Need some candid/frank feedback

[foreverandrea]

I hope it is ok to post this here. If not, please don't throw tomatoes, just disregard.

What would keep you from purchasing from me/my shop?

Pricing?
Not something you are in need/want of?
???

I am working on my pics all the time, and they are getting better. I am working on SEO too. Maybe I am misunderstanding SEO?

I would really like to get it up and cruising along before the holidays.
I'd be glad to return the favor of looking at your shop, if you want me to.

Thanks for any input.

[foreverandrea]

Hmmm, either everyone is disregaring this post because I put it in the wrong place, or everyone is out at a family BBQ for the long weekend. :D

[kickglassenamels]

I have no idea if this is okay or not, but here goes.

My little girls aren't little anymore, which is the first thing that would stop me. I'm not your target audience, but even when they were younger, i don't know that I would be buying bead bracelets for babies. You need a way to guarantee that these won't come apart and choke a small child. And when they were old for little kid jewelry, it was mostly play stuff, party favors and such. Little kids lose things. It's not overpriced for what it is, but more than I'd spend on little kid jewelry.
Just me, not everyone.
You have other items but they don't show up unless you go looking. It might work better to use your front page like a featured item showroom, showing samples of your different work because you have so many pages. Just a thought, but if I were perusing, I'd assume your shop was going to be pages of baby bracelets.

Hope this helps.

[kickglassenamels]

I meant to say "old enough for little kid jewelry"

[foreverandrea]

Hmmm, ok kickglass. So maybe I should put my tween and teen items more on the front, rather than the bracelets? (which are not just for babies) I know, not everyone would buy jewelry for little girls. Some do, some don't.

I would not recommend buying bracelets or other jewelry for children younger than 5, unless it is for a special occassion like a wedding, getting pictures taken, baptism blessings etc. It is not meant for everyday wear. But I get what you are saying.

So I guess the "featured' items at the top of the 1st page don't really grab your attention then.

I'm going to go work on your suggestions right away. Thank you.

[kickglassenamels]

They did, which is what made me look at some other pages, but you have a lot of items. Just a sample of everything on the front page might send people into the interior pages. And then if someone wants a certain type of item, they can look in the shop section.
I'm not that great at this either. Still trying to get it right.

[foreverandrea]

Ok, I get you now. I've moved all my crochet hats and stuff to FP, but really what you are saying is to have a sampling of all my items on the FP. Great idea!

[Former_Member]

I think it looks good!

[Former_Member]

Hi Andrea,

My first response was "nice products", well displayed and cute models. My second thought was "why are there so many duplicate pics of the same thing?". On closer inspection I see the same turquoise crochet hat has different color flowers attached. The difference doesn't show up well when you're just quick-looking at a site.

I know it's all in the tweaking as I am new and just learning, so that critique should be taken with my 'newness' in mind :)

Good luck!
Oh, and do you ever do those crocheted tops to dishtowels? I love hanging them on my stove handle so they are secure and don't drop to the floor.

[Former_Member]

Your pictures are really nice and I think the above suggestions were great advice. :)

The only other thing I can see right off (I'm a pretty new seller too) is the tags on your items. The words you chose were all relevant and good but I've noticed that "phrase tags" (as apposed to just single words) are slightly more relevant. So for instance, instead of "crochet" and "headband" separately, you would make the tag "crocheted headband". You could do others like "teen headband", "child bracelet" etc.

I've experimented with this and have found it to help me, I hope it does the same for you. -^_^-

[foreverandrea]

cheezz1 - the duplicate pics are for the SAME hat, SAME color flower but DIFFERENT sizes. There is one hat/scarf/set that I am selling separates and as a set. So... kinda the same pics but one is for the hat only, one is for the scarf only, and one is for the set. Make sense? I don't have the same turquoise hat with different colored flowers. Nope, sorry, I don't do those towel toppers. They are really neat, but i already do so many different things already I must stop myself from taking on even more. Thanks so much for your critique.

wishflowervintage - I will work on my tags. It was my understanding that single words would show up in searches better/more frequently than phrases. Gawww! I feel like I am always tweeking keywords! LOL Thank you so much for taking the time to look and help me.

[foreverandrea]

OK, I've made some pretty major changes to my first page. Does it look ok? Not too disorganized? Does it make you want to look deeper into my shop?

[Former_Member]

Hi,
I am new, so I can't critique much, but I wanted to say that I thought your pics were great, your items were beautiful (my kids are all older also, but I still appreciate them). The thing that I would change regarding SEO are the titles of your items. I believe that we are now being told that the first three words of our titles are the most important in Etsy SEO. I notice that you have a lot of descriptions in your first three words. I have had to go through my shop several times (and still catch myself with items that use descriptions in the first three words). I would change the first three words and then use the descriptions after that.

Otherwise, I like your creations and they are really pretty for the fall.

Kerry

[foreverandrea]

Thanks SeasonsofLove, I appreciate you taking the time to look and critique. This thing with the first 3 words being the most important is so hard for me. They all seem important to me! LOL I am making changes slowly, just like admin has advised us to do. I have changed some titles one way, and some another way, to see which works better.

[Former_Member]

I don't have much new to add that the others here haven't mentioned, and I think your photos are very well done. I don't have children so I'm not really in your target audience for the jewelry and other accessories, but I do love this set of dish towels:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/80553900/kitchen-dish-cloths-orange-blue-green

I'm crazy for bright colors. :)

I wanted to direct you to a blog post I found extremely helpful about titles and keywords and making them relevant, much as wishflowervintage mentioned with using phrases instead of single words: http://marketmyshop.blogspot.com/2011/08/importance-of-tags-and-keywords-for.html

Mandy
DrapesOfWrath.etsy.com
DrapesOfWrathAprons.blogspot.com
BehindTheDrapes.etsy.com

[foreverandrea]

Thanks Mandy! I'll go check out the blog post.

[Former_Member]

I don't have children, but if I did I probably wouldn't bracelets that expensive for them. Children are prone to loosing and breaking things.

[foreverandrea]

Azuitdesign -

I would never recommend my children's jewelry for everyday wear for children under 5 or 6 years old. Most of my jewelry is specific for special occassions such as Photo shoots, baptism, flower girl, etc. All times when they would be carefully watched. These are not toys and should not be given to a child to do with whatever they want. They are keepsakes.

I have 4 children and I know how children are. However, I made a keepsake bracelet for my youngest daughter who is now 9. We still have the bracelet as a reminder of how tiny she was. She was NEVER allowed to just play with it. She wore it to church (always with my supervision) and to have her picture taken. Later, she could ask me and we would pull it out of it's place and look at it together and talk about when she was a baby.

I plan on creating a shadow box with the tiny bracelet, the picture of her as a baby wearing the bracelet, and a few other momento's from when she was a baby.