Shop Set Up

I'm proceeding to the next part of the Etsy's beginner's guide called Shop Set Up.  This part tells you about registering account, creating a profile bio and the necessities to get started.  Here is my bio...

if just for today
cow are purple, pigs do fly
come imagine with me

One day I will find a way to make all the images in my mind find its way into my creations. My mind moves faster than hands and my days move quickly into night...read more

On to...Banners
My banner should be professional and give my customers a sense of my shop.   Here is my banner:

This is my newest banner (taking away the "+" that I felt was unnecessary and discussed earlier).  It does represent my shop by showing a product that I made it gives buyers a feel of what I sell. My banner is not professionally made and maybe one day I will be able to afford a professional.  How can I improve my banner?  Do you have any suggestions?

Avatars - should be well lit, well cropped, show something interesting.

This is my Avatar.  Avatars are used for community spaces and is an advertisement for your shop while you're on the go.  Once again I'm am using my bunny earrings with my bright yellow background.  It represents my shop well but should I get rid of the wording and use just the image?

Shipping and shipping profiles - set 'em up in your shop.

There are many times when I really, really want to buy a product online and then I see "does not ship to Hawaii".  What a major bummer! Other times, my shopping decision is based on the price of shipping...too high, no buy!  In my shop, I ship only to the US, Canada and UK.  Furthermore, the cost of shipping may make up more than 50% of my product price. If I was shopping from my own site, these things would scare me away unless these costs could be offset in some other way.  Therefore, I sometimes combine my pieces into sets to make the "value of product to shipping price" more reasonable.  I also offer free shipping when customers buy 5 or more items from my shop.

To determine postage price, I went to the USPS online postage calculator and weighed my items.  I categorized them into shipping profiles. 

Conclusion:
I did what I was told to do but maybe I can get into the next Etsy virtual lab discussion and have an evaluation made on my banner, avatar and shipping issue. 

My Etsy Journey Posts:
* Beginning of Success...I hope!
* It's All in the Name