Today's guest post is from SF Etsy member Géraldine Adams who attended the Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs and wanted to share some helpful tips with the rest of us. Thanks, Géraldine!
I went to the CCEWest last weekend and I had the pleasure to attend two sessions held by Danielle from Etsy. She is the Seller Education Lead at Etsy and she organizes the programming for Etsy's Online Labs and writes the Etsy Success newsletter.
Following her presentations I made a list of some recommendations on how to make your Etsy store as successful as it can be.
It’s all about your brand:
o Share your story, your personality, and who you are through your store. You should wonder about what are you ready to share with the world and what does this work say about you.
o Your profile, shop title and location should be filled out.
o The banner should match your brand, but it is not the most important element.
o If you sell something in particular, then it should be mentioned everywhere in your profile, your tags, the first lines of your descriptions, etc…
o Send handwritten thank you notes to your buyers along with your business card.
o No empty sections! If you have a section with only 2 items, people tend to leave the store. It’s better to have full pages!
Have a good offer:
o Work on your quality. Ask yourself how you could enhance it even more.
o Really think about selling anything for less that $10, especially if it is a one-of-a-kind item. Even a buyer will wonder if it is worth their time checking out a single item under $5. If you are selling items under $10, think of selling them in sets of 3 or 5.
o Packaging: it encourages buyers to buy as a gift. It can also attract some wholesalers.
o Keep listing new and fresh items in your store. The more you have, the more likely you are to get found on the Internet.
o • You can list a very special item that is going to stay there, being indexed and attract people.
Take good pictures:
o Try to take different types of pictures to see what works the best.
o Show the texture, color, and size of the product. Props are great to show the scale.
o Try different angles to entice people to click on the picture.
o Show the product in context. A dress on a model, a ring on a finger, framed prints in a room… These pictures are very interesting for bloggers.
o If you have series, show them on the last picture for example.
o Always use natural light. Early morning and late afternoon are good moments.
o Set up a studio in your house so you have a consistent location and background for your pictures. You can read this article on how to set up a studio at home, from photojojo.
Description:
o Use bullet points for the visual look
o The first sentence should describe the item itself. You should write “I made this 8x10 print…” or “I created” and not “This listing is for an 8x10 print…” and explain how it connects to you.
o Use the keywords that are appropriate to your product.
o If it comes in a series, indicate it: “you might also like…”.
o Explain whom it is for. “It is a great gift for your girlfriend”. That can help someone to make a decision.
o Explain why it is unique and different from everything else.
o No specific terms, like “K3inks pigments”, but explain why it is great for the customer. Step back! Ask a friend to write the description for you or try to explain it via skype (you’ll have to simplify it).
o Add a link back to your shop main page. Some people land on the page from a Google search and don’t know where they are!
o Never say “convo me for” because they won’t. Try to answer all their questions right away.
o You can add a customer review in your description too.
o Write the description in a text editor, check the misspellings, and then copy/ paste it into the description.
Use all the tags:
o Describe the colors. They are useful for the treasury list maker.
o Use some of the words that are in the titles again.
Ship internationally. 1 in 4 sales on Etsy involves an international buyer or seller.
Enjoy the community!
o Make treasury lists.
o Read and participate in forums.
o Join teams.
Advertise:
o On Facebook, Twitter, Flikr, your blog, etc.
o Do not tweet: “new listing on Etsy …”, nobody is going to check it. Try to come up with an intriguing phrase instead.
o Talk about yourself. Share who you really are. That’s what makes you different from the others and people want to learn about it.
Here are some additional links:
o Etsy Help
o Etsy Selling Tips
o Etsy Community Online Tools
o Etsy Email Lists
Voilà! Thank you for reading! If you have other tips, please share and comment.
If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!
Showing posts with label tips and tricks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tips and tricks. Show all posts
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Tuestorial - Lentil-Power Cookies
Image these little cookies with a cape...flying into the air screaming... LENTIL Poooower! Whether you eat one as an afternoon snack or even for breakfast...these cookies pack a powerful WHAM-BAM 1-2 PUNCH!
They have dried fruit in them...along with protein packed lentils, almonds and dark chocolate that will keep you going all day long.
Recipe and Ingredients:2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp. pumpkin spice
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 sticks butter
3 cups oats
2 eggs
1 cup cane sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup cooked/cooled red lentils (if you chose to omit the lentils, flour is lowered to 1 1/2 cups)
(the following is optional and to your liking...just a mix of dried fruits, nuts and chocolate to add to your cookies)
handful of chopped mango
handful of chopped apricots
handful of sunflower seeds
handful of dried blueberries
handful of dried cranberries
handful of dried cherries
1/2 cup raw sliced almonds
2 T flax seeds
2 fancy bars of dark chocolate, or milk chocolate if desired...chopped into random sized chunks.
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees
Use a soup spoon to scoop the batter onto your cookie sheet.
Bake for approx. 20 minutes each batch in the middle of the oven.
the cookies should be golden brown on the edges.
Let them cool for a couple minutes on the pan before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Because this recipe will make up to 4 dozen cookies...be sure to remember that not all of them have to be eaten all at once. I keep several of them in my freezer and put a couple each day in my lunch box for that extra little LENTIL-POWER when I need it at work.
I won't lie...they are kinda like little kitchen sink cookies that have a little bit of everything. I imagine...if you were a vegan...these would be just as delicious with egg substitute since they are NON-DAIRY!
Like all my recipes... there's no need to separate ingredients or to make anything another other than a total mess in your kitchen while using your hands and getting down and dirty when mixing these up.
Enjoy!
I have never EVER shared this recipe with anyone before...but, at least in my little SF community, these are the cookies that people ask for...and more than once...I've been asked for the recipe...soooo...here you go, SF Etsy... from my kitchen, to yours. Because, I think you're pretty special.
If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
The Renewal Experiment - A Follow-Up
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| Growing your brand - stitch by stitch Works in progress by nerd JERK |
If you've read my last blog post about using free tools to increase traffic to your Etsy shop and increasing your brand's visibility, you've probably asking yourself: Did increased traffic translate into sales?
I forgot to add this incredibly helpful tidbit of quantifiable information to my analysis. Doh! In my defense, I was putting together this information late-night until 5:30 this morning.
Here are the results I saw from my Renewal Experiment:
As of the time of this writing, I currently have 82 sales.
From when I started nerd JERK on Etsy on 12 Oct, 2009 to the day before I started this experiment 8 months later (16 June 2010), I had 28 sales, averging about 4 sales per month without spending much money on relisting (just a few non-sale-generating Etsy Showcases).
From when I started my experiment on 17 June, 2010 up until yesterday (23 November 2010), I have made an additional 54 sales within 6 months (almost doubling my sales for the previous 8 months that I was open). This means I averaged 9 sales per month - a 125% increase in sales!
It should also be said that 32 of these sales happened in the last 4 weeks, corresponding with the method of renewing in 20 minute intervals during my two highest traffic hours (6 & 7 PM, varying which week I was observing my traffic for).
When I started making sales, I would relist a bit at a time. It took a while (roughly 4 months) to look at the numbers both on Google Analytics & Craftopolis to really see that informed renewing was working out the way I wanted it to. Basically, I didn't want to spend money if I didn't think it would work - so I started by spending a little (only renewing 3 times a day in my top 3 peak hours = $0.60/day or $18/month), which is about the cost of 2 Etsy Category Showcases.
But one day, I asked myself if I could justify reinvesting my assets and diversifying my Peak Hour Renewals. And I decided that it was worth a try. I did 5 renewals a day from mid-September to mid-October (Let's call this Period #1). Then during the last couple of weeks of October until mid-November (Period #2), I decided to try doing 8-10 renewals per day at Peak Hours. My sales jumped from 6 during Period #1 to 32 sales in Period #2! That's a jump of over 500%!
Renewing 5-10 times/day = $1/$2/day or $30 to $60/month, which is about the cost of a blog ad or a craft fair table fee. And sometimes, I don't even make 9 sales during a show. *laughs* So I consider this to be pretty awesome.
I know there's a lot of information here and it may sound REALLY GREAT! And it is!!! But please understand that there are a lot of variables that added to my Renewal Experiment that helped build my brand (i.e. volunteering a ton of my time to Etsy Teams and craft shows) and play a role in the growth of nerd JERK.
Also, it didn't happen overnight. It took me over 6 months of renewing, but 14 months in total to figue out how I was going to get people in my shop!
You may not see results like mine right away (it was slower starting for me as well), but I promise that putting forth the effort to promote a brand that you truly believe in will result in shop visibility.
Do your own Renewal Experiment!
Start off small, like I suggested in my initial post. :) Try renewing during your top 3 Peak Hours only 2 days a week (an investment of $1.20 - the price of a cup of coffee). Compare your traffic those days to the other days you go without renewing any listings. What difference do you see?
I'd love to hear your stories! Feel free to share you own experiences and experiments here. As micro-business owners, we can all benefit from expanding our brands during this Handmade Movement. It's always great to hear that little things like this can make a difference in people's lives.
This post was originally posted on my blog, nerd JERK: Inspire Your Inner Geek on Wednesday, 24 November, 2010. It was also featured on Handmadeology.com and has been widely well-received. So much so that we wanted to share it with our SF Etsy members!
Steph Cortés from nerd JERK is the Roving Reporter, one of the members of the SF Etsy Blog Team. She enjoys going out to new crafting events and supporting the Handmade Movement, along with helping her fellow Etsy Sellers with tips & tricks to assist in making their business awesome. Look forward to more reports on her artsy shenanigans in weeks to come. Feel free to email her comments & tips anytime.
If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!
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