Tips on How to Use Craftori.com

[#1]

Tip 1 - Best Products

Craftori is a showcase site, upload only your very best items to attract people to your store. Ensure that your images are great qualtiy.

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Tip 2 - Best Results from Paid Sections

If you're thinking of paying for a front page spot, or have paid, ensure you have several items in the free categories. Your username will be shown on the front page and shoppers can click on this to go to your author page which will show all of your items.

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Tip 3 - Promotion

Use your author page for promotion and sharing online. You'll look less like a spammer if you promote your items from different venues and people are more likely to check it out as it will appear to be something new. StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest give us the most traffic so try those if you haven't yet.

To find your author page, hover your mouse over the login link and go to your profile. There you will find 'my posts'. This will take you to your author page showing all of your items. Make sure it looks really pretty.

Alternatively, you can also promote your individual posts.

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Tip 4 - Shopping/Browsing

When shoppers need to find specific items following a theme or color, they can either use the tag cloud at the bottom of the page and click on one of the tags or use the search function, also at the bottom of the page.

Ensure therefore that your tags are relative to the item. Do not add tags about etsy or teams as this serves no purpose on the site.

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Tip 5 - Titles

Ensure that your titles are around 70 characters and that they contain the main keywords relating to your products. Also ensure that they are not over-punctuated. Google marketplace does not like very long titles or titles that look like tags. The search function on Craftori.com searches from the titles and is why this is important.

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Tip 6 - Deleting

If you have made an error in your upload, you can delete it and start again. To delete an item, go to your author page which will take you to the individual item, click on the item image to be deleted and at the bottom you'll see X delete. Click here and your item will be deleted. You can then re-upload.

The reason we do not have an edit function on Craftori.com is because we need to keep control of the site and ensure that it looks the best it can. Good looking sites that do not look spammy is what attracts the most traffic.

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Tip 7 - Our Badge

Use our badge on your websites or blog pages. This is good for SEO and shows inward bound links to your blog.

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Tip 8 - Favoriting

If you're shopping or browsing, be sure to use the favoriting function. You can then go back and visit them later. You can find your favorites by hovering your mouse over the login/logout link and going to 'my profile'.

The 5 most favorited items will show when anyone views an individual item.

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Tip 9 - Why Pay?

Why pay on Craftori.com? The paid sections are more exclusive, ie there are less items which means that your items will be more visible. The front page is the most visited page on the site.

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Tip 10 - Randomize

All the pages on Craftori.com are totally randomized giving everyone a chance of being visible. This means that you do not have to worry about posting several similar items as they will never appear in a block.

If you have uploaded and do not immediately see your item when you go to the category, then refresh the page as this will randomize all of the items again. All pages currently show 60 items.

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Tip 11 - Tutorials

If you have a free tutorial, you can post one image and a link going to the tutorial in our Tutorials Section. Free tutorials attract the most amount of traffic and this is why it is a good idea to post them to the site.

Also ensure that if you have items for sale that you add them to the free categories so that if anyone clicks on your username when viewing your tutorial, they will arrive on your author page and see all of your items.

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Tip 12 - Supplies

Uploading to the supplies section is a great way to be seen by our users. Because this is a paid section of the site, it is exclusive and you will not therefore be buried as you may be on your selling venue.

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Tip 13 - FREE Front Page Features

Occasionally we use seasonal and topical items to go on the front page. If your items are well presented and fit in with current trends, they may be chosen to get a free front page spot for a few days.

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Tip 14 - Descriptions

Description characters are kept to 300 so that you can use wording to quickly hook people in. Keep it short as people do not read the same way online and large paragraphs are often skipped. Make it interesting and catchy to ensure that people will click on the item. The first few words are the most important.

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Tip 15 - Categories

Placing your items in the correct categories is very important. When people shop around the site and click on a category, they do not wish to see items that do not fit and this could be irritating.

It is not going to benefit you to place your items in lots of different categories and your items could in fact be missed altogether. Someone who is looking for a specific item, will go to that category so please ensure that you add your item to the category that best describes your product.

Remember too that the free categories are not gift guides. Your item must be in the category that best describes your product, not who it could be given to or for what occasion.


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If I can think of any more tips, I will add them later. In the meantime, I hope you find these useful.

[lea67000]

Just a question: if something sells am I supposed to remove the items? (most of my items are unique so if they sell there's no duplicate)

[EurekaGuides]

@Lea, we do ask that you remove sold items. This avoids disappointment if shoppers try to look at the item. Saying that, if if it sold, and not de-activated, then shoppers will still be directed to your store.

Now and then, if certain categories are looking a little full, we will remove sold items.

[lea67000]

Thank you will do if I don't forget, and sorry about the watermark issue (I suppose it was the issue) I will upload pictures without from now on.

[EurekaGuides]

@Lea, yes, your name was an issue, we did discuss it because it was small but it was legible and we ask that they are not legible. :-)

[lea67000]

When I find time I'll reload them without, I have copies of all pictures without.

[CathySavelsArt]

Thanks Lea. :-)

[Birdycoconut]

Thank you for all the information on this thread, the FAQ on craftory is very helpfull too.
there is still one thing that is unclear to me, what is a badge ? i tend to think it is like the pinterest button you can pull to your tool bar, is it so ?
where can i find it ? when i will have found it (if ever !) is it a good idea to put it in my "about" shop section ? thank you !

[EurekaGuides]

@birdycoconut, 'the badge' is just a logo that you can use to place on your blog page or website. If you scroll down on any page on the Craftori site, you'll see the code at the bottom. Sellers also use the image in their listings as an extra photo sometimes. You can put it in your About page if you like but I would reserve those images more for your work space, visitors love to see those on the About pages. :-)

[Former_Member]

For someone new to the site this is fabulous advice!!! Thanks for taking the time to share it.

[tombstonebead]

I would like to post a pair of beaded sunglasses however I'm not seeing a section. Any suggestions?

Oh and where can I find the badge to put on my blog? never mind I just the the answer above. ;)

[EurekaGuides]

@Tombstone, There is no section as such for glasses, we do not have enough items submitted like this to make it worth it at the moment. Please add them to 'Accessories', then 'hair accessories' or 'eyeglass chains'.

[tombstonebead]

Oh OK...........thank you

[Former_Member]

I'm feeling a bit lost at the moment, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of things, I do find uploading a bit awkward, though. Do you think they'll streamline this a bit more? I have to search for the picture to go with my item, whereas other sites pick it up for you.

[Former_Member]

AWESOME!! Thanks for the invite, I'm gonna check it out now :)

[CathySavelsArt]

@Linda, it will have to stay like that for a while at least. I will talk to our tech guy though and pass on your suggestion. We're not a big site like Pinterest or Wanelo etc. who have lots of developers, we're just 2 people so we do have limited resources.

[MoomettesCrochet]

Thank you for these recommendations !

[Former_Member]

Just signed up and posted a few items today...still learning, but it looks great!

I would have to say my biggest challenge is also scanning through my thousands of photos to find the matching one to the Etsy listing to post.

Question: I have 3 shops - I read that you can have an account for each one, but right now I am just keeping it to one...Any advantages or disadvantages either way?

Thanks for all the great advice and info!...

[CathySavelsArt]

@RinnovatoVintage firstly, it is not necessary to go through all of your images to upload. What I do when I promote sellers' items is that I right click on the image (on Etsy), then save it as an image which I call 'Craftori' and I save it to my desktop. I just have one image that I work with like that and it always sits on my desktop. So each time I promote an item, I save it under the same name.

There isn't really any advantage to having separate accounts and it would be a bit of a pain to have to keep logging in and out, unless you use separete browsers. The only possible issue is that all of your items will show up in your author page. If you do not want that, then it's best to have separate accounts.

[Former_Member]

Cathy...Thanks so much! I actually did that with my first photo, then for some reason I though it was easier to use the browse....I think your's is the quicker (easier) way to go!

And you are right...it would be nice if each of my author pages had cohesive shop items...like one all vintage home decor, one all jewelry, etc. I will have to think about that one!

Thanks again for answering so quickly! : )

[Former_Member]

I was wondering if pictures uploaded to Craftori disappear as soon as items have expired on Etsy? I've noticed most of the pictures I've posted on the site are gone.

Also, how do I remove a picture if I don't want it up anymore?

[Former_Member]

One more thing...I uploaded a new item on Craftori about 20 minutes ago. I went back on the page and I don't see it anywhere. Did I check too soon? Does it that a while to show up? Thanks. :-)

[EurekaGuides]

@sew3heartfelt, the last item you uploaded had a blurred photo and this is the reason why it was removed.

Items on Craftori expire after 4 months. If an item is sold, we occasionally go through the site and remove sold items before the expiration date to keep the site tidy and stop our shoppers being irritated.

[Former_Member]

Ok, thank you for the explanations. :-)

[EurekaGuides]

@sew3heartfelt, no worries. It's probably best to use the contact form on the site for questions like this as you're more likely to get a quicker response. We don't always look on the forum.

[AStringorTwo]

I think the site has beautiful items! I've added a couple but find the site to be very slow. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just my internet service?