Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
Within the past few years, photo-sharing website Pinterest has emerged as a haven for DIY-enthusiasts. With so many beautiful images and fun tutorials, it’s easy to spend an entire afternoon browsing. It’s no wonder then that is has also emerged as a full-blown way to successfully market and sell homemade bath & body products. We’re continuing our Bramble Business Series today with an overview of Pinterest and how to use it to your advantage.
This is the last installment of our basic Bramble Business Series. If you’d like me to blog about other business subjects (anything!), post a comment. Now that Lily is at home most days, I’m going to have even more time to write those meaty business blogs =)
We’re ending this basic series by explaining something that has become an integral part of a successful online presence: a blog. Blogging is one of the most important parts of creating and maintaining your business presence online. This tutorial will help you create a platform where you can develop your brand, interact with customers and hopefully sell more products. In case you missed it, the other posts in this series include how to set up Twitter, Facebook and Etsy business accounts.
You guessed it — we host Soap Queen on WordPress!
A blog is a an informational website that typically focuses on a particular niche (such as soaping, crafting, fashion, gardening or just about anything else). Blogs are a solid way to reach others in your community to interact, share experiences, learn from each other and even meet. We chose WordPress in particular because it allowed us to customize everything, from the look and feel of the blog to specific features in the commenting system. WordPress also has superior SEO prowess (search engine optimization), which means your blog will show up in more search results. Another popular blog-hosting platform is Blogger, but for the purpose of this tutorial we’re going to walk you through creating a WordPress. If you are torn between the two, this blog post goes into more detail about the differences of the two blogging platforms.
ONE: To set up your WordPress blog, click here. Once you’ve started this set-up, it will walk you through the process of creating your blog and you can even host your URL on WordPress. (For advanced users: If you are interested in hosting your very own website, I would suggest checking hosting services like Network Solutions or DreamHost. The advantage to this is that you can code your own website from the ground up, which allows for maximum customization.)
TWO: Just like signing up for any other social media service, follow the site’s guided directions to create a basic blog. You will be able to change the .wordpress.com address and substitute it with your URL at a later point if you choose. Once you’ve filled out the form, you will need to click on the activation e-mail that is sent to your inbox. Be sure to check your junk and spam mail folders for the email if it hasn’t arrived within 24 hours.
FOUR: Once you have activated your account, WordPress will take you step-by-step to help you customize your overall layout and color scheme.
FIVE: Once you’ve completed the setup, you are ready to start posting. To access your blog and the dashboard at any time, type out the URL: yourblognamehere.wordpress.com/wp-admin. This will get you into the back-end of your blog so you can make changes to the text of your blog, customize the skin (look and theme) and respond to comments.
SIX: If you have already purchased a domain name (URL), you can actually combine your WordPress blog and that URL together. To learn more about mapping (syncing) an existing domain name, click here. If you choose to go with a free thisisyourblogname.wordpress.com, you are done! You are ready to share your tutorials, products, and ideas with the whole world.
What Should I Blog About?
The sidebar to the left of the Soap Queen blog guides readers to different categories of posts. We cover a wide range of topics that fall under the general umbrella of creating bath & body products.
You’re ready to start blogging! If you have your own blog, what tips do you have for new bloggers? And, if you know what you’d like for an Advanced Business series on this blog, let me know! I’m all ears… (or eyes).
Twitter is one of many online social networking services that allows you to ‘microblog’ (or tweet) text and picture-based messages in 140 characters or less. There are more than 340 million tweets sent daily and 500 million registered users as of last year (and that includes me; follow me here). Twitter is one of the top three social media sites (along with a blog and Facebook) that I recommend to small business owners when creating an online presence. Needless to say, Twitter was the obvious next choice to cover in our Bramble Business Series!
Setting up a Twitter is quick and easy. It can be done in 20 minutes or less, and you can get started tweeting in no time.
Twitter is a versatile business tool. You can use it to create relationships between you and possible customers. You can use it to monitor trends. You can use it to see what your fellow soapers are up to. But, my favorite part about Twitter is the relationships: because the point of Twitter is to keep it short and simple, you can easily engage in two-way conversations with customers and potential customers and create a dialogue. After all, doing business is all about relationships and this is a great way to strengthen relationships and build new ones. You can also use Twitter to research trends in your industry (and others). And, of course, you can instantaneously highlight your products (with links), as well as sales and coupons (but you only want to do this after you’ve built relationships; Twitter isn’t a one-way tweet with you just broadcasting and never being helpful. Want to hear more about that? My social media philosophy here).
Through the use of #hashtags, Twitter is an easily searchable platform that can be accessed on a number of devices (iPhones, Androids, desktops and laptops). Read on to learn more about how you can create and use a Twitter handle to benefit your business.
ONE: To sign up for your Twitter handle, click here. Enter the full name you want to use on Twitter (not your ‘handle’ or username; this is the name that people will see when they see who is the person doing the tweeting), the e-mail address you want attached to the account and a password. Remember to write all of this down so you don’t forget it later. Once you’ve filled out this information, click the bright yellow button that reads “Sign Up For Twitter.”
TWO: After you’ve clicked the “Sign Up For Twitter” button, it will lead you to the ‘Create an Account’ page where you finish filling in the rest of the information. Be sure to choose a Twitter handle that represents you and your business, and like Facebook and Etsy, you will want to make sure it reads correctly and appropriately for your business (Example: Don’t use the acronym for ‘Anne-Marie’s Sassy Soap’).
THREE: Once you’ve submitted the correct information, you will get an e-mail at the address you provided asking you to confirm your account. You need to confirm your account in order to access Twitter and get notifications. The e-mail will look similar to the photo below, so don’t delete it!
FOUR: Once you’ve confirmed your account, a set-up guide will walk you through the steps to personalize your account. A profile picture is particularly important to have. Choose something that represents your business as well as yourself. Most people choose head shots, but you can choose a picture of your soap, bath bombs or any other bath & body product that you make. Be sure to give a quick description of yourself so that people know who you are (in 140 characters or less, of course!). You can also include the URL to your website, blog or shop as well as your location.
FIVE: Once you’ve setup your account, start Tweeting! Tweet photos, upload Vines and Instagrams all to your Twitter account so others can see what is going on in your corner of the world. Just remember, you have a 140 character limit, so use tools such as Ow.ly to help shorten any links you plan on sharing. You can even tweet news articles and other things that you find interesting. In order to appeal to the widest range of recipients and not alienate potential customers, consider the following rule when Tweeting from a business handle: no religion, no politics, no sex.
Tips & Tricks
Do you have a Twitter account for your business? We’d love to see what you are Tweeting, so share a link to your account below! I’ll start; I’m @brambleberry!
This week in the Bramble Business Series we are going to talk about one of the easiest ways to market your business — setting up a Facebook business page. In this post, you will get a quick introductory tutorial on how to create your Facebook business page and more about how you can use your business page to showcase your products. If you’ve missed the first post in our series, How to set up an Etsy Shop, be sure to check it out and learn how to set up an online storefront through Etsy. Have any tips or tricks of your own to share with us? Leave a comment below.
A Facebook business page is an easy and free way to represent your business online and put your products in front of future and potential clients. On Facebook, you can create a Business Page here. Now get ready to follow along as we walk you through how to set it up step-by-step! (P.S. Already have a Facebook Page? Skip over to our post about Facebook Best Practices to learn how to manage it effectively!)
ONE. Congrats! You’ve chosen to create a business page and we are here to guide you through it. Make sure you are on your own Facebook account before clicking the link HERE to make your own page. While all the pages you create on Facebook will be attached to your personal account, there are privacy settings that you can set up to make sure your personal information isn’t attached to your business page.
TWO. At this point, you can choose what type of page you will be creating. For the ease of this tutorial, we’ll go with the first choice that most (if not all) of you will be using. Click on the first square with the image of the storefront that reads ‘Local business or place’. From here, fill out the necessary information — the category (small or local business), your business name, the address of your business as well as your city and postal code. The phone number is not required, but can be useful if you want to provide your customers with any sort of customer service. Once you’ve filled out the proper information, make sure to check the little box that says you agree to the Facebook Pages Terms and click the blue button to Get Started!
THREE. Now you get to fill out some the basic information about your business. In the about section, you will include a clear and concise description of your business and the products you are selling. If you already have a Website, Pinterest, Twitter, Blog or Instagram, you can add it in this section as well. Make sure all links are spelled correctly as you wouldn’t want a customer to click on your store or blog link if the URL is incorrect or missing.
Choose a name for your Facebook page, but remember: just like your Etsy shop, this name cannot be changed and you want it to be something that you’ll be happy with several years down the road. Once you’ve chosen your page name, the URL to your personal business page will read www.facebook.com/yourpagenamehere. For an example, notice the URL of the Soap Queen and Bramble Berry Facebook Pages: www.facebook.com/soapcrafting and www.facebook.com/BrambleBerry.
FOUR. You are almost done! This next part is actually one of my favorites — adding business images! You can choose a ‘profile’ picture for your page, which could be something like a logo or graphic to represent your business. You want to make it easily recognizable, brand-able and make sure you use your own images (anything that has a copyright cannot be used here). Be sure to run your profile by family and friends to get their feedback, they are great resource. Choose and upload the photo and that you would like to represent your profile picture and click next.
FIVE. (OPTIONAL) This second to last step is completely optional, but I suggest doing it so you will always have easy access to your Facebook page if you’re on a mobile app or a PC. If you would like to add your newly created page to your favorites, just click that big green button. If not, you can skip this step and add it at a later time.
SIX. You are done! Finish up the last step of the process by claiming your page and authorizing yourself to represent your business. Now comes the fun part of customizing your Facebook page with the graphics, imagery and words you want to use to represent your business. Don’t forget to add information to your About Page so that potential customers can learn more about who you are and what you do. You can even add related websites and social media platforms in this section. Remember to choose a cover photo that represents your brand and showcases your products and services as this will be the first thing people will see when they visit your page. To get inspiration for your photos and page setup, check out the fun soapy pages Bramble Berry has liked here.
About Facebook Business Pages
Now that you’ve got a Page, you’ve got to run it! For tips on how to keep customers coming back again and again and to make your page a hub of activity, check out our Facebook Best Practices post. Happy Facebooking!
Over the years, I’ve heard many customers ask how to setup a blog, an e-commerce shop and build a solid online business presence. As our world becomes increasingly digitized, these type of questions are becoming more common. To help you gain a following (and ultimately sell more goods),we’re introducing our Bramble Business Basics series. I hope these posts — which will cover topics such as marketing online, communicating with customers through a blog and developing a Twitter following — will help you build a solid foundation for your e-commerce business.
This post will give you an overview on how to set up an Etsy shop, which is an excellent way to break into the handcrafted online good market. Etsy is an online marketplace that sells handmade goods, vintage items and supplies. You can sell in handmade products and digital goods, and you can choose to offer coupons and sales as well. According to the Etsy blog, $100.9 million worth of goods were sold by Etsy sellers in July 2013. That’s means more than 4 million items were sold, and almost 3 million new items listed — and that’s just in one month! You can quickly see how having an Etsy shop opens you up to a wide world of potential customers. At any one time, we try to have a wide variety of cold process and melt & pour soaps in our own Etsy shop from tutorials on this blog.
ONE: Register
The first step in setting up a shop on Etsy is to register for an account. This is simple process, and looks the same as most website sign-ups. To start this process, click here. Remember that setting up an Etsy account does not mean you’ve set up a shop. This account is the first step in setting up an online storefront. To learn more about setting up shop, read on!
TWO: Selling
To get starting on selling your products on Etsy, make sure you have registered for your account and are signed in. Once you’ve done that, find the button at the top of the Etsy page that says Sell. Look over the page and when you are ready click the button at the top of the page that says ‘Open Up an Etsy Shop.’
THREE: Language and Currency
Once you’ve decided to open your first Etsy shop, it will ask you about your preferred language and currency. Go ahead and choose which ones work the best for you. Remember that whichever language you chose will be your shop’s default and you won’t be able to change it at a later point. Also, be sure to pick the correct country for your business as some Etsy seller tools are only available for certain countries.
FOUR: Set Up Shop
Once you’ve picked the correct settings (language and currency) for your shop you will be asked what you hope to accomplish by opening up your shop. This will let Etsy know what kind of tools and business you are looking to create. For the sake and easy of this tutorial I’ve picked the option that many soapers are hoping to achieve, ‘Quit my day job and sell full time’.
FIVE: Pick Your Shop Name
This is one of my favorite parts. If you already have a business or website name, you can use that here. But, if this is your first time opening up a shop you have a world of possibilities before you. Be sure to do some quick web searches before you decide on a name to make sure that nobody else has chosen the name you want for your business. You want to be able to have future and potential growth in your business so pick something that will allow you to grow. Also remember that you will want to take a look at the name you are choosing as it is written (it can only be one word for Etsy, without any spaces) and you will want to make sure it looks right. For instance soapqueen.com makes sense when you look at it, and you wouldn’t want to end up with something like penisland.net (a pen website) and have it read funny to your potential customers.This will be your permanent shop name and you won’t be able to change it later. Pick something that can represent your business and your soap. If you need other soapers to bounce some ideas off of, check out the Teach Soap Forums.
SIX: Branding & Look
Now it’s time to customize your shop. Banners for your shop must run at a 760 x 100 pixel image size, be sure to create an image that fits within those parameters. A great free online tool for this is Pixlr. Pixlr allow you to size your images online and save them to your desktop for free. Be sure to include a shop announcement in your store. This helps to welcome buyers, promote products and sales and draw the shopper in. The last part of this you will need to work on is the shop title. Give a short description of the kind of products you offer. Be descriptive, be precise.
SEVEN: List Items
Now it is time to start listing your items. To start listing individual soaps, bath bombs, lotions and more, click here (make sure you are logged into your store account). The best advice I have for you here is to have great picture, that is going to be the first thing that draw a customer in your shop. You want to have good lighting, good backdrops and clear photography. To learn more about how to photograph your products, check out this blog post.
This is an individual product listing. It gives the name of the product, the price, the quantity and details about it (materials, ingredients, etc). The more information you list on a product the more likely a customer is to buy it. You will want to include a full ingredient list so that potential customers will know exactly what they are getting. One thing to remember about listing an item on Etsy is a listing fee. To list an item on Etsy, it costs $0.20 (twenty cents) when the listing is published. A listing will last for four months or until the item is sold. If after four months the item has not been sold, then the listing will expire. This is something important to remember when adding products to your Etsy shop.
EIGHT: Get Paid!
Once you’ve set your shop up, you need to decide how you want to get paid. The more options you offer, the more customers can purchase from you. Payment methods range anywhere from credit & debit cards to Paypal to bank transfers and even the brand new Etsy Gift Cards.
NINE: Billing
You are almost done! Depending on which country you live in, you may need a credit card to open shop. These cards can either be a Visa, MasterCard, American Express or even Discover. The reason that Etsy asks you to keep a credit card on file is for means of identity verification. They want to make sure that you are who you say you are!
You are done! You have now successfully opened up your very first Etsy shop. Share it with your friends and family, attach it to your e-mail signature, and put it on your business cards.
Features of Etsy:
Once you’ve selected the item type it is time to upload your file to your Etsy shop. At this time, you can upload only five digital files per listing. Make sure that your file is within the maximum size (20 MB). Once you’ve uploaded your files, start listing your digital good as you would with any other product, give it a good description, well-done photographs and a catchy name. For tips on photographing your products, there’s a blog post here and here. Photography sells your products online. People can’t touch or smell your creations so make sure your photography is luscious and appealing.
Tips & Tricks
Have you set up you business on Etsy? We’d love to hear from you the tips and tricks that you learned to make it easier.