Anyone want to open a new Etsy shop?

Etsy does have a referral program, so if someone you know already has a shop they could give you a link like this one https://etsy.me/2KltzJ0 

And if you use a link like that to sign up and open a new shop you get to start with 40 free listings. 😇  Not a bad way to start a shop really as most don't start with that many listings so it could cover the initial round of listing and even a round of renewals and since listings are good for 4 months that a nice long free test period. 😉

Of course, then one learns how hard it is to get really good photographs, and SEO and all the other complicated things. 

Etsy forums. . .

I really do find it astonishing reading the forums just how many sellers have no clue about anything. 

Seriously, there are so many posts by people who don't understand the fees, people who can't do math, people who have never bothered to read the Seller Handbook, the House Rules, the Terms of Service, etc.  

Some days I read these things and wonder how these people manage to turn on a computer, let alone get online and login. 

Pinterest and Etsy . . .

I don't normally try to write tutorial style advice stuff but in this case I'll give it a go.  😉

Last year there were a lot of complaints about etsy-pins not linking directly back to the listings in the pin but instead linking to an almost "market" page with competing listings at the top of the page.

Many sellers were really upset at the notion of competitors listings showing above the item that had been pinned, there was some advice from an admin to edit the links after pinning but that's extra work/steps and a bit of a pain in the you know what.  😒  

I'm not sure why but very few of my pins ever had that problem, I did double check and edit a few but then I just changed how I pinned and started only using the official "Social Media" tool under the marketing tab. 😌

My Pinterest is officially a "business" account so maybe that is part of it, not sure.  Recently, Pinterest has changed many things and now allows you to "Claim" things other than a stand alone website. I had previously tried to " Claim your website " but was never able to because that function was made for stand alone .coms and there was no way to add the code to the header or whatever for an etsy shop.  

However, now Pinterest allows you to "claim other accounts" including Etsy shops, instagrams, and youtubes.  Since "claiming" my etsy shop my pins from etsy (social media tool) look different and include my shop info, listing description, price, proper link, etc.  Perhaps those still having link issues have not claimed their shops, or are not sharing from the social media tool or do not have "business" accounts on Pinterest.  Honestly, I'm not sure which thing makes the difference and makes mine always work right while other's still have problems.  😉

A little disappointed Etsy

Well I figured the "Super Seller" trophies were just a test but I am sad to not see mine today, not sure if I'm not seeing it because I've been dropped from the test group or if the test itself is over. 😑  I do hope they decide to make it a real thing and it will come back.

I am also pretty disappointed that I still do Not have the new
"simplified" finance yet.  The announcement said it was going to roll out to every one by the end of October but welcome to November and I still don't have it. I did see it for about 2 hours one day last week but it came and went away again, not really understanding that. 😕

Shiny Trophy. . .

I'm not sure if it's just a test or if it's permanent but Etsy has gifted me with a shiny "Super Seller" trophy.  😇

I'm so proud, I hope it sticks around, but just in case I took pictures.

I have checked and it's just a test so I'm glad I got a screen shot of it. 

New billing system . . .

My shop does not have it yet.  I am curious how it displays and works as I am reading a LOT of unhappy, complainy, whiney forum posts. 😏  However, the complaints are pretty much standard, etsy never gave an exact date of implementation to every single individual shop, although with over a million shops that would have been incredibly hard, time consuming, and stupidly wasteful, and probably pointless with spam filters and email notifications that no one ever bothers read anyway.  

All the OMG where's my money!?  Which I find particularly funny when it's coming from people posting admissions of how they just paid last month's bill 15 days late, on a notice of shut down for being behind.  Actually, I could be wrong but I have sensed a pattern in the complainers that they are the always pay late crowd, the statement "I always pay my bill between the 3rd-5th or before the 15th" is all a big fat whatever because bills are due on the 1st, period.  

I don't understand why so many sellers think it's ok to pay their bill late. I really don't understand why all those perpetually late people can't grasp that this change is their own fault for always paying late.

I think part of the reason that my shop has not been "rolled in" yet is because I have always had auto-billing set up and never ever paid late, except the 1 time my debit card expiration date changed and the payment failed, which I immediately (next day) fixed.

Time to re-work the re-work again. . .

I know online retail is in a constant state of flux but ~good grief~ and yes that's my Charlie Brown impression. 😖

The saga of the "Holiday guide" that just won't go away continues and as it updates and highlights new things I find myself more annoyed all the time.  😒  

I had read one of the early articles and it was all about improving search placement and changes to SEO and it was confusing and a bit dense. I tried to read it but my brain just wouldn't process it. Then I saw a thread in the forums about EtsyRank sudden changes to listing grades and decided to check it out.  I've had and used EtsyRank nearly the whole 3 years I've had my shop and it's been an ok service (I only use the free version) I have worked quite a bit on getting A grades on my listings. I knew Etsy was talking about changing search a lot implementing new AI and photo recognition softwares, updating categories, etc,.  What I didn't fully understand was the impact that would have.  

Imagine my surprise when I logged into "etsyrank" to find a new erank logo and announcement that they have changed their entire grading system to be based on etsy's latest guidelines. 😮  Ok, so maybe that's not a bad thing, they have basically codified the annoying article into a usable system that would tell me what etsy meant with all that marketing speak and talking in circles.  I thought "wow thanks erank", but then I clicked to see my listing grades and found that many, like more than half of my listings that previously had been A grades were suddenly NOT.  😩

Previously of my 180-ish listings the overwhelming majority of them were A's there were maybe a dozen B's and 3 C's. I lived with the 3 C's because they were gift wrap and camp ash vials and they are really not meant to be found on their own anyway. I gave up on the B's mainly because I had reworked and reworded them repeatedly and they just seemed stuck. ~shrug~  This week I found tons of B's a truckload of C's and then a bunch of D's and a handful of E's.  😲  Since when does the system include E's ?!?! omg

I have spent the week trying to "improve" things and I have made some progress, I have managed to convert the C's and D's to at least B's but the E's are still E's those used to be C's but oh well.  I have about 40 B's but I'm not sure I can get all of them back the A's, it will take a lot of work including a round of new additional photos which I find highly annoying because it was in the "holiday guide" tips list and I was going to ignore it because rounds of photos are time consuming, digging out the pieces, setting and staging the shoot, lighting, shooting, editing, uploading. ~sigh~