{"id":503,"date":"2010-06-30T08:53:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-30T08:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/archives\/503-making-the-most-of-your-shapeways-shop.html"},"modified":"2014-07-03T16:56:39","modified_gmt":"2014-07-03T16:56:39","slug":"making-the-most-of-your-shapeways-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/making-the-most-of-your-shapeways-shop","title":{"rendered":"Making the Most of Your Shapeways Shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Use your Shapeways Shop<\/a> to promote yourself, your products and your brand.<\/p>\n

The better the images and description of your products and the more information you give about yourself and your motivation, the greater the chances are that someone with similar interests and taste will find your designs and purchase them.  <\/p>\n

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1. The Photographs:<\/b><\/p>\n

As per the photography tutorial<\/a>, the importance of the images of the items in your shop cannot be underestimated.  Your designs are judged online by the viewers initial glance at the image you supply. Make it a good one!<\/b>  Once you have good images of you design make sure the clearest image is the thumbnail seen in the gallery and also post high resolution images to Flickr with a link back to your page.<\/p>\n

2. Title and Description:<\/b><\/p>\n

Make the title describe your model as clearly and concisely as possible<\/b> then write a more detailed description including information potential buyers may want to know about the materials, function or care.  Also include a little information on the inspiration for the design, was it designed as a gift, for a specific function, is there a story behind it?  This will help potential buyers relate to the product in a more personal way and also give bloggers something to write about if they want to mention your design.

3. Shop Description<\/b><\/p>\n

Take a few minutes to write a little about yourself and your designs, you do not have to use your name, age or sex, just a little about your background and inspiration behind your designs.  Again this helps potential customers understand that a sale can be a fairly intimate interaction between human beings, something not possible through standard mass production, something fairly unique to Shapeways. It also give information to bloggers who may want to mention you and your designs.<\/p>\n

4. Detailed Description, Banner & Logo<\/b><\/p>\n

In the detailed description reiterate your shop description with richer information, promote yourself and your designs, include links to your blogs, flickr, facebook, twitter, youtube pages whatever. Write a little more about your product designs or hobbies that feed into your use of Shapeways so people can understand more of where you are coming from and give Google a chance to pick up some more key words about your designs.  
Do include a logo<\/b>, even if it is simply a photograph of you or one of your favorite products.  This will also help your peers and Shapeways staff to recognize you in the forums.
Get yourself on Photoshop or Gimp and make yourself a banner, whether it be text, a composition of your designs, a detail of an image, anything to help communicate the personality of your designs, your brand<\/b>…..  <\/p>\n

5. Take it a step further…..<\/b><\/p>\n

So that is the basics to keep your shop interesting and informative, to take it a step further you could really develop your own brand, with consistent images, icons and text throughout your store, use the same format for your personal blog and use the same icon as your avatar in other forums and social media<\/a> pages…. This will help to build up Brand Recognition more on your personal brand soon….. <\/p>\n

Above you can see Oskar Puzzles<\/a> with a description, banner, logo and consistent images in his shop giving a recognizable ‘brand identity’.<\/p>\n

\"Bookmark<\/a>