Okay, I have seen many a post asking for reasons why sellers may not be getting sales.  So I thought the best thing to do was to make a short, basic checklist here with some of the more common things to keep an eye out for and to think about.  I will eventually put all my information together into an article for Handmade News but for now I will keep it short and to the point.

1. Have you set up with an eye catching avatar and banner that reflects the spirit of your shop?  This is usually the first thing a buyer sees when entering you studio.  A well done look will make your studio inviting and welcoming to customers.

2. Do you have your shop announcement, bio, policies completely filled out?  Buyers want to shop securely and that doesn't just mean with their credit card.  They want to feel comfortable with who they are doing business with.  Having these filled out completely will assure the buyer that you are serious and knowledgeable about your business and how you run it.  It will put them more at ease to see that you take care of the customer.

3. Do you have crisp, clear pictures?  Remember that a customer can not pick up your item and hold it and feel it.  They have to get these impressions from your pictures.  You don't have to be the greatest photographer in the world but try to aim to get the photos in focus as well as showing all aspects of the item.  Use all the slots for photos if you need to.  The more photos the more detail.  You may want to get a full item picture, close up macro shots of details and each component of your item.  You never want your customer to have to guess about a part of your piece.  Your photos will improve over time as you become more comfortable taking them and editing them.  Use photo editing software to tweak your pictures.  There are several free programs that you can download to help brighten, sharpen and balance your pictures for the best results.  Just play around with it and see what happens.  It will come easier in time so you know exactly what you need to alter to get the best result.

4.Do you have descriptive titles?  SEO is a huge part in drawing customers from off site.  It may be a tad daunting at first but it really isn't that hard once you understand the basics.  Your titles and the first paragraph of your listing is what will get picked up by searches.  You want to list each item descriptive enough so that when someone searches for keywords related to your item, it will get picked up.  The more descriptive you can be, the better chances of it being found.  So use color, size, type, material, anything that is a key point of your item.  The first paragraph should also contain key information about the product. 

5. Do you have a clear and informative description?  Just like with pictures, your description can play a huge part in whether or not a buyer actually commits to buy.  You need to be able to fully describe your item completely.  Just as before, a buyer can not pick up your piece so you have to tell them about it.  You need to relay the size, material, describe each component if you can.  The more information you give a customer, the more chance they have to really be able to envision the item.  You want them to really know for a fact that they want to buy.  This means to give all the information that they need.  Think about what you want to know about a product before you buy it and convert that into your own listings.

6. Are your prices reasonable?  Think about the materials you used and remember that you are an artist.  You don't want to undercut yourself and give your hard work away.  Each seller calculates their pricing a different way, so I can't comment on how you should price.  However, I will say, think about what your goal is with you pieces.  How much of a profit do you want to make.  Think about overhead, fees and anything else that will come out of that sale after you get paid.  You might want to start a book keeping track of you material so you know how much went into certain pieces so that you can at least make back the amount for materials.  In the end, the price is totally up to you just think about what you want to get out of it.

7. Are your shipping prices accurate?  Shipping can be a huge headache.  The questions of do you want to only ship domestic or worldwide, how much should I charge are the most asked questions around.  Mainly just because they are the hardest to determine.  You have to think about buyers from other countries that may look at your items and may not be able to purchase because of shipping.  You can always take a package to your local post office and get a rate quote for a far country and that will give you a basis.  Then you can set your shipping rate at that. Now if you are really unsure about how your buyers will see that rate, offer to refund some of shipping if it is more than $1 than what you have quoted.  This is a great way to show your buyers that you care about them and you are not out to make a ton of money off of shipping prices.  It shows that you are being cautious but you will take care of your customer.  This can be a huge comfort to some.

8. Are you using tags properly?  Your tags are the keywords that are used to find your items.  Just as your titles, these keywords are a huge part in making sure that buyers can find you.  Use any descriptive word that best describes you item. Remember, the more descriptive you are, the more your items will pull up in searches.

9. Are you promoting your shop?  Promoting is a job that never ends.  If you are active with promoting your studio, you will see an increase in people looking. They will want to see what the buzz is all about.  Post in the forums, Item of the Day Thread, comment on others posts.  These will help build a relationship between other sellers, remember, sellers are buyers too.  Don't forget off site promoting such as facebook, twitter, plurk, ning sites, social networking either.  Some of these places will increase your traffic as well and will open up new opportunities and people.

10. Are you blogging?  Blogging is a great way to promote your shop, both with the ArtFire Blogs as well as Blogger or other off site blogs.  This creates a "face" behind your shop.  People can learn about you as a crafter, artist and person and will make potential buyers more comfortable with you as you have lowered the seller/buyer wall.  This is a great place to talk about what you did that day, upcoming projects, new items, sales and coupons.  You can offer benefits for the people who follow you by giving special deals and codes for discounts.  You can also offer giveaways which may in turn boost the potential of repeat customers.  By opening yourself up to your buyers, you create a friendship that will put buyers at ease in knowing that they can see the person behind the studio and avatar.  The real person factor is always a huge part in making sure that they feel secure with you.

11. Don't get discouraged.  The main thing is to not get discouraged if you don't get sales right away.  Consider things like time of year.  Certain months are just slower than others. The first of the year is always slow because people are still reeling over how much the spent for the holidays and it takes time to get the bills paid down enough so they can start spending on "wants" versus "needs". 

Now this is only a basic checklist of thing to keep in mind and I won't say that it is a guaranteed sale maker.  It can however get you on the right track to possibly picking up speed.  I hope that anyone who used this will understand that it is meant in the best way to help boost everyone and put you in the mindset that you can sell.  Sometimes it's just a small thing that will make a difference.

Hello and Happy New Year!

With the new year starting with a bang, I have so much that I am planning.  First thing is I am working on a brand new piece, perfect for Valentines Day or just for that special someone in your life.  It's going to incorporate silver byzantine links with a touch of red with 3 different stone beads that have words on them.  3 stones, each with a single word. These words are love, faith and trust. The 3 componets to a great relationship.  Red swarovski crystals will be on either side of the stones with the chainmaille links separating each stone set.  I can't wait to finish this so I can share it here.

Next thing is that I will eventually be adding a new section in my shop.  I will be doing screen printing of t-shirts.  Now these won't be any run of the mill designs, they will be original designs that are drawn by my husband.  I can't draw to save my life and since there's already a great artist that does amazing shirts with stick figures on Etsy (Juror2, if anyone wants to check her out. She is FABULOUS!) that pretty much leaves my hubby to do the drawing.  The works will be a collaboration of his original designs as well as musings from my own imagination.  We already have a great list of designs to start with.  And I haven't even picked up the machine quite yet.  Original designs inspired by Doctor Who as well as Firefly (as if you had any doubt).  It promises to be a great new venture and I can not wait to get things done up and begin listing.

So that is where things are sitting right now and I hope to have some interesting things for you guys to check out soon.

Hey everyone, one more week before Christmas and wow things are going fast.  It is super cold here and I have to say that it does make you just want to stay inder the blankets. 

I have a few new things that I am working on.  I wish I had more but its hard to get my fingers working in the cold.  I have finished the Victorian Gothic Choker which should be listed as soon as I get some decent pictures, of course if the weather would cooperate as well.  I am 2/3 of the way finished with another choker that is also gothic.  I just need to add the swags and the swarovski crystals.  

I am going to begin working on a very springlike piece, which will have some nice pastel colors of swarovski butterflies.  Nothing quite like making spring pieces when the weather is calling for snow, right?

Update on the zipper necklace, it will have to wait until after the beginning of the year.  I hate to have to put it off but I still have to buy the rings for it and with the holidays, yeah I'm not spending that much money on myself.  So it will just have to wait a little longer.

 Other than that, I am just working on whatever pops into my head and planning out some ideas for the new year.  I may rework some of my older pieces that I have had for a while, that used to be listed in my Etsy shop and give them a revamp and then list them here.  Not quite sure what I may do with them yet though.  I may just offer them as a sale before tearing them apart.  So, keep an eye open, there will be new stuff and even hopefully some new wedding pieces for the spring and summer brides...