Congrats SewIndieShop!

Our own Cara of sewindieshop was recently featured on the Etsy blog!

Go check out the blog post here!

Congrats Cara!

Make-it Mondays: Christmas in July

I don't know about anyone else, but my shop is SLOOOOOW right now. Summer is a notoriously poor sales season before the insanity of Back to School and the Holidays. To counter that Etsy is running its 3rd annual Community Christmas in July promotion. The sale runs from July 15th through July 25th. This blog post on the Storque covers how you as a seller can participate. You can learn more in this Etsy forum as well. Encourage sales with some discounts, sales and giveaways to tide you over before the fall rush. We are considering a special RNEST team giveaway for our Wednesday Wellspring posts during this time (contact Michelle/TheQuiltedHouse if you are interested).

Make-it Mondays: Anticipate Summer Trends

Summer is a time to relax and enjoy the outdoors. It is also an opportunity to incorporate a variety of themes into your Etsy shop, giveaways and blogs. If you don't check From Etsy's Merchandising Desk yet, please do. You can find it on Etsy's site by clicking Community, then the Storque Blog. From there the search bar will give you the option of searching blog tags for merchandising desk. Each month Etsy gives sellers a heads up on the trends, future site features and important dates there. Check out July.

Here are some of the themes and RNESTer's who already have it going on:

Geekery (for Embrace Your Geekness Day, July 13):

from jackbear stamps


Bath and Beauty (scrubs to slow off hard work in the sun):

from the fuzzy bunny


Travel Themes (good for outdoor parties as well!):

from lauren's lovelies


Outdoors and Camping:

from creative hodge podge

Make- it Mondays: RNEST Garbage Plate

Happy Monday everybody. Today marks blog post #100. How amazing for burgeoning team and blog just over a year old. The blog, along with the team meetings, really started to expand this past September and we've gone from a handful of followers (mostly ourselves ) to 176! Awesome sauce.

Garbage Plate 3.0

Anyhow, I want to update you on the status of our garbage plate project. Not from Rochester? Find out what the heck that is here. So far we have a plate (the quilted house), a veggie burger (duncan creative) and some nasty meat sauce with onions (buenahelena). We are looking for RNEST members to volunteer to continue filling up the plate.

Possibilities include:

1. Sliced french bread
2. A red hot or a white hot
3. Macaroni salad
4. A pickle
5. Home fries
   
6. And baked beans

These can be made from any area of craft expertise, it just so happens that the first few contributors were fiber-licious. Leave a comment if you want to jump on this project. We will eventually turn it into a fun promotional giveaway.

Make- it Mondays: The Whole Package

From Buenahelena!
There are many reason why Etsy has been so wildly successful. The piles of unique, one of a kind items. The assurance of knowing who made the item your buying, the quality of their working conditions and the equity of their wages. Beyond all that good stuff, is that lovely feeling of getting something great in the mail. Not your email, twitter or facebook. Something in that little metal box at the end of your driveway. It's delicious and it keeps buyers coming back.

How can you make an irresistible and professional package with each item you send out?

1. Brand: Always include a business card for your shop. Create your own invoices with your brand and logo as the header. Stamp your items and packages (perhaps with a personalized stamp from JackBear Stamps). Stay within your shop style throughout the whole package. For example I upcycle a lot, so I've used silly things like Mighty Taco tray paper for my gift wrap. (Clean of course.)

2. Have you own Back: Print your shop's return policies and contact info on the back of your invoice if possible. Many folks don't bother to read it on your Etsy profile and it's better for them to know your policies and willingness to remedy problems before getting negative feedback.

3. Beautify: Make your package look awesome. Stock up on: Gift boxes, gift wrap, patterned packaging tape (now sold at JoAnn's), stickers, handmade envelopes. I recently sold something to someone who lives within 2 miles of me, but she wanted me to ship her item simply for the joy of the packaging!

4. Butter up: Send a personal thank you. Add a coupon code to your note or the back of your business card to show return shoppers your gratitude and persuade them to shop again. Give a small freebie, ie. Anything you'd sell for a dollar or less like magnets, key chains, samples items, a tiny zine or an artist trading card.

5. Branch out: Promote your team with a pack of business cards from other team members. Create a stand alone team business card promoting your blog or team website. Make a flier of upcoming shows or markets you'll be attending.

Follow these five B's. When you take each step of a transaction seriously, buyers will appreciate it and come back. They may very well bring back more buyers with them too. Let me hear what your put in your packages!

Make-it Mondays: Reviewing R-Nest WinterFest

The R-Nest WinterFest Door Prize Winner!!!

Oh the Monday mopes, I am sick! Despite my Dayquil haze and failing vocal chords I, along several amazing ROC Etsy street team members, enjoyed our first (and not last!) successful public sale. The R-Nest WinterFest was our first large scale team effort. We gathered at our meetings to plan, sent tons of emails back and forth, bombed the town with signs that we staple-gunned in mall parking lots, and traversed murky insurance issues. All in all it went well, but now we must come together to see how to improve.

Some suggestions:

1. Start later in the day or on a Saturday.
2. Don't put up signs before snow storms. And advertise even more!
   
3. Check out wifi capability and fees of the venue (we were credit card ready, with our own shopping site until...da-da-da...the $150 dollar fee.)
4. Check ATM's. We had one, but it was busted. Lame.
5. A larger location, like a church or school to pull more people and vendors.
   

Leave me more suggestions and I will add them to this post.

Things that rocked were:

1. Our raffle table and humoungoid door prize. I saw a lot of action there.
2. Networking with other ROC Etsy vendors.
3. Inspiration from vendors displays, packaging and products.
4. Sweet trades and word of mouth sales, by modeling what other vendors were selling.
5. Super supportive, friends, neighbors, colleagues and family who love to buy our stuff.
6. WIDE variety of vendors within our group.

Leave me things you loved and I will also post them.



Now, one more thing. My photos of this event suck! Send your photos to buenahelena@hotmail.com and I will post them here as they come. Let's keep this post ever updating for the next couple weeks as a reflection and even greater direction for the future!

Wednesday Wellspring: Black Friday/Cyber Monday Promotions

Bubbling up from the well today is a whole bucket full of RNEST holiday promotions! Oh goody, goody! We’re trying to have a handmade holiday this year, so I’m really excited about these awesome deals!

Starting us off, is Lauren from Lauren’s Lovelies who is offering free shipping to ANYWHERE in the world for the weekend!

Etsy Lauren’s Lovelies

Karen of Duncan Creative, home of the oh so cute crocheted fruits and veggies, is offering 20% off your entire order.

Etsy Duncan Creative

Linda, of Just Ice Jewelry, is offering 10% off your entire purchase AND a free pair of snowball earrings with your purchase of $20 or more.

Etsy Just Ice Jewelry

Carol of Buena Helena is offering FREE, FREE, FREE shipping to all New Yorkers or blog followers. Oh, and hey, don’t forget to enter Buena Helena’s giveaway!

Etsy Buena Helena

Sarah of Happy Olive Designs is offering 15% off any item.

Etsy Happy Olive Designs

Kaitlin of the Inky Star Shop is discounting prices AND giving complimentary wine charms & a few free handmade bookmarks with every order.

Etsy Inky Star Shop

Vickie of In My Head Studios will ship free WORLDWIDE through Monday.

Etsy In My Head Studios

Marianne from Violet Underground is having an awesome HOLIDAY BLOWOUT & INVENTORY REDUCTION SALE!!

Etsy Violet Underground

And, last but not least, yours truly of The Quilted House is having a BOGO sale: buy one item and get a second lesser priced item for HALF OFF!!

Etsy The Quilted House

Really awesome bargains to be had from this wonderful group! Most start on Black Friday and end on Cyber Monday, so don't dawdle! I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving & happy shopping!!

The Mother of All Giveaways, Giveaway #5: Buenahelena

Good morning! It's me, Buenahelena, up bright (well actually gray) and early this Sunday morning to present our fifth giveaway from the ROC Etsy street team. This week's lucky winner will receive a pair of Peacock Lace earrings made especially for this giveaway. If the feedback is enormous for these I may make more for my Etsy site this holiday season.



So a little history on me...I am a Fiber graduate from the Cleveland Institute of Art, where I focused on soft sculpture and altered objects. I am also an Art teacher here in the Rochester area and Etsy entrepreneur on the side. In my shop I do my best to take existing vintage items and alter or repurpose them into something new from jewelry to housewares. Bold and tactile materials like cloth and glitter are my fetish as seen in this weeks prize. The Peacock Lace earrings for this giveaway are cut from vintage collar lace, hand-dyed a deep turquoise blue, and lightly gilded with golden bronze powder. They are sealed for posterity with acrylic medium to hold their color and shape. Make an entrance at all of your holiday parties, or wow a friend with this pair as a gift this year!

***THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED WITH LUCKY WINNER #33, CONGRATS!***

Drop in to say hello and enter the giveaway. Good luck at winning! Check out this post to learn how to enter UP TO SEVEN TIMES!! This giveaway ends at midnight on Saturday November 28th. PS. I do have a blog, however I do not have a Twitter account. You can twitter about me for a vote, just leave a comment here about it.

The Mother of All Giveaways Giveaway #4: Just Ice Jewelry

Hi, Linda from Just Ice Jewelry here. Proud to be an RNEST member and a part of this super giveaway! The lucky winner of this weeks prize from Just Ice Jewelry will receive any mini pottery shard item of their choice for free! In my etsy shop you will find numerous pottery shard jewelry including mini pottery shard necklaces & earrings on sterling silver fish hook earrings.

What are baby pottery shards and why am I fascinated with them anyway? Well...my real job is teaching high school Social Studies here the suburbs of Rochester, NY. Jewelry is my creative outlet and stress relief from the day to day grind of teaching. The pottery shards in my creations are said to be from the Ming to Qing Dynasties, this means they could be 300 years old! These pottery shards are eco friendly, upcycled from broken pieces of Chinese pottery and reset in silver plate. A few years ago I was fortunate to travel with 20 teachers to Japan, I loved China before this trip and now seem to be obsessed with anything Asian... Asian friends, Aisan candy, Japanese Maples, Ginko Trees, Asian papers, Asian coins, Asian foods. I hope you will enjoy your little piece of Asian history as much as I enjoy my own pottery shard jewelry.

If you would prefer a different item in my shop, you can apply a $15 gift certificate toward a different piece.

Now through November 30th I will be running an Open House Special in my shop as well:
Ten percent off your entire purchase & a free pair of my super fun snowball earrings with your purchase of $20 or more.

Stop by and say hi! Enter the giveaway and good luck at winning! Check out this post to learn how to enter UP TO SEVEN TIMES!! This giveaway ends at midnight on Saturday November 21st.

Thanks to all who entered this giveaway & CONGRATS to lucky #21!! I will be emailing you about prize.

Make-it Mondays: Guerilla Marketing

From: Buenahelena!

Let's face it, most of us artsy types are poor. We get low end pay for high end work. The material costs and labor intensiveness of art making leaves little time and money for promoting ourselves. Using guerilla marketing strategies to advertise your work and your Etsy store is creative, exciting and ...ahhh...practically free. Try some of these tactics:

1. Blog and guest blog on Etsy Team pages or other blogs you enjoy.
   
2. Leave your business card with your waiter's tip at a restaurant.
   
3. Better yet, sneak your card between the sugar packets at several tables.
   
4. Go to your local library, internet cafe or computer room and set your website as the default browser homepage on all the computers.
5. Stamp your site address onto dollar bills with a fun quote. God knows those travel.
   
6. Post fliers about your products in the teacher's lounge, staff room, lobby etc...of your place of employment...preferably while no one is looking
   
7. Out of town for a summer vacation? Write your etsy/blog address in the sand on a popular beach.
   
8. OK, so maybe the beach idea sucks when you live in Rochester NY, so why not write your site address onto snowy windshields at your local mall this holiday season. (Make sure to add "shop local" underneath.)
   
9. Tuck your business cards into books at book stores and libraries that relate to your product or into magazines in waiting rooms.
   
10. Print small round stickers with your Etsy site address and a small picture of one of your items and stick them onto produce at your local grocery store.

Now go out and do a couple things off the list! It gives me a smile thinking about whoever discovers my guerilla ads. *(Images do not promote mine or any other Etsy stores, but do give you the gist of what can be done with these tips.)