Friday
Mar262010
Tutorial: Etsy Mini on Wordpress
Friday, March 26, 2010 at 6:30PM 
As I am sure many handmade bloggers know, it is impossible to get an "Etsy Mini" (the small virtual showcase of your shop) on Wordpress. WP does not allow javascript or flash in their widgets so getting what you need to make your handmade blog a viable competitor against other sites can sometimes be a challenge. Considering how much I love WP, this is a challenge that I am definitely up for! I have tried other blogging sites and none of them suit me quite as well. So I was introduced to a workaround posted by retrospectro on the etsy forums that I thought I would share and outline for you all! You can see my "Etsy Mini" in my right sidebar or a different style on my "Shop" page.1. Go to the website http://www.esellerads.com and input your username.
2. It will create three kinds of ads for you: 300x250, 120x600, and 160x600. To "Activate" your ads, you need to input your e-mail address.
3. Check your mail! An activation link will be sent and you can click on that to make your ads permanent.
4. Choose which ad you like best for your WP blog. Click the button that says "Share" on the ad. Choose Wordpress.
5. Input your wordpress information. Username and password are the same ones you log into wordpress with and make sure the URL reflects your blog (which may or may not be the same as your WP username). Click post!
8. Go to your WP blog and Edit > Posts. You should find an untitled post scheduled. Click on that.
9. When looking at your post, switch your view from "Visual" to "HTML" -- Copy all that code gibberish.
10. Go to Appearance > Widgets. Create a new textbox widget in your side-bar and paste the code in. Save, and enjoy your new WP-friendly Etsy-Mini!
The pros of using ESellerAds is that (a) you can post it on WP, (b) it displays up to 100 items, not just your most recent, (c) you can click on the photos to read a short blurb about your product, and then click the "Buy" button to add the item to your shopping cart. You need to visit and update your link when your items change, which sure as heck beats trying to turn the Etsy Mini into a screen shot image! Just be sure to fave. place that link. The con is that... it isn't an Etsy Mini, and lacks that typical streamlined look of the Etsy website. But hey -- beggars can't be choosers! I am just glad I finally have a way to display my shop items.
Reader Comments (9)
Thanks for this. Very well explained and most kind to share your discovery.
Thanks for your feedback rubbishrevamped! I figured if I could benefit from this, then there were most likely other sellers that could benefit as well.
OMG! Amazing!
Thank you so so much for posting this tutorial, I'd given up on ever being able to have my Etsy Mini posted to my (WordPress) blog. It's the one thing that my beloved WordPress didn't offer.
I just waltzed through the steps and everything went smoothly.
So awesome, thanks again!
strawberryluna -- I am glad it worked for you! I absolutely adore wordpress and I am happy that other people can benefit from the tutorial! We need to show our goods <3
Hi, just wanted to say thanks for writing this up! I was getting annoyed that I couldn't put an etsy mini on my wordpress blog but I found this through google and it worked great!
Chocoholic Knits -- No problem! I am glad that it worked out for you!
Amazing, thanks. This saved me some additional hours of fumbling around with images and non-working codes.
ummm...didn't anybody else run into the 6$ a month issue?? I don't get it....esellerads is no longer available. what do i do??
April -- It looks like the removed their free service (http://www.esellerads.com/)... This really stinks since it was one of the only workarounds that I knew of >.<
I'll look into it, but wordpress users just might be out of luck for the time being. Sorry!