Photos...The Be All, End All?

Gingerbread House Brooch by MichellesCharmWorld on Lollishops

Ahhh....we've all heard it right? Go into the forums and ask about being a successful shop and at least 75% of the replies will be about photos. GO ahead, try it, I dare you ;) Yes, your photos should be clear and a bit bright, but don't stress over them! Don't take 10 photos of each and every one of your products hoping for the right one, or your items will end up costing 50.00 each! (Yes, you should be adding in your photo taking time into the cost of your items.) Don't go running out to take photography lessons and buying 50.00 lightboxes. HOLD UP! WAIT! Take a deep breath and have a look around. light boxes and lessons take money. Wait until you have it in your business account to do it if you really want these things. If you don't and just think it's a necessary thing to sell anything, then wait and keep reading.

Tea and Crumpets Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld on Lollishops

I have 1100 something sales or something like that, I do not have a lightbox, take my photos at night in a dark room sometimes, change my backround like all heck and worst of all? My photos are blurry sometimes! Go ahead, I will wait here, Check out my sold items section and go waaaay back to my last page. Did you see them? The blurry, pixelated messes I called photos? They were awful, dark and unedited. I made my first sale within an hour of being open! I knew right off the bat I needed a new camera, but it was not in the budget at the moment. I had a craft show lined up for a month after opening and until then I asked for advice. I started taking photos outside in natural light and that helped ALOT! Then the midwest reared it's ugly head and sometimes it was 100* outside and there was no way in heck I was going to photograph outside, so I started doing it by a window, this was also good!! Then sometimes my kids wouldn't take naps on some days and I was stuck waiting until my husband got home at 430 and sometimes it was already getting dark?! So I started using a photo editing program!! That has been my BEST FRIEND! My photos are still not great, not even good sometimes, but I'm selling regulary and you can at least see what it is you are buying :) MY new camera eventually was purchased after a successful craft show and though it was not the magic answer to my photos, it did help! (Macro setting was a must!).

Conversation Heart Rings by MichellesCharmWorld on Lollishops

Now take a look at some of the shops out there, some of them have THOUSANDS of sales and their photos are so dark, half the time I don't even know what I'm buying without reading the description. (Maybe people like the grab bag idea?! heehe). Some shops have photos that are excellent, but so overpropped, you don't know if you are getting the 5 strands of pearls are part of that bottlecap key chain, and yet they have loads of sales. I think it's all about a catchy thumbnail, combined with a CLEAR, DESCRIPTIVE title. (No need to get creative with your titles, I find my creative titles have the least amount of views). If you've been here yesterday, you will also note that I made the front page too! So see, just try hard, but don't overdo it. Perfect pictures are not always the answer. I've seen some FAB-YOU-Less photos out there in shops that have been open and avtive since 2005 and they still only have a few sales. It's all about your product. Work with what you have and don't stress!

Avatars and You...

Record Player Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 18.00

Ahhh...the little box known as the avatar! It's such a mystery as to what works, what does not and what should we put there. For me it's killing me having my photo over there in the ABOUT ME section <------------------ I'm a product gal, it's one extra spot to have a photo of something dynamic to lure the eye in!

Ice Cream for One Ring by MichellesCharmWorld 9.00

I like to think of that little box, known as the avatar, as a window to my shop. A window to what they can see more of if they just click! I like to start a thread every now asking if my avatar is Click-Worthy . Pretty much just asking if it's worthy of your click.

Whipped Cream Ring by MichellesCharmWorld 10.00

I like to keep it simple. Photo and that's it. If I was having a sale, a little word saying SALE and leave it at that. Photos of people don't tell me what you sell and if i'm bored trolling to forums to pass some time and wanting to help out someone nice that made me laugh or made me smile a photo just won't do it for me. Yes, it's cool to see what you look like, but save it for a blog :) This is all about bringing your customer in. We all know that once our shops are FOUND people will browse, heart and most likely pick something up! Too much wording in your avatar is just an invitation for me to pass it by. It's usually to hard to read and remember i'm already reading in the forums, all I am doing as I read is glacing to the side to see who posted it. We don't need your name in your avatar. On Etsy the only place your avatar is located is in your shop and when you post in the forums. When we are in your shop, we know your shopname already. When you post, I see your shop name above your post. It's just repeating yourself.

Tall Present Ring by MichellesCharmWorld 9.00

I know some of this sounds harsh sometimes, but I just want to help people out. When I was first getting started online selling on Etsy I hung out in the forums trying to get a vibe for the place. I started out with my photo in the avatar and my views stayed pretty low and sales were pretty weak. (Bad photos and such had a lot to do with this too! hhaha) I tried a few of my pieces out in the little avatar and I was getting in more traffic, just looking at views alone. (Before I started the whole Relist, Renew, Repeat Process!) I like judging by views, since shop hearts are a little more difficult to read. Some people heart because you hear them, some people heart because they like you in the forums or are your friend..etc..not necessarily wanting to buy something from your shop. (More on hearts in another post!). As people were buying, I was getting comments in my messages to the seller box saying they found me in the forums! The most obvious part? I was actually selling out the item that WAS my avatar! I was usually selling the item in the avatar about once a week!

Making the Donuts Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 12.00

Moving onto sold items in the avatar. SO many times I wanted to keep an old sold item as my avatar, because it was a great conversation piece in the forums, people loved it and I loved it and it garnered a lot of clicks.. My main advice on this is DON'T. I didn't do it because so many times have I clicked to buy and the person didn't have it listed anymore and it had sold days, weeks so on ago. I was sad and of course too impulsive to write about asking for another, I just bought something else that I found. I know if I didn't like it, then there would be others. Jewelry (especially mine) is NOT a necessity and there is a lot of it out there. People don't want to wait, heck I don't! So what are you waiting for? Get that avatar rockin'!

Earrings by Lil922 , Pendant by WireYourWorld, clutch by EmmaGordonLondon, Gnomes by CozyColeman .

This is a collage of avatars that earned my click today in one thread . The best part? They were easy to find once I clicked too. They were either featured in their shop or newly listed! I love that.