Saturday Musings: Why I turned off the stars

So I didn't literally turn off THE stars. But I DID turn them off on my Facebook page. Why? Is there something I'm trying to hide? No. But honesty is a big thing for me. The way that Facebook page ratings are set up are kinda screwy and they don't allow for honest reviews.

Freedigitalphotos.net

One of my friends posted the other day about a review she'd received stating that her product was messy and unprofessional. This friend, also very proud of the work she does and having received tons of other complimentary reviews, asked the reviewer what she had made for her and how she could fix it. There was, of course, no response because said reviewer had never purchased anything from my friend.

Freedigitalphotos.net by digitalart

I thought long and hard about this and decided to go in and look at my reviews and star ratings. I was plugging along at 4.5 stars. Not too bad. I can't please everyone, although I do try! However, all I had were stars, which were not followed by any comments or actual reviews. Someone had left 1 star and I couldn't think of a single customer that had ever expressed any displeasure with my work.

So I explored a bit further. Seems that the way Facebook has their review process set up is not very favorable for pages and businesses. People can come onto your page and leave however many stars they want or scathing reviews, without actually ever having experienced your product or dealt with you personally! I was a little bit shocked and sickened because this means that anyone, anywhere, at any time can pop on to your page and destroy your business!

Etsy has installed a similar review system, but someone actually has to purchase your product before they can leave you a review. And if they don't like it, at least it is an honest feeling based on something substantial.

My aforementioned friend also said that she looked at some of the other pages this reviewer had followed and found that she had a friend in the same business as my friend. (I know that's confusing, but I don't want to say names or allude to what she does.) She had left a 5-star stellar review on the other person's page. Hmm...seems a bit fishy to me!

Freedigitalphotos.net by ImageryMajestic

I think honest reviews are a way for sellers to show their customers that they can (or cannot) do the work they are saying they can do. If someone honestly likes something, they should let that seller know. If they honestly don't, let them know why. It's just too easy for dishonest people to abuse the system that Facebook has in place. So I shut off the stars.

If you want honest reviews of my work from customers, please visit my Etsy page and see what I'm doing for others! 

Artfire's Bad Move

Let me begin by saying that I have been a member of Artfire since early 2009. I began with my first online account selling dog clothes and never sold a thing. I did not move to Etsy until 2010, nearly a year after being on Artfire. I have been with Zibbet almost since their inception. I have loved Artfire, heralding its benefits and supporting their artisans for the past couple of years. I was seriously disappointed when they stopped showing newly listed items on their front page, thereby decreasing potential views exponentially. They only show curated items that make it to their front page. That was their first strike.

I also began a group on Artfire to help promote listings. The groups are very ineffective and hard to manage because they tools are not there to stay in contact with the members. After a year of promising that they would work on the groups, Artfire decided they would work on other areas and the group upgrades were pushed under the rug. I finally turned the group over to another member and dismissed the stress it was causing me. Straw #2.

Yesterday (July 15) Artfire announced that they will be eliminating their basic seller accounts unless these accounts upgrade and go pro by August 15. They will lose over 42,000 accounts if these sellers decide not to upgrade. While the primary store that I have on Artfire is a Pro account and will not affect me greatly, I do not feel that this a good move by Artfire. The final straw.

All this said, Zibbet sent out a letter to all of their members today. Zibbet is in NO WAY trying to cast stones at Artfire - they would never do that. But they understand the frustration and value that Basic members can bring to their site. While I would also like to see Zibbet bring back their newly listed items on the front page (hint, hint), I would like to post this letter here on this blog for all to see. Zibbet has implied permission to do so in their letter, along with a warm welcome and a 45 day free Pro account for new members coming over from Artfire.

I love Zibbet. They community is warm and inviting, the administration (esp. Jonathan Peacock) are amazing and open, and the listings are simple to create. I don't visit there as much as I should. However, because of Artfire's bad move I am considering shutting down my Pro account there as well. Why would I stay somewhere that can barely get me any page views or sales? I got in on a $5.95 a month group deal, but it does very little for me at that price. I pay a nominal fee at Zibbet and get twice as much. So take it for what it is, like it or leave it, but I'm passing on my thoughts and Zibbet's invitation to you!

Here is the letter:

16th July, 2011

Artfire is Removing Their Free, Basic Accounts From Their Site - What Does Zibbet Think About That?

Firstly, I want to make it abundantly clear that I am not here to throw stones at Artfire. The purpose of this email is NOT to tell you that Artfire is doing the wrong thing - they are doing what they feel is necessary based on their unique situation.  The purpose of this email is to inform you about our reasons for keeping Basic accounts here at Zibbet.

In this email we'll cover a few things (it will be a long email - read when you have time!):
1. The details
2. Why Zibbet won't be getting rid of its free, Basic accounts
3. Are Basic Artfire sellers welcome on Zibbet?

1. THE DETAILS
For those that have never heard of Artfire or don't have a clue what we're talking about...

Artfire is another handmade venue, similar to Zibbet. They had a free, Basic account and an upgraded, paid account - again, similar to Zibbet. Yesterday they announced officially that their Basic Accounts would be shut down on August 15.

How many sellers will this effect?

Over 42,500 active Basic sellers will lose their shop (about 75% of their total sellers), at which point around 350,000 items will be unlisted from the site (about 25% of their total items).

Why have they made this decision?

You can read the full, official announcement here.
2. WHY WON'T ZIBBET BE GETTING RID OF ITS FREE, BASIC ACCOUNTS AS WELL?
Zibbet and Artfire are two different venues, with two different leaders, with two different strategies for moving forward.  At Zibbet, we're a metrics driven business, which means that we track LOTS of different things - the numbers don't lie and we base our decisions on those metrics.  I want to share some of what we know with you, to help explain why having free, Basic accounts at Zibbet works well...for us.

SEO benefits
Firstly, I've harped on and on about this - the more active items we have on Zibbet, the more buyers we will have. Basic sellers list items, and those items help to bring in more buyer traffic - for everyone!  Basic sellers only account for 15% of the total sales on Artfire. They also only account for 25% of the active items - Do you think that would have something to do with their low sales percentage? You bet it does.  Less items, less traffic, less sales. Period.

On Zibbet, our Premium sellers make up 24% of our active sellers and account for around 70% of the sales. Our Premium sellers do get more site exposure, have better tools and features to help them sell more and have unlimited, non-expiring, listings. There's no doubt that Premium is the way to go on Zibbet.

We know that Basics will upgrade to Premium when they see the value to do so (and we certainly hope they do), but even if they don't that's ok - because...

We make money off Basics too!
We have a couple of exciting partnerships launching in the future which will allow us to make a small cut off each sale that is transacted on Zibbet (Basic and Premium). This DOES NOT come out of your pocket - you are not charged a cent, nor will you even notice a difference to your service. These partnerships will be announced when we are ready to roll them out.  Basic sellers make sales too, therefore they will make us money. Just another reason why Basic sellers add value and are here to stay at Zibbet.

Basic sellers need time to upgrade
Our metrics tell us that Basic sellers need time to decide whether to upgrade or not and we're willing to give them the time that they need. Some sellers will never ever upgrade, and that is something that we're aware of and are fine with. Hosting costs are so low these days that these sellers are literally no burden on us financially.

Check out this graph which shows historically how long it takes for our Basic sellers to upgrade to Premium. Most upgrade within the first couple of weeks (as you can see below), but there are still sellers upgrading every day in the 365 day period shown. This means that the Basic account is serving its purpose as a 'taste-tester' that compels sellers to upgrade over time - which puts money in our pockets to keep making Zibbet better and better...

The graph below is a little more crazy and complex, but I'll try to explain. We track your activity (sales, upgrades, downgrades, etc) based on the month and year you signed up to become a member of Zibbet. We call this your 'cohort', which is the group we associate you with for the life of your account. This allows us to find 'trends', which is why I say that we're a data driven company - the numbers don't lie, and they help us to base all our major decisions on.  This graph shows the percentage of seller registrations that go Premium. And as you can see, over time a greater and increasing percentage of sellers will upgrade to Premium over time. The higher lines, representing a greater percentage of sellers that have gone Premium, belong to earlier cohorts. You can see that from the February, 2010 cohort, 20.85% of the seller registrations we received that month have upgraded to Premium.  Therefore, we can again conclude that over extended periods of time, more and more sellers will see the benefits of being Premium, and upgrade.


3. ARE BASIC ARTFIRE SELLERS WELCOME ON ZIBBET?
Yes!  We welcome them with open arms, all 42,500 of them can make their home at Zibbet and they can bring all 350,000 items with them (and hopefully list 50 items each to make over 2 million items!).  This would bring huge SEO benefits to Zibbet and will increase the sales of all our sellers.  If you love Zibbet and you love sales, you should be telling Basic Artfire sellers to join us.

To help make spreading the word even easier, I've created a special coupon code that will give them a free 45 day trial of our Premium Account (monthly or yearly). The code is: WELCOME

This offer is valid until August 15.  Or, they can just sign up for a free, Basic account and upgrade when they are good and ready (or not).

We also have an Artfire Importer, so setup will be quick and painless!  They can import all their items in with a few clicks of the mouse!

If you have bothered to read this far, thank you!  I hope that what I have said makes sense and you can clearly see why Basic accounts are valuable to us at Zibbet and our reasons for keeping them around - for good!  If you're from Artfire and you're reading this, we welcome you to give Zibbet a try. You'll love what we're doing here and the community is super friendly!

Have a great day and please feel free to post this entire email where you feel is necessary to inform all handmade sellers.

Regards,

Jonathan Peacock
CEO, Zibbet.com

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Countdown to Christmas

Hmm...So what do you all think about the new Blogger homepage? I tried opening it in my Google Chrome and all I could see was the title bar. Not a lot of help there, Google! And the fact that it doesn't open in your own browser is not a real confidence booster.

Anywho...I don't have a whole lot to say. My Bead~N~Knot studio is having a sale - 15% off everything - until July 15. It's my mid-summer sale, so enjoy it while it lasts! And did you know that there is now only 167 days left until Christmas? I'm sure you'll find something in my shop to tickle your fancy. If not, let me know what I can make for you! I'm adding a Christmas Countdown to my blog. Yes, it will be here soon. No, I'm not pushing the issue. But with 5 kids and a very extensive family I like to get a head start and little items for all.

I love Christmas. I like the smells, sights, sounds, weather, baking, and most importantly the meaning behind the entire holiday. It's funny to me that the most significant Christian holiday is also the most celebrated by all people, both Christian and non. What does that say about the impact of Christianity? I think that if you're going to celebrate it you should celebrate for the right reasons - and know what you're celebrating. Do people in Britain celebrate the American Fourth of July? How about Hanukkah? How many non-Jewish people celebrate that? Yet, everyone wants to celebrate Christmas - then complain when we use our Christian symbolism and words during the holiday! I don't wish people a Merry Christmas unless I KNOW they are Christians. Why would I? It would be like wishing someone in a foreign country Happy Thanksgiving. It's a Christian holiday, folks, and should remain that way.

I'll be bringing some crafts that I find, sales, and beautiful things your way over the next 167 days. Hope you enjoy them!

Fresh new products

Since I have been an online seller of fine crafts, I have always heard that pictures sell the products. And it is true. A bad picture does not do a product justice in any way. People just do not want to spend money on something they can't see clearly. I have had an HP camera for the last 10 years that I got with a printer that I bought. You have heard me talk about it before on this blog. Well, after doing a tad bit of research I knew that I wanted a Canon. I finally found one to do what I needed it to do and put it on layaway. Six weeks later I was able to get it out and take some nice pictures.

What I ended up with was a Canon A490. It didn't cost me a ton of money, but it is probably the best little camera I've ever had. It takes clear, beautiful pictures and had enough adjustments on it that I can take pictures in any light so they still show up good. Photography is not my greatest asset. So after a few weeks I finally got a chance to re-photograph some of my items.


Here are some "before" and "afters." The top pictures show the first camera and the second ones show the new camera.

 I can't believe the clarity that comes through. I am able to take close shots without blur and distortion that I couldn't take before. Now, I can't give all of the credit to the camera. I also have to give a little to my photo editing program, Lunapic. None of the images were retouched or auto adjusted. I added text and cropped them. But Lunapic can do it all - for free. Yep, free. No subscriptions, no limits, all functions are free. I hated paying for a few more megabytes on Photobucket or a few more functions on Picnik. Neither of them were able to do what Lunapic does, either. Now, this might sound like an advertisement, but this is honestly what I have used and thought I would pass on.

So take a look at my website and tell me what you think about the new stuff. I have a new bracelet and earring combo called "Starry Summer Nights." There is more to come in the next few weeks as well. Hope you are having a fantastic summer.