How to set up an "About Page"

Okay, now that your blog is acting as your website, let's set you up with an "about page". That way people can learn about who you are!

Get into your options manager section and choose the one that says "pages" on your left. From there you are going to click on "new page".

This will give you two options: 1) Blank Page

and 2) Web Address

Both may be useful to you. 

Let's start with 1)

A Blank Page sets up another clickable page on your blog. This isn't another blog, just another stand still page with content. This is a good place to do a write up about who you are, what your business is about, and a photo. Feel free to add as many pages as you feel necessary. You may want to have sections including: sizing info, look book, press, contact information, and so on.

2) is also great because you can hook up a link to another website. This is useful because you can make it link to your shop! Have the header say something like "shop" or "shopname online" etc. 

Here are some examples of what the pages can look like using blogger:

Building a Website with Blogger

So if you go back a ways in the posts I've already covered your basic set up with blogger. You can find that post here:

http://anewstartonline.blogspot.ca/2013/03/free-marketing-blogger.html

If you've already completed those steps, excellent! We are going to continue from there. 

Let's have this post be dedicated to explaining how to apply your newly purchased domain name:

*if you have just purchased your domain, it may take a day or two to activate correctly

1) go to your blogger home page and pick the blog you plan to add the domain to (you may only have the one of course). Click on "settings"

2) As you can see on the left you are in "settings" "basic". From here you will see a section called "publishing blog address". Underneath click on "add a custom domain". 

3) This is where you can type in your domain and get them synced up. If you need help, or it's not working correctly, click on "settings instructions". They have a great set of instructions to help you out. It's not always the easiest process but it can be done! So get it done! Don't forget to save!!

Buy Your Domain!

Okay, lets say that by now you have established your business or maybe you're just getting started but do intend to take this seriously, then do this one thing that costs money: BUY YOUR DOMAIN! 

When I say buy your domain I mean buy the right to www.yourshoporbrandnamehere.com! 

How do you do this? There are a few different companies you can purchase this from. 

-GoDaddy

-Wordpress

-Domain

-Cira (for Canadian domains)

If you can not find your domain with the .com at least try to purchase it with .ca, .org, or .net because it's better to have a form of it than not at all.

This applies even if you don't plan to have a website for a while. People will notice your shop and it's success and purchase your name domain so that it will cost you more in the future to purchase. 

Why is it so important? Well first of all like mentioned above, if you because successful there will be someone out there that will want to profit on that. Either in the form of selling your domain back for hundreds or thousands of dollars, or just simply copying you with your domain and selling a similar product. People also tend to feel more comfortable purchasing from someone who has a website that at least says a little something about themselves and their business outside of the website they sell through.  

It's also very easy to build a free website in the form of a blog. There are websites like:

-blogger (powered by google)

-wordpress

-tumblr

Once you have one of these sites hooked up you will be able to connect your domain to your blog. This way it will read www.yourshoporbrandnamehere.com vs. www.yourshoporbrandnamehere.blogspot.com

In the next post I will show you how that works and how to set up a website style blog through Blogger!

Packaging

An important part of selling things online, is the packaging of your orders. Why is this important?

People LOVE receiving their orders and having that feeling of opening a present when it arrives. They like to feel special and that you spent time and effort on their purchase. People also love freebies and want to feel like they are getting more for their dollar.

How I wrap an order:

1) the item is folded up nicely (this only really applies to some objects)

2) it's wrapped in nice tissue paper then tied with string, rope,  or twine

3) I then include an invoice receipt, and a business card. I also often include a vintage photograph as my thank you to the customer. I do limit the photographs to re-peat customers or orders over a specific price point. It's also nice to have a hand written note that says "Thank You" or at least have it written on the package somewhere!

4) Once your order is packaged up all nicely, it's time to put it in an envelope and send it out. If you're shipping from Canada you will start to get to know these customs forms very well. Top left is within Canada (and not always necessary), bottom left is for air mail to the US or international, and the bottom right is expedited to the USA / there is also the same form for international and similar one for "xpresspost" for those locations as well. 

If you want the expedited options (which is a slightly cheaper option than xpresspost) then you need to get a Venture One card. They are free and save you money at the post office!! 

As far as added "gifts" to your customers, I've known people to add little things of dried flowers, feathers, little mini prints of their art work, and so on.

Here are some great examples of packaging I've gathered up recently:

A gift I received from Machine Dance Vintage yesterday: includes two vintage photographs, one with a note on the back, and a feather, wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine! 

 Excellent packaging from Jean Jean Vintage that looks lovely but also does a great job of advertising who they are. Note the little gift of an "R" charm on the box! (this image is from AdoredVintage's instagram)

 I've also noticed that Allen Company has great packaging and tends to post images on their instagram all the time! The following 3 pictures are from them and might be a good site to follow for ideas! 

 This is their packaging for jewelry. Clear boxes and shredded paper to keep the items safe. 

 They also created this great "tootsie-pop" style wrapping! This one might be a little more difficult to package into a mailing envelope but definitely looks amazing! 

 This envelope came from Our Wild Abandon who are travelling gals taking amazing photographs. They sent me the post cards in a cute envelope with a piece of tape with the print of a map, and a thank you post card personalized with my name! How sweet is that? 

Lastly, here is a beautiful example of sending an item in a box from Adored Vintage!

Now I know some of the packaging looks a little intimidating, but the effort and thought is what is truly important. People want to feel like their purchase matters and that they are special! So make them feel special and make sure they know you are thankful for their purchase!

Shipping

You might be asking yourself, "How do I know how much it will cost to ship this item?".

Since this blog is mostly dedicated to Canadians, I will let you know the best way from the Canadian Postal system: Canada Post.

One simple way of finding out if you do not have a scale at home would be to take a few of your items in a variety of sizes and weights to your local post office. Have them ship it to a postal code within Canada but the furthest away from you, then do the same with the US, and then pick somewhere internationally. Now, I will say that internationally the prices can vary which is why it's important to try to test ship it to a few places and get the average or more expensive option and use that one. You can always refund extra later but it can be awkward to ask for more money. 

From my experiences if you can ship something in an envelope or bubble mailer envelope it will be slightly cheaper than if you ship something in a box. So if you have the option, use an envelope. I've also come to realize that size only plays a small part in the price but mostly relies on the weight. If anything is over .5kg it will trigger higher prices. 

If you are sending anything that can fit in a mail slot, it will also be cheaper and has a different mailing option.

INSURANCE!

The importance of insurance or at least letting your customers know ahead of time that they will not be receiving insurance:

-You do not want to have to pay for a mix up at the post office. If the item you ship does not make it to the customer or gets damaged along the way, you want the post office to pay for it, not you!

-If you let your customers know ahead of time that it does not come with tracking / insurance and you do not take responsibility for lost, stolen, or damaged packages then it becomes their responsibility. Just remember that some people will still argue that and have the upper hand when leaving feedback and so on. 

For smaller and cheaper items like cards or small prints, it's a little bit less important to have insurance. For larger more expensive items, it definitely becomes more and more of something to think about. 

Tracking is also nice for customers to feel secure about knowing where their orders are while it's in transit. 

The post office will have many different types of envelopes and boxes for shipping, you can also try bulk shipping suppliers, or the dollar store for some cheaper options. Remember to factor in the cost of packaging and the mailer you use in your shipping price.

Canada Post's online site also has a place where you can look up shipping prices if you know the weight and size of the item once packaged. 

Next we will go over packaging: how to, what to include, and how important it is! 

How do I price my items?

There is a bit of a formula that goes into pricing your items. Here are some things to keep in perspective when coming up with a price. These are some things to think about

1) How much did it cost me in supplies? ex) canvas, paint, card stock, ink, beads, findings, etc. 

2) How long did it take to create, photograph, and put online? And how much do you think is fair to be paid for that time at an hourly wage? ex) if it took 2 hours total and you would like to be making about $15 an hour than you should make sure to factor in $30 into your cost  

3) What are other people charging for similar products? ex) if you are selling small 5 x 7 prints of your art, how much are other people charging for their 5 x 7 prints? What is reasonable and what is too expensive? You can research your market by searching etsy for prints of art work and so on. 

4) You can also factor in a "mark up" on your items. Sometimes this blends with your hourly wage. You can find out how much most people charge for something similar. You will occasionally find that it is even higher than you expected so go for it! You may also find that with some items you may have to charge just a little bit less than expected due to the market. Just make sure you make up for it with some of your other items and it should all balance out.

5) Don't forget that most hosting websites like etsy or ebay take a fee on every sale, as well as all payment websites like PayPal. Factor this into your cost as well as to not lose out. 

6) Shipping costs: most websites make this separate so that you do not have to include this in your listing price. But something you may not realize is that websites like PayPal will charge a percentage of all money transferred including the shipping charge. So remember to factor that into your item cost, or charge a little extra for shipping to make up for it.

I will go over shipping in the next post.