What have I been up to, you might wonder?

Hey, all!

Any of you with whom I keep regular (or at least as regular as *I* ever manage!) contact have probably noticed I've been even more absent than usual for the last couple weeks.  In my last post (in February!!) I told you about my uncertainty with the online selling market, changes there, different venues, a drop not only in sales but in visits and browsers ... and that uncertainty continued to nag at me and prompt more investigation and research.  

Rather than write it all out here once again, I'm going to cut and paste a letter I composed to send to my artisan/selling friends so they can benefit from my research and wandering as well as get in on what I feel will be a profitable venture for the not-too-distant future.  

Here's my letter:

Hi!

For the last couple weeks I’ve been investigating, testing, reading and chatting like crazy ... trying to find other venues like Etsy. I love Etsy, but I’ve been getting frustrated that so many of my listings aren’t showing up in Google search. It seems like random ones show while others never come up at all. Google Analytics started showing a steady decline in visits, and now sites/venues I haven’t promoted or barely touched are getting hits like crazy while Etsy has dropped to the negative side on visits. This is not to say that there are no visits, just that they’ve dropped so far that they’re way into the negative.

I wrote to Etsy about this feeds to Google issue and finally did get an answer from them this past Friday. They said they are still not finished with getting everything all set up for submitting the feeds, and that sellers’ listings are slowly being added all the time. From the sound of it, heaven knows when this will be up to speed and keep pace with the listings. I am now aware that not ONE of my listings in my second shop has been submitted to Google. :( Only some for my main shop have been ... and those seem to be mostly “older” listings.  

Even prior to the response I received from Etsy, the traffic drop off and not finding my listings on search got me looking for other venues. I do have shops on eCrater, but that venue is not specific to handmade and vintage, and I want to continue selling in venue(s) limited to those categories.  

One friend moved to Artfire, and I followed her and opened an account there to experiment. On listing just two things, though, I was unhappy with the inability for buyers to enlarge the pictures. This is a huge impairment for my listings since I can’t get up really close (like with jewelry or something small) and still show the items properly.  

I did make some friends at Artfire, though, and one mentioned Bonanzle and Zibbet to me. I’d heard of neither and so, of course, checked them out. Bonanzle is a terrific alternative to Ebay or even eCrater ... offering great tools for shop (booth) set up, listings, etc. I may sell there when I’ve things that are not handmade or vintage, but I didn’t get the “family” feel there as I’ve had at Etsy and wanted to find elsewhere.  

When I checked out Zibbet, I fell in love almost at first sight. It’s very much like Etsy, but you can open a shop there for free and see how things work without making any commitment. While setting up, I had a question and couldn’t find a forum, so I wrote “admin” ... whoever that might be I hadn’t a clue except for that I’d read a little bit about one of the fellows founding the site. To my huge surprise, I had a personal answer from him in less than two days’ time ... and being that he’s in Australia, this was really just the next day that he answered me. Remarkable! He welcomed me, answered my question in detail ... and then told me about the Ning community where the Zibbet sellers chat, have forums, network, bounce ideas around, etc.  

I’m telling you, it’s really remarkable. Everyone there is supporting everyone else, knowing that it will take the effort of all to succeed and gain recognition of the Zibbet name in the buying market. The three fellows who are building Zibbet are conversing with us almost constantly in the forums, and they’re listening to everything we suggest. Even more remarkable, they are trying their damndest to tailor things to how we request. !!!  

This past week there was a big blowout on Etsy. I never hang out in the Forums there (plus was busy and spending most my ‘puter time at Zibbet or Ning), so I didn’t realize it was happening. There were rumblings coming through the cosmos, though, and echoing into the Zibbet community since almost everyone at Zibbet has a shop at Etsy too. Apparently push came to shove with the sellers questioning Admin, and Admin wasn’t owning full responsibility and was making people angrier with double speak. There was a big exodus there for two days ... even though most cannot afford to pull out no matter how frustrating it might be or how slow sales might have become.  

Also unknown to me, there was a big shakeup at Artfire too. Apparently the Admin there placed ads on non-paying sellers’ pages that are/were distracting buyers if not sending them elsewhere, and Admin supposedly was telling the offended sellers that this would stop if they opened a paying account. There were other things that happened with, supposedly, the founder blowing his top ... and repercussions of that resounded into Etsy and Zibbet too. Apparently most the sellers at Artfire are non-paying, so AF is facing bankruptsy.  

Zibbet experienced such an influx of new members from Etsy (and Artfire too, I think) that the site crashed Wednesday night (I think it was). The fellows are working non-stop trying to install a new, big server to accomodate this growth; and they had one helluva time as there is so much info that the system kept timing out and forcing them to start over again. They finally got everything back up running Sunday night -- Monday morning for most of us here in the States.  

At any rate, I’m urging you as a friend and fellow artisan to come over to Zibbet and give it a try. You can join and set up a shop for free, and there is no commitment on your part. I urge you too, to visit (if not join) the Ning network (http://zibbet.ning.com/) to see how great everyone there is.  

I will send you an invite from the Zibbet site, and that is because if you decide to join as a paying member in the future, I will get credit for having referred you. I wouldn’t ask you, though, unless I felt this is a really worthwhile site and venture. Zibbet is very new and is still (for the most part) unknown to buyers ... and we need to get the name echoing all over so that people recognize it the way they do Etsy and now Artfire. Listings are not yet being fed to Google product search, though Google is picking up on the indexes (i.e., traffic on the site). This makes listings gradually available on “regular” Google search ... but not on Product search. So at present, about 5% of the traffic comes from Google search. We obviously need to increase this; and the fellows have Google feeds high on the list to do, plus we sellers are working at ideas to get the name out so that it’s more and more recognized. The more sellers who come to the sight and list items (with free or paid accounts, it doesn’t matter), the more the Zibbet name will appear in Google, and that’s a snowball effect.  

I really feel this site will become as popular as Etsy is, and I’m much more confident and impressed with the founders than I am with the Admin at Etsy who always remain rather aloof and rarely answer questions directly. These fellows are totally committed, and you can read their comments and discussions with us at http://zibbet.ning.com This particular thread was written by one of the three and will give you an idea why I am so impressed and like these fellows and Zibbet so much:  
http://zibbet.ning.com/forum/topics/the-zibbet-way

Please come to Zibbet and set up a shop for yourself for free. I did, and it wasn’t long before I knew I wanted to dig my heels in and make it my primary home. I’m not saying I won’t continue to sell in other venues, but I do intend to make Zibbet my main focus. I really think you’ll be equally impressed, so I urge you as a friend to give it a try.  

I’ll send the invite via the Zibbet site separately.  

Smiles to you,
Diane Eve

PS - Contrary to what I’d thought, there is not a letter to send from Zibbet to you. You just need to follow this link to Zibbet when you join, and then it will be saved in my record that I referred you. Here’s the link:
http://www.zibbet.com/KnitwitHues/sell

~~~

The Knitwit


Note: My current extra prayer/support list is:
- Gloria
- Lovlee
- Kim
- Jeanie
- Gypsy Froggie