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Pandari
Jun 1, 2005
Pandafied pirate
Slowly been updating my shop, I do a little of everything. Right now, there's mostly a bunch of Vintage items (Moslty Japanese imports), cosplay related things and plush toys.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/pandari
( I've also got a thread open over on SA mart)



I love seeing what everyone else does or likes! It's so refreshing <3

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13Pandora13
Nov 5, 2008

I've got tiiits that swingle dangle dingle




Not my Kickstarter/Etsy, but a fellow Goonette just launched a daily planner Kickstarter for young women and girls: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missheardmedia/the-2019-girl-powered-planner She runs an amazing 'zine for young women as well and this project is her baby

Eodoin
Dec 3, 2014

How are you guys doing about the new fee increase? I was wondering how other creators are handling/planning to handle the changes.

For reference or if you didn't know yet Etsy is rising it's fees from 3.5% to 5% including shipping. They are also adding a pay wall for additional features. Mostly just shop customization and credits to listings and advertising. Considering the custom url would cost more money. You can find out more info here

Personally thinking of going to more cons and eventually getting my own website. I can understand the changes from a business point of view. But I can only see it hurting anyone who doesn't already run their shop as a full time business.

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

Its a really tiny increase and leaves etsy as still being the cheapest option around.

insouciantly
Aug 21, 2018

"Take no heed of her... she reads a lot of books."
Well, I've decided to do the crazy thing and quit my day job to try to be a full time artist. To feed and support that dream, I'm making a big push at esty and local craft fairs.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/KellyWoveIt

I weave scarves! I feel like they're pretty awesome. I weave some of them with reflective strips, like the stuff in night-time safety clothes, so any direct light like headlights or a camera flash make them seem to "light up."

You know what they say.... Winter is coming! (Sorry, couldn't help it).

Only registered members can see post attachments!

Comrade Quack
Jun 6, 2006
Witty closing remarks have been replaced by massive head trauma and general stupidity.
Not a scarf person but those seem pretty nice.

learnincurve
May 15, 2014

Smoosh
I am a scarf person and I’ve never wanted one more than that in my life.

Tommy2toes
Jun 27, 2004
cows go moo
Hi guys this is my etsy shop, i have some small charms on there at the moment with more to come and some larger statue type items and maybe some cosplay gear.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/littletreasurestown

Tommy2toes fucked around with this message at 12:10 on Oct 29, 2018

Ars Arcanum
Jan 20, 2005

Best friends make the best weapons

insouciantly posted:

Well, I've decided to do the crazy thing and quit my day job to try to be a full time artist. To feed and support that dream, I'm making a big push at esty and local craft fairs.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/KellyWoveIt

I weave scarves! I feel like they're pretty awesome. I weave some of them with reflective strips, like the stuff in night-time safety clothes, so any direct light like headlights or a camera flash make them seem to "light up."

You know what they say.... Winter is coming! (Sorry, couldn't help it).



This is goddamn gorgeous and I want it (and also I am deeply envious of your ability to create practical things that are also lovely).

Tommy2toes posted:

Hi guys this is my etsy shop, i have some small charms on there at the moment with more to come and some larger statue type items and maybe some cosplay gear.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/littletreasurestown



These are adorable (and I wish I was as good with polymer clay as you clearly are).

It's been almost three years since I abandoned my shop (who would've guessed what should have been a dream job for me would actually destroy my creativity and mental health?). I'm finally starting to get it up and running again, but I'm pretty intimidated by all that's changed since I was last around, not to mention how Etsy has become even more saturated by cheap mass-produced stuff people are pawning. I wish this thread was a bit more active, since I could really use some advice on handling all the SEO nonsense and whatnot.

I mostly make jewelry and magnets using interesting and fancy papers.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/twoelements

Only registered members can see post attachments!

insouciantly
Aug 21, 2018

"Take no heed of her... she reads a lot of books."
Thanks for all the compliments! I'm jumping off the steady-employment boat to try to weave full time, so knowing that other people actually like what I make is really helpful right now.

Ars Arcanum posted:

It's been almost three years since I abandoned my shop (who would've guessed what should have been a dream job for me would actually destroy my creativity and mental health?). I'm finally starting to get it up and running again, but I'm pretty intimidated by all that's changed since I was last around, not to mention how Etsy has become even more saturated by cheap mass-produced stuff people are pawning. I wish this thread was a bit more active, since I could really use some advice on handling all the SEO nonsense and whatnot.

I've been there. I just recently quit my dream-job-turned-energy-vampire to try to focus on creativity full time. Its terrifying, but at least I wake up and *want* to get out of bed right now?

Before the job turned really terrible, I did manage to absorb some things about SEO. I worked for an online fabric company you've likely heard of as part of their web development team, and the board always wanted to look at etsy as an example of how they thought our search should work. If you have any specific questions I can try to answer them? Try is definitely the operative word. The one real thing I learned about SEO is that it is dark magic everyone talks about but no one is willing to define. Google, etsy, whoever, it doesn't matter. They'll tell you they do it, they'll tell you its important, they'll give you tidbits to try to guide you and use you the way they want to, but they will never EVER give out their magic formula because they don't want people to game the system.

That said, etsy did just add a pretty new feature where they actually show you what phrases people searched for that led them to your listings, and how high on the page your listing was, and if they clicked or not, and if they bought anything or not. I'm hoping it becomes helpful in guiding what tags and phrases to add to my own listings.

insouciantly fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Nov 7, 2018

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

The problem is that, so far, they only include search through the site and not the app, which is only like 8% of my sales.

13Pandora13
Nov 5, 2008

I've got tiiits that swingle dangle dingle




My friend just launched a size inclusive Surf and Yoga wear line (that I modeled for!). All garments are US made. The fabric is made from recycled oceanic plastic and is UPF 50:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/...SsaYe7yydnfhQ#/

13Pandora13 fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Nov 18, 2018

taqueso
Mar 8, 2004


:911:
:wookie: :thermidor: :wookie:
:dehumanize:

:pirate::hf::tinfoil:
The link doesn't work, it includes '...' in the middle, I'm guessing you copied the text from somewhere?

Ars Arcanum
Jan 20, 2005

Best friends make the best weapons

insouciantly posted:

Thanks for all the compliments! I'm jumping off the steady-employment boat to try to weave full time, so knowing that other people actually like what I make is really helpful right now.


I've been there. I just recently quit my dream-job-turned-energy-vampire to try to focus on creativity full time. Its terrifying, but at least I wake up and *want* to get out of bed right now?

Before the job turned really terrible, I did manage to absorb some things about SEO. I worked for an online fabric company you've likely heard of as part of their web development team, and the board always wanted to look at etsy as an example of how they thought our search should work. If you have any specific questions I can try to answer them? Try is definitely the operative word. The one real thing I learned about SEO is that it is dark magic everyone talks about but no one is willing to define. Google, etsy, whoever, it doesn't matter. They'll tell you they do it, they'll tell you its important, they'll give you tidbits to try to guide you and use you the way they want to, but they will never EVER give out their magic formula because they don't want people to game the system.

That said, etsy did just add a pretty new feature where they actually show you what phrases people searched for that led them to your listings, and how high on the page your listing was, and if they clicked or not, and if they bought anything or not. I'm hoping it becomes helpful in guiding what tags and phrases to add to my own listings.

Thank you! I would sincerely appreciate any advice or information at this point; despite being a wholehearted internet goon, I've never been able to wrap my head around listing algorithms and whatnot.

I guess I just don't understand SEO...everything I read about it, or every video I watch, etc. is just the same bland advice to title/tag/describe things the same as I would anyway. Like, "flower necklace" is in no way going to make one of my pieces stand out amid the bazillion identical metal rose necklaces all the top results show. I'm not really sure how to tag or describe my stuff in a way that shoppers would search for, since what makes it unique is pretty specific. Honestly, aside from a couple random hits from social media, all my shop views since I started listing again have been from SA.

I mean, I get jewelry is one of the worst categories to try to break into, but as someone who has also shopped on Etsy since its inception, it's really depressing to put in a search term and see tons of the same crummy stuff that is obviously not handmade or unique in any way. I guess I just don't know what to do, other than maybe follow through with my plan to start hitting up local events and stuff instead of investing a ton of time and effort into establishing a solid Etsy shop.

Of course I welcome any and all advice you and everyone else here has. If I'm missing something or people have suggestions for tags and search terms, please tell me! I'd just like it if shoppers looking for something NOT mass produced (aside from stamping some "personal" initials into metal) would be able to find my stuff.

Ars Arcanum fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Nov 18, 2018

13Pandora13
Nov 5, 2008

I've got tiiits that swingle dangle dingle




taqueso posted:

The link doesn't work, it includes '...' in the middle, I'm guessing you copied the text from somewhere?

Whoops. Hopefully this works better? https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/124-west-yoga-surf-and-swimwear-for-all-bodies#/

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

by the way, anyone in on a holiday goon thread this year? Last one I didn't have time to run but this time I totally do.

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

Ars Arcanum posted:

Thank you! I would sincerely appreciate any advice or information at this point; despite being a wholehearted internet goon, I've never been able to wrap my head around listing algorithms and whatnot.

I guess I just don't understand SEO...everything I read about it, or every video I watch, etc. is just the same bland advice to title/tag/describe things the same as I would anyway. Like, "flower necklace" is in no way going to make one of my pieces stand out amid the bazillion identical metal rose necklaces all the top results show. I'm not really sure how to tag or describe my stuff in a way that shoppers would search for, since what makes it unique is pretty specific. Honestly, aside from a couple random hits from social media, all my shop views since I started listing again have been from SA.

I mean, I get jewelry is one of the worst categories to try to break into, but as someone who has also shopped on Etsy since its inception, it's really depressing to put in a search term and see tons of the same crummy stuff that is obviously not handmade or unique in any way. I guess I just don't know what to do, other than maybe follow through with my plan to start hitting up local events and stuff instead of investing a ton of time and effort into establishing a solid Etsy shop.

Of course I welcome any and all advice you and everyone else here has. If I'm missing something or people have suggestions for tags and search terms, please tell me! I'd just like it if shoppers looking for something NOT mass produced (aside from stamping some "personal" initials into metal) would be able to find my stuff.

Didn't see this before, lemme give some feedback with a sample listing

Yellow Rose Pendant - Handmade Polymer Clay and Glass Pendant
https://www.etsy.com/listing/189333629/yellow-rose-pendant-handmade-polymer?ref=shop_home_active_13

For tags, single-word tags are a bad idea generally, since etsy does substring sampling. Trying to match exact multi-word phrases is cool and good, but there's no benefit for including 'rose' over 'yellow rose' (and there is a benefit for including 'yellow rose' over 'yellow' and 'rose'.

Here's how I'd suggest to change the tags, combining some, removing the one-word tags, and adding some other ones. I'm pretty sure I didn't go over the tag character limit on these (if you want to make the 'round rose jewelry' and 'tiny rose jewelry' tags less redundant here you can as well).

yellow rose necklace
mini rose pendant
pendant necklace
mini pendant
rose
yellow

polymer clay pendant
tiny rose jewelry
yellow flower gift
glass flower pendant
rosebud necklace
round rose jewelry
rose necklace

and I'd add these, since they're things people might be looking for

pendant with chain
vintage flower photo

I'd also add in the description that yellow roses symbolize friendship in the language of flowers. It might or might not pan out, but it's the sort of thing people on etsy like, but it also gives you these tags

friendship pendant
language of flowers

As for the title

Yellow Rose Pendant - Handmade Polymer Clay and Glass Pendant

Now, personally, I prefer using commas instead of - to split up my phrases, since that way you only use two characters between them instead of three. Also, I've heard that including 'handmade' just to have it as a word isn't very useful, since everything in the 'handmade' half of etsy pings for it - it'll only help if it exactly matches a phrase.

Yellow Rose Pendant, Vintage Photo Jewelry, Round Glass Marble, Rose Photo Gift, Golden Flower, Polymer Clay and Glass Necklace with Chain

'Vintage Photo' still has the issue of etsy autocorrecting every search that leads with 'vintage' to the vintage section, but 'vintage photo' is also a common search, so it's probably worthwhile to include anyway. If you wanted you could replace 'Rose Photo' with 'Rose Picture', or free up a few characters to add 'friendship' to the title.

One other important factor is that Etsy no longer gives uneven weighting for search on where a string is located in the title - only the first few words show up to users in search, however, so you want your 'real' title to be included at the beginning, and put your more seo-type description babble at the end.

Ars Arcanum
Jan 20, 2005

Best friends make the best weapons
Tunicate, thank you so much. A lot of the tag stuff...ugh, I remember back in the day thinking that the sponsored Etsy guides (as well as a ton of the ones on social media) seemed like oversimplified useless junk for the most part when it came to their advice about tags and such, but having been out of the game for years + all the algorithm updates and whatnot makes it feel like a nightmare, so I was just going with what they said until I find time to work things out.

Thank you for taking the time to check out my listing and provide some solid info and advice! I'll work on trying to fix up my tags and listing info soon. You're awesome.

joats
Aug 18, 2007
stupid bewbie
Just opened up a shop. In the coming days I will put up more string art and some art prints.

I work as an architect full time, this would be part time to help relieve some debt. But crafts are something I enjoy doing.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/JDcompositions

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

Oh yeah, I probably didn't mention it - the autocomplete in etsy's search bar is a fairly good way to get suggestions for tags. It only includes the most common searches, which is a bit of a mixed bag (since some of them are gonna have a ton of competitors), but it's better than nothing.

AquaticIguana
Apr 29, 2009

I dabble in honky sorcery from time to time.
Hey, I used to hawk stuff on eBay for beer money and am finally trying out Etsy with what I have on hand. I miss flipping old stuff as a side hustle so I'm looking to do that once I get through my backstock. Rght now it's just a handful of old costume jewelry but I'll have more variety in the future.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FoundNorthwest

Looking for feedback. Cobbled the profile and banner images together in Wix and will work on them at some point. Etsy is totally new to me.

AquaticIguana fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Dec 23, 2018

value-brand cereal
May 2, 2008

Cross posting this. I hope no one here was affected, but I figured a heads up might be helpful!

Stolen from tumblr here: http://cosmomoore.tumblr.com/post/182861239591

https://twitter.com/sadiemcshadie/status/1096516453589647361?s=09


the above twitter posted:

Trouble at Etsy. Accounts have been seeing charges of over $5000 to their credit cards connected to their shop accounts. Shoppers might want to check their accounts as well. Etsy took $12,000 from this shop owner @etsy #etsy

There's more in the twitter thread linked above. That tweet was posted on Feb 15th 2019.

mirrorada posted:

http://mirrorada.tumblr.com/post/182874720435
It gets better (worse) Etsy is returning the money via the payment account. They also halted all payments out going on Friday and returned(recalled) any that had started processing. They payment account is seeing these returns/refunds as new transactions which is hitting people with another 5%+ And what has Etsy said about all this?

One. loving. Moderator. Post.

That’s it. One post amounting to “sorry, our bad” no public announcement or apology, no site wide announcement, no mass email. Due to what they have called an “unexpected site error” they cleaned out people’s bank accounts, causing many frozen accounts, leaving people with overdraft fees and no money over a 3 day weekend (it’s presidents day on Monday, so financial institutions won’t process poo poo till Tuesday)

gently caress Etsy.

They’ve been dead silent about this happening, many people still aren’t aware, and only become so because another Etsy seller has told them. Only a handful of people effected by the stop/refund on processing payments got an email explaining why, and Etsy didn’t start contacting people who had money stolen untill there was a 20 page deep thread with people complaining.

Someone in the master thread went through and added up all the $ amounts from users actually reporting, mind you this is likely just a fraction of the people effected, and it totaled over $600k.

Six hundred thousand USD. Because of a supposed “site error”
Bull poo poo.

Also, by sending the money back the way Etsy is, the affected sellers may have to pay taxes on that money. Yikes.

Brawnfire
Jul 13, 2004

🎧Listen to Cylindricule!🎵
https://linktr.ee/Cylindricule

Hi! I was poking around on some other forums for a change and I discovered this thread. I see some familiar "faces" here so that's comforting.

I have a little Etsy shop that I keep lapsing on. I'd really like to get it up and going. I've sold some things off it before, but it's been a long time since I've cleaned it up and updated it.

I don't know what it is that holds me back exactly. I have a stock of jewelry and I have supplies to make more at any time, but something about selling my stuff makes me anxious I suppose. So I only have three things up right now. Talk me into doing more!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FollowingSeaJewelry

Fatkraken
Jun 23, 2005

Fun-time is over.
FINALLY started getting my stitching up on Etsy

https://www.etsy.com/shop/krakenkritters

Just a few bits and bobs at the moment but I'll be adding everything I have over the next few days and weeks and hopefully get a sale or two and start gaining traction soon.

edmund745
Jun 5, 2010
So I am thinking about opening an Etsy shop, and I am reading through the guide pages they have....
And I've gotten to a couple where they mention an example of a person who took an entire year to make their first sale....
WOW
That is a looong time.
It is mentioned that a lot of people give up too soon, but I can't imagine I would ever bother screwing with the thing for an entire year without making any sales.
If it went three months with nothing I'd assume I was doing something really really wrong...

For those of you who have been doing this a while,
1--how long did it take to get your first sale, and-
2--do you sell something pretty unique, or is it fairly common?

Frozen Pizza Party
Dec 13, 2005

Sales for myself (spinners, when they were popular) and girlfriend (disney inspired brooches and whatnot) were pretty quick from the get-go. At the end of the day it costs almost nothing to keep a shop open, especially if your products aren't expiring. So even if it does take a year, unless you're selling something for like $4, you'll make your money back on your first sale.

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

edmund745 posted:

So I am thinking about opening an Etsy shop, and I am reading through the guide pages they have....
And I've gotten to a couple where they mention an example of a person who took an entire year to make their first sale....
WOW
That is a looong time.
It is mentioned that a lot of people give up too soon, but I can't imagine I would ever bother screwing with the thing for an entire year without making any sales.
If it went three months with nothing I'd assume I was doing something really really wrong...

For those of you who have been doing this a while,
1--how long did it take to get your first sale, and-
2--do you sell something pretty unique, or is it fairly common?

It depends primarily upon how many different items you have - the more ways people can find you in search, the faster stuff sells.

A lot of the guides are by hobbyist folks who only put up two or three things.

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13Pandora13
Nov 5, 2008

I've got tiiits that swingle dangle dingle




flutterbyblue posted:

I got commissioned to make a working TARDIS lantern flower. Feeling pretty proud of myself. It's even easy to get the light in and out for replacing batteries and turning it off/on.



Superduperold quote, but ~ how much fabric do you need to make a set of earrings?

I made my brother and SiL's rehearsal outfits for their wedding and I have some of the fabric left (kente cloth), I'm thinking for her birthday it might be nice to have some earrings made for her. :3:

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