Colors of Summer

It's only a week away, but Chat team members have been in the summer spirit for months, and their shops are brimming with the hot colours for the new season.

Examples (top to bottom) from Team members Flowerleaf, Vintagefix, and PatrisCorner.

Inspiration in Hospital

I'm finally home after 27 fun-filled days in hospital (recovering nicely, thank you!), and pleased to share one of my happy entertainments during those many long days: watching episodes of an inspiring PBS series called Craft In America. 

With my laptop and the hospital's WiFi network, I was all set to revisit some favourite episodes I'd seen in the past, and watch some that were new to me too. 

The videos for this and many other PBS series are available here, another great reason for supporting public TV, wherever you live. 

Meet Team Members...Apron Makers

Can Etsians find sales success with a relatively narrow specialty? Two of our Team members, georgiamarbles and prettylittlepearl are both doing very nicely by focusing their creative efforts on aprons.

prettylittlepearl, whose crisp and consistent photography and cohesive shop highlight her stylish aprons, also sell patterns and tutorials, but every item in her shop is an apron, or apron-related.

georgiamarbles, in her almost three years as an Etsy seller, has also specialized in aprons - for adults and children, ready made and custom, and in a variety of styles. Although there are also dolls and tutus in her shop, it's aprons that come though loud and clear, including in her fun retro shop banner.

We'd love to hear from other apron-making Team members, and sellers who have targeted a special market; add your comment!

So you're having a SALE?

Well, you're not alone! It might be a coupon code, or items marked down in your shop, but it's going to be most successful if you let potential buyers know about it.

A wander through our list of Chat Team members shows how some are putting their Etsy avatars to work as tiny 75x75-pixel billboards, advertising their sales throughout the site.

Since avatars go with us everywhere - shops, chat, forums, teams, convos - it makes sense to use them well. The sellers above have incorporated a Sale message in their avatars; some add a graphic to item photos, and Etsy offers free ready-made avatars, avatar layers, and Sale banners, here.

Avatars (left to right) from StoliGal, SimpliMandi, ampeefyed, thejewelrydream, and item photo from Cabin.

Meet Team Member hjmart

Artist and Chat Team member hjmart is a great example for artists and other sellers. Check out her listings to see how she:

Photographs 2D Artwork - showing her work in room settings and with customer-friendly angles.

Broadens the Target Audience with Tiered Product Lines - originals, prints, collages, tags and gift certificates. With products and prices from $5 to $259, there's something for every buyer.

Fun and useful apps for Etsians

If you've ever used Craftopolis to batch edit your listings, or put EtsyHacks to work downloading shop data in your choice of format, or maybe tracked item views and hearts with CraftCult, you've seen apps for Etsy in action.

While these three are some of the best known apps using the Etsy API (Application Programming Interface), they're just the tip of the app iceberg! Smart developers have used the Etsy API to create dozens of apps for sellers, buyers and mobile devices.

See the ever-growing list here, and please add your personal apps recommendations in the Comments.

Images of critter USB drives from chatter hemingwayfun, thanks!

Inspiration - Between the Folds

This film aired on PBS a while ago, and although it's about origami as art, craft, business and mathematics, it's also generally inspiring for anyone to see what awesome results can be achieved with such basic materials. For those who have Netflix, the film's available there.

Quit Your Day Job - somavenus

A couple of weeks ago Chat Team member somavenus made her appearance as Etsy's latest Quit Your Day Job success story. Read her interview to learn how she made it happen, where she's going next, and get some tips that could work for other creative people. Congratulations, somavenus!

Do you hope to make your art or craft work, Vintage selling or Supplies business a full-time venture? Tell us your plans, in the comments.

Meet Team Member dualchocolate

Another fine example of an Etsy shop whose different categories of items are harmoniously combined into a cohesive look, thanks to some common materials and excellent photos. Visit dualchocolate's shop here, or get to know her in Chat!

Meet Chat Regular staceyrebecca

It's just days until her fifth anniversary with Etsy, and that's as good a reason as any to introduce puppet-maker and Chatter staceyrebecca.
No one writes a funnier item description, or child safety warning for that matter (check out Horatio The Bunny).

Shape up #2 - Customer service is always in season

We've all had some wonderful experiences shopping online, but also some that turned out to be not so great. And while the product is certainly a big part of what makes one purchase rock, and another sink like a stone, customer service is something that can make or break a sale, however fabulous the item.

This article from the Seller Handbook lists the writers' Top 10 Customer Service Strategies, and they have some great advice. It's part of a bigger series Service Tips for Sellers with info on everything from communication and complaints to shipping and selling vintage.

In Chat recently there was a discussion about how something as basic as replying to convos is an effective sales and service strategy that can pay off - Team member jmaeson answered an out-of-the-blue convo that lead to a custom order for 60 items!

Please share your customer service stories, good and bad, in the comments.


Images from KatyBitsandPieces and WinsomeTreasures, thanks!