Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Etsy tips for a better shop: Periodically update your photos and listings
Posted by Contrariwise at 12:01 AMJust because you've listed an item on Etsy, doesn't mean the listing is carved in stone.
I'll often go through my listings and look for opportunities to improve them or update them.
Let me give you a couple of examples.
Updating descriptions and titles
Your listing description shouldn't say that your beautiful handmade item has a lovely pastel palette perfect for Easter - in September!
If you have a seasonal description, you should update it seasonally. The above was a really blatant example, but season descriptions can creep in subtly. Minor changes to make your listing "fresh" can make a difference.
Last Christmas time, I listed the earrings on the left under the name of "Christmas Kisses", complete with a holiday-themed description. I ended up selling quite a few pairs . But I didn't want to stop listing my "Kisses" in my shop - they really can be worn any time of the year. So, after Christmas, I renamed them "Valentine Kisses" and wrote a season-appropriate description.
That worked very well and I did sell several pairs for that holiday.
Take opportunities to improve your photos
My Dangling Swirl Earrings were originally available in my shop a couple of months ago. Even though I had photographed them several times, I was never happy with the photos. On the right is my original listing photo for them. Yes, they've sold twice and I've relisted them, but I thought the photo needed major improvement.
I was recently playing around with my lightbox - changing the lighting and 
experimenting with different backgrounds. I wanted a background that would complement sterling silver. I tried various colors of cardstock, pieces of wood, tiles, different types of stones, etc - then I tried a placemat with rich dark colors. (Placemat??!!) I really liked the deep color and the way silver seemed to pop against it. It also subtly evokes the holiday season.
I went back and took new photos of the Dangling Swirl Earrings and I am so happy I did. You can see the new photo on the left.
Now I feel the photos represent my earrings better - and I don't cringe every time I look at them.
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I'm kinda dropping by randomly (& kinda dropping by to hit you with my EC) to tell you about this new selling site I found. It's called ArtFire.com & you should check it out.
It's still really, really new (still in beta) but it's heading in a really good direction! They are already buying advertising online & in print magazines to bring in traffic to the site. (It's already got almost as much traffic as indiepublic.com)
It's got stats for shop views so you know where your customers are coming from! I know! Gasp! Faint! Right? hehe
& it's just $7 a month (for the first 5000 artists) to list & sell as much as you can FOREVER. $7 a month no matter what! I signed up on that alone! haha
Anyhoo, it is new so there aren't zillions of people using it (which is good & bad) but I thought you might want to take a look at it. With the ad campaign they are working on kicking in soon (or so they are saying), I think it's going to be a good place to start listing!
If you sign up, give me a yell & let me know what you think!
Always,
Amy
P.S. Great tips for sprucing up listings! Words to live by!
*note to self: update*
Good photos are probably the #1 thing that you can do to improve your shop and enhance sales. Keep on working on your photography; it will definitely pay off for you.
Also time to move the computer closer to the fire!
I just checked your shop. While they are a little busy, your picture are very consistent. You can recognize that they come from your shop, which is a really good thing. Branding is important.