Etsy Holiday Boot Camp - Week 1 Goals

I thought it might be interesting to share the highlights of the Etsy Christmas Boot camp with the team. Think of this as a condensed version of everything you need to know from the Bootcamp program in case you didn't sign-up in time or at all! Some of these will be shorter when possible, some will longer, because everything in the email was too important not to share!

You will find great articles, worksheets and fun tips and tricks to get sales!

Week 1 – Set a goal

Assignment # 1: Use the worksheets below to plan out your goals and set dates to them.

Holiday Goal Worksheet

Holiday Calendar Checklist

Discussions # 2: share your progress on social media with #EtsyHolidayBootCamp and also use the team’s tags #promofrenzy and @promofrenzy so that etsy sees what an involved team we are!

 Readings# 3: Read the 3 Easy Steps for Managing Time and Reaching Your Goals

Lesson 2:

Assignment 1: Holiday checklist: consider adding these following points and preparing for them when making your Holiday Calendar Check List from Lesson 1:

•	Make a shipping action plan. Publicize cutoff dates for shipping internationally and domestically before major holidays.
•	Order extra shipping supplies or introduce seasonal packaging.
•	Launch a new product or product line. (Read Grow What You Know: Prepping for a New Product Line for advice.)
•	Update your listings and tags.
•	Participate in a promotional sale on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
•	Reach out to a blogger for a possible feature.
•	Sell at a local craft show.

Assignment 2: Before shopper traffic picks up, practice a new productivity method. Here are a few that are tried and true:

1.	Decrease procrastination with the Pomodoro technique. Use a timer to focus chunks of time on specific tasks like packaging or responding to convos. You might be surprised how quickly you can burn through your to-do list.
2.	Block out time for catch-up days in your calendar. Don’t plan anything; when the day arrives and you find you’re up-to-date on your calendar and task list, enjoy the free time, relax and rest. A little behind? You’ve got the day to catch up.
3.	Write everything down. Use a notebook, planner, whiteboard or sketch out a mind map. Let your to-do list do the work to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
4.	Break tasks into small, actionable chunks. Need to update 50 listings? Decide you’ll edit 10 each day for a working week. Be specific about numbers, dates and quantities whenever possible.

Tip: Team up with a fellow seller for support. Chatting while you both update your listings, wrap up packages or tackle tedious tasks can make work a little lighter.

Readings and discussions #3:

•	Read 5 Ways to Work Smarter, Not Harder.
•	Read How to Rock It at a Holiday Craft Fair.
•	Share your experience in this discussion on holiday goals.

That is it for this week! Check back in next Wednesday for more assignments to help grow your business!

xox Krys from the PFT

Etsy Tools for Sellers: Prototypes

Etsy has a lot of tools to help us as sellers succeed.  We have forums and teams, shop stats, search ads, and the super informative Etsy Seller Handbook.  All of these are great tools (especially teams like PromoFrenzy).  One of my favorite things offered by Etsy is their prototypes.  I’m a member of five out of the 15 currently available, and while some haven’t really affected me one way or another, some have proved invaluable.

What is an Etsy Prototype? Straight from the Etsy Prototype page:

 Prototypes are projects from Etsy Admin that explore different ways of using Etsy.  Each prototype is released with the goal of gathering data and observing how people use them.  Note: Given their nature, these projects may come and go at any time, and they may not always work as expected. Etsy offers limited support for prototypes.

Basically, by joining an Etsy Prototype, you’re becoming a sort of beta tester, helping Etsy experiment with potential new features that they may or may not decide to roll out to everyone.  Some are by invitation only, some you have to apply to, and others still can just be signed up for with the click of a button.

Over the holidays, I was lucky enough to be invited to join a shipping prototype that let me offer a variety of shipping speeds to my customers.  It was amazing, and once I got it set up, it was a huge time saver.  My customers could choose what speed worked for them without either of us having to jump through extra hoops, and, as a special little treat, items that would arrive on or before December 24^th were surfaced to last minute shoppers.  I’m fairly certain being a member of this prototype was a huge contributor to my shops success at the end of last year. 

I was so bummed when the decided to do away with the changes rather than roll them out, but that’s the nature of prototypes.  It was still really awesome; not only was I able to experiment with the potential changes, but I was also able to provide feedback and discuss improvements with Etsy admins.  I felt like I had some say in the future of such a great site.

There are about 15 current prototypes on Etsy right now.  To learn more about each one, you can visit http://www.etsy.com/prototypes and scroll through the list.  The following are four of my favorite:

ShopStats Improvements:

I added this prototype last year, shortly after I joined Etsy, so I’m not 100% positive what the difference between shop stats with and without this might be.  I think the biggest difference is that on your shop stats page, down below the “Listing Favorites” section, there’s a “Treasuries” section that lists all the treasuries you’ve been featured in for whatever time period you’ve selected, and what items have been featured.

Add Item to Treasury from Item page:

This is one of my favorite prototypes, and it’s just invaluable for creating treasuries.  Once you’ve joined this prototype, you can add items to your treasury with one click, and it’s automatically saved.

When I click on that link circled in red, I’ve given the option to add it to an existing treasury, or to create a new one:

 And then, whatever option I pick, it automatically saves the item to the assigned treasury, which is a huge help, because sometimes I forget to save, and wind up losing entire treasuries.

Digital Items:

This is another really awesome prototype.  I believe there’s currently a waiting list to join, but once you do, you can upload your digital products (up to 5 files per item, or 20MB, whichever comes first) and when a customer’s payment is processed, they get a link to download the item automatically.  It’s a huge time saver (once you’ve uploaded all your files), and while there’s still some drawbacks, it’s such a handy tool.  I can’t wait to see what else they do with it, and I’m hoping they’ll decide to roll it out to everyone.

Custom Order Requests:

This is one I’ve only just joined, but I’m really excited about the concept.  I accept custom orders, in fact I love custom orders, but communicating that to potential customers has been a challenge from day one.  By joining this prototype, there’s now a very prominent button on every item page that says “Request Custom Order”

that when clicked on, brings up a contact box

Pretty cool, right?

There are plenty of other great prototypes, all of which can be found at http://www.etsy.com/prototypes

They're definitely worth checking out, and who knows, you might find something that makes your life a little easier.

Happy sales to everyone!

Why/How We Circle or Follow on Etsy

Circling on Etsy/ Followers on Etsy 

Courtesy of Shauno ... Original Pop Art Portraits & Abstract Designs

Building a presence on the internet is a necessity if you are going to have a successful online business. The same is true on Etsy.

One of the ways to help build a presence on Etsy is to build up your circles. When someone chooses to add your shop to their circle, then your activity shows up in their activity feed - such as when you favorite an item, or a shop or a treasury, or add someone to your circle. Essentially, they are saying that they like some of the same things that you like and would like to see more of what you like in the future.

It really is quite easy to build your circles simply by adding shops or people to your circle. Often, but not always, they will circle you back - and your circle count grows!

My method for choosing shops to add to my circle is to go to my Favorites - either Favorite Items or Favorite Shops. I select a shop or item that I like - one either with similar items as those that I carry, or with a similar style (even if the item or items or totally different) to items that I carry. Then, I go to the list of those that have Favorited the item or shop. There you will find a list of shops and people who have favorited the item or shop. You will also find a count of how many circles each one is in, as well as how many items they have favorited and pictures of the last four items they favorited.

Now, you have to determine what your criteria will be for including a shop or person in your circle. I NEVER include a "Secret Admirer". They keep their favorites private, so that their favorites never hit the activity feed. Generally, I choose shops that have at least 50 members in their circles, indicating that they have been around for at least a little while. I also look for those that have at least as many items favorited as the number of circles they are in. This tells me that they will be involved in getting items into the activity feed for their circle members to see. All of this helps to get items seen. 

The reason for choosing shops or people that like the same styles that I sell is that some of those will also favorite my shop, which serves as an added bonus!

Thanks to Sharon from RomanticThoughts !

Blog: http://myromanticthoughts.blogspot.ca/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Romantic-Thoughts-and-Treasures-Etsy/144182138988286

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/sharonintexas/