I've read tons of articles on how to bring customers to your site but it seems like not a whole lot of articles cover getting those customers to return. I thought I would put together a few tips, I try to implement in my shop to encourage buyers to come back.

1.) Ensure that the first transaction goes smoothly.
- By replying to convos/emails quickly.
- Acknowledging the transaction (a thank you convo).
- Shipping quickly and letting the buyer know that you've shipped the order with a personal convo.
- The packaging doesn't need to be stunning but it should be well-packaged to ensure that the product arrives safe and in the same condition.

*These steps only take a few minutes of your time and make a world of difference.

2.) If something goes wrong, fix it.
- As a seller who accepts payments via Paypal - I am responsible for the package until it arrives in my buyer's hand, safe and sound. If the package is lost or broken, I replace it without complaint.
- Do what you say. When you don't, make it right with the buyer. My policies say I ship within 2 business days, if I can't I let the buyer know asap and if it's appropriate, I refund the shipping costs.
- Many buyers will consider coming back even if something went wrong the first time, as long as, the problem was dealt with properly.
- Don't make excuses - take responsibility for the problem and correct it.

3.) Be friendly and professional - ALL THE TIME!
- Honestly, very few things frustrate me more than pushy or angry convos. As a professional, you should be "PROFESSIONAL" at all times. If you can't be professional at the time, walk away until you can be and read whatever you've wrote at least twice.

4.) Offer Incentives
- Providing first-time buyers with coupons for %-off, free shipping, buy 2 get 1 free, etc. Can help to ensure that they come back for more.
- If you offer too many discounts, too often, some buyers won't come back until you provide them with one (I know I won't go to Michael's without a coupon anymore).
- Listing new items regularly, to a first-time buyer everything is new but to a return customer, only some will be new. Having new items for them, may help to encourage to look for something that catches their eye.

5.) THE MOST IMPORTANT
- Create a product that is well-made, well-priced, beautifully photographed, and ensure that you stand behind your work.

I hope someone will find these points useful and can implement them to ensure they're own returning customers.

I've been in dozens of treasuries over the last few months and honestly, I could probably count the number of times I've been notified by the curator on one hand. The only reason, I know I've been included in a treasury has been through www.Craftopolis.com, which I just check every couple of days.

I just wanted others to know that most sellers like to be notified when they've been included. It's pretty rare when a seller doesn't like to know.

It's really too bad that Etsy doesn't have something in place, to automatically notify the sellers, when their work has been included in something like a treasury, or the front page, or in Etsy finds, etc. Most love the extra publicity, not to mention, something as simple as someone else appreciating their work.

Also, an important thing to note - Etsy does not consider convoing the sellers of the items that you've included in your treasury, a type of spam anymore. So convo away!

Why should I convo the sellers?

- Because it's a nice thing to do!
- Common courtesy - I'm sure you would like to be notified (especially if it makes it onto the front page).
- Extra Promoting - If included, lots of sellers will blog about it, tweet about it, add the info to their facebook page, advertise it in promotions, in turn driving traffic to your treasury.
- More traffic to your treasury can result in more traffic to your shop (which is always a good thing)!
- The sellers will be more likely to look at your shop, increasing your shop traffic.

Every is going to do what they want to do. But I just wanted to say that I would appreciate a convo and I know lots of others would to!

Thanks for listening!

Really who doesn't love free stuff? Especially when it can obtained so easily! Right now, I'm running a Twitter promotion in order to giveaway this necklace:

Someone posted this site in the Etsy forums and I figure it bares repeating.

The Site:

Totally Tutorials (http://totallytutorials.blogspot.com/)

What do I do?

The sellers available through this site choose to give certain crafters a selection of their supplies (free) and in return, the crafter will create something with the supplies and then create a tutorial (with pictures).

Why do I care?

As a supply seller:
- The supply seller will get additional blog traffic from their post explaining the exchange.
- The supply seller will have links leading to her shop in the tutorials.
- The supply seller will be allowed to use photos of the finished products in her listings and/or blog and link to the tutorials if she chooses. This will give your potential buyers inspiration on how to use your supplies.

As a crafter:
- The receiver will get something free!
- The receiver will gain blog traffic from having their tutorial posted here.
- The receiver may sell the finished product if they wish.
- The receiver will be introduced to fabulous new supplies to test out at no charge. You might just find some new favorite suppliers.

What is the next steps?

You can find out all of the rules and which sellers are available, right here:

http://totallytutorials.blogspot.com/2009/07/get-freebie-create-tutorial.html

Anyway, I thought this was great place and I wanted to pass it along! Good luck to anyone who tries it!

After reading post after post about starting a Facebook fan page. I finally put one together, which was relatively simple. Right now, the link is:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Imaginative-Intention/149004529324

Apparently, you need to have at least 100 fans before they will allow you to have a personalized URL link like facebook.com/imaginativeintention. So, I'll be attempting to successfully promote it in the near future, so that I can get my custom URL before someone else does!

Anyway, I just wanted to share what I've been doing lately.

Well I've been hoarding the supplies for about a month now. Basically, practicing to make sure I was happy with the final product. After quite a few hits and misses, I'm lauching 2 new lines of pendants.

First, after searching for nearly 3 months for the perfect cutters, I finally found a great circle cutter to create my round clay photo pendants, like this one:

Second, I know that glass tile pendants have been done over and over and over again and I had bought some glass tiles to experiment with last year but I just wasn't happy with how the glass was shaped, so I sort of gave up on the idea and kept working on new pieces. Well, I finally came across a wonderful Etsy seller who was offering something different and I am incredibly happy with the final product. I love the way the glass curves along the edge, instead of having harsh edges, it flows beautifully! Here's some examples of my new line of glass tile pendants:

Let me know what you think? Should I keep going with either of these?

As usual I was lurking in the Etsy and Ebay forums when someone posted that Paypal was holding 10% of their funds for 60 days. After a bit of research, I came across a hundred or so others who were in the same predicament. Paypal was holding their funds for apparently no reason. On top of that, Paypal hadn't issued any changes to policy requirements, leaving a lot of people wondering what the heck happened. Well after I sent off a quick email to Paypal, basically asking if and what their changes were. This is the response I received:

"Hello XXXXXXXX,

Your business is important to us, and we are working hard to provide an easy, fast and secure payment service to you and your customers while keeping our prices competitive. We're also committed to clearly communicating changes to our policies and procedures. To that end, we are writing to inform you of a change to your PayPal account, which will take effect 30 days from the date of this email.

Beginning 07/26/2009, a small percentage of the total payments you receive will be held temporarily as a reserve in your account. This small reserve amount helps to ensure that funds are available to cover payment reversals or buyer chargebacks, if you do not have a sufficient PayPal account balance and do not provide the funds to do so.

A reserve is like a security deposit for your PayPal account and is standard practice in the payments industry, especially for retail segments like Cell Phones & PDAs where there is a higher-than-average risk of reversals or chargebacks. This does not mean that you have done anything wrong. We are requiring a small reserve in your account because you sell in a category that has a higher risk of reversals and chargebacks and because you are relatively new to PayPal as a seller.

Your reserve amount will be 10% of the total payments you receive, which will be held on a rolling 60-day schedule. That means 10% of the money you take in each day will be held in your account, and then made available for withdrawal 60 days later.

For example, if you receive $2,000 every 60 days into your PayPal account, then a reserve amount of about $400 would be required on a rolling 60-day period. In other words, about $6.67 would be held in reserve each day, then released 60 days later.

If you are a PayPal Money Market Fund customer, you will still earn interest on your total balance while your money is in reserve. Click here for more information or to enroll in the PayPal Money Market Fund.

We recognize this is a change in the way we do business with you. By requiring some merchants to reserve money in their accounts, we're able to lower our own costs. Keeping our costs low helps us to continue providing competitive pricing for all sellers who use PayPal.

If you have any questions about this change, please call us at 1-877-729-7252. We appreciate your business and look forward to a continued partnership.

Sincerely,

Paypal"

So, in case anyone else was wandering lost in the dark about this situation too, here's the facts straight from the horse's mouth!

Are you having trouble choosing those perfect tags or writing a captivating, informational titles? Well, really, who isn't!

I'm in the process of redoing my tags and titles, so that I can basically get the most bang for my buck. I've been reading through articles and websites and compiling relevant info to use. I figured there was probably others out there with my same dilema so I figured I would share the info I've found!

Etsy Storque Articles:
- http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/guidelines-tips-tagging-on-etsy-281/
- http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/seller-workshop-recap-tags-titles-descriptions-and-most-rele-4090/

Free Tag Suggestion Search Engine:
- http://craftweasel.com/TagToolQuery.do
- This free search tool allows you to enter a tag or 2 and it will build a list of suggestions of tags based on the tags other people are using for similiar items!

These 2 were the some of the best pieces of information I've come across so far as I find more, I'll be adding new info!

Good luck!

Hi, everyone! I am off to go camping in Banff and Jasper National Parks until August 3rd. I don't think I'm going to have any internet access while I'm camping, so I won't be able answer any emails or convos.

Please feel free to contact anyway, as I will be answering all of my emails on the 3rd when I get back.

Thank you guys for understanding!

Teri
ImaginativeIntention

I just came across a 50% off coupon for Michaels and I figured I would pass it on;

http://img.dealspl.us/images/coupon/1247427663_0022.jpg

I'm not exactly sure why, but I absolutely adore "vintage" style photograph that look like they've been basically put through the ringer - with scuff marks, holes, scratches, etc. I'm especially fascinated with those that have a viewfinder border.

What is a viewfinder border?
- Basically, it's a photograph that appears to have been taken through the viewfinder of another camera.

Anyways, I'm working on a series of necklaces using vintage-style photographs. The subjects are going to be varied, birds, flowers, architecture, etc - anything that interests or amazes me!

Here's a few examples:

Well up in here in good ole Saskatchewan, Canada in the winter, the temperature can drop below minus 40 C, which basically means there is no well in hell, I'm going outside to take pictures. So a good indoor light setup is essential! I've been playing around with my lightbox now that it's setup properly and I got to thinking about how much I hate white backgrounds (mostly because I don't do them particularly well)!

So I've been wandering around for the last month or so, collecting backgrounds for my photographs. Here are some of the items I came up with:

My dad found this rock while he was camping a couple of years ago, it has a gorgeous orange and black coloring to it. I found it in their garden the other day (and sort of swiped it), so that I could see how it did as a background.

I found this piece of wood in my parent's back yard in their tree line. I didn't really think much about it but when I used as a background, it adds a real nice, rustic texture to the photo.

I picked up the piece below at a dollar store for $1.25. It doesn't really look like much when I first picked it up BUT the way it's shaped, it's profile is a perfect, inexpensive mimic of a person's bust. Which will save you $25+ on buying a true jewelry display bust!

Other backgrounds ideas:

• Ceramic tiles (not the shiny ones, they'll leave a glare in the photo
• Small sheet of brushed steel
• Rusty iron (think farm implements)
• Small pile of mulch (could be messy)
• A roof shingle
• etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.....

There are literally thousands upon thousands of different background display ideas. You just need to keep your eyes open for anything that seems unique or different. Even if it doesn't look good at the time, it doesn't hurt to bring it home and try it!