5 Minute Etsy Shop Improvements and Tips - Rearranging your shop

5 Minute Etsy Shop Improvement #2

Rearranging your Etsy shop

Hey everyone,

Hope that you found last week's Etsy tip on making your URL shorter and neater helpful. If you missed it you can find it HERE.

Today I wanted to show you how to rearrange your shop. Did you know that you don't have to have your shop listed by date you listed order but you can rearrange it to any order you would like?

This is useful if you have a larger shop, a shop with a variety of different items or if you just prefer the look of a shop which has been ordered in some way. I rearrange my shop because I sell such a variety of different items so I like to group them together in lines. I feel it makes my shop flow better and looks more attractive to browse.

How to rearrange your shop

First you need to enable this on your shop. This is super quick and easy to do.

1)Log into your Etsy shop.

2) Click on 'Your Shop' on the top right hand side of the screen

3) A drop down menu will appear. Go down to 'Shop Settings' and then click 'Options' in the sub-menu which appears

4) This will take you to the Shop Options page. Click the option which says ENABLED and make sure you then scroll to the bottom of that page and hit SAVE

5) It will then take you back to the top and say that your option has been saved. Click on the link just above 'Enabled' which says 'Rearrange your shop'

6) You will now be taken to your shop where you can drag and drop to rearrange. Remember to hit save after you are done.

Pro-tip (Oh how I wish I had discovered this sooner!)

When you rearrange your shop and select an item to go to a different page it will automatically take you to that page. It used to bug me like crazy and be quite time consuming if I needed to move a whole load of things from one page to another.

To prevent moving pages when rearranging click SHIFT on your keyboard as you move the object to another page. This will prevent it changing which page you are on.

Quote of the week - Maya Angelou

Hello everyone,

Every Monday I like to post an inspirational quote and today I have picked the wise words of Maya Angelou. I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Thanks for reading my blog

The Dorothy Days Xx

Cute tutorial to make your own crop top out of leggings!

Hello everyone,

I have been going through my wardrobe giving it a sort out and also bought some new summer outfits. I have lots of leggings which I no longer wear so was really pleased that I found this video before I got rid of them! I now can have lots of cute crop tops for summer instead of going out and buying them. I loved how quick and easy this tutorial was so thought I would share it with you all so you can all recycle your leggings and have cute crop tops this summer too!



The Dorothy Days Xx

Style Saturday: Tropical Getaway - Palm Print and Pink

Hello!

Lots of you are packing your bags and off on your holidays/ vacations soon so for my Style Saturday this week is this gorgeous palm print and pink fashion inspiration. You often see palm print paired with browns and khaki so this makes a really lovely change, updates the look and feels much more pretty and summery. This outfit could be worn with flats in the day with the sun hat to keep you cool and with the satchel for your water, suncream etc and for the evenings the beautiful pink heels, clutch bag and a hair up would make this outfit look super sophisticated. You could add to this outfit big sunglasses and perhaps a chunky necklace.

Are you off on your holidays? What outfits are you packing and what are your holiday essentials? Please let me know in the comments section below 

The Dorothy Days Xx

Wedding season is HERE!

Hello everyone,

Wedding season is here! There are lots of beautiful weddings happening at the moment and I have been working really hard making lots of tags for custom orders for brides and grooms for their big day. I have made a wedding themed Pinterest board with some of my favourite designs, products and inspiration for weddings. There is everything from dress to venues and cakes to wedding games on the board. I have also tried to include lots of Etsy sellers and makers as I love seeing other people's work. Please take a look and I hope you enjoy browsing through my board. I am adding new pins on there all the time.




Follow The Dorothy Days's board The Dorothy Days// Weddings on Pinterest.

Hope that you enjoyed having a look.

The Dorothy Days Xx

Tutorial: Homemade Strawberry Leather Rolls Recipe - Perfect for Craft Fair snack!

Hello!

I have been searching for a while for lunch box snacks/ snacks on the go that I can make for when I am out and about or travelling so was happy to stumble across this tutorial for how to make leather rolls that are a bit like the 'Winders' rolls. They look fruity and delicious and perfect for a snack on the go! I thought these would be the perfect Craft Fair snacks. When at a craft fair I often skip meals as I am too busy to stop and have something to eat. You don't want anything messy as you might have to stop eating half way to help a customer so these would be a perfect little snack to keep you going. 

The tutorial is really easy and could be done the night before your Craft Fair.

Do you have a favourite snack or food which you take a craft fairs which is easy to eat?

Please let me know in the comments section below 

The Dorothy Days Xx

Wordless Wednesday - Beautiful white flowers in my garden

Happy Wednesday everyone! Here is a beautiful photograph which I took for my Wordless Wednesday post. 

What is Wordless Wednesday: "On Wednesdays all over the internet, bloggers post a photograph with no words to explain it on their blog."

The Dorothy Days Xx

5 minute Etsy shop improvements - Make your shop URL neater

Hey everyone,

Lots of people have been saying that they have found my list of twitter hours for crafters, bloggers and creatives useful and a few people have asked when I will be posting more posts like this with tips for Etsy sellers in particular. I hadn't planned to write any more tips posts but given how much feedback and requests I have been getting I thought I would put together some posts for my blog with tips for Etsy sellers. I hope that these might be useful!

It is difficult to know where to start and what tips to give. I could delve into one of the big topics such as SEO but, often it is the smaller hints and tips that make a big difference so I am going to put together a series of 5 minute shop improvement posts. I hope these will be easy and short enough to do but also make a big difference to your shop. I will post one a week so please keep checking back on my blog and share with any Etsy friends you might have that would find it useful.

If you have any requests for a topic you would like tips on please let me know in the comments section below and I will see what I can do!

5 Minute Etsy Shop Improvement #1

How to find your URL and how to make your URL neater

What is a URL?

It is the unique web address that every page on the internet has. For example my blog is http://thedorothydays.blogspot.co.uk

What do I need it for?

*To share on social media

*To refer customers to

*To put on your business cards

*To add to your emails etc

How do I find the URL for my Etsy Shop?

That is easy! Log onto Etsy and enter your own shop. In the address bar at the top (I have highlighted this with the purple arrows) you will find your shop URL. 

You can then either right click and press copy or Apple button and C to copy this link.

How to make the URL look neater

Long URLs make ugly URLs! The web address that Etsy have given me is:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheDorothyDays?ref=hdr_shop_menu

After my shop name Etsy inserts the way in which I came to the page which is why it says 'shop menu' this can be removed up to my shop name and my URL will still work.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheDorothyDays

You then can use this to refer customers to your shop. 

Advanced Step (really super easy but makes your URL much nicer!)

You could just stop at the step above as you have a fully functioning URL which you can use to refer customers to your shop. However, there is an even better way to make your URL look neater, nicer and to save space but most importantly make it easy to remember for your customers and quick to type if they are copying from your business card to have a look in your shop.

Take your shop name exactly the way it was given to you on the shop URL that you created by following the steps above. So my shop name is The Dorothy Days but the URL puts it TheDorothyDays with no spaces.

Then copy this address below (you could paste it into a word document or straight into the address bar) but insert your shop name with no spaces into where it says 'yourshopname'

Copy and paste this:

https://yourshopname.etsy.com

then insert your shop name

Example: https://thedorothydays.etsy.com

You then have a neat shop URL which you can share to promote your shop. It is easy for customers to remember and looks much better on a business card than the longer version.

I hope this tip helps, did you give it a go? Please let me know in the comments section below.

The Dorothy Days X

Quote of the Week - Steve Jobs

Hello everyone,

On Mondays to get the week started I like to share an inspirational quote. I find it gets me ready for the week ahead and focuses me. Today I wanted to share with you all a wonderful quote by Steve Jobs which I hope will inspire you this week.

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

- Steve Jobs

Item of the week - Apple Necklace - Perfect for a gift for a teacher

Hello everyone,

My item of the week for this week was going to be my handmade tags as I am making lots of them at the moment for wedding but I suddenly had a rush of Apple Necklace orders over the last few days as they make a perfect gift for a teacher or student.

So if you are looking for a unique handmade gift for a favourite teacher or for a student who has just finished school or their exams then please check out my apple necklaces. They also come beautifully gift wrapped in an organza bag!

Please click here to view my apple necklace in my shop

or to have a look in my whole shop please click here

The Dorothy Days Xx

Style Saturday - Nautical themed home

Hello everyone,

Happy Saturday! I hope that you have had a wonderful week so far and that you enjoy this weekend too. For my Style Saturday post today I wanted to share with all this collection of nautical themed items for the home. This is a great example of how to make nautical look homely and not tacky. I particularly like the string door sot, the paddle and the tripod light. Would look fantastic in a house close to the sea or in a holiday property.

The Dorothy Days Xx

Etsy Craft Party Video 2015 for #EtsyTeamsTV channel

Hello everyone,

At the start of the month it was Dorset Team's annual Etsy Craft Party. Each year Etsy sets a theme for the Craft Party and people across the world get together to craft and create. This year's theme was Kaleidoscope: Paper Taking Shape. The official craft for Craft Party was collaging.We found a room in a little cafe and invited the Dorset Team and other locals to come and join us for some crafting. Everyone brought with them magazines and crafting supplies to make collages with which we all shared. We had great fun making different collages and paper weavings.

The Craft Party was also a very exciting event as we were going to be filming the first ever Dorset Etsy Team video for the new Etsy Teams TV channel on Youtube which has just launched (and you should definitely check out!).The deadline was super tight to be in time for the launch of the channel but Jamie, who is a professional camera operator and editor did an amazing job in filming the event and producing the video.

Please take a look at the video here and see the different interpretations of the theme from diva cats to 3D flowers and from paper weaving to stamping.



What do you think of the video?! Please let us know by using #EtsyTeamsTV

The Dorothy Days Xx

A busy few weeks....!

Hey everyone,

Sorry I have been so quiet on the blog recently. It has been a rather busy few weeks.

In the last few weeks I have...

*Attended an Etsy Craft Party with the Dorset Team
*Holidayed in Berlin
*Worked on lots of large wedding orders for my handmade tags
*Started taking applications for the Dorset Team Christmas Fair
*Visited friends in London
*Made lots of new items for the shop (to be listed soon!)
*Looked after Rufus my Cockapoo puppy after he was feeling rather ill post-op

It has been fantastic to be so busy but also meant I am a bit out of synch with my blogging and got a whole load of half written posts ....ooops!

Will be writing some new posts soon about my holiday and everything else I have been up to so please watch this space!

Thanks for reading

The Dorothy Days Xx

Happy June! Thank you for all your support

Hooray! It is June!!  I know I say this every month but it really does feel as if this year has flown by! Can't believe that we are now 6 months into the year.

This year so far has been fantastic so I am hoping the next 6 months will too! Thank you to everyone who has browsed in my shop, bought from me, messaged me on social media, and to all of you now who are reading my blog! I really appreciate your support. Last month I relaunched my Facebook page which was both exciting and nerve wracking as I had not been active on Facebook as a social media site for some time. Since relaunching I have had 100 new likes on the page which has been wonderful so an extra big thank you to everyone who has come over and taken a look at my page there (and if you haven't already you can find it here https://www.facebook.com/thedorothydays)

Bring on the sunshine, days lazing in the park and ice creams that June normally brings!

The Dorothy Days