Where in the world are my business cards?

I finally ordered business cards from Overnight Prints and they should be here by now but they aren't. I know they sent them out because I got a call from UPS last Thursday asking me to pay the $15 custom fee.. $15 for a $40 package. RIDICULOUS! But anyways, I'm fresh out of cards and I don't want to go and print a bunch up from my printer and waste the ink when I have 1000 cards on the way... Where are they!?! :(

EDIT:

THEY'RE HERE!!! YAY!! I don't think I realized just how many 1000 business cards really were.. lol

LET'S RECAP...

So goals for May:
65 items sold plus 2000 total hearts.
1. spend some time redo'ing some photos
2. spend a little $$ rotating my store
3. finish up my new collection
4. spend some more time networking

So,
I sold about 42 out of 65 items I wanted to but I surpassed my hearts goal and reached 2043! It still totally amazes me to think that 2000+ people know about my shop!

1. I re-did a few photos.. I've been lazy. I hate taking photos.
2. Spent a bit rotating the store. Not really sure that it helped much with sales.
3. I finished up a lot of my dessert charms and made a lot of new earrings.
4. I did a lot of networking this month.. I joined a gazillion bloging sites to help promote the Sweet Figments blog. I took out tons and tons of Project Wonderful Ads.. I think I neglected my shop a little bit while I was getting the blog up and running.. eek..

Overall, May was a pretty relaxed month.. It's time to pick up the pace for June.

June Goals:
1. 50 sales and 2300 hearts.
2. Figure out how to use my new ott-lite for photographing.
3. Promote my shop like crazy to get my sales up again.
4. Look into wholesaling.
5. Continue to promote Sweet Figments.
6. Try to do all this stuff in the least amount of time possible haha
7. Create some new characters :D

THE BEST WAY TO OVER COME UNPRODUCTIVE-NESS

IS... to just work through it! I've been lazy. Really lazy when it comes to promoting and really lazy when it comes to listing... I need to get off my butt and start moving!

I've been thinking a lot lately about pricing. Etsy pricing vs. B&M pricing. I'm curious how many people price their items lower on Etsy than they would in a retail store. I know that some of my items could easily go for a few dollars higher in a retail store even with the shipping costs added on. But knowing this, I still choose to price lower than. Why do I do this? Why does anyone do it? It's the fear of having no sales at all!!! but in the long run is this really the right thing to do? I mean, if I start wholesaling I'd be losing out and obviously my wholesalers don't want me to end up underpricing them. What will my customers think if my prices suddenly jump? Is it worth the risk of losing repeat customers? It's a back and forth debate in my head..

I WILL NOT LET UNPRODUCTIVE-NESS GET TO ME!

No I will not! Keep an eye out for all these in the shop next week. :)

Oh man..

I need to stop procrastinating. I have a gazzillion things that I need to do for my shop but the month of May has really got me feeling lazy. How to stay motivated?

Sweet Figments!

The last few days I've been super busy organizing things for the new Sweet Figments blog. Interviews, features, flickr group, ad space, promotion, oh I must be crazy to take on such a big project. But I think I've got it all figured out. For the next 2 weeks atleast haha Hopefully it won't crash and burn. Actually, I hope that my shop doesn't take a toll for how many hours I'm putting into the blog. Oh I can't wait to get it up and running.

I UPGRADED TO FLICKR PRO

Finally, after a lot of thought and consideration I upgraded to Flickr pro! I gotta say I love being able to have more than 3 sets!!!

Anyways, that's not what I want to talk about today. I'm launching a new blog called Sweet Figments a place for showcase all of YOUR sweet figs to be showcased! If you want to submit your work to be considered for being featured or interviewed please join the Sweet Figments Flickr group and add your photos to the group pool.

YOUR HEARTS MATTER!

So some people are crazy obsessed about their hearts and some think that they don't mean anything. For those of you who don't think they mean anything well, THINK AGAIN!

Here's what your hearts mean:
1. All the time you spent promoting and networking is paying off.
2. People like your shop and want to come back to it.
3. There's a possibility that the people who have hearted you are telling their friends and family about you.
4. There's a possibility that people who are looking at someone else's hearts will find you.

In the past few weeks, I was surprised to find out that I've had several sales that came not only from people who heart me but people who found my shop through someone else's hearts, and people who found my shop because of someone who had hearted me told them about me. You never know where your next sale is going to come from so keep your eyes open to the possibilities.

PROJECT WONDERFUL

So last Thursday I started a project wonderful campaign for the first time. I created every size ad they offer and set the campaign to bid only on ad space that was a max of $0.01. The results? I spent $6.95 for 7 days of advertising and got 855 unique clicks. Not bad, not bad at all! Since the ad started I've sold 9 items 2 of which I have confirmed are from someone who clicked on one of my ads. It was fun seeing if it was worth it to spend some money advertising on sites completely unrelated to Etsy and blogs and I think it is worth it but I don't think I'm going to keep it running. I'll probably start it up again closer to the holidays.

5 TIPS TO HELP YOU REACH YOUR GOAL!

YEAH BABY! 300 ITEMS SOLD! Well, 301 but I finally hit 300! Seems like just the other day I hit 200. The pace has definately picked up!

5 TIPS TO HELP YOU REACH YOUR GOAL!

1. Tags are so important! 90% of my buyers find me by using the search tool. So, make use as many as you can within reason and make sure that they are tagged correctly since Etsy has put in a new system.

2. Crop your photos square and as close to the item as you can so that it shows the most detail in thumbnail mode. If your photos look awesome in thumbnail mode then just imagine how great they will look in gallery mode!

3. Have a good selection of items in your shop. Ever since my shop grew to 3+ pages of items I've noticed that my sales have really taken off. People who come to your shop like to browse. I know this because even though the view counters got reset a while ago I still have items on my last page that have over 100 views. Actually, one of my most viewed items is on the last page! So if you've only got 15 items or so there really isn't much for the buyer to choose from and they might go seeking out other shops to see what else is available.

4. Make friends. Make LOTS of friends. Why? Because people who know about you will talk about you. The best way to market is buzz marketing a.k.a word of mouth.

5. Provide excellent customer service. Convo your buyers after they purchase so they know that you have acknowledged their order, tell them when it will be shipped or if you have already shipped and provide any other details if necessary. This would also be a good time to leave feedback for them.

Happy selling everyone! :D

I'M HAVING PHOTOGRAPHY ISSUES.

I don't know why but some of my pictures come out blue-ish.. I mean, I use the same set up and background everytime I photograph but some always look more washed out than others even though they are from the same set of photos!!! It drives me nuts. Anyways, keep an eye out for these in the shop the next few days.

DIG FOR BURIED TREASURE!

Come dig for buried treasure at Timothy Adam's new blog http://buriedtreasury.blogspot.com/

Why? Well in Timothy's words..... there are so many great items on Etsy that are buried under thousands of items...... lets dig up these Etsy treasures and display them in a different and unique way.

Each seller who chooses to be added to the blog gets a 20 slot etsy mini featuring their work that will change as you update your shop and as you switch around your featured items. Timothy rotates these entries to ensure that all shops get featured. I joined yesterday and since then the blog has gotten over 2000 views. If you want to join too you should send a convo on Etsy to http://timothyadamdesigns.etsy.com/

AND WE HAVE A WINNER!

Congrats Dippylulu. She convo'ed me the answers cuz she couldn't post a comment but she got them all :) Thanks everyone for playing and thank you to these sellers for letting me borrow their avatars :)

http://Aorta.etsy.com
http://CraftDiner.etsy.com
http://DelightfullySimple.etsy.com
http://TimothyAdamDesigns.etsy.com
http://jenniferaboston.etsy.com
http://littlecrabdesigns.etsy.com
http://AlwaysAmy.etsy.com
http://MountainVintage.etsy.com
http://DancingMooney.etsy.com

CAN'T YOU JUST PICK ONE AND STICK TO IT?

I'm refering to your avatar. If you constantly change your avatar how will the people who hearted you and remember you from your avatar find you?

I remember people's avatars and not their usernames. Especially if they have a long name or their name consists of common words like "beads" or "designs" or "sweet" or "jewelry". Unless your name is super unique or I talk to you a lot the chances are I won't remember it. Why do I remember you by your avatar and not your name? Because It's easier to remember an image than a bunch of letters especially if it's eye catching. Plus it's a lot easier to search through your favs looking for a photo than a name. So when you change it I can't find you.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that when you pick an avatar it should be something that is constant like a logo, if you have an item on display it should be your signature design or something that is always going to be carried in your shop. (Note: People hate clicking on avatars of a beautiful product and it's not even in the shop!). This way people will be like she/he's the girl/guy that sells ______. It should be something that will help brand your shop and help customers recognize you and what you sell. I know that a lot of people feature their work in their avatars but if you are always changing it people won't remember you. There's a reason you have featured items in your shop. Make use of it.

Your avatar is SO important because it gets seen in your shop, chat rooms, forums and other networking sites you may be on. I have always used the winking bread as my shop avatar and it has served me well. A few months ago my shop name changed from Coonies to TheTinyFig. What helped my past customers and the people who had previously hearted me recognize and find my shop was my avatar. It was confusing for a lot of people at first because they thought that I had stolen Coonies avatar and shop items haha but in the end it worked out to my advantage that I kept my avatar the same because I've had a lot of repeat customers.

So, this is just something you might want to consider before you go changing your avatar.

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GUESS WHO THE AVATARS BELONG TO AND WIN!

These are some avatars on Etsy that I have noticed don't change at all or very often. The first person to guess all 9 of them correctly will win one of these guys from my shop. You must post your answers in my blog comments to count.

So, happy guessing!