Etsy - Jazzin' up your shop

So you've now got your etsy, and paypal account set up - You've got lots of gorgeously photographed iems to post - but something is missing to tie everything together.

You need a banner for one, and a nice little avatar. I mentioned the importance of branding once before. In a retail bricks and mortar setting, this generally means your packaging. Online, it's your image - What does your banner and avatar say about your business? If your banner isn't up to snuff, your whole shop will have a very unprofessional look. Those of you who have graphic design skills will find this a very simple task. Not all of us do, myself included. Instead of futzing around for ages trying to do it myself - I paid someone else to do it for me!

For a fairly small fee (under $100) I got a banner, an avatar, a business card, a sticker design to put on my jewelry boxes, and an image I can use for jewelry cards. Pretty nifty :-) I saved myself a huge amount of hassle, and headaches. I'm happy with mine, for what I'm using it for (selling the odd bead, or piece of jewelry here and there) If I was more serious with my jewelry, and wanted to take it in to stores - it wouldn't be quite so cutesy.

Here's a screenshot of my jennifertough etsy shop



What you do want to ensure is that your store look fits you. Does it work with the type of products your selling?

If you want to do it yourself - Read up on the specifications on etsy regarding file sizes for your banner and avatar, and make sure they fit properly, and are the correct resolution. Nothing looks worse than stretched or pixilated images.

If you want to get someone else to do it - Search on etsy for "etsy business package" there are a ton of people out there creating banners and such for blogs and etsy sites. Be sure to look at feedback carefully - and keep in mind the old adage...You get what you pay for! Beware of those who seem to be charging way too little for their services. You probably won't be happy with the outcome.

Business cards - get some! They're cheap, and hand them out to everyone you know! Etsy is a great place to sell, but remember you need to promote yourself. Etsy is definately not a simple case of if you build it - they will come. You need to promote yourself, and your business outside of etsy at every opportunity (without spamming and being annoying of course) It's a fine line sometimes! Get on facebook, write a blog, join forums, post your photos on flickr, tweet - you name it. It's time consuming, but the most successful sellers on etsy have managed to get themselves noticed.

I think that's about it. Lets here your comments - anything else you want me to cover?