We all see the youtube video's, we all see the comments that sellers are reaching sales of quite frankly, ridiculous levels yet we can not achieve it. I have been there. The first cher-ching made me jump out of my skin and I made the order that day. My first sale was January 2016 and now I am approaching 10k sales just over two years later. Ok its not massive but for me its brought my business to life.
I want to give you my top ideas of how to succeed because it is totally possible and you can do it. If I can, you can.
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Here is my top advice.
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1. When opening your Etsy store you can get free listings as a new seller. Reach out to an existing seller to see if they have a link for free listings. Follow this link for information on this - Free Listings for new sellers - its free money after all!
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2. Running an Etsy shop is not a sprint, its a marathon. You need to commit time each day and its better to do things right the first time round than rush anything and then be left out in the cold. This is true in the terms and conditions of sale. You HAVE to get these right. As a seller you need to protect yourself and as a buyer, you would want to know that you are protected. It is not hard and by all means take a look at mine, copy and adapt for your store, inserting your terms.
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3. Photography. At the end of the day as hard as it is to admit, as a customer we all just look at the pictures and don't often think - wow must actually show how this could be used. We know that wedding favours can be led on tables, but you could attach to boxes, fasten to bags. Make the seller know how they can use the item by your images. I used this post to apply how I would photograph my items and this leads onto writing your descriptions- its an easy read and is perfect for printing and then using again and again as I have.
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4. Listings - they MUST be well written, they must outline the products like your holding it in your hand and your describing to someone without them seeing it. Use descriptive words. Use colours, use sizes. Don't make it too long, people won't read it. Make sure key words are placed in the first sentence of the listing such as 'Rustic wedding favours' as google will use the first sentence to place your listings on google search results. I really like this post about descriptions for listings
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5. Pinterest. I never really was interested, but how silly was I. I pinned my items when I first started and these pins have been floating about for two years now. I have 5k monthly visits to my etsy store JUST FROM PINTEREST. This is huge. And I am not paying for these views. Every time you list something pin it to a board and wait for it to generate round. It does take time, but I am so glad I did it. Another source of my traffic is my own Etsy Sellers Board I created. You can pin your items to the board by first following me, requesting access by sending me your pinterest email (the one you use to log in to Pinterest) by sending it to sales@mantamakes.com - find the board here
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6. SEO - you have to get your tags of your products right to be found. It takes time, but its totally worth it and there are so many tools to help you. I use this website to get my tags - test its effectiveness. Put puzzle guestbook in the search on Etsy - you will see the below image which is my listing. That didn't happen by chance it happened by using SEO applications to get me there. This is also very good
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7.Don't give up. Test keywords by listing an item twice with different pictures, different keywords to see if indeed one does better than the other. Its all about accepting that this is going to take time to be a top seller. I am not worried about selling the most items in one go - I am more focusing on selling consistently. My sales don't really vary, they are rising but steadily and this gives me time to work on my store when its quiet. Remember work smarter not harder....
My store can be found here
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