Go To Great Panes

Visit our 2nd Etsy shop: GoToSupplies

For a long time I used the USPS Shipping Calculator to check shipping prices, but there is a more efficient way to see what your shipping will cost–the USPS Shipping Rate Charts–even more so now that USPS redesigned the calculator to hide all but the highest priced services unless you know how to make it show the rest of the options. You can see the USPS Shipping Rate Charts from this page–just click the link on the left side of the Shipping Charts page to check prices for the service you want–both domestic & international, plus extra services: USPS Shipping Rate Charts http://www.usps.com/prices/welcome.htm You’ll need to know if your packages meet the size requirements for the service & the weight limits, each of the shipping option pages has that info right on it. USPS Shipping Discount If you are printing your labels with postage through an online service or using the USPS Shipping Assistant with postage stamps to cover the cost (see here for help with labels: Shipping Basics), you get a discount. Labels with postage through online services like Paypal get “Commercial Base Prices” for USPS shipments which are better than the retail chart rates you’ll see if you click the “USPS Shipping Rate Charts” link above, plus they get free Delivery Confirmation. Labels printed using the downloadable USPS Shipping Assistant using stamps for postage get the regular retail rates for postage but you still get Delivery Confirmation free. Quick Charts for First Class Package Service (Updated for 01/12 rates) ~~~ Click images for a larger view–opens in a new tab or window ~~~ *DC = Delivery Confirmation, 85 cents when purchased at the retail level. Please be sure to confirm all info you get online with official sources to be sure they are up-to-date & accurate. See here for First Class Retail Prices on the USPS website to easily compare them to the First Class Commercial Base Prices. See here for Priority Commercial Base Prices. For International First Class, curiously they changed it so that all 1 oz packages are the same rate–even ones going to N. American destinations which used to be less expensive: You can also confirm those rates–as you should all info you get from unofficial sources–in this PDF download from USPS: http://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals/dmm300/Notice123.pdf

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

Looks like there’s more than one issue with the new shop local:

1. Some folks don’t see their location pop up when they start to type their location in the box on the profile page.

2. Etsy has edited shop local in a way that has removed some sellers from the search after they edit their location to meet the new requirements.

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

Many buyers think that their online purchases are tax exempt, but if their state has sales tax when they purchase locally, they might be mistaken. It’s a common misconception and states are starting to crack down on internet purchases.

In short…: Just because you bought it online doesn’t make your purchase tax exempt. Use tax is what you owe your state when you should have paid sales tax but didn’t.

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

Admin’s thread on the new API for Google Merchant is here.

My summing up:

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

4. Go to a page where you see your items in results shown as sold by Etsy – USERNAME (USERNAME being your Etsy username). On the left side of the page you’ll see links to all the sellers on that page (click “more” if you don’t see it). Click the link on the left for your shop name–see my shop link in the yellow oval: Click for a larger view I searched 48 Clear plastic earring post findings, clicked the link on the left for my shop. 5. Now to get your seller feed number: In the address bar you’ll find the address for that page–most of it will be gobbledy-gook. See how it looks in the address bar here–in the yellow oval is my seller number: Click for a larger view Copy the whole web page address for your page to a word processor to more easily find your seller number. Mine is highlighted in purple in the web page address here, it is prefaced by the word seller and a colon: http://www.google.com/search?q=48+Clear+plastic+earring+post+findings&hl=en&tbm=shop&source=lnt&tbs=seller:7152851&sa=X&ei… 6. Take that number put it at the end of the webpage address below instead of the XXXXXX and you should be taken to a page with just your items uploaded by Etsy: http://www.google.com/products?q=&authorid=XXXXXX Mine looks like this: http://www.google.com/products?q=&authorid=7152851 7. The results page will show how many of your items are currently in Google’s Shopping/Product search: Click for a larger view 8. Once you have that address working for finding your items, bookmark it in your browser for easier finding in the future.

Please note: Admin have said the new (June 2011) syndication shouldn’t have any issues with vacation mode anymore, but it used to be that if you put your shop in vacation mode your Google ID number might change–it’s unclear if that will still be the case.

So you may have to create a new bookmark after coming out of vacation mode–please bookmark this page for future reference. It also used to be the case that you needed to re-enable your existing items for upload after vacation mode or they won’t be in the feed, it’s unclear if that’s still the case too.

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011

This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

I’m often surprised when I learn that someone doesn’t use short cuts on the computer (I’m all about making things faster & easier) but it turns out not everyone knows about them–I’d like to help change that. Here’s hoping these tricks will make your life a bit easier–even if they take a little time to get used to:

CTRL + C = Copy
Hold down the control key and click the “c” key.
If you’ve highlighted some text* you can quickly copy the text with this shortcut. It might seem a little awkward at first, but the more you do it the quicker it will be and it’s a lot faster than using the mouse in the end.

CTRL + X = Cut

CTRL + V = Paste

CTRL + F = Find
Every done a web search, opened a page only to not see what you are looking for on a really long page? Try using this “find” command to search the page for the word you are looking for–it’ll take you right to it.

If the first instance of the word isn’t what you were looking for, keep hitting the enter key and it will take you to the next time the word is on the page, and the next, and the next… You can even use it now to search for the * to see what the additional info in the “copy” section above references.

These three are for when you’re on the internet–they have other responses when used in other programs:

CTRL + T = Opens a new tab in your internet browser.

CTRL + N = Opens a new window in your internet browser.

CTRL + D = When you are on the internet it bookmarks the page you are on in your browser.
Try this one now–you just might want to come back and visit.

There are many more of these–you can search the web for “keyboard shortcuts” to find pages that go into them in more detail, but these are the ones I find most useful and thought they’d be a great place for folks to start.

If you right-click instead of left-click a little menu will pop up giving you access to some handy tools.

Some right-click menus offer different options like saving the content of a linked page to your computer or bookmarking a page, but these are two that are on all browsers as far as I can tell, and they’ve been the most useful for me:

Open links in a New Tab (or a new window)
Instead of clicking links on a web page to open them (left-click), I often right-click and choose to open in a new tab or a new window, that way when I’m done with what I was doing in the new page, I can close the tab (or window) and the page I started from is still there, waiting for me already loaded.

It’s great when I do a search and the results come up with a handful of pages I want to take a look at–it was especially useful back when we had dial-up internet service. I would right-click and open a new tab for 5 different pages I wanted to look at, and while reading the first page the others would slowly load in the background. If the first page hadn’t finished loading, I’d go get a cup of coffee & come back. At least the first page would be loaded by then, and I could read that while the rest loaded up, closing each as I finished with them and resuming my reading of the search results.

You can set most internet browser’s preferences to open new tabs in the background or foreground. I open my new tabs/pages in the background leaving the search results stays right in front of me, so I don’t lose track of what I’m opening. Pretty soon you’ll find yourself opening all sorts of links this way, not just from search pages.

Copy link address
I use that when I want to copy the web page address of a link for use in a document or email.

*Did you know that you can double click a word and it will be highlighted? More than 2 rapid clicks will highlight the whole line, sentence or paragraph depending on your browser or what computer program you are using–experiment with it to see how it works in your browser & text editing programs.

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

USPS First Class rates changed this week–if you are feeling overwhelmed by the change, perhaps this will help.

If you are shipping domestic via First Class, there’s good news, there’s bad news, and then there’s more good news.

The good news: Shipping packages that weigh 3 oz or less is easier now.
The bad news: Packages that are 1 or 2 oz pay the same shipping rate as 3 oz packages.

So all First Class parcels up to 3 oz to US destinations will cost you the same amount.

More good news …for folks using Paypal for shipping:

We are now getting commercial rates instead of retail rates!
(More on what that means below–see charts.)

So if the mandatory 19-cent Delivery Confirmation (DC) on Domestic First Class packages has put you off, there’s no longer a reason to avoid using Paypal labels. (I hear the same is true for Endicia shipping, I don’t know about Stamps.com.)

The cost of commercial First Class Mail is 15 cents less than retail First Class Mail (for domestic packages), so it neutralizes of nearly the entire 19 cents that Paypal charges for DC on First Class Mail. (DC is free on Priority & faster services when you pay online.)

See all the rates in charts right on the USPS website yourself here:
First Class Domestic: usps.com/ship/first-class.htm
First Class International: usps.com/ship/first-class-international.htm

or download them as a PDF file here:
http://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals/dmm300/Notice123.pdf

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

Visit our Etsy shop: GoTo

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

If you are having trouble using the USPS Shipping Assistant to print your labels after this week’s upgrade, you are not alone.

While many have contacted USPS about the issue, as far as I can tell it hasn’t been fixed yet but there is a work-around for international packages using the program itself while we wait:

1. Include everything in the label as you normally would except don’t include the destination zip code.
2. Click the button to calculate the shipping cost.
3. Add the destination zip code and print as usual.

Thanks so much to jbavarian who apparently signed up for Etsy just to help us out.

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

Visit our Etsy shop: GoToSupplies

Recently there have been reports of Etsy items (from syndicated shops) not showing up in Google’s Shopping/Product search (it’s different than regular Google–see the “More info about syndication” section here).

Admin mentioned that this issue has now been fixed, but if your items (from a syndicated shop) are not showing up there, you need to re-activate them for upload:

(All links open in a new tab/window)

While we have a few mailing lists for our website, it never occurred to me that folks would use them to follow a blog. Someone recently commented saying they’d like to subscribe by email, so I asked around and it seems they weren’t the only ones so I’ve added an email list for this blog.

You can click the link above or on the left to go to a page with all our public mailing lists, or use the subscription box I’m including in this post.

You’ll recieve notices when I make new posts that include the post title, a link to the post and maybe a little text to describe what the post is about if it’s not self-evident. You will be able to unsubscribe yourself at any time with a link at the bottom of every message or by coming back here and using the online form.