Coming out of the closet
Posted by jen October 8th, 2008 in Jeneral. 21 CommentsNever piss off a designer. We're mercenaries and we'll sell our wares to anyone who appreciates it. Even if it was intended for someone else.
I normally never discuss work in progress, but wanted to talk about it, and I'm sick of living in fear of Etsy retribution for not being a team player when the team has no coach, no bus and no game schedule.
So after a year of suggesting ways Etsy to do the right things on it's site (and making comps to show them), how to behave the right way and stop being hipster asshats and start acting professional – and being muted for it – I am done with trying. I'm now out of the closet and annoucing I am helping their newest competition.
I approached Artfire.com a few weeks ago with some suggestions after seeing the need for some improvement in their online site and branding my first visit. They quickly told me they were only a few months old and were about to start a redesign etc to get them into battle mode. They are a new new up and coming still in beta but serious about aking Etsy down at the knees. They read the blogs, and Etsy's own forums, and saw a need to fill a gap for a craft market site that listened to it's customers, gave value for the money and was already finisihing up on greatly desired features Etsy hasn't coughed up yet. I sent them my resume and links.
They liked my suggestions, and was immediately contracted to redesign their logo, site, user experience, magazine ads, banner ads – the works. They want to pay me for everything I was trying to stupidly give Etsy for free under the guise of being a concerned user.
Artfire also wants to one up Etsy in the way that baffles most people – Etsy's lack of advertising impetus. They are putting HUGE money into advertising in the next few months to get the people over and more importantly the buyers for the holidays and are devoting a staggering amount into more mass market ads that makes Etsy's paltry attempts (stupid ass lottery style co-op ads in magzines most people don't read) seem like they are putting a finger painting on a fridge door by comparison.
And with me I bring the knowledge of what Etsy users have been asking for for years, and suggestions I originally gave to Etsy trying to make them a better site. Etsy can suck it.
The work I'm doing for Artfire is some of my nicest recently, and I'm jazzed to help another option be more viable to the community of crafters I've grown to know.
I dunno how long the gig will last, design for hire biz being what it is, but while I'm doing it I'm enjoying every minute of it.
21 Comments21 Responses to “Coming out of the closet”
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OK-I was in the process of starting up an Etsy store. I think I’ll got to Artfire. I’ll name drop you to get you better cred.
XXOO
That’s excellent! One thing that I find especially frustrating about Etsy is their crappy search engine, so I hope artfire will have a better way to find the good stuff.
Hmmmmmmmmmm. Guess what I already did
I have been watching the site progress Jen. You are really addressing the Etsy issues in the design, I look forward to seeing the end product!
You ain’t seen nothing yet CD, Let me tell ya. This is going to be a REALLY update packed week… Look for the ad I did on the back cover of CRAFT.
HOLY CRAP! You are PixelDecor! Do you remember me from WillowBead?
heheh yeah that’s me… been to busy crafting and designing to get more pixeldecor stuf out… the sites still there though!
Gosh, I purchased some of your patterns in like 1993 or something! I also worked with Imagination Project. After helping them with product development, they swiped one of my pattern designers right out from under me. The first release of the Chartreuse Dream line was developed for Craft Diner Inc. That industry got messed up just as fast as it grew up.
haha well pixeldecor didn’t exist in 1993, lol how about 2003?
I never really got scrapbooking though, being a natural creative I always saw scrapbooking at faux creativity with all the instructions on how to make this or that exact page… it wasn’t techniques it was how tos… I dunno, I just saw scrapbookers as design wannabes I guess.
The IP guys are local, they were nice enough but they didn’t really want my feedback on my line. so it got shelved. I wanted more retro elements, flocked ribbon and stickers, black kitty cats etc… yeah I dont hear too much about scrapping anymore.
I knew there was a three in there somewhere. It seems like a million years ago! Why keep so many sites? Do you host yourself?
WOW! Good for you Jen – I love your go get ‘em attitude! Off to check out artfire!
This is why we love you Jen!!!
weird. my last comment says, Your comment is awaiting moderation but there it is.
I am so glad that I found your blog and then signed up for ARTFIRE.com. I have been using ETSY for 2 years with very disappointing sales. I think I have an interesting product and the fact that noone can ever find it because the search engine is LAME at Etsy is sad to me. I know there are so many sellers on ETSY that haven’t been discovered and that is too bad. Hopefully ARTFIRE will be different.
I can’t wait to find out!!!!
Thanks for your work Jen,
RAchel
Thank you, thank you. I too am going to open up shop but wanted to see what I was getting into first and reading etsy’s very own blogs etc very many are so unhappy. There will always be those that gripe no matter what but this is different, it’s obvious there are true problems and no one from etsy ever comes out to say anything, that is not good when you have so many wanting to do business with you. Businesses run a course, if it is not taken care of in every manner it will close, people go elsewhere. Now that I came across you, out of the blue I am so thrilled and someone was so very lucky to have you on their team, they probably need to make sure they keep you on their side. In business paying for what you get is always the right thing, it keeps everyone honest and deserving on both sides and out of lawyers offices. I am so happy to have read this for everyone’s sake.
I haven’t started selling on Etsy, but I’m a buyer there, and love the work and community there. As soon as I started to look into selling I started considering the alternatives.
The thing is… see… the thing that really bugs me- for being a web-based venture, so much of the site seems gimped, low-featured, ignored, abandoned. I think we’re spoiled with flickr-style APIs, granular RSS feeds, configurable badges/minis, etc.
Etsy’s site is simply out of date. they must be bogged down with the administration of the Etsy venture. My heart goes out to them, it doesn’t look like an easy job! Maybe they need to bring in outside developers to re-imagine what Etsy could be.
I really wish they made it easier for people to promote Etsy from outside.
As a fan and buyer, I can’t make an mini of specific tags… they announced development of the “
uper Etsy Mini”, not sure what it entails, but… um… still waitin’ for it! Maybe it’ll be this week!
As a team leader, I can’t edit my team page directly. I can’t control references to “a group” of people, I can’t message them all at once, I can’t scan their work, unless they manually tag each item. seems laborious. I sent in an update of my team page over a week ago. Still waiting to see results. Maybe this week?
The forums are very basic, awkward to use (no preview, no edit, no attaching images, product links, etc).
Have you played with Raverly? I haven’t seen anything like it before. It’s forums on steroids. You can ‘rate’ posts, their ~magic linking~ with reverse links is easy to use, very powerful search features… it’s a tremendous site- with about… I dunno, a fraction of the size of a team?
I look forward to seeing what you come up with on ArtFire… if they want a proofreader for their press releases- I’m not too busy.
Best of luck!
I swear, I was just telling my husband that ArtFire looked like the next big thing. & that all they would have to do to really trump Etsy was to actually advertise the site.
Good to hear they are moving in the right direction. I will be keeping my finger on the pulse!
they are advertising an amazing amount already… I mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in the first three months. MAagzines, online, even some other places!
See they know what etsy doens’t – who the customers are… the sellers. If they don’t advertise, the buyers don’t come… the buyers don’t’ buy the sellers don’t’ pay the monthly fee and they can’t pay people. So advertising for buyers, makes sellers happy, brings traffic… Etsy wants sellers to list and relist. Get that 20 cents of desperation from every one every day.
They are a great crew to work with. You notice the diff even in just passing correspondence, bugs are quashed in hours, not months. Any feature I suggest gets either done or put into que. And I’m piling on every dream, wish and hope I ever had for features. They’ll all be there… eventually.
Are there ways to do local searches?
If you need anyone for beta testing the local teams functionality, I’d be really keen to give participate in testing!
Hell-to-the-hallelujah! Great job, Jen. I like the art-fire site. I don’t know much about Etsy, but just by reading your blog, (and you being a straight shooter), I’m all for not signing with them. Art-fire looks wonderful, and with your design skills, should be even better in the future.
Congrats,
Lainey
They need to get artfire on pages like this:
http://www.buyhandmade.org/about