Activity

I've been doing a lot of soul searching and trying to figure out how the heck I'm going to improve my shop and my Etsy experience in general.  In that process, I've been reading what I can find on the beaten-to-death subject of tweaking everything til blood shoots out your eyes or your head explodes.

Fortunately, I did learn a couple of new things.  We all knew that tweaking and getting good keywords to use in titles and tags, does makes a huge difference.  We all knew this.  The new thing I learned is they should exactly match to get the best results.  Whatever two-word keywords you use in your title, should be repeated exactly in your tags.  I also learned that shop activity helps.  Even if it's just freshening up your profile or shop policies.  Regular activity seems to help keep you from sinking to the bottom of the "I don't exist on Etsy" pit. 

I was gone for two weeks and not very active upon my immediate return from my trip.  My views tanked.  The past week or so, I've been very busy in my shop.  Listed a couple of items.  Rearranged my listings so that my first page looks more fitting for autumn.  Making treasuries and I even joined another team and became more active in another one I already belonged to.

My views immediately started going back up.  Then I had some little feature, I still haven't been able to find out where, that boosted my views even more for a couple of days. 

Activity. 

Another thing I noticed on one of the other teams I belong to is the nature of their discussions and team participation.  Relatively speaking, we have a very active discussion forum which is a huge asset for our team.  Fortunately, our team allows members to start threads.  Some teams do not allow this.  Only the team leader can post new discussions.  I understand the need for some control, but I think this is very limiting.  I love that we can all start threads.  It encourages, rather than inhibits member participation.  But I would love to see more members joining in.  I don't know how to do that.

We have some great promotional threads going.  Those are important to every team and to all members.  We need those.  The next level is to have discussions that engage members in conversations that are a little more helpful.  I've done that with a couple of posts about suggesting a new item to the shop above you and the tag game where we suggest tags to each other.  Kind of like brainstorming.  Some of the best ideas come out of brainstorm sessions and I've always known that two heads are better than one.

But it all comes back to activity.  The more activity, the more visible you are. 

So don't be afraid to jump in or suggest to someone you know on the team to come join the discussions.  The better our discussion threads are the more people participate.  The more people who participate, the better the quality of our discussions.  More ideas from more sources.  All for the good of the individual which then leads to the good of the team.  Or is it the other way around?

Doesn't matter.  Moving forward is what matters.  Moving forward, being active and remembering that there is always room for improvement. 

Monday Challenge

Hi Teamies! Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day weekend! And hope your shop had lots of views and sales too!
 
The Monday Makeover Challenge has been changed to the Monday Challenge to accommodate a wider range of team challenges. So, to introduce you to our "new and improved" blog feature, here is this week's Challenge:

We are going to call this the "Reach Out and Touch" Challenge. And yes, for you old timers like me, it is based on the Diana Ross song.....

...which I will now sing for you: (music, maestro)

From Petals of Grace

Reach out and touch

Somebody's hand
Make this world a better place
If you can
Reach out and touch
Somebody's hand
Make this world a better place
If you can

(Just try)
Take a little time out of your busy day
To give encouragement
To someone who's lost the way
(Just try)
Or would I be talking to a stone
If I asked you
To share a problem that's not your own
We can change things if we start giving
Why don't you

Reach out and touch
Somebody's hand
Make this world a better place
If you can
Reach out and touch
Somebody's hand
Make this world a better place
If you can

(Just try)
If you see an old friend on the street
And he's down
Remember his shoes could fit your feet
(Just try)
Try a little kindness you'll see
It's something that comes very naturally
We can change things if we start giving

Why don't you
Reach out and touch
Why don't you (Why don't you)
Reach out and touch somebody's hand

Reach out and touch
Somebody's hand
Make this world a better place
If you can
Reach out and touch
Somebody's hand
Make this world a better place
If you can

We have so many wonderful people on our team and this song, for me, embodies a large part of what our team is about. And we want all of our members to embrace this! So, our challenge this week is to contact at least two team members you are not familiar with and just say hi. Or, invite them to participate in the forums, see if there is anything they might need help with, or encourage them to take part in our team activities.

As always, this is not mandatory, but I know many of you will participate! And....

...you never know...

                 ...this just might be the day...

                                          ...you put a song in someone's heart...

                                                                           ...or a smile on their face!

                                                                 from Catino Creations

 

 Cap'n Kathi ....<here....not here^