The Front Page Collections Get a Little Disheartening

Shop Talk
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Listing urls are permanent, even after they expire/sell out you can renew or restock that listing and it will retain the url. If admin add an item to a collection it will always be tied to that collection unless admin physically remove it themselves. So if they add one of your items to a collection and it sells or expires you can restock or renew that listing and hey presto it’ll still be in that collection.

I keep a note of which items have been featured and when that particular collection makes an appearance on the front page or at the top of one of the nav sections I use the url again for an item that fits the collection.

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Ah thank you for that. I do only have one problem. I think I’ve only ever spotted one of my pieces in a collection so unless I get one in I can’t keep it there. If I do ever get one in again I will remember your advice.
Think my pieces are too bright for the front page - never mind, my customers seem to like them anyway :slight_smile:

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Joy, I’m sure I saw one of yours in the “Fondant Fancies” gift guide yesterday, you can experiment with the URL now :wink:

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I don’t know why your items don’t appear in the collections, Emma - I’ve been browsing your jewellery and it’s beautiful!

Lizzie

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Tanith Thank you
That is amazing and also surprising.

As I made that pastel flower with the Fondant Fancy collection well in mind
(just seeing if it were possible to get selected)
I’ve been checking pretty regulariy.
Sure I checked yesterday but - I think I was expecting things newly listed in the collection at the top whereas of course it means newly listed in the shop - so I probably didn’t scroll quite far enough.
xx

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I certainly like your items and they should feature more often!

Lizzie

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Yes Joy, your Pastel Flower IS in “Fondant Fancies”!

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Thanks yes Lizzie I found it there - it must have been hiding yesterday

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Thanks so much!
I’ll be honest it doesn’t bother me, ever since I’ve joined I felt the collections and front page represent whoever’s picked them very personal taste. That taste is for often very minimal and modern graphic style design, which is really not my kind of thing at all and I know quite a few people who dislike it also. I just don’t even bother to look at them, not my cup of tea :slight_smile:

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Hello!

To be honest, Gift Guides are not at the top of our priority list at the moment, and so we take your point that they could be more varied (someone noted they were more varied a few weeks ago!). However, as the Gift Guides are themed, the idea is that the items look good together as a collection and so it’s likely that more than one item from one seller will fit the theme. If you look across the different themes, there is a good mix of styles, sellers and products.

Remember that the Gift Guides are just one way for buyers to start exploring Folksy and we are working on bringing more activity-driven content to the front page. Gift Guides will have a smaller role to play as part of this, but we will review them (taking your feedback, along with all the other feedback that we’ve had across Support/social media, into account) after we’ve got this piece of work out.

James talked about the activity ‘Smorgasbord’ in his Weeknotes here, for anyone who didn’t see it:

Also, we are always looking for more great makers and products to feature. Here’s more info on how to get noticed/featured on Folksy:
http://blog.folksy.com/2014/01/31/how-to-be-featured-on-folksy-product-photography-tips

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Hi everyone. I’m sorry to hear that you feel let down by the gift guides and thanks to @StephanieGuy for tagging me into this thread.

As Sian says, we’re working on exciting new ways of showing more work on the front page, so alongside items in the favourite finds and the gift guides there will be more non-curated content based on what’s trending across the site - what’s just been sold, listed, favourited, added to shopping baskets etc. The idea is that by including these, more people will be represented and the front page will be a really interesting place to visit. In the meantime I’ve been through the gift guides to try to get rid of some of the repeats.

I thought it might be useful to know that we currently have 10 gift guides on the home page (the first three are immediately visible, and the others revolve on a carousel after a few seconds on the page). There are a total of 2,254 distinct items within those 10 gift guides, and they include 1,126 different sellers. Over the last month the gift guides brought in just under 5% of the revenue across the site, with Adorn, Bloom and Scandi Home generating the most revenue.

Some of the gift guides are themed to tie in with current trends (at the moment those are Modern Rustic, Fondant Fancies, Monochrome, Scandi Home and the statement jewellery in Adorn), so they are designed to have a particular ‘look’. I scour magazines, blogs and forecasting sites to look for trends, and then put together collections based around these, to help Folksy show up in searches, and bring more buyers, press and visitors to Folksy.

The other gift guides (currently Handmade Wedding, Father’s Day, Bloom, Gifts for Gardeners, Gifts for Crafters) are designed to be general and include a much wider range of work and styles, and to include sellers whose work might not fit into the other collections.

We try to include as many sellers as possible across the gift guides and aim to update them regularly. But to increase your chances of being included it helps to think carefully about your listing titles and descriptions. It’s a mammoth job looking across the site for things to include, so try to consider trends and what people (and we!) might be searching for when you title and describe your work.

The other incredibly important thing is product photography - if your product stands out in a search because it’s well photographed, we are much more likely to see it and use it. There is lots of advice about product photography on the blog. Here’s a link to our recent posts on product photography, including tips on how to shoot particular products… http://blog.folksy.com/category/seller-tips/handmade-photography-tips

As Leanne @SeetheWoods says, good product photography doesn’t have to be expensive - you can even use a smart phone! I wrote some tips on what we’re looking for here if that helps… http://blog.folksy.com/2014/01/31/how-to-be-featured-on-folksy-product-photography-tips

However, I do take on all your points and will try to make sure we include a wider range of makers and themes in the gift guides in the future.

If you have any suggestions for future gift guides, let me know - it’s always good to get inspiration! What themes would you like to see? The ones I’m currently planning are Mini Folksy, For Your Wall, Primitive, Totally Tropical, Copper Hues, Le Tour Yorkshire and Animal Kingdom. To increase your chance of being included in any of those it might be worth adding some related keywords to your descriptions.

I can also put a call out for suggested items here on the forums when I’m working on them if you think that’s useful?

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Thanks for coming back with your comments, it’s encouraging to know Folksy Admin do listen and take action when necessary.

Have to say we are liking the newly added ‘Recently Favourited’ at the top of the browse sections - even better when we see your own items paraded there :smile:

Liking the new ideas for future guides, and of course really like the sound of ‘For Your Walls’ and Le Tour Yorkshire!

Off to rattle our heads together for ideas for future guides…

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I haven’t had anything featured anywhere on the front page for a long time, but this week I managed to get onto the best sellers list again, so I don’t really care! It’s better to focus on your work and pleasing your customers, rather than worrying about getting ‘the look’ and pleasing Folksy.

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Great to read the thinking behind the various selections - thanks.

This http://sites.yorkshire.com/assets/tourdefrance/resources/PromotionalDosandDonts.pdf might be an interesting/essential read for anyone producing items with the bike race in mind :wink:

I’m off to squeeze “wall” into every description!

Alison

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Well there you go, I now have to jolly well eat my words because one of my polymer clay pieces is on the front page! Normally I’m an odd, quirky, outsider, with arthritic sheep and a badly behaved goat, who never really fits in anywhere and now I’m trending! :smiley:

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Thank you for such a comprehensive and useful response.
May I just put in one little plea.

When I look at the Front page the feature I enjoy the most is the Pinterest curated collections. They change every day (actually I miss them at the weekend when they don’t change). They are dynamic, full of variety and exhibit a fantastic and wide range of Folksy goodies because they are selected by a good variety of people.

Please please please do not remove this feature.
Joy xx

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I’m with you Joy, the Pinterest collection is the one thing I always look at on the front page and I would hate to see it removed, so Folksy please keep the Pinterest collection.
Lynn x

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Plus they are fun to do :smile:

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I’m with the others - I do like the Pinterest collections (and was disappointed when the format shrank to only two lines!). Please keep this and keep encouraging people to submit their boards - I like making them (even if they don’t feature!) and love to look at them too.

Lizzie

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Oooh! I am thrilled to bits! One of my Kindle covers is in Folksy Favourites.

Thank you @Folksycontent - Camilla.

Shirley x

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