Focus. Re-Focus. Focus.

Ok, so I might have gone a little over the top with my reaction to some of the relevancy issues.  The most important aspect that I've taken away from the whole change in Etsy's search function is exactly that:

Change.  
It's changed before.  
It'll change again. 

I've never been one for multitasking.  I like to take one thing and do it right, instead of spreading my effort around a few tasks at once and mess them all up... which has happened.  From simple tasks;  Sometimes I'll spend a day just answering emails and doing internet work, or maybe just spend the day welding ring blanks.  To larger elements;  Narrowing my jewelry line from many styles to primarily one wedding band style, selling through a very limited set of websites/vendors, or maybe keeping my hobbies and personal art projects very specific (trust me, this can get out of hand real fast).  Even in regards to physical items;  One coffee mug that I've used everyday for years (in my left hand as I type!... (oh yeah, I still tend to type with just my right hand *cue screeching from my grade school typing teacher here* (Two sets of parentheses in (now three and four!), I feel like I'm in Inception or something (Maybe I'm just horrible at grammar??)))), and another one for tea. 

While this focus has it's benefits, and is my natural work flow, sometimes I'll be too focused on one thing for too long and not paying attention to another.  In this case I became so focused on just filling orders over the past year that I really didn't put enough effort into the media, promotion, and advertising side of things.  As a small one man business, I do need to be all things all the time, but as an artist and craftsman I need to leave suitable time to create, be inspired and not burn the fire completely out.  My art is my job and my job is my art, and to do it properly I need to periodically focus on one thing, and re-focus on something else and so on.

Listings will change.

Searching will change.

Etsy will change.

The internet will change.

Styles will change.

Traditions will change.

Everything will change.

How will you stay relevant?

None of this is really ground breaking stuff, I'm just always trying to find better ways to be a business and an artist at the same time.  So far this post is just a bunch of text, let's break it up with a picture of vegetables.

 
In respect to Etsy's search changes, I made a solid effort to switch up the titles and tags on my items.  While originally I had them more as names, they are now closer to a physical description, with a name after a hyphen:

"Men's Gold Band - Love is on the Inside White & Rose"

"Wedding Ring Set - Silver Minimalist"

Each listing has a slightly different title, to help add diversity to the shop (for the robots) even if some of the rings are very similar.  With slightly different names there's a higher likelihood that one listing will turn up in most any search for rings.  I've tested this throughout the week, watched the stats, and for the most part all the listings are getting higher quality views.  I've also geared the terms toward popular search phrases, and tried to keep in mind the way most people search.  Some of my previous titles, tags were just to technical (descriptions too, but that's the next overhaul).