Link Round Up

Time again for another showcase of great handmade business links I've come across lately.

First a few pieces of Etsy news:
Tech Update: Pay Your Etsy Bill with PayPal Now Available
Tech Updates: Improving Search

Some useful new sites:
Craftopolis Search to see if you are currently in any Etsy treasuries
Modish Biz Tips To go along withe already great Modish Marketing is now a collection of business tips from Modish.

Quick Tip #4 - Tip for Earring Sellers

I was recently contacted by a customer who had a suggestion that I can't believe never occurred to me because it's so simple. If you sell wire hook style earrings include those little rubber stoppers so they can be worn more securely.

These are also useful if you display your earrings on hang cards at shows they they won't fall off the cards when people handle them.

These are really easy to find, most jewelry supply stores carry them as do most department store jewelry sections (but in smaller quantities and they cost more). You'll usually pay between $2-$5 for 100, even less if you buy in bulk.

Great Tip for your Etsy Shop

I found this tip on the Etsy forums posted by roundabout. She noticed that her husband had some problems navigating shops because the link at the top back to the shop is not very prominent, this is her solution:

This got me thinking to how I could more easily get shoppers into my shop from my listings. I decided to add this to the bottom of each of my listings:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Enter my shop here:
roundabout.etsy.com
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I've had this up for a couple of weeks and this is what I've found:

Hearts are more evenly distributed throughout my shop, not just concentrated on my first page of items.

Normally when you type a url into Etsy it won't be a link unless it leads to a page on Etsy like your shop. So it's worth it to add a link at the bottom if item listings to help get visits back to your shop's front page, the more people browse aroudn your shop the more likely they are to buy something.