Play it Sam ...

Hi all, let me introduce myself to you.  I'm Keith Admin from iCraft.

Of course "Admin" isn't my real last name but it's how I'm going to be listed here.  The real last name is McDonald (add an "s" to the end and I'd be rich!)

I'm here to stir things up around communications.  You know, you often hear as a term of parting endearment: "stay out of trouble". Let me begin with this instead of ending with it.  Actually, let me go a bit further and say I'm going to do my best to get into lots figurative trouble - especially with our competitors - I want to help make some noise about iCraft!

Already we had a nice "bite" of interest from our local Toronto paper.  On the front page of the September 20 Business section of The Toronto Star, iCraft's home page is photographed and a local artist promoted. We were interviewed for the piece and we hoped for a few quotes and references to the artists on iCraft. But, hey, it's a start.

Indeed, speaking of starts, over the next several months we're going to launch some promotional initiatives to raise awareness and draw traffic. We want to get more and more people to your doorsteps. I'll be talking to you soon about YouTube (watch for news about the iCraftHQ and iCrafter channels) - we're working on footage right now.

Meantime, I'm real interested in hearing what you think iCraft can do for you and I'll be sure to talk about what I think you can do for iCraft - it's a two way street.

Any Casablanca fans out there? This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

[Northern Girl Jewelry]

It's great to hear there will be some promotional initiatives launched.  It would be nice to get more traffic here (both buyers and sellers). 

I like having a shop here for several reasons, some of which include that it is easier to target Canadian buyers here because I can list in Canadian dollars and because icraft items seem to show up well in google.ca searches (I get more traffic from Google in my shop here than in my Etsy shop).  I also like the simplicity of the listing process here and the look of the site. 

One thing that in nice but also not nice is how long new items stay on the front page.  I listed a bracelet last evening around 10 pm Eastern, and this morning at 8 am it is still the first item on the recently listed page.  This gets me more views, but for buyers, it shows that there are not a lot of new items being listed, so means they don't need to come back to the site often to see what's new.  So in addition to having more people coming here to buy, we need more people coming here to sell because a bigger variety of items to choose from will bring more buyers.  And more items being sold regularly will bring more sellers.  I know many sellers that don't want to set up here because although everyone agrees that it's a pretty site, they feel there isn't enough traffic to be worth investing the time and dollars into a shop here.  It's a big viscious circle, isn't it?

Good luck with raising awareness of this site.  It will be good for sellers and for icraft, so we are all in this together.

Hi Julie ... agreed ... sellers and buyers both ... keeping site views fresh and having items in abundance are an immediate goal for us. I like your comment of "nice but not so nice ..." since it's quite true, promotion is a shared process on the front page in particular.  There is nothing better than having a fresh view for users as they land on iCraftGifts.com. We want to make that happen and easier to find favourite sellers. On the web, it is possible to have your cake and eat it too. Thanks so much for your views ... love your shop here and I hope your cats aren't secretly sneaking smokes if you let them out side the house LOL.  Seriously, my wife is quite an asthmatic (and we love our two cats) so the smoke-free reference in your bio caught my eye in particular.

[PetiteTuques]

It's great to see iCraft in the news! When I signed up to iCraft last November, I didn't really know anything about online selling. I've learned a lot from the people here, and I know the longer I am here, the better it will get!
Getting more views would help a lot for everyone, so I'm looking forward to the Youtube Channels..

What can I do for iCraft? I'm not sure, besides making a ton of stuff!! I do know what I want from iCraft...
get recognized for the talent I have... I'm sure most of us would agree!

Thanks so much for helping me start a business

Lisa

Hi Lisa - making a ton of stuff is great!!!  I am originally from Quebec and lived in Mansonville for 6 years - I can see why you might be into tuques actually from living there. I remember some pretty cold winters. I love your write up on your page. Gosh folks, it's going to be a hazard in that I want to buy a lot of what I'm seeing  - not a hazard for you though! Actually, as soon as I get over my Roger Waters concert binge (I saw The Wall Live last week), I'll be checking out some stuff for the holidays.

Speaking of the holidays, they are just around the corner and I would expect you will all be gearing up for a big push. We're hoping to launch some of what I call new "assists" in time for the more active shopping season. Can't say what yet but we have a few tech guys on the case who are quite brilliant - I'll be talking a whole lot more on that soon.

But I digress ... I wanted to say my wife is a handcraft artist too and I'm trying to get her motivated to start selling here. She lacks a bit of motivation (truth be told) so I hope some of your energy will rub off.  Anyway, nice to meet 'ya and say "hi" to the old homestead if you are close by for me! I recently got in touch with a friend from public school days there on facebook. She actually found me and it was, well, lets just say quite a few years ago when we last chatted. Amazing thing this social media isn't it?

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Thanks for sharing that news clipping, Keith!  I'm glad iCraft is getting face time.  I think a lot more face time is what we can do for each other.  The forums are a great place to express your style by the way you communicate.  We need more forum participation because, frankly, it's offputting to go several days with no new posts.

Honestly, I am also behind in my listings.  I set a blog challenge to encourage a) blogging to bring traffic and b) getting new stuff listed in my shop.  Sadly, I have not answered my own challenge!  I quite admit, I am part of the problem.  (Hurry up "Fall Back" 1 hour time savings, I need more time in the day!!)

So, I think we need to have stronger voices: posting, blogging, forum chatting, and just interacting - both buyers and sellers and whatever Admin can do to encourage it.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

OH yes - and I need a policies page so I don't have to repeat dreary copy in every listing!

We're making lists - anyone else have some wishes

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Thought I would recap some other wishlist things posted in the website suggestions that are near the top of my list:
- better way to SEE a thumbnail of the "more pictures" in a listing - either thumbnails or slideshow
- a way to group the shop or add a search field for any given shop
--- I sell cards and right now they are all jumbled up in my shop.  If you walked in to Hallmark or American Greetings or Carlton Cards and there were NO sections of cards by type, wouldn't you be totally lost and unable to find something for the occasion you need?  If you walked in to a department store for a dress, wouldn't you go straight to the ladies evening wear section?  Awfully hard to find without sections.