CRAFTfest Preparation

Written by Kerri Robberts

Step 1 - Adding Photos

 

Ok, so you’ve decided to get involved with the amazing online craft fair that is CRAFTfest what next? Well firstly you need to add photos of your lovely products. I’ll helpfully provide the link  http://creative-connections.ning.com/photo (opens in a new tab)

On the right hand side there is a button “add” click this button to add your photos.

The next screen you are presented with is a screen with a little camera in the middle, here you click the camera and it takes you to the screen for uploading your photos.

You are now presented with a windows explorer window for selecting all the files you wish to upload. Now, because I have all my photos categorized and labeled I have to keep clicking the camera for each of my products to find the next folder. However, you can now select as many photos as you like using ctrl+click or even shift+click just like you can in normal windows explorer windows.

I’ve only uploaded one file here, but you can upload lots and lots all at once. You have to wait for it to go to 100% before you can go any further. On my slow internet connection when I upload several files it takes a few minutes. But it shouldn’t take too long. If you decide you’d like to add some additional photos, then click “add more” and you’ll be taken to the browse windows explorer window again. When you have added as many as you want, click “upload”.

Step 2: Add Titles with Prices

Now then the next step is something I often forget because the title is prefilled with the image name. I like to name all my images with keywords making them super duper SEO google friendly, but that’s a post for later on in the week. Our focus for now is getting our products listed ready for CRAFTfest.

As you can see from this image I have updated the title with the actual name I give this keyring “Tangerine Honey Bee” I say what it is “keyfob wristlet keyring”, included the price and that p&p is in addition and then the bit just off the screen says “by KerriRobbertsDesigns” although I don’t think I need that bit, so I’ll remove that.

Step 3: Add Descriptions with Links

Ok, so you have your image and your title, you’ve told you customer how much they have to pay….now you need to tell them what it is. There’ll be a more informative post about writing good descriptions later in the week, but for now we’ll just try to get a description with a link to where they can buy it from our own online shop and a link to additional items.

Right, first you want to expand the little window so you can see more of what you are doing. In the bottom right hand corner drag the box downwards so you have a little more visibility, this makes it a lot easier to see everything that you are typing without having to scroll.

Now your window is nice and large you can start typing. But what do we enter? Well to start with I enter the title again, as when the customer scrolls to see the description I cannot see the title and price on my computer screen as my screen is too small.  I use some nice html here to make it look pretty on the page. If you don’t know any html then here’s a quick brief on the code you can use here.

Right, so now we just need some keywords then…

Step 4: Add Tags aka Keywords

Keywords are what the customer might type into google or a search box to find your product. Think about the things you type when you are searching for items, rather than thinking like a designer. So for example “christmas pudding necklace” is more likely to get you hits than something like “wired plum duff lavalliere”. Sometimes as designers we think too complex, so do as my lecturer taught us and Keep It Simple Stupid, or KISS for short.

I always put the most important keywords at the beginning: “keyring, keyfob, wristlet ,flower, floral keyring, orange key fob, orange key ring, flower key ring, keyfob wristlet”.

Step 5: Create CRAFTfest album

You repeat this process for all your photos that you have uploaded. Then when you are happy with the details you can create your album. You can do this right at the bottom of the page where you added your photos. You just need to complete:
Title – the title of your CRAFTfest stall, use something generic so “CRAFTfest Kerri Robberts Designs” this means I don’t need to rename for the next one.
Description – A short description of your stall, you can add in the links to your online stores here like you have done in your product descriptions as well.
Location – where are you based, mine is “sunny Cardiff, Wales, UK”
Tags – just like your product keywords, these are keywords that describe all your products i.e. “handmade gifts”, “bags and purses”, “fabric coin purses” etc…

You can click the twitter checkbox and a message will be posted on twitter using your account (if you set it up) to say you have created a new album. Select save and your album is created.

Next time…how to edit your album and photos.