Crazy Daises Designs - Closing Shop & Final Sale

We're very sorry to see Etteam member Jessica close her shop CrazyDaisiesDesigns, but now is the time to grab a major bargain! Jessica makes beautiful patchwork totes of various sizes, (Be sure that you check out her cute fabric brooches too!) bright and colorful to cheer up a winter's day - and they would make a great last minute holiday gift. And besides super deep close-out discounts, she is also offering FREE SHIPPING!!

CrazyDaisiesDesigns

Meerkat World Tour Update!

Little Treasure in
his journey to manhood

Time has come for little Treasure to leave his home-land, his safe haven under mom's guidance and support, and start his journey of self-exploration and growth on his way to become a self-assured and independent man. And what better place to start than in Arosha's studio and home on the beautiful Carmel mountain in Haifa, Israel? The guys introduced each other, and Treasure immediately adapted to the warm November sun, and together with Arosha spent his first afternoon lazing around, tanning and watching the view – While Arosha is gazing at the beach, little Treasure is trying to figure out what is going on!

Things became even more intimate as Treasure wanted to get a better view of thepasser-bys… (should we mention the girls in bikinis?)

After a Falafel lunch break (Treasure found the balls to be a little too big for his size, and didn't care much for all the tahini that kept dripping), they went on to the main purpose of the visit - which was to teach Treasure a craft that he could develop into a profession. Arosha was trying to explain his metal-working techniques:

But Treasure lost his patience too soon, and started playing around with AroshaTwists plastic cuff bracelets:

After an evening at the pub (pictures have been censored due to the misbehavior of both guys after their third beer), Arosha and Treasure bid farewell, and promised to meet again in a few years. With much sadness, Treasure packed his stuff (which now includes an acorn from his previous visit and a plastic black and gold brooch which Arosha has given him with love), and left for his next visit on his world tour.

We'll miss you, little guy! Arrivederci! I'm sure that's whetted your appetite for Arosha's work: Arosha.etsy.com AroshaTwists.etsy.com - Sleeks.etsy.com - Arosha on twitter and his
spanking new Facebook fanpage and of course, last but not least, the Meerkat world tour facebook page.

Etsy Gift Guides and FP Features: Getting Noticed by Etsy Admin

Conributed by: Midnightcoiler

Are you doing everything you can to get noticed by Etsy admin? Tons of shops are joining Etsy all the time, and admin is constantly trying to keep things fresh, and continually discovering new shops and products they like, developing new marketing themes and choosing to promote accordingly. There are no guarantees or entitlements that any shop will be chosen or remain in the promotional sites of Etsy, but there are some things you can do to to increase your chances.

Taking positive action is the best course if someone wants to increase their chances of being noticed or "rediscovered" by Etsy admin. Here are 11 ways to try and catch their eyes in a positive light!

1. Become a vocal regular in the Etsy Labs, fill out feedback forms if
offered. Create listing cards in the Etsy Labs when they are enabled.

2. Become a regular participant in the Etsy Forums

3. Subscribe to all of Etsy's emails, visit their promotions, leave
comments, participate in nominations, interact as much as possible.

4. Constantly strive for shop and product improvements and innovations. Go to Etsy and team critiques, participate and apply changes.

5. Develop a fresh new line of items to add to your shop and promote it.

6. Purchase a showcase spot on Etsy

7. Follow Etsy on Flicker, Twitter and Facebook and any other social
networking site they are on. Leave comments, interact.

8. Create an event including references to Etsy and publicize it. Send newspaper articles, publicity to Etsy admin. Etsy loves having the site promoted.

9. Write an article for Etsy's blog.

10. Create treasuries, especially ones using Etsy's current marketing themes.

11. Promote and support others as well as yourself. Join a team. Mutual support= more exposure. Create good will- payback is swell!

The side benefits are just as important as being noticed by Admin, not the least of which is exposure gained with fellow Etsians, both buyers and sellers. Happy marketing!

The Etsy Treasury Team website: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/etsytreasuryteam/

We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Holiday Season!!

The Etteam

And the WINNER IS.....

We have a winner for Etteam's current giveaway, which includes 2 Celtic CDs from Anam Cara and beautiful notecards from SoundImages. And the winner is:

Carapace was comment number 35 out of 37, as determined by Random.org.

Thanks to everyone who participated, and be sure to stop back by our blog in December for another fabulous Etteam Holiday giveaway!

ETTeam Holiday Giveaway - Featuring Sound Images!

This month's ETTEAM giveaway is from etteam member Jill of Sound Images. She is offering a gift set featuring both music and stationary from her shop, just in time for the holidays.

The package includes two indie music CDs recorded by her Celtic duo Anam Cara. The first CD "The Stone" includes a mix of original as well as traditional tunes with Jill on violin and vocals and fellow musician Rosanne on guitar and vocals. The second CD is a collection of traditional Christmas Music with a Celtic flavour including two original songs written by the duo. You can hear a sample of the music at http://www.anamcara.ca or http://www.myspace.com/anamcaramusic. Also included in this giveaway is a set of four note cards with envelopes and a set of gift tags from the Sound Images "Colours of the World" stationary collection.

Bio:

Jill grew up in the town of Newmarket, Ontario, where she began playing the violin at age four. Since this time she has continued to study and perform in the Toronto area where she works full time as a music therapist in palliative care. Jill has always had a love for music as well as photography and design. She has been able to find a creative outlet for these interests through the creation of Sound Images www.soundimages.ca and more recently her Sound Images Etsy shop www.soundimages.etsy.com.

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:

You have 5 chances to enter. Number 1 is MANDATORY, the other 4 are optional for extra chances.

1. Visit Jill's Etsy Shop Sound Images and tell us which of her items is your favorite and why! Leave your comment here, including your email address or Etsy shop name (so we can contact you).

2. Become a follower of the Etteam Blog. If you already are that's counts too! Leave your comment here telling us that you are a follower, including your email address or Etsy shop name (so we can contact you).

3. Snag our Blog Button, and add to your blog or blog roll. Leave your comment here with the URL of your blog where our button is located, including your email address or Etsy shop name (so we can contact you).

4. Twitter about this Giveaway (once daily). Leave your comment here with the URL of your tweet, including your email address or Etsy shop name (so we can contact you).

5. Post about this Giveaway on your Blog or Facebook page. Leave your comment here with the URL of your Facebook page or Blog, including your email address or Etsy shop name (so we can contact you).

Be sure with each comment that you leave your name and email address or Etsy Shop!

Giveaway runs Sunday, November 15th through Saturday November 21st. The winner will be picked by Ramdom.org. We'll be back next Sunday November 22nd, to blog about the winner!

Happy Holidays!

from Etteam & Jill of SoundImages

Etteam Member Nifty Knits & her Meerkats In the News!!

Click picture to enlarge to readable proportions!

See VIDEO interview

Could I be more excited?

Can't wait to find out what happens next for the traveling Meerkats? Check out their blog, or their facebook fan page ! :o)

Meerkat Update!

"Treasure" one of the traveling meerkats from NiftyKnits has arrived at his first stop. He is in the UK visiting CuteDesigns of the EtsyTreasuryTeam. You can read all about it on the CuteDesigns blog. Here is a cute picture of the little fellow with his new traveling companion, that was hand crocheted by CuteDesigns in honor of the Meerkat visit.

Check back often to follow the Meerkats on their round the world adventures! You can also become a fan of the Meerkats as they have their own facebook fan page as well.

Happy travels, little Meerkats!

Meerkats embark on World Tour!!

Contributed by: Glorious Hats and ZaftigDelights

The Etsy Treasury Team is preparing for really cool global happening!! Heather Leavers better known as Nifty Knits, who is well known for her adorable hand knitted Meerkats, will be sending out two of her little creations to become globe-trotting adventurers. That's right, the little Meerkats will be traveling around the world, meeting many of the ETTeam members and will learn and do something interesting at every stop; maybe learn about where ETTeam member lives, get to know the ETTeam member, help the ETTeam member craft. Lots of special events are planned for over 30 total stops, approximately 15 stops per Meerkat. The trip finale is a photo shoot of the meerkat and all the fabulous souvenirs (great items crafted by each ETTeam member) amassed along the way. The photo-shoots will be done by Tyarkoni and Lori411.

Each stop in the traveling Meerkats journeys will be blogged in several places as well as shared on a dedicated facebook fan page. As secondary points this project will show shipping times; the variety of places around the globe that Etsy sellers are located; and highlight the way a global ETSY team can function and work together on a project. There was such great interest in hosting a meerkat by ETTeam members, that the happening was expanded from the original one, to two traveling Meerkats, each with their own itinerary.

Once home from their journeys, the traveling Meerkats and all their souvenirs will be going to a new permanent home via a fabulous GIVEAWAY which will be hosted right here on the ETTeam blog - in two separate giveaways.

The adventure has begun, and to read all about it - stop by Heather's NiftyKnits blog. By the time the Etsy's Friday Finds promotions goes live on Nov 13, 2009, the Meerkats will have been begun their journeys and may have arrived at their first stops.

Stay tuned to this blog for more news and fun from the Meerkats world tour adventures!!!

Happy Birthday, SpringColors!

Contributed by: NiftyKnits

October 24 is the birthday of Etsy friend and ETTEAM member, SpringColors - and you can win this gorgeous Black Rose OOAK pendant from her shop (value $50.00). You can find out how to enter, by heading on over to her FACEBOOK PAGE. Be sure you follow all of her directions carefully, because I know you will want a great shot at winning this gorgeous pendant!! The Giveaway starts today October 24th, and ends at Midnight, October 31th. She will announce the winner on November 1st on her Facebook Page.

ETTEAM Featured Etsy Seller - BeadStylin'

Contributed by: NiftyKnits

I interviewed Jeannie some while ago...but promptly lost it in my marvelous filing system. Oooops. Have a look at the tagline in her banner - sound familiar? We're twins, beadstylin's shop and my blog!

Right - let's get to know all about beadstylin...

Quickies for starters:

Cats or dogs?

Cats! We have two black kitties. Our male cat is a polydactyl. He has eight toes on each front foot!

Star Wars or Star Trek?

Star Trek, but only if it's the 60's version. The other stuff just leaves me scratchin' my head.

Fruit or chocolate?

How about a chocolate-dipped strawberry? :-)

Favourite colour?

Peacock!



Favourite meal?

You mean like breakfast, lunch, or dinner? Or favorite food? I'll answer both. Favorite meal: supper. Favorite type of food: authentic Mexican.

City break or weekend in the country?

Country for sure!

Soaps or documentaries?

Documentaries, hand's down.



Bath or shower?

Nice hot shower with lots of fragrant Etsy soaps.

Now we’ve got you warmed up…

What brought you to Etsy? Tell us about your shop. Do you sell anywhere else?

Word of mouth brought me to Etsy. I sell handcrafted jewelry. I've been making jewelry for about 12 years now and absolutely love it. It's relaxing and addictive, as well as educational. I do sell at craft fairs and out of my home, but I much prefer selling on Etsy.



What’s the favourite item you’ve made so far?

My favorite item was a metalsmithed earring creation I named "Silverleaf". I toiled for hours over those earrings, soldering, sanding, and polishing.

What has been the most useful lesson you’ve learnt (about Etsy) so far?

Renew, renew, and renew.

If you could start again, is there anything you’d do differently?

I'd make sure I start with killer pictures.



How do you see your store developing?

I'd like to get a bit more into metalworking. And, once I get my new torch set up, I will continue to add my lampwork beads to my shop.

What have you been doing today that I’ve interrupted?

Not a thing. Just recovered from a craft fair, and it feels good to get off my feet.



What’s your top marketing tip for today?

It's all about presentation. There are others out there who are selling similar items, so you have to be creative in not just WHAT you do but HOW you present it. And that means outstanding photos, detailed, interesting descriptions, and excellent customer service.

Thanks Jeannie! If you're hankering for stunning jewelry, don't miss Beadstylin's shop

Preparing your Etsy Shop for the Holidays!

Contributed by: Laura of LamaWorks



As much as we don't want to admit that the holidays are just around the corner, for those of us that sell potential gifts, it is important to start thinking about the holidays now! I just went to the Etsy Virtual Lab on holiday products and they had some great tips that I thought I'd share with everyone:


Hot items:
1. personalized items
~use names, initials, numbers, anything you can personalize ~hostess gift sets
2. Secret Santa gifts
~presents for neighbors, coworkers
~$5-20
~offer bulk orders so people can stock up
3. Quirky items for men
4. Home decor
~ entertaining, favors, invitations

Use holiday colors --take current items and use new colors:
~metallics
~blue and silver
~embellishments
~red and white
~blue and white
~jewel tones

Photography Tips:
~stage pictures with holiday themed items like berries, snow, tree branches
~when you take pictures think about what you would look for if you were shopping
for something in a store
~try to picture someone using the item
~put a group of photos together almost in a grid using picnic.com
~never use a flash
~always use the macro setting on your camera
~use natural light
~use a solid background

Shop organization:
~don't give too many options if you do custom work, i.e. Don't list one item
with with 5 different color choices and monogram, instead list that item 5
different times in each color, then use just the monogram as the option.
~create sets of things to hit different price points
~for the holidays use the Sections to organize by price category
~if you have a two items that coordinate, make sure you link to that item in the
description
~Write a good first paragraph description! This is what shows up in a google
search.
~When you create a new listing, above the materials box there is now a button
that says "How it looks in google" so you can see what your listing will look
like when it is searched
~Send along coupons with orders now for holiday specials.

Tagging no-no's:
~gift
~hostess gift
~stocking stuffer
~do not tag with potential uses for items

I hope this is helpful for everyone! I'm all jazzed up about the holidays now
and I just got some new holiday die cuts in the mail, so I'm off to design up
some gift tags!

Happy Holidays?? :o)

Until the next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

ETTEAM Featured Etsy Seller - SpringColors

Contributed by: NiftyKnits

Hadass of Springcolors is a fellow member of Etteam. She describes her shop as a place where we will find necklaces and bracelets made of crystals and beads, expressing the joy, optimism and beauty of spring, so I'm keen to get to know her a bit better!



Cats or dogs?

CATS! Hubby and I have 5 cats including two black ones. You can see them in rare moment of brotherly love.



Star Wars or Star Trek?
Star Trek. Hubby and I are long time trekkies and For many years I take part in organizing the Israeli annual sci-fi convention.

OH WOW! finally I meet a team member who is more of a trekkie than I am! Live long and prosper Hadass!

Fruit or chocolate?
Really hard question. First chocolate and then some fruit, especially the pink ones. I love anything pink.



Favourite colour?
Pink, fuchsia, rose, blush, flush, mauve! (I've just copied the correct line from the excellent tagging list).

Favourite meal?
Any meal which includes good bread with a hard crust.

Soaps or documentaries?
Star trek!

City break or a weekend in the country?
Hubby and I love to travel. Hubby dreams of storming the wild on a jeep with large wheels and I dream about finding a good restaurant nearby.

Now we've got you warmed up:

What brought you to Etsy? Tell us about your shop.

I make and sell handmade beaded jewelry. Each of my items is my design, handmade and one of a kind.

Since childhood I've been interested in all kinds of handmade. Four years ago, a friend showed me to crochet jewelry and I've became addicted to beadwork. Beadweaving is all about playing with colors and that is what fascinates me.

Since then, I've made a lot of items, kept them in a drawer somewhere and never wore them.

Last year I was diagnosed with cancer, had chemo and sat home for 6 month. I had the time on my hands, so I've arranged my drawers and decided to start selling my items. After all, I don't wear them, so why not let someone else enjoy them?! That how I've opened my Etsy shop.



What's the favourite item you've made so far?
My favourite item is always the last item I make. I try to improve my work with each and every item. Now I working on a pendant inspired by the Celtic Knot and I fascinated with this design.


What has been the most useful lesson you've learnt so far?
Every lesson I've learned was useful, I think.

However, I think the best lesson I have is about photography. I learned a lot about photography since I've started with Etsy, and got a lot of useful advices from ETTEAM members. Before that I was so cluless and afraid to use the camera and never thought I could get a good picture. My pictures still needs improving, but now I know how to make them better.




If you could start again, is there anything you'd do differently?
I need to promote more and better. I'm struggling with all the different promotion ways and not focused enough.

How do you see your store developing?
I hope to make better and more original and interesting beaded jewelry. I hope to sell my designs and not just the jewelry itself. And of course, I hope to see more sales.

What have you been doing today that I've interrupted?
I'm going to continue working on my beaded Celtic Knot.

What's your top marketing tip for today?
Facebook. Just signed in yesterday and already an addict.

Thanks Hadass! I'm very impressed by your positive stance towards the dreaded C, and wish you every good luck for the future.
Springcolors
www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com.

Yes, you can!! (Or, how I got 3000 shop views, over 300 new twitter followers & $ales in 2 days.)

Contributed by: Melissa of HautTotes

You can survive being a parent and business owner, you can manage to nurture and raise your family and business both... And this possible with only a minimal amount of head banging and sleepless nights.

One year ago a magnificent thing happened in my life. A huge yellow bus rolled up to my door took both my children away and promised to bring them back in several hours smarter (and hopefully tired). As I marveled at my youngest going off to kindergarten it occurred to me that our family could use another income. Because my older child has a profound physical disability and misses @ 40 days of school a year, I have to have a very flexible schedule. I was also tired of doing what I was told (Ok, it was mostly the kindergartner bossing me around, but still…) and in truth I really didn’t want to get out of my pajamas most days. I didn’t want to do childcare (I was enjoying immensely the recent cutback in hours of that job) So, I turned to something I loved and was good at, napping. Just kidding, I couldn’t find a way to make that pay, I turned to sewing.

Now I said it was possible, not easy, and not fast. I tried to sell my bags to local stores, the commission was huge and the profit sucked and I had to deal with people crankier and more badly tempered than my kindergartner. I tried to sell my bags on Ebay, It took a lot of work, the fees were high, and I hated the auction format. I gave that up in 2 weeks.

Then I found Etsy. I opened my shop one year ago today. I listed a bag and watched, and watched and checked my e-mail and checked my views. In retrospect, it would have been a much easier year had I know a few things… or had patience or much of an attention span… but I digress.

Lessons from my first year....

***Believe in yourself and your product!!
I wasted a lot of time obsessing over when and if those first bags would sell, and questioning the viability of my product. If your shop is slow, make something new, make more of stuff that sells well, take a walk, have a cup of tea and brainstorm. Read The Storque http://www.etsy.com/storque/ you will find great info there! Join a social networking site (UGH! I know, I thought it was a waste of time too, it wasn’t!! I’ll get to that later) or take a nap, it really does help sometimes.

***Don’t waste as much time as I did obsessing over the heart-o-matic. Truth is I still do, but pretend not to.

***Join a team! http://team.etsy.com/
You will get so much information and support by joining a team. Learning from each other’s mistakes and successes as well as having others who are in a similar situation to bounce ideas off, or commiserate with really helps!

***Plan for success!!
I spent so much time wondering what I would do if this didn’t work out I was completely unprepared for the sales that started to come in. Frankly they really cut into my naptime.

***BE ORGANIZED!!
As a tool for planning for success, or just to keep yourself sane, I can’t stress this one enough! If you have to spend 5 minutes finding the packing tape only to discover the hole punch that you couldn’t find and bought a replacement for yesterday, you’ve wasted time, money and caused yourself more stress than necessary. Trust me holiday season will be stressful enough without this!

I bought a dry erase board and hung it on the wall in my sewing room. When I get half through a roll of ribbon, I write that color on the “order” board. The same goes with opening the last bag of 12” zippers, or making a bag and realizing I only have half a yard of that fabric left.

I Keep a notepad with me and write everything down! I write down promo ideas while watching TV, sketch in the doctor’s office, notes to remember which playmate I’ve left my daughter with that day… I can’t trust myself to remember everything! Make lists, lists are the business owner’s friend! Just like play dough and gold fish crackers are a mom’s friend. Don’t go anywhere without a pad of paper, goldfish crackers and those small cans of play dough, ok, and the number of your local bail bondsman if you think the day might get tough.

Stock up on shipping supplies, make sure you have extra ink cartridges, paper, tape and whatever packaging you use. The last thing you want to do when you are backed up on orders is have to run out and buy tape! This is especially bad in my local store since the “school supplies” are inexplicably across the isle from the cookies and crackers. Last time I made an emergency tape run it took me 45 minutes and I came home with Oreos and 2 boxes of Rye Triscuits. That tape left me $15 poorer and 2 lbs heavier. I could have used that time to nap and saved that money for my bail bondsm… I mean for my kid college fund.

***Only pack one order at a time. I sent a bag to Australia that belonged in England and vise versa (no freaking joke). Once I was aware of the mistake I told both customers to keep the bag they had received and sent the correct bags the next day. It was an expensive way to learn that lesson (why did they BOTH have to be international?!)


Dedicate space if at all possible for your work; nothing puts the brakes on inspiration faster than having to lug everything out of a closet or from under the bed to start working on that new idea. Great accessible storage starts with shelves, in my opinion, which since this is my post, is what matters most (hey, I’m a poet!) you can see how I’ve set up my studio here http://cuttheclutter.blogspot.com/

***Ship internationally, it really isn’t that difficult! (Just make sure you send the right bag!)

***And yes, social networking does work. I joined twitter a few months ago and my sales have almost doubled. It takes time and energy and not everyone has the personality for it (personally I pretend to be sort of irreverent and funny). You aren’t going to get very far if you just talk about your product and post links all day. I have spent quite a while building up a small but great following, I “know” a lot of these people, we chat about everything from recipes to how I figured out that my puppy had eaten blue and green crayons (seriously it’s a hilarious story, really leaves you with a clear mental picture) Anyhow about once or twice a day I also post a link to a new listing or to a bag that has sold and been relisted etc.

I also run promotions through twitter offering an item from my shop to the x # retweet. In my most recent promo I offered a bag from my shop to the 500th re-tweeter of my promo, which linked to the bag. Within two days I had over 3000 hits to my shop from twitter and 300 new twitter followers. The last time I gave away a free bag, I announced the winner on my blog, which advertised a sale for my twitter followers that if they bought a tote they got a matching pouch free; it resulted in 10 sales in 3 days.

***Improve your photography skills!!! Unless you are a professional, there is room for improvement. I look back at the photo of the first bag I sold and think it is a wonder anyone bought it! Photography is NOT my strong point and I am lucky enough to have a product that sells well with a full frontal. I hang my bags on a wall and shoot. But, I’ve found the best wall in the house, lots of natural light, I shoot at a certain time of the day when the light is good etc. I still don’t have great photos, but they are a huge improvement from a year ago.

***Have great customer service! Be upfront with customers about what to expect from you. Fill in your profile and policies. Stand behind your work, it is better to take a return than have an unhappy customer! At this point I have about a 10% return rate. You know you are doing things right when customers come back again and again. I send a thank you note with all my orders. I buy 8 cards for $1 at Michael’s and cut them in half. For less than a dime the customer gets a hand written thank you note. It just takes a minute and reminds the customer why they bought handmade. Customers are the beginning and end of your success; make sure they know you appreciate them.

***Be flexible and open to new ideas!!
My daughter told me that lots of people don’t want other to be able to see into their bags. I loved my “peek-a-boo” windows and thought it was a “signature look”. I grudgingly made bags without it as well, and they are now about half my sales.

***If you are going to procrastinate at least do something useful. When orders are backed up and e-mails unanswered and you just can’t bring yourself to face it, procrastinate a little… but do something useful. Take a shower (remember those?) nap (yeah, it’s my answer for everything) pick the crayons up off the floor, make some new friends on twitter, seriously if they can spend all day talking to strangers on a computer, they either have money to spend or can at the very least recommend a good bail bondsman. Either way your aces!

** Read the forums and don’t be afraid to ask questions, and take all advice posts even this one with a grain of salt. Really, if sales were that great how would I have time to write this?

***Laugh a little, life is short.


FOLLOW-UP

Thanks to those of you who managed to make it through my (somewhat humorous) soliloquy "Yes!! you can" (above) on surviving parenthood and Etsy.

Along with the references to play dough, goldfish cracker and bail bondsman I suggested taking some time out of your day to Twitter and gave an example of what Twitter has done for my sales.

I've received several convo's, tweets and a couple emails about how to go about a Twitter promo and specifically how to count.

So, this is what I did. I tweeted a message That said

*WIN THIS TOTE* (link to my item) 497th RT wins, max 1 RT per hour

I set my heart-o-matic so that I could see how many people dropped in and more importantly how many looked beyond the promo bag!

I let twitter do it's thing... And I RTed this myself about every 4 hours.

It is important to mention that I have spent a lot of time tweeting about other things than my shop, I at that time had 2600 followers, many of whom where not porn bots!

As for how to do the actual count Make sure you include something like 1 RT per hour or someone will sit there and RT it again and again and again (someone probably will anyway) then when you need to count how many there have been put (in my case) @hautttotes 497th in the search bar in Twitter. All the tweets with "@hautttotes 497th" will be included. You will have to then go to the bottom and count up, skipping the people who RT every 5 minutes. It takes a while but is totally doable.

***Tips***

Give away something good! NO one is going to RT a promo for a $5 gift certificate if the stuff in your store starts at $15!

Don't, DON'T just tweet about your shop and what's for sale!!! If you do, people will unfollow you and it will give Etsy a bad "spammy" image.

Don't use too small a number! You want it to take a while for there to be a winner! The point of this is for the followers of your followers to see this and tweet it on!

My 497 took less than 24 hours (note to self, bigger number next time) It resulted in 3000 views to my shop about half of which were not to the item linked! In addition I got about 300 new twitter followers (people love you if you give them free stuff!)

***IMPORTANT***
Now this would do me no good, other than to boost my twitter popularity if it didn't translate into sales!!! Here is how I did that.

When I had a winner I tweeted "There is a winner!!! Is it you? Check here to find out (insert my blog link)"

On my blog I put a post with photos of my bags (linked to the listing) and a message that said something to the effect of Congratulations X!! (Link to their twitter account) If you had your heart set on a tote and didn't win, I have a special promotion for my twitter followers (I offered a free matching pouch with tote) you can offer a discount, whatever. If you purchase from my shop in the next 5 (obviously you could use more or less) days and put "Twitter" in the notes to seller....

Blah, blah, blah, you get the idea from here. The last time I did this it resulted in 10 "twitter" sales (at @ $38 a bag, that's not bad) so far (less than a month) 2 of those buyers (and the previous winner!) have come back and bought additional items!

I also suggested people tweet the winner to congratulate them (you would be amazed at how many did!)

And the WINNER IS.....

We had 107 entries in the giveaway for the lovely earrings from StrandsOfLight. I went to Random.org, entered the appropriate numbers, and it generated the winning entry.

Entry number 29, is:

A hearty congrats to the winner, JanetFaye!! Janet, watch your email. We'll be contacting you right away to get your address for shipping out your new earrings.

And a big thanks to everyone who entered our giveaway, and for following our blog! :o) We be back next month with another fabulous Etteam giveaway.

Another Fabulous ETTEAM Giveaway!! - Strands of Light

This month's ETTEAM giveaway is from etteam member Barb of StrandsofLight. She is offering a pair of distressed sterling silver hoops adorned with three tiny gemstones in autumn colors. They are the first in a series of four that Barb call Saisons (seasons) in her Etsy shop. The hammered and oxidized hoops are one inch in diameter and the bright stones are 2mm hand faceted rondelles of deep orange carnelian, bright lemony citrine, and sparkling green peridot. They are light weight, feminine, dark, and earthy. What a fabulous giveaway!!

A little about Barb:

"I grew up traveling the world in a military family and never knew any home for more than two years at a time. When I first passed through Montana, as an adult taking a cross country road trip, I found it emotionally very difficult to make myself drive out the other side of the state. It felt like I had found home for the first time in my life. It took me a while but I am home at last now living in the beautiful Flathead Valley at the gateway to Glacier National Park and loving every minute of it (even the occasional moose in the back yard).

I'm a sculptor at heart and I approach jewelry making from that perspective. I have worked with many different artistic mediums but the ones that always call me back are the tactile ones. My best work is accomplished when the raw materials come from the earth. I love watching a strand of silver or copper slowly transmute into something that can be worn and loved and I also love adorning that transformed metal with beautiful, organic stones."

So, how do you enter to win these gorgeous fall earrings? It's easy, you can enter up to 5 times by doing any or all of the options listed here (although the first one is mandatory). Be sure that each entry is left in a separate blog comment. If you do all the options and put them all in one comment, you will only have one entry. The winner will be determined by random.org. Be sure you put your email address or name of Etsy Shop with your comments so I can contact you if you win. Here are the entry options ....

1. For one entry: Visit the Etsy Shop of StrandsofLight and tell us in a comment here what item of hers is your favorite! - This one is mandatory!

Here are some other ways you can have extra entries for this giveaway:

2. For a second entry: Follow our ETTEAM blog - and let us know in a comment here. (If you are already a follower - just let us know - it counts!)

3. For a third entry: Follow Strands of Light on Twitter, and Tweet about this giveaway. Let us know about it in a comment with your Twitter account name and/or link to the Tweet.

4. For a fourth entry: Grab our Etteam Blog Button or our Etteam Widget and add one of them to your blog. Leave us a comment with the link to your blog where the button or widget is displayed.

5. For a 5th entry: Blog about this giveaway on your blog, and leave us a link to your blog post in the comments section here.

And there you go. 5 chances to win these fabulous earrings. The winner will be chosen by Random.org from the verified entrants who have commented here on this blog.

The Giveaway starts today August 26th, and ends at Midnight (PST) Thursday, September 3rd.

We'll be back here next Friday, September 4th to blog about the winner!

Spread the word!!

Etteam BlogMistress