WELCOME WAGON as told by Meredith from Patchworkcrafters

This has been a great month for The Golden Rose Crafters as we welcomed several new members to join our growing team!

Joann from Fancy Schmany Jewels has a rich background in crafting that started in grammar school. She sews, tole paints, does ceramics, makes dolls and is now involved in her current love...jewelry making. Visiting her shop is a treat as you're surrounded by beautiful, unique pieces of jewelry. Joann resides in Florida and New Jersey. So glad she's joined us!

 Senem from Seno is our next new member. Senem lives in Turkey and her shop is a collaboration of talent with her aunt and sister...a true family affair. These gifted women make beautiful crocheted, knit and sewn accessories. Strolling through Seno you will find lovely bags and purses, scarves, headbands, ponchos, and other must-haves to add to your wardrobe. Another great addition to our team!

Jenny from JenEmbroidery is a hand embroidery artist. She transforms ordinary clothing pieces into beautiful works of art. She particularly seeks out vintage and linen pieces to re-invent with her lovely embroidery. The results are wonderful as a visit to her shop will confirm. Jenny lives in Wisconsin and is a welcome addition to our team!

Phyllis from StudioPMR creates out of the ordinary jewelry art and is another welcome addition to The Golden Rose Crafters. Phyllis is inspired by nature, recycling, and a different way of looking at the ordinary. She also has a fondness for steampunk pieces as part of her repetoire. Phyllis lives in Alabama where she creates her wonderful pieces. We're so glad she's joined us!

Stef from Pink Cupcake's Jewel Crafting is another of our newest members. Stef creates unique, handcrafted jewelry. Her lovely pieces include anklets, bracelets, earrings, ear cuffs, necklaces, rings, and stitch markers. A visit to her shop is a wonderful shopping experience with all of her unique pieces. Stef resides in Ohio and is a welcome addition to our growing team!

Deanna from Deannaroserichardson is our newest Golden Rose Crafters member. Deanna creates crocheted pieces, quilts and purses. Her pieces are lovely and definitely great gift-giving possibilites for any occasions that you have coming up in the future. Deanna lives and creates her treasures in Florida. We're so glad she's joined us!

Purse,  reversible from Deanna

Beautiful Chenille Quilt from Deanna

Fully Lined Quilted Tote Bag at Patchworkcrafters

Tall Quilted Tote

Tulip Tote Bag

                                                  What you can see at Patchworkcrafters......

TAKING PICTURES FOR YOUR ETSY SHOP

I have had many comments made about my photographs and questions asked so I decided to share some of my ideas with you. I hope that if any of you are experiencing difficulties with your Etsy pictures than perhaps you will learn something from my experience. I have a jewelry shop on Etsy, and there aren’t too many ways that you can photograph jewelry. It fits on the body somewhere or it might lie somewhere while you shoot it with your camera. With clothing you can put it on the person or a mannequin and then you can take that person or mannequin and place them anywhere you want, outside, inside , whatever suits your needs. With jewelry it is fairly small and while you might shoot it on the person you do need to zoom- in on the object itself and magnify all it’s parts.

I use a light box, which will be the subject of another article to come. I also have a box full of props. I take or shoot many photos. If I am shooting earrings I start with the earrings hanging from a wine glass. With earrings, the hanging shot is probably the most important because the earrings hang from the ear. The would be customer needs to see the earrings hang and know what they will look like in that position. If you have a mannequin or another display piece of sorts, a head , or even a person you can get a great shot too. As long as you can get a shot of the earring, unhindered in anyway (no hair, or clothing obstructing the view) and the lighting is good, then this will be your most important shot. So don’t hurry through this first shot. Take at least three, one from each angle, front center, left front side, right front side. It wouldn’t hurt to take more. When you go to edit, you will probably have at least one that will be blurred.

 I always shoot from about six inches, or eight inches away from my subject. That may seem close but that is what the macro setting is all about. You should turn your macro setting on and leave it there. I do, which means when I am taking non-jewelry pics, it is also on and my photos still come out great. When I edit most of my photos taken at parties, picnics , etc., If the background is not important I edit out almost all of the background and get great close-ups, and people love those too. So use your macro setting you will get the great close-ups of your shop items without the blur.

When I have taken my first set-up of pictures. I change to one of the other props that I use. I have quite a few. It depends on the item in question which I choose. I like to lay the earrings down and spread them out. You can often see elements of the earrings this way that you cannot see other wise. The light box has a round hole in the top where I shine a lamp through. If the earrings or other jewelry items I am shooting have crystals the light will dance off the crystals in a different manner than they did when hanging, and they will look even more beautiful. A second lamp can be placed in the front of the light box helping to flood out any shadows cast by the props or focal item.

You will want to use different props as you continue to shoot. With my jewelry I use sea shells quite often, they are pretty and the jewelry looks nice displayed with it. I stay away from brightly colored props. Brightly colored items can take over the picture. Your focal needs to stand out as the obvious focal spot. The sea shells are fairly neutral in color and tend to lend more in the area of shape and texture. Be careful to never use a prop that will over power the item you are photographing. As I go on taking pictures, I change props after about 5 to 6 shots or more. I use about 5 props or at least 5 different set-ups. I often find myself with 35 to 50 shots. Obviously, I am using a digital camera, let’s all thank God for them right now. With our digital cameras there is no limit to how many shots we can take since we don’t have to have them developed. We also have no excuse for bad pictures. I have had whole sets come out bad and I had to choose the best of the awful until I had time to re-shoot, but that usually won’t happen if you keep all these hints in mind.

I also use a tripod, I have three different sizes. I have a floor model that I use when I take pictures of my necklaces where I place the necklace on a dress form. I can get far enough away with this floor tripod to capture the whole necklace. I have an 18” table top model I rarely use, it is too far away from items in the light box and it works about the same as the floor model when shooting full views of necklaces. I use my 6” tripod in almost every case. It is the perfect distance for height, and when I stand it 6’’ to 8” away from the bracelet or earrings I get the perfect view. One important point I would like to make here is this; you do not have to show the whole item in each picture or even one picture. I like to have one picture that shows the full item but most of the pictures I choose show only parts of the item. It is important to show the beads, the color, the texture, the shape, every detail. Close- ups can rule out a customer being surprised and disappointed with their newly purchased product. With close-ups they will see in detail what they are getting.                                        

Blue Cluster Bracelet
Marilyn1545

Aqua Crackle Glass & Olive Pearl
Necklace With Crystals
Marilyn1545

                                                              

Glass Pearls & Silver Bracelet
Marilyn1545

EDITING

Editing what fun this is, Especially when you are dealing with 50 photos. Well , I don’t always edit each and every picture. But most of the time I do. Let’s talk mechanic’s for a minute. I have an HP computer that naturally comes equipped with Windows. I have several photo editing programs, a couple I’ve paid some cold hard bucks for. But the one I use for my Etsy pictures comes free with the computer and you probably have it if you have Windows 7. When I still had my old computer , an HP with Windows Vista it also had this same program, Microsoft Office Picture Manager. I love this program and one particular favorite part of it is how it crops. This is the only editing program I have found where I can crop using a gauge to go by and get the size exact. I can crop my pictures to the exact 1000 pixels x 1000 pixels that Etsy so likes. That way I am certain that they will not crop anymore off of my picture that I worked so hard taking and editing. After I have cropped it I can brighten the picture. The program comes with all the bells and whistles to do the color editing yourself but it has some auto features that I prefer to use; I click first on COLOR, then ENHANCE , I pick a place to put the arrow, and it, the arrow, turns to a circle, then I click again, and the picture BRIGHTENS. If it is too much and there is glare you can re-do,  move the arrow around again and find another place to put it and click again, the amount of brightening may be just right or you may have to try again. But nothing is permanent you can hit the re-do and try as many times as you like until you get it brightened just as you right. I love this program and I have tried quite a few but this one worked the best for me.

With regards to the pictures here, the picture on the top has been brightened, you can see that the stone is brighter and has greater detail, with more color. The lower picture has not been brightened. Whether you use this program or another do brighten your photo. Dark photos don’t show -off your focal item like they should. And don’t have your focal fighting for recognition. You may be thinking you would like to see your picture on the front page of Etsy so you want to take Artsy like photos. That is great but don’t let your focal take a hit because you want to take a really good prize winning artsy type of photo. I’ve seen some photos in Etsy shops where I wasn’t sure what the sale item was, because it was competing with the items around it. Your props and background should fade away they are not important. You may have noticed that I have stayed away from conversation about cameras. I am no expert on the subject of photography or cameras. My camera is middle-of-the-road with regards to cost. It has a zoom lens that works well for my needs and it has a macro setting, which I believe is our best friend with this type of photography. When you need to get in for those tight shots it is a must. I have seen very inexpensive cameras take very good pictures. What I believe about buying anything is, buy the best that you can afford. If you do you will have the right camera. Take pictures that will sell your items, save your other photography skills for somewhere besides Etsy. I believe if you put these few hints to work for you, you too will be taking pictures that will grab attention from potential buyers, and people will be asking you How do you take those great pictures?

Patty's Picks

Outstanding picks from Golden Rose Crafters for the Month of March.... by Patty of Twisted Sticks
Sharon has such a flare for cards and along with that talent is this picture frame. What a great gift idea for a teacher. The colors are so bright and cheerful.

This bracelet is stunning.The color is so intense. The picture really shows the wonderful sparkle of the bracelet.

I think this scarf is stunning, such crisp, clear pictures.

'Spring Wedding - Sights & Sounds' by lilaccottagecards

Dreaming of a Country Wedding? I am and look what I found in the Fabulous shops of Etsy! Great Ideas for a Country Chic Wedding. A theme challenge from the Golden Rose Crafters Team.

High Low Hem Wedding Dr... thepeppermint... $825.00	Yellow Tulips - 11x14 P... shootlikeagir... $29.99	Romantic Love Birds (Go... YinVivo $5.00	Bridal Bouquet - Succul... AprilHilerDes... $125.00
autumn wedding hair cro... thehoneycomb $70.00	Sample- Seed Bomb Weddi... BigRockPaperC... $2.00	Country Chic White Soft... Stylishgiving... $42.00	Decorative BirdcagesSh... CrabApplCreat... $29.99
Rustic Birds nest Ring ... Rusticblend $15.00	Just Married Banner wit... victorianstat... $60.00	Love Heart Art Print N... AldariArt $18.00	Set of TWO / country ye... misunbridal $38.00
Wedding Cake Topper Yel... FairyfolkWedd... $10.00	Flower Earrings - Yello... JuliesofLasVe... $2.95	Lemons and Oranges - Ma... BootsNGus $110.00	Romantic Bridal Rose Br... TrueRebelClot... $24.00

Treasury tool by StylishHome.

Of the treasuries this is my pick. The yellow color and items really work together to form the theme.

Winner of February Theme Treasury Competiton - Sharon of Lilac Cottage Cards

After 20 years in the corporate world, IBM to be exact, Sharon left her enviable regular paycheck with the benefits that go along with that, to feed her starving (her word) creative side. Sharon had heard of Etsy from customers at her local Farmers Market, so she opened her shop in January of 2011. Sharon had learned Stamping by taking local classes as far back as 1998. She loved creating her own greeting cards from paper and ink. With a great imagination she continued taking classes, learning new techniques and taking in all that she could about different products used in card making.

Loving a challenge Sharon claims that Etsy is helping her to achieve the goals she has set for herself and for her shop. She continually scans the forums and the Etsy Blog for ideas on selling. She says Etsy has helped her to reach a larger customer base and she hopes to work her Etsy business full time in the future. It was almost a year with Etsy before Sharon tried her hand at making a treasury. At first she was an observer, being intimidated by the process. When she created her first treasury in December 18, 2011, Serenity Sunday http:/treasury/MTI0Nzc2Njd8MTU1ODAxMDU3OQ/serenity-sunday?index=103 she learned how easy the process really is, and a new career began, Treasury Extraordinaire. (my words). When asked if she had advice for making treasuries, this is what Sharon offered. Look over the treasuries on the Front Page and check out what the treasury tags for the day are. You can get ideas for themes from the Etsy blog on the month’s trend. Try to include a variety of items and be sure to tag them appropriately . Always let people know that you have included them in your treasury.Sharon states, I also promote not only my treasuries but the treasuries on my teams threads. I also post them to Facebook, on my blog, etc. She tells us just have fun and be creative.

Barely more than a Newbie herself Sharon has some great advice for those getting started with etsy. Take great pictures and tag them accordingly. She reminds us no one will see your wonderful items if they can’t find them. Get involved with the teams you can’t get to know about Etsy on your own. Don’t get discouraged it takes time for most shops to take off. On the subject of teams when asked what comments she wanted to make about Golden Rose Crafters , Sharon mentioned that she had been introduced to the team by a fellow team member. She likes being a part of a group where most members are in her age group, because we tend to share the same problems and challenges. Her favorite threads are the Pep talk thread and our newest Private Chat thread. She has found GRC members to be extremely helpful and supportive. Sharon tells me she loves Etsy and definitely sees it in her future. She plans to continue to add new items to her shop. She hopes to learn more about promoting her shop and selling and learning to use all of the useful tools that are available to insure success.

On a personal note, Sharon is engaged to Mike. She has two daughters, Jenny and Diana. They have blessed her with three grandsons, Jackson ,Gavin and Landon. We can see through the pictures she has shared with us, that those boys are the biggest joys in her life and living far away from them is so hard. But they visit several times a year and put Skype to good use. Sharon has a blog you might like to visit www.lilaccottagecards.blogspot.com as well as a Facebook page www.facebook.com/lilaccottagecards . And if you’re real nice she might pin you on her Pinterest account www.pinterest.com/lilaccottagecards. Thanks for sharing your life with us Sharon and congratulations for having the winning Theme treasury for the month of February. By Marilyn Rush Captain Go

New Member

We would like to take a moment to welcome our newest member to GoldenRose Crafters. Jonny is from Cedar City, Utah. He worked through his teen years perfecting his unique technique. Creating tie-dyed, slashed t-shirts. He works with cotton jersey which is very versatile and strong. His creations are very unique and one of a kind pieces using vibrant dyes creating wonderful colors! We are happy to have you as part of our team and wish you all the best in your business endeavor.

Winner of January’s Themed Treasury

Treasuries, when made with thought and an artist’s eye, are a beautiful thing and a powerful sales tool. Some may be overwhelmed with the task but not our Meredith of Patchworkcrafters.. She’s cranking out winning treasuries one after another. To say she has a knack for it is like saying DaVinci is pretty good with the brush. Meredith opened her shop in April of 2009, she heard about Etsy from her daughter Kim, who first had a shop with Etsy. Meredith had been the office manager at a children’s dental practice, where she said she witnessed many mothers and grandmothers bring their children in for appointments. To busy themselves as they waited for the kids they knitted and crocheted carrying their projects in garbage bags and pillowcases, She thought to herself what a terrible way to handle future heirlooms in the making. From there her business was born, beautifully quilted tote bags for the projects. If you haven’t visited Meredith’s shop yet you must. http://www.etsy.com/shop/Patchworkcrafters You’ll find page after page of these quilted gems. Almost too pretty to use, every color scheme imaginable and size. It’ll be hard to choose a favorite. Meredith discovered treasuries when she first found her totes being used in other’s treasuries and became intrigued with the treasure hunting that is inherent in making treasuries. Soon she was making her own treasuries and in her words, fell in love with the creative expression treasuries allow. A few hints from Meredith on making treasuries, start with a theme, such as a color, or an inspiration item. Once you get a basic idea in mind you can start your treasure hunt through the unbelievable Etsy collage of handmade collectibles . Meredith has been a valued member of the Golden Rose Crafters team since the teams inception. We all enjoy and look forward to her encouraging comments on the threads. A few thoughts Meredith expressed in her interview, she wishes more people would participate in the discussions so that we can all get to know one another and one last thought. You don’t have to be in a treasury to leave a comment. If you look at a treasury Leave a Comment! Congratulations Meredith for creating the winning treasury! Link to the Treasury: http://www.etsy.com/treasury/NzIzNDI1NHwxODA2NzkzNDIz/the-cozy-warmth-of-the-kitchen

Tools that Don;t Cost Anything But Will Pay You a Lot

                                                                            

                                                          Shop Stats In Review

Over the last few months  you’ve probably noticed a new feature called, “Shop Stats”.   If you haven’t seen them you will find this new feature by clicking on YOUR PAGE, then on the drop down Menu  clicck on soources for yuou to choose from.

When there you will see a lot of data.  You can choose to see data for the day, for yesterday , for the last 7 days or for the last 30 days.    You can also see last month, the last year, and more.

Direct traffic is when someone types your shop name into their browser to access your shop, via a bookmark or click through.

Etsy.com is traffic that has come from the site,  this includes treasuries, search, teams, etc.. On the shop stat page they  are broken down individually on the right hand side of the report.

There is what is referred to as the Dashboard.  It includes data and graphs for views, favorites, and revenue.  Here, there are listing views and shop views.  Listing views are when people view your listings pages.

Shop views  are when people view any of your shop pages, they view your shop page and then go to other shop pages  of yours.  It could  include  sections,such as  sold items and policies.

                                                      HOW DO PEOPLE FIND YOUR SHOP

There are a total of three reports ,  that send people to your shop.

·         Top Traffic Sources:  these are sites that sent people to your shop

·         Top Traffic Sources on Etsy:  Etsy  features and pages that sent people to your shop

·         Top Keywords: Keywords used to find your shop in search engines,  including Etsy search

Each of the reports lists up to 12 traffic sources.  You can use these reports to dig into where  your traffic  comes from.  You can track your marketing efforts and look for opportunities to increase traffic. .  The Top Keywords report provides a window into how people search  for your items on Etsy, google, and other search engines.  You can use the report to get ideas for how to tag your items and where to focus efforts to increase search engine traffic.

The Top Traffic Sources on Etsy report Etsy  lists features and pages on Etsy that sent traffic to your shop. For example, if you see a Favorites listed as a traffic source, it includes all traffic for favorites pages. It might mean someone viewing their own favorites or someone elses favorites and then clicking through to your listing or shop.  

                                                            Shop Stats in Real Life

Shop stats  track the referring page for each view in your shop. If you see “Your Shop” as a traffic source. It means someone was exploring your shop  and went from one shop page to another.  This of course what you want to happen. Let’s look at some examples and see what’s going on in their shop. I’m going to use my own stats because I have access to all the data I need. These first stats are from several weeks ago around the time people were getting started with their holiday shopping.

v  StumbleUpon   649                                 Your Listing     46

v  Direct Traffic     579                                 Your Shop       46

v  Etsy.com            200                                 Your Profile     30

Let me first explain a little about how I do my promoting.  I start with twitter,  I then copy the ad I just wrote for Twitter and then I go to Facebook and paste it there.  After Facebook I go to Stylepage, again I paste my ad there, then I’m off to Pinterest  where I again paste my ad. After I do Pinterest I go to StumbleUpon, and then I finish up with Flickr.  I am also on tumblr although I don’t have to do it myself, StumbleUpon takes care of that for me.  That is a lot of free exposure. You can see from my numbers that it paid off for me. StumbleUpon also posts to several other  social networks.  So with 649 from the last 7 days I would have to say that work was very beneficial.

The next listing is DirectTraffic, remember that direct traffic is when someone actually puts your name into their browser , to access your shop, is 579. I really like this listing, it means people are aware of me and they think enough of my work to check in and see what’s new.

The third listing on the left is Etsy.com, keep in mind that this number is an accumulation of the 12 items on the right side.   In this case they are self explanatory. I got views from  my listings, my shop, and my profile, as well as a few others that brought the total to 200.

These figures tell me that my profile is interesting and it pulls in some customers.  “Your Shop” tells me that people stick around look at more than just the first page they look through the whole shop or at least more pages than just the front page.

Your listings views are when  people stick around and view your listings pages.  If you continue  to look through these listings you will see numbers on most of the 12 items. This is showing that you are doing a little bit of advertising in various, probably most or all areas.

If your numbers don’t look good, what can you do about it?  Having this tool  to help us we can pinpoint  our areas that we need to work on.   You can hone in on what to do.   You may want to work on speading the numbers around.  Getting the most bang for your buck.  Depending  on your what your product is will probably be the deciding factor about where you will want to advertise. Some of the social networks are more for fashion designs and then some are more inclined toward s  housewares, and homedecor.  You  may want to check into the social networks themselves, there are so many more then what I have mentioned so far. So do some research you may find places that are better suited for your product.  Kaboodle for instance is all about fashion, from clothing to shoes and jewelry, but home decor is irrelevant .  

My own feelings on the matter are this;  StumbleUpon  reaches a wide and diverse audience so I want to keep up my numbers  there,  all the ads that go on StumbleUpon  go out to other social networks ,  so that is a lot of bang for my buck.

Direct Traffic is great because those people have heard about you some how some way and are interested enough to type your shop name into their browser and look up your shop.   You want this number to grow.  That means your brand is becoming known.  Do what you can to make this number grow.

Etsy.com  is important, views in this area come from people seeing  your items in treasuries  or coming across them  in a search. So let’s keep making those treasuries and viewing  them, and at least  clicking through on one item of each treasury if not more.

Let’s look at another example.

   v  Etsy.com    316                                                   Search       67

v  Direct Traffic  58                                                Your Shop  62

v  Google.com    12                                                Your Profile  40

Without giving too much attention to it, we will remember Etsy.com  is the traffic that has come form the site or team itself. My guess would be is that this person is very active in creating treasuries and being reciprocated by being used in others treasuries.  While treasuries are excellent sources for exposure or advertisement they do tend to keep the information within the confines of the Etsy site.But many sales are generated just this way,  so it’s nothing to be ignored.

The direct traffic is 58, that indicates that this shop owner has built up a following of around 60 people.   I would bet that this person does not use Twitter, Facebook or any of the other social networks.So I Would have to recommend just that, get out there and post to the teams and also post to Twitter Facebook, etc.

Here is another good example .

  v  Direct Traffic                         485                               Your Shop          42

v  Stumble Upon                      305                                Your Listings     35

v  Etsy.com                                176                      Your Profile               2

This person has built up a great following, 485 people typed this shop name  and purposely chose this shop to visit.  They also did their ground work by promoting to the right social networks, with 305 on StumbleUpon.   This shop owner is well rounded in her promotion,  with 176 coming from the site, which would be the treasuries, searches,  and teams.  The 176 for etsy .com is an accumulation of all the numbers from YOUR SHOP, YOUR LISTINGS, YOUR PROFILE, ETC.,.  She is doing well with her promotions , but could probably do more of the same..

Here is one more example,  give a try yourself reading what it means  and what needs to be donel

v  Etsy.com                          29                                              Your shop                              12

v  Direct Traffic                    3                                                teams                                     9

v  Google.com                     1                                                Treasury                                 4

Remember etsy.com is traffic that has come from the site, it includes treasuries,  searches , teams, etc. Direct traffic comes from people typing your shop number into the address line and intentionally going to your shop.  In this case Google.com was used with very meager results.  All the other numbers are shown are added together and total the number of etsy.com.

I hope now that you’ve read this information you will use it to analyze what is going on in your shop.  If you learn the meanings of the terms you will be able to pinpoint your weak points and you’ll be able pinpoint trouble spots.

by Marilyn Rush