OK so I went ahead and did it. I've been thinking about it for over a month and after selling most of the first round while on vacation I decided I was going to add the wire tree sculptures to the things I sell on Etsy. However, when I came home I only had mine hanging around the house so in order to add them to the sale listings I had to make more. I didn't want to open a new section in the shop until I had several of them done, in case they started selling right away I didn't want to add one or two and end up with an empty page.
I had been hoping for a full dozen and having all sizes available but I settled for 7 and only 3" inch and 5" inch. I got some decent photos, they are not the greatest but with the wires being so thin and shiny they are not easy to photograph, actually harder than the chainmaille. ~LOL~ I still have a few more things to try as far as photo tricks for the next round but in the meantime I got them posted. I shot against 3 different backgrounds and it's not like one is superior the background color influences the tree coloring but at the same time clear beads are virtually invisible on a white background but stand out great against the black. So I think I'm going to use the black and the white and create "collages" for side by side. That uses 3 of the available 5 slots in a listing and it gives a good idea of the fact that where you hang it can effect the look.
Afterall, they are wall art so depending on the paint color of the wall you hang it on it's going to look different. I also like the occasional over-flashed photo as sometimes it catches fine detail that otherwise blends. The purple background did not work for the majority.
I guess the photos I used aren't too bad because they are getting views and one of them sold in a matter of hours. I think that I would be selling more of them now if I had more available, more colors, more sizes. That's what I'm working on now, I've made 3 more in 6" and 8" so once I make some 10" and 12" I'll have at least 1 of each size.
Ok so I had been working on my SEO and rankings for over a week, doing a few listings each day. I noticed a slight improvement in views, like I was actually get views daily. *LOL* So this weekend I spent hours and hours making sure I did all 65 listings and reworking them over and over until I hit "A" ranking on all of them and overall for the whole shop. It was a lot of work but when I had all A's I felt really good like I had accomplished something. o:-)
Yesterday I had over 40 views and 4 favorites in just one day, that's a frickin' record. Seriously I don't think I've had that much activity in a single day the whole year it's been open.
I hope it keeps up and I hope I get some sales from all that work. I have shipped a couple of custom orders and while I got an email form one of them saying he really loved what he ordered I really hope that eventually they will take the time to write me some nice reviews.
I have conquered Etsy SEO, at least I think I have have for now. :-/
I know SEO is an ever changing animal dancing on shifting sands but right now at least all my listings have A grades and my shop is typo free. ~woo-hoo~
Pardon my happy dance but I am thrilled to have accomplished such a huge task and glad to move on to other things.
I made an adorable tree yesterday so I am hopeful that I can get a few more finished quickly and add the new section to the shop.
OMG!?!? EtsyRank makes me want to cry, seriously it is a helpful tool I guess but I have worked so hard to use all 13 tags and re-do my titles and make sure all the right words are in my descriptions. I really thought I had made great progess but then EtsyRank upgraded and changed format and I checked again only to find I have an overall C rating, many of my tags are not scored well and my attempts to cover all the spellings of chainmaille (chain mail, chainmaill, chain maille, etc.) are counted as spelling errors. :-(
In the "external links" section it for some reason doesn't count the links from this blog or my Facebook page, but maybe that's because there is a separate section for "social" stuff. However, since I don't use Pintrest, Twitter, LinkedIn or other sites my sad little Facebook page and this underutilized blog don't fare well in comparison. :-(
So while I am planning to expand my listings and know that I need to re-shoot most of my photos I now know that I also need to re-do most of what I thought was done to improve things I apparently suck at. ~sigh~
I have decided that I am going to expand the line up in my shop and list the wire tree sculptures for sale. Everyone seems to like them so much and I really do enjoy making them so it makes sense. I am working on a couple of custom order chainmaille necklaces at the moment but I hope in a couple of weeks I'll be able to add new listings for the wall art.
This will mean a whole new "section" in the shop and a whole new set of tags and search terms to work on but I am hopeful that it will increase views and sales by reaching more people looking for something other than jewelry.
There are a lot of jewelry crafters in the world, tons of them have Etsy shops. There are a lot of styles of jewelry, I only make chainmaille and simple leather. I can appreciate the intricate beading, braiding, weaving, metal smithing, etc. but that's not what I do.
When I look at other shops with chainmaille I am often shocked at the huge price variations some use sterling silver and charge a fortune and some sell so cheaply I don't know why they bother to sell it at all. I am flabbergasted by $5 bracelets, seriously I spend hours and hours making each piece, depending on the pattern an 8" bracelet can easily be 100 rings or more.
Ok so maybe some of the cheapies are made with cheap rings or the person making them can throw them together in a flash but is that a good thing? I try to use quality rings, nickle free findings and make sure my closures are tight and well aligned so as to not snag on things. So my rings may cost more and I take my time that is reflected in my pricing, I am not a sweatshop worker I have to place some value upon my time.
