Tutorial: How to Add a "How Did You Find This Shop" to Your Paypal Checkout

Ever wondered how your buyers found you and your stuff? Sure you did. And do. So do I!
And I've discovered that there's an optional question you can add to your Paypal checkout that asks your buyers exactly that: How did you find me?

The question is entirely optional and will appear at the end of purchase while your buyer is paying. It's super easy to set up, too!


1. Login to your PayPal account
2. Go to -->My Account -->Profile
3. Selling Preferences --> Custom Payment Pages --> Options --> Merchant Service Options
4. Check "Add a Customer Service Survey" and fill in the blanks with the choices you'd like to offer, i.e. Etsy, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Friends
5. Save

And voila!

Places to Sell Your Art & Creations Online

1. 1000 Markets - US sellers only at the moment. Opening a shop is free. No fees for listing, either. 1000 Markets takes 5.5% of the sale price, including shipping, plus a $.50 fee. They use Amazon Payments.


2. ArtBaay - An online arts and crafts marketplace. No listing fees or monthly fees. ArtBaay takes a 15% commission of the sale price.


3. Artfire - Basic membership is free. No listing or selling fees with a basic membership. Pro membership is $15.95 a month or $36 quarterly and you are allowed unlisted listings with no additional fees.


4. ArtisansMarket - A marketplace for artisans and craftsmen. Membership is $10 a month and 10% of sales.


5. Blujay - 100% free to buy or sell. You can list unlimited items and listings stay up for 6 months.


6. Bonanzle - Opening your store and listing is free. You only pay a fee if it sells. Fee scale is here.


7. Craft Is Art - An online marketplace to buy and sell handmade. Stores are free and there are no listing fees. 3.5% sales commission is charged.


8. DaWanda - A European marketplace for handmade goods. Listing is currently free and selling fees are 5% of sold items. They plan on instituting listing fees at a later date.


9. eCrater - Completely free to list, sell, and own a store.


10. Etsy - An online marketplace for handmade goods, vintage, and supplies. Listing fees are $.20 for 4 months and selling fees are 3.5% of the selling price.


11. Folksy - A UK-based marketplace for artists and designers. Items are listed for 6 months and sold items are charged a 5% commission.


12. Funky Finds - Offers several options for shops from $1.99 a month to $7.99 a month. No sales fees, only the monthly fee.


13. Handmade Catalog - A marketplace for crafters. Three options for opening a store: basic ( $4.95/mo + 15% commission), standard ($7.95/mo + 10% commission), and professional ($12.95/mo + 5% commission). 


14. iCraft - A Canadian marketplace for handmade items. One-time fee at registration ($25 CAD) and other fees can be seen here.


15. MadeItMyself - An online marketplace for handmade items. While it is in beta testing, listing and selling is completely free.


16. RubyLane - A community of individually owned shops. Each shop falls into one of these categories: antiques, vintage clothing & accessories, dolls, fine art, glass, antique & vintage jewelry, artisan jewelry, porcelain, postcards, pottery and silver. Set-up fee is $75. Listing fee is $.30 and after that, you pay maintenance fees. Fee structure is here.


17. Shop Handmade -  Advertiser sponsored and dedicated to handmade. Free store and free listings with sponsorship. 


18. Shopit - Completely free to buy, sell, list, or trade.


19. Silkfair - Opening a seller account, store, and listing are free. 3% commission of sale price. You can import your eBay rating to SIlkfair.


20. Trendy Indie - A new marketplace for handmade creations. No set-up fees or sale commissions. Only a monthly subscription:  $5 for listing 25 items, $10 for listing 100 items or $20 per month for unlimited number of items.


21. uShops - Currently free to open a shop, list items, and sell items. There are plans to institute fees in the future but with warning.


22. Zibbet -  Handmade, art, vintage, and supplies. Basic account is free for up to 25 items and a Premium account is $9 a month for unlimited items, and I hear there are a limited number of Premium accounts left.

Link Love: Weekly Round Up of Essential Small Business Articles - 7/2

A weekly round-up of links and articles from across the blogosphere that can help us be better businessmen and women. 

And better crafters. 

And better salespeople.

6 reasons SEOs love blogs - http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/six-reasons-seos-love-blogs.php


America's Love Affair With Small Business - http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2010/sb20100611_744682.htm


How to Market Your Business With No Budget - http://mashable.com/2010/05/19/market-business-no-budget/


7 Essential SEO Tips for Small Businesses - http://www.toprankblog.com/2010/05/7-seo-tips-small-business/


Top 10 Small Business Success Tips - http://www.indiebusinessblog.com/2010/05/29/top-10-small-business-success-tips-and-links-of-the-week/


How to Design a Header That Grabs Attention - http://meylah.com/meylah/how-to-design-a-header-that-makes-a-great-first-impression


Do You Want to Make Money or Create? - http://smallerbox.net/blog/2010/07/


Make Google Fall in Love With Your Small Business Website - 
http://www.business.com/guides/make-google-fall-in-love-with-your-small-business-website-1865/

The Next Milestone: 1000 Facebook Fans!

I'm thinking about having a jewelry giveaway when I reach 1000 facebook fans. 

I will pick the winner on my blog, of course, since facebook no longer allows you to do giveaways. But reaching milestones is exciting!

Will you help me? Are you a facebook fan of waterwaif? 

Will you suggest the page to your friends?

You will have my undying devotion. Really.


If you're a fan, leave me a comment and let me know.
If you've suggested my page to your friends, please let me know that, too!

Waterwaif

I Need Your Votes, My Friends

I'm participating in a spring challenge on Facebook: a friendly competition among other friends and Etsy sellers. The winner receives a free shop feature and I'd so love to win! Voting for me is super easy. Would you be willing to do it? Voting ends today!


To vote for me, visit Mommy the Marketer's Facebook page (you have to become one of her fans/like her, at least long enough to vote).




Once you've become her fan, follow this link. It will take you directly to my submission. Don't worry, it's still on Facebook. I just wanted to give you a direct link to my post on her wall.


All you have to do to vote for me is leave a comment. That's it. You can say anything you want! Tell me my necklace makes you want to puke, or that you love it more than your luggage, or just say "vote!" or "show me the money" or "my cat's breath smells like cat food".


If you vote for me, please let me know so I can give you my undying devotion. Also, let me know how I can help you in return!

Tip of the Day: Twitter

I love the idea of doing a tip of the day (or two or ten, or skip a day or two, whatever).
We all had to start somewhere. Some of us are newer than others at blogging, tweeting, selling, living, whatever. There are lots of things I had to piece together on my own, or dig up, or just get slapped in the face with before I learned them and so I'm going to pass on that information to whoever happens to be reading this. Congrats, that's you! Unless there's no one here and then I'll just talk to myself. Either way.




Today's Tip of the Day: Twitter


Are you lost on twitter? Does it confuse you? Maybe you're scared to sign up or don't know how to use it effectively? Do you care? You should.


Twitter can be a powerful tool for your online business. It can also be a wonderful place to make new friends. Ideally, you will combine the two. I'll try to help you figure out how.




1. First, set up a Twitter account.
The best way to do this is to make it the same as your Etsy ID, your Artfire ID, your domain name, etc. You want to trademark yourself across the internet and be recognizable.


2. Fill out your profile and add an avatar.
This makes you more accessible and people can more easily gauge if you'd be a good person for them to follow.


3. Find some people to follow.
Don't go crazy and just follow anybody. That will end up driving you crazy and add to your confusion later. Twitter has a search box about halfway down on the righthand side where you can search by subjects. Are you a painter? Type art, artist, painting, acrylic, or something similar in the search box and you will find people who have used those "hash tags" recently. These are probably people you will want to check out.


It is also good to find people who share the same hobbies with you, so it's not always about business on Twitter. Do you like to garden? Try searching gardening terms. Or cooking terms. Or music.


It is also a good idea to figure out your target market for your business and aim at having some of those people follow you, too. Do you sew and sell purses? You might try finding well-known fashion magazines on Twitter and following a few of the people who follow those magazines.


4. Comment and reply on the people you follow.
If you see a tweet that sounds interesting or asks a question, answer it! Make sure it is addressed to the person you are replying to so they see it. Meaningful conversations are a great way to meet people and become known on Twitter. Other people can see the conversation and think, "Hey, that person sounds interesting! Let me check them out!"


5. Follow back.
You don't have to follow back everyone who follows you. But check out their profile. If they look interesting, follow them back! If they just spam links to their own items, feel free to pass.


6. Make a few interesting tweets throughout the day.
Don't be one of those people who tweets what they are doing 24/7. No one will care if you are going to the bathroom at 7:47 am and eating toast at 7:52 am and waiting for the mailman at 8:02am. Tweet things that others will respond to or find something in common with or that are just plain interesting. Tweet a few things in the morning to connect with the morning crowd, a few things in the afternoon for a different crowd, and a few things in the evening, too.


7. Let people know you're now using Twitter.
Do you have a facebook fan page? (New tip of the day blog post about that soon) Let your fans know your twitter link. Do you have a blog? Put a 'Follow me on twitter' link there. Visit discussion forums and join in on the twitter talks and see if anyone there looks interesting and add your links if they do.


8. Visit http://wefollow.com/.
Here you will find a ton of categories to browse to make it easier to find people you'd be interested in following in the subjects that interest you.


9. Be somewhat consistent.
Don't post a ton of stuff on Monday and then forget to check for a week. People like other active people and will engage much better if you're active. And interesting. (Notice a theme, yet?)


10. Use Direct Messaging sparingly.
This is a big one with a lot of twitterers. DMs are for saying things to people that you don't want public. A lot of people use DMs to spam. Don't do this. Don't send a DM saying "Hey, thanks for the follow. Come buy my stuff." Don't send a DM saying "Retweet this for me". Don't send DMs just to say "Hi."


Okay, well this ended up longer than I'd intended but what the heck. Hopefully it will help someone! If you have any twitter tips and tricks, feel free to comment and let me know!