Recently, I blogged about my photography struggle: https://mieloabelo.com/photos-a-struggle-for-online-shops/, and today, writing shop listings.
My very first foray into online selling was CraftFairUSA. Does anyone remember that? It was started during the Covid days after many in-person vendor markets had been canceled, and people were avoiding crowds and close contact. The organizers sought an alternative for vendors, many of whom rely on markets and fairs for their income. It was a tough time, and this provided a temporary solution for sellers needing a venue to sell, but didn’t want to commit to an e-commerce platform.
If I recall correctly, the market was held on the last weekend of the month and the “booth” fee was about $20 or so dollars. The booth stayed permanently, so that you didn’t have to relist every time, but the site was only open to shoppers on the designated weekend. I only learned about it toward the end of 2021. In person events were already beginning to resume.
Boy, was I completely unprepared for how difficult it is to write online listings! Photography was one thing, and I knew I would struggle with that, but I always enjoyed writing. I knew coming up with engaging copy wouldn’t be easy necessarily, but it is so much more difficult than I expected. It took me hours! Longer than many of the items I was listing took to make!
I wanted to share information such as basic and metaphysical properties and where the stones are mined, along with other interesting tidbits, but not being a rock hound myself, I relied researching on the internet and found myself down many rabbit holes. I will say that I learned a lot!
Unfortunately, they ended shortly after I discovered it. I am sure it was challenging to maintain and manage. While I felt like much of my work on it went the way of the dodo, I gained some knowledge and experience, and a mountain of respect for the difficulty of creating online listings.
Today, it is still a struggle, and I cringe reading my listings. But I have a bit of a formula now and stick to that for the purpose of expediency. I have a silly hook first sentence, followed by some flowery details in the next one or two sentences. Then I list materials, measurements, anything extra. Lastly, the call to action in the last sentence. I think this is a basic formula most online sellers follow. Why reinvent the wheel? I do hope over time, I will get better at it.
A huge hurdle for me is that I really don’t know anything about SEO, and what I have read really makes no sense to me. It is something I need to get a better understanding of. That is on my list. I really just want to make jewelry, I never expected all of the other things that go into a business!
I’ve been wanting to blog about my experience selling online, because I know others are out there is struggling with the same issues I am. If it’s you, even though I don’t offer much in the way of advice, know that you are not alone. I’m going to be more active on this blog and welcome feedback, advise, and collaboration! With the addition of my shop blog, I want to focus more on day to day and behind the scenes here.
Here is my shop blog for updated information on new listings: https://blog.mieloabelodesigns.com/