Cool things I found to help run my Etsy shop

As an Etsy shopkeeper;  I am a big supporter of teams and making treasuries. I know a lot of people see treasuries or try to make one and it takes hours and hours.  Searching for the right items, copying and pasting the links, saving it and then sending a convo to everyone that is your beautiful new treasury.  UGH, it can be overwhelming!

My little secret, which isn't that big of secret anymore is  ENHANTSY.  Enhantsy had a few hiccups in the beginning and it works great now. I joined it and pay the $2.00 a month to use all the features, because I use it all the time.

It was free but as of January 27, it will be free for one week and then the charge will apply.  Personally I think it is the best $2.49 to spend my money on.  I think of it as advertising and promotion money. (I do not do the ads on Etsy - ever!)  Since every time I make a treasury - and I mean every time, my views go up, my likes, and followers go up.  I believe and my experience backs it up that treasuries improve the traffic to my store and in turn my sales improve.  Also by making at least 3 or 4 treasuries a week, and that is a very very low estimate I am in turn featured in on the low side about 15-20 treasuries a DAY!

Treasury featuring EVT members made with Enhantsy

This application works directly inside Etsy, Enhantsy works by tightly integrating with etsy.com making enhancements and features requested by the Etsy community but not implemented by Etsy. Some enhancements are re-introducing functionality once present at etsy.com and since removed. Others are new ideas not (yet) implemented on etsy.com.  Enhantsy sits at the top of your etsy.com pages and quietly rewrites them with new functionality. Once installed an Enhantsy link is displayed in the links across the top of the page. Clicking this opens a menu allowing you to toggle which enhancements are enabled and gives links to specific Enhantsy pages.

Here are some of the things you can do with Enhantsy - There are more!

• Treasurease - what you use to make the Treasuries
• Treasurease Clone - use an old treasury you made and CLONE it into a new treasury
• Treasurease Convos - instantly send Convos to everyone in the treasury you just made!
• First dibs - have all new stores and new items show up on your home page -
• Canned Convos - have several Convos preset to send when you create a Treasury
  

Want to know if an item from your shop or a treasury you made has been featured on the Front Page?
check out Statsy - Featurator   this will send you an email anytime an item or a treasury you made is on the Front Page - Statsy has some other cool features but I only use Featurator.

Another one is Craftcult.com  CraftCult   With this you can add treasuries to Blogs, webpages etc, use the widget. Also checkout the VAULT on CraftCult- you can look up treasuries your items have been featured in or all the treasuries you have made, you can do this in search in Etsy from the main treasury page too

Some other features but these are the ones I have personal experience with.

 ShopValueCalculator.com
Here you can see top shops on Etsy, the estimated value of YOUR OWN STORE!, views and all sorts of great into.  Don't get sidelined at the top stores, they may have lots of sales, but quite a few are very low value items.  I don't know about you but I want to make sure I am making a decent profit on the sales as I have them and not selling tons of little stuff for $2.00 I see that as a time suck.

Then I just found Etsy Gadget  This one is by donation, so if you love it you can donate to the author.  I think the shop status is the best use of this site. With shop status it will sort your items by view and admirers, AND the best use is it will let you know if you are missing keywords.  It doesn't tell you what keywords to use, but if you are like me you will have a bunch of items you renew over and over and they may have less than the 13 keywords.
 You can also see where your products fall in search, and where your store falls when searched by keyword combinations.

Last one for now is Etsy Fee Calculator  from Ecommercebytes.com

It will help price your items, this works for both vintage and handmade!

Just fill in the shaded fields.   Review the breakdown of fees based on the data you entered.

 If you accept PayPal or Etsy Direct Checkout, check the appropriate box.

  Use Profit Calculator to help you price your goods.

You can also check ratings of online marketplaces, all kinds of them - and find some new ones.

Ratings 

Another great thing is the Collector Corners Resources

Ecommerce Bytes has a ton of good info, and links to all sorts of great things - I haven't even scratched the surface.


 Have Fun!

How to Promote for Free & Get Noticed in No Time At All

Alternate title: How to make a rock solid neato condito treasury. 

First of all, if you want to be noticed and considered for the home page of etsy.com, follow the rules. Each item must be from a different store, and you may not feature yourself. Simple enough, but one that's easy to mess up on. When you think you're done, always go back and double check to make sure you're not repeating a store. I do this almost every time and have to find a substitute item.

Well lit action shot of Vintage Skirt by GeneralWhimsy2

Now, pick a topic. Topics range from people's moods, the seasons, and decorating ideas to hot fashion trends. There really isn't any rhyme or reason to which treasuries get the most views. It depends on time of day, week, season, etc. That said, ones that involve beautiful people do tend to get a lot of clicks! I will tell you that the ones I click on most include some clever twist in the title, description and content. Think of this like a billboard, you want it to grab someone's attention fast.

Excellent detail shot of Antique Chinese Needle Case by EurekaEureka

Decide how you want to structure your treasury. Do you want to follow a timeline? Perhaps you'd like to tell a story. Or maybe you want to select items that are all in the same color hue. You can get easy inspiration from Etsy's Merchandising Desk: they provide tips on what the trends will be for the month. The most important thing is to select highly aesthetic, stylish items. I highly recommend paying attention to this step-it can make or break your group of items. This is what will be the glue holding it all together.

Excellent photo of Vintage Spice Jars by TheFancyLamb

Next, pick your items. I try to carefully select items that are photographed clearly and are easy to see. Things that cannot be identified in a quick glance aren't usually on my list. (Unless they're so intriguing I think they'll attract attention) To make your treasury easy on the eyes, find items that are photographed on a simple background. Items photographed on busy patterns or bright colors don't tend to mesh well in a group with other photographs. (A tip to remember when taking photos)

Vibrant color captured in a clear photo of a Vintage Fire King Bowl by Kultur

After you've selected your items, organize them. To me, this is the one area that gets overlooked the most. It is critical that your items look balanced on the page. Meaning, don't put all your red items on the left side. Space them around so that they balance out visually. Carefully place complex items with many parts with a simple item, next to, above and below. Place dark next to light, textured next to plain to get the right contrast. Pretend you're designing a magazine page.

Textural photo of 1960's Tan Cape by TimeAndAgainFashions

After you're all finished and satisfied with your treasury, hit save and go on to the next steps. Copy the link for your treasury. Then click on the first item on your list, and contact the seller. Since you're contacting through that item, the link for that item will automatically appear in your email. Compose an email informing them that they're featured and paste the treasury link. Make sure the link to the item is down below to avoid confusion. Then just copy and paste the email and send it through to the next seller in your treasury. Don't forget to title your email!

Detailed, textural shot of a Vintage Cameo Brooch by popgoesmyvintage

Why bother doing this? Word of mouth. If each of those sellers Tweets it and puts it on Facebook, that will extend your reach. After you've notified everyone, then you should promote it yourself. If your treasuries are fun, easy to look at and showcase cool items, people will check out who made it. You will get buyers browsing your store as well as those stores you've featured. Best of all, it's free!