Step Outside - Breaking Your Stride

It is said that Albert Einstein spoke of insanity as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." While quotes from genius people may cause an eyeroll from overuse, there’s a reason why we listen to these brainiacs.

Albert Einstein by Frances Marin

I must say this quote really hit home when I read it last week. I had been checking my Etsy shop, looking at stats, hoping for new sales, waiting for something magical to happen when I had an epiphany. I hadn’t added new items to my shop for weeks, I haven’t improved my photos, I often only have one image for my listings (as opposed to the recommended five) and the list goes on!

Lately, I have been gaining more income from art fairs, trade shows and a public art project. It has been great to have various streams of income, but I do want Etsy to work better for me and the key is to stop doing the same thing again and again.

This quote can be applied to not only the technical aspect, but also the artistic perspective. I believe as artists and creators, we should never stop evolving and discovering new territory. When you look at great artists of the past, such as Picasso, or artists of the present, such as Wilhelm Sasnal, their subject matter and styles move around in ways only enabled by their willingness to be bold and try new things.

I had been looking at my shop as if I had been working really innovatively on it. Although I had been working hard, I had not been working better by improving what is already existing or creating new listings. Sometimes we have to step back from ourselves to see what’s not working and what we can change. I know that I have work I have created in the last year that I could be adding and I need to shoot better photos.

You can easily apply Einstein's quote to the items you create and the operation of your Etsy shop. Are you listing and relisting the same things again and again? Are your keywords the same? Titles? Photos? You get the picture. Try crafting in a new color, try drawing subject matter you would never normally draw, try adding a new decorative trim to that bag...

What can YOU do differently?

Original Drawing (sixtythree) by Cari Monster

If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Our Team Captain about joining SFEtsy!

#SFEtsy October 16th - Get Found in Etsy Search

This week's Etsy bootcamp topic is How To Get Found in Search and they're talking about their own search, of course!

We'll be mirroring this topic ourselves, looking at the importance of keywords and how to choose them. Then using keywords to write perfect titles and descriptions and choose tags. We'll also talk about using Etsy's stats tracker to keep an eye on what is and isn't working so you know what needs to be changed up. Finally we'll talk about Etsy's new 'Browse' feature.

If you like to use tweetchat.com to follow our chats this is the link tweetchat.com/room/sfetsy

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Katy or Steph about joining SFEtsy!

Friday Feature - Three Bird Nest

Happy Friday, Folks!

      So, this week's Friday Feature is kind of a big deal. With over 13,000 (yep, thousand!) sales, Three Bird Nest has simply blown our minds! She creates some of the cutest headbands, sock, gloves, and other accessories, which can't seem to keep from flying off the shelves! It's difficult to imagine that the shop owner is anything but a magician. On the contrary, she's a local mother of three who's got the same zest for craft as you and I.  Read on for a peek behind the scenes of a real success story!

knitted bow headband

1. What is your shop name and URL? 

threebirdnest.etsy.com

2. To which Etsy Teams do you belong?

 Etsy Success,  Team Starfish, Hair Accessories Exclusive, and SF Etsy - all of which I really need to be more active in just haven't had a moment :)

3. Please tell us about the items in your Etsy shop. What do you make? How did you learn your craft? What is involved in your creative process?

My shop is a collection of headbands, scarves, dainty jewelry, and accessories for women with a nod to vintage style.

I grew up in an environment where my mom would pretty much make anything that we needed. She made flower arrangements, hair bows, etc., and sold at craft fairs with me and my sister as her helpers. So it's pretty much something I've always been a part of, the creative process. My shop started with just me making headbands and has quickly grown to be a collective shop made up of an amazing team of talented local staff.  

sherbet flora infinity scarf

4. Tell us two (or more) other interesting things about you. 

I have three kids under 7. i love pink...and 8 years ago I "invented" a baby sling when my son was born and started a company selling baby products, learned entrepreneurship  the hard way and almost lost everything. Etsy and my customers have given me a new start and I really just cannot express how grateful and appreciative I am now for each and every order. Almost losing everything really humbles you and makes you appreciate what you have so much!! 

5. How did you get involved with Etsy? 

Let's see...I own a local clothing store and started making headbands for my store. I couldn't keep them in stock so I decided to put them on Etsy to help support the slower sales in my boutique. I originally was thinking I'd sell 5-10 a week. It really took off so fast that I had to play catch up. I hired someone to manage my store so I could focus completely on being able to fulfil my orders, getting help with shipping and processing the orders, and sewing.

6. What is your favorite item in your shop (currently for sale or previously sold)? 

i love my new leg warmers!!

lacy knitted leg warmers 

7. What crafting skill(s) do you wish you had or hope to learn someday?

I used to woodwork with my Grandpa as a kid (the wood block and knife style). Maybe because it's nostalgic to me & just reminds me of my Grandpa's shop but I'd like to hone my ability to carve a smooth duck from a piece of wood. So my answer would be woodworking, making wood sculptures from a piece of wood and a knife.

8. What has been your biggest success and/or proudest moment since opening your Etsy shop?

One of my items was featured on the cover of Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine. It was really surreal and amazing since I didn't even know it was going to happen!! 

9. If money were no object for just one day, what would you do? 

I'd rent Disneyland for a full day, fly there on a private jet and let my kids get anything and everything they wanted in the park. Ask me again in 5 years and my answer will be different but I most enjoy time with my family and we'd ALL love this!

roses wide headband

10. What is the craziest gift you have ever received? 

Pooper scooper bags from my Amazing Great Aunt Helen (who was an SF resident since the early 30's)....and I didn't have a dog. I'm not sure if that was the best or the year she mailed me a jar of jelly for Christmas...glass jar via USPS = didn't fare well. 

11. What does buying and selling local handmade mean to you, and how has it affected your life? 

I just like knowing my money is going directly to someone, supporting a person, their craft, their dream, their hobby. Helping to improve their life somehow. It has given me the ability to really achieve my dreams, to feel like I have a place where people support what I do, want to do, and dream to do. It's just an overall great feeling to buy, sell, and support independent artists in all categories of life.

lacy jersey headband

12. Where else can we find out more about you and your creations?

www.facebook.com/threebirdnest

twitter: threebirdnest

web site:  www.threebirdnest.com

13. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your shop or your work?

You know I think I just want everyone to know that I appreciate all the support and response to my shop. It really means a lot to me. 

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Katy or Steph about joining SFEtsy!

#SFEtsy April 24th - Promoting on Etsy

This week we will be continuing our marketing and advertising theme, this time looking at a topic which should be relevant to everyone - Etsy!

We'll be talking about different ways to get your items found on Etsy and comparing our stories about which methods are most successful. We'll also discuss how the recent changes have affected what works and what doesn't.

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Katy or Steph about joining SFEtsy!

Social Media With Etsy -- All Week Long!

Happy Monday, everybody! Did you know it's Social Media Week over at Etsy?

We all have heard about how helpful it can be to use social media to help promote our Etsy shops -- our own Savvy Entrepreneur has had lots of great things to say about it! -- but if you're anything like me, you can always use some more insight into this area.

Every day this week, Etsy will offer all sorts of social media tips and tricks for everybody from newbies to experts. They will also be giving highlights from the Seller's Handbook, and livestream workshops and chats.

All this will lead up to Thursday's exciting event: comedian Eugene Mirman, Twitter's Elizabeth Weil, Amy Turn Sharp of Little Alouette, Etsy's own Laura Chin, and Jen Rubio from Warby Parker come together for Almost Internet Famous.

Intrigued? Excited? I know I am! Be sure to check out the full schedule for all the details and sign up for the livestreams to participate.

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!

The Renewal Experiment - A Follow-Up

Growing your brand - stitch by stitch
Works in progress by nerd JERK

If you've read my last blog post about using free tools to increase traffic to your Etsy shop and increasing your brand's visibility, you've probably asking yourself: Did increased traffic translate into sales?


I forgot to add this incredibly helpful tidbit of quantifiable information to my analysis. Doh! In my defense, I was putting together this information late-night until 5:30 this morning.


Here are the results I saw from my Renewal Experiment:



As of the time of this writing, I currently have 82 sales.


From when I started nerd JERK on Etsy on 12 Oct, 2009 to the day before I started this experiment 8 months later (16 June 2010), I had 28 sales, averging about 4 sales per month without spending much money on relisting (just a few non-sale-generating Etsy Showcases).


From when I started my experiment on 17 June, 2010 up until yesterday (23 November 2010), I have made an additional 54 sales within 6 months (almost doubling my sales for the previous 8 months that I was open). This means I averaged 9 sales per month - a 125% increase in sales! 


It should also be said that 32 of these sales happened in the last 4 weeks, corresponding with the method of renewing in 20 minute intervals during my two highest traffic hours (6 & 7 PM, varying which week I was observing my traffic for).


When I started making sales, I would relist a bit at a time. It took a while (roughly 4 months) to look at the numbers both on Google Analytics & Craftopolis to really see that informed renewing was working out the way I wanted it to. Basically, I didn't want to spend money if I didn't think it would work - so I started by spending a little (only renewing 3 times a day in my top 3 peak hours = $0.60/day or $18/month), which is about the cost of 2 Etsy Category Showcases.


But one day, I asked myself if I could justify reinvesting my assets and diversifying my Peak Hour Renewals. And I decided that it was worth a try. I did 5 renewals a day from mid-September to mid-October (Let's call this Period #1). Then during the last couple of weeks of October until mid-November (Period #2), I decided to try doing 8-10 renewals per day at Peak Hours. My sales jumped from 6 during Period #1 to 32 sales in Period #2! That's a jump of over 500%!


Renewing 5-10 times/day = $1/$2/day or $30 to $60/month, which is about the cost of a blog ad or a craft fair table fee. And sometimes, I don't even make 9 sales during a show. *laughs* So I consider this to be pretty awesome.


I know there's a lot of information here and it may sound REALLY GREAT! And it is!!! But please understand that there are a lot of variables that added to my Renewal Experiment that helped build my brand (i.e. volunteering a ton of my time to Etsy Teams and craft shows) and play a role in the growth of nerd JERK. 


Also, it didn't happen overnight. It took me over 6 months of renewing, but 14 months in total to figue out how I was going to get people in my shop!


You may not see results like mine right away (it was slower starting for me as well), but I promise that putting forth the effort to promote a brand that you truly believe in will result in shop visibility.

Do your own Renewal Experiment!

Start off small, like I suggested in my initial post. :) Try renewing during your top 3 Peak Hours only 2 days a week (an investment of $1.20 - the price of a cup of coffee). Compare your traffic those days to the other days you go without renewing any listings. What difference do you see?

I'd love to hear your stories! Feel free to share you own experiences and experiments here. As micro-business owners, we can all benefit from expanding our brands during this Handmade Movement. It's always great to hear that little things like this can make a difference in people's lives.

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This post was originally posted on my blog, nerd JERK: Inspire Your Inner Geek on Wednesday, 24 November, 2010. It was also featured on Handmadeology.com and has been widely well-received. So much so that we wanted to share it with our SF Etsy members!

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Steph Cortés from nerd JERK is the Roving Reporter, one of the members of the SF Etsy Blog Team. She enjoys going out to new crafting events and supporting the Handmade Movement, along with helping her fellow Etsy Sellers with tips & tricks to assist in making their business awesome. Look forward to more reports on her artsy shenanigans in weeks to come. Feel free to email her comments & tips anytime.

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!

Increase Traffic in your Etsy Shop by 500% - Using Tools to Renew Listings Wisely

When I first started on Etsy, I didn't understand why I wasn't getting a ton of people in my shop and selling out of everything. Upon reading some articles from The Storque & more from the Seller's Handbook, I realised that relisting my items (aka: renewing) was going to be the key to my success.


I decided I needed to make more of an effort. I entered into The Renewal Experiment.

I never used to relist my items until I discovered a way that didn't feel like I was shooting in the dark. It made sense to me that I would want to relist my items during the times of the day when I was getting the most traffic in my shop to increase my brand's visibility.

How did I find out when those times were? Google Analytics. 

If you have Google Analytics set up for your shop, go click on the following for your Etsy page: 

• - Visitors
• - Visitor Trending
• - Visits 

At this point, there should be a graph on the screen. In the upper right hand corner of the graph, there should be a section that reads "Graph by:" which is followed by 4 buttons. Click on the button that looks like a clock.

This will show the amount of visits you've had for every hour each day for the past month. 

When I first started renewing, I would renew on my top 3 hours everyday and I increased my views quite a bit. But then I started noticing my visiting times were changing. 

In the top right hand corner just above the graph, there is a date range in which you're measuring your visits for the last month. If you want to get VERY specific, you narrow your search down for the last week or so - this allows you to see what your Etsy visitors have been trending lately. 

This graph shows that 3 PM, 5 PM, 6 PM, 7 PM and 8PM are my busiest hours in the last couple of weeks. 

Now knowing what my busiest hours were, I utilized Statsy's Clockbot to AUTOMATICALLY renew my listings throughout the day at my Peak Hours. To find out more on how Statsy's Clockbot works, check out this awesome article on Handmadeology!

When I felt confident that I was seeing increased traffic & sales, I upped the stakes a little by renewing at 20 minute intervals at 6 & 7 PM, two of my highest traffic hours, using this increase in Unique Visitors to optimize my opportunity to increase my brand's visibility!

And let me tell ya - it's fricken done WONDERS! Here's a comparison graph of what my views were from Dec 16, 2009 to June 16, 2010 right along side my views from when I started my experiment on June 17, 2010 to November 24, 2010.

I used to get less than 20 unique viewers a day. When I started doing this experiment (renewing 3 times a day), I could get up to 50 unique viewers, easily, with almost 150 pageviews. 

Then I started adding Connecting Links (ie: links that would say "If you like this, you like that") to all my listings to increase click-through and decrease bounce rate for my Etsy site to see what would happen. Those Connecting Links kicked me up to about 250 page views per day! 

Now I renew 8-10 times a day only during my peak hours (or when I've had a sale) and increased Unique Viewers to a minimum of 100 and maximum average of 250 daily, with anywhere from 300 to 650 page views in that day. I loving seeing these numbers on Craftopolis! It used to a dismal sight, but now I look forward to seeing the numbers!

Sure - it seems like a ton of work (and money), but increasing my shop's visibility and going from almost nothing to feeling like I'm making informed decisions and measuring the pros-cons with quantifiable results is REALLY awesome.

And not too hard to do. 

I would ask you to try it yourselves... just a few renewals every few days and see if it makes a difference when you look at your stats on Craftopolis! 

It sure did for me!

Share some stories about how you have increased traffic for your shop or what you plan to do to get those new customers...


Read the FOLLOW-UP on how the Renewal Experiment's increased traffic translated into SALES tomorrow, Sunday, 28 November, 2010.

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This post was originally posted on my blog, nerd JERK: Inspire Your Inner Geek on Wednesday, 24 November, 2010. It was also featured on Handmadeology.com and has been widely well-received. So much so that we wanted to share it with our SF Etsy members!

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Steph Cortés from nerd JERK is the Roving Reporter, one of the members of the SF Etsy Blog Team. She enjoys going out to new crafting events and supporting the Handmade Movement, along with helping her fellow Etsy Sellers with tips & tricks to assist in making their business awesome. Look forward to more reports on her artsy shenanigans in weeks to come. Feel free to email her comments & tips anytime.

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!