TEST Etsy Newbie Bootcamp: Class 24 Calculated Shipping from Canada Post

Welcome back to our followers!		If you're new here, welcome to our Etsy Newbie Bootcamp! If you want to take part in Bootcamp just click on the TEST ♥ Newbies tab and follow along with classes at your own speed! If you are seeking some one-on-one mentoring, or answers to any of your questions, please drop us a line at TorontoEtsyST@gmail.com.  If you want to open an Etsy shop, just follow this link!
We have new sellers joining our Bootcamp all the time, so even though this is Class 24, you can join now or anytime! This class in particular has some new information for Newbies and experienced sellers alike.

Canadian Flag Enamel Pin from carolyndraws

Are you tired of trying to choose a fair shipping rate for Canada when there are huge differences in costs depending on postal code? Do you hate having to adjust shipping rates for Canada, the US and worldwide, every time Canada Post changes their rates? Do you sometimes get the rate wrong? Are you spending time refunding shoppers because you overestimated shipping (in an effort to never be out of pocket)? Shipping is not always straightforward.... but there's some good news! Etsy has finally introduced calculated shipping for any seller using Canada Post! You can buy and print your own labels (at Etsy's discounted rate), stick it on your package and drop it in the mail.

Calculated Shipping: nuts and bolts

 

1. Visit Shop Manager > Listings > Add a listing. Or, you can edit an existing Listing!
2. Scroll down to the Shipping section and make sure your shipping costs are set to Calculate them for me (Recommended).
3. Enter the postal code from which you will ship your package. Shipping rates will be calculated based on your location.
4. Confirm where you’d like to ship. 
   • Note:  Canada is a required shipping destination, but you can add or remove other countries whenever you like. To ship only to your shop country, remove the checkmark from All countries.
5. Confirm which shipping services you’d like to offer.
6. Set an optional handling fee. Handling fees are included in the total shipping cost and are applied to each item in an order.
7. Save the information as a shipping profile by selecting Save as a shipping profile or clicking the Publish button.

 Canadian sellers will be able to enable or disable upgrades via the Upgrades tab.

Calculated Shipping: Shipping Profiles

If you have a lot of listings, and especially if you have a lot of listing of things which are similar or you want to treat the same way, you'll want to set up Shipping Profiles for multiple listings. You can also follow these steps from the Shipping Settings page and clicking Add a shipping profile. This allows you to edit large numbers of listings at once. For instance, if you decide to ever change the optional handling fee, hold a domestic or international free shipping event for a category or if you want to take an entire category of items and remove them from your shop (temporarily or permanently), this is the way to do this efficiently.

I sell prints so I usually have multiples, but some listings are unique. I use Shipping Profile to remove all the unique items from my shop if I plan to take them to an in-person sale. I can then remove any no longer available unique items at my leisure or relist unsold unique items with a single click.

Using Shipping Profiles also means that the first several steps are automatic and you don't have retype your postal code again and again! You will always be prompted to enter the weight and dimensions though, even if you use Shipping Profiles. But, you will only have to ever do this once, rather than every time you sell a listing.

 

How to apply calculated shipping to multiple listings

1. To add a calculated shipping profile to multiple listings, visit Shop Manager > Listings.
2. Check listings that need calculated shipping profiles.
3. Click More Actions > Shipping Profiles from the dropdown, or Editing Options > Change Shipping Profiles (if you have previously set up Shipping Profiles)
   
4. Select the (new) calculated profile that you’d like to apply to your listings. You’ll see a short preview of the profile’s settings including processing time, shipping destinations, handling fee, and mail classes. NOTE: If you want to update listings with existing profiles, you will first have to manually add the weight and dimensions of their shipping packages. So, you will have one place for the dimensions of the product and one place for the dimensions of the package.

Discounted Shipping For Multiple Items

Combined shipping costs give buyers a shipping discount for ordering multiple items from your shop.
Note: It isn't possible to set discounted rates for listings with calculated shipping.

If an order has listings with a mixture of calculated and manually-set costs, Etsy first calculate costs for the listings using calculated shipping. Then they add the "each additional item" cost to the remaining listings to determine the order's shipping total.

For now, you can only offer coupons for sellers who buy multiple items, or revise shipping costs after a sale of multiple items, if you wish to offer combined shipping pricing and calculated shipping. 

Update Those Privacy Policies: Be GDPR-compliant to sell in Europe

Add your own privacy policy

Are you an Etsy-seller who ships internationally, including to nations in the EU? You'll need to have a GDPR-compliant privacy policy by May 25. To help you meet these requirements, Etsy has added a Privacy section to your Shop Policies. Head to your shop home, click edit, and navigate to Shop Policies, then to the Privacy Policy section to add your own. 
 

Get started

For tips on writing your own privacy policy along with a sample privacy policy you can customize for your own shop, head to the Seller Handbook. There is a lot of information you will need to add, but the good news is that you can simply modify their example to suit your shop. See their sample privacy policy

TEST Etsy Newbie Bootcamp: Class 24 Photography Tips and Tricks

Welcome back to our followers!		If you're new here, welcome to our Etsy Newbie Bootcamp! If you want to take part in Bootcamp and get one-on-one mentoring, or answers to any of your questions, please drop us a line at TorontoEtsyST@gmail.com.  If you want to open an Etsy shop, just follow this link!
Vintage Camera Photographer Belt Buckle by piprobins We have new sellers joining our Bootcamp all the time, so even though this is Class 24, you can join now or anytime! You can complete the classes at your own pace. Just click on our re-vamped NEWBIE BOOTCAMP tab above to get the lowdown on all the classes so far. Today we're going to talk about photography and how to make your shop and your items look their  best! Camera art print by RobertRatPrints When you're selling online, photography is all important. This is the way your customers see your products, your profile, and your About Pages. It's how you communicate your story through Shop Updates and various social media. There are some important Nuts & Bolts to consider, and basic tips for taking better photos: Lighting, lighting, lighting! Even more important than your camera is to have a well-lit shot. Even a high quality camera can't make up for poorly lit photos, and conversely, if you are careful with your lighting, you can get great shots even with a simple point-and-shoot or smartphone camera. Good lighting brings out the details! If you shoot outdoors, wait for a cloudy day because harsh sun can create unwanted shadows. If you shoot indoors, you can shoot through the window to diffuse the light. You can use a white bedsheet or piece of vellum to get a soft glow. See this Etsy blog article for more tips. The real trick to mastering lighting? Like most things, it's a matter of practise. Experiment for yourself. Make it part of your workflow. Take photos regularly - not just of your products, but of your process. You can use these for your Shop Updates and other social media.                                                                                                                           Camera Laser Cut Cuff Links by RongDesigns Focus. You want your photos to be sharp. Make sure you are familiar with how your camera focus works. On a smartphone or point-and-shoot it's often as simple as tapping the screen where you want it to focus or the shutter prior to taking your shot. If you're not confident with an SLR, you can always use the autofocus. If you are selling jewellery or other small items, or making detailed close-ups consider the minimum focusing distance of your lens and don't get too close, or it simply cannot focus. If it's a big part of what you do, you might want to get a tripod and macro lens.                                                                            Object Matter Collection - Instant Camera 3" mirror by L2RStudio                                                                                                                 Take the time to compose your shot and save time in the long run! It's easier to correct lighting problems or make changes while you're shooting than to try and fix less than ideal photos.                                                                                                                                 Six-20 Brownie Box Camera from TheArtOfDemolition Avoid using a flash (unless it is remote from your camera or a bounce flash). A direct flash washes out colours and details and can be unflattering.               Edit! Take more photos than you need and the you can be choosier with which to use. Also, take advantage of photo editing software. (Photoshop is common and the full program can do everything you could need. Affinity Photo is pretty similar and more affordable. There are also free online editors like ipiccy and picmonkey which have straightfoward tools. There are all sorts of apps for mobile devices, like free or low-cost photo editors Snapseed, Afterlight or VSCOcam, which can really help you improve your images). Cropping, increasing brightness, selecting your white and black levels and white balance can really make your photos pop. Check Etsy's photoshop tutorial here. Camera brooch by Clayshapes Next there are things which are important as a business in communicating your Brand: Consistent lighting across your listings can reinforce your brand Choose backgrounds which compliment, rather than clash or compete with your products Make sure your listing photos are clear and obvious: show the full product, show details, show products in context and lifestyle shots. Vintage sellers should be careful to show the product's condition and note any flaws. Watermarks may protect your intellectual property, but they make images less likely to be included in curated features for online publications. You might want to be more creative in how you tie your images to your business. Shooting your product with branded packaging in the shot, for instance, can be a clever compromise.  Models can really give your shots a human touch and communicate scale simultaneously! Etsy has tips for planning a photoshoot on a budget.  Tell your own story! You About section and even listing shots can be a great place to communicate who you are and what you do by including shots of where you work, your tools and you, doing your thing!

Shoot: Canon Ftb Classic Camera linocut by minouette

Right now, Canon is partnering with Etsy! As part of their #EtsyXCanon promotion, Canadian Team Captains can share a promo code which adds a special quarterly promotional discount to your overall sale price on purchases in the Canon eStore! So if you are in the market for any Canon cameras or other products, be sure to take advantage by applying my promotional code at the checkout: ETSYXCANON1689

TEST Etsy Newbie Bootcamp: Class 23 Your Etsy Shop's New Look

Welcome back to our followers!		If you're new here, welcome to our Etsy Newbie Bootcamp! If you want to take part in Bootcamp and get one-on-one mentoring, or answers to any of your questions, please drop us a line at TorontoEtsyST@gmail.com.  If you want to open an Etsy shop, just follow this link!
We have new sellers joining our Bootcamp all the time, so even though this is Class 23, you can join now or anytime! You can complete the classes at your own pace. Just click on our re-vamped NEWBIE BOOTCAMP tab above to get the lowdown on all the classes so far. As we reach mid-March it's time for spring cleaning in your shop, but this year Etsy is re-doing the look of ever shop! If you visit your own shop you'll see a new header:

Feeling springlike? Check out EllenEveredDesign's floral thank you cards.

The Etsy makeover is a cleaner, more streamlined experience, which clearly has the ever-growing mobile app user population especially in mind. You have from now until April 5, 2016 to get your shop looking its best in this new format. Follow that "Edit new shop" link and you'll get a preview of the new look, as well as a chance to edit everything. Basically, it's your old shop, but all in one place, and with a very clean white look - there are no extraneous lines, boxes, or tinted areas. The structure is vertical and users need simply scroll down, rather than visit a series of pages. Everything is there, from top to bottom: your front page (now 3 listings wide rather than 4 and we'll get to changes in Shop Banners in a second);  3 most recent Reviews (now users can simply scroll down and can follow a link to see the complete list); 3 most recent Shop Updates (with a link to the complete set); your About Page, including 'Around the Web' section which contains your links to your website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram and Shop Members;  Shop Local (upcoming local events); Shop Policies; and the option to add a FAQ and receipt info (required only for selling to EU nations). There's also an additional 5 new sections, so you can categorize your products in up to 15 categories. They've also introduced drag and drop rearranging of Shop Listings. Also, the back-end, what you see as a seller when you press the "Edit new shop" link mirrors the front-end as closely as possible. It's all arranged in the same vertical, scroll-down, all-in-one-place way. It's virtually WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get"). There's a preview button, but you can basically tell what your editing will do, as you edit.

Shop Banners

Indulge in Nuary Boutique's Doughnuts Are Good For Me soy candle

When you first click on "Edit new shop" you won't see your Shop Banner. But, never fear! Etsy is letting the sellers choose from 3 options. You can choose a small banner 760px by 100px, which will not appear on mobile applications at all. You can choose a cover photo a minimum of 1200px by 300px (but ideally 3360px by 840px) which will appear on any application. There is a built in crop-tool if your image is larger than that. Or, for a truly minimal look, you can have no banner at all. The idea there is if you have a minimal aesthetic, and want to focus all your branding efforts on your shop logo, and raise you featured listings even higher on the page.

The Seller Handbook adds that there is a cover photo tool on (Etsy's newly acquired service Canva) which allows you to make cover photos the exact right size and easily add text.

Check out our class 2. Branding & Shop Banners  and Etsy's The Ultimate Guide to Telling Your Etsy's Shop's Visual Story   for tips on how to make the right shop banner or cover photo for your shop.

Shop Icon

Make with BetterWithYarn's handspun yarn in joyous colours

The new look has an added emphasis on your Shop Icon.  This really is your logo and needs to represent your shop and look good at all scales. You can use the Sell on Etsy app to see what your shop will look like on mobile applications. Etsy points to the Canva Shop Icon tool if you are starting from scratch or want to redo your icon quickly and simply.

Featured Listings

In your new Etsy Shop, your four Featured Listings are really given a prominent placement, on any platform. If you aren't using this tool now, you really do need to do so in the future. This may be the only product a new potential customer sees unless you grab their attention! You can use the space to feature your best sellers and/or cycle through different seasonal items.

Social Media Links

These have been given a less prominent place. Rather than appearing right below your shop banner (for FB and Twitter at least), they are now only in 'Around the Web' in your About page section.

Updates

Have cuppa FirstEditionTeaCo Literary Tea!

As mentioned in our previous class, Shop Updates are a great tool for sharing your story and connecting with your buyers. Now, not only will your Updates appear in your fans feed on their homepage, but they also will have a prominent spot in your shop! If you use any sort of tablet or smartphone you can use the Sell on Etsy app to start making Shop Updates.

About Pages

We stressed the importance of this in class  5. About Pages! This is part of the basics of getting your shop up and running and now, in the all-on-one-page format, it's right there. So, take advantage of that visual real estate and be sure to connect to buyers and tell you and your shop's story in words, photos and video!

Shop Policies

Get spiffy with a PaisleyAndThePeacock skinny bow tie

With this format, Etsy has added boilerplate simplified Shop Policies prompts, to get sellers to keep it simple yet hit on the vitals. You can stick with your existing Shop Policies - but should check that you are not being redundant as everything is now on a single page. Now is a great time, if you want to stick with your Shop Policies, to have a look and make sure they are clear, succinct and up-to-date. If you are a brand-new seller or unsure about how to write Shop Policies, you can use Etsy's tools to customize your answer to their 5 prompts:

• Add processing times and estimated shipping times.
• Let shoppers know whether you accept returns and exchanges.
• Tell shoppers how you’re using their info.
• Answer frequently asked questions.
• Add essential details for shoppers in the European Union.    

READ MORE HERE and HERE 

And note that Etsy is encouraging you to use their template:

As we announced in November 2015, customer experience is a factor we consider in search placement. When determining customer experience on Etsy, we look at positive reviews, completed About sections, and completed Shop Policies (FAQs and seller details are not factored into search ranking). Selecting these new Shop Policies are an easy way to give shoppers the information they’re looking for while slightly improving your placement in Search. To learn more about how search works on Etsy, check out this article.  

You can customize the template and always switch back to your original policies, which are saved by Etsy.

PrintMantis You Rock! card - well-earned for after shop spring cleaning!

So dive in and freshen up your shop this spring!

Note: We've updated our previous class 22. Automate it because as of March 23, 2016, IFTTT will no longer support Etsy as a channel. Luckily, we have good news! There's a workaround. You can use your shop's RSS feed to automatically update all your social media instead. Read all about it.

TEST Etsy Newbie Bootcamp: Class 22 Starting Fresh with the New Year

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New Year is a great time to jump back into Bootcamp! Welcome back to our followers!		If you're new here, welcome to our Etsy Newbie Bootcamp! If you want to take part in Bootcamp and get one-on-one mentoring, or answers to any of your questions, please drop us a line at TorontoEtsyST@gmail.com.  If you want to open an Etsy shop, just follow this link!
We have new sellers joining our Bootcamp all the time, so even though this is Class 22, you can join now or anytime! You can complete the classes at your own pace. The first 8 classes will take you through opening your shop to shipping your sold items:
1. How to Open an Etsy Shop	5. About Pages
2. Branding & Shop Banners	6. Shop Policies
3. Shop Profiles Bios and Photos	7. Communication
4. Make Listings Tempting	8. Shipping & Packaging
Check out the subsequent classes at your own pace to upgrade your shop when you find the time: 9. Social Media, 10. The Dark Art of Pricing, 11. Shop Stats, 12. Holiday Prep in Bite-Sized Pieces, 13. Getting Press, 14. Sales and Coupon Codes,  15. Etsy Local and Selling Off-line, 16. Planning and Goals for the Year, 17. Keeping up with Etsy, 18. Custom Orders, 19. Shipping Snippets, 20. Holiday Shop Refresh  and 21. Setting Shipping Rates.   The trick is to continually improve and you'll find your business can grow, become more efficient and professional as it evolves.  Selling Online is Cyclical Soft Velveteen Thow Pillow-Nature in Spring by JillClarkDesigns Once you've been selling for a little while, you'll notice that things come in cycles and generally, sales can be linked to the seasons. Your experience is personal, and not all shops are the same, but most shops see a big bump in sales related to Christmas. Things typically pick up in September and grow through to the end of December. This also means, that typically, sales are a bit slower in January. So, never fear; if that's what you're seeing, it's quite normal and you're not alone. Also, this means that now is a great time to get on the right foot for launching a successful new year of selling.  Some businesses are particularly seasonal, including, but not limited to: clothing sellers who explicitly make clothing for certain seasons, stationary designers who make cards for various holidays and shops making items for weddings and brides (whose big season may be in the summer, rather than at Christmas).  Regardless: remember that ups and downs are a normal part of business.    Taking Advantage of Lulls Plan Ahead Heart Ornament from NellyWithWings What do you do when things get quiet?  January is a great time to review Class 16. Planning and Goals for the Year! Since sales are cyclical, get a head-start on all those predictable things you will want to tackle. Do you make seasonal items or think that a given holiday may inspire a product? Working a quarter of a year in advance of an event can make your life easier. Consider: Forecast Your Business Growth in 8 Steps How to Reach Your Goals in 2016  3 Ways to Invest in Yourself this Year Bookkeeping abstract III art print by DOTHandmade Know what else is coming up before you know it? Tax time, I'm sorry to say. If January is a quiet time, you should use it to make sure your books for 2015 are in order. Also, take this time to make you you have a good handle on your inventory and bookkeeping in general. Here are some tips:  Tips for Tracking Your Business Expenses 5 Simple Ways to Ace Bookkeeping Shipping mini woven wall hanging tapestry from MaisJewelry Every year like clockwork, the post office seems to increase their rates. Make sure your shipping profiles are up-to-date. Streamline your shipping workflow. Here's some information on the new rates in Canada and the US. The good news is that if you use Etsy Shipping Labels, the new rates have already taken effect automatically, and you can use the tool to check if your shipping profiles need an update. Just enter your typical package info (weight, size) for any new or previous label and check out the rates available for your various markets (domestic, US, international) 2016 Shipping Rate Updates for the United States and Canada Shop Makeover Time  beaded peacock feather brooch from MilenasBoutique A more creative and entertaining task you might want to tackle right now is giving your shop a makeover! Are all your photos and descriptions at their best? How are your tags working? Time to try something new? Check ou 4. Make Listings Tempting and some of these great tutorials and tips. Here are some other recent tutorials to help get your shop ship shape! Is your shop optimized for mobile? Top 5 ways to attract Etsy's growing mobile buyers Refresh your shop in 3 steps How to style photos that work all year-round Bring the Buyer to You Amigurumi Fuzzy Sheep by PurpleLilacAmigurumi Now is also a great time to polish up your social media game. You can have a look at our tips in 9. Social Media. Are you using Etsy's new Updates feature? This is a great new tool which allows you to use their mobile app to post captioned photos, linked to listings, which all your followers can see. Check out these articles to get you started. As of today, you can also share video right on Etsy from your About Page! 5 Tips for Sharing Your Story with Shop Updates Bringing Video to About Pages How to Make a Shop Video With Your Smart Phone Expanding Your Business If you think you might be ready to expand by selling wholesale, be sure to sign up for Etsy's Wholesale Email Course and check out Growth Strategies in the Seller Handbook!

Etsy 30 Day Challenge

 

Etsy Canada is offering a new online program on called Etsy: 30 Day Challenge - the goal is to help those new to the platform open a quality Etsy shop in 30 days - just in time to apply to sell at Etsy: Made in Canada.

It's FREE and easy to sign up! 

1. Open a draft shop to start the Challenge - Use Promo code 'EtsyChallenge' at etsy.com/promotions and get your first 20 listings free (Listings are normally 20 cents). If you already have an Etsy shop but are looking to improve or grow your online business, you are still welcome to join the program.

2. Join the facebook group between May 19 and June 15 to receive daily inspiration and tips from successful Etsy sellers and stay on track with the 4-week lesson plan. You can post questions here too, and get them answered directly by mentors.

3. Tell your community that you're taking the #EtsyChallenge and inspire others to join! @EtsyCA 

 

And remember,  TEST ♥ Newbies... so you can also sign up for our TEST Etsy Newbie Bootcamp and check out all our classes, listed on the sidebar.

TEST Etsy Newbie Bootcamp: Class 22 Automate it

Welcome to our Etsy Newbie Bootcamp! If you want to take part in Bootcamp and get one-on-one mentoring, or answers to any of your questions, please drop us a line at TorontoEtsyST@gmail.com.  

If you want to open an Etsy shop, just follow this link!

We have new sellers joining our Bootcamp all the time, so even though this is Class 22, you can join now or anytime! You can complete the classes at your own pace. The first 8 classes will take you through opening your shop to shipping your sold items:
Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Class 4, Class 5, Class 6, Class 7, Class 8.  

Check out the subsequent classes at your own pace to upgrade your shop when you find the time: Class 9, Class 10, Class 11, Class 12, Class 13, Class 14,  Class 15, Class 16, Class 17, Class 18, Class 19, Class 20 and Class 21.   The trick is to continually improve and you'll find your business can grow, become more efficient and professional as it evolves. 

We haven't had a newbie bootcamp in a little while, and as always, Etsy keeps changing and evolving. Since our last class was posted, Etsy has gone public, the Seller Handbook has a brand new look, and the Listing Manager has been completely updated. Today, I want to talk to you about the tools which help automate the regular tasks you need to perform to run a successful Etsy business and how automating task (both with the Listing Manager and other tools) can help make life easier. 

The New Listing Manager Nuts and Bolts

 

You got this. Stay calm and wear an Afrodelik Buddha Head tee.

Now when you navigate to the Listing Manager you'll see somthing like the screen above. You can opt to view your listings as a grid or a list using the two icons next to 'View:' at the top. You'll also find a link to stats, quick edits and adding a new listing right there. On the left sidebar you can filter the complete list of all listings you've ever made, including those that have sold, expired, or are inactive or in draft mode. You can choose to only look at, or manage your featured listings. You can choose to look at any one of your own categories, your own shipping profiles or your own tags. 

These new means of filtering and sorting, along with new bulk editing tools makes it very easy to update your Etsy shop. You can renew (or deactivate or delete) all selected listings at once, by ticking the tick boxes and pressing the button (see red arrows above). You can make bulk edits to Shipping Profiles, Listing Variations, and Sections, and Categories; simply tick the tick box next to each pertinent listing and then press 'More Actions' at the top of the screen. You can edit the amount of stock or the price in-line; hover over quantity or price and a pencil icon will appear. You can click this, edit the field and press enter to save. 'Quick Edit' (at the top) will also let you edit stock, price, titles, section and shipping profiles. As soon as you click it, each of these fields are editable. If you want to to the same thing to many different listings, filter your listings to those of interest, then press 'Quick Edit'. If you’re editing the same attribute, such as stock, on multiple listings you can continuously hit Enter to move down the page.

Sing it now: fine silver custom audio pendant from DesignByBullsEye

Most of the other features of the Listing Manager should be familiar. Check out our Class 4 on how to make listings tempting, to learn what should go into each lisitng. You can read more in Introducing New Listing Management Tools for Your Shop.

Using the New Listing Manager to automate tasks and make life easier

Etsy's blog post on 5 Ways to Save Time With Etsy's New Listings Manager lays out some of the great ways you can take advantage of these tools to streamline your workflow... and trust me, once you get to have dozens of listings, you'll want to streamline as much as possible! Here are their time saving tips and more:

• Finding and reusing your own content. Since you can search through all your listings, by key words (or sections, shipping profiles, or whatever makes the most sense to you), including those that have sold, are still in draft or are inactive, you should never need to recreate the same things. You can relist, copy or copy and edit previous listings, to create a new custom order, or simply rapidly list something similar to an existing or previous product.
• Use Quick Edit to update a common property on many listings at once. As mentioned above, in Quick Edit mode you can change the quantity, price, titles, tags, shipping profiles and sections of several itemsin bulk!
• See Stats at a glance and make informed decisions rapidly. Every listing now shows not just quantity, but how many times it has been listing and how much revenue you've made from selling a given product. You can tell which listings are really performing and choose to relist accordingly! You can also click on the Stats button at the top of the page to see the up-to-date in-line stats for all your listings without leaving the main Listings Manager.
• Skip steps. You can now edit Sections and Listings from a single page. You can also spot check and filter by 'No section' to see if you've forgotten to add an item to a section. You you opt out of previewing a listing, which can save time if you relist often. Likewise, you can now adjust each item's thumbnail image without going through the preview step. Now you can adjust your thumbnails from the listing images section of the listing process form. The new photo cropping tool allows you to crop right in the listings process without having to delete, edit and re-upload.
• Automatically relist. Those of us who have been selling on Etsy for a long time have seen the hows and whys or relisting evolve. One of the things I've heard from Newbies is that they list an item, it expires without selling and then they feel rejected and give up. This is nonsense. Do not fool yourself into feeling bad or limiting your own chances to sell your things. There is no rule which says that any given product must sell within x amount of time... and giving your products an arbitrary limit, based on when listings expire is just that: arbitrary. Your 20 cents is renting you online space in your shop for 4 months. Now, new listings will relist by default and you can opt out any time. So in a year, you can spend a whole 60 cents to keep something in your shop. Evey time you go to relist your items you can make the choice to automatically renew, or not. Since you can now see your stats at a glance, if you have something which keeps relisting without garnering revenue you'll know. So automatic relisting is a great time saver. You don't have to keep checking what has expired, what's available and what's not. You can keep all available items available for sale and increase your chances of a sale. If you're worried about the relisting fees, you should probably check out Class 10: The Dark Art of Pricing. And remember, you can opt out anytime.

Relax, and enjoy a lovely pillow cover from AvantgardeStudio

So, prior to these changes, my daily maintenance of my shop consisted of checking my expired listings, relisting and then using social media to promote my newly relisted items. If I had a new product, I would list and promote it. Then I would do any other updating, like choosing more seasonal featured listings, or making whatever tweaks to titles, tags, and text which could improve search engine optimization or any necessary changes in pricing. All of these tasks are made easier with the new Listings Manager. But here's how automation has really streamlined my workflow.

First, my listings now automatically relist: no more manually checking and relisting.

Make child's play of your blogging and social media jobs &
get your favorite wee one this graphic camera blogger
onesie from eleandela

Next, I use some 3rd party tool to simplify and automate promotion and social media tasks.

Updated March 15, 2016
If This Then That  is a free service which connects your various channels. (For a primer on using social media with your shop see Class 9 Social Media). For instance, you sign up, activate your various accounts (such as and including Facebook or Facebook fanpage, Twitter, Instagram and more) and then set recipes in action with the format "if this" [trigger] "then" [do] "that". So, as soon as I post or (automatically) relist a listing, I've set up this tool to post an image and title of the listing on my Facebook fanpage and my twitter stream.  So, without lifting a finger, on any given day, I can have renewed listing and have shared them to multiple social media channels! I've also set up recipes to save me time and effort my sharing content across multiple channels at once; for instance, if I post to Instagram, I can automatically re-post to a photo and text to Twitter (and, it will display properly as a photo, not merely as a link to Instagram). If I make a blog post, I can automatically post an image and title to Twitter or Facebook. There are many, many options and combinations and ways you can use this versitile tool.

Sadly, on March 23, 2016, IFTTT will cease to support Etsy as a channel. That means that you have to be a wee bit more clever to get automatic updates of new or renewed Etsy listings on your social media. Rather than simply triggering recipes on Etsy, you have to use your Etsy shop's RSS feed. You can copy any of these recipes and simply change the URL from:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/gatheringcharms/rss
to your own. That is, replace "gatheringcharms" with your own shop name. Thanks to Etsy user Gathering Charms for the tip!

Scheduling posts in advance can allow you further automation. Most blogging services will allow you to write a blog post and then schedule when it will be post. (We, for instance, use Blogger and can schedule posts tied to specific events, like sales, shows or holidays). There are a number of services which allow you to schedule social media posts. These services have a free version and pro version; a fair amount can be done without investing in the pro version. For instance, I use Hootsuite to schedule tweets and facebook posts for both my shop and the Toronto Etsy Street Team. It even allows me to simultaneously schedule the posting of the same information across more than one channel. I can then use IFTTT to trigger other re-posting to other channels. Buffer can be used to schedule posts to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google+ and can be intergrated with IFTTT. I use Latergram to schedule Instagram posts. You see how this snowballs? Setting aside a small amount of time to plan future posts and mean a lot of promotion for a little work.

All of this automation can free up time for making (or curating) more things for your shop, and for life in general!

Like having your own footmen to work for you... The Footmen by ThreeOnTheTreetop

p.s. you can find other nifty tools on 300 Awesome Free Things for Entrepreneurs. (Thanks for the tip CampTech!)