One of my summer goals is related to my Etsy shop, if you haven’t already figured this out! And, I have to say that the more I read over there, especially information on the Etsy forums, the more I feel overwhelmed with information, much of it conflicting. For example, I finally got the nerve up and asked for a shop critique in the “Critique” folder, and well, it was a mix.

On the helpful side of the mix, a number of people who gave me feedback were confused about what I was actually selling over there. Is it supplies? Do I make some of the supplies? Is it finished jewelry, or what? That has been something I have been also struggling with. What kind of direction do I want to take?

To have a few people voice this made me realize that I need to clarify this issue for myself as well as for customers. I’m going to stick with supplies, put all the finished jewelry in one category for now, and as their listing expires (or something sells, hopefully), phase that part of the shop out. To make sure the “supplies” is idea more obvious, I have invested in a new banner, which I’ll be uploading hopefully very soon.

On the confusing end, I had a number of people tell me that my photos weren’t good enough. I realize that photos are really important and that is something I’m continuing to work on (for example above and below are photos of a pair of earring just made using some tiny vintage lockets I got from another Etsy seller, Bunny Sundries); However, the consensus about backgrounds is all over the road. One person will say to use an all white background, another says use a patterned background, a third will say don’t use a patterned background because it’s too busy.

To make things even more confusing, I did a lot of surfing around recently and discovered that there are plenty of successful shops that don’t adhere to any of the advice I was given or have read on the forum in other posts. There are shops using all white backgrounds, shops using a wide mix of backgrounds, shops that don’t even post more than one picture of whatever it is they are selling, and the list goes on.

So what have a learned from all this Etsy information overload? I’ve learned that I need to cull what I read and what I’m told. Pick what I like and what I think will work for me, continue to experiment, and in the end, go with my gut as far as what I want to do with my shop.