Search results (tags) for: "storque"

Etsy Announcement: Heads up! Storque Maintenance Tonight

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:40:00 -0000

We are doing a quick little bit of Storque site maintenance tonight from 7:30 to 8pm EDT. The Storque will be down, but only temporarily.

Thank you for your patience while we build the Storque a comfier nest!

Here's the related Forum thread (should we not get right back up, heavens forbid).

Introducing a New Etsy Project: Handmade Kids

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:58:00 -0000

Dear Sellers,

This past Spring, we brought you the Handmade Wedding series, so ... bet you guessed what's up next! Handmade Kids.* We here at Etsy have noticed through our research that this special project has the potential to reach a lot of new customers and generate growth for children's sellers as well as Etsy in general.

Simply put, Etsy sellers have a ton to offer new families and we want to help spread the word! We'll be reaching out to the media in order to bring in new folks and wanted to give you the heads up to make sure your shops are ready for business. This special project will launch on July 14 and continue through to August 4, 2008.

Here's what we'll be doing:

Contest with prizes for sellers and buyers, open to US residents. **
Outside ads on targeted blogs and websites.
Original Storque content from Etsians as well as popular bloggers and websites with cross-pollinating posts.
Themed frontpage Showcase, going on sale on Thursday July 10 at 3pm EDT (see details about this here).
Periodic frontpages with kids themed content from the Storque and the Treasury.
Links to corresponding Gift Guides and curated content.
How-tos for the family (How-tos have proven to generate a lot of buzz and bring new visitors to Etsy).
Special landing page where kids' content is grouped. This will welcome first time visitors who click through from related outside ads and blog posts.

How can sellers get involved?

We want you to list your finest items for children, babies, new moms and dads, and make sure those are tagged properly of course! Michelle has written up this informative tagging how-to for you.
Many different types of items could fit in the Children's Category (for example, furniture for kids may be categorized in the Children's Category or in the Furniture Category). Now would be a good time to test out which category works better for your items and track your views and sales.
Clearly indicate if your items (such as toys) are intended for adults or children.
If you do custom work for new families, make sure your Alchemy announcement is set up.
The Children's Category Showcase will be getting increase traffic, so heads up on that.
The more buzz we get going about this series, the more links we get into Etsy, the better our Google search results. This is great for the whole marketplace. So let's all get together and blog (see these posts for help)!
Give us suggestions for sub-categories of the Children's Category.

Thanks so much and let me know if you have ideas or questions in the comments below!

*[No, the Etsy admin are not pregnant. But presumably a lot of our shoppers are! Etsy is 96% female and the average buyer's age is 32. Check out our survey results.]

**[This contest will only be open to US residents. Believe me, we are as frustrated by this as you are! As a US-based company, when offering prizes of any kind, we are bound by US contest law. We can't wait for the day when Etsy opens international sites and we can exclude US residents from contests. I joke... but seriously, we are looking into ways to legally include international Etsians in future contests. Please be patient with us, we love you!]

Tech Update: New Storque Functions

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:27:00 -0000

Did you notice???

First off, the Storque is now "Blog" in the main navigation of Etsy, and no longer "News." We Storque admin are happy with this change and it's something we've talked about a lot. "News" seemed misleading because the Storque is a whole lot more than site news. "Storque" is perhaps too mysterious for newbie readers, and while we considered "Magazine" or "Gazette" or "Zine," those all pointed to print media in a way that might have been confusing.

The archives of our old blog, The Etsy Garden, can now be found at http://fix.etsy.com — and you should bookmark this link for future reference. In the event that Etsy.com goes down, let's all meet up over there (since the Storque will maybe be down too). More on that in this post.

Other new features: you now get a peek at the comments when you click on an article. We made this change to encourage folks to notice that you can indeed comment on Storque articles! Why not show all of the comments? Well, that would slow down the loading of the page, so we settle for the first five and then you can click to "read more..."

You can also now subscribe through RSS to comments on specific articles. And you can RSS the feed of the Multi-media section, if you just want to see videos and you don't subscribe to the Etsy iTunes feed. You can find out about RSS in general and why it's cool here.

A Flickr badge is a lovely new addition to our Events section. We think images of Etsy in Action makes the page a bit more dynamic and alluring, don't you just want to ...click...pictures...P.S. This is a place to pool your photos of Team events and to share with other Etsians what you're up to and how you did it.

Please join the Flickr Group and add photos of:
* craft fairs
* meet-ups
* crafty creative sessions
* skill shares
* anything else that shows your Team or Etsy sellers in action
Please do not post product photos here. This group is for Etsy event-related pictures only.

Thanks and leave your ideas for how to improve the Storque's site features in the comments below!

Tech Update: Showcase Living Large & Storque Upgrade

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:14:00 -0000

Dear Sellers,

In the past, you could tell when a Showcase wasn't sold out: the items in it would look a little sad and lonely, there was white blank space... But we just put through an update: any Showcase that isn't sold out now looks a whole lot more full-bodied. The images expand to take up more room!

For info on Showcase, read 13.5 Questions About The Showcase or other posts on this topic here.

Dear Storque readers,

Bless the Engineering Team and QA! They made us a number of wonderful changes to our admin panel. And you readers will notice admin have badges by our author avatars, so you can better tell who is who. We can now put videos in the Featured spots on the homepage of the Storque!

For more on new site features, check out the TechUpdates Featured Column and subscribe to Etsy News Email alerts!

Call for Storque Articles: Etsy Pets

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:41:00 -0000

Throw us a bone, why don't ya! We want to do a series of pet-centric posts next week and we're looking for pitches. Use our Pitch to the Storque Form to send us great ideas for animal and pet-related content you'd like to share. Make sure to include the word "pets" in your pitch so we can find you in our "box o' ideas that floweth over."

We have puppy fever over here! And bunnies and kitties and all sorts! We've been doing some posts off and on with the Etsy Pets Flickr Pool and we want to see your little ones. We want to feature some posts from animals lovers, links to great pet-lovers' blogs, people who make pet-related items, posts from Teams such as these:

Etsy Beagles Team
Cruelty Free Etsy
The Dog Mafia
EFA Etsy for Animals
Handmade4Hounds

We're already fawning over all the cute animals we've already seen during our "research phase." (CuteOverload.com, mostly!) Wow us with stories of your pets and the products that they love to use and play with!

Tech Updates: Storque Improvements

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:09:00 -0000

Notice anything a little...different? The Storque has received some tweaks from our beloved engineers that make it a lot more user-friendly, and we couldn't be more excited. You'll notice that we've added a handy dandy "ALL ARTICLES" link in the main navigation, which allows you to see all of the Storque articles we've published in blog-like chronological order. (Excellent!)

We also now have a customizable pitch form, where we can specify what we're looking for in the near future. Check it out and see what is coming up on the editorial calendar, as it will be changing!

We've also added a tiny widget under the Featured Columns that allows you to toggle over to all of the Storque Related Items that are featured in the Storque, in a great 10x10 grid.

We are also enamored of the Google Calendar widget and have installed one at the top of the Events section.

Hope you like these little changes! More to come in the future.

About Us: Bre aka brepettis

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:33:00 -0000

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We are posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

MP4 | Youtube | Blip.tv | Subscribe in iTunes

Bre is our new media guru over here at the Etsy Labs. He works with the Storque team and is wont to Twitter with the best of em. Bre can explain RSS to you in less than 30 seconds, which then makes us realize we should add these types of things as how-tos on the Storque. Yeah, that's right. If there's something on the internet that we should know about...Bre to the rescue!

Bre is super fun and full of ideas. He's got cute puppets up his sleeve, too, so watch out for that! He also allegedly saw Big Foot when he was at summer camp as a child. His goal is to be the top search term for "Bre" on Google, and he's darn close! Also, Bre is short for "Brehaspati," which is actually his hippy middle name. You can read our announcement from when we first hired him.

Apparently, Bre was full of angst during high school. I think a Flock of Seagulls picked him up, flew away with him, and dropped him on this here jeep. We had another awkward picture of Bre where he's sitting on a jeep. Maybe this was the thing to do if you were a cool kid in Seattle?

Baby Bre, just chillin'. It was so peaceful and quiet then, before the dawning of the internet.

See all posts in this About Us series. Here are some of his favorites below...

About Us: Alison aka TeenAngster

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:40:00 -0000

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We'll be posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

This installment features — guess who — Alison aka TeenAngster! Alison works for the Storque Team at Etsy, producing original fashion content for the Spotlight section and other insightful stuff, as well as editing pretty much everything else with just lil ole me. You can see all of Alison's posts here.

Even with all the news whipping whirlwinds through the Storqueland nook of the Etsy Labs, she keeps her cool. She's played a huge role in making the Storque an insightful, entertaining and beautiful e-zine to read. For those of you have seen this style maven in action, you know what I'm talking about. Alison's collections and frontpages are always top sellers and for that, the whole Etsy community should be really proud!

I think Alison also buys more stuff than any of the rest of us admin do. She averages about two packages a day and we always gather round her desk to see what the next big thing is.

Just look at this lil lass from Ioway!

Adorable dogkins too!

See all posts in this About Us series.

Etsy Etsy Etsy Newscast

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:47:00 -0000

MP4 | HD | Youtube | Blip

In this Etsy News video podcast you'll learn about some construction going on inside and out of the Etsy Labs, get an update on the book club's return from the dead, find out about some plans for a town hall meeting, get the "web-er" report, explore the new community landing page, and take a look into the workshop of an Etsy seller.

This is my first Etsy News report, and I'd like feedback. Check out one of the awesome newscasts that Shannon did. Are there things that she did that you'd like to see in future newscasts? Do you think I get too close to the camera? Do you miss the greenscreen effects? Leave your feedback in the comments!

If you watch and listen close you'll see a microphone wandering into the picture and hear cellphone interference. I'm going to try and avoid those things next time!

I wanted to include Etsians' user generated videos in the newscast, and so giantdwarf has a cameo in this months newscast. What kinds of Etsy user generated videos do you think would fit into the Etsy video podcast? If you've got something that you think would fit, drop me a line at bre@etsy.com.

This is the first Etsy video that's in HD! All in favor of more pixels, raise your hands!

Do you like to watch videos at Youtube? We're just getting the Etsy channel set up over there and it's only got 60 subscribers. If you like to watch youtube videos, subscribe after clicking to the Etsy Youtube page!

And stay tuned, because next up we'll have a special Valentine's How-to!

About Us: New Member of the Storque Team, Bre Pettis

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:50:00 -0000

We're excited to announce that "silver fox/MacGyver chimera" Bre Pettis, our friend and neighbor, will be joining the Storque Team here at Etsy. We've known Bre for quite some time, as MAKE used to share space with us at the Etsy Labs in Brooklyn (Phil Torrone of the MAKE NYC outpost and Burdastyle are now just four floors below us the same building).

Bre had been working with MAKE zine to produce their Weekend Projects, a series of How-to videos with a techie bent. He garnered many accolades and fans, and often travels around speaking and presenting about all things DIY. Before his time as a videoblogger, Bre was a teacher in the Seattle public school system, and spent his time there inspiring "medium-sized" children to express themselves through art, theater, and writing.

Bre is not just a delightful and brilliant gentleman, he also is New Media. We're looking forward to working with him on expanding the interactivity, frequency, and general awesomeness of Etsy's video, podcasting and live virtual spaces! The Handmade Universe is busting wide open! It's crazy! We've already brainstormed many, many ideas, and we hope that Bre is resting up at his parents' place in Seattle right now, because when he gets back to NYC on Monday, January 21st, he's gonna have a lot of work to do ;)

We love you, Bre! Comment below to give him a hearty welcome! What videos do you want him to do first??

Further Resources:
Check back to this post on Monday, because we'll be adding his profile, proper.

Bre's blog imakethings

MAKE's videos

The Storque's videos

Storque Digest: January 9th - January 15th, 2008

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:50:00 -0000

We've had quite the productive week around these parts. We're gearing up for Valentine's Day and keeping the love alive! Catch up on the headlines from the past week with the Storque Digest.

Hot Posts:

Etsy Presents: The Love Challenge!

Billing Alert: Reminder to Pay Overdue Bills

Tech Updates: USD added to item listing page

St Valentine's Day Showcase, Coming Soon!

Art and Science Converge: The Periodic Table Printmaking Project

Other News Headlines:

Vote for Etsy: Nomination for TechCrunch's Crunchies

Tech Updates: Showcase System Upgraded

Tech Updates: Etsy Search Browser Plugin

Tech Updates: Multi-Media Section of the Storque Launches

Can't Post New Listings? Overdue Etsy Bill

Contest At Stylemob!: Made it Myself!

We also started our "All About Etsy" FAQ series. Read here for all the questions you've had about Etsy!

Posts for Shoppers:

Featured Buyer: Kathy Malone of Brooklyn Indie Market

A thoroughly modern shop! Fresh Shops: kmaclean

Valentine's Day is coming soon! We're pumped!

A Very Jaded Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day: What Women Want

Valentine's Day: What Men Want

As always, check out our series of Etsy Finds, and subscribe to the Etsy Finds email!

Handmade Lifestyle:

Recommended Blog: Superziper

Handmade Correspondence in the Twenty-First Century

Crafting 365: Make 2008 Your Craftiest Year Yet!

And check out our continuing video series of Handmade Stories!

Posts for Sellers:

The Shop Makeover series continues!

SarahSays: Trademarks

Forum Decorum: Keepin' It Relevant and Useful

Etsy Success Stories: anapaulaoli

Etsy Team Tips: Update your Team's Web Presence!

How-to Network Offline: Increase Online Sales in Five Easy Steps

Etc.:

Multi-media Visitors to the Etsy Labs

We've been telling more about the admin behind Etsy in our About Us series.

Funny Forum Quotes: Valentine's Edition (with tiddyinks!)

Etsy Pets: Mosie and Tala

And just for our own personal curiousity: let us know what you think the most compelling article was this week! Post it in the comments!

All about Etsy FAQ Series: As the Storque Flies

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:01:00 -0000

The Storque is still young and fresh-faced, having only been launched in September of 2007. We still hear people asking, "What is the Storque?" As part of our All about Etsy FAQ series, we're including this post: information about the Storque, how it works, how it serves the Etsy community and readers interested in the handmade lifestyle, and further, how you can get involved.

Upon reflection, we've come a long way since September of 2007. But the Storque editors feel that there are still ways to improve. We've just launched the Multi-Media section as of January 2008, and we'll be making a push this spring to have a stronger Etsy video presence. Part of that includes getting Etsians involved: we want to see Your Handmade Stories and your How-to videos, and other video projects too. And to help support that, we'll be doing a series of How-to Make Your Own Video.

We're also working on ways to make the Storque easier to navigate. One of the common critiques we hear is, "There's so much great stuff on the Storque, but it's hard to find what I'm looking for!" We'll be working on other mechanisms for readers.

Editing the Storque is also a constant balancing act between content for Buyers and content for Sellers. Our hope is that this dual readership is interested enough in each other that you don't mind sifting through content a bit. We also plan to work more on syndicating content out and getting the Storque name out there into the wide world outside of Etsy.

All in all, Alison aka TeenAngster, Bre aka brepettis, Tara aka weirdwolf and I love our jobs and we look forward to suggestions you may have in the comments below.

The Storque is Etsy's online zine/blog/magazine (what do you think we should call it?), for both buyers and sellers and readers interested in the handmade lifestyle. The Storque provides site announcements for users, as well as posts highlighting great handmade items for sale on the site and stories about makers. It's like a blog in that it's updated every day, throughout the day, but it's more like a magazine in that its content is organized into different sections, to better help you get to stories of interest to you.

Another special aspect of the Storque is the Related Items; these are listings from the marketplace linked at the bottom of each article. Most of the header images used to illustrate posts are from marketplace listings (some are from Creative Commons licensed flickr photos). In this way, the Storque can be browsed like a context-based shopping tool: a magazine embedded with handmade items for sale. Since we're telling the inspiring stories behind handmade items in our marketplace and sharing info from helpful sellers, it makes sense for the Storque.

How to Navigate the Storque

Click on any of the recent posts featured on the homepage of the Storque.
Search the Storque for articles by using the search bar (search by Storque tags only, tags and titles of articles, or tags, titles and body of articles).
Click on the main sections at left and they will take you to that type of content only.
SPOTLIGHT— Featured items and sellers from the marketplace.

THIS HANDMADE LIFE— Lifestyle pieces from the world of handmade.

CRAFTIVISM— Stories with a socially conscious mission.

HOW-TO— Indie-preneur info and advice as well as some how-tos for making stuff and help using the site for buying and selling

REVIEWS— Reviews of anything related to handmade: blogs, music, movies, equipment, shows...

ETSY NEWS— Updates about Etsy policy, new site features, press clippings

EVENTS— Heads-up and round-ups about goings-on in the in the world of DIY, handmade (especially events Etsians are organizing or involved in)

ETC— Fun, silly stuff like Etsy Pets and Funny Forum Quotes.
MULTI-MEDIA— Get straight to a chronological list of the videos embedded within articles on the Storque.
Click on a Featured Column to get an even finer grained sorting of the content.
Click view all contributors to read the Storque by author.
Under featured columns, you'll see recent comments. Click on these to get right to what all the fuss is about.

Once you've opened an article, you can:

Click on the tags at the bottom to see other similar content.
You can click on an author's avatar to get to a list of all the articles they've written for the Storque or to get to their shop and profile.
If you're a shopper, you should also click on related items to get to the listing page.
Click on Comments to make them visible. You need to be logged into Etsy to post your own comment.
Previous page and Next page get you to the previous or next article within the section.

If you prefer the Storque to be a weekly experience, you should read the Storque Digest for all the headlines from the previous week. We have a monthly video called the Storque Newscast that you should check out. Both of these can be found in the featured columns.

Here are the specifics on Featured Columns:

About Us — Get to know the Etsy admin.
All about Etsy FAQ Series — Learn about how Etsy, the company, runs internally.
Art of Pricing — A series for sellers on figuring out how to price your work.
Competitions & Opportunities — Check this out for contests, promotions and other ways to get in on the action.
CustomerCare — Pieces from admin on the Customer Support Team, with everything from helpful tips on how to use Etsy to updates on site policy and billing.
Etsy Community Projects — Projects that Etsians do together to get to know each other, have fun or do something that makes a difference.
Etsy Finds — Every day, one of the Etsy admin posts one of their favorite items from the marketplace.
Etsy Handmade Heirlooms — Call for videos about your family's most treasured handmade heirloom.
Etsy Love Stories — Romance, Etsy style.
Etsy Success Stories — Interviews with successful Etsy sellers, in which they share their useful tips.
Etsy's Most Hearted — Posts about much beloved Etsians.
EtsyLabs — Find out what is going on in the Labs and how to get involved, even if you're not in Brooklyn.
EtsyTeams — All posts related to Etsy Teams.
EtsyinthePress — Keep up to date with news articles and other media pieces that cover Etsy.
Featured Buyer — Posted on Wednesdays, these pieces invite notables and bloggers to choose their favorite items from the Etsy marketplace.
Forum Decorum — Etiquette for participating in the Etsy Forums.
Fresh Shops — Our weekly series highlighting new talented sellers.
Funny Forum Quotes — Silly and insightful lines from the Etsy Forums.
Gift Ideas — Seasonal content for shoppers.
Legal Info for Artists —Legal information for artists and crafters from Sarah Feingold, Etsy's in-house attorney and jeweler.
News from the Craft + Style Blogosphere
Online Workshops — Notices for live multi-user events. Get involved!
Open Studio Tour — Visits to artists, both Etsy sellers and other notable artists.
Podcasting Series — Learn how-to podcast and suggestions for what to listen to.
Recommended Blogs — Suggestions for cool blogs to read
Shop Critiques — Posts related to the Labs' live critiques of sellers' shops.
Shop Makeover Series — How-to make your shop better looking, more effective and more self-confident too!
Storque Newscast — Our video newscast. Entertaining and informative.
TechUpdates — Site announcements pertaining to site functionality and features.
Trends — Hot tends for shoppers
Your Handmade Stories — Our call for videos from sellers and buyers telling us how making things has changed their lives or supporting indie artists makes the world a better place

For Buyers:
There's plenty o' shopping content. Click through the Storque as you would flip through a fashion magazine, checking out the related items at the bottom of each article.

Every week we post a Trends piece or a Featured Buyer piece in the SPOTLIGHT section.
Daily, we post Etsy Finds which highlight a unique item on Etsy.
We also feature Fresh Shops as a way to highlight newbie sellers.
Look for Etsy EVENTS in your area; some of these are local to Brooklyn and related to our office at the Etsy Labs, but some of the events may be featuring Etsy sellers in your area.

For Sellers:
The Storque is your go-to place for site announcements and ETSY NEWS, as well as HOW-TO s for indie entrepreneurs. Etsy Success Stories in the SPOTLIGHT section reveal some of the best kept secrets from Etsy's top sellers. TechUpdates offer you the crucial info.

Writing for the Storque
The Storque is written by Etsy admins, special guests, and members of the Etsy community, so in a way, it's like a community newspaper. Etsians can pitch an article to the Storque by clicking the "You can too!" link on the Storque's homepage. We, the Storque's editors Vanessa and TeenAngster, will get back to you if your pitch fits the editorial calendar and if we think your post would be of interest to readers. Please click through to authors' shops and profiles linked to by their by-line avatars.

Readers and authors alike look forward to reading the comments on articles. These comments range in tone from virtual high-fives to thoughtful critiques.

One of our readers anndouglas, for example, commented:
"I'm new to Etsy and loving The Storque. Thanks for your great blend of helpful tips, fun-to-read writing, and things I have to check out (and possibly buy)."

Like any online magazine or blog, the editors reserve the right to remove comments that we deem inappropriate or offensive. The Storque is a live, public space for editorial content, and we urge commenters to reflect on their tone and message before posting. For in-depth, Etsy-focused discussion, you may want to post in the forums. From time to time, in fact, we'll close commenting on a Storque post and redirect conversation to a forum thread. In part, we don't want to splinter information and the valuable insight that comes when important topics like site policy or bugs are discussed or diagnosed.

Reposting Content
The Storque is published under a Creative Commons license which allows you to repost articles wherever you like, and we hope that you do so, as long as you give the creators attribution and link back to the original post.

For Media & Press inquiries:
Please see the Etsy About Page and Press Page. If you're interested in developing a Storque story for newspaper, magazine or TV, please email storque@etsy.com.

Tech Updates: Multi-Media Section of the Storque Launches

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:15:00 -0000

Give a big welcome to the latest and snazziest addition to the Storque! We've added a section called Multi-Media where you can get directly to our latest video content without having to search through articles. The Multi-Media section is a chronological list of videos; each of these videos can also be found embedded within Storque articles. They're listed most recent at the top, down the line to older videos.

You can find this Multi-Media section in light green right under the pink ETC and the other sections of the Storque navigation. You can also click on the thumbnail to the very bottom right of the Storque frontpage.

If you want to search for a specific video, search for "video" and another tag. For example, search for: video packaging. The search results will return articles with embedded videos that have been tagged with the word packaging. At this point, you cannot search just within the Multi-Media section (in other words, get search results as video sans article). Hopefully that will come into being sometime soon!

We hope you enjoy the videos and get involved! You can upload your videos to Youtube or blip or other hosting site and let us know about them by using the pitch form (make sure to include the link to your video when you fill out the form). Right now we have a call out for your Handmade Stories: see this post for more info.

Storque Digest: January 2nd - January 8th, 2008

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:10:00 -0000

It's been a busy week! 2008 looks to be a swell year. Catch up on the headlines from the past week with the Storque Digest.

Hot Posts:

Etsy Year in Review: 2007

Survey Says: Getting to Know You & Getting the Word Out
Have you taken our handy dandy survey? Do it today!

Etsy in the Press: Best of 2007 and Then Some

Cracker Crumbs and Packing Peanuts: Insights from Work-At-Home Moms to Boost Your Productivity

Valentine's Day Gift Guide: It's Never Too Early for Love!

The Shop Makeover series continues! Check out this article on the "fine print" of your shop for more info.

Other News Headlines:

Tech Updates: Shop Page Username Changes

SarahSays: Contest Law

Posts for Shoppers:

Etsy Finds: Grocery Totes Save the Earth

Shop Local: Vermont

Fresh Shops: JacobsEye

Just for kicks, we had a season showdown, with the Northern hemisphere's weather pitted against the Southern.

And here's the Southern hemisphere edition!

Etsy Trends: Cookie Magazine's Nursery Art Round-Up

Handmade Lifestyle:

Your Handmade Stories: Peeech

Fundraising for Dawn's Boys

Etsy How-to: Screenprinting and You

Posts for Sellers:

Wednesday Online Workshop: Shop Makeover series

Etsy Success Stories: jacquelineknits

Etsy Teams Digest: What a Wonderful Year

Forum Decorum: Taking Time for a Time Out

Customer Care Update: Canceling Etsy Transactions

Etsy Seller Inventory Worksheet

How-to Sell Sell Sell 365 Days a Year: Make Everyday a Holiday

Etc:

Wanna know more about the folks behind Etsy? We'll be posting little tidbits of info in our About Us series! First up: Chris aka RevolvingDork

And just for our own personal curiousity: let us know what you think the most compelling article was this week! Post it in the comments!

Storque Digest: December 25 - January 1

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:57:00 -0000

Welcome back from the holidays! Catch up on the headlines from the past week with the Storque Digest.

Hot Posts:
Introducing a New Series for the New Year: Shop Makeover ... Etsy sellers are ready to get to work revamping their shops for 2008! Get involved: document your progress with screenshots, upload em to flickr or your blog, and post the links to them in the comments of this series. We kicked it off with a post on tagging.

Buy Handmade Pledge: Confess, Cheaters! Share your post-holiday kudos and purge your mass-produced guilt!

Etsy in the Press: Jim Henson Honors. Looks like I'm not the only one who had a crush on Beaker!

Other News Headlines:

Looking Back at the Storque: 2007

Posts for Shoppers:
Thank You Notes: Artful Expressions of Gratitude

New Years Eve Special: Party Animal

New Year, New Stuff

Hot Trends: Winged Necklaces and Knit Berets

Fresh Shops: ecram1

And check out the Etsy Finds.

Handmade Lifestyle:

Boxing Day: Hidden Origins & New Traditions

An Etsy New Year's Eve!

Posts for Sellers:

Etsy Success Story: Working Class Heroes

Looking Back at the Storque: 2007

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 03:17:00 -0000

Since the launch of the Storque in September 2007, many articles generated discussion amongst our readers. Below, we'll point you to some of the "most commented on" posts.

Some posts got people to laugh. Etsians got a kick out of pieces by aPassionForFashion's husband Jason: How Going to the Craft Store is like Going to the Gym and Families of the Addicted.

Some posts were more contentious. The announcement of Etsy's expanded Showcase program, Shiny New Showcases, met with calls for seller stats. The announcement of the Gift Guides feature also drew differing opinions and reactions from Etsians.

Recently, after the stress and excitement of the holidays, we posted a tongue-in-cheek call for the confessions of "cheaters" who didn't keep their BuyHandmade.org Pledge 100%. The pledge was — and is (it's not ending with the passing of the holidays!) — ambitious, and Etsians stepped up to the challenge with the earnest goal to give handmade items preferential treatment. While the BuyHandmade.org Pledge takes a hands-on approach to the serious political, social, environmental, and economic issues, Etsians aren't a rigid or humorless bunch. We gave it our best shot this holiday season and really, we want to continue! Because buying and giving, making and asking for handmade isn't just about signing your name on a website or just about this and only this season: it's a lifestyle choice and a paradigm shift. Check out this interesting forum thread for more of Etsians talking about how handmade has changed their perspectives on consumerism.

Etsians also like to hear from Etsy's founder, Rob Kalin aka Rokali. Sellers — and buyers too — have invested a lot of time and energy and money in Etsy and they want to check in and hear what the company's goals and priorities are. We did a podcast with Rob, Rokali's Ironing-board Chat, and readers can expect another post from him soon.

Interactive pieces called for participation by the community. Find Your Local Holiday Craft Fair! showed the remarkable amount of handmade selling activity going on around the world for the 2007 holiday season.

Virtual partying got people involved too. The Duel asked for your votes: Couch potato or Glammier than thou? Fun tie-ins with the frontpage got people's attention, like KarmaRox's Hidden Treasure post.

We did a couple interviews with celebs we thought you would enjoy: Amy Sedaris and Lotta Jansdotter.

The Costume-a-thon — Etsy's Halloween Costume Contest for which we partnered with Treehugger.com, BoingBoing.net, Conservation International, Craftzine.com, Threadless.com, Tcritic.com, Babble.com and Makezine.com — brought in many new readers and spread Etsy creativity throughout the web in the form of some amazing costumes. We're looking forward to launching more contests like Costume-a-thon in 2008.

More from the Storque:
We also started doing the Storque Digests, which collect the week prior's headlines. The Storque monthly Newscast is a series of informative, yet entertaining videos for your viewing pleasure. We'll be experimenting with their style and content in the coming months as we expand our video content. We'll also be experimenting with a Storque Index, as another way — a heavily alphabetized way — of finding what you're looking for. Speaking of Storque-centric content, The Storque Masthead & Tagline: We Need Your Input was not in vain! We will be implementing those changes soon.

Please post below and let us know what your favorite 2007 Storque articles were, and what you'd like to see more of in the coming months.

Storque Digest: December 19 - December 24

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 18:27:00 -0000

Seasons Greetings to all who are celebrating right now. And for those who don't celebrate, thank you for being patient with us while we do funny things with trees and hang stockings in unexpected places in our homes. Here's the run-down of headlines from the past week of the Storque. Check out past Storque Digests to catch up on your reading!

Hot Posts

Etsy in the Press: New York Times Magazine Feature and Etsy in the Press: The Rachael Ray Show

Forum Questions Answered: Loosewirestudio

We launched a new shopping tool in TechUpdates: Shop Local and continued our Shop Local series from around the world on the Storque. See all posts.

Survey Says: We Want Your Input. We got an amazing response from this post which called for your ideas for what to cover in our survey.

Other News Headlines:

Tech Updates: New Storque Tools for Readers

Forum Decorum: Hey, Help Me Out!

Etsy in the Press: Right in the Middle of the Top 100

Lifestyle: Tis the Season for some wonderful posts by the community!

Last-minute Gifts or Ways to Entertain Younger Relatives, with abitabite's video How-to!

Christmas in Germany from strumpfkunst.

Kwanzaa: A Handmade Holiday from antb.

Etsian How-To: Make Your Own Holiday Stocking!

New Year's Party Guide! with TeenAngster.

And we had a "Handmade Story" video from leakarts: Why I Sell Handmade.

Posts for Shoppers:

Fresh Shops: avrilloreti

Featured Buyer: Celene Ryan and Steven Tatar of Ohio Knitting Mills

Stylehive's Picks for Holiday Gifts

As always, check out the Etsy Finds, for daily goodness!

Posts for Sellers:

Important billing info! Sellers should read these articles on billing and the new policy going into effect on January 1st, 2008.

Customer Support did this How-to: Photoshop Techniques for Mature Listings for sellers who want to prepare their MATURE content for public consumption.

Customer Care Tip: Proof of Shipping

Recommended Blog and Interview: SusyJack*. Interested inblogging? You should read this!

Need to catch up on past Storque Digests? It's all waiting for you, right here!

Tech Updates: New Storque Tools for Readers

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:34:00 -0000

The Storque has new webby doodads so you can easily share articles!

We are trying our best to bring you news and stories from the handmade world and so why not give you readers the tools to spread the word?

At the bottom of each article, you'll find links to:

• Email to a friend (this will pop open whichever email application you use).

• Add to del.icio.us (which is a social bookmarking site...if you don't use it, you should. It's a way to keep all the urls you want to remember organized).

• Digg this (Digg is a way for blog readers to vote on what's worth reading).

The Storque is published under a Creative Commons license which allows you bloggers to re-post Storque articles, as long as you link back and give credit to the original author. In fact, we'd love it if you would!

Storque Digest: December 12th to 18th

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:05:00 -0000

It's been an eventful week here at Etsy! Here's the round up, condensed for your consideration.

Hot Posts:

Etsy in the Press: New York Times Magazine Feature

TechUpdates: Shoppers Pounce on a New Flash Feature

Etsy on Your TV. And Your Computer. And in Print. (Psst! We were on the Rachael Ray Show!)

How-to: Sell Local

Billing Alert: A Reminder about the New Policy for the New Year

SarahSays on Etsy's Copyright Policy

Other News Headlines:

Open Call for Designers: BurdaStyle Wants to Hear from You!

Call for Entries: 1000 Handmade Greeting Cards

Tech Updates: Listing Process Augmented

About the Storque

Posts for Shoppers:

Featured Buyer: UrbanBaby's Brooke Showell

Have you been keeping up with our world wide Etsy tour? Check out the Gift Ideas: Shop Local, with places like Michigan, Belgium, New York State, Washington, DC, Argentina, Columbus, Ohio, Scandinavia, and Singapore spotlighted. This could be quite helpful in finding items before your holiday deadline! If you'd like to showcase your city, state or country, shoot us an email at Storque@Etsy.com.

Gift Ideas: Vegan Products

Hostess Gifts: Apartment Therapy LA's Laure Joliet

Fresh Shops: Berkley Illustration

Lifestyle:

Family Farm: From Sheep to Yarn

Remember to Share the Love this Holiday Season

Wine, Not Whine for the Holidays

Autism into Art: Siobhan Forrester

Album Review: Heart Comma Heart

Posts for Sellers:

Wednesday Workshop Wrap-Up: Gift Certificates in Your Shop

Etsy Success Stories: LuxeDeluxe

Get The Most From Your Post! (Using the Promos forum)

Your Shop 101 in the Virtual Labs: Help your buyers shop local!

Etsy Teams Mission: Ten Minute Marketing

Forum Decorum: Etsy's Suggestion Box

Need to catch up on past Storque Digests? It's all waiting for you, right here!

Storque Digest: December 4 - December 11

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:19:00 -0000

Another Storque Digest! See all Storque Digests by clicking on the Featured Column at left.

Hot Posts:

Special Interview: Amy Sedaris

Can I still get this by Christmas?

December Newscast

Yo, people! Find a holiday craft fair near you! Thanks to all the sellers who told us where they'd be.

Attention, Shoppers! yogagoat made a Crash Course for Newbie Shoppers that will help you on your way!

Big shout-out to FrucciDesign for her How-to Italiano!

Other News Headlines:
Submit your Crafty Videos to Todd Oldham on Youtube!

Searching has been improved

Etsy Statistics: 2 Million Items Sold

Etsy in the Press: JenniBOriginals on the Martha Stewart Show

Tech Updates: Pay NOW with PayPal

Posts for Shoppers:

Fresh Shops: GoBuggy

Have you been keeping up with our world wind tour? Check out the Gift Ideas: Shop Local, with places like Germany, Asia, New Zealand, Brooklyn, Australia, UK, Montreal and soooo much more...If you'd like to showcase your city, state or country, shoot us an email at Storque@Etsy.com.

There are some other fun Gift Ideas, such as Steampunk, Gothic Lolita and Saucy Domesticate.

Trends: Cookie Magazine on Fashion for Mom and Baby

Featured Buyer: Ai Ai Gasa Boutique

Recommended Blogs: Oh Joy!

As always, check out our Etsy Finds to get your daily dose of Etsy quirkyness. We try our darndest!

Lifestyle:

Why I Sell Handmade by Jelene

The Story of Quilts story by babyannequilts

Diwali: India's Festival of Lights story by MagdaleneJewels

A Joyeux Noël with the Santons of France story by lapomme , tortillagirl

An International Crafting Fairytale by FluffyFlowers , trailmixdesigns

For Sellers:

Etsy Success Stories: paperedtogether

The Ins and Outs of Consignment from SarahSays

Etsy Teams Mission: Ten Minute Marketing

Etsy Labs shop critique: Week 9 with OpheliaFelt took the hot seat!

Urbana held an Online Video tutorial: Stash Book making

Forum Decorum: For the Love of Mr. Ed!

13.5 Questions About The Showcase has been updated with info about the Category Showcases.

Events:

Etsy Teams Rock the Holidays Part 2: Global Teams

Etsy Teams Rock the Holidays Part 1: Local Teams

Plush You: The Trunk Show (and Book Signing!)

Etsy Pops Up in Soho

Bust Craftactular happened too and it was totally out of hand.

Etc.:

Etsians Cook Book Project: ApolloHillsCrafts's Browned Butter Potatoes Recipe

Need to catch up on past Storque Digests? It's all waiting for you, right here!

December Storque Newscast

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:37:00 -0000

December has been a crazy month so far, and here's another crazy newscast to go with it!

Adam and Amy struggle to find words for all that's happening at Etsy (or maybe it's the writers' strike?), while Charles brings us up-to-date with his Web-er Report. Beth unveils new site features, Matt gives us a lively reminder about the Bust Craftacular and Bob reports from the front lines of Etsy Labs where Anda and Danielle are standing by to fill us in on Etsy Emails and Good Magazine's Pop-Up Store.

Have a wonderful holiday, from all of us at the Storque!

View all Storque Newscasts.