C R A F T YB U S I N E S S byMi c he l l eRi gg e nRa ns om Hello. As a maker, a doer, a creator of homemade things in all their forms, there may come a time when you want to get your wares out into the world. What started as a hobby might become more than that, as friends and family share your goods with others and word of your awesomeness gets around. YouвЂ™ve got a gift, and gifts are meant to be shared, right? -- Michelle Riggen-Ransom has been a writer since she could hold a pen, a crafty marketer, a passionate start-up founder and a longtime MailChimp customer. Michelle got her start-up chops at Amazon.com, where she fell madly in love with the internet. SheвЂ™s written for everything from parenting blogs to BusinessWeek, and dozens of places in between. Michelle now runs SocialGlu, a communications consultancy, out of her homebase of Seattle, WA. She lives with a good dog, a bad kitten, two curious kids, and a very fun husband. 1 It Takes a Nation of Millions to Promote Your Craft A good way to begin researching is to check out handmade and craft- Thanks to the internet, youвЂ™re not alone. There are countless sites out WhatвЂ™s selling? WhatвЂ™s being featured on the homepage? Can you there for crafters and their various wares. The crafting community is as tightly knit as an angora sweater. From the self-defined вЂњcrafty hipsterвЂќ community at craftster.org to the creative readers and writers of sites like Hello Craft,В Design Sponge, Instructables, and oriented shopping sites such as Etsy, Artfire, and Urban Threads. identify a void in your potential market that your product could fill? Join the forums on these sites and listen to what people are saying there. You will learn a lot and start building an all-important community of folks who will help you along the way. Ravelry, crafters love to connect, inspire, and showcase what they make, sharing stories about their success along the way. There are almost as many cool tools to help you run your business as there are craft sites out there, which is a good thing, but it can be pretty overwhelming when youвЂ™re just getting started. To make things more manageable, weвЂ™re breaking this guide into short sections, each one focused on a specific aspect of starting a craftbased business. If youвЂ™re already awesome at what youвЂ™re making and youвЂ™re looking to turn your crafting into a legit business, this is the guide for you. Whooo are You? (Who Who, Who Who?) Participating in TweetChats is another good way to glean information. A recent Twitter discussion on #crafterminds (sponsored by Crafterminds and held every Monday at 4 p.m. EST) focused on whether or not you should develop a niche for your craft blog. Past topics have included taking good product photos, SEO basics and adding text to your product images. All really useful stuff from people who are immersed in craft business. You also need to decide early on if you are going to focus on selling your product retail or wholesale. If youвЂ™re just getting started, it may make sense to create some of your product and see how it does (and how you do) in both spaces. [photo by Kristie Gagner] a la mode owner Linda Demers has tried both avenues to sell One of the first things you should ask yourself is this: Who are you started selling her upcycled handbags and messenger bags at local hoping to market to? How will you present yourself to appeal to her unique, urban-inspired jewelry and home decor. She first boutiques, where she had some connections. However, the growing these folks? Who is going to buy your product? success of her products meant having to scale up and produce a lot Maybe youвЂ™re making robot salt and pepper shakers out of upcycled Demers, who briefly tried outsourcing the sewing of the bags but tin. There are several types of folks who might be interested in purchasing this item: robot collectors, fans of Americana or green dishware, gourmet cooks. Each of these potential buyers is a market segment. This means they likely hang out in different places, read more quickly. вЂњIt was hard to sit down and make 300 bags,вЂќ says ended up taking it back. вЂњI ultimately decided it was something I didnвЂ™t want to focus on.вЂќ She is now selling directly on her own site as well as on Etsy, and is very happy with the direction her business is going. different blogs, shop at different stores. Knowing who might buy your product will help guide the choices you make when setting the direction for your new business. 2 Jessica Partain, who runs Inedible Jewelry with her sister Of course, branding is much more than choosing a company Susan, says she does both retail and wholesale by scheduling name. YouвЂ™ll need to come up with a logo, decide what colors you work around selling times. For instance, in August when retail want to use, design a website, and order business cards to help is slow, they focus on wholesale orders as stores get ready for spread the word. All of these are crucial elements in creating the the holidays. In the fall when wholesale orders slow, retail sales public image of what your company will beвЂ”the brand of you! pick up. This gives them much-needed control over what they are required to produce. If you are interested in checking out Fortunately, there are tools that can help you with all of this, wholesale options, try sites like wholesalecrafts.com and trunkt. too. Not an artist but need a logo? Check out 99designs, which will work with designers to create a selection of logos for you Whatever path you choose to sell your product, researching your to choose from. Need to put some colors together to see what potential market is key. ItвЂ™s one of the most important steps to looks best? Try ColorPicker, and experiment with a few simple take when establishing your business. clicks. Or, upload a picture that you like to Pictaculous, and let it generate a snazzy palette based on the colors from your photo. Strike Up the Brand Before you set up a website, make business cards, or even create a sign for a craft-show booth, you need a name for your business. This can be a huge task in itself, as your company name should consist of all of the following: вЂў Meaningful to You: ItвЂ™s your company, after all! вЂў Easy to Spell/Remember: You may know that Hephaestus is the Greek god of fire and metalworking, but sheesh, thatвЂ™s tough to spell. Keep it simple so youвЂ™re not creating unnecessary Cindy Tollen, вЂњChief Bubble WranglerвЂќ of soap purveyor, SudzвЂ™nвЂ™Bubbles, says she couldnвЂ™t believe the difference after she got a professional logo and chose a color palette to start tying her merchandising together. Early on she made the вЂњbig mistakeвЂќ of trying to create her own logo. Once she hired someone to create her (now signature) pink polka-dot logo and started branding around it at local craft shows, Tollen says she saw a big increase in sales. вЂњPeople were drawn in by how professional the booth looked,вЂќ she says. вЂњNow people recognize and seek me out because I stand out.вЂќ roadblocks for people who are trying to find you online and otherwise. вЂў Related to Your Product: In a crowded marketplace, you need to identify exactly what you sell. вЂў Availability: Google your potential name and see what comes up. If thereвЂ™s already a business with your name,В try again. No need to confuse people. If itвЂ™s available, buy the URL even if you are not 100% sure you want itвЂ”better safe than sorry. TIP: You can buy website domains on the relative cheap via sites like Namecheap, Network Solutions, and Pear. Consider purchasing your URL for at least two yearsвЂ”you donвЂ™t want to finally get your business up and running than have to deal with an expiring domain. You should also grab the Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr account names even if youвЂ™re not ready to start using those services. TheyвЂ™re all free and easy, and youвЂ™ll be prepared when youвЂ™re ready to begin using social media. [photo via MOO.com] For business cards, we canвЂ™t say enough good things about MOO cards, especially for crafters. MOO allows you to make regular sized or вЂњminiвЂќ cards featuring different photos of your product on the front and your contact details on the back. Not only will people have your contact information, theyвЂ™ll be able to see at a glance what it is you do. TIP: Make sure you stay вЂњon brand,вЂќ using the same fonts, colors, and writing style across your various platforms. This will reinforce your marketing messages, help people recognize your company, and make you look more professional. 3 Your Tea Cozy is a Centerfold ItвЂ™s Business Time Good pictures are important. In the visually-focused and fickle YouвЂ™ve got a great name and logo, youвЂ™ve done market research world of online shopping, there is nothing more essential than making sure youвЂ™re showcasing your product in literally the best light possible. Crappy pictures mean no buyers, and no buyers means youвЂ™ve wasted a lot of your precious time. In an online world, your pictures are your best advertising and are often the difference between making a sale or not. There are lots of photography resources both online and in bookstores, but here are the basics: вЂў Good Lighting: Showcasing your productвЂ™s quality is key. This is one time when you should definitely be afraid of the dark! вЂў In-Focus: A quality product needs a quality picture. Shaky hands are bad, so save that second cup of coffee for after the photo shoot. вЂў Multiple Angles: Show off what is unique or special about your product. Since people wonвЂ™t physically be able to pick it up, let them do so virtually. вЂў Get Cozy: Up close = personal. вЂў Editing: вЂњCropвЂќ is your friend. Zoom in on the best part of your photo and remove the rest. Be wary of color correcting or enhancing, as you want the pictures to be true to your actual products so your buyers wonвЂ™t be misled. вЂў When in Doubt, Take More Shots: Post the best, delete the rest. It might take some effort to get the photo youвЂ™re after, but it will be worth it to get a picture that actually helps sell the product. for your product, identified where youвЂ™d like to start selling, and snapped some fantastic product shots. Nicely done! Now, itвЂ™s time to get down to business. No successful homemade candle maker started out by saying, вЂњHey, IвЂ™d love to start collecting invoices, paying taxes and filing a bunch of paperwork for stuff!вЂќ And yet, for better or worse, when you start a business, there are certain, business-y obligations to fulfill. Before selling anything you should check with your local Chamber of Commerce or Small Business Bureau to see if you need a license to operate a small business (even if youвЂ™re the sole employee). Generally, these are not expensive and only take a week or so to obtain once you submit an application. YouвЂ™ll also want to establish a bookkeeping method to keep track of income and expenses related to the business. There are some great online tools out there to help with this, including Outright, which organizes your bank, credit-card and PayPal accounts. ThereвЂ™s also FreshBooks, which allows you to track your time and expenses and generate invoices. Another useful online service is Shoeboxed, which allows you to send in all of your business-related receipts (for supplies, shipping costs, printing, etc.) and combines them in a nicely-formatted electronic file. This will free up more space for craft supplies! And Endicia is a site that can print postage-paid shipping labels for you, and even create custom postage from your photos. Having a good customer relationship management (CRM) system in place as you start working with different suppliers, vendors, and shippers is also important. Online CRMвЂ™s like Highrise and Capsule allow you to keep track of your network as you build it so your people are as well-organized as your financials. Two web-based tools that can help manage your ideas and inspirations are Pinterest and Evernote. Pinterest is a virtual community bulletin board, where people can вЂњpinвЂќ and tag internet images that interest them, and share and comment on them with others. Evernote works similarly, but also allows you to create checklists and tasks, run a calendar and create tables and graphsвЂ”it bills itself as [photo via Inedible Jewelry] вЂњyour personal virtual assistant.вЂќ 4 Setting up good systems takes some initial work and it might take TIP: Etsy makes it easy to get started selling your goods online, some trial-and-error to see which ones work best. But as your busi- but thereвЂ™s still a lot to learn. Check out one of their bi-weekly ness grows, youвЂ™ll be glad you did it right. video chats (held every Monday and Thursday) to ask questions of company staffers. ThereвЂ™s also an Etsy mentoring program called TIP: For other business-related software listings and reviews, Team Sassy, where seasoned sellers offer feedback on your site and check out CNETвЂ™s business-software page. Most software products otherwise help you get up and running. have free trials so you can see what works best for you, and many integrate with one another to make running your business more Other online marketplace options worth checking out include Big seamless. В В Cartel, Bonanza (formerly 1000 Markets), and, of course, the site Where to Shop Your Stuff A renewed public interest in all things handmade means that sellers have many options for selling their products. From traditional craft shows and bazaars to online stores and websites, there are many that started it all, eBay (which has a вЂњCraftsвЂќ category). Your best bet is to spend some time on marketplace sites to see which ones will work best for you, join the forums, and ask around. Consign OвЂ™ the Times wonderful places where you can hang your hand-stitched hat. The Etsy Bitsy Website The grand-mommy of craft websites is, of course, Etsy. Started in 2005, it quickly became the place for buying and selling homemade and hand-crafted items. If people are making it, you can probably buy (or sell) it on Etsy. The beauty of Etsy is that it does much of the work of setting up a storefront for you. You donвЂ™t need to be a designer or know how to install shopping-cart softwareвЂ”you can just set up a seller account, upload your pictures and descriptions, and get [photo by Kerry Hawkins] to selling. Using Etsy even helps with marketing, search-engine optimization, and payments, and they offer terrific support Consignment shops and galleries are oftentimes great options for through their active user forums, a comprehensive SellerвЂ™s craft sellers. Places like Craftland, the Northwest Craft Center, and Handbook, and even video chats. Renegade Handmade sell hand-crafted items year-round, usually on a short-term basis for a percentage of the sales price. This is Nikki McGonigal, owner of Nikki, In Stitches, sells her sewing a nice sales avenue because it means getting your work in front products both on Etsy and her own site. She suggests one way to of real-life buyers without having to do the legwork of hauling get found on Etsy is to take advantage of the multiple tags you your product and display at crazy hours of the morning to set up can use when you list your products. вЂњYou can do 14 tags for each at various craft shows. They also usually handle marketing and, if itemвЂ”use every one of them!вЂќ she says. In our robot salt shaker they have an online store, sales via that channel as well. example, you could use the tags: вЂњsalt and pepper shakers,вЂќ вЂњrobots,вЂќ вЂњupcycled,вЂќ вЂњtin,вЂќ вЂњkitchen decor,вЂќ etc. Tags help you get listed in search results, so itвЂ™s important to determine what people might be searching for and tag your items appropriately. In other words: Think like a buyer. 5 Providence-based Craftland grew from a pop-up holiday craft show Some of the bigger craft shows out there are Bizarre Bazaar into a year-round store that sells everything from silkscreened (started in Boston, now also in Cleveland, San Francisco, and San t-shirts, handmade jewelry, and tiny felt animals. Devienna Mateo), Washington DCвЂ™s Crafty Bastards, and the Urban Craft Up- Anggraini, the вЂњPrincess of PowerвЂќ (AKA: inventory control) at rising show in Seattle. ThereвЂ™s also the ginormous Renegade Craft Craftland, says they sell work from about 100 different artists Fair, held every year in Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, and year-round and around 150 during the holidays. Artists submit London. an application and items are selected and curated by Craftland staffers and are generally on a trial consignment for about three A nice thing about the big craft shows is that, in addition to sell- months. Their online shop features mostly Craftland regulars and, ing your wares, there are often opportunities to give tutorials says Anggraini, вЂњWe promote a featured artist every Friday on our to attendees, participate in workshops, and otherwise network blog.вЂќ Crafters and artists who sell through Craftland set their own extensively with other crafty folks. Again, this community is very retail price and keep 60% of that price when the item sells. В В В В В inclusive, and youвЂ™ll likely make new friends and be inspired by all the cool stuff people are making. If youвЂ™re not ready to make TIP: If you go the consignment route, make sure you develop a the leap to actually selling at one of these events, find out if they good working relationship with the store owner, as this will benefit need volunteers. This is a good way see what theyвЂ™re all about, get a you both. Find out when you can expect to get paid (weekly? sense for whatвЂ™s selling, and help out other crafters without com- monthly?), and keep track of what youвЂ™ve got out there in stores in mitting to a booth. case your items donвЂ™t end up selling. Jessica Partain of Inedible Jewelry recommends showing in juried Bazaar Craft Triangle shows once you get your business established. This means you submit an applicationвЂ”which sometimes comes with an application feeвЂ”and are selected to participate by a panel of judges. вЂњYou know youвЂ™re going into a show that will have fantastic crafts,вЂќ Partain explains. вЂњAnd the types of buyers that go to these shows definitely appreciate handcrafted items more. They know the value of handmade.вЂќ Partain adds that early on in her business, the feedback she received from attendees of these shows really helped her refine her product and ultimately sell more. The downside to doing shows includes set-up and travel, which can be costly and time-consuming. You have to be comfortable doing sales, as well as talking to and working with the general buying public. Doing shows also takes you away from doing what you love, [photo via Renegade Craft Fair/Sara Wright] which is your craft. Still, for building exposure and community, itвЂ™s probably the best way to grow your business. If you enjoy meeting your customers face-to-face and want to get some relatively easy exposure to new people, bazaars, farmerвЂ™s markets, art shows and craft fairs are the way to go. Most charge a fee to set up your wares (in general, the bigger the show, the greater the cost.) And unlike selling at a gallery or even an online marketplace, vendors arenвЂ™t required to share their profits with a third party, which means more money in your pocket. 6 Your Website Your Website If youвЂ™re tech savvy and craft savvy, selling through your website One of the biggest surprises for Cindi Tollen of Sudz вЂ�nвЂ™ Bubbles or blog is a great option. ThereвЂ™s no commission to pay, no signage was how many people wanted to pay with credit cards at craft to schlep around town, no competition to be a вЂњfeaturedвЂќ item or shows, which she was initially not set up to process. вЂњIf you are artist. And shopping cart software like Shopify or ZenCart makes it expecting people to pay with cash or check at a craft show,вЂќ Tollen fairly simple to get a small store up and running. cautions, вЂњyouвЂ™re going to be losing sales.вЂќ Once she got credit-card processing in place, she found that about 90% of her sales were Of course, selling on your own means youвЂ™re also on your own purchased with plastic. when it comes to marketing your site. YouвЂ™ll have to worry about keywords, search engine optimization (SEO) and how these things affect your Google page rank. YouвЂ™d have to worry about most of that stuff regardless of what platform you choose, but many crafters opt to do the selling at an established marketplace rather than run their own retail sites. Ultimately, the choice is up to you, and it may be helpful to talk to other crafters in your field to see whatвЂ™s worked best for them. Money: ItвЂ™s a Gas The biggest difference between making products for people you know and the general buying public mostly comes down money. Whether youвЂ™re looking to supplement your income with some additional pocket change or are hoping to turn your crafting into a full-blown career, youвЂ™ll have some important financial decisions to make. What payment options youвЂ™ll accept, where youвЂ™ll sell your product, and determining pricing are all crucial factors in establishing your business. Kristie Gagner, a longtime crafter, began her foray into selling her handmade cards at gift shows and farmerвЂ™s markets. She says her biggest challenge was pricing her product right. вЂњSmaller items like cards have a price ceiling,вЂќ Gagner says. вЂњEven though it took me a long time to make the cards, you really canвЂ™t sell them for very much.вЂќ She recommends calculating the cost of materials it takes to make something, adding an hourly rate for the time it takes you to make something and arriving at a per-item price. If this is higher than what you can realistically sell the item for, maybe you should go a different route. Gagner ultimately decided the card business wasnвЂ™t worth the time and effort, and is now starting a family-friendly portrait-photography business. В [photo via Square] A credit-card imprinter can be bought from a bank or an online merchant. The imprinter, custom plates (which have your business name on them) and imprint slips will cost you about $50 total. Tollen, like many other crafters, now uses Square, an application that allows you to accept credit-card payments via your mobile phone. She initially tried running cards with a traditional swiper, but thought the process too cumbersome and distracting. Plus, it took valuable face time away from her customers. She also tried the PayPal virtual terminal, but found it too expensive. вЂњSquare has been great,вЂќ Tollen says. вЂњWe run the Square app on an iPad and have found it to be easy and actually a great conversation piece!вЂќ Square provides you with a nifty little reader that turns your iPhone, Android or iPad into an on-the-spot card processor. You can request the reader and download the software on SquareвЂ™s website. 7 PayPal and Google Checkout To Market, to Market PayPal has become an industry-standard for processing online Marketing your product is probably the single most important payments. Depending on what plan you choose, PayPal will handle both your payments and your invoicing. Because so many people use it (94.4 million, according to the serviceвЂ™s site), itвЂ™s become a straightforward and trusted option for people looking to transact online. Google also entered the payments space with Google Checkout. Their fees are comparable to PayPalвЂ™s, so which one you go with depends largely on personal preference and your specific needs. part of your new business. It also takes the most effort. It doesnвЂ™t matter how cozy your knitted baby hats are or how much feathered creatures love your hand-painted birdhouses if no one knows about them, and an unvisited Etsy shop is just as depressing as an overlooked card table at a craft show. Whether you are selling online or in person, youвЂ™ve got to get peopleвЂ™s attention, connect with them, and make them want to give you their hard-earned cash. В Successfully marketing your wares could comprise a whole guide unto itself, but weвЂ™ve got a few ideas on what you can do to help get Taxman your name out there. Understanding whether or not you need to charge tax on your sales Crafter B. Goode is important. In general, youвЂ™re responsible for collecting sales tax for any state in which you operate. This means if you do a show in New York but live in Kansas, you have to charge New York state taxes on your products sold at the show and submit a sales tax return to New York. Online sales made in the state where you do business have to reflect a sales tax for your state, which, depending on the state, are required to be filed monthly, quarterly, or annually. Sales tax audits on small businesses are not uncommon, which is why this is not to be taken lightly. Googling вЂњsales tax permitвЂќ for your state should help you find the information you need, but itвЂ™s important enough that you may want to consult a professional to make sure youвЂ™re doing it right. Otherwise, you could be faced with paying big fees in back taxes and penalties later! [photo by Michelle Riggen-Ransom] Above all, you should love what you do. There is no better marketing than creating a product that people want to buy, share with their friends, and seek out again. This is true regardless of what you are making. The point is you need to know you have an awesome product before you try and sell it, and you need to care about it enough to stick with itвЂ”even through the tough parts. Many successful crafters out there have been doing their work in some form or another since they were kids. Cut them, they bleed glitter glue. TheyвЂ™ve got real passion for what they do, and it shows in the quality of their work and the dedication they have to getting it out into the world. 8 Building a Familistery In this hyper-connected age of social media, building a community of people who support you and your work has never been more possible. ThatвЂ™s not, however, to say that it is easy. Growing a loyal fan base takes time and is usually comes as a result of much effort. WeвЂ™ve covered some of the tools already, but here are five tactics that will help you start getting the word out about your awesome new product or store. вЂў Join: A good first step is to join existing communities. Join forums, subscribe to the blogs of crafters you admire, get a Twitter account, see what folks are saying about your particular craft. ThereвЂ™s a big, active, crafty world out there. If you want to participate, you need to come to the party, preferably with a friendly smile, proper attire and a nice bottle of Prosecco. вЂў Engage: Once you feel youвЂ™ve got a sense of how the conversations work, jump in! YouвЂ™ll find that these communities are generally quite welcoming to newbies, and that quick online conversations can develop into something deeper, whether it be a new friend or a great business opportunity. вЂў Share: Use your blog to post interesting stories about your daily process. Shoot videos of your favorite crafting techniques and post them to YouTube. Give your feedback and opinion when asked for it. Donate to worthy causes. Help promote other folksвЂ™ blogs and online stores. Sharing knowledge and helping others out are two key elements of a successful community. Plus, itвЂ™s just nice. вЂў Respond: If someone reaches out to you (via a blog comment, Twitter, or in an email), be sure to respond in a timely fashion. This is especially true for your customers who, for better or for worse, now expect almost real-time communication. While 24/7 coverage certainly isnвЂ™t possible for one person, do your best to respond quickly. вЂў Go: All the hashtags in the world canвЂ™t replace the importance of face time with your community and customers. Attend events like craft shows and conferences where youвЂ™ll meet like-minded folks doing similar things. The connections you make at in-person eventsВ will be well worth the time and effort, and youвЂ™ll likely have some fun while youвЂ™re at it. Crafter Nikki McGonigal has a great story on her Nikki, in Stitches blog about how she got featured as a Martha Stewart Doer of the Week. McGonigal says the best way to market is to вЂњjoin conversations and reach out.вЂќ In her case, it was Twitter conversations with Stewart staffers that ultimately landed her in Marthaland, and even earned her an all-expense-paid trip to NYC! Guido SteinвЂ™s interest in knitting and desire to connect with other knitters led him to start a podcast about the subject back in 2006, before sites like Ravelry existed. вЂњI wanted to listen to what other knitters had to say and help expand knitting out into the world,вЂќ he says. The community he built with his podcast led him to help found the Common Cod Fiber Guild and even start an event called вЂњIgnite CraftвЂќ in Boston, where crafters of all kinds take the stage to share their stories. вЂњThe community is already out there,вЂќ Stein says. вЂњAnd itвЂ™s a powerful place.вЂќ The key is to find your particular community and get engaged. Wordy Rappinghood Once youвЂ™ve begun building your community, youвЂ™ll want to stay in contact with them. In addition to keeping your storeвЂ™s site updated, writing blog posts, answering Facebook and blog comments, and tweeting, you may want to consider sending out a newsletter. This will help you keep folks informed about what your latest products are, where youвЂ™ll be exhibiting, and give you a way to stay connected. There are several options when it comes to email marketing services, so you should definitely check them out to see which one best suits your needs. Naturally, we recommend MailChimp, because the app is easy to use and fun. Plus there are tons of beautiful templates and a free plan for up to 12,000 emails per month for up to 2,000 subscribers. Eep! ThatвЂ™s a lot of free. But however you choose to connect, make sure you do so in a way that reflects who you are. Keep in mind that all your communications and public posts are extensions of your brand and make sure to write them accordingly. 9 SEO Sophisticated Like most things worth doing, the success of turning your crafting While SEO gets a bit of a bum rap, it does make sense to think about lots and lots of hard work. But the benefits of turning something whatвЂ™s going to help get your content found on the web due to the sheer volume of stuff out there. As youвЂ™re crafting your blog posts and item descriptions, be aware of what words and phrases you are using. If, for example, youвЂ™re selling feather hair accessories, research what words people are searching for to find these particular products. Google has a keyword tool you can check out to see what kind of traffic certain words are already generating on the web. You can try checking similar listings on shopping sites and see how they are tagged. For instance, listings of feather hair accessories on Etsy are often tagged accessories, hair, feather hair extension, feather hair kit natural feathers, feathers for hair, etc. Try and work those phrases naturally into your writing so you can help Google to help people find your site. В SEOMoz publishes some useful content about SEO on their blog as does Hubspot, if this is a topic youвЂ™d like to learn more about. Brown Paper Packages Tied Up with Strings YouвЂ™ve made a sale and are now delivering the goods. Make the experience of receiving your product just a little more exciting for someone, and they will love you for it. Throw in some free stickers or use beautiful ribbon to wrap it. Add a hand-written вЂњThanks for shopping at my store!вЂќ note. These little touches add up to a great experience for your customer, which is ultimately what you want to provide. They say, вЂњA happy customer tells three friends, an unhappy customer tells the whole freaking internet.вЂќ Well, maybe we just said that, but itвЂ™s true that the rise of social-media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and blogs make it easier than ever for people to vent if theyвЂ™ve had a bad experience. Most shopping sites have hobby into a viable business takes a stellar product paired with you created into earned income, being your own boss and setting your own schedule are well worth it. Now, armed with your new knowledge, go forth and craft! Ten Things Crafters Wish TheyвЂ™d Known When They First Started A good crafter is always learning and growing, both artistically, and as they enter the wonderful world of business. Below are some valuable tips compiled from some fabulous contributing crafters about what they wish theyвЂ™d known when they were first getting started. вЂў Find a mentor. вЂў Join a community (but donвЂ™t let it take away from your production time!) вЂў Price things right, and donвЂ™t undervalue your time and effort. вЂў Use Help a Reporter Out (HARO) to share your expertise and get good, free press. вЂў Most craft show sales come via credit cards. Be prepared to process them. вЂў Take good pictures and take a lot of them. вЂў Get your financials in order before making a single sale. Hire an accountant if necessary. вЂў ItвЂ™s going to be harder than you think it is. And then...itвЂ™s going to get even harder. But itвЂ™s worth it to push through if youвЂ™re truly passionate about what you are doing. вЂў Use apps like Square, Evernote and the mobile versions of Etsy and PayPal so you can do business on the go. вЂў Believe in yourself! This will get you further faster than anything else. public reviews and star systems, which can either hurt or help you, depending. Chances are, youвЂ™ve been a shopper longer than youвЂ™ve been a seller. Treat someone exactly how you would like to be treated when youвЂ™re shopping and you should have no problem turning browsers into customers and customers into fans. 10