Day 2, Dear Diary......

What happened yesterday? Listed 5 items, Sold 1, Gained 1 Shop Heart. 
Financially? Made 9.99, Spent 1.34 (listing fees, plus .34 for the sale) for a net profit of $8.65; Less cost of goods, and well it is a little less than $8.65 hmmmmmm.

On the bright side I did sell an item and gain a heart so here's to repeating a sale today and more sales in the future. 

Yesterday, I mentioned promotional efforts. I divide promotions/marketing into two types. Passive and Active. Today I wanted to talk a little bit about active. I think those are things like Twitter, Facebook, Plurk and whatever other social media you use. It is active because it requires your time to interface with the platform and users. You just have to be careful how much time you spend. It can get addicting, but it does work. Last week I sold an item to @MerCuriosJewels. She saw it on twitter from her phone and bought it from her phone. Hey, marketing in action. Her Etsy shop is pretty great too, check it out http://www.etsy.com/shop/mercurios

Tracy with an awesome etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/polishedtwo who recently hit 5000 sales (GASP) uses facebook a lot for her marketing. So I guess it is kind of what you are comfortable with.

What's your favorite form of active marketing and why? Submit what works for you by commenting. I'd love to hear and I'm sure others would too!
Until tomorrow, Jamie.

November Book Giveaway

I wanted to do something different and fun with my blog going into the holiday season. I thought about giving away some of my merchandise, but in the end that just is giving away my merchandise, maybe it doesn't appeal to everyone. I read around different blogs and got some ideas and decided on a book giveaway. I'm really going to theme the whole month around it.

I have added an Amazon Carrousel to the sidebar of my blog. In it are books that appeal to lots of different people and they are all books that I have some sort of connection with. Blogging for Bliss, The Power of Positive Thinking, The Road, The Vegetarian Lion, Friday Night Knitting Club, and Crazy Quilting the Complete Guide. One person will win their choice of any of these books. Three other entrants will win my best selling business card cozy from my shop DestinationHandmade.

How to Enter?
There are many ways you can enter and more will be posted throughout the month.
1. Follow my blog (simple!)
2. Tweet the contest, please include @retrochique in your tweet so I can find it.

Let me know by commenting that you followed/and or tweeted.

Stay tuned during the month for more ways to enter, reviews on all the books and book related gift guides!
Have a great day! Jamie.

Twitter and Branding, Casual Cottage

First of all Thanks ! to all of you at Creative Bloggers and your lovely posts regarding my blog last week. For those of you new to blogging it is a great group that really helps you out in the "blogosphere".

Next I'd like to talk a little bit about twitter and promoting your craft business. I just visited Marilyn's blog Cottage Reflections . Her current post is about her revamped website, Casual Cottage. The new graphics are super cute, but the first thing I noticed is that her twitter avatar matches the graphics on her website. She also is promising a revamp to her blog, so I bet that will match too! What does that have to do with twitter? Well she is being consistent in her marketing, I immediately made the connection between her, her website, her tweets and blog, it is a nice clean, consistent presence that is not confusing. Every time you see her avatar you are being reinforced with an image that will lead to familiarity, comfortability and hopefully more clicks and sales. So while it is essential on tools like twitter to give back to your audience, really we are all there to create our own brand, something that Marilyn is well on her way to doing and something yours truly needs to work on!

Twittering or Not?

Since I'm sort of new to the online promotion and marketing of my etsy store, I thought I would review some of the things I come across as I journey along that road. It has been an eye opening experience so far. Today I'll post about Twitter.

Twitter is something I came across in an etsy thread. The author was raving that it was the only thing she could actually say she had gotten a sale from. I looked at it and it really seemed harmless. You make a short profile and poof you are twittering. Like magic people will "follow" you. Basically all that means is that when you make an entry on your home page it will appear on theirs. If you elect to "follow" them back, their entries will appear on your page. You end up with a page full of random and not so random comments on everything from merchandise to what to have for dinner. There is an @ function so you can reply to someone specific but it still appears on all your follows pages.

Entries are called updates and are limited to 140 characters. Most etsy sellers that I have run across use it to promote their merchandise posts, treasuries and blogs. Some are manic about it and definitely tire you out. Some are very sincere and don't overuse it. Then there is a group of "marketing gurus" that tirelessly post useless things that most of us as sellers have already thought of. There is your sprinkling of really scary people too.

Bottom Line - Twitter is a fun social networking thing that can get you clicks if that is what you are after. I haven't had any sales from it, but have met some really creative people and had fun online with it. It tends to suck up time. If you have limited time, for sales, put your time elsewhere: If you are looking for a fun diversion that might help defray stress, intro you to new sellers etc it is well worth it.

First Post!

Well, this is my first post! I am starting to try as many things as I can to promote my etsy shop, or really rather the items I make. I am a SAHM that spent 18 years in corporate America but left when hubby's business ate up so much of his time I couldn't work anymore. I have an 18 year old at Kansas City Art Institute, and a 10 and 12 year old. Now that they are older I have time to craft!

I have joined Twitter, UWIB and am really open to smart things that don't muck up other people's time and mailboxes. If anyone reads this and has other ideas, let me know! Thanks to all the new people I have met and have responded to me in the cyber crafty community!

J.