Fighting for every Click?

As mentioned before, I have been playing around with new descriptive (and very unaesthetic) titles owing to the new search mode on Etsy (relevancy search). I can't say yet how it affects our sales - they've been fewer than before the summer, but then, summer is not exactly knitting time and we were on holiday and didn't put any work into the shop, so there might be several reasons for fewer sales. I have noticed some things, though: 

1. The views rate is down, and very much so. I was used to about 15 to 25 views shortly after listing an item and posting it on Facebook and Twitter. Then, after a short leave of absence due to health reasons, that suddenly didn't work anymore. There were only very few clicks and I thought it had something to do with Facebook or Twitter, or maybe our fans and followers felt I posted too much and didn't click anymore. When I read about the new search mode, it slowly dawned on me that it might have something to do with that. I'm not completely sure because I noticed the news quite late and don't know when the search mode was changed, but I think it seems plausible to link the fewer views to exactly that.

2. The hearts/views ratio has definetely gone up! Maybe it's just luck and my latest creations are generally popular - but maybe it's because the new search mode is actually a good thing and the people who click are the people who have looked for something like the item in question. So who needs "empty" clicks when we can get exactly the people who are interested in our creations?

3. I still don't get the new titles. I changed some (not all, yet), but they are not necessarily the ones that pop up first in the search. It's still a mystery to me, but then I haven't read all the info yet because I've been writing on my thesis like mad - about eight hours a day during the last few days, and then some additional work on the shop...

What do you think? How have the changes been affecting you, have you found a good way around the problems yet? I'd really like to hear from others experiencing the same difficulties!

Since my husband will be on leave for the next two weeks I have decided to take some leave, too. Not entirely, but I won'd do anything to stress me. If I feel like writing on my thesis, I will do so, but if I don't I won't feel bad. I will put some work into the shop, though, because I really want to :-) So, hopefully I'll also have some time to read my way through the guides and infos about the relevancy search and maybe I can tweak the titles some more. Oh - and I hope to post some pictures, it's been quiet on the blog lately.

Etsy Search Relevancy

If you're on Etsy, you've probably heard they changed the search sorting to relevancy rather than listing time. This might seem good and resonable at first sight, and I think it might actually be good and resonable for shoppers, and that's what counts. For shop owners, there are some huge changes to be kept in mind, though.

Titles are more important than they used to be, and I get the feeling that tags are not that important anymore. I've read that you should focus on the first 2-3 words of your title and kind of optimize it for the search. In our case, this means we shouldn't use our title format any longer, since it consisted of  
[Name of the yarn] - Handspun Art yarn [with whatever it contains]. The name is irrelevant for the search in many cases, so there should be a description instead.

I am currently trying to play around with the titles, and I've also peeked into the Etsy forums a little, to see what titles are supposed to work best. To be honest, I think they are now absolutely appaling. I like clear format and words, I hate to put the tags in the title, and that's exactly what it seems like. Now, a yarn that I'd usually have listed under "Polyjuice Potion - Handspun Harry Potter Art yarn" looks like this: "Harry Potter Art Yarn POLYJUICE POTION. Handspun, Halloween, Blue, Turquoise, Purple, Dusky Pink, Merino, Hand Dyed Silk, Upcycled Sari Silk". Sorry, but I think that's really very close to disgusting.
Maybe I didn't get it right, I will definitively have to find out more and play around a little more. I will try this because I need to sell my creations, but I will keep an eye on how good this works. If I don't think it makes much difference, I will go back to clear titles without a string of rather incoherent words.

What do you think about the changes? Good or bad? Any strategies? Have I even got it right? Still adjusting, here...  Thanks for your input :-)

Batwoman and The Necromancer go Mushroom Hunting ;-)

I've been very busy and I want to show you some of my latest creations. Since Woollybits wanted to see the Necromancer yarn, I'll oblige :-) I don't want to spam you with all the yarns I've spun recently, so I'll just show you the Necromancer and two of those I haven't taken enough photos of for the shop. The rest will be listed quite soon since I've taken photos today. So, if you want to see more, you know where to look ;-)

The Necromancer

 

 

 Perfect for Halloween! Black fibre blend with some hand dyed wild silk of an eerie blue, threadply, containing bone skull beads and silver bone charms.

Batwoman

 

   I got Batwoman Elegy for Christmas, and when I saw the bronze-toned bat charms on my last online charms shopping tour I knew I had to spin a batwoman art yarn. If you're a comic book fan and don't know Batwoman Elegy yet - go for it! ;-)

Mushroom Hunting

Twisted is an expert on mushrooms. She always longs for the fall when we can finally go hunting again. I love going with her, although I am mostly clueless. My job is finding any mushrooms/toadstools and then yelling for Twisted to come identify them ;-) Anyway, I love mushrooms, and I just had to spin this yarn in honour of our last hunt when we found some of the most delicious ones I've ever tasted :-)

 

The Bats are Coming!

 Halloween is approaching, and I turned that fact into an excuse to order many, many charms ;-) Some of them I found on Ebay, and some I ordered from nicoledebruin on Etsy. I can't wait to spin them all into yarns *g* I already started with some bats, as you can see here:

The Batcave

I love the colour combination of the dark and mysterious black, the stone grey and the eerie blue/teal. The silver bats fit right in, and I think this will make a gorgeous piece for any comic fan or bat lover :-)

I also ordered some golden bats, and I plan on making a Batwoman yarn. I already blended the fibres, so I'll start this some time soon.

I have many more ideas, some of which I already started to put into action. I spun a Necromancer yarn with skulls and bones in it, and a Polyjuice Potion yarn. I already carded many batts for more yarns, so keep your eyes open! :-)

Back Home - and Back in Business :-)

Hi everyone, I hope you have been well.
We're back from our vacation and our shop is open again :-)

We had the most wonderful time with our friends in Bavaria. They have real mountains there! Somehow, that's still worth mentioning for me, coming from the flat north of Germany. We went on walking tours, played board games, went mushroom hunting, made delicious dishes from the edible mushrooms we found, went to a beautiful moor, and to a lake in the mountains. I didn't get as much knitting done as I thought I would, but I started to make a ninja from the Creepy Cute Crochet book. I'm nearly done, I only still having troubles with the throwing star, though. Maybe I'll make one from polymer clay instead of crocheting one from silver thread.

I'm still getting used to being back home and back to work, but I already took photos of my latest art yarns which I spun before our vacation, and I carded some batts today. There will be new yarns in the shop soon :-)

Need Yarn Before We Close?

We will close the shop for a short vacation, and we're offering a sale for the remaining days before that.

So, if you're in need for some gorgeous yarn, order quickly before the 5th of August and use this coupon code to get 10% off:
QUICKANDDIRRRTY2011

The Weird&Twisted shop will be closed from the 5th until the 17th of August.
Have a wonderful time, everyone, see you when we get back :-)

Crafting Like Mad

I am now officially addicted. I never thought I'd like crocheting that much, but the book and crazy cute Cthulhu really helped ;-) I made the skeleton bride and groom last week, which was a lot of fun.

We went to my husband's family on Friday, to celebrate the birthday of my father-in-law. The whole family is already used to me crafting, I had brought spindles, my knitting, and even my spinning wheel in the past, so a little crocheting didn't even cause surprised looks ;-) My sisters (in-law) are always interested in what I'm doing, and they really liked my version of Bellatrix Lestrange:

I think it took me two or maybe three hours to make her, but I'm not completely sure. I used bits and pieces from several creatures of the book, and I love the outcome :-) Bella now resides in the place of honour in front of our Harry Potter DVDs.

My husband and I also went to a concert on the weekend - our first after many long years, and one of my birthday presents. It was great :-)

Metal with medieval elements/instruments by the German bands Schandmaul and In Extremo - the former of whom were much more fun and likeable, though I like the music of the latter somewhat more... My muscles ached from dancing yesterday, because I can never stand still when I'm at a concert. So we spent the day on the couch, watching the new episode of Torchwood, and searching for a new game to play on the PS3. We've long wanted something like Diablo, with local multiplayer options - and we found two games: Dungeon Hunter Alliance and Dungeon Siege III. We played a little of the trial version of the latter, but since it wasn't available at the playstation store, we decided on buying Dungeon Hunter Alliance. After some hindrances in the form of a new credit card, a forgotten password and a failing internet connection at the worst possible moment we even played a little, and I think I like it :-) Looking forward to playing again tonight, but first I have to work on my thesis, spin a yarn, take some orders to the post office and so on.