Curated Blogs may be the Cure

I knew I liked them and found them informative, blogs filled with little pieces of wisdom rewarding me on the other end of a clicked link.  One blog shares marketing wisdom, one art, one daily inspiration - the term for these is "curated blogs."  The writer of a curated blog will often share a bit about why the link is important - even more helpful.  So today, I'm going to share little bits of information on selling art that I have found in my voracious reading sessions.  (I still don't have either one of my computers that have my data loaded on them.  Using borrowed computers is less than ideal.)


One of the most useful things I have found this week is a small but vibrant Facebook group, Critique Our Etsy Shops with Love. You submit your link to your Etsy, Ebay, Artfire or other online shop for critique by the group.  As always, good FB etiquette is to find out how the group works before jumping in with "what about me????" posts.
             Critique Our Etsy Shops with Love  moderated by Laura Collins. (COESwL)



As a result of hanging out in the COESwL group I discovered this way cool Etsy app. The Etsy Shoptimizer App is based on the Etsy Seller Handbook and is designed to help you "Shoptimize" your Etsy shop.   I ran it on my shop, took seconds to complete and it gave me a report card of my shop areas (I also received an email of the report card - handy!)
              Etsy Shoptimizer  (Beta) by Aaron Hall of Tailored


I've had an Etsy shop since September of 2008 and honestly, I have never paid attention to the term SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  I know the implications of SEO, but it hurt my creative brain to think about it.  Until - I started asking small questions and receiving understandable answers (just this week, mind you.)  In the COESwL group we were talking about the Shop Announcement section of our shops and a couple of brilliant SEO folks explained that the first 160 characters is used in the major search engines.  LIGHT BULB MOMENT!!!!  Check out my shop announcement in the link to see how I've used the upright slash (over the forward slash on your keyboard - yeah, that took me about an hour to figure out.)  The upright slash is evidently a good delimiter for Google.  The shop announcement is right over featured items near the top of the page.
              Cynthia Haase Fine Art on Etsy  


Now that I know SEO does not require a mathematics degree, I searched for and found a great pdf called "Etsy Guide to SEO".  Here's a link to the page, the pdf download is a little ways down the page.
              Etsy Guide to SEO


And finally, one last link to share, Silver Magpies on Etsy.  She has studied SEO and it's implications. Her shop appears third on the list for Vintage Silver in the Google Search Engine (I copied her tactic for shop announcement construction.)  But the thing I love most about her shop is the one thing we have been talking about.  What is the benefit for buying your product.  Check out her banner....brilliant....pun intended!
              Silver Magpies


Today's Nitty Gritty Nugget:     Overwhelmed? Look for curated blogs in your interest areas.


What's Next?

1.  It's up to you...but I'd be learning about SEO.