Does growing your email list feel like a slow, painful process? It can be especially difficult as a shop owner without a website to call your own. How do you attract those leads? And how do you create a landing page to get them without setting up your own website?

Danielle Arran of the Etsy Shop NarraNest will teach you how to do it with a unique strategy that's increased her email list by 10X in just 2.5 months. Her results are astounding! But they're results that a real Mamapreneur just starting out in business - a woman just like you - was able to attain.

On the Podcast

01:28 - Nesting for Baby, Nesting for Business
03:30 - Danielle's Unique Opt-In Offer
06:05 - How to Use Facebook Ads to Grow your List
10:42 - Facebook Ad Quick Tips
15:52 - Gleam for Giveaways
18:44 - What to do with a Closed Giveaway
21:52 - How to Advertise without Wasting your Money
27:25 - Danielle's Exponential List Growth
30:50 - Danielle Ignores the Gurus - Maybe you Should Too!
53:39 - Danielle's Awesome iPhone Trick
43:10 - A Unique Way to do Market Research
48:17 - How to Help your Customer Try on your Product
54:55 - Juniper the Comedian!

Press Play on the Podcast Player below to hear from Danielle

Nesting for Baby, Nesting for Business

When Danielle was in the nesting phase of her pregnancy, she looked everywhere for the perfect items to complete baby Juniper's room. She couldn't find just what she wanted, so she decided to make items instead. She found fabric she really loved and got to work making bedding, blankets, and other items for her baby-to-be.

Danielle knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur someday, and finally her time and talents aligned to make it happen. NarraNest began in January of 2015, and the shop is filled with beautiful, organic bedding, blankets, bibs, and baby-wearing accessories. NarraNest believes in kindness to mama, kindness to the Earth, and supporting the sacred bond between Mama and baby with safe, natural products.

Danielle's Unique Opt-in Offer

The gurus always tell us that we need to give away something really great in order to get people on our email list. Well, Danielle took that advice to the extreme! Instead of giving away a checklist, printable, or guide, Danielle gives away something much better to her subscribers - one of the products from her shop!

Danielle decided that her opt-in incentive would be a giveaway of her own product each month. As long as someone stays subscribed to her list, they'll hear about the new giveaway for the month and have a chance to enter. Her reasoning was that someone who is interested in winning her products may also be interested in buying her products. (Makes sense! I don't have a baby right now so I'm not excited to win Danielle's items, but a new parent absolutely would be, and that's Danielle's target customer.)

Danielle's other reasoning for paying for email subscribers in the form of free products: If you pay to get someone on your email list, that's someone you can build a relationship with over the long term. When you have just the right product to share, they will be there waiting to hear about it and buy. That email subscriber may purchase from you multiple times over the course of your relationship.

How to Use Facebook Ads to Grow your List

When Danielle decided on her giveaway strategy to attract new subscribers, she started by announcing them on her Facebook page and Instagram. Each time, she'd gain about 100 new subscribers. That was nice, but she wanted more.

For her October 2015 Giveaway, Danielle decided to try Facebook ads to make a bigger impact. She was excited to try Facebook ads in particular because you can pinpoint who sees your ads. Danielle knows exactly who her ideal customer is, so she wanted to see if she could reach them with an ad.

How She Got Started:
Danielle created a regular post on her Facebook page with an image and a description telling someone how they could enter the giveaway. Danielle gave away a baby carrier cover from her shop. You can see Danielle's original Facebook post here.

From there, Danielle went into the Facebook Ads Platform and chose that post as the content that she wanted to promote. She chose to target women in the US and Canada between 24-35 years old, and who have an interest in one of the baby carrier brands (for example, Ergo) and were expectant or new parents. For the October giveaway, this was just one great big combined audience of 110,000 people.

In subsequent months, Danielle has broken down this large audience into multiple, smaller audiences to compare how they each stack up to each other in terms of cost and engagement. You can run just one campaign, with the same "ad" (the post that describes the giveaway) but create multiple audiences to target. Then you can directly compare them to each other and home in on the groups that give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Note: Danielle did not just boost her post. She turned that post into an ad. You have to go into the ads platform to have all of the specific targeting options available to you.

Facebook Ad Quick Tips

• Use a native post as your ad. You can take any old post from your Facebook page, then go into the ads manager and choose that content to be an ad. This can be very effective because that ad looks like a natural post that would show up in someone's Facebook feed. Facebook users may be more likely to engage with that ad content.
• To help your post spread, you can optimize for engagement. If your goal is to get lots of likes, comments, and shares on your post, you may want to optimize for engagement rather than bid for clicks. Of course Danielle wanted people to click through her post and enter the giveaway, but she also didn't want to pay for every single click. She wanted people to share her post organically and let friends in on the great giveaway. She also wanted to content to show up in others' newsfeeds organically because it was getting a lot of engagement from their friends on Facebook. People did interact with Danielle's post as though it was a native post. She has 495 likes on the post, 144 comments, and 64 shares! And Danielle paid just $65 for this level of engagement.
• Engage with every comment you get on your ad. Women were commenting on Danielle's post telling her what a neat product she had, asking her if they were eligible to enter, or asking about other colors and product availability. Danielle responded to every single comment. She even responded to the more general comments like "great giveaway!" Why? Because by simply writing back something nice like "thanks! Hope you win!" there's a chance that person may see the post in their feed again, or that because Danielle tagged them, some of their top friends on Facebook would see that activity too. Again, all of those comments and interactions give Danielle even more unpaid reach for her post.
• Get Razor-Sharp with your Targeting. Danielle didn't just target all new parents with her giveaway. She got really specific and targeted new parents who already expressed an interest in baby carrier brands. She's targeting not just new parents, but parents who are baby carrier users because those are the individuals who will just love her baby carrier cover and would use it in their daily lives. Whatever your business sells, get specific with your targeting to reach customers who have already expressed interest in a very similar product or a tightly related product.
• Audience Size can be Big or Small. This probably seems like it's not a helpful tip, but hear me out! You do want to get razor-sharp with your targeting, but if you've whittled your ad down to an audience of just 50,000 people or so, you may find that you're paying quite a lot to reach that small number of people. If this is the case, expand your reach a bit and try an audience size of about a million people. Compare your results. Which size and targeting options are getting you the most bang for your buck? There's not one right answer here, but testing and realizing that if you're paying a lot for not-so-great results, audience size may be partly to blame.

Gleam for Giveaways

Danielle knew she wanted several features for the giveaway app she chose. She ultimately went with Gleam for several reasons:

• Gleam integrates directly with Mailchimp
• Gleam provides a stand-alone landing page for the giveaway. This is a must for Danielle because she's an Etsy shop owner without her own website. She didn't have a place to embed a landing page.
• Gleam lets you ask a question of your audience as a bonus-entry option for them. Danielle says this market research is gold!
• Gleam lets entrants refer their friends to earn extra giveaway entries - this makes the giveaway more likely to spread organically.

Danielle pays $39/month for Gleam.

What to do with a Closed Giveaway

Once a giveaway starts to spread, it's a shame to see people visit the page and simply walk away because the giveaway is now closed. Since Danielle does a new giveaway each month, she can simply point these prospective entrants to the new giveaway entry page and close the loop.

Once a certain giveaway ends, Danielle turns that link into a MailChimp opt-in page. She can customize the opt-in form with a photo of her business, and include information at the top to let people know that even though this giveaway is now closed, they can click on the link and head to the new giveaway. Danielle doesn't lose any referral traffic this way.

How to Advertise without Wasting your Money

Many small business owners are afraid to advertise because they have a limited budget for their business. It's so discouraging to invest in advertising only to feel like you just dumped your money down the drain. But it is possible to advertise wisely and make a profit from your efforts. Danielle recommends starting small, running tests, and only increasing your advertising budget when you start to see results.

Danielle started her October giveaway with just a few dollars of ad spend, but once she saw great results in the form of entries, shares, and engagement on her post, she knew it made sense to invest more. Danielle also saw several sales come in rather quickly after she started her ad, so she took the profits from those sales and reinvested that into more advertising for the giveaway.

In total, Danielle spent $55 on Facebook ads for her October Giveaway. She gained 788 email subscribers as a result. That's insane!! Danielle got email subscribers at just 7 cents per lead. In the internet marketing world a good price per lead is $1-$2. So pennies per lead is quite incredible.

Danielle is making advertising work in her handmade business with small profit margins. It could work for you too, but you'll have to be creative, test constantly, and not get discouraged if your first attempt isn't a smashing success.

Danielle's Exponential List Growth

Danielle's monthly giveaway strategy has paid off in big ways for her business. On October 1, she had 224 email subscribers. Her goal for the year was to hit 500 subscribers. After Danielle blew that goal out of the water with her first paid giveaway, she set a new goal to hit 2,500 subscribers in 2015. At the time of the podcast interview in mid-December, Danielle has already surpassed that goal with 2750 subscribers. She has more than 10X'ed her email list in 2.5 months!

Lets subscribers know that as long as they're subscribed, they're automatically entered in that month's giveaways - or automatically find out - so chance they will keep opening to find out about the next month's giveaway and how to enter.

Danielle has also added more followers on other forms of social media as well - growing Facebook from 234 to 1533 fans, Instagram to 2,000 followers, and another 1,000 new followers on Pinterest.

We were curious about whether these new subscribers stick around or simply unsubscribe when they find out they didn't win. Danielle says they tend to stick around because they know there's a new giveaway coming next month. She hopes that encourages them to open emails from her so they won't miss out.

Danielle's list growth is resulting in sales too. Her last quarter of sales for 2015 is more than her total sales for the 9 months before that. Although this is Danielle's first year and she knows it's the holiday season, it's pretty easy to see that a good portion of her traffic and sales are coming through her email list too.

Danielle Ignores the Gurus - Maybe you Should Too!

Danielle has found that much of the advice that the gurus give on email marketing doesn't work so well for her and her handmade business. Instead, she's developed a system that works for her and keeps her subscribers happy. Below are all the ways Danielle ignores the gurus.

• Danielle sends just one welcome email. Most gurus suggest sending a long auto-responder series to new subscribers to introduce them to you and your business, give them great advice and content, and build a relationship. But Danielle found that she had a higher unsubscribe rate when she had a 3-part welcome series versus her current system of just one welcome email. It was too much for her subscribers, because she wanted to send them updates every few weeks as well. One email to introduce herself and make a great impression is just right for Danielle.
• Danielle doesn't teach in her emails. Since Danielle is always creating new products to keep her customers coming back, she doesn't feel the need to educate and inform in her emails. That might work well if a business owner has just one big product to sell, but Danielle's customers don't need to learn how a baby blanket works! They just want to know what's new in the shop or how they can enter the latest giveaway. If they're on her list, they're already sold on the concept that handmade items for baby are great.
• Danielle doesn't have a consistent email schedule. She sends a new email when... there's something new! Typically Danielle sends a "what's happening in the shop" email about once a month, and her subscribers also get an email about the latest giveaway at the beginning of each month. But she does suggest that if you're struggling to send consistent emails to your list, make a schedule for yourself and stick with it.

A Unique Way to do Market Research

The Gleam Giveaway App has allowed Danielle to do market research in a unique way. Giveaway entrants can earn an extra entry by answering questions! Danielle says that the answers have been so valuable that they're worth the cost of the giveaway alone even if she didn't gain new subscribers from it.

Danielle has asked entrants, "What's the most important thing you're looking for when you're shopping for baby stuff?" Then she takes those answers to go back and refine her Etsy listings so she's using the terms her ideal customers use to find great products. She found that many people use "safety" when it comes to baby items, but because that word is so obvious, Danielle hadn't used that in her listings. Now she does, and the listings where safety is listed now convert into sales more often!

Danielle also asked what other baby brands the entrants like. She can use those answers to go create new custom audiences to target on Facebook.

"What other blogs or websites do you like?" is another question Danielle has asked. Her awesome Mom is currently compiling that list so that Danielle knows exactly where to advertise her products in 2016 or which bloggers to partner with to do giveaways and reviews. So perfect!

Danielle is using her current audience to find more people like them! Danielle highly recommends that you get ultra-specific when it comes to your ideal customer. Create a persona for her: What does she like? Where does she live? What does she read? Create that imaginary person and talk right to them. Market where they hang out online.

Gleam has given Danielle so much more information to fill in her ideal customer profile and narrow down her marketing.

How to Help your Customer Try on your Product

We absolutely love the ad Danielle used for her Baby Carrier Cover Giveaway. She made a four-part photo illustrating how to use the cover so customers could visualize how it would fit into their lives. Essentially, the carrier cover allows you to take your baby carrier, roll it up and snap it into a storage sack that sits around your waist. You can contain your baby carrier better so you don't have straps dangling all over the place.

Once people see the product in action, they absolutely love it and can see how it solves a problem! But without the step-by-step photos, it just looks like a random piece of material.

Step-by-step photos can be a great strategy for many kinds of businesses. If it's not super obvious how your product works or if you can catch someone's attention and help them to visualize your product in their lives, that's perfect. Danielle knows that on Facebook people scroll quickly. If your post doesn't catch their eye right away they're gone. Make it clear quickly why something is helpful to someone

We decided that step-by-step photos can be a fun interactive way to present all sorts of products. Even something as simple as a t-shirt can seem more fun when you divide it into steps: Step 1 pull T-shirt out of drawer, Step 2 put T-shirt on, Step 3, be awesome. Isn't that more fun?

Danielle says that this process helps your customer to try on the product in their mind. They start mentally taking ownership of that product and putting it into their life. So they're one step closer to owning it.

Danielle's Awesome iPhone Trick

If you find yourself often typing out long phrases or words like your shop website or email address on your phone, you can create shortcuts with text replacement. Just go into your phone's settings, keyboard, and text replacement.

Danielle has set up her phone so that when she types nnetsy her entire shop URL populates. If she types d@g her entire email address populates. What a great trick for busy moms who are always trying to run their businesses on the go!

Juniper the Comedian!

Danielle's little girl is too funny in this story! Tune in to see how she called out her Dad without saying a word!

Find Danielle Online!

Narranest.Etsy.com
Facebook: NarraNest
Instagram: NarraNest

Are you struggling with balancing too many social media platforms? What about monetizing your site to its fullest extent - so there's a chance to earn something from every single visitor? Jennie Brandon, our very first guest from the UK walks us through loads of great tips on how to use the IF app to leverage our presence on social media. She then goes beyond a handy app to teach us all the ways we can make sure our site is ready for an international audience. (The stats she shares are staggering, so you definitely don't want to ignore this huge demographic who could fall in love with your content!)

On the Podcast

01:26 - Jennie's Two Blogs
03:29 - How Learning Creates Opportunity
06:57 - What is the "IF" App?
11:30 - Build Leverage Across Social Media Platforms
14:38 - How to Start Using IFTTT
20:37 - How to Monetize your Site for International Customers
28:52 - Why your Amazon Affiliate Links Aren't Making you Money
35:25 - How to be Inclusive of an International Audience
47:10 - Jennie's Hilarious Mom Moment

Press Play on the Podcast Player Below to Hear Great Tips from our Favorite Brit, Jennie Brandon

Jennie’s Two Blogs

Jennie lives in Cambridge with her husband of 10 years and two small children Sophie and Joe. She has two blogs, The Errant Sock, and Laundry in the Temple. Laundry in the Temple is where Jennie shares how she teaches her children about her faith and The Errant Sock is a lifestyle blog with parenting hacks, books, and lots of recipes. All of Jennie's friends call her the “slow cooker whisperer” so she shares plenty of tips to help out other mums! Running two blogs and being a mum of 2 means that Jennie has limited time to invest in social media and sharing her content.

How Learning Creates Opportunity

When Jennie first reached out to us it was to share a story of how the Brilliant Business Moms podcast had helped her business and landed her a new job. Years ago, Jennie created her first blog where she focused on slow cooker recipes. Later when she tried to get back into blogging as a way of bringing in more income, she found that the blogging world was very different. In order to get caught up quickly she began listening to the podcast and it was Episode 53, Everything Twitter with Kelli Miller, that made the biggest impact on Jennie's blog and life.

Jennie had never been very comfortable with Twitter before listening to the episode, but by the end of the podcast, she felt ready to give it another try. Jennie dug into Twitter and got 600% more views to her blogs by focusing on the platform!

While Jennie still works on growing her blogs, she knew that she needed to take on a traditional job for now to make ends meet for her family. The podcast helped her with that goal too! A local pastor approached Jennie with a job opportunity, and it was her social media knowledge and web design expertise that set her apart from the other candidates! Jennie's new job lets her use her new skills in social media and website development, and it fits around her schedule and life as mum.

What a great example of how learning creates opportunity!

What is the “IF” App?

IFTTT (If This, Then That - now called the IF App) is an app that allows you to connect other apps and websites to each other for completing an array of different tasks.

Each app, program, or website you can connect is called a channel, and you can create "recipes" between the channels.The title really explains it all: If you do something on one channel, then something else will automatically happen on another channel.

There are hundreds of suggested recipes to help you get started, but almost any way of connecting two apps that you can imagine can be created to make your business and personal life more convenient.

The IF app currently has over 250 different channel options, which include Ebay, Etsy, Twitter, Evernote, Fitbit, Spotify, Feedly, Youtube, Trello, Reddit, and they just recently added Pinterest!

 

Here are a few examples of how the app works: Jennie has set up the IF app so that IF she takes a photo on her android phone, that photo is automatically saved to her Google drive. If she tweets something, that tweet is automatically saved to Evernote. If you leave the office, you could even set up a recipe to turn on your heat if you have a smart heater! There are so many possibilities!

Our heads were spinning when we heard that Pinterest was just recently added: You could automatically pin items that you just added to your etsy store, Pin instagram photos to a board, or Tweet every time you add a pin.

Build Leverage Across Social Media Platforms

In running two blogs Jennie really didn’t have time to devote to social media. She also didn’t have time to be creating new content every single day. Jennie uses the IF App as a way of sharing the content of bloggers that she trusts (as well as her own content) to various social media platforms on a regular basis. This happens automatically without the time and effort it would take to go in and manually schedule content. The IF App lets Jennie have a constant stream of valuable content across all of her feeds in a fraction of the time. In this way, her account always looks active and can engage with her followers. She never loses momentum due to a busy week at home.

Below are some recipes that Jennie uses:

• If she posts to Facebook, that same posts is shared on Twitter. (and vice versa)
• If Jennie posts to The Errant Sock, that post is shared on the Laundry in the Temple’s feeds.
• While TwitterFeed lets Jennie automatically share great content from her favorite bloggers, now with the IF App, those posts will automatically be shared on her Facebook page as well.

Overall, even when Jennie is crazy busy at home and has zero time to post on her blog or social media, she still looks perfectly active and keeps her sites top of mind for her followers by automatically curating great content for them.

For Bloggers who Work with Brands:
If a blogger sends out a tweet for Company X, they can auto-save those tweets (or any posts for that matter) to a spreadsheet. In this way, a blogger working on a large campaign with a brand can show them all the content they produced all in one place without having to hunt for it and manually collect it. In addition, if they work with the same brand every year, they'll have plenty of great content ideas ready to go in their spreadsheet.

There are thousands of possible recipe combinations you can use with the IF App, so be creative and don’t be afraid to play around. They also offer many suggestions for inspiration. And the app is just as useful for your personal life as it is for your business.

How to Start Using IFTTT

Jennie gave us some great tips and an outline of how to get started with IFTTT and make it work best for you and your business!

1. Make a list of which social media platforms you are currently using.
2. Prioritize the networks where your target audience hangs out most and where you enjoy connecting with them.
3. Pull out a pen and paper and create an actual visual map of how you want your content to be shared. Which way do you want the information to go? This will help you make sure that you are creating a complete loop and using the channels to their best ability.
4. Look at the IF App website and the suggested recipes. What are other bloggers using the app for?
5. Think about what content from others you want to share. Where will that information be coming from? Consider the entire flow of your content and the content of others and how that all works together to build and reflect your brand.
6. Start creating recipes! This is a very quick process and in less than 10 minutes Jennie created 8 recipes that form the basis of her IF App and social media strategy.

The Downsides to the IF App:

• Graphics. When you share graphics keep in mind that each platform shares photos in a different size so some of your photos may appear awkward on certain networks.
• Characters. The IF App does not count characters so make sure you know about what 140 characters looks like so your shares through to Twitter won't all be truncated.
• Hashtags. When you share a Twitter post to Facebook it will also copy over your hashtags, this may not be an issue for your particular situation but take this into account.
• Content Repetition. All of the content that you are sharing will be the same across all channels. Again, for Jennie and many bloggers this may not matter but keep this in mind. For most of us, our readers aren't following us or interacting with us on every single channel, so it's not generally an issue, but you'll have to keep your particular audience in mind.
• Bonus: The IF App does shorten your links for you.

How to Monetize Internationally

Based on the staggering numbers Jennie shared, it may be in your best interest to consider your international readers and to work to serve them better.

The population in the US is 320 million people. The population of other countries with a similar potential audience (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, & South Africa) is 190 million people. So these other readers in English-speaking countries with a similar culture could add 60% more potential readers to your site.

With a few tweaks to your content, your site, and the products you offer, you can monetize their visits to your website.

Monetization Ideas for an International Audience:

• Google Advertising. Since Google display ads are contextual and based on where someone has already visited online, you can easily monetize any visitor's experience on your site. For example, Jennie may visit a UK store to shop for coats. Then, she visits a US-based blog. That same coat will follow her there via a sidebar ad. If she clicks on that ad, the US website gets the commission for that click, even though both Jennie and the store are in the UK.
• Printables, E-books, and Downloadable Content. Jennie loves buying digital resources from brands she likes since she won't have to worry about shipping prices and she can begin using the product right away.
• Online Courses. Jennie took a great blogging course from a US blogger. When the courses are self-paced with no set times attached, they work perfectly.
• Recorded webinars. Webinars can be tricky with the time difference, but a recorded webinar is a great fit for Jennie. (We recently heard Amy Porterfield mention adding recorded webinars to her launch sequence because she had so many international customers requesting this.)
• Membership sites. Jennie can interact in the forums on her time and consume the content on her time.
• Services. There's no reason why a blog designer, marketing consultant, or other service-based business owners couldn't work with clients overseas. They could greatly expand their customer base if they started targeting these audiences - and they might face less competition too!
• Affiliate Marketing. If you're marketing an internationally-available product, or a digital product, program, or course, you can market to everyone! Jennie has bought an Ultimate Bundle before through an American Blogger.
• Selling on Etsy. Etsy makes things easy by automatically doing all the currency exchange and tax calculations for international sellers and buyers.

Hopefully this gets you thinking about all the ways you can monetize your site to a wider audience. We all know digital products can be great for business, but if you've delayed creating them thus far, maybe knowing you could attract 60% more potential customers will be just the thing to get you started!

Why Your Amazon Affiliate Links Aren’t Making You Money

Did you know that if someone from the UK clicks on an Amazon affiliate link from your website you do not get a commission? Shoppers in the UK cannot order from Amazon.com; they have to order through AmazonUK. But there is a way to fix this and ensure you're earning a commission from your international readers.

1. Sign up for each country's affiliate program through Amazon. Get more information from Amazon right here.
2. Install the Amazon Link Engine Plugin on your Wordpress site. This plugin ensures that each visitor is sent to the relevant Amazon site for them.
3. Create an account with Genius links. This program ensures that you are getting paid from those other countries’ links. The program is free up to 1,000 clicks/month then $10 per every 10,000 clicks after that.
4. Build your affiliate link just as you did before, and the intelligent link will send each visitor to the correct Amazon site.

Note: Amazon says that if over 10% of your traffic is from other Amazon countries, this process should be worth it for you - particularly if you get a large volume of traffic to your site, or you already do well by being an Amazon affiliate.

How to Be Inclusive of an International Audience

One of the best parts of having our first podcast guest from the UK is that Jennie was happy to share many ways that US bloggers and business owners can be more inclusive of international readers. Below are some simple ideas to cross different cultures with your brand.

• Be more inclusive in your language. For example, instead of saying “since next week is Thanksgiving” you could say “here in the US, we have Thanksgiving”.
• Show awareness that things happen at different times overseas. For example, in the UK back to school time is later in the year and summer vacation doesn’t start until late July.
• Not all trends go at the same speed in all countries. In the UK, online shopping has been a normal part of life for many years. Since they are a small country their postal service is very efficient and it is convenient to shop online and has been for over a decade!
• Don't use brand names, but describe the products as other countries often have different brands. For example, in a recipe instead of saying “can of Rotel”, say “can of diced tomatoes with chilies”. In the UK, Scotch tape is actually referred to as cello tape.
• Don't say "a package" or some other generic term. Use specific measurements to an international audience can still follow the recipe accurately.

Jennie sent over some other notes and thoughts, and I really liked what she had to say here to sum things up:

Be aware that we may have some different challenges and concerns. e.g. Brits have less disposable income and live in smaller houses because land is very precious here. We drive less because fuel is very expensive and driving is more stressful. Over half of us don't have a dryer for laundry, often because we don't have the space. We're also increasingly environmentally friendly and a post that suggests waste may hit a nerve.

But please don't feel sorry for us! We wonder how you manage without universal healthcare, how you cope with tornadoes and blizzards, how you manage with so little annual leave (we typically get at least 4 weeks, not 2 plus 8 national holidays) and how you can consider anything over 2 hours not being a really long drive!

(That last line really made me chuckle as Holden and I used to drive from South Carolina to Pittsburgh for an 11-hour day, and I didn't think that was "too long of a drive" :) It's so fun learning about other cultures!

Jennie's Hilarious Mum Moment

Jennie's daughter Sophie's spirit of determination is so adorable in this story! You'll have to listen to the podcast to hear all about it!

Find Jennie Online

LaundryintheTemple.com
TheErrantSock.com

Have you ever wondered what the magic formula is for making it big on Etsy? Here's the thing: that magic formula involves a lot of working pieces all combining together to make for excellent products, incredible customer service, and a business that succeeds. Cindy Funk has been selling adorable vintage tea towels on Etsy for several years, and with over 6,000 sales, she knows a thing or two about that magic formula.

Learn from Cindy and discover all the pieces you can bring together to create your own magic formula for success. You got this!

On the Podcast:

01:11 - What Martha Stewart and Cindy Funk have in Common

05:09 - Where Can You Find Mint Condition Vintage Items?

08:38 - Why Cindy Doesn't Cast a Wide Net

10:48 - Cindy's Fascinating Customers

13:45 - Why Cindy's Branding is "Anti-Etsy"

18:00 - Etsy SEO + Promoted Listings

26:08 - Inventory Management

28:11 - If I Could Turn Back Tiiiiiiime!

35:23 - Cindy's Wins

39:05 - 3 Tips for Making it on Etsy Long-Term

40:39 - We're Here, We're... a Little Different! And We're Not Going Anywhere!

43:00 - Cindy's Hilarious Mom Moment

What Martha Stewart and Cindy Funk have in Common

Cindy's business began as a long-time hobby first. She has been collecting vintage linens for years since her father passed away. She became interested in them because of the nostalgia and memories they carried. After collecting so many, she realized that her home was being taken over by linens ,and something needed to change! Cindy started looking for ways to sell her linens. At first, she signed up for a booth in an antiques mall, but the mall closed down before she was able to sell anything.

So what do Martha Stewart and Cindy Funk have in common? They both love Etsy! And they both discovered it around the same time! Not long after her antiques mall attempt, Cindy was watching an episode of Martha Stewart and saw one of the founders of Etsy being interviewed. After learning that Etsy sold vintage items in addition to handmade, she signed up in 2009 and began listing her first items in 2010. It didn’t take long for Cindy to realize that Etsy was a great platform for her vintage tea towels! They started selling pretty quickly on the site. In 2011 Cindy set a goal to sell 100 items, that year. Instead, she sold 1000 items! From that point on, she started looking at her Etsy shop as a real business.

Where Can You Find Mint Condition Vintage Items?

It turns out... all over the place! Cindy hunts far and wide for just the right vintage linens to add to her shop. Since she focuses on items that are in mint condition, it can be quite tricky for her to keep her shop inventory at the 250-item level that she prefers.

Here's a list of all the places Cindy has found Vintage Linens:

• Garage sales
• Yard Sales
• Church Sales
• Antique Fairs
• Flea Markets
• Church Sales
• Antique Malls
• Thrift Shops
• Estate Sales
• E-bay
• Online Stores
• Her Mailman! (He's very interested in antiques but not linens, so when he runs across them in his hunts, he saves them for Cindy.)

Cindy dedicates one day a week to scouting vintage items. She picks one town that's within driving distance to her home in Central Illionois and goes shopping! There's a flea market once a month about an hour away, so she tries to attend that on a regular basis. And she also hunts online.

Cindy has great relationships with several antique dealers. They have her card and give her a call when something of interest comes in. As an experienced seller who likes to keep her inventory high, it's in their advantage to call someone who may make a large purchase all at once.

Why Cindy Doesn't Cast a Wide Net

Once upon a time, Cindy thought she could grow her business by offering a wider variety of items. She branched out to vintage collectibles and spent about 6 months buying up inventory. She had 500 items in her shop! Cindy thought that new customers would find those collectibles, head to her shop, and buy other items while they were there. That didn't really happen! They just bought their one collectible item and left. Cindy also felt overwhelmed and her office space was taken over by collectibles. She has slowly sold off those items and focused on vintage linens and becoming well-known in that niche.

Cindy is seen as an expert when it comes to vintage tea towels. Other sellers and collectors turn to her for advice. She recommends that all Etsy sellers try tospecialize in something specific. By focusing on one main item, Cindy is able to better help her customers with her knowledge and experience. In addition, Cindy has a large base of repeat customers. She's developed great friendships over the years because she and her customers share the same interest and passions - they love vintage tea towels!

(Want to establish yourself as an expert in your field? See our tips right here.)

Cindy's Fascinating Customers

With such a specific niche, Cindy has had quite a lot of interesting customers through the years! She's sold to celebrities, museums, and prop masters for movies!

Cindy says the prop masters always crack her up, because they need their items yesterday! Recently, a prop master purchased a vintage paper tablecloth from her for $6 but paid $60 to have it shipped overnight to Canada!

Her products have even been purchased for a movie that starred Ben Affleck, but Cindy hasn't watched the movie yet to see if her items appeared in the set. And she's almost positive that one of her vintage tablecloths was featured in "The Help" but she can't be sure since the purchaser didn't mention anything at the time.

Cindy has one celebrity customer who has reordered from her 3 times, but she's too respectful of that person to fill us in on who it is!

Finally, Cindy's items can be found in museums. Sarah brought up a great point: Cindy clearly has an excellent product if museums are coming to her for items to feature in their displays!

(Now I'm off to see what old-school movies Ben Affleck has starred in - in the past 5 years!)

Why Cindy's Branding is "Anti-Etsy"

The general vibe on Etsy tends to be clean, bright, simple designs, with plenty of white space in photos to give a sense of calm. Cindy's branding is staunchly "Anti-Etsy" as she calls it! Her quirky, fun vintage tea towels just don't lend themselves to this vibe. Her shop is full of colors, patterns, and scenes, and this works for her. All of the pieces in her shop help support the main theme of the products which are (just like her tagline says) vintage with graphic appeal.

The Close-Up:

Unlike many Etsy sellers, Cindy has opted to do something different with her cover photo. Instead of using an image of the entire product, she starts with a close-up of the linen so you can see the details and quality of the item. This allows her customers to see exactly what they will be getting and to fall in love with the patterns and scenes found on her items.

As with all aspects of her Etsy shop, Cindy experiments with her photography. She found that if she zoomed out to show the whole linen, it was harder to see the graphics that are truly the cornerstone of each item. A zoomed out photo just looks like any other piece of cloth.

The Routine:

Cindy doesn't have a designated photography day each week. Instead, she tries to list 3-5 items, 4-5 days out of every week. She takes photos of just those items, edits them, uploads them to Etsy and fills out her listing. When she's done, Cindy has created several new listings from start to finish. Cindy says she loves to time-block so she sets aside time each day for capturing and creating her new listings. (We love time-blocking too!)

Etsy SEO + Promoted Listings

Cindy uses several tactics to help her items get found more often on Etsy:

• Constantly list new items. Cindy lists several new items most days of the week.
• Renew listings. On days when Cindy doesn't have a new item to list, she renews several listings.
• Improve both recency and relevancy. By always having very recently listed items in her shop, Cindy not only shows up more in the "recency" search feature on Etsy, but recency is also factor that helps determine a listing's position within relevancy search on Etsy. (Relevancy is currently the default search setting - so Etsy will show the items that have the best chance of being exactly what the searcher is looking for.) What this means in simplified terms: If two listings have the same keywords in them, the more recently listed item will rank higher on Etsy search. (Note: this is a very simplified view of things for the sake of teaching!)
• Check keyword stats. Cindy checks her stats often to see which keywords bring her the most traffic.
• Tweak constantly. Cindy uses her stats knowledge to constantly tweak keywords in her tags and titles.
• Experiment often. Cindy experiments with other details in her listings - such as placing items in different categories or testing out different photos.
• Use promoted listings. Cindy started testing promoted listings a few months ago, and she's found them really helpful. They show her which keywords people respond to most often, and she gets more views and favorites in her shop.
• Cindy's promoted listing strategy: She sets her max daily budget high, her bids mostly on "auto", only chooses a handful of listings to promote at a time, and ups her bid for her most expensive items where her cost per customer acquisition can be higher.

Quick Tips on Promoted Listings from Beth Anne

There are several factors that determine how well your promoted listing will do:

1.) Competition from other listings. If there's way too much competition, your items may not get shown very often, and that means they won't get clicks or sales. You can up your bid to counteract this competition, but at a certain point that bid per click just becomes way too expensive to be profitable in the long run. If you find this happening to your promoted listing, move on and promote something else!

In Cindy's case, she has a niche product that likely faces little competition. This is great for her! She can promote away without having to bid an extremely high amount per click.

2.) Your listing's profitability to Etsy. If you're selling a more expensive item, chances are good that Etsy will choose to show your item over other promoted items in your niche. They stand to make a larger commission when your item sells. (Etsy cares just as much about making as you do!) But the price of your item isn't the only thing that determines how profitable it will be for Etsy. It has to sell to be profitable! So if your conversion rate is high (the number of sales divided by the number of clicks) Etsy will likely show your item more often. They know your item sells well, so they'll keep on showing it. (You should also know that conversion rate matters a great deal for getting found in unpaid Etsy search as well. If your item doesn't sell well, Etsy will push it to the back.)

For reference: A typical conversion rate for an online store is 2%, or 2 sales per every 100 visitors/clicks to the shop. A great conversion rate is about 5%. A conversion rate that could use improvement is 1% or lower.

I generally aim for a 1% conversion rate if I'm doing paid advertising. And in our case, that means I can afford to pay 10 cents per click, or $10 total to acquire a customer for our Brilliant Business Planner. That keeps us profitable. So if I find that I'm bidding way more than 10 cents per click in promoted listings, unless my conversion rate skyrockets, I'd better lower that bid or find a new listing to promote!

For reference, our planner listing conversion rates vary greatly depending on the keywords we use to attract customers. We get anywhere from 0% to 5% conversion rates on our promoted listings. (Yeah... that 5% conversion rate... you better believe I'll be promoting that til I'm blue in the face!)

Inventory Management

With over 200 items for sale in her shop, Cindy has to keep her inventory very well organized. She's had bad experiences in the past when this wasn't the case. Then, an order is placed and she's scrambling and panicked - "where did that towel go?!"

Now, Cindy uses plastic containers with drawers to keep everything sorted and folded. She separates her items by type - tea towels, table cloths, and plastic tablecloths. Then Cindy stores her collectibles in wooden cubbies. She says that even when her workspace isn't neat, her inventory always is!

If I Could Turn Back Tiiiiime!

One of the best things about talking with a seasoned Etsy seller is learning what she'd do differently if she could do it all again. Cindy would love to pull a "Cher" and do these things differently if she could turn back time.

• Build an email list. Collect the email addresses of your customers right from the get-go. Build those relationships by sending out emails on a regular basis. Your email list is the perfect place to let your die-hard fans know about new additions to the shop, sales, and great tips or content in your niche. (Learn more about email marketing here.)
• Put your email sign-up link everywhere. Cindy now has a link to her email list sign-up on her About Page, Profile Page, her Thank you Note after a sale on Etsy, and anywhere else she can think to put it! Even though those are dead links, she is slowly but surely collecting email addresses because people who are interested in what you have to offer don't mind copying and pasting that link. (See our episode with Sarah Gilcher for more proof on that one!)
• Create your own website. Cindy just now reserved her domain name and plans to have a "home base" soon. Even if you don't plan to sell on your own site, it's a great place to put your email sign-up form and let others know a little more about you. Having a home base online is always a good idea!
• Put yourself out there and get your products featured. Cindy plans to do more active promoting of her shop this year. She'll write guest posts and submit her items for product features on large sites. Again, you don't have to have your own site to make guest posting or promoting work for you. Link to an email opt-in form or your Etsy shop. Don't let anything hold you back from marketing your business.

Cindy’s Wins

Cindy has done so many things right when it comes to growing her Etsy shop. Below are a few of her wins!

• Sell High-quality products. Cindy offers the best possible product that she can find.
• Provide Excellent communication. Cindy writes a thank you note to everyone who makes a purchase from her. She lets them know how much she appreciates their purchase, that she'll be shipping their item soon, and she hopes they'll come back to visit her shop again!
• Stay in touch with customers. Cindy has some customers who are looking for particular items, and she makes a point to reach out to them when she finds what they're looking for.
• Ship quickly. Cindy is neurotic about shipping, and almost always ships each order the very next day.
• Use Coupon codes. Cindy includes a coupon code with each purchase, and she's had many repeat customers who use this code.
• Participate in Teams. Cindy is a member of about 20 teams on Etsy. Members can trade tips, advice, and offer encouragement to each other.
• Learn as much about SEO as you can. Cindy is always testing and tweaking! We are too.

3 Tips for Making it on Etsy Long-Term

1. Your shop is a work in progress. You're never "done". There is always more to test, tweak, and of course, new changes from Etsy to figure out.
2. Be persistent. Every business has its ups and downs. Cindy remembers weeks where she had zero sales, and she wondered if she'd dropped off the face of the planet! But she kept with it and the sales always come back. There are busy seasons and slow seasons. This is the beast that is retail.
3. Learn as much as you can. Cindy never stops learning about business or selling on Etsy. She enjoys listening to podcasts like ours for what she calls "little golden nuggets". Whether an episode directly relates to selling on Etsy or not, there's always a business nugget to find. (We agree! And we're always learning from others too!)

We're Here! We're... a little Different! And We're Not Going Anywhere!

Etsy is known for being a handmade marketplace and Cindy has found that sometimes the vintage sellers get ignored. For example, when Etsy went public, there was no mention of the vintage and supplies side of things the marketplace. The press tends to describe Etsy simply as "a handmade marketplace" so many vintage lovers don't even know they can go there to find great treasures.

To combat this focus, Cindy wants vintage Etsy sellers to support each other, and she makes an effort to help promote others in her field. As these vintage shops and sellers work together, the community can grow and create more of a voice for vintage sellers on Etsy.

Cindy also lets Etsy know how much she appreciates it when she sees them feature a Vintage item in their finds. Essentially, she keeps letting them know that "she's here!" and not to forget about this wonderful side of Etsy.

Cindy's Hilarious Mom Moment

You'll have to tune in to hear about "The Great Cheese Incident." Too funny!

Find Cindy Online!

Shop: NeatoKeen.Etsy.com (Check it out! Her items are adorable and so unique!)
Facebook: Neatokeen.etsy
Instagram: Neatokeen2

Have you ever wondered what the magic formula is for making it big on Etsy? Here's the thing: that magic formula involves a lot of working pieces all combining together to make for excellent products, incredible customer service, and a business that succeeds. Cindy Funk has been selling adorable vintage tea towels on Etsy for several years, and with over 6,000 sales, she knows a thing or two about that magic formula.

Learn from Cindy and discover all the pieces you can bring together to create your own magic formula for success. You got this!

On the Podcast:

01:11 - What Martha Stewart and Cindy Funk have in Common

05:09 - Where Can You Find Mint Condition Vintage Items?

08:38 - Why Cindy Doesn't Cast a Wide Net

10:48 - Cindy's Fascinating Customers

13:45 - Why Cindy's Branding is "Anti-Etsy"

18:00 - Etsy SEO + Promoted Listings

26:08 - Inventory Management

28:11 - If I Could Turn Back Tiiiiiiime!

35:23 - Cindy's Wins

39:05 - 3 Tips for Making it on Etsy Long-Term

40:39 - We're Here, We're... a Little Different! And We're Not Going Anywhere!

43:00 - Cindy's Hilarious Mom Moment

What Martha Stewart and Cindy Funk have in Common

Cindy's business began as a long-time hobby first. She has been collecting vintage linens for years since her father passed away. She became interested in them because of the nostalgia and memories they carried. After collecting so many, she realized that her home was being taken over by linens ,and something needed to change! Cindy started looking for ways to sell her linens. At first, she signed up for a booth in an antiques mall, but the mall closed down before she was able to sell anything.

So what do Martha Stewart and Cindy Funk have in common? They both love Etsy! And they both discovered it around the same time! Not long after her antiques mall attempt, Cindy was watching an episode of Martha Stewart and saw one of the founders of Etsy being interviewed. After learning that Etsy sold vintage items in addition to handmade, she signed up in 2009 and began listing her first items in 2010. It didn’t take long for Cindy to realize that Etsy was a great platform for her vintage tea towels! They started selling pretty quickly on the site. In 2011 Cindy set a goal to sell 100 items, that year. Instead, she sold 1000 items! From that point on, she started looking at her Etsy shop as a real business.

Where Can You Find Mint Condition Vintage Items?

It turns out... all over the place! Cindy hunts far and wide for just the right vintage linens to add to her shop. Since she focuses on items that are in mint condition, it can be quite tricky for her to keep her shop inventory at the 250-item level that she prefers.

Here's a list of all the places Cindy has found Vintage Linens:

• Garage sales
• Yard Sales
• Church Sales
• Antique Fairs
• Flea Markets
• Church Sales
• Antique Malls
• Thrift Shops
• Estate Sales
• E-bay
• Online Stores
• Her Mailman! (He's very interested in antiques but not linens, so when he runs across them in his hunts, he saves them for Cindy.)

Cindy dedicates one day a week to scouting vintage items. She picks one town that's within driving distance to her home in Central Illionois and goes shopping! There's a flea market once a month about an hour away, so she tries to attend that on a regular basis. And she also hunts online.

Cindy has great relationships with several antique dealers. They have her card and give her a call when something of interest comes in. As an experienced seller who likes to keep her inventory high, it's in their advantage to call someone who may make a large purchase all at once.

Why Cindy Doesn't Cast a Wide Net

Once upon a time, Cindy thought she could grow her business by offering a wider variety of items. She branched out to vintage collectibles and spent about 6 months buying up inventory. She had 500 items in her shop! Cindy thought that new customers would find those collectibles, head to her shop, and buy other items while they were there. That didn't really happen! They just bought their one collectible item and left. Cindy also felt overwhelmed and her office space was taken over by collectibles. She has slowly sold off those items and focused on vintage linens and becoming well-known in that niche.

Cindy is seen as an expert when it comes to vintage tea towels. Other sellers and collectors turn to her for advice. She recommends that all Etsy sellers try tospecialize in something specific. By focusing on one main item, Cindy is able to better help her customers with her knowledge and experience. In addition, Cindy has a large base of repeat customers. She's developed great friendships over the years because she and her customers share the same interest and passions - they love vintage tea towels!

(Want to establish yourself as an expert in your field? See our tips right here.)

Cindy's Fascinating Customers

With such a specific niche, Cindy has had quite a lot of interesting customers through the years! She's sold to celebrities, museums, and prop masters for movies!

Cindy says the prop masters always crack her up, because they need their items yesterday! Recently, a prop master purchased a vintage paper tablecloth from her for $6 but paid $60 to have it shipped overnight to Canada!

Her products have even been purchased for a movie that starred Ben Affleck, but Cindy hasn't watched the movie yet to see if her items appeared in the set. And she's almost positive that one of her vintage tablecloths was featured in "The Help" but she can't be sure since the purchaser didn't mention anything at the time.

Cindy has one celebrity customer who has reordered from her 3 times, but she's too respectful of that person to fill us in on who it is!

Finally, Cindy's items can be found in museums. Sarah brought up a great point: Cindy clearly has an excellent product if museums are coming to her for items to feature in their displays!

(Now I'm off to see what old-school movies Ben Affleck has starred in - in the past 5 years!)

Why Cindy's Branding is "Anti-Etsy"

The general vibe on Etsy tends to be clean, bright, simple designs, with plenty of white space in photos to give a sense of calm. Cindy's branding is staunchly "Anti-Etsy" as she calls it! Her quirky, fun vintage tea towels just don't lend themselves to this vibe. Her shop is full of colors, patterns, and scenes, and this works for her. All of the pieces in her shop help support the main theme of the products which are (just like her tagline says) vintage with graphic appeal.

The Close-Up:

Unlike many Etsy sellers, Cindy has opted to do something different with her cover photo. Instead of using an image of the entire product, she starts with a close-up of the linen so you can see the details and quality of the item. This allows her customers to see exactly what they will be getting and to fall in love with the patterns and scenes found on her items.

As with all aspects of her Etsy shop, Cindy experiments with her photography. She found that if she zoomed out to show the whole linen, it was harder to see the graphics that are truly the cornerstone of each item. A zoomed out photo just looks like any other piece of cloth.

The Routine:

Cindy doesn't have a designated photography day each week. Instead, she tries to list 3-5 items, 4-5 days out of every week. She takes photos of just those items, edits them, uploads them to Etsy and fills out her listing. When she's done, Cindy has created several new listings from start to finish. Cindy says she loves to time-block so she sets aside time each day for capturing and creating her new listings. (We love time-blocking too!)

Etsy SEO + Promoted Listings

Cindy uses several tactics to help her items get found more often on Etsy:

• Constantly list new items. Cindy lists several new items most days of the week.
• Renew listings. On days when Cindy doesn't have a new item to list, she renews several listings.
• Improve both recency and relevancy. By always having very recently listed items in her shop, Cindy not only shows up more in the "recency" search feature on Etsy, but recency is also factor that helps determine a listing's position within relevancy search on Etsy. (Relevancy is currently the default search setting - so Etsy will show the items that have the best chance of being exactly what the searcher is looking for.) What this means in simplified terms: If two listings have the same keywords in them, the more recently listed item will rank higher on Etsy search. (Note: this is a very simplified view of things for the sake of teaching!)
• Check keyword stats. Cindy checks her stats often to see which keywords bring her the most traffic.
• Tweak constantly. Cindy uses her stats knowledge to constantly tweak keywords in her tags and titles.
• Experiment often. Cindy experiments with other details in her listings - such as placing items in different categories or testing out different photos.
• Use promoted listings. Cindy started testing promoted listings a few months ago, and she's found them really helpful. They show her which keywords people respond to most often, and she gets more views and favorites in her shop.
• Cindy's promoted listing strategy: She sets her max daily budget high, her bids mostly on "auto", only chooses a handful of listings to promote at a time, and ups her bid for her most expensive items where her cost per customer acquisition can be higher.

Quick Tips on Promoted Listings from Beth Anne

There are several factors that determine how well your promoted listing will do:

1.) Competition from other listings. If there's way too much competition, your items may not get shown very often, and that means they won't get clicks or sales. You can up your bid to counteract this competition, but at a certain point that bid per click just becomes way too expensive to be profitable in the long run. If you find this happening to your promoted listing, move on and promote something else!

In Cindy's case, she has a niche product that likely faces little competition. This is great for her! She can promote away without having to bid an extremely high amount per click.

2.) Your listing's profitability to Etsy. If you're selling a more expensive item, chances are good that Etsy will choose to show your item over other promoted items in your niche. They stand to make a larger commission when your item sells. (Etsy cares just as much about making as you do!) But the price of your item isn't the only thing that determines how profitable it will be for Etsy. It has to sell to be profitable! So if your conversion rate is high (the number of sales divided by the number of clicks) Etsy will likely show your item more often. They know your item sells well, so they'll keep on showing it. (You should also know that conversion rate matters a great deal for getting found in unpaid Etsy search as well. If your item doesn't sell well, Etsy will push it to the back.)

For reference: A typical conversion rate for an online store is 2%, or 2 sales per every 100 visitors/clicks to the shop. A great conversion rate is about 5%. A conversion rate that could use improvement is 1% or lower.

I generally aim for a 1% conversion rate if I'm doing paid advertising. And in our case, that means I can afford to pay 10 cents per click, or $10 total to acquire a customer for our Brilliant Business Planner. That keeps us profitable. So if I find that I'm bidding way more than 10 cents per click in promoted listings, unless my conversion rate skyrockets, I'd better lower that bid or find a new listing to promote!

For reference, our planner listing conversion rates vary greatly depending on the keywords we use to attract customers. We get anywhere from 0% to 5% conversion rates on our promoted listings. (Yeah... that 5% conversion rate... you better believe I'll be promoting that til I'm blue in the face!)

Inventory Management

With over 200 items for sale in her shop, Cindy has to keep her inventory very well organized. She's had bad experiences in the past when this wasn't the case. Then, an order is placed and she's scrambling and panicked - "where did that towel go?!"

Now, Cindy uses plastic containers with drawers to keep everything sorted and folded. She separates her items by type - tea towels, table cloths, and plastic tablecloths. Then Cindy stores her collectibles in wooden cubbies. She says that even when her workspace isn't neat, her inventory always is!

If I Could Turn Back Tiiiiime!

One of the best things about talking with a seasoned Etsy seller is learning what she'd do differently if she could do it all again. Cindy would love to pull a "Cher" and do these things differently if she could turn back time.

• Build an email list. Collect the email addresses of your customers right from the get-go. Build those relationships by sending out emails on a regular basis. Your email list is the perfect place to let your die-hard fans know about new additions to the shop, sales, and great tips or content in your niche. (Learn more about email marketing here.)
• Put your email sign-up link everywhere. Cindy now has a link to her email list sign-up on her About Page, Profile Page, her Thank you Note after a sale on Etsy, and anywhere else she can think to put it! Even though those are dead links, she is slowly but surely collecting email addresses because people who are interested in what you have to offer don't mind copying and pasting that link. (See our episode with Sarah Gilcher for more proof on that one!)
• Create your own website. Cindy just now reserved her domain name and plans to have a "home base" soon. Even if you don't plan to sell on your own site, it's a great place to put your email sign-up form and let others know a little more about you. Having a home base online is always a good idea!
• Put yourself out there and get your products featured. Cindy plans to do more active promoting of her shop this year. She'll write guest posts and submit her items for product features on large sites. Again, you don't have to have your own site to make guest posting or promoting work for you. Link to an email opt-in form or your Etsy shop. Don't let anything hold you back from marketing your business.

Cindy’s Wins

Cindy has done so many things right when it comes to growing her Etsy shop. Below are a few of her wins!

• Sell High-quality products. Cindy offers the best possible product that she can find.
• Provide Excellent communication. Cindy writes a thank you note to everyone who makes a purchase from her. She lets them know how much she appreciates their purchase, that she'll be shipping their item soon, and she hopes they'll come back to visit her shop again!
• Stay in touch with customers. Cindy has some customers who are looking for particular items, and she makes a point to reach out to them when she finds what they're looking for.
• Ship quickly. Cindy is neurotic about shipping, and almost always ships each order the very next day.
• Use Coupon codes. Cindy includes a coupon code with each purchase, and she's had many repeat customers who use this code.
• Participate in Teams. Cindy is a member of about 20 teams on Etsy. Members can trade tips, advice, and offer encouragement to each other.
• Learn as much about SEO as you can. Cindy is always testing and tweaking! We are too.

3 Tips for Making it on Etsy Long-Term

1. Your shop is a work in progress. You're never "done". There is always more to test, tweak, and of course, new changes from Etsy to figure out.
2. Be persistent. Every business has its ups and downs. Cindy remembers weeks where she had zero sales, and she wondered if she'd dropped off the face of the planet! But she kept with it and the sales always come back. There are busy seasons and slow seasons. This is the beast that is retail.
3. Learn as much as you can. Cindy never stops learning about business or selling on Etsy. She enjoys listening to podcasts like ours for what she calls "little golden nuggets". Whether an episode directly relates to selling on Etsy or not, there's always a business nugget to find. (We agree! And we're always learning from others too!)

We're Here! We're... a little Different! And We're Not Going Anywhere!

Etsy is known for being a handmade marketplace and Cindy has found that sometimes the vintage sellers get ignored. For example, when Etsy went public, there was no mention of the vintage and supplies side of things the marketplace. The press tends to describe Etsy simply as "a handmade marketplace" so many vintage lovers don't even know they can go there to find great treasures.

To combat this focus, Cindy wants vintage Etsy sellers to support each other, and she makes an effort to help promote others in her field. As these vintage shops and sellers work together, the community can grow and create more of a voice for vintage sellers on Etsy.

Cindy also lets Etsy know how much she appreciates it when she sees them feature a Vintage item in their finds. Essentially, she keeps letting them know that "she's here!" and not to forget about this wonderful side of Etsy.

Cindy's Hilarious Mom Moment

You'll have to tune in to hear about "The Great Cheese Incident." Too funny!

Find Cindy Online!

Shop: NeatoKeen.Etsy.com (Check it out! Her items are adorable and so unique!)
Facebook: Neatokeen.etsy
Instagram: Neatokeen2

Today we're chatting with Jescalyn of Love Lila Ann on Etsy. This episode was originally a business brainstorming session that we did on Blab. So please forgive some of the sound issues we had! Overall, though, we had such a great chat with Jescalyn, and what makes her business unique is that she's an expert in her field.

Jescalyn has been a NICU nurse for several years, and she saw the struggles that NICU parents face each day. She wanted to create products that would solve their problems and make them feel more at home in the NICU. While she initially developed a onesie that would work with IV's and other tubing, Jescalyn quickly discovered that it would take a huge order from China or an enormous expense for each product to manufacture her onesies in the states.

Jescalyn switched gears and solved another problem for NICU parents - it's really difficult for them to personalize their baby's space. Jescalyn designed brilliant fitted sheets that serve double duty by working as a changing pad cover, as well as fitting on any of the 3 mattress sizes used in the NICU. She did this by using a cord lock system at the corners of each sheet. How brilliant is that?!

Jescalyn also created a fitted sheet that works on a typical crib mattress as well as a pediatric hospital mattress, and she's working on developmental toys for infants who spend months in the NICU and need more stimulation.

What we Love about Jescalyn's Business

• It solves a real problem. There are so many beautiful products and shops to choose from on Etsy, but if you can pair something beautiful with something functional, you've hit gold. So many parents would love to have custom-fitted mattress covers or other products that serve a need while they are in the NICU.
• It's unique. Jescalyn's invention for versatile fitted sheets is so clever!
• It's beautiful. We mentioned this above, but it doesn't hurt that Jescalyn chooses gorgeous fabrics and patterns.
• It has great photos. This is one of the biggest problems we see with new Etsy shops - the photography is distracting, poorly done, and grainy. Jescalyn has beautiful, bright, clean photos.  She's off to a great start!
• She's an expert. Jescalyn is an expert in the area her business will serve: NICU babies and their families. She's worked as a NICU nurse for several years, and she sees the problems and struggles these babies and families face day in and day out. Being an expert on a topic is an amazing way to grow your business!

 

How to Position Yourself as an Expert

• Step 1: Trust in your abilities! Jescalyn had a difficult time thinking of herself as a NICU expert, but she truly is!  She's spent years working one-on-one with patients and families. She's honed her craft as a nurse, and even more importantly, she's listened and cared for families. She knows the struggles they face and how best to comfort them and encourage them. Sometimes it takes someone else affirming that you're an expert for you to really believe it and take ownership of it.
• Step 2: Write about your topic any chance that you can! With Jescalyn's background as a NICU nurse, we suggested that she skip ahead a few places in line and submit guest posts to large parenting sites such as Baby Center, Babble, or Parenting. Jescalyn has the expertise to write intelligently on topics that other guest bloggers can't. While some larger sites might require a writing sample, others are so eager for new content that they may not. Jescalyn will never know unless she tries!
• Step 3: Set up an email list with MailChimp. It's free for your first 2,000 subscribers. Customize your own little opt-in form (here's ours, as an example) and share that link everywhere. Jescalyn can use that link in each listing description, on her about page, and every time she guest posts or is featured somewhere.
• Step 4: Create a killer email opt-in. For Jescalyn, this could be a short guide to the NICU for parents, a checklist, a cheat sheet, a list of great resources for them, or perhaps even a guide on how to care for a friend who's just become a NICU parent.
• Step 5: Guest post on Mommy blogs, but with a more general focus there. Jescalyn could write about how to care for your friend whose baby is in the NICU.  She could share great gifts or items a friend in that situation might need.
• Step 6: Write a book! Jescalyn initially thought that she'd create a book full of her and other NICU nurses' wisdom and offer that as her email list freebie. We thought she should go bigger! Even a small e-book, if it's full of helpful information, can do well on Amazon. We checked out the current offerings, and there's not much there for NICU parents. Most of the content is geared towards healthcare professionals.
• Step 7: Market yourself on Social Media. Pinterest and Instagram are great visual platforms. On Instagram, Jescalyn can use the right hashtags such as #nicu #nicugrad or #nicubaby, along with connecting with moms-to-be who are in the process of getting their nursery ready. Instagram makes it fairly easy to meet new people and build relationships. Connect with parents in private Facebook groups. Answer questions and lend support and the marketing will happen on its own.
• Step 8: Foster relationships with your email list and your social media followers by staying in touch! Share encouragement. Share quick tips. Be that voice of wisdom and care in the midst of an incredibly stressful situation.
• Step 9: Add more support to NICU families by adding more products. Jescalyn would still like to work on creating onesies that work around the cords and wires in the NICU. She's also working on toys that would promote premature infants' development.
• Step 10: Partner with other business owners and influencers to create an all-in-one package - similar to Freshly Picked's Newborn Bundles. Again, this will serve her audience well, but also establish more authority for her as she expands her reach and builds great partnerships.
• Step 11: Partner with hospitals by creating a great resource guide for NICU parents. It would include many great products that are designed specifically to support NICU babies, and of course, Jescalyn's products would be included.
• Step 12: Keep going! One step at a time. Before you know it, you're the go-to resource for NICU families!

Those are our twelve steps for Growing your Business by Being an Expert. What are yours?

 

We had some questions from our audience about getting started on Etsy.  Here's what we had to say:

• If you are interested in getting started on Etsy, just do it! It is so easy to get set up just get your shop open with whatever you have and then you can tweak it and add things from there. By getting started, you'll figure out which products sell the best, be able to tweak your marketing efforts, and tweak your keywords to get found.
• Focus on Etsy SEO (search engine optimization) and use the right keywords in your titles, description, and tags. Keyword research takes time, but it can also bring you a lot of traffic in return. You can make life a little easier with the Get-Found Guide.
• If you're not sure what to include in your shop policies or on your about page, you can always look to other more established Etsy shops to figure out which points are important to discuss.
• Take great photos, or find a photographer who can take them for you. Your ability to sell your products rests on the quality of your photos.
• Before launching a handmade business take some time to think about the sustainability and scalability of the business. Can you actually make enough money selling this product to do it long term and full time? If not is there something you can change so that you are making enough money?

Have you ever thought about using your voice to make a living? That's exactly what Carrie Olsen does, and she's very successful at it!  Carrie is a voice actor, and she gets paid to read commercials for radio and TV, help create Kickstarter campaigns, or create educational content for a website.

It was so fun learning everything we could about voice acting -- what you need to get started, how much time it takes, and how you can market yourself and your voice.

This is a can't-miss episode -- and Carrie even indulged us with a few of her "voices" on the interview!

On the Podcast

00:57 - Carrie's Introduction to Voice Acting

03:48 - How to Get your First Gig

07:07 - How to Audition

08:52 - The Essential Element for Excellent Audio

11:30 - Editing Audio

13:28 - Fancy Equipment?

14:50 - Carrie's Recording Studio

16:06 - Directed Recordings

18:34 - How to Sound 20 Years Younger (or Older!)

21:00 - How Long Does it Take to Record a Session?

22:26 - How Much Does a Voice Actor Get Paid?

25:40 - A Flexible Career Option for Moms

29:05 - Do you Need an Agent for Voice Acting?

30:44 - Marketing Yourself

34:17 - More than a Great Voice

36:54 - Is Carrie Olsen a Brit?

38:44 - Carrie's Adorable Mom and Aunt Moment

Press Play on the Podcast Player Below to Hear from Carrie!

Carrie's Introduction to Voice Acting

Carrie's first job out of college was in HR. She was responsible for creating the online training program for her company.  She narrated the course as well.  Carrie enjoyed online training so much that she found a new job working full-time in e-learning.

One day shortly after Carrie's maternity leave, she was listening to a podcast interview of a voice over actor on her commute to work. This was Carrie's first revelation that voice over work could be a full-time profession. Carrie called up the woman who was interviewed, Allison Steele, and hired her to be her voice over coach.  3 weeks later, Carrie had her first voice acting job!  Just 4 months later, Carrie was able to quit her full-time job to pursue voice over work as her new profession.  She's had a steady income ever since!

How to Get Your First Gig

Carrie shared several great tips on how to get your first gig as a voice over actor.

1. Invest in Training.  Carrie faced a bit of criticism from friends and family when she hired someone to be her voice acting coach.  "Why would you hire a coach to teach you how to talk?" they asked, "you've been doing that your whole life!" But Carrie says that voice acting really is a different skill set.  There are many different intricacies to voice over work. And as you get better at voice acting, you can expand your repertoire in terms of adding new voice styles, ages, and accents.
2. Invest in a good home studio, or find a studio where you can do your work.  The mid-level microphones that Sarah and I use for podcasting clearly wouldn't cut it for voice acting.  You need a sound-proof environment and a very high-quality microphone.
3. Sign up for online casting sites.  Carrie got her first gigs from setting up her online profile on sites like Voices.com and Voice123.com  You have to pay either an annual fee (about $400) or a monthly fee ($40) to get started, but once you submit your profile and all of the different voices you can do, auditions that meet your skill set will be sent right to your inbox.  Carrie signed up for these sites thinking she'd just get some practice in the form of auditions, but she started getting booked for jobs pretty quickly! Note: since these sites are expensive, don't sign up for them until you've covered Steps 1 & 2. Practice a lot, get a coach, and get professional equipment.
4. Network. Carrie now gets most of her voice over jobs through networking, referrals, and reaching out to her local community.
5. Build your online presence. Carrie has also built her own online presence in the form of a website and being featured in different places online. Now companies find her all on their own.

How to Audition

We were pretty sure auditions for voice acting work a bit different than a casting call, but what exactly does it involve?

• The client generally provides a script.  Sometimes they'll also provide “direction” detailing how they would like you to sound, such as female, age 30-40, really upbeat! They may also provide another commercial as reference material or to let you know that's what inspired them.
• You record your audition on your own in your home studio or a studio you have access to.
• You can submit multiple "takes" of the audition if you feel that would showcase all of the potential options for a certain gig.
• Submit the audition either through the client's website, via email, or however they instruct you to do so.
• The client listens to all of the auditions and decides who to hire.

The Essential Element for Excellent Audio

Believe it or not, the essential element for excellent audio is actually...quiet!  Carrie says that voice actors crave true quiet. And this means complete silence - not a single sound!

Carrie has visited co-working spaces who claim to have a recording space available, but as soon as she enters the room she hears creaking from the floor above or the hum of an air conditioner.

This is why your best best it to have a dedicated home studio.  It really can be just a dedicated closet with blankets hung or foam to pad it. (We personally used the closet method to record our audiobook -surrounding ourselves with pillows to isolate the sound!)

Carrie was lucky enough to find a co-working space in Kansas City that does have a professional recording space with iso booths, but this is pretty rare.

Editing Audio

Does a voice over artist have to become an expert editor or does the client edit their own work?

Unless Carrie is doing a "directed session" where the client is right there with her directing every take, she does all the editing herself.

Most of her work happens independently.  The client sends her a script, and she records it and sends it back "broadcast-ready" which means they can use it right away.  Carrie may still send several takes, but they are all fully edited. This means she has removed all breath sounds, clicks, or any of the other little distracting noises a mouth can make while it's speaking!

Did Carrie learn how to edit audio on her own or did she receive training?

A little of both!  Carrie and her husband have been doing podcasts for years, so she knew how to do basic audio edits from that.  However, with her new career, Carrie has invested in classes on editing and using professional software so she can up her editing game even more.

Fancy Equipment?

Carrie's husband is a bit of an audiophile, so when they began podcasting, they invested in studio-quality microphone.  She still uses the same microphone they purchased years ago - the AKG Perception 120. Carrie has done national radio commercials using this microphone!

Carrie even brings her own microphone into the studio to use. Occasionally she tests out the equipment there and uses a new microphone for a certain job, but she generally sticks with her tried and true mic.

Carrie's Recording Studio

Carrie is lucky to have a local co-working space that also has a great recording studio. Most co-working spaces are designed more for “desk jobs” and they don't have great recording resources.

Carrie pays $250 a month to use a local recording studio and has 24/7 access. When she isn’t in the studio she is still able to use the available office space there to get other things done.

If you are interested in finding a recording studio to rent out, you'll have to do research in your local area.  Carrie doesn't think it's very common yet for a recording studio to offer space to rent, but hopefully this trend will grow!

Directed Recordings

Carrie actually loves directed sessions for several reasons.

• She knows exactly what the client wants. She's not left wondering whether she recording in the correct style.
• No time spent editing.  The client takes all the raw audio files and Carrie doesn't have to edit or finish them.
• She's solving a problem.  Carrie makes recorded sessions enjoyable by having the right mindset.  When the client gives feedback or wants another take, it's not personal. They're just looking for a particular sound and style.  Carrie knows if she can solve their problem and give them exactly what they're looking for, she's done her job.
• Carrie is great at being flexible.  This trait allows Carrie to offer a wide variety of styles so she can make sure the client hears just what they want. She knows that for many clients, they don't quite know exactly what they want until they hear it.  (She's done up to 50 takes in one session before!)

Listen to Carrie's Voice on this AT&T Commercial.  Isn't it incredible?!  Find more examples of her work right here.

How to Sound 20 Years Younger (or Older!)

A lot of voice over work requires sounding a specific age. Carrie doesn’t do child voices (although many voice actors with high-pitched voices do!) but she is really great at doing a teenage girl voice. The teenage girl talks faster, with a higher pitch, and uses different inflection and words.

Carrie has found that there is a lot you can do with your voice if you change your mindset. When trying to sound older she just “thinks older”. If you try to get into character and think about how the person would sound that can be very helpful for matching your voice to a certain age and character.

Carrie has done voice acting from teenager through 50 year-olds.

How Long does it Take to Record a Session?

Sometimes a recording session can be very quick, particularly when the client is present, knows exactly what they want, and everyone is prepared.  In these cases, Carrie can show up, record the spot, and be done in 8 minutes!

Some sessions however can take days to record such as educational content. It all depends on the gig itself and what the client is looking for.

For Carrie, it also depends on how many spots or commercial she is recording at one time. One client hired her to record 8 commercials at once, so naturally, this session took longer. Some spots have the same copy but a different city, whereas some are completely different.

As you'll discover below, you tend to be compensated for the extra time you put into each gig.  Audiobooks end up paying more as you spend more time recording and editing them.  But, you can also get more bang for your minute by booking national spots.

How Much Does a Voice Actor Get Paid?

Every job is quite different, but there is a union for voice over actors that has a suggested rate scale.  Carrie is not part of the union, but the rate scale is helpful for figuring out a fair rate.

We found an example rate scale at voices.com. Internet, television, radio, and audiobooks are all different beasts.  Carrie says that a 30 second national radio spot is about $500 based on the scale created by the union. The sample scale above indicates that the rate would be $1000.

An audiobook can range from $150 to $300 for a finished hour. A finished hour would include all of the work you did to record it such as editing, rerecording, etc… Most clients go in with a budget and then you can work with them and decide if it will work for both of you.

The rate sheet example we found suggests that the highest rate (per minute at least!) comes from doing a national TV commercial.  This comes in at around $2000.

A Flexible Career Option for Moms

Voice over work is a great option for moms looking for flexible work that they can do from home. But Carrie doesn't want to deceive women into thinking they can just grab any old microphone, start talking, and book high-paying gigs.

While voice acting can be very lucrative, Carrie wants to remind everyone that you are still running a business. Success does not come easy and it can be a very competitive. You have to practice and hone your craft constantly.

You have to invest money initially for coaching, equipment, and membership on job sites.

Finally, you need to market yourself and run your business. Carrie is running a business just like the rest of us, and we all know that growing a business doesn't come without a lot of hard work!

 

Do you Need an Agent for Voice Acting?

While Carrie says that most of her jobs come through networking or applying on large sites, having an agent is great for working with really large clients.

Carrie recommends waiting until you have a professional package to present before seeking out an agent.  You need to have a great demo tape. Make sure you are ready so you won't waste your time or the agent's.  Sharpen your skills first.

Marketing Yourself

Carrie’s marketing strategy revolves around one thing:  Exposure! She shared several great tips for gaining more exposure and getting more work.

• Create online profiles. Create profiles on as many platforms as you can find. Submit a thorough profile which includes all of the different voices you can do along with demos.
• Create your own website.  It can be very simple, but your website needs to have 2 things: Samples of what you can do, and a way to contact you.
• Create social media profiles.  Again, this is an easy way to build up your online presence and be found in more places.
• Get Business cards. Carrie says that while this may sound old school, it's very effective in her line of work.  She attends in-person networking events frequently, and she's ready with  her information and a way for people to contact her.
• Join your local Chamber of Commerce.  This goes hand-in-hand with the point above.  You can network with business owners and be ready when they're looking for a voice-over artist.
• Keep your ears open!  You'd be surprised at how much voice-over work is all around you.  Your local grocery story may have spots played over the intercom that are specific to that store.  (They hired a voice-over artist to do that!) Your local car dealership uses voice-overs. Kickstarter campaigns (like this one Hayley did) often use voice-overs too.

Beth Anne's idea: Attend writers' conferences so you can help writers turn their books into audiobooks!  Addi Ganley did just that, and the audible commissions are quite a bit better than just selling on Amazon.

More Than a Great Voice

There is a lot more to voice over work than just having a nice voice. You need to be able to connect with the audience. Carrie says that even the most unique voices can find work if they are great at acting.  Find a specialty and find a way to connect.

Conversely, having a great voice alone won't get you very far.  Your ability to act and express a certain feeling is what will make you stand out.

Is Carrie Olsen a Brit?

Carrie indulged us with a few of her different voice impressions. She shared her British Accent, Teen Girl, and The Know-it-all Mom. Her voices were spot on, and they were cracking us up! Clearly voice acting requires a lot of talent!

Carrie's Adorable Mom and Aunt Moment

Carrie has gotten her whole family involved in the fun of voice acting... and one little family member even got a paid gig!

Find Carrie Online!

CarrieOlsenVO.com - When you sign up for Carrie's newsletter, you'll get a free Getting Started Guide for Voice-Over in addition to tips and resources for voice actors.