Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Imminent New Year
It's that time of year again. 2009 is nearly over and 2010 will be beginning. It's time to take stock of the old year and set goals for the new.
I don't believe in New Years resolutions, they're broken so often it's become a routine joke for late night comics. Personally I think the reason they don't work is because they tend to be vague, lose weight or be more cheerful. They aren't concrete and are hard to hold on to. Instead I think you should set specific goals with a timeframe for completing them.
So take a little time to think back on what you've done with your business this year. What worked? What failed? What would you do differently?
Taking those things into consideration, what goals do you have? One of my goals is to put out an art book this year of my work. It's a really big project so I'm breaking it down into small jobs. First is to decide on the layout, what publishing I'll go with, what photos I'll need, and some other research, I want that done by the end of January.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Quick Tip #20 - Paying Yourself
This is an idea that came up on the Simple Dollar blog a few days ago and I thought it was really great and I plan to start doing this.
Set up a savings account (online banks like ING Direct are great for this because they have good interest rates) and deposit your earnings into that account. Then set up automatic transfers bi-monthy for a set amount of money and treat that as your paycheck. This makes it easier to grow the savings you may need for your business and provide a cushion for months where you earned less. As your business grows you can adjust the amount to pay yourself more.
Set up a savings account (online banks like ING Direct are great for this because they have good interest rates) and deposit your earnings into that account. Then set up automatic transfers bi-monthy for a set amount of money and treat that as your paycheck. This makes it easier to grow the savings you may need for your business and provide a cushion for months where you earned less. As your business grows you can adjust the amount to pay yourself more.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Weekly Inspiration
Beautifully composed shot.
Submit your photos for consideration as a Weekly Inspiration by adding them to the Flickr Group.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Quick Tip #19 - Hacking Your Etsy Mini
MayBeeClothing has discovered a way to further customize the size of your Etsy Mini to have any number of rows and columns that you want for your website.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Weekly Inspiration
Submit your photos for consideration as a Weekly Inspiration by adding them to the Flickr Group.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Quick Tip #18 - Google Product Search and Etsy
Etsy has been rolling out support for Google Product Search for sellers. In the past you had to upload your items yourself using the rss feed. However there is a slight problem with the new syndication, it will only upload items added, renewed, or edited after activating the service. This isn't all bad, it means that Etsy will be able to update by only uploading new items once things have started rolling but right now when most sellers have items that predate the change it's an annoyance.
Go to Great Panes blog has a great tip for mass editing of your products so they will all be uploaded.
Blog Handmade has a tutorial on how to filter visits from product search from regular google search results. Very useful to see how many visits you're getting from product search and compare it to other search engines.
Etsy Storque post on this feature.
Go to Great Panes blog has a great tip for mass editing of your products so they will all be uploaded.
Blog Handmade has a tutorial on how to filter visits from product search from regular google search results. Very useful to see how many visits you're getting from product search and compare it to other search engines.
Etsy Storque post on this feature.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Weekly Inspiration
Absolutely adorable.
Submit your photos for consideration as a Weekly Inspiration by adding them to the Flickr Group.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Quick Tip #17 - Another Thought on Prices
Often I see sellers saying that they aren't making much on their products because they think if they raise their prices they will lose sales. Here's something to think about:
If you have a product priced at $5 with a profit margin of $2 and you sell 10 of them your profit is only $20. If you increase the price to 10 your profit margin is now $7 and if you only sell 5 your profit is now $35.
Now this is only talking in terms of numbers, there is a psychological effect involved in prices. Higher prices imply higher quality, by underpricing your work you can give the impression that it's cheaply made which can hurt your business. If you want a pair of shoes that won't fall apart in 3 months do you buy a $15 pair or a $60 pair?
Previous Posts on Pricing:
Breaking Down Your Costs
If you have a product priced at $5 with a profit margin of $2 and you sell 10 of them your profit is only $20. If you increase the price to 10 your profit margin is now $7 and if you only sell 5 your profit is now $35.
Now this is only talking in terms of numbers, there is a psychological effect involved in prices. Higher prices imply higher quality, by underpricing your work you can give the impression that it's cheaply made which can hurt your business. If you want a pair of shoes that won't fall apart in 3 months do you buy a $15 pair or a $60 pair?
Previous Posts on Pricing:
Breaking Down Your Costs
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Link Roundup for Thanksgiving Week
Between preparing Thanksgiving and the whole Black Friday/Cyber Monday hoopla it's rather crazy so no normal posts this week. However not wanting to leave you with nothing here's some useful links for you.
- Etsy Seller How-To: Get Involved With Black Friday and Cyber Monday Promotions
- Handmade News: The Black Friday/Cyber Monday Weekend Sale ArtFire, The MyEtsy Facebook Application, And Coupon Codes at Zibbet
- Sellers Assisting Sellers Blog: How to use a light box and photo editing software to make beautiful photographs
Friday, November 20, 2009
Quick Tip #16 - Holiday Shipping Deadlines
Here are links to the shipping deadline calendars for the USPS, UPS, and FedEx. Use them to figure out when the last day you can take orders for the holidays to post on your site, blog, and/or shop.
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