Friday, September 2, 2011

10 Tips For Etsy Success

How do you measure success with your Etsy shop or ArtFire Studio or where ever you sell your items? Do you measure it through how many sales, how many views, how many favorites? No matter how you measure your success there is always room for improvement. Today I offer 10 tips that can help you become successful with your online shop.

1. Keep A High Inventory - Some say that there is a "magic number" of items to have in your shop before you start to really make sales. Most agree that it is somewhere between 50 and 150. This comes from the old saying "You can't sell what you don't have." Keeping your inventory up will help with sales. Giving the customer many choices seems to really help.

2. Organize Your Shop - Have you ever been in a store where nothing really seemed to go together? It was just a mess. You can't find what you are looking for in a messy shop. There are two ways to organize your shop and I suggest using both. First use your shop sections. On Etsy you have 10 sections and on ArtFire you have considerably more. Group like items together in the shop sections. A note about sections is that they have some SEO power with them. So try to use good keywords in your sections such as "Beaded Bracelets" or "Silver Earrings" so that the search engines will pick the sections up. Using just "Bracelets" or Earrings" works okay just for your shop but it does not help outside of that.

3. Never Undersell Yourself - People expect to pay more for handmade items. Having items that are very inexpensive in your shop will make your customer wonder if you are importing the items for resell. Now, some people go over the top and price things very very high. Unless you have made a name for yourself pricing a small painting at $5000 is probably going to cause someone to chuckle and move on. Try to stay within the competitive market with your prices but never try to undercut prices just to make a sale.

4. Add To Your Circle - Circles are a great way to gain more attention. Adding people who make things you like can help a lot. Many of the people that you add to your circle will add you back. When you create a new item it shows on the "New items from your favorite shops" of everyone who has added you to their circle. When you make a treasury or favorite a shop or item it gets published to your circle feed. When someone favorites you it gets posted to their feed. It is a way to become viral on Etsy.

5. Participate In Teams - Join teams that are within your type of shop medium. There are tons of teams. Joining a team isn't enough. You need to be active on the teams. Participate in discussions. Ask questions. Answer questions. Participate in team challenges. It is fun and will draw attention to you.

6. Spread The Word - Tell the world about your shop. Use social media to spread the word about your new items, shows or whatever you are trying to promote. Write a press release for your local newspaper. If you are going to be in a show ask the show to feature you in their advertising, provide them with a good write up and nice photos. Make it easy for them and they can hardly refuse.

7. Pay Attention To Your Stats - Check what keywords people are finding you with. See what time of day you get the most visits. That is a good way to know when yo release a new item. Don't just check your Etsy stats, check Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Google Blogger Stats and any others that give you hard facts about how you are doing.

8. If It Isn't Working Change It - If over a period of say 2 weeks or more no one has clicked on your items using the keywords you have optimized your item for it may be time to change your tactics. You might need to reevaluate your title and tags and try to figure out why you are not getting the traffic you want. You may need to optimize for a smaller niche.

9. Help Someone New - If you know a little, you know a lot. Helping someone to not make the same mistakes you made is not only a nice thing to do, it will make a friend. Helping someone out will show that you are a person who isn't just in it for the money. You never know when you might need a friend to give you an honest critique.

10. Ask Questions - Don't assume that you know it all. I have been working with the web pages since the internet was just a wee baby. I do NOT know it all. Things change in the blink of the eye. What worked great yesterday won't work today. If you find yourself in a position where you don't know what is wrong, ask a question. If you think you know the answer but are not sure, ask a question. The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked. Asking a question does not make you look bad, it makes you look intelligent!

I hope these tips will help you out. I am always looking for more great tips to add to my weekly top 10 so please feel free to share, I will give you credit. This blog is 100% free to you and I am always happy to answer questions so feel free to ask.

49 comments:

  1. Great tips - thanks so much! I didn't realize that shop section names have SEO power. I will take a look at mine now to see if I can tweak.

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  2. Pam, yes, those shop sections can help you optimize! Take advantage of that!

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  3. I've found some great tips in this post! I, too, had no idea shop section names were so important. And I am definitely keep an eye on what isn't getting hits and check the tags. Thank you so much for this article!

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  4. Fantastic tips! So glad I found you today! I'll be comming back!

    Thanks!

    Laurie

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  5. Thanks for the great info always good to hear

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  6. The second tip "Organize Your Shop" states that there are two ways to go about organizing your shop, but I only see one listed here: use your shop sections. What is the other? (Maybe I'm missing something!)

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  7. Great tips, taking them to heart. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with all of us!

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  8. Thank you! I am new to Etsy (Nicowear) and am realizing I have MUCH to learn!
    - Nick n' them

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  9. Thank you, this is very helpful! Especially you part on shop sections. I had no idea about the descriptive phrasing.
    Bises,
    Kris

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  10. Thank you for this information. I certainly need it! I have printed it out and will post it in my office as a constant reminder, as I have short term memory issues. I plan to attend the Holiday Boot Camp, too. Thanks again!

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  11. Very helpful post! One minor correction, in #4 you state that when you list a new item it shows on "new items from your favorite shops" of everyone who has put you in their circle. I believe it only shows on "new items ..." of everyone who has favorited your shop. People in your circle don't see your new items, unless they have already faved your shop or someone else in their circle faves your item.

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  12. Thank you so much for sharing!! Great tips!!

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  13. Yet again, you've got me thinking - and acting. Many thanks - especially regarding the sections. Agree about the second tip, though: look forward to seeing it!

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  14. Thanks so much for posting these tips - it never occurred to me that shop sections were important beyond the immediate shopping experience!

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  15. Thank you for all this great & very useful advise! :) Wonderful post! :)

    Adriana (claycat.etsy.com)

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  16. I wasn't aware of the sections powers, either.

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  17. Thank you for these great tips! Much to learn and apply.

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  18. Great tips! I did not know that shop sections were that important, need to work on mine for sure.

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  19. Thank you for your tips. You are an asset to the Etsy success team.

    Nancy

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  20. Thank you for a practical, easy to understand and remember, common sense, and wonderful guide!

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  21. This is wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us!!

    www.divaintraining.etsy.com

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  22. Thank you :)

    http://www.etsy.com/shop/AllSoCute

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  23. I can't begin to thank you enough for your advise. As a fairly new member of Etsy I'm trying to learn as much as I can and this was wonderful.

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  24. Excellent advice as always! I had no idea that shop sections contributed to SEO power!

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  25. This is great! I am currently working on tip #1!
    Thanks!

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  26. Thank you so much, I will change the shop sections in my shop right now.

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  27. Thank you some much for great advice. I have problems with pricing, Establshed bridal shops can sell at very high pricing and yet some shops sell unbelievable low prices. I have cut my prices several times. I do look at other shop and try not to undercut but price items to sell.

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  28. Thank you for sharing! www.etsy.com/shop/lilinspirations
    www.lil-inspirations

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  29. Hey thanks! Like a lot of the people said, I didn't know about the shop sections either. Great info!

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  30. Great article. I check my stats on Etsy almost daily. I check GA about once a week. The keywords that show up on GA don't make sense to me. Most of them have nothing to do with my shop and certainly aren't used in my descriptions or tags.

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  31. Thanks for the suggestions! I reworked the names of my Etsy shop sections this morning because of this article! I used to have things mostly sorted by seasons and now, because I work in the "primitive" style, I have "Primitive Dolls," "Primitive Flag Pillows," "Primitive Pumpkins," etc. My goal is to have 50 items in my shop! I was there earlier this year, before I did a few Spring shows, but haven't been able to get back there since. Now the Fall shows are starting so I don't know that it will happen now either. Sigh.

    Oh, before I forget it ... I wrote a blog post earlier this year with a bunch of tips to help Etsy sellers improve their shops. If anyone wants to check it out, here's the link: http://prairieprimitivesfolkart.blogspot.com/2011/02/8-quick-improvements-for-your-etsy-shop.html (it's grown to 10 tips now!).

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  32. Thank you for all of your hard work and wonderful suggestions! I have worked on my shop a lot lately and am hoping for a sale this month, since last month I did not have any sales :( Good luck to everyone who loves art and ETSY!

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  33. Yes, things really started to move for me after I'd listed 50 items. It takes so bloody long to get there! Thanks for the article, Eric. I've changed my sections now. Let's see what we see.

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  34. Excellent! Thanks for all the info. I need all the help I can get and this was really good.

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  35. I think this is the first list about etsy that actually made sense. thanks so much for posting it.

    Amy
    http://decoramood.blogspot.com/

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  36. These are great tips! I have a weekly series on my website called Friday's Fast Five where I share tips for Etsy sellers on everything from packaging and shipping to pricing and networking. Feel free to snag any of my tips at: www.brittanysbest.com

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  37. Thank you for taking the time to post these tips. I'm a newbie, so I need all the help I can get. Thanks again!

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  38. Thank you sooooo much! Really great article and I could use all the help I can get! Already relabelled shop sections in a second tab. Beaded bracelets it is!

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  39. thank you very much for your postings, I'm reposting as well, and sending the news out :)

    ~elaine

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  40. I had no idea that sections also contributed to the SEO. Thank you! That is so helpful. And organizing your shop is definitely key - having some kind of unity to the look or the way the items are photographed. Its similar to product display in stores only people have a shorter attention span on the net

    Drew

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  41. Great tips on how to increase etsy sales.
    Excellent!

    I have use these tips on my shop and these tips help me a lot.

    http://www.etsy.com/shop/buyzitall


    Thanks

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  42. Thank you for the tips. I just started my shop recently. These tips are really helpful. I recently added some of the items in my crochet shop and this increases the number of views.

    www.ety.com/shop/azram

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  43. Great post! Though I opened my shop on etsy "Tinytweets" I really started selling like few months back. Love all the info here, can't thank enough.

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