Top 10 Most Useful Articles for Your Etsy Shop and Website

As an Etsy shop owner and founder of a new non-profit online boutique I’ve done hours upon hours of online research on just about every aspect of my businesses. Now I want to pass on this valuable information to you! Below is a list of my top ten most useful articles to help grow and develop your Etsy business. Above all though, the #1 best way to success is experience and A LOT of hard work!

Be sure to check out my blog for more useful articles and tips: http://uncoveredartistry.blogspot.com

Good luck!

Sarah

La SuaVoce Designs

Uncovered Artistry Boutique

www.uncoveredartistry.com

1. How to Make an Inexpensive Light Tent- Absolutely the best advice I can give anyone struggling with photos! I used to wait for the right light, the right day, and the right location to take my pictures. Now I just flip on the desk lamp over my light box and get going! And the pictures hardly need any editing. Did I mention I have a tiny, inexpensive digital camera too? See it to believe it! Look below for photographs I took with the new light box.

http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent

2. Selling Your Work Wholesale: Tips, Resources, and Links- This is a forum post I wrote a few months back that features a compilation of useful tips and articles for the crafter who is ready to go wholesale. http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6249261

3. Why Your Story is Everything- In the handmade sector, your story really is everything. You aren’t just selling your products, you are selling yourself! This podcast is a good reminder of this and gives its listeners some sound advice on creating and communicating your own unique story. To see an example of Uncovered Artistry’s story follow this link: http://www.uncoveredartistry.com/About_Us.html

http://www.craftypod.com/2010/07/02/craftypod-118-why-your-story-is-everything-with-tara-gentile/

4. 100 Blog Followers in One Month: Tips for Getting new Blog Followers- Written by a fellow Etsy seller, this forum post has great advice for getting followers to your blog. Plus you gotta love this author! Her blog is one of the most interesting I’ve ran across.

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6461436

5. Maintain Confidence in a Competitive Market- An inspiring article that helped me get out of a rut.

http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/06/biz-ladies-maintain-confidence-in-a-competitive-market.html

To view the rest of this article, please visit our new blog at:

http://uncoveredartistry.blogspot.com/2010/07/top-10-most-useful-articles-for-your.html

Tips for Social Networking- Small Businesses

The first thing a start-up business can do is establish its social networking sites online. Social networking sites, like Facebook, Twitter, and Blogspot, provide small (and even large) business with effective free marketing tools. The first thing we did—before we received our grant—was create this blog. We’ve had blog experience with our previous business (La SuaVoce Designs suavoce.etsy.com). We found that by writing a helpful or interesting blog post once a week or so brought traffic to our blog and consequently to our online shop.


• We suggest using blogspot.com because they allow people to “follow” your blog. This means that when your followers sign into their blogspot.com accounts, the title and first few lines of your more recent blog post will appear on their home page...

Want to read on for more advice about social networking? Check out the rest of this article at our newest blog: http://uncoveredartistry.blogspot.com

Sarah
La SuaVoce Designs
Uncovered Artistry Boutique

Selling Your Work Wholesale: Resources, Tips, Links, and Checklist

I'm reposting a post from a few months ago because I think the information is valuable and because my sister and I (after taking time to focus on school) decided to work on going wholesale again. Hope it is helpful!

Wholesale Resources

Are you ready to start selling wholesale? We are, so we did some research and we’d like to share! Here are some great blogs, forum posts, and articles that provide valuable information about selling wholesale.

If you’re shy and don’t think you’re up to visiting stores, check out this forum post: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6201294

This great two part blog post provides information about pricing, quantity, and communicating with retailers:
Part I: http://qbranchltd.blogspot.com/2008/02/selling-wholesale-part-i.html
Part II: http://qbranchltd.blogspot.com/2008/02/selling-wholesale-part-ii.html

A thorough article about beginning to sell your artisan work wholesale. Includes a number of helpful links:
http://www.indiepublic.com/profiles/blogs/946391:BlogPost:510081

Our Checklist for Preparing to Sell Wholesale:
*Check out the links above and throughout this post for more information to supplement our checklist (some of the terms were unfamiliar to us until we read the information provided in all these links!)*

1. Prepare Etsy shop (and blog, etc.) for wholesale
-adjust prices to be RETAIL prices (double wholesale price for retail price)
*Tips on pricing wholesale:
http://www.helium.com/items/622909-tips-for-pricing-your-handmade-crafts
-make it known that we are interested in selling wholesale
-make it easy for retailers to contact us
-provide a “request form” in blog and Etsy store

2. Create a linesheet & other “things”
-Make a wholesale linesheet
-Make pamphlet to send to far-away boutiques
-Make email template for far-away boutiques
*Specific tips on creating a linesheet:
http://www.home-jewelry-business-success-tips.com/jewelry-line-sheets.html
http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/what_is_a_line_sheet/

3. Research for retailers
-check out local fashion magazines for label names
-explore local shops (check out the yellow pages!)
-browse online

4. Call to make appointment with boutique owner

5. Be ready with wholesale price sheet and large amount of display-ready merchandise