SASsy Critiques is the team forum dedicated to helping sellers who would like critiques of their overall shop or a specific area of their shop. It is a “sister team” to the SASsy Mentoring Team. You can find the critiques forum here: http://www.etsy.com/teams/7702/sassy-critiques
All Team SASsy mentors are welcome and encouraged to participate in SASsy Critiques at any time. Sellers will post a request for critique as a new thread in the forum. Sometimes they ask for general critique and sometimes there are specific questions the seller is looking to address. You are welcome to answer any request you choose. Here are some suggestions to get you started with offering critiques.
Strategy #1: General Overall Critique
* Take some time to look over the shop you are critiquing. Look at 2-3 individual listings in depth - title, tags, description, images. Read through shop policies. Look at shop title and announcement.
* Try to give constructive, specific comments, ie. “Here is what I am seeing, here is how you can improve that.” For example, “Your photos all look really dark and it is hard to see the color of your items. Here is a blog post that can help you fix that: http://etsymentors.blogspot.com/2011/08/polish-your-photos-series-quick-tips-to_26.html” rather than just “Your photos need some work.”
* Include links to articles, blog posts or other references if appropriate. You don’t have to be an expert in everything or need to take the time to explain something in depth in your comment if you can refer them to a resource that already exists.
* When you are ready to post your reply, address each area individually. Here are some suggested areas/topics to cover: banner, shop title/announcement, titles, tags, descriptions, shipping, sections, photos, policies. You don’t have to have comments for every section and there may be more topics than these that you have comments on.
* A great way to format your critique is to call out the area you are addressing and then follow it with your comments. For example:
PHOTOS
- Your photos should be helping you to give the buyer more information.
For instance, for one of your crayon rolls, you show 5 photos of it
close-up and unrolled. There are no photos that show the whole crayon
roll or what it looks like when it is rolled up....
* It is ok to disagree with a previous comment. There is no one right way to do anything, so feel free to draw on your experience and expertise.
* It is SASsy policy that we do not specifically critique prices or artistic technique/media. See more about that here: http://www.etsy.com/teams/7702/sassy-critiques (See “Who can Join”)
* Identify yourself as a SASsy Mentor in your comment. Anyone who is a member of the critiques team is welcome to comment on a critique, but this will help sellers identify the comments given by mentors vs those given by their peers.
STRATEGY #2: Specific Topics
* It can also be very helpful to focus your critique on a certain area that you feel is an area of expertise for you, like photography or SEO. You don’t need to address every area of a shop in order to do a great critique and offer valuable insight.
* As with a general critique, try to give constructive, specific comments and advice. Take time to look at several individual listings as well as policies, announcement and profile even if those aren’t the specific areas you are going to comment on.
