Tuesday, November 30, 2010

December 2010 Monthly Theme Challenge

... is "Holiday Foods!"




You knew this theme was coming and here it is!  This month please either tag your entries for this month's challenge in Etsy with MFJoEDec2010.  If you have the picture on Flickr, please use the same tag!  If your item does sell, leave a comment on this post with a link to the sold item so it's not left out when I post the results.  If it's not too much trouble, please limit yourself to one entry per member.  No complaints and I'm so happy for everyone participating, but with more and more members being added each week, there are more and more entries. 

Entries need to be tagged or comments left by December 30 (midnight Pacific time) and the blog post with the results will be posted on December 31.

Until Later!  ®oscata

MFJOE November 2010 Theme Challenge "Comfort Food" Results

Hi everyone!!!  Check out the entries to the Comfort Food November 2010 Monthly Theme Challenge!














Until Later!  ®oscata

Cute Coffee and Donuts Treasury featuring some MFJoE team members!

A few of our MFJoE team members were featured in an adorable donut and coffee treasury today by the lovely Andrea of Andrea's Hobby Studio!  Thanks Andrea!!!


Until Later!  ®oscata

Friday, November 26, 2010

MFJoE Giveaways - Get the Scoop!


One of the aspects of being a part of this team is to make friends, provide inspiration, but also to help make your Etsy shop a success!  One of the ways that you can increase traffic to your store and potentially increase sales in the short- and long-term is to offer a giveaway.  As an Etsy seller myself, I've had great success with giveaways and they're a ton of fun and it's a great way to get feedback on what people like.  As a team member, you have the option of participating in a giveaway hosted here on the MFJoE blog!  It's very simple and below are details on how the giveaway process will work.

Once you have signed up for a giveaway spot the team captain will send you a form to fill out some information.  The first thing to do is to determine your prize.  It can be a range of items (select from necklaces in your shop), give away one specific item, create something with a seasonal theme specific for the giveaway, a gift certificate, etc.  It doesn't need to be anything crazy expensive to get contestants interested, just think that if you were going to enter, would the prize be worth it?  Click here to see a few giveaways that I've hosted on my own blog and the prizes range from $15-30.  Click here to see examples of giveaways that are going on right now.

Once you've chosen your giveaway prize, you'll need to take some really good, clear, photographs of your item and either post them online or send them to the team captain.  A good photo is key to getting more contestants interested and enter the giveaway but also look at the items in your shop!  Even if you're a seasoned Etsean, Etsy's Guide to Photography is a great resource.  Also check out the Etsy Shop Makeover series to see how you can make your items front page worthy.  Need a way to edit and adjust photo settings, use Picnik (free and easy- YAY!).

For members with other social media tools besides their Etsy shop (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc), the giveaway can include links to these.  I can use these your social media sites to create entry rules (again, check out the rules I have for my giveaways) so contestants have to perform a task to get additional entries.  The contestants have to come back to the giveaway on the MFJoE blog and leave comments for each task performed.  For example, for one entry, they follow you on Twitter, the second entry they must tweet, the third entry they follow your blog, the fourth entry is that they visit your shop and choose their favorite item(s), fifth is that they friend you on Facebook, etc.  Before the giveaway is posted, you'll be able to read the post, read  the rules, and provide final approval.

The giveaways will last approximately two and a half weeks.  The team captain will also post the giveaway to the EtsyGiveways.com blog which will greatly increase the amount of participants.

Once the time period is up, the team captain will choose a winner randomly, update the blog announcing the winner, and will email the winner and Cc the team member.  The winner has 48 hours to respond accepting the prize and providing any necessary shipping information.  The team member is responsible for packaging and shipping the item out or redeeming the gift certificate.

Click here for a great Etsy forum thread on giveaways posted by one of the founders of EtsyGiveaways.com PurrPrints.  Click here for another detailed Etsy forum post on why do a giveaway?

WHEW!!! I think that's about it for info on giveaways!  Feel free to ask questions or offer suggestions by leaving a comment on this post below!

Until Later!  ®oscata

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Hot off the Etsy Press: Etsy Holiday Promotion Guide

Hi there MFJoE teammembers!

Etsy has posted on the forum a great promotion guide for the holidays!  I've copied and pasted the forum post from Etsy's marymary below:

 Image courtesy of MFJoE member PetiteCreation

As your busy holiday plans unfold, we'd like to help keep you informed and up to date on promotional opportunities you can take advantage of during this fast paced time.

Keep abreast of relevant merchandising themes and how to apply them to your business in the November and December merchandising articles:

November: http://www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/from-etsys-merchandising-desk-novembers-holiday-feast-10707

December: http://www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/from-etsys-merchandising-desk-a-busy-december-11077


Expedited Shipping:

Planning on offering quick shipping options for your buyers? Make sure your expedited shipping terms are written clearly in your shop Policies. Please tag your items "expedited shipping" to help shoppers (and us) find you.

Black Friday through Cyber Monday Weekend:

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are shopping holidays gaining a reputation as the best days of the year to find sales. Etsy will be supporting sellers' site wide promotions throughout the 11/26 - 11/29 weekend. All sellers are welcome to participate with any and all special promotions you may be running throughout these dates. Etsy will be promoting sales via three universal predetermined tags. The tags will be linked from featured areas of the site including email, Etsy's homepage, and promotional banners.

How to Get Involved:

1. Sellers conducting a promotion during these dates may use these tags to be included in the site wide promotions: 1. Black Friday Etsy, 2. Cyber Monday Etsy, and 3. Free Shipping Etsy.

2. Use one or all of the appropriate tags for your sale items and specify the details of your promotion clearly in the top of the item description for each item you use the tags on.

Note: Please do not use these designated tags unless you are promoting a sale during the 11/26 - 11/29 weekend with the details clearly laid out in the item description. Please only apply the Free Shipping Etsy tag to listings that have already been marked down for free shipping.


Note for Treasury Makers:

We'll be looking to highlight related Treasuries made up of the "Black Friday Etsy," "Cyber Monday Etsy," "Etsy Free Shipping," and "Expedited Shipping" tags during these key time-frames in places like Etsy's Homepage, emails, key searches, and linked from banners. When making a list, please fill the the entire collection with items from one of the above categories (Etsy free shipping can be combined with any of the other three). Be sure to tag these Treasuries you've made with the key tags so we can find them.

Specifically, we'll be looking to promote collections made up of the following tags:

* Treasuries tagged with "Black Friday Etsy" that contain all items with the same tag.

* Treasuries tagged with "Cyber Monday Etsy" that contain all items with the same tag.

* Treasuries tagged with "Expedited Shipping" that contain all items with the same tag.

* Treasuries tagged with "Etsy Free Shipping" that contain all items with the same tag.

Keep your eyes peeled on this announcement thread for new holiday opportunities as they develop.

Good luck with the holidays everyone!
Until Later!  ®oscata

Monday, November 15, 2010

November 2010 Monthly Theme Challenge

... is "Comfort Foods!"  Of course it couldn't be anything else with autumn in full swing, the holidays ramping up and family-sized feasts!  This month please either tag your entries in Etsy with MFJoENov2010.  If you have the picture on Flickr, please use the same tag!  If your item does sell, leave a comment on this post with a link to the sold item so it's not left out.

Entries need to be tagged or comments left by November 29 (midnight Pacific time) and the blog post with the results will be posted on November 30.



Image courtesy of our teammember mousemarket!


Some ideas are fresh-baked pies, fall vegetables, roasted meats, and warm spiced confections.

Have fun!

Until Later!  ®oscata

Friday, November 5, 2010

Friday Night Snack Attack!

And each one of these are stud post earrings!

Until Later!  ®oscata





















Top left - Hot Dogs for Hot Days Post Earrings by PetitPlat Food Art (petitplat on Etsy)
Top right - Donut Post Earrings by Mr. Nadavik Miniatures & Jewelries (mrnadavik on Etsy)
Bottom left - Snickerdoodle Stud Earrings by Ms. Millificent's Miniatures (athenaworkman on Etsy)
Bottom right - Blue Cupcake Post Earrings by MMGADA Miniature Food Jewellery (mmgada on Etsy)