Recently, I was asked to do a custom order to be finished by late July. I readily agreed, thinking I had 2 weeks to work on the order before going on vacation for 2 weeks. How could I so miscalculate? I got home, checked the calendar, and realized I had 1 week, which is plenty of time to make the order, but the problem is, I don't have the charms she wants! I ordered some right away, but it was too late to get out on Saturday and, being a federal holiday weekend, there wasn't mail on Monday.
My dilemma: do I hope and pray the charms come in the mail by Friday, or bite the bullet and buy the charms twice, which means driving an hour to the nearest major craft store that sells charms? I think I'm going to have to buy them twice and either hope I can use the unused set on another project or return the craft store charms if the others come in time.
Take a lesson from me: check your calendar before making promises! All told, though, I'm super happy to do the order and excited she liked my work enough to want a custom order, and I guess any excuse to go to the "big city" isn't so bad. :) It just means I can hit a book store, too!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Featured Listing
The word "featured" can mean several different things on Etsy. You can be featured on the front page in either a Treasury or in an interview below the front page Treasury as a Featured Seller. You can also feature items in your shop, and that is what I'm going to talk about today. You can choose three items which will be "featured" in your shop, which will show up in a row between your shop announcement and your listings. These items will still appear in your listings, they will just be emphasized at the top, also.
When you log in to Your Etsy, the opening page is your Currently for Sale list. Notice to the right hand side of each listing is the outline of a star. Decide which five pictures are your best, or which items are for sale, or which you really want to make sure anyone coming into your shop will see (only three will be featured, but you want some backups in case one or two sell). Click the star of these items and the star will become greenish/yellow.
Now, on the left hand side underneath Currently for Sale is Featured Listings. Click here.
You can decide which listings you want to be featured by using the up and down buttons/arrows to the right of each listing. The top three will be featured, the rest will be back ups in the order they are in top to bottom. You may have as many back ups as you want, but I would have at least two. You never know when you'll get lucky and make a bunch of sales at once!
If you ask for advice in the forums and haven't filled in your Featured Listing section, people will probably tell you to do this. It's just a nice way to show buyers your nicest things at once.
When you log in to Your Etsy, the opening page is your Currently for Sale list. Notice to the right hand side of each listing is the outline of a star. Decide which five pictures are your best, or which items are for sale, or which you really want to make sure anyone coming into your shop will see (only three will be featured, but you want some backups in case one or two sell). Click the star of these items and the star will become greenish/yellow.
Now, on the left hand side underneath Currently for Sale is Featured Listings. Click here.
You can decide which listings you want to be featured by using the up and down buttons/arrows to the right of each listing. The top three will be featured, the rest will be back ups in the order they are in top to bottom. You may have as many back ups as you want, but I would have at least two. You never know when you'll get lucky and make a bunch of sales at once!
If you ask for advice in the forums and haven't filled in your Featured Listing section, people will probably tell you to do this. It's just a nice way to show buyers your nicest things at once.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Shop Announcement
I've only been on Etsy for a little over a month, but I've learned a few things. The first is that it's really important to have a good shop announcement. There is a lot of debate about whether a short one or a long one is better. I think shorter and to the point is better. You should be able to see just the tip of your three Feature pictures (more on that later). Instead of one long paragraph, it is also nice to have two shorter ones. It helps keep the interest a little better.
The first sentence of your shop announcement can make it into Google search, so be specific here about what you do/sell. You can give a little bit of personality, but keep it mostly professional, meaning not too many fancy icons/hearts/stars/exclamation points. Instead of giving all your shop policies, I think a line reminding customers to read your policies before buying is fine. They still may not read the policies, but it's enough to cover you if they complain they didn't know you only ship on Saturdays.
Finally: USE CORRECT GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION EVERYWHERE! And use all-caps sparingly. :)
To fill in your Shop Announcement, go to Your Etsy and click on Appearance (on the left hand side). Shop Announcements will be the third section down to fill in.
The first sentence of your shop announcement can make it into Google search, so be specific here about what you do/sell. You can give a little bit of personality, but keep it mostly professional, meaning not too many fancy icons/hearts/stars/exclamation points. Instead of giving all your shop policies, I think a line reminding customers to read your policies before buying is fine. They still may not read the policies, but it's enough to cover you if they complain they didn't know you only ship on Saturdays.
Finally: USE CORRECT GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION EVERYWHERE! And use all-caps sparingly. :)
To fill in your Shop Announcement, go to Your Etsy and click on Appearance (on the left hand side). Shop Announcements will be the third section down to fill in.
First Post
Well, obviously this is the first post to Absolutely Kismet. The idea is to blog a bit about my Etsy shop, AbsolutelyKismet.etsy.com, and then about whatever else I think is relevant. So for the sake of checking everything out to see if it works, here I go!
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