It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

So in June many of us were upset by Etsy's meta-tag stuffing, and when upcoming changes were annouced, a lot more of us were thinking "what's that Lucy, a football for me to kick?" (Gilmore Girls reference)

And when our views vanished we were left floundering, frustrated, and wondering what happened. Many Etsy sellers threatened to jump ship, the forums were flooded with angry and upset sellers, myself one of them, but now, I believe the dust has settled and things are back on track. So much so that I am over a month backordered and I had to close down my low selling shops and just keep Etsy open. But I promised to do my Google experiment again, even though I knew the results would be off since my other shops are closed. But I still wanted to see how people are finding me.

So here goes. First I logged out of Google, and then I cleared my cache, browsing history, everything I could think of that would leave a trace on my computer. Not an exact science, but it helps. Then I did several searches. I searched for "pumpkin hat", "knit pumpkin hat", "pumpkin hat boston beanies", "apple hat", "knit apple hat", "apple hat boston beanies". I did all these searches without the quotes, and I only looked at the first 10 pages.

Here are the results:

"pumpkin hat" search
none of my items found

"knit pumpkin hat" search
Etsy-page 1 shopping guide
iCraft -page 2 shopping guide

"pumpkin hat boston beanies"
Etsy-page 1
1000Markets-page 1
Cosaverde-page 1, 2
iCraft-page 1
my blog-page 1
Artfire-page 2 (a review)
Shopping Guide had Etsy and iCraft

"apple hat"
1000Markets-page 6
CosaVerde-page 7

"knit apple hat"
iCraft-page 1 shopping guide
Etsy -page 1 shopping guide, and there was a link under another listing show more results from Etsy, I clicked that and there was my listing on page 1, but how many searchers are going to know to do that?
iCraft- page 4 (a different listing), page 9 another different listing
1000Markets- page 6

"apple hat Boston Beanies"
1000Markets-page 1
CosaVerde-page 1
Etsy-page 1
iCraft- page 1
Shopping Guide had Etsy and iCraft.

So what did I learn? I had no expectations for Artfire, 1000Markets, or iCraft to turn up in the searches. In fact it shows how on top keeping clean their listings Artfire is, as I recall my Artfire listings made it in pretty quickly into the searches last time. Also, Etsy and 1000Markets are now in the searches, in places that I can expect them to be, so this is GREAT news.

The only problem is that to be seen, shoppers have to enter terms like "knit" in order to narrow down some of their searches. I hope they know to do so, or they may be frustrated with their hits. But an Etsy product was always on page one, driving a customer to Etsy, and maybe that person will shop there and try and see what else is available and...

So make a good product, take great pictures, and use helpful, thoughtful tags, and the customers will find you.

Birthday Wishes Front Page

So a very Happy Birthday to Me! I come back from vacation, and I notice a high number of hearts on a hat in my other shop. Did you know that you can search old front page treasuries from the delightful tool on The Vault from Craft Cult? It's amazing, saves you hours of looking for your missing "I was on the front page does anyone have a copy of the treasury?" I don't have a screen shot of the front page, but I'm good with that, I am in the Vault!

When green is all there is to be

When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?

Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful!

And I think it's what I want to be.

~It's Not Easy Bein' Green by the Muppets

The Green Revolution has really taken off. Organic food, hybrid cars, energy-saving light bulbs, small steps and ways to make a difference is everywhere. I like to think that buying handmade is a part of this, learning how products are made, and where your sources are coming from. It all matters.

I started knitting to keep my hands busy in grad school so I could concentrate on the lectures, but, tragically, I am allergic to wool. I am teased and tantelized every time I walk into my LYS and see the rows and rows of beautiful skeins that I cannot knit with. So I was forced to find alternatives to wool, and the most popular was acrylic, imagine my dismay when I discovered that acrylic is petroleum based. So I was basically knitting with oil? So I switched to cotton, that's earth-friendly, right? Well better than acrylic, but then as my research shows here cotton has it's downfalls too, unless you get organic, and many companies are realizing this.

So now that I have found suppliers for organic cotton, is there a call for it? Sort of. Customers would like it, however when push comes to pennies and dollars, many want to save the extra dollars and buy my regular cotton hats. I will continue to make and offer them, but I know they will never be popular as my other items. I am also a member of NaturalKids, an Etsy team dedicated to natural products for children.

However, like many things in life, it comes down to marketing, and that is where I heard about Cosa Verde. This is a place to showcase your earth-friendly wares, but your don't sell from there, you link to your selling venue like Etsy and Artfire. What I have noticed, they bring a lot more attention to my organic hats, and with this trend becoming more popular, all it can do is help. And it is a direct place for the people who like to shop with the earth-friendly products in mind.