The team at HandmadeMarketing.org is always on the look out for ideas from handmade seller’s for how to stay balanced while keeping up an Etsy shop or ArtFire studio.  Seller Michele Gallagher shared her tips in previous articles (”Press Outlet – Get Your Craft Noticed on Blogs” and “Get Noticed – Promote Handmade Online“), and is back with some awesome tips for focusing your energy.

“Managing three Etsy shops keeps me pretty busy,” said Michele, HandmadeMarketing.org reader and handmade seller behind the Etsy shop craftychick101.  “Not only does it take time to photograph, list and then package my goods (when I make a sale) I spend hours upon hours a week marketing my shops and trying to get my name out there. Like many other Etsy sellers, this is all on top of a full time job working for someone else.”

One of the most important tips Michele has found for people who are marketing their handmade creations online is to focus their energy.

“From spending time in the Etsy.com forums and chatting with other Etsy sellers,” Michele told us, “I can see that many people have the same problem I used to have – Where do I focus my energy?“

“Marketing your handmade products online can often make you feel like a dog chasing its tail,” she said.  “It’s an endless cycle of checking your email, responding to threads on forums, checking your email, tweeting out a link to a new product you have on Twitter, checking your email, listing a new product on Etsy or Artfire, checking your email – you get the point. A lot of this time and energy can be focused into creating and listing new items and finding more creative ways to get your items seen.”

Michele tells our team at HandmadeMarketing.org five simple steps for when you’re in a rut:

1. Focus Outside Forums.  “Don’t waste your time replying to Etsy forum threads just to be seen,” she tells handmade sellers. “These responses add no value to the conversation and will often be overlooked my potential customers. Only respond when you have something interesting or of value to say.”
   Michele explains that time spent in forum threads should be focused on either learning something or teaching something to someone else.
   “When you are a valuable player in the forums, that’s when people will take the time to visit your shop and see what it is you sell,” she told HandmadeMarketing.org.
   Need some additional tips on how to make the most of the Etsy.com forums?  Check out “Connect With Handmade Sellers – Etsy Forums“.
2. Check Craig’s List. “Creating an ad on Craig’s List is free,” Michele says.  “List your handmade item in your state and include pictures. Let people know they can contact you for more information.”
3. Visit Relevant Blogs. Michele recommends handmade sellers look to blogs for press.  “Is the blog owner willing to write a feature about you or your shop?” she says. “You won’t know until you ask.”
   Michele says getting featured on blogs is a great way to get different people looking at your handmade items. 
   “If they don’t want to do a feature, maybe they will sponsor a giveaway of one of your items for you. This will bring more traffic to their blog and will get potential buyers looking at your shop. Just make sure that the blog has a lot of followers and/or readers to make sure this venture is worthwhile for you too,” she says.
   For more ideas about how to find advertising and press opportunities for your Etsy shop, be sure to visit HandmadeMarketing.org’s “Advertising and Press” section.
4. Explore Twitter.  “Tweet, but don’t spend too much time on Twitter,” Michele suggests.  “Add new followers – find people who have similar interests and follow their followers. This will get new people looking at your shop as well. Tweet out new items you have in your shop with a link and tweet to a few people who are talking about things you can relate to. Then get off Twitter.”
   You can follow Michele on Twitter @craftychick101.
5. Keep Updating.  Michele says her most valuable tip is to keep updating your craft. 
   “Most importantly, keep updating and improving your craft,” she tells HandmadeMarketing.org.  “Oftentimes, we handmade sellers take so much of our time marketing our items, we can often forget to look for new and interesting ways to create. Look for inspiration in local stores, online, and around your house. It may be an interesting color combination you want to use, or even a new crafting technique. Just make sure you keep it new and interesting. This will keep people coming back to your shop and will make your marketing job a little easier!”

Thank you for the great tips Michele!

Interested in paid advertising spots for your shop?  Our HandmadeMarketing.org team likes one resource for sellers in particular.  If you are interested in paid advertising spots for your Etsy or ArtFire shop, check out Tara Shenson’s Ad Directory.

“The Ad Directory is a list of all the Etsy bloggers who sell advertising space on their blogs direct,” Tara recently told HandmadeMarketing.org. “You as a buyer can feel good about your purchase because you know you are not only getting prime ad space with your target audience, but you are supporting the handmade movement and everything it stands for by avoiding a big company like Google AdSense or Project Wonderful.”

Do you have tips for focusing your energy while selling on Etsy.com?  How do you make sure you are using your time online wisely?  How do you promote your handmade crafts?

Share your experience and tips by writing an article for the HandmadeMarketing.org community.  Submit your thoughts here! Be sure to include your social media and shop links so we can give you credit for the fabulous tips!

HandmadeMarketing.org is excited to share Twitter tips from Hilary, a blogger dedicated to helping handmade sellers sell more online on her site Haptree and Me.

An article published on the blog called “Twitter Lists and Listorious – Craft Link HQ” outlines all things Twitter.

Our team’s favorite part of this wide-ranging blog post was Hilary’s list of the only 6 links you need to understand Twitter!

“Twitter is great for promoting your blog and business, it is instant gratification when you see your items views or Google Analytics stats shoot up with every Tweet. But it can be difficult to fight through all the noise once you are following a lot of people,” Hilary writes in her blog post. “If you are new to Twitter read through the 6 links below to get you started and you’ll be the Bill Gates of the craft world by next week, with 100 billion followers.”

Overwhelmed with where to begin to promote your craft on Twitter? Take a look at Hilary’s six recommended links for Twitter users:

1. Twitip

2. Twitter Links

3. Twitter SEO tips from Mashable

4. Twittinsecrets – 100 tips

5. Twitter Tools List

6. Online College Twitter Tips

You can follow Hilary on Twitter @haptree and view Facebook Fan Page for her latest tips.  You can also shop Haptree on Etsy.com!

There are many more awesome Twitter tips from Hilary in this article.  Be sure to read the entire article here: “Twitter Lists and Listorious – Craft Link HQ”.

Hilary has shared other useful tips with handmade sellers on HandmadeMarketing.org.  Here are her past article that other handmade sellers found helpful:

Macro Photography Tips – Increase Buyer Confidence

Craft Blogs – Blogs To Set Your Shop Scene

Photography Backgrounds – Choosing a Background for Crafts

What do you think of Hilary’s recommended Twitter links? Which is your favorite? Do you have a link or two to add to this list?

Share your thoughts on how to promote handmade effectively on Twitter! Comment on this article or write your own article about selling handmade. If HandmadeMarketing.org publishes your article, we’ll be sure to link to your handmade shop, blog, and social media as a thank you!

James Dillehay, from craftermarketer.com, shared his thoughts on how crafters can utilize SEO (search engine optimization) best practices to increase sales.

James Dillehay is a professional craft artist and author of nine books. He has been interviewed in The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, Bottom Line Personal and has appeared as a featured guest on HGTV’s The Carol Duvall Show and Entrepreneur Radio. He served as a member of the advisory boards to the National Craft Association and ArtisanStreet.com.

“Properly done, SEO can enhance your Etsy, Artfire or personal domain website pages to help the search engines determine what your site is about,”  James told HandmadeMarketing.org.

He explains that SEO practices help search engines like Google and Bing rank you web pages high in results when searchers type in queries looking for items like yours.

James says effective SEO for increasing your crafts sales is generally concerned with two things.

1. “On-page” Factors.  “An example of on-page factors would be if you make handmade jewelry, you want that phrase and similar search terms throughout your content, like in your page title, URL (if possible), meta description, body text, heading tags, image names and alt image text,” he said.
2. Incoming Links. “Equally important, is getting the links pointing to your site to contain the popular keyword phrases you want to rank high for. So if you want to rank high for the search term “handmade jewelry”, you would first include the phrase as mentioned above and then set out to get incoming links where the linking text reads “handmade jewelry.” You will want to vary your incoming links and the words and phrases included in your content so as to appear natural to Google and the other search engines. Google has sophisticated tools that filter out sites they determine are attempting to artificially enhance their ranking results. As long as you get links coming in “naturally”, you can start improving your rankings by making link-getting part of your daily marketing,” James tells handmade sellers.

He suggests looking to social sites who are focused on supporting the “buy handmade” movement for help with enhancing your SEO.

“Craftsu, IndiePublic and Artists.Gawker.com let you set up a free profile and link to your Etsy, Artfire or other storefront,” he says.

For more information about how you can increase the number of potential buyers looking at your handmade crafts, be sure to take a look at James Dillehay’s blog.  He blogs craft business tips here.

Looking for other handmade business tips from pros?  Check out these HandmadeMarketing.org articles:

Tips From A Pro – Etsy Photography Inspiration

Tips From A Pro – Strike Gold in Etsy Treasuries

Tips From A Pro – Jewelry Photography Tips from Allyjoy

Tips From A Pro – Etsy Bag Team on Successful Etsy Teams

Do you have tips to share with readers of HandmadeMarketing.org?  Tell us your SEO tips for increasing handmade sales.  Be sure to include links to your blog, shop, and social media so we can link to you as the article author!

Michele Gallagher, the Etsy seller behind the shop craftychick101 recently shared her tips for getting your handmade shop noticed online.

Michele has another tip for crafters – look to blogs for press!

“My Twitter following has helped me get a lot of advertising on blogs relevant to my Etsy shop,” she told HandmadeMarketing.org.  “By contacting blog owners and asking them to feature my shop/items on their blog in exchange for some tweets with their blog link, I have been able to get myself featured in several great blogs and have made some great connections for the future with these people.”

Nervous to contact bloggers?  Don’t be!

“The blog owners are happy with the results as well as their views/blog followers often sky rocket after I tweet their link a few times,” Michele says. “These are only a few examples of how to stay visible. I wish making quality, unique products was enough, but since it’s not, you might as well have fun with it!”

Check out the HandmadeMarketing.org “Blogging” section to learn more about how blogging can help you sell more handmade online.

Have you been featured on a blog?  What was the result?  Do you know of great blogs that handmade sellers should check out?

Michele Gallagher, the Etsy seller behind the shop craftychick101, has tips for handmade sellers who want to be seen in the handmade community.

“Shout it from the rooftops! If you want your shop to be visible in the vast sea of handmade products, you have to be vocal,” Michele tells HandmadeMarketing.org.

Michele advises that the more visible you are as a handmade seller, the more potential buyers and others in the handmade community will get to know you as an artist and recognize the work you do as your own.

“My main selling venue is Etsy (craftychick101) and from visiting the forums I see that a lot of people are content with re-listing their items to get seen,” Michele adds. “While this does help, re-listing alone will not get you the sales/visibility you need to become successful on Etsy, or any other handmade selling venue for that matter.”

Michele says she utilizes Twitter as her main form of advertising her handmade items.

“I currently have around 7,800 followers,” Michele (@craftychick101) says. “When I list a new item and Tweet the link, my views often jump to 50+ in a matter of minutes.”

Michele reminds sellers to be an active member of the Twitter community.  “I make it a point to follow other Etsy sellers as well as people in my target market and they often follow back,” said Michele.  “Staying active on Twitter has [resulted in] most of my Etsy sales.”

Michele recommends responding to other people’s tweets, asking questions about other seller’s shops, re-tweeting links to handmade products or shops you like.

Recently, Michele made the most of a business success utilizing Twitter.

“One of my greatest successes was when I was featured on the front page of Etsy,” she told HandmadeMarketing.org.  “Many of my Twitter followers noticed and tweeted to me to let me know. It felt great that they recognized my product and made the connection that the item belonged to me.”

Do you have suggestions for handmade sellers looking for some extra exposure?  How do you introduce people to your craft?  Have you had success promotion online?

Share your thoughts with HandmadeMarketing.org!  Tell us your tips and advice for selling on Etsy.com here.

Damien, from Yaami and HandmadeMarket, recently shared information about his team’s new site, tips for handmade sellers, and what he thinks buyers look for online.

Why did you start HandmadeMarket.com? Who is your target audience for the site?

“We wanted to take the traditional way of browsing craft items (the local craft market) and today’s way of browsing craft items (online marketplaces such as Etsy and ArtFire) and mix the two together to create a more ‘real-life’ experience to browsing craft items online,” he said.

“Our target audience are buyers and sellers of handmade, art and craft items who want to buy or sell online while also experiencing the traditional craft market experience.”

What makes you different from other selling platforms for crafters (i.e. ArtFire, 1000 Markets, Etsy)? What does the site offer sellers?

“The market is unique in that it creates a more ‘real-life’ experience for the shopper,” Damien told HandmadeMarketing.org.  “HandmadeMarket’s role isn’t to provide a selling platform, as we think there are many great platforms out there already, but to provide a new and unique way for sellers to showcase their items – a shopper can then purchase via the sellers’ site of choice (such as Etsy, ArtFire or their own website).“

What does the site offer buyers? Why should those who love handmade buy from HandmadeMarket.com?

“The online handmade world brings many benefits to those who love handmade – browsing items from all over the world from the comfort of your home is one of the benefits – but in doing so you lose the experience you get from your local craft market. HandmadeMarket allows shoppers to browse from home, while still experiencing the craft market experience,” he said.

Tell us a bit about the team behind HandmadeMarket.com. Who is involved in managing the site? Why did they choose to work on this project?

“The market is managed by the small team at Yaami Handmade,” he said.  “Originally planned to be a feature of Yaami.com, we decided the idea deserved its own website. We’re hoping other sites in the online handmade world will become involved in the project to make the market even bigger and better.”

Where do you see the site going in the future – 6 months? 1 year? 5 years?

“In the future we want to continue to add features and implement improvements to make the market even better,” Damien told us.  “A chat feature is one of the features we plan to implement, allowing shoppers to talk with other shoppers and sellers, just like you would at a ‘real-life’ craft market.”

“We’re planning a themed market for the Christmas holiday season and more themed markets throughout the year,” he added.

What are some tips you would give crafters looking to break into selling online for the first time? What are your top three “musts” for all online craft sellers?

Damien told us the following three tips for sellers:

1. Create a brand for your shop and be consistent with the use of your brand image.
2. Market your shop and items – let your shop be known to shoppers.
3. Present your shop in a professional yet friendly manner, especially in communication – you want your customers to be return-customers.

Have you visited HandmadeMarket.com?  What do you think of the site?  What types of features would help you sell more handmade online?

Share your ideas with HandmadeMarketing.org!  Articles on this site are generated from readers – so tell us a bit about your marketing and advertising ideas.  Simply share your thoughts by clicking on our “Join” tab at the top of the page.

HandmadeMarketing.org reader Melissa Hamel-Smith shared why she sells handmade on ArtFire in a previous HandmadeMarketing.org article, and is back to tell sellers her 3 tips to success.  Melissa sells handmade at the ArtFire studio KaoticEkkosCuriosities and has wonderful ideas for new and seasoned handmade sellers alike.

1. Establish Your Brand.  Melissa’s first time is to establish your brand for your handmade business.  “Decide on a business name and logo that you love and won’t want to change,” she tells our HandmadeMarketing.org team. “Consistency is very important. Remember your ‘brand’ will be on everything: business cards, banners, online shops, etc. You really want people to be able to recognize your product. And the first thing you should invest in is business cards. They’re inexpensive, effective and versatile. But remember, make sure you love your ‘brand’ first. Otherwise you’ll end up with 250+ cards you can’t use and lots of trees crying.”
2. Start Small. She recommends sellers don’t invest too much in advertising at first.  “Don’t go crazy with the advertising just yet. Start with free directories such as Shop Indie Online, Indie Collective, and Handmade Directory. Advertise on your social networks. There are some awesome sites that have cheap ad spots such as Blockhead Radio. Don’t overspend. There’s no point in spending $100 per month on a site that doesn’t reach your target audience. That’s a very expensive lesson to learn!” she tells us.
3. Team Up.  Most online selling platforms have some way for sellers to connect.  Melissa sells on ArtFire, so she recommends finding an ArtFire Guild that works for you.  “A Guild is a group of artists whose art is along the same theme, same medium, etc. You’ll be promoting other artists, but remember they’ll be promoting you too!” she said.  “You can learn a lot from your fellow Guild members, especially those who have been selling longer than you. Guilds also set up promotion opportunities such as samplers, giveaways, sales, etc. What’s better than a group of like-minded people promoting each other?!“

Finally, Melissa tells handmade sellers to remember their passion when the work gets overwhelming.  “Never give up!” Melissa tells sellers. “It is a lot of work, but if you love what you do it’ll be worth it!”  Need more inspiration when promoting and marketing become time-consuming?  Handmade seller Amy Vander Vorste shared her advice on how to market your online handmade shop effectively without losing your life.

Thank you for sharing your 3 tips to success Melissa!  You can learn more about Melissa’s ArtFire studio by checking out her recent post, titled “Why Artfire is Awesome”, found on her blog.  You can also connect with her on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Plurk, her blog, and Flickr.

Share you thoughts with HandmadeMarketing.org!  If we feature your tips in a future article, we’ll link to your shop, blog, or social media as a source of the information.  Simply tell us what advice you have for selling handmade online under our “Join” tab!

Janet Bocciardi, crafter from the website Honey from the Bee, shared her thoughts on why she thinks a good story and attention to quality help potential buyers have a memorable experience.

“What makes your pair of chalcedony earrings different than the ones in a department store? Why do customers want to buy jewelry from an independent artist vs. a large chain store?  There are probably quite a few different responses to those questions, but I think figuring this out is paramount in helping one sell their artisan jewelry or other items,” Janet said.

“I think we all know we’d rather put on a pair of earrings where we knew who made them than perhaps a factory or worse child labor in a third world country,” Janet explains.  “However, sometimes the price just seems easier to focus on.”

Janet suggests handmade sellers draw potential buyers in with their personal story.  “If at an art fair, buyers may get hooked on your personality or image, but online one has to focus on the story,” she said.

Can’t think of a good story to share with potential buyers?  Janet suggests writing about why you are an artist.  “Or more focused to what inspired the piece you are selling,” she continues.  “It may be the additional colors you chose to highlight the stone remind you of that Caribbean trip you took last winter. Whatever it is – write about it.”

Janet provides a great example for sellers:  “Your chalcedony earrings are drops from the sea, dripping from a mermaid’s ears as she peeks out of the water and looks longingly to shore,” she writes.

In addition to sharing a personal story with potential buyers, Janet says quality work is a key to selling more handmade crafts.  “Make sure your work is of high quality,” she tells HandmadeMarketing.org.  “One of the things that’s finally hitting many retail shops is folks are just tired of buying stuff that breaks before a reasonable amount of use.  In this day and age of making your money count, and wanting to use our resources wisely, who wants to keep replacing?“

To accomplish this, Janet things taking good and bright photographs of items is a great first steps to ensure buyers can really see what they are buying.  “Value your work.  Items perceived to be priced too low are also seen as ones of questionable quality,” she says.

Thank you for the tips Janet!  You can connect with Janet via Twitter or her blog on her site Honey from the Bee.

Have you tried something new to market your handmade items?  How did it work for your shop?  Do you have any advice for a new seller?

HandmadeMarketing.org thrives from tips like Janet’s.  If you have a marketing, photography, or advertising tip that has worked for you, share it with the HandmadeMarketing.org community!  Submit your tips to our team of editors under our “Join” section.  If we publish your tips, we’ll link to your shop, blog, or social media pages as the source!

If you have doubts about how the holidays will pan out for your handmade shop this year, selling platform ArtFire.com aims to help.  Sara Moore, Head of the Content Department for ArtFire.com, informed our team at HandmadeMarketing.org that the site recently launched free unlimited listings for all members during the holiday season!  “This is part of our Holiday Free-for-All,” she explained.  “Everyone gets free unlimited listings for the holidays on ArtFire.com.”

The site, which connects buyers with those that sell handmade items, was designed by artisans from around the globe.  ArtFire’s ever-evolving feature list, including it’s Kiosk on Facebook and recent partnership with Amazon Payments, seems to make both buying and selling handmade online easier and easier.

“We will be giving away unlimited listings completely free for all sellers during the holiday season,” Sara said.  “This means that everyone can sell and list as many items as they wish for absolutely no cost or fees.”

Since the beginning, ArtFire.com has focused on changing the way handmade is sold online.  “When we first launched, ArtFire revolutionized the handmade marketplace by making it completely free for users to sell online,” Sara said.  “Members were able to list and sell up to 12 items at any point on the site, and could have unlimited listings with customizable features for the flat rate of $12/month.”

Already selling handmade on ArtFire?  During the Holiday Free-for-All, every member of ArtFire.com can list and sell an unlimited number of items for free.  This even includes those who currently sell using free Basic Accounts.

Not using ArtFire to reach your potential buyers?  Now is a great time to try out ArtFire.  “No fees, no commissions, no cost to you.  If you sign up for a Basic (free) account you don’t have to pay us a dime. Ever,” the ArtFire website reads.  “This gives everyone a risk-free way to try the fastest growing handmade venue on the internet.”

After seeing the effects of the current economic situation, ArtFire made the decision to lighten the load for handmade sellers.  “We have decided to remove this 12 item limit for the shopping season, giving everyone on the site the option to list unlimited items for sale,” Sara announced.

“Many of our sellers are concerned about the shopping season due to economic issues, and cannot afford to promote and advertise as they had last year,” added John Jacobs, CEO of ArtFire. “This Holiday Free for All will allow them to sell more items than ever before completely free.”

“To make things even easier for sellers, ArtFire has also launched the their Global Product Editor, which gives sellers the chance to make batch edits to hundreds of products in their inventory at once,” Sarah said.  “Although this feature is normally reserved for pro members, ArtFire is opening this tool up so that all members on the site can make use of it.”

ArtFire is excited to see the reaction from the artisan community online.  “This Holiday Free for All Promotion is the first ever of its kind, and expected to completely change the craft marketplace,” Sara said.

“Regardless of marketplace or venue we’ve found that sellers who list more items have a much greater success online,” said Tony Ford, COO of ArtFire. “We want to give everyone the chance to be successful, and free unlimited listing will help our artisans obtain more sales during the fourth quarter.”

Do you sell handmade on ArtFire.com?  What do you think of the site?  What tips would you give a new seller when they are deciding which online selling platform is best for them?

When the Etsy’s SEO Guide was released in September of 2009, Etsy seller Amy Vander Vorste published her own SEO tips with tools to help sellers on her website.  Amy sells handmade at Etsy’s Avlor’s Imprints and has shared her marketing and business tips with HandmadeMarketing.org before – from showing us how to create a form for customers and inventory to creating a Facebook user name. 

The SEO guide from Etsy.com aims to share great tips with sellers and offer insights into how to enhance Etsy shops for search engines and improve rankings.  Because search engine optimization is an evolving process, expect updates to this initial guide.

The guide advises sellers to focus item descriptions and as well as the shop title on the first 30 words.  This will ensure that the most optimized keywords will be displayed.

“[After reading the Etsy SEO guide], many of us are redoing our shop and item titles and descriptions to utilize those first 30 or 160 characters,” Amy says.

To help make this process a little less painless for sellers, Amy says sellers count their characters using Google Docs’ word count tool, which can be found under “Tools”, then “Word Count.”

“If you make a selection, it will count the characters in the selection. Then you can easily tune your titles and descriptions to the correct number of characters,” she tells other Etsy sellers.

What techniques have you used to help make your shop or website optimized for search engines?  What role do you think search plays in sales?  Have you noticed any changes in your SEO since Etsy published this guide?