Goggle Analytics – Useful or early indicator of Attention Deficit Disorder?

After spending the last few weeks photographing everything in my studio, and dutifully placing each item in my Etsy shop, http://www.etsy.com/shop/Barkingdoggallery , I finally had to pay some attention to marketing the items in the shop.  Now you must know that I consider myself pretty e-marketing savvy, but just to make sure I didn’t miss anything, I got Derrick Sutton’s book “How to Sell Your Crafts Online”  http://www.amazon.com/Sell-Crafts-Online-Step-Step/dp/0312541260  .  Great book, in nice simple terms for those of us who are… well….simple.  I few good ideas I had not thought of, and finally a cogent explanation of why I needed to begin using Google Analytics to analyze what was going on with my sites.

The problem is — it is almost too much information!  Now I am stewing over questions I never had before.  Like — Why do am I more popular in the Ukraine and Russia than in Europe or South America?  What is it about my jewelry that appeals to a people  best known for nesting dolls and delicious if original recipes for cabbage?  Why is my “bounce rate” so much higher today than yesterday?  At 55 years of age, I thought I would have to adjust to a lower bounce rate every day – now I find that it varying from day to day!

I probably spent at least an hour perusing the search words used to get to my shop.  “Art Glass” I can understand, but “Organic Lesbian”!    I finally went to google.com and entered the words “organic jewelry” to see how many pages would go by before Barking Dog Gallery would show up in a search.  I could almost feel my mind going into a REM state as I surfed over waves of spiral this, and goddess that.  I was somewhat startled to see handmade bronze doggie armor in the midst of my search, but at least it brought me back to reality, and the realization of how much time can be wasted trying ti figure out the impossible.

I have reached the conclusion that Google Analytics falls in the same category as weighing yourself, or calling your parents in Idaho.  It is important,  helpful, and even required, but you should definitely not fixate on it, and no more than once a week, at most!

I am, however, enjoying having an Etsy shop full to the brim with new items.  Linda’s art glass looks lovely, and the alcohol inks I have started using on some pieces really add a touch of color that can easily be missing from an “all silver all the time” type of shop.  So, my friends, enjoy your web seaching this week, just remember to keep it in check.  Here’s hoping your “bounce rate” is improving every day!