Go To Great Panes

Visit our Etsy shop: GoToSupplies


Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2009

Just create another feed, naming it after your other shop, and set up the same way you did when using the Etsy RSS and Google Base tutorial.

Since Google Base has edited their system so you can use the RSS for multiple Etsy shops by just adding additional feeds, I’ve reposted info specifically about setting up items on more than one domain here (like your own website or other venues): Google Base: Items on Multiple Domains.

Please note: Google Base doesn’t like when you submit the same exact items through multiple feeds–it muddies the searches–so your feed may get disapproved if you do that.

Google Base “Frequently Asked Question” posts # 1: I’ve set up Google Base, now what? # 2: My feed uploaded & it says items were inserted! # 3: My feed processed but shows a 0 items inserted message! Need more help after reading the FAQs? Please post in this Etsy forum help thread: Get into Google’s “Shopping” search results–use Google Base

Updated July 19, 2009

Visit our Etsy shop: GoTo

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2009

Visit our Etsy shop: GoTo

This week Etsy added USD to all our listings to make it clear to international buyers that our prices are in US Dollars. Unfortunately it’s been causing issues with the Let’s Ets data feeds.

If you are looking to update your data feed, you can do one of two things:

1. Switch to the Etsy RSS method which also allows you to use the scheduler to automatically update your shop from now on:

~ ~ ~ Switch to the Etsy RSS method ~ ~ ~ Here’s a tutorial–be sure to start from step 1 as some of the account settings need to be changed: Etsy RSS and Google Base

2. Manually edit your Let’s Ets feed:

~ ~ ~ Let’s Ets: remove the “USD” ~ ~ ~ from your download 1. Download the feed to your computer. That’s the file titled SHOPNAME.xml (of course, it has your shop’s name in the spot where it says “SHOPNAME”). 2. You should be able to open it with an HMTL editor or a plain text program like notepad or WordPad. Right-click on the file name and select “Open with” and pick a program. 3. Make sure the cursor is at the top of the page, then hold down the control button on your keyboard and click H. 4. When the pop up opens put USD in the “Find what” box, and leave the “Replace with” box empty. Click the “Replace All” button. 5. Save the file, and upload to Google Base as usual.

The Let’s Ets fix is a tip from Glasstastic.

Visit our Etsy Supply Shop: GoToSupplies

Google Checkout is Raising Rates in May 2009

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2009

As of May 5, 2009 Google Checkout will be raising its rates–they’ll be more in line with Paypal’s rates.

Along with the new higher rates come higher fees for purchases made from buyers in another country (the same increase Paypal has for cross-border transactions). It also marks the end of the free processing/AdWords deal.

Details here:

http://checkout.google.com/support/sell/bin/answer.py?answer=134473

AdWords/free processing ending:

http://checkout.google.com/support/sell/bin/answer.py?answer=134486

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Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2009

Update: Google Base is now: Google Merchant Center

Google Merchant Center: Trying to get your items uploaded, but still not sure what it is? Here’s a little info:

The main function is to get your items into the database that Google uses for its shopping search (also known as their “product” search). Getting your items in Google Base is not about getting your products in the regular Google search results, though occasionally you’ll see three items pulled from the Google Merchant Center listed under “Shopping results for Your-Search-Terms” on page 1 of regular Google search results.

When someone searches on Google then clicks the “shopping” link at the top of the page they are taken to a list of products with prices and photos for easier browsing. (And if you want to know if anyone uses that, I do. It’s the way I search first when I’m looking for something that I want to buy on the internet, has been for years.)

Google’s Shopping Search: http://www.google.com/products

Looking to upload your Etsy shop or website items?

Etsy is working on getting our items in there for us, as Google changed their rules last year saying that individual sellers on market places like Etsy could no longer upload their own goods–see these two posts:

Changes Coming for Google Base

FAQs about the new Etsy GM feed

If your independant website shopping cart isn’t set up for uploading to Google Merchant Center automaticaly, you can do a manual upload for it–see here for help with that:

Google Merchant Feed for Your Website

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Visit our Etsy shop: GoTo

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2009
(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.)

What is Google Base/Google Merchant Center? Click here!

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Update: As of December 2009, Google is requiring marketplaces like Etsy to upload the goods for the sellers, sellers can no longer upload their own items.

For more info on how your items will be added to Google Merchant Center see these two posts:

Google Retired Etsy RSS Feeds

FAQs for the New Etsy Google Merchant Product Search Feed

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Tutorial deleted to avoid confusion, see update above.

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GoToSupplies

Visit our Etsy shop: GoTo

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2008

Don’t know what Google Checkout is? See here: Accepting Credit Cards

To send an email invoice
through Google Checkout1. Log In

2. Click the Tools tab.

3. On the left, click the Send an invoice link.

4. Fill out all the fields–I recommend checking the Send me a copy of this email box, otherwise you’ll have no record of the bill sent. Google Checkout doesn’t keep a copy in your account.

5. Click the Send invoice email button.

A yellow message will flash telling you the invoice has been sent.

I have found that I cannot use the Opera browser to send the invoices, but it works fine with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

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Visit our 2nd Etsy shop: GoToSupplies

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2008

We’ve been accepting credit card payments for sales through Paypal for years, but last year we decided to try Google Checkout:

Google Checkout
(affiliate link)

We’ve been very happy with their service, and really like how our money is automatically transferred to our bank account.

We don’t have to log in and tell them to send us our money, and instead of taking three to four days for it to show up in our account, it takes only two days.

The fees are lower than Paypal: 2% + $0.20 per transaction.
Update as of May 2009–the fees are now the same as Paypal:
2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

Currently it’s only available to sellers in the US and UK, they are working on expanding, but it’s available to buyers in over 140 countries.

As of January 2008, these countries are able to pay using Google Checkout:

Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua & Barbuda Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Chile Colombia Costa Rica Côte d’Ivoire Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Estonia Faroe Islands Finland France Gabon Georgia

Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Guatemala Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Laos Latvia Lebanon Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Mauritius Mexico Moldova Monaco Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nepal Netherlands Antilles Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Nigeria Norway

Oman Pakistan Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto RicoQatar Romania Russia Rwanda San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Trinidad & Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands, British Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe

Need to send an email invoice
through Google Checkout?

See this post: Send a Google Checkout invoice

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