Allison Strine

These days, you're no longer limited to conducting Etsy business online. Now, with the Sell on Etsy mobile app, you can do it in person, too — assuming that you use an Apple iOS or Android device and you live in the United States. (Etsy hopes to expand the service to more locations soon.) For example, you may use the app to handle transactions at a local art fair or farmers' market.

If you're looking for guidance running your Etsy shop, look no further than Etsy's Seller Handbook. (You access the Seller Handbook by scrolling down to the footer area on any Etsy Marketplace page and, under Sell on Etsy, clicking the Seller Handbook link.) This deep-dive resource, shown in the following figure, contains links to hundreds of articles, with new ones added every week.

If you've spent any time at all on Etsy, you've no doubt run across a bazillion items and shops that you positively adore. Fortunately, Etsy enables you to keep track of all these gorgeous goodies by favoriting them. When you favorite an item or shop, Etsy adds it to the Your Favorites page.Why favorite an item or shop?

These days, coupons are everywhere, including on Etsy. Yes, that's right: You can offer your Etsy customers discounts on merchandise or free shipping through coupons — or, more specifically, coupon codes. Buyers can then apply these codes to purchases during the checkout process. (When a customer redeems a coupon, Etsy's 3.

People love seeing what Etsy sellers are up to. That's why Etsy created Shop Updates. With Shop Updates, you can show every Etsy user who has purchased from you or favorited your shop (or an item you listed in it) what's happening with your Etsy biz.You may use Shop Updates to offer a sneak peek at a new item.

To revisit your favorite items and shops on Etsy, click the Favorites button in the header bar that appears along the top of every Etsy Marketplace page. The Your Favorites page opens, with lists of favorite items displayed.The Your Favorites page.At first, there’s just one list here, called “Items I Love,” as shown.

A great way to keep in touch with your Etsy customers is to send periodic email newsletters. For example, you may send an email newsletter to announce an upcoming sale, to spread the word about a new product, or to share a coupon. Who should receive your email newsletter? If your answer is "anyone and everyone who has ever ordered from my Etsy shop," stand down.

The Your Favorites/Items page includes just one list, called "Items I Love." That's where your favorite items are stored by default. But if you find yourself favoriting lots of different types of items — say, goodies for your home, nifty gift ideas, tempting trinkets, or what have you — you can organize them into different lists, or collections.

Look, it happens. People fall out of love with other people and with favorites on Etsy. It's nothing to feel bad about. If you find yourself disenchanted with one of the items or shops you've favorited, you can always break up with it — er, remove it from your list.To do so, open the list that contains the item you want to remove, hover your mouse cursor over the item, and click the heart button that appears.