Monday 20 September 2010

Statsy Clockbot

How many threads are there and have there been in the Etsy forums asking what is the best time to list? when is the best day? etc.

I don't know the answer to that one but I do know looking at my stats, that I get my best views late evening (remember I'm in the UK) So I've taken to listing or renewing just before I go to bed. This has resulted in a couple of sales, especially in items I've listed in the Weddings category.

But I do wonder what would happen to views etc if I was in a position to list even later or overnight. And thanks to this nifty little tool, the statsy clockbot I can now renew an item whenever I want!

Simply log into the site, add the listing # of the item you want to renew, the date you want to renew it and the time (EDT timezone) and ta da! The item is renewed for you - brilliant!!

Friday 17 September 2010

Friday Round Up

I've been working on some autumn coloured bracelets this week and threading lots of bracelets that have been waiting on me for a while! My crafting table is now looking extra neat and tidy, though I'm sure it won't last long.

Harvest Pearl Cluster Bracelet


Old Gold Pearl Cluster Bracelet


Burnt Orange Pearl Cluster Bracelet

Tuesday 14 September 2010

Craftopolis

I've got to admit with the new treasury east and the easy way of finding out if you are featured in a treasury, I've not been looking at craftopolis recently.

However I stumbled across an unrelated forum post that mentioned tagging and found that craftopolis' tag report allows you to see how people are finding you through Etsy search.

You just need to sign into your Google Analytics and you get the choice of finding out over the past 60, 30 or 7 days, yesterday or today.

It will give you the search type (usually handmade for me), search terms eg champagne, crystal, earrings and page found on, which I suppose lets you know what search page your item was on.

I suppose it's quite good if your items are in the top 10 pages of the search, especially for a jeweller like me with 1000's of us on Etsy, not so good if it's on page 93, like one of my bracelets! I just can't imagine anyone ploughing through 93 pages of bridal bracelets to stumble across mine :)

Monday 13 September 2010

Paris!

I've just spent the weekend in Paris with my friends Katherine, Alison and Lindsay. It was a girlie weekend away for Katherines birthday and made all the more special by the fact that they are all in Scotland and we don't get together as often as I'd like.

It was a lovely weekend, roasting hot on saturday and my wee bottle of Factor 25 came in very handy! We decided to take the open top bus, which is a great way of seeing the city and cutting out a lot of walking.


Katherine, Lindsay, Alison




I was there, honest!

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Google

It always amazes me how much I've still to learn about selling online. I think I'm getting there and then I realise that I don't even know the simple stuff!

This week I stumbled across a thread in the Etsy forums which taught me what probably every one else knows - but I thought it worth sharing!

Someone was asking how you know if an item was cached by google. I wasn't even sure what that meant but apparantly if you type the title of your item into the google search bar and you can find it, it will say "cached". If you then click on that, it will tell you when google crawled your shop.

And what does "crawled" mean?
Well that is when google indexes your pages - usually people are talking about your home page as google does not crawl all of your shop at once. If you google yourself -for me AMIdesigns - & click on the "cached" link to find the date of the last crawl. For me, my shop was lasted crawled on August 31st.

Also, something else I learned today. You can find out if your etsy shop has been syndicated by clicking on this link -
http://www.etsy.com/syndication.php
Syndicated people get their items uploaded to Google shopping automatically. If you are not yet syndicated, then you will have to wait as it is being done randomly and gradually. But you can still be cached even if your shop hasn't yet been syndicated.

Hope this is helpful to someone!

Monday 6 September 2010

Craftcult Widget

Today is my birthday - no big celebrations like last year when I turned 40, just a quiet one with hubbie and the kids.

I've been playing about with the widgets on craftcult - finally clicked on that link!

Friday 3 September 2010

Friday Round Up

This week I've managed to make quite a few new bits and pieces. The kids have started back to school and suddenly summer has come to Northern Ireland - typical!

I've been working to expand my bridal range and have added a few necklaces, with more to come. This Bridal White Pearl and Hammered Sterling Silver Ring Drop Necklace is one of them.


I've also made this 2 Strand Ivory Pearl and Swarovski Crystal Bridal Bracelet


And finally, perfect for autumn - Chocolate Brown and Lime Green Pearl Memory Wire Bracelet

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Wednesday Wish List

Next weekend I go to Paris with my friends for Katherines 40th birthday, so I thought I'd check out some French sellers on Etsy for my Wish List this week.

I love this Foggy Paris Morning photo from LittleBrownPen


And how stylish is this handbag by ikabags


I've long been a fan of malam and love the colour of this top