Proof is in the Analytics: Referring Sites and What That Means To You

I get a lot of people asking me about this and so I'm going to put this out there.  Many of you are analytics whizzes and can text in your sleep, but some of us are still working on social networking our lives and trying to operate our ipods.  So if you already know this, ignore it.  If you don't, here it is, simple, easy, and I want to hear that you are doing it if you are serious about selling and finding out your best sources and outlets of referring sites.

Not only should you be using Google Analytics because it's FREE, but because it gives you a bunch of useful information to help you sell. For those cringing at the thought of learning something new, I have to say, the name itself scared me as I'm no technical guru and at first I didn't know what I was looking at. However, watching a few "how to" videos, and reading up on it, I was a GOOGLE ANALYTIC PRO in no time. I promise you it's easy, and tells you so much that you need to know.

The big things I look for are REFERRING SITES. This tells me what traffic is coming in and from where. Currently, as you know, we're doing a promo with Everything Etsy--so today I'm going to show you how to find out if you are getting views in your store in direct correlation with this promotion. ((Now remember, the promotion leads people to the TEAM TAG -- so whomever listed last, will be on page one and more visible.  If you are a shop that lists a few items every day, or relists a few here and there, your chances of being spotted are better than someone who lists once per week. This is the way to find out whose referring you and how many times, so you may use this for other things as well.))

1. FIRST, Sign into your analytics, and make sure your Etsy shop is showing in the Dashboard.  Below you will see reports for your top traffic sources and keywords used.  This is not what we need.  So, move on.

2. LOOK FOR THE REFERRING SITES LINK as I have arrowed above. Normally it's the "green piece of the pie" and once you mouse over the blue words "REFERRING SITES" you will be able to click directly on them which will take you to the next page.

3.  Once you click on the "hyperlink" for referring sites, you should then be able to see a bunch of referring sites (below).  Now it becomes a "hide and seek" mission so to speak.  You must look for the site in question, in this case, it's EverythingEtsy.com  (note I did not put the www. in front of everythingetsy.com) As you can see in this photo below there is no EverythingEtsy listed in the top 10 or so referring sites.  So, since my report says I have 139 different sources (in  the header it says I have 247 visits from 139 sources So, going to the bottom and "view full report" is out of the question for me.  Much easier, is just to type in what you are looking for where I have the red arrow.

  4.  I am typing in EverythingEtsy.com 

~POOF~

it appears! 

TA DA!

5. Review your analytics.   In this case I only had one referral, but that's okay, my store was closed for awhile on vacation mode, so I'm not complaining. The first bubble tells me how many visits = 1.  The second bubble tells me how many pages per visit that visitor spent (and compares it to the average time on my site in teeny print beneath it.)   The next bubble is the average time on my site (only twenty seconds to see two pages, that sort of sucks, maybe they didn't like the item after all....not sure) , and the bounce rate is 0%.   More on bounce rate HERE, but the bottom line is high bounce rates are no good, and low bounce rates are better.  In this case you can't get lower than 0 can you?  So maybe, just maybe, this customer was referred, saw the item, and bought it......I don't know how to get this far without asking my customers. 

6. Bonus tips.  I want to back up a minute.  In case you did or didn't notice I have yellow stars on my top 10 Referring Sites page.  I wanted to show you these are 4 of 10 of my own sources for driving traffic.  Look again: 

Here are my 4 suggestions to you based on my stars: 

FACEBOOK:

This just goes to prove I'm busy driving people to my store.  Facebook:  I ask my friends to share treasuries on my personal and professional facebook pages.  They share and ask their friends to share, and before you know it people are bookmarking your shop. 

MY SITE AT VERIZON:  These are nothing more than landing pages the web carrier gives you, I used to have a website on Verizon, but took it down, and use blogger for everything, so now when you go there it's a page that says SHOP NOW and points you to my Etsy shop.  See, it's working....so if you get those free web templates, use 'em what can it hurt?  You'll be in cyberspace somewhere....

FLICKR:  Gotta warn you about this YOU WILL GET BOOTED OFF FLICKR IF YOU PUT LINKS TO YOUR ETSY STORES OR ARE DIRECT SELLING.  However, there are coy ways to do this.  My user name on Flickr is the same as my vintage shop, and so you get a profiile area and can tag your FLICKR photos.  I've often found items this way too .  I looked for Russel Wright Melmac, found it on FLICKR, googled the user name and found them on Etsy, and bought the set.  Voila.  Open a free FLICKR account under your shop name and in your profile talk about how much you LOVE ETSY. 

COMMUNITY AT ETSY:  Treasuries, or forums where you particpate and people view your shop.  Those who sell on Etsy often buy, don't you? 

As for the other top traffic,  like Google or TheFind, I do investigate to find out how they got here, which you can do by going more in depth and looking up how they are searching for you. As for my Recyclers Guild Blog, it's hard for me to tell if this was direct sale traffic or if they are just using the link to convo me to join the team, so I disregard that, but if it's in yours then people are checking out your shop!   You really have to learn and use your analytics, and sadly, LEARN that just because you put an item on Etsy, selling it may require a little outside client building to drive traffic to shop on your part.

For those of you using Analytics, please comment how much EverythingEtsy traffic you are getting.  Would like to compare this and keep tabs, thanks!

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End of Summer Rain Contest - $100 prize pack

Spring and Summertime are my busiest seasons for "my real job" and so with that during the months of March thru September I tend to get ZERO days off and travel constantly with my husband's busy business.  You may think this is exciting to get to see so many places but I work double what I would any other time of the year.  Six months of 18 hour days can really wear you down.  I don't get to enjoy the sounds of spring crickets chirping or the hot sun of summer like the rest of you, and my garden is a prime example of neglect and lack of time.  I look foward to the sounds of the End-of-summer-rain.  You know the kind, when it starts to cool down and you can open your doors and windows and hear the soft sprinkle of the end of summer rain.  Just enough to glisten the yard, and only loud enough to put you to sleep like a lullaby.

When the weather cools down and the cool rains come I know I'm almost at 4th quarter and in for my time off from helping my husband, where I can focus mainly on my own career.  I usually take a whole week to catch up on much needed sleep.  Then November I run away and spend the month in my Maine home looking out at the lovely lake and that's when I do most of my writing, charity work and artwork, because it's so neglected the other times in my life.  Hubby knows not to bother me between October and February, that's my time.

With that said, I'm donating a $100 prize pack to the lucky winner of this contest. Yep, you can thank good 'old RetroChalet & RetroChaletStudio for that.

RetroChalet is where I sell most of my vintage and supply items. You can also find some handmade here too.

RetroChaletStudio is where some of my artwork and jewelry is sold. All is made from upcycled trash.  I use my artwork mainly to raise money for causes and charities.  I sold a sculpture for $1200 to benefit one of my favorite organizations.



WHAT U WILL WIN:

1)  A HAND!

ONE PORCELAIN GERMAN GLOVE MOLD   (Value $32)

A way cool glove mold, valued at $32, size 8.  These blow out of my shop!   I used to use them as catering centerpiece decorations.  They came from a factory that used them at one time to mold gloves.  I found loads in their original boxes, some were from New Jersey and some from Germany.  The factory had closed in 1991 but the molds were sitting around longer,  they looked lovely at weddings on tables to put flowers in the fingers.  They are at least 20 years old.  The fingers are a tad large for rings unless you have adjustable ones, but the mold itself is great for: bracelet display, necklace display, art display, halloween decorations or a centerpiece.

2)   A GOOD BOOK!

The Prism, by Ira Mency, signed by artist  Donald Booker and author is a fantasy novel love story fun for all ages, (Value $19.95!)~  ISBN:  1-4415-0883-X (Trade Paperback 6x9 )

3)  ONE YEAR AVATAR LINK ON OUR BLOG!

ONE YEAR of LOWER SIDEBAR ADVERTISING & CUSTOM LOGO on our site, advertising your store which I will make myself  (nothing fancy but hey it's an ad!!) for ONE YEAR (*or unless your shop goes inactive)  (Value = $50+ as our blog grows so does the advertising rate and cost to make) Note: If you already have purchased an ad with us it will be extended!

4) PIECE OF MYSTERY VINTAGE LOVE!

Mystery gift of vintage (Value $10-$20)

 This could be ephemera, kitchenalia, jewelry, or anything vintage related, it's a suprise!



That's over $100, plus shipping !!!  International customers are included in this contest !

 

HOW TO WIN

Get one qualified affiliate to list our banner or avatar to link to our site for at least a year. This would be a commercial website that fits the qualifications below and hits our target audience. In turn, we will add them to our affialiate page and advertise them.  Why?  Because cross linking and advertising works!

You can use the banner from top of this blog!  Or, contact me for an approved avatar!

What does not qualify? Your site, a personal site, blog, or active team member's site. A site that does not hit our target audience. *note exceptions to the rule below.


Who is our target audience? Our target audience is 18-55 (women primarily.) Therefore, your father's construction website will not qualify I'm sorry to say.


What does qualify and where should I look? A commercial site other than your own that has been established at least one year and will hit our target audience. This can be someone you know or don't know. Green living, crafting sites, professional blog sites with a large following that have to do with Etsy or Crafting, or Selling may also work.

How do I do this?   Simply contact the site owner and explain who you are, and that you belong to the Etsy Recyclers Guild group, who would love to advertise them in exchange for advertising us.  Tell them how we incorporate recycled goods into our work and wares, and tell them what a great free opportunity it is.  We would like to be advertised for at least 6 months to a year. Tips for getting them to link us: We promote recycling, reusing, and sustainability. Our blog is growing and traffic is forthcoming, therefore in turn we will link their site, cross promoting them. Great places to solicit are craft blogs or sites, DIY blogs or sites, green products blogs or sites. 

Exceptions: If you have a personal blog or website that hits our target audience, and has over 500 followers or high traffic, do submit this information to me for consideration. If you have several blogs that you can get to do this, and the total traffic combined is 500, then submit this information to me for consideration.

WHO CAN WIN? 

Anyone.  In the event of a tie, preference given to Active Team Members.

If you are not a member of our group, you will be if you win! 

Intenational and domestic customers can apply.

Contest is open until someone wins and ad has been placed and verified.

Questions?  Contact me via RetroChalet shop or email me at IraMency@verizon.net but this does take time for me to answer. 
  


GOOD LUCK!

Start to Finish Series & In the Studio Series Casting Calls are NOW!

I'd like to solicit everyone to be a STAR for the new "Start to Finish" series and "In the Studio" series type articles.   These articles are a chance for you to shine!  If you think you can pull it off, CONVO me your email and start blogging!

Start to Finish example is below - where you show how you made a project from start to finish so to speak.  For many of us it's interesting to see a few fabric scraps turn into something wonderful!  All of these articles will be labeled "Start to Finish"


In the Studio series will be a one-on-one interview with you and photos of your studio.  Many of us just love to see in what type work area you thrive!  All of these articles will be labeled "In the Studio"

So , here's an example. 

Start to Finish: The Making of Mr. Bojangles (Assemblage From Trash)

When making assemblages I do put a great degree of finding the right items go into it.  It's funny how many people think I just slop the items together, when in actuality, many items have sat on my desk half completed waiting for that special part.  A curbside find of old oak table legs gave hubby something to do.  He cut the top parts off for me to use in my assemblage, and put the bottoms on Etsy for someone else to create with.  

 The bottoms of the legs were listed in my Etsy shop, because I hated to discard them. 

  

The tops would be future assemblages. I had to then try to coat and shabby up the oak wood (such a shame, I know, to cover the old wood).  In this case, many layers of white, pink, blue, and gloss to get the desired shabby finish on the post would take me two days of spraying and drying.   Oddly the original oak gave me some issues because it must have been coated with an oil such as tung oil or something, which I should have caught but it had soaked in so much I hadn't even noticed. Instead, this only added to the shabby-ness and tended to bubble up the paint in just the right areas.  This can however cause you a great deal of problems if you are gluing things to the surface, because the paint will then just "slide off" if not properly coated or attached.  In this case a few end coats of gloss lacquer did just the trick! 

Pinked to perfection: The future body of Mr. Bojangles.

On another excursion, I happened across an old chest of drawers on the curb set out for trash, which had two "nautical" knobs left.  I nabbed them right up and would shabby this one up for Mr. Bojangles's hat. It's amazing how much great hardware you can nab off the side of the road.  Hinges, handles, you name it, always drive slow and carry a screwdriver on trash night!

Before, and after painting the old nautical knob for Mr. Bojangles' hat.

I found some old aluminum "Hokey Pokey" butt-out cigarette holders from the 60s in a thrift shop, and just knew they would fit into the sculpture.  

Funky little things I've been holding out for just the right project!

I was saving these old fabric pieces from a pair of discarded shorts. 

They worked out just perfect for arms.

Add some buttons, extra string and a few more coats of gloss spray, and now Mr. Bojangles is ready to sell, 50% of the profits going to my favorite charity! 

 The finished product, Mr. Bojangles, is ready to be sold, 50% profits going to charity!

Thoughts of Recycling

by Elizabeth Patel

I'm always trying to find new ways to incorporate recycled items into my own work, both out of being kind to our earth & looking for ways to reduce my financial expenditures...

So here are a few of my most recent repurposed & recycled items
It was an clip-on earring, that will eventually make it into the center of a flower, or be used as a button.
I clipped the screw post off and used a jewelry pliers to curl the metal around into a loop, and then used some glue to seal off the gap, I used glue because for what I'll use it for it doesn't need to be super pretty.
What I have here is 1 magnet from the back of a pad of paper - that I will use with a metal washer to form a purse closure. The wooden beads will be wrapped in seed beads like the other bead in the picture to be the center of my flowers.

I'm always looking for more ways to recycle the things around me.

Now it's your turn - What are some of your item recycling tips?

Was It a Great Craft Show to Be In or NOT?!?

For many crafters and artists, summer marks the start of the annual craft show circuit. If you're like me, you've done 3 or 4 a year, thought about doing 5 or 6 other shows and agonized over whether it was the right showcase for your artistic products. I recently came across this article that provides such an interesting twist to determining whether a show is "Good" or not, I felt compelled to share it with all of you.

"The best and worst thing about vending at a craft show is that you have absolutely no idea how you'll fare, sales-wise, at the show. Signing up to be a vendor at any given craft show is a crap shoot. You pay your booth fee, however small or nerve-wrackingly large that may be, and then you show up that day and hope for the best. No matter how well you've planned for the day--all the work you've put into making amazing products, tagging and packaging each one, devising meticulous displays--you can't control about a zillion other factors that go into whether or not your day will be a success.

Generally, the goal is to sell (gross) about 10 times what the booth fee was for whatever show you're selling at--which is to say expectations will vary from show to show, of course. How did I arrive at this number--10 times the booth fee--and really, do I exist on another planet with that expectation?

Here's something to think about . . . .

When you sell your work through a gallery or boutique, whether on wholesale or consignment terms, the gallery is going to pay you anywhere from 50-80% (typically), and take the remaining as a fee for not only paying for the overhead costs of rent, utilities, marketing for the gallery, etc., but also to provide displays and staff the shop to actually sell your work for you. It's something of a luxury fee for not having to do the selling yourself.

When you sell your work online, you typically pay the venue you're selling through a smaller percentage of your gross. For example, we all know etsy charges 3.5% + $0.20 (or more, depending on how often you renew your items to stay visible in the never ending flow of relistings). Let's call it about 5% of your price. Then paypal charges another similar fee on the amount paid to you for processing the payment. So, let's round that up and say that 10% of your price has gone to web fees. This makes sense--they provided you the service of hosting your items while you provided "displays" (in the form of your photos), salesmanship (in the form of the item listing information), and delivery (actually housing the product and getting it to your customer).

In many ways, a craft show is providing a similar service to an online venue, in terms of selling your work to the general public. They have a venue, they do some marketing and advertising, and they give you an opportunity to make your wares available to the adoring masses. So 10% is a perfectly reasonable cut to expect to give them of your total sales for the day. And that is how--drum roll, please--I arrived at the magic number that 10 times the booth fee is a fair goal.

Can a show be worthwhile if you make less than the magic 10 times number? Absolutely! You can make great connections, form relationships, give shoppers an opportunity to see your work in person (thus inspiring confidence in future online purchases) and much more. So making say, 8 times a booth fee (in other words, giving an organizer 12.5% of your gross) isn't such a bad deal, either, of course.

All of which raises the big question--Is there a point to all of this? Of course there is! At a few shows I've done lately, I've heard other vendors mention that they thought a show was "okay" and they'd consider vending at it again, since they made back their booth fee. Now, let's REALLY think about that--if you sign up for a show, pay a booth fee in advance and then show up the day of the show to sell and then only sell the amount that you paid for the opportunity to sell there, you've just given away however much the booth costs in products, and much more if you consider time spent making the products, schlepping the products there, and sitting and selling (not much) all day. You might be a charitable person, but you would have done better to just pay your booth fee and not even shown up, really!"

I don't know about each of you, but I've been known to say, "Well, at least I made my booth fee back--that wasn't so bad!" So the next time you're considering which shows you want to vend at--especially if you've done the show in previous years--you may want to ask yourself, "Is this a 10 times the booth fee show?"

Have a great and productive summer show season!!

The Trickle Effect

The Trickle Effect

Can technology save our planet? I wonder how many less trees are cut down by the use of email rather than paper bills and letters. Yea, I'm a tree hugger. Trees give us so much yet what do we give them in return?, some decorations at Christmas time... A few simple things that trees provide which people often forget about; shade and a nice breeze which also saves energy if you don't need the air conditioner or fan. Trees provide homes and recreation for birds. Watching and listening to birds sing, can lower your blood pressure and help relax you, which ='s saving on costly health care fees.

Lets do our part to save trees by reducing products that perpetuate their destruction.

Think of all the positives there are for using your computer to pay that bill or write that letter; you save paper of course, and more paper and money in not using stamps. If you have a messy handwriting like I do, and you type out an email, you know the receiver will be able to read what you write. It's a whole lot faster too! Well maybe just as long for paying bills, which is just an excuse, imho.  And some email programs let you delete an email if it's not been read yet. Ya can't go digging inside a mail box for that Dear John letter once you change your mind. Well you can at the risk of being arrested. LOL

Have you ever smelled a paper manufacturing plant? They stink REALLY bad! I can not imagine having to live near one!

Did you know that florescent paper is more difficult to recycle? Oberlin College says it also produces "toxic sludge" during processing. The folks at Oberlin College in Ohio are the first college to implement the Source Reduction Program. Their efforts are campus wide as well as a page on their website which offers information for off campus recycling.

Some interesting facts about paper recycling:

* To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
Gee I knew there was a reason I've never been into reading the newspaper, other than the ick that gets all over your hands

* The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!
I can't even comprehend that many trees or where they all come from!

* The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years. I'm making a small difference by creating art with locally found driftwood :0)

* Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!

* The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Check out a few of our team members who find creative ways to repurpose, reuse and recycle paper and wood products:

* 42 things
* Paper Leaves
* Into The Trees
* relove
* Beat Up Creations
* Island Girlz Jewelery

I firmly believe that any effort to recycle makes a difference. The biggest difference we can make in our planet's future is to teach our children, anyone's children not to litter and to recycle. Children are future caretakers of Mother Earth.

Here's a few resources for your children to explore and learn about growing up green:

* http://greenliving.suite101.com/article.cfm/green_kids_online
* http://www.ehow.com/how_2072642_teach-kids-recycle.html
* http://www.recyclinggarbage.net/Teach_Your_Children_to_Reuse.html

"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a songbird will come." ~Chinese proverb

Peace,
Cher [cherspassion] I offer original one of a kind (ooak) items from recycled driftwood, cigar boxes, tin cans and plastic drink caps.