How To Find The Best Low-Priced Listings On ETSY.com
The 3-Step ETSY.com Buying System Create A Powerful Search
Create And Fine-tune a powerful search on Etsy.com by entering your lowest favorite price in the website search field.
Your Choice Of Many Selections
There will be many selections in your search results. You decide upon the item worth buying.
Do Research and Ask Questions
Send the seller an email and ask questions Ask for any missing information not provided on the listing page. When you have enough information you buy it at the fixed price.
A Simple Technique
Enter 99 cents here in the search box!
As shown above just enter a number like 99 cents or 1.00 in the search field and many lwo priced listings will be shown on the results listing Some will be the price you asked for and some will be similar.
Why Choose Online Auc ons If you enjoy sales and want to work from home selling items you make yourself or items made by others, pos ng items for sale on online auc on sites can be an exci ng home business that you can make a steady profit from. Online auc on sites have become more popular over the years as people have become savvy about how they want to spend their money. On these sites, visitors can browse through hundreds of categories and subcategories looking for items of interest. Once people find the items they want, they may be able to buy them directly from the seller, or they can bid on the item. Whoever has the highest bid wins the item... Becoming a seller on these sites is very easy. If you have a home computer, valid email address, and accurate payment informa on, then you can create an online store and sell products. Since there are so many items listed on these sites you have the op on of selling one kind of item, or you can sell many different types of items to appeal to a larger audience. You will also be able to sell directly to buyers or you can open items up for bid. Many online sellers create mini-stores where visitors can browse and purchase items direct. Another aspect of this home business is that you are responsible for marke ng your products on the site with pictures, descrip ons, and answering customer ques ons. You will also be responsible for shipping the item safely to the buyer. You can add these costs into the price of your items or ask for a flat fee. Many online auc on sites offer buyer different op ons when it comes to shipping, so you can increase your prices based on the site's op ons. Building a solid reputa on is important when running an online store. Customers will be able to leave feedback, both nega ve and posi ve, that other customers will read before purchasing an item from you. Always try to resolve any complaints quickly so that you can retain a posi ve reputa on. If you enjoy running your own business, but don't want the hassle of paying rent to open a store, hire employees, and deal with suppliers, an online auc on store is a great alterna ve. You can shop for items in stores, yard sales, and estate sales, and then sell them to your customers. Knowing how to price these items is important because people going to these sites are looking for a bargain and if you charge too much, they will find another seller. This home business is a wonderful enterprise for those with or without a family. If you have a family, they can help by packing items and taking orders. I o1en use etsy.com and ebay.com for my online selling but there are many choices for working from home selling items at auc on or direct selling.
How To Sell Your Items On Etsy.com Are you a cra1er who has wondered how to sell on Etsy? Most people in the cra1ing world have heard of Etsy, but not everyone knows how to sell on an online marketplace like Etsy. Selling successfully on Etsy takes a li3le prac ce and know-how. A common mistake that almost every "newbie" makes is to think that just because you set up a shop on Etsy, the customers are going to come flocking! That is far from the case. Learning how to sell on Etsy takes some trial and error and a good understanding of how internet marketplaces for cra1s and arts work. It is very common for a newbie seller to set up their brand new shop, full of hope and enthusiasm, only to discover that weeks and months pass by without a single sale. The seller becomes discouraged, and lets the shop languish, and eventually quits. But this does not have to happen! It is possible to succeed on Etsy. But like all things it takes hard work and a willingness to learn. There are five secrets to selling on Etsy that every new seller who wants to be successful must master: photographs, tagging, pricing, descrip ons, and promo on. Learn these five secrets and put them into prac ce, and you will see a significant increase in traffic to your Etsy shop, and in me, more sales as well. First and foremost, are your photographs good enough? In most cases, the answer is no. Even when you have worked hard on your photographs, chances are they're not good enough. Look at the front page of Etsy. Look at the crisp, clear, vibrant eye-catching, professional looking photos in those front page featured shots. Those photos were taken by average sellers with li3le digital point and shoot cameras. The difference is, successful sellers know how to use the Macro se9ng (the li3le flower bu3on) on their digital cameras to take ultra close up shots of their wares. They know how to stage their pieces in clean, unclu3ered, sophis cated se9ngs such as against rocks, or on a piece of wood, or most commonly, in a simple light box. (you can purchase a simple light box set that includes the box, colored backgrounds, two photography lights, and a small tripod, for not much money on Ebay, and it will be the best investment you ever make in your business.) Successful sellers also know how to nker with their photographs to make them effec ve marke ng tools. Every seller, to be successful has to learn to use some kind of photo edi ng so1ware. Photoshop is the most common but Picasa is free and simple to learn. Cropping is the most important step. Pull your product right up to fill the en re screen. Get rid of blank space around it. Then sharpen the image and play with the fill light and highlights and satura on and contrast un l your photo pops. Export it in the correct file size for Etsy (up to 2 mb) and you are ready. Photos should be cropped square since that's what appears on the Etsy lis ngs. Good photos get you into treasuries, which are collec ons of 12 items chosen by other sellers. Treasuries get seen by lots of sellers and buyers, so taking Treasury-worthy photos is key to your Etsy success. Second comes tagging. Tagging means choosing keywords that are the terms that customers will type in for their searches in Etsy, and in Google. You get 14 tags in Etsy, and successful sellers use them all. Tagging is a bit of an art form and takes prac ce. Be sure to refer to the "From the Merch Desk" monthly blog post on Etsy, which informs sellers of the coming seasons color and style trends and suggests tagging terms.
Third, pricing. Pricing is tricky. Price too high and customers will flee. Price too low and customers won't take you seriously. Look at your compe tors---the sellers selling items very similar to yours. Aim for the general average of those prices....and then go higher. Here is the secret of pricing on Etsy: if you want more sales raise your prices. It's the psychology of the handmade marketplace. If you price your items a bit higher, they have an impression of value. Also, have a couple items with very high prices. Those make everything else look "reasonable," and buyer-friendly. Fourth, descrip ons have to be complete. Remember that customers can't pick up and handle your item. They can't ask you ques ons directly. So you descrip on has to answer all of their ques ons. What is the size? The color? The shape? The feel? What are the exact dimensions, and can they be varied? What are its uses? If it's jewelry, is it good for day me or evening, or both? What are the materials? Where did they come from? How were they handled? Is it a durable or delicate item? Beyond all of these factual elements, though, it is good to tell a story. What inspired you to create the item? What feelings does it evoke? Where did it come from? How do you imagine it being used? People love a good story, so tell one here. Last of all, promote. Even if you do the four things listed above to perfec on, it is unlikely that your shop will grow without promo on. You have to get your shop name out to a wide audience. You need to create your "brand." There are paid and free ways to do this. The free ways include crea ng a Facebook Fan Page and ac vely seeking fans, and crea ng a Twi3er account and regularly twee ng about your work and business. Star ng a blog is an important way to build your brand and get exposure. Lis ng your business on free cra1 business directories like Unanimous Cra1 is helpful. Also, par cipa ng enthusias cally on Etsy's own forums and teams brings you into contact with a wide range of other sellers, who are also buyers (and friends and families of poten al buyers). If you sell jewelry, wear your jewelry everywhere you go and always carry your business cards. Put your business in the local yellow pages and Google business directory. One of the best ways to promote your business is to par cipate in large online forums and blogs related to your cra1. By pos ng comments and contribu ons o1en, you build hundreds of links back to your business site, and make your shop visible to all the readers of those forums and blogs. Remember, those readers are already interested in your item, because they made the effort to come to that specialized site in the first place. Paid promo ons include buying adver sing on blogs, or buying ads on Facebook or Google AdWords. It can also be effec ve to pay for promo onal spots (usually called "booths") at online cra1 marketplaces such as HandmadeCra1show.com. In exchange for the money, you get the added Facebook, Twi3er and blog pos ngs that the site does on a daily basis, as well as a smaller venue with less compe on for the customer's a3en on. Work on these five aspects of building your Etsy business, and in me you will see your traffic and your sales grow. Remember that it takes me to build an Etsy business. There is usually no such thing as overnight Etsy success! But with effort and determina on, and a healthy dose of pa ence, you too can learn how to sell on Etsy.
Tips For Selling On ETSY.com I've been selling my art online & in person for several years. These are the things I'm dying to tell people about their etsy shops. Ten quick tips for your etsy shop and online sales of arts and crafts in general: 1. Niche thyself. Your shop should have a consistent aesthetic or product line. Don't try to be everything to everybody. A shop full of cohesive work that connects with a potential buyer is a powerful thing. Nail your niche. 2. List it! If you sell it, list it- don't make people ask for it. As a photographer, I offer prints in various sizes. Since I've started listing my larger prints in my shop and not just mentioning in the descriptions that large prints are available, my sales of large prints have risen dramatically. 3. Smile. Be happy. Always, always, always have a positive attitude about your business. Everyone loves a success. Never complain about lack of sales. Never. Always find something positive to say. Success creates buzz, creates excitement, makes people wonder what they are missing and they visit your shop looking for the fabulous things they're missing. 4. Photos. Photos. Photos. They can always be better. 5. Build your brand. Be in it for the long haul. Buy the advertising that you can afford to do for 3 months or more. If you can only afford an ad on a particular site or blog for a week, look for another place to advertise. Work to make your name & product familiar to people; they need to see your ad over & over. When people are familiar with your name & product, they will think of you when they are ready to buy. 6. Price for success. Low prices may be killing your business. People may think your product is cheap. The people that are buying from you may be buying only on price- those are not the buyers you want to cultivate for the long term success of your business. 7. Make the things you love. Then find the market. Put your heart & soul into your work & people will know. 8. Answer your buyers' questions. Write full descriptions. The number one reason online browsers don't buy is they don't feel that they have enough information about the product. (Info from Etsy's usability testing.) Give your browsers plenty of information on your product. Write your description as if there were no photographs in the listing. 9. Give your buyers confidence. Tell them they can return it if they are not happy. You might get a few returns- build that in your cost model. The increased sales will be worth the cost of a few returns. 10. Know thyself. What is your mission? What are your goals? What do you want from your business this year? Next year? in 10 years? Getting clear on your goals will help you focus your efforts in your business. Should you pursue wholesale opportunities? Licensing? A larger studio space? Should you branch into another media? A vision of your future will help you make these decisions.
Se9ng Up Your First Shop On ETSY.com
Etsy is one of the best ways to create an online cra1 business for a new seller. You can quickly and easily set up an online store without worrying about building your own website or se9ng up ecommerce on your own. In under an hour you can be selling to a built in market of eager customers from all over the world! It just takes a li3le know-how and prac ce to make Etsy work for you in building a successful online business selling your cra1s. If you're just star ng out on Etsy this ar cle will show you how to build a new Etsy shop and start selling your cra1s online. First some sta s cs: Etsy is the world's largest online marketplace for indie handmade goods and it is growing fast. $25.5 million worth of goods were sold on Etsy in August. That is a more than 7% increase over July, and a 75% increase over August of 2009! Etsy got 777 million page views in the month of August alone. Here is how to build a shop on Etsy. First you have to visit Etsy and set up an account. It's free. You will choose one account name that will never change (so choose well!). But one account can have several shops so if you have more than one kind of cra1 business, you can divide up your wares into dis nct stores with their own branding. Try to make a shop name that is unique and memorable! Once you have your account and at least one shop, you need to set up your storefront. You do this through "Your Etsy." Click on the link for "Appearance" to start. First you have to get a banner for the top of your shop. Etsy provides some banners but it's be3er to make your own. For good tutorials on making Etsy Banners and other aspects of selling on Etsy, you can check the Etsy Blog, called "The Storque." They have "How-To" posts all the me that are really helpful. And there are great graphic design shops on Etsy who will custom design a banner for you for a small cost. A1er your banner you will enter your one-line shop descrip on, and also create a Shop Announcement, where you explain what you do and what makes your shop unique. You will also fill out sec ons on Shop Policies, which explains how you will handle shipping, and things like returns. Last, you will create a "Shipping Profile" that covers your domes c and interna onal shipping rates. You can get an idea about how to do all these by checking other shops. It's not hard., Once you get your shop set up, you can start lis ng items. Just click "list an item" to start. You give it a tle (think about Google Search and put your keywords up front in the tle--avoid whimsical or vague tles), and then describe it. Be specific. Include colors and measurements. Tell a li3le story about it what makes it unique. Then move on to materials, where you list what went into the item. Be careful to use commas between each material, and no periods or dashes. Then on the next page, you "tag" the item. You get 14 tags. Use them all! Tag with colors, especially trendy seasonal colors, seasonal themes like holidays, pa3erns (houndstooth, polka dot, etc.), shapes (square, chunky, etc.) and mo fs (woodland animals is trendy right now, for example). A1er that you upload 5 photos. Now this is the important part--your photos have to be good! You can use your digital point and shoot camera, but make sure it's set on macro for closeup shoo ng (the macro func on is the li3le flower bu3on on most cameras). Get a good simple background that has some interest to it. For example photograph your jewelry on pre3y rocks, or on a piece of wood. Take lots of shots! Then, and this is important, import your photos into photo edi ng so1ware like Photoshop or even Picasa (easy and free), and nker with them. Crop them to highlight and magnify your product. Sharpen them. Use highlights and fill light to brighten them, and use contrast to make your colors stand out. Remember that the ny thumbnail photos that customers see when they're browsing are li3le squares so make sure your product is visible in a square version of your photo.
Finally, export your photos to a Pictures file in about a 1000 pixel size. Etsy won't take photos larger than 2 MB. You can upload your photos from there into Etsy. A1er you finish uploading, you just click "finish" and agree to pay 20 cents per lis ng, and you're done. Here are the fees: it costs 20 cents per lis ng, and then Etsy takes 3% of your sale. Paypal also takes 1%. So, price your items accordingly. A note on pricing: don't price too low! The word on the street at Etsy is: if you want to sell more, raise your prices. It is a good idea to have at least 20 items in your store, and more if you can. Someone did some research and found out that sellers who have twice as many items do more than twice as much business. In other words, having a well stocked shop makes customers buy more! Now that you have your shop set up, it's me to promote it. Easy ways to promote are to use the Showcase Feature on Etsy (cost: $7), relist and add new items constantly (that way your stuff stays at the top of lists in your categories), and par cipate in the Forums that are on the "Community" sec on of the Etsy site. Join some Teams of other sellers that do similar work as you (find Teams in the Community sec on also). That gets your name out there. Other ways to promote your Etsy shop are by pos ng your photos to free galleries like Cra1gawker or ShowcaseEdge, se9ng up links to your site at resource sites like Unanimous Cra1 or Esellernow, and checking out membership sites like Handmadecra1show and Handmade Spark. And of course, you'll want to create a Facebook Fan Page for your business and a Twi3er account and a blog...but not all at once of course! Last--be pa ent and persistent. For most sellers, it takes months to see traffic build on their Etsy site. You learn tricks of photography and tagging that help customers find you, and li3le by li3le you build a customer base. But, with some work and pa ence, you can use Etsy to build a successful online cra1 business.
Well, This short ebook does not tell the whole story of how to become extremely successful with yout etsy.com store or your online selling as a whole but as for finding those great low-priced lis ngs it is easy to do the research to find them and you can re-list them for a nice profit.
Best Wishes and Happy Selling
Kimberly of JandK Designs