Valentine's Day items, Thinking of Spring, Google Analytics...

I'm really digging the stats that I get daily from GA. The stats aren't exactly where I had hoped/thought/wished they were. I truly believed that I was getting many more page views for my promoting efforts. I really thought that people would actually take a look at the item I was promoting.
But the stats seem to show that most people don't spend any time on the page ( I guess if they just glance at the image for a couple of seconds, Google doesn't record the view as time spent on the page?)

What the stats are revealing is that most of the members that view my shop's pages have been to my shop before. Some will view the item and maybe travel to another page or two, while most "bounce" back to the forums ( I call these my forum etiquette stats). The stats that I find to be the most important are the number of first time visitors to my shop and the map overview stats.

These first time viewers tend to be Etsy members that are surfing the site looking for something to buy (not that I'm not looking to buy something when I'm on Etsy, but I'm usually working... promoting my shop, a new item, etc & when I see something I have to have..... )

The second stat that I'm finding quite interesting is the views coming from outside of North America. I've found that there has been an increase in views coming from overseas. Perhaps as the dollar becomes stronger vs other currencies, our items have a bit more value.

I'm not sure how the strength of the dollar effects my shop and overseas sales, but I have noticed my stats overseas increase over the last week. After having zero overseas sales for several months, my last two sales are leaving North America.

Certainly it's a small sample and probably to early to call it a trend...but I wouldn't have a clue without the stats showing where my views are coming from.

Based on last year's sales, this is an important weekend for anyone who sells Valentine's Day items. I have a couple more to list and I guess I"ll be in the forums trying to keep my items in view of anyone who'll be shopping this weekend. The frosty heart-shaped sea glass necklace will be listed on Etsy later this morning!

Even though it's going to windy and cold today on the Jersey shore, I'm thinking of spring... well thinking of some spring items for my shop. I guess I'll be looking on some of my suppliers sites and a few Etsy shops for some spring-type beads and I'm working on a few more sea glass jewelry creations.

But it's just so hard to think spring when the temps are about to dip below the freezing mark again by Monday. (the news is calling for wind-chills in the mid-low 20s today...yuck) It'll be a good day to read some blogs, read and promote in the forums with a hot cuppa tea... hopefully I find a bit of motivation to drag myself to my crafting table : )

til next time...
R

January Crafting, New Sea Glass Jewelry, & Just Thinking Outloud

It seems there has been a bit of a lull over the last several days on Etsy. I've fooling around a bit with the new Google Analytics tool and I set up a custom report to see when and where my shop views are coming from. Despite quite a bit of promoting, my shop views seem to dwindle each day, and there have been very few new viewers.

Which means it's time to get back to the crafting table : ). I really wanted to begin work on a few new spring items and spread my sea glass out over a couple tables, just to see what I have for this season. (and just to look at it *smiles*)

I was able to find a few pieces of sea glass that the ocean tumbled to look like a heart, so I wire-wrapped a couple of the bigger pieces. I had not planned on making any more Valentine's Day type items, but.... Hopefully the sun cooperates today and I can take photos of the new pieces.

The cold-snap that has stretched the entire length of the eastern coast of the US has me a bit leery of beginning a lot of spring-themed items. I've started planning on a few new spring items and began working on one of them last night.

Besides my sea glass hearts that should find their way into my shops by this weekend, I have a few new sea glass pieces I'll be working on later this week. I have a some cobalt and cornflower blue pieces drilled and ready for creating.

These cobalts & cornflowers will turn into bracelets and earring stacks and hopefully my hubby will drill a couple pieces of aqua and turquoise for me before I get started. I'd really love to make a bracelet with the 4 main blue colors of sea glass... I hoping to have enough of the colors to make two bracelets...I'd like to keep one for myself : )

'til next time...
R