I read about an interesting new 3rd party application mentioned on the Etsy forum, called Featsy (Featured on Etsy).
Featsy, introduced on November 4th, allows to type an Etsy ID, press Enter, and it will tell you whether the seller has been featured on Etsy's Front Page or on Page 1 of a Gift Guide.
You can sign up for email alerts if you - or a shop you're interested in - are featured. Featsy also provides statistics on Leaders of the Day, and Leaders of the Week (beginning with the inception of the Featsy site).
If you're interested in checking it out, the URL is: http://www.subsushi.net/featsy/index.html
My take on it: it's fun to check out whether you've been featured, but the statistics are flawed. From their FAQ page:
"Q. How are Gift pages calculated?
A. Here's how it works: if you get onto the first page of 20-50 that's counted as one, as long as your item stays on the first page it wont be counted again. If your item leaves the first page of the gift page, and is than reintroduced too the first page of a gift page and enough time has passed it is added again. "
A. Here's how it works: if you get onto the first page of 20-50 that's counted as one, as long as your item stays on the first page it wont be counted again. If your item leaves the first page of the gift page, and is than reintroduced too the first page of a gift page and enough time has passed it is added again. "
So one appearance in a gift guide could show up at multiple features if it moves from one page to another.
Also, there's this:
" Q. The front page count and gift count are not adding up?
A. This small bug is persistent because I do not have a separate machine running my database. If i had a separate computer than i would do a full relevant update every 15 minutes, but for efficiency sake I do mini updates every 15 minutes and a full update every 12 hours. if the item you are tracking happens to be one that my stats table misses than the discrepancy could arise. "
A. This small bug is persistent because I do not have a separate machine running my database. If i had a separate computer than i would do a full relevant update every 15 minutes, but for efficiency sake I do mini updates every 15 minutes and a full update every 12 hours. if the item you are tracking happens to be one that my stats table misses than the discrepancy could arise. "
In reading the Etsy forum threads about Featsy, some folks are suggesting that it fuels jealousy among those who feel that certain artists are featured much too often.
If you have been featured since November 4th, please test out Featsy and post a comment with your results. If you'd like to read a couple of Etsy forum thread, click here and here.
