, if so many things can already be done automatically, why do I still like Postling?

- it gathers all comments from your flickr, blog, facebook and twitter account, so you don't have to check them individually.

- I love the resizing function.

- I hate logging in and out 8 accounts.Now I only use two -- Postling, plus my facebook page(which I'm the most active on) -- and can still keep track of what's going on out there.

-I love being able to upload photos to flickr and facebook at the same time.

-I love being able to enter "alternative text" without having to access html codes

-(new discovery!)When you click the "edit" link to the right of the post on Postling home page, you can edit content as much as you want, and the edits you make there will automatically be sent to all of the places you sent the post originally.

At the end, there are a few little things I really hope I would be able to do through Postling...

-bulk photo upload function: for example, I am not able to upload 5 pictures at once when I do a blog post.This doesn't bother me that much since the photo uploading speed is amazing. However,other than that, there seems to be a maximum number of 7 photos to be uploaded at once when I do a photo update after the blog post.

-I would like to be able to save drafts of my posts in my Postling account before posting them.It's true I can always use a notepad or save my drafts to a word file, but..don't ask me why, I would still like to be able to save it in my postling account :)

-I would like to be able to edit the layout of my personal postling page, which is a blog that gathers everything I posted through Postling from short updates to blog posts. Currently there is only one look for the Postling blog.It would be really nice if I could personalize it.

Other than that, no more complaints so far.I think Postling is saving me a few hours every month and for that I am happy to pay a small fee for their service.

Team Treasury

2009-09-16T15:30:00.001-07:00

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Pink. created by StudioElan

Featured members (left to right from top)--

top row: daisycakessoap(left),Eleen(right)

second row:sudlow, muyinmolly,southpawstudios

third row:beckandcallgirl(left),spiderbite(right)

bottom row:rachelaustin(left)

Nothing rhymes with orange created by MaeBeeJewelry

featured members--

JPATpurses,XOhandworks,beckandcallgirl

StudioElan,kfarrell,realisationcreations

kittygrrlz,mpaperarts,fonth

eleen,rachelaustin,

Meet Us Face to Face--Part II

2009-09-13T12:01:00.001-07:00

Aha! You didn't know we have two Afros on our team, did you?Guess who they are--

Before I tell you the answer, let's start with today's member photos..

Here's Celeste,aka cricketscreations.She sells her scarves with her smile..

Look at this sweet picture of Kelly, aka kfarrell.Kelly says, "I am holding a cupcake which I decorated with LEDs in the shape of pac-man. It lights up. Or it did until I ate it." So cute!

This is Dana, aka dlkdesigns..We'll update the picture when Dana finds me a larger picture :)

This is Marianne,aka mpaperarts, heavily photoshopped to make herself look younger..oh, and did you guess that right?She's Afro number one at the top of this post :)

This is me, aka mollie, molly, or muyinmolly , heavily "picassa'd". I'm the one who manage most of the blog posts,and if you want to join our team you need to contact me (or Eleen).If you are interested in learning how to create a photo like this, you can check out my blogpost on Picassa3

btw, I'm Afro #2 :)

Be sure to check out Part I if you haven't, and also come back for Part III !

Meet Us Face to Face -- Part I

2009-09-11T04:53:00.001-07:00

Ever wonder what we look like? Here's a little gallery of us :)

Some casual ones first...

Bridgette and Mike, aka Earmark(Bridgette is the one who made our banner and avatar!)

Jenese,aka JPATpurses

Eleen, aka..Eleen (she's the one who works on our blog side bars and a few blog posts)

Felice,Nicholas and the boys aka uh.... nicholasandfelice

Bobbi,aka kittygrrlz...(did you notice that jackpot?)

And here are some artsy black-n-whites..

Katy, aka southpawstudios, wearing her fabulous jewelry

Sara, aka girlscantell

and of course we save the best at the end--

"Happy Halloween" from Doree aka Pinkquartzminerals --and yes, she does sell the makeup she's wearing in this picture lol

More to come in Part II...

Team Treasury

2009-08-31T18:01:00.001-07:00

On a WHIM, created by Southpawstudios, featuring gorgeous violet colors...

Featured members (left to right from top)--

pinkquartzminerals,southpawstudios,girlscantell

mpaperarts,jpatpurses,beckandcallgirl

studioelan,muyinmolly,nicholasandfelice

cricketscreations,anniehowes,monkeysalwayslook

Birds Without Breaks by mpaperarts

featured members(from the top,left to right)--

anniehowes,epicerma,mpaperarts,

sudlow,monkeysalwayslook,mudpuppy

rachelaustin,kfarrell,thewren

nicholasandfelice,allisonstrine,xohandworks

Member Profile--JPAT Purses

2009-08-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

Shop name: JPAT PURSES (Etsy ID: JPATPURSES)

Category: handbags and purses
Specialty: JPATPURSES specializes in unique designed wallets and accessories.

An extra step is used that no other Etsy Shop does that makes her items so unique.
Due to the special bat quilt interfacing technique that she developed, each item has structure, strength and stability yet still so soft and comfortable to carry. IJPAT use no patterns in the making of her items.
visit JPAT's blog here.

Fall Treasuries!

2009-08-19T16:06:00.000-07:00

FTEC members not only work hard making crafts,we work hard making treasuries too! Check out our two newest treasuries --

"Fall on Me" by SusanSheehan featuring 6FTEC members -- top row in the middle: cricketscreations ; second row, left to right: ileaiye, pinkquartzminerals, muyinmolly ; and bottom row, left and middle: eleen, MarlaJDesigns

Full Blue Moon by mpaperarts
Featured members(top to bottom, left to right)
realisztioncreations,mpaperarts,ileaiye
earmark,fearlessfibers,studioelan,
monkeysalwayslook,beckandcallgirl,eleen
southpawstudios,muyinmolly,daisycakessoap

Celebrating Big Sales Numbers with Shared Etsy Seller Tips

2009-08-16T12:45:00.000-07:00

Joining the Full Time Etsy Crafters (FTEC) Team earlier this year is one of the best things I've done for my handmade business. That's a whopper of a statement, but I speak the truth! The esteemed Oprah Winfrey once said: “Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher” and that is just what I did when I become a part of this team!

In fact, my teammates so inspire me that I decided to toot some horns on their behalf. I asked FTEC members who've recently hit a nice-looking sales milestone to share with the rest of us:

One of their "hottest" or most newly discovered Etsy seller tips, and
What they do to celebrate when their counters hit a nice round number

After all and if I can just invoke the Big O(prah) again, she and I agree that “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” So without further ado -- and before too many of them hit their NEXT milestone before I get this published -- congrats to my fellow FTEC team members on your success to date...and thanks for sharing!

Beck and Call Girl
Milestone: 1000 sales

Your hot tip?
Do what you love, and it'll get you through the tough, don't-wanna-work times. 

How you celebrate?
I held a drawing to randomly select buyers to win extra goodies.

Crickets Creations
Milestone: 1000 sales

Your hot tip?
My little tip is to make sure to tag/title with subtle color  variations. For example, if I carry five yellow items in my shop, then I  tag/title each with both "yellow" and with whichever specific yellow that  item is, such as mustard, sunshine, marigold, goldenrod, canary, maize,  sulphur, etc. This helps my items be noticed during keyword searches by  treasury curators, bloggers, etc.

I wrote a forum thread with more  tips for how to increase chances of being chosen for treasuries. I've been  on the Etsy home page over 50 times now, so the information is good even though the  post is outdated!

How you celebrate?
My big celebration was to write my teammates to share the news!

Girls Can Tell
Milestone: 1500 sales

Your hot tip?
Post new designs as often as possible, and maintain a consistent and unique aesthetic in your work. And remember: communication, communication, communication! Try to answer convo's as quickly and efficiently as you can.

How you celebrate?
My 1,500th buyer will get a whole gift pack to match the diagrams of the items they purchase.

Mae Bee Jewelry
Milestone: 800 sales

Your hot tip?
Blow your customers' socks off with amazing quality, awesome communication and ultra-fast shipping...and throw in a freebie once in awhile just for the heck of it.

How you celebrate?
I sent a boastful announcement to the family, had a little toast with my hubby and then sent a tweet to the world. I also reflect back on how excited I was when I hit 100...same great feeling.

Mu-Yin Jewelry
Milestone: 3000 sales

Your hot tip?
Help customers easily find matching or related items in your shop by putting links in your product listings. You could put a link to one of your shop sections, but since every once a while I move items to a different section or even rename the sections, that doesn't always work. Instead, I place a link to a search results page.

For example, my new "My Lil Birthstone Necklace" collection has 12 listings that are currently listed under my "gorgeous gemstones" section, which has a total of 55 listings. When someone bumps into a lil birthstone necklace listing and want to see other birthstone necklaces, they'll see a link at the very bottom to help them find the other lil birthstone necklaces. It says:
............................................................................................
♥other "Lil Birthstone" necklaces can be found here--
http://www.etsy.com/search_results_shop.php?search_query=my%20lil%20birthstone&search_type=user_shop_ttt_id_5200824&page=1&order=
.............................................................................................
The link  takes them to a search result in my shop called "my lil  birthstone" (typed out in my search box), NOT to a section or to sold  listings, but to a whole page of the "lil birthstone" search results.

I also use the same trick to quickly direct customers to matching  jewelry.  Since our options for customizing our shops can be limited, it helps to  get  creative. With a combination of the search box and EtsyHacks, I have saved a  lot of time on editing my product listings.

How you celebrate?
I gave my 3000th customer a surprise gift! For me, I bought a bottle of champagne and took a break from work for the rest of the night.

Nicholas & Felice
Milestone: 5900 sales, and one of the top 100 Etsy handmade sellers!

Your hot tip?
If I don't have time or the right conditions to re-take product photos before I relist or renew a product, I use the photos I currently have and touch them up in  Photoshop. I don't know a lot of tricks, but even just bumping up the contrast can  really help a picture pop off the page. In many cases for me, my  originals were too dark so I went back and I brightened them. I often don't have  the time to go back to every picture, so I'll at least spiff up the first picture since that is the one that will come up in search results.

How you celebrate?  
We celebrate with a quick self-esteem boost and pat on the back, and then we get back to worrying about when the next sale will come and being grateful for each and every one. For our 1000th sale and also when we hit other big numbers, we surprised our customer with an extra free gift.

Pink Quartz Minerals
Milestone: 4000 sales

Your hot tip?
Always double-check your listings to make sure all the relevant information is there: size, amount, colors, variations etc.

How you celebrate?
I give extras to the milestone buyer.

South Paw Studios
Milestone: 500 sales

Your hot tip?
Keep your shop looking fresh with great photography and by adding something new at least once a day. I know it takes time to list new items but since old and new customers are visiting your shop everyday, you don't want them to get sick of the same old, same old. They might stop visiting if nothing ever changes!

How you celebrate?
I held a private sale that I announced to all my current customers through my email newsletter and if any of them made a purchase, they received a $5 gift certificate towards future purchases. I also took my hubby out to dinner.

Susan Sheehan
Milestone: 2000 sales

Your hot tip?
Fill that store up with as much as you can. (Susan has almost 450 items listed in her shop!)

How you celebrate?
I sent a little present to my 2000 customer.

XOHandworks
Milestone: 1600 sales

Your hot tip?
Using EtsyHacks saves a lot of time, and I especially like these two scripts:

Copy Listing
Adds a "Copy this item" link to the View Listing page (as well as to the Your Shop page).

Forum Wrangler
Adds color-coded highlighting to forum posts to help you keep track of threads you've read and/or are interested in.

How you celebrate?
I took the afternoon off, read a book outside and enjoyed the summer weather. :]

Our final submission is from Dennis Anderson of Anderson Soap Company. With over 19,400 sales, Dennis is a top Etsy seller who's hitting major sales milestones just about all the time! Here's his contribution:

Anderson Soap Company
Milestone: Over 19,400 sales and at just about the top of the list of Etsy's top 100 handmade sellers

Your hot tip?
I think the biggest tip I could offer sellers of the Etsy community would be to get familiar with the tools on and off the site and take advantage of them. I use seller tools such as Craftcult and Google Analytics to look at real-time and historical data about item views. By observing current and past trends, I can see when visitors are coming and when I have the most traffic in my shop. If traffic is slow or non-existent, I usually would renew or list a new item to get on top of the category page and fresh in search results.

I also notice that when I am not active in creating Treasuries, my view counts fall, so I try to be as active in that aspect of Etsy as I can. This site is so large, it is easy to get lost in your category and the groups if you're not actively participating or managing your shop.

How you celebrate?
My customers are the ones who've helped me get to where I am, so when I'm close to reaching a milestone I devise a sale for them. When it's time for my next mailing list email, I announce the details of the sale. Sometimes I mark down prices storewide, or I introduce new items that at lower prices.

When the day of the milestone comes, the first thing I do is wake up with a coffee in my hand and breathe. Then, I change all the prices in my shop needed for the sale. Next, I post an announcement to Twitter or Facebook. I usually have pretty great success running these kinds of promotions, and I just plan on a very busy next couple of days after the sale.

One last thing I almost forgot to mention, I party like it's 1999.

---
Congratulations again to my FTEC team members for their fine achievements, and here's to you and all the other Etsy sellers out there for continued success all around!

For more helpful seller tips and information about our team, visit us online at:

Team Treasury -- Etsyland

2009-08-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

Etsyland--Because Etsy is the happiest place on Earth!
Top to bottom(left to right)--

elizabethjewelry,studioelan,pinkquartzminerals
southpawstudios,cricketscreations,muyinmolly
marlajdesigns,nicholasandfelice,ileaiye
marlajdesigns,mpaperarts,earmark

Team Treasury--They are too sexy for this...

2009-08-08T02:07:00.000-07:00

"They are too sexy for this..." a combination of red and gray

featured(left to right, top to bottom):
studioelan, dennisanderson,ileaiye
earmark, monkeysalwayslook,muyinmolly
mpaperarts,susansheehan,nicholasandfelice
southpawstudios,girlscantell,elizabethjewelry

Etsy Seller Tips with Girlscantell: Marketing With Your Own Signature Style

2009-08-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

The following article was originally posted on girlscantell's blog on June 29th, 2009. In this article Sara shares her unique marketing tips with us.You can find gorgeous screenprinted housewares, notebooks and totebags in Sara's Etsy shop Girlscantell.

i'll admit from the start that this post is, as it's not rare that my posts are, inspired by a recent post by seth godin. he's nothing if not articulate, usually makes good points and always churns cogs of the thought machine in my head (a very good thing, right?).

this find your voice post jumped out at me in a big way because it hits right at what bothers me about many of the "tips" and "tricks" for marketing that are often fancied about and aimed directly at the handmade business crowd. i'll let you in on a big, important secret: there are no successful one size fits all approaches to marketing a business, especially a business that should be relying on its individuality, creativity and the things that make it different to succeed.

let's examine some of why not everything works for everyone. if you hate blogging, odds are this will become obvious if you try blogging as a marketing technique. if you find twitter's not your thing, you probably won't find much success with that, either. and taking out ads on blogs and websites just because it's cheap or it's a site you (but not your audience) visit everyday might not be the best option for your business.

the only thing that works is to consider these three things and how they best fit together (and the results will be different for each and every handmade business) to do something useful, genuine and visible:

consider what you made, do or provide: what are you in the business of? (ie, i make hand printed housewares featuring diagrams of everyday items).

what are you good at? (i might say talking to strangers has always been a talent of mine, for example).

who are your customers and what do they want? (my customers are thoughtful people who appreciate clever design and things that make them think).

i know this is easier said than done, but the only way to successfully market your handmade business is to connect these three things in a way that works for you.

for girlscantell, i use a couple different techniques to communicate on different levels with the strangers (well, future friends, right?) that like my work - i offer an email list and birthday club as opt-in ways to hear about what's new in the shop. i blog (hi!) about a wide range of things, ideally to start conversations on topics that make me think. then i twitter to interact with people (it's just fun) and post photos to flickr often to be visible.

each of these tools make use of my oddball ability to strike a conversation with pretty much any random person (a characteristic i definitely got from my dad). i feature my unique handprinted items as appropriate, and make them easily available and accessible, but it's all also interesting enough to catch (and hopefully maintain) the interest of people who want more than to just be advertised at (at least that's the idea).

am i suggesting you do things exactly the same way i do? hell no. please don't. really. because you have either a different voice, different talents, different products or a different audience. or all of the above. jcasa has her lovely, inspiring life via her blog. yokoo takes photos that make you look twice. consider what works for you. and then work it.

(and please feel free to post more examples of businesses you love marketing in extraordinary ways in the comments below!)

Etsy Seller Tip with Susansheehan -- Etsy - How To Make It Work For You

2009-08-02T10:07:00.000-07:00

The following article was originally posted on our new member Susansheehan's blog on 7/8/2009. Susan just hit 2000 sales on Etsy and generously shares her experiences with us ..

I do well on Etsy. I often get asked by other sellers, "How do I do it?" After numerous emails and convos I decided it would be easier to post this to my blog.

What works for me may not work for you. It took me about 6 months to figure out a strategy for selling my beads. While I will tell you what I do, it is not a magic foolproof plan. Take pieces of what I do and spend time figuring out how it can work for you.

Research your category. Find and monitor the successful sellers. Figure out what are they doing that seems to work. How can you do similar things with your Etsy shop?

Pictures are your strongest selling point. You cannot simply have average pictures. You need stellar ones. If you want to be the pictures people notice, you have no choice but to make them be as eye catching as possible. Make your first one jump out on a big page full of thumbnails. Be somewhat artsy and interesting. Give the buyer a reason to pick you over every other picture on that page.

Shoppers on Etsy are very visual. Tell your story with your pictures. In your five pictures show the important things people want to see. Watch someone pick up your product at a show. What do they do? Do they turn it over and look at the back? Then make sure you show that in a photograph. Show the necklace clasp, or the back of a pair of earrings. Show the inside of a vase, or how it looks with flowers. Show me the zipper on a bag and how it looks on a body. Be as creative as you can and try to use all 5 pictures. But don't waste people's time with 5 pictures of the front of the item.

List and renew often. Once I decided to get serious about Etsy I budgeted $2 a day to list or renew items. I spread it out over the day when I get a chance to pop on the computer. As sales started to come I upped it to $3. Amazingly my sales doubled. I'm sure some of that had to do with my complete revamping of all my pictures. It was a monumental task, but it was worth it. Now I try to do a minimum of $2 a day and renew or re-list above and beyond by the number of sales I make that day. My goal is to have my total fees (including final value) be less than 10% of my sales. I use the previous months numbers as a budget and monitor my sales by the week to stay on track. Right now I sit at about 7%.

Make treasuries and work on making them good ones. Browse other treasuries and notice the little things that make the good ones stand out. Look at the front page and note what the trends and current look are. The lessons you learn about good pictures and tags will help you be easier to use in other's treasuries. Making treasuries also gets you noticed. People want to be in good ones and if they think you do well, they heart you and start to comment on your treasuries.

You want to be in treasuries for the exposure. If you have a very good first picture you'll get in them. If the picture is better than good you have a decent chance of being on the Front Page. This is huge. It gets on average 500 people an hour in your shop. While I have never sold the item from the Front Page I always see a surge in sales the few days after I am on the Front Page. Plus it gets you noticed by the Admin. I was in a Storque article within months of hitting the Front Page on a regular basis. I'm no Admin darling, but I do get in the Admin curated treasuries from time to time.

Stuff that store as full as you can. List absolutely everything you can. The more you have the more you will get seen. Don't be afraid to list made to orders. If you are willing to do custom work, it's a great way to advertise. If you make multiples of something it's a great way to list without having to have the excess inventory. Each item is a tiny seed within the pages of Etsy and it can blossom into a sale if you are found.

Do tags well. I am in a constant state of looking for new tags to put in listings. You get 14. The first is the category you will be listed in if someone searches categories. If you can, try to spread out among categories instead of staying in just one. Do add all categories you fit in after the first to be found in a site wide search too. Make sure to use color as a tag. Not just red but cherry, lipstick or tomato. People search theme words for their treasuries. Help them out.

Join a team. Not just any team, but one that is serious. I belong to a glass team that is a cooperative marketing effort. Everything we do is about promoting glass and ourselves.

The one thing I do that makes or breaks you. I CHECK INTO ETSY FREQUENTLY. People want instant gratification and if they wait more than 12 hours for a reply to a convo they move on. I have never worked harder at communicating than at Etsy. But it works. Not every buyer wants to chit chat with you, but many really do. Embrace it, you're building a relationship 21st century style.

Here is my shop if you would like to see how I do things:
susansheehan.etsy.com

Member Profile -- Rachael Sudlow Jewelry

2009-07-27T06:58:00.000-07:00

Shop Name: Rachel Sudlow Jewelry(etsy ID: Sudlow)
Category:jewelry
Specialty: Rachel Sudlow specializes in metalsmithing.Her organic style jewelry includes charming peapods.
Special offers for blog readers and team members: free shipping till august 15 if you mention 'fulltime special'. will send refund

Member Profile--Monkeys Always Look

2009-07-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

Shop name: Monkeys Always Look (etsy ID: monkeysalwayslook)
Category: Plants, Vintage, Housewares & Jewerly and the Kitchen Sink
specialty:
Allison D. Cecil is the evil creative genius mastermind behind Monkeys Always Look. Allison has been collecting and creating since she could fill her pockets and shoes with playground rocks and sand to bring home to create realistic moats for her Lego worlds. Now she usually leaves the rocks and sand where she finds them, but still loves digging in the dirt and creating easy to care for succulents in vintage containers. She also finds new ways to create interesting housewares and jewelry from found objects and repurposed flea market finds. From Custom Garden Markers to Stone Necklaces to Vintage Houseware and Beyond, she has created a shop where everything is something you didn’t know you needed but cannot live without.
Special offers: 10% off all orders for blog readers and/or team members .

July Sales at FTEC members' shops

2009-07-01T18:38:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the 4th of July, a few FTEC members will be having a sale --

muyinmolly: 10% off on all jewelry orders and 10% off on all PEARL orders from her sister shop mysupplyshop, from now through 7/7

girlscantell: 10% off purchases of $20 or more (not including sale items) when you include "happy fourth" in the note to seller at checkout (reimbursed through paypal).This offer is good throughout the 4th of July weekend(7/3~5).

mpaperarts: FREE shipping within the U.S.A. when you mention anything July 4thy (in the spirit of Etsy, be creative!) in the note to seller at checkout (reimbursed through paypal). Offer is good from 7/3~6

beckandcallgirl, vintagecallgirl and beadblanketbingo :Buy 2, get one free. Free item must be equal or lesser value. This is also a moving sale, end date TBD

Kittygrrlz: Free USA shipping/$5 international, plus Sale section items, reduced 20-40% . Offer is good throughout the holiday weekend.

time2cre8: free shipping and a free surprise gift for the long weekend.Buyers have to leave "weekend deals" in the Message to Seller.

After 4th of July, tune in to the Christmas in July (CIJ) sale on Etsy (July 8-23).Currently participating FTEC members are as follows--

cricketscreations: FREE Shipping on all scarves! PLUS, buy two or more scarves at once, receive $5 off EACH scarf (quantity discount will be refunded via PayPal after purchase). All double size Super Fringies only $75 (a $110 value) each. Upgrade from a newborn size to a sheepskin-sized Super for only $20 add'l (write "Super" in message to seller).

ileaiye will be offering a 15% discount on two or more items bought. Refunds will be made within 24hrs via paypal following transaction and receipt of payment.

This post will be updated as soon as a new member is having a sale!

Stay Organized-- The Myth of Plastic Bins

2009-06-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

The following article was originally posted on our team member beckandcallgirl's blog on June 3, 2009. In this article Beck shares with us how she organizes her yarns.You can find fiber art supplies in Beck's Etsy shop.

We all use them for storage & organization. The question is, do they really work or are they a myth? What am I talking about? Plastic storage bins, of course!

I use them, but I don't really feel organized. In some aspects, I know they help me, but in other aspects, I feel like it's out of sight, out of mind.

This is some of my stash of yarn. It's all sorted by color, and the bins are stacked 5 or 6 tall. I do think that this helps with the organization of the overstock & stash, as I can easily go straight for whatever color I need. In fact, the yarn that's on top is what I had pulled out to cut. And, no, I don't need into the bins every time I make fibers. That's what this is for:

Oh yes -- this is organized! All sorted by color, so I can easily see what I have, what I want, and what I need. And yeah, that's an exercise bike that I use to hang stuff on. I prefer to think of the fibers as handlebar streamers.

However, when it comes to other items, I feel totally disorganized! This is a picture of one of my workrooms. In these bins, it's all fabric.

And it is totally disorganized. I've basically decided that I'm not sure it *can* be organized. I've tried sorting it by color - doesn't work. By type (quilters cotton, knit, silk, rayon, etc) that works better, but doesn't help when trying to put stuff together. By size - well, that was almost pointless. That only helped if I wanted to make something that needed a lot of yardage.

But, I'm told - we're all told - every time I go to the store that just a couple more bins, and it'll all become organized. It's like a siren's song, whispering in your ear "Take me home, I'll help you. Just a couple more, and it'll be organizational bliss."

Member Profile--Girlscantell

2009-06-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

Shop name: GirlsCanTell

Category: hand printed housewares

Specialty: Sara of GirlsCanTell draws up new diagrams of everyday items like kitchen aid mixers, cameras, bikes and more, and individually screenprints them by hand onto useful everyday things, like notebooks, hand towels, tote bags and coasters. She's always open to great new ideas for diagrams and produces new designs each month.

Special offers: Mention the phrase "diagrams are fun!" in the note to seller at checkout to receive a reimbursement for shipping on your entire order.

Member Profile--South Paw Studios

2009-05-30T12:28:00.001-07:00

Shop name: South Paw Studios(etsy ID:southpawstudios)
Category: Jewelry
specialty:

Katy Mims, from Toledo, Ohio is a wife, mom and the soul artist behind South Paw Studios jewelry. Katy has been involved in the jewelry trade for 12 years and counting. Studied metal smithing at the Toledo Museum of art. Katy’s favorite materials include precious gemstones, Venetian glass, fresh water pearls and precious metals. She offers a retail, wholesale and custom bridal line, as well as Swarovski pearl supplies for fellow jewelry artists

Special offers for blog readers and/or team members :15% off all orders, plus free shipping and an additional $5 gift certificate good towards future purchases

Member Profile--Crickets Creations

2009-05-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

Shop name: Crickets Creations
Category: Knitting/Accessories

Specialty: Crickets Creations designs & crafts unique, handmade fiber art from vintage & novelty yarns. She specialize in fashion accessory scarves & her own invention "fringies" yarn photo props for professional photographers to use in portrait sessions.
Crickets Creations maintains a large collection of hundreds of yarns and has a varied palette of colors & textures; each new project is an adventure & custom orders are welcomed!

Special offers for blog readers and/or team members: Mention FTEC in Message to Seller receive FREE shipping with completed purchase of one item. Crickets will refund shipping PLUS $5 off per item when you choose two or more in a single checkout.

Member Profile--Time2cre8

2009-05-19T07:29:00.000-07:00

Shop name: time2cre8
Category: jewelry, stationery
Specialty: time2cre8 (MaryLou) creates beadwoven jewelry using her original designs, with colors and patterns for every season and every occasion. Beadwoven jewelry is unlike any other - weaving thousands of tiny glass beads together results in jewelry that has a fabric-like feel so light and smooth you'll hardly know you're wearing it.
In addition to beadwoven jewelry, MaryLou also has an extensive line of cards and tags: Captioned Critters, mini notecards and full size greeting cards featuring animals talking and thinking what YOU want; Understated Greetings, cards which feature greetings with a slightly sarcastic bent; and a large assortment of cards and tags featuring the vintage Sir John Tenniel illustrations of Alice in Wonderland.
Special offers for blog readers and/or team members: Blog readers and
Team members are offered a 5% discount on any purchase over $10 with
mention of the FTEC team.

Member Profile-- iLE AiYe

2009-05-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

Shop name: iLE AiYE (etsy ID: ileaiye)
Category: knitwear, leather bags
Specialty: ileaiye produce ladies hand knitted clothing, jackets,
jumpers, shrugs, cardigans, hats, gloves, scarfs, collars, and non
slip headbands, by using 80% discontinued yarns, ileaiye is able to
keep product prices totally affordable.But doesn't compensate when it
comes to originality. iLE Aiye produce 100% handmade products.
Custom orders are totally welcome, .
Special offers FTEC member and FTEC blog followers receive a15%
discount on orders over $25.00. please state this during checkout, so
a refund can be sent

Member Profile--MaeBee Jewelry

2009-05-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

Shop name: MaeBee Jewelry (Etsy ID: mpaperarts)
Category: jewelry
specialty: MaeBee Jewelry specializes in handmade bracelets and necklaces made with a combination of materials including leather, waxed linen, beads, sterling silver, goldplate and brass findings and links.
All items are made to order so the size, clasp and any other details can be made to your liking. MaeBee's designs have been described as organic, earthy, delicate, unique, casual, simple...you get the idea! The icing on the cake is that every piece comes gorgeously wrapped with tissue in a colorfully decorated and ribboned pillow box...ready to give or open for yourself!
Special offers: MaeBee offers 5% to all FTEC blog readers. Use code FTEC at checkout to receive 5% paypal rebate. FTEC Team members receives 10% off on all orders.

From the SF Bazaar Bizarre Blog: "pillow talk with eleen" - an interview

2009-04-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

The following interview was originally posted in the SF Bazaar Bizarre Blog on April 26, 2009. HTML links have been added where relevant, otherwise all content is the same as the original.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your business.
I run an online shop over at eleen.etsy.com where I sell a smart, fresh and playful collection of carefully constructed, limited run bags, pouches, pillows and more. I made the leap to pursue this business full-time about a year ago and it’s been an amazingly fun and challenging experience. I have an undergrad business degree from Cal and have spent most of my professional career as a web project manager. I loved the dotcom/technology scene but realized how much I’d love being in the world of handmade for a living when I took 3 months off to plan our handmade wedding in Berkeley last year.

How did you first get involved with crafting?
My mom taught me how to sew when I was really young, and my dad was always doing some kind of DIY project around the house that I’d occasionally help him out with. They taught me to love making and figuring things out on my own, and I spent countless hours poring through just about every single how-to book in our local libraries and crafting up a storm, either with friends or on my own.

What are your favorite materials to work with? Do you have a favorite color palette?
I mostly work with printed cotton fabrics, colorful felts and vinyl and have an obsession with “stocking up” on them (which is really just an excuse to buy cool fabric). Earth tones attract me the most: shades of browns, blues and greens with splashes of bright happy colors like raspberry red or bright orange.

What are your inspirations in your art and in life?
I love to surround myself with things that make me feel like I’m flitting through the woods, hence the growing selection of faux bois and leaf-appliqued items in my collection. Like a lot of other crafters, it’s the lush greenery and cool little details of the outdoors that inspire me the most. Most of the fabrics I pick have a feeling of that sort — lots have cool animals, trees, leaves or flowers in them — and they inspire me to turn them into fun yet useful creations like organizer pouches, zipper wallets and pillows that are cool to look at but also serve a purpose. In life, I’m inspired by that and more — the amazing spirit and stories of friends, family and other people around me in addition to the beauty, majesty and mystery of nature.

What is your favorite song or album to listen to while working?
It depends, and my mix of songs is pretty random. But lately I’ve been gravitating to a lot of old school Michael Jackson, some Scissor Sisters, some Postal Service and of course one of my all-time faves, Rogue Wave.

Who are some of your favorite indie artist/crafters and why do you love them?
I love the metal-smithed jewelry by Figs & Ginger and am a proud owner of their adorable Fawn in the Forest necklace. I’m also on a team called Full Time Etsy Crafters whose members, as the name suggests, all make and sell handmade items full-time (or are well on their way towards that) and I have my eye on a lot of their products, like mudpuppy’s mini ceramic mushrooms and Mu-Yin Jewelry’s breathtaking Gardenia Blossom ring.

Any exciting future plans or developments in the works for your business?
I’ve got lots of goals for the year, but two that I’m most excited about right now are coming out with sewing patterns of my designs for sale, and connecting more with the crafting community by posting a lot more cool handmade/DIY projects on my blog. Other than that, I’m just looking forward to growth, growth and more growth! Baz Biz at Maker Faire is something I’ve dreamed of doing for awhile now, and I’m so excited to actually being a part of it this year!
—

You can find out more about eleen and her products the following websites:
:: shop :: http://eleen.etsy.com
:: blog :: http://www.eleen.com
:: tweet :: http://www.twitter.com/diy_eleen

Jewelry Display Techniques from The Crafts Report

2009-04-25T00:17:00.000-07:00

The June 2009 issue of The Crafts Report features a great article offering jewelry sellers creative ways to display their jewelry and set them apart from the competition. We thought it had some great tips as well as helpful photos and wanted to share it with others!

June 2009

Member Profile-Nicholas and Felice

2009-04-23T21:42:00.000-07:00

Business Name: Nicholas and Felice ( Etsy ID:nicholasandfelice)
Category: Jewelry
Specialty: Nicholas and felice have been making and selling their jewelry for over 20 years, specializing in sterling silver and aluminum wirework with a celtic influence.They also have several lines of sterling silver stamped and engraved jewely that run the range of
geeky /science to japanese kanji and other asian characters including animals, flowers and other designs. One of their most popular products are their aluminum wire celtic influenced shawl pins.This shop also offers hanging vases.

Member Profile-Marla J Designs

2009-04-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

Shop name: Marla J Designs (Etsy ID: marlajdesigns)
Category: weddings & jewelry
Speciality: Marla enjoys custom designs of Veils, Jewelry, hair combs, hair pins, and Fascinators. If a buyer has a different twist on an item Marla will work with the buyer to create it!
Special offer: blog readers and team members will receive 20% discount

Member Profile--Earmark

2009-04-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

Shop name(Etsy ID) Earmark & Earmark Gatherings
Category: Paper, stationery, weddings, decorations
Specialty: Earmark is a full service paper studio, specializing in
custom wedding invitations and stationery. We offer everything from pencils to party banners to Elite, high end letterpress wedding invitations. If it has to do with paper, we can make it happen. Earmark is a husband and wife team and we truly love what we do and
hope that it shows through in our work and in our service.
Special offer:mention FTEC upon checkout and receive a free card of your choice, up to $4.

Giveaway at Daisycakessoap

2009-04-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

Love soaps?
What about lavender?
What about some free lavender soaps?
If you answered yes to all of the above questions, you would love to hear this...

Our team member Daisycakessoap is holding a givaway!

Here are the details:
If you love lavender, or know someone who does, here is a chance to
win a gift set from her Etsy shop!

The set includes:
1 bar of Lavender Oatmeal soap
1 5ml pot of lavender shea butter solid perfume
1 1 oz lavender massage oil
1 drawstring bag with lavender embroidery

How to enter:

Visit Daisycakessoap's Etsy shop and choose a favorite item and
go to her blog and leave a comment about it. Please leave your email address for winning notification purposes!

Bonus Entry! If you help spread the word by mentioning this giveaway
on your blog, and comment about it on her blog, you'll be entered in the
giveaway twice!

Must be 18 years of age, be US or Canada residents to participate in
this giveaway. Ends midnight 4/24/09. Good luck and thanks for
visiting!

Member Profile--Annie Howes

2009-04-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

Shop name: Annie Howes Keepsakes (Etsy ID: AnnieHowes)
Category: jewelry craft kits, supplies
specialty: Innovator of DIY Craft kits, tutorials, and maker of handmade glass

Happy Easter and Team Treasury

2009-04-12T10:49:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter Sunday!We snagged a treasury for the team.

Top to Bottom (left to right):
pinkquartzminerals, eleen,nicholasandfelice
earmark,daisycakessoap,kittygrrlz
muyinmolly,anniehowes,XOhandworks
time2cre8,beckandcallgirl,mpaperarts

Member Profile - Daisycakes Soap, LLC

2009-04-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

Business Name: Daisycakes Soap LLC (Etsy ID:daisycakessoap)
Category: Bath&Beauty
Specialty: Daisycakes specializes in handmaking soap from scratch with ingredients like velvety olive oil, rich cocoa butter, smooth coconut oil and pure essential oils. This shop also offers unique glycerin bars, fresh lip balms, huge bath bombs & shea butter perfumes!
Special offers for team members:
Gift wrapped box of 3 cold process soap $10 (25+ varieties to choose from)
For Blog readers:
Free solid perfume with purchase (15+ varieties to choose from)

Member Profile -- Mu-Yin Jewelry

2009-04-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

Shop name: Mu-Yin Jewelry (Etsy ID: muyinmolly)
Category: jewelry
specialty: Mu-Yin Jewelry specializes in custom wire wrapped jewelry made with high quality colorful freshwater pearls and natural gemstones.
All items are made to order to fit customers’ size, be it a ring,
necklace, or bracelet. Many designs are limited editions featuring
rare colored freshwater pearls and natural gemstones collected by the
designer from all over the world.
Molly's Designs are noted for their vibrant colors, often simple yet
meticulous construction and the delicate balance between the wire and
pearls/gemstones. They are girly, sweet, sexy and easy to wear.
Molly’s Designs are never overwhelming — they are simply addictive as
that chocolate which makes you want to have one after another!
Special offers: Muyinmolly offers 5% to all FTEC blog readers. Use code FTEC at checkout to receive 5% paypal rebate. FTEC Team members receives 10% off on all orders.

You can also find Mu-Yin Jewelry on

twitter: http://twitter.com/muyinmolly
facebook: http://facebook.muyinjewelry.com
flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/muyinmolly
website: http://muyinjewelry.com

Member Profile -- Eleen :: Good Stuff * Hand Made

2009-04-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

Shop name: eleen :: good stuff * hand made (etsy ID: eleen) Category: bags & purses, home accessories
Specialty: eleen.etsy.com carries a smart, fresh and playful collection of carefully constructed, limited run handbags, pouches and home accessories made of high quality designer cottons, felts and vinyls. You'll find items in her shop that will add a skip to your step and give you a stylish way to stash -- and strut -- your stuff!
Special offers for blog readers and/or team members: For the month of April 2009, eleen is offering a 5% discount to all FTEC blog readers. Use the code "FTEC" in the Comments field at checkout, and you'll receive your 5% rebate in PayPal after your payment is complete. FTEC team members will receive 10% off in April by entering "FTEC-10".

Member Profile-- Pink Quartz Minerals

2009-04-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

Shop name: Pink Quartz Minerals (etsy ID pinkquartzminerals)
Category: bath and beauty
Specialty: Pink Quartz Minerals is your source for vegan custom mineral makeup. Customer care comes first. If PQM does not have your foundation shade, they will handcraft it from scratch to your exact
skin tone match! From eye shadow to bronzers to blush, PQM is happy to
customize a color or kit just for you!

Member Profile--Wren

2009-04-01T19:06:00.000-07:00

Shop name: WREN (Etsy ID:thewren)
Blog: www.thewrendesign.com
Category: Bags and purses
Specialty: Wren bags are built on the principles of sustainability and are inspired by nature in every way possible. Everything is supremely hand-crafted (by Wendren and with help from the local community) ensuring that high quality is assured. The fabrics are individually selected for quality, colour or print by Wendren and the way these are paired together and complimented by colour is a unique characteristic of Wren designs. On the note of uniqueness it must be said that no two bags are ever the same becuase afterall, every person is unique and
thus, needs something special.

Member Profile--XOHandworks

2009-03-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

Etsy shop: XO Handworks
Category: Jewelry, Accessories
Specialties:XO Handworks loves making new things from old: old maps, dictionaries, outdated encyclopedias, even junk mail. Using vintage materials adds a uniqueness not found in mass-produced items. Tam's most popular creations are:

Custom map pendants, pins & magnets
Scrabble letter accessories
Soldered art pendants & other gift items

You can also find XO Handworks on:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/XOHandworks
Facebook: http://facebook.XOHandworks.com
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xohandworks/

Photo Tips with Annie Howes-- How Do I Take My Product Photos? A tutorial.

2009-03-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

[scrabble tile DIY kit at anniehowes]

The following article was originally posted on anniehowes' blog on Mar 28th,2008.In this article Annie shares with us how she takes her photos. Also included is a tutorial on how to make an inexpensive light box.A few more similar tutorials can be found on Annie's blog.
You can find lots of supplies for scrabble tile pendants in Annie's Etsy shop.

I frequently receive requests on this topic so I thought I’d take the time to blog about it. I’m no photographer by any stretch, however I do strive for good color and sharp images. Not all my photos are great. In fact, each one is probably flawed by some standards, but I do think each product is accurately represented to the best of my ability.

When I first began photographing products I was more consumed with composition than lighting. Good composition doesn’t mean squat if you can’t see the product. As a result, I’ve eliminated most unnecessary clutter from my photographs and focus (no pun intended) on good, or at least decent, lighting. And never, ever, ever use your camera’s flash!

Natural vs Artificial Lighting
There are two schools of thought on this and I subscribe to both. Natural lighting is normally my preference but I rarely have access to good quality natural light. What I mean is if it’s not slightly diffused morning light (ideal), I’m not interested. Direct, midday, and afternoon natural light is totally unacceptable. Products end up with sharp shadows, a dark side, glare, or a cast of unwanted color (afternoon light). Unless you’re one to crop around the entire product, which I am not, I would avoid direct sunlight from any angle.

Natural Light - Before:

Natural Light - After:

Adjusting to reduce the color shift in afternoon light is far too time consuming since most of my product photos represent the actual item for sale and not a prototype.

Midday light is great if you have a light studio. A light studio is a cube made from thin white fabric held taught by a wire frame and purchased for $50+ online from many different sellers. Or, it can be easily constructed from a large cardboard box with white tissue papers substituting for the white fabric. The purpose of the photo cube is to diffuse that harsh direct sunlight thereby avoiding those harsh shadows created by direct sunlight.

Because I have limited access to natural light and because I live and work on an extremely windy hill, I have invested in an indoor light studio. It sounds much more grandiose than what it actually is. It all began with a small “hillbilly photo cube” (hey, I live in Kentucky!) that I constructed using a cardboard box and tissue paper and 2 desk lamps with (*gasp*) incandescent bulbs.

Knowing this is an unsatisfactory arrangement (the bulbs were all wrong and the light cube too fragile!), I eventually asked for a photo cube and invested in better bulbs. I still use the 2 desk lamps, but you can see from my photos the end result is not half bad.

Hillbilly Photo Cube:

Than you to Marisa of ElegantSnobbery for allowing me to link to her tutorial on "How to Make A light Cube".

Here’s what I use:
- 2 Desklamps with arms (Walmart)
- GE EnergySmart DAYLIGHT bulbs, 100 watt (Walmart or home improvement store)
- Photo Cube
- Props (off-white sketch paper, dictionary, scrabble tiles, etc.)
- Camera

And here's the set-up.

Light bulb:

Click to enlarge this set-up pic:

Here's how I do it:

My digital camera (Olympus Camedia C-765) allows me to use a Macro setting (tulip icon), and I select either ISO 200 or 400. (What is ISO?) The higher the ISO the more light the camera will lens will let in (slower shutter speed). Brighter situations will tolerate a lower ISO setting.

The photo cube allows me to have the front and the top open. I have one desk lamp over the top of the top of the cube shining down over the product (about 10-12 inches above it). The second desk lamp is on the opposite side of the cube and shines through the side of the cube toward the front and side of the product. All other artificial light in the room is normally turned off in order to avoid unwanted glare.

Because I use the macro setting, I can get really close up to the subject. If you don’t have a macro setting, don’t try to get too close and lose focus. I would rather not list an item than list an item with an out of focus photo. The quality of your photos is what helps turn a visitor into a buyer.

Once I have my photos taken (and I normally take about 8 of each item)I pass them through Photoshop for a number of reasons. First, when you’re working with the macro setting every little piece of lint shows up in the photo! So I normally go through the photo and clean up the stray lint specs and smudges on the props being careful to leave the product untouched.

Next, I’ll want to adjust the curves. I do this with just about everything I photograph. What this does is make everything brighter without washing it out. I make a minor adjustment to brighten the image then I adjust the contrast.

Adjusting Curves:

Lastly, I check the levels and make adjustments to the lighter end of things. I want to be sure my whites are white and bright and not grey and dingy looking.

Adjusting Levels - Before:

Adjusting Levels - After:

The end result is true to my eye on my monitor in both color and vibrancy just as the original is in the palm of my hand.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will answer as best I can.

Etsy Seller Tips With Muyinmolly--Finding Your Niche

2009-03-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

[Peachy Nest ring by Muyinmolly]

The following article was originally posted on muyinmolly's blog on May 27,2008.In this article Molly shares with us how she found her "niche" through selling online.You can also find more Etsy seller tips on her blog.
Visit Molly's Etsy shop for gorgeous wire wrapped pearl and gemstone jewelry.She has tons of colorful rings!

Selling on Etsy is hard work.It takes more than your love for crafts to stand out from the crowd. Apart from great photos, clear descriptions and frequent listings, you need to have something different to offer. There needs to be a reason for shoppers to buy from your shop instead of others'.
I have always understood the importance of artistic styles. I am not sure if this is because I received formal art trainings in different media -- especially in fine art, writing and classical music. When I started selling jewelry on Ebay two years ago, I had just started making wired jewelry for two years.I had this passion for working with wire, even though I did not know what I wanted to create with it. I read many tutorials and books on wire working.I liked both modern wire wrapping and traditional wire sculpture. I liked so many things I saw but I didn't know what I liked the most. I decided to try my luck by selling some basic earrings made with very simple wire work on Ebay,and here are one of the very first designs that I introduced --

I had great luck.For some reasons I did not even know, these earrings sold very well on Ebay, so I started making variations of them.
then I learned to make wire wrapped rings.I did not know if they would sell, but I just loved making those rings (For some reason it felt so good to wrap the wire around a mandrel.Wierd, huh?) and it felt so natural to me. I did not like the design I learned from the tutorial, so I modified it to highlight a center pearl.Here you can see one of the very first wire wrapped rings I listed in my Ebay store in August, 2006--

I was lucky again. People seemed to like my wire wrapped rings, for reasons I didn't know, so I listed more rings in my Ebay store.Very soon I had an Ebay store full of wire wrapped rings and more people started to buy rings from me. The same pearl ring design is still available in my Etsy store.

If you take a look at the pictures of this same design, you will find that after making hundreds of rings and taking thousands of photos, my wire wrapping and photography skill have improved a lot.

If you asked me two years ago what my niche was, I would not be able to tell you. But now I can confidently say I offer wire wrapped rings, and I have a simplistic and colorful style. I was fortunate enough to notice what customers wanted from me from the very beginning, and I developed my skills and expanded my designs accordingly. Then I started to find my own style, and people started to notice me more, and I started to sell more.

If you have just started selling on Etsy, or if you have just started making your crafts and don't know what your niche is, give it time and ask yourself consciously as often as possible when you make your craft,and you will know what your style is someday.

Life Of A Full Time Etsy Crafter -- Nicholasandfelice

2009-03-18T18:18:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to our team member nicholasandfelice, who just reached their 5000th sale on Etsy today!! To celebrate this amazing milestone, Felice has taken time to share their Etsy story with us. This post is a little long, but once you start reading it, you'll love it so much that you have to finish the whole thing!

How long have you been selling crafts? How did it start?
Back in my early 20’s I started making jewelry and selling it at Grateful dead concerts. Yes, I was one of those Deadheads in the 80’s traveling around selling stuff outside the concerts. I made beadwork jewelry. Then I got a job in Key West Florida for a winter working for a jeweler stringing her necklace designs and then another who taught me some simple wirework that I got to sell at their stores.
I’ve always been crafty and into making things. My father was self employed and had an “Art Store” at one point in our lives where he cranked out oil paintings to match peoples’ couches. He gave me the confidence to believe that I could make stuff and people would buy it.
Then in the spring of 1987 I went to Guatemala with some friends to learn how to buy and import Guatemalan clothing. Nick was there traveling with a girlfriend who had just dumped him and taken the guide book and towel leaving him all alone in a foreign country and without much money (Poor Nick). We met and I hired him to help me carry all the stuff I was buying and have been together ever since.
We lived in Toronto for 2 years, during when I took a “real” jewelry making course and started wholesaling my metalwork and bead jewelry while Nick went to school. At this time the quartz crystal pendant trend was very popular. We had a friend wearing one and Nick looked at it and figured out how to wire wrap the crystal. We rode the crystal pendant wave and traveled around the country selling our jewelry to New Age stores, craft fairs and at concerts. We eventually settled an hour north of Eugene Oregon so that we could sell at the weekly Eugene Saturday Market. That became our main source of income besides some wholesale accounts.

How long have you been selling on Etsy full time?
We’ve always been selling jewelry full time. We joined Etsy on May 26, 2006.

What is your specialty?
We’re pretty good with the wirework. We started with wire wrapping sterling silver around stones and glass. Over the years our designs have become more complex and have a Celtic look. About 7 years ago we took a trip to Victoria, Canada and saw a woman making wired hanging bottle. We thought it was a great idea and came up with our own version of the idea using aluminum wire and our Celtic designs. The aluminum wire sent me in a new direction and we now have a popular line of aluminum earrings and pendants and shawl pins. Nick taught himself machining and acquired the skills to do all sorts of jewelry and metal work. We have a line of stamped and engraved jewelry that includes lots of quirky geeky and science related designs as well as animals, Celtic and Asian character designs etc.

Is there a turning point for your Etsy shop? Did it suddenly or gradually take off?
We had our first sale about 2 weeks after we listed our first pair of earrings on Etsy. Our pictures were terrible and our descriptions were awful. We kept adding more and more to our shop and working on the photography. We still weren’t selling very much to be all that impressed with Etsy or ourselves. Then the week before Christmas ’06 (about 6 months after we started on Etsy) we started having sales every day. We’ve been doing well since then with steady sales and very busy Christmas sales.

How do you keep customers coming back to your shop?
We consider customer service a major part of what we are offering our customers. We’re kind of maniacal about it and treat our customers the way we would want to be treated. Because this is our livelihood we are online all the time (except when we are sleeping or out of the house.)So we always answer convos and emails quickly. We also always send an email and convo as soon as we get an order to let them know we received it and when we are shipping. We’re always polite and upbeat and follow the “customer is always right” model of business. We are crazy about sending out orders as soon as possible which is usually the same or next day unless it is the weekend obviously. During the Christmas rush we may get a little behind that goal and send out orders in two days. We want shopping with us to be a pleasant and easy experience without any hassles for the customer so they will want to come back and tell their friends.
We also know the importance of having new products for our returning customers to stay interested. We are always thinking about new ideas and trying to work on them and trying to figure out the next big thing.
We don’t do anything fancy with our packaging but everything gets wrapped in colored tissue paper and put in a simple brown gift box and tied with a nice piece of chenille or fancy yarn. We put a little handwritten “Thank You!, F and N” and a smiley face in a heart on the invoice.It only takes a second but it’s a nice little touch and I really do feel grateful for every single sale.

How do you supplement your Etsy income?Do you sell your jewelry outside of Etsy?
We sell most weekends at the Eugene Saturday Market and at their Holiday Market. We have another small local craft fair we do in the Fall. We have some wholesale accounts too and get new ones every once on a while from store owners finding us on Etsy. Nick’s other business is selling small lathes and milling machines online for a small US manufacturer. He also does some paid blogging for the “Tool Monger” and has other machining related projects going on all the time for different customers.

what is your daily work schedule? How many hours do you work every week?
This is a hard question to answer. We tend to get up 8:30ish.Get the coffee going right away and check the email. Get our 2 young sons happy with food and yes dare I say it- TV or computers, legos or whatever they are interested in. Max goes to preschool from 9:30-11:30 3 days a week. So I take him there then come back and print out orders and send confirmation of receiving the orders and when we will ship. Nick spends the morning answering emails and phone calls from his customers from the lathe and milling machine business, faxing in orders. I start packaging and making the same items that sold so we can relist throughout the morning while entertaining our 6 year Henry with his various projects and needs. At 11:30 I’m picking up Max and dropping off Henry at Kindergarten. Then sometimes I’m ready to go to the post office with the mornings’ packages or else do some errands with Max and get home and finish up orders. Then it’s time to pick up Henry and do after school stuff like Karate classes or play dates or errands. During this time Nick is working on jewelry or bookkeeping or fun projects. There are a lot of variations to all of this. We live a pretty flexible lifestyle.
I spend a lot of time in the evening working on jewelry and deigns or catching up on stuff to be relisted or new ideas. And more coffee.

How do you promote your Etsy shop?
Nick and I both have blogs:
http://wiremom.blogspot.com
http://mechanicalphilosopher.blogspot.com
http://anotherairgunblof.blogspot.com
We have a flickr page. We have a deviant art page that we rarely update.We now have a facebook business page.
We don’t really do anything else.

I don’t think the blogs have really brought us all that much business but there have been some people that started reading our blogs and become regular fans and customers. I think they mostly just add a nice way for a customer to get a better feel for who we are and who they are buying from. I think that is part of the Etsy experience and blogging helps round that out for those that are interested and curious to know more about us. We keep business cards on us all the time and hand them out if the situation seems appropriate and not weird or pushy. We have had a couple of really lucky breaks as far as getting on other peoples blogs and mentioned once in “Cookie” magazine.
But honestly we really don’t understand or know why we get people coming to our shop and buying.I suspect having proper and good Tags has a lot to do with being found in the Etsy and google search systems.

What is the most challenging part as a full time Etsy seller? How do you handle it?
We often feel like we are in a never ending craft fair with Etsy. It’s really hard for me to not constantly check the email and shop and answer convos right away even when it’s the weekend or late at night. It’s our livelihood and it’s up to us to keep it going so we are our own worst bosses in some ways. We are exploiting ourselves!

Your shop name is Nicholas and Felice. How do you two work together? Did you encounter any problems being a couple and business partners at the same time?
We’ve got a ridiculously co- dependent relationship so it works out really well. We’ve been together almost 22 years and been apart about a total of 11 days. We have a natural sort of division of labor. Nick does all the bookkeeping, CNC and stamping designs. I’ve evolved into the wireworker although Nick is just as good at it. I do the photography and convoing of most stuff unless it’s related to custom stampings and engravings.

How do you balance between family and work? What is the most challenging part about working from home with two children, and how do you manage it?
Ha! How do I even begin to answer that? I do most of my work at my desk in the dining room so I am constantly stopping and starting work in between getting the kids stuff and doing things with them. We have a couple of different shop areas and most of Nick’s machining shop is in the converted garage that is just another room of our house now. So we are always around the kids and trying to get stuff done. They are still pretty young (4 and 6) but soon enough Henry will be in 1st grade all day and Max will get to Kindergarten in 2 years. It’s crazy and we are running around in circles trying to get as much done as possible. I actually don’t know how we do it all. I just try to remember that there really is time to stop working and cuddle for 5 minutes.

Share your best business advice with us.
Make customer service paramount.

Share one of the strangest things that happened to you as crafters.
Nick came up with his “HTML ” earrings (They are a dorky geek joke based on HTML computer coding for those who don’t get the joke.).They got mentioned on dig.com and made it to the front page of the website for a whole day. We were bombarded with sales and he made about 40 pairs in 24 hours. They still continue to sell well. Oh and we had a woman in China who is a programmer order a pair from us. It felt good to be doing are part to help the trade deficit.

One of the coolest things that ever happened was a friend was wearing a pair of our earrings while she was traveling in India. Another friend of ours who didn’t know this person saw her in the market place in a town in India wearing our earrings and said “Hey those are Nick and Felice’s earrings!”

Anything else you would like to add?
Some of our best selling products came from customers. I had a customer ask me to make a treble clef shawl pin. We already made treble clef pendants with aluminum. I didn’t even know what a shawl pin was and if aluminum would be a good metal to use for it. She thought it would be perfect and she was right. It’s light weight so it doesn’t pull on the shawls like a big chunky metal pin would. After I made hers I didn’t think about it again but someone googled shawl pins and that sold one somehow came up in her search and she asked me to make her one too. Then I realized it should be in our shop. That design kept selling quickly and then the ”Duh” light came on above my head and I realized a lot of my Celtic big selling pendant designs would work great for shawl pins. The shawl pins have become a big part of our shop now and sell really well. I’ve been amazed at the great word of mouth advertising from knitters, especially on Ravelry (a knitting forum).Then we got really lucky and the wonderful Deb of Fearless Fibers bought one and sent it to her friend Anne Hanson, who has a popular blog, and she wrote about it. The response has been wonderful and we still get knitters buying the pins from us and saying they saw it mentioned on her blog.
So I guess the moral is pay attention.

Team Banner!

2009-03-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to tell you that our team member Bridgette (Earmark) just created these cool banners for our team.Please help us decide which one to use for our team by voting for your favorite on the left side bar!

fuschia
mustard
bright yellow
khaki
sweet pink
wood

Earmark is a Featured Seller by Etsy. You can find their witty stationary at their Etsy shop.

hello ~

2009-03-04T00:06:00.000-08:00

The official blog of Full Time Etsy Crafter Team is finally here!
We are a group of Etsy sellers who have successfully sold on Etsy. Some of us have been selling on Etsy full time, while some of us are working towards selling on Etsy full time. We have made it, and we are here to share our experiences with you!

The following is a preview of our future posts.Be sure to subscibe to our blog so you don't miss any fun and news!

1. featured shops -- short description and/or interview of featured shops
2. giveaways/contests--get free goodies from your favorite full time Etsy sellers!
3. life of a full time Etsy crafter -- a short interview of featured sellers
4. etsy seller tips -- Etsy seller tips from those who have successfully sold on Etsy
5. full time crafter FAQ -- do you have any questions for full time Etsy sellers?we are here to answer them!(convo fulltimeetsycrafters, or post comments below)
6. member news -- sales news,new arrivals, and press features of our members

Please feel free to post comments below about anything else you would like to read in this blog, so we know what to post!

Read our Storque feature here.
Do you have any questions or suggestions for our team members? Convo fulltimeetsycrafters!

Do you sell on Etsy full time and want to be a member of our team? Convo muyinmolly!

Full Time Etsy Crafters Team

"How to be Successful on Etsy" by Prix Prix

Photos

Descriptions & Titles

Strategy

Further Reading

cherry blossoms and tulips

Handmade Guide to Buying Yarn

Book Review - Deliverying Happiness

Reproductions vs. Originals

Handmade Guide to Glass

Three Tips on "How to Make Money on Etsy" by Muyinmolly

The Buyer's Guide to Handmade

Great reads for indie business owners

Entrepreneur Group Interview on My Money Blog

Great reads for indie business owners

Getting Married? Plan a Handmade Wedding with FTEC!

Tutorial -- How To Pay With Credit Card Through Paypal

Member Profile- Realisation Creations

Member Profile-Purple Sage Designz

Member Profile -- Inklore

Modern Mouse Grand Opening

Making Jewelry For A Target Market

FTEC Members at Modern Mouse

Your Own Domain + Etsy

Our Saturday Market booth and life

Member Profile -- Prix-Prix

Meet Us Face to Face -- Part III

Front Page again!

FTEC Treasury On Etsy Front Page!

Etsy Seller Tip with Muyinmolly -- How to Use Postling to Save Your Time on Marketing

Team Treasury

Meet Us Face to Face--Part II

Meet Us Face to Face -- Part I

Team Treasury

Member Profile--JPAT Purses

Fall Treasuries!

Celebrating Big Sales Numbers with Shared Etsy Seller Tips

Team Treasury -- Etsyland

Team Treasury--They are too sexy for this...

Etsy Seller Tips with Girlscantell: Marketing With Your Own Signature Style

Etsy Seller Tip with Susansheehan -- Etsy - How To Make It Work For You

Member Profile -- Rachael Sudlow Jewelry

Member Profile--Monkeys Always Look

July Sales at FTEC members' shops

Stay Organized-- The Myth of Plastic Bins

Member Profile--Girlscantell

Member Profile--South Paw Studios

Member Profile--Crickets Creations

Member Profile--Time2cre8

Member Profile-- iLE AiYe

Member Profile--MaeBee Jewelry

From the SF Bazaar Bizarre Blog: "pillow talk with eleen" - an interview

Jewelry Display Techniques from The Crafts Report

Member Profile-Nicholas and Felice

Member Profile-Marla J Designs

Member Profile--Earmark

Giveaway at Daisycakessoap

Member Profile--Annie Howes

Happy Easter and Team Treasury

Member Profile - Daisycakes Soap, LLC

Member Profile -- Mu-Yin Jewelry

Member Profile -- Eleen :: Good Stuff * Hand Made

Member Profile-- Pink Quartz Minerals

Member Profile--Wren

Member Profile--XOHandworks

Photo Tips with Annie Howes-- How Do I Take My Product Photos? A tutorial.

Etsy Seller Tips With Muyinmolly--Finding Your Niche

Life Of A Full Time Etsy Crafter -- Nicholasandfelice

Team Banner!

hello ~