what to do...

[#1]

given the post etsy admin put out "advising" sellers not to do a collective shop like we are working on, what do you all think is the best route to take with this?

[SarawenPerfume]

LOL, Christen was probably a little busy. :)

It looks like the LFJ shop is doing well! And one of my donations sold on the weekend too.

[4GetMeNotTreasures]

Well Colleen -- It's NOT there anymore! Guess you're the reason I had a mishap this past week & couldn't go away as planned :D
If I HAD gone.....that beautiful butterfly would have been gone by the time I got back. (I missed out on you helping hands donation....wasn't gonna let this one slip by!)

[4GetMeNotTreasures]

Hi everyone else :) Didn't mean to be rude there.....

So, yeah. Sorry for my absence - but something happened here that needed my 150% attention. Though it's not resolved yet -- it is time to move on with life...carrying yet another "must happen" on the back.

Very happy to see things moving along here.

Since I am here......I'll be sending off a donation to the shop as well.

Nancy, thanks so much for curating that gorgeous treasury. You're always so terrific about doing those -- and they're always so gorgeous too.

I'll check in throughout the day.

[Former_Member]

Yay! Thanks for buying it Dee :) Hope things are ok with you!

There are so many pretty things in the shop-I love the variety!

[Former_Member]

If you don't know about Twitter chats, tonight is a good time to learn. Log into www.tweetchat.com and in the box where it says to enter a hashtag, type in: #setupshop. It's a chat session devoted to handmade shop stuff (not just Etsy) but tonight's topic will be about using your shop to raise money for charity. **If you have a Twitter account, you'll be able to comment. If not, you can follow along but won't be able to comment.**

I'm going to be hosting the discussion (mainly putting some talking points out there for people to dig into) and will be doing significant promotion of the LFJ shop.

Still working on the blog campaign - just need to carve out some time to sit down, organize the responses I've received so far and get things rolling. I hope to have this done by the end of the week. Promoting tonight should help get interest!

[4GetMeNotTreasures]

Things are ok Colleen. They've been better & worse :)
I have no troubles in comparison to others :)


Ashley -- you are totally AMAZING! You are a wonder woman at promoting! Thank you!

[4GetMeNotTreasures]

lol - twitter chat. This dinosaur barely knows what twitter is -- moreover a twitter chat.

I know...I know.... I'll learn eventually. Sigh...once google stops changing things..... (needless to say Cindy -- I'm back to being confused all over again!)

[Former_Member]

Awesome oneinthehand!

[4GetMeNotTreasures]

just checking in...before heading to bed.

[cindylouwho2]

So, I got the wholesale order. I can still keep an eye on GA & talk things up on my teams, but I won't be good for much else for the next month. Sorry :(

[4GetMeNotTreasures]

congrats Cindy!!!!

[Former_Member]

Congrats cindy! That is great!!

[Former_Member]

I continue to (very slowly) move forward with a blog campaign to promote the LFJ shop. It's going to be pretty simple - I'm going to write a few posts, will work with Christen (LFJ) to get some graphics to people to post on their blogs and encourage them to do their own posts. We'll see what can take off from there.

Additionally, another blogger/Etsyer has started a blog called Handmade With Purpose. The blog is at: http://www.handmadewithpurpose.blogspot.com and the person running things is Lindsay of the PaintMeAPicture shop. The purpose is to raise awareness to folks about handmade artists who give back to their communities in different ways. Also, it's to encourage people to support shops that give back.

It's pretty basic - you let her know that you want to join up, she posts your shop banner and a blog button on her blog. (Speak up if you need help making a blog button). She will write a post highlighting your shop and what organization you are donating to.

We've been doing some brainstorming and the hope is that this month of highlights will turn into a broader range of blog posts that tie handmade shops and blogs to charitable giving. We've come up with a bunch of ideas for posts about how to get started with charitable giving as a shop owner, how to establish credibility, what rules you have to follow, best practices, the different ways you can give via your shop and/or blog.

As the Handmade With Purpose blog gets off the ground, I'd love to be able to come back here and consult with some of you since we all have different experiences with using our shops for good causes. For example, I didn't know I needed to get permission from the org I was donating to (to use their name) until all the discussion in the forum over starting a Japan shop. I *thought* I'd read all the rules about this, but I haven't bothered with that stuff since I opened my shop and obviously I missed a major piece. In that Twitter chat session I mentioned a couple days ago, I brought that up as well as providing images of your donation receipts, and many of the chat participants had no idea you had to/should do these things.

I think there are a lot of people who would love to connect their shop to charity but don't know where to start or what pitfalls to avoid. Hopefully the Handmade With Purpose blog can both get people interested and excited about using shops this way and also inform people on how to do it correctly. So - your input along the way will be invaluable!

[4GetMeNotTreasures]

Ashley - I'll say it again -- you're amazing. I'll reread your post after a couple of cups of morning java. Looks great to me though....and so does that blog :) (I peeked!)

Thank you -- really!! for all you are doing. It - and you - are fantastic!


G'night folks!

Sweet Dreams!

[EmeraldCut]

I would love to be a part of the handmadewithpurpose event--will contact Lindsay. I've already posted the blog button on my blog, http://www.emeraldcut.blogspot.com. Thank you for sharing this great cause, OneInTheHand!

[Former_Member]

that handmadewithpurpose blog sounds great! I am going to check it out! I think having something out there to help people know how to do it right will be really helpful! I didn't realize at the beginning either that I needed permission to use an organization's name. I bought something awhile back where the proceeds all were going to a local wildlife center-and along with the item was a copy of the reciept for the donation-I was really impressed-great way to instill confidence that the seller was doing exactly as promised!

[EmeraldCut]

I've just been added as a participating seller on the handmadewithpurpose blog! I'm really excited to be involved with this great project. :) Regarding receipts for donations, I email the buyer the PayPal donation receipt. In this way, they can see where their donation has gone to, as well as how it got there.

[Former_Member]

Hello! I just joined this team as I'll be donating a portion of a sales from my For Japan line to the Cdn Red Cross- Japan Relief efforts. I saw in the storque that Etsy admin was recommending sellers tag with "joyforjapan"..but then I saw this team. I just wanted to make sure I was using the tag correctly, I can remove it if need be.

I'm donating to the Cnd Red Cross b/c my employer is matching employee donations, so this is an opportunity to donate a larger amount.

Please let me know if I'm using the tag inappropriately, I was a bit confused about the Admin post/Storque article.

Thanks!
Stephanie

[SarawenPerfume]

HI Stephanie! To my knowledge, either joyforjapan OR loveforjapan is fine. I used both tags for my donation items.

~Sara

[EmeraldCut]

Hi Stephanie, that is wonderful that your employer is matching employee donations to Japan! I don't think that this team has a collective shop (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). There is a collective shop called, loveforjapan, and like Sara said, you can tag your items with "loveforjapan" in addition to "joyforjapan."

Other tags, like "donation," "charity," "Red Cross," and "relief efforts" may be helpful for buyers to find your shop.

[Former_Member]

We decided to stick with the JoyForJapan tag so as not to confuse people who were already using it, though we weren't able to get the JoyForJapan shop off the ground.

No harm in using the LoveForJapan tag, but if you have room, using both would be great as I think more people know about the JoyForJapan tag than about the LoveForJapan shop.

[cindylouwho2]

we are getting GA hits for all sorts of things, but the most common is "Japan Relief". JoyforJapan & LoveForJapan are both being searched, but not as often

I put up a promo thread for the shop in the Creative Breakroom & Try Handmade forum pages, but they have few views so far. I might try a treasury if I can find the time!

interesting article from today's Etsy Success email:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703512404576209140495600916.html

[EmeraldCut]

cindylouwho2, that is an interesting article. I hope that the loveforjapan shop is viewed as the not-for-profit shop that it is.

[Former_Member]

Update on promotion - I've written a long post for this blog: http://www.handmadewithpurpose.blogspot.com which will be posted on Monday, 4/11, sometime after 1am Eastern time. It details how a collective shop works, why they're so successful, how readers can get involved via donations, promotions and purchases and why time is of the essence for this shop in particular. Several shops will have their donated item's photos featured & linked up and I'll be contacting them so they can help spread the word.

I'll post the direct link here once it's up - please pass it on as much as you can!

[cindylouwho2]

excellent work OneInTheHand! Thanks for everything you do!