do you have a new line of work coming out? celebrate it! rather than just start listing your new line that you’ve spent countless hours on, build up some suspense to it.  people will be just excited about your work as you are- so start making a fuss!

friendly forest bundle

it’s best to start talking about new items early on.  if you blog, give your readers some teasers to let them know that you’re working on something new.  and what about all those social networking sites? twitter, facebook, youtube, flickr- (you do use those, right?) start posting hints of what you’re working on, maybe some pictures of your work space or a video of your design process.  if you blog, you could even take a poll for some outsider advice.

goldsboro jacket

don’t give your line away, but post enough to get readers interested in your ‘coming soon’ line.  also, don’t forget about your shop announcement.  announcing big news and a check back on ‘this date’ will surely get your customers excited- you can believe they will be back on the date you specified (so, make sure to stick to it!).

floral coptic stitch journal

no time for a blog? etsy also has some great resources you can use.  their promotions area allow you to post any self-promoting material!  announce your new line, or maybe even a discount or sale.  their are lots of people scouring the forums all day long, so it’s important not to miss out on all these potential customers.

autumn dress up dolls :: fabric wall decal

remember us? bloggers? are you there?  put together a press release!  e-mail your favorite bloggers!  i think most of us love to hear from you and like to help promote the handmade world any way we can (why would we be doing this if we didn’t?)

triptych spring circles

would you like some guidelines? i remember when i first started out, i thought it was really nerve-racking to compose an email and approach a blogger- but as long as you know a little etiquette and approach honestly- it’s always going to be ok.  what’s the worse they’ll say? no? oh well- move on to the next one!

thank you card

would you like some guidelines? first of all, try to never mass email.  no one likes to be another blogger on a big long send list. we want to know you care, you read our blog, and you know our name (should be easy to find!).  so, try to take the time and email one blogger at a time. we like to feel that we have in-sider info- and we try to bring fresh new material every day.  if you don’t hear back, maybe send a second follow up e-mail the next week.  if still no response move on to the next blogger (i always try to respond!).  it might take a little while to land a feature, but when you do- it should be well worth the wait.  put together a quick, honest email about you, your shop, and your product.  don’t forget your release date, your shop url (yes, people forget!), and 3-4 small jpeg images.  just try to be yourself and everyone will see it come through. here’s a few more articles that should help you!

design sponge’s advice from bloggers

the ultimate press list from modish biz tips

weathered gray hook board

taking some of my own advice? check my shop on wednesday, sept. 16 for *lots of new items- including a brand new line of funky christmas aprons!

birds go green

extra reading :: {pimp your shop},{broaden your target audience} & {etsy promotion forums} from etsy and the storque :: {advice from bloggers} from design*sponge :: {build your own ultimate press list} from modish biz tips

wrap up: {advice} {bloggers} {etsy savoir faire} {etsy shop help} {new line} {promote} {shop}

last week was all about seo, this week is about google base.  what is google base? google base is a place where you can easily upload all you online goodies, which will make them more searchable on google. you can describe any item you post which will help people find it when they do related searches.  based on your items’ relevance, searchers may find your items in their results for both google’s product search as well as their main web search.

autumn harvest wreath

simply put? if you schedule your items to be uploaded to google base, then google will be able to find them more easily.  if google can find them, you can bet your shoppers will be able to find them as well.  which means! google base is a great way to increase your exposure (aka increase sales, buy that new rug etc etc).

eglantine french embellished tee

here is an awesome thread on google base- but i am going to try to condense the info for you (who wants to read all 198 pages? not me!).

wire storage basket

thanks to the awesome job that etsy’s technology help blog does, my homework was made a little easier.  they have provided us with very thorough step by step instructions on how to upload all of our items to google base (thank you!).

milk white scarf

it only takes a few minutes to schedule uploads from your shop, here are the instructions (time to get your tech face on):

1. log into google base with your google account (you do have one, don’t you?).
2. click on the “settings” tab and fill in your information. when entering your website address, use the etsy address with your shop number and not your shop name.
3. click “save changes.”
4. click the “my items” tab.
5. click the “data feeds” tab.
6. click the “new data feed” button.
7. select your country.
8. for “select the type of item in your data feed,” select “products.”
9. for “select the type of the data feed you’re registering,” select “googlebase.”
10. your data feed filename is your shop name followed by .xml. example: etsylabs.xml
11. click the “register data feed” button.
12. refresh the page.
13. click the blue “edit” link right next to your xml filename.
14. change the encoding setting to UTF-8 and change the file format to XML. All other settings can be left the same.
15. go to your etsy shop and scroll down to the bottom right. click “subscribe to shop feed.” copy the address of the page.
16. back on google base, click on “create” right next to “schedule.”
17. paste the address you copied from your etsy page into “url of file.” (it will look like this, with “rss” in the url: http://www.etsy.com/rss_shop.php?user_id=5029420.) you can choose how often you would like it to upload your items. Click “schedule” and your shop items will now be fetched regularly by google and should start to appear in google product search results for the keywords in your item titles within a few hours of being processed.



tin art :: analog bird

that wasn’t so bad, was it? let me know if you have any questions!

wrap up: {etsy savoir faire} {etsy shop help} {google base} {shop owner}

sailing to bluer skies

so what’s all this talk about seo? what is seo? seo stands for ‘search engine optimization’ and their are a number of things you can do to improve your website’s optimization.  in other words, improving your seo will improve a search engine’s (think google, yahoo, etc) ability to find you on the web- which in turn directly improves the chances of other people finding you and your website!  today we’re going to talk specifically about how to improve your etsy shop’s seo.

the beatles google love

most of search engine’s seo work is done through meta data which consists of three parts: the page title, meta description and meta keywords.  the page title is what shows up at the very top of any web page (at the very tippy top of this page you’ll see ‘going home to roost’ in the header bar).  the ‘page title’ format for etsy pages is: [username] on etsy – [your shop title].  a search engine gets this information from your page title.  the page title and meta description are both visible on search engine’s results page, and though the meta keywords are not visible, they are used by search engine’s to find results.

i’ll use my shop as an example above: your shop title appears just below your shop banner and is your ‘page title’.  your shop announcement is your ‘meta description’ and your categories are used as your ‘meta keywords’.

see? if you do a google search for ‘home to roost + etsy’, my shop appears, with the page title and the first bits of my shop announcement (meta description) right in place.  therefore, you can change these to fit exactly what you would like searching shoppers to see about your shop- remember, first impressions always count!

which way to love

use your shop title wisely- make it short and sweet, and what you most likely think your customers will search for.  a brief ‘this is what i sell’ is usually the best title to catch potential shopper’s eyes.  to edit your shop title, go to ‘your etsy’ then ‘appearance’.

vintage wilson steampunk goggles

so, the first bit of your shop announcement is the most important.  you want to open here with your ‘hook’ (remember all of those thesis’s from school?).  you’ve got between 140 and 180 (depending on the search engine) characters to describe what you sell and hook the searching shopper into wanting to click on the link to see more.  to edit your shop’s announcement go to ‘your etsy’ then ‘appearance’.

i see london’s underpants

etsy automatically uses your shop sections as your website’s meta keywords.  so, if you make lots of home goods, it might be a better idea to section your shop with ‘pillows’ and ‘dog beds’ rather than with ‘for your cushy couch’ and ‘furry friends’- does that make sense?  people are more likely to search for simple words like pillows and dog beds.

you can also take seo to your individual shop items (woohoo!).  as you can see above, your item’s title stands for your ‘page title’.  the first few sentences (remember 140-180 characters) stands for your meta description, and your tags stand for you ‘meta keywords’. that’s not so bad is it?  you can edit all of your item’s details when you first list an item, or by going to ‘your etsy’ and then ‘edit’ on the items you wish to update.

magnify

here’s another great article by etsy on google pagerank tips, specifically for your shop. let me know if you have any questions, and get busy increasing your shop’s seo!!

wrap up: {etsy savoir faire} {etsy shop help} {google} {search engine optimization} {seo}