News to Note: Weddings & Revised Fees

In case you haven't kept up with all of the latest news, here are a few highlights of some new things happening at Etsy.

• Wedding Registry lists are now available!  You can check it out here at Wedding Registry and read all about how it works at the Seller's Handbook. Once a member has created a registry, they will see the “Add to Registry” button below “Add to Cart” across Etsy, allowing them to add any item from the Etsy marketplace.
• Starting this week, there is a change to the listing fee for multiples of an item.  Now, sellers will only be charged $0.20 to list or renew an item, regardless of quantity.  For example, if you have listed a new item and you have 3 of them to sell, you will be charged $.20 when you list those 3.  Then it works like an auto-renew feature — when your item sells and you still have 2 left, your listing automatically renews for $0.20 and updates to say you have 2 available. If your listing sells out, the total fees are effectively the same. You can read more about the details here.
• "Showcase" style advertising will be phased out starting May 29.  Etsy has learned that Search Ads seem to have better performance for sellers than Showcase spots, nearly three times more sales per click, so they have decided to discontinue the Showcase.
• Etsy vocabulary is also getting more colourful and flavourful as they integrate British English spellings of words into the search engine mechanics.  So now if a buyer searches for "jewellery" or "jewelry", "colorful" or "colourful", all versions should work for buyers without you needing to tag your items with alternate spellings.

Words of Wisdom Series: Shipping Tips

In this new series, we ask the SASsy Mentors for their "words of wisdom" about a specific topic.  This month, we asked Celeste from CricketsCreations and Jessie from Modified for quick tips about shipping: time saving ideas or things they wished they knew when they were first starting out.

• Buy your shipping supplies in bulk. Even though it may seem like 200 or 500 bubble envelopes is too many, they can be SO much cheaper this way in the long run.  Also, mailing an envelope is often less expensive and has shorter transit time than using a box.  Try the biodegradable, eco-friendly and recycled products in all different sizes offered by EcoEnclose.
• Put your return address on a few dozen envelopes when you have a little bit of down time. This task may seem like it doesn't take much, but it will definitely save you time in the long run.  You could also get a return address stamp made, like these cute ones from lettergirl.
• When establishing the cost for shipping, don't underestimate the actual costs. Keep in mind the cost of boxes, labels, envelopes, tape and any other supplies. It's important to make sure you're not losing money on shipping!
• Shoppers love getting free or discounted shipping, even if you make the money back by charging a bit more for your actual items. Especially popular are, "The more you buy, the more you save," opportunities, such as combined shipping where additional items cost less or nothing to ship after the customer pays full shipping on the first item.   (Combined shipping is easy to set up in your shop!)
• Afraid of losing money on international postage? One strategy is to charge the highest amount to "Everywhere Else" to make sure that you're covered, then you can refund any shipping overages back to the customer. An example of a country that's more expensive to ship to from the US is Australia, so you could base your "everywhere else" rates on USPS estimated Australia prices.  Make note of this in your shop policies.
• For small lightweight items, invest in a small postal scale of your own.  You can weigh your packaged items at home; check the rate at USPS.com; add postage stamps (which you can get in many denominations) and drop them in a drive through mailbox, skipping the trip to the post office.
• Make yourself a "shipping station" with all of your supplies in one place so you don't have to spend 10 minutes trying to figure out where you put the tape.  This also helps you see when you are getting low on envelopes and other supplies at a glance so you can stock up before your busy seasons.

Polish Your Photos Series: Quick Tip #4 Macro Mode

Sometimes the way to fix your photos isn't with Photoshop, but the trick is to change a setting on your camera so that it is taking the right kinds of photos.  It is really important to have close up detail images of the work that you are trying to sell in your Etsy shop.  I often see that those close up shots are blurry and completely out of focus, but that can be easy to fix!

Take a look at the buttons on the back of your camera and see if you can find a picture of a tulip.

This tulip is the icon for "Macro Mode".  When I push that button on my camera, it lets me switch between regular and macro mode.

Try switching modes and taking your close up photos in "macro mode".  Macro mode tells the camera that you are trying to take a close up shot of something and it re-adjusts the way it focuses.  Here are a couple of examples.  These are basically exactly the same photo (same lighting, same distance, same camera settings) except one is in regular mode (left) and one is set to macro mode (right).  (Oops!  You can even see the dog hair in macro mode.)

Not every camera is going to have a macro mode, but it is a very common feature.  Sometimes you will find the tulip icon on a button or dial on the back or top of the camera.  Sometimes you might need to dig through the menus to find it.  If in doubt, check your owners manual.

After a brief hiatus, the Polish your Photos Series is back! Click here to see the rest of the series.  About the author: Becka is a geek for fiber art and technology.  She is the co-Captain of the SASsy mentors team.

Ways to Connect with Customers: QR Codes

Hello!  I am a QR Code.

You have probably started seeing these little codes popping up everywhere lately: on products, flyers, advertisements.  But what are they for?  QR stands for "quick response" code.  It is a kind of bar code that can be read by lots of devices like smart phones.  (You do need to have a QR reader app on your phone in order to read QR codes, but there are lots of free ones that are easy to download.  Just search for "QR reader".)

The way it works is that you scan the code with your device and it can do all kinds of things, like take you to a website or send you a coupon code. You can even do things a little outside of the box.  For a gallery exhibition, I created a piece of embroidered art that had the QR code as part of the design.  If you scanned the embroidered piece itself, the QR code would send you to a blog page that was a journal documenting the piece, showing all the steps of making and embroidering it.

Some ways you might want to use QR codes:  The QR code above links you to my etsy shop.  The one below brings up a message that gives you an example of free shipping coupon code.  I can save these QR images and print them on my business cards, put stickers on my packaging, or print them on flyers or postcards that I hand out.  You could even go crazy and print one as a door magnet on your car or wear it as a brooch - anywhere you think someone might scan it.

It is easy to get QR codes for yourself! Visit http://qrcode.kaywa.com/  (This is just one example, there are other sites that will also generate them.)  Type in the information you would like the code to link to. Save the image and you are ready to go. (Click to see image larger)

The example above goes just to my main shop, but you could also make codes that link directly to a specific section or even a single item by grabbing that URL and making a code from that.  You could link to your Facebook Page or the form to sign up for your mailing list.  It's a quick way to get someone directly to your information without having to remember and type in a long complicated URL.  Here's a great link for more ideas on how you can use QR codes: http://youtu.be/QjNh2NGALpM

Author: Becka Rahn is a fiber artist and co-Captain of the Sellers Assisting Sellers Mentoring Team.

Policy Change: SASsy Critiques Forum

Because of the huge number of requests we have been receiving, the SASsy Critiques forum is no longer able to offer full critiques.  The time commitment for doing full critiques is more than our team can sustain and so we need to revise the rules of the critiques forum.

We are still very interested in answering your questions, so we therefore request that you:

• read and fully apply the Critique Your Own Shop (as you agreed to when joining the team)
• read and apply the General Full Critique (at the top of discussion thread)

Once you have completed those steps, then please post questions by starting your own thread. The questions need to be specific to an area or item in your shop. For example, "Can you please give me some feedback about my photos?  I think they are too dark and I don't know how to fix that."  This will enable Mentors will specific expertise to provide the best advice in response to your question.

Please note that it will take anything from a week or more for questions to be answered so please be patient. We know you are there and will get back to you soon.


Thank you!  If you have any questions about this new process, please feel free to post them here.