HAS Beats Etsy!

[danpv]

Just searched Google for the one and only "mushrooms sculpture" that I have in both my HAS and Etsy shops. 

Results brought up this HAS listing on the first page and another one or two unrelated listings from my HAS shop (with only 8 listings) on the next two pages.  My Etsy listing for "mushrooms miniature" was nowhere to be found within the first several pages.

So, here's to Andrew's skill and hard work at getting exposure for our shops and HAS.

Drinks are on me!

[MakinTheBestOfIt]

Yay!  You have no idea how happy you have just made me and Andrew!  We are working to get your works to the top of the searches and am thrilled to see it working!

[Blue Highways]

Fabulous!!! 

[Chainmaille By MBOI]

Thanks Dan that means a lot. We have been sort of following all this etsy relevancy stuff and can't figure it out to save our life. One of these days we'll get around to writing up some tips for posting on the HAFshop or HAS, gotta get used to HAS LOL.Anyway it really is simple put keywords in your listing and make sure that you put some of those keywords in your description. The more keywords you have in your description the better, titles should be descriptive and unique. We take all of that and add it as your meta title, meta description, and meta keywords. So any product you list, if you right click on it and hit view source, you will see the meta title ect at the top of the page. That is what google reads. The sad thing is you can do the exact same thing on an etsy listing. View source on a product there and you will see the same thing. Maybe Etsy has pissed google off, don't know, but it is really the same thing. Now on top of all that we do submit a sitemap to Google and the other major search engines as well. But I have to assume Etsy does the same. So who knows why.
We try to keep it simple and work hard, maybe that is the difference. Etsy may have just over complicated themselves out of the searches not sure.I will say this Etsy may be a pain, same with Artifire, but both of them are some serious powerhouses in this industry and I do have a lot of respect for what they have built.The thing that will hopefully set us apart is the pure handmade aspect. We have a bit of growing to do before they notice us as real competition though.
Steps off soapbox again LOL
Anyway I'll take that drink just make it a virgin as I'm sober I like the hard stuff too much and it turns me into a   

[trusk4u]

This is great to hear! I have officially cleared out my Etsy shop. I just got tired of dealing with it and I didn't want to give them anymore money.

[MakinTheBestOfIt]

This is great to hear! I have officially cleared out my Etsy shop. I just got tired of dealing with it and I didn't want to give them anymore money.

 
Welcome to the dark side 

[Blue Highways]

I'm about ready to follow suit Re: bailing on Etsy after their big surprise today. Wieners.

[Chainmaille By MBOI]

I'm about ready to follow suit Re: bailing on Etsy after their big surprise today. Wieners.

What was the big surprise?

[Blue Highways]

I'm about ready to follow suit Re: bailing on Etsy after their big surprise today. Wieners.

What was the big surprise?

Awhile ago they changed their search, made it a relevancy search - most peoples item views took a nosedive. Etsy waits a couple months as vendors sales tanked then offer...wait for this.....search ads. If you  want your items to be viewed front and center when someone does a search you can  now buy what you were getting before any changes were made. (At least that's in my case)...Esty once again is laughing all the way to the bank because the people there are handing money hand over fist to try to get their views/sales back up.

[Chainmaille By MBOI]

I heard some rumblings about that a little while ago. I thought it was going to be like regular advertising, like someone can buy an ad or something. I had no clue that is what they were doing. Amazing. That was one thing we wanted to avoid completely, one~extra fees of any kind, two~ any type of favoritism. When we first developed the site, our developer was using the etsy format as a guide to a point and he put in a paid area like Etsy has for the category pages. So you could pay to have you products at the top of the categories that you choose. We ditched that right away, no extra fees ever.I think it is hilarious, Etsy charging extra fees, Artfire dumping basic accounts, and we are still charging less than  any of them by far. I had a conversation with someone on linked in today who said how put off she was by the HAFshop making you pay $5.00 to try out the shop. I'm thinking $5.00 is a small price to pay if you have any desire to sell online. I know you had a couple of sales recently which is good, but the amount of traffic we drive to the site and the shear number of people that see your work is worth more than $5.00 a moth just for the advertising. You don't even want to know the amount of money we spend daily for advertising, $5.00 a month is nothing. Sorry I went off on a tangent LOL
Thanks for the info:D

[Blue Highways]

You're preaching to the choir here, I'm with you. I am PERFECTLY happy paying $5 a month for the exposure alone. I use Etsy A LOT to drive people over here, heck I'd put my HAFshop url as the first line on my shop announcement there if I knew I could get away with it!

There's also speculation that Etsy may intend to eventually start processing payments on behalf of sellers. There was a thread regarding this because some Etsy wiz accidentally left some coding that had a "Seller Payment Account" option on vendors shops (ooopsie!) and by far people said they'd bail if they did that (good for HAF I think!). Bottom line, Etsy only implements new tools when Etsy benefits the most, not the sellers...which is the complete opposite of your thinking here at HAF.

OK I'll quit with the Etsy bashing...I'm just pissy at the moment 

[trusk4u]

I saw that conversation on LinkedIn Andrew. I think I chimed in too.
Etsy to me has become this giant black hole that just keeps sucking things in never to be seen again. People are attracted because it's "pretty and shiny" and then they get sucked in.

Personally, I KNOW that HAFshop is way prettier and comes with a functioning brain too!

[MakinTheBestOfIt]

Personally, I KNOW that HAFshop is way prettier and comes with a functioning brain too!

You know we are talking about Andrew here, right?    Many might question how functioning his brain is at times.

[trusk4u]

Personally, I KNOW that HAFshop is way prettier and comes with a functioning brain too!

You know we are talking about Andrew here, right?    Many might question how functioning his brain is at times.

Oh, you are soo bad!

[kpdreams]

I for one am in that black hole.  And now they have added the 'optional' relevancy thing which I find out if you don't use Google ignores the listing.  So that is why you are showing up higher on HAS.  My shop is mixed, handmade and vintage, so that is why I have kept it.  But...the day has come...I will not be adding any more items to Etsy, I will be forwarding my website address to HAS and I will work to promote a site that is interested in promoting me and not $$ in their pockets.