Diary Of An Etsy Seller March 2018

Are we ready to see what Jennifer from Happy Scatter (craft supplies) and Gifting Moon (gifts like mugs and coasters) was up to during the month of March? Here's what happened...

March 2018

26/2/18 - 4/3/18

• I had a conversation online about using commas in Etsy listing titles and I'm still confused about it. I told another shop owner that I found it better when I started using commas to separate my keywords, rather than having no punctuation. I've heard that pipes | or dashes - can work too. Then I tried looking  into it to see if there was a definitive answer and found lots of people saying you don't need punctuation at all. I still don't know! I should probably experiment by trying a few different methods out?!
• I had a custom order for some bridesmaid mirrors with orchids on instead of my usual flower. It was fun to draw an orchid and I loved the finished result, I will have to make some more to put in my shop.
• March includes #MarchMeetTheMaker on Instagram, so I started taking and uploading daily photos to my @giftingmoon and @happyscatter Instagram accounts. I saw an increase in followers and 'likes', and it was great to check out other people's photos too.
• SNOW! WE hardly ever get good snow in Dorset so it was very exciting to get some. The kids had 2 snow-days off school and we went sledding on one of them. So I didn't get much work done at the end of the week, but it was so worth it, and totally one of the reasons I like working for myself!

Some of my #MarchMeetTheMaker photos

5/3/18 - 11/3/18

• The week started with me frantically finishing World Book Day costumes for my two kids - it had been postponed because of the snow but I still barely finished them in time!
• I had a custom order request for a stencil from another Dorset Team Member which was exciting, I love helping others turn their ideas into a reality.
• I had lots of orders for bags and mirrors this week which kept me busy.
• The week ended with Mother's Day. I didn't get as many orders for Mother's Day as I did last year. I know that a mug of mine was shared on buzzfeed last year which really helped, so next year I maybe need to look into advertising? I spent Mother's Day eating pancakes and playing monopoly!

12/3/18 - 18/3/18

• I found out I'd made it into the Dorset Team Spring and Christmas fairs, and a Rainbows and Stars Market Night on Facebook (all with my Gifting Moon shop). It made me feel super excited as it's always good to have things to work towards! I also wanted to design some new things for them so it made me do lots of drawing this week!
• The positive feeling encouraged me to start a brand rep search on Instagram, something I'd been wanting to do for over a year. I was basically asking if anyone wanted free stuff in return for posting photos on Instagram which I could also share on my social media. I just had to hope someone would apply...
• The end of the week was taken over by party preparations for my daughter's 10th birthday. We were planning games and crafts, and cleaning the house, and shopping, for days!
• It also snowed again at the end of the week, so we had some more fun playing outside in it!

19/3/18 - 25/3/18

• The 19th was actually my daughter's birthday, and my sister was here for it. We played board games and ate too much!
• Okay, don't judge me, but A LOT of this week was spent binge-watching Stranger Things on Netflix. We watched 2 whole seasons in about 4 days, me and my sister even stayed up until 3am on the last night she was here so we could finish season 2. Warning: this programme is addictive! I kept up with my orders for the week just fine, but I didn't get much forward-planning done.
• This is also the week I completely failed at #MarchMeetTheMaker. I decided not to worry about it too much, and not to try and catch up, because it would just stress me out.
• I made a snap-decision to try Fiver Friday for the first time, offering a mug for £5 instead of the usual £8. I didn't get any orders from it though. I will need to try again and maybe build-up to it a bit more beforehand.
• I made (with the help of my husband) some new stock for The Etches Collection in Kimmeridge. It was t-shirts, which is something new for us to make. They were hard to make but looked awesome in the end.

26/3/18 - 1/3/18

• This week my Etsy shops seemed to have tumbleweed blowing through them - just 4 very small sales. This wasn't too bad, as through my Happy Scatter shop I had lots of stencils to cut for the Lollipop Box Club, a craft subscription box that regularly ask me to make items for the kits.
• When I wasn't cutting stencils I was spring-cleaning the house as we had family visiting for Easter. I even cleaned the oven and scrubbed lots of corners of cupboards and the shower and things. My house looked quite shiny by the time our guests arrived!

What did you get up to in March? Don't forget to let the Dorset Team know about your successes (and failures if you need some advice or comiseration!) via the forum, FB group, or by tagging #DorsetTeam on social media.

Don't forget to join us next week for the next in our Business Branding series!

Social Media Special - Twitter

We are starting some new blog post topics here at the Dorset Team blog. The first Wednesday of each month will be a Social Media Special post - focusing on a different social media each week, and ideas on how to use them!

Our first feature is about Twitter:  https://twitter.com/

How many of you use Twitter? Do you know that we run a Dorset Team Twitter Chat each week?

For those of you who are new to Twitter...

Some Twitter Basics:

• It's a constantly updating feed of small snippets (or 'tweets') of news or chat - maximum 280 characters long (the limit used to be 140 characters and was increased in Nov 2017)
• Hashtags play a large part of tweets - helping you find new people to follow, keep up with trending topics, and join in with Twitter chats
• Twitter chats are scheduled time slots, usually an hour long, when people use the same hashtag to chat together and share each others tweets - it's a great chance to network
• Tweets can be easily re-tweeted - shared to someone else's twitter profile. So don't share anything on twitter that you wouldn't want other people to possibly share on their feeds
• You can add photos, videos, html links, and more to your tweets
• You can search twitter to find people or hashtags - if you want to try it out then go and search #DorsetTeam to see what the team has been sharing lately!

You can see a twitter starting guide here to find out more details: https://help.twitter.com/en/twitter-guide

Your tweets can be business like - sharing new products, behind the scenes, special offers etc, or they can be chatty - what you've been up to, what the weather is like, a recent purchase you are excited about. Reply to other people's tweets and it might turn into a conversation - other people can read it too while you are tweeting, so more people might join in and reply too (you can also send people private messages, as long as they follow you on Twitter).

If you are new to Twitter, or if you haven't used it as much as you should, then jump on and say something right now! Make sure you follow some people and get interacting too. Make sure you include the #DorsetTeam hashtag so we can see your tweet!

Our Twitter hour is Tuesday from 7.30pm - 8.30pm. The Dorset Team Twitter profile (https://twitter.com/DorsetTeam) will post questions to get the chat started, and you can join in as much or as little as you want. Come and say 'hi' next Tuesday!

Next month on the first Wednesday we will be talking about Instagram. If you missed our blog post last week about the March Meet The Maker Instagram challenge then check it out here: https://dorsetteam.blogspot.com/2018/02/march-meet-maker.html 

Next week we will be sharing another new blog topic, check back on Wednesday!

Featured Product: Personalised Christmas Crate by Apple Crates

Today's featured product is this fab personalised Christmas crate from Apple Crate Co UK perfect for a special delivery from the North Pole!

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/252133748/personalised-christmas-eve-box-christmas?ref=related-2

Apple Crates is run by Paul and Jo who handmade their 'vintage style'  wooden apple crates and trugs in their workshop in Dorset.

All the items in their shop can be personalised and are lovingly handmade from high quality materials.

Paul and Jo will be selling their crates and trugs at our Dorset Team Christmas Fair as well as selling them online in their Etsy shop.

If you are local please come along and browse their stall. The fair is on 5th December in Wimborne

Christmas Fair Information and Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/866031100155674/

Paul and Jo's Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Applecratescouk

Branding Your Shop - Etsy Online Lab

One of the great things about Etsy is that they provide lots of educational resources to help sellers. Today Etsy ran a live online lab about branding your shop. The lab was run by two Etsy admins, Tess (who is also captain of the Etsy Success Team) and Parker and they went through how to build a brand which sets your shop apart, why branding is important, what makes a brand stand out and simple strategies which you can use to enhance your own unique brand.

If you missed the live lab you can catch it with it below:

We would love to know what you thought about the lab, what you learnt from it and what was the one thing you would take away from the lab.

Please either let us know in the comment section below on the blog or head over to our team forum for our branding discussion.