As per my usual, I keep graphs of the sales statistics that Etsy publishes each month. Etsy calls this their weather report. I just update this post each month when Etsy publishes their sales figures.
I somehow missed the new stats published by Etsy on June 11th. Not sure how I missed the RSS on that one, but here they are a little later than I normally publish the charts. It looks like May is better than April but not quite recovered. I see many unhappy people in the Etsy forums complaining that google is not crawling their shops anymore, maybe that’s a factor? Anyhow, April to June are typically slow in retail. It’s a good time for a shop makeover and to start working on fresh new items!
Some of the charts don’t show “May” in the legend at the bottom, but I assure you the last dot on the right of each chart is for May 2010.
And as always, here is the link to the spreadsheet where I keep those numbers on google docs if you want to copy and play with them yourself. All I ask is that you link back to me if you publish what you use.
Toot, toot! (that’s the sound of my own horn I’m tooting on)
The screenshot below is the front page of Etsy from last Thursday. See the 3rd column, 2nd row? That’s my neck ruff perched upon my daughter’s neck.
After selling on Etsy for over a year, it’s still nice to finally get some front page love. I gave up on it a long time ago. So the reward is even sweeter now. (I’m feeling like Sally Field with her “you like me, you really like me” speech. Maybe because the Oscars are next week?)
My lips are getting numb, so I’ll stop tooting that horn now.
As stated before, I want to update the look of my blog with something original. I’ve designed websites before, but I’ve always relied on free graphics. This time I want something original. So I went looking for ideas to inspire me. And I unlocked the secret to graphic design that has eluded me for years. Read more…
I just ran across a blog today called The Gifted Blog, which has great ideas for gift wrapping. Etsy sellers who want “boutique” type packaging at a reasonable cost should check out the ideas from the Gifted Blog. Of co ourse the site is also handy for Christmas or other gift wrap events.
The Gifted Blog has some great ideas for reusing materials, including a recent entry for a mylar ribbon recycled from food packaging:
(She’s also in love with Kraft paper, so of course I have to like her)
I’ve found many, many tools on the internet that are intended to help Etsy sellers. All of my favorites can be found on this Etsy Sellers Tools page I created at Sqworl. There are 34 links today, and the list keeps growing. Each link has my note about why the site is helpful, as well as a small screenshot of that website.
I created the link page at the free Sqworl website to keep track of all those neat tools for myself personally, but it’s public so others can benefit as well. Here are just a few of the websites you’ll find over there.
Now that Etsy opened up their API for code writers to interface with Etsy, there are more new tools out there everyday. The sellit shopbot puts your shop and items in a neat little widget that you can share on your blog, website, facebook, myspace, twitter, and more.
Attention buyers and sellers on Etsy. You should check out this tool called Tag Finder on Craftweasel.
You tell it your main tag, then it suggests other tags for your items and also tells you things like typical views and prices for other items with those tags.
The FTC has set December 1st as the date when bloggers must disclose paid endorsements. They didn’t state HOW the info must be disclosed, but any blogger who gets paid in money or freebies must disclose that info so that unsuspecting readers can judge whether reviews and such are genuine.
I will be adding a disclosure page to my blog just in case. I’ve never been paid to review anything, but since I’ve made a few coins from project wonderful ads and maybe someday from being an Amazon affiliate, it’s safest to disclose that info.
