Advice for the newbie?

[Former_Member]

I've read a good portion of the seller handbook, and done my best to have descriptive titles and tags.

Does anyone have advice/critique for me?

My shop has been open for a week, and I'm still anticipating my first sale :)

Thanks in advance!

[Former_Member]

I really like your jewelry. Your wire wrap bird nest necklaces are really nice.

Your photographs could use work. They all seem to have a very yellow cast. Play with lighting and try to use filtered natural light.

Use all 5 photo slots. Your work is really nice but I'd like to see different angles and detail shots of your pieces. Experiment with different angles and detail shots of different aspects of your pieces.

Your tags could also use work. Try using two word tags. Instead of just 'steampunk' try 'steampunk necklace'. Think of what people would enter in the search box when looking for your piece. Also, you are wasting tags with your name...not necessary.

Overall, you're off to a great start!

[Former_Member]

Another quick observation, change your shop title. It currently reads 'Pippa Imedemaal, beautiful handmade jewellery.' Use this to describe what you make. Maybe something like 'wire wrapped pendants and earrings'. Simply state what you make.

[Former_Member]

Yes, LOVE the wrapped nest necklaces! Very beautiful.

I agree with Katrina about the photography- use all slots and I like to see jewelry on models too. It gives me a better idea how the piece will look when wearing it. I like to stand back and look at my shop to make sure the colors/tints in the backgrounds of my photos are all consistent. Some of your photos look a little dark and the piece gets lost.

Good photos will get you views. It's something I'm still working on too.

[Former_Member]

Your jewelry looks very nice but the photographs are a little dark and some are also fuzzy. Here are two links to articles about taking great photos:

http://etsymentors.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-to-use-light-box-and-photo-editing.html
http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/staying-sharp-achieving-clarity-and-crispness-in-your-photos-1173...

It will help the views for your shop if you use keywords in the shop title, section names and listing titles and tags.

Don't guess on the wording for keyword phrases. Start with using keyword phrases that are often used on Google to search for similar products. The keyword phrases popular on Google are also popular on Etsy.

I suggest using Google's keyword research tool to find appropriate keyword phrases for your listings; adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal?forceLegacy=true

SEO for Google is a lot more than adding keyword phrases but this is the place to start.

Also very important: Good clear descriptions of each item. To make sure that Google indexes every listing, make at least part of each title unique and give each listing a unique description. This is very important for Google. You can read more about it here: http://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/8523243

It took six weeks to make my first sale in my first shop. Give yourself time to learn how to sell on Etsy and work on making your shop better and better.

Most of all, welcome to Etsy.