Google and Google Buyers: As a Techless Hoarder Etsy Newbie, Post #4

Google and Google Buyers:  As a Techless Hoarder Etsy Newbie, Post #4

I guess this is my post for Techless Tuesday!  However, I'm not sure how helpful writing this is to me or anyone else out there.

I still can't navigate my way through facebook and although I do spend some weekly time there, I wonder how much I really need it.

These posts are discouraging me as a techless hoarder etsy newbie (THeN) and the only reason why I'm writing them is because when I first started out I couldn't find any information, except for the DO's and DONT's on the etsy site, but that maybe due to my techlessness?

I started a post on "shipping" as a THeN, but I think I'll delete it!  The USPS site is like an endless maze to me! and writing this is more daunting than trying to figure it out!

1.  Shop Name and Google:  Getting your shop name on the first page and at the top of google.  I don't know how important this is, but I thought I'd give it a go a while back. 

How do you get to your shop?  Do you google in "etsy" or your shop name to get to your shop?  The shop name VintageToGoetsy used to be somewhere after page 10 on google, but I got it to the top by googling my shop name, instead of typing in etsy to get to my shop.  I say, Be your own bot!

It was easier to get the shop, HoarderRehab to the top as one word, rather than two, to compete with other Hoarder Rehab places.  I think it's because I didn't have to compete with all the other shops with similar shop names because there are very few, unlike Vintage To Go, which is numerous.

The Destiny of Things shop didn't take long to get to the top because I don't think many people google the word, "Destiny"

I'm doing my own botting again differently now that they are at the top or at least on page 1 of google, but this time with spaces between the words.   I can't even find my shop!  not even under images...hmmm, I'm not even sure how important it is anymore.  What do you think?

If I ever find  my shop name as I sift through the pages, how long will it take to get to page 1 at the top, what's the best way to get it done and how important is it?

If I ever choose shop names again... knock on wood... hope this is the last time repeating my hoard patterns and move on to something different, but anyway....  I will choose shorter names with easy initials as an acronym to remember it.  I got lucky with VintageToGoetsy, as VTGe.  HoarderRehab with HR and The Destiny of Things, as t-dot or "destiny" for short.

And I won't use a popular word either, like "vintage" and maybe something more visual with my location in it.

2.  Google your own items:  Try googling your own items for key words and see where it ends up.  I also usually use google, "images" to find items more quickly.  Also if you find your items on google images, you can also see who has them on their pinterest or flickr, if that's important to you.

3.  Google and Buyers:  It appears that 20% of my customers are from Google and sign up for etsy just to buy the one item.  So far out of 58 sales, 12 most likely came from google.

I was reading an article on etsy on how to tag and title and I wish I had written the title down or can find where I bookmarked it on the computer, but I didn't.  I've spent hours looking for it to write this article, but gave up.

I did take notes and this is what I wrote from one of the comments:

"It can take 2 weeks for Google to see, register a change in title and description and then may take up to two more weeks to crawl again."

That's all I wrote.  I didn't even log a date or who commented on it or anything.

Etsy gives 140 characters per title, so I've been trying what I call "double titles" to see if I get higher on google for key words.  And then I repeat the title in the description

I do get a lot of traffic from "Google Product Listing Ads" and "google".  I would like to try etsy's "search ads" out of curiosity and just to see what happens, but for now I'd rather spend the $8 on donation or washi tape!  Besides, I don't do well when things sell too fast.

4.  Google as an etsy Traffic Source:   on my etsy stats, on some days half of my traffic comes from google, including google from other countries, but the average daily seems to be 20-30%.

5.  Why target a google buyers?  It seems that the google buyers I get are looking for one specific thing as a replacement and buy it.  They are very appreciative and are usually the ones that give me their story behind their purchase!  I can live with that so well!

If you want to see the double titling with descriptions, see either shop, VintageToGoetsy , HoarderRehab
or The Destiny of Things.

VintageToGoetsy and HoarderRehab still might have some old titles and tagging in the sold area.  I'm not sure how much it all matters, since they all sold eventually.

When I feel rushed to change listing titles and tags from Christmas to New Years and then from New Years to Valentines, I just remind myself, it only takes one view to sell one listing!

I also started a calendar of when to list holiday or specific items, for example, Halloween items could be listed way ahead of time, like the end of July or early August, , since a listing is good for four months.  I don't see "Halloween" used as a keyword after Halloween.  However, I noticed people are still using Christmas and Day of the Dead as a search or keywords, so I guess it depends. 

Luckily I like to experiment just to see what happens, so this has been fun and interesting to me!  Thank you etsy and google!


What I Learned:
 
1.  Uh, I'm not a technical writer, but I tried my best in the time I allotted myself.

2.  I find these posts as a THeN discouraging to write because it just reminds me and feels like I'm in  THeN cycle of Catch22!  I can't find things through searches because I'm a THeN or is it because some sites are just harder to navigate in?  or there's some disguised guide or little trick for me to learn.  It may search for hours on end and mr. oz finds it in 5 min.  I can't believe it and even set a 5 min. timer now!  and if they keep "updating" programs or whatever you call them, how will I ever catch up?

For instance, I find all kinds of informative articles, things to buy, inspirational and eye candy blogs but when I go back to try to find them again using the same search word and the same search engine, I can't find them!  And if I'm drifting around the web and find something, I will most likely never find it again!  I'll have a 50/50 chance if I bookmark it in my hoard of hoards bookmarking world.

Okay... and my bookmarking--Yikes!  that's a whole other new world of hoard that's more out of control than my tangible hoard!  I've tried all kinds of ways to organize my bookmarks, labeled folders and labeled folders within more labeled folders and my latest?  labeling folders by date!

3.  And when something gets updated, like when I opened my new shop, The Destiny of Things and they changed the format and I didn't notice my paypal was disabled for weeks because I was too busy navigating around and learning new vocabulary, like circling is now following, etc.

Right when I get used to something and how to do use their format and barely kinda maybe master it, it gets updated!  Sometimes for a THeN like me, it's like starting all over again!  Makes me kinda wonder if it's done on purpose to slow me down or want to give up or something!  And they always say the new version is better, but that's not always true at all!  Anyways, ending that rant and moving on..and to another rant!

The updating program thing reminds me of teaching, it's one of the thousand reasons why I left it.  They started switching teaching paradigms so quickly, it was a waste and they said, it was because, "research says..."  can research really move that quickly?

I remember when Math took a new path and it was called, "Discovery Math", it came with more new teacher vocabulary, one of my favorites being instead of "review" it was now "revisit" at least that gave me a quiet chuckle every time I used it or heard it being used!

That came with new books, all new manipulatives (I'm talking hoards worth, pounds and pounds for 35 students per classroom), which were really cool and fun, but the old math way was ditched after only 6-8 months and it was more old school.  Long story short,  students were supposed to "discover" how multiplication worked and not memorize the facts, but "discover" their own methods of remembering them!

Hmm.... I only have less than a year with my students and about less than an hour for math daily, so for each one to "discover" how multiplication works as in "an easier faster way to add" seems like an easy to concept to demonstrate or show, instead of "discover".  Oh well, that's not how the school system works!  As you can imagine, "discovery" math wasn't very successful in it's allotted time frame.

Yep, you guessed right, it was thrown out with the bath water and the new math systems was "state" based objectives by grade and then that was soon dumped for a math curriculum that had both "state" and "national" standards. 

By the time, I left, teachers were mandated to post "state" and "national" standards with their acroyned notations! on all kinds of things from bulletin boards to worksheets, even art work.   But by then they had already taken out most of the fun of teaching and learning, but it was just another stab in the back for teachers, like another hole in the head with all blood draining from my heart.

I think it was three new different math systems in two years.  Before, they said we could only afford a new books every eight years.  Someone made a lot of money from all the materials, books and teacher training!

Note to self:  Write about the days when teaching was fun and more student/teach orientated, like go with the flow teaching.  If you class was interesting in dinosaurs or astronomy, I could teach it through all the subjects as long as there was student interest and then snowball that interest into some other theme.  

 Figure out a way to bury the hatchet on how miserable teaching turned into!

I guess it's why I just make up words to fit my mood and present moment without thinking.  I'm updating too! What a little chuckle, after shedding a tear!

***I just need to remember it takes one view, one buyer to meet up with one listing!

4.  I'm so old fashioned, I mean.. old school!  I like my rolodex, file systems, journals, books and notebooks full of saved articles from magazines and internet.  I find them much easier and faster to use than a computer.  I can usually find them before my puter even starts up completely!

As a matter of fact, if I could find my journals in my hoard, chuckle-chuckle, I would have an easier time finding what I've saved in them rather than the bookmarks on my puter.

I suppose thats another arguement in my favor to get a printer NOW, instead of later as a reward.

Maybe it's not about making my life easier with a printer, but my time to make my life more simple by getting it more manageable with less things, so I can use what I have and love.

Oopsy, back to the original subject of this posting.... Will I forever be a techless newbie? 

NEW 5-10 year goal:  My goal is to one day use my computer for an hour a day!

How do you picture yourself in 10 years?  5 Years?

Thank you etsy and google for a new learning experience!  Thank you US, Germany, UK, NL, Poland and Trinidad and Tobago for your visit today!

Post Note:  sorry, these are so messy, but I was trying to be helpful to other THeN and since I'm giving myself a time limit now I don't spend enough time proofreading.  And I don't have time to look for pics.  Oh well, I just keep reminding myself what I used to tell my students, "your thoughts and ideas are more important than grammar and spelling.  Do you think your thoughts and ideas can be understand with this draft?