All the cool people know about Etsy.com

Written on 10:20 AM by Nice to meet you, I'm Chance :)

So in a nutshell, Etsy is a utopian site for crafters. You see Etsy is like the Ebay for those that handmake wares, such as pottery, jewellery, clothing, photography, painting etc, but it is soooooo much nicer then eBay in a zillion different ways.

The word craft has been a little bastardised over the years, when I hear craft, I think grannies and knitting, but alas Craft these days has reached a whole new awe inspiring calibre. This Etsy site we speak of is beautifully designed, and a pleasure to navigate, it's free to sign up both to buy or to sell and start your own store, it has a wonderful and encouraged community atmosphere, cleaver site features and all in all, is an addictive place to visit and linger.

I accidently stumbled over Etsy when looking for somewhere else to market and sell my KikiZeal Singlets (pictured below) I was selling them on Ebay, but the fees we're becoming absurd and the Ebay environment isn't much better then walking into a $2 store, it's cheap, tacky, induces devaluation of most products and time consuming when it comes to listing items in a way in which keeps you in a competitive level.

If you handmade anything, you no doubt have an appreciation for other handmade things, the time, love and craftsmanship that goes into its inception and evolution of creation. So for crafters alike to stumble upon Etsy is like the ray of sunshine beaming down in front of you lighting up a type of utopia that appeals to all levels of your senses in an angelic like way, where you can almost hear the choir like chord, "Haaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr".

Getting Started on Etsy:
So as The Determined Entrepreneur, this was a huge mile stone and wonderful discovery, I quickly and easily got to work opening my shop, of which you enter your usual personal contact details, pick a shop name, mine is MindCargo, and bam, your done!

Listing your first item:
It's US.20 cents to list an item, and for that you get a listing that includes 5 pictures, limitless allowance for your description and a listing that is active for not 5 days or 7 days like some, not even 10 days, but 3 months! Yep that's about 90 days for US.20 cents! Plus, just like on Ebay the terms or words you use in your Heading are how searches find your items, except on Etsy you're not limited on Heading length and better yet, you get an additional 14 related tags to add to your listing, so that's another 14 opportunities for your item to appear in a search. Are you starting to see why Etsy is just so brilliant? It's obvious that Etsy is very keen to work with and support its sellers, of course it's to the benefit of both parties but Etsy seems to genuinely care about it's sellers appose to them just being numbers and fee generators.

Etsy perk #1:
Once you've spend your US.20 cents your listing then is out there for all to stumble across and one of the many nice features on Etsy is the "Recently Listed Items" scroller the appears at the bottom of the front page and rotates through all the just listed things and previews them, which is great free exposure! You have to pay at least $24 to get a text link on the front page of Ebay! Pish Posh to that! I take advantage of this feature by listing at peak traffic times, say 8pm New York time, or 8pm Australia time, I mix it up a bit, and always get a few clicks just from this scrolling feature alone.

Next your shop appearance:
On Ebay, if you're ohfey with HTML you can get quite creative with your listing, changing the background, adding graphics and playing with fonts; which while it can be a nice option, in most cases is abused by rather unsavvy design illiterate eBayer’s whom think a font big enough you can read from space in fluoro pink on a tiger print background is classy, where as Etsy has a nice solution to this level of customisation.

None. You can't change fonts, background or colours in your listing, and it's PERFECT. The Etsy site is so pleasantly designed that this simplistic continuity that is kept throughout the site and all shops further enhances its class, clean navigation and viewing pleasure. My eBay listings would viciously consume at minimum 30 minutes of my time per item listed, to design the listing template to suit my brand image, then upload each photo which had to be hosted offsite if you didn't want to be charged for extra photos and then you're right to upload once fees where calculated base on a sliding scale and extra features opted for. Ahhhh, cut the junk and follow the KISS method, Keep it Simple Stupid.

As a side note - KISS:
Here in Australia Pizza Hut was the long time biggest and most established leader in the pizza field for a good 15 years, you had a choice for everything toppings, bases, what size and what extras, until one day, Dominos came along KISS was their elixir, the offered about 6 or so pre determined flavours available in 1 size. That's it, they took choice away and whalla that was the recipe for success. The Pizza Huts began rapidly shutting shop as quickly as Domino's was opening them. So the moral, in many cases, KISS is the best method when it comes to business success.

So you now know about Etsy, you know how to sign up, list your item and get free advertising on the front page but what about marketing your shop to increase sales and considering your geographical location.

Etsy is America, I live somewhere else:
That's cool, Etsy is open for anyone world wide to share the craft love, just keep in mind all prices are listed in US$ which for say someone such as me living in Australia is great, because of the current AU$ I get 1.5x the value of my sold item, check the conversion rate for your location to the US$ at xe.com Be sure to do some research into postage rates for different locations around the world and charge accordingly. I highly encourage you to sell and inturn post worldwide, 98% of my sales are from USAAustralia where I live.

Getting paid:
Etsy does all sales through PayPal.com which if you don't already know is the easiest way of accepting payments worldwide including from Credit Cards. Sign up at PayPal.com now for your free account, for every transaction they take a %, just build that into your price structure.
You can choose to accept Bank Deposit, I do, but ONLY for buyers in the same country as me. PayPal can deposit your money into your nominated bank account whenever you like, you call the shots.
Etsy fees thankfully are quite modest and minimal, but at present are due monthly and can only be paid by Credit Card. (I opened an account at my bank for one of those Visa Debit Cards; I call them a pretend credit card. They are funded only by your own available account balance and perfect for this kind of use. Ask at your bank.) Hopefully this year 2009 Etsy will upgrade to allow Bills to be paid via PayPal. Oh and remember your Etsy bill is in US$ too.

Marketing your site:
There are a number of ways and I will revisit this topic in a devoted post soon, but to get the ball rolling, while your listing is valid for 3 months for that US.20 cents, as more people list more items your listing will slowly be bumped to the bottom of the search returns as most search results are based on "Recently Listed" so Etsy has a feature called "Renew" simply log into your shop, select Renew from the left column, pick as many items as you wish to renew and for US.20 cents each you can renew your items and restart the clock and return your items to the top of the search results.
I renew 6 listings a day, so US$1.20 p/day I put down as marketing budget and this definitely increases my daily and weekly sales. Keep in mind to relist at peak time as mentioned earlier, 8pm New York time and occasionally 8pm Australia time (or whatever country you live). Again you renewed listing will appear at the bottom of the scrolling "Recently Listed Items" gallery on the Etsy front page.
There are plenty more marketing tips, the next one is Majaba now called CraftCult.com which I will discuss another time.

So that's an introduction to Etsy.com!

Check it out today and get crafting and selling. It's a real pleasure to spend time doing something you love and even more enjoyable when you can be recognised for your work by selling it in such a delightful place.

Till tomorrow.
Dream Big - Chance :)

Posted in Australia, craft, Ebay, etsy, fees, handmade, marketing, MindCargo, online business, online shop, self employed, selling online, store | Comment Now!

We're here, now what?

Written on 8:48 PM by Nice to meet you, I'm Chance :)

Welcome to 2009, here you will find, happiness, love, incredible opportunity, great wealth and inner peace. Please be sure to fasten your seat belt, hold on and be responsible for your choices at all time. We hope you enjoy your stay.

Kindest - Chance :)

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It's a matter of Choice

Written on 10:17 AM by Nice to meet you, I'm Chance :)

Today I want us to think about the word CHOICE.

What does choice mean to you? Is it the opportunity to choose what you eat for lunch, who your friends are, when you get up or how many glasses of wine you have?

Or maybe it means, freedom, happiness or success.

2009 is only a few mere hours away, and while many of us will drink, party with friends and share a New Year's Kiss with our loved one underneath a sky of glittering fireworks the Universe continues to work hard; letting go of the past 12 months and preparing for another 12 fresh canvas' for which we can each CHOOSE what we write on them, how we treat them and what we want from them in return.

If it's all sounding a bit esoteric, then make the CHOICE to look away, but if you've reached an epiphany, decided you deserve a better year or simply bright eyed and keen to step forth into 2009 then this post may be the ingredient you're looking for.

I have never experienced a year like I have this 2008, I lost one of the most irreplaceable people, someone dearly close to me to which every move I made was to hopefully make them proud of me. I think daily about them daily, yet it all still feels impeccably surreal. Mixed in with this equation was the love that grew my family and I, my partner and I and those friends that stood near. All this has brought me to a place where, little things don't trouble me anymore, I've learnt there is so many, many more important things that we glaze over everyday with little care for their beauty, the place of love they have come or even the opportunity they could be, should we CHOOSE to stop and see.

We all joke about what our New Year's Resolution is going to be, but how many of us, stop and think about how truly fortunate we are that we have the freedom to not only CHOOSE a Resolution, but the ability to CHOOSE to honour it or to not. This post may be a little heavy for some, but while it's not nice to think about we all truly do take life for granted and few of us truly do our opportunity at living a life justice. For most it comes down to the deep seeded psychology of not respecting ourselves. Learn to love yourself, appreciate yourself, be grateful for yourself and it will reflect in your life and all that crosses your path.

I'm going to give you an exercise, and I'll join in and do it also. From the moment you finish reading this post through to the same time tomorrow I want us to think to ourselves all the things we're grateful for; I'm grateful for my life, I'm grateful for my family, I'm grateful for my health, I'm grateful for the roof over my head, I'm grateful for my mom's brownies, I'm grateful for my new haircut... Just run through everything in your head, don't put clauses on things, I'm grateful for my family except my mother in law because.... just instead appreciate things for their essence, regardless of someone or something’s good or bad points in your mind, they're in your life for you to learn, grow and benefit from, don't ever discount a person or event. Consider practising the daily act of being grateful, just in your mind, and soon you'll start to mean it from you core and you'll begin to see a positive shift. Remember no one else knows you're doing it, just you, and that's all that matters, what's the harm in trying, hey?

So when it comes to CHOICE, you soon see that where we each find ourselves at this exact moment, is the result of alllllll the choices YOU have made which have got you here, like it or not, you chose to quit your job, you chose to dye your hair pink, you chose to eat all that takeaway, you chose to unconditionally love your partner, you chose to be grateful daily, you chose to smile at strangers you pass. Good or bad you chose it. Now CHOOSE to make not a Resolution for this New Year but a shift in consciousness that gets you to a better place, a happier place and one that will support, nurture and manifest your hopes, dreams and desires. Anything is only as possible as you CHOOSE it to be. Choose to aim for the moon, for even if you fall short, you will land among the stars.

Make a conscious CHOICE, you deserve happiness, you deserve success and you deserve to do what it takes to be grateful for all that can make this happen and begin to make smart decision today.

Your life, what you achieve, how you feel. It's simply a matter of Choice.

Goodbye 2008, I am grateful to have shared this year with you.

Kindest - Chance :)

Posted in 2009, acheiving, action, choice, decisions, dreams, happiness, hopes, law of attraction, life coach, new year, resolutions, self development, self help | Comment Now!

A is for Affiliate. "Huh, you said what now?"

Written on 8:06 AM by Nice to meet you, I'm Chance :)

If you're looking to make some dollars online then you may have come across the word Affiliate, usually in reference to an Affiliate Program. An Affiliate Program is something some websites offer, such as Amazon.com where you can register to become an Affiliate of theirs, you then promote their products on your website and when visitors to your site then click through and buy from your Affiliate in this case Amazon you receive a kick back or commission as a thank you for sending them there. Now it's not always rewarded based on a purchase, it may be once a survey is completed etc.
So anywho's that's the quick overview of an Affiliate Program, so what's brings me to this topic today?

In my continual search for Internet business ideas I thought, I love audio books, I love business, marketing and self help books, and I'm looking for a digital product to sell because it can be sold infinite times and requires little energy to maintain once established, so in short, I could start an Audio Book Download Site! YES!

Then in doing initial research to locate where and how I can go about getting resell rights to then set up this amazing wonderful money fountain I realised it's may be a little tricky to go about it this way. So being the Determined Entrepreneur, I continued to forge forward until my pathway crossed a solution, and that's when I stumbled upon HayHouse.com (A big publisher for self-help books) and their Affiliate program. *Light bulb - "Hmm, maybe this is my answer."


Hay House pay out between 10-20% commission on sales from your referred customers. Which isn't too bad, while it may only be $4.90 here and there, imagine if you set up 10 of these Affiliate sites with different Affiliate partners, each generating say one $4.90 commission per day, that's $343 per day! Not to shabby!

So back to my audio book website idea thingy, I love Audible.com so I popped over there and sure enough, they do an Affiliate Program too! Yay, and better yet, they have a 60 day cookie which in English means, when a visitor from your site clicks through to Amazon and then makes a purchase within 60 days you get the commission from the sale, where as most other Affiliate Programs only have a 30 day purhcase window.

The Audible commission scale isn't percentage based, instead it's calculated on 3 types of purchases, 2 are of their membership programs, so a commission of $25 and $10 respectively or $3.50 for individual purchases. So again, not to shabby.

So one of my recently recruited mantras is, "Don't think, just do." because I could sit here for the next 3 months, thinking and having the best intentions of, "Yeah, let's do 10 affiliate sites, make $343 bucks a day and pay off some debts, go on a holiday, buy something nice, blah, blah." But unless I get passed this just thinking stage I'll be in the same boat treading the same water in 3 months time, but now I'll be thinking, "Crap, I should have started those Affiliate sites, 3 months ago, cos I could have had $20,000 in my pocket now." So with that in mind, I move my thoughts to the next stage. (Oh and I'm in Australia and all figures mentioned above are US$ so with the current conversion of 68c to the dollar, that US$20k becomes, AU$29k. Nice)

What kind of a site to setup for this Affiliate Program idea...
You see you have to apply to be an Affiliate and submit your website so you can be approved or denied, as far as I'm aware they're mainly looking for no offensive content, no hate sites etc. So now I need to set up my site, but quickly, I don't want to over capitalise and over invest my time to getting this ball rolling, I have other sites and ideas to share my time with too!

So that brings me to where I am now, I'm going to do this Affiliate program with Audible.com (if they'll have me!) but now what format to do the website I then submit for approval... Hmmm... Do I do a Blog and review books, or maybe a website that lists all the books available, but that's over 8,000 titles! This one I'll have to nut through a little more. But I'll keep you posted!

Can you share your own experience with an Affiliate Program or share an idea about what format my website should take to suit the capitalisation of this Audible.com Affiliation? Comment now and share ideas with other readers.

Till tomorrow. Dream Big Kids - Chance :)

P.S. Oh you're wondering just how possible it is to make money from this kind of Affiliate Program? There are plenty of google searches that claim people that have maid their Millions from Affiliate programs, but you'll soon learn I'm not looking for a get rich quick scheme and neither should you, instead replace that desire with a solid steady growth of multiple income generating websites you establish that tick over a nice cash flow each week, that you can built and comfortably profit from. So in short, I don't know how much if any money can be made from Affiliate programs, I've not done this before, I can calculate figures based on the commission scale, but as to what sales are actually made is another thing. But that's what this process is about, learning and sharing as I go. So get comfy bookmark my blog and subscribe to updates.

Posted in Affilate Programs, Amazon.com, Audible.com, dream big, get rich quick, making money online, multiple income streams, online business, sensible income ideas, The Determined Entrepreneur | Comment Now!

I've been slack, but I'm back!

Written on 10:39 AM by Nice to meet you, I'm Chance :)

Ok, so like many entrepreneurs I got excited, started my new blog and then kinda slacked off from keeping it updated and in fact remembering to remember I started it in the first place!

But enough of that, it has been a big year including an irreplaceable family loss, so having ridden the 2008 roller coaster I'm ready to stand tall and truly earn the title of The Determined Entrepreneur and make myself and everyone around proud of me and hopefully inspired to take their own action for greater, health, happiness, love, and of course prosperity.

So I have made a personal commitment with myself, that I will
A) stick to my low-carb weight loss plan and build on the already lost 3kg (nothing to do with this blog, but just wanted to share)
B) Post here daily following the theme of, "Today's thought." focusing on a tip or idea each and everyone of us can greatly benefit from. How's that sound?

So with a fresh new blog template, a new post and aspirations of keeping this blog furious, exciting and ever changing, let's charge our glasses and salute to Choice & Action! Haraaa!

Upcoming thoughts: The 4 Hour Work Week, Spreadshirt, Etsy, How to make and take Action.













Dream Bigger - Chance :)

Posted in 2008, 2009, determination, diet, Entrepreneur, etsy, happiness, health, low carb, new change, new year, new you., personal loss, prosperity, spreadshirt, The 4 hour work week, the new rich, wealth | Comment Now!

Let me introduce myself, I am The Determined Entrepreneur.

Written on 4:07 PM by Nice to meet you, I'm Chance :)

Posted in Australia, Blog, books, business, dream big, Entrepreneur, experiance, knowledge, living your best life, resource hub, self employed, self help, share, The Determined Entrepreneur, work from home | Comment Now!