Etsy's Handmade Blog
Handmade Code: Tag Finder Tool from Craftweasel.com

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, Martin Jones tells us all about his Tag Finder tool, just one of the applications he's developed for his website Craftweasel.com.


Photography has been a hobby of mine for a while, and at the start of this year I set up an Etsy shop called redrowstudio for my photographic prints.  At the same time, I was taking the photos for my partner's shop, thedoghouse. My day job is in computational biology, and I do a lot of programming, so straight away I started thinking of ways to use the data from Etsy's API to make useful tools. The first thing I built was the Personal Shopper tool — I've been interested for a while in recommendation systems, and I thought that Etsy Favorites might be a good starting point. I put up the craftweasel.com website, posted a link in the Forums, and got lots of good feedback. I wrote the Tag Finder tool to see if it could help me with my own tags, then realized by reading the Forums that others might find it useful, so I added it to the website, and straight away it became the most popular tool.

 


What's the basic idea of the Tag Finder tool
? What need does it fill?
A lot of sellers (myself included!) find that one of the most difficult jobs is deciding on tags for our items — if you search the Etsy Forums on any given day you can pretty much guarantee that someone will be asking for help with their tags. Sometimes you can't think of enough tags for a particular item, and sometimes you can think of too many and can't decide which to use!

The idea behind the Tag Finder tool is to help with both of these problems. You give Tag Finder a couple of tags to start with, then it gives you a list of suggested tags that are associated with your original tags. (This bit works like the Google and Yahoo keyword tools).

It also lets you see the average number of views per day of each suggested tag. (It's a bit more complicated than that; see the website help page for more info). This is very useful if you're a seller, because you can choose tags that generate high numbers of views.

Very Important Editorial Note from our Etsy Support Team: Please remember to only use tags that are accurate and relevant to your specific item listing to best help shoppers find your items on Etsy. Inaccurate tags may be flagged by other members for review and removed from your listing by Etsy, without notice. Also, remember to consider appropriate tags that function as subcategories within your item's category. Check out the Selling FAQ for more info about using tags properly.

Who is it for? How many people are using it right now?
The Tag Finder tool is for Etsy sellers who want to optimize their tags. Of course, you can also use it for market research — to see what color of hats get the most views, for instance. We've had about 5,000 visitors who have used the Tag Finder tool, and they've searched using about 7,000 different sets of starting tags.

Where do we go to find it? What's the URL, etc?
Go to http://craftweasel.com, and click to go to Tag Finder from the menu bar at the top of any page on craftweasel.com. Or go directly to this link: http://craftweasel.com/TagToolQuery.do

How do you use it?
The Tag Finder page is very simple — just a single box! You type in some tags that describe your item (for example, wool scarf) and click the button. You might have to wait a while for the results to load,
because the application has to go and retrieve a bunch of data from Etsy.

The results page consists of a few graphs and a table. The first two graphs show the distribution of price and average number of views per day for items that match your input tags. For instance, for "wool
scarf" we see that most items cost between $20 and $40, and that most items get fewer than 10 views per day.



The next three graphs show some suggested tags, with views/day on the up-down axis and price on the left-right axis. From the first graph, two suggested tags stand out as getting high numbers of views —
"'woman" and "organic." So if these tags are suitable for your item they would be good to include in your tags.



Right down at the bottom of the results page is a big table that shows all the suggested tags and for each one the average views/day, price, and the number of items that were found. You can click on the column
headers to sort by that column. The table shows all tags that are associated with "wool scarf" so it can be useful for market research. For instance, imagine that we are trying to decide what color scarf we should make next. If we look in the table for color words, we can take a note of the views/day for each color:

red 3.10
blue 2.75
green 2.61
silver 3.31
gray 6.68

Gray wool scarves seem to get more views than the other colors, so we might decide to make our next scarf a gray one.

Are there any costs or further opportunities/ways to get involved?
All the tools on craftweasel.com, including the Tag Finder, are free to use — the website is supported by advertising through Project Wonderful. I'd love to hear any feedback, and I'm always interested in ideas for new tools — contact me using the details below. I'd also love to hear if you've come up with an interesting way to use the Tag Finder; I'd like to put more examples on the craftweasel blog.

What should one do if there's a bug or a problem? Who should one contact?
I've tried to make it easy for users of the tool to report problems or give suggestions, etc. You can:

Email me: martin@redrowstudio.com
Convo me: my Etsy username is redrowstudio
Leave a comment on the craftweasel blog: http://craftweasel.blogspot.com
Message me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/craftweasel

If you do encounter a problem, please let me know what tags you were searching for, as that will help me track down the problem. There are a couple of known issues: the Tag Finder tool won't work when Etsy is
down for site maintenance
, and the site can be slow when a lot of people are using it. Hopefully I will be able to move craftweasel.com to a faster server in the future, which should speed things up.

What's one surprising/fun/amazing story you've heard about someone using your app? Or what is your favorite part about the app?
My favorite thing about the app has been the response from the Etsy community — lots of people have given feedback, and helped out with bug reports and feature suggestions. I also love the way that people have come up with creative ways to use the tool. For instance, because top-level categories are also tags in Etsy, the Tag Finder can be used to choose which category to list an item in when it could fit in more than one ("knitting" and "accessories," for example).

Anything else you'd like to add?
I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped with craftweasel.com by reporting problems and making suggestions. I chose the Related Items below from some of the shops of sellers who have helped. Particular thanks go out to my partner Jane (thedoghouse) who came up with the name and color scheme for the website.

Also, there are a few other tools on craftweasel.com that might be useful. They are:

  • Shop Stats tool: Summarizes a bunch of information about your shop, prices and tags.
  • Personal Shopper tool: Finds recently listed items for you based on your Favorites.
  • Similar Items tool: Enter a few items and it will try to find similar items that have been recently listed.

 

Post in the comments below if you love the Tag Finder!

Read More Posts about Etsy Addiction | Handmade Code Posts

Tags api, applications, apps, coding, Craftweasel.com, developers, engineering, Etsy Developer Community, hacking, Handmade Code, How-To, HOW-TO, programming, resources, Seller Handbook, tag finder, tools
All articles in How-To
Related Items
This article was reported by:
redrowstudio

133 comments     Login to add your own!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:20 p.m. StudioCherie

This looks very helpful on a number of levels. Thanks for reporting. Keep up the great AP's everyone!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:20 p.m. aBreathofFrenchair

Great info! Is there any way of placing the ads to the left of the page? I have to scroll down to use this tool.

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:21 p.m. SeaFindDesigns

Thank you!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:28 p.m. RomanceCatsAndWhimsy

Helpful tool and I love the name craftweasel. :)

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:31 p.m. Lunatiger

I love the tool. It's help me refine my tags...Thanks! ^_^

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:31 p.m. lovelygifts

Great info! Definitely marking! Thank's for reporting.

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:37 p.m. ChloesRuffleButt

This has helped me a ton! Thank you!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:38 p.m. Sigmosaics

Marking for reading later but looks great! Thank you :)

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:40 p.m. SewnNatural

this is incredibly helpful. taking time to do a little research pays off, and this tool can help a ton.

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:43 p.m. SusanFaye

As somebody who constantly struggles to find the best tags, this is a fantastic idea and I can't wait to try it! Thanks!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:45 p.m. beautifulbridget

Awesome, thanks for the heads up on this great tool!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:45 p.m. spacejam

will check it out

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:48 p.m. bebeandalice

i LOVE LOVE LOVE this.
it is exactly what i have needed.
this guy is a genius.
seriously.
i am flabbergasted.
yes, flabbergasted.

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:51 p.m. foamywader

Thank you for this!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:53 p.m. paramountvintage

SO HELPFUL! THANK YOU!!!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:58 p.m. BeadinBabe

WOW, that is AMAZING!!! Thank you! :)

Sept. 4, 2009 at 1:59 p.m. MetalheartDesign

this looks like an excellent site! can't wait to try it out. thanks!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 2:03 p.m. blueberryshoes

this is so exciting. so thankful!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 2:04 p.m. Wirlwind

Great tooL! I will try it as we speak. I agree, as I new selling, I definitly did not know which tags I should be using.

Sept. 4, 2009 at 2:12 p.m. modmomME

This looks like a great tool. Thanks for sharing!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 2:44 p.m. NaturallyHip

Wow, that's a great tool! Thanks!!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 2:49 p.m. TheCottageCheese

This is awesome! I think your server may be overloaded right now though, as it's not currently working for me. (My search was "vintage polaroid", but maybe the polaroid part was too specific).

Sept. 4, 2009 at 3:07 p.m. LuminousDreamDesigns

I love Craftweasel! Great article!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 3:15 p.m. PookieandPierre

I love this and the innovation behind it (thanks redrowstudio). Wonderful to have someone else out there listening to the community and responding with the perfect tool to meet our needs! (and thanks for including my hydrangea brooch here too :)

Sept. 4, 2009 at 3:23 p.m. TheSeed

Sounds like a fun too, can't wait to try it out!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 3:45 p.m. AmongTheZinnias

This is really awesome! Its such a helpful tool!! Thanks for reporting on this :)

Sept. 4, 2009 at 3:55 p.m. dragonhouseofyuen

I've just noticed this feature and I know Jane (online) from the McEtsy Scottish Team - and I recognize Martin and puppy Moss from Jane's blog so it's great to see him here too!
Congratulations Martin! and Jane :)

Sept. 4, 2009 at 4 p.m. cottonbirddesigns

Great info!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 4:04 p.m. thebestvintage

Wow, very cool!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 4:05 p.m. lampdesign

very helpfull

Sept. 4, 2009 at 4:16 p.m. Waterrose

How wonderful! I'm putting this on my list of things to do this weekend...along with rearranging my shop!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 4:27 p.m. KellySchwark

What a fantastic site! Thanks for the heads up on that gem!!! :)

Sept. 4, 2009 at 4:27 p.m. MyMoms

Great finds! I love them all. Thank you!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 4:32 p.m. DalenaVintage

Thanks...It's always so nice to come across tools like these online!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 4:38 p.m. jenniferladd

That is a fascinating site! I know where I'm going to spend the next few hours! Thanks!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 4:38 p.m. beachhouseblues

This info is very helpful... Thank You!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 4:44 p.m. VintageBookStore

Thank you for sharing! That is a great tool.

Sept. 4, 2009 at 4:47 p.m. PipocaHandmade

Thanks for this very useful info...handy!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 5:34 p.m. barefootweaver

Thank you, thank you! I have been on quite a learning curve since I joined Etsy!!!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 5:43 p.m. redrowstudio

Many thanks to everyone who's commented! I've noticed that some browsers are having trouble with the layout. If the ads are not showing up in the right place for you, could you please drop me a convo or email and set me know what browser you are using.

Sept. 4, 2009 at 5:46 p.m. strandsoflight

Wow! What a great tool. How cool of Etsy encourage and feature independent selling/shopping tools. Thanks to everyone involved.

Sept. 4, 2009 at 6:01 p.m. jpgallery

Can't wait to try both the tag finder and stat apps! Thanks.

Sept. 4, 2009 at 6:14 p.m. HoneysuckleLane

This looks like another great tool!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 6:23 p.m. bythewayside

Thanks redrow! Can't wait to play with this :)

Sept. 4, 2009 at 6:24 p.m. thedoghouse

dickeymen - go spam somewhere else, preferably not on etsy.

Sept. 4, 2009 at 6:33 p.m. magickalrealism

What a wonderful resource - and I hadn't known about it! I can't wait to see how this works with my shop!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 6:36 p.m. dbabcock

This looks like a wonderful tool. I'll give it a try.

Sept. 4, 2009 at 6:57 p.m. soap

oooh, will have to try the new gizmo! :)

Sept. 4, 2009 at 8:41 p.m. BlueCrushBeads

OMG-This is the best thing out there...this may solve my issues :)

Oh happy day...

Sept. 4, 2009 at 9:25 p.m. 3squares

another super helpful tool -- thank you!!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 9:27 p.m. heidiburton

I had plans for tomorrow but looks like I'll spend the day dabbling with Craftweasel instead! Looks fantastic!

Sept. 4, 2009 at 10:54 p.m. theLostEarring

I've used the tag finder tool. It's simple to use and very helpful. Thanks! :)

Sept. 5, 2009 at 1:42 a.m. GimCarry

Thank you (* v *)

Sept. 5, 2009 at 2:20 a.m. JamSculpt

Just stumbled in,I'm new, ahem, brand new, and this looks like something I need to further investigate, and Thanks!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 2:30 a.m. LovMely

fantastic, thank you

Sept. 5, 2009 at 2:36 a.m. makeyourpresentsfelt

so helpful, thank you Craftweasel!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 3:11 a.m. evihan

you saved my lifeeee...sooo usefulll..I will definitely use it:-)

Sept. 5, 2009 at 7:36 a.m. amysfunkyfibers

Thank you!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 8:40 a.m. FrenchLogic

WOW! Craftweasel covers so many areas. Thank you so much for your help and generosity!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 9:22 a.m. angeldogdesigns

always looking for some solid advise! thank you.

Sept. 5, 2009 at 10:59 a.m. BlackStar

Thank you! I'll have to check this puppy out.

Sept. 5, 2009 at 11:37 a.m. Intentions

This is so excellent. And so are you. thank you thank you!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 12:35 p.m. aymujer

So smart. Thank you for sharing with all of us!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 1:06 p.m. BabbidgePatch

what a fabulous program ~ thank you for sharing it!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 1:13 p.m. mafemaria

This is my favorite of all third-party apps related to etsy out there. The tag finder is greatness, and the distribution of prices is the icing on the cake. Sooo incredibly helpful!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 4:30 p.m. SusanKJewelry

wow great info. can't wait to start using this.

Sept. 5, 2009 at 4:35 p.m. Studio410

This looks great. I am off to check it out.

Sept. 5, 2009 at 4:46 p.m. ovgilliesdesigns

Great tool! I've already been using it without knowing who made it - hooray for Scotland-based Etsians!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 6:26 p.m. beadinbythesea

Thank you for sharing this tool with us. Tagging is something I constantly struggle with. Off to check it out!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 7:04 p.m. loopyllama

This was a great article. I plan on using this tool on my items from now on, nice work!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 7:22 p.m. fatcrowpress

I will be looking this up as soon as I am done here! Thanks to smart people like you!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 8:33 p.m. sweetirie

Love this site! Is it strange that I got a HUGE boost out of being up there on the image explaining what Craft Weasel is??? lol ;)

Sept. 5, 2009 at 9:27 p.m. haannh

Great article!Thanks!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 11:07 p.m. menzocollection

Thanks again for such an amazing tool!! I can't say enough great things about it from both the seller's and buyer's perspective.

And thanks much for including my vintage goblets among the items - you folks are too kind!

Sept. 5, 2009 at 11:40 p.m. shopgoodgrace

oh my gosh! This is sooooo incredible! I'm so glad their are smart, generous folks like you who are willing to share these great tools with us. Thank you!!

Sept. 6, 2009 at 1:06 a.m. EmmaBeeTextileArts

Thank you, I'm going to check it out right now!

Sept. 6, 2009 at 1:07 a.m. 1AEON

:)
thank you!!!
1AEON HEARTS ETSY!!

Sept. 6, 2009 at 3:10 a.m. steinschmuckdesign

Thank you!!!
Off to try....:)

Sept. 6, 2009 at 7:37 a.m. jensingh

I love craftcult! Tag finder is such a great tool!

Sept. 6, 2009 at 7:47 a.m. pamwares

thank you for sharing!

Sept. 6, 2009 at 12:02 p.m. jpulliam30

Very neat tool!

Sept. 6, 2009 at 7:43 p.m. MerCurios

What a wonderful tool. At time tags are my biggest struggle so I can't wait to try this out.

Thanks!!

MJ
MerCurios
http://facebook.com/mercuriosjewels

Sept. 6, 2009 at 10:10 p.m. feltalicious

Thanks so much! This will be a great help :)

Sept. 7, 2009 at 1:42 a.m. DreamLeaping

Thanks for the great free tools!!!!

Sept. 7, 2009 at 4:51 a.m. ForYouDesigns

I'm going to be trying out Craft Weasel. Thanks so much Martin for the info and the app.
Cheers,
Tasha

Sept. 7, 2009 at 1:24 p.m. sarahndipities

Super cool! Can't wait to try it out! Thanks so much!!!

Sept. 7, 2009 at 9:18 p.m. WickedDarling

Fantastic! Can't wait to give it a try!

Sept. 8, 2009 at 12:06 a.m. DowntownGirlDesigns

Fabulous!! Thanks for the info.

Sept. 8, 2009 at 5:03 a.m. Iammie

Nice!

Sept. 8, 2009 at 10:52 a.m. HibouCards

These are really great tools, thank you so much for inventing them! I have already used some of them and I'm sure I'll find the tag helper very helpful :) Finding the right tags can be such an ordeal!
Congrats on your success.
Hibou

Sept. 8, 2009 at 1:32 p.m. EJPcreations

Wow I'm going to be playing with this for hours!

Sept. 8, 2009 at 3:39 p.m. EmbellishYourself

What a wonderful tool. Thank you!

Sept. 8, 2009 at 6:24 p.m. dsenyo

What a fantastic tool and great service you are providing. Thank you!

Sept. 8, 2009 at 6:58 p.m. 175designshop

this helps alot! thanks

Sept. 8, 2009 at 7:07 p.m. MermaidsMuse

I have to try this...sounds very helpful. Thanks so much.

Sept. 8, 2009 at 7:24 p.m. jennifertlrc

So very helpful. Many thanks!!

Sept. 8, 2009 at 7:32 p.m. moncy3

very useful info, thanx

Sept. 8, 2009 at 7:51 p.m. botanigirl

I don't get it. How do you get to "Tag Finder?" I did a search on it and nothing is found in the help. Under Tags in the Help section it doesn't mention it. When I edit one of my items, Tag Finder is not an option.

Sept. 8, 2009 at 8:07 p.m. vusova

Fantastic! Thank you very much !!!!

Sept. 8, 2009 at 8:10 p.m. qualitybeadworks

Being new to etsy I know I will need this tool. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

Sept. 8, 2009 at 8:33 p.m. HandmadeShoppe

Just checked out craftweasel.com. Super fantastic! Thank you Etsy for the info, and thank you, craftweasel for the great tools!

Sept. 8, 2009 at 9:40 p.m. mrsbeccijo

Wow! how great, thanks for sharing this!

Sept. 8, 2009 at 9:40 p.m. smilingbluedog

Thanks so much Martin for making such wonderful tools
available.
I tried the Tag Finder a couple of times (so far) and found it to be user-friendly, great for those of us with only moderate technical skills :)
Thank you

Sept. 8, 2009 at 10:42 p.m. darlingrose

This is very helpful thank you...

Sept. 8, 2009 at 11:45 p.m. anne4bags

I have had a play with this and it has already helped me sort out my tags a little better. Thanks for another thoughtful tool.

If there are 2 tags that seem to be similar (eg hand embroidered and hand embroidery) would I use both tags? Any thoughts welcomed.

Sept. 9, 2009 at 1:02 a.m. melaniepaulson

What a great tool! As someone just starting out on Etsy, this is going to be very useful for me. Thank you!

Sept. 9, 2009 at 1:19 a.m. lydiamatias

thank you for sharing and I will start working on my tags

Sept. 9, 2009 at 1:27 a.m. LavenderField

So cooooool!!!! Thank you craftweasel!

Sept. 9, 2009 at 3:46 a.m. adoseofjen

this is so wonderful! i just changed up ALLLL my tags and then i got a sale!!! amazing.

Sept. 9, 2009 at 4:09 a.m. Allabala

Wow, amazing tool. The reports and the amount of detailed information is just unbelievable.
Thanks so much, great work, Martin!

Sept. 9, 2009 at 10:59 a.m. zizzybob

I tried it, it crashed. Yet another app that doesn't work.

Sept. 9, 2009 at 11:09 a.m. urbanprairiegirl

Thanks for the tagging lessons! Much appreciated!

Sept. 9, 2009 at 11:35 a.m. kitandcaboodleshop

I'll be trying this soon!! Thanks.

Sept. 9, 2009 at 11:59 a.m. anakim

thank you! very helpful!

Sept. 9, 2009 at 1:20 p.m. makeshoplive

Etsy makes it so easy to create your own success story! Thank you so much for yet another AMAZING TOOL :)

Sept. 9, 2009 at 1:23 p.m. SepiaSmiles

Thankyou very much craftweasle for creating these tools and letting us use them for free!
Esty - I can't believe (as a newcomer) how much support we get as sellers.
I have had my own website for over a year and spent days and days on website optimization and such like - I wish I had known about Etsy years ago, I would have saved myself soo much energy and time!
Thanks again

Sept. 9, 2009 at 4:15 p.m. Yayahandicraft

What a great tool, sounds to fun and enjoying to start working,

Sept. 9, 2009 at 7:42 p.m. UnconventionalMinds

Amazing! What a useful tool! Thank you!!

Sept. 9, 2009 at 9:23 p.m. SilverandEarth

This is a GREAT tool and v-e-r-y interesting!! Thank you so much for all the support and tools that Etsy offers to sellers!!

Sept. 10, 2009 at 9:26 p.m. 2harrisons

Thanks so much. The Tag Finder is very interesting and can prove to be a wonderfully helpful tool.

Sept. 13, 2009 at 8:36 a.m. artigianajewellery

Thank you so much - I am going to have a look at it right away!

Sept. 14, 2009 at 8:55 a.m. CustomThreadlines

Thank you so much...very helpful!!

Sept. 15, 2009 at 8:52 a.m. TheSecondTimeAround

We were delighted with this tool! It made an immediate difference. THANK YOU for sharing this with us Mr. Jones!!

Sept. 19, 2009 at 10:35 p.m. JustineJustine

this is a tool i have never heard of and it makes me sooooo happy i just discovered it!!
this is amazing! thank you craftweasel!

Sept. 23, 2009 at 2:04 p.m. michon

great tool, thanks!

Sept. 28, 2009 at 1:38 a.m. LinkedAccessories

What a great tool - thank you so much!

Sept. 30, 2009 at 12:57 a.m. DIPdesigns

Thanks for the tips etsy :)

Oct. 13, 2009 at 5:09 p.m. steampunkjunq

I love this site so much info. Thanks!

Oct. 13, 2009 at 5:22 p.m. Resign

This is great...thank you so much! I'm going to change some of my tags right now.

Oct. 13, 2009 at 5:26 p.m. JuliesAtelier

I'm a new seller and had no idea there were third party apps for etsy. What a find this was! I found new categories I never even thought of. Thanks!

Oct. 13, 2009 at 6:45 p.m. sofisticata

Thank you for the information! It helped me a lot!!

Oct. 13, 2009 at 7:26 p.m. HandiworksbyJanice

I agree with JuliesAtelier.....had no idea about third party apps....of course, I am finding a LOT of things I knew nothing about on etsy. Thanks to everyone for all input and advice. This helps newbies be the best they can be....successful!

Oct. 17, 2009 at 8:51 p.m. Studio1A

What a great idea, thank you so much!

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