Small Ceramic Box by SquealWithDelight on Etsy

Small Ceramic Box by SquealWithDelight on Etsy

Ceramic Box #1

Some Advice on Listing a New Item and What Category/Categories to Put It In

    I've now blogged about listing four different porcelain boxes: #1 Brown, #50, #15, and #1 Yellow (in order). Each one was posted on a separate day and each one was put in a different Category or Subcategory on Etsy. I'm doing that to figure out which Category or Categories would be best to put these boxes in from now on. Here are the stats so far:

#1 Brown - 5 days ago - 29 views..................................................Ceramics and Pottery...Home Decor

#50     -      3 days ago  -  14 views + a feature in a treasury...........Art...Sculpture...Ceramic

#15      -      2 days ago - 19 views................................................Housewares...Box

#1 Yellow - 4 hours ago - 6 views.................................................Ceramics and Pottery...Decoration

     Unfortunately, I cannot attribute views solely to people happening upon my boxes though. Both #1s and #15 were shared on my personal Facebook. I just now "liked" my #50 on Things to Make you Squeal with Delight on Etsy to make it even.

Small Ceramic Box by SquealWithDelight on Etsy

Small Ceramic Box by SquealWithDelight on Etsy

The Stats:

#1 Brown - 7 days ago - 31 views.......................................Ceramics and Pottery...Home Decor

#50     -      5 days ago  -  21 views + a feature in a treasury......Art...Sculpture...Ceramic

#15      -      4 days ago - 23 views.............................................Housewares...Box

#1 Yellow - 2 days ago - 11 views........................................Ceramics and Pottery...Decoration

#325    -     11 mins ago - 0 views.............................................Housewares...Box

I tried listing this porcelain box in the Housewares category again. We'll see how that works out. I'm thinking #15 took off nicely, so hopefully box #325 will too.

Small Ceramic Box by SquealWithDelight on Etsy

Small Ceramic Box by SquealWithDelight on Etsy

So a new addition to my shop is a line of ceramic ware that I made last year. I have about 15 of these ceramic boxes left of the 20 I made for a piece called Compartmentalization. Here's a picture!

     I will be selling these boxes separately for $10 each.
     And to top it off, as I have learned is the best practice on Etsy, I will not be listing them all at the exact same time! I will either list one or two in a day at peek hours (times when people are out of work). A bit of advice, when listing a couple items a day, do one of the following:
     ~List them an hour or more apart or
     ~You could list two items one right after another if they are going to be put into two different categories (ie one in ceramics, the other in jewelry).

Tagging Your Etsy Items

     Tagging is a way to supply the Etsy Search Engine with the words that will lead people to your products. They are important! But you have a very limited amount to use for each listing. Today I am blogging about a blog that was about a discussion thread. lol I love it!

     The name of the blog post is Community Advice: Tagging Woes. It was written by Etsian daniellexo. It, too, points people towards Craftopolis. "Craftopolis will tell you exactly which of your tags brought in the views," says Etsy username AndersonBraid. So I'm glad to hear someone else suggest that, it just cements it in my mind as a useful tool to learn. (Something I still need to do.)

     Another tool mentioned in this blog article is Google AdWords. This VERY useful video for Etsy sellers talks about using AdWords as well as some other extremely helpful tips about Search Engine Optimization. It talks about everything I've blogged about so far, actually! Hey, I don't know about you, but repetition helps me learn. :)

Search Engine Optimization

Today, I am learning about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Etsy does all that for you (ie you can't mess with the HTML to help yourself out), but today I am acting as SEO Adviser for my husband who is a web developer.  He knows how to make a website, and I am learning how to make sure that website gets in the top 10 when certain terms are googled. It can be a very time consuming task! As I said, this isn't very relevant to Etsy sellers. BUT I have learned a couple things I've learned so far that are helpful:

1. When you title a new item for sale: keep it simple. Call it what it is. For example, don't list a set of earrings called "Dainty Glitter Fairy Wings." That will not be put into the "relevant" category if someone searches for earrings. Call them "Earrings: Fairy Wings" or something short. Think about the terms people will use to search for your item.
2. How do the search engines do what they do?! When a term is searched on Google (or any other search engine), it determines if a site is relevant to your search by checking out the following:

• It first looks for pages containing your exact phrase first. Having the exact phrase in your Title is important.
• Then it looks for pages that have those words close together but not necessarily even in the same sentence.
• It also looks for synonyms of the words your searched for.
• Then it looks at pages that have those words scattered around the page.

So: The content you provide for your item description should contain keywords (words people may use to search for your item) as well!