Oh so close. . .

Ok so I had a goal of 100 listing and I've been making things pretty steadily.  I was making real progress too, I was up to 97 and had a few in the works that would have made it 100.  However, I actually had a sale over the weekend, I did a little happy dance when the cha-ching sounded.  I love sales, but then I realized I'm not going to hit 100 when I list the things I have finished.  LOL

 I'm going to end up with 99 listings, oh so close to my 100 goal.

 

Oh I like that alot !!

I bought some odd rings a while back, not my typical material or size and twisted.  Literally, square wire twisted as it's coiled makes for very cool looking results.  They are gunmetal plated brass nickle free not too shiny and with a nice weight.  I only bought a limited quantity at the time because I wasn't sure I was going to like them.  The rings have an interesting look on their own and they are not easy to get smooth closures on because of the tiny corners but once worked into something wow. 

 The texture and depth they add are simply amazing.  I made a couple of bracelets and I seriously think I need to order more of these rings.  I only ordered them in 1 size initially I think this time I may have to buy a larger quantity and more than one size.  LOL

I am sorely tempted to keep one of these, not that I need another bracelet but it's just soooo darn cool.  

 

New New New listings. . .

I have been adding new listings for earrings and other things, new styles and chain patterns.  I am at 93 listings now and still aiming to break 100.  Over the weekend I made a new rainbow boxchain necklace, it's awesome.  

I need to shoot the listing photos for it but it will soon be number 94.

 

New listings. . . .

I have continued to work on photos and listings I'm beginning to think it will be a never-ending process, so I gave up on adding photos, there are in fact about a dozen listings that are still short a pic or two. 

I have instead moved on to adding a few new listings.  I found a full diamond Japanese 12-in-2 bracelet that had never been listed.

 

I also decided to go ahead and create a secondary listing for the Leather Barbed Wire necklaces in 2mm. 

 I think I'm going to add a few more earrings, try to have an even dozen listings for that section.  I think I should also add the old gridlock bracelet to the clearance section along with a few pairs of the older earrings that match it, maybe I'll just make it a set like the others.  

I'd like to hit 100 listings before the end of the year.  There are conflicting opinions but some say that 100 or more listings is like a  magic number in Etsy and leads to more views and sales.  ~fingers crossed~

 

New listings, new photos, new new NEW!!!

Ok so I have been working on new listing photos, not just adding 1 or 2 photos so that each listing has all 5 but in some cases completely changing all the photos to newer better ones.

Many of the original listings had photos taken with my phone on the dining room table.  LOL  So the fact that I now have my full shop with all it's bank of lights and my actual back-drops and stands and a new Nikon camera means that I can get much much better photos.  I'm actually adding some photos of me wearing them.

While going through the box that is my chainmaille jewelry inventory I have found or more accurately I have not been able to find a couple of things, maybe they sold at the last event, I think one of them I gave to a friend.  However, I have decided not to take the listings down because I can easily make another but I can't shoot new photos of things I don't have.  The flip side of that is I have found things that I had never listed.  Plus I made a new Hogwarts School Crest tree that I actually listed for sale.

So I've added a few new listings and I have a few more to add yet.  I have been rearranging the photos on some of the listings making the new photos the first photos, hopefully they will get more attention in search that way.   We'll see if there are any stat improvements, as I've also been tweaking titles, descriptions, and tags while I'm at it.  

Some of them I have staged and laid out different than before.

Some of them I really do like the new photos way more than the old.

I am hopeful that the photos of me wearing them will help people with scale and seeing how they hang/lay/drape.

I seriously doubt that I will actual do all new photos for all 80+ listings mainly because I'm kinda bored with the process already but I am hoping to at least have 5 photos for each listing eventually.  I am going to have to re-make a few things first in order to make that happen though.  In the mean time I am planning to add a few more new things and pray for sales.  o:-)

 
 

Oh EtsyRank you . . . pain in the a$$

I have admitted before I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Etsyrank.  It can be, has been, is a helpful tool but it is also an ever-changing multi-faceted pain in the ass.  

I spent over a month going listing by listing changing wording, lengthening titles, making the description and titles match up with the keywords.  SEO the bane of my existence, I worked so hard to make all my listings "A" grade because supposedly it improved relevancy and would increase views.  I won't lie I was hoping it would get some sales if I was easier found in search.  

It sort of worked.  I got all my listings to "A" grades and for a couple of weeks had views, lots of views, got some favorites even.  Sadly only a couple of sales.  

I decided to shift and focus on social media, I've been working the facebook page, got the instagram off the ground.  However, neither really seem to drive traffic to the Etsy shop, I don't know how people do it.  The facebook page is up to 99 likes, the instagram yo-yos on the followers, people are fickle.  

I went to check Etsyrank to see if my efforts were getting anywhere and they have added a new thing for "missing images".  ~sigh~  Great something else I have to work on.  :-(   So I checked out the new tool and damn 52 of my 82 listings did not have all 5 photos.  I knew there were some that didn't have as many as they could have because when shooting photos of the jewelry not all of them turn out.  It's not easy getting crisp, clear, detail photos of shiny things.  I had thought I'd rather have 1 or 2 good photos than 5 crappy ones.

So I made a list and now I'm working on updating/upgrading listings.  While I am looking through my existing photos to see where I can just add 1-2 before I have to do a massive photo shoot.  Also while I am opening and editing listings to add photos I have been tweaking titles and descriptions hopefully it will do something.

I've been at this for 4 hours already and I don't really feel like I'm making much progress.  I was really hoping to get this version of updates done in a week but it seems to be taking quite a while, hopefully it won't take a month like it did last time.  :-/

 

That's not right. . .

Sometimes I see people in the forums compliment each other's shops and I wonder if they are just being fake as hell.  I'm sorry but not everyone's stuff is that nice, honestly some of it is amazing, some of it is mediocre, and some of it is just crap.  :-/ 

Everyone and their cousins' neighbors' dog "makes" jewelry these days.  However, if you've been to a craft store like Micheals' or JoAnn's lately you can easily spot the ridiculously cheap mass produced charms on cheap pre-made chain.  I am sorry but I do not count attaching a couple of store bought charms to a store bought chain as making jewelry.  

I actually make chain one ring at a time, opening and closing every ring, varying colors and patterns.  I actually cut leather and braid it and decorate it, punch holes, install snaps, set rivets and spots by hand.  I actually tie every knot on my barbed wire.

There are some amazing artists on Etsy that are real metalsmiths and truly make jewelry, there are chainmaille artists that spend hours and hours creating chain.  Then there are literally truckloads of people who buy stuff from China spend 5 minutes slightly modifying it and then sell it as "handmade".  :-(