1. The picture is so blurry/dark/busy that I can’t tell what you’re selling.  I want to see the details!  The photo doesn’t have to be artsy or staged like a pro, but if it’s blurry I can’t be sure I’ll like it when I get it.  In the next few days I’m going to post my photographing and editing process, so you can see the steps I take and adapt them to your own use.
2. The devil is in the details: What is your item made from?  How large is it?  Your descriptions don’t have to be pretty; clear and concise will do it for me. On items like bead caps and other such supplies, I love to see a scale reference. I can’t always visualize how large those bead caps are, or how long the linkage in that chain is.  If you don’t want to use a penny, that’s fine, but use a ruler in one of your pictures so I can see for myself.
3. Profiting from shipping charges.  I’ve done my fair share of shipping, so I have a pretty good idea of what it costs to ship items.  I don’t mind if you pocket some change from my shipping charges, and I also don’t mind paying for packing materials and such; however, I feel that the charge of packaging and the time it takes you to create a pretty package should be factored into your item cost, and not into the shipping charges.  That also goes for the cost of taking the stuff to the PO–that’s part of overhead, and should be factored into your pricing structure.  It’s not as much of an issue on Etsy as it is on Fee-bay (and yes, eBay sellers, I know you’re dodging fees by inflating the shipping charges: I’m not a dunce, I feel it’s a cheap trick, and I won’t fall for it).  It’s irritating to get the package in the mail that you paid $4 shipping for and to discover it cost $1.76 to mail.
4. You haven’t filled ANYTHING out in your shop policies, profile,  or your shop intro. Etsy is a community. It’s also a business.  If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of returns, that’s fine, but let me know (BTW not allowing returns on items purchased, unless they’re custom or final sale items, just costs you customers). I’m not into guessing games. If you only ship once or twice a week, state it clearly in your policies.  You don’t have to fill out every section, but pick one and be concise. Show that you care about your shop and your customers.
5. Gross grammatical or spelling errors.  Copy and paste your description into a word processing program and run spell check.  It won’t always catch usage errors (like when to use less vs. fewer, the difference between you’re and your, etc.), but it can remove the glaring errors.  And along a similar note: I CaN’t ReAd tHe TiTle WhEN YoU TRy tO MAkE iT CuTe!  It makes my head hurt.

These are just a few of the reasons that I came up with, and I’m sure plenty of you might disagree, especially with the shipping charges. What are your pet peeves?

Today I had a little run-away day. No toddler to cut short my browsing. First stop, Barnes & Noble. I think I’ve said before how much I love books. I try to browse the titles I’m interested in,then I look for them used.

I then hit the magazine section to get my hands on the new issue of Creative Jewelry. I looked and looked for my ad. No ad. Hmmm…what happened there? Never got a message saying there was a problem with the file, never received a bill (but I’ve advertised in magazines before and didn’t get a bill till publication, so I didn’t think anything about it). Well, isn’t that special. It did get me to add the shopping cart to the site, but it has put a kink in my marketing plans for the fall and winter. I can’t say that I’m not hugely disappointed, as I really wanted to get my name out there. I chose this magazine rather than a monthly because I felt that with all the projects people would be more inclined to save it and refer back to it later.

Ah well, for the money I would have spent on the ad I can add about a bajillion listings to Etsy, so I think I’ll concentrate on expanding the shop. I’ll be doing a bisque firing tomorrow, so I’ll have some new listings soon.

I ended up hitting Michaels afterwards and got some new scrapbook papers which I thought would complement my pendants. I love the look of the slate, but I don’t want my pictures looking too similar to Round Rabbit’s pictures (I love ALL her stuff!), so I’m hoping to reshoot this week. I also got some teeny tiny clay cutter to use for earrings and rings. Something funny: I didn’t realize that the paper I got was 2-sided till I got in the car and flopped the bag on the seat. I spent so much time looking for very subtle papers that it never occurred to me to turn it over. Duh! Obviously I do NOT scrapbook!

Onward and upward!