AAA Cafe' Daily Chat 09/19/2014

[NaturalClocks]

Welcome to new members, welcome back to returning teammates! If this is your first time here - this is a place to ask questions, share your most embarrassing secrets, or just chat about the slow and boring bits of your day…we want to hear from you!!

Be sure to check out the discussion board. There are games to be played and threads to explore. The more you promote your fellow team mates, the more you get promoted, so be sure to participate on a daily basis. Check out our blog and our Facebook page, as well as the other links provided below.

IMPORTANT LINKS:
* Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/301427606658253/
* Etsy Calculator: salecalc.com/etsy
* Etsyology: www.etsyology.net/
♥ Online Photo Programs: fotoflexer.com/ or www.picmonkey.com/
treasurypin.com./ and editor.pho.to/
arwmedia.net/tools/pixlr_express.php
* Etsy Craft Tools: www.mycrafttools.com/
* Etsy Gadget: www.estygadget.com
* Craftopolis -Edit multiple listings: www.craftopolis.com/#com=ee
* Etsy Banner Maker: bannerfans.com/banner_maker.php?bnew=1&pses=1a256d05
* Craftcount - craftcount.com/teritory.php
* Google+ tutorials blog.kissmetrics.com/personal-google-plus-account/ and moz.com/blog/tips-to-use-google-for-s
* Chrome Treasury Box: brittanysbest.com/treasurybox-chrome-extension/

Good morning team!

AAA Support Team thread in the promo forum www.etsy.com/uk/teams/21915/promos/discuss/15267796/

Another warm and sunny day here, it beggars belief. The news on this side of the Atlantic is that it looks like Scotland has voted NO (not by a big margin I must add) on their referendum and will therefore stay in the United Kingdom. On a personal level I'm quite pleased, I love Scotland and the Scots!

I don't know if people are still on time to join, but this is what Tammie posted yesterday regarding Google+

"We are having an intro to Google+ Hangout with a Google Professional tomorrow /Friday At 3pm. Anyone interested in learning how to set up your Google for Business account, link your Etsy shop to Google Business, Set up Google Analytics for you shop, make sure Google is crawling your shop , finding you and your items, should attend and be a part of this. If you want your items seen by Google, this is the best way to get started. Once you have this set up, he will go into how to get more exposure on Google +. If you want to be involved, let me know ASAP so that I can add you to the Hangout"

I don't know if this is something that those attending could write a tutorial or a log for at the end, if Chris agrees we could open a dedicated thread for it like the one that Adele did for Tweet Eye? I think that taking advantage of any sort of free advertising available on the net can only be a positive thing.

This team has been fantastic for me, thanks to you guys my items have gone onto Pinterest, Wanelo and now Twitter (I'll never thank Adele enough for that Tweet Eye!!), so thank you all for inspiring me to taking the plunge, it wasn't that hard to open accounts at the end! .For the newer members, I am a dinosaur as far as social media are concerned LOL. For some reason I'm still reluctant to open a facebook business page, maybe I'll look at it this Winter, I don't know. Google+ is another mystery to me, comparable to Twitter if not worse, so any help I can get on it is most welcome!

What social media do you find work best for you? Do you use Search Ads on Etsy? I don't, from what I read is quite a waste of money, but it may work for some.

Have a great day everybody!

[naturepoet]

Good morning, Val. Down with the croup or bronchitis or something. This stuff is going around on this side of the pond.

I don't have tweet eye. For some reason, I just don't get it. I do have facebook, twitter and pinterest, the latter being the best for views. I also use the Promo options in the forums, but I loved them before they cut them out. I had the one sale from there, but not any others. My shop has been very slow this morning.

Take care and have a wonderful day.

[ItsSewYouDear]

Good morning all!

Yes, it looks like Scotland is staying on. To be honest, I was surprised to hear that some wanted the split up. I guess, I am not educated enough about UK politics.

Val, I am not into Social media at all either. As a matter of fact, I have a very dormant personal FB account that I opened once to stay connected with my family and friends abroad, but with all the more private apps nowadays, I use them instead. I never used any of the other social media either until I opened my shop!

Business wise, I do have a twitter account which brings in a lot of views albeit I am afraid it's all from other Etsy sellers and no sales that I know of, but it's a great way to gain relevancy for my items from these views I think. I still cannot get Tweet Eye to work for me, but that's OK, I get enough Twitter views without it.

I also have FB and Pintrest pages that bring occasional views. I pin every item after I post it and FB a few. I get some likes and pins and occasional shop visit but that's all.

Wanelo on the other hand, is hands down my best promotional tool! I get daily "saves", daily views and a few sales so far from it. I do think my target market shops there. Good thing about Wanelo, it's easy and not socially awkward for me like FB or Twitter are haha.

I would like to add Google+ and Instagram to my promotional tools as well. I have opened accounts on both but that's as far as I got there.

Tammie, I am not sure what you need from me to join the hangout, but I'd love to hear what he has to say about it. I have no clue how G+ may work for my shop.

Listed these new items last nigh and this morning:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/204089563/owl-fabric-business-cards-holder?ref=listing-shop-header-0

https://www.etsy.com/listing/204032735/golden-cat-zippered-pouch-cat-phone?ref=listing-shop-header-2

https://www.etsy.com/listing/204020474/cat-shaped-phone-purse-zippered-phone?ref=listing-shop-header...

Mary, I hope you feel better.
Oh and search ads, I tried them, got a sale or two, but my items come on the front page of most searches anyway, so I didn't feel like paying Etsy even more when I'd probably get the sale on my own lol.It was that my ad would show on the top line, and then a couple of lines down, my actual listing would show, so I stopped the ads.

Happy Friday all! I need to get some orders out today and hoping to list a few more items. BTW, if this is your first holiday season on Etsy, you may find this discussion useful:
https://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/discussions/discuss/15290958/page/1

[beckyspillowshop]

I guess you know Val, that Search Ads are no more. On October 1, everything will be changed over to promoted listings. I am already using it. Haven't seen any results yet on that either, but haven't had a sale this month yet!! I may not use the promoted listings either, but going to leave it for a few more days. I have only spent $1.00 in the last 4 days, so we will see. I didn't like Search Ads either, it seemed like a waste of money to me also. I use FB, Twitter, & Pinterest, & Google Plus. Twitter seems to get me the most views sometimes, along with FB. Pinterest doesn't which is odd to me.

[DoorCountyVintage]

Good morning team! Loving the work of the leaders and their tireless efforts to keep us going, I've been recruiting between listing and promoting.

Speaking of listing here are my two newest..

https://www.etsy.com/listing/204054902/vintage-yaps-musical-carousel-plastic?ref=shop_home_active_2

https://www.etsy.com/listing/204060902/vintage-planter-made-in-japan-ceramic?ref=shop_home_active_1

Speaking of promoting, please guys lets all take advantage of the forum promo link. The more we keep that towards the top of the promo forum the more sales can come from it! I beg for more people to post it takes as long as clicking the link n posting here, I know time is short believe me! But I created this thread to help us all get max exposure.


Here's the link :)

https://www.etsy.com/teams/21915/promos/discuss/15267796/page/13?post_id=241348431

[DoorCountyVintage]

L.E. we can have 35 lists and no limits in items added to each list on the Etsy Team Pages.

[homecraftframing]

Val, Would you be kind enough to add me to your hangout? I have Google + and all the other Google stuff but I do not know how to properly use it. At first I thought it looked similar to Facebook and was not interested in that much work to get little results.

As for low views, I have Tweet Eye and it was working wonderfully but I believe Etsy has done something to the algorithms. For people to all at once be saying views are down, it makes me think Etsy is monkeying around with stuff behind the scenes again. Maybe they are upset we are using Tweet Eye and not their ad search. Some days I want to throw in the towel because of this kind of crapola but what I really want to do is get my hands on the clueless IT guys. LOL!!! If they had business analysis testing these changes, there would not be all of these pointless changes to business until they had the proof the changes would work. If we are losing business, So Is Etsy!

Maybe next week we could delve into social media and how to effectively use each one. I really do not have the time to spend daily on each venue. This is why I feel Tweet Eye is perfect. Although, even my views have dropped over the last few days. I was up to nearly 1000 a day but now I am approximately around 500+. I have not done anything differently. Oh Well, I have to run for now.

[Former_Member]

Val, plenty of time to still join.

In the past three weeks or so that I have been networking on G+ the traffic increase to my shop has been enormous. Not to mention the fact that my stuff is now showing up all over Google Shopping when it was not before. All of my posts in G+ are showing up in Google search when I search for my content. When using any other form of promotion, fb, twitter, none of that happened. I am looking forward to learning a whole lot more about it from him myself. I just know that I personally have seen a lot more traffic since using it and it has been a very new thing for me.

I had have him sending invites to everyone that is in the community on G+ anyone else that wants to join in can just let me know and I will invite.

You are going to need to have a g+ account, as the hangout is actually in G+ other than that, Stan will teach everyone the rest. Once you have that account, anyone can add me in G+ by typing in +tramplee, that will bring me up and then follow me, that will locate me and send me a message, I can add anyone to the hangout up until 3pm Eastern today.

[Former_Member]

Good morning, team!

Mary, I hope you get to feeling better soon.

I do not have Google+, and don't particularly want it, so I won't be participating in the hangout. I do have a Facebook page, but don't do anything with it. I need to get going with that. I also.have a Pinteret account that I really need to get going. I also want to get into Wanelo.

I haven't been able to get Tweet Eye going, other than the original five listings Adele did for me. Part of the problem is I have a laptop which is off more than it is on. I do most of my internet browsing on my Kindle, so I rarely have my laptop up and running.

As far as promotional ads, I don't use them. I tried them once and got very few views and no sales. I just can't afford it.

It's a gorgeous day today, and the next few days are supposed to be warm and sunny, too. Indian Summer! Have a great weekend, everybody!

[Former_Member]

Well we are in beautiful Kentucky today on our way to Columbus, Ohio. The weather is beautiful. Sales are non existent but life is good. Have a great weekend. deb

[Former_Member]

Morning everyone I was doing some reading on another forum and I came across Wanelo. I checked it out and saw some of my competition over there. It sounds like it is growing rapidly. From what I understand it is similar to Pintrest., however a customer can purchase directly from the site. I see Candi mentioned it in her reply today. I posted a link from my Etsy store and have claimed it as my own. The next step is to send your info (business license) and they will verify you. I will let every one know if it provides me with some sales.

Here is a link with some info

http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/A-Startup-Called-Wanelo-Is-Every-Shopaholic...

[homecraftframing]

Hi DeMor Jewels are you on I-75 North? If so, wave Hi when you get to the Fort Wright Park Hills exit 189, this is where I live. Once you get to this part of Kentucky, you about about 110 miles to Downtown Columbus, Ohio. Depending on where you are going in Columbus, sometimes it is easier to take I-270 East or West depending where you are going. Also, when you get to my exit 189, get in the center lane and stay there when you are crossing the bridge into Cincinnati. Then you will see two lanes for I-75 north and 2 lanes for I-71 north try not to get in the far right lane for I-71 north and you will be fine following the road through the Lyttle Tunnel. If you get in the middle lane once you get through the tunnel then you are good until you reach I-275. There are lots of exits and some of the lanes dead end to an exit. I hope you are enjoying your trip.

[910woolgathering]

Today I went through and did my post a link on facebook groups, tedious work. Had a sale from the very first post.

Have three things to ship today.September already is my second biggest month of the year. Last year I had NO sales in Sept.

I hope to hit 400 sales by the end of the year, if not sooner. Working up to 300 listings.

My computer would not install Tweet eye, along with other things, that maybe fixed now, but I have not got around to doing that yet.

[Former_Member]

Thanks so much for all the support. I love this team. deb

[Former_Member]

I signed up for a Wanelo account but I mostly post other people's items there. I get more hits from Pinterest, so I focus mostly on adding my own stuff to my Pinterest boards.

Team page is filling up: https://www.etsy.com/pages/aaasupport I'll stop by the Promo forum and start linking pages.

[ZingRetroFinds]

Hi Team mates,

Thanks for the info on the Google hangout. I would like to participate. What time zone is the 3:00 pm? I will check on my Google account which I haven’t been keeping up with.

I have had so much trouble with TweetEye on my own that I have given up. I would like to be able to use this but I can’t figure it out. I still have the original account that Adele set up for me so that is where I get most of my traffic but no sales. After reading your posts I see that I am not alone.

Also, I have a Facebook page and Pinterest page but don’t see much activity from there. Still trying to understand how promotion works on each site.

Mary, I hope you feel better soon. Sounds like a nasty bug.

Candi, I would like to try Wanelo. Thanks for the tip.

Kevin, thanks for the interesting article. None of the other sites has ever asked me for a business license. So I will think about that.

Wow, what an informative Chat today.Thanks, Val for setting this in motion.

Have a good one.

[ItsSewYouDear]

Tammie, I added you to my Google+, I hope I did it right lol.

Kevin, you do not need to send a business license, all you need to do to claim your store on Wanelo is e-mail them a screen shot of your Dashboard or store that shows you logged in and it as your store. You really don't need to claim your store to promote, but I thought it was nice to have my store claimed. Wanelo has really been great for me and I hope it works well for you and everyone else.

[CreativeEarthJeweler]

Good Morning y'all... Or afternoon to you east coasters :-) The trees are turning yellow and there is a beautiful crispness in the air here in Wyoming... I love this Indian summer, it makes me want to hug someone!!! The kids are out of school today and I have a delicious smelling turkey breast and spuds in the crock pot for supper!! We are going to spend our day cleaning up the flower beds & putting the garden to bed for the year then make some Halloween decorations :-) I want to wish y'all a happy and safe weekend!! Here's to lots of sales!! Dana :-)

[Former_Member]

Hello Dana. :)

Random question for everybody: when I add an item to the team page, does Etsy send that person a notice on their activity page? Like did the team leaders get a message on Wednesday when I added their stuff?

[naturepoet]

I must be way behind. Don't know how to use Tweet Eye and have no idea what G + is. Maybe we could have an information topic in chat next week on these.

I have searched out Wanelo but just don't get it. I guess I'm tech challenged and Brandon thinks so too. LOL

I do pin my items to Pinterest but haven't had many sales or views from there. Don't know what happened to my views. Instead of getting over 200 a day, they are way down to just over 100. Today 48 views, which is NOT good.

I have had one sale so far from Etsy Promo. Not sure which thread, but a big sale at that. I also have a shop page on FB, but no sales from there yet either. Of course, time is limited. I use the promo section of Etsy the most.

VAL, besides the two topics I stated above, could we do a review later in the week for the new members on the team. Some of those are brand new shops that need some love.

Another topic I'd like to touch on in chat is Lay-a-way. I have done this before on pricey items or when the customer wanted to do a large amount of shopping and it has worked well for me. Let's chat about it and weigh the pros and cons.

[naturepoet]

L,E, I didn't receive a notice. Thank you for doing that for me.

[910woolgathering]

I received a notice two times.

[homecraftframing]

L.E. I did not receive a notice either. I guess it is too late. Let us know what is happening when it is over please. Do you have to have a cell phone to hangout?

[ItsSewYouDear]

Dona, you have to have a G+ account but I am there and I don't see the hangout or invitation. That being said, I am actually spending the time completing my profile so all is not lost lol.

[Former_Member]

hello, sifting around because oct 1st: it's my new husband birthday.;-)

Need to buy ASAP, he is a photocopier reparator on the road in a very wildlife active and cold weather (-40) roads.

Anything for comfort, warmth or road life gadget, please suggest...

And he is a professional writer as well. So if you have a combo pen/journal. I'd prefer buying from a teammate. I'll post on the other team as well... today or tomorrow deadline.

Eejee