Good examples of Etsy photo backgrounds

I have to admit I'm one of those white background people. It's just the best way I've found to make sure my product gets seen, my colors are bright, and there's nothing distracting around the edges.

It's not for everybody, some people like to (or need to) have a different background, and that's okay!

Unless it's not okay! Every day I see photos that make me feel like I'm playing "where's waldo" - crowded backgrounds with strange edges, bad "frame" sort of ideas, you get the picture.

The problem is that people's eyes naturally go towards the darker, brighter, bolder colors. So you always need to ask yourself, where's the attention focused?

The worst violators I see are:
- Other not for sale stuff in the photo. It's fine for photos 2-5 but not for your primary one, people are trying to scan these too quickly.
- Artificial, photoshopped-in "frames" that add a border or decorative elements around the edges of the picture.
- Busy, bright colors or patterns that distract from the product. A simple stripe might be okay, plaid almost never is.
- Multiple lines - like walls, shelves, doorways. The eyes go to intersections of lines, remember. Every dark contrasting line "costs" you attention.

The more involved your product is, the more you'll have to work on this. Maybe a big plain skirt can draw enough attention against the business of the great outdoors. But if you're selling kids birthday hats with rainbow stripes, any background line will give the viewer a virtual headache. You can only get the lazy browsing-shopper human mind to process so much information, so don't make it all your background.

Here I found some GOOD examples of non-white backgrounds that keep you focused on the right thing. They're all very simple... and that's why they're good. The product is the most noticeable thing and you have an instant idea as to what it is:

1st place July 27th, 2012
July 27th! Items from $27-$27.99.
Teal Earrings, Teal Artisan Glass and Gunmetal - Evergreen
by WildWomanJewelry

2nd place July 20th, 2012
July 20th! Items from $20-$20.99.
Recycled Earrings Vintage Flower Findings Boho Chic FLEURETTE
by BeeKaiArtisanJewelry

4th place July 27th, 2012
July 27th! Items from $27-$27.99.
Pendant, Dichroic Glass, Colorful Abstract. DGP-204
by DichroGem

1st place July 12th, 2012
Theme Thursday! Lace items from $1-$50.
ON SALE 20% OFF Flower Jewelry Silver Circle Necklace Flowers and Lace Tiny Handmade Designer Fashion Jewelry - Unique Petite
by JenniferCasady

3rd place July 23rd, 2012
July 23rd! Items from $23-$23.99.
Women Wallet Small Wallet - Fabric Trifold Peacock Quilted - Ready to Ship
by MarilynnsCreations

2nd place July 16th, 2012
July 16th! Items from $16-$16.99.
Baby Mary Jane Shoes / Slipper Bootie - NB to 6 months - ready to ship Pink and Brown Crochet
by BlackCatStitches

Coupon code: MOM12 12% off

Why would you split up your etsy shop?

I swear, every day there's a new thread in the etsy forums by a shop owner trying to decide whether to open a second shop. Ninety-nine times out of 100, I think it's an awful idea.

I mean, I just blogged about how the best way to promote your shop is to have more items for sale... when you split up your shop, you're diluting your efforts exponentially. Why do you think Target is so successful? Because people run in for a box of detergent, and right there in front is a fabulous new dress they never imagined needing today. But they buy it! That's what you're missing out on, the serendipity, the combining.

I've even seen people suggest that you post links to your other shop from the listings in your first one... what a mess. Those links should be around to show people around to things you think they might be interested in. If you start a second shop, you're basically assuming that they're not interested in your new product line. So what's the point?

And don't get me started on the etsy functionality headaches... customers at your second shop won't be able to see the feedback you've earned from your first one. When you post in teams, people can't see that you have multiple shops. Customers can't combine shipping on orders from multiple shops... that's a barrier that can DEFINITELY cost you sales.

I think people try to split off shops for all the wrong reasons... they want a new banner, or they want a different color scheme in their new products and don't want the backgrounds to clash. Puh-lease. 90% of your shop sales come from the search anyway, customers don't get to etsy through your shop unless they're your friends, and they care even less about your color scheme.

The whole point of etsy is that shoppers buy from people. There is only one you. Don't try to be a conglomerate, be yourself. Keep your shop as your shop and have it reflect all the dimensions of your wonderful personality. That's what people love about buying handmade.

a white item treasury

I made a treasury to celebrate our most recent hue tuesday contest. The prices ranges on the last week of the month are just chock full of treasury wonderfulness :)

'blend in with the creatures' by spacefem

Snow white flying k... Bunnys $26.00	Hydrangea Hair Pins... GracefullyGirl... $24.00	BUNNY by DIMDI Orig... dimdi $25.00	Knit Necklace with ... melissahager $25.00
Blue Merle Border C... wrensroost $25.00	White Horse Photo -... RockyTopPrintS... $25.00	Fawn Bunny, needle ... needleandfelt $24.00	Blizzard Fence Line... courtneygrigg $25.00
Pearl Earrings Vint... hawaiibeads $24.00	Barefoot Sandals - ... BusyLizzyBouti... $25.00	30% OFF Sale Vintag... VintageTwists $24.50	Vintage, off white,... vintageabbeyro... $25.00
Cream rose locket n... sweetsimple $24.00	The Swan Queen -- s... PalePreoccupat... $25.00	ON SALE Cursive let... ChezMargotVint... $24.00	White Coral Chip Be... DevikaBox $25.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

More public domain patterns in the scrapbook paper generator

So last month I posted about my new scrapbook paper generator and I've gotten some nice things said about it in teams & pinterest, I'm really happy with it. I was inspired to add some more patterns this week - these are really fun to make! If you like designing patterns and want to get involved, shoot me a comment, I can take any 300 pixel seamless png file and add it to the repository for people to color to their heart's content.

Anyway on to the patterns! Like everything else, these are released into the public domain and very easy to recolor using the website.

trend spotting: wrap bracelets

A while back I wrote an entry about my favorite cuff bracelets - by the way I have yet to own any of them, but a girl can dream. Anyway the other thing I keep noticing in the contest is wrap bracelets. I love the ones that mix leather & beads especially, it's just a neat earthy look.

I saw this one in first place in the $20 contest today (as of 3pm, so I know that can change):

18th place July 20th, 2012
July 20th! Items from $20-$20.99.
Single wrap cuff bracelet. Amazonite gemstones, turquoise Czech bugles, copper seed beads. Black button. Hipster.
by CarolMade

And it inspired me to see what else we'd had recently. Quite a few, it turns out!

91st place July 18th, 2012
Welcome Wednesday! The newest Etsy shops' items from $1-$50.
Pearl and Crystal Leather Wrap Bracelet
by CourtneyRaiDawn

87th place July 16th, 2012
July 16th! Items from $16-$16.99.
Blue Hematite Crystal Leather Wrap Bracelet - Chan Luu Inspired Spring Summer Special Beaded Four Wrap Bracelet
by REDbytina

Featured July 11th, 2012
Welcome Wednesday! The newest Etsy shops' items from $1-$50.
Chan Luu Inspired Leather Wrap Bracelet
by SoleLove

Featured July 8th, 2012
Swanky Sunday! Items from $50-$74.99.
Turquoise Silver Mix Leather Wrap Beaded Bracelet
by TrulyAmberJewelry

My big list of etsy free shipping codes

This week I added a new feature to our big huge list of coupons so you can view just the etsy shops offering free shipping! It can be tough for shops to publicize sales like this but it can really save you some funds on the bigger items, and anymore with post office prices going up even little stuff like jewelry can end up at half price if you don't have to pay shipping!

Here are some shops I found from the new page:

Featured July 18th, 2012
Welcome Wednesday! The newest Etsy shops' items from $1-$50.
Silver Believe in Love Aqua Blue Chalcedony Crystal Bead Necklace Pendant Wire Wrap Handmade Jewelry
by LuvAlisa

Coupon code: FREESHIP1 Free shipping

Featured July 16th, 2012
July 16th! Items from $16-$16.99.
Desktop Organizer, Record Letter Holder, Upcycled Vinyl Desk Organizer, One Compartment
by HausofAriella

Coupon code: thankyou Free shipping

93rd place July 18th, 2012
Welcome Wednesday! The newest Etsy shops' items from $1-$50.
Fancy Schmancy - Baby's First Formal Wear 18 mo. Onesie
by PressedLEAFgoods

Coupon code: SHIP4FREE Free shipping

56th place July 16th, 2012
July 16th! Items from $16-$16.99.
CIJ Sale 25% Off Tie Dye Crocheted Fabric Headband
by yokieb

Coupon code: E52582 Free shipping

For a ton more, check out our coupon page: etsycontest.com/coupons.php

And speaking of coupons, we're now tweeting one coupon per day on the @etsycontest twitter so if you like sales, pay attention to that one too.

The #1 way to promote your etsy shop

Last week I caused a bit of controvery by shutting down the "promotion" threads in the etsy contest team. You know... the threads with titles like "Show me your flowers!" and "Post new listings here!" and "July items that are BLUE!". It felt to me like we had almost two teams going on within our team, passing unnoticed like ships in the night... we had people who discussed interesting ideas in unique topics and got to know each other, and we had people who ignored all that, came in for five seconds to post their new listings, and then move on to their next team. Hit and run. So I ran a test, not just in our team but in other promotion teams. I found their "post new items" thread and posted a simple question: Who is reading this? And guess what I was answered with? A bunch of posts of people's new listings. Never a reply to the question. Nobody read my post, and nobody was going to see those new items that everyone was blindly and carelessly posting.

Here's what I told my team... when you post in those threads you feel like you're doing something to promote your shop. Hey, it's called a "promotion" thread right? It's promoting! You log ten minutes and think "I did ten minutes of work to help my shop". But the effect is zero, because nobody's paying attention to those threads... like you, everyone is posting and then running off into the next room, it's like a giant echo chamber.

You think you're reaching out and touching your audience? The reality is, you're only touching yourself. We might as well call it etsy-baiting.

So what's the BEST way to promote your items? Ready? Here's the secret...

GET OFF THE INTERNET AND MAKE SOMETHING.

Seriously. Every time you post up another new item in your shop, your shop becomes more legitimate, more active, and you have another thing that some buyer might run across. You want to sell that green zipper pouch? Make a blue one! You'll now have something to grab the attention of someone searching for blue, and they'll see your green pouch when they check out the rest of your shop because they're SO impressed with the blue one they made.

Buyers are constantly searching for random things you might never think of... every color, every theme, every weird little item. The more different things you have up, the more likely they are to run across your shop in their searches. And that is your target audience: people searching etsy for something to buy. Not other shop owners who spam teams. Not people who add you to their circle if you circle them in return. Not the echo chamber.

What are they searching for today? Maybe something purple, maybe something with mermaids, maybe a a necklace with purple flowers, you never know. But they won't buy it from you if they don't see it. And if they do find it from you, they very well might check out the rest of your shop.

I've been blogging for years and I always tell people that the best thing you can do to promote a blog or website is to post often and for a long time. You can read up on search engine strategies until you're blue in the face, but the bottom line is that search engines are looking for content that's just plain good and not trying to fool them. When they crawl a website they're asking two huge questions that can't be easily faked: 1) how much content is on there? 2) how long has it been around? 3) has it been updated recently?

Same story with an etsy shop. How many items do you have, and when was the most recent one posted? If your answers are "a lot of items, and the newest went up today!" then your shop is going to do a million times better than someone who has eight items but spent four hours today etsy-baiting in promotion threads (they might even go blind)!

So people, stop posting in teams, stop annoying me on twitter with your repeatitive boring tweets about the same new item over and over again. Stop blogging, if your heart's not in it. Get back to creating! Make something, post it up, see if it sells... isn't that what got you into etsy in the first place? Quit trying to outsmart the system and just be good, and your shop will do so much better.

Featured artist: heartfeltbymsmegas and her adorable felt plushie creations

heartfeltbymsmegas had some fabulous things in the recent Welcome Wednesday contests for new shops... I just adore this theme, where every week we only feature shops that have opened in the last few months on Etsy. Megan's shop opened in April and her little felt creations just did wonderfully, so I wanted to ask her some questions.

Happy Hedgehog and Apple Embroidery Hoop Brown Flower Fabric Wall Art
by heartfeltbymsmegas

Tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Megan, and I’m a 22 year-old college student and future ESL teacher. My love of languages combined with my British heritage has given me a passion for different cultures. Dresses, cake in any form, and all things cutesie, geeky and retro are my obsessions. And I have a secret aspiration to be a baker or wedding planner. I have been creating art as long as I can remember, and all of my interests really inspire my creations.

Featured June 13th, 2012
Welcome Wednesday! The newest Etsy shops' items from $1-$50.
Precious Purple Piggy Ornament
by heartfeltbymsmegas

What got you started?
My first stab at crafts that I recall was making a pair of notebook paper sandals when I was 3. I traced my foot, cut them out, colored them rainbow, and taped the straps on. Ever since then I’ve been incessantly creating, drawing, painting, and crafting.

I began making plushies when my cousin’s friend gave her a little plush felt egg that she’d bought online. I thought it was so cute and cool. That was when I realized that I could make all of the cute characters I drew!

34th place May 23rd, 2012
Welcome Wednesday! The newest Etsy shops' items from $1-$50.
Nerd Girl Felt Phone Case
by heartfeltbymsmegas

What brought you to etsy?
This past January, I had to unexpectedly take a semester off of college, and I had no idea what to do with all of my extra time. I only worked a few part-time hours each week and didn’t have much to do to stave off boredom. That’s when my plushie-making started again, and I had all these plushies lying around. So, I created an account on Etsy and had NO idea what I was getting myself into! Running a shop is a ton more work than it appears. I am absolutely loving growing my shop and learning how to run it well.

Featured May 14th, 2012
May 14th! Items from $14-$14.99.
Ninja Felt Plush
by heartfeltbymsmegas

Bought anything cool off etsy lately?
I have so much respect for committed Etsy sellers. So many fantastic shops are out there, and I’m always favoriting more items than I can buy! Recently, I spotted a pair of super cute dinosaur earrings from Mad Aristocrat, which has the most adorable polymer clay jewelry. I was going to buy them, but then my boyfriend surprised me with them as a gift! I might just have to show him some more of my favorite things!

José the Cactus Felt Plush
by heartfeltbymsmegas

Etsy's Astro & Neutrino Team

I joined a new team recently: Astro & Neutrino. As someone who is in awe of the universe, I'm excited about it. And the overall tone is a lot calmer and more scientific than some of the geek teams I've seen around etsy. I mean don't get me wrong, it's geeky, but with an emphasis on gazing out at the world.

Anyway here are some things I've already found through the team to love, if you're on etsy and wish you were in space, come say hello to us.

Some inspirational spacey items from team members:

Vintage map and starry night bunting. Home decor. Bookshelf accent.
by moonandlion

25% off in July - GOD PARTICLE art print, place-manner-time poster series, 18x24, graphic, space, wall art, giclee
by SQ1111

Galaxy Circle Scarf Magellanic Cloud Nebula
by Shadowplaynyc

Pisces constellation pendant
by jacquelinefouche

24"x36" Custom Space Art Nebula Painting Commission
by ArtbyAlizey