September flew by. The holiday sales season is upon us. Is your shop ready for the rush? Here’s 47 tips to get your holiday sales mojo brewing.

1. Update your banner. Does it reflect your current work?
2. Update your profile. Is it current? Is it interesting?
3. Check your avatar. Is it memorable?
4. Inventory and order shipping supplies.
5. Straighten up and organize your shipping area.
6. Freeze meals for later. Home cooked meals in the freezer will be gold on busy days later.
7. Schedule some time off. Mark your calendar.
8. Ask family and friends for help.
9. Consider hiring some help.
10. Update descriptions with gift suggestions: “perfect for the teachers on your list,” “fabulous for the person who loves to cook.”
11. Include a photograph of your packaging in your listings.
12. Buy Etsy search ads.
13. Offer gift certificates and offer fancy gift boxes for the gift cards for additional cost.
14. Offer returning customers a discount.
15. Plan what will happen to seasonal items after the holiday– put them on sale? De-activate the listings? Note in your calendar.
16. Re-photograph those things that you know could shine a little brighter with a new photograph.
17. Post your bling. Don’t be afraid to list your high-end items. (See Show Your Bling.)
18. List sets.
19. Type up responses to common questions to be ready to copy and paste into convos.
20. Set your location for Shop Local.
21. Label items “ready to ship.”
22. Post shipping cut-off deadlines.
23. Post your shipping times.
24. Put your important URLs in your email signature (website, blog, etsy shop, facebook).
25. Spruce up your “message to buyer” with calls to action to “like” your facebook page or join your email list.
26. Start an email list if you don’t have one. (Try Mailchimp.)
27. Ask buyers if they want to be added to your email list, include an incentive like a coupon or discount off their next purchase.
28. Work your mailing list. Plan your email campaign. Note it in your calendar.
29. Tag items with common price terms: “under $25,” “under $50.”
30. Update your blog or website so it looks fresh.
31. Offer gift wrapping. Don’t be afraid to charge a little more for this.
32. Offer to include a gift note.
33. Include testimonials in your descriptions or profile.
34. Plan your sales, note the dates and details in your calendar.
35. Start a facebook business page if you don’t have one.
36. Offer personalized or custom items.
37. Post your cut-off date for personalized or custom items.
38. Know your options for expedited shipping, offer extra fast shipping for additional cost.
39. Don’t forget your New Year’s item production, pitches, promotion. (Get the Wonder Thinking Marketing Calendar Workbook to help keep organized.)
40. Don’t forget your Valentine’s Day item production, pitches, promotion. (Get the Wonder Thinking Marketing Calendar Workbook and stay on top of seasonal themes.)
41. Update your titles and tags for relevancy.
42. Buy blog ads.
43. Re-photograph your products with seasonal themes (for example, reindeer with your soy candles, …).
44. Review your prices. Consider which products have a comfortable margin and focus on promoting those.
45. Create a coupon for your Etsy teammates so they can do some holiday shopping with you.
46. Keep an eye on your Etsy shop stats and revise your tags and titles as you see which keywords bring the most traffic to your shop.
47. Remind yourself what success means to you. In the rush of the holidays, it can be easy to loose sight of your goals and chase every opportunity and every sale. Know your margins. Know your goals.

What tips would you add to the list? Leave a comment!

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What are your questions about pricing? I’ve gotten several emails from readers asking about pricing. I’m working on a post, or two, but I want to be sure I’m answering your questions. I know pricing is an area many people struggle with.

What are your questions about pricing? Tell me in the comments!

Image: Bain No. 9874. Original photograph by Tricia McKellar. ©2009 All rights reserved. Buy prints.

I am thrilled to again guest post on PaperNStitch, the blog with a daily dose of handmade, design, and style inspiration.

Last Minute Tips for Holiday Sales in Your Online Shop:

1. Ready to ship. If your items are ready to ship, let people know. Don’t be shy. Include the phrase “ready to ship” in the item title or description, it’s a subtle call to action to your buyer to buy now.

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I am thrilled to guest post on PaperNStitch, the blog with a daily dose of handmade, design, and style inspiration.

As an artist, I know marketing can be a challenge. How about 5 easy tips for selling your art?

1. Nail your elevator speech! Create a short description of who you are and what you do that you can say naturally and quickly. Don’t be a deer in the headlights when someone hears that you are an artist and asks what you do. You know they will ask; be ready. For example, “I’m Tricia McKellar, a photographer of southern landscapes and birds in flight.” Be specific and memorable. Use words that evoke images. Practice saying it in the mirror until it is natural.

Read the rest of the post at PaperNStitch.

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How can a high end item help sales of a more moderately priced item? Why should you include higher priced items in your online shop?

In Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be More Persuasive, the authors discuss Williams Sonoma’s introduction of a high end bread machine. The introduction of the luxury machine into the kitchen store’s product line doubled the sales of their more moderately priced bread machine.

The new high end machine was a Cadillac of bread machines with luxury features and a corresponding price tag.

For many buyers, the high end bread machine was wonderful but expensive. It also made the more moderately priced bread machine seem to be a good compromise. People had an easier time justifying to themselves the purchase of a mid-priced machine after seeing the luxury appliance. Sales of the mid-priced bread machine doubled.

The Cadillac bread machine served two purposes: 1) it sold well to a small market that was looking for a luxury appliance and 2) it helped buyers decide to buy the moderately priced bread machine.

What is your Cadillac item? Are you hiding it? Are you assuming there’s no market for your more expensive items in your etsy shop? It may be true that many etsy sales are in the $50 range, but I have made many sales of big prints of my photography after I stopped assuming people won’t buy them.

Add your higher priced products to your online shop. You may find a market for them and you may help buyers see the value in your more moderately priced products.

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From my 10 Tips for Selling on Etsy post:

1. Niche thyself. Your shop should have a consistent aesthetic or product line. Don’t try to be everything to everybody. A shop full of cohesive work that connects with a potential buyer is a powerful thing. Nail your niche.

I’ve posted this advice in the fora and some folks respond “I like variety.” My mom says it takes all kinds to make the world go round, so I guess it’s okay if you like variety. But imagine this:

You see a beautiful, red, handknit shawl on the etsy front page. You love it. It has the most beautiful wooden button. It looks lush. The piece is well made and you wish you could afford it now. You follow the item back to the shop. The shop is full of dreamy handknit items– hats, gloves, scarves. (I am a very bad knitter and drool over the lovely knits I see on etsy.) It’s all beautiful. You heart the shop. (For those of you not familiar with etsy jargon, hearting a shop puts the shop in your etsy favorites list.)

You see a beautiful handmade book while wandering around on etsy. It’s simple and elegant. Dark brown leather. Thick cream cotton-rag pages. A lovely journal. You heart the shop.

A month or two later, you have some cash burning a hole in your pocket. You’ve forgotten about the stunning red shawl and the lovely handmade journal, but you haven’t forgotten that there is some serious wonderfulness in your favorites. You start surfing through your fav shops.

You land in a shop with pink and yellow hairbows. How funny. You’re not the type to wear bright hair accessories. You’re a 40-something-year-old woman with a penchant for charcoal grey knits and pearls and an occasional shibori scarf. (I’m projecting a little here.) Why on earth did you favorite a shop with adolescent hairbows?

Oh. There’s the handbound journal. In the shop with the pink hairbows. The journal is still lovely, but…

What are you thinking here? I’ll tell you what I’m thinking– the elegance of the journal is diminished by the conflicting style of the hairbows. The bright, cheeriness of the hairbows is lessened by the subtle, classic look of the journal. The shop looks jumbled. Your brain wants to label the shop; you want to decide to like the shop or not. But it’s complicated. It’s not an automatic “yes I like it.” You surf away and the shop isn’t memorable.

A shop full of bright, fun hairbows would be fabulous. A shop of fine journals would be lovely. Together, they make a trainwreck of a shop.

It is possible to work in several media and have a cohesive body of work. Some artists and crafters have a well-formed sense of style. Their aesthetic doesn’t change with the medium. One fabulous artist who comes to mind is Abigail A. Percy. From jewelry to drawings and prints to home decor, her work is a testament to her mature voice and style.

Okay, back to the money burning a hole in your pocket. You find the shop with the lovely handknits. The first glance of the shop brings a “wow” to your lips. This shop has made a powerful impression and you are a fan.

Build a cohesive body of products in your shop. Make a memorable impression. Impressed people become your fans and buyers.

I’ve been selling my art online & in person for several years. These are the things I’m dying to tell people about their etsy shops. Ten quick tips for your etsy shop and online sales in general:

1. Niche thyself. Your shop should have a consistent aesthetic or product line. Don’t try to be everything to everybody. A shop full of cohesive work that connects with a potential buyer is a powerful thing. Nail your niche.

2. List it! If you sell it, list it– don’t make people ask for it. As a photographer, I offer prints in various sizes. Since I’ve started listing my larger prints in my shop and not just mentioning in the descriptions that large prints are available, my sales of large prints have risen dramatically.

3. Smile. Be happy. Always, always, always have a positive attitude about your business. Everyone loves a success. Never complain about lack of sales. Never. Always find something positive to say. Success creates buzz, creates excitement, makes people wonder what they are missing & they visit your shop looking for the fabulous things they’re missing.

4. Photos. Photos. Photos. They can always be better.

5. Build your brand. Be in it for the long haul. Buy the advertising that you can afford to do for 3 months or more. If you can only afford an ad on a particular site or blog for a week, look for another place to advertise. Work to make your name & product familiar to people; they need to see your ad over & over. When people are familiar with your name & product, they will think of you when they are ready to buy.

6. Price for success. Low prices may be killing your business. People may think your product is cheap. The people that are buying from you may be buying only on price– those are not the buyers you want to cultivate for the long term success of your business. See Jodie Otte’s How Should I Price my Photography.

7. Make the things you love. Then find the market. Put your heart & soul into your work & people will know.

8. Answer your buyers’ questions. Write full descriptions. The number one reason online browsers don’t buy is they don’t feel that they have enough information about the product. (Info from Etsy’s usability testing.) Give your browsers plenty of information on your product. See this great thread on the etsy fora: 20 Questions Your Buyers are Asking

9. Give your buyers confidence. Tell them they can return it if they are not happy. You might get a few returns– build that in your cost model. The increased sales will be worth the cost of a few returns.

10. Know thyself. What is your mission? What are your goals? What do you want from your business this year? Next year? in 10 years? Getting clear on your goals will help you focus your efforts in your business. Should you pursue wholesale opportunities? Licensing? A larger studio space? Should you branch into another media? A vision of your future will help you make these decisions.