New facebook shop!

keychain
Yay for another place to find meerkatty goodness!

I've been hard at work this last week uploading (or is it downloading? I'm never sure!) meerkats into my new payvment shop on facebook.

Everything there will be ready-to-ship and if you've "liked" my page you get an automatic 15% discount. Prices are in lovely British ££££ and shipping is a standard £2, or £3 overseas.


brooch
New - and so far unique to facebook - are my tiny meerkat brooches and keychain! Most of your favourites will be there, but if the one you want is missing please get in touch and I'll stick it on my to-knit list.

Find my new shop by clicking HERE

Creative descriptions 101

So - having spent all that time last month editing for relevancy on Etsy they've now thrown another spanner in the works. Tara Gentile wrote a guest blog for Etsy which has got me thinking along new tracks - and begging for help!

I had previously thought my pictures dealt with the cute, while my words described the practical issues that a picture can't explain - how big it is, what it's made of, the fact that I wire my meerkats so they're not suitable for children.

Tara said sellers and buyers look at descriptions from different perspectives, and that a buyer wants to know how buying my product will enhance their life.

That's a pretty big ask...but I passed it on to my facebook friends. I'd already seen many Etsy descriptions describing critters who are "up for adoption" or "seeking good homes" and frankly that sort of thing really isn't me.

I challenged Chris, from Pickled Jamjars Creative Writing to write a new description for poor Alice in Wonderland Meerkat. She's been renewed several times but hasn't found a home *sobs glitter tears*



Here's what I'd originally written:

"I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I a handknitted Meerkat when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?'

Designed & knit in the clean, fresh, country air in Kent, the Garden of England (no cigarette, perfume or pet odors) Alice has been transformed into a Niftyknits original meerkat. She's around 7" tall (18cm) and wears a beautiful blue dress with full lacy petticoat. On her head she wears (of course) an Alice band.

Her outfit is complete with stripy stockings and bright red shoes.

None of Alice's clothes are removable. Like all Niftyknits meerkats she is made to my own pattern. Her back legs and tail have been wired to allow her to stand freely in the typical "tripod" stance.

***READY TO SHIP***

She is not suitable for small children due to small parts.

More meerkats ;

Meerkat greeting cards ;

Niftyknits Meerkats are wrapped in tissue paper and come with a signed and dated Certificate of Authenticity and a special edition Niftyknits fridge magnet.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

So - that was me. Not very interesting, practical and very repetitive if you've read several listings. This is what Chris suggested:

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Oh, well hello I'm Alice, isn't my hair divine? I simply MUST tell you about this adventure I just had... You will believe me? Won't you? It simply wasn't a dream, I'm quite sure!

I saw this rabbit you see... Oh? It was white, with a watch! And absolutely had to had to follow him. And I fell. Oh how far and fast. Down and down. Where? A rabbit hole of course! Didn't I say?

And I found my self in a wonderful land... Called Wonderland! And there was a dodo, and twins, and spectacle birds, and a caterpillar, and a mad hatter, and I got big, and then small, and then big, and oh, oh, oh.... What did you say? I'm speaking too fast?

Well there is simply one solution! I will just have to come home and tell you!

******************************************************************************

Well just look at me! My hair, my little blue dress, and my collars, and petticoats, and tights and shoes, oh my shoes are to die for! Oh I'm doing it again! Aren't I? I'll show you when I arrive, please do have some tea on for me! Assam, milk, two sugar lumps! Oh and I adore shortbread if you have any? See you in a week or two!

******************************************************************************

and then my original "practical stuff" to finish. What do you think? Funnily enough Alice expired yesterday (no, not the actual Alice, the listing) so I'm about to edit her. Of course if she now sells I'll owe Chris commission ;-)

Here's Alice (edited to add she already had 2113 views, 39 admirers and has been in 9 Treasury lists (from before I made the changes), it'll be interesting to see what difference the changes make)

'Tis the season!

Yes I know it's early...but a meerkat is for life, not just for Christmas! (pssst - turn your speakers on)

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

the north wind doth blow...

Actually, I don't know which way the wind was blowing, but there was plenty of it on Wednesday at Broomhill Sands. Still no progress on moving home to the coast, so we're making do with lots of days out.


It wasn't exactly warm, but I stand by the Scandinavian proverb: There's no such thing as bad weather, only incorrect clothing.




These two guys were up and away in no time. From our perspective, it sometimes seemed as if the many surfers were bound to crash!


The kite surfers frequently lifted off the sea completely, but never when I was pointing the camera in their direction.


The gulls also seemed to be enjoying the wind, taking off effortlessly (as long as they were facing in the correct direction!) This one was picking up shellfish, flying up,dropping it down to the beach to crack open then retrieving his lunch.


I really liked the patterns the sea made in the sand as it retreated.


This next pattern would make a nice lacy knitted shawl!


Most of all - apart from enjoying watching all those surfers - we enjoyed feeling alone with nature.



A beach is for life, not just for summer!

New Meerkat Trekkie fan photos!

My friend and meerkat-collector Barry has been to another convention!

Here's Barry introducing Jennifer Lien to meerkats Kes and Neelix



Armin Shimerman meeting meerkat Quark:



Trekkie meerkats are available from my shops on Etsy and Zibbet

and there are even more MeerTrekkie fan photos on my fanpage

Live long, and prosper!

Which reminds me...did you know I bought a Tshirt from the wonderful Leonard Nimoy's Etsy shop? You don't want to see a photo, do you? Really? Ok then...

My goodness we're careful in the UK

I love wildflowers, let's see what's on the back of the packet...



hmmm - clover and soda, anyone?

Etsy relevancy - trying to become more relevant!

Let me state from the start I am a long way from being an expert. This is just some notes on *MY* journey towards becoming more relevant since the recent changes. I'd be more than happy to hear your own thoughts - especially if your own investigation has reached entirely different conclusions.

I'm trying to think like a buyer.

When a buyer comes to Etsy, there are several ways to search. I think the main two ways are directly into the search bar, or by looking into categories. (Of course, we also hope to be found by people searching google - and that's a whole other story).

Search (not categories)

The key here seems to be to use the right words at the beginning of your title, and the right pairs or groupings of words. By "right words" I mean you need to try to match what your buyer is searching for. Etsy has changed the rules about "one tag, one word" because of relevancy, so if someone searches for "meerkat chef" and I have "Meerkat chef" at the beginning of my title, and as a tag, I will be more relevant than if I had "meerkat" as one tag and "chef" as another.

Looking at my shop stats has shown me which of my various tags are being successfully used by people who have found my shop. I have seen people on the forums saying they're switching to using those tags more and more - but I'd say almost the opposite. I'm more interested in the people who are NOT yet finding me.

Not surprisingly, many people find me using the term "star trek meerkat" but I think they probably already know about me. If I type "star trek meerkat" into the search bar it turns up 21 items - and guess what? They're all mine!

What about those people who've never heard of my work, and don't even know a star trek meerkat exists - but who may well like one if they find it by accident?

I brainstormed other possible searches for the same characters: star trek animals, scifi animal, science fiction animal, animal character and made sure I would be found on each of those searches by tweaking my tags and titles - and then on to the other meerkats. Yes, it's a long slow job.

Search by categories

Now this opens up a whole new can of beans. Obviously I'd like to be found in as many different categories as possible, so I've been investigating where my kats might fit.

Only ONE main top-level category can be chosen, but it seems you can then have as many sub-categories as you can fit (from that same top level category)

Browsing through "Categories" with a particular meerkat in mind makes it clear how complex this all is!



His top-level category could be "Art". This then gives 12 sub-categories, of which I think I could use "Fiber Art" or "Sculpture".

"Fiber Art" gives 9 sub-sub categories - Art Doll, Knitting, and Soft Sculpture are all possibilities.

If I'd gone with Sculpture, I could now select Animal or Fiber.

On the other hand - maybe I don't like Art as a top level.

Dolls and miniatures gives me even more possibilities to play with! Sub categories include animals, art doll, miniature, plush, soft sculpture, fantasy, anthropomorphic, figurines, geekery, weird, scifi - and it goes on.

The BIG ISSUE here is that tags for categories and sub-categories must be exact. So even though it's now fine for me to use "scifi animal" as a tag, because a buyer might use that phrase in a search and therefore I'd be more relevant - that tag will NOT mean I show up in the scifi or animals SubCategory. To do that, I need separate tags for each sub cat - one for scifi and and one for animals. It also matters, apparently, whether you put animal or animals with an "s".

Confused yet? Me too. So what I'm now trying to do is use some tags that focus on category searches and some that focus on "general" searches.

Anecdotal evidence suggests relevancy is also helped by being included in treasuries and favourites - so a few tags need reserving for that too! My treasury inclusions are often team-based, so I need to tag for teams, and colours, and themes...

And in my odd moments, I actually try to get some knitting done...

As I said in the beginning - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

*edited to add - handmadeology has a free download with relevancy checklist - click here