Simply Shiny Life

I discovered some previously unused gold fill wire when I was organizing my work space last weekend. I’d forgotton I’d purchased it and it had been unused and unloved for nearly a year.

So, what is gold filled wire? According to Rings & Things  ”gold fill (also called gold overlay) is made by using heat and pressure to apply a layer of karat gold to a base of less costly metal. This produces a surface with karat gold. The minimum layer of karat gold must equal at least 1/20 of the total weight of the item. Tubing and wire are usually seamless, so only gold touches the body.

What’s the difference between gold plate and gold fill?
Gold fill is 50 to 100,000 times thicker than regular gold plating, and about 17 to 25,000 times thicker than heavy gold electroplate. ”

It looks really nice against some gorgeous labradorite cube beads I’ve been saving, as well as some huge black iridescent peacock pearls.

A nice change from my usual sterling silver, don’t you think? Both pairs are available in my artfire and etsy shops.

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Pat, from Patspotpourri on etsy, made an interesting and informative post in the etsy forums last week about marketing. She offers some very good advice that is worth sharing again. With her permission, I am reposting it in its entirety.

“In marketing that is primarily visual, it’s helpful to remember these 5 basic steps to successful selling:

1. Attract the attention of potential customers

With Etsy, this translates to listing intermittently throughout the day or week, to keep your shop from sinking to the back pages.

This also translates to getting on search engines with effective use of tag words that people might actually USE to search for your product. (Eg. you might think your product is tantalizing–but don’t use that for a tag word. Tag with the most common descriptors used for your product.)

Effective use of other forms of advertising opportunities (blogs, etc.); many of you already do this well

2. Arouse customer interest.

With Etsy, the best way you can do this (I think) is with totally excellent pictures. Etsy is all about EYE CANDY. It’s the 21st century window shopping experience. So get to know that “tulip” symbol on your digital camera! (It’s the setting that allows you to take photos close-up without blurring.) Your photo should not simply be well-lit and distinct; it should ENTICE. Make people slobber. Put that jewelry on a backdrop of draped satin–don’t put it on a fussy background that camouflages it, and don’t put it on the family room carpet (you’d be amazed how much cat hair and dirt shows up with the zoom feature).

3. Create desire.

Here’s where you appeal to the customer’s emotional side; you appeal to the ‘need’ or desire of your target market. Not only that, but you word your description in such a way as to enable your customer to begin to visualize your product as attending to that felt need or desire. *This means you don’t spend all your time talking about your product (size, color, materials); you do spend some time talking about the customer. (Did you know that the word “you” is one of the most powerful sales words?) So, even if it seems corny, “you’ll feel like a million bucks in this gown” or “your baby will be cozy as well as adorable in this knit-with-love hat” is an important part of this third step.

4. Win the confidence of your customer.

With Etsy, I think that’s probably most often achieved through feedback, forum participation and other communication venues, and personal customer service (eg. communication, careful packaging). It’s also vitally important to have store policies which are friendly, courteous, and customer-oriented. (Hint: telling potential customers in all capital letters what you ‘will not tolerate’ does not inspire confidence.)

5. Induce the decision to buy.

If you’ve broken down the sales barriers by doing the above 4 steps, and if your product is a good one that the customer becomes convinced s/he needs, and if it is competitively priced, then they will find no good reason to resist the allure of your product, and the sale will occur.

Some things that will NOT induce your customer to buy:

- Your neediness for their business. (Don’t tell them about your husband’s joblessness, or that you’re doing this full-time unlike those other part-time Etsians, or that you’re a single mom trying to put herself through school.) Your product should be what makes the sale–and mentioning these other things actually communicates that you think you need to help it along by selling yourself, too.

- Putting down other Etsian’s products by way of promoting your own. People like to buy from nice sellers, not catty ones.

Some things that’ll make them return to your shop:

- The personal touch expected in a small business. Everybody expects quality, whether your business is big or small. But what makes some people prefer small businesses is that personal customer service that the big ones lack. So package that item with much TLC, and send a convo letting them know it’s on its way. Encourage them to tell you if it’s late arriving. Be a little mother-hennish (in a non-annoying way). And don’t forget to give appreciative feedback.

- Keep adding new inventory, even if only an item or so a day. It makes you look attentive to your shop (and then to your buyer, too).

- Watch your inventory successes and failures with an aim to providing more of what your target market wants, and less of what it doesn’t.

Hope this helps; have a great week selling, all!”

Thanks Pat! You can check out her etsy shop here

Very funny video of a Mom’s day set to the William Tell overture. And yes, I CAN relate

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I thought it might be fun to check out etsy shops of other Wichita, Kansas artisans. Seems as though we’re quite the eclectic creating crew here in the Flyover region.  Check out a sample of some of the local talent. 

Folk.etsy.com
“My name is Leanne, and I LOVE to make things (especially things that are sewn).

I love Victorian, gothic, circus couture and steampunk clothing, along with hippie clothing and styles of the ’60s…and, for that matter, the 1860s. I like leather, lace, brocade and sari fabrics. I am a knitter, and am dabbling in hand spinning at the moment. I also bellydance, and am currently digging the burlesque tribal fusion style. I love books and corsets and goats and Kansas sunsets. I like the idea of being green, but still have a long way to go. I used to paint quite a bit but, unfortunately, have been doing a lot less than I would like to admit.”

Rosewater – Bamboo and Organic Cotton Dress for Spring

Duchess: A pair of lacey lace gauntlets

Bees Living In Trees

ArtByCat.etsy.com
“I’m Cat. I love to create – everything! My mind wanders day by day to a new project but my heart is in art. Drawing, painting – creating. Thanks for stopping by!

All my digital Prints are scaleable vector grahics which means I can print them at any size needed from 8×10 inches to wall mural size.”
Red Eyed Tree Frog Lounging Sexy On a Flower 11 x 14 Print

Schnauzer Pop Art Print11 x 14 inches

KirkyLady.etsy.com
“I’m a stay at home mom, homeschooling my four children, and playing with fiber whenever I have the chance. I believe in excellence in workmanship and materials, and I love every opportunity to be creative with my craft.”
FOREST LEAVES HANDSPUN SHAWL Merino Wool, Hand Knit

CAMPFIRE 280 yds Handspun Yarn Corriedale Wool

NOTECARDS Kool Aid Yarn Set of 6

Lovely items, huh? Be sure to check out their shops on etsy.

I found this HUGE yellow lemon quartz briolette in my gemstone stash last weekend.  I’m not normally a fan of yellow. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I only own one yellow shirt.  But, the gentle yellow color of this faceted stone looks really lovely against the antiqued sterling wire I wrapped it in.  I left the wrapping pretty simple…the stone makes enough statement I think. Don’t you?  The pale yellow color reminds me of baby chicks and just makes me all the more ready for spring.

I loved the Carol Burnett show. Comic genius. This is a classic outtake.
FFFNORKA…

Happy Friday everyone.

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I’ve been a fan of Orion Designs for a while now. Vicki, whom I’ve profiled previously, is a fellow member of the Etsy Artisan Beader’s Street Team. While she creates lovely, classic handmade gemstone jewelry, my favorites are her funky and eclectic mixed media pieces.

She uses metal, like patinated copper, mixes in a bit of decorative paper and an acrylic topper to create original works of art like the Expect More necklace  pictured below.

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I know I’ve posted about this before, but it bears repeating…

Are your handmade item titles on etsy written in a way that your items can be easily found by your potential shoppers in google search results? 

Ask yourself: If you were a shopper, what search terms would YOU use to find your stuff?

Ask your friends..what words would THEY use if they were searching for your items? Show them a picture of your work without telling them it’s name or materials. Ask your friends what words they’d use if they were using Google to find something similar. TAKE GOOD NOTES.

After you have your list of search terms, utilize them in your item titles. And be consistent.  With EVERY item. Optimally, you will use the same format for each and every title.

And when I say consistent, I mean that your item title structure follows the same pattern ALWAYS. Depending on what kind of handmade good you sell, you may want to mix it up a bit, but for me, my handmade jewelry titles take this format:

ARTSY FARTSY NAME – Handmade (or Artisan or both) and then the Descriptive Phrase that a buyer would use to find it when searching so for instance. Make sure you include color in this phrase as well as the materials.

Want before and after examples? I browsed some actual item titles on etsy and artfire for inspiration.

Example 1
Before: Three Dragonflies Bracelet
After: Three Dragonflies – Handmade Fine Silver and Blue Turquoise Dragonfly Charm Bracelet

Example 2
Before: Thank You Blue Hypnosis Card
After: Blue Hypnosis – Handmade Japanese Black and White Floral Print Thankyou Greeting Card

Example 3
Before: Flowers a Glow Clutch
After: Flowers a Glow – Handmade Yellow, Gray and Light Blue Clutch Wallet

Don’t forget to include the entire title as the first sentence of your description. Google picks this up too. 

By the way, after you’ve edited all your item titles, don’t forget to add you shop items to Google Base, Google’s shopping search tool.  Here’s an etsy forum thread to walk you through the options and configurations.

Good luck! And check out your Google Analytics stats in about a week to determine what words are working for you.

Hey etsy shop owners, want to know what treasuries you are featured and which gift guides? Check out these nifty tools at Craftopolis:

http://www.craftopolis.com/index.php?com=th

http://www.craftopolis.com/index.php?com=gg

Just enter your shop name and see where you are listed right now.
Nifty, huh?

I used wordle to generate a word cloud of my etsy shop. Wordle is “a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.”

Be forewarned if you head to the Wordle site to create your own cloud: it is mesmerizing and addictive.