Etsy Holiday Boot camp

Well first of all, I don't like the word "boot camp" to me is associate with lack of sleep, taking showers in very odd times and a strange story about a girl who thought her stuff kept being stolen, while eventually it turned out she was putting it in the bag of the girl in a neighboring bed... But since Etsy is having their own Holiday boot camp for sellers, and I know that no folding blankets is involved, I decided to participate!

I'm going to follow their tasks and see if this can boost my sales, and also, write everything here so I can keep track of things and share what I've learned.

Well, the first thing is the very cute mascot for the boot camp - the most awesome Lou the monster that Ruti made! I'm really proud of her for winning this competition! that's one success story already!

OK, Now for business... The first thing to do is make a connection with another Etsy seller who caught my attention to partner for this. I chose Sharona, who I know for ages, though we never met in person, but, since I read her 2 blogs, follow her different Etsy stores and follow her on Facebook and flickr - meeting in person is basically small change...
and this is why I picked her - first of all, cause she's very nice and makes me laugh, and second of all, because she shares a lot of stuff online, both personal and Etsy wise and I feel like I neglected that part of promotion, so I would like to bring that more into my store and blog.

Second assignment was to check what are you best selling \ most viewed items. So I checked and actually - no surprises the best selling things are: Tapas plates, cup and saucer sets and little pill bottles. Also, drawings and paintings sells pretty well. As far as motifs - anything with birds trumps all, but (and this is the only surprise octopus comes pretty close behind).

The next question is deciding on merchandising, or rather creating a line of products for the holiday season.

I'm going to try and not do anything too Christmas like, since most of what I'm making now is going to a few trunk shows and fairs in NYC, which have a lot of people from a lot of different religions.

The past couple of years,  had a nice success with the little bottles and the cups, and the most sellable pattern (aside of birds) was polar bears in gray and red. I'm definitely going to make those again. But I would love to have another something special for the holidays, I'm trying to decide between penguin, chipmunks and owls - any ideas?! I'm going to have to decide in the next week and start working...

Also, I'm hoping to make a line of glasses for booze in more manly designs \ colors and try reach a men market with them.

The other thing I want to have ready is a small inexpensive item which isn't a glass \ ceramic, I'm hoping for a small stocking stuffer style gift that will be priced at about 10$. I'm debating between a small notebook, a set of bookmarks or a small art print. again - any preferences?!

Last thing - I have 20 glass ornaments I'm going to paint and have ready. and I have an idea I'm going to show in an Etsy craft night on December, so I want to make a couple for my shop as well.

Wow! this is going to be a lot of work....

A couple of extra ideas

1) I really want to list more till the holidays, It's going to be difficult, cause I'm so busy with so much stuff. but I think that from tomorrow, I'm going to try and list 1 thing each day - who wants to join me?

2) how about a small Etsy sellers secret Santa game. Maybe getting about 10 people who will swap handmade presents in December. Who wants in?