Etsy Photography Tip

I had a couple of set backs last week that did not allow me to blog. Hopefully, no more set backs for this week. One of the things I did with my second shop was pay close attention to how my photos looked. Etsy recently added a feature that makes things very helpful on how people see your product initially. Remember, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Sometimes when taking photos it is better to take an overall view of the item. Some cameras do not do closeups well. (Some photographers do not take closeups well.) Etsy's Crop Photo tool really helps to change the focus of your initial image. After you get to the Preview section of the listing page, in the top righthand corner you'll see something that looks like this:

Here you just click on the adjust photo button.

That will bring up the small slider on the left. This magnifies the photo.

Then once you have it the size you like you can drag the photo around until you have it centered like you want it. Then hit the Crop button.

That is all you have to do!














Adjusting the photo only changes it in the initial view. Once someone clicks on the listing the full image will show. This works great for giving close ups of your item in your catalog view. It also makes things easier for people to see what your image is in Treasury views. For my work it is nice for people to see the details involved.

I hope that my 1/2 cup of coffee explanation was clear! I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, please leave comments and be sure to share this blog with your friends! My goal for this year is to hit 1000 blog readers by June 1st!

When Should You Open A Second Shop

Yesterday I touched briefly on when not to open a second (thrird, fourth, etc.) Etsy shop. Today I would like to talk a little bit about when it is right to open another shop. Much like in the world of brick and mortar, your Etsy shop can become over whelming to your customers. Shops with thousands of items are hard to keep organized.

When you have so many different types of items that you run out of categories to organize them into it might be a good idea to split them into multiple shops. Now if you have just jewelry or just crotchet, 10 categories is probably going to be just fine. It is when you sell vintage goods, supplies, jewelry and crochet that you start to run into problems.

In my opinion a supply shop should always be on its own. You are marketing to people who will use your supplies to craft their own items. I have been to supply shops on Etsy that also sell finished goods and to me it would be like going to Hobby Lobby and seeing booths set up inside selling items made from the craft supply goods that Hobby Lobby has for sale. To me, it makes more sense to sell supplies to crafters and finished products to consumers.

The most important aspect of "the right time" to open another shop is when you have the free time to dedicate the same amount of time to your additional shop as you do your primary shop. If you do not have the same amount of time to dedicate to advertising and networking something is going to suffer. If you are lucky enough to have the time to devote to it, then go for it!

That is all for today. Keep those comments coming and please feel free to share this blog with your friends. I also tweet some as @MarketMyShop on Twitter and have facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/MarketMyShop And of course my Etsy shop here: http://MarketMyShop.etsy.com and soon at http://www.MarketMyShop.com Want to know what I do on Etsy for retail? http://TangledMetal.etsy.com

When NOT To Start A New Shop

As many of you know, last year I decided to split up my shop. I had hit over 400 items and was averaging a sale a day. I wanted to keep like items together. So, I go through the process of registering a new shop, designing new banners and buttons, fill out all the policies, link to my bank account, you know, the million and one things you do when you start a new shop. (<--- That is going to be a series in the very near future)

After having my main shop open for over a year, I had forgotten all the hard work that goes into starting a shop AND maintaining it! I take my inventory and start putting it into the new shop one at a time. I rephotographed each piece to match the theme of the shop. Rewrote each listing. Reworked all my tags and titles and so on. I had created a nearly perfect shop.

There was only one problem. No one was looking at any of my items! In the three months I had the shop open I made five sales. One was to a friend, three were right as I was closing up the shop and moving the items back to my original store, and one, well that one must have been blind luck. Given, I never had more than 50 items in the shop but I did advertise the heck out of it!

There are many good reasons to start a new shop. I did not have any of the good reasons to start a second shop and I am pretty sure that is why I did not do well. Here are some reasons to start a new shop:
1. You don't already have a shop.
2. Your items do not go well with each other. (baked goods and adult lingerie(I am sure that is up for debate(not by me, of course)))
3. You have someone to run your new shop.
4. You want to try out a new type of product line that does not match your current one.(See#2)
5. You have nothing but free time on your hands.

That is all for today. If you have started a second or 3rd or more shop and had a success or failure I would love to hear about it. I love to be able to help people learn from mistakes and successes! See you tomorrow!

Successful Failures of 2012

Hello all! Did you miss me? It has been quite some time since I have made time to blog. Hopefully this year I will be able to keep up a little better. The last you saw was that I had started a new shop on Etsy: Steampunk Oddities. It was a split off from my original shop Tangled Metal. The idea was to separate my chainmail from my steampunk items. It did not work as planned.

I had great intentions, I really did. I figured if I was making 25 to 30 sales a month with one shop I could make 50 to 60 sales a month with two shops. That didn't happen. In fact, my sales actually went down quite a bit. It was a complete failure. However, what I learned from it all made it a complete success also.

Over the next couple of weeks I want to share with you all the things I did wrong and I could have done better. My hope is that you can learn from my mistakes and save time, energy and money with your shop. So, come back tomorrow and see what I have to say about my first mistake: Opening a second shop.