Add an ETSY Mini to your blog!

(I wrote this blog entry for the WIST-Etsy Seller's Moo Crew blog where it will be running today. I am also posting it here.)

To help let people who read my blog know about my Etsy site, I have been loading my pictures in from Flickr, and putting a link to my Etsy site from the sidebar of my blog. The problem with this is that the photos don't accurately reflect what is actually for sale on my site. I started noticing that other people have an actual square of images that show items that are currently for sale on their sites. So I decided .... time to learn about how they do this. I thought I would follow my quest for our latest Tutorial Tuesday.

Whenever I want to learn something new now, I start with a search on Google. I found out that I am looking to add what's called an Etsy Mini to my blog. The search first returned some utube how-to videos, but my style of learning just isn't into videos ... and they always take longer to load than I have patience for. The other results were from the Etsy knowledge base, so I decided to go there. (At this point, I think about not needing to do this tutorial, but a few steps into the process I find they don't explain the whole process. You can find out here how to set up the mini, but not how to make it show up in your blog.)

So... I go to Etsy Storque (the place where you learn how to do all things Etsy) .... and they have.... a video. The purpose then for this tutorial is to help someone learn how to do an Etsy Mini without having to watch a video how-to. I guess I probably will have to watch the video first though, in order to find out how to do this. The video is by Timothy Adams. If you think that watching a video is the best way for you to learn, then simply click here, and go to Timothy's video...

If you'd rather read and do, then continue on.

Step I.: Log into your Etsy, then click on Your Etsy.




Step 2: Scroll down, and on the bottem left, click on Etsy Mini, at the bottom.






Step 3: Time to build your own Etsy Mini. This is fairly self-explanatory, if you follow the directions. If you are a seller, you can showcase from your own shop. If you are an Etsy user, you can showcase from your favorites from any Etsy sellers. So check your preference here. For this Tutorial, we are checking Items from my Shop.

Step 4: Next, choose your layout ... how many columns and rows you would like. I chose to two columns (for a blog, this is probably your choice. Three columns don't fit.) and three rows.

Step 5: After you approve of your layout, you need to scroll a little further down the page and choose the appropriate box to check for where you will be posting your mini. I am going to add my Etsy to my blog, so I will use box number 1. Box number 2 is for MySpace and social networking sites. I am assuming that means Facebook as well, but for this tutorial, I am only testing usage for blogs. So, go to Box number 1, and using your computer commands (on Mac, it is Command, C) copy the code. Just copy what is inside the white box, but make sure you get it all!





Step 6: You need to go to your blog now. (I, like manym use Blogger, and from hereon in, these directions are specific for Blogger. For a different Blog Host, look for the similar functions.) From your tab choices in Blogger, choose the Layout tab.

Step 7: Once, in Layout, on the right hand side, go to Add A Gadget.








Once you get into this area, then look for the section labeled HTML/JavaScript , and click on the blue plus sign.


Add a title. I simply titled mine, Visit my Etsy Shop, and then paste the code into the white box.
SAVE. And that's it .... go to your blog, and you should see your Etsy shop items! To see how it looks, you can visit my blog here. Look on the right, at the top!