How to Guide: Facial Rescue Kit

I've got a lot of requests for a How to Guide for the Facial Rescue Kit so here it is!

Click here to download the full PDF version.

If you haven't gotten your facial rescue kit yet, you can

purchase it on Etsy here or on BattysBath.com here.

What are the benefits of Jasmine?

Did you know that Jasmine's warm, floral aroma, soothes aching muscles, induces sound sleep and the scent is reportedly an aphrodisiac! It is a sensual, soothing, calming oil that promotes love and peace.

Since ancient times, Jasmine has been referred to as the King of oils (Rose is the Queen). Apparently this is because Jasmine is the most masculine of all the floral oils.

It is also interesting to note that it takes 8,000 carefully hand-picked blossoms to produce 1 gram (about 1 ml.) of Jasmine Absolute.

Q & A with Batty: How well does your primer work for oily skin?

Q: "How well does this work for oily skin? I love wearing makeup (organic makeup!), but my liquid foundation always cakes and looks yucky after wearing it for several hours. I'm always on the look out for organic foundation primers, but sadly I haven't found one that did much to minimize my oil slick of a face! hehe I'm hoping yours will work like magic and possibly end my hunt!" - anonymous

A:

battysbath says: Thanks for your question! I've added a specific clay especially for oily skin! It actually balances excess oil :) Now the primer is one thing, but your foundation is a whole other story.. if you pile on cream, whip, or liquid makeup on top of that (or on top of anything really).. you'll get that glossy look after wearing it for several hours. The primer can handle any amount of natural skin oils, but additional synthetic or natural oils creates much too much of a mess for any primer to really handle. My advice would be to use the primer to balance excess oil, and then use a good mineral make up foundation - that way you wont have to worry about ADDING more oil to the situation. I love mineral make up and there's a lot of great etsy sellers that have fabulous foundations :) If you simply cannot stray from "traditional" make up I would at least try to use on that has as little "liquid" content as possible. Always finish with a POWDER! So even if you are using, say a cream foundation (i actually love whipped foundation hehe), then finish it off with a GOOD layer of pressed powder or a sheer finishing mineral makeup powder. This will help to absorb any oils that come out from the makeup while the primer works on YOUR natural ois underneath :) I hope that helps :)

Q & A with Batty: What do you do on those days that you feel like you should quit?

battysbath says:

When I feel discouraged, down and out, or just plain frustrated, I take a break! I take a break until I feel ready to get back to the grind. A break is a great way to recharge, re-evaluate, and rework things. Actually, I decided to move my first etsy shop (shesbattydesigns.etsy.com) to the back burner after a break when I realized I had lost my passion for paper - I enjoyed it as a hobby still, but not as a "job". That was the best break I could have ever taken because it was during that time that my family encouraged me to turn my love of creating bath & body goodies into more than a hobby. I haven't looked back since :)

See how other people from the Etsy community asnwered this question in the original form thread found here.

Q & A with Batty: How did having a business in Etsy Changed your life?

battysbath says:

It's changed my life because it's given me the freedom to take care of myself and work around my "body's schedule". I have ankylosing spondylitis and fibromyalgia so I never know how I'm going to feel from day to day. Being able to work from home, whenever I feel well enough, has given me the ability to contribute to my family, do what I love, take care of my health in away that no 9-to-5 job would ever let me do, and ultimately live a life i can be proud of rather than always feeling that my diseases control me! Etsy has made this possible and I wouldn't want to think about what things might be like without all the opportunities this selling venue has granted me and my family!

Q & A with Batty: Contests

Q: "I was wondering what your philosophy was about offering giveaways and "contests" as an effective means of online promotion" - Weezi

A: Well I can't say I necessarily have a philosophy that's set in stone about any online promotional strategies. I always give things a go and see where I'm at when the dust settles. With that being said, I don't just jump on the band wagon without some research first. Some of the key questions I ask myself are:

- Will this promotion reach my target audience?

- Is it presented in a way that they will understand and respond to?

- What do I hope to get out of this? (sales? views? networking connections?)

- How much will this promotion cost me? Can I afford it?

- Is there risk involved? Is it worth the risk?

When it comes to giveaways and contests these questions are a great place to start. If you're hosting it on your own blog, you can be pretty sure you're reaching your target audience if you've already built up a loyal following of your customers. If you're hosting it on someone else's blog it gets a bit trickier. Not only do you need to make sure this blog is targeting YOUR audience, you also need to make sure they are targeting A LOT of them to make it worth while. If your blog only has a following of a few hundred people, a giveaway or contest can still work really well if those followers are CORE customers that are generally interested in your products, are repeat customers, and you're bringing something new and exciting to the table for them. On the other hand, many blogs that regularly host giveaways for other people usually don't have core following. They have people who have signed up to follow the blog just to get an extra entry in a contest or two. These "followers" may never return to that sign again even though they are still counted in the thousands of followers. The lesson here is that blog follower numbers can be deceiving (this also goes for twitter followers, facebook fans, and the like). A good way to screen out the blogs who have REAL buzz from the blogs that aren't all their cracked up to be is to check out the amount of interaction that's going on. I don't mean all the comments under the giveaway posts. I mean the comments on their regular posts. Do people care what they have to say? Are people retweeting and blogging about their content? It can be tricky to find blogs that REALLY have buzz AND have zeroed in on your target audience.

When it comes down to purely a numbers game - contest and giveaways usually (from my experience and from what I've heard from others) don't bring in sales. Why would anyone run over to your shop and fill up their shopping cart if you're giving things away for free? Even if they are inclined to buy from you, they will probably wait until the contest or giveaway is over just in case they win.

Contests & giveaways do have their place though! Not only are they fun, they help you show off your generous side, AND can be a great way to get your name out there when you're looking to further your reach on the world wide web. When I first launched Batty's Bath I did a few giveaways and I had a contest to win a years worth of lip balm. These types of promotions were a great way to get the word out about my new shop FAST. It also got my products into the hands of potential customers quickly. This worked well for my business because I sell products that are consumable - meaning that people will run out of them and if they liked them, they may just come back for more. They aren't a one time, one of a kind purchase like jewelry or pottery. Which brings me to my next point - not all products & services are contest & giveaway friendly. People are offered so many things for free these days that it's nothing new to them - it usually isn't "news worth" (meaning they probably wont blog or tweet about it).

So the bottom line is that if you're strictly after sales, I would pass on the contest & giveaways... although one could argue that the promotion you get from these strategies could end up in sales down the road, you're probably better off to focus on pampering your current customers first. If you're after some "internet buzz" and something fun to get your name out to a few more people, a contest or giveaway could be the way to go.

Q & A with Batty

Q: What's Your Best Advice for New Etsy Sellers?

A: I’ve been around Etsy since 2008 when I opened She's Batty Designs and I’ve learned a lot since then which resulted in the successful launch of my second shop, Batty's Bath.

As a newbie around Etsy there can be a lot to learn! I’m still learning and I don’t consider myself a newbie! Here are some of my most helpful tips to help you start off on the right foot around Etsy.

• Keep up to date about what’s going on in the Etsy community. This can be easily be done by changing Etsy’s blog and by spending some time in the forums. Which brings me to my next point…

• Start digging around the Etsy forums! There is a wealth of information available and if there’s a question to be asked by a newbie, it’s likely already been asked multiple times! Use the forum search to find common topics.

• Head over to Etsy’s blog and read The Etsy Seller Handbook! This resource is not to be missed! Also, once you’re done that read as many articles as you can in the “Selling” section of Etsy’s blog

• Space out your new listings. The reason for this is because each new listing shows up in multiple areas of Etsy so think of it as promoting on Etsy for only 20 cents. You also don’t want to have all your listings in one spot in the category search. You want people to see you on multiple pages for more exposure. Some of the places new listings show up are the time machine, pounce, and categories.

• Post a new listing every day if you can. If you don’t have something new to list, use the “renew” function to get your item back onto the top of the category searches. Renewing costs the same prices as listing but it’s well worth it in my opinion.

• Make sure your pictures are STELLAR! I know you’ve probably read this a thousand times but people say this over and over again for good reasons! Great pictures are more likely to attract buyers to your shop, get your items featured in treasuries, and be featured on blogs. The more exposure you can get the better! If you’re not sure if your pictures make the grade, check out some of the top sellers in your category and see what their pictures look like. Chances are they are pretty good!

• Also check out items that are featured in Etsy’s blog posts. It’s better to spend a lot of time at the beginning perfecting your pictures so you wont waste time promoting items that have pictures that are unappealing – essentially wasting more time and money!

• Figure out who your target audience is and concentrate your marketing efforts there. Find out where you can your products or shop link in front of this audience. This will help narrow down where and how you should be spending your time.

• Keep the creativity going! Once you start to build up a customer base, repeat customers are going to be looking for new and exciting items from you often! This is especially true around holidays and gift giving times. Keep them happy by keeping your creative juices following!

• Promote, Promote, and then promote some more! I spend at least 5 hours a day on the computer doing something business related! I know not everyone has this kind of time but if you’re going to have a successful shop it’s likely that you’re going to have to put a lot of time into it!

There are a few exceptions to this rule of people who become top Etsy sellers with next to no time promoting but this certainly isn’t the norm! Figure out ways to promote such as social networking sites and decide which will work best for your business and your schedule.

And last but not least… Good luck!

Q & A with Batty

Q: Do You Work On Etsy Full Time From Home? And if so how do you cope with working from home?

A: I'm working from home on my biz full time. I sleep during the day, and work all night long. It works a lot better for me. I wake up when my fiance gets home from work around 5 or 6pm. We have supper together and hang out for a bit - it's a great way to start the day. I check my email during this time and reply to anything urgent and leave the rest for later. When he goes to bed (any time between 8-11pm), I start working. I find it very peaceful here at night so it's a lot easier to work without being distracted... it also helps that before starting to work for the day I've already had my social time for the day and have done laundry or other chores with my fiance. I have a craft show or home show every weekend so the next day I take the day off and recover. Usually my "day off" isn't completely a day off because I still check emails, make deliveries, and fill any special orders I received during the show the day before, but these few little things during don't take me too long so it still feels like a day off :)

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Do you have a question for me? I'm now on formspring so you can submit your questions! Feel free to use the submission tool in the right hand column of the blog (it's at the bottom of the right column).

Batty's Answer to The Etsy Forum Question: How Do You Get Sales?

battysbath says: I spend a lot of time in 3 different areas (outside of creating that is)

1 - promoting/networking/chatting/advertising - i use facebook, twitter, plurk, thumblr, blogger, flickr, stumble upon, project wonderful, yammi, craft juice, craft gawker, mailing list, etsy forums, and a few off etsy forums

2 - tweaking! i'm consistently tweaking my tags, photos, and descriptions. this involves researching SEO, retaking pictures, and looking up keywords in google analytics

3 - offline - i learned from my first etsy shop that putting all your eggs in the etsy basket isn't always the best idea. i'm working on booking a craft show or home show each and every weekend. right now i have almost every weekend for the next 9 weeks booked.


.. i hope that helps :)

(originally answered in this forum post)