You probably suspected this. But as Emily has now confirmed, Etsy does not actively look for miscategorized, mistagged, or simply inappropriate (e.g., cell phones) listings.
emilybidwell says:
Yes. Flag it! Sometimes, newbies have a hard time with the categories, and we like to help them work it out. We absolutely police category problems, but we do it through flagging.
Posted at 2:18 pm, June 29 2007 EST
So please flag. If you don’t, Etsy won’t be able to fix the problem.
July 4th, 2007 at 12:19 am
I think in the descriptions would be fine…i’m only thinking about tags.
July 3rd, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Using the word handmade in the description but not in the tags seems a good compromise.
the default search doesn’t include descriptions, so these wouldn’t bleed through unless someone specifically selected to search descriptions..
July 3rd, 2007 at 12:16 pm
I would suggest that the term “handmade” takes on a different meaning on etsy. if someone puts handspun yarn that they purchased on etsy and puts it in the “supplies” category with “commercial” as the subcategory but then adds “handmade” as a tag it will turn up in both subcats. while the handspun yarn is obviously handmade by someone, in etsy terms it is not “handmade” because it was purchased and the seller herself/himself did not make it. Vintage is the same way. while i would suggest that the items may legitimately be handmade, if they are not handmade by the seller they should not use this tag. Because of what it does in terms of people’s understanding of the item as well as because of searching.
in the example given if the seller simply says “this handspun yarn is in such and such a colorway” and unless they specifically say this is purchased and i didn’t spin it, the buyer is likely to be confused.
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:42 am
Louise if you are not selling the same items on another site, or even worse selling them for less, then it’s OK to link to your other sites.
“same” items can mean either the exact same OOAK item on both sites, or can mean copies or multiples of the same thing, like prints.
July 2nd, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Re: off-etsy urls, I am not sure, but I think Etsy changed the wording of the Dos and Don’ts. It seems to have become more restrictive - I don’t remember the previous version but I thought it mentioned examples of what was considered acceptable e.g. different items:
(under “selling”, third from last of the Don’ts)
July 2nd, 2007 at 11:48 am
I have a website link in my shop. The things I have for sale on the website link to the shop where they’re listed. I have 3 online shops at the moment, all with different items, and etsy items link to the listing in my Etsy shop.
I was under the impression that it was ok do it this way. You can’t draw people away from your shop to undersell on a website = that is illegal.