A Beginner’s Journey Through Etsy - Improving My Shop - Photographs

        I have been on Etsy for a little under 4 months now, but I have made quite a few improvements to my shop to make it better. I think in owning a shop on etsy, there are always ways to improve. As a shop owner, I am continuing to learn and grow. I have learned most from looking at information on Etsy, especially from reading Etsy blogs.  I am glad that I have made these improvements, and I would like to share them with you. 

It is very important to have good photographs of the items in your Etsy shop that represent your items well. This is obviously one of the first thing people see when they come to your shop, and they have the possibility of making a great impression. I have learned a lot when it comes to photographs. As a result of this, I have taken and retaken photographs of my items a few times. When taking photographs, you want to make the best impression possible. 

Photographs of my items have improved and changed a lot on my shop site. I started off with photographs that were taken directly from the top view in one uniform angle. The background was white with a wood backdrop, and I took it with the flash on my camera. Then, I saw on an Etsy blog that it is better to take photos at an angle to make them more interesting. I did this and took a second set of photos of all my items. This time I had a 4 colored background made up of construction paper. Then I saw, also on an Etsy blog, that it is better to take photos in natural light. I added this element with the photos at an angle, but had a blue and white clouds background. Some of my items still had a colorful background though. Finally, I read that it is better to have photos with a plain white background. I added this final element, but some of my older items still had a different background. I finally decided, to retake all my photos and make them all at an angle, with natural light, and with a plain white background. Was I happy with the results? Very much so. I say all this to take you through the progression I went through. Also, I wanted to share these tips that I’ve learned as a photographer of my products on Etsy. 

I hope you enjoyed what I shared, and can benefit from it. I will continue to discuss the improvements I have made in the coming blogs that I write. ‘Til then, hope you are enjoying your experience on Etsy!

Kelly Michelle

What Can Social Media Do For You & Your Online Business? Part 5: FLICKR!

I can't say that I know how to use all of the amazing features on FLICKR! to my advantage. What I can tell you is that it is an amazing site for cataloging your item photographs. We all know that if we post pictures of our items all over the place with tags (keywords) that we will get more views. For this reason, you should post your photographs on every site that you possibly can. FLICKR! is definitely one of those sites. In fact, I show a lot of activity in my shop stats from FLICKR!

The first thing that you need to do is get a FLICKR! account and set it up. They have made it very easy on us by allowing us to use an existing Yahoo! account, Facebook account, or Google account. Isn't that nice of them? So, go to www.flickr.com and sign up for your free account. If you want to get more out of your FLICKR!, you can purchase the premium account that gives you more options and a detailed report that shows your page views.

Just like Pinterest, FLICKR! can be a place for business or a place for personal life. Let's make sure that we separate the two of those, to  an extent. Post pictures of you working on your newest item, your work space, etc. Get your customers to see the person behind the website full of amazing items for sale! Also, add your products with tags, so that they can be found. Link your products to Etsy by putting your shop link in your description box.

Unfortunately, FLICKR! is not really a cross promotion site, unless you are able to pull your friends and team mate's pictures off of Etsy to post them on FLICKR! If you do, make sure that you give credit to your friend or team mate and link the photo back to their shop. FLICKR! can be an awesome playground for customers as long as you get your items on there! The person that said less is more wasn't referring to social media marketing for an online business!

What Can Social Media Do For You & Your Online Business? Part 4: Wanelo

Now that we have tackled the major social media sites, we are going to jump into some other social media sites that may be showing up on  your shop views page. The first one that we are going to  talk about is an amazing site called Wanelo. Wanelo is a place where you can list all of your items and Wanelo will actually generate a link directly to your shop and help you sell your item. Additionally, Wanelo gives you the option to easily post your items on other not so easy to use social media sites such as Stumbleupon and Tumblr, which we will eventually talk about!

So, let's get started. If you don't have a Wanelo account, get one! I generate a lot of hits from Wanelo to my Etsy site, my Zibbet site, and my company web page. To sign up for Wanelo, go to Wanelo.com and complete the sign up forms, or use your facebook profile to log in. I suggest using your facebook because everytime you post a new item, it automatically shows up on your facebook timeline that you added the item. More exposure! That is the goal!

After  you have your Wanelo account all set up, you can start adding items by clicking on Post. It will ask for a link and automatically generate the price of the item. You can write a cool little blurb about your item to make it more appealing to the others who use Wanelo. Once you  are done adding the item, your followers and other potential customers  can purchase your item right on the Wanelo site....through Etsy! Technology can be so wonderful sometimes!

To get more followers, find your Etsy friends, your Facebook friends, your twitter friends, etc. and follow them. Just like on Twitter, if you follow someone, the typical etiquette is for them to follow you! I shouldn't have to remind you that the more places that you have your items, the more shop views you are going to get! I  had my husband help me add items to Wanelo, and my shop views exploded! It was amazing! So, don't forget the little social media sites and stay tuned for the next article!

Happy Sales!