In this Storque article, Etsy advised that they have released an update which will make it easier to flag an item on Etsy. If you notice an item listing that violates Etsy’s site policies, you can “flag” it to notify the Etsy Support admin who work on Content. Previously, the “Report this item to Etsy” link would lead you to contact Support by email; now the link leads to a simple form you can fill out and submit right on Etsy.
Here is the related forum thread.
We just found out about yet another useful 3rd-party application for Etsy sellers. Steve has put together Featsy, a simple RSS or email notification system for front page or gift guide appearances, plus some site stats.
Featsy! while it might immediately conjure up images of a podiatrist menacingly waving around cuticle clippers, it is in reality a concatenation for “featured Etsy”. As the name might suggest this site tracks featured items and users on Etsy’s front page and gift pages; armed with this information Featsy can than provide e-mails or RSS updates whenever the item or user that was searched for is featured. Featsy also provides exposure statistics, ranking featured users and placing them in their according percentile. currently the breakdown is by week and day, but as the Featsy database gathers more data, a month or even year breakdown will be added.
Featsy has two pages. The Search page is where you can enter your shop name and email address, and be notified by RSS or email when you appear either on the front page or in the Gift Guides. The Stats page lists the top 5 sellers appearing on the front page or Gift Guides for the past day or the past week.
Thanks Steve!
Edit 11/19/08:
Sadly, one of the sellers on the stats page has been abused and threatened by another individual. We have been in contact with both Steve and the threatened seller and in the best interests of all, Steve has suspended Featsy.
The fabulous heart-o-matic tools used by so many Etsians have moved from Majaba.com to a new site: http://www.craftcult.com/.
The heart-o-matic tool was developed by Julian of Juln.etsy.com, and the new site is co-owned by Julian and Karena of Magicjelly.etsy.com.
If you had the old majaba site bookmarked, it will redirect to the new craftcult site.
For previous articles on the Heart-o-matic, please see
http://etsynews.com/626/heart-o-matic-is-back-and-better-than-ever/
http://etsynews.com/577/uen-exclusive-interview-with-the-creator-of-the-heart-o-matic/
We recently heard from Ian, founder and developer of Etsy Hacks, a great new site full of scripts that will help make running your shop a little easier:
Etsyhacks is a site for tips, tricks, and tools for helping make your Etsy experience faster and easier. At the moment, I’m writing a series of tools for the Firefox web browser that add extra features to Etsy pages.
Current tools include one that allows you to alter the appearance of the “printer-friendly receipt” page (add your shop logo, change colours, hide sections, etc.), one that adds quick links to convos, feedback, etc., to the buyer box on your receipt pages, one that adds links to items to convos, and a number of others.
I’ve had some good suggestions for new ones from other Etsy users (and would welcome more) so I hope to be adding new tools fairly often.
For more detail from a user’s perspective, you can read EtsyBitch’s review at http://etsybitch.blogspot.com/2008/11/etsyhacks-finally.html
Etsy Hacks works with Firefox, and requires you to download an add-on called Greasemonkey. So far available scripts include:
Subtotals
Adds item and shipping subtotals to your receipt pages.
Quote post
Adds a ‘quote this post’ link to each post in the forums.
Forum user links
Adds links to a user’s profile, the “heart this user” function, and links to send them a convo and see all the convos you’ve had with them.
Cancel transaction
Adds links to cancel transaction from the sold orders and view transaction pages.
Edit this item
Adds “edit item” and “delete item” links to the View Listing page when viewing an item in your shop.
Transaction id to url
Change the text “Transaction ID# …” for each item on the “printer-friendly” receipt page into a URL.
Printable receipt enhancer
Apply IDs and class names to elements on the printable receipt page, so that you can use stylesheets to change the appearance of the page. Change the font size, hide sections, change colours, add a logo - see the example stylesheets for examples.
Convo linker
Automatically turns the text “listing #…” or “transaction #…” in a convo into a link. Useful for when a customer uses the “contact the seller” link to send you a convo.
Buyer info
Add extra information to the “buyer” box on a receipt page - a link to convos with that user, a link to their feedback page, a link to send them a convo, and a link to their email address.
Printer-friendly linker
Add a link to the “printer-friendly” receipt view for each order on your orders page, next to the link to the regular receipt.
Many thanks to Ian! We’ll be adding a link to Etsy Hacks in our sidebar shortly.
As detailed in this Storque articles, some small changes have been made to the Etsy header:
* The link for Alchemy, the space on Etsy where buyers can post requests for custom items, has been changed to ‘Custom’ to make it clearer to potential buyers that they can request custom items. The feature is still named Alchemy; we’ve just changed the word on the navigation link to more clearly describe the function of the feature.
* Links for ‘Login’ and ‘Logout’ have been changed to ‘Sign In’ and ‘Sign Out.’
* The link for Invite a Friend, formerly on the upper right, has been removed. You can still get there through the Referrals page inside Your Etsy.
* And most importantly, when you’re signed in to Etsy, a link to your Favorites appears next to your Cart on the upper left.
See the complete article here and the companion forum thread here.
Today Etsy published this very informative article by CEO Maria Thomas.
In it she shares her experiences meeting with a few Etsy Team members, introduces some new hires, addresses a few ongoing community concerns, and details some upcoming feature changes and upgrades.
Excerpt:
Search
One immediate and urgent project involves architecting substantial improvements to Etsy’s search function. During the next week or two, you should see marked improvements in the speed at which Etsy’s search function returns search results (note: this refers to the speed with which users received results to a given query). Many of you and many inside Etsy want to improve search in other ways. That’s coming too, but I think speed trumps all, especially in the holiday season.We also plan early in 2009 to begin to change the way Etsy’s site search actually works. It was originally designed to return the most recently listed items first. As a result, Etsy understands that many of its sellers renew listings before their original expiration dates in order to push items closer to the top of search results for a particular query.
I believe that Etsy must design its site search with buyers in mind. Its main purpose should be to help buyers find what they’re looking for. Returning items in reverse chronological order isn’t the best way to achieve that. At the same time, Etsy should provide sellers with various options to advertise and promote their merchandise to Etsy’s enthusiastic and growing buyer base. Redesigning the search function and creating new ways for sellers to advertise on Etsy are two important initiatives.
Find the complete article here and the companion forum discussion thread here.
