Making pots as communication

Morning all,

An interesting video with Warren McKenzie appeared on 2 blogs this morning. You can find it on Ron Philbeck's blog and on Scott Cooper's "this week at st earth". Warren talks about a conversation that came up in the workshop at Nancy Green's that Juana and, I believe, Theresa attended. One of the statements he makes is that we make pots as a form of communication. This is a great perspective. What do you want your pots to say? How are others supposed to react to your pots? This relates specifically to what we are doing on etsy because we are asking strangers to spend money on what we do, and to find a place in their homes for the creative output of our hands and inspiration. So how do we present this conversation over the screen of a computer and on the internet? Well, informative and interesting images are a great start, but you also need to use sufficiently engaging words to draw in your potential customers. A memorable shop name creates an identity in people's minds. A banner that makes a strong statement of the nature of your shop is also important. A well written profile that doesn't bore; If you write something that makes people feel they know something about you and that as a result they also LIKE you, then they will have more reason to like what you are doing and perhaps spend the money to buy some of your work. If your profile is strictly business, dry technical information, then people will rarely get excited about you. That may appeal to other pottery geeks, or someone purchasing for business uses, but the main etsy public are probably not as engaged by the esoterica of what we do. Same goes for item descriptions. If you say too much, the viewer may tune you out, but if you don't say enough you are not giving adequate information for them to base a purchase on.

JULIE and CARRIE
Since you guys already have you stores set up post something on the blog so we can discuss what works and possible changes or additions.


Happy potting, all. Let me know if you are having any difficulties putting posts on the blog.