Etsy Technology Help

Adding Product Types to Google Base Feeds

2009-07-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

If you have not yet set-up Google Base you should start by reading this article.

You may have noticed that in your Google Base you get a warning that states "Warning: Missing recommended attribute: weight." The way Etsy has our RSS feeds set-up there is no way for this information to be included. You can however, go in and add these weights manually. Please note that your items will still appear in Google's Shopping searches with out doing this. Following these steps will just help your items to appear in relevant searches. If you decide to edit your items I recommend switching your uploads to monthly because after each upload happens all of your edits will be lost and you will have to re-enter them all by hand.

To add some attributes follow the instructions below:

1. Log into Google Base
2. Click "Active Items"
3. Click "Edit" next to the item you would like to add attributes to
4. Click any of the links under "Include additional details
for your item" on the right hand side
5. New boxes will appear, add the information for your product
6. Click "Publish" at the bottom of the page.

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

How to Filter a Dynamic IP in Google Analytics

2009-07-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

If you haven't read my first post on filters and ip addresses in relation to Google Analytics I suggest you start there to determine if you have a dynamic ip address.

If you have determined that your ip address is dynamic please follow these modified instructions to filter out your own clicks. Please note that this will also filter out other people in your area who come to your shop.

Log into Google Analytics. Toward the bottom right click the blue link titled "Filter Manager." On the right side of the long gray box click "Add Filter."

a. Name the filter whatever you would like; I named mine "me"
b. Under filter type select "Exclude all traffic from an IP address"

Okay, now you need to open up a new window.
First go to whatismyip and copy the IP address that is displayed.
Now go here and paste your IP address into "First IP address" and then click "Generate RegEx." Now copy the characters displayed in "Step 3."

You should have copied something that looks like this: ^88\.100\.200\.300$ Now since you have a dynamic ip (changes often) instead of blocking out your own ip address we are going to only block out part of it. To do this replace the 3 numbers at the end with "\d+" So your new regular expression should look like this: ^88\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+$ (your numbers will be different)

c. Paste the regular expression you just edited into the field titled "IP address"
d. Below that, in the box, click www.etsy.com.
e. Click the "add" button to the right.
f. Click "Save Changes."

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

How to Change Your Blog Icon

2009-07-21T12:12:00.001-07:00

This question was originally submitted by: Scrivener's Retreat

Question #1: Is there a way we can get those little icons that appear in the window tabs on our own blogs and websites?

You most definitely can change that icon on your blog or website since we are allowed to edit html. This process will not work for your Etsy Shop since we have no html control there. If you would like to add your own icon to your Blogger Blog please follow the instructions below:

Note: These steps are a little bit more involved then some of my other tutorials, feel free to e-mail me if you get stuck and need some help.

Find a picture or an image you would like to use
Go here, click the "Browse" button then select your image
Click the "Generate Favicon.ico" button
A new page will load, click the "Download FavIcon Package" link below your image
Save it to your computer, note where you saved the file
Find the zip folder on your computer and double click on it (this should cause a new folder to appear that is not a zip folder. If this does not happen, right click on the zip folder and unarchive it using a method displayed in your "Open With" menu)
Go here and browse to the folder, inside the folder choose the file that ends with .ico
Click the "Upload" button
This will load a new page, in the third box down copy the text between the [IMG] and [/IMG] tags. The text you copy should look something like this: http://www.picpanda.com/images/abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.ico
Log into Blogger, click "Customize", then click "Edit HTML"
Find "<title><data:blog.pagetitle/></title>" it should be right near the top
Paste in the following code right below the title tag : <link href="http://www.picpanda.com/images/abcdegghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.ico" rel="shortcut icon" type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon"/>
Change the image link to the one you copied from the previous website.
Click "Save Template"

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Front Page Tags July 6 - July 12, 2009

2009-07-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

Here is last weeks list of tags that Etsy Admins used to find front page items. If you are wondering what this is all about check out this post: How to Get on the Front Page of Etsy

bohemian
boudoir
creamsicle
free shipping
hiking
modern
moss
mustard
nautical
organic
oyster
pale
rope
surfer
travel
tropical
wood

This is the last front page tags I will be doing for at least a while. Its a little bit more work than I have time for right now (maybe I will write a script for it one day). There will be an update and explanation coming soon!

Love Always,
susan.

How to be Noticed by Etsy Admins

2009-07-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

There is no real answer to this question but I do have one handy tip that may help. Do you regularly read the Storque Blog? If not I would head over there right now and catch up. This is where admins hang out! You can leave comments on their posts and a lot of the time they ask for suggestions on items they will highlight. I do not guarantee that they will read every comment but I am pretty sure they read a lot of them because I see admins responding to comments all the time.

I do recommend that before posting comments, make sure you have a top notch avatar that will grab their attention. Good luck!

Love Always,
susan.

How to Add Categories to your Blog

2009-07-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

Originally sumbited by: Calynette

Question #1: I noticed you have a category widget on your blog, how can I set one up?

1. Log in to Blogspot
2. Click "Customize"
3. Click "Add a gadget"
4. Click the blue plus sign next to "Labels"
5. You can change the title to "Categories" if you perfer or leave it as "Labels"
6. Choose "Alphabetically", or "By Frequency"
7. Click Save

The labels that appear will be the tags used in your articles. I recommend not using more than 3 labels for each article or it may get confusing for your readers.

More of a visual learner? Check out this video!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Front Page Tags June 29 - July 5, 2009

2009-07-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

Here is last weeks list of tags that Etsy Admins used to find front page items. If you are wondering what this is all about check out this post: How to Get on the Front Page of Etsy

art decor
butterfly
coral
eagle
elf
floral
green grass
linen
modern
natural history
Navy
organic
patriotic
red white blue
rustic
wine

Love Always,
susan.

New Video Tutorials

2009-07-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

During this wonderful holiday weekend I took some time to make some videos. They are based off of articles I have already written but I thought some of you might be interested in them.

The first one goes through the steps for setting up Google Analytics:

This is something I would hope most of my readers have already done but it may be helpful for those new Etsy users out there.

The second one goes through the steps of finding out when Google last crawled your Etsy shop:

This one is based off the previous article here

The third one gives the steps of setting up advanced segments for google analytics:

Which is based off of the previous article here

I would greatly appreciate any feedback you have on these videos. Feel free to leave comments here or on the videos themselves.

Love Always,
Susan

When did Google Last Crawl my Shop?

2009-07-01T07:33:00.000-07:00

By crawl I mean when Google last visited your site to gather data. It is helpful to know this during seo changes because sometimes it can take a few weeks after your changes for Google to check out your site again.

Instructions:

Open up Google
Enter in your shops address in the search bar
Click "Google Search", your shop should return as one of the top results
Click the "Cached" text right below your description
At the very top of the page it should give you the last date that Google gathered data from your shop.

More of a visual learner? Check out this video!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Front Page Tags June 22 - 28, 2009

2009-06-30T09:54:00.001-07:00

Here is last weeks list of tags that Etsy Admins used to find front page items. If you are wondering what this is all about check out this post: How to Get on the Front Page of Etsy

aqua
braid
camera
eco friendly
garden
modern
nautical
organic
punk rock
leather and lace
retro
ruffle
sustainable
travel

Love Always,
susan.

One Step Closer to a Lower Bounce Rate

2009-06-26T17:27:00.001-07:00

Wondering what "bounce rate" is? Check this post out first!

In order to improve your bounce rate you need to give your shoppers a reason to check out other listings or other sections in your shop. A really easy way to do this is to add links within your listings. If you have items that relate to each other then link them at the bottom of each listing. I have a good example of this here. Alternatively, you could link to one of you section pages.

Another idea for linking is in regards to your feedback. If you have excellent feedback post a link to your feedback in your shop announcement. This will encourage your shoppers to check out what your past shoppers think of your product and improve your bounce rate at the same time!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

4th of July Weekend Deals

2009-06-26T10:18:00.001-07:00

Post them here for a chance to be featured in the Etsy Finds Weekend Deals E-mail.

Want more information on this? Check out these older posts ..
Weekend Deals Information
What is Etsy Finds?

Love Always,
susan

Google Base E-mail

2009-06-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

*UPDATED*

If you are currently using Google Base you more than likely have now received an email that states "In order to provide shoppers with the most useful information, we'll be making the 'condition' attribute required starting on June 30th, 2009."

Currently, the only way to fix this is to go into each listing manually and edit them. Hopefully, Etsy will be modifying the XML files soon so that it includes condition variables -- but currently there is no fix.

Please do not worry! I will post again before June 30th with a possible solution if Etsy does not address this issue.

Updated: 06/25/2009

Etsy has sent out notice that they have fixed this issue.

We wanted to let you know this Condition attribute is now included in all Etsy shop feeds. If you use your shop feed to schedule uploads to Google Base, there is nothing new you need to do and no action needs to be taken. We have you covered.

Items on Etsy with "Vintage" as a top-level category will be listed with a condition of "used" in Google Base going forward. All other items will be listed with a condition of "new."

I would check your recent upload to make sure it has worked properly for your feed and let me know if you have any problems.

Love Always,
susan.

How to Create your Listings before you "List" Them

2009-06-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is helpful to have your listing all ready to go without actually listing it. Some others also like to be able to get all the text written and save the picture adding part for later. The following instructions will explain how to do this.

Create your new listing as you normally do
When you have entered all the information you would like copy the address in the browser bar. Do not click "Finish" or your listing will be listed.
Save the address in your bookmarks or a text document for later.
When you are ready to finish the listing just paste the address into your address bar and it will take you to your incomplete listing.

Happy listing!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Etsy Finds Weekend Deals

2009-06-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

Etsy Finds is a daily e-mail that Etsy sends out to subscribers. If you have not read my first post on Etsy Finds I would suggest that you start here.

Every Friday Etsy includes weekend deals in their etsy finds e-mail. To be considered all you need to do is post a response in the corresponding forum thread. For the weekend of 06/26 - 06/28 they are looking for Summer Jewelry deals. If you have a summer jewlery deal I would post your information in this thread: Summer Jewelry Weekend Deals. This is a great opportunity to have a chance to reach a large number of people.

If you do decide to post keep the following guideline in mind:
"Please present the instructions for your promotion in a clear way that is easily understandable to first time shoppers."

Love Always,
Susan

Front Page Tags June 15 - 21, 2009

2009-06-22T18:06:00.000-07:00

Here is last weeks list of tags that Etsy Admins used to find front page items. If you are wondering what this is all about check out this post: How to Get on the Front Page of Etsy

coral
faux bois
fern
fiber
gothic
graffiti
grass
hand dyed
linen
mint
modern
organic
pair
poppies
recycled
rustic
strange
summer flowers
translucent

Love Always,
susan.

Some Notes about SEO and Meta Tags

2009-06-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

If you have been around the Etsy forums recently you more than likely were bombarded with lots of posts, questions and complaints about the SEO related to Etsy. I am going to be doing a few articles about SEO over the next couple of weeks and this first post will serve as an introduction.

Question #1: What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is a process used to improve the traffic to a website from search engines. For your Etsy shop it means improving the number of people that find your shop from a search engine.

Question #2: How do I set-up SEO for my Etsy shop?

There are so many different answers to this question and I will explaining a few of them over the next couple of weeks.

Question #3: What does meta mean?

Meta is a prefix used when a concept is an abstraction of another concept.

Question #4: What is metadata?

Data about other data. In the case of your Etsy shop this is data that describes your shop.

Question #5: What is the metadata of my Etsy shop? How do I change it?

To see your metadata please follow the instructions below:

Navigate to your shop
In your browser menu click "View"
Choose "Page Source"

A new window should open that shows you the html of your page. If you look at lines 5 and 6 you should see
< meta name="keywords" content= ...
< meta name="description" content= ...

If you look closely at this meta data you should see that the keywords are your shop sections and your description is your shop announcement. These are the two major sources of data that search engines will look at when deciding to return your shop in a search.

Only the first 150 characters of your shop announcement will be used for you description. This means that if you have a long announcement you should write the first 150 characters in a way that they stand on their own. Additionally your section names should be keywords that describe the products in your shop.

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Understanding Visitor Recency Data

2009-06-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Particles of Stone

Visitor recency lets you track who is coming back to your shop. It is categorizing the visitors based on how much time has elapsed since their last visit.

If you have not viewed your recency data before, follow the instructions below to see it

Log in to Google Analytics
Click "View report"
Click "Visitors"
Click "Visitor Loyalty"
Click "Recency"

The first time you look at this data it makes a little bit more sense if you look at it for a specific day. Using the calendar at the top right set it to include one day only. To explain what the data means I am going to use my own data. I set my date to today. Note: Click the picture to see a bigger version.

So, I had 139 new visitors today.
I have 7 visitors who were just on my shop yesterday.
I have 6 visitors who were just at my shop 2 days ago.
I have 1 visitor who were just at my shop 3 days ago
I have 1 visitor who were just at my shop 4 days ago
I have 1 visitor who were just at my shop 5 days ago
I have 1 visitor who were just at my shop 6 days ago
I have 3 visitor who were at my shop somewhere between 8-14 days ago.
I have 1 visitor who were at my shop somewhere between 15-30 days ago.
I have 2 visitor who were at my shop somewhere between 30-60 days ago.
I have 5 visitor who were at my shop somewhere between 61-120 days ago.

Any visitor that is a new visitor (never been to your shop before) will be categorized in the "0 days ago" data. Any returning visitors will be categorized based on when they were last in your shop. If a returning visitor comes to your shop multiple times in one day their visits will be counted in the "0 days ago" since technically they were just on your shop previously that day. There is a good example of this in the comment section if you would like more information.

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

How Shoppers View Your Shop

2009-06-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

This idea was suggested by Isis

Shoppers may be viewing your shop differently than you see it based on their computer set-up. Many things will effect what they are seeing, such as, type of computer, operating system, screen size, graphics software, and screen resolution. A very simple way to make sure your shop looks great for a majority of your shoppers is to monitor their screen resolution. To do this follow the steps below:

Log in to Google Analytics
Click "View report"
Click "Visitors"
Click "Browser capabilities"
Click "Screen resolutions"

Now you should see some data on the screen resolutions of your shoppers. Note the two most popular resolutions and then change your own screen resolution to match. Then make your way over to your shop and you will see one aspect of how they view your shop.

Isis recommends this is a great tool to determine if your shop announcement is too long.

Wondering how to change your screen resolution? The instructions below are fairly general if the instructions do not work for your operating system please let me know and I can make some instructions for you.

If you have a PC running Windows follow these instructions:

Right click on your desktop
Choose "Properties"
Click the "Settings" tab

If you have a MAC follow these instructions:

Click the apple
Choose "System Preferences"
Choose" Displays"

Front Page Tags June 08 - 14, 2009

2009-06-15T12:16:00.001-07:00

Here is last weeks list of tags that Etsy Admins used to find front page items. If you are wondering what this is all about check out this post: How to Get on the Front Page of Etsy

avocado
beige
birds and bees
camera
eco friendly
fiber
floral
geometric
gray
herb
lace
lemon
midnight
neon
organic
rustic
travel
wheat
woodgrain

Love Always,
susan.

Front Page Tags June 01 - 07, 2009

2009-06-08T11:01:00.001-07:00

Here is last weeks list of tags that Etsy Admins used to find front page items. If you are wondering what this is all about check out this post: How to Get on the Front Page of Etsy

aarow	hand	organic
blush	letters	pinstripe
bronze	metallic	rustic
Dad	maps	swan
ecofriendly	modern	steampunk
eco linen	numbers	travel
floral	nautical	tshirt
garden party

Love Always,
susan.

Setting up Google Base for Multiple Shops

2009-06-07T16:53:00.001-07:00

This post was inspired by Corr Nucopia

If you have more than one shop on Etsy you will more than likely want to be using Google Base for each shop so you can get all of your items into Google's shopping results. If you have not yet set-up Google Base for any of your shops then you should start by following the instructions here.

Once you have your first shop set-up on Google Base you need to go here and register for a multi-client account on Google. It should only take a few hours and they will send you an e-mail once it is created. Once you have received the e-mail stating it has been set-up follow the additional instructions below:

Log in to your Google Base account
Click "Create another account to manage" at the bottom right and fill in the information for you new shop
Click the link to your new shop under "Display Name"
Click "edit" under "Uploads"
Schedule the time you would like it to happen and paste in your RSS feed link for your new shop
Click "Update schedule"

If you have more than 2 shops, you can follow these same instructions for as many shops that you have. Have fun getting your items out there!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Using Site Overlay On Google Analytics

2009-06-07T16:35:00.001-07:00

Site Overlay is a graphical view of where people clicked when they were in your shop. It is a little bit easier to get an idea of where people are clicking rather than looking at the text data on Google Analytics itself. To view your site overlay, follow the instructions below:

Log in to Google Analytics
Click "View report"
Click "Content" on the left
Click "Site Overlay" a new window will pop-up
Enter your shop website address in the search bar shown in the picture below (if the image is too small for you, just click it for a bigger version)

Now you should see a nice graphical overlay of where your shoppers are clicking. Enjoy!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Placing Links On Your Blog

2009-06-06T13:55:00.001-07:00

Question #1: How do I create a link on my blog?

To create a link you can use the code below:

<a href="http://etsytechnologyhelp.blogspot.com/" target="new">Etsy Technology Help</a>

The red text is the actual link and the blue text is what your users will see. Here is what the link would look like on your site:

Etsy Technology Help

You may have noticed that the code above includes: target="new". This opens a new tab or window when the user clicks the link rather than redirecting from your site to the link. I highly recommend this so that you are not sending your traffic away!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

How to Place Project Wonderful Adds on your Blog

2009-06-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

Yay! I was finally able to place Project Wonderful Ads on this blog. You can find a banner one at the bottom of the page and square ones on the right.

If you would be interested in placing some Project Wonderful Ad space on your blog then these instructions will help you out. If you haven't created a Project Wonderful account yet, you will need to follow the instructions in this previous post: Setting up Project Wonderful

If you just started your blog you need to wait until you have 30 quality posts before you can apply to offer add space. They do this to make sure you qualify for add space. Don't worry, from what I understand they will accept your blog as long as it is not entirely comprised of material from other websites.

Now for the instructions:

Log in to Project Wonderful
Click "Become a publisher" at the top of the page
Fill in all of your information and click "Submit this application!"
Wait, about 4 days for your application to be approved
Click "Create new Ad Box" at the top of the page
Enter in your site information and click "Next"
Choose the size and the number of columns you would like and click "Next"
Choose how you would like to monitor adds and click "Next"
Fill in your site description, category, and tags and click "Create ad box"
Click the "which is available" here text at the bottom of the page
Copy the code and log-in to your Blogger account
Click "Layout" then "Add a Gadget" and paste in the code
Back on Project Wonderful, click "activate the ad box" on the right

Each website can add up to 5 add boxes, so if you would like to place more add boxes on your blog follow steps 5-13 again. Good luck with your new add space!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

What is Flickr? Why Should I be Using It?

2009-06-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

Flickr is a website where people can share their photos. It is set-up so that you have a "photostream" with all of your photos and you can also add individual photos to groups.

I think Flickr is a great way to bring a little bit more business to your store. To start your account go here: Flickr and click "Create Your Account" at the top right of the screen. Flickr is connected with yahoo, so if you have a yahoo account you can just use that, otherwise you will have to create one.

Once you have an account you can upload photos of your products by clicking "You" followed by "Upload Photos and Video". You are not allowed to post links to your shop or items in the descriptions but you can post a link to your shop in your profile. If people like your items then they can go to your profile to find your shop.

Just having a flickr account usually is not enough, you need to be in groups. You can add new pictures of your products to groups on a daily basis. To join a new group click "Groups" at the top of the page. Then enter in a search term and click "Find a group". You want to find groups that relate to your products, a good start would be searching for some of the tags you use when listing your items. Once you join a group you can start adding your photos right away. If the group is large enough this will help you get lots of exposure.

A good start would be to join 20 groups. Good luck getting your products out there!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

How to Create your own Custom Etsy Mini

2009-06-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

Do you want to change the order of your items in your Etsy mini without having to move your featured items around? Do you want to change the background color? Then these directions will help you with that! Please note that there is a handful of code that you will need to write in order for this to happen. Also, this will not automatically update like the "real" Etsy Mini's do. When you want to add new items you will have to edit the code yourself.

Please note that some of these instructions are specific to Blogger Blogs.

If you feel that it is just too much for you to do I am willing to write the code for you (you can get information on how at the bottom of this post)

To build this Etsy mini you are going to be writing html code. A great tool to see what your code will look like can be found here: HTML editor

When coding in html we use tags. An open tag looks like this: < > and a closed tag looks like this: </ >

To start we are going to create a table with one row and two columns. The code is as follows:

<table border="1">
<tr>
<td>row 1, col 1</td>
<td>row 1, col 2</td>
</tr>
</table>

Copy the code and paste it into the editor so you can see what it looks like. When you want to create a new row you use the <tr> tag and when you want to create a new column you use the <td> tag. Every time you open a tag you must close the tag somewhere in your code.

Okay, so now lets put some information from our shops into the code. You will need to get the web address of each listing, along with the corresponding picture link. Instructions for finding the picture links are given below

Go to the listing
Right-click on the thumbnail you would like to use
Choose "View image"
Copy the address

Please note that you can choose any thumbnail you want, it does not have to be the first picture like in the "real" Etsy mini.

If you would like to use gallery images, the process is the same. Just right-click on the gallery images instead of the thumbnail images.

<table border="1">
<tr>
<td>
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24561867"><img border="1" vspace="1" hspace="1" src="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_75x75.69143953.jpg" align="center"/></a>
</td>
<td>
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25272803"><img border="1" vspace="1" hspace="1" src="http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_75x75.71480754.jpg" align="center"/></a>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

The red text shows you where I put my listing links, and the blue text shows you where I put the image links. The vspace and hspace code is used to create space between each item. If you want no space you can set them to "0" if you would like more space then increase the number. Copy the code above into the editor and paste in your own listings and images to see what you get.

The background color will automatically match the theme of your blog, so you do not need to worry about colors. If you would like to remove the black border you should use <table border="0"> instead of <table border="1">.

The next step is to add your shop name at the bottom of your table. To do this add the following code at the bottom, replacing your shop name and shop address with mine.

<a href="http://magnetgames.etsy.com/">
<span style="font-size:78%;">
<center>MagnetGames</center>
</span>
</a>
span style="font-style:italic;">

Please note that if you add this code into the HTML editor it will look a bit weird, it will not look this way when you add it to your Blogger Blog.

To make your etsy bigger or smaller, you need to add more rows and columns, below you will find the code for my 4x2 custom Etsy mini. Feel free to copy it and then paste it into the editor to play around with to create your own.

<table border="1">
<tr>
<td>
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24561867"><img border="1" vspace="1" hspace="1" src="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_75x75.69143953.jpg" align="center"/></a>
</td>
<td>
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25272803"><img border="1" vspace="1" hspace="1" src="http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_75x75.71480754.jpg" align="center"/></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25749038"><img border="1" vspace="1" hspace="1" src="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_75x75.73619037.jpg" align="center"/></a>
</td>
<td>
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25749038"><img border="1" vspace="1" hspace="1" src="http://ny-image3.etsy.com/il_75x75.73076879.jpg" align="center"/></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25598963"><img border="1" vspace="1" hspace="1" src="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_75x75.72575901.jpg" align="center"/></a>
</td>
<td>
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25564652"><img border="1" vspace="1" hspace="1" src="http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_75x75.72462929.jpg" align="center"/></a>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<a href="http://magnetgames.etsy.com/">
<span style="font-size:78%;">
<center>MagnetGames</center>
</span>
</a>

Remember, that learning anything new takes time. The more html practice you get the more you will understand!

If you do not remember how to add your Etsy mini to your blog there are instructions here: How to Add an Etsy Mini to a Blogspot Blog

At the top of this post I mentioned that I would be willing to make you your own custom Etsy Mini. I have created a new shop along with a new listing. I will build 1 custom Etsy mini for you for the price of $3. Please remember that all the information to create this on your own is available here for free. You can find the listing here: Custom Etsy Mini

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? E-mail me, and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Another Great Tagging Sugestion

2009-06-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

Have your family and friends complained that they could not find your shop on Etsy?

Etsy does have a built in search for Sellers but most buyers do not notice this. A great way to fix this is to add a tag of your shop name into one or a few of your products. You can add the name with or without the space(s), however, if you have a common name your items may not come up first when searching with the space(s).

Another great tip is to add a tag with your first and last name, so if your friends and family do not know your shop name they can still find you.

Good luck tagging!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Advanced Segments in Google Analytics

2009-06-02T09:05:00.001-07:00

Within Google Analytics you may have noticed the "Advanced Segments" section on the left side of your menu. This feature allows you to track how people find you on etsy with a great deal of precision. Below you will find a detailed set of instructions:

Log into Google Analytics
Click "Advanced Segments" on the left side
Click "Create new custom report"
Under "Dimensions" click "Content"
Drag the "Page" box to the Dimension slot (see image below)

In the drop down menu select "Contains"
In the Value box put "ref=sr" (More options for this text will be provided below)
Click "Test Segment" which should cause some results to pop up
In the "Name segment:" box put "search"
Click "Create Segment"
Follow steps 4-10 again but this time enter the text "ref=fp" in your value box and name it "front page"
Follow steps 4-10 again but this time enter the text "ref=pounce" in your value box and name it "pounce"

You have now set-up three new advanced segments that will track visits from search, front page, and pounce features on Etsy.

To see the results follow the steps below:

Click "Analytics Settings" at the top left
Click "View Report"
Click "Content"
In the upper right corner click the "All Visits" menu
Check off your new segments (see picture below)

Click "Apply"

You should now see some nice graphs showing you where some of your visits are coming from. To make this even better you can use more specific values. Below I will list some of the common etsy values; you can use some or all of them when creating or editing your segments.

More of a visual learner? Check out this video!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Front Page Tags May 25 - 31, 2009

2009-05-31T15:43:00.001-07:00

Here is last weeks list of tags that Etsy Admins used to find front page items. If you are wondering what this is all about check out my previous post found here: How to Get on the Front Page of Etsy

tshirt
eco friendly
lemonade
steampunk
geek
nautical
camera
travel
leaf
linen
stripes
weird
tennis
Fox
swan
squid
sailor
picnic
red white and blue

Love Always,
susan.

Finding View Counts of your Items Using Google Analytics

2009-05-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

There are a number of ways to track your view counts for each item, but I find that Google Analytics allows me to view all of the information at once in a pretty understandable format. It is also a good way to track how many views each item got on a daily basis.

Please note that you can also do this by looking at individual items in your Etsy shop as well as by going to Craftcult.

If you would like to use Google Analytics to do this please follow the instructions below:

Log in to Google Analytics
Click "View report"
Click "Content"
Click "Content by Title"
Scroll down to the bottom and choose to view more rows (it defaults to 10)

You should now be able to see your view counts. If you want to look at a specific day or a date range, just scroll up to the top right and choose the date(s) you would like to view on your calendar.

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Priority Shipping

2009-05-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

This is not software related but I just thought you might like to know. If you ship by USPS Priority you can order boxes, tape, labels and more all for free with free shipping here: Free Priority Supplies

Please note that you cannot use these for first class shipping, only for priority. I hope this helps someone out!

Love Always,
susan.

How to Set-Up your Dashboard on Google Analytics

2009-05-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

When you first log in to Google Analytics and view your report you are taken to your dashboard. Something you may not have noticed is that you can drag the boxes on your dashboard around to customize it. You can also delete and add new reports to your dashboard so you see only the things you want.

On your dashboard right below the "Site Usage" box you should see some more boxes. If you click and hold on the dark color on the top of each box, it will let you grab the box and you can move it to where ever you would like it to be. If there is a box on your dashboard that you don't want there you can click the little "x" in the upper right hand corner of the box.

The picture below illustrates dragging the "Visitors Overview" box around.

You can also add more boxes showing the information you want most. If you want to add a new box, first navigate to the information you would like to add by accessing the menus on the left of your Google Analytics page. Then click the "Add to Dashboard" button at the top of the screen as shown in the picture below.

Here is a quick example of how to add "All Traffic Sources" to your dashboard:

Log in to Google Analytics
Click "Traffic Sources"
Click "All Traffic Sources"
Click "Add to Dashboard"
Now click "Dashboard" and drag it to the location you desire

Why should you take the time to do this? It makes it easier to look at the information you want without having to mess around with all of the menus. You can add as much or as little as you want!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

How to get on the Front Page of Etsy

2009-05-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

The front page of Etsy can be seen here: Etsy Front Page . It is very helpful for shops to be featured on the front page because it usually means lots of views for your product and your shop. In order for your item to be featured on the front page it is either a picked for a user created Treasury or picked for an Etsy admin created list. If you look at the top of the lists it will usually say one of these five things:

Picked by ..
Inspired by ..
Gift Ideas for ..
Found browsing through Etsy categories ..
Found using the search term ..

A great way to get a better chance of appearing on the front page has to do with number 5. Etsy admins use your tags as search terms to find items to feature. If you learn how Etsy searches for items to feature it will help you develop better tags and hopefully get some more front page features.

The first thing to do is to look at the recent search terms. I have listed the search terms used over the past 15 days (I will be posting a list every week of new search terms, so check back!)

ecofriendly
squid
sailor
picnic
red white and blue
carnival
fiber
orange
cornflower blue
emerald
tea
free worldwide shipping
equestrian
camping
floral
fringe
blue
cedar
camera
woodgrain
Eco
garden
bird
whimsical
boat
knots
crown
writer
preppy
free shipping
apricot
fruit
picnic
repurposed
time
recycle
bicycle
twisted metal

This should give you some great inspiration for tagging your items. Most of these search terms were used more than once, so if one of these terms fits your item you should use that tag. A couple things you should pick out from this list are color, season, and holidays. So a great first step to making your items front page worthy is to tag them with their color. Do they go with a holiday or season? Then tag them as such! Do you offer free shipping? Then use that tag!

When tagging please remember to tag appropriately!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

How Etsy Shoppers Find Your Shop

2009-05-26T17:24:00.001-07:00

You more than likely have seen some really bizarre keywords on your Google Analytics account. If you are wondering why, I have an article here: How to make your Etsy Google Friendly

Since our shops are under a main website (etsy.com), it is hard to figure out what keywords people used to find your specific shop on Etsy. The good news is that you can track how shoppers within Etsy find your shop using keywords.

To set this up, follow these steps (if the pictures are too small for you just click on them for bigger versions):

Log-in to Google Analytics
Click "edit" see the heart in the picture
In the top right of the "Main Website Profile Information" box click "edit"
Under "Site Search" change the settings to match the picture below

Click "Save Changes"

This update will take at most 24 hours to start working. After you wait for it to update your settings you can come back and follow these instructions to see the results.

Log in to Google Analytics
Click "View report"
Click "Content"
Click "Site Search"

How do I take a screen shot?

2009-05-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

Question #1: How do I take a screen shot?

If you have a PC running Windows follow these instructions:

Press the "Print SCRN" button, which should be located in the upper right of your keyboard (Note: depending on the keyboard, the wording on the button may vary)
Open the program 'Paint' or other similar software
Click the "Edit" menu, and then choose "Paste"
You can now either save or edit your image

If you have a MAC follow these instructions:

Hold down the apple key, the shift key, and '3' all at the same time. If you have your sound on you will hear a little snap shot sound.
Go to your desktop and you should see a new file titled 'Picture 1' (or another number)
Open this file in iPhoto to crop and edit it to your linking

Question #2: How do I take a screen shot of the active window only?
If you have a PC running Windows follow these instructions:

Press the "Print SCRN" button and the "ALT" button at the same time (Note: depedning on the keyboard, the wording on the buttons may vary)
Open the program 'Paint' or other similar software
Click the "Edit" menu, and then choose "Paste"
You can now either save or edit your image

If you have a MAC follow these instructions:

Hold down the apple key, the shift key, and '4' all at the same time. A cross cursor will appear allowing you to choose the area for the screen shot.
Go to your desktop and you should see a new file titled 'Picture 1' (or another number)
Open this file in iPhoto to crop and edit it to your linking

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? E-mail me, and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Should I share my data with Google?

2009-05-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

Originally submitted by: StephRawson

Question #1: Is there a good reason to share your Google Analytics data with Google?

First of all, if anyone is interested in changing their data sharing preferences, one can do so by following the following steps:

Log in to Google Analytics
Click "edit account settings" at the top of the page just to the right of the shop name
Choose the options desired

If you choose to share anonymously with Google it means they will remove any information that identifies you or your website and then combine your data with the rest of their anonymous data. If you decide to share your data and then at a later date opt out of sharing, be aware that your shared data will not be removed.

There are two main reasons that people choose to share their data. The first is that it helps Google to make better software. If they have access to your data they can evaluate how you use their software to advance your store, which will help them to continually improve the software.
The second reason to share your data is to gain access to new and upcoming features within Google Analytics. If you share your data you have access to Benchmarking (I will have an article about this soon) and better service on Adwords, a pay-service that Google offers.

So, why shouldn't you share your data? If you were a big company, I would say to prevent your competitors from finding out all of your secrets. For Etsy stores, there really is no drawback unless you feel very strongly about keeping your data private. If you choose not to share any of your data, don't worry; this will not in any way effect your websites ranking on Google.

I personally choose to share my data. I am all about making software better and I think this is a good way to let Google know how my store is doing. Additionally, if my store does eventually take off I would be interested in using their Adwords program. If you feel somewhere in the middle about all of this I would recommend sharing your data anonyously, which will still help Google Analytics to improve but without associating your store with any data that Google obtains.

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? E-mail me, and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Google Organic vs. Google Referral

2009-05-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

Question #1: I have noticed both "google / organic" and "google.com / referral" in my Google Analytics traffic sources. What is the difference between these two?

First, I am going to give some brief definitions of "organic" and "referral" and then I will explain how it relates to Google.

Organic: a visitor that comes from a free search engine listing
Referral: a link that points to your site from some other site

If they came from "google / organic" they used a keyword search, came across your shop, and subsequently clicked. e.g., if I searched for "hot pink jewelry" on google.com and followed a link to your etsy shop, that traffic would be recorded as "google/organic."

If they came from "google.com / referral" it is more than likely from your Google Base listing. It could also be from another pay service you have on Google's website.

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Etsy Finds E-mail and Google Analytics

2009-05-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

Question #1: I have noticed "etsy finds / email" in my traffic sources does this mean they featured me?

For starters, in case you are curious "etsy finds" is a daily e-mail that Etsy sends out showcasing products and gift ideas. It is also known to offer special discounts. If you are interested in signing up to receive this e-mail you can go here: etsy finds e-mail sign-up

Having this in your traffic sources could, but more than likely does not, mean that you were featured. If someone clicks on an item in the "etsy finds" e-mail and then later ends up at your shop, that traffic source will show up on your Google Analytics.

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? E-mail me, and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Google Analytics Hourly Data

2009-05-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

Originally inspired by: minipotterybyanita

Question #1: How do you view hourly data on Google Analytics?

Log in to Google Analytics
Click "View report"
Click "Visitors"
Click "Visitor Trending"
Click "Visits"
In the upper right, click the clock next to "Graph by"

You should now see a nice bar graph of your hourly data. Enjoy!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? E-mail me, and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

How to Add a Google Search to Your Blog

2009-05-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

If you have a large number of posts on your blog a great way to help your readers out is to create a Google search for your blog. If you look up above this entry you should see the Google Search I just added. If you search for "Google Analytics" all of my posts on Google Analytics will come up, which makes it a little bit easier for you to access the post that you are looking for.

Below you will find the instructions for adding it to your own Blogspot blog:

Go here: http://www.google.com/coop/cse/
Click the big blue "Create a Custom Search Engine" button
Log in to your Google Account
Fill in a name and a description for your search engine
Choose your language
For "What do you want to search?" select "Only sites I select." In the "Sites to search:" box, place your blog address in this format: http://www.yourblogname.blogspot.com/* make sure to include the "www" and the "/*" at the end
On the next page you will be able to try it out and make sure it works. Search for a word on your site to see what the results will be.
Once you are satisfied that it works correctly, click the "Finish" button
Click "control panel"
On the left side of the page click "code"
Copy the code in the "Search box code"
Log in to your Blogspot blog
Click "Layout" then "Add a Gadget" and then select "HTML/Javascript"
Paste in your code and Save

Some Announcements

2009-05-15T15:34:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone!

I have been running this blog for a few weeks now and I wanted to let everyone know about some happenings.

Storque Article

My Google Base article was used in a recent storque article update which can be found here: Storque Article

I am pretty excited that Etsy likes what I am doing. Additionally they have asked me to help with another tech blog in the storque and I am for sure considering it, and will keep you updated if/when it happens.

Free Etsy Mini Space

I now have free Etsy mini space for readers or other Etsy users. Everyone gets one day free. If you would like to be included just send me a convo on Etsy (MagnetGames) and I will let you know the date you will be scheduled. You do not need to send me any code -- I can take care of that for you.

Donations

I added a Paypal donation button. If my blog has helped you out and you have some extra cash feel free to drop me a nickel.

Thanks again for reading! I love questions, so if you have some -- please send them my way.

Love Always,

susan.

Etsy Mini Questions

2009-05-14T14:26:00.001-07:00

Originally inspired by: papillonjewelry

Question #1: What is an Etsy Mini and what can I use it for?

Etsy Mini is functionality that Etsy added to their website to make it easier for you to share your items or your favorites on a personal website or blog. This is also a tool that you can use to advertise. If you complete the steps to make an Etsy Mini you will end up with some code that you can post on your website or blog.

Question #2: How do I get the code for an Etsy Mini?

1. Log in to Etsy
2. Under Promote, click on Etsy Mini (see picture)
3. Choose either "Items from my shop" or "Items from my favorites" If you choose items from your shop it will show your featured items first before the rest of your items.
4. Choose "Thumbnail" or "Gallery" (thumbnails are small, galleries are bigger)
5. Choose the number of rows and columns

Now you should be able to see what it will look like. You can play with the settings until you get what you want.

If you scroll down the page you will see two boxes containing code. The top box has Javascript code, which you can use for your personal website or a blog. The lower box has Flash code, which can be used on social networking sites.

Question #3: How do I add the code to my blogspot blog?

1. Follow the steps above and copy the Javascript code
2. Log in to your blog
3. Click "Layout"
4. Click "Add a Gadget" in the section you would like to add it to
5. Choose "HTML/Javascript"
6. Paste the code into the "Content" box
7. Click the "SAVE" button

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

How to See Up to Date Statistics on Google Analytics

2009-05-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

If you usually wait until the next day to see your Google Analytics statistics, this post will outline how to see current statistics.

The statistics are not updated continuously, but you can see some of your daily statistics before the end of the day.

1. Log in to Google Analytics
2. Click "View report"
3. Click on the date range in the upper right-hand corner and choose the current date
4. Click the "Apply" button

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? E-mail me, and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Impressions vs. Clicks

2009-05-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

Originally inspired by: ningsunderworld

If you are using Google Base, Project Wonderful, or some other form of advertisement, you are probably getting some data about numbers of impressions and numbers of clicks. This post will explain the difference between the two.

Impression: This is when your add is made visible on a website. If someone is looking at a website and your advertisement is being shown, then that would count as 1 impression.

Click: This is when someone clicks on your advertisement. If someone looking at a website sees your advertisement and then they click on it, that would count as 1 click.

The number of impressions will always be greater than or equal to the number of clicks since it is impossible to click on an add unless there was first an impression.

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? E-mail me, and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

On Google Analytics, what is the "Other" category in traffic sources?

2009-05-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

Originally inspired by: befriendmantic

Question #1: What is the "Other" category in traffic sources?

The "Other" category encompasses everything that does not fall into Direct Traffic, Referring Sites, and Search Engines. The most common "Other" listing is e-mail.

You can see all of the sources by following these steps ..

Log in to Google Analytics
Click Traffic Sources
On the page, scroll down a bit to the "Sources" table. Below that, click the link that says "view full report"
Scroll down to the bottom again and choose a higher number of rows (it is probably at 10 right now). You can view up to 500.

This should show you all sources, or at least the first 500.

From this you should be able to pick out all the sources that would fall into "Other." Scroll through your list and look for the text after the slash. If it says something other than referral, direct, or search engine (google.com, etc.) then it means that it falls into the "Other" category.

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? E-mail me, and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Firefox Add-Ons You Will Love!

2009-05-11T14:52:00.001-07:00

I have chosen three Firefox Add-Ons that I feel Etsy users would love to know about. I am going to give a brief description of each. If you do not currently have Firefox as your web browser you need to download it before any of these Add-Ons will work. It is free, and can be found here: www.mozilla.com/firefox/

Quick Note

This Add-on allows a small pop-up window for you to make little notes to yourself. It saves automatically and is really handy!

To download and install go here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/46

To use this, select the Tools tab in your Firefox browser and click on Quick Note. You can choose to have it float, be a tab, or be a sidebar. You should try out all three to decide which works best for you.

Morning Coffee

This Add-on lets you click a cup-of-coffee on your browser that opens all of the websites you desire (in different tabs.) I find this to be a great asset in the morning, when I want to look at my store, my Google Analytics, and craft cult -- I can click one button and they all open for me. You can program different lists depending on the day and time.

To download and install go here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2677

To set it up, open the pages you would like to be added. Click on the little cup of coffee at the top of your screen, and then click "Add to My Morning Coffee." Then you can pick which list you would like to add it too.

Plain Text Links

This Add-On makes it possible to open text links that are not clickable. This saves the time of having to copy and paste text links into your browser. This helps out on Etsy because it essentially makes every link clickable.

To download and install go here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/78

Now anytime you see a link that is plain text, right-click on it. A little menu will come up and from it you can choose "Open selected url."

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? E-mail me, and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

How to find out who has Mentioned your Blog

2009-05-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

This is a great resource for tracking who is talking about you in their blog:

http://socialmention.com/

I have found the best results happen when you search for your shop name in quotes, e.g., "Magnet Games"

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

What is Project Wonderful? How do I set it up?

2009-05-09T21:00:00.001-07:00

Project Wonderful is a way to advertise your Etsy shop. There is free advertising as well as very low-cost advertising. There are two ways you can use project wonderful: to advertise and to offer advertisement space on your blog. In this post I will give a quick overview of the advertising part of Project Wonderful. If there is enough interest, I will post more about Project Wonderful soon.

Project Wonderful has a bidding system, which means that people will bid on add space and the highest bidder gets the space. It is a little bit different from Ebay in the sense that the bidding never ends, it goes on as long as the ad space is available. The great thing about it is that a lot of add space starts at a bid of $0.00. This space is not on high-traffic websites, but it allows you to put your name out there for free.

The first thing you will want to do is make some advertisements. The sizes that Project Wonderful allows are as follows:

button (117x30)
square (125x125)
half banner (234x60)
banner (468x60)
rectangle (300x250)
leaderboard (728x90)
skyscraper (160x600)

I would start off by making a button and a square advertisement before signing up with Project Wonderful. If you do not have any photo editing software, I would recommend http://www.picnik.com/, which allows you to resize, crop, edit, and add text.

Once you get your adds ready, you can create a project wonderful account here: http://www.projectwonderful.com/

Next, you will want to click on "My Ads" under Manage. Here you can upload your ad images and paste in a url for your item listing on Etsy.

Then, click on "Place a new bid."
Check off the sizes of adds you would like to place.
Select which types of websites you would like to advertise on.
Then, to the right click on the blue dollar sign right next to "bidding."
Fill in all of the boxes with $0.00.
Scroll down and click "search."

Now, you should see a list of all the possible websites you could advertise on for free. Click on "place a bid" for any website on which you would like to advertise. Here you will see the current bids. If you see a bid that says "none!" that means no one has a current bid and it is the best bet for getting a free advertisement. Follow the onscreen instructions, and you are set with your first free add!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Google Analytics Questions

2009-05-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

Originally submitted by: piddix

Question #1: Using Google Analytics, is there a way to tell who has made it to a shopping cart page?

Google Analytics does have an e-commerce tracking system built in for you to track shopping carts. However, since Etsy does not give us html control of our shops it is not possible to track your shopping cart using Google Analytics.

This is a quote directly from Etsy: "No, at this time we do not support e-commerce conversion tracking, however we are actively reviewing how to enable conversion tracking for sellers through Google Analytics."

I would predict that at sometime in the future this will be made available to us.

Question #2: Using Google Analytics, can I see what pages a group of people have looked at?

You can see who has looked at certain pages on your shop.

Log into Google Analytics
Click on "View report"
Click on "Content"
Click on "Top Landing Pages"

This will list each page in your shop and how many people visited it. There is a small link button to the left of each page for you to see which page it is if you do not recognize your listings by number.

If you click on the blue link for each of your pages you will be able to see more detailed information. From here click "Navigation Summary" part way down the page on the right-hand side. This will tell you what page they went to next or if they left your shop.

Furthermore, if you would like to see everything a specific user did, click on "Entrance Paths" instead of "Navigation Summary." You can then select a page by clicking on it and it will tell you where they went next.

This tool should help you track how visitors move around in your site.

Unfortunately, as Etsy users we do not have a lot of the flexibility that is built into Google Analytics, like tracking where visitors coming from craftcult.com end up. I am crossing my fingers for some more functionality soon.

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

How to Add More Sites to Google Analytics

2009-05-08T15:31:00.003-07:00

Originally inspired by: hamptongraphics

Question #1: I have two Etsy shops. How do I set the second one up on Google Analytics?

Log into Google Analytics
Under Account Overview and towards the right-side of the page click "+add new profile"
Choose "Add a Profile for an existing domain"
Select www.etsy.com from the drop down menu
Enter your second shops name (or whatever you would like to call this profile)
Click continue
Back on the overview page you should see a UA number for this new profile; copy it
Log in to Etsy, Click "Your Etsy," Click "Web Analytics" under Shop Setup
Paste in your UA number and save

.. remember it takes 24 hours to start showing this new data.

Question #2: I have a blog on blogspot. How do I track it with Google Analytics?

Log into Google Analytics
Under Account Overview and towards the right-side of the page click "+add new profile"
Choose "Add a Profile for a new domain"
Enter the exact address of your blog
Click continue
Copy the javascript code and log into blogspot
Click the "Layout" tab
Click "edit html"
Scroll down to the very bottom right above "< /body>"
Paste in the javascript code and save

What is Google Base? How do I set it up?

2009-05-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

Google Base is a database. There are a handful of ways to use it but most Etsy users use it to get their products into Google's shopping results. This is another great way to increase your exposure.

Before you get started you need to set-up a Google Base account, which can be done here: www.google.com/base/

The following step-by-step instructions will automatically upload all of your Etsy items to Google Base. These instructions are probably the longest instructions I will ever post here -- If they are overwhelming I would suggest printing it out and checking off each step as you complete it. You will only have to do this once.

Note: If you have previous items in Google Base from manual uploads or from LetsEts, you need to delete these before you begin.

Log into Google Base
Click on the "Settings" tab
Fill in your information. When entering your website address use the address with your shop number not your shop name.

Follow these added steps only if you are not sure what your shop address is

a. Enter shopname.etsy.com into a browser (e.g., MagnetGames.etsy.com)
b. Press "return" on your keyboard
c. The website address in the browser should now be different.
d. Copy that address, it is what you should use for step 3.

Click "Save Changes"
Click the "My Items" tab
Click the "Data feeds" tab
Click the "New data feed" button
Select your country
For "Select the type of item in your data feed" select "Products"
For "Select the type of the data feed you're registering" select "google base"
Your data feed file name is your Etsy user name followed by .xml. Example: MagnetGames.xml
Click the register data feed button
Refresh the webpage
Click blue text displaying "edit" right next to your xml name
Change the File format to XML, all the other settings can be left the same
Go to your Etsy shop and scroll down to the bottom right. Click "Subscribe to shop feed." Copy the address of the page
Back on Google Base, click on "create" right next to "Schedule"
Click daily, and then pick a time that will be happening in 1-2 hours from the current time (you can change this later)
Paste the address you copied from step 16 into "Url of file." You can also choose how often you would like it to upload your items.
Click "Update Schedule"

If you followed all of these instructions and you ended up with a "Failed" under recent uploads please post the failed message in the comments and I will be sure to help you get it all sorted out.

To set the time and frequency of your uploads follow these instructions:

Log in to Google Base
Click on "Data feeds"
Click "edit" under uploads, it is right next to "Schedule"
Choose the frequency, time, and timezone of your uploads.
Click "Update Schedule"

Do you have another shop on Etsy? Follow these directions to set-up additional shops on Google Base.

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Page views, hits, visits .. whats the difference?

2009-05-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

This post was inspired by: savvystitcher

Google Analytics provides you a lot of information and sometimes it's a bit difficult to figure out what it all means. This post will give you a quick description of some common terms.

web server: a computer program that is responsible for accepting requests from clients
hit: when a web server sends a file to a browser
page view: every time a visitor views a web page on your website
visit: when someone visits your website; a visit consists of one or more page views/hits.
visitor: for our purposes, a human
unique visitor: a specific visitor; cookies are used to track the uniqueness of the visitor

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? E-mail me, and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Information about Google AdWords

2009-05-07T19:22:00.000-07:00

Originally submitted by: J. Christina Huh

Question #1: "What are Adwords?"

Google Adwords is a pay-for service that Google offers to advertise your website.

There are two different types of advertisements offered by Adwords.

1. Pay-Per-Click Advertisements. A great way to understand what these are is to perform a search in Google. Open up Google in a new window and search for "handmade crafts." At the top, and to the right of the page you should see faint colored pink boxes that say "Sponsored Links." All of the links in those boxes are brought to you by Adwords.

Advertisers tell Google to display their adds when certain keywords are searched for in Google. The advertiser only pays if a user clicks on the advertisement. When you purchase this type of advertisement you place a bid on the keyword. This bid determines how often your add will appear for that keyword. Google allows you to set daily limits on how much you spend, and once you reach your limit Google will stop displaying your advertisement.

2. Placement Targeted Advertisements (aka Site-Targeted Advertisements): These are ads that Google places on other peoples websites. Advertisers can enter keywords, domain names, topics, and demographic targeting preferences, and Google places the ads on what they see as relevant sites within their content network.

If you are new to Etsy, I wouldn't recommend paying for either of these services. I would suggest using other free forms of advertisement before you start spending money on this service. If you are interested in enrolling you can go here: adwords.google.com/

There is also something called Google AdSense. I actually have Google AdSense on this blog. If you look to the right and down you should see an advertissment. This is a way to make a little extra money off of your blog. It displays ads related to your website and you get paid for every time someone clicks on one of them. If you would like to sign up for this you can do so here: https://www.google.com/adsense. It is against the rules to report how much money you make per click, so it is a bit difficult to predict how much money you could make from this. Very popular websites can earn upwards of $8,000 a month using this program. A downside is that your viewers may be annoyed by the additional ad space on your website.

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? E-mail me, and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Etsy Hacks Information

2009-05-07T11:41:00.001-07:00

Etsy Hacks is a website that offers a handful of scripts (little mini-programs) that make your Etsy experience a little bit better.

In order to use Etsy Hacks you need to be using Firefox as your web browser.
If you do not have Firefox you can download it for free here: www.mozilla.com/firefox/
Next, you need to install Greasemonkey, which can be found here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748

Now, you are ready to set-up Etsy Hacks!

These are the new things you can add on:

copy listings: create a new listing based on an existing one.
item zoom: adds a zoom icon to images in search and shop listings.
edit this item: edit or delete a listing from the View Listing page.
buyer info: add extra information to the "buyer" box on a receipt page.
forum wrangler: add extra features to the Etsy forum pages.

They can all be found on http://www.etsyhacks.com/; you can install one or all of them. There are also some other neat tools on this site, so if you are new I would spend some time looking around.

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? E-mail me, and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

How to make your Etsy Google Friendly

2009-05-06T11:17:00.000-07:00

Originally submitted by: particlesofstone

Question #1: "Why does Google Analytics show keywords that are not related to my website?"

If you log into your Google Analytics account and click on "Traffic Sources" and then "Keywords" you can see all the keywords that people used to arrive at your website. You will always have at least a small amount of keywords that do not relate to your website at all -- but your goal should be to have as few of these as possible. Why this happens is a bit complicated.

I will give you an example: say there is a listing for a handmade wooden chair and someone arrived at that site from the keyword "Andy Mathis." The site is not related to Andy Mathis but a website might website that Google indexes might have something related to both Andy Mathis and wooden chairs. Because of this fact, Google may think that the chair listing could interest someone searching for Andy Mathis and will return it as a result. This is just one possibility.

Another reason this may happen is Google might think they misspelled their search. If this happens, Google will guess what they were really looking for which might end up being a keyword on your site.

Also, not all users who searched for a keyword went directly to your site. If a user searches for an item and then clicks on an Etsy link and then later ends up on your Etsy shop then that keyword will show up as leading to your shop. To see keywords that went directly to your shop you need to set-up Site Search on Google Analytics.

All in all, Google's methods of producing search results is top secret and we may never know how it all works!

If you have a high percentage of traffic from an unrelated keyword you may want to try researching these negative keywords. By this I mean choose one of the keywords that you do not think should lead to your website and search for it in Google. If you end up finding your site based on this keyword then try and click on similar links and see why they might have caused your website to appear. If you find keywords on these other websites that appear on your website then you could try and remove them to reduce that traffic. If you cannot find your Etsy shop based off of the keyword, don't worry; this is pretty common because Google searches are unique to the user. Different IP addresses, cities, states and countries mean different data centers which results in different search results.

Question #2: "How do I help my shop to appear higher in Google searches?"

The best way to do this is by doing your own research. What would your customers be searching for in Google if they wanted to see your item? Here is a neat tool that helps you come up with good keywords: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.

Okay, now what do you do with these keywords? You need to work them into your listing somehow -- usually in the title and the description. Etsy does have tags but most search engines put these tags very low on their list. So even if you tag all of your Etsy items Google will more than likely not even look at those tags. So you should focus on making your item titles and descriptions search engine friendly. Etsy tags are still useful for people searching the Etsy site but will not help with your Google results.

So, you say, why not make your titles and descriptions with every word possible so you get lots of Google results? Well, because it is a give and take relationship. If I make a long obnoxious title that allows my item to come up first on Google it will also more than likely result in annoyed customers on Etsy .. I mean, who wants to read a 10-word title? So you should find a nice middle ground.

Here is a good example:

You are listing a tetris magnet set and you use a title of "Tetris Magnet Set." A more search engine friendly title would be "Tetris Magnet Set, Handmade Perler Beads" and an obnoxious title would be "handmade tetris magnet set perler hama fun fridge nintendo".

Another important factor in Google searches is the number of people who actually visit and do not bounce from a website. If a site has high traffic and a low bounce rate then Google will list it higher in the search return. So you need to put your site out there -- advertising and promoting while at the same time aiming for a low bounce rate. Improving your keywords will help your bounce rate decrease because it will increase the chances that people who find your site through Google were actually looking for something like it.

Additionally, I find Craigslist to be a great tool in improving my rank in Google. You can post a link to your Etsy shop in your Craigslist add, and including keywords is common practice for most users.

Finally, if you are interested in being in Google Shopping results you need to set-up a Google Base Account. I have detailed instructions here: What is Google Base? How do I set it up?

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? E-mail me, and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Google Analytics Basics

2009-05-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

Google Analytics is a tool to help you keep data on who is looking at your page. You can use this to track how well advertising is working. I also use it to make myself feel a little bit better when my sales are down (e.g., at least 100 people looked at my page today.)

Question #1 "How do I tell Google Analytics to ignore my own views"

In order for these instructions to work you must have a static IP.

If you have a PC running windows you can find out if your IP is static by following these instructions:

Click "Start"
Select "RUN"
type "ncpa.cpl" and press ENTER
under the Network Connections Window double click your LAN/Internet Connection and select SUPPORT tab.
If you see an address type assigned by DHCP then your ip is dynamic, otherwise it is static.

If you have a MAC you can find out if your IP is static by following these instructions:

Click the apple
Select "System Preferences"
Click "Network" it is under "Internet & Network"
For the "Show" drop down, select "Show built-in ethernet" or "Airport" depending on how you connect
If you have a DHCP client number than your IP is dynamic otherwise it is static

Generally, if you have a dial-up or DSL connection than you have a dynamic IP. If you have cable than you probably have a static IP. If you use a Fiber or LAN connection than it could be dynamic or static.

If you have determined that you have a static IP then the instructions below will work for you. If you have a dynamic ip please use these instructions.

Log into Google Analytics. Toward the bottom right click the blue link titled "Filter Manager." On the right side of the long gray box click "Add Filter."

a. Name the filter whatever you would like; I named mine "me"
b. Under filter type select "Exclude all traffic from an IP address"

Okay, now you need to open up a new window.
First go to http://www.whatismyip.com/ and copy the IP address that is displayed.
Now go to http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55572 and paste your IP address into "First IP address" and then click "Generate RegEx." Now copy the characters displayed in "Step 3."

c. Paste the regular expression you just generated into the field titled "Regular Expression for the IP addresses."
d. Below that, in the box, click www.etsy.com.
e. Click the "add" button to the right.
f. Click "Save Changes."

Congratulations, your views will no longer be included in your site statistics!

Question #2 "What is bounce rate?"

Bounce rate is a term to classify the visitors to your website. If a user comes to any section of your website (e.g., your shop home) and then leaves without going anywhere else on your site (e.g., your fancy necklace listing), then they bounced. Alternatively, if a user arrives at your shop home and then clicks on your fancy necklace listing, then they did NOT bounce.

So, your bounce rate tells you how many people decided to explore your site further then their original destination.

Example: Say your daily bounce rate is 60% and you had a total of 100 visitors that day. That means that 60 people came to your site and then left without looking any further into your website -- but it also means that 40 people explored around on your website.

More of a visual learner? Check out this video!

Don't understand something I wrote about? Have a related question? Post a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Have an unrelated question? Submit it here and I will feature it on my blog!

xoxo
susan.

Introduction

2009-05-06T09:20:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

I am brand new to Etsy and have become addicted pretty quickly. I have noticed that there is not really any sort of technology resource on Etsy and so I have decided to start a blog that will aim at answering any and all questions you may have. Mainly, I will focus on software (Google Analytics, Facebook, Flickr, etc) but will probably have a few posts about printers as well. Have a question? Great, I love questions -- send me an e-mail and I will answer it through my blog and send you a link.