Go To Great Panes » Etsy

Not syndicated, but should be?

GoTo — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:06:04 +0000

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2012
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

So you’ve read about Syndication on Etsy, and you see that you’ve met the requirements for getting syndicated by Etsy but you still don’t see “syndication” in the sidebar of your account under the promote section?

And you’ve had one more sale after you met the requirements?

Then you need to contact admin to have your shop syndicated. While this feature is supposed to automatically enroll each seller who meets the requirements one sale *after they meet the requirements*, it doesn’t seem to be happening for many.

There are several Etsy forum threads in the bugs section about syndication–both about the glitchiness of items being uploaded & about folks who are supposed to have syndication but don’t. Admin have been very attentive in those threads so posting there is sure to get you some help.

Already syndicated? Need help seeing if you are syndicated and/or seeing all your Etsy items are showing up? See this post:

Finding Your Etsy Items in Google Shopping

Visit our Etsy shop: GoTo

Clearing up what Etsy’s Syndication Is For

GoTo — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:36:16 +0000

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

Google Search: Google uses robots (spiders) to follow links from page to page (crawl the web) to index sites to use in regular search results:

http://www.google.com

Google crawls intermittently, there’s no changing when it will crawl and find your items for inclusion. The majority of shoppers using Google to search come to a site through Google’s regular search.

Google Shopping: There’s a second Google search you can use to find things to buy–it’s Google’s Shopping Search or Product Search:

http://www.google.com/products

Items are submitted to this search for inclusion through Google Merchant Center, it’s the only way to get in the Shopping Search. Only website owners can submit items to Google Merchant Center, so venues like Etsy must submit your items for you. This search is only for items that are in US Dollars* and have shipping to the USA.

Syndication is how Etsy uploads our items to Google Merchant Center to get into Google’s special shopping/product search. For some shops they see a big improvement in searches bringing traffic to their shops, others not so much.

Occasionally you’ll see three items pulled from Google Merchant Center submissions listed under “Shopping results for Your-Search-Terms” on page 1 of regular Google search results next to an image of one of the three items. “Shopping results for Your-Search-Terms” is a link that will take you to all Google Shopping results for the search terms or you can click one of the item names to go directly to that item.

There is also a link to the Shopping search in the header of the search results page or the left sidebar, depending on the view of the search results page you are seeing.

Need help seeing if you are syndicated and/or seeing all your Etsy items are showing up? See this post:

Finding Your Etsy Items in Google Shopping

*Even Etsy items that use international currencies are submitted.

Etsy updated their Tagging Rules

GoTo — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:09:17 +0000

If you hadn’t heard about the default search on Etsy changing from most recently listed (recency) to most relevant (relevancy)–which also includes recency as a factor–then you might not have known that the tagging rules were getting an overhaul.

Admin made short work of giving us some new tagging rules which you can see in this section of The DOs and DON’Ts of Etsy:

Labeling supply items

Discuss it here in the forums:

Policy Update: Labeling Items

Changing your tags quicker:

You can type tags all in the tag box at once separating each with a comma and each tag will get their own tag box.
So typing in:	blue, red, hand knit hat, wool hat
Will show up as 4 tags:	blue red hand knit hat wool hat
You can even copy and paste the list of tags from your current listing into a text document, re-work them then paste them back in the tag box on Etsy which is great if you want to re-order them while you are at it. (While Etsy Admin have said that tag order doesn’t currently matter, they don’t say that it never will, so might as well have a good order now and not have to re-do them again if that change comes along. )

Thanks to PhenomeGNOME for the reminder about how to do it quickly!

If you plan on changing titles & descriptions and you use third-party apps, you can use Craftopolis’ Edit Express to edit the titles & descriptions of multiple listings at once: Craftopolis’ Edit Express

This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.
Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011

Fix for Issue with Etsy’s New Shop Local

GoTo — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 22:07:02 +0000

Looks like there’s more than one issue with the new shop local:

1. Some folks don’t see their location pop up when they start to type their location in the box on the profile page.

If that’s happening to you, try it in another web browser. That seems to have worked for at least some folks. (For example, if you normally use Internet Explorer, try using Fire Fox.)

2. Etsy has edited shop local in a way that has removed some sellers from the search after they edit their location to meet the new requirements.

If you’ve edited your location and you can’t find your items when using Etsy’s shop local, you might need to use the same trick we used to get items uploading into Google Shopping again:

Enable your items

Thanks to pixiebell for mentioning this fix in the admin thread on shop local, and to TepperWear sharing that info in the bugs section thread.

Etsy & Google Shopping Update June 2011

GoTo — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:22:28 +0000

Admin’s thread on the new API for Google Merchant is here.

My summing up:

There’s been work going on behind the scenes to update Etsy’s Syndication to Google Merchant which gets some seller’s Etsy listings into Google’s Shopping/Product Search.

The bad news

Lots of folks still aren’t syndicated, no news on the end date for getting everyone included–but we will see a lot of new shops there soon–see below.

The good news

Those who are syndicated have been having issues for several months–sold items in the feed, wrong prices, wrong photos, most items missing…. Syndicated sellers should see those issues clearing up now.

If you are syndicated & your items still aren’t showing properly*:
Admin have said you can re-enable them for upload to clear out the old bad data and re-submit your items–see here for the quick method (quick to do, but it took several hours for my missing items to start coming back):

Etsy’s GM Syndication: Enable your items

It seems all my items are back in Google Shopping, including more than 30 that had been missing there for months.

Big changes
(some good & some bad news)

Google Shopping now sees all our tags:

It still uses just the first three Etsy tags to set the ‘product type attribute’, but now that they will get all our tags in addition to the titles & descriptions, anything that would be a problem for Google Shopping’s rules can’t be anywhere in the tags either. That means things like free shipping will need to be removed from your tags if you are syndicated and the items aren’t showing up in Google Shopping.

While that is bad news for many, because the words ‘free shipping’ can be good in regular internet searches & Etsy’s searches, the good news here is:

If you offer free US shipping:

$0 in the shipping profile of your listing will now make your item searchable using the free shipping checkbox on Google Shopping search results which wasn’t functional for Etsy sellers previously.

Vintage = Used:

Before this change items with vintage for the first tag on Etsy automatically were labeled “used” on Google Shopping because they were 20 years old or older (or at least should have been that old) and everything else was labeled new.

Now any item with the word vintage in any of the tags will be labeled “used” on Google Shopping even if it is in the handmade or supply categories on Etsy.

Sean11 has gone so far as to state “If an item of yours is not more than 20 years old, please do not use the “vintage” tag”–see that here. I have asked if that includes multiple word tags (like ‘vintage inspired’ or ‘vintage components’) but didn’t get a response yet.

New round of syndication coming up:

While Google hasn’t given enough access for everyone to be syndicated they have given Etsy more room and another round of shops will be added soon, a nice big chunk too (100,000 more shops!)–here’s hoping they start with the older shops that are still active first for a change of pace.

Voice your support for syndicating older active shops before brand new ones here: http://www.etsy.com/teams/7714/ideas/discuss/8630304

*Need help finding out if all your items are showing up in Google Shopping? See here:

Find Your Etsy Items in Google Shopping

Finding Your Etsy Items in Google Shopping

GoTo — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:50:13 +0000

First: You Need to have Syndicated Status

Only Etsy items from syndicated Etsy shops will be added to Google’s Product/Shopping Search, so first you’ll need to see if you are syndicated. Not all shops are and there’s nothing you can do about getting syndicated, you just have to wait for it to happen (more on that here).

How to you find out if you are syndicated

1. Go to “Your Account“.
2. On the left, under “Promote” there will be a link for “Syndication” if you are syndicated.

If you aren’t syndicated the word won’t even be in the list of “Promote” links.

How to find all your Etsy items that are in the shopping search
to know if they are uploading

3. You have to search on Google Shopping for either your Etsy ID or your items (whichever works for you–GoTo for example, doesn’t bring up my GoTo Etsy shop so I have to search for an item, but GoToSupplies does bring up my GoToSupplies Etsy shop). Search here:

http://www.google.com/products

4. Go to a page where you see your items in results shown as sold by Etsy – USERNAME (USERNAME being your Etsy username).

On the left side of the page you’ll see links to all the sellers on that page (click “more” if you don’t see it). Click the link on the left for your shop name–see my shop link in the yellow oval:

Click for a larger view

I searched 48 Clear plastic earring post findings, clicked the link on the left for my shop.

5. Now to get your seller feed number:

In the address bar you’ll find the address for that page–most of it will be gobbledy-gook. See how it looks in the address bar here–in the yellow oval is my seller number:

Click for a larger view

Copy the whole web page address for your page to a word processor to more easily find your seller number. Mine is highlighted in purple in the web page address here, it is prefaced by the word seller and a colon:

http://www.google.com/search?q=48+Clear+plastic+earring+post+findings&hl=en&tbm=shop&source=lnt&tbs=seller:7152851&sa=X&ei…

6. Take that number put it at the end of the webpage address below instead of the XXXXXX and you should be taken to a page with just your items uploaded by Etsy:

http://www.google.com/products?q=&authorid=XXXXXX

Mine looks like this:

http://www.google.com/products?q=&authorid=7152851

7. The results page will show how many of your items are currently in Google’s Shopping/Product search:

Click for a larger view

8. Once you have that address working for finding your items, bookmark it in your browser for easier finding in the future.

Please note: Admin have said the new (June 2011) syndication shouldn’t have any issues with vacation mode anymore, but it used to be that if you put your shop in vacation mode your Google ID number might change–it’s unclear if that will still be the case.

So you may have to create a new bookmark after coming out of vacation mode–please bookmark this page for future reference. It also used to be the case that you needed to re-enable your existing items for upload after vacation mode or they won’t be in the feed, it’s unclear if that’s still the case too.

This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

Just a heads up about Etsy Items & Google Shopping…

GoTo — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 22:04:43 +0000

Recently there have been reports of Etsy items (from syndicated shops) not showing up in Google’s Shopping/Product search (it’s different than regular Google–see the “More info about syndication” section here).

Admin mentioned that this issue has now been fixed, but if your items (from a syndicated shop) are not showing up there, you need to re-activate them for upload:

Etsy’s GM Syndication: Enable your items

(All links open in a new tab/window)

Getting Ready to File Your Income Taxes?

GoTo — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 21:39:27 +0000

Visit our Etsy shop: GoToGo To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2011
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

It’s that time of year! Lots of folks looking for info on getting their records ready for income taxes–the links below should help. (Links open in a new window.)

Help for downloading your Etsy & Paypal records:

Etsy: Download your Sales and Billing Data to a Spreadsheet

Download Your Paypal History

You’ll need a program with a spreadsheet to open csv files. If you don’t already have one this is great free software which has a spreadsheet available:

Open Office

You might also find the IRS publications listed here helpful for figuring out what goes where on your income taxes:

Help for Filing Federal Income Taxes for Your Small Business

And if you haven’t registered with your state yet (or on a more local level like city or county), you might want to check into the requirements for people selling from your area–the laws are different everywhere.

What you consider your hobby might be considered a business by the government, and their opinion is the one that counts…

US Sellers: Sales Tax & Business Registration

Visit our 2nd Etsy shop: GoToSupplies

Paypal Express + New Etsy Checkout = Upgrade to PP Business Account Notices

GoTo — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:12:18 +0000

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2010
This post is copyrighted–you do not have permission to repost this content elsewhere but you are welcome to link to it if you’d like to share the information.

Etsy’s new checkout is using Paypal Express which requires sellers to have a business account (or premier account).

Lots of folks who have been selling on Etsy have been accepting their payments through their personal Paypal accounts and are now receiving an email when they get a sale telling them they need to upgrade their PP account to a business account.

These aren’t spoof emails, it’s a requirement of Paypal Express Checkout. From their site, to sign up for Express Checkout:

“What do I need to do?”

“Create a Business account.
Takes 3-5 minutes. We’ll need details about your business, and the personal information of the business owner(s)….”

Source: Paypal Express Checkout

You can see here what the purpose of each account is on the Paypal account sign-up page:
Paypal Registration Page

(Since you were always supposed to have a business or premier account for selling, this isn’t really a new thing, just many folks are newly aware of it. )

Treasuries!

GoTo — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 18:40:54 +0000

I’m pleased to put up a few treasuries we’re currently in–thanks to both RetroActiveTreasures & SanDesign for the heads up about the treasuries & including our work!

Click the image to go to the treasury!

Aliens

and

A Little Get Together.