I paid for an Etsy showcase spot in the Paper Goods category yesterday. I should've thought to take a screenshot of it--oh well. Too late now.

It was a showcase spot on a Monday, and it was a category showcase--so of course, not as much exposure as in the main showcase.

Here's how my shop, Attention to Details, changed during that 24 hour period:

Number of sales: 0
Number of additional shop hearts: 1

Featured item (for most of the day): Pink Mother's Day Card. Went from 21 views to 44 views.
Featured item (for the rest of the day): Pastel Card set. went from 47 views to 53 views.

My other items all saw an increase in views over the last 24 hour period. Not all of it can be credited to a Showcase spot--typically there is a bit of increase anyways. The items saw between 1 and 7 additional views during the 24 hour period, in total accruing 32 additional item views. None of my individual items were hearted.

In total, what I got from the Paper Goods Showcase:
Number of sales: 0
Number of hearts: 1
Number of additional item views: 61

Are these typical results? I have no idea. I'm just recording what occurs.

Breakout for individual items (using the labeling system from previous posts): 
1 - 6 views; 2 - 2 views; 3 - 1 view; 4 - 3 views; 5 - 3 views; 6 - 4 views; 7 - 4 views; 8 - 7 views; 9 - 23 views; 10 - 3 views; 11 - 4 views; 12 - 1 view

My time on Etsy: 15 days
Number of items posted: 12
Number of shop hearts: 4
Number of item hearts: 6
Number of sales: 0

1	4/3/10	Pastel Origami Flower Cards (4)	$10.00	47 views	1 heart
2	4/4/10	Bright Colors Origami Flower Cards (4)	$10.00	30 views
3	4/4/10	Horizontal Origami Flower Cards (4)	$10.00	32 views	1 heart
4	4/4/10	Mixed Colors Origami Flower Cards (4)	$10.00	31 views
5	4/5/10	Abstract Art Flower Card	$3.00	26 views	1 heart
6	4/9/10	5 Origami Flower Cards	$10.00	11 views
7	4/9/10	10 Origami Flower Cards	$16.00	18 views
8	4/9/10	5 Striped Origami Flower Cards	$10.00	33 views	1 heart
9	4/10/10	Pink Mother’s Day Card	$2.50	21 views	1 heart
10	4/10/10	Blue Mother’s Day Card	$2.50	14 views
11	4/10/10	Purple Mother’s Day Card	$2.50	19 views	1 heart
12	4/14/10	Purple Mother’s Day Card #2	$2.50	8 views

Definitely some improvement over last week's stats.

I have purchased an Etsy showcase tomorrow in the Paper Goods category (April 19th). I'm interested to see what it does to these numbers, and if it makes a difference in sales.

I realized that, especially with paper items, you need to have timely items, cards that relate to the seasons/holidays/current events, etc.

It's a little late to realize that for Mother's Day, but I decided to get into the game.
 

On Saturday I made three Mother's Day cards and posted them all on my Etsy shop, Attention to Details. The third one (with the fern) has been the most popular, with 17 views so far; the other two have had 13.

I tried to use the same visual principles I've incorporated into my other handmade origami cards--a flower and a interesting background. I also added "Happy Mother's Day" in a pretty cursive font. For the first two cards I actually used a larger piece of origami paper for the flowers. What's funny is that when the cards are set next to the other ones I've done, the cards with the larger flowers actually look like bigger cards, even though they're exactly the same size.

I realized it may have been a bad thing to post the cards all at once (one of the most common viewing methods on Etsy is most recently listed items). So I decided to make another Mother's Day card today. It is actually made from patterned origami paper.

The other thing I did was adjust price--I put today's card at $2.50 and lowered the price of the other Mother's Day cards from $3.00 to $2.50. I think I need to get more views and more hearts, and start getting purchases and ratings, and that it may be useful to have slightly lower prices and get established. We'll see how it goes.

I've officially completed my first week on Etsy.

I have had no sales yet. Which shouldn't really be too surprising, though I had hoped I could get my shop off the ground quicker. I think that's alright though--there's an interesting (and somewhat hopeful) forum topic on how long it takes to start getting sales.

My Etsy stats, as of 4/10 at 6 p.m.:

Time on Etsy: 7.5 days
Number of items posted: 11
Number of shop hearts: 4

1	4/3/10	Pastel Origami Flower Cards (4)	$10.00	33 views	1 heart
2	4/4/10	Bright Colors Origami Flower Cards (4)	$10.00	22 views
3	4/4/10	Horizontal Origami Flower Cards (4)	$10.00	21 views	1 heart
4	4/4/10	Mixed Colors Origami Flower Cards (4)	$10.00	18 views
5	4/5/10	Abstract Art Flower Card	$3.50	15 views	1 heart
6	4/9/10	5 Origami Flower Cards	$10.00	3 views
7	4/9/10	10 Origami Flower Cards	$16.00	9 views
8	4/9/10	5 Striped Origami Flower Cards	$10.00	12 views	1 heart
9	4/10/10	Pink Mother’s Day Card	$3.00	1 view
10	4/10/10	Blue Mother’s Day Card	$3.00	1 view
11	4/10/10	Purple Mother’s Day Card	$3.00	1 view

What I've done to promote my shop:
1. Put up items. People see them because they end up at the top of the categories page for a short period of time.
2. Posted a link from my normal blog, which has only 10-15 regular readers.
3. Posted a link from my Facebook page, announcing that I had started an Etsy shop. (I have about 400 friends on Facebook.)

My husband mentioned that I should build a light box to get good looking photos for my Etsy shop. Honestly, I'd never heard of a light box before. Basically, what it does is it can create a well-lit photo on a white backdrop. Nice, sharp and pretty images.

So I set off online, looking how to build a homemade light box. I used this website as a base, but made a few variations. I used an orange box that I lined with white poster board--mine's much smaller than the one shown. I did use white tape. I only bought two lights (from Lowe's hardware store) and didn't permanently attach them to the box.

This is what my completed light box looks like:

My goal was to have my Etsy shop up and running by the end of the week.