Learning From Our Featured Zibbeter!
We want to introduce you to our Featured Zibbeter for the month of May. Meet Lori Ward, from North Carolina, aka Risky Beads! She creates ‘accessories with issues’, and they truly are amazing! Click here to read our interview with her.
We wanted to do a feature article on Risky Beads, because quite simply, she does a lot of things RIGHT and we wanted to share this with you.
Lori is already a successful seller on the well established Etsy.com and has over 1100 sales under her belt with 100% positive feedback. The “proof is in the pudding” as they say.
Lori’s top 3 tips!
1. Lori’s number one tip for sellers is to “take the time to take good pictures”. We can’t stress this enough. You cannot expect to make good sales if your pictures are lousy.
2. Spend time crafting the descriptions of your items and “double check your copy and be sure you’re spelling things correctly”. Lori writes in a fun, conversational way and engages the reader. Read our blog on ‘Writing Descriptions That Sell’.
3. “Own your brand and work it”. In her interview she states, “If you don’t know who you are and what you’re selling, then you can’t sell it, but don’t rush your brand. When I opened my shop, I didn’t know exactly what Risky Beads was going to be on day one. It took about ten months before I was satisfied with the entire vibe of my storefront.”
Repeat customers anyone?
One of the things that Lori does extremely well is to encourage repeat customers. She does this through packaging her items beautifully, writing a personal note to the buyer, including a business card, discount cards, and even a free bookmark (see below)! Lori is running Risky Beads like a business, because that’s what it is! And if you’re looking to make good sales, you need to as well.
How to Make It Small…Guide to Success
We highly recommend you get a copy of this book from Lori. She has proven her success and knows what she is talking about! Click here to purchase your copy…
In this book you’ll get tips on how to set up a great shop including the importance of product pictures, how to bring in those first sales when you feel like you’re floundering, understanding the customer and the marketplace, ideas on marketing materials, tagging, pricing, feedback, promoting your shop including blogging and Twitter, choosing venues, wholesale/custom/bulk orders and breaking down the process of branding and finding your niche.
Tags: Customer Service, featured seller, featured zibbeter, professionalism, riskybeads
Sounds really great.
When will Zibbet have grown to the level of Etsy?
Chris, CDRart
CDRart…We’re working hard to grow as fast as possible. One of the main reasons Etsy has grown to the size they are is because they work together as a community and help each other to improve their selling.
I highly recommend that you get a hold of Risky Bead’s book. Every seller should have one! It will only further your knowledge and help you to become a better seller.
I learned so much from reading this blog. Thank you!
Thank you for posting this article, it was very helpful. I learned some new little ideas and helpful hints (e.g repeat customers)
Thank you and Take care,
Kim (aka peachycheek)
http://www.zibbet.com/peachycheek
Lets hope it never grows to the size of etsy. Etsy is too large and product gets lost fast on that site. I am letting all my listings on etsy expire and I’m closing my shop! Etsy does nothing for me… 1 sale in 1.5 years!
Not getting hardly any sales on etsy, none on ebay, wasting money on listing fees (when I don’t have extra money to waste). Thought I would Zibbet out! Loved this article, it was very helpful! :O)
I just found this site and joined, haven’t listed anything or set up shop yet, but wanted to say this. What a fantastic find this place is. Like the dying practice of live rock bands being ‘found’ doing one of their ordinary gigs in a local pub, artists of all forms of creation have been struggling for a common voice for all too long. Ebay is NOT the place for this. It has become a huge cheap shop in terms of cheap copy art that you can get by driving 5 minutes to your local cheap shop. This applies to art in any form wether it be a book, a painting, jewelry, knitting, cooking, whatever your talents and passions are. How grateful we all should be to finally find one place with a common voice to showcase our passions and talents, and have an opportunity to be ‘found’ literally globally. The exposure for artists this site creates is unparalleled. To have it grow to the size of Ebay would be only lead to the gradual implosion of the motivation for creating a place such as this. How lucky are we to be able to be among the first to use it. May one of our dreams come true, and we see a fellow member’s work be recognised and appreciated as we all dream it will be.
Trina aka Melbourne Cup to Mardi Gras
I’m a newbie to Zibbet. I found my way here from a few fellow creative Twitters I follow. I love it here already!
This article is very helpful and I’m now off to purchase Lori’s book.
Many thanks
Jules
Black Heart Jewellery
I am so happy to see that other people feel Etsy is getting out of hand in size and scope. This is not sour grapes because I am too old for Twitter and blogs and all those things that younger people thrive on (and which help, I am sure.) I think Etsy, for Etsy’s sake, is a huge success, and who can argue with success? But the the size is out of hand and being seen even once for an instant when posting a new listing is like playing Russian roulette….you are eligible for the Time Machine or Time Machine 2 but it is not guaranteed. I know this because they wrote this to me yesterday in an email. Anyway, please do not strive to be as big as Etsy. Find some way to limit the size. I know you are not in business to lose money, and size does matter (to you), but maybe there is a happy medium. PS: Hats has a terminal disease and will soon die, but a new shop will open in its place eventually, and I will be right back here belly-aching! Thanks for listening. Hats
Really good tips. Thanks folks.
I too am thinking of letting my etsy shop go. I am on an etsy street team but they have gone crazy with dues and meetings and such. It helps if you are able to spend your hole life doing just that. Not me I am afraid. I am glad to see this site…How refreshing!
I am new here also. I am hoping for good results. I’d like to know if Zibbet uploads to search engines. I too am not for too much blogging because it just takes too much time away from sewing things to see in my shop.
@BagsPlusMore Our sellers shop and listings are all SEO friendly, which means your shop and listings are easily found in the search engines. In the next week or two we plan to set up an ‘auto-submission’ system to Google Base, which is Google’s shopping search engine.
Interesting fact: At the moment, around 30% of our site traffic comes through people searching Google and finding our sellers items.
I am established on Etsy but it is really large..so Iam trying Zibbet, plus you just gotta love the name. Howeer, I am very frustrated with trying to set up my profile page. Nothing saves. Everytime I put my avatar pic and other pics, then I hit save..the page goes blank??? Very frustrating!! I also have not been able to figure out how to construct my own banner. I have photoshop, I have figured out the first few steps, go to new..blank space, then put in size..got that down but then I can’t or should say do not know how to bring my photo into the space!! Argh!!! Other than that..I like it..will be moving more items over as soon as somethng on Zibbet sells…also can’t figure out how to get that little Zibbet sign to put on Facebook. I put the name of my business where I was instructed to..then what??? Sorry to have all these questions..I am an artist and not much of a computer whiz, but as a premier seller…I woudl love some help!! Please!! Thank you and Lori, I agreed with eveything you said! It is true that the things that cost the least, a hand written note, can make the biggest difference! Happy September everyone!!
Pamela..Pie In The Sky Jewelry
Great article! I’m on Etsy and decided to open a second site (plus you guys are from Sydney - gotta support other Aussies). Here’s hoping it all takes off
great article! Thanks for all the helpful tips. I’ve had a few shops on etsy, but I haven’t seen anything quite like zibbet. I think I’ll keep my etsy shop - atleast for now, but I’m so glad I found zibbet!
does anyone know if Zibbert are promoting themselves to BUYERS (other than craftspeople / artist within the zibbert community)? Is there some sort of advertising or strategy, even locally (I think the head office is Australia) to let people know there is an alternative marketplace to Etsy, especially running up to the christmas season?? Ho does anyone outside of Zibbert know it is even here?
I would love 2 read about more seller success stories! Not only do I love the advice….it really is great to see fellow artists achieve a level of success that we all dream of:) I think one of the most important things is to really love what you do & have fun with it!
I love this article because it showcases exactly why I appreciate certain sellers in any marketplace online. Yesterday, for example, I received some handmade soap I’d ordered for my daughter-in-law. The seller sent a handwritten note, a business card, and 2 coupons to lure me back to her store. She also included a sample of a hypo-allergenic lotion for my DIL to try, because we’d discussed skin issues. She LISTENED. That made all the difference.
Great article!
I’ve read through this thread and love the honesty I find here. I also have a shop on Etsy (since Dec 2009); a shop on Artfire (June 2010); and heard about Zibbet from the social networks associated with those shops. Over the weekend I set up shop on Zibbet. One of the most helpful things I have done is to join Lori Ward’s ‘Handmade Highway’. Now… there is a young woman who knows what’s what. I immediately ordered her e-book (I think I have it memorized) and immediately re-photographed all 230 jewelry items in my Etsy Shop. It took me weeks to accomplish that but the best thing I could have done for myself. I paid an online seller to get myself re-branded with a avitar and matching banner. I stick that little pink flower avitar on everything that will give me a place to stick it.
I think we all must remember that we are in the midst of one of the worst financial meltdowns that we will experience in our lifetime. People are not spending money they don’t have.
So… for those of us whose sales are slow… don’t whine and throw in the towel… use this time to build up inventory in our shops… fix photos… streamline your listing copy so it is not just a catalog of materials. Boring! I was a successful real estate salesperson for 20 years. I learned quickly that you reap what you sow. The first three years in the business I promoted myself… learned the ropes… did open houses for other agents and worked my buns off. Eventually it began to pay big dividends.
Online marketing is very different but requires the same dedication and it is amazing that the harder you work the more successful you become.
If you do get a sale… let your buyer know how much you appreciate them… bend over backwards to make them happy they bought from you. Sometimes you have to give a lot move than you receive.
I hand out business cards with my shop links on them to bank tellers, grocery store checkout gals, in doctor and dental offices, I go through a ton of cards. Get your little noses stuck into as many social networks that will let you join. Add your comments. Get involved. What we sometimes forget is that if we buy from one another… as zibbet grows… our main source of income might just be from other sellers whose work we have come to know well. If we don’t support one another how can we expect anyone else to support us. Jeesh, sorry guys, I guess I got a little carried away but just having an online shop won’t mean that buyers will be busting down our doors. We all have to get proactive and get hustling out there and introduce people to ourselves and what we create. To my way of thinking, in this economy, it will take me a year or two of sticking with it and staying optimistic that I will get back all I have put in hundredfold. I’m almost 70 and by now have learned not be be impatient. Just put the head down and work away at it… your work will get better and better and as the economy improves, so will your sales. Good luck all you talented people. Faye of Woodcot Designs.