Critiques

I asked for critiques of this blog on the Etsy forums today. Most people had good things to say, however, there were a few issues that I wanted to address.

1. Etsy Mini - This is a great advertising tool for my Etsy shop. It shows items currently available for sale. So why wasn't I using it? No reason except I forgot about it. So that was the first thing I changed. I added it to the sidebar and think it looks rather spiffy don't you?

2. Pictures - This is the bane of my existance as an on-line seller. I don't take very good pictures of my jewelry. I think its a combination of a lot of things, user error, not understanding my camera and not really understanding how to use photoshop.

I love my camera, I really do. In fact it will always hold a special place in my heart because we purchased it in China about two hours before we met the wee one for the first time. It takes great snapshots but I haven't really explored the other facets of the camera at all. Part of the reason is because the instruction manual we have is in Chinese and well I don't read Chinese. Its a model that is only sold in Asia so there are not a lot of people here with the same camera. I need to download the instruction manual in English and study it. I know there is a way to enhance the pictures I am taking.

I also need to sit down with Photoshop and take some tutorials on editing pictures. I bought the software, I might as well use it properly.

Finally, I need to build a photo lightbox. I just can't rely on getting outside and taking pictures in the Wisconsin winter. If its not snowing, its raining - yuck. So this is my priority for Saturday, figuring out how to get this done.

3. No links to my shop in my posts. Part of the reason for this is I haven't been listing any of the new stuff I've made. Why is that? See number 2 above.

So today I sat down and listed the Red Crochet bangle I wrote about on January 2nd. Only one month later, not too bad.