Listing Help From Red Panda

In the ArtFire Forums section, Red Panda was kind enough to offer all of us some friendly advice on how to post a good listing. I thought it had several good ideas in it and some I really had not thought of but made good sense to me when I read them. So I thought it would be a good idea to post them here and spread the good advice around. I believe that when we help each other out then we all can succeed. And you will also get to see some of Red Panda's lovely chainmaille designs throughout the article.

Alright! First off and foremost, your title! I usually name my items descriptive words, Hence all four words in my title describe my item. The title is important for search, so I like to use at least one or two words that a person may be searching for to get my item (like "rainbow bracelet"). However, do not over do it by using a ton of keywords in your title. This looks a bit ebayish, and hey, that's what your tags are for! More on this later.

If you accept offers, check "Yes". This is a feature that AF offers that I haven't seen much elsewhere. I don't personally accept offers BUT I think it is a great feature for those that do. :)

Next, add as many pictures as you have! Verified members such as myself have 10 whole picture slots. That's twice as many as on etsy. Fill them up! I always only use nine because then there's not an extra blank space for the last picture. AF replaces pictures in the picture slots instead of giving each one their own, so there will be a blank space if you use all ten. Hence, nine pics!

Try to take pictures of your items from all angles. One that shows the whole piece, a close up, a close up on the clasp, a picture of the item in use, the back of the item, etc. Your buyer's can't pick up your item and inspect it, so try to give them that feeling through your pictures.

Describe your product to the best of your ability! Write whatever comes to mind, then re read it and edit it. One of my favorite things about AF is that you have an "inspiration" section. In mine, I wrote all about how I re-designed the bracelet as I was making it.

Select the category that you think your item fits in best. The most relevant category.
List all your materials, and then, fun time! Tags! I LOVE that artfire has unlimited tags. Here's what you should ask yourself. "what would someone search for to find my item?" Those are your tags. I use all the spellings of chainmail, as well as all the colors I used in my bracelet (along with both "rainbow" and "colorful"), among lots of other things that people would search for to find my bracelet (like bracelet, for example! lol).

I don't mark down my prices using the manager, although I do have sales from time to time. If you would like to use the manager, which I think is another great feature that AF uses, make sure to do that at the end!

Hit ADD PRODUCT and head over to the front page to watch your item appear. That's what I do anyway. lol!

If you have a system that works for you then by all means go with it. But if you are like me and just starting out and can use all the help you can get, then I think you will find some real useful ideas in Red Panda's article.