Etsy Holiday Boot Camp

This year I decided that I was going to concentrate on my Etsy Shop to see if I could generate some pre-Christmas sales and joined the Etsy Success team and their Holiday Boot Camp.  This is week 1 and we were tasked with several things to complete:

1. Read this weeks blog post A Flying Start
2. Fill our your Holiday Budget
3. Print out and apply your Holiday Boot Camp stickers to your calender
4. Share your holiday goals
5. Find your Holiday Boot Camp Buddy

I have completed all the items on this list and created a few more for me to accomplish this week:

1. Renew items and evaluate for relevancy.  This is the new search mod for finding things on Etsy and I am not so sure that I have gotten the gist of it and so I am spending some time tweeking to see if my work moves up on the Etsy pages.  I still seem to be burried in the back of the pack.
2. Sign up for Search Ads starting Sept 27, budget of $5/week and monitor to see if it is worth the price you pay.
3. Make Poppy pins in preparation for Remembrance Day, these pins will sell for $20/CAD and $5 per Poppy sold will be donated to the Veterns Assocations
4. Create coupon codes and promote.  I created two coupons one for returning customer who will receive 15% off any item in my shop or if you purchase more that one item you will also be able to use this coupon.  The other is 10% off any item in my shop again if you purchase more that one you will use the other coupon.
5. Blog about my Holiday Boot Camp Buddies.

Of my own To Do list this week I have also completed most of them as I am in the process (as I type) listing the Poppy Pins and some other new items.  The coupon codes are created and active, Search Ad are going and so far I have spent .35 cents and received 328 impressions, and 1 view.  It is 4:00pm PST and the ads have been running since 12:01 this morning EST.  I have reviewed half of my listings to change the tags so that they are relevant and my items still seem to be in the back of the pack when I search, so I don't think that I am understanding this as well as other shops are.  And of course the last was to blog about my Holiday Boot Camp Buddies.  I am lucky to have 3 buddies that I can chat with on Etsy, each shop has something different to add and are from accross the US. 

My Holiday Boot Camp Buddies in no particular order (because they are all great) are:

Wire Wrapped Turquoise - UnTwistedSister

UnTwistedSister Terri makes her jewelry by hand, from scratch.cutiing and polishing her own jasper and agate stones and finishes them with a hand wire-wrap to show off the stone. Terri also teaches wire wrapping at Island Bead Company, Melborne Orlando, Florida 

Bee on a Sunflower - Wizard at Work



WizardAtWork  When I was searching for a buddy I was looking for a shop that had some different things for sale and not necessarily jewelry.  At her shop you can expect to find crochet, ceramics, soap and other bath/body products and rubberstamping items.  What I found out was that her some of her sales go to support an elderly ferret.  You can read more about it on her profile page.

Mixed Berry Beaded Cuff - RampionRampage



RampionRampage  Lauren has Autism and finds that making "jewelry, boxes, custom items, and cards, those struggles go away. In fact, when I'm working on art, I don't feel that I'm "disabled" at all."  I admire Lauren and I am glad that we met up and became buddies.  Lauren also has the same birthday as myself September 15 so I feel that we are sisters at heart.  Lauren is also working towards getting more beadwoven items into her shop so that she can apply to the Etsy Beadweavers Team which I am of course the Captain. It seems that we have a lot of interests in common.