Playing with Fire

No seriously -- it's been a rough holiday season in my etsy shop.  I have no clue what is going on with views and sales -- mainly I am concerned with views.

It's just such a strange phenomena -- to work incredibly hard throughout a few years to really build it from scratch -- then to have it explode into something wonderful.  Something where you can almost see the light of "why yes, I can make this work."  Then -- something changes.  Something you really can't figure out what -- like you have worked on SEO for the shop, worked on photography, perfected your product and descriptions, and still you are often dead in the water.

It's a time to just maybe thing about having other venues.  I have played with the idea of my own shop / storefront website, but to be honest I am not very good at coding.  (Don't worry, I still try, lol).  So, instead, I keep plugging away on Etsy -- feeling like a "new" or "undiscovered" shop this holiday season.

So -- I played around with Artfire -- another handmade venue -- which has a nifty Etsy import thing to make integration pretty easy.   However, what Artfire doesn't have for me is an app that goes "cha-ching" whenever someone purchases an item.  Also, not as easy to integrate into my Facebook platform -- also I am not familiar with how guilds work as opposed to teams, and since its the holidays, I really can't spend time I should be creating / listing / mailing on reading up on how to rebuild a shop again.

But -- I did figure out how to do this little thingy :)

maggiesjewelry on ArtFire

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maggiesjewelry's ArtFire Shop

Busy, Busy, Busy -- Weekend.

It was a busy weekend around here -- in and outside the shop.  Several products sold out over the holiday weekend -- which is to be expected when its a small scale handmade shop here. 

Which also caused me to do a little soul searching.  I have been watching how things are going and have been planning a few changes for the shop come 2014:  maybe my own website if I gain the energy to do my own coding in addition to all the other aspects of the shop, maybe a move from Etsy to another smaller, more handmade friendly venue.  There has been a lot of chatter on Etsy of late because of the definition change of "handmade" within Etsy. 

For some sellers its kind of a scary proposition -- having built up a community on Etsy, Facebook, Twitter, etc., of people who love your work -- and then it feels like with all the SEO work one puts into their shop that they are still put back in the back of the line for views.  It's just a hard proposition.

Oh yeah -- did you know that my shop venue, Etsy, changed the rules on what can be labeled "handmade"?  There is all kinds of chatter going on across the interwebs about it -- and it was a polarizing decision made by Etsy.  Personally, I like the community -- but I feel like I am working too hard to re-list items to be seen even when I have pitch perfect SEO after a few years of tweeking.  I even change my SEO according to the yearling changes that happen just before the holidays, sending us all into a tizzy as our "views" and "favorites" crash and burn, like clockwork, each year.

So, as a small handmade shop -- I've been soul-searching, between the cooking of the holiday meal and getting items set to ship this morning, and deciding how I am going to go about 2014, as the changes on Etsy become more pronounced.  (Jan 1 is the day some changes go into effect -- which won't effect my shop as I am in compliance with it all, but it may shove me down the listings because I am a small, one woman shop, and can not compete with manufacturers. ).

Until I make these decisions, however, I will be plugging along making the most beautiful stuff I can muster. Ahh, love the garnets for the holidays. 

Also, as a shameless plug at the end of this posting, check out the rubies, sapphires and emeralds I have in the shop for this holiday season.  You know that's right :)

~Maggie~

http://www.etsy.com/shop/maggiesjewelry