Handcrafted stuff From Etsy: the best handmade gifts ever

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic by 13 people | Log in to rate

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Nothing beats handmade gifts, and there's no better place on the Web to find amazing, creative, and gorgeous stuff than etsy.com. List your favorites here!

Etsy sellers are invited to submit your own best stuff! Just add a link to the "Plexo" module for your category.

Don't see a category that fits? Post a request in the Guestbook and I'll get a new category set up for you.

Five Reasons Handcrafted Stuff From Etsy Make the Best Gifts 

  • Nothing says "I love you" like a handmade gift!
  • We don't have time to make as many handmade gifts as we want to.
  • Handmade is green!
  • Handmade stuff is beautiful and unique.
  • Handmade gifts from Etsy support working artists and artisans so they can create more beautiful objects for us to enjoy.

Delectable soaps at Twin Dream Creations 

One-of-a-kind handmade soap, bath and body products, mmmmmm

Anyone who makes squid soap is OK in my book. Twin Dream has a whole collection of delicious bath and body products, all handmade, moisturizing and eco-friendly.

Great scents and lots of elegant designs make their products the perfect gift for your friends who love little indulgences!

Twin Dream Creations have a Squidoo lens and an Etsy shop for their handcrafted soap and bath products.

Get the most out of Squidoo 

Six tips and tricks for Etsy sellers to make the most of your Squidoo lenses

Squidoo lets you make a simple, good-looking mini Web page (called a "lens" around these parts) to promote yourself, your business, your great idea, your philosophy of life--anything at all that you want to get the word out about.

It's a very simple tool to learn, but there's definitely an art to getting the most out of it. Here are six tips and suggestions to get you off on the right foot:

  • Create at least four modules, not counting your guestbook or your introduction. Break your content up into several manageable chunks--it's a lot easier to read and more scannable.

  • Upload some pictures. Pictures make lenses come to life--especially when you're promoting gorgeous handmade stuff!

  • Use one of your modules for a paragraph or two about how you make your items. Customers who enjoy handmade items are dying to know more about your process, your materials, what you're fussy about, and exactly how you make the gorgeous goodness that you do. And this makes your lens feel less "promotional" and more about creating a relationship with your customers.

  • Maximize your tags. You get 40 tags per lens on Squidoo, and these are important to your search engine (Google and others) position. Consider what kinds of strings of text folks might use to find you. Not just "handmade gifts," which is going to be pretty competitive, but "handmade glass earrings," "handmade art glass," "handmade glass art," etc. Get specific and nitty gritty.

  • Most of your traffic (for both your lens and your shop) won't come from Squidoo, it will come from your improved search engine placement. Make your lens really "keyword rich" (in other words, use lots of words that folks who are searching for you might enter) and include enough content that Google knows how to find you!

  • When you can: write some additional articles for various sites about your art and your process. So far I've found ezinearticles.com to be the most useful at bringing in new traffic and boosting my Google position, but I'm always looking for new venues. Just write a page or two about what, how, and why you do what you do, with a closing paragraph about why your items make great gifts. Include links to your lens and to your shop. Do that every month or so and you'll see a steady stream of fresh new traffic for your Etsy shop!

Simple, beautiful jewelry from 27 Things 

Semiprecious stones mixed with repurposed rosewood prayer mala beads

The motto at 27 Things is taken from da Vinci: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

Simple, stylish and beautiful jewelry made from semiprecious stones and repurposed rosewood prayer beads.

27 Thing has a Squidoo Lens, an Etsy Shop, and a shop on the Australian site Mintd.

Take the handmade pledge . . . 

"I pledge to buy handmade this holiday season, and request that others do the same for me."

Pledge Handmade!

Chocolate Lollipop 

A stylish baby boutique on Etsy!

Find fabulous one-of-a-kind handmade bibs, blankies, diaper bag accessories and more! Their stuff is available in matching collections or you can go "a la carte," to suit any budget.

You can find their Squidoo lens at www.squidoo.com/chocolatelollipop and their Etsy shop at Chcolate Lollipop Boutique on Etsy

Meet Etsy seller Katiyana 

Katiyana is an enthusiastic Squidooer and an Etsy seller of handmade doll clothes and handmade bear clothes. Her stuff is handmade and features bold intarsia design elements. Triple cute!

Visit Katiyana's Etsy Shop
featured lens Katiyana's Collectibles Etsy Store

Etsy is an online sales venue dedicated to supporting sellers who sell handmade items that they have created.  This ranges from artists who paint and create sculpture, to jewelry makers, beadmakers, knitters and crocheters.  Not only is an...

Great books for professional artists and artisans 

Vote for your favorite, or add more great titles!

Do your friends ever ask when you're going to get a "real" job? (Do you ever tell them you pay "real" rent and "real" taxes?)

Here are some terrific resources to help you get the most out of the business side of things.

1

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Small Time Operator, 9th Edition: How to Start Your Own Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes & Stay Out of Trouble (Small Time Operator) by Bernard B. Kamoroff

Small Time Operator, 9th Edition: How to Start Your Own Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes & Stay Out of Trouble (Small Time Operator) by Bernard B. Kamoroff

Stay out of trouble with the IRS and your local mu more...1 point

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The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube by Michelle Goodman

The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube by Michelle Goodman

Marketed for women, but it has good advice for any more...0 points

Some good Squidoo resources for small businesspeople 

That's people with small businesses, not small people with businesses

There are tons of folks on Squidoo who run small businesses and can give good advice. As I find lenses that focus on the business part of smallbiz, I'll add them here.

Bookkeeping basics for online sellers

Want more categories? 

If you're an Etsy vendor (or buyer!) and your favorite category isn't listed here, let me know and I will add it. Long live handmade goodness!

Also, the first 10 Etsy sellers who post their shop's Squidoo lens URL here will be featured on this page. Show your Etsy pride! Create a Squidoo lens to point to your Etsy page. You can click that green Make a Lens link in the upper right side of the page to get started.

Lensmaster

suchprettycolors wrote

thank you so much for adding me to the new housewares section. :) :) :)

Reply Posted December 06, 2007

Lensmaster

prossackdesigns wrote...

love this list, sonia!

just finished my lens - it still needs tweaking, but I think I did ok

http://www.squidoo.com/prossackdesigns/

ReplyPosted December 03, 2007

Lensmaster

prossackdesigns wrote...

ok - I'm tired, and I misunderstood what the 'blurb' here was for - so ignore/delete what I just sent!

how about a paper/books catagory - journals/blank books, cards, bookmarks, tags, wrapping paper, etc.

ReplyPosted December 03, 2007

Lensmaster

prossackdesigns wrote...

I am an eclectic artisan - over the years I have experimented with many art/craft forms, and I continue to experiment - most of my work derives from my original, colorful hand-marbled paper - I do things with it that I haven't seen anyone else do - but like most artists - I dabble in other forms...

ReplyPosted December 03, 2007

Lensmaster

Dr_Dayafter wrote...

Great lens! I am sending all of my etsy friends this way :) 5* for sure

ReplyPosted November 28, 2007

Lensmaster

sonia_simone wrote...

OK, added a new section for housewares

ReplyPosted November 26, 2007

Lensmaster

sonia_simone wrote...

So much great stuff! Squidoo lenses, like excellent Etsy things, are handmade, so I'm going to plunk away at all of these suggestions and you'll see additions coming over the next few days. Keep 'em coming!

ReplyPosted November 26, 2007

Lensmaster

Strumpfkunst wrote...

Yay for Sock Monkeys!
http://www.squidoo.com/sockmonkeysrule/

ReplyPosted November 26, 2007

Lensmaster

alorinna wrote...

art? I'd love to nominate clairej.etsy.com!

ReplyPosted November 26, 2007

Lensmaster

artmixter wrote...

What about art? I'd love to play here...but no category. I did sign up on your suggestion and made my first lens...http://www.squidoo.com/artmixter/ , and starting on my second one...which I hope will be focussed on etsy...thanks, Sonia, this was a great idea!

ReplyPosted November 26, 2007

 
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