Front and Center

If you're a seller on Etsy, getting an item featured on the front page of the website is considered a real feather in your cap, though your chances are somewhat better than they used to be when front page treasuries were changed less often. How it works is that every hour or so, a new treasury is selected by the powers that be at Etsy to grace the front page. That means that anyone who goes to www.etsy.com gets to see twelve of the sixteen items in the treasury and naturally that drives a lot of traffic toward the items displayed. I've had a great luck of being featured on the front page TWICE in the last couple of weeks!

This graph shows the number of times my listings were viewed each day.
Can you guess which days my items were on the front page?

20x30 Gray & White Capiz Shells

In the first instance, I didn't know my gray capiz shell photo had made it onto the front page until I was checking my shop stats at the end of June. That capiz shell photo had been popular all month: it was included in 20 different treasuries in June! But I noticed on June 27th there was a big spike in traffic to my shop and I also noticed that 194 of them had come from the Etsy home page. So I did a bit of sleuthing work and determined that a treasury from a few days before the 27th had made it onto the front page. My photo was in the fourth row, which usually isn't shown unless items in the first twelve slots are sold, so my image may not have been on the front page for the entire time the treasury was up there. Still, it was fun to realize that I had gotten some front page recognition!

8x10 Chess Pieces

Then, on July 9th, I went to check out how things were going in my shop, starting on the home page, as I usually do. It took a second to register, but there was my chess pieces photo in the treasury on the front page! I'd seen the treasury a few days before when it was first made and had liked it, but suddenly the fact that my photo was in the number one spot (the top left) mattered a lot! I was so pleased that I took a screen capture of the front page with my photo on it and I was rather giddy for the rest of the afternoon. It was quite fun to have seen it there on the front page myself, rather finding out about it later. Either because of being in the number one spot or simply the strength of the photo itself, 368 people clicked on it when it was on the front page. In the case of both photos, people who visited my front page photo then viewed about a hundred other listings or looked at my shop overall.

Being on the front page didn't end up creating any sales for me, but it was great free advertising! Five hundred and sixty-two people who may never have seen my work otherwise clicked on one of my photos and then many of them took a look at other items in my shop. While the chess pieces photo was up on the front page, five people added my shop to their favorites and 94 listings were added as favorites. That means my shop and my listings will always be in there in their "Favorites" section for them and other people to see! I haven't been investing much energy in my shop lately, so it was great to have this boost of attention at no expense--monetarily or in terms of energy--to myself!

Also, here are the listings I've put up since my last overview:

8x10 Flower with Raindrops

8x10 Pink Columbine Flowers

5x5 Rotary Dial Phone

www.ccreativity.etsy.com - www.silvermouse.etsy.com

Stop by my Facebook page!

Follow Mouse on Twitter!

Recent Creativity in Review

Between the weather, messing around with horses, and walking and taking care of Mr. Gorgeous, I haven't had much energy as of late to devote to my Etsy stores. I've been tweaking my tags as items come up for renewal, but since the start of February, I've only listed six new items! As usual, I have a tremendous backlog of items that I want to list, but my mind has to be really sharp in order for me to write the listings themselves.

I have been up to a few other creative endeavors, though.

I've been doing a little bit of drawing lately, like this portrait of my dog...

...I developed this custom trio for a customer looking for game room decor...

...and this secret project (it's going to be a gift for someone) has been taking up a lot of my time.

I've also made a couple of Etsy treasuries.

This one is devoted to bowling.

This one is devoted to buckles.

But listing-wise, this is it:

8x10 Lilacs and Mouse

8x10 Amethyst

8x10 Wooden Chess Pieces

8x10 Red Tulips

16x20 Yellow Daffodil

11x14 Blue Marbles

I hope to get more listings up soon, but until my horsemanship class ends in a couple of weeks, I probably won't have the energy to devote to writing those listings. In the meantime, you can always check out my albums on my c.creativity Facebook page, particularly the Macro: Natural album where many of those yet-to-be-listed photos can be found!

www.ccreativity.etsy.com - www.silvermouse.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/ccreativityphotography

A Few Things I've Been Up To

For the last few days I've actually been being good about doing the thing that I find the hardest: being quiet! The weather has been very nice, so I've spent a great deal of time on the back deck, eating popsicles, lying on the bench looking up through the fuchsia at the blue sky, and hanging out with the dog.

Abbey in her favorite outdoor afternoon sun spot.

Sooner or later, though, I was bound to get sucked back into doing stuff, and yesterday I decided, after two and a half months of making nary an Etsy treasury, to jump back in the game. The result was this treasury in deep fall tones. It takes a great deal of concentration for me to compile a treasury and it really was a bit of a stretch to spend so much time staring at the computer screen. Therefore, after vowing not to, I immediately sat down today, despite still having migraines from yesterday's exertions, and made another one. It's just so much fun, as well as a business strategy: it's a way of getting your name out there. The Autumn Spice treasury is my first for my new macro shop, as opposed to my mouse shop.

I hope to write a major post-concussion update one of these next few days (it's been almost eight weeks!), but it may take a while to accumulate the necessary stamina to do so.

In the meantime, check this out: www.facebook.com/ccreativityphotography Yes, I've had the Facebook page for quite a while now, but just today I figured out how to have a nice tidy username instead of a horrible long url! You are most welcome to admire it.