New to the team and Etsy!

[ElizabethGCreations]

Hi!

I am new etsy! I design and create handmade cards. I would love a critique of my shop! My long term goal is to to do this full time and work from home! Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Elizabeth

[Former_Member]

Super cute cards!! Love them All!
But the ones that my eye is most drawn to, is this one https://www.etsy.com/listing/130003068/die-cut-and-embossed-mothers-day-card?ref=shop_home_feat and this one https://www.etsy.com/listing/129346057/die-cut-robot-mothers-day-card?ref=shop_home_feat

Which leads me to my first suggestion which is to make the first photo (the avatar) of the five more zoomed out like the ones that caught my eye. Because when I shop for cards on Etsy I just scroll through and I normally am more drawn to the photos in which I can see the whole card with some space around it. And then after clicking on it get a zoomed in shot. It's like in the store I like to hold the card and then pull it close to get the details. Also some more blank space around your art allows it to breathe and stand out much in the same way an art gallery is a lot of white walls.

Hope that helps....Keep on creating, you make adorable designs!

[ElizabethGCreations]

Thanks for the advice! I put these up late at night and forgot to look at the avatar photo! I will definitely go through and make that adjustment. Thanks for the encouragement also! I love making cards and my designs! I have so many ideas floating around in my head that I can't wait to create!

[sarahbellumdesign]

Hi Elizabeth! Welcome to the team and to Etsy :-) your cards are lovely! One thing I would suggest is to photograph them in natural light with a more neutral background. The yellowish hue of your current one distracts from the colors of your cards. White is the standard go-to but I think a piece of wood (I just use my porch) or even some white scrapbook paper with a faint pattern would look nice. You could also digitally erase the background.

The only other thing I noticed was that you only accept credit cards. I'm afraid that might end up working against you, many people exclusively use PayPal for online purchases. It's free to sign up and is super easy to use, you might want to look in to that :-)

Best of luck! It takes some serious work and determination to get started on here but it's totally worth it once business starts to pick up!

[Former_Member]

Hello Elizabeth!

I agree with everyone that your cards are super cute! I also agree that some nice, natural lighting would really improve your photos and help the colors really stand out.

I'd also suggest not using the same opening for all of your titles, even if they do apply. For instance, all of your listings start out with "Handmade Die Cut" , I'd suggest changing up some of them because etsy puts the most importance on the first few words of a title, so if all of your first few words are the same in every title it limits your exposure.

This title could start with "Birthday Card" just to get you more relevant in birthday card searches.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/128642592/handmade-die-cut-turtle-birthday-card?ref=shop_home_active

Same goes for putting "Mothers Day Card" at the beginning of some of your mother's day card titles.

This one could even start as "Owl Birthday Card" because "Owl Birthday" "Birthday Card" and "Owl Birthday Card" are all well searched terms that will be utilized in that title, giving people more opportunity to see your card!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/128832977/handmade-die-cut-owl-birthday-card?ref=shop_home_active

I'm probably not very good at explaining it, so you would probably do well reading one of the many SEO guides here on etsy.

Don't worry, you've got a great product so keep at it!