tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60134304779790980342024-03-10T06:09:18.911-04:00Selling Vintage Jewelry On eBay and EtsyLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-60567500355814148632012-09-21T08:27:00.002-04:002012-09-21T08:27:32.763-04:00<h2>
<em><span style="color: red;">here is a great link I found that provides all kinds of links for decoding sterling silver hallmarks:</span></em></h2>
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<a href="http://www.modernsilver.com/SFINFORMATIONLNK.html">http://www.modernsilver.com/SFINFORMATIONLNK.html</a><br />
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Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-63757170294537076442012-09-03T12:44:00.001-04:002012-09-03T12:49:04.859-04:00Direct Check the New Way Etsy Accepts Credit Cards<h2>
<span style="color: orange;">Here is some info on Direct Check (DC) now being used on Etsy...</span></h2>
<br />
<h4>
I have just started using it but have noticed an surge in sales because of it...</h4>
<em>These are my thoughts:</em><br />
<em>1) I got the direct shipping label print option that is only being given to a few shops...I love it but wish you could print out First Class International USPS labels.</em><br />
<em>2) Don't like the fact that giving a partial refund (ie if someone buys 10 items from shop you can't refund for one item of that group...just the whole group)</em><br />
<em>3) Don't like the 3 day hold on the $. </em><br />
<em>4) May find more problems as I go along because its new and I'm new to it.</em><br />
<br />
Here is a helpful video produced by etsy the discusses DC:
<iframe frameborder="0" height="340" scrolling="no" src="http://cdn.livestream.com/embed/etsy?layout=4&clip=pla_c186b9c1-a33f-4dcb-a7f3-fec3667b7c77&height=340&width=560&autoplay=false" style="border: 0px currentColor; outline: 0px;" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<br />
<br />
<em>and here is a great article with DC details:</em> <br />
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/accepting-credit-cards-through-etsy/">http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/accepting-credit-cards-through-etsy/</a><br />
<div style="font-size: 11px; padding-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 560px;">
Watch <a href="http://www.livestream.com/?utm_source=lsplayer&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=footerlinks" title="live streaming video">live streaming video</a> from <a href="http://www.livestream.com/etsy?utm_source=lsplayer&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=footerlinks" title="Watch etsy at livestream.com">etsy</a> at livestream.com</div>
Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-86958911464357523442012-09-03T11:57:00.000-04:002012-09-03T12:50:25.805-04:00AUGUST 29 TH 2012 FORUM CHAT WITH ETSY CEO<table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="width: 490px;">
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<td valign="top" width="380"><b><span style="background-color: blue; font-family: arial;">FROM ECOMMERCEBYTES:</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: arial;">Etsy CEO Talks to Users in
Forum Chat</span></b> <br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><i>By <a href="mailto:ina@auctionbytes.com">Ina Steiner</a></i> <br /><a href="http://www.ecommercebytes.com/">EcommerceBytes.com</a> <br />September 03,
2012 </span></td>
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<img align="right" src="http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y12/m09/i03/images/etsy_chad_dickerson.jpg" />Etsy
CEO Chad Dickerson ventured into Etsy's discussion boards last week as a
follow-up to his blog post on Tuesday in which he said Etsy saw better growth
rate in July 2012 than in July 2011 when he took over from founder Rob
Kalin.<br />
As with other marketplaces, most notably eBay, the CEO had to field questions
from sellers who were not afraid to ask the tough questions or be critical of
the site - and the CEO. He spent over an hour on the boards answering users'
questions.<br />
The thread, now closed, <a href="http://www.etsy.com/teams/7714/ideas/discuss/10834324/">begins on this
page</a> - Dickerson's posts can be found at the beginning of the thread (Etsy
generally pulls admin notes to the beginning of threads to make it easier for
users to find and read them). <br />
Unlike Kalin, who was working on social features and policies right before
his ouster, Dickerson has been focusing on changes to search and browse on Etsy,
which may reflect his background - he initially joined Etsy as its Chief
Technology Officer from Yahoo.<br />
Dickerson said he wanted to communicate with users better in the coming
months as the holiday season approaches.<br />
Some questions from users centered around site testing. He said he had not
made any final decisions about category changes, which Etsy is testing. "As was
referenced in the weddings update, we've been looking at our category experience
and it doesn't have as much impact as other areas of the site, so our goal is to
improve the experience for buyers." However, he added, "We're not going to
change anything that doesn't improve the overall experience and we measure it
like crazy (something we weren't able to do a couple of years ago because we
didn't have the ability)."<br />
What is "category experience"? He said, "I really mean the experience of
browsing on Etsy (as opposed to search)," he said.<br />
Dickerson said one change that has been controversial was taking "vintage"
out of the search drop-down menu (see <a href="http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y12/m08/i17/s02">Etsy Reassures
Vintage Sellers after Major Changes to Search</a>). He said Etsy had tested it
before rolling out to everyone, and wrote, "We rolled that out site-wide because
after extensive testing, it caused vintage sales to go <em>up</em>. I know this
is surprising to some members of the community, but that change actually made
the category stronger overall. That's the way we think about testing and site
features."<br />
Other questions from users about the impact of testing included the
following: <br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><ul>
<li>"Chad, I am a vintage seller and have seen my views drop dramatically when
some of the testing has been done. What can be done to eliminate this lost
revenue as I depend on this income." <br /><br />
<li>"I'm in the same boat as Sue, and depend on this income. Would love to know
what can be done to eliminate our lost revenue while all these tests and changes
are taking place." <br /><br />
<li>"Ditto - could testing be done in a way - mirror site??? - that would stop
losses from our incomes?" </li>
</li>
</li>
</ul>
Dickerson said he was sorry to hear from some users that their sales weren't
going as expected. "We're definitely not running any tests with the intention of
lowering anyone's income - actually quite the opposite. It hurts everyone if
sellers aren't doing well."<br />
He also reassured users that Etsy halts major changes before the holiday
season kicks into high gear "to make sure you don't have to deal with any
disruption for the big season."<br />
Etsy is actively looking into providing more support options, such as phone
support, and he said he knew it had been promised "a number of times before I
was CEO, and I know that is frustrating." But, he said, "Just over a year ago,
it could take days to get responses from email support, and we've turned that
around (usually within a day now)."<br />
Many users' questions centered around marketplace integrity, an area
Dickerson said Etsy is always working on. "Our efforts to keep the marketplace
clean are a little like police work. There will always be a certain amount of
"crime" in any community (real or virtual) but our job is to keep it as low as
possible. Last I checked, a small fraction of 1 percent of Etsy listings are
flagged." <br />
He also said enforcement is improving. "It used to take weeks to review
flags, and now we review them in about 24 hours (or less). It took adding a lot
of people and smart software (we call it SCRAM, as you might know) to the mix.
We have a team that works on that constantly as their only job. Like crime, the
problem will never completely go away, but we will always minimize it."<br />
Dickerson responded to a user who asked why Etsy was eliminating Art as a
category on the front page. She asked, "For many of us who are buyers, Fine Art
is what defined Etsy as a cool place to shop."<br />
He responded, "Right now, we're testing various category structures, so
nothing is being eliminated at this point. Overall, the category (or browse)
experience isn't as successful as other areas of the sites, so any changes are
intended to make things work better. I'm going to take a closer look at how the
testing may affect the Art category based on your feedback."</span><br /></td></tr>
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Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-67176090253342269552011-08-29T07:22:00.006-04:002011-08-29T14:33:11.055-04:00Easy (I promise) Twitter in 3 steps (including 1,300 peeps to follow)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpA8Z_M-QYhpOjUCOAWnSpK7Skfk-58MkUEseCr8LK7baH4e1OnzkOJUBCrgqoiPv3g5DyGEdWWNn1qSCCqR0wyCz8pXv6Ury7NJSt5B7ZWW7eUUtVj0UO9QL4K8Ps_UHaOEDE1RQ_Duwm/s1600/004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="82" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpA8Z_M-QYhpOjUCOAWnSpK7Skfk-58MkUEseCr8LK7baH4e1OnzkOJUBCrgqoiPv3g5DyGEdWWNn1qSCCqR0wyCz8pXv6Ury7NJSt5B7ZWW7eUUtVj0UO9QL4K8Ps_UHaOEDE1RQ_Duwm/s200/004.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><span style="background-color: cyan; color: black;">1) set up your twitter account if you haven't already done so..</span>this tutorial is written by Terri and Den of the EcoChic Team<br />
<a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/entry-level-twitter.html ">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/entry-level-twitter.html </a><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white;">2) </span><span style="background-color: cyan;">Use Free Tweepi to add followers... learn how to use tweepi by watching video</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/KUPC7VM31-A?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
<span style="background-color: cyan;">Written instructions:</span><br />
go to tweepi<br />
<a href="http://tweepi.com/">http://tweepi.com/</a><br />
<br />
sign up for free account and log in.<br />
click on good old free tweepi<br />
click on follow tweeps<br />
click on @users friends<br />
put @decoratingetsy in the box <br />
click on start following<br />
click on every tweeter you want<br />
click on follow at bottom of page<br />
repeat until you have all that you want<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: cyan;">3) Everytime you list a new item on etsy remember to click on the tweet button at the top right after you have listed the item</span>. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYBiDTzeTNvcOPWPFw4yNwil8oowognW4ojez0R01HSaX3kHj8T8pjis-C6Qr4m5OBt2D8qMaceVp_JwfU63fmavI8d6giHd_ZVd6Lk7lpZvHMIiZ6EQPHNP8iMh-atnJ4hkYKt5JMJTqt/s1600/013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYBiDTzeTNvcOPWPFw4yNwil8oowognW4ojez0R01HSaX3kHj8T8pjis-C6Qr4m5OBt2D8qMaceVp_JwfU63fmavI8d6giHd_ZVd6Lk7lpZvHMIiZ6EQPHNP8iMh-atnJ4hkYKt5JMJTqt/s320/013.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-44663514759368226182011-08-23T10:47:00.001-04:002011-08-23T10:53:07.742-04:00Relevancy Decoded<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM-SW3rSfs2qa9rM2wD1EZVFjzFqppNkLdorPG5HnyBl9NxzvcC24GSIc1jMecwUuU28zONbfEJEmYgppk7K-jFPRk9NQc4IJyvPTxOtCScwg6l9hQAP1mBmkj8Kr2bnFZLwDjHwSs0kBc/s1600/019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM-SW3rSfs2qa9rM2wD1EZVFjzFqppNkLdorPG5HnyBl9NxzvcC24GSIc1jMecwUuU28zONbfEJEmYgppk7K-jFPRk9NQc4IJyvPTxOtCScwg6l9hQAP1mBmkj8Kr2bnFZLwDjHwSs0kBc/s320/019.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>Currently Etsy has switched to a relevancy based rank for searching items. As a seller you want to be coming to the closest to the top as possible...this forum posting really summarizes who you can do this for your shop...<br />
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<a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/WinchesterLambourne">WinchesterLambourne</a> says <br />
<div class="body">RELEVANCY tips and tricks: a compilation<br />
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There are so many questions about relevancy, so it is worth having all the answers and information compiled in one place. I have also added some observations of mine which I believe may be possible, after running some tests for the past few days.<br />
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1. The title is the most crucial and significant part of your listing.<br />
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2. The first few words of your title are the most significant part of this.<br />
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3. The top keyword needs to be first.<br />
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In other words, what you first type in the title makes the world of a difference in how relevant you are. The top keyword needs to be at the front of your listing title. If you're selling a nice pair of earrings with an amethyst gem, putting "Purple wonder" as the first words will ensure you won't be found in the first pages. Hardly anyone thinks of that word combination. If I (the buyer) am searching for amethyst earrings, I will search 'amethyst earrings' or 'amethyst earrings wire wrapped'. If I'm particularly choosy about what I put in my ears, I may search "amethyst earrings sterling silver". So your first keywords would be "amethyst earrings wire wrapped sterling silver". What kind of silver? I may like 'oxidized silver' and search for that. So, if they're oxidized, then 'amethyst earrings wire wrapped oxidized sterling silver'. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi45t6eVodBe6DUio8f15bfyzWor-ZkxspWJu5mlstgZpFM98L4K9jqZIw4WvL_2_r4pNwVkqufXi0ZiAwVDtWv1qgUqrBvuPj_2jVn-A0CYPn7qSW6463JRlXWVPJKye2B-Lo8m9GWZ3p9/s1600/003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi45t6eVodBe6DUio8f15bfyzWor-ZkxspWJu5mlstgZpFM98L4K9jqZIw4WvL_2_r4pNwVkqufXi0ZiAwVDtWv1qgUqrBvuPj_2jVn-A0CYPn7qSW6463JRlXWVPJKye2B-Lo8m9GWZ3p9/s320/003.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>In the above example, the top keyword is 'amethyst earrings'. In my case, the top keyword is 'custom banner'. This is the most intuitive phrase or word(s) that the buyers use when searching. <br />
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4. Don't limit yourself to one type of intuitive top keyword or phrase. <br />
Think about buyers who are different and search differently. For example, in my case the top keyword can be "custom banner". However, for what I do not all buyers use this particular one. Another top phrase is "shop banner" or "etsy banner". Having these variations in listings ensure that at least one will be seen for each type of search for the same or similar items.<br />
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5. Sometimes way you think is not how the buyer thinks.<br />
This is something I struggled with for a while, when I started changing my listings. My first reaction was to either to stuff the title full of accurate keywords in a catch-all manner, disregarding order, or to use logical sounding sentences that were too long. Both can be mistakes. The first can be a mistake because order matters in relevancy - you don't only need to use accurate keywords, and as many of them as you can, but you need to place them in a certain order. I first had "custom personalized etsy banner and avatar package set'. They are good, relevant tags but the order is wrong. I was thinking from the seller's point of view there. Then I thought 'what will the buyer search?' They won't look for 'custom personalized etsy banner', because if they're like me when I search, they want to type in just the essential. I can be lazy when searching - I type in the absolute crucial because that's what gives the best results and well...because it's easy. I don't have a lot of patience. So I thought...'what would I type in if I were the buyer?' The crucial quick phrases 'banner avatar', 'basic set etsy' (not necessarily long grammatically correct sentences), and simple direct keywords 'etsy banner', 'banner and avatar', 'custom banner'. So to paraphrase in one tip&trick:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiSw_v-jhRzxM4ygH_rCl2NgEmG1zbc_PozV1_UVXKHWaRELMdWuepU7WPjdSA_OUxvQ4-yi_lnOkp35e0l1QZ16KMaZFJhw_eyKL-DeIt51jPM2g8R7mvdJpZTwJ3W8DW6uCFqqKwL3el/s1600/015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiSw_v-jhRzxM4ygH_rCl2NgEmG1zbc_PozV1_UVXKHWaRELMdWuepU7WPjdSA_OUxvQ4-yi_lnOkp35e0l1QZ16KMaZFJhw_eyKL-DeIt51jPM2g8R7mvdJpZTwJ3W8DW6uCFqqKwL3el/s320/015.JPG" width="249" /></a></div>6. The gramatically incorrect word arrangements that we search with are just as important as the more logical sounding phrases we use in titles. When I started including these, I saw better results.<br />
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7. Tag order does not matter. This was stated by admin in a livestream meeting about relevancy back at the beginning of the month....however:<br />
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8. What IS crucial is for the master keyword of the title to match your first tag. It doesn't have to be your first tag, but putting it first ensures you won't forget this particular one because it is a very important tag. Example: If my listing is for a 'custom banner' and it begins with the master keyword 'custom banner' in the title, it makes considerable difference to have 'custom banner' in the keywords. Not just 'custom' and 'banner' but the exact phrase. It causes a significant push in relevancy.<br />
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9. Relevant, accurate tag phrases are now allowed. This is a recent move that came after relevancy. Examples from admin: 'knit hat', 'sterling silver'.<br />
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10. Recency matters. Listing an item pushes it up towards the beginning of the relevant search, however briefly. Which brings me to this hypothesis:<br />
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11. I could be completely wrong, but I believe that one factor which affects how high you rank is search clicks or your search rank. I've heard etsy admin mention it occasionally. There seems to be a limited 'grace period' immediately after relisting or renewing an item, when the item flickers around on page 1 or two, going back to the beginning of search, even if it is not the first item there. It's like it's trying to find it's place. Most often, I have found that the items I relisted were temporarily on page 1. Here it can go two ways. While it's at the forefront for those fleeting minutes or hours:<br />
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a) either it gets a lot of clicks while being fresh and in people's faces, because the photo is eyecatching and many decide to click it. Or:<br />
b) it gets few or no clicks because there is no traffic, or traffic does not select your item to view and click on<br />
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If the item is towards the second third or more pages, route (a) seems to push the items gradually to the top and the first page, with the more clicks it gets. If it gets a lot of clicks, the item seems to be on the front page(s) a lot longer. It gets a more temporary and less fleeting exposure there (days possibly instead of minutes). If it's on page one, it moves up a little or lodges itself more strongly on page 1.<br />
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If the item is on the first page but gets little interest, it gradually sinks into 2, 3, 4 and so forth, with those items that get clicks staying on longer. Hence the constant shuffle between items that sink, items that come up, items that stay.<br />
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This tactic makes sense to me because it's similar to what other search engines use when they select relevant results, on the basis that people will want to see what people before clamored to see. I'm not sure if I'm right but this is one of my hypotheses.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0w8jxi0BXqtGekVR0U9slqOvMVcl1zngjlGg1b69lUAa7CueTZo2zvN1vzD8Wd0SrfK-R8LToclvjo71qA73mYik2WPku5cdADOx6YQJtLcZbOcuQoQ2pHfP5HP1uqPggIjQ0Q496KiHb/s1600/067.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0w8jxi0BXqtGekVR0U9slqOvMVcl1zngjlGg1b69lUAa7CueTZo2zvN1vzD8Wd0SrfK-R8LToclvjo71qA73mYik2WPku5cdADOx6YQJtLcZbOcuQoQ2pHfP5HP1uqPggIjQ0Q496KiHb/s320/067.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>12. This is why it remains important to renew occasionally (or better yet, relist) while constantly improving your photos. </div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-63685818585998995362011-08-16T15:53:00.003-04:002011-08-16T16:07:59.814-04:00Self Critique for Your Etsy Shop<div class="fauxcolumn-inner"></div>Orginial version from<a href="http://www.thebusinesstipsblog.com/2010/06/etsy-self-service-critique-tips-for.html">http://www.thebusinesstipsblog.com/2010/06/etsy-self-service-critique-tips-for.html</a> <a href="http://morphologica.etsy.com/"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445882487214460514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTc7_hhv-VZkHYpLY87IhIOoP0Q7R5xnkvSR3Yx9XJpA1F9liqEPLUwEjc2f3FjoUKZiQzBxpx6qXPzFd3Degf1RyeLZWkagdxy6tQFvjFOBVUiZSnvNNUv4N_j9moRFQ8wtjMdsKcKxY/s400/B4371A5CB804F1B32F7D93014BD3E193+copy.png" style="display: block; height: 35px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 268px;" /></a>This article has been updated and edited.<br />
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<div class="columns-inner"><div class="column-center-inner"><div class="widget Blog" id="Blog1"><div class="date-outer"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post-body entry-content"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis6lKa6kJLUFpFwcxEyvVw9MnRZsyNN-LsEMdnCKl5NZBYKos0TAo15WHJmbvAHSBD6HhAhGVYSuJfdFVPe9hwjuKA07k00rjdvJZvzt4AK4KbBG_lwqZpDZ5qlcvDd_rPC-Yb3iuvbekD/s1600/002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strong><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis6lKa6kJLUFpFwcxEyvVw9MnRZsyNN-LsEMdnCKl5NZBYKos0TAo15WHJmbvAHSBD6HhAhGVYSuJfdFVPe9hwjuKA07k00rjdvJZvzt4AK4KbBG_lwqZpDZ5qlcvDd_rPC-Yb3iuvbekD/s320/002.JPG" width="320" /></strong></a></div><strong><br />
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<center><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Self-Service Critique</span><br />
<strong> </strong><span style="font-weight: bold;">Shop Banner and Avatar</span><br />
<strong> Your shop banner is important for providing buyers with a strong first impression and creating an overall ‘brand’. The most common problems I notice with banners:</strong></span></center><center class="post-body entry-content"><div align="left" class="post-body entry-content"><ul><li><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">pixelated text/pictures that don’t look very professional </span></strong></li>
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<li><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">they don’t reflect the products/image of the shop</span></strong></li>
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></strong>
<li><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">blurry image</span></strong></li>
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></strong></ul></div><div align="left" class="post-body entry-content" style="text-align: left;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take a critical look at your banner- does it suffer from any of these problems?</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your avatar is also important, especially in the etsy forums (as well as storque comments and convos). It can be a good idea to make your avatar something that people are very likely to click on- perhaps your most popular item. The main thing here is to ensure that your avatar is crisp rather than blurry, and that it is clear what the picture is.</span></strong><br />
<span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Check out on this blog:</span></div><div align="left" class="post-body entry-content" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/conquering-phototext-editing-to-make.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/conquering-phototext-editing-to-make.html</span></a></div><div align="left" class="post-body entry-content" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/05/confess-one-lesson-learned-spare-newbie.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/05/confess-one-lesson-learned-spare-newbie.html</span></a></div><div align="left" class="post-body entry-content" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Shop Title and Shop Announcement</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These areas are important for being found in google searches- try to include important keywords in both (your shop title is the bold title underneath your banner). Shop announcement length is something that people have different opinions about. Personally, I like to have a </span><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/morphologica"><span style="color: #2187bb; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">short announcement</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> so that people don’t have to scroll down all the time to see my pictures, and so that I get the most important information (including a feel for the concept behind my designs) across without overwhelming buyers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other shops like to include a lot of information, and that can work too. My advice would be to make sure you keep it relevant and perhaps include some of the less important information in your profile and policies rather than in your announcement. Regardless of which option you decide on, it can help to take a careful look at your announcement and see whether it reflects the kind of image/brand you’re trying to present, and whether it contains important keywords that will help people find your shop in search.</span></div><div align="left" class="post-body entry-content" style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More on Title and Announcements:</span></div><div align="left" class="post-body entry-content" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/08/search-titles-and-tags-that-work.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/08/search-titles-and-tags-that-work.html</span></a></div><div align="left" class="post-body entry-content" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div align="left" class="post-body entry-content" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/google-search-optimization-boring-you.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/google-search-optimization-boring-you.html</span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKbY31ExuRGv-usD3Y_Xu8IvOmvTGBsucb9c0kKijNCFCDnMpcKqGGm-xY5znkOoS0SP30dGGivMdrkYaxHfxKn-Ourz7jEF-vHapV9uLblCdYBZ5_qszXL81c-8qsxTqQoa3IE6yLBSd4/s1600/029.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKbY31ExuRGv-usD3Y_Xu8IvOmvTGBsucb9c0kKijNCFCDnMpcKqGGm-xY5znkOoS0SP30dGGivMdrkYaxHfxKn-Ourz7jEF-vHapV9uLblCdYBZ5_qszXL81c-8qsxTqQoa3IE6yLBSd4/s200/029.JPG" width="200" /></span></a></div><div align="left" class="post-body entry-content" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Photos</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the number one problem area I come across when helping sellers out with critiques. Great photos are <span style="font-weight: bold;">absolutely critical</span> in terms of converting visits to sales, as well as in terms of being featured on blogs, in the press, and in treasuries or etsy’s front page. If your photos aren’t very good, putting a lot of time into promotion probably isn’t going to be very effective.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take a critical look at your photos and ask yourself these questions:</span></div><div align="left" class="post-body entry-content"><ul><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are your photos crisp or blurry/unclear? Are they bright enough without being overexposed? </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When appearing in treasuries and on the front page, items appear in gallery mode. Are your items cut off/do they look good in gallery mode? Items being cut off in pictures is a very common issue. </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are your backgrounds too busy? Is the focus on the item, or does the background interfere? Do all your backgrounds follow a consistent theme throughout your shop, creating a coherent look, or do they seem like a random collection of different things (earrings on glasses, tissue paper, wrapping paper etc)? If using a white background, is it bright and white enough? Plain backgrounds can sometimes help make your items look more professional (depending on the nature of your items). When choosing a background, also think about whether it would be easy to match your picture with other items in treasuries/front page collections. </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Think about the angles of your items. Does it look as though your items have been cleverly and professionally arranged, or are there earrings at weird angles that are not very appealing?</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></ul></div><div align="left" class="post hentry"><ul><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do your photos show enough detail of your item? If you have an artistic photo of part of your item for the first picture, you may want to add additional pictures to give the buyer information about the piece to encourage purchase.</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More Information about photography:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/05/5-reasons-you-should-be-watermarking.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/05/5-reasons-you-should-be-watermarking.html</span></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/photos-with-personality.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/photos-with-personality.html</span></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/final-touch-photo-editing.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/final-touch-photo-editing.html</span></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/after-right-camerayou-need-right.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/after-right-camerayou-need-right.html</span></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/tools-of-trade-right-camera.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/tools-of-trade-right-camera.html</span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmIEAN2BcvWFGM6wjGgykSH-lSIbBc-0B9tEtW2ZKZxEY3KRyVK_PtutozXvuHSjpgWbg8nUGE3Y3-RYZM_2csqeg85ZOFllg0dDgonKGZP615ZbGkunWT7l_69BNEo_zXN98DzHc9O1Bp/s1600/032.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmIEAN2BcvWFGM6wjGgykSH-lSIbBc-0B9tEtW2ZKZxEY3KRyVK_PtutozXvuHSjpgWbg8nUGE3Y3-RYZM_2csqeg85ZOFllg0dDgonKGZP615ZbGkunWT7l_69BNEo_zXN98DzHc9O1Bp/s200/032.JPG" width="200" /></span></a></div><div class="post-outer" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Item Descriptions</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s good to write descriptions that provide the buyer with all the information they need (size, materials etc), but that also give a bit of personality to the listing in terms of the concept behind the piece/the making process etc. This is often an important part of buying handmade/independent design. While looking at your current descriptions, keep these questions in mind:</span></div><div class="post-outer"><ul><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have you provided measurements? Both inches and cm can be helpful for international buyers. If selling clothing etc, make sure you provide all of the necessary measurements. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have you given information about the materials used? </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have you conveyed information about the story or concept behind the piece, perhaps suggested uses/occasions for the item, and/or mentioned anything about the creation process? </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Try not to include too much unnecessary information in your descriptions. For example, if you want to share all of your facebook, twitter links etc, these could perhaps go in your profile instead.</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></ul></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is detailed information in this blog:</span></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/05/making-etsy-titles-descriptions-more.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/05/making-etsy-titles-descriptions-more.html</span></a></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/05/confess-one-lesson-learned-spare-newbie.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/05/confess-one-lesson-learned-spare-newbie.html</span></a></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/04/product-description-that-answers-buyers.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/04/product-description-that-answers-buyers.html</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Tagging</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Effective tagging is absolutely critical- if you don’t use your tags it will be very hard for people to find you. Every additional tag gives you another chance to be found in search! The google keywords tool can be very helpful for thinking of search terms related to your item, and provides an idea of search frequency for different terms. The best advice I’ve read on tagging is on </span><a href="http://lifecraftinessandeverythingelse.blogspot.com/2009/01/etsy-sellers-tip-3-tagging.html"><span style="color: #2187bb; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">TheHouseOfMouse's blog</span></a></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More on tagging:</span></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/marketing-to-do-list-when-sales-slow.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/marketing-to-do-list-when-sales-slow.html</span></a></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/08/search-titles-and-tags-that-work.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/08/search-titles-and-tags-that-work.html</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Profile, policies and shipping</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your bio provides you with an opportunity to tell buyers a bit about the person behind the shop, which adds personality to your work. You can also explain the concepts behind your designs, and give information about the making process. It’s a bit discouraging for buyers if they visit your profile and find it blank. I would avoid adding too much information here (eg a list of every blog you’ve ever been featured on)- you don’t want to overwhelm anyone. </span><a href="http://www.etsy.com/people/molecularmuse"><span style="color: #2187bb; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Raven</span></a><a href="http://www.etsy.com/people/molecularmuse"><span style="color: #2187bb; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> from molecularmuse</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> has done a great job.</span></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Info on shipping an insurance:</span></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/06/eco-friendly-vintage-jewelry-shipping.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/06/eco-friendly-vintage-jewelry-shipping.html</span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbXF6CNC7qo3s1NEJ28VmIu92WPldLNDtPpT_Dfy86stV1j6sXGI-wD6SU6P7zcB5ttkneJtXEpH4Gpde09IUfndwVXFRUnJWQzTvjNxzpVdKd6VZoJiRpxHb0gC3ntcDUJ-l7QpQhmKxp/s1600/048.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbXF6CNC7qo3s1NEJ28VmIu92WPldLNDtPpT_Dfy86stV1j6sXGI-wD6SU6P7zcB5ttkneJtXEpH4Gpde09IUfndwVXFRUnJWQzTvjNxzpVdKd6VZoJiRpxHb0gC3ntcDUJ-l7QpQhmKxp/s200/048.JPG" width="198" /></span></a></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/shipping-choices-are-part-of-your.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/shipping-choices-are-part-of-your.html</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Policies are very important in giving the buyer a sense of security- if there is no information given in the policies section it can put people off purchasing. Try to write in a positive tone, and think carefully about any comments suggesting that you will not be responsible for packages that are lost. Firstly, this may discourage people from buying. Secondly, PayPal does actually hold the seller responsible for making sure that packages are delivered to the buyer. Perhaps look around at the policies of some successful sellers if you are unsure. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A note about shipping- it can be a very good idea to include international shipping as an option, as quite a number of buyers are not based in the US. If buyers have to convo you to get a price because you don’t have that option listed, they will often move on and purchase somewhere else (I know because I’m an international buyer and I do that all the time).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Feedback and number of listings</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, two other common problems that I often see relate to lack of feedback and a low number of listings. If you have no feedback, it’s often a good idea to purchase a few things in order to get some feedback so that buyers have a bit more confidence when purchasing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When starting out and before getting many sales, some people are reluctant to list many items. However, having a lot of items can make it a lot more likely that you will be found in searches, and can provide the buyer with more choice. Also, having only a few items can sometimes give the impression that you’re not really a very active shop. Listing 50 items only costs $10, so it’s worth giving it a proper shot.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Promotion</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As well as making sure your shop presents the best image possible, it’s also really important to promote off-etsy in order to bring buyers in. It’s hard to be seen as a new shop on etsy (unless you’re really lucky), and I’ve found promotion absolutely critical to making my shop successful.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you’re just getting started, I’d recommend setting up a facebook fan page, twitter account and perhaps a blog.</span></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More promo ideas:</span></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/05/increase-shop-business-by-increasing.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/05/increase-shop-business-by-increasing.html</span></a></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/04/social-network-marketing-mix-facebook.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/04/social-network-marketing-mix-facebook.html</span></a></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/entry-level-twitter.html"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/entry-level-twitter.html</span></a></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div class="date-posts" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja0p5QYjIbSj5csoIObGtBoi9847VbkpWnhvgehR8cIiwbaadeD5jjhQct1UPEmpGpvRqOpx1AzHZIR4mAtd1hSyFbjTLPuptOzuZEd7lR63ZMJxPJjbZfAbnj5ZV-VMb5biW5NGOZpiSj/s1600/017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja0p5QYjIbSj5csoIObGtBoi9847VbkpWnhvgehR8cIiwbaadeD5jjhQct1UPEmpGpvRqOpx1AzHZIR4mAtd1hSyFbjTLPuptOzuZEd7lR63ZMJxPJjbZfAbnj5ZV-VMb5biW5NGOZpiSj/s320/017.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Further help with critiques:</span></div><div class="blog-posts hfeed"><ul><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Live critiques are often run in the </span><a href="http://www.etsy.com/virtual_labs.php"><span style="color: #2187bb; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">etsy labs</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (by admin or the Sellers Assisting Sellers team) </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can contact someone from the </span><a href="http://etsymentors.blogspot.com/2008/08/sassy-members-by-expertise-shop-type.html"><span style="color: #2187bb; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sellers Assisting Sellers mentor list</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It can be helpful to post in the critique section of the etsy forums </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your etsy team may have a critique section, or you could perhaps starts a thread asking for help</span></li>
</ul></div><br />
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<div class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-1"><span class="post-icons"><span class="item-control blog-admin pid-384147203"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8362096525756137533&postID=9144011202513813613&from=pencil" title="Edit Post"><span style="color: #2187bb;"> </span></a></span></span></div><div class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-2"></div><div class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-3"></div></div></center></div></div></div></div></div></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-90259306618953441002011-08-14T08:20:00.003-04:002011-08-19T11:27:28.489-04:00Search Titles and Tags that Work!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBv7fY8QbPRcR_kVLC5xzrXHeZgVKxmohWeJmYHHoF7PTXanWPnwt3p-b6viz2KlGGWeQSNQkrK4EOMjlzci4AXAjU9dGHvrH9xFGtEYgJVTW6q2zRAfTKskFHoLooIzJjygPqvovx-snm/s1600/003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBv7fY8QbPRcR_kVLC5xzrXHeZgVKxmohWeJmYHHoF7PTXanWPnwt3p-b6viz2KlGGWeQSNQkrK4EOMjlzci4AXAjU9dGHvrH9xFGtEYgJVTW6q2zRAfTKskFHoLooIzJjygPqvovx-snm/s200/003.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>Taken from the Etsy Forums...<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeyMichelle">HeyMichelle</a> says <span class="post-edited-notice"> Edited on Aug 13, 2011</span><br />
<div class="body">Since Etsy’s default search has changed to Most Relevant from Recently Listed, many sellers are wondering- how do I make my listings more relevant? Well, fear not! We have compiled our top tips for boosting the relevancy of your items.<br />
<br />
Just getting started? Be sure to read this Seller Handbook post first: <a href="http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/putting-your-shop-on-top-etsy%E2%80%99s-m..." target="_blank">www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/putting-your-shop-on-top-etsy%E2%80%99s-m...</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6FlkAi2Y1VdoV1GI6IHQ8W5LwHUuJAo54r7S2NbxyHf-92RdPvjSAJ_AcAdIZn6qS3g8GRzeYg0JKs_S2yPY6wCPAp9sH-MTCR_F2dIdDPH8egricKiKf5zTvE0UuxI05tt_TFsihttuY/s1600/007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6FlkAi2Y1VdoV1GI6IHQ8W5LwHUuJAo54r7S2NbxyHf-92RdPvjSAJ_AcAdIZn6qS3g8GRzeYg0JKs_S2yPY6wCPAp9sH-MTCR_F2dIdDPH8egricKiKf5zTvE0UuxI05tt_TFsihttuY/s320/007.JPG" width="231" /></a></div><div class="body"><br />
<br />
TIPS FOR IMPROVING YOUR RANKING IN SEARCH RESULTS<br />
<br />
The best way to begin revising or evaluating your tags and titles is to start thinking like a shopper! Etsy’s most relevant search is built to connect shoppers with exactly what they want; so showing up at the front of the search results requires that your item (as defined by your tags and title) matches what a shopper types into the search box.<br />
<br />
1. Put the most important keywords and phrases at the front of your titles. What are the most likely words and phrases that a customer would search for? Please see tips below for finding important keywords. Eg:<br />
BEFORE: Lotus Blossom Pink and Yellow Children’s Dress.....<br />
AFTER: Girls Dress - flowers....etc etc<br />
<br />
2. Use a variety of strong keywords and phrases in your titles and tags, and vary what is at the front of the title (be sure to always use the most important keywords and phrases, though). Don’t name everything the same thing! Each listing is a chance for a buyer to find you, if you diversify your keywords you’ll be found by lots of different searches. For example, you might start off a few listing titles with each of your strong keywords or phrases, then use other great terms on other similar items in your shop. Eg:<br />
Girls Dress - etc etc<br />
Children’s Dress - etc etc<br />
Toddler Dress - etc etc<br />
----<br />
Cufflinks....etc etc<br />
Cuff links...etc etc<br />
Steampunk Cufflinks...etc etc<br />
Wedding Cufflinks...etc etc<br />
Silver Cufflinks...etc etc<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsyU7oAG4HnhNc4rRnNO0N6AV0REUg7NcKHNv5EmdHknP_RJE0l5HrA-wBKBwqP672Avxm2EyEGZGCbiAxw35_4yDgB-nF6-_OUEHE7ElruydJ5Rxfixn-PPx0mMjZdnxgmN8M8b4swYWq/s1600/056.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsyU7oAG4HnhNc4rRnNO0N6AV0REUg7NcKHNv5EmdHknP_RJE0l5HrA-wBKBwqP672Avxm2EyEGZGCbiAxw35_4yDgB-nF6-_OUEHE7ElruydJ5Rxfixn-PPx0mMjZdnxgmN8M8b4swYWq/s320/056.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />
3. Use your most important, major search terms in your titles and tags. The top keywords found in your Shop Stats can help you find these. But they should always be evolving, so experiment with new keywords. More help with deciphering your Shop Stats here: <a href="http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/etsy-success-shop-stats-insights/" target="_blank">www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/etsy-success-shop-stats-insights/</a><br />
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4. Add more items to your shop on a regular basis! Remember, recency does play a role in search results sorted by relevancy to keep things fresh when shoppers use broad search terms that return thousands of results. <br />
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FINDING KEYWORDS AND PHRASES<br />
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1. Think about what a shopper would be searching for! What elements of your item would be most important to a shopper? What the item is, such as a necklace or hat, is often a great place to start. Try highlighting different aspects of the item...for example, if I’m looking for a painting for a specific space my living room, I may search by the size, colors or theme of the painting that I want. Try different types of terms and then check your Shop Stats to see what works.<br />
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2. Start typing what you sell in the search bar, with Handmade, Vintage or Supplies selected to find relevant search terms. Think of synonyms and try those as well!<br />
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3. Look in your descriptions to find keywords. Often you have some great ideas in there!<br />
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4. Brainstorm with others! They can often come up with terms you wouldn’t have though of. Ask people you know who would be in your target market, and ask other sellers on your Teams for ideas.<br />
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5. Use these resources to help think of keywords:<br />
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/storque/make/guidelines-tips-tagging-on-etsy-281/" target="_blank">www.etsy.com/storque/make/guidelines-tips-tagging-on-etsy-281/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/seller-how-to-tag-o-rama-with-descriptive-keywords-5474/" target="_blank">www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/seller-how-to-tag-o-rama-with-...</a><br />
Google’s Keyword Tool: <a class="external-link-overlay-trigger overlay-trigger" href="https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer" rel="#external-link-overlay" target="_blank">adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer</a><br />
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GENERAL TIPS FOR GETTING MORE VIEWS WITH SEARCH<br />
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Showing up in a search result is great, but ultimately you want the right buyer to click on your item listing.<br />
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1. All views are not created equal! Remember you want to connect your items with the right buyers, not hundreds of uninterested buyers. So keep it relevant. Comb through your item listings. Get rid of the tags that buyers probably aren’t using to find this particular item.<br />
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2. Take great photos, since they will get more clicks in search. See the photography articles in the Seller Handbook for tips: <a href="http://www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/the-etsy-seller-handbook-all-our-how-tos-about-selling-2383/" target="_blank">www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/the-etsy-seller-handbook-all-o...</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI99suaL-4bX_BvsQGTX5SeAsTd6w6GWJ6cRlbtEbUcy1GqUtgNUcClnp5_lpR-bXylrXQCDiN0yi9TBJK5IgAcrncNs1ZnOiJn8Ae_qwFPo4KhFH9ViEpV1-XB1WuaK4y_yTXy-Y0cw_Z/s1600/029.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI99suaL-4bX_BvsQGTX5SeAsTd6w6GWJ6cRlbtEbUcy1GqUtgNUcClnp5_lpR-bXylrXQCDiN0yi9TBJK5IgAcrncNs1ZnOiJn8Ae_qwFPo4KhFH9ViEpV1-XB1WuaK4y_yTXy-Y0cw_Z/s320/029.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>3. Don’t sound like a robot. Remember, showing up in search results isn’t everything. You’ll also need to connect with your buyer when they find your items, so don’t just fill your titles up with a string of keywords. Find the right balance that works for you.<br />
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Our biggest tip? Go slowly with making changes, and use your Shop Stats to see what is working before making more changes in your shop.<br />
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<span style="background-color: #38761d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here is a great relevancy tutorial for Vintage from Etsy Admin:</span><br />
<a href="http://www.livestream.com/etsy/video?clipId=flv_fca3e617-4c05-4b25-9953-2a43d3729f99"><span style="background-color: #38761d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.livestream.com/etsy/video?clipId=flv_fca3e617-4c05-4b25-9953-2a43d3729f99</span></a></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-28662172198494748302011-07-15T07:16:00.008-04:002011-07-15T08:09:48.165-04:00Road Blocks To Etsy Shop Sales<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxCDECyt-_Pplu669ueiB3fu6mdznM6JkuWNY3bUHeXEk9i6lukLgBpgCIYB0NXOQBFW8sT1beTPVSchrh8dE5nzjg2kqXBzh6XzEss1FHCeA_rSj16t2pQPs4_kuTVrY8Fjdwh_3gC-6M/s1600/001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxCDECyt-_Pplu669ueiB3fu6mdznM6JkuWNY3bUHeXEk9i6lukLgBpgCIYB0NXOQBFW8sT1beTPVSchrh8dE5nzjg2kqXBzh6XzEss1FHCeA_rSj16t2pQPs4_kuTVrY8Fjdwh_3gC-6M/s200/001.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>This post was made by HeyMichelle one of my favorite Etsy Admin Peeps. My comments and additions are highlighted. Some of this post has been edited.<br />
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeyMichelle">HeyMichelle</a> says <br />
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YOU'RE GETTING VIEWS, BUT NOT SALES<br />
1. Perhaps the buyer has questions that are not answered in the listing. Between the photos and the descriptions, the buyer should know everything they need to to make the purchase decision. If you get a convo with a question(<em><span style="background-color: cyan;"> Take this information and add it to you listing asap)</span></em> consider that there may have been more buyers with the question, but they didn't want to ask! <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcixTq1sBIcwgESebca1A9T47FiqZoA5I0FOGrC_HURS4m_bSsDV4jaWtKsu7HylQbGt8-NjTIkjtukwVyRyRm4sUH-4TuQfKneGxj93iDkZCICAzZ0yR7mOnSuZMZZP9ZYl4wia2q6gKV/s1600/013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcixTq1sBIcwgESebca1A9T47FiqZoA5I0FOGrC_HURS4m_bSsDV4jaWtKsu7HylQbGt8-NjTIkjtukwVyRyRm4sUH-4TuQfKneGxj93iDkZCICAzZ0yR7mOnSuZMZZP9ZYl4wia2q6gKV/s200/013.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>From another post ...here is what customers are looking for..<br />
<ol><li><em><strong>What color is it?</strong> The color on your computer monitor may not be the same as mine.</em></li>
<li><em><strong>How big is it?</strong> As a buyer I don’t want to guess if that painting will fit over my fireplace or if those earrings are going to hang past my shoulders.</em></li>
<li><em><strong>What is it made from?</strong> What materials and techniques are used?</em></li>
<li><em><strong>How do I care for it?</strong> Can I wash and dry that wool sweater?</em></li>
<li><em><strong>Who should buy it?</strong> or Who should NOT buy it? Is it appropriate for pregnant women? Children? Pets?</em></li>
<li><em><strong>What is it used for?</strong> Is it decorative? Does it have a function? Both?</em></li>
<li><em><strong>What does it feel like?</strong> Is that scarf soft to the touch? What’s the texture like? Is that necklace very heavy?</em></li>
<li><em><strong>How does it work?</strong> Does it slip over my head? Is there a clasp? Do I tie it around my waist?</em></li>
<li><em><strong>Why is this one better than the one in the next shop?</strong> What special skills, materials, or ideas do you use that make your item the best?</em></li>
</ol><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJhUTUuBy7e_TSnBFehAyQXD0_oBM7oNyc1LN0LKDVE1wnhVqQKkn1T9J_-ExN_0PLUQd4JZKTPyv5y4hV1AmLfvnvT-0frLahgBJhvr5QPSzUHSlNiOpbOUXIHQDUOmacyKDc1xCupm6H/s1600/042.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJhUTUuBy7e_TSnBFehAyQXD0_oBM7oNyc1LN0LKDVE1wnhVqQKkn1T9J_-ExN_0PLUQd4JZKTPyv5y4hV1AmLfvnvT-0frLahgBJhvr5QPSzUHSlNiOpbOUXIHQDUOmacyKDc1xCupm6H/s200/042.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>If you find that you're getting views but no sales, post in the Critiques forum <em><span style="background-color: cyan;">...I recommend the SASSY Team.</span></em><br />
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2. Shop policies that are blocking the sale: for example, saying that you're not responsible if the item doesn't arrive will turn the buyer away. Include insurance in the shipping price.<strong> </strong><em><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/shipping-choices-are-part-of-your.html"><strong><span style="color: purple;">See Shipping Choices Post</span></strong></a><span style="color: purple;"> </span><span style="color: black;">for</span> cost effective private insurance.</em><br />
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3. "Convo me before purchasing": do everything so the buyer can just purchase it.<br />
4. Add more items to the shop. Buyers like selection! <em><span style="background-color: cyan;">(magic 100 number reminder here)</span></em><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilEElquRw_0C56ayZgSdSDiG9wSUs8g2KVN6caSdT48yLGMX_xlyJdsu_ltF0ibEPs-yerl7RaD6lThbdochaotgiCZ3XAIH5A1DsuozWaCstYbacl-dcHFgHMeb26IEHFdLUXVIJ1hRcb/s1600/037.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilEElquRw_0C56ayZgSdSDiG9wSUs8g2KVN6caSdT48yLGMX_xlyJdsu_ltF0ibEPs-yerl7RaD6lThbdochaotgiCZ3XAIH5A1DsuozWaCstYbacl-dcHFgHMeb26IEHFdLUXVIJ1hRcb/s200/037.JPG" width="200" /></a>5. Prices are unusually low or high (I rarely see prices that are "too high"- almost not worth mentioning). Very low prices are more common, and may make the buyer question the quality of the item, and whether it's actually handmade.<strong><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: cyan;"><span style="color: cyan;"> </span><em><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/price-hitting-sweet-spot.html"><span style="color: purple;">See Hitting the Sweet Spot Pricing Post.</span></a></em></span></span></strong><br />
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6. Shipping is unusually high: <br />
<strong><em>Calculating Rates</em></strong><br />
<em>Depending on the shipping service you use, you may need to calculate weights. For example, US First Class Mail uses weights, while Priority Mail rates may depend on the type of box or envelope you send the item in.</em><br />
<em>So whip out your measuring tape, kitchen or shipping scale. <span style="background-color: cyan;"> You can get shipping scale cheap on eBay. </span>Now that you know the weights and dimensions of the packages you offer, you can use your country’s postal service shipping calculator to determine the domestic and international rates for the countries you want to ship to. You may decide to factor in the price of your shipping materials into your shipping cost.</em><br />
<ul><li><em> </em><a href="http://www.usps.com/tools/calculatepostage/welcome.htm?from=home_header&page=calculatepostage" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0192b5;"><em>USPS shipping calculator</em></span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/personal/findARate?execution=e2s1" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0192b5;"><em>Canada Post – Find a Rate</em></span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinder?catId=23500532&gear=pricingcalc" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0192b5;"><em>UK Royal Mail – Price Finder</em></span></a><em> </em></li>
<li><a href="http://www1.auspost.com.au/pac/" target="_blank"><em><span style="color: #0192b5;">Australian Postage Assessment Calculator</span></em></a></li>
<li><em></em></li>
</ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTG-SxxokvARKTMNl-F_6Bt7Rk9FRwUgb3yl1l3J2QC8Q1PbCMHzJl_yi2hQDRZqAei7Dic579MXhXa8jm59PME-Sa5f_KZn2xeBVedi-OpeJjaRzOdvjigYKmt1ALM4ejwxm3B_Smw8J4/s1600/042.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTG-SxxokvARKTMNl-F_6Bt7Rk9FRwUgb3yl1l3J2QC8Q1PbCMHzJl_yi2hQDRZqAei7Dic579MXhXa8jm59PME-Sa5f_KZn2xeBVedi-OpeJjaRzOdvjigYKmt1ALM4ejwxm3B_Smw8J4/s200/042.JPG" width="171" /></a></div>7. I read a while back that 30% of transactions involved a buyer and seller from different countries. Since buyers can choose to show only sellers who ship to them, having international shipping will increase your exposure. <em><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/shipping-choices-are-part-of-your.html"><strong><span style="color: purple;">Again See Shipping as Part of Your Marketing Plan</span></strong></a></em><span style="color: purple;">.</span>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-72126903569458922262011-07-06T10:34:00.004-04:002011-07-06T11:18:23.457-04:00More Fun Videos: Organizing Your Jewelry<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6b26b; color: #783f04; font-size: medium;">This video shares how to store your jewelry in a way that makes you feel like your are shopping in your own boutique: How to organize your jewelry</span> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/JmH5VcAoTNM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jewelry Organization Ideas from ThreadBanger </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">(skip the <span style="background-color: yellow;">ad</span>)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/fmt5YH8tgAs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-13943615169430284782011-07-06T10:16:00.006-04:002011-07-06T11:05:48.286-04:00Fun Videos : Upcycling Vintage Jewelry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #e06666; color: #660000; font-size: large;">LULU Frost How to Make a Vintage Recycled Bracelet and a Tour of Her Fabulous Collection</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/zOENueWYkDo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/zf56P5Lt8hg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #76a5af; color: #073763; font-size: large;">New life for family's old jewelry : Taking Mom's Jewelry and Making Piece for Each Of the Family Members to Remember Her </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/3fQTNHfj0yQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">Faux Finish for that vintage Bling that needs something:Instant Vintage Jewelry </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d; color: #274e13; font-size: large;">Video on Creative Ways to Upcycle Vintage Jewelry</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d; color: #274e13; font-size: large;">(Skip the First Sections on Hallmarks)</span></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #6aa84f; color: #073763; font-size: large;">Very Basic How to Create a Necklace </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #6aa84f; color: #073763; font-size: large;">from Recycled Vintage Jewelry Parts</span></div><br />
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</div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-33271401434968934812011-06-17T11:56:00.002-04:002011-06-18T09:03:10.813-04:00Green Gift Boxes: Print Your Own Box Templates & Furoshiki Fabric Bag<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">I a</span><g_vml_:shape style="height: 5418px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 568px;"><g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:shape><span style="color: red;">m constantly looking for eco-friendly packaging ideas to mail off my beautiful vintage jewels in. Here are two ideas. One is to make gift boxes out of recycled materials. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">The second uses Japanese folding to create a gift bag with handle out of vintage fabric.</span></span> <br />
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<a href="http://bee-inspired.blogspot.com/2011/05/gift-box-packaging-tutorial.html">bee-inspired.blogspot.com</a> has a really great gift boxes tutorial and <a href="http://bejeweleddesignsbychelsea.blogspot.com/2011/06/pay-it-forward-new-line-of-packaging.html">bejeweleddesignsbychelsea.blogspot.com</a> took the tutorial and made it green. Bejeweleddesignsbychelse uses cereal boxes with template printed on your computer and assembled by you. They are very cute looking.<br />
<g_vml_:shape style="height: 5418px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 568px;"><g_vml_:fill></g_vml_:fill></g_vml_:shape><g_vml_:shape style="height: 5418px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 568px;"><g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:shape><g_vml_:shape style="height: 5418px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 568px;"><g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:shape><g_vml_:shape style="height: 5242px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 176px; width: 454px;"><g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:shape> <br />
<div class="post-outer" closure_uid_1edmto="13" style="border: currentColor; left: 1px; margin: 0px; position: relative; top: 1px;"><g_vml_:shape style="height: 5418px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 568px;"><g_vml_:fill></g_vml_:fill></g_vml_:shape><g_vml_:shape style="height: 5418px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 568px;"><g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:shape><g_vml_:shape style="height: 5418px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 568px;"><g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:shape><g_vml_:shape style="height: 5418px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 568px;"><g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:shape><g_vml_:shape style="height: 5418px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 568px;"><g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:stroke></g_vml_:shape><span style="font-size: large;">Gift box packaging tutorial</span> <br />
<div class="post-outer" closure_uid_1edmto="13" style="border: currentColor; left: 1px; margin: 0px; position: relative; top: 1px;"><div class="post hentry"><div class="post-header"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For the past few weeks I've been constantly reminded of how I need to throw out the mindset of "I just need this/that before I can do my project", and rather just use what I have. One of my big problems is that I make something as a gift and then usually can't find appropriate packaging. So I've decided to start making my own. It works out WAY cheaper and if I keep it simple it only takes 10min.</span> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Here is a basic tutorial so that you can make your own too.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimAJEFQfbz42JwitOm_87OoD5zwfn3_9iJZYp-jFIZedIS_8NMZkcyL148zQn2zC4wP9HHavYYYLDmPDbtikJHPb3z5Fpt3P_A5Nb4Hdr8AdGPKz1Jtmlwqlef45Fuq7AuCbj825GmNR_U/s1600/IMG_9973.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimAJEFQfbz42JwitOm_87OoD5zwfn3_9iJZYp-jFIZedIS_8NMZkcyL148zQn2zC4wP9HHavYYYLDmPDbtikJHPb3z5Fpt3P_A5Nb4Hdr8AdGPKz1Jtmlwqlef45Fuq7AuCbj825GmNR_U/s320/IMG_9973.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/" name="more"></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">First choose and download a free template from <a href="http://www.ruthannzaroff.com/mirkwooddesigns/templates.htm"><span style="color: #336699;">Mirkwood designs</span></a> for the type of box that suites your need then follow the tutorial. If you want a bigger box than the template, you can re-size it on the computer or with a photocopy machine.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The tutorial below is for 'milk box' packaging, <a href="http://www.ruthannzaroff.com/mirkwooddesigns/milkcarton.htm"><span style="color: #336699;">template here</span></a>, but the same technique applies to all the different box shapes. (I used this one to package cookies)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Print straight onto cardboard or trace the template like I did, because the cardboard I had was too big. (Make marks on the sides so that you know where to rule the lines for the folds)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIiPX34wYcjfOqdPccmeC9wC4aSyhctVFpgVqC7wqGNbkevuD1FA-3yPCyoxOdR2JJm2hPoJBLXGaHnR3wNRQ4oUifbpmB3Ry1qd1C_dtpECUtzZ7Zjexs9Q_F7AH0fX0uGYAO1iTlmTw9/s1600/IMG_7738.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIiPX34wYcjfOqdPccmeC9wC4aSyhctVFpgVqC7wqGNbkevuD1FA-3yPCyoxOdR2JJm2hPoJBLXGaHnR3wNRQ4oUifbpmB3Ry1qd1C_dtpECUtzZ7Zjexs9Q_F7AH0fX0uGYAO1iTlmTw9/s320/IMG_7738.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqSNGEeZPbntQZVhSQOdGPS4rvEMt5IeGiOV4KCBQUi2nQV_jTKFNB7yXIf3-KALotufqpWp7c4O6L8DKMAIQFIndlmo6hSBAj8UU6I5eFfSFS-KvwRU6cvsgQkPEw-1GyOnPXgMgizWEW/s1600/IMG_7740.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqSNGEeZPbntQZVhSQOdGPS4rvEMt5IeGiOV4KCBQUi2nQV_jTKFNB7yXIf3-KALotufqpWp7c4O6L8DKMAIQFIndlmo6hSBAj8UU6I5eFfSFS-KvwRU6cvsgQkPEw-1GyOnPXgMgizWEW/s320/IMG_7740.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Cut it out and with the back of your scissors trace along all the lines that need to be folded. This just helps to get precise folds.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR_L4ty_rR38l78AUkHVoB-oj_Au250VuAPJaoPLKFiPLgGUM25wreE9CXD0txU8hABfrmiM53mgyUlMoPKENu7yh71bB5qV2JDYKyXmjaBwSjDckROr6YF-GpzZNaA0-Bzn1zR9mFRvbx/s1600/IMG_7745.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR_L4ty_rR38l78AUkHVoB-oj_Au250VuAPJaoPLKFiPLgGUM25wreE9CXD0txU8hABfrmiM53mgyUlMoPKENu7yh71bB5qV2JDYKyXmjaBwSjDckROr6YF-GpzZNaA0-Bzn1zR9mFRvbx/s320/IMG_7745.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Now fold along all the lines And cut slits/darts between each of the tabs that you will be sticking together (you can see this on the bottom and right of the picture)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjbSGQ61Hteb0pcNp5IBlngVNBt730yrs-EN1dxNjXlQUVzlHwk2cRxKi7iTktpICV5b03Pyl02B5Tw6kTkMf7CKtN5gf6q4tn9GWIWp_e1zbsfEdCPCvdlKuJYHsqOro6PAcPI7YrdgOD/s1600/IMG_7747.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjbSGQ61Hteb0pcNp5IBlngVNBt730yrs-EN1dxNjXlQUVzlHwk2cRxKi7iTktpICV5b03Pyl02B5Tw6kTkMf7CKtN5gf6q4tn9GWIWp_e1zbsfEdCPCvdlKuJYHsqOro6PAcPI7YrdgOD/s320/IMG_7747.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Stick double sided tape to each of the tabs (making sure that the double sided tape is on the right side:) On the second tab at the bottom you can see that I stuck my tape in the wrong place and had to adjust it - don't be as silly as I was - although no-one will see it in the end.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVfCDJLNX76mW4bjx0r1MAXHlCKIGxHDnrNZKwyi1NVr6gAEiX9lbVtqVg08mpo9Rj3x3pNXdB1Wv4o3M-VArw8q1eTE-biNp7YPjt2AqUK4qWMhladXj7DMiHW-zc5KUT5bfvJneote4v/s1600/IMG_7748.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVfCDJLNX76mW4bjx0r1MAXHlCKIGxHDnrNZKwyi1NVr6gAEiX9lbVtqVg08mpo9Rj3x3pNXdB1Wv4o3M-VArw8q1eTE-biNp7YPjt2AqUK4qWMhladXj7DMiHW-zc5KUT5bfvJneote4v/s320/IMG_7748.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Now fold your box and stick it together. Then add a piece of double sided tape so that you can close your box AFTER you have placed your gift inside the box. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ZgiKBTiOKmk4iIkeXF8uTqwGpaeyQmwkX5HMJkIaiyVxRhKz1Tb_yHiBot1382eIWo1dKklYWw6BSkOgRjnetiHVxObyoJeZn-REPbhVcRvNIxoX6Y3PhhM9SLaOm-K4KQpgapkD8Xmz/s1600/IMG_7750.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ZgiKBTiOKmk4iIkeXF8uTqwGpaeyQmwkX5HMJkIaiyVxRhKz1Tb_yHiBot1382eIWo1dKklYWw6BSkOgRjnetiHVxObyoJeZn-REPbhVcRvNIxoX6Y3PhhM9SLaOm-K4KQpgapkD8Xmz/s320/IMG_7750.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> And then do any finishing touches that you need - I usually add some or other stamped design and sometimes a ribbon. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">TA DA!!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB0e9Vm70EwjzJ2KnjVeRC2KlZd8ltGWs3CBlGsVLnUYowD4JOAn0a-SSrFamXHGwtSEBCnbP3Kg5j-fPX2cJbFGU7JSXon4Sd-1ZnRRsMxMv0nETEkNhVJHebY6BorxxKCiArUqp5wxgB/s1600/IMG_7752.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB0e9Vm70EwjzJ2KnjVeRC2KlZd8ltGWs3CBlGsVLnUYowD4JOAn0a-SSrFamXHGwtSEBCnbP3Kg5j-fPX2cJbFGU7JSXon4Sd-1ZnRRsMxMv0nETEkNhVJHebY6BorxxKCiArUqp5wxgB/s320/IMG_7752.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I usually use the milk box for sweets or cookies. You can easily make it longer by just adding a few cm to the length when you trace it.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Or I make puffy boxes, <a href="http://www.ruthannzaroff.com/mirkwooddesigns/puffy.htm"><span style="color: #336699;">template here</span></a>, for small gifts that I sew.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5WepMyJ1ARVrae0mhvmRgTSdv6pv-98zbk1hFunJSyEH51wTAsf2DZhkA4Rqxxwr5TWfOwrAdUx6koQzW_dGumSfYn0iWHxyJ6HslXgv3k6sjTp5phs7CEnqfJNL6AapmGR3dc-5ViCo/s1600/IMG_9980.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5WepMyJ1ARVrae0mhvmRgTSdv6pv-98zbk1hFunJSyEH51wTAsf2DZhkA4Rqxxwr5TWfOwrAdUx6koQzW_dGumSfYn0iWHxyJ6HslXgv3k6sjTp5phs7CEnqfJNL6AapmGR3dc-5ViCo/s320/IMG_9980.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Another idea for eco-gift packaging is using vintage fabric and Furoshiki Japanese Folding technique found on this YouTube Video:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/wjArUYc30iI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here is an example of one my Furoshiki gift bags (using a vintage handkerchief) in process:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div></div></div></div></div></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-6729512030237858352011-06-17T10:41:00.001-04:002011-06-18T09:04:02.535-04:00Eco-Friendly Vintage Jewelry Shipping Packaging<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_5FyEGuu7SZ1tapBBAxbnbpfEStOK6XHwa3rdjDIVdJRFCrYlCsmZSyAhRgsWyik3vg4weaMqTye7Aizr2lcKnIA86FUXvSMv7uC_T7WoZkEKGjIQnVAxBAbtMREAUgSxDczDclH85wl/s1600/017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_5FyEGuu7SZ1tapBBAxbnbpfEStOK6XHwa3rdjDIVdJRFCrYlCsmZSyAhRgsWyik3vg4weaMqTye7Aizr2lcKnIA86FUXvSMv7uC_T7WoZkEKGjIQnVAxBAbtMREAUgSxDczDclH85wl/s200/017.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: purple; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I sell vintage jewelry, in part because it is eco-friendly and gentle on the environment. I would like my shipping packaging to be eco-friendly, light as possible (uses less jet fuel), durable (to protect my items) and as attractive as possible. So, I am always keeping an eye out for some creative solutions to my shipping problems. Here is an inspiring one from TrashN2Tees:</span><br />
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<a class="gs-title" href="http://trashn2tees.blogspot.com/2011/06/green-your-packaging.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">TrashN2Tees: "<b>Green</b>" Your Packaging</span></a><br />
It’s really important for me, that my packaging reflects my product. It should be important to you as well- after all how you package your items have a lot to do with your shops brand. Here are some tips to “green” your packaging and add to your customers buying experience.<br />
<div><a class="lightbox" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQStxaaN9SGJyVAiqDmLXiiO5-9oZkw6AVJM0Ze0EzDrlQr9f8PaSKIEGsARPU_v-LZVvaxak4svelVzmbpguVzOPXlOmH0G9mx2d1axiFiQy7bbcDSRP5LsDRpI-pmXRnXjGA4XLYAbpl/s320/IMG_0118.JPG"></a><a class="lightbox" href="http://www.handmadeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/green-up.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-7370" height="133" src="http://www.handmadeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/green-up.jpg" title="green up" width="200" /></a></div><div><strong>I started out shipping in <a href="http://trashn2tees.blogspot.com/2011/04/brown-paper-bag-envelopes-diy-and.html"><span style="color: #0bc9f9;">handmade brown paper bag envelopes</span></a>, they offered just the touch I was looking for. They were affordable, eco friendly, but not water proof or durable enough to handle the rigorous routes of the USPS. I suppose I should mention that they can get to be a tad bit time consuming when your shipping out several packages a week. Soon after opening up on <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/tntees"><span style="color: #0bc9f9;">Etsy </span></a>(and running low on glue sticks) I decided to explore other shipping options. </strong></div><div><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Boxed Up:</strong></span></div><ul><a class="lightbox" href="http://myplasticfreelife.com/images/BuyGreen-packaging-02.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="150" src="http://myplasticfreelife.com/images/BuyGreen-packaging-02.jpg" width="200" /></a>
<li><strong>Right size your boxes</strong>! Choosing an appropriately-sized box for your product <strong>saves energy, cushioning supplies and reduces carbon emissions</strong>. You can also make smaller boxes out of bigger ones with a mat knife and a little packing tape. Get creative with green shipping!</li>
<li><strong>Find cardboard boxes made from recycled content – ask your shipping supplier for options. Recycled boxe</strong>s are as strong as their counterparts, and by using them, you <strong>save trees, water and energy.</strong></li>
<li>If you can’t ship your products out in the same boxes you received them in, <strong>find another local business that can use them</strong>. You may even find a source for boxes to package your own merchandise</li>
</ul><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a class="lightbox" href="http://www.lifeboxcompany.com/system/html/hl1299-651882d9.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="185" src="http://www.lifeboxcompany.com/system/html/hl1299-651882d9.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://www.lifeboxcompany.com/">www.lifeboxcompany.com</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div><strong>I also found out about <a href="http://www.lifeboxcompany.com/home.html"><span style="color: #0bc9f9;">Life Box </span></a>its a cardboard box that contains approximately one tree seed per square inch, so whether you send a Life Box or receive a Life Box, you could be responsible for starting a brand-new ecosystem. (Oh, how I wish they made envelopes! So neat!) </strong></div><br />
<div><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Fillers: </strong></span></div><ul><li><strong>Use shredded scrap paper</strong> or crumpled newspaper.</li>
<li>Use <strong>previously-used peanuts</strong> for your green shipping endeavors. If you don’t need the peanuts you receive for your own shipping needs, call the <strong>Peanut Hotline at 800-828-2214 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 800-828-2214 end_of_the_skype_highlighting</strong> to find a drop-off location near you. Drop-off locations may also sell you the used peanuts they collect.</li>
<li>If you need new peanuts, buy recycled or biodegradable. The <strong>ones made from cornstarch dissolve in water!</strong></li>
<li>Use recycled or recyclable bubble wrap and ask about take back or recycling programs offered by the manufacturer or your municipality. Even better, find a replacement for bubble wrap like cushioned craft packaging wrap.</li>
<li>“<strong>Regift</strong>” what you can’t use! Many shipping storefronts will happily take used packing materials for future use.</li>
<li><strong>Using bubble wrap?</strong> Give it another chance- try using<strong> rubber bands to hold it in place</strong> instead of tape.<strong><br />
</strong></li>
<li><strong>Help your customers reuse and recycle. If you are using recyclable, reusable or biodegradable materials in your shipping, include a small note in your package or packing slip that instructs people how to reuse or recycle the packaging</strong>.</li>
</ul><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a class="lightbox" href="http://www.greenfieldpaper.com/asccustompages/CategoryImages/bIQVC-RNpid-dFtwP-recycled%20sprouting%20paper%2001.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="145" src="http://www.greenfieldpaper.com/asccustompages/CategoryImages/bIQVC-RNpid-dFtwP-recycled%20sprouting%20paper%2001.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://www.greenfieldpaper.com/asccustompages/products.asp?categoryid=11">Green Field Paper Company </a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div>Don’t forget to include a handwritten note on <a href="http://www.greenfieldpaper.com/asccustompages/products.asp?categoryid=11"><span style="color: #0bc9f9;">plantable paper! </span></a></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-82024911239143310162011-05-26T12:47:00.002-04:002011-06-18T09:04:26.414-04:00Increase Shop Business By Increasing Blog Traffic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJ8TsnbmbNu0yC4NT8EpDQzIRkKiySZNUaU-7CbYTQGv5OEH4ijS3zqdGhTHeTBXGUDoC7MflOcAZqvhv7RslbqD_rSkVcCeLGHXXw_Hzm9K31F4dWytFql7S8hyphenhyphenY_DSbX1cUYf7S5dcG/s1600/020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJ8TsnbmbNu0yC4NT8EpDQzIRkKiySZNUaU-7CbYTQGv5OEH4ijS3zqdGhTHeTBXGUDoC7MflOcAZqvhv7RslbqD_rSkVcCeLGHXXw_Hzm9K31F4dWytFql7S8hyphenhyphenY_DSbX1cUYf7S5dcG/s200/020.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>Found on the Etsy forums. Soapdeli has 20k traffic/month...Wow! <br />
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<a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/soapdeli">soapdeli</a> says <br />
<div class="body">If you have been blogging for your business for some time, do you feel it's helped to grow your business and bring sales. I do blog and have not found a way of tracking sales through my blog except through contests where I offer a coupon code. However, I have noticed a direct correlation between my blogging activity and sales. The more I blog, the more sales I get. And I feel it's because my blog brings in so many different eyes because of the variety of contest I post. In fact, I feel that blogging #1 and facebook #2 are my two best marketing options that don't cost me anything but a little time. <br />
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Much of my blog traffic comes from google - which is great. But I've recently increased by readership to over 20K unique visitors a month - that's over 400 unique visitors a day - with a few tricks and submissions. I've been playing around with a lot of different options like kaboodle, craftstylish and blogher blogs to pull traffic back to my own blog. I also share my posts on facebook and twitter. Additionally I have added several options for following my blog - google friend connect, networked blogs, email subscription, and blog lovin'. My top traffic sources, however, for <a class="external-link-overlay-trigger overlay-trigger" href="http://www.soapdelinews.com/" rel="#external-link-overlay" target="_blank">www.soapdelinews.com</a> come from the following:<br />
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<span style="background-color: cyan;">Google</span> - make sure you've submitted your blog and use lots of keywords in your content and your title.<br />
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<span style="background-color: cyan;">Stumbleupon</span> - Stumble your posts. Have others stumble your posts. It works.<br />
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<span style="background-color: cyan;">Pinterest</span> - They're still new, but when you pin something crafty and fabulous a lot of repinning goes on and your work gets shared over and over.<br />
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<span style="background-color: cyan;">Craftgawker </span>- They're picky about photos, but if they like what you've got, they will send you a good amount of traffic. Don't just share posts about your products, share other content as well. Your blog should have an obvious link back to your shop so you shouldn't feel you just need to promote your stuff with them. If you have wedding lovelies, check out weddinggawker.<br />
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<span style="background-color: cyan;">IShareCrafts</span> - Very similar to craftgawker. Less picky about photos. But it must be a craft project of some kind. They also have spin offs like craftgawker does for food but also for printables. <br />
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<span style="background-color: cyan;">OnePrettyThing blog</span> - If you have craft tutorials this is a great place to submit them. They'll link to your project and send traffic your way. It must be your own original project though - not a link through to a tutorial on another blog.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaIEM_81S8kPs6HlEkHG62Cy5V9IcB3OYXKYx0IDWdWLrzZPew2QpW0yZ7OxmX9PnogVQ1iAHwq0pgaU5u7QwCHphE3_QHEQZUMAU075uFAwIQjlXXuShYE4HI7PELzzBl1FouBHfe7_I7/s1600/078.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaIEM_81S8kPs6HlEkHG62Cy5V9IcB3OYXKYx0IDWdWLrzZPew2QpW0yZ7OxmX9PnogVQ1iAHwq0pgaU5u7QwCHphE3_QHEQZUMAU075uFAwIQjlXXuShYE4HI7PELzzBl1FouBHfe7_I7/s200/078.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><br />
<span style="background-color: cyan;">Blog Lovin'</span> - A blog directory that also lets you follow your favorite blogs and check out the daily feed of your favorites in one handy location.<br />
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<span style="background-color: cyan;">Giveaway sites</span> - If you run a giveaway and submit it to giveaway sites, your traffic will soar. You can also use giveaways to grow your social networks and blog followers.<br />
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<span style="background-color: cyan;">Tumblr</span> - I don't use tumblr as my main blog and I was VERY reluctant to give it a go. But now that it's established I've found it can work. I often blog a photo from my main blog with a short description and a link back to my blog. Be sure to TAG with keywords. I've gotten a lot of hits to specific articles through tumblr from people doing a key word search ie. DIY While it's not consistent, if your article gets featured in a keyword search the traffic surge is obvious. <br />
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Hopefully you will find these sites as useful tools as well. Also, if anyone else has had success in bringing traffic to their blogs using specific sites or techniques, I'd love if you would share them here!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7aLra2kR_lW-pbXNIDSQNzDhFaB6eoBPhxZCPxSNWUaCiv0RJCXTMpG7mLnhFp0E_V_UhFsTG5BsK4s_1NFUV66QM0qHY-OplWAlXqc8kHhyphenhyphenSBDBEoymGqdiYpxNGr51RIAERDLFWv6rs/s1600/057.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7aLra2kR_lW-pbXNIDSQNzDhFaB6eoBPhxZCPxSNWUaCiv0RJCXTMpG7mLnhFp0E_V_UhFsTG5BsK4s_1NFUV66QM0qHY-OplWAlXqc8kHhyphenhyphenSBDBEoymGqdiYpxNGr51RIAERDLFWv6rs/s320/057.JPG" width="167" /></a></div>If you don't blog and are reluctant to blog on a consistent basis, I would recommend starting with tumblr. You can simply reblog content on days you are not feeling motivated. I read an article not long ago that says blogging increases inbound links for businesses by 55% or something like that. And I believe it based on my own personal experience. </div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-10684972667691756672011-05-20T12:34:00.003-04:002011-06-18T09:06:48.671-04:005 Reasons To Watermark Your Etsy Images<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk1YAiWKqSxVkUXNmfDhjMlecbIWtTs9kV6XXP9hEIFfAnPw3TwrRoCD5iuCWoLKDtX2iP_7KQ_3uEFwNgP8mlDh4gv4RNFm_7j0nzStBRxq-zm1dVE0i5za_Jsc-NfBQTLwx-li07mcv7/s1600/001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk1YAiWKqSxVkUXNmfDhjMlecbIWtTs9kV6XXP9hEIFfAnPw3TwrRoCD5iuCWoLKDtX2iP_7KQ_3uEFwNgP8mlDh4gv4RNFm_7j0nzStBRxq-zm1dVE0i5za_Jsc-NfBQTLwx-li07mcv7/s320/001.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Originally found on the Etsy Forums and then edited.<br />
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<a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/StudioEleven11">StudioEleven11</a> says <br />
<div class="body"> <br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #274e13; font-size: large;">What is Watermarking?</span>Watermarking is very common in the online digital world. Basically it's overlaying a small image on your finished product photo to either thwart piracy or build brand awareness. See photo below as an example. The watermark is my shop name and web address is the corner.</div><div class="clear"><div class="wide-listing-card" id="lid73492342"><br />
<div class="listing-title"></div><div class="listing-price"><br />
</div></div></div><span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #274e13; font-size: large;">How Do I Watermark?</span>.<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #274e13;">I recommend that you use Picasa and Picnik for all your photo editing needs. It's free and easy. Picasa's watermark does not get in the way the photo. It is small and on the lower right hand side of the photo. Here is the link that explains how to watermark Picasa pictures.</span></span></em> <br />
<a href="http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=106193">http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=106193</a> <br />
<em><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is a tutorial about how to use picasa to edit your photos.</span></em><br />
<a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/#uds-search-results">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/#uds-search-results</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCeRYr-Ao6-DTxQaj0wNBJxChmIOBH3pyZ704Jst4mt-UgasgE7M2QndP6vjvRRLtmFd0jPsgsSLRwO0g044M6yJqGtKGz_IIt8as_aME5IqXgJ8CFUz800pLisFxk339qGie2_4lVCaNe/s1600/25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCeRYr-Ao6-DTxQaj0wNBJxChmIOBH3pyZ704Jst4mt-UgasgE7M2QndP6vjvRRLtmFd0jPsgsSLRwO0g044M6yJqGtKGz_IIt8as_aME5IqXgJ8CFUz800pLisFxk339qGie2_4lVCaNe/s320/25.jpg" width="318" /></a></div><span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #274e13; font-size: large;">Why should I watermark my images?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #274e13; font-size: large;">1. Branding</span><br />
Etsy is photo driven and images are sometimes the first and only things people see. By adding watermarks to your images, you're putting the name of your shop front and center on Etsy search, your shop pages, and any featured stories on and off Etsy. And the more times people see your name, the more likely they are to remember it.<br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #274e13;"><span style="font-size: large;">2. Google Images</span></span>For Etsy, your listing title becomes the keywords associated with your product images. This means that when someone does an image search on Google for "wire wrapped rings", your product images under this title have a good chance of being served. However, the images on Google don't link to your shop but the hosted versions of your image on Etsy. So, your images are basically giving Etsy more traffic. Leverage your images' visibility to your advantage and corral people back to your shop by watermarking your images.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5pW5LB_IhyphenhyphenSzGRnGv5mMqQ180xUuw6ddwIheCGzOehOZsDb-jqca7YTjiYiEwIv19v9iLoJaoZOqB-ukjmgeSGfkyK5u4Mtg_-9b29QA2PDQJUz2SXtS7GFFhCVthLZrBf3DyJw5z70kt/s1600/32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5pW5LB_IhyphenhyphenSzGRnGv5mMqQ180xUuw6ddwIheCGzOehOZsDb-jqca7YTjiYiEwIv19v9iLoJaoZOqB-ukjmgeSGfkyK5u4Mtg_-9b29QA2PDQJUz2SXtS7GFFhCVthLZrBf3DyJw5z70kt/s320/32.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #274e13; font-size: large;">3. Pirating</span>We all know it happens--people scraping or reusing your photos. But with watermarked images, at least you get some brand exposure out of the deal. Of course people can do editing magic and remove your watermark, but by definition scrapers are lazy and will most likely leave it, giving you additional exposure and making scraping work to your advantage.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXMwTzLOeaEApRFP5mcI7lb0qz7Oia1HaXqpYaFEn097QMqsN_Zc9u9aFiYnMFsKFBRt0hhoNVm4BSExv62GDMDLzDT-yXCuSXwxvrYxDl_rERMlXs64aHGjRp4XQW-cN3X7FHn3ECHaJN/s1600/024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXMwTzLOeaEApRFP5mcI7lb0qz7Oia1HaXqpYaFEn097QMqsN_Zc9u9aFiYnMFsKFBRt0hhoNVm4BSExv62GDMDLzDT-yXCuSXwxvrYxDl_rERMlXs64aHGjRp4XQW-cN3X7FHn3ECHaJN/s320/024.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #274e13; font-size: large;">4. Credibility</span>Just like a magazine ad with a designer's logo, your images are your "ads." Make them look finished and you as a designer more credible with watermarks.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM0MXu_WlkvMsCITO92hE5d9fTfQkWO6JtJnX3QQ4tWonaiV9lxeRcXSOzT9V9mJu2pgq3-btQc0N2kyls5hGTEKr6QXsBbJ1TQls-FaxNrEp-SA9KGnm7V5mIJXy0XSOvVCCgmH4uQ8ZN/s1600/51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM0MXu_WlkvMsCITO92hE5d9fTfQkWO6JtJnX3QQ4tWonaiV9lxeRcXSOzT9V9mJu2pgq3-btQc0N2kyls5hGTEKr6QXsBbJ1TQls-FaxNrEp-SA9KGnm7V5mIJXy0XSOvVCCgmH4uQ8ZN/s320/51.jpg" width="267" /></a></div><span style="color: #d9ead3;"><span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #274e13; font-size: large;">5. Finished Product/Overall Shopper Experience</span></span>Lastly, give your product images a finished "edited" quality. Make them look intentional and fine tuned with a watermark. Watermarks will not fix bad photography but can augment beautiful photos with a well placed logo.Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-71968273628803924962011-05-19T17:58:00.003-04:002011-06-18T09:07:44.098-04:00Upcycled Vintage Jewelry Gallery<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.235576082.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.235576082.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><a href="http://www.etsy.com/people/starletstyles?ref=pr_profile">starletstyles</a><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.242191649.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.242191649.jpg" width="320" /></a><a class="username" href="http://www.etsy.com/people/blancheb?ref=ls_profile">blancheb</a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.173624658.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.173624658.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><a class="username" href="http://www.etsy.com/people/heatheralexander?ref=ls_profile">heatheralexander</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ny-image0.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.177731748.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://ny-image0.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.177731748.jpg" width="320" /></a><a class="username" href="http://www.etsy.com/people/DelVintage?ref=ls_profile">DelVintage</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.228992433.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.228992433.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="member"><a class="username" href="http://www.etsy.com/people/autena?ref=ls_profile">autena</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ny-image0.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.242177616.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://ny-image0.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.242177616.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><ul><li class="member"><a class="username" href="http://www.etsy.com/people/blancheb?ref=ls_profile">blancheb</a></li>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">All of these pieces where made from recycled vintage jewelry pieces creating upcycled pieces. All of these upcycle jewelry artists are members of the Etsy EcoChic Team and sell vintage jewelry. Click on their names and you will be transported to their shops.</span>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-61847466437826165172011-05-16T20:07:00.001-04:002011-05-16T20:30:27.940-04:00Food for Budget Fashion Thought<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXgnovqUAYULJbxXaKYbEgLDquCNpWlhPZ_So3Dk5pDiBr0KTjsH1JqWxrAJAVp9Ucx1-3Dl6MQ10kBQJwrMlXpdZ2YW-Ci5tfCK8Wys6SMHDVi4zUeWRW12sClpB7MD7iDSqhdt1DRqqn/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXgnovqUAYULJbxXaKYbEgLDquCNpWlhPZ_So3Dk5pDiBr0KTjsH1JqWxrAJAVp9Ucx1-3Dl6MQ10kBQJwrMlXpdZ2YW-Ci5tfCK8Wys6SMHDVi4zUeWRW12sClpB7MD7iDSqhdt1DRqqn/s200/3.jpg" width="175" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">Slow Fashion...Stylist and Vintage Lover....Budget Fashion Finds...Thirft Shop Finder</span></div><br />
<a href="http://sustainableslow.blogspot.com/2011/04/slow-fashion-doing-project-333.html"><span style="font-size: small;">Sustainable Slow Stylish</span></a> <span style="font-size: small;">Have you heard of Slow Fashion? You may be familiar with the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Food"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small;">Slow Food Movement</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> and such things as the 100 Mile Diet and the burgeoning interest in<span style="color: black;"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_food"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small;">Local Food</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">. Slow Fashion is closely related to those movements and is in direct contrast with the idea of </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3086669.stm"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small;">disposable fashion</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">;</span> buying cheap clothing that doesn’t last and puts a huge strain on the<span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.stylelist.com/2007/01/25/is-disposable-fashion-killing-the-planet/"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small;">environment</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> ,not to mention the cheap labour standards that goes along with it, to keep up with the ever-changing fashion trends, to emulate runway and celebrity style, and to continue our out of control consumer spending. And yes, you can argue that in these economic times people are not wanting to spend as much on clothing, but I have to ask, is that part justification for frivolous spending, and that in the long term, buying clothing that is poorly made and in fact designed to fall apart after a season or two is really not as cost effective as spending the little bit more for quality and longevity. Not to mention consignment and thrift stores, and to not fear wearing your clothing more than once. Slow Fashion is all about the <em>process</em>; the designer takes care and skill into creating something that is beautiful and conscientious.</span><br />
<div class="content"><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUwnGLxLXKluEIegY1-jPrpXLiFLIYQyD-zj6ozCfqnvPACConFmiMlpcPZ4Gxygt0L24d1qGyrSkzAqDYdllWSCLE1aNG5Ep7vPzPC4PGSHkCdz4gqhu1KUgQVA8KyyV-iaQ3PoPOVUVr/s1600/q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUwnGLxLXKluEIegY1-jPrpXLiFLIYQyD-zj6ozCfqnvPACConFmiMlpcPZ4Gxygt0L24d1qGyrSkzAqDYdllWSCLE1aNG5Ep7vPzPC4PGSHkCdz4gqhu1KUgQVA8KyyV-iaQ3PoPOVUVr/s320/q.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><a href="http://www.shefinds.com/" target="_blank"><b>SheFinds</b></a><br />
SheFinds.com, brainchild and baby of former AOL editorial director Michelle Madhok, is always on top of the week's latest sales — especially online deals & discounts. Keep yourself up-to-date on those bargains by subscribing to the SheFinds free daily newsletter. Madhok's site allows for an easy search based on which particular item of clothing you're currently seeking — a huge time saver on top of the savings. For parents: also check out SheFinds' sister site, <a href="http://momfinds.com/index.php" target="_blank"><b>MomFinds</b></a>. <br />
(Twitter @shefinds)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYFxR9DQdoWsbHK1PUiaJHJKJv4ucivsPXy1TnnCzXzpjK2L3TFzNieqY8Mtv4yRBqqyzZxD2QQzTuekN7LnO0DXL_h0dGq6gIsBgvEqZ8HRqXCCogpFTUEaRgB8eLOATWZ7AhQF3HgjUL/s1600/61.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYFxR9DQdoWsbHK1PUiaJHJKJv4ucivsPXy1TnnCzXzpjK2L3TFzNieqY8Mtv4yRBqqyzZxD2QQzTuekN7LnO0DXL_h0dGq6gIsBgvEqZ8HRqXCCogpFTUEaRgB8eLOATWZ7AhQF3HgjUL/s200/61.jpg" width="151" /></a></div><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white; color: blue;">Frugal Fashionista</span> </span></strong>The original, visual "Look for Less" blog, the Frugal Fashionistas have been serving up daily celebrity style on a shoestring since 2006. Looks are searchable by celebrity — a huge help when trying to track down an item from your favorite tabloid or red carpet look — plus categories for <a href="http://www.frugal-fashionistas.com/search/label/10%20under%20%2410" target="_blank"><b>10 Under $10</b></a>, <a href="http://www.frugal-fashionistas.com/search/label/screen%20style" target="_blank"><b>Screen Style</b></a>, <a href="http://www.frugal-fashionistas.com/search/label/budget%20beauty" target="_blank"><b>Budget Beauty</b></a>, and <a href="http://www.frugal-fashionistas.com/search/label/trendspotting" target="_blank"><b>Trendspotting</b></a>. Another perk (or pitfall, depending on your viewpoint): all of the pieces featured on the site are easy to locate for efficient online shopping. (Twitter @thefrugalista)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM8X_yNPfO3q2zCfE9nN3gtq731agt6TqY5YgGI_GIZ0L4SIrYXiHpY-yPNwgRNXy1QQdQfmus5yII1ldOZaVKJ9tVMufyrSeMpJBeOTyGJ9Ch-7tLMeNvgr-hmFih3xOuIAI8IewcBLqL/s1600/017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM8X_yNPfO3q2zCfE9nN3gtq731agt6TqY5YgGI_GIZ0L4SIrYXiHpY-yPNwgRNXy1QQdQfmus5yII1ldOZaVKJ9tVMufyrSeMpJBeOTyGJ9Ch-7tLMeNvgr-hmFih3xOuIAI8IewcBLqL/s200/017.JPG" width="150" /></a></div><br />
<b><a href="http://whatiwore.tumblr.com/" target="_blank"><b>What I Wore</b></a></b><br />
Jessica Schroeder became a Flickr sensation with her daily "What I Wore" photo posts simply containing — you guessed it — her outfit <i>du jour.</i> The classically trained fashion designer turned fashion blog diva features a high-low mix in each of her outfits, enviably pairing vintage gems with gorgeous handsewn and affordable ready-to-wear pieces. Jessica has previously been nominated as a ModCloth 'Blogger of the Moment' and currently modeled for ads featured in the September issue of popular 'magalog' <i>Lucky</i>. When you subscribe to What I Wore, you'll completely understand all the (much deserved) hype. (Twitter @whatiwore)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPe9ommlZACKbBnNuDybiUOLZe67uMRbVFZFT-HnlhCRMx3Q24jUgfDJPr-TxhWiYKgt1hDArApB978HqTTanmSiY0LXidbM7iBDbWWWJH97oUR857FonLQwMYMnTe0Od6IeaU0qIOwVNL/s1600/51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPe9ommlZACKbBnNuDybiUOLZe67uMRbVFZFT-HnlhCRMx3Q24jUgfDJPr-TxhWiYKgt1hDArApB978HqTTanmSiY0LXidbM7iBDbWWWJH97oUR857FonLQwMYMnTe0Od6IeaU0qIOwVNL/s200/51.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://www.thethriftshopper.com/" target="_blank"><b>TheThriftShopper.com</b></a>, a national database of almost 10K charity shops searchable by ZIP code, buying her a place on this top frugal fashion list. <br />
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</div></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-19083331705228823122011-05-09T09:08:00.006-04:002011-05-09T10:41:38.464-04:00Secret Search Words For Finding Vintage Etsy Jewels<div align="center" class="posterousGalleryNavigationDiv" 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data-posterous-image-gallery-initialized="true" data-posterous-image-gallery="true" data-posterous-options="{"zipFile":"http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/lonny/tpndBnDybHHeIautwJBBimoHdDqCgxtmDBzflCslzEcyDCEChixljFdlatgk/how-to-finding-vintage-etsy-hjCeGDIkIpycEnhCpbrG.zip","zipFileSize":"15161","external_url":null,"showDownload":true,"url_slug":"how-to-finding-vintage-etsy"}" style="margin-bottom: 3px; position: static;" undefined="margin-bottom: 3px;"><div class="post-header"><span style="background-color: #20124d; color: #76a5af; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1719803864">Search Words To Get Your Vintage </a></span></div><div class="post-header"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #20124d; color: #76a5af; font-size: x-large;">Jewelry Buying Juices Flowing</span></span></div></div><div sizcache="18" sizset="0" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.230540654.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" j8="true" src="http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.230540654.jpg" width="200" /></a></div></div><div sizcache="18" sizset="0"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
<a href="http://ny-image3.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.242409475.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" j8="true" src="http://ny-image3.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.242409475.jpg" width="200" /></a>1) <span style="background-color: #9fc5e8; color: black;">Native American Turquoise </span></div></div><div sizcache="18" sizset="0"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: black;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ny-image3.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.240628867.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" j8="true" src="http://ny-image3.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.240628867.jpg" /></a><a href="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.242468865.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="159" j8="true" src="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.242468865.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>4) <span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">14k Rose Gold</span></div><div sizcache="18" sizset="0"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ny-image0.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.198405000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" j8="true" src="http://ny-image0.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.198405000.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://ny-image0.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.135053292.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" j8="true" src="http://ny-image0.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.135053292.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">5) <span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">EcoChic</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.200481442.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="161" j8="true" src="http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.200481442.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://ny-image3.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.173810343.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" j8="true" src="http://ny-image3.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.173810343.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">6) <span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">Modern</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.216665701.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" j8="true" src="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.216665701.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.143381022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" j8="true" src="http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.143381022.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">8)<span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">Edwardian </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.164423025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" j8="true" src="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.164423025.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.100380177.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" j8="true" src="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.100380177.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">9)<span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">Mexico Mixed Metals</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-70418292741758869182011-05-08T09:15:00.004-04:002011-05-08T09:21:19.514-04:00Finding Your Google Page Rank<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ww850_yW5jHgn5s6nT2JfvQ-N9F3nj7-H4MjzSDu6gQj_oF4OlF0x3TaakGC003q0ewQQvKkg6sXou_oc0Uv1tF76g-YESIAG_OCRtji7kQR6ta-v1op9GFcmjD8gQiPvN8986kqhgce/s1600/003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ww850_yW5jHgn5s6nT2JfvQ-N9F3nj7-H4MjzSDu6gQj_oF4OlF0x3TaakGC003q0ewQQvKkg6sXou_oc0Uv1tF76g-YESIAG_OCRtji7kQR6ta-v1op9GFcmjD8gQiPvN8986kqhgce/s320/003.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="from"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">First...Find Your Google Page Rank...by click on this link and following the instructions...</span></div><div class="from"><br />
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</div><div class="from"><a class="external-link-overlay-trigger overlay-trigger" href="http://www.prchecker.info/" jquery1304859964431="50" rel="#external-link-overlay" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">www.prchecker.info/</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="from"><br />
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<span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then find out what the Ranking means...</span></div><div class="from"><br />
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</div><div class="from"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-9Hq_CGrJPWLcg7zhSIFX4DqgKICcdAeSXvUsg_vMNOXT9eT-But8_oYNlQksFDfvhExngmaabqt1uAoEgBOdodLBWIJKXulOnbaB-V8mpmsKIhg0Vn4Iw92nEMKH2Q6j95eAswPBUin/s1600/018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-9Hq_CGrJPWLcg7zhSIFX4DqgKICcdAeSXvUsg_vMNOXT9eT-But8_oYNlQksFDfvhExngmaabqt1uAoEgBOdodLBWIJKXulOnbaB-V8mpmsKIhg0Vn4Iw92nEMKH2Q6j95eAswPBUin/s320/018.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/favillephoto">favillephoto</a> says </div><div class="body">You can check your google ranking by downloading the google toolbar, it has a ranking tool on it..... Etsy itself is only a 7. 10 is the highest, and only HIGH traffic sites like facebook and google are a 10. 80% of websites on the internet are a page rank 0, so having a page rank above 3 is rare. Unless you have hundreds of page views a day on flickr or thousands on facebook, I doubt that your page rank is that high.<br />
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/favillephoto">favillephoto</a> says <span class="post-edited-notice">Edited on May 8, 2011</span> </div><div class="body">For most small business endeavors, a PR2 or PR3 is about as much as you can ask for. You're actually doing well if you even have a page rank at all. No one actually knows google's algorithm exactly for calculating page rank. Heck, I don't even think most people at google even understand it, but from what most experts have determined, each level of page rank is exponentially harder to achieve than the last. So, it takes twice as much work to get from a 1 to a 2, as it did to get from 0 to 1, and it takes 4 times as much work to get from 2 to 3 as it did to get from 1 to 2, and so on and so forth. A great example is Etsy. The main page of Etsy itself is a PR7. And, you could imagine how many people know about Etsy and visit Etsy and link to Etsy and it's still far from the max of 10. So, if you're sitting at a 2 or 3, be happy with yourself. You're doing good work! That means that when someone does a google search with your keywords, you'll be listed before all of those 0s and 1s out there.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU3ovCtYAxW4kWQ_6RpXc_kc8h2Z_Cxaq-UjGLQbMb6hN_-DeY_z9pPYibp-6MU9cDjzPwwNb7pj0F8MAYc1Qfb9BX6CdnQW5PNn5VYxcwZG3Q2E72D5QuCvt8ZMsrE5EmHbMMoo9memi2/s1600/66.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU3ovCtYAxW4kWQ_6RpXc_kc8h2Z_Cxaq-UjGLQbMb6hN_-DeY_z9pPYibp-6MU9cDjzPwwNb7pj0F8MAYc1Qfb9BX6CdnQW5PNn5VYxcwZG3Q2E72D5QuCvt8ZMsrE5EmHbMMoo9memi2/s320/66.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then figure out how to raise that ranking....</span><br />
If anyone is interested in RAISING their page rank, it's alot of work and takes time, but most of what determines page rank is your incoming links. What websites are linking to your website, or to your etsy store. You get some credit just based on the quantity of websites that link to you, but you get the MOST credit from having other higher page rank sites linking to you. One of the best ways to improve your page rank is to have a blog that is a higher page rank than you write a blog post about your company or store, and link to it. That will get alot of immediate traffic, but, you'll also permanently get credit for that link from that higher ranked site.</div><div class="body"><br />
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</div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-33676198665022997002011-05-06T07:24:00.001-04:002011-05-07T10:50:57.387-04:00How to Build Your Twitter Tribe<div id="main"><div class="wrapper"><div id="content"><div id="frame"><div id="single"><h1><a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-build-your-twitter-tribe/">Found this great twitter article...</a></h1><h1>How to Build Your Twitter Tribe</h1><div class="postmetadata">By <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/author/leon-widrich/" title="Posts by Leon Widrich">Leon Widrich</a><br />
Published <span class="datetime">May 5, 2011 </span><script src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/printfriendly.js" type="text/javascript">
</script><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Chttp://www.printfriendly.com%3Ehttp://www.printfriendly.com" title="Printer Friendly"><img alt="Printer-Friendly" src="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/print-button.gif" style="border:none;" /></a></div><div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="61" scrolling="no" src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/button.js?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.socialmediaexaminer.com%2Fhow-to-build-your-twitter-tribe%2F&source=smexaminer&style=normal&service=bit.ly&service_api=R_d59caa5bf89cd7663e205e72cb1d6cc1&b=2" width="50"></iframe></div><a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/category/how-to/" target="_blank"><img alt="social media how to" class="alignright" height="166" src="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/how-to-pose.png" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" title="social media how to" width="190" /></a>Do you want to build a loyal and engaged Twitter following (a tribe if you will)?<br />
If so, this article is for you. It will show you how to find people and what to do to engage them.<br />
<h3>Find the right people—build the right community</h3>This is a tricky headline. As if there’s something like the “right” community waiting for you out there. Yet focusing firmly on the people you want to interact with will pay off greatly. Following those who <em>show a real connection to your niche</em> is key to getting the return out of your Twitter conversations.<br />
A fundamental question when creating your own tribe is to <strong>ask yourself, “Whom can I help on Twitter?”</strong><span id="more-9636"></span><br />
That’s right, instead of saying “Who could help me?” or “What will I achieve?”, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/twitter/" target="_blank">Twitter</a> is a place to <strong>extend your reach by helping others</strong>. Stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about other people first. This is the most important lesson I ever learned.<br />
You’ll be amazed how this will <strong>boost your influence on Twitter</strong>. For example, @MackCollier, a true Twitter pundit, covered this topic in more detail <a href="http://mackcollier.com/a-no-nonsense-guide-to-sharing-and-promoting-content-on-twitter/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<h3>Where to find the right people</h3>Over the course of Twitter’s 5 years of existence, many very helpful directories have been created. They are a great source to <strong>find new and interesting people</strong>.<br />
A very detailed one is <em><a href="http://www.tweetdeck.com/directory/" target="_blank">TweetDeck’s Directory</a></em> of Twitter users, where you can easily navigate through your fields of interest and pick those you want to connect with.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;"><img alt="tweetdeck directory" height="240" src="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/0511lw-tweetdeck-directory.png" width="480" /> <br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">TweetDeck Directory: Think of it as a TV Guide for Twitter channels.</div></div>Another great source is <a href="http://wefollow.com/" target="_blank">WeFollow</a>, which again offers simple ways for you to <strong>find the right users in the right niche for you</strong>.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 489px;"><img alt="twitter directory and search" height="363" src="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/0511lw-twitter-directory-and-search.png" width="479" /> <br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">A directory of people organized into categories.</div></div>If you’re writing a blog, a very simple way to connect with new people is to <strong>take a look at who retweets your posts</strong>. <em><a href="http://backtweets.com/" target="_blank">Backtweets</a></em> is a great tool to find this out. Put your post’s URL into Backtweets and get in touch with the folks retweeting your post.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 492px;"><img alt="twitter analytics" height="252" src="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/0511lw-twitter-analytics.png" width="482" /> <br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">Backtweets un-shortens and catalogs URLs sent by Twitter users.</div></div>Chances are high they’re exactly the people you’ve been looking for to extend your followership.<br />
<h3>Be aware of Twitter etiquette</h3>One thing that can easily put you in a bind with someone on Twitter is if you ignore certain Twitter etiquette rules. If you’re an expert in your niche, but are not quite aware how best to interact with others on Twitter, it can turn out to be a real disaster.<br />
A few rules are:<br />
<ul><li><strong>Include the person’s username when retweeting their tweet</strong>—give them credit for the content they shared.</li>
</ul><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 493px;"><img alt="etiquette" height="338" src="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/0511lw-etiquette-quote-1.png" width="483" /> <br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">Give credit when you retweet someone.</div></div><ul><li><strong>Reply in a timely manner</strong>—Twitter is very spontaneous, so make sure to be there for @replies if you’re tweeting something. Particularly if you schedule a few tweets.</li>
<li><strong>Thank others for retweeting your tweets</strong>. Give them a quick note of appreciation that they found your content worth sharing with their community.</li>
<li>If the above gets very time-consuming, you might want to try replying to those who edited the retweet and showed particular appreciation for your tweet.</li>
<li>If you tweet articles, <strong>include the authors’ names</strong>. Give them credit for their work.</li>
</ul><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 494px;"><img alt="etiquette" height="334" src="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/0511lw-etiquette-quote-2.png" width="484" /> <br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">Give people credit for their posts.</div></div><h3>Create amazing content on Twitter</h3>It has long become clear that Twitter is no longer a black hole we communicate to one-way; actually we get lots of user engagement out of it.<br />
One technique I found very helpful is to <strong>think of tweets like small blog posts</strong>. It was the infamous <a href="http://twitter.com/tweetsmarter" target="_blank">@TweetSmarter</a> that mastered this technique. For nearly every article they tweet, they create their own headline aligning it with their community’s interest. This became hugely successful, which made me pay close attention to every tweet posted.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 492px;"><img alt="tweetsmarter" height="307" src="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/0511lw-tweetsmarter.png" width="482" /> <br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">A non-stop, 24-hour feed with news about all things Twitter.</div></div>You don’t need to dedicate the time to a tweet that you would give a full blog post. But there are a few simple things you can do to make your tweets achieve a better reach among your followers.<br />
Whenever you tweet an article, try to <strong>link it with the interests of your community</strong>.<br />
This means that sometimes the title of the article will fit this purpose very well, sometimes it won’t. <strong>Try finding a quote in the article</strong> that particularly relates to your community’s and followers’ interests.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 493px;"><img alt="relate to your community" height="363" src="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/0511lw-relate-to-your-community.png" width="483" /> <br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">Relate to your community with unique tweets.</div></div>Twitter is all about creating a personal connection; try to <strong>leverage what you know about your followers</strong>. I found that it pays off greatly with higher engagement.<br />
<h3>Be time-efficient</h3>Spending hours and hours on Twitter can be a great deal of fun, yet it can also turn out to be a very dangerous waste of your time when you should be doing other things for your business.<br />
So creating an efficient work pattern on Twitter is key to getting the most out of it.<br />
One way to reduce the time spent without trading off your impact is <a href="http://www.scheduletwitterposts.com/" target="_blank">tweet scheduling</a>. A vital part of scheduling tweets is to <em>get the right balance between spontaneous tweets and scheduled ones</em>.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 495px;"><img alt="schedule twitter posts" height="230" src="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/0511lw-schedule-twitter-posts13.png" width="485" /> <br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">Now you have the ability to tweet day and night, even when you're asleep.</div></div>Another big timesaver for me is <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/4-unique-ways-to-use-twitter-lists/" target="_blank"><strong>Twitter Lists</strong></a>. Especially if you reach a point when it becomes hard to keep track of your timeline.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 270px;"><img alt="lists bird" height="190" src="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/0511lw-lists-bird.jpg" width="260" /> <br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">A way to organize the people you're following on Twitter, or find new people.</div></div>One way I like to use lists is to <strong>create certain interest field lists—</strong>say, for example, “Marketers and Bloggers.”<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 489px;"><img alt="twitter lists" height="442" src="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/0511lw-twitter-lists.png" width="479" /> <br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">Create lists to follow your fields of interest more easily.</div></div>I can now fill them up with people I follow who are great thought leaders in that area. Keeping track of them is super-simple and hassle-free.<br />
<h3>Are you good at Twitter?</h3>Over to you now. <strong>Which steps are you taking to be successful on Twitter? Do you think the above-mentioned steps will work for you too? </strong>Let’s start a discussion. Leave your questions and comments below.<br />
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<h6><div class="tags">Tags: <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/backtweets/" rel="tag">backtweets</a>, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/directory/" rel="tag">directory</a>, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/leon-widrich/" rel="tag">leon widrich</a>, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/tribe/" rel="tag">tribe</a>, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/tweet-schedule/" rel="tag">tweet schedule</a>, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/tweetdeck/" rel="tag">tweetdeck</a>, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/tweetsmarter/" rel="tag">tweetsmarter</a>, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/twitter/" rel="tag">twitter</a>, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/twitter-community/" rel="tag">twitter community</a>, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/twitter-etiquette/" rel="tag">twitter etiquette</a>, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/twitter-lists/" rel="tag">twitter lists</a>, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/twitter-networking/" rel="tag">twitter networking</a>, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/twitter-tools/" rel="tag">twitter tools</a>, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/wefollow/" rel="tag">wefollow</a></div></h6></div><div id="infoAuthor"><div class="avatar"><img alt="" class="avatar avatar-80 photo" height="80" src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/7d75c19a9522e1cc03556ff1938b1454?s=80&d=identicon&r=G" width="80" /></div><div class="author"><span class="title">About the Author</span>, <a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/">Leon Widrich</a></div>Leon Widrich is the co-founder of BufferApp.com (a Twitter app) and also publishes Twitter tips on the BufferApp blog, where he loves to connect and build relationships. Connect @leowid. <strong>Other posts by</strong> <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/author/leon-widrich/" title="Posts by Leon Widrich">Leon Widrich</a> »</div></div></div></div></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-15692273144021902422011-05-05T09:57:00.001-04:002011-05-07T10:50:23.061-04:00Making Etsy Titles & Descriptions More Searchable<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlcGiQbwsEotq8ixq6v-sHdu2jMMQuemhh1NlmenyiowliM0xcLCRi2hnijgOmGrYipMhvPg0CCVMgtHdFtK1oFXVSJoe5JVPiwP7AKPY7zSbujvDxkk4v9jIYTxB6FoDjP1kHkkxbvdsQ/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlcGiQbwsEotq8ixq6v-sHdu2jMMQuemhh1NlmenyiowliM0xcLCRi2hnijgOmGrYipMhvPg0CCVMgtHdFtK1oFXVSJoe5JVPiwP7AKPY7zSbujvDxkk4v9jIYTxB6FoDjP1kHkkxbvdsQ/s320/1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<span style="background-color: blue; color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">From the Etsy Forums...very understandable way to make your title and descriptions more searchable on Google:</span><br />
BrickHouseFabrics says <br />
<br />
What you want is to write a description that is unique to each item. You want the title to be filled w/ keywords... 54-56 characters are pulled from titles. The first 2-3 words are the most important. <br />
<br />
You are NOT writing an English sentence with a title. You are writing for search engines. Do not use more capital letters than necessary... Do NOT use the same word twice in a title, some people say to use the, and etc. I say don't ... your choice. While it may make it somewhat more readable for people, the title is really for search engines. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSyTc7oko__CRwTZ73wQ-KVrlS0WClTHqpUwBX9umIF6HkC1vWKbKM1DJIfgG7A3x9rQu8FuQ10NhFDW3_0M7GmEqtSwV39LT7mlFgwS9XNohVTk4Rq6-ZWVxGQCjZ9s-kD8W4KHmYmTJR/s1600/IMG_3667.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSyTc7oko__CRwTZ73wQ-KVrlS0WClTHqpUwBX9umIF6HkC1vWKbKM1DJIfgG7A3x9rQu8FuQ10NhFDW3_0M7GmEqtSwV39LT7mlFgwS9XNohVTk4Rq6-ZWVxGQCjZ9s-kD8W4KHmYmTJR/s320/IMG_3667.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<br />
In the first paragraph of the listing reuse the keywords from the title. Use short sentences 12- 16 words max... In the second sentence re-use and expand on the keywords from the first sentence/<br />
<br />
Then start a new paragraph and give the item specifics. <br />
<br />
You need to do this for your shop announcement as well... the first paragraph of it, and especially the first sentence, are searchable..<br />
<br />
journeyer says <br />
<br />
Just one thing I'd like to add to BrickHouseFabrics' brilliant post; Search engines can take 3 - 4 months to find you even with proper keywords. To speed this up, have as many external links to your web shop as possible. Facebook Page, Blogs, Other people's blogs and site...pretty much everywhere you can put up a link, do! More clicks, higher the page ranking :) <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Remember that the net works off of new... Search engines index things... then move on. If you leave something the same, they do not re-index it... why should they? There is nothing new to index...Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-82233906722996377222011-05-04T10:24:00.004-04:002011-07-15T08:11:54.850-04:00Confess ONE lesson learned & spare a newbie :)This etsy forum thread currently has 195 pages of answers...this is impossible for the reader to wade through so...I am presenting an edited version with the "best of" comments and some comments of my own...<br />
<br />
<h2>Original Post</h2><div class="forum-post first" id="post11474575" jquery1304511684627="46" rel="11474575"><div class="right" jquery1304511684627="45"><div class="forum-post first" id="post11474575" jquery1304511684627="46" rel="11474575"><div class="left trigger-action-toolbox" jquery1304511684627="143"><a data-uid="5181724" href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/seattlebeadcreations" jquery1304511684627="144"><img alt="seattlebeadcreations avatar" height="75" src="http://ny-image3.etsy.com/iusa_75x75.5382079.jpg" width="75" /> </a></div><div class="right" jquery1304511684627="45"><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/seattlebeadcreations">seattlebeadcreations</a> says </div><div class="body">I'm still a newbie, but I've learned from my mistakes on Etsy & never plan to repeat them. I have many new bad ideas to try. BUT let's each list ONE BAD IDEA that might spare some other newbies. Then explain WHY it's a dumb move. I don't mean Etsy Rule Violations -- Read my big dumb move & you'll see what I mean:<br />
<br />
LESSON: DON'T post your products on Etsy at one time! ....</div><div class="body">WHY: Shortly after you add an item to your store, ETSY shows pics of it on its home page for the top 2 (3?) 'tags' on that item. Example: Etsy will show my new listing for a bracelet in both its 'Jewelry' and 'Bracelet' home pages. This is a few minutes of priceless publicity that brings looks into your store, if a buyer clicks on those pics! <br />
<br />
*****************************************************************************</div></div></div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/catiesblue">catiesblue</a> says </div><div class="body">I guess my lesson (and I'm still learning it, btw) is not to under price yourself. If it wasn't for me finally asking for help, and for a very kind seller pointing out specific examples from my store, I wouldn't have known. ....</div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">how to price</span> <a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/price-hitting-sweet-spot.html">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/price-hitting-sweet-spot.html</a></div><div class="body">*******************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/TattooAnnie">TattooAnnie</a> says </div><div class="body">I had problems with shipping prices, too...I charged a buyer $3 to ship an item, the actual shipping ended up being almost $8!!! After shipping and fees, I barely broke even...but I learned my lesson! </div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">how to ship <a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/shipping-choices-are-part-of-your.html">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/shipping-choices-are-part-of-your.html</a></span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">*******************************************************************************</span></div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/squrlgurl">squrlgurl</a> says </div><div class="body">don't expect things to just "happen" on Etsy. You have to work hard to make sales... promote your work! Let people know you are here! You have to be a little shameless in these efforts</div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">newbie advice <a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/04/best-advice-for-total-newbie-etsy.html">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/04/best-advice-for-total-newbie-etsy.html</a></span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">*******************************************************************************</span></div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/patereeves">patereeves</a> says </div><div class="body">I would have to say don't ask too many times to be critiqued, LOL I fell into that one and I think ended up with some people thinking I was begging for them to buy from me. Promoting is one thing, begging for a sale acts as a big negative! </div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">ask the Sassy Team for a critique they are pros</span>... <a href="http://www.etsy.com/teams/search/sassy">http://www.etsy.com/teams/search/sassy</a></div><div class="body">****************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/SusyJack">SusyJack</a> says </div><div class="body">oh! I thought of something else. It is 100% worth it to learn how to use your digital camera to take great pictures. The reason for this is 2fold. <br />
<br />
Firstly, it looks better to buyers (duh)<br />
But second...many people who write blogs LOVE to put beautiful images in their blogs. If your pictures look good, then people will probably be more likely to feature your items in their blogs</div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">great camera for $15, light cube free, photo editing free... </span></div><div class="body"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/tools-of-trade-right-camera.html">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/tools-of-trade-right-camera.html</a></div><div class="body"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/after-right-camerayou-need-right.html">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/after-right-camerayou-need-right.html</a></div><div class="body"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/final-touch-photo-editing.html">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/02/final-touch-photo-editing.html</a></div><div class="body">***************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/paolodesigns">paolodesigns</a> says </div><div class="body">Proof read everything. :) </div><div class="body">***************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/thirteenthstory">thirteenthstory</a> says </div><div class="body">Put dimensions in your descriptions.<br />
<span style="color: red;">description check list... <a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/04/product-description-that-answers-buyers.html">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/04/product-description-that-answers-buyers.html</a></span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">******************************************************************************</span></div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/beadsnall">beadsnall</a> says </div><div class="body">Create, beg, borrow or steal (OK, don't steal) a spreadsheet to keep track of your costs/profits - and keep it up to date. I now have a huge bag of receipts that I need to enter and I just can't bring myself to sit down and do it. Once it's done, I will (I promise) keep it current</div><div class="body">******************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/scrapbookingmama">scrapbookingmama</a> says </div><div class="body">Do not go on defense when your customer ask why they have not received their package..........<br />
As sellers it is our job to help our customers not make them feel like they wish they had not spent their money with us.<br />
If you know you sent it, explain to them nicely that it was sent on such date and you have no control after it is out of your hands.<br />
Ignoring your customer do not help. <br />
I say this because I have felt this way before and donot want my customers feel the way I did. </div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">great customer service advice... <a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/04/3000-sales-and-three-strange-ways-of.html">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/04/3000-sales-and-three-strange-ways-of.html</a></span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">*****************************************************************************</span></div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeyMichelle">HeyMichelle</a> says </div><div class="body">Great thread, everyone!<br />
<br />
My tip is to not be afraid to jump in and start doing it! I sorta psyched myself out before starting my shop (not this account), and I was surprised at how fun (and addictive!) it is. Oh, yeah! And stay positive- take things at your own pace, join the community, and enjoy the process of learning... </div><div class="body">*****************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/Reyney">Reyney</a> says </div><div class="body">Don't stare at the computer all day long. It will give you a headache. </div><div class="body">***************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/JewelsbyJenny">JewelsbyJenny</a> says </div><div class="body">One thing I noticed while I was reading this thread is that catchy avatars make me want to click on them and check out the store. </div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">How to make avatars</span>....http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/conquering-phototext-editing-to-make.html</div><div class="body">******************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/rheta">rheta</a> says </div><div class="body">Good tags are critical. </div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">Great SEO advice .... <a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/04/src-httpplayer.html">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/04/src-httpplayer.html</a></span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">******************************************************************************</span></div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/CreativeSundries">CreativeSundries</a> says </div><div class="body">Join your local street team! You can meet fun people who share your interests. There are also specific craft-based street teams. </div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">How to pick a great team.. </span><span style="color: purple;"><a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/are-you-joiner-why-join-etsy-team-how.html">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/are-you-joiner-why-join-etsy-team-how.html</a></span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">******************************************************************************</span></div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/feralspassage">feralspassage</a> says </div><div class="body">Don't listen to everybody in the forums, I kept changing everything to fit what others said was wrong, only to be stressing myself out. Didn't make much of a difference, now i do as what i think my shop needs. Every shop is different. </div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">******************************************************************************</span></div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/BusterBooKids">BusterBooKids</a> says </div><div class="body">Well, the $7 you spend on a showcase spot might get you some nice numbers of views, but when you calculate the actual return on that spend, versus the 35 renews that you could do for the same amount of money, it just doesn't stack up. I did some showcases, and made 1 sale each time I did it. The profit margin was almost nil on those sales, after taking out the $7 showcase cost.</div><div class="body">*******************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/artpassionsdesign">artpassionsdesign</a> says </div><div class="body">Buy delivery confirmation. It's the best use of 19¢. When a buyer says they didn't get their package, you can track it...</div><div class="body">*******************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/JazzCatGems">JazzCatGems</a> says </div><div class="body">Get started on Google Analytics right away...</div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">Here's how... <a href="http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/etsy-shop-sales-stats-daily-views.html">http://decoratingyourself.blogspot.com/2011/03/etsy-shop-sales-stats-daily-views.html</a></span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">*******************************************************************************</span></span></div><span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/fallingforpieces">fallingforpieces</a> <span style="color: black;">says </span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">I agree with the blog giveaways, thing, if you're going to do it, choose carefully. I did one that was basically $30 down the drain. On the other hand local giveaways (to charity events) have really paid off for me in off etsy sales <br />
********************************************************************************</span></div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/ChellysShoppe">ChellysShoppe</a> <span style="color: black;">says </span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">Write up your policy, etc...BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE! That's really, really important for buyers to know you're serious and know the terms</span><span style="color: black;">.</span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">********************************************************************************</span></div><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
<div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/RockArtiste">RockArtiste</a> says </div><div class="body">Don't let your shop sit idle. List something new as often as possible to stay at the top of the viewing order. Relist if you don't have anything new. Just keep popping up and you will be seen, eventually</div><div class="body">********************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/Crystalsidyll">Crystalsidyll</a> says </div><div class="body">Don't expect instant feedback for every sale. </div><div class="body">********************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/ponypretties">ponypretties</a> says </div><div class="body">If you don't like your shop name, change it sooner than later! I signed up on etsy as a buyer first and my username wasn't a very memorable shop name. I kept it as my store name for 3 months before finally opening up a new shop. I would have saved myself a lot of time and effort (and useless business cards) if I had just done it sooner! </div><div class="body">********************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/particlesofstone">particlesofstone</a> says </div><div class="body"><br />
</div><div class="body">I think my biggest blunder was not coming to the forums before I opened my shop! I could have learned a lot and avoided the mistakes....</div><div class="body">*********************************************************************************</div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/Brightstar109">Brightstar109</a> says </div><div class="body">I mis-typed my paypal address, I didn't notice for ages because I was selling with no problems in my supplies shop, but when I sold some jewellery the payment didn't go through.</div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">I, too, have done this.</span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">**********************************************************************************</span></span></div><span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/KathyPanton">KathyPanton</a> <span style="color: black;">says </span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">well when i started a whole 2 months ago i bought a whole lot of RECYCLED post paks. They are a recycled version of a padded bag. God knows why, i was just sending paper prints.<br />
<br />
Anyway.... the recycled post paks turned out to pretty much DOUBLE my postage costs ( i just shouldered the cost) because the recycling material , being old newspaper or whatever it was that was inside it , weighed double that of the ordinary postpaks. Its unfortunate, because i would have liked to continue using recycled ones. </span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">I also have made this mistake.</span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">**********************************************************************************</span></div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/momomatic">momomatic</a><span style="color: black;"> says </span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">I misplaced an item! I now put anything that I've taken a picture of for listing in a sealed tupperware bin so the two little kids in my house can't walk off with it. </span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">This happened to me and spurred a total reorganization of my workspace.</span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">**********************************************************************************</span></div><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/deliverusbeads">deliverusbeads</a> <span style="color: black;">says </span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: black;">Don't get down on yourself, STAY POSITIVE! </span></div><div class="body"><span style="color: red;">Visit the get inspired page on this blog to regenerate your attitude.</span></div><div class="body"><br />
</div></div></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-27712982537852310192011-04-28T10:09:00.001-04:002011-05-07T10:48:59.097-04:00How Healthy is Etsy?<h3>Etsy Statistics: March 2011 Weather Report</h3><img alt="" class="main" src="http://www.etsy.com/storque/media/articles/2011/04/12621-wr_march2011_header.png" /> <br />
<div class="byline"><img alt="sinoheterrero" class="user avatar" src="http://images.etsy.com/all_images/7/7a3/ec2/iusa_75x75.6583690.jpg" /> <br />
<div class="store-by">Story by <a class="profile" href="http://www.blogger.com/storque/authors/sinoheterrero/">sinoheterrero</a> </div><div class="published">Published on <span class="posted">Apr 15, 2011</span> in <a class="category" href="http://www.blogger.com/storque/etsy-news/">Etsy News</a> </div><div class="photo-by">Photo by <span class="profile"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/VintageVida" target="_self">VintageVida</a> </span></div></div><div class="txt" sizcache="388" sizset="0">Ah, March. It brings such hope: mild temperatures, fluffy bunnies and fantasy basketball. Fortunately, not everyone was glued to their televisions, hoping for a few successful free-throws — the Etsy community continued to buzz with activity.<br />
<ul sizcache="388" sizset="0"><li>$39.7 million of goods were sold by our community in March, 15.4% higher than February's $34.4 million.</li>
<li>That represents 2,089,805 items sold for the month, 12.9% higher than February’s 1,850,525.</li>
<li>1,927,781 new items were listed in the month, 11.9% higher than February's 1,722,237.</li>
<li>394,511 new members joined the Etsy community in the month, up 34,115, or 9.5%, from February.</li>
<li>1,083,638,738 page views were recorded on the site in March.</li>
</ul>The $39.7 million of goods sold by the community represents a 77% increase from March 2010's total. At the same time, items sold were up 60%.<br />
<br />
Past weather reports: <a href="http://www.etsy.com/storque/search/title/weather-report/">http://www.etsy.com/storque/search/title/weather-report/</a></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-30303363479094280702011-04-25T08:12:00.005-04:002011-05-07T10:47:47.750-04:00Etsy Shop SEO Success in Six Simple (well sort of) Steps, Part 2<span style="color: #6c82b5;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>Selecting the more searchable words you use in title and tags are key to how your item and shop are found when a buyer is searching for vintage jewelry on the web. This two part article was first published on the Sassy Blog. I highly recommend all who seek a shop critique to go to the Sassy team, join and request one. This article was written by Mary of SEO Web Design.</em></span> </span><br />
<div id="content-wrapper"><div class="sidebar-wrapper"><div class="sidebar section" id="sidebar1"><div class="widget Text" id="Text1"><h2 class="title"><div class="date-header"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>Mary</em></span> </span><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/seowebdesign"><span style="color: #4d469c; font-size: small;">http://www.etsy.com/shop/seowebdesign</span></a></div><div class="date-header"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em><span style="font-size: small;">Sassy Blog </span><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/seowebdesign"><span style="color: #4d469c; font-size: small;">http://www.etsy.com/shop/seowebdesign</span></a></em></span></div></h2></div></div></div><div id="main-wrapper"><div class="main section" id="main"><div class="widget Blog" id="Blog1"><div class="blog-posts hfeed"><div class="date-outer"><h2 class="date-header"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Saturday, July 10, 2010</span></h2><div class="date-posts"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" name="7396441501788099082"><span style="color: black;"></span></a><br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title"><a href="http://etsymentors.blogspot.com/2010/07/etsy-shop-seo-success-in-six-simple_10.html"><span style="color: black;">Etsy Shop SEO Success in Six Simple Steps, Part 2</span></a><span style="color: black;"> </span></h3><div class="post-header-line-1"><span style="color: black;"></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content"><span style="color: black;">continued from part 1</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<strong><span class="style6" style="color: black;">4. Optimize (SEO) Each Product Listing</span></strong><br />
<span style="color: black;"><strong>The title of each product listing should contain at least one keyword phras</strong>e, such as, "Handmade Gemstone Necklace - (followed by more descriptive words). . . ".</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">Research the right keyword phrases for your product titles using Google's Free Keyword Research Tool, </span><a href="https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal"><span style="color: black;">https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal</span></a><span style="color: black;">, using the same techniques that you used to research the keywords for your shop title.</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">Here are a few sample product listings before and after SEO:</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">1.Note cards, Set of 2 - Red Vase with Flowers ----> </span><br />
<span style="color: black;">changed to ----> Watercolor Notecards – Floral - Red Vase with Flowers – 4 X 6, set of 2 </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">2. Spring flowers in blue ----> </span><br />
<span style="color: black;">changed to ----> Watercolor Painting - Floral- Spring flowers in blue </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">3. Note cards, set of 2 - Fern Leaf in blue ----> </span><br />
<span style="color: black;">changed to ----> Watercolor Notecards – Floral - Fern Leaf in blue – 4 X 6, set of 2 </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">4. ACEO - Red vase with asparagus fern ----></span><br />
<span style="color: black;">changed to ---->ACEO Art Card - Red vase with asparagus fern</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">or changed to ---->ACEO Original Painting - Red vase with asparagus fern </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><strong>Use the selected keyword phrase</strong> for each product listing at least once in the description of each listing.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
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</span><br />
<h3 align="left"><span style="color: black;">Linking</span></h3><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<strong><span class="style6" style="color: black;">5. Build Inbound Links </span></strong><br />
<span style="color: black;"><strong>The last change you should make is to work on link popularity</strong> to move your shop up higher in the search results for your keywords. Search engines look at inbound links as "votes" for your Web site. Many high quality inbound links move a Web site up in the search engine rankings. The higher up your shop or web site appears in the rankings, the most visitors your shop will have and the more opportunities you have to make a sale.</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><strong>Link to your main shop page and shop sections within each of your listings</strong>. You can see how this would look from this listing from my other shop on Etsy: </span><a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=42286340"><span style="color: black;">http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=42286340</span></a><span style="color: black;">. The text in this listing links back to the main shop page and other sections within my shop. You can also add links to your welcome text and your profile page and add links from the profile page and shop policy page to other pages within your shop.</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><strong>Leave comments on the Etsy Storque articles and in the Etsy forums</strong>. Each comment you post is linked to your shop and that is also counted by the search engines.</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><strong>Build inbound links outside of Etsy. This is a step in optimizing your shop that Etsy does not tell you about but which is critical to SEO.</strong>If you have a blog, <strong>link to your shop from your blog</strong> as often as you can. Links like this help to move your shop up in the search engine rankings. It does take a few months of diligent link building work for the search engines to give you credit for all these links but so well worth the work. This is how to create a clickable link within the body of the blog text:</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.<strong>yourshopname</strong>.etsy.com" target="_blank"><strong>your primary or secondary or any other keyword phrase inserted here</strong></a></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">Replace the words above in <strong>bold</strong> with your shop name and the keywords for your shop. This is called a keyword text link and has more link value to your shop than a simple shop url link. </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><strong>Check your link popularity in the Yahoo search engine</strong> every so often to get an idea of where your links are coming from and how they are building up. Do not check Google as Google only reports a small percentage of inbound links. Yahoo is the </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">In the Yahoo search bar, type in "http://yourshopname.etsy.com" (with quotes) and click on the Search button. You should see a page of information that looks like this: </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="286" src="http://www.wingsdove.com/designgr/EtsyShopSEO-linkto-search.jpg" width="400" /></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">You will see search results of <strong>all the places on the Web that link to your shop</strong>, including all the links within Etsy. Make note of the areas I highlighted in bright pink, such as the URL address in the search box and the total links reported on the left side. </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><strong>Do Not</strong>: leave comments all over the blog world in hopes of building links to your shop. Most blogs have blocked the link value from being passed along the to link target. You can see blocked links clearly with the free Developers Tool Bar that can be installed on the Firefox browser. All blocked links show up as bright pink.</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><strong>Do:</strong> build links from other blogs by sharing links with your friends. Exchange links this way only with trusted web sites and blogs. </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<strong><span class="style6" style="color: black;">6. Check the Search Engines Results Pages</span></strong><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">Wait 2 - 7 days after making these changes before searching on Google or other search engine to see your shop come up in the search results for the keywords in your shop title and section names. Wait up to 2 weeks if you have a brand new shop on Etsy - give the search engines time to find your new shop. Search engines revisit web sites now and then to record new information. If there are a lot of competing web sites for these keywords, you might have to look through a few pages of search results to find your shop. Work on link building if you want your shop to move up in the search results to gain more views. Landing on the first page of search results for even a fairly popular search term is usually a huge boost in visitors and sales to your shop or any Web site.</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">You can read more about the two primary components of SEO, content and linking, on my blog here: </span><a href="http://seo-web-pro.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-we-do-what-we-do-in-seo.html"><span style="color: black;">http://seo-web-pro.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-we-do-what-we-do-in-seo.html</span></a><span style="color: black;">.</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<strong><span class="style6" style="color: black;">Final Words</span></strong><br />
<span style="color: black;">Search Engine Optimization is an ongoing process. Work hard at SEO and you will be rewarded with a large amount of Internet traffic visiting your Etsy shop - all free. Once you have reached where you would like your shop to be in the search results, continue working on link building. The competition on the top of the search results is always working to stay there and new Web sites are always working on getting to the top. You need to keep working to keep ahead of the competition.</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">Conduct new keyword research every few months to see how much your keywords are in use. Popular keyword phrases fall out of "style" and are replaced by new keyword phrases. Make changes to the keywords to your shop if you believe it is necessary. Keep working at SEO to be be found, be seen, and make more and more sales.</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-2197245175909440792011-04-25T07:51:00.007-04:002011-05-07T10:47:23.046-04:00Etsy Shop SEO Success in Six Simple (well sort of) Steps, Part 1<h2 class="date-header"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: small;"><em>Selecting the more searchable words you use in title and tags are key to how your item and shop are found when a buyer is searching for vintage jewelry on the web. This two part article was first published on the Sassy Blog. I highly recommend all who seek a shop critique to go to the Sassy team, join and request one. This article was written by Mary of SEO Web Design.</em></span></h2><div class="date-header"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>Mary</em></span> <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/seowebdesign">http://www.etsy.com/shop/seowebdesign</a></div><div class="date-header"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>Sassy Blog <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/seowebdesign">http://www.etsy.com/shop/seowebdesign</a></em></span></div><h2 class="date-header">Tuesday, July 6, 2010</h2><div class="date-posts"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" name="3343024036478997092"></a><br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title"><a href="http://etsymentors.blogspot.com/2010/07/etsy-shop-seo-success-in-six-simple.html">Etsy Shop SEO Success in Six Simple Steps, Part 1</a> </h3><div class="post-header-line-1"></div><div class="post-body entry-content">The two main components of successful SEO for any Web site or blog are a). <strong>content </strong>and b) <strong>linking</strong>. This article covers both content and linking for the successful SEO of your Etsy shop.</div><h3 align="left" class="post-body entry-content">Content</h3><div class="post-body entry-content"><br />
<br />
There are several places on each Web page that the search engines look to see what the Web page is about. The search engines gather this information, analyze it and then add it to their huge index of Web sites organized by what each Web page is about. Some of this information is in areas of the Web page that can only be seen by looking at the program code.<br />
<br />
You can view the program code for each Web page by clicking on View in your Internet Browser and then clicking on Source. The program code for your main shop page and each shop section will look something like this (you might have to scroll from left to right to see all of this code that is on one line):<br />
<img border="0" height="64" src="http://www.wingsdove.com/designgr/EtsyShopSEO-codeview.jpg" width="400" /><br />
<br />
Locate the title tag, meta description tag and meta keywords tag in the code above and find the same code in the Shop View of your Etsy shop. Now you can see some of the most important text that the search engines look for when they look at your Etsy Shop. Note: They keyword tag is not usually used by any of the large search engines any more but Etsy does move some of your shop and listing information into the Keyword tag. </div><h4 align="center" class="post-body entry-content">OPTIMIZE YOUR ETSY SHOP</h4><div class="post-body entry-content"><br />
<br />
<strong><span class="style6">1. Optimize (SE0) the Shop TItle </span></strong><br />
<br />
The first place that the search engines "read" on a Web page is the title tag. <strong>The title tag is the most important text to the search engines</strong>. This is where the search engine programs first look to find what each Web page on the Internet is about. Placing your best keywords into the shop title places these same keywords into the title tag - then your shop will come up on the search results whenever someone searches for whatever keywords you have placed into the title tag, such as, "handmade gemstone jewelry" or "original ACEO paintings" or "handmade baby clothes."<br />
<br />
The main shop title for each Etsy shop is placed into the title tag by Etsy programs whenever the main shop page is <strong>viewed in Shop VIew</strong>. The section names you in your shop are moved into the title tag whenever each section is viewed in Shop View. Look for the title tag for your shop in the program code. It will look like this:<br />
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<strong><title>SEO Web Design Custom Web Design SEO and SEM by SEOWebDesign</title></strong><br />
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As you can see, <strong>Etsy takes the shop title you create and adds it to the title tag </strong>of the main shop Web page, followed by your shop name and, if there is enough room, the words "on Etsy." I like to fill up my shop and section titles with as many appropriate keyword phrases as possible, confident that the search engines have other ways to figure out that the Web page is on Etsy.<br />
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Each shop title can be successfully optimized (SEO) for one primary keyword phrase and one or two secondary keyword phrases. You will see the reason for this on as you continue through this report.<br />
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<strong>The place to begin optimization</strong> of your title tag is with keyword research. I like to use Google's free Keyword Research Tool that you can find at <a href="https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal"><span style="color: #6c82b5;">https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal</span></a>. Start by keying in the words you think describe what you are selling and Google will give you information about your keywords, such as the total searches in the most recent month for your keywords and also make other keyword recommendations. <br />
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<strong>Choosing keyword phrases from the keywords recommended by Google</strong> with the right number of recorded searches on the Internet is very important to getting found in the search engines. Your shop will get lost in the competing crowd of other web sites if you use a very popular keyword or phrase, such as "jewelry" or "handmade jewelry." On the other hand, your shop will not see an increase in Internet traffic if you use a keyword phrase with too few searches.<br />
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Choose the most appropriate keyword phrase for first placement in your title tag followed by one or two other appropriate keyword phrases. Add punctuation, such as commas if you like. The punctuation is only for human eyes - the search engines ignore punctuation but spaces are important. A few minutes after you make this change, the new shop title words will appear in the title tag of your shop when you are looking at the program code when you view your shop in Shop View.<br />
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<strong>Do not:</strong> break up the keywords phrases in the title tag into a string of words like this: "jewelry, gemstone, sterling silver, chainmaille, . . . . " The search engines will not read this as "gemstone jewelry, sterling silver jewelry, chainmaille jewelry."<br />
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<strong>Do:</strong> Use the complete keyword phrases as you find them in your Keyword Research. The way that you see the keyword phrases in your research is the same way that the search engines will look to find your shop.<br />
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<strong><span class="style6">2. Optimize (SEO) the Shop Welcome Text</span></strong><br />
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This welcome text is the text that Etsy places into the description meta tag and is often what is seen on search results below the title tag. The description tag for your shop looks like this: <br />
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<strong><meta name="description" content="Welcome to my shop, SEO (Search Engine Optimized) Web Design, your source for affordable custom Web designs created and developed by an experienced" ></strong><br />
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This is what the search engines and Internet searchers see when they look at your shop in the search engines results pages.<br />
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On the search results for the example shop, the search results look like this:<br />
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<img border="0" height="170" src="http://www.wingsdove.com/designgr/EtsyShopSEO-search-results.jpg" width="400" /><br />
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The shop title (title tag) is seen on the first line of the search results, followed by the description tag on the next two lines, then followed by the URL of your shop. Think about what you would like the Internet users to see when they see your shop in the search results. Most likely they would first like to know if you have what they are looking for.<br />
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Your welcome text has to contain your keyword phrases to add any benefit for your search engine rankings. It's to your advantage in the search engines to use your keywords in the text and place the most important ones at the top of the text - the ones you would want someone to see on Google if they were searching for the products you are selling. <br />
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In this text include the primary and secondary keyword phrases for your shop as well as the keywords you select for the section names. Use these keywords in the first few sentences of your shop welcome text and use each keyword phrase at least once and more often if you can. Use your keywords several times if you have a large amount of text in the shop welcome text. <br />
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The search engines will decide what the web page is about by the information on the entire page. If you write more about your shipping policies than anything else, for example, then the search engines will give more weight to your shipping policies than to any other text on the page. <br />
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Try words like this, which include your primary shop keywords as well as your section name keywords, for the first few sentences of your shop text (replacing the bold words with your own keywords):<br />
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<em>"In my <strong>your primary keyword phrase here</strong> shop, you will find a large selection of <strong>secondary keyword phrase #1</strong>, <strong>secondary keyword phrase #2</strong> as well as <strong>section name</strong> and <strong>section name</strong> from my <strong>primary or secondary keyword phrase</strong>. I hope you enjoy my <strong>(fill in with several of your section names here</strong>). I add more <strong>primary keyword phrase </strong>items . . .. (etc)"</em><br />
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These first few sentences are a suggestion. You can use your own words – just make sure to include the selected keywords for your shop title and at least a few of your section names in this area of your shop text. The more text you use the and more often you use the keywords for your shop and section names, the better your shop will do in the search engine rankings. Use a large proportion of keywords relative to the amount of text on the page. There truly is no "ideal" percentage of keywords to all the text on the page.<br />
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<strong>The search engines index all of the text on each page of your shop but only display a small amount of the text on the search results.</strong><br />
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<strong><span class="style6">3. Optimize (SEO) the Shop Section Names</span></strong><br />
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The words you use to label your shop sections are added to the Keyword meta tag. More importantly, <strong>each section name is moved into the title tag </strong>of the web page for each section: The keyword tag for your shop looks something like this:<br />
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<strong><meta name="keywords" content="custom etsy shop seo, custom web site seo, custom web design, web design templates, web success 101, custom slide shows, custom web templates" ></strong><br />
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Research the right keyword phrases for your shop section names using Google's Free Keyword Research Tool, <a href="https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal"><span style="color: #6c82b5;">https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal</span></a>, using the same techniques that you used to research the keywords for your shop title.<br />
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<strong>Using full keyword phrases</strong>, such as, "Handmade Necklaces ", “ACEO Paintings,” “Watercolor Notecards,” and “Vintage Women's Dresses ”, that are actually used in real searches in the search engines is beneficial to the SEO of your shop. Use all of the sections in your shop to get the most out of the section name keywords.<br />
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<strong>Do Not</strong>: use spaces between each letter of each word, such as, J E W E L R Y, for section names. This does not work for SEO - search engine will read each letter as a separate word.<br />
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<strong>Do: </strong>Using full keyword phrases, such as, Handmade Gemstone Jewelry, for section names.</div><div class="post-body entry-content"></div><div class="post-body entry-content">To be continued . . . . <br />
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</div></div></div></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013430477979098034.post-33748080578168726882011-04-22T11:14:00.004-04:002011-05-07T10:46:47.111-04:003,000 Sales and Three Strange Ways of Thinking<div class="left trigger-action-toolbox" jquery1303484468431="150"></div><div class="left trigger-action-toolbox" jquery1303484468431="150"><span style="background-color: red; color: purple; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Found on the Esty Forums by a seller who reached 3,000 sales and really gets the big picture....</span></div><div class="left trigger-action-toolbox" jquery1303484468431="150"></div><div class="left trigger-action-toolbox" jquery1303484468431="150"></div><div class="left trigger-action-toolbox" jquery1303484468431="150"></div><div class="left trigger-action-toolbox" jquery1303484468431="150"></div><div class="left trigger-action-toolbox" jquery1303484468431="150"></div><div class="left trigger-action-toolbox" jquery1303484468431="150"><a data-uid="5808348" href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/NeatThings" jquery1303484468431="151"><img alt="NeatThings avatar" height="75" src="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/iusa_75x75.7792981.jpg" width="75" /> </a></div><div class="right" jquery1303484468431="45"><div class="from"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/NeatThings">NeatThings</a> says </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnEepGkItPNijkdiC9cZXfxs09ZvX58MimZ0Syj5nX0PtBGcciswKpbahQePEdTWK2YCzoFtGZhu1MYaLVN2onKt0tXSregcnOsNWazCTKzfpSIvac8kIut9oAMarm_qy05iamFR4WMFwx/s1600/32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnEepGkItPNijkdiC9cZXfxs09ZvX58MimZ0Syj5nX0PtBGcciswKpbahQePEdTWK2YCzoFtGZhu1MYaLVN2onKt0tXSregcnOsNWazCTKzfpSIvac8kIut9oAMarm_qy05iamFR4WMFwx/s200/32.jpg" width="166" /></a></div><div class="body" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLojqj7wkMeTmC-WTFRNpo6ae7MajFhyphenhyphenZNy9sLMuBBq8-bJOyu3R4y-Y5IMdiJhtk-IEa2tO9d5bkaI_bBZL9XX6GHfiWETt4hIg3CESnfVTbeFLPJv1hmG2yq_J99orMdl281Xrf8kdpH/s1600/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLojqj7wkMeTmC-WTFRNpo6ae7MajFhyphenhyphenZNy9sLMuBBq8-bJOyu3R4y-Y5IMdiJhtk-IEa2tO9d5bkaI_bBZL9XX6GHfiWETt4hIg3CESnfVTbeFLPJv1hmG2yq_J99orMdl281Xrf8kdpH/s200/6.jpg" width="166" /></a>Without realizing it, I just hit 3,000 sales today. I wanted to offer a supplement to my 2,000 sales thread (linked below) and a few more tidbits about the way my mind works that, I'm convinced, help me do well on Etsy.<br />
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<span style="background-color: purple; color: red; font-size: large;">1. I never make service decisions based on blame or fault.</span>Say a customer screws up. He gives you an old address. He orders the wrong thing. He fails to see the size on your item even though it's in the description. As a seller, I can always point the finger and say, "Well, honey, you screwed up. It's not my job to fix YOUR mistakes." And, if I were that kind of person, I might also tack on a silent "nyah" to the end.<br />
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This business, so far, does not operate that way. Mistakes are few and far between. Regardles of blame, I feel it's my responsibilty as the business owner to make sure my customers get what they want. So even when they screw up, I aim to fix it for them. Regardless of the cost of my individual items, the size of the order, or the shipping costs. And offering such enhanced service is built into the business model.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7AyU2R8wTSOhw1OWaWspq6UZwdV8bdSjfvRsjFSL2cTg-WYEX-jscIBwlo5eEEtK8mlcoZ_htGpzX02twNckeiyGXbMBLWW2y15WXqzDhywbHVD_xMraiajtczRn0iT_SHyXsHxTXX3NF/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7AyU2R8wTSOhw1OWaWspq6UZwdV8bdSjfvRsjFSL2cTg-WYEX-jscIBwlo5eEEtK8mlcoZ_htGpzX02twNckeiyGXbMBLWW2y15WXqzDhywbHVD_xMraiajtczRn0iT_SHyXsHxTXX3NF/s320/3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="font-size: large;">2. I adapt</span>.</span></span>Etsy makes changes all the time. Competitors emulate my business. My website host goes down. A retailer has a special need. Instead of getting upset over any change that might impact my business, I simply adapt.<br />
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I don't kick and scream. I generally don't complain on the forums or to friends. I don't cry. Instead, I consider Etsy's changes and figure out how to make them work. I decide whether to take action against my competitors while seeking to grow in unexpected directions. I seek out new web hosts that are less likely to crash. I fill whatever need within my power that a retailer, and important part of this business, has.<br />
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For me, complaining or getting upset never solves. Not one who needs to "vent" very often, I compartmentalize my mind just like a robot and save "getting upset" for a time when it actually achieves something useful.<br />
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<span style="background-color: purple; color: red; font-size: large;">3. I tap into my own strangeness.</span>When I was a teenager, dad used to say, "Figure out what you do better than everyone else and do that for a living."<br />
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If you look at my product line, you might laugh, you might be offended, or you might be bored. I never concern myself too much with the last two because I know they aren't going to buy my products anyhow. But those who share my sense of humor and style will.<br />
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The fact that I've accepted my own peccadilloes and work them into my end product is, I think, a very important part of my business. Knowing who you are and tapping into what makes you unique without shame, without inhibition, and without fear is one of the most important habits of any successful creative professional.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_16j7bQO8O-iF_l37CUkPRZtFAzvX7rd1c3rzsSJXb60OQWSZAmRkdQwamdwsynGa3Mhjpll8muJw4cUIQyiVguBeUfIa1q1au0SG-auP7cu_G_749wHYD4UOpZC7-E9fuImjveWNGCjx/s1600/11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_16j7bQO8O-iF_l37CUkPRZtFAzvX7rd1c3rzsSJXb60OQWSZAmRkdQwamdwsynGa3Mhjpll8muJw4cUIQyiVguBeUfIa1q1au0SG-auP7cu_G_749wHYD4UOpZC7-E9fuImjveWNGCjx/s200/11.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />
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Don't be afraid of whether or not you'll fail. Don't be afraid of whether or not you'll be laughed at. Don't be afraid of what people might think, say, do, gossip about, whisper about, or point fingers at. Don't be afraid to be exactly who you are and embrace those things you've long believed were flaws. They aren't. In fact, they may be the key to turning your business into something really special.<br />
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I thought I'd also spit out the info from my thread after reaching 2,000 sales as it's still applicable and was only a few months ago:<br />
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<a href="http://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/6681228/" target="_blank">www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/<span style="background-color: white;">6681228<span style="color: white;">/</span></span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: white;"> </span></div></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586614493469879624noreply@blogger.com2