Dragon Glass - Now on Handmade at Amazon!

At long last, the much-anticipated handmade platform offered by Amazon has launched and Dragon Glass is very excited to be part of something so new!

Want to check out my Amazon store? Click here!

The platform launched last Thursday to almost everyone's surprise. Approved vendors had been receiving reminder emails from Amazon for the previous couple of weeks - telling us how to operate our stores and to ensure we had our profiles and listings uploaded, but with no firm launch date.

Amazon uses slightly different criteria for its handmade sellers, which will surely be welcome news to many Etsy sellers, some of whom are disillusioned with Etsy's continued push towards allowing 'handmade' sellers to outsource their manufacturing processes. Whilst I love that Etsy are thinking towards how to support smaller sellers in their quest to become larger sellers, they do seem to have lost their way in what and who made them quite such a roaring success. Many also complain about the sheer numbers of manufactured (outside the approved Etsy channels) and trademark infringing listings on the site - something not yet seen on the Amazon site, although, undoubtedly, without 'constant vigilance' (in the words of 'Mad Eye Moody') this will likely become a problem there too in time.

The best thing about it? The platform only launched on Thursday and I've already had a sale!

Sold!

So far here is my take so far on the Amazon platform -

1 - The stats don't update in real time like Etsy's. They are also more complicated. Much more complicated. They run a day behind, which, isn't bad if you're used to Google Analytics, but, when you're used to Etsy's real time updates, it's a little frustrating for us eager beavers that want to see how many views we're getting and from where. They also don't seem to show where the traffic originated. So, if you're using both Pinterest and Twitter to advertise your products, you don't know which one is effective.

2 - The listing process is a 4 page one as opposed to a 1 page one, as Etsy's is. This is not too much of a problem, since once you've got the hang of it, it's reasonably easy, but, it does take longer.

3 - Once you've uploaded a product listing it can take 15 minutes or more to actually appear on the site.

4 - You cannot batch upload product pictures. They need to be done one at a time. Not a huge deal, it just adds to the time it takes to add a product.

5 - Edit - There is now a copy listing function! Woohoo! Great to hear that Amazon listens to its users! There is no way to 'copy' a listing. So, if you are listing similar products and just want to change out dimensions or photos, you cannot do it. You can copy and paste descriptions, but you can't just copy a listing and change the few things you want to.

6 - The fees are higher - 12% vs 3.5%. Although, right now, there are no listing fees, unlike Etsy, where you pay to list and renew every few months. The fees also apply to shipping charges on Amazon. But - when you consider that wholesale arrangements can include discounts anywhere between 30 and 50%, 12% is a bargain.

7 - The traffic is higher. With zero promotion, you will get traffic on the Amazon platform. I currently get about the same traffic for 13 items on Amazon as I do on Etsy, where I feel like my life revolves around tweeting, pinning and making treasuries.

8 - The shipping process is easy - the same kind of process as Etsy. Just know your weights and your package dimensions.



Overall - I am excited for the opportunities that being on the Amazon Handmade platform brings. It will enable small handcrafted businesses like myself to reach customers who, for whatever reason, don't shop, or don't want to shop at Etsy.

I would love to hear your thoughts on Handmade at Amazon! Do you like it as a seller? Would you shop there as a customer?

The Colorado Springs Craft Scene

I'm sure when people think about Colorado and Crafts in the same sentence, they likely think of places like Boulder, which are thought to be more 'hip' and liberal and therefore more likely to have arts co-ops and the likes. Colorado Springs however has some amazing handmade artisans too!

One thing I particularly love about getting involved with the craft scene here is making new friends. If you're at a craft show selling there are all kinds of great reasons to get to know your neighbour. Firstly, crafters are often great people! They have all kinds of interests! They also love to share their knowledge of the local scene - which shows are good, which are not so good.

Meeting other craft fair sellers though also gives you the opportunity to check out the amazing things they make! There are few things better than being able to give a gift that was handmade, locally and that is not likely to be given to the same person by anyone else.

Here are a few of my personal favourites.

Shelly Homemaker

https://www.etsy.com/listing/221967176/coral-cheetah-infinity-scarf-animal?ref=shop_home_active_17

Michelle is a mum to 4(!) kiddos and makes all kinds of lovely things for gifting. My faves are her infinity scarves. They're made with lovely knit fabrics, so they're super soft and sit 'just right'. My mum loves the one I gave her for Christmas too. She also makes cute little dresses, the most beautiful cushions (which can be customized) and wreaths. She's also a little bit of a local crafting celeb, having been on TV recently doing a tutorial on how to make wreaths.

Made With a Twist

https://www.etsy.com/listing/210096829/sassenach-style-outlander-inspired-cowl?ref=shop_home_active_5

Pam is so talented I hardly know where to start. She also makes patterns, so, if you can crochet (not me sadly), you can recreate her designs for yourself! I love the Outlander-inspired items she comes up with and her great choice of quality yarns.

Makings From Mommyland

https://www.etsy.com/listing/121042035/made-to-order-elizabeth-bennett-and-mr?ref=shop_home_active_13

Katie makes the most amazing peg people you will ever clap your eyes on. She creates perfect reproductions of your favourite TV or literary characters, but, not just that - she can create personalized cake toppers and pays such amazing attention to detail. You can have her paint military uniforms, dress designs, you name it, she does it. She also creates family sets and nativity scenes. Go and check out her shop!

EvaLine Jewelry

https://www.etsy.com/listing/175202444/flower-silver-necklace-pure-silver?ref=shop_home_active_11

If glass jewelry isn't your thing, then check out my friend Evelina's beautiful fine silver creations. She works with precious metal clay, which when fired becomes .999 fine silver. She makes wonderful pendants that make super gifts.

As you can see, some really wonderful sellers right here on our doorstep. Not in Colorado Springs? You're in luck! They ship all over the country and in some cases the world!

How To Be Found On Etsy

When you sell on an online platform such as Etsy, your biggest challenge is being found. When people search for products, are your items showing up in those searches?

Whilst good photography is key to someone actually clicking on your item, the more important concept is showing up in searches, and, realistically, you want to appear in the first 8-10 pages of items, because, that's the point at which most people stop scrolling and move onto another search term, assuming they didn't find what they liked.

For very crowded categories like jewelry, it is vital to review your listings and try and improve where they appear on Etsy. Ideally, you're aiming for the first 3 pages.

People talk a lot about SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, and here are a few tips for this.

Firstly, you will need to think in terms of 'tags', or short descriptors of key points of your items.

For example -

Autism Pendant - https://www.etsy.com/listing/217857480/autism-awareness-fused-dichroic-glass?ref=shop_home_active_6

If you were searching for this item on Etsy, which terms would you use?
Autism Jewelry? Autism Pendant? Puzzle Piece Necklace?

That is exactly what I'm talking about! You want to think about the terms you would use in order to FIND the item and those are the terms you will use to describe it.

There are several places that the Etsy search engine looks when trying to figure out which items to show to someone looking to buy a specific item.
It looks in the description, the materials, the title and the actual tags section. You are going to want to make sure that your descriptors are in these sections, as much as you are able.

Luckily, there are some really talented people out there who have created nifty little tools for you to do this without having to spend hours searching on Etsy itself. My favourite site right now is Tools For Etsy.

On this site is a page called WALL-E, that when you click on it, it gives you the options "Am I Trending" and "Are My Listings Relevant". The "Am I Trending" one is, in my opinion, for those sellers who are so well connected, that they get hundreds of 'favourites' on their items within minutes of listing them. I like the other option "Are my Listings Relevant". Here is the screenshot for how this looks...

In the shop name, you enter your own. In the keyword or phrase box, you enter the search term you would use to find your item. So, for mine, I will search my own store and "autism jewelry"and I will select 10 pages, because that's realistically when people will likely give up looking and search for another term, or will have found what they're looking for. Enter your terms and wait for the page to work its magic!
Here are the results -

So, firstly, it shows that when these terms are searched, there are 4584 listings that were found and in the first 10 pages of search results, 8 of them are mine.

Now, that particular item appears on page 4 of the search results, which, in my opinion, is pretty good! It also shows where my tags were that helped the search function find them. One place I really overlooked tags in the past was in the title. I never even considered that I should max out the title characters of my listing, but, as you can see, I managed to fit 6 tags into my title and those help an item be found in searches. Keep in mind that you will rarely get more than one item per page of search results. The Etsy search algorithm is supposed to prevent that (it's called 'bunching') so that a buyer gets a good variety of sellers and items in their search and one seller does not get preferential treatment, although, that has been a criticism of recent changes, that some bugs exist that are causing bunching in results. I personally have not seen this in any of the searches that I have done, but, the forums on Etsy are regularly updated with complaints and updates to this.

So, what do you do if your item doesn't come up in any searches? Well, this tool has a nifty feature that it will show you what tags the top listings are using. It will give you the top 100 tags - for this search, here they are -

Of course, this is not a guarantee, but, if you ensure your listing has some of these top tags in both your title and in your description, then the chances are, you will improve your item's search position. Remember that of course, optimizing for just one search term will not help your item for other search terms, but, it can certainly help.
I have still not figured out a way to get my items to show up in the basic search terms for words like "Pendant", but, that is where I consider what I'm aiming for. If I am more specific, I am more likely to feature in search results and if I am less specific, I am less likely to feature. Although for a smaller store like mine, I am happy to do that.
Remember too that it's not just tags that will improve your standing. Etsy does consider other factors in where it features particular listings, including how many items you have in your store, how active you are on Etsy, how many sales you have, how many views and favourites your items and store has.

After working through this tool with a bunch of my listings, I am seeing more traffic and sales by a considerable margin, so, it's been a great tool for me.

There is one thing for certain though, if you don't come up in searches, it doesn't matter how good your pictures are - no-one will know you are there....

Have you tried this? I'd love to hear your experience!

A HUGE thank you to tools4etsy.com, they're amazing. What a great site!

Product Photography

Over the past couple of years, my photography approach has changed considerably.

I started off using a piece of wood flooring (a sample from Home Depot) and I took the pictures outside in natural light. I had lots of problems with this approach. Firstly, the pictures had shadows on them. The light also didn't really show the dichroic glass I use very well, it was almost too sparkly and you couldn't see the detail. I tried indoor pictures, but, the light would give a yellow tinge to the pics and the colours would look 'off'.

Shadows...!

Then, I switched to a piece of granite (a spare piece from where our bathroom sinks had been cut out from), but, it looked much too busy and distracted from the piece itself.

Busy background

I then switched to a while background, but, even this had its problems. The light problem was hitting me again, as was the shadow issue. Also an issue was the shade of white, depending on the light. I was spending so much time having to edit the photos for brightness, that the pictures didn't look cohesive in my Etsy storefront. I also felt that the white background was a little boring.

Grey background (even though it's white)

Glass presents so many problems when trying to photograph it. The reflective issues are great. It is also very difficult to truly show the depth of the colours and internal texture of dichroic glass, which is really beautiful.

I have now switched to using a wood-like floor tile. I also, after 2 years, discovered that it is best to photograph dichroic glass with no light on, in relatively low light, and against a non-white background.

Loving my current set up!

I bought a little pop up 'studio' from another local crafter and it's the perfect surround. I also found that my camera would decide if I needed a flash, unless I was able to manually override it, which I do with the help of an additional flash, that I simply turn off by the switch.

Simple, but works!

This brings me to my current style, which I'm really happy with. My Etsy Store looks cohesive and clean, but highlights my products perfectly.

Store looks somewhat cohesive

My tips for product photography -

- Use a background that has some interest, but not so that it detracts from your product. Your product needs to 'pop' at your potential customers.
-  Think about how your Etsy store looks - does it look messy and uncoordinated or does it look cohesive?
- If you have a digital SLR, here is your opportunity to use it! Even the pre-programmed settings can produce great pictures!
- Crop your pictures to show a view you want and have several views of your product, including a close-up and a picture with your product next to something of standard size so that your potential customer can see how big or small it is.
- Your pictures are all that your customer sees in an online setting, make them pop! Take the time to get great pics!

Share your tips for product photography!

The New Etsy Reader - A Review

My new Etsy Reader on my old work board...

A few weeks ago, Etsy announced they had released a their own 'reader', ie, credit card reader. Most crafters, including myself use a reader at shows, although, until this, most of us use Square or Paypal. The readers are all free, but take a percentage of the sale as a processing fee, usually around 2.75% for swiped transactions.

The problem with selling both in person and online, especially with one of a kind items like mine, is that you need to ensure you don't sell something in person, then find out that you have sold it online.

Etsy have a "Sell on Etsy" App, that has gradually added features over the years,  that now allows you to manage your listings and deactivate listings from your event which is helpful, but, it's frustrating sometimes to pay for your listing fee, but then have to deactivate it if you sell it in person and not get the benefit of that sale counting towards your statistics.

The Etsy Reader is the perfect compliment to an online Etsy store.

In combination with the Sell on Etsy App, it allows you to -

- Sell your listings in person.
- Create 'quick' listings on the fly for items you haven't listed.
- Add pictures to these 'quick' listings if you want to, or not.
- Sell a combination of 'quick' and already listed  items.

Selling through multiple outlets can also be confusing for record keeping. Managing Square statements, in-person cash sales and online Etsy sales makes for more pieces of paper than I personally like, and I know my hubby doesn't, since I have a tendency to file in 'piles'...

The Etsy Reader is the answer to this!

It's orange, with the Etsy logo and has a slightly rubberized feel to it. It connects into the headphone jack of your phone like other card readers.

To use the Etsy Reader, you must have the "Sell on Etsy" App installed on your device (it works with both Apple and Android devices and with tablets and phones).
I wish I were tech-savvy enough to actually do screenshots, but, for some reason, my shonky Galaxy S2 won't co-operate. The page describing the reader does have screenshots of how the App works.

My main point in writing this, was to actually review how the Etsy Reader works in practice and its benefits / drawbacks.

Benefits

- You can receive credit card and cash payments.
- You can add a sales tax profile and it will automatically calculate and add this amount to your sale, for both cash and card payments.
- Quick sales are not subject to the Etsy listing fee of 20c.
- Cash sales incur no payment processing fees.
- All sales count towards your Etsy sales statistics.
- Much easier to manage your Etsy-listed items and unlisted items at a craft fair
- You can keep all your paperwork in one place - ie an Etsy monthly statement.
- You can have a cohesive feel to your shop - ie, Etsy in person and Etsy online.
- You can send email receipts
 - Buyers can leave reviews for Etsy listings sold in person (not quick sale items) if they are on Etsy.

Drawbacks

- It's a little time consuming to have to type in the quick sale description. They need to add the ability to create quick listings that you can store and simply click on.
- You have to wait for Etsy to transfer money to your bank account, whereas Paypal transfers instantly to a Paypal account and many sellers use their Paypal account with a debit card in lieu of a bank account.
- Higher fees for a manually entered transaction. This is pretty standard (as the card doesn't have to be present and therefore it's a higher security risk), but a little unfair if you have the card with you and the swipe function isn't working (whether it be the reader or the card stripe itself at fault).
- Some sellers feel that the recent changes that Etsy has made to search and its business practices are not helping sellers and the Etsy reader is designed as a money-making option for them and less of a help to sellers.


Overall I love the new reader. To me, I would be paying the fees anyway (they're pretty universal) and I don't operate my business on a shoestring enough that a couple of days before the money transfers to me matters all that much.
I love having my paperwork in one place and I love that I don't need to put my store in vacation mode ahead of a big show because it's too hard to manage the Etsy-listed items as well as those that aren't listed. I can simply sell them there and then.
I also like the ability to have the equivalent of a cash register that records all sales and I love that I can increase my Etsy sales statistics at no cost to me for cash sales in-person.
The reader seems durable and I haven't had any problems with it at two shows over the past 2 weeks.

In short - it's a winner for any Etsy seller!