Beware the pitfalls

Last night I hung out with one of my very favorite people, someone who also has an Etsy shop and works very hard at her craft. We commiserated about many things; lines at the post office, customs forms, the pressure to keep producing new and interesting work.

She paged through my Etsy shop and pointed out things that I never in a million years would have noticed. For example, none of my Etsy listing titles contained the number of pieces in the listing. In some cases this isn't a problem, as it's a single piece. But for people like my friend, an experienced Etsy buyer, this presents a hassle. For the other listings, she can hover her mouse over the listing and it will show the entire title, and she knows in an instant how many pieces are in the listing.

I would never have figured this out; my internet connection is slow and I never bother to hover over the pics because often it doesn't work. If I want to know more, I click on the item.

She also pointed out that having so many different countries listed in the shipping area is confusing. So I have now gone through and edited all of the listings to include the number of pieces in the title, and I've changed the shipping.

We talked about steampunk jewelry and its amazing popularity, and we looked at some of my new earrings:



I mentioned that these earrings are getting tons of views in my Etsy shop, but not many favorites. Perhaps it's because there are just so many pieces out there already on Etsy. I think I might try some new pictures and see if that makes a difference.

It's wonderful to look at things through someone else's eyes!