Contrariwise ramblings

When I opened my online shop, I thought that I would just list some jewelry and people would come by and buy. How difficult could it be? After all, look at all the successful sellers on Etsy!

It wasn't until I started reading the Etsy forums that I realized I really had to promote my shop in order to have it noticed and to sell.

Wow! This meant commitment! I wasn't entirely prepared for that.

So I quickly read everything I could find on the internet about Etsy. Much of it was helpful and it really turned my thinking (and promoting activities) around.

I'll divide promotion into two parts. Both will hopefully result in improved sales and are only based on my personal experiences and opinions on promoting within Etsy.

1. What you can do within Etsy to get your shop noticed.
2. What you can do outside of Etsy to draw people to your shop.

Today I'll focus on what you can do within Etsy to get your shop noticed.

1. List often.
If possible, list an item daily. This gets you exposure on Recently Listed Items on the front page as well as in the Time Machines on Etsy. It also means that when someone runs a search, you're closer to the top of the queue of their results. (Personally, I like to list twice a day if I can.)

If you don't have anything new, consider relisting an item. (Just don't get OCD about it. Even though its only 20 cents per listing, this quickly adds up.) In addition to bringing you back up in the queue, it brings your item to the top of your shop listings, which means more people might notice it if they're just scanning your shop. (Most of my sales come from the 1st page. I think only really committed buyers look beyond the first two pages of your shop.)

Unless you're opening a shop or are a really prolific seller, don't post a lot of items at once. Space them out during the day for maximum exposure.

2. Post on the Etsy forums.
Get out on those forums and have people see you, recognize you, and associate you with your shop. You'll meet people and see shops you wouldn't otherwise. Plus lots of good advice can be found there.

People rant about the Promotions forum, but I've sold more than a few items that way. It's not going to hurt to announce your new items in the promotions forum. You'll get some additional views (a big thing for a newbie) and you'll get your shop noticed.

3. Good photos and thumbnails
This is unbelievably critical. See my earlier posts about photography tips and drawing the customer in with great thumbnail photos.

3. Good descriptions in your listing.
Other than your photos, this is all your customers have. They can't touch your wonderful handmade item, or smell it, or taste it, or try it on. You have to describe it. Give measurements and details, state clearly what an item is made from, and don't forget to check your spelling.

Also, it doesn't hurt to have a little fun. Suggest some uses. Share your inspiration. Show some personality. And, every so often, change the descriptions. (When someone is looking at your item in March, you don't want the description referring to the wonderful autumn colors of your item.)

4.Get feedback
Ask for a critique in the Promos and Critiques forum and then genuinely consider the constructive criticism offered.

When I first started, I thought I had great photos. Most of them were created with a scanner and had busy backgrounds. Early on I asked for feedback on the forums and discovered that most people were not as enamoured with my photos as I was. I spent A LOT of time learning to use my camera to create more effective photos and am very thankful for the constructive feedback I received.

5. Proper tagging
Make sure you have the most specific titles and tags available, that clearly describe what your product is, and in some circumstances, who would use your product. You are allowed up to 13 tags; use as many as possible. It makes it easier to start with the most general tags, then narrow it down.

For example, if you sell a sweater

• sweater (item)


• wool (material)


• cardigan (type)


• cable (type of knit)


• blue (color)


• tan (color)


• stripe (design)


• medium (size)


• fitted (style/fit)


• classic (style)


• feminine (style)


• casual (occasion)


• office (possible use)

That's 13 words.

6. Pricing
I'm only giving a buyer's perspective about prices (because I could write a whole post all about how to set prices - but that's an entirely different topic):

If you underprice, a buyer may think something is wrong with your item or that it's poorly constructed. If you overprice, the buyer may think you are gouging. Either way you will lose. Check what similar items are selling for on Etsy and price fairly and accordingly.

7. Etsy Showcases
I've never featured an item in one. The consensus seems to be that they will bring your shop views and hearts, but little or no sales.

Just think, it costs $15 to have an item in a showcase. For the same money, you could relist an item 75 times! Think of the exposure THAT would get you!

My next in this series of Lessons Learned will be about promoting OUTSIDE of Etsy.

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Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. I had to post this

via

For all you doubting the authenticity of this letter, Snopes has confirmed that it is real.

This exchange appeared in the 15 June 2005 installment of "Ask Leslie," and advice column wtritten by librarian Leslie Potter for the Hays Daily News in Kansas.

Ms Potter stated:

"There were several staff members at the library's front desk the morning the "camel toads" letter arrived. When I opened and read it, I was thoroughly puzzled, as I had never heard of either camel toads or camel toes. But when I read it aloud to the staff, they practically started rolling on the floor. And their explanation is almost word-for-word what I used in my answer. I kept the original letter as a memento - and to show people who didn't believe it could be real!"

BTW, Wikipedia has a definitive description of "camel toe" here.

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It took me a lot of trial and error to get my photos to an acceptable stage. (I say "acceptable", because there is always room for improvement.)

Makes a huge difference, doesn't it. Not only is the background close to the original color, but now the gemstones really "pop".

2) Control the exposure time of your pictures. This is useful if your photos are extremely washed out (too much exposure) or dull/dark (too little exposure). The range on most cameras is -2 to 2 and is usually set to 0 by default. A setting of +1 is a good place to start.

Here is an example in a lightbox. The exposure for the left picture is +1, the middle is 0, and the right picture is at -1. Depending on the ambient lighting and the background, the optimal exposure will vary.

In this case, a setting between +1 and 0 would probably be best.

3) Use optimal lighting. Natural diffused daylight is best. 2nd best is a lightbox. (Never use your flash, at least on jewelry- it can create a one dimensional washed out look.)

Get a lightbox or make one. Then you won't have to rely on the sun all the time. It's easy to make one; here's a few links.

This is what the construction of my light box looks like. I also added white tissue paper to the top and sides to diffuse light from a couple of daylight or full spectrum bulbs. I use flourescent bulbs because they don't heat up so much. Since I used things around my house, the only cost was for the bulbs.

4) Use the macro setting on your camera if you are photographing small items or want to take detailed close-up shots. (The icon is a little flower.) This setting helps your camera focus on small details within your image. You will either need a really steady hand or you might consider using a tripod.

Here's an example of the kind of detail you can get with the macro setting. Guess which picture was taken using the macro lens setting!

With out the macro setting, I would have to take the photo several feet farther from the item. I would lose detail, even if I cropped the photo severely.

5) Use a photo editing program. A photo can be saved with cropping and brightening. Some things I usually use to improve my photos are increasing contrast, gamma correction, increasing or decreasing the saturation, and sharpening.

Photoshop is a great program for editing. But some free (and simpler) programs include Picassa and Photofiltre.


This made a huge difference. The colors in the background and in the rose quartz stone are now true. The result is that this photo almost doesn't look bad!





Here's a few great examples that I found on Etsy. (You might be able to recognize a couple of sellers from their photograpy.
If If you find something that works, stick with it. A lot of successful sellers have unique styles that make them instantly recognizable. (I haven't acheived this yet, but I'm still working on it.)


7) Look on Etsy for ideas! There's a lot of great inspiration out there.

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I think everyone has heard the saying, the 3 most important things in real estate are location, location, location.

In my personal opinion, there should be a parellel saying in Etsy: The 3 most important things for selling on Etsy are photos, photos, photos.

Not just any photos. They have to be really good. The problem with buying online, is that your customers can't see or touch your wonderful handmade items in person. All they can see is your photograph and read your descriptions. So good photos are VITAL to making a sale.

You're allowed up to 5 photos in each Etsy listing. Why not use them all? Take pictures at all angles and make sure they can see the entire item. This can only help your customer understand how wonderful and unique your creation is.

Make your primary photo, the one they see when they're browsing your shop, interesting. It should draw people in. You don't necessarily have to show the entire item in the photo. You can tease the viewers and make them want to see more.

One way to gauge how good your photos are, is in the number of views you get immediately after listing an item. Better and more interesting photos will get more views.

Here's an example of what I mean.

This is my primary photo for my Grape Gumdrop Earrings. This is the photo that you see in my shop listings. It's interesting and colorful and makes you want to see more. When you click on it, it takes you to photos that show the entire item:

These photos are not that artsy or fancy, but they give you a clear idea of what the entire earrings look like, how they would hang, and approximately how big they are.

Tomorrow's post will be on how to take better photos, something I had to learn the hard way.

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I've been selling jewelry on Etsy for about 5 months. I've really been surprised at the number of pieces I' ve sold. Right now I'm averaging about a sale a day! That may not seem like a lot to most people - I'm definitely not making a fortune. But I didn't intent to support myself. I was just hoping to break even on the costs of a relatively expensive hobby. Plus, Etsy was an easy first step in learning about selling on the internet.

In case you're interested in which are my top selling items, the top 3 sellers in my Etsy shop are:

1. The Unfurling Earrings 2. Minimalist swirls

Back in November I blogged about how much I wanted to make my own silver headpins, the kind with little balls on one end of them. Since I don't know how to solder, and since I was obsessed with wanting to make headpins, I resorted to using my GAS GRILL to make some. (Here's the link to the original tale. )

Together with the butane , this little baby only set me back about 25 dollars.







Despite my optimism for the Benzomatic, I wan't exactly happy with the results. So I decided to return it and get something BIGGER.

Oh yes. I went out and bought myself a butane torch. So please look forward to hearing about my new adventures. I'm sure I'll be blogging about them soon.

I blogged about working on this double helix (or double spiral) design in copper earlier. It took me a while longer than I thought, but I think I finally got the design to where I want it. Here are the finished earrings in sterling silver:
I find the sterling easier to work with than the copper. It's harder, and it take more forging to get the sterling shaped, but it tends to go where you want it to. With these earrings, the longer end of the earring gradually widens as it spirals, and it encirles the shorter end.

To put them on, you thread the shorter end in the hole in your ear, and then it goes in using a cork-screw motion.

Before I went to bed on Friday, I checked my blog and noted that it had almost 5000 views. Not bad for me; I was pretty pleased. On Saturday I woke up, still groggy, got on the internet and thought that my blog was up to 5160 views.

Wow, I thought, a lot of views overnight. Neatorama must have picked up on the story about 1943 hiring practices of women that I submitted to them.

Off I went to check statcounter, clicked on my account and saw a graph that went through the roof.

What gives? Is statcounter having problems? Then I realized I didn't have 5160 views on my blog, I had 15, 160 !

It turned out that my post had not only been linked by Neatorama, but then it got submitted to Reddit and National Review!

Over the weekend, there were times when I was getting a hit every second. What a riot!

Since this will never happen again, I need to document this. Take a look at the statistics for the weekend:



And here's a view from ClustrMaps of where the hits came from:

There were more, but the high number of hits overwhelmed my the account. :-)

Elizabeth, who has some wonderful jewelry in her Etsy shop, Keys and Memories, has "Freebie Wednesdays" on her blog. All you have to do is leave a comment, then she draws a name to pick the winner. Well, a couple of weeks ago, she picked my name!

Whoo hoo! I couldn't believe I won!

Keys and Memories has tons of earrings, keychains, necklaces and rings made from lovely vintage typewriter keys. But she also has some variations on the keys. For example, isn't this Dr Suess bracelet funky:

But some of my favorite things in her shop are her steampunk jewelry made out of watch parts and vintage items. (I'm just a sucker for steam punk. I wrote about some fabulous steampunk computers and journals in an earlier post.) This brooch in her shop is just amazing:

To see more neat stuff in her Etsy shop, Keys and Memories, click here.

BTW, the typewriter key necklace I got seems to be on permanent loan to my 17 yr-old daughter. She "borrowed" it the day it came, so I will probably never see it again.

Children...

...can't live with them; can't kill them.

I had to share this!



If you can't read the above, here's the text:
1943 Guide to Hiring Women
The following is an excerpt from the July 1943 issue of Transportation Magazine. This was written for male supervisors of women in the work force during World War II.

"Eleven Tips on Getting More Efficiency Out of Women Employees: There's no longer any question whether transit companies should hire women for jobs formerly held by men. The draft and manpower shortage has settled that point. The important things now are to select the most efficient women available and how to use them to the best advantage.

Here are eleven helpful tips on the subject from Western Properties:

1. Pick young married women. They usually have more of a sense of responsibility than their unmarried sisters, they're less likely to be flirtatious, they need the work or they wouldn't be doing it, they still have the pep and interest to work hard and to deal with the public efficiently.

2. When you have to use older women, try to get ones who have worked outside the home at some time in their lives. Older women who have never contacted the public have a hard time adapting themselves and are inclined to be cantankerous and fussy. It's always well to impress upon older women the importance of friendliness and courtesy.

3. General experience indicates that "husky" girls - those who are just a little on the heavy side - are more even tempered and efficient than their underweight sisters.

4. Retain a physician to give each woman you hire a special physical examination - one covering female conditions. This step not only protects the property against the possibilities of lawsuit, but reveals whether the employee-to-be has any female weaknesses which would make her mentally or physically unfit for the job.

5. Stress at the outset the importance of time the fact that a minute or two lost here and there makes serious inroads on schedules. Until this point is gotten across, service is likely to be slowed up.

6. Give the female employee a definite day-long schedule of duties so that they'll keep busy without bothering the management for instructions every few minutes. Numerous properties say that women make excellent workers when they have their jobs cut out for them, but that they lack initiative in finding work themselves.

7. Whenever possible, let the inside employee change from one job to another at some time during the day. Women are inclined to be less nervous and happier with change.

8. Give every girl an adequate number of rest periods during the day. You have to make some allowances for feminine psychology. A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick and wash her hands several times a day.

9. Be tactful when issuing instructions or in making criticisms. Women are often sensitive; they can't shrug off harsh words the way men do. Never ridicule a woman - it breaks her spirit and cuts off her efficiency.

10. Be reasonably considerate about using strong language around women. Even though a girl's husband or father may swear vociferously, she'll grow to dislike a place of business where she hears too much of this.

11. Get enough size variety in operator's uniforms so that each girl can have a proper fit. This point can't be stressed too much in keeping women happy."

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Blogger only gives you 3 choices for the size of the photos you post. Sometimes I've found that I wanted to post a larger or a smaller picture. It took me a while to figure out how to do this but after some googling, I finally figured it out.

1) First, your pictures have to be on an outside hosting site, not on your computer. For this example, I am using flickr .

2) Go to the picture you want in flickr. On the lower right, click on the option "See different sizes"
The size options include square, thumbnail, small medium, and original.

3) Click on the size you want. To link that size photo on your blog, you need to copy the html code found at the bottom of the flickr page.

4) Copy the html code that those sites give you and paste it where you want it to appear in your blog post. VERY IMPORTANT: You must use the Edit Html tab not the Compose tab.

Voila!

Here are examples of photos I linked to from my flickr account.

75x75 square:

Thumbnail size (100 x 97):

Small size (240x233):


Medium size (500x486):


Original size (700x68)


(If you don't like the standard sizes given by flickr, you can resize the photo to whatever you want first, by either using the editing program within Flickr, or resizing it in your photoediting program before uploading it to flickr.)

You can easily center the pictures by clicking on the photo (in the Compose view) and clicking on the Justify Center option.

OK, so I have a thing for sock animals. But I can't help it. They're so CUTE!