Sold! Now What? - A Quick Walkthrough of an Etsy Sale

Your first sale on Etsy can be downright thrilling! It can also be bewildering...... Now that you have made your very first sale. What next?

Hopefully you have purchased on Etsy before. Knowing the process can be extremely useful to you as a seller so if you haven't yet, get going!

This is just a little post with very basic step by step guidelines on the selling process and is by no means definitive. Every seller has their own unique style when working with customers, shipping items etc. This article will hopefully give you a very basic place to start. Seasoned sellers- I hope you will chime in on your process too!

• How do I know I even made a sale? 

Oddly enough, there is no "you made a sale!" announcement when you are signed into Etsy. (You will notice, however, when you log in after you made a sale, you will be asked for feedback.) The main indicator that you have made a sale will be an email from Etsy and an email from Paypal. Etsy tells you that you have an order and paypal notifies you of your payment from that order.

After you do your happy dance:

• Contact Your Buyer

To me, this is the most important step of the process. Many sellers do not, but I think is a great thing to do and it only takes a moment! First, you are letting the buyer know that you have received their order. Second, by addressing them personally, you are showing them that their support of your shop (and of handmade) is appreciated!

When signed into Etsy,  head to "Your Etsy" and scroll down to "Sold(Orders)" on the left. Find the purchase and click on "View Receipt". Bask in your glory for the moment, then click on the buyer's profile and click contact if you would like to convo them on Etsy. Keep it brief. Thank them for their purchase and let them know when/how it will ship. If you want to email them directly, you can get that info from your Etsy receipt in your email inbox.

•  Print a receipt

Next, go to the printer friendly version of the receipt and print one to include when you ship the item. You may also print a receipt through paypal as well. (If you wish to print a receipt through paypal, you will need to sign into your paypal account first and click details there.)

• Ship it!

Pack your item carefully for shipping, double check the shipping address to see if paypal and Etsy match, and get yourself to the P.O.! (If the shipping addresses don't match, it is always a good idea to contact the buyer for clarification).

• Feedback

Immediately after your sale you can leave feedback for the buyer. Some sellers leave feedback right away with a thank you etc.. Others will wait until they are assured the customer receives the item and is satisfied. It is entirely up to you when you leave feedback.

So that's it in a tiny nutshell! Happy sales!!

Twitter Basics ~ Tweet Your Heart Out!

The social networking world can be confusing, even overwhelming to many who have not used social networking sites before. With so many choices, it is hard to decide which one to use to make connections and talk about your craft. Twitter is a great place to start!

What is Twitter anyway?

Twitter is a fast paced networking tool that can really spread the word about you, your love of your craft, and what's new in your Etsy shop simply by answering the question "What's happening?".  Twitter offers the opportunity for "micro-blogging" with a short status update of what is going on at the present moment.  Each user gets a profile, where all your tweets are shown. You follow other tweeters to see their tweets and vice versa.


Some Basics:

Status

• Answer "What's happening?" as often as you like. However, you only have 140 characters to do it! There are several ways around this limit by using common abbreviations and shortening long urls. (Several sites that can help you shorten long urls are www.tinyurl.com and http://bit.ly.)

Replies

• If you see a tweeter asking a question or want to comment on a tweet, click the reply button below their tweet. This will automatically put the user name in your status bar (@userwhomever). Whatever you write in your status will be then posted to your profile for all to see as well as the intended user.

Mentions

• Wondering if anyone answered the question you just tweeted? Look to the right column. There you will find your username just under "home". By clicking your user name you will see all who replied to or mentioned you in their tweets. It is always nice thank some one for retweeting something and even better to return the favor and spread some love!

Direct Message (DM)

• If you want to respond to a tweeter without it being posted to your profile, you can direct message a user. Think of this as a mini email- your followers will not be able to see this message. DMs are also limited to 140 characters so keep it brief!

Retweets (RT)

• Want to share another tweeters tweets with your own followers? Just click the retweet button below their tweet to retweet their message.  This will automatically mention the user and post it your profile.

Following

• Following a user means you will see their status updates on your "home" page each time they update and those who choose to follow you will also be able to see your updates. There are many ways to find people of interest to follow. You can use the search bar in the right column for keywords and/or hashtags. Hashtags (#) make it easy to search twitter for specific topics and to tag your own tweets so they appear in searches. For instance, if you found a handmade item that you love on etsy (a common occurence!) then you might tweet- "Just found an awesome #handmade felt dog on #Etsy!" The next time some one searches "handmade" or "Etsy", your tweet will appear in that search.

• You may also use a third party application or other websites to find tweeters to follow. There are many out there and more being added quite frequently. Some sites also allow you to bulk follow and unfollow. Just be careful as twitter sets limits for you on how many people you my follow. Once you follow 2,000 tweeters you need to have at least 2,000 followers in order to follow more.

Try these sites for starters:
http://twitseeker.com
http://www.twellow.com
http://wefollow.com
http://www.tweepz.com

If you have reached your limit you can choose to use a site like http://huitter.com/mutuality2 to bulk unfollow. This site allows you to bulk unfollow those who are bots (not real people!), spammy, haven't used their accounts in a while or are not following you back. Sounds a little childish, not following those who don't follow back, but in the twitter world there is not much loyalty in that sense. Don't take it personally! You are not obligated to follow all you follow you. Find people of similar interests and who you will enjoying chatting and making friends with!

Using Twitter:

I have made sales on twitter, and love to share what is going on in my shop. However, there is a line between posting links to your shop occassionally and being spammy. Twitter is fast paced, but only posting links to new items every few seconds won't be helpful to you or your shop. I have made some wonderful friends and connections there and enjoy promoting other shops, retweeting items that I like myself, offering inspirational quotes or silly things that happened during the day. To me twitter is about making friends and showing people what I am up to. If you use twitter only to promote your shop, you may find yourself being unfollowed for it. Keep it real and you will find yourself making some really great friends! :)

And if you want to tweet along with me join me @Saraswatijewels. Happy tweeting!!!

Forum Decorum, Or How To Get the Most from the Etsy Community by Laura of MAB Jewelry

The Etsy Forums can be found under the community tab on the main etsy menu. They offer a fantastic place to mingle and interact with other etsians, ask questions, get tips from pros, promote your shop, and just hang out and socialize. I’ve learned so much while grazing the Forums, and had a great deal of fun along the way. However, etsy does have a set of rules concerning posting in the Forums. Many of them are common sense, but a few can be a bit tricky when you’re new.

The Forums are divided into eleven sections:

• Announcements, usually from Etsy admin on updates or problems with the site

• Site help, a great place for advice on any questions you have about setting up shop, listing and selling
  

• Business topics, discussion about running your small business, ideas, tips, etc.

• CPSIA, discussion on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

• Critiques, giving and receiving criticism and praise about yours and others’ shops

• Techniques & Materials, talk about your art and what you use to make your art

• Teams & Events, sections for etsy street teams and events

• Ideas, have an idea that might improve etsy? Bring it up here!

• Bugs, report a strange occurrence or error, and see if others are experiencing the same problem

• Promotion, a great place to promote your shop, sales, listings or find something you’re looking for

• Etc., the water cooler of etsy where you can socialize with a wonderful mix of people

As for the Dos and Don’ts:

• Common sense: Etsy is basically your workplace. Don’t say anything that you wouldn’t say out loud in front of people in a work environment. There is no room for meanness, insults, harassment or general nastiness. These are real people you’re talking with. There’s no reason to intentionally say something hurtful. You have a bit more leeway in the Etc. section, and can play and debate a little more. But always remember that buyers can also access the Forums. Nothing you say is invisible. Everything you say becomes permanent record.

• Calling out: Never reference or name a specific shop, listing or transaction. This includes sales, purchases, feedback and convos. If you have a problem with a listing or shop, flag it for etsy administration. If you have a problem with a buyer or seller, including feedback, convos or emails, contact support@etsy.com or abuse@etsy.com. Imagine if someone had a problem with you or your shop and started a thread discussing it for all to see?

• You have to be eighteen to use Etsy’s Forums.

• You cannot ask for charitable donations or link to a commercial website off of etsy, including auctions or other online sales sites.

• Don’t create a fake or sock puppet account just to say something in the Forums. If you don’t want the comment attached to your name, then you probably shouldn’t say it.

• Don’t promote a listing for your shop in a Forum thread that has nothing to do with promoting. Nothing turns people off faster than uncalled for spam, and a lot of sellers in those threads are also potential buyers.

• If you start a thread, try and put it in the right section.

Now, go forth and communicate with this great bunch of people. There’s a lot of knowledge and fun to be had!
Click here for etsy’s official site dos and don’ts.

----------------------------

This post was by Laura from MAB Jewelry. She really hit all the essentials when it comes to the forums! Thanks Laura for your awesome input! You can check out Laura's lovely shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/MABjewelry

And please don't forget to search the forums for any topic before you post! More often that not some one has had a similar question! You might even find the answer right away without needing to post your own! :)

-Lauren

Tag You're It! - Maximize Your Tag Potential

I have been seeing a lot of tag related questions lately and thought this would be a great topic to address, especially during the busy holiday season! Because we want our shops exactly that, busy!

Tagging does seem to be an elusive art but with a little thought and creativity it can be one of the most useful tools for driving traffic to your shop! I have compiled a few tips that you may find helpful when you are tagging your items on Etsy.

After you have tagged your items appropriately in the main categories and subcategories, you can move on to the more descriptive tagging. Some tips to consider.....

• Be Honest- (Not only important in life but essential in tagging too!) Tag your items as relevantly as you can. Customers are looking for an item specific to their search and can be easily frustrated with mistagged items. If they are looking for a sweater and find your jewelry tagged as such, they are no more inclined to look at your shop. This is also against Etsy policy. :(   Not clear on etsy policy? Check in here under "tagging".
  

• Make sure to use ALL the 14 tags! - Each tag is a little path to your shop so don't waste them! The more tags, the greater the chance people will see your shop and the items you offer. 

 

• Get creative! - Etsy has some awesome suggestions on tagging. Read that here to get the juices flowing. Go ahead and use the thesaurus if you run out of ideas, just don't leave a tag blank!

• How would you search?- Think about how you would search for an item like yours. What keywords would you use to locate an item?  

To start try:

Using Descriptive Colors - bright red, aqua, beige, mauve, maroon, chartreuse, forest green, brown

Using Temperature- hot, cool, fiery, warm, frosty, cold

Using Texture- velvety, soft, feathery, rough, silky, luminous, cloudy, clear

Using Moods- dreary, lonely, happy, fierce, bold, dark, humorous

Using Styles- bohemian, goth, edwardian, mod, hipster, elegant, chic, etc.......!

You can even use your shop name in there or special promotion you might be having (BOGO, Free gift, etc.) The choices are limitless!

• Still need more ideas?- Check out www.craftweasel.com. Craftweasel's Tagfinder a great tool to help you tag your items, generate graphs of popular tags, item views and more!

 The added perk of descriptive tags is that is greatly enhances your chance of landing treasuries too! Sellers often search for a cohesive style, color, or mood for treasuries. So tag, your it!

How to handle a non-paying Paypal buyer by Laura of MAB Jewelry

Sooner or later, when selling on etsy, you’re probably going to encounter a Paypal buyer who does not pay. There are several reasons for this:

• They may be new to the etsy site, and not understand the Paypal paying procedure. 
• They may have committed to buy without knowing that they have purchased something and are required to pay for it. 
• They may have changed their mind after committing to buy. 
• They may even just forget to complete the transaction. 

It’s best to have a statement in your shop policies clearly stating how long you will wait for payment. Mine says three days, but I usually give them a week. Here is one way to handle this situation.

After something in your shop sells, always check the etsy invoice to make sure your item was paid for. If the box says, Pay now with Paypal, the buyer has not paid. Also, check your Paypal account. Occasionally, etsy has had glitches where the customer has paid, but the payment hasn’t registered in the etsy system, so it’s best to double check. Never ship an item until it has been paid for.

If your Paypal account shows no payment for the sale, convo the buyer. Say something like, “Thanks for ordering the widget from my etsy shop. I will ship this item as soon as your Paypal payment posts. It hasn’t posted yet. You can pay now by clicking the ‘Pay now with Paypal’ button on your receipt. Please let me know if you have any questions, or if I can be of any help. I appreciate your business.” Include a link to the etsy receipt for them.

Wait a day or so, and send another e-mail to their direct e-mail account. Their e-mail address is on your etsy receipt that you receive as an e-mail. Sometimes, buyers don’t check their etsy account convos, and they may not know there’s a problem until they receive a direct e-mail from you. You can use wording similar to the convo above. You can also send a Paypal invoice to them through Paypal.

If you still don’t hear back from your customer, wait another day or so, and send a final e-mail and convo, stating that you will have to cancel the sale if you don’t receive their payment by a specific date.

If you don’t receive payment by that date and the customer doesn’t answer your requests, you’ll have to cancel the sale. Relist the item, and leave feedback if you’d like to. I don’t leave negative feedback for non-paying buyers if I don’t hear back from them. I figure that they’ve either changed their minds or are new to etsy and haven’t figured out the process yet, and give them the benefit of the doubt. Many sellers choose to leave negative or neutral feedback for non-paying buyers. Feedback is entirely up to you. Then, choose the “Cancel a sale” option under items on the Your etsy screen and follow the directions there for a non-payment transaction. Your fees will be refunded for the listing and the sale.

Unfortunately, this is a lot of work for a non-sale, but buyers occasionally make mistakes, too. Etsy can be a confusing place when you’re new, and people sometimes have legitimate reasons for not paying. It’s always better to approach any customer politely and patiently. They will remember any positive experience, and will be more likely to shop etsy in the future if even a non-paying experience is a relatively good one. Plus, it happens to most of us eventually. Yes, it can be frustrating, but try your best to use tact and kindness. We have all made mistakes. Take care of the situation, and keep on keeping on!

About Laura:
I've only been selling my jewelry on etsy for six months, but I've tried to research the most pleasant and efficient way to do things. It has certainly been a wonderful learning experience, and etsians are always quick to help out whenever you encounter something puzzling. I've met a lot of wonderful people here, sellers and buyers.


Here's my shop link:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MABjewelry

Your Tax and Business Questions Answered! Tax Time with Valorie

Hi there!  It's coming up soon: tax time!  Some look forward to it, some dread it.  I thought it would be a good time to mention something to make you think.

We all know that owning a business puts a stress on us at tax time.  We search and scrounge for deductions because every little bit helps us, right?  The more deductions we have, the better!  For most of us, this is absolutely true! What I want to address is a common deduction that you may want to reconsider:  the Business Use of Home Deduction.

* Business Use of Home:  This deduction is calculated on the square footage of your home versus the square footage of your office.  A percentage is used to decide which part of your mortgage, utilities, insurance, etc are a business expense.  The office space is also depreciated.  For most people, this results in a nice tax deduction. Deducting the cost of a home office is a great way to reduce your income and resulting tax liability but you may want to consider this:  Once you claim your home office or studio as a business deduction, it in effect becomes business property.

It means nothing much for now in that it's just a room in your home that you use as an office or studio.  However, if say, 5, 10, even 20 years from now, you decide to sell your home, that room comes into play.  For one thing, when you claim it as a deduction on your taxes, your basis in the home is reduced by the amount you depreciated. Please keep in mind that once you claim the space as business space,  it doesn't matter if you refuse to depreciate it.  IRS codes provide that you use allowed or allowable depreciation to determine basis.  Basically this means that if it was allowed to be depreciated but wasn't, you still deduct the amount you would have taken.  This adds to the profit by the sale of your home.  Normally this wouldn't matter much because the IRS lets you exclude most or all of your profit from sale of the home on your taxes.

However, part of the home is business property.  Even if you haven't had business in ages, that small part of your home is still considered business property.  This means you get to fill out the lovely form 4797, Sale of Business Property and a percentage of your selling price is not excludable income.  You are in effect incurring a business gain.  Ouch, right?  It's not something you think about at tax time but you really should.  This same problem occurs when claiming auto expense deductions and you depreciate your vehicle. You can talk to your tax advisor before making any decisions or refer to the IRS website, http://www.irs.gov  for more information or IRS Publication 587, Business Use of your Home.   Here are some links :

Info on Business Use of Home deduction:  http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc509.html

Form 4797 PDF:  http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4797.pdf

Reporting Capital Gains:  http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=170634,00.html

Pub 544, Sales and other Dispositions of Assets:  http://www.irs.gov/publications/p544/index.html

Please keep in mind that this blog is just to advise you that you should think about it before you act.  Your best course of action is always to consult your tax advisor or accountant.  I really hope this helps!

Valorie

Pimp Your Facebook Page! Your Guide To Customizing and Applications

So now that you have finally created that Facebook account....what next? How do you make your page stand out as your own?

Many of your questions have inspired this little guide to some of the most used applications and ways to customize your Facebook page. Here are few which allow you to promote your shop on your business page and/or personal page with shop widgets, pictures, links and more!

Promoting Your Shop:

• My Etsy - A great way to promote your shop. When you use this application you can create another tab in your profile just for your Etsy shop. When a fan clicks the tab, your shop is there with your Etsy banner, a wonderful gallery view and direct links to your shop. There is even a "share" button beneath each item in case they are inspired to share it on their own pages!

• My Stuff - A neat application that allows you to post html codes (like your etsy mini), video, music players, images and more to your profile page. 

• Etsy Shop - This application is very much like an Etsy mini or widget that you can add to your personal page and/or your fanpage. It shows up on your profile page in the column to the left. You can set it up to display your shop items randomly or by the most recent addition. When someone clicks on an item it takes them directly to the item in your shop.

*To install applications you need to click "go to application" and click "allow." Very often you need to revisit the specific application page and click "add to page" for it to show up.

Linking Your Blog To Facebook:

• Have a blog and want it to automatically post to your facebook wall? Try importing your blog through networked blogs. After installing this application your blog posts will automatically feed to your profile page of your choice. People can follow you, comment, and you don't need to take an extra step to link to your blog posts!

Linking Your Facebook to Twitter:

• If you love social networking and also have a twitter account, linking your facebook to twitter is a great option to share all your Facebook posts with your twitter fans. Each time you publish anything to your wall, a photo album update, a link, or a new status, it will automatically feed to your twitter. If your post is too long for twitter it will abbreviate it and add a link!

These are just a few of the useful applications you can find for your facebook page. So explore, promote and have fun!