Changes... Part 2

It's been awhile & I've been in kind of a transition stage in many areas, including my shops, so I thought I'd talk about editing & tweeking your shops & mine.
I've talked about photography before & it's vital. The first impression someone will get of your shop will be visual & if you don't capture their attention right away, they won't generally move forward, disappearing into the ether, with a single click. Photos should be sharp, clear, & convey a sense of the item. They should be uncluttered & focus on the item you are selling.
The shop banner & arrangement of listings also play a role in the visual appeal of the first impression. The banner should convey a sense of your shop & it's goals. The shop arrangement can lead the viewer through the shop & make browsing easier for the shopper. Alternating light & dark items can make it easier on the buyers eye, you can tell a story with each line of listings, grouping them in a theme or you can arrange your shop in blocks by type of item or color. All are good ideas, so it's really up to you, which one you decide to use, but whatever you decide, the shop should have some kind of organization, to make it easier on the shopper.

Beyond the surface, you have shop & item titles, item descriptions & tags. This is what I've been working on more recently.
I'd come to an epiphany of sorts, realizing what I'd really been saying all along, that my shop items tell stories. My creations have stories to tell, each one arranged in a very specific manner to create a story, in color & materials. Vintage items, well they come from different times & places, styles were different & the wearers followed those styles or created their own, so vintage items have stories to tell, as well.
I've been rearranging titles & item descriptions to better tell those tales & give the shop more of a cohesive feel.

Here is one of my original item descriptions:
Vintage. 50's. Beautiful

Dress up all your clothes in vintage style, with this lovely bit of history. Feel like you're on the set of "Mad Men" or in a great old classic film, even if you never leave the house! SAM

5o's
triple strand necklace
crystal
black bakelite beads
faux pearl
glass
gold color findings
hook closure
made in Japan
about 17.5" from end to end
Very good condition


It's ok, gives all the little details, but doesn't add to the 'True Stories, Tall Tales' cohesive style that I am now aiming for.


Here's a newer version:


Vintage Triple Strand Necklace

True Story:
Dress up all your clothes in vintage style, with this lovely bit of history. Feel like you're on the set of "Mad Men" or in a great old classic film, even if you never leave the house! SAM

5o's
triple strand necklace
crystal
black bakelite beads
faux pearl
glass
gold color findings
hook closure
made in Japan
about 17.5" from end to end

Vintage. 50's. Beautiful


Here, I've mirrored the item title at the beginning of the description, adding strength to the key words & then I have mirrored the True Stories/Tall tales (this particular item doesn't have a 'tall tale,' at least not yet) from the shop description & the banner.


Most descriptions now have a "tall tale," a little short story that goes with the feel of the item & all have a "true story" the facts behind the item, materials used, repurposed, recycled or new. I moving more toward organic, recycled or locally sourced for the new item components & that is reflected. Most of my pieces have a vintage, recycled or found component & this is listed in the "true story" portion of the listing, along with sizes & any other little facts the buyer needs to know.
I've struggled with whether or not to put the "true story" or the "tall tale" first. The "tall tales" are fun  & add a sense of personality, so, for now, I've put them first. Maybe it's better for SEO to have the facts or "true story" first..

"True Stories & Tall Tales" has been added to the shop banner & the shop description, to create the cohesive feel, that I referred to above. I've also added it to the individual item descriptions.

One other change that I've made, for relevancy, is that I've been playing around with the arrangement of the words in the title, putting the more descriptive words, the words that hopefully customers would use to search for my items, first. I didn't get rid of the fun titles, the 'personality,' they're just at the end, rather than the beginning of the title. How do these changes look & work?

Here's the original title in one of my vintage items, from my ArtFire shop:

Vintage Black and White Triple Strand Necklace

It's descriptive, to a point but how many customers are searching for this necklace using the terms "Vintage Black & White?" I'm guessing not too many.

Here's the current title, from the Etsy shop:

NECKLACE VINTAGE TRIPLE Strand Mid Century 

Mad Men Hollywood Style Fifties Black and White

Also descriptive, looks a little funny, but there's more information about the style & era this is from & more important words are up front, so it's more likely to be found by customers looking for this type of item as it's more user friendly in terms of SEO. If you find that you are not getting hearts or visits for your items, it's possible that you are using the wrong combination of words to attract the right visitors. You can always go back & change this, experiment until you come up with the right combination.

What else have I done? I've been changing item tags, editing & re-arranging, so that the more important, searched for terms come up first, other terms, like team tags or location come at the end, as they are less likely to be searched for by the average buyer looking for my items, more likely to be used by specific users, like team members, putting together treasuries.

So these are some of the things that I've done, but what does this have to do with your shop? What  I'm attempting to do is to create a feel that ties the whole shop together. You might be able to do this merely by selling one type of item, but I don't & even if I did, I would still go through the same process to tie everything together:

1. Choose a theme- a mission statement, something that describes what you do, what your shop is about
2. Create a tag line that describes that theme- a  very short, catchy statement that narrows the focus, something memorable that describes your shop, your work & hopefully, makes the customer want to know more.
3. Add that tag to your banner & to your store description. Don't bury it, put it right at the beginning.
4. Play around with your item titles- put the terms that customers will be searching for first. I don't know much about SEO or relevance, but I know this. Also, if you are on Etsy, the Relevancy default makes this super important. The items that have the terms customers are searching for in the beginning of the title, will come up first in the searches. Make sure that those terms are relevant, though. Don't put terms in your title that have nothing to do with your item, they may be popular terms, but if your item has nothing to do with what the customer is actually searching for, they'll still click on past.
5. Put those same terms at the beginning of the item description. This is more for SEO than anything else. Customers have already read this, in the title
6. Add your shop theme into your item description. This may have a little to do with SEO, but it also helps to make your shop memorable. It's the old 'If you want someone to remember something, repeat it at least three times.' It work for speeches & meetings, so it works in shops, too.
7. There's nothing like re-arranging to highlight some big editing errors of the past, like spelling errors, better photos, buried in the thumbnails or items with only a few tags ;) so take time to change those, too. It's a great time for editing of all kinds

When I first started, I did little of this, made all the mistakes & wondered why others didn't notice me or see the stories that I thought my items were almost shouting. The basic answer was that no one knew I was there, but beyond that I wasn't giving the stories a chance to shine, few saw them, let alone understood. I've come a long way, but it's a long road & things change along the way, so nothings ever really finished.

The result of these types of changes?  More views & traffic? I would say that general traffic doesn't increase & that's ok, better than ok, really. Traffic & views are more targeted to your store's specific items & so your store receives more of the right traffic, not just traffic in general. Items receive more hearts in fewer views & this, to me is better than having higher, general traffic numbers.

The new year is a time for change. How about you? Have you made any changes, lately?

Free Stuff, Sort of...

"Night" cuff by samsstuff 

Today, I thought I'd talk about free stuff & who doesn't love free stuff, right? This post is a little different, though than the giveaway posts that I've done recently. Those were about entering/ putting together giveaways, for those who like to win fun, new stuff & those that want to promote the new stuff that they make, services they offer or the stuff that others make. This is about trading stuff, as a way to try out new products, experimenting with new product lines, advertising what you make & as a way to get new stuff that others make, are trying out as new product lines & advertising, so it's a win, win situation, without the stress of wondering whether or not you'll win some contest, out of the hundreds that have entered. The catch, of course, is that you must trade something to get something, so it's not truly free. Why do it, then?

Well, first it's a great way to get feedback on that new item/product line you're making, a way to gauge the reactions of the public, before actually listing. Second, it helps you get the word out about your product. You trade it to someone who can actually see, touch & use your items, not just look at them on a computer screen or worse, on a tiny phone screen. They can tell you about their experience & they can tell others that they know, helping you get the word out! You can tell whether your line will work or not. If there are any flaws, you have a chance to fix them, before releasing your products to the public.

You get to help out others, who are trying out their products & working on improvement or gauging public reaction. And the best part: it's fun to get things, it's like your birthday or Christmas, you get little surprises in the mail :) You never know exactly what you might find!

So, how do you get started? You can sometimes find blogs organizing trades. You can start a blog trade, yourself or you can check out some of the sites out there. One of the biggest is Swap Bot where you can sign up for all kinds of swaps & groups (not all craft related, so if you just want to trade quotes or postcards, for fun, you can do that too) or you can put together a swap of your own, which could be a good way to get some 'link love?'  I've been in about 10 swaps now & I think I've learned a lot, about my items, the items that others are making, plus of course, it's been fun. Maybe I'll start a swap of my own, I haven't tried that yet...

Here's my newest creation,  made for the Twinkle, Twinkle jewelry swap on Swap Bot. It's hand crocheted & hand embroidered. The removable moon button is by sharkskeepmoving on Etsy. The thread I used is hand spun thread by Dragonflylotus Designs (my winnings from a Unanimous Craft giveaway). Also included: a milky glass star, silver plated stars & an abalone shell star button

I've been making a bunch of cuffs lately. This one takes those a bit further, adding embellishments & embroidery, like the headbands I have been making. I wanted to try something new & was inspired by the twinkle/star theme of the swap.

This shows the mismatched two button closure

Try it! It could be fun & it's a great way to learn something at the same time :)  SAM