Busy Week

I don't know exactly what I've done all week, but it seems to be flying by.

Some errands, like riding up to the grocery store to get ingredients for dinner, and some usual cat box pooper scooping, and some vacuuming and that reminds me I really need to wash out the fridge today. And vacuum the floors again.

Some lawn mowing yesterday.

And lots of working on my etsy shops.

Last week Etsy changed the search system from most recently listed to most relevant. And the fur is flying all over the Etsy forums. Sellers have been used to buyers finding their shops from a search system that really never worked all that well, and sellers have been spending hundreds of dollars renewing their items so that when a buyer searched for said items, their shop would hopefully come up in the first few pages of the search. It was a crap shoot and savvy sellers would pack their titles and tags with non-related key words to come up in all sorts of non-related searches. Now, when a buyer is searching for a specific item, only specific items come up in the search whether they were listed yesterday or three months ago. From a buying perspective, it's wonderful. But now that buyers can see 50 like items all together on a page or two, they are being a little more discerning in their shopping and are not just grabbing the first thing that comes up that is anywhere near what they are looking for in their search. And sellers need to re-learn how to title and tag so that their items are more relevant. And instead of going in and working on tags and titles, sellers are flocking to the forums and complaining that it's not fair and they won't be able to feed their kids because they aren't getting any sales with the new search and goddammit it's just NOT FAIR and why should a shop that doesn't spend hundreds of dollars in renewal fees be seen alongside their shop in a search. It's exhausting just reading all of the complaints and again, get your ass into your shop and work on it. But, it's always easier to complain instead of do.

Wonder if the recent stock market crash and horrible economic forecasts have anything to do with sales slowing down? Nah, it's all Etsy's fault.

So, I've been working on re-doing some of my titles and changing a few things around. My sales did slow down some, too, but yesterday and today have picked back up some in the supply shop anyway. I've never sold a lot in the handmade shop, but have had a few sales this month in that shop too. Actually, if things keep going the way they are now, it looks like it might be a pretty good month after all.

How's the weather? We seem to have gotten a break this summer with the rest of the country roasting in the hottest summer ever, but we haven't had as many over 100 degree days so far. It's actually been pleasant enough to where I don't have to turn on the a/c until after lunchtime, and can even have the windows open in the morning. For all that fresh Bakersfield air to come in. I'm happy about that because the less we use the a/c the less we have to pay in electric bills.