Dear Diary, What's in a Tag?

One of the most time consuming things about listing items is sometimes the Tagging....
It's also sometimes one of the most important and one of the most controversial. 

What are tags meant to do? They are the keywords that are filed through when someone uses the search box on etsy. According to etsy this is the most used way to find an item that is eventually purchased, so you can see why these are so important. 

I "searched" etsy blog and forums for posts related to tagging and found more information than I wanted. After sifting through them these were the points I found most relevant.

• Your first tag isn't really a tag it is the category. The other 13 are considered true tags
• Tags should only describe the item, they should not be uses for the item, verbs, etc.
• Only use synonyms that are truly synonyms ie. don't use tote bag to describe a clutch, although purse could be used for either. 
• The who, what, when and even where are most relevant. Kitchen could be used for pot holders.
• Do not use words that are in your title, titles are searched for keywords too. 

So you are stuck? I wondered how I could find out what tags are most used by people searching so I tried Google's keyword finder, part of their adwords program. I used business card case and found that an even more relevant keyword for that with more than twice the searches was business card holder.

If you have the time to use it it's a great tool. So Links? 
Etsy's Guideline to Tagging 
Tag-o-Rama (lots of actual tagword examples to choose from)

Both were very helpful. I've been falling down on the blogging lately, I'll try to be more regular about it! Good Selling! Jamie.

Thanks to paperquick, click on the picture above to see the other "tags" in her shop!

Dear Diary, Not Enough Time!

Dear Diary, Today is a rushed day. (Time Ticking image VenusFlytrapJewels) I need to ship, I need to take some photos and I need to list some items. So Numbers will have to wait....

I do want to give a big "great job" to etsy though about the new treasury programs! They are great, before everyone just sat around waiting for them to open and then when they did, rushed to create them and then everyone would gripe about what was chosen for FP. Well now it has an entirely different fun atmosphere. You can make one anytime, you can use it for all sorts of different purposes and the contests they are having are great. Here is a link to one of the forum posts for the rules of creating and submitting treasuries for the Homepage. I was featured in this great little treasury that was nominated.

Also it is an honor for one of my items to be on PaperCakesFinds Blog. If you have never visited, go, her blog is visually so pretty, her selections, background, everything just flows so wonderfully! My item was chosen by using the tag Pretty! So tags are important, check back tomorrow for a post on tagging and guidelines!

Dear Diary, Goals Reached!

I hope all of you had a great Mother's Day weekend. I know I did! I had 12 items sell ! Yay! Great multi item buyers, but more about business tomorrow, I'm just bursting with some personal news that I know some of you may find boring, but it was the highlight of my weekend definitely, maybe my year so far even!

A lot of you know my kids play competitive junior tennis. In Texas there are three levels and a points system is used to "qualify" the kids from one level to another. Not only do you have to earn the right number of points but it has to be in a certain combination so that you reach that points level in a combination of 4 tournaments in a year time frame. Well Sunday on Mother's Day my youngest got runner up in the Corpus Christi Champ Tournament, but more important than that she reached her points by winning the semi finals and is now in the top level of junior tennis in Texas. She is a beautiful, smart and vibrant kid and I'm so proud of her.

Dear Diary, Little Did I Know!

Well it isn't reflected here but DawnCorrespondence's comment on Tuesday's post set off a storm of comments in the uwib forum. The consensus on relisting?

• Jewelry sellers and other sellers of stock items feel it is essential to their business. They can quickly relist topsellers.
• Some sellers use it to bring relevantly themed items to the top of search results when those themes are trending (I'll have to try that!)
• Sellers agree that ooak items are not appropriate for relisting if it has been done multiple times with no results.
• Some sellers take dead stock ooak items and remake them into other things that may sell.

Hope I got it right! Thanks for everyone for the comments, uwib rocks! 

Dear Diary....the Streak Broken..

Dear Diary, today my no sales streak for over a week ended! Yay! I had two sales. I was getting pretty jumpy since I don't usually go that long without a sale, so I feel better. And, it frees me up a little, with no sales comes no cash and no new inventory! I'm not a fan of relisting just to get views, so if an item hasn't expired I don't usually relist. Anyway how do I know if I want to relist an item or not? I mean if it has been on the "shelf" so to speak for 3 months with no movement, well is it a good item? is the price too high? is the picture bad?

How do you move your aging inventory? This last time I relisted items I lowered the prices of them by 50%. I felt they were all fab items like the earrings pictured. I sold one of the half a dozen or so I reduced. I asked her how she found the item and she said through google, she was looking for a sterling silver picture frame and the bangle bracelet showed up in the search results, imagine that! So she wasn't looking for it, she didn't find the price a reason to buy, I don't know.....

At any rate, at the end of this listing period these items won't be renewed. I liquidate my unsold items in lots, sometimes through craigslist, sometimes on ebay, sometimes if they are sweet and small things I'll give them away as gifts with purchases. But it is a problem all of us face, what to do with dead inventory? If you have a creative solution for either handmade or vintage items, leave it in the comments, I'd love to hear! Until tomorrow, Jamie.

Dear Diary, In Praise of Online Friends.....

One of the things business gurus encourage you to do online is to network. One way of networking is to join a group. There are lots of groups you can join both within and outside of Etsy. Some are better than others, some have different vibes, but I think they all have their place. A while back I joined a group that I found via twitter. It's called Unique Women in Business. They provide a great support structure for fledgling entrepreneurs. It is a forum that you can ask for opinions and advice. The wide base of members are almost always able to provide you with some kind of first hand answers.They also provide a platform to promote one another's work. You do have to make one purchase a month from another member but with the wide range of businesses and products you can almost always find something you would need to buy anyway.  

So explore your options, talk with other entreprenuers in your niche, see what groups they belong too. Explore your options, the forums are a great place to learn about groups and the etsy teams. 

On a sidebar, I'd like to thank these lovely ladies for all the kind words they have passed my way since January. Some people don't really get the concept of online friends, but I can tell anyone who asks that the relationships are real. Thanks UWIB! 

Dear Diary.....

Trying something new.....The listings I've done the last several weeks have been heavily fashion oriented. I have some paper ephemeral that has just been sitting about waiting to be listed so I changed tracks today and listed some of those pieces...

These are photogravure prints from an 1894 volume by Selmar Hess, Great Men and Women. I love the detail on the horses.....Wonderful pieces.. Also I've been so busy lately I seem to have lost some steam, I need to regroup, refocus, Think! My etsy shop has several different prints, I've also listed some vintage map pages for crafting or other uses, We'll see what happens!