Picture courtesy of 3gwoodworks

By contributing columnist Pam aka ElectricPenquin
Once your fabulous picture gets a customer to open your listing, it’s the description that makes or breaks the deal. That’s a lot of pressure on a few sentences! Here’s how I attack the description demons:

First, I come up with the answers to these questions. One good way to answer these is to pretend you’re describing it to someone over the phone. What words would you use then?
- To start with, what is it – necklace, terrarium, hat, coat rack?
- What materials is it made of?
- What color(s) is it?
- For necklaces and bracelets (and anything else that closes), what kind of clasp does it have? Extender chain?
- What size is it overall? Most of the world is metric, so measurements should be listed in both inches and centimeters (confession – mine are not!).
- What sizes are the components? I just list the main pieces, not every single bead.
- How is it packaged – gift wrapped, organza bag, recycled padding?
- Any instructions or information the buyer might want to know beforehand – can’t get it wet, will arrive unassembled?
- Is it custom made? If so, it may take longer to ship out than usual.
- If a component was truly handmade and bought from a fellow Etsyian (like ceramic beads or pendants), I think it’s a really nice gesture to mention that. I usually go with something like “The ceramic beads were handmade by xxxxxxx.etsy.com” (no period at the end of the sentence). That syntax puts a link to their shop, once the listing is saved.

Then it’s time to type all of those answers into a persuasive, item selling group of sentences!
- The first sentence has to be snazzy and attention grabbing, as it’s what displays on a Google search. This is the most difficult part!! I try to put as much in it as possible, while still staying at around 100 characters. I always use the “View a preview of how your item will appear in Google search results” link to see the final result, and tweak it as needed.
- I try to type in coherent sentences, with proper cases and grammar. For terrible typists like me, spell check is a requirement!! Hint – put it in Word or an email, and check it there.
- I proper case the title and keep it to a reasonable length. Arrggh, I can’t stand titles that contain 30 words all in caps! I won’t even open them even if the piece looks really cool.
- Finally, in the beginning, I had someone else look at the final version as if they wanted to buy the piece, and had them tell me what they thought was missing.

Ta da, you’re done! Next, it’s off to the dreaded tags. More fun!!

It took me forever to write up just one item when I first started, but now I’m pretty fast. Descriptions do get easier the more you do them, really they do!

Tags: artfire, artists, crafters, descriptions, etsy, folksy, online craft business, online selling, snazzy

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