Handmade Code: ESellerAds

kutty

Story by kutty

Published on Dec 04, 2009 in Seller Handbook

As part of our Handmade Code series, we’re bringing you news and how-to’s about the innovations emerging from the Etsy Developer Community. Located at developer.etsy.com, the Etsy Developer Community serves as a hub for third-party software developers who are making neat and helpful programs for Etsy shoppers and sellers. In this edition, Kael Goodman tells us all about his application ESellerAds.

I run a web development shop called Blank Slate Factory that’s located in the awesome Brooklyn neighborhood called DUMBO. Etsy moved its offices to DUMBO recently and this led me to taking a deeper look at the tools Etsy offers to software developers. Developer tools are to software developers as knitting needles are to knitters, or brushes are to painters. We had already made some great software that makes ads and just needed to figure out how it would work with the Etsy developer tools. So, over a few weeks we made a couple of versions of ESellerAds and launched it on October 26, a little over one month ago.

 

Kael with his son Max, who is wearing a T-shirt by charlieandsarah.

What’s the basic idea of the application? What need does it fill?
The idea behind ESellerAds is that your customers should be able to shop anywhere and buy your products on Etsy. Etsy has given us the means to do this through the Etsy API. All we needed to do was make an ad builder. When I say make ads, I mean with a single click… and maybe (in the future) customizable ads with a few more clicks. This is the ESellerAds home page where you enter your Etsy username or seller ID to make your ads.

In order to really show your products, we designed ESellerAds as slide shows with photos as big as we could get them. Your customers can scroll through the items, left and right, and zoom in to see more detail. We made the ads in standard sizes so that they can fit anywhere on the Internet, for example on ad spaces available on blogs, on social networks, and on websites. We currently have three sizes: rectangle, wide skyscraper, and narrow skyscraper. We can make more sizes if people need them. Here’s an example from Craftsquatch.


Another important aspect to ESellerAds is that you can place them all over the Internet by clicking the Share link in the lower left corner of the ad. It opens up some screens that look like this.

There is also an embed code that you can copy and paste into a web page yourself. Once your ad is on the Internet your friends and customers can also copy the ads onto their sites. If you want to put the ads on your Facebook fan page or tweet a link to your ads, you can do that too.

Where do we go to find it? What’s the URL, etc.?
Go to www.esellerads.com and type in your Etsy username or seller ID number.

Who is it for? How many people are using it right now?
ESellerAds is only for Etsy sellers. ESellerAds does not work with other shopping venues. Over the last four weeks about 300 sellers have registered. Here is a chart from zero to 40,000 impressions per day. Dips are weekends.

Here are the countries where people have installed ESellerAds so far.


How do you use it?
Go to our site, enter your username, wait a few seconds for your ads, and then enter your email address to activate. You’ll get an email with a link to your dashboard where you can access your ads and performance reports. Here is a sample performance report that shows views for a charlieandsarah ad on a site called brooklynheightsblog.com.

You can also track how many visitors come to your Etsy shop from ESellerAds through your Google Analytics account. Here is a report that shows traffic from an ESellerAd on www.brownstoner.com to Tinahdee‘s Etsy shop. Notice that the ad sent 105 visitors in just under two weeks.

Are there any costs or further opportunities/ways to get involved?
ESellerAds is free. Why is ESellerAds free? In the future, we plan to offer enhancements and additional products that we will charge for. Also, we are actively looking for people to get involved: developers to help us add new features and make additional products, experienced sellers to help us get the word out.

What should one do if there’s a bug or a problem? Who should one contact?
We provide an FAQ and you can always reach us through the Feedback tab on our website.

What’s one surprising/fun/amazing story you’ve heard about someone using your app? Or what is your favorite part about the app?
I love to see the amazing range of things that people are selling on Etsy. I often go to the ESellerAds Gallery and scroll through the ads.

This was the first review of ESellerAds that I saw:

“With a tag line of ‘Shop anywhere, buy on Etsy,’ it’s clear that this free ad producing site is geared towards the Etsy handmade seller. Basically, it’s an upgrade to the regular Etsy mini used on blogs, social networks, and other sites. It’s easy to set up with only having to enter your shop name and a click of a button. There are three sizes to choose from and each ad features an animated slideshow of items from your shop. When you update your shop items, they automatically update. People can also share your shop by clicking share and copying the html.” — Akane Designs

 

We found the items below using the ESellerAds Gallery.

Sellers, let us know what you think in the comments below!

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