The Power of One

Photo by Leo Reynolds

1. You don't have to be good at everything; all you need is to be really good at one thing.

2. You don't have to try to sell to everyone; all you need is to find one person for each of your products.

3. You don't have to compete with everyone; all you need is to be the only one that sells what you're selling.

How to Beat Low Views

Photo by Rammikins!

Everyday, there are at least some complaints on the Etsy forums that views and sales are down. As an Etsy seller, do you join in and complain, or do you think it's better to spend the time to do something productive instead?

I don't know about you, but I would take some time and ask myself this: If my product is entitled to only five (or three, or two) views, how can I make it and present it so that by the time the fifth (or third, or second) person views it, it would be sold.

How to Get More Sales on Etsy

The first of a series of Etsy Marketing Flow Charts I'll be posting regularly.

What to Do for Your Business in Slow Times

Photo by nutmeg66

In business, there are good times as well as slow times. Nobody wants to go through the latter if he can helps, but like it or not, that's inevitable. You can whine, complain and blame everything under the sun for all you like, or you can take the opportunity to do something during these slow times to prepare yourself for the future. Here are 5 tips on what you can do when times are slow. I hope you find something useful!

1. Re-evaluate Your Business

Step back and take a good look at your shop. Not only you should try to see what you have been doing right, you should also try to find out which areas of your business you can improve on.

2. Work on Something which You Have Always Wanted to

Do you have a project in mind which you could never find the time to do? Instead of wasting your time fretting over the slow times, why not get yourself busy and start working on that project that has been in your back burner all this while?

3. Catch Up with Your Past Customers

Drop an email to your past customers and let them know what you have been up to and invite them to visit your shop by offering them some special offers.

4. Learn a New Skill

To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to keep learning. I would grab the chance to learn something new when times are slow.

5. Plan for the Future

The slow times will go away, but no one is sure it won't come back. It's your responsiblity to make sure that the next time it returns, you're better prepared for it! The only way to make sure of that is to plan ahead for the future. Be it a new marketing plan, better product design, or improved customer service, you can only win by being prepared.

3 Lessons I've Learned about Selling on Etsy

Photo by Chris Campbell

Time flies. It seems like not very long ago when I first signed on to become a member on Etsy. That was February 07, 2006 - which was almost four years and three months ago! I sold my first item on January 17, 2007 - almost a year after I registered as a member. For the record, this was the first thing I sold on Etsy: Zodiac Monsters micro booklet / zine. Price: $0.50.

I certainly did not expect to sell my 2,866th item three years after selling that very first item. Along the way, I had made a few mistakes and learned a few valuable lessons. Today, I would like to share some of the lessons I picked up from the past three years as a seller on Etsy:

1. Nothing is Easy

Trust me, it does not become easier for you as you become more experienced selling on Etsy. You need to work as hard now as you were from the very beginning. As more and more people start to sell on Etsy, the competition becomes stronger. Start to relax and rest on your laurels and your competitors will overtake you in no time.

2. Change with the Time

In 2007, when I first started selling on Etsy, social media networks like Facebook were still in its infancy, and Twitter had not even existed. Blogging was the only thing we did. Fast forward to 2010, we now have a hundred and one social marketing tools on the web at our disposal! I would have been dead if I didn't try to keep up with the time.

3. Never Give Up

It's never easy for your morale when you saw your sales dipped on certain months and you felt like the end of the world. The easy way out was to close your shop and do something else. That's what many sellers who started out around the same time as me did when things didn't work out for them; the few who refused to give up are those who went on to sell thousands of items and became the top sellers on Etsy today.