Shipping from Home ✽ Things to Know

When selling on Etsy, you could guesstimate your shipping prices, take your orders to the post office as you get them and ship them from there. It might work well if you sell the same one or two things, giving you a really good idea of shipping, and if you give yourself an estimated shipping time that allows you to take orders in batches to the post office, so you aren't constantly running to the post office with each package.

Or, you could buy a letter scale, set up a USPS.com account, keep packaging materials on hand, and manually key in each packaged product's size and weight when you set up your listing info. This gives you exact shipping cost for each order, no matter where it mails to, and allows you to reduce the time that you spend at the post office!

I started out with the first option, and quickly realized it wasn't ideal, because I have such varied package sizes. And always I seem to get to the post office during lunch hour, which is a wonderful time waste... ha. I've been shipping from home for several months now, and it's been so much easier! There have been a few things to learn, though, and so I thought I should share those with you as well :).

-Shipping actually costs less on Etsy than on USPS's website! Not always significantly, but enough to be worth it. This might affect your Etsy billing schedule a bit as your number of orders grows; it makes your fee to Etsy larger, obviously, so you may hit your fee threshold before the end of the month, and pay your bill both in the middle of the current month and again and the customary 1st of the month payment. After this happens, they bump your threshold up, and payments will be at the beginning of the month again... until you hit your next growth spurt :)!

-You can purchase labels from Etsy, but not schedule pick-ups. This means you will still need to have a USPS account, if you expect to schedule pick-ups. Also, I forgot both my first username and password on their site. It was a pain to set up another, since I'd already had one for my address, and I suggest using something you will never ever ever forget. Haha!

-You CAN NOT schedule same-day pick-up after 2:00 a.m., so take that into account when planning how much time you need to ship out. I had to run my package to the post office anyway the first time I tried to do at-home pick-up, because I needed to get it picked up that day, and didn't go to schedule it until 10 o'clock, since I didn't know that yet :P. Scheduling is free, as long as you don't want it picked up at another time than they deliver your mail at.

-I have been told that you can place packages under 13 ounces in your mailbox with the flag up and it will be taken with your regular mail without scheduling. I've not tried this, but it seems to be the norm. Everything above that weights still needs be scheduled.

-You can print your labels on plain printer paper, but you can NOT place tape over the label bar code (it can wrinkle, glaring light back at the scanner and making the bar code inreadable). For this reason I'm now going to be using actual adhesive shipping labels, because I was worried about the bar code, which is the important part of your label once you've paid (it's what they'll use to scan your information into the computer when they get it), getting wet and running without anything covering it. It's not a necessity, but for peace of mind I thought it was worth it. I can't find a way to change the size of Etsy labels, so I have the half sheet sized labels.

Do you ship from the post office, or prefer to have it picked up at your house? Would you use adhesive labels or printer paper?

The Cost of Selling on Etsy ✽ 40 Free Etsy Listings!

This one is a post for those who would like to sell on Etsy, but haven't started yet! Maybe you have been reading my posts and decided that it doesn't sound as hard as you feared, or maybe it's something you have only just considered. Either way, before you start selling on Etsy, there is one thing that you will want to think about; the cost of owning a shop.

Since you will be the only one responsible for your shop, you want to be sure that you have enough resources to get you through the initial starting up period, before your items start to sell, so that you don't have to close down before you see any reward! Obviously, you want to count in the cost of your materials. That will vary depending on what you sell ;). Other costs you might pay are promoted listings; prices vary, as you can set your own budget. This is not a required feature, though, and one that so far I have not used. The same applies for any Facebook ads, etc. that you may want to run. You may also want to invest in a light box or photographer's paper for your pictures, and a letter scale. These are all variables that are up to you and your product, though. Here we'll only talk about the costs directly related to using Etsy's site...

Fortunately, the initial cost for listing the items is not that expensive; every time you publish a listing, you pay just 20 cents. That means that for 50 listings, which is the amount people usually suggest aiming for (a shop with 2 or more pages gets better attention, and each page holds 24 listings), only costs $10.00! These listings last for 4 months now before they need renewed, so it's really not bad. The 20 cent fee is applied even if the same item is bought two or more at a time; even if it comes out of your shop 2 at a time, without being renewed from one to another, they still get their initial 20 cents for both of the items. The listing is automatically set to auto-renew for another 20 cents after 4 months; if you forsee that being an issue, you can change it to require manually relisting :).

Material costs and listing fee are the only things you will pay until you actually make a sale! At the point that one of your item sells, Etsy will take 3.5% of your profit, the actual cost of the item (but not shipping or tax). There will also be a small fee for processing the payment from one bank to another. Depending on whether it is a credit card, debit card, paypal, or another method, it varies slightly; usually it is approximately 2.5-2.8%. If they have to change the funds from, say, GBP to USD, there will also be a fee of 2.5%. This means that at the most, using Paypal and needing your currency changed, you will be paying 8.8% of your profit. For a $10.00 item, after subtracting all fees from Etsy, you will make $8.92, not taking into account your material costs, which varies. And again, only the first 20 cents is paid before you have made money!

The final thing you will need to plan for is shipping price. There are two ways for you to charge shipping on Etsy. The first is to manually enter a price that is about the average mean of the cost of shipping it from multiple places. This is faulty and difficult, but can work in a pinch. The other option is to buy a scale, and add the weight and dimensions of your packaged item to Etsy. This allows them to calculate exactly the price from your house to the buyers, and there is even a handling fee you can add, so that you don't pay anything out of pocket for your boxes/bubble wrap/bubble mailers or other packaging requirements! We'll talk more about shipping soon :).

And finally, I have some good news for those of you who have not opened an Etsy shop yet, but would like to - I have a link you can use that will earn you 40 FREE listings!!! You could start up a shop with NO fees if you liked, by using this link: http://etsy.me/2xqiRJ6 to set it up! You must use that link (you can't navigate away from that page while setting up), and you'll be rewarded with 40 listings, no initial fee attached! I would be appreciative if you set up your shop through this link, because I would get these free listings, too :). To officially set up your shop, you will need an Etsy account, a shop name, and pictures and information for your first listing :)!And I'd love to help if you have any questions!

Do you have an Etsy shop? If so, drop your link in the comments so I could check it out :)! I'm doing some posts that will share shops later this month, and your's could be included :)! Are you considering the idea of starting an Etsy shop? Don't forget you could do so with 40 free listings using the link above!

Selling on Etsy ✽ Things to Think of When Writing Your Descriptions

Your shop is set up properly, someone has searched for one of your keywords, and your picture attracts them. They click on it, and what do they see? Hopefully, first off is your three lines of keyword filled description ;). But besides wanting keywords in our listing, what else should we think of while filling this box?

One of the things that you want to do is ask a question to get the shopper thinking. How will they use this product? Why would they get it? How would it help them? If you can include a question within those first few lines of keyword packed text, you have a much greater chance of drawing them into the nitty-gritty details about your product! Help remind them of why they are looking at the product, and why this is the one they might want to choose!

The rest of the description needs to do two things: it needs to give EVERY detail about the item being sold, and then it needs to be created to keep shoppers in your shop for a while! The thumbnail Etsy shows them is comparable to window shopping; them clicking on it is as if they stepped through the door to check out the item that caught their attention through the window. The pictures have to take the place of being able to pick up and handle the item; and the description has to answer all of the questions them might ask an employee or look for on the packaging, while also making clear any questions they might have because of how the pictures are taken (does it come as a set, or do I buy all three individually?). And then you want to put a little incentive to them to go check out the rest of your shop. This would be like having a table with complimenting product, instead of a table with ten of the same thing on it :).

Try your hardest to let your pictures tell every single fact about your item. Some people don't read text no matter how well you've written it, and you want to avoid customers being uphappy with what they receive. But don't just make your pictures as clear as possible and assume they know everything that they could need. Go ahead and include every detail anyway, so that they don't leave because the one thing they aren't sure of isn't worth messaging you!

Some things to think about when getting your description ready:
-What is it? Yes, this specific ;).
-Where and for what would it be used?
-Who would it be for?
-What size is it?
-What color is it?
-What comes in their order? (All three soap cakes, or just one?)
-Will they need something else to complete the purchase? (Hanging hardware, the stand seen in your picture, etc)
-What is it made with, and how is it made?
-What are it's unique features that make your item stand out? (Is your framed quote done in freehand rather than being a print?)
-How long will it take you to mail it to them? (Let them know both when it should ship by, and when they should get it after you do, if you have one set shipping method)
-How do they care for it? (Should it never be gotten wet, be washed only on cold, be used by a certain time?)
-Can it be customized? (Let them know how, and if it charges more, and also how to go about asking for that.)
-How do they place their order? (For my custom quote canvases, I have to ask that they include the quote to be used in the note to seller box.)
-Is there anything else they should know? (You offer free shipping on orders of multiple items, you offer gift wrapping, you don't ship internationally, you also sell at a craft booth locally, etc.)
-Especially if your product is something to wear or eat, you also need to be very careful to list ingredients and possible allergy warnings. Nuts, polyester cloth, being made in a house with cats; these can all be things that those with sever allergies would either not be able to use when it got to them, or would actually find dangerous if they forgot to read the labels!
-If you get a question from someone, go ahead and add the answer to your description (after answering the person who contacted you, of course!), in case it is a common question that nobody else wants to take the time to ask you about. You never know what little details may be hurting your results!

Lastly in wrapping up your description, try to keep them in your shop for a few minutes longer. The more they look around, feel like they get to know you, and find themselves staying in your shop rather than going back out to "check the other shops on the block", the more likely they are to feel comfortable making the choice to buy from you! Do you have a product that could go with this item, or one that is similar that they might like better? Let them know so, and give them the link! Do you think they would like the other items in that section of your shop, even if they don't go together? Let them see you have more! You can suggest that they check out your shop page to get an idea of what all you could make for them. And offer to answer any remaining questions they may have!

What is something you are careful to include in your descriptions? Have you ever decided not to buy something just because another product had more information on it?

Esty SEO ✽ Search Engine Optimization Part 2

These dresses are available from varius shops on Etsy -just look for "Crocheted Baby Dress" :). 

Once you know what keywords are the best for the range you want to aim for, you have to put those phrases where you can in your listing!  There are a few ways to put multiple titles in your listing name. They need separated in some way, and the most common ways of doing that are "Title - Title" and "Title, Title". I have also seen "Title/Title"... I haven't read that that is a good way to do it, but neither have I read it was a bad way to do it, and it doesn't seem to hurt those shops I've seen, so you could try it :). 

Take the keywords you decided to use in your listing name. It has to be those that will fit (you have 140 characters to make use of), and preferably the ones you think will give you the best benefits. Try to put the one that you think will bring the most results at the very beginning, because although Etsy will pull from all of your titles, the first listed will be the one they see as most important :).

For the sundress we talked about yesterday, I decided to use "Crocheted Newborn Dress, Crocheted Purple Baby Dress, Crocheted Baby Girl Dress, Crocheted Baby Summer Dress, Crocheted Newborn Girl Outfit” as the title. Those are the best ranking keywords that all fit together in the space I am given :).

After that, I would copy those and put the same things in my tag section. Tags can only be 20 characters long, so I'll have to take the word "crocheted" out of my tags to bring them down in size, and I'll put that word as it's own tag so that it can work alongside of any of the other tags if someone searches for "Crocheted -----".  This will give me the tags "Crocheted, Newborn Dress, Purple Baby Dress, Baby Girl Dress, Baby Summer Dress, Newborn Girl Outfit". You have the use of 13 tags, and this leaves us with 7 to use. For best results, you want to use all that you can, so you could add "Baby Girl Gift, Baby Shower Gift, Baby Girl Outfit, Coming Home Outfit, Baby Gifts"... and then I would add my team tag :). I'll share more about teams in another post. It's something you might want to consider!

The final thing you want to do is add as many of those keywords as you can to your description - but without being annoying to potential customers by repeating the exact same word over and over ;). The first three lines will be shown to people who look on google for something like your product, so that is the most important area! I might start my description for a purple and pink crocheted baby dres with a description something like this... "Are you looking for an adorable baby shower gift, or a coming home outfit for your little girl? This purple and pink crocheted sundress might be just the thing! Size newborn, this handmade summer dress makes a great baby gift for parents to be." No, it doesn't actually have my keyword phrases in it, but it DOES have every word included in my list of keywords to use within it's structure, and google will highlight those words that are included in which ever keyword phrase the searcher includes, so it works the same way :)! 

 If you have multiple listings that are similar but different, make use of the fact that you can then find 15 good keywords and give 3 listings 5 different titles! Some people even make two listing that are identical except for the title, so they can double their title character limit. This also helps you determine which keywords are working best for you, because if one identical listing gets seen more than the other, it's all in your keywords!

A special thanks to Ashley for letting me use some of the material I sent her last month in my blog posts the past couple of days! Have you checked out her shop, Ashley's Yarn Works :)? Which format of separating your titles do you find most visually appealing? How would you write the opening of a description for a baby dress such as we've talked about?

Etsy SEO ✽ Search Engine Optimization Part 1

All of these baby dresses are available on Etsy... just search Crocheted Baby Dress :)!

The most important way to get your listings in front of buyers is to have your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) working in your favor. Your SEO is your listing title, your tags, the first three lines of your listing description, your shop description, your section titles, and even your shop name if it includes a word that describes what you do (like Carrie's Knit Hats). These are all the places that you can use the keywords that people will be typing into the Etsy search bar, which can cause you to get your listing viewed by others, if they decide your picture stands out to them and they want to click through for more information :).

It is very important that you use each of these spots to their full advantage, on each and every listing. Each keyword you have inncreases your chances of being seen, because it gives you a wider range of searches to be seen in. It's also important that you use phrases, rather than single words; there is a middle ground you have to find. If you have the word "Knit" listed as it's own title, people who search for "Knit" are going to be shown 724,680 results. This is wayyyyyyyyy too broad. Nobody is going to go through all of those pages, and out of all those results, if you are just starting out, you are very unlikely to get shown within the first few pages. You can be too specific, though. Title your item as "Kitty Cat Quilled with 100% Recycled Paper Mounted in a Black Shadowbox", and you are the only person with that title. True, that means no competition! It is also means it is highly unlikely that anybody is going to look for such a long titled item without ANY variation in the wording, leading them to someone else's listing instead. Titles of 2-4 words are best :).

Don't just come up with 2-4 word titles and slap them in your listing title section, though. Do some research and make SURE it is a good title! I recently looked for keywords for a Crocheted Baby Dress while talking about keywords with Ashley from "Ashley's Yarn Works" of Etsy, and this is what I did...

Looking at the dress, some of the things I thought of were, crocheted baby dress, crocheted baby sundress, crocheted purple baby dress, crocheted newborn dress, purple and pink crocheted baby dress, crocheted baby shower gift, and crocheted baby girl outfit. I wrote those down and that gave me a good starting point, so I looked up each of those phrases, and any others that I thought of, or saw other people using, as I looked through the Etsy search pages. If you are stumped for ideas on what to title something, look for the basic idea of what it is -say, Pumpkin Magnets- and see what other people who are selling pumpkin magnets are calling them :). It will help you get ideas on where to start, which usually leads to having a good idea of where to go from there :). My research for the crocheted baby dress led me to find these stats for the keywords  I came up with...

• Crocheted Baby Dress: 17,763 results.
• Crocheted Baby Sundress: 420 results
• Crocheted Purple Baby Dress: 1,381 results.
• Crocheted Newborn Dress: 4,075 results.
• Purple and Pink Crocheted Baby Dress: 1,830 results.
• Crocheted Baby Shower Gift: 62,343 results.
• Crocheted Baby Girl Gift: 46,417 results.
• Crocheted Baby Girl Outfit: 9,961 results.
• Crocheted Baby Girl Dress: 11,652 results.
• Baby Summer Dress: 17,728 results.
• Crocheted Baby Summer Dress: 1,735 results. (I wondered if results would change if I changed the wording on this one, so I looked for....
• Crocheted Summer Dress for Baby: 1,735 results. That changes nothing, so I might as well save on my title limit of 140 characters by leaving out that “for”! I typed “Newborn” into the search bar for ideas right now, and I saw “Newborn Girl Coming Home Outfit” listed as a suggestion for a quick click; I’m going to see what that gives me!)
• Newborn Girl Coming Home Outfit: 23,401 results.
• Crocheted Baby Girl’s Coming Home Outfit: 1,481 results.
• Crocheted Newborn Girl Outfit: 7,201 results. 

See how this helps you see which keywords are a good viewing range? I wouldn't use Crocheted Baby Sundress in my title, because it has only 420 results. That means sellers don't think of that phrase often, which means buyers probably won't either. And I won't use Crocheted Baby Shower Gift, because competing with 62,343 results isn't something that as a smaller/newer seller right now, I can do very well. I can include those in my description, maybe my tags if I need more, because they are great phrases for what I am selling! But it is important that your title includes the best keywords, the ones with that middle range that get you the best chances of being seen! I can't give you the perfect number to look for... Etsy SEO is something I truly only started learning about this summer. I had heard a lot about it before... but I'd gotten a completely wrong idea about it and didn't know to check my titles before that, so they needed a totally new do when I took an online class for it this summer (because I injured my wrist and couldn't create new product as I had planned; that might have been a blessing in disguise ;).)! I do know that I personally am featured on one of the first 4 pages, usually the very first page, if my keyword is 4,000 results or smaller. But I'm also on the first page with my second best acting keyword, which is one of about 15,000 results! Try some things out, see which keywords are your best, see how many results they have, and maybe that would give you an idea of what range works really well for you :). Tomorrow I'll show you how I would use the keywords we researched today!

What range do you try to stay in when doing your tags? Do you like the challenge of finding the perfect phrasing to get you results?