Great News! The Glass and Pottery Co-Op now offers UPS Shipping!

Last month we posted about the various shipping methods available at the online shops where we sell our dinnerware and collectibles. We are happy to tell you that The Glass and Pottery Co-Op has added UPS to their shipping options. This will save our customers a pretty penny on shipping costs for all that china and dinnerware you've been hoping to buy, especially on combined orders for replacement pieces. Combine with a 10% discount (sale items excluded) using code TY2010 at checkout and the savings are even greater. This 10% discount is good at Dishes and Doodads, The Glass and Pottery Co-Op and The Collectibles Store! So, what are you waiting for?

Get Shopping!

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Milk Glass and More

Some friends of ours have started a new store devoted primarily to milk glass! If you're a milk glass collector, you will want to check them out. They offer Westmoreland, Imperial, Tiffin, Anchor Hocking and Fire King to name a few. Milk Glass and More will also carry a selection of slag glass, opaque and opalescent glass, stretch glass, cased glass, satin and custard glass.

Please join Dishes and Doodads in wishing them great success with their new venture!

Milk Glass and More

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Shipping methods vary from site to site

In a previous post, tips to save money on shipping, we tried to give you what we hope were helpful tips on decreasing shipping costs. In this post we'll try to explain our shipping methods on the different sites that we sell and why they vary from site to site. We sell on 3 different sites and all welcome international sales. This post deals with US shipping.

• Dishes and Doodads
  
• The Collectibles Store
• The Glass and Pottery Co-Op

Dishes and Doodads:
This is our independent site hosted by buyitsellit.com. It is our most flexible site where shipping methods are concerned because the host supports many options. We use these options to keep shipping costs down for our customers. We offer USPS first class, parcel post, priority and express on items weighing less than 2lbs. Because we are on the east coast, items heavier than 2lbs are given FedEx options. In many cases, FedEx ground service can be a much less expensive option for our buyers with a shorter delivery time. We also offer flat rate shipping on select items. Shipping method for flat rate would be determined by your location.

Gail's Good Things at The Collectibles Store:
This site is a multi dealer site similar to a brick and mortar shop that stocks collectibles of all types and ages. It offers free USPS first class and parcel post shipping on all items. Customers can upgrade to USPS priority mail. These are the options that the site supports. Gail's Good Things does allow and encourage customers to email us for other options such as FedEx if USPS shipping seems high. We are happy to work with you and you can find our items by looking for sku gabj.

Gail's Good Things at The Glass and Pottery Co-Op:
This is also a multi dealer site that stock dinnerware, art pottery, art glass and all things glass and pottery. The site supports USPS shipping only but as above, Gail's Good Things does encourage customers to email for other shipping options on items marked sku gabj.

All of the dealers selling on these sites are members of the Glass and Pottery Sellers' Association and follow Glass and Pottery Sellers' guidelines.

We try to be flexible. By leaving a comment, you can share with us what is most important to you when you choose a shipping method. Is cost more important than delivery time or do you just want it on your doorstep right now?

Happy Shopping!

New Arrivals 1/1/2010

Dishes and Doodads is starting the new year right by adding some lovely new items to our inventory this week. We've added vintage milk glass by Westmoreland Glass and Anchor Hocking and also some collectible Lenox Holiday Disney mug and plate sets.

Milk glass was at the it's height in popularity in the 1950's but is still quite collectible, especially Westmoreland's Paneled Grape pattern. We've added a few pieces like the Christmas tidbit plate to your right along with a pitcher and compote. We've also been lucky to find a set of 6 Anchor Hocking Pineapple tumblers in milk glass. These are usually found one at a time but you can see the set by clicking on the picture.

We've added Lenox China Holiday Disney plate and mug sets also. Many of the pieces have original stickers and are in unused condition. The sets are ivory, the mugs have the holly design and Mickey Mouse and the plates are decorated with different winter holiday scenes like caroling, playing in the snow and decorating the Christmas tree. Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald and Daisy Duck are featured. This is just one example of the center design on a plate, 5 different choices are available.

We'll be adding vintage linens to our inventory soon so don't stay away too long.

We wish you a happy and healthy new year!



Share with us what you collect and are searching to find. Are you a milk glass collector? What pattern and makers do you prefer?

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Keywords and meta tags and SEO, OH MY!

Being new to trying to make a go of our independent website, I have to say these areas are HARD and can be overwhelming! You get your inventory online only to see that you are not really getting any traffic after months of work. Friends in the know say it's probably your meta tags. My what?? Yes, that's right, meta tags, keywords and SEO. Fixing them is tedious but it's got to be done if you want your items to be found. All you can do is go through each listing, one by one by one and get these right. The bad news is that you will not see instant results from your hard work, it takes time to see better bounce rates, traffic and sales. We have been concentrating on this for about 3 weeks and we have seen some slight improvement to our bounce rate. It's dropped from 65% to 59% which means our keywords are starting to attract the right visitors for our site. The good news is that by the time you are done revising all those original listings you should have meta tags and keywords down pat and your new arrivals should be in a better position to be found from the start.

These sites below helped us a great deal and we're sharing how we used these sites. We don't know yet if we're doing it right but we'll update you as we see results. These sites were recommended to us by the above people in the know at The Selling Lounge.

Use the first to help with the most popular keywords for your item. If you're revising a listing, you can plug the item url into the box and you'll get a whole list of keywords. Compare those to your original keyword choices. If you are working on a brand new listing type in your item and see what comes up. Word your description around the best keywords. In either case, choose which are best for your item and write your description around them. Make sure they are relevant keywords!
Google Keyword Tool

We used this second site to fine tune our meta descriptions and keywords. This one tells you the exact number of characters and keywords that are "robot" friendly. It also grades your keyword, title, and description relevancy. These concepts are hard to explain and the best advise is to learn as you go. You'll soon get the hang of how these three things relate to each other.
SEO Centro meta tag analyzer

We also came across this next site a week or so ago. It shows where your item is placed in the major search engines based on your keyword phrases. We still have a lot of work to do but this tool has shown some improvement in ranking for some of our listings. Any sign of improvement keeps us focused and motivates us to continue working on keywords, meta tags and SEO, OH MY!
Mike's Marketing Tools

Good Luck!



Tip:
Don't put your shipping info at the beginning. I've always done this because many buyers don't read to the end but apparently this is all wrong if you want your items to be found in search. Search engines read only so much of the listing and they start at the beginning. If your shipping info or any info other than your item description is at the top, chances are your item will not be placed well in searches.

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Share with us any SEO tips you may have picked up along the way. If you've used the above sites let us know if you found them to be helpful. Share your numbers with us and keep us motivated!

Tips to save on shipping costs - Don't be afraid to ask sellers about alternative options

High shipping costs are on the minds of both online buyers and sellers. Most sellers understand that shipping costs can make or break a sale. Often it is not within a seller's power to offer more than one shipping method. Other times the calculators in place by the hosting site can be cumbersome and USPS becomes the easiest choice even if not the the fastest or cheapest means.

Of course, we can only speak for ourselves, but it is our opinion that sellers in the central US have a big advantage over east and west coast sellers when it comes to shipping cost. Being on the east coast we know that the cost to ship a 2lb package to zone 8 is much more expensive than the cost of zone 1 using USPS priority.

So how can buyers and sellers alike keep shipping costs affordable? In many cases, this can be accomplished by working together. I'm sure you've all seen this before but it's true. COMMUNICATION is the key.

TIPS FOR SELLERS:

1. Be flexible! Offer as many shipping methods as possible. If your venue does not support multiple calculators state the alternative shipping methods that you do accept and that you will give an estimate upon request. Provide an email link.
   
2. Answers those questions with as accurate a cost as you can with the information provided. Be prompt and polite. If USPS is the only choice because of your location simply tell your potential buyers this politely. Buyers can be very understanding and the way you handle questions can be the deciding factor.
   
3. Don't gouge on handling. I know, I know, it costs money and time to package properly and a modest handling charge is reasonable. Our opinion only, in most cases a $6.00 handling fee on a single 2lb item isn't reasonable. And let's face it, that type of thing happens and gives us all a bad rep!
4. Offer flat rate shipping whenever possible, especially on heavy items. Include insurance and handling in that rate.

TIPS FOR BUYERS:

1. Read the fine print and if questions are encouraged, please email and ask about alternative shipping methods, especially on heavy items. Sometimes the selling venue does not support a calculator for FedEx ground but the seller may be willing and able to use that method if asked. Be sure to include your full address in your request, not just your zip code. While an estimate can be given with just a zip, a full address is required for exact shipping cost. Our experience is that FedEx ground is less expensive and has a faster delivery time than USPS on coast to coast shipping.
2. Please do not assume that flat rate shipping means USPS priority in a flat rate box. Often times flat rate shipping means FedEx ground or UPS ground service.
3. Please do not assume that the shipping cost of your widget has anything to do with what you paid for your widget. While the large retailers can use the shipping = % of sale method, most of us smaller guys cannot do that. If you paid $10.00 for your 5lb widget, we can't ship it for $5.00 without absorbing the extra cost.
4. Educate yourselves on shipping costs. We really believe that some buyers (that do not also sell) have no idea how expensive postage is on packages and truly believe that all sellers are gouging them. Go to USPS calculator and do some tests with various weights and zip codes. Compare the differences in zones. You may be surprised. Here are some examples to get you started. 2lb package from zip code 12831(NY) to 93010(CA) , cost USPS priority $8.70. Same package from 12831 to 45458(OH), cost USPS priority $5.75. That's a $2.95 difference between zone 8 and zone 1. Add just 1 ounce and the price difference is even greater, $11.95(NY to CA), $7.10(NY to OH) for 2lb 1oz. $4.85 difference! These example are for USPS Priority shipping and do not factor in that some packages go over their dimension limits.
   

We hope that you don't find this too negative toward buyers or sellers. Our tips are most certainly geared to coast to coast shipping because we are on the east coast. We also probably sound a little negative toward using USPS priority but we do actually love it and use it as often as possible on lighter packages. USPS is convenient, easy to use, no fuss, no muss. In fact, our mail lady is great! She has never complained about picking up our packages right at our house, we don't even have to go out in the cold. Realistically though, since they changed to zones and dimensional calculations, we cannot ask our buyers to pay so much on heavier items when other options are available. In the near future, we will explain our specific shipping methods on different venues.

Happy Holidays!

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Share your shipping tips with us please. Your shipping experiences, good or bad can help educate buyers and sellers alike.

Apple Butter update

My apple butter was finished in record time and I thought you'd like to see the finished results. My crock pot is only a couple years old and only has warm, low and hi settings, no medium. I've always been afraid to use the hi setting on this for fear it would burn. I took the chance this year and it paid off. My total cooking time dropped to about 26hrs.


I should also mention that if you use your crock pot often you will probably have to buy a second one. Mine absorbed the flavor of the apple butter. The first time I made pot roast after making this, the meat had a light flavor of apple butter. It was edible but not really something I wanted to repeat so I'm back to making my pot roast on the stove.