Etsy search clumping issue - solved? What now?

Please note: this post probably will only be interesting for Etsy Sellers :)

In the begging of October a glitch on Etsy search appeared - the 'uber dominancy' or 'clumping' called in forums by sellers.

The 'uber dominancy' of search results by just a few shops made lots and lots of other sellers lacking of views, and in consequence, sells. I've seen it myself, using 'silk scarf' term for search. It was madness. Pages after pages of similar scarfs from one shop... for the customers? that was really bad. Imagine you want to buy but there seems to be only one type of scarfs available on Etsy from only one shop. I guess many potential buyers just gave up and moved to another on-line shops.

The issue of 'uber dominancy' was resolved in the end of October (at least on 10 first search pages for every search term) by using good old 'relevancy'. There is an engine that decides which item is relevant - accurate for the specific term that can be searched. 

People around Etsy Forums reports that now re-listed or recently listed items don't get theirs '5 minutes' in the searches. I confirmed it, only my oldest items, the ones with most 'hearts' and 'treasuries' get into first 10 pages of Etsy search.

So what can we, sellers, should do?

• There is no first page Treasury anymore, instead there is the Activity Feed. That means we need more hearts :) and treasuries, but with a place in the fist row (the first row is visible in the Activity Feed).
• We need links and backlinks (links to our items from blogs, pinterest, facebook and our internal links from our shop from one item to another)
• We need good SEO and good tags, as always.

But do we still need re-listing?

To get into the Activity Feed of our friends (ppl who favorited our shop or are following us) yes, But for now it seems re-listing won't get us into search result.

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This info I gathered around Etsy Teams and Forum. I hope it will help! If you wish to discuss or have some other news for us, please feel free to contact me or to leave a comment!

To learn more:

• CLUMPING - Etsy Forum topic
• SEO & RELEVANCY -  great Etsy Team
• PROMOTING - Etsy Team for promoting your items

Good Photography for Etsy #1

Good pictures sell your products on Etsy

It is so simple, really. Good photography is the most important thing for your e-shop, it is literally the only thing that can persuade your potential customer to buy.

Photographing for Etsy is something that many sellers struggles with. I myself still have A LOT to learn... but there are some tips I can share with you! I hope you will find it helpful :)

Ready picture of silk scarf FLOWERS and it's unedited version.

So, here are the main things that need to be taken under consideration:
 
PHOTOGRAPHING

• staging (good presentation of the item, good background)
• lighting (can be fixed in GIMP)
• cropping

EDITING with GIMP or Photoshop

• cropping
• color balance and contrast
• editing small imperfections of the background

There will be more blog posts to come in few next weeks so stay tuned!

You can check my ETSY shop to see the pictures, some better, some not so much ;) but I hope there is visible progress :D  Please feel free to share you knowledge in the comment section!

My Wedding silk scarf :)

Yay, finally I am able to share with you my wedding scarf designed and painted specially for the occasion.

Hand painted silk scarf Wedding on Etsy.

I really hope you will like this white scarf ! It is my good luck charm now, as I am wearing it this fall with every - day clothes.

This wedding scarf was painted with two types of paints: silk paints as a base and then details with textile paint. The textile paint is more thick so it can be used as a contour. I am very glad how it turned out :) 

I am offering this silk scarves on Etsy as a made to order - I'd love to paint it once more!

There is a hand painted silk skirt and blouse too, of course :) I will share the photos with you with another post so stay tuned!

500 + sales on Etsy THANK YOU!!

It was a few days ago, but due to some health issues I can share this great news with you today!

500 sales on MinkuLUL.etsy.com

It was crazy two years, filled with hard work and lots and lots of fun! I simply love painting so this job is a dream - come - true for me :) 

I am so thankful to all my customers for their trust and support. THANK YOU!
I am so grateful to Etsy for giving me and so many many other artists and craters a wonderful opportunity for growing.