1.First off I would suggest you shorten up your announcement. It is nice to know when all the holidays are each month but I don't know if it is worth putting them in your announcement because it makes it too long. If you really want to keep them there I would at least move them to the end. I would also move your teams and outside websites to your profile. 2. As far as your prices and shipping go I think they are very reasonable. 3. Photos: I would like to see more background in your photos. I think you are cropping them to close. I would also suggest you take the copyright info off the main photo I find that distracting. Include a photo of the card with the envelope would be nice too. Your titles and descriptions look good as well as your profile and policies. I see that you have accounts on all the top outside marketing sites. From what I have seen they all look good. Once again these are only my suggestions. Hopefully you will find something I said helpful. Over all your I think your work is great though. I wish you good luck with continued sales.
Shop Announcement I definitely think it would be a good idea to shorten up the announcement. If you are selling items for any of these events and occasions, just be sure that they are tagged appropriately.
I personally think You should open your shop announcement with the statement beginning with "I carry a variety of handmade items....." followed by "For custom albums..." and then ending with the "Thanks for visiting my shop..." statement. Those items contain SEO-friendly keywords that are quite relevant to your shop.
Social networking and team information could be moved to your profile. If you want to direct the customer to this information, you can always provide an in-site link (a link on etsy.com - like to the profile page) in your shop announcement. The tail end of your item descriptions are another ideal place to plug you social networking information, since not everyone will find your items directly from the front page of your shop.
Shop Sections It looks like you have at least one empty shop section and a couple of shop sections with only one item. Since you don't necessarily need shop sections and if you don't plan on filling those sections in the near future, you may consider eliminating them until you need them again.
Item Photos I noticed that you don't always use all five spots alloted for photos. If you have a hard time coming up with photo styling ideas, you can always do something to show the dimension of the item, like standing the card up and photographing from an angle. One thing I like to do with my journals and albums is either open the covers and fan the pages, photographing from above. I also like to make my thicker albums flat then photograph a corner up close at a slight angle so the customer can see how thick the album is.
I thought that the "Judaic Gift Tags - Stained Glass Series, Maroon and Gold" did look fuzzy. I also noticed that it looks like you used a flash on the Pawsitively Adorable Wine charms and maybe a couple of other items. A flash can wash out the color of your item and produce glare. If you are able to do so, try photographing with natural light near a window, or use a lighting setup that will bring out the colors of the charms a little better. If you have strong lighting coming in a window, you can always diffuse it with a thin, white cloth.
I don't know if this pertains to your photo setup or if you do this with a photo editing program, but it looks like you have some sort of a solid border happening around some of your photos, like around the Judaic Note Cards, for example. If there is a way you can eliminate that border and use that little bit of precious real estate to show off more of the item, then go ahead and do that.
As far as the crop of the photo is concerned, I think it's acceptable to crop your photos as necessary, especially if you need to zoom in and showcase some of the finer details on your items. I was advised during my critique to have at least one photo showcasing the entire item. I think as long as you have a photo like that, too, then whatever cropping you use to produce and attention-getting image is fine.
Item Descriptions Consider adding the card dimensions in centimeters as well as inches. Doing this will be pretty helpful to international customers. When I added this information to my item descriptions, I just had a text file made up on my computer with a list of the dimensions I commonly use to make my items. After I figured out the inch/centimeter equivalents of all my dimensions, I just copied and pasted the information from my text file into my item description. I'm keeping this file permanently so I don't have to look up the conversions every time I need them.
I noted that you referenced different series in some of your item listings - Old World, Asian Influence. If there is any kind of a story or interesting nugget that spawned these inspirations, like travels or stories you've read, tell the customer about them. This is one way to help the customer project themselves or connect to your item.
It didn't look like your copyright notice was added to all of your items. Double check this, and consider adding your .com to the copyright notice in your descriptions as well.
Also consider adding a link to your convo page in the item descriptions. Again, not everyone is going to find your shop directly through its' front page.
Item Shipping It was a little confusing to me. It says you ship from the United States, but do you ship within the United States, or is that intended to mean that you ship everywhere for the one price? You might double check international shipping rates just so you're not losing money on that end.
Social Networking Twitter On my previous critique, I discussed a trick I learned about Twitter that may help with gaining visibility. The hashtag (the # symbol) used directly in front of a word will turn that word into an active link on Twitter. Click on that link and anyone who has used that entire phrase - followers or not - will appear in a list. It's one way to get your listing information in front of people who may not necessarily be following you.
Facebook A couple more things to consider: Have you thought about posting your item photos in albums on your Facebook fan page? Do you belong to any craft-related or Etsy-related groups on Facebook? If so, do you share photos of your items with these groups? Do you take advantage of the opportunity to post links to any of your items on the links pages or walls of said groups?
Jen S. Simply Inviting Cards http://SimplyInvitingCards.Etsy.com
I have been so involved in a Hanukkah promotion that I hadn't had a chance to thank everyone or to implement any of the suggestions offered. I will definitely be going through all the suggestions and will make appropriate changes. thanks again for taking the time to comment on my shop.
Hi Hemma,
ReplyDelete1.First off I would suggest you shorten up your announcement. It is nice to know when all the holidays are each month but I don't know if it is worth putting them in your announcement because it makes it too long. If you really want to keep them there I would at least move them to the end. I would also move your teams and outside websites to your profile.
2. As far as your prices and shipping go I think they are very reasonable.
3. Photos: I would like to see more background in your photos. I think you are cropping them to close. I would also suggest you take the copyright info off the main photo I find that distracting. Include a photo of the card with the envelope would be nice too.
Your titles and descriptions look good as well as your profile and policies.
I see that you have accounts on all the top outside marketing sites. From what I have seen they all look good.
Once again these are only my suggestions. Hopefully you will find something I said helpful.
Over all your I think your work is great though. I wish you good luck with continued sales.
Hello Hemma,
ReplyDeleteShop Announcement
I definitely think it would be a good idea to shorten up the announcement. If you are selling items for any of these events and occasions, just be sure that they are tagged appropriately.
I personally think You should open your shop announcement with the statement beginning with "I carry a variety of handmade items....." followed by "For custom albums..." and then ending with the "Thanks for visiting my shop..." statement. Those items contain SEO-friendly keywords that are quite relevant to your shop.
Social networking and team information could be moved to your profile. If you want to direct the customer to this information, you can always provide an in-site link (a link on etsy.com - like to the profile page) in your shop announcement. The tail end of your item descriptions are another ideal place to plug you social networking information, since not everyone will find your items directly from the front page of your shop.
Shop Sections
It looks like you have at least one empty shop section and a couple of shop sections with only one item. Since you don't necessarily need shop sections and if you don't plan on filling those sections in the near future, you may consider eliminating them until you need them again.
Item Photos
I noticed that you don't always use all five spots alloted for photos. If you have a hard time coming up with photo styling ideas, you can always do something to show the dimension of the item, like standing the card up and photographing from an angle. One thing I like to do with my journals and albums is either open the covers and fan the pages, photographing from above. I also like to make my thicker albums flat then photograph a corner up close at a slight angle so the customer can see how thick the album is.
I thought that the "Judaic Gift Tags - Stained Glass Series, Maroon and Gold" did look fuzzy. I also noticed that it looks like you used a flash on the Pawsitively Adorable Wine charms and maybe a couple of other items. A flash can wash out the color of your item and produce glare. If you are able to do so, try photographing with natural light near a window, or use a lighting setup that will bring out the colors of the charms a little better. If you have strong lighting coming in a window, you can always diffuse it with a thin, white cloth.
I don't know if this pertains to your photo setup or if you do this with a photo editing program, but it looks like you have some sort of a solid border happening around some of your photos, like around the Judaic Note Cards, for example. If there is a way you can eliminate that border and use that little bit of precious real estate to show off more of the item, then go ahead and do that.
As far as the crop of the photo is concerned, I think it's acceptable to crop your photos as necessary, especially if you need to zoom in and showcase some of the finer details on your items. I was advised during my critique to have at least one photo showcasing the entire item. I think as long as you have a photo like that, too, then whatever cropping you use to produce and attention-getting image is fine.
Item Descriptions
ReplyDeleteConsider adding the card dimensions in centimeters as well as inches. Doing this will be pretty helpful to international customers. When I added this information to my item descriptions, I just had a text file made up on my computer with a list of the dimensions I commonly use to make my items. After I figured out the inch/centimeter equivalents of all my dimensions, I just copied and pasted the information from my text file into my item description. I'm keeping this file permanently so I don't have to look up the conversions every time I need them.
I noted that you referenced different series in some of your item listings - Old World, Asian Influence. If there is any kind of a story or interesting nugget that spawned these inspirations, like travels or stories you've read, tell the customer about them. This is one way to help the customer project themselves or connect to your item.
It didn't look like your copyright notice was added to all of your items. Double check this, and consider adding your .com to the copyright notice in your descriptions as well.
Also consider adding a link to your convo page in the item descriptions. Again, not everyone is going to find your shop directly through its' front page.
Item Shipping
It was a little confusing to me. It says you ship from the United States, but do you ship within the United States, or is that intended to mean that you ship everywhere for the one price? You might double check international shipping rates just so you're not losing money on that end.
Social Networking
Twitter
On my previous critique, I discussed a trick I learned about Twitter that may help with gaining visibility. The hashtag (the # symbol) used directly in front of a word will turn that word into an active link on Twitter. Click on that link and anyone who has used that entire phrase - followers or not - will appear in a list. It's one way to get your listing information in front of people who may not necessarily be following you.
Facebook
A couple more things to consider:
Have you thought about posting your item photos in albums on your Facebook fan page?
Do you belong to any craft-related or Etsy-related groups on Facebook? If so, do you share photos of your items with these groups? Do you take advantage of the opportunity to post links to any of your items on the links pages or walls of said groups?
Jen S.
Simply Inviting Cards
http://SimplyInvitingCards.Etsy.com
I have been so involved in a Hanukkah promotion that I hadn't had a chance to thank everyone or to implement any of the suggestions offered. I will definitely be going through all the suggestions and will make appropriate changes.
ReplyDeletethanks again for taking the time to comment on my shop.