Friday, April 23, 2010

Etsy Milestone

We have hit a milestone with our shop on Etsy and are proud to say that we have reached our goal of 500 sales by 12/31/10 in April. We’re not even half way into the year and we are celebrating our victory. We are too excited about this and would like to share with you the DO NOTs about Etsy.

First, don’t make the mistake we made. We opened our Etsy shop in 2006 and did noting and I do mean nothing with it. It just sat there hoping to be recognized. Unfortunately, the same ole same ole NOTHING happen in 2007 and part of 2008. It was not until late 2008 when we finally decided to do something with our Etsy shop after being asked countless times “Are you on Etsy?”.

Second, don’t just promote one avenue of shopping for your items online. We were extremely focused on promoting our webstore to the point that we ignored venues like Etsy. We have learned the more places such as Facebook you promote your products/services, the more likely you’ll be seen in Cyber world. .

Third, don’t forget to add your Etsy url to all your marketing items, brochures, catalogs, business cards, etc. Etsy is extremely popular and is becoming more recognized with each day. Therefore, you may have customers who shop Etsy exclusively and if you’re not informing your customers of all the avenues they can find your products then you may be missing out on sales, relationships, networking opportunities, etc. You never know who your customer(s) may refer your product to.

Fourth, don’t be intimidated by the Etsy forums. Get in there and make yourself known, join groups, street teams, network, work out trades, promote, have specials, etc. Remember I said Etsy is getting more and more popular by the day so you never know who is lurking around, it could be your lucky day.

Finally, don’t forget to have fun and to be respectful while doing so. Your business is a reflection of you and in today’s world we can find a great deal of information about a person with the click of a button. So please remember while taking part in online discussions not to forget you are representing your business.

I hope these don’ts will help someone in one way or another. It took us a while to catch on, but once we did we saw light at the end of the tunnel.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Happy Earth Day

What is Earth Day?

Earth Day according to Wikipedia is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment and this year marks its 40th Anniversary.

In honor of Earth Day, we have decided to promote 3 items that were inspired by nature from the creation to the final packaging.

First up is our Cucumber & Aloe Soap by CCrafters





Soothe and heal your skin from the harsh environmental elements with our pure Cucumber & Aloe handmade soap. This 100% natural soap is true to the plant. It is made with organic cucumber puree grown here in the fertile soil of North Carolina, Organic Aloe Vera Juice, quality vegetable oils, exotic butters and premium plant-based essential oils. This bar is sure to give your skin all the attention it deserves and will do the body good! This bar is packaged in deli paper with a label made from recycled material.


Second Up Ginger Juice & Berries Hairdress by Lavida Given by Nature

This hair care product is defintely true to nature. It is formulated with many hair loving herbs, such as Alma and Brahmi along with vegetabls oils and waxes and plant-based essential oils. It is designed to coat and protect the hair all while nourishing and strenghting at the same time, now who doesn't need that. It is not heavy, doesn’t leave build-up and it smells nice and earthy. It comes packaged in a recyclabel clear jar with a nice silver label and matching lid.


Third Up Recycled Envelope Paper Necklace by Hippie Kingdom

According to Hippie Kingdom, the Eco Friendly necklace made of paper beads from Colorful Telephone Bill Envelopes was carefully handcrafted. The paper beads are strung on natural hemp and are connected in an interesting pattern to form a rectangular pendant. It will even arrive at your front door packaged in recycable mailing material. Now this is certainly a nice upcycled item. Very creative

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Facebook Fans

We have become addicted to FACEBOOK. The more we chat, post, network, etc. on FACEBOOK the more addicted we become. We are so addicted to it that we have ordered new business cards with our FACEBOOK link on them.

Anyway, we are looking for more FACEBOOK fans and would like your help. Help spread the word about our fan page. We have a goal of getting 250 fans by mid-May and the 250th person will receive a FREE bar of our Pink Ginger Milk soap. We will also send our Hello Sunshine soap to the person who informs the most people about our FACEBOOK fan page. So start spreading the word. Happy Facebooking.

Revamp in progress......

Hello Blog World!

It has been a whirl wind at the Karess Krafters shop. We have been working hard to revamp our image (new website look, new catalogs, new label design, etc.) and we are sure you’ll like the new look.

Our first order of business was to streamline our product line to offer the goodies that ALL of you have come to love. This was a hard decision since we LOVE all of our products. We will only carry Handmade Soaps, Herbal Salve, Shea Monoi, Whipped Cocoa Butter, Hemp Lip Balms, Shampoo Bars and our Foot Care Line. We will be adding once ALL testing and FEEDBACK is taken into consideration our Honey-Hemp Deep Hair Conditioner.

Prices have been slashed on our Perfume Oils and many of our fragrant soaps. We will soon be adding more essential oil scented soaps once they leave the curing rack. We will be back tomorrow to show off our new catalog that was designed by RAS Artworks on Etsy.