Article on Team Member Leann

Handmade News published a wonderful interview on Leann Terrill, a valued fellow Etsy Team member, of Primo's Pawtourage. Leann has her own Etsy shop and handcrafts beautiful tile coasters and other neat things. She has designed a Maltese coaster for our current Team project, the Maltese doggie bling gift bag.

Awesome Day! A Day of Blessings!

I am so grateful for the many blessings in my life. Yes, bad things happen to me and some days are really hard but every once in a while something happens that just blows me away. Yesterday was one of those days.

I got to talk to one of my Etsy Team members on the phone and it was really uplifting! Thanks Stacey!

Then I posted on a forum that I needed a copy of Microsoft Office 2003, as my newer used pc has no office suite on it, and an anonymous friend is sending me a legit copy of Windows 7 and Office!!! I sat in front of the monitor with my mouth hanging open for minutes! I can't believe this, it is just so wonderful! I use Windows 98, and figured that would be what i use till the day I die! LOL

I was a little worried about money, I have more outgoing for bills than normal trying to pay off the vet bill and I got my first Alchemy request for a nice custom order! I SO love Etsy even with its hiccups!

I thank God for these many blessings!

Is it Relevant?

Yesterday Etsy Admins decided to do a site wide live experiment of a new search based on relevancy instead of recency. One thing I noted: big name popular sellers had a drastic drop in views and sales, little known small less popular sites, like mine, experienced a rise in views and sales. (I had higher views.) The current recency search strongly favors those with bigger budgets to renew and relist, I am wholeheartedly in favor of a search that rotates sellers so everyone has a chance. The experiment was a failure really because title and material stuffing won the day and hogged the first several pages all day of any search. They need to work on it, but that was understood from the start. I think they are on the right track. Most importantly, misstagging needs to be addressed.

And the winners are....

Katherine of Phetched.com announced the winners of my give away, Shauna, Kate, and Eleanor! A huge thank you to Katherine for hosting this fun give away and congrats to the happy winners!

2 Virgos Designs Give Away

Phetched.com is kindly hosting my give away of some glittery dog bone guest soaps! Easy to enter, just comment. Ends Jan. 20. The dog bones are part of the dog themed products in my Primo's Pawtourage line.

Skin MD Naturals Giveaway!

Wow! Skin MD Naturals is having a great give away! It's worth $100 and includes:
1.A Bottle Skin MD Natural shielding lotion
2.A Bottle Skin MD Natural + SPF 15 shielding lotion
3.One pound of See's dark assorted chocolates
4.12 Starbucks VIA Ready brew coffee pouches
5.A "Kiss Me" mug
6.A Cuddly teddy bear
7.Lollipop Bouquet
8.All in a lined wicker basket

Soapy Links

Check out Carolyn Friedman's blog Becoming a Radiologist Technician where she has listed the "Top 25 Soap Making Resources Online” All my favorites are there and a couple of new ones I will be checking out.

shake up or shake down on Etsy

Rob Kalin is back, the original CEO of Etsy he has been gone for about 2 years and in that time Etsy has finally made a profit although arguably from signing up new sellers and near riots have been occuring on the forums about deteriorating customer service and major features of the site just not working like SEO. There is a breath of hope wafting through the forums tempered with a good dose of cynicism and I must admit I feel the same way. I've had a shop on Etsy for more than a year now and have watched it fall down on the job more and more everyday, from the ever increasing hordes of resellers allowed and even promoted by Etsy against Etsy's own TOU's to severe hang ups in Check Out hampering and even preventing buyers from shopping. I ahve grown alarmed, Etsy is the most viable handcrafted venue on the Net, what will I do if it becomes impossible to run a successful shop there. I pray Rob actually listens and acts quickly on the many pleas of its own customers, us, the sellers on Etsy, and the confused and angry stirring from our buyers, frustrated with a Search feature that doesn't work due to rampant uncontrolled mistagging and the inablility to easily pay for their purchases. And I hope he does it NOW, business has fallen off for many sellers, the economy is not good, we need the site to pop! I love Etsy, the community of Etsy, and the promise of Etsy, and there is no sane reason Etsy should not be THE foremost place to shop for quality handcrafted goods, supplies, and vintage.

Give Away Winner!

A huge shoutout to Lynne Matthews of Coos Bay, Oregon! Congratulations, you won a soy wax lotion tart from my shop, 2 Virgos Designs. A huge thank you to Audrey Friesen who hosted my give away and wrote a nice review of my soy wax lotion tarts with emu oil on her blog, Audrey's Give Aways Blog.