Team Potluck Party!

Hi Team - Let's get together and enjoy this beautiful weather!  How about a pot luck at my house on June 4th from 5-9pm.  I'll provide the hot dogs and hamburgers, you guys bring some sides, and we'll gab the night away.  Our team has grown quite a bit since the last party at my house and so plan on meeting some great new amazing people!

Event details and RSVP here: http://www.meetup.com/Handmade-In-Vegas/Henderson-NV/88879/


Also - as far as the monthly meetings, Kathy Wheeler continues to host a NW meetup at the Tea Time Cafe on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 6:30 (see the team calendar for details: http://lasvegasetsyteam.blogspot.com/p/local-events-we-are-in.html).

The 2nd Tuesday meeting at Findlay Chevrolet has been canceled and we are going to try for quarterly parties instead since the NW meetup has been such a success.  Thanks, Kathy!

FACE BOOK GROUP

As I posted earlier there has been some changes with our Facebook page that just took place.
If you do not want all the messages in your email box you can go to your Accounts and set it there to not receive any. The reason you are getting them is because there is a lot of discussion going on.
I have adjusted the chat area so it does not pop up and bother all of you too.

Face book is making changes too.

Thank you
Kathy

Your Etsy Public Profile - Important Box

There is one thing you might need to check and update on your Etsy Public Profile - your "city." Go to Your Account, then Public Profile. Scroll down past Gender, and you will see "city."

THAT is where you need to list Las Vegas (or Henderson, or both) so that your shop will come up in the local shop search on Etsy. In my case, I covered all bases and listed it like this:
Las Vegas NV Nevada, Henderson NV Nevada, United States

If you have renewed an item or added one recently and you still do not show up on the Buy/ShopLocal search, that is probably why.

Checking How the Public "Sees" Your Shop

My first post, "Renew, Renew, Renew," mentioned how easy it is to keep your shop in the top of Etsy's search engines when someone is searching for local products. One comment on that post explained that at our local team meetings, this has been suggested, as well as adding products on a regular basis. None of this becomes real until you visually "see" that your shop is being seen, and where, and how often, and by whom.

I mentioned one way in Renew, Renew, Renew, by going to Buy, then Shop Local. Then, enter Las Vegas, NV, and you'll see that right now, only CarolynsJewelry an my own shop come up. There should be dozens of our local shops popping up there. All you need to do is renew one item, even once a week, or add one new item.

The new item added doesn't have to be spectacular. It can be a color variation of something you often offer, or a size difference, or a bunch-of-somethings instead of just one-something. Either way, your shop will then pop up in that major Etsy search.

Another way to see how your items are being viewed and which ones are being looked at, is to go to http://www.craftcult.com/heartomatic.php
Enter your shop name, then click on Item Hearts. Look at the rightmost column to see current views. Then, hit "reset" and go back in a day or so, and you will quickly see which items are drawing interested browsers and shoppers.

There are other ways of checking to see which of your items are the "hot" ones. We'll go into them little by little, but you need to begin to care about your shop's visitors.

FACE BOOK GROUP

Hey Everyone,
We have a change on our Face book group now. When u go to it should be listed on your personal face book page the main page. Look to the left and u should see Handmade In Vegas. They were going to archive the old one so they wanted u to update. A couple of new features, we can all chat as a group on line. So if u have a question and the whole group is on you can chat if u want too.

We have 3 choices also, Open(where everyone can see your posts on their pages)secret where its just group members or closed. So far the vote is going to Open.

Check it out!
Pretty cool!

Kathy

The Fabulous Etsy Forums

While I realize that most of this team joined to network locally, most of us also have Etsy shops and still hope to make some decent income from those shops.

I found early on that the Etsy Forums are a great place to network among other Etsy vendors. The biggest benefit, for me, is that I have met many new Etsy friends, and I have developed customers from my posts (other Etsy sellers), and even more important, I have learned a great deal the easy way: from those who have learned the hard way.

Etsy Forums cover many areas. I have asked questions and received major help from other Etsy shop owners on topics such as: Craftopolis ads (do they work?), how to get into Treasuries, how to give a complete refund, and even whether it is good Etsy-quette to ask for Feedback when it has not been given (most agree to not do that).

At times, I just visit the Forums and browse the list of the most recent posts or the most popular posts. I have often found some great information that I would not have thought about seeking.

Once you have posted a topic or question, the next time you visit the Forums, you will see a little box to click: Your Threads. You will see any topic you have posted in and any topic you have initiated, forever. You can easily see if there are any new posts.

To check the Forums, go to your Etsy page, across the top, on the left side, to Community, then Forums in the drop-down menu.

I usually click on the names of the shop owners who reply, and check out their stores. Sometimes I have found some stores I would never have found otherwise. Other times, folks who replied found my shop and bought from me. Either way, it is a great networking tool.
EvelynMayfield