Again, no sales and exhausted

[mynoush]

I'm imploring critiques as in general forums people told me to go in a team to ask for that. I began to list in february and I did most of my sales after opening. Then, nothing until I have been on the FP and sold 3 times the same thing, then weeks after I sold another small belt at 30$ that I had left.

Since I opened, I worked a lot on my pictures (see my fabric hats, they are old photos). I created a facebook, twit everyday, pinterest, joined wanelo, tumblr, flickr, create my blog. I bought an ad on a blog for may and this is bringing me 1-2 visits per day.

My views had increased a lot since the beginning. But my tags were wrong, so I redid everything this week and I'm pretty happy to be on the 1st pages of results for relevancy. People told me I should go around weddings, so I tagged for this market on some listings. Since this tagging effort my views doubled.

I also decreased my prices of 15% and more. I clarified sizes and even added into descriptions I'm accepting returns and exchanges.

So, is there someone who could tell me what am I doing wrong? Why nothing sell? People favorite my items and even wrote me to tell they love what I do. What is wrong?

[Former_Member]

Mynoush,

You've got some great photos but really need to work on your SEO (titles and tags for search engines).

Firstly, where are you located really? Your location is listed as
"Montreal, Bohemian gypsy dresses tops skirts jackets cloaks hats headbands ooak fashion "
so if someone was looking for someone in Montreal Canada they would never find you.

When you write a title such as
"Lace bridal headband Wedding headband Womens headband Bridal hair accessories Wedding hair accessories Brides Hair accessories Weddings"
what is it that you are selling?

You really don't need to repeat words in the title so many times. That is really hurting you. A much simpler title such as 'Ivory lace bridal headband or headpiece' would be much simpler

You say that you are doing facebook, twit everyday, pinterest, joined wanelo, tumblr, flickr, create my blog.

However are you reaching your target audience? If you are selling bridal items, you need to be reaching out to brides directly.

You've got a beautiful shop. All you need to do now is to reach your target market.

[Former_Member]

I agree with crochetgirl. Your items are gorgeous and in truth you aren't doing that bad for how long you have been here. Take some time to learn about SEO. It's worth it.
Next, what are you doing to get your items in front of people outside of Etsy? Facebook, Tweeting, pinterest, wanelo, tumblr, flickr, and blogging are all good, but some really only benefit you after you have a following and others are good for showing your items but it can be difficult to find your things.
Follow some wedding blogs and sites, or fashion blogs. See if you can get a review of your items. Contact and submit some pics of your items to wedding/fashion magazines.
Also, you have the benefit of living a decently sized city with a large young population. You need to get out and make a local presence also. See if a shop will sell your things locally, hand out business cards, make connections with boutiques in your area. You need to bring people to your shop because Etsy cannot always do this for you.
I wish you the best of luck!

[mynoush]

I had short titles BEFORE like *Satin headband turban in print silk* and I had like 10 search results per day with stupid term search. I had 200 view per day, since I did this SEO I'm over 500 view per day.

I already work with shops and craftshows. What I do need to reach the specific buyer. I mean, I think I have to be seen by a lot of people to find the right people.

I'm following people on twitter, pinterest and tumblr, I know interaction is the key. People repin a bit my items and I have views from all those.

[Former_Member]

You may want to post more items, since more items will also get you more views. I would also think about joining an SEO team, who may be able to help you refine your terms more.
Don't give up, it may just be a slow season.

[Former_Member]

Bluntly...had a bit of wine so (sorry)

I'm not sure whom your target audience would be exactly.
I mean I think you got the photos down..they are adorable can see why your photos got plugged for FP. SEO eh everyone can always work on that.

I just dont know anyone....in the folks I know in the real world, who would ever buy or wear such. I'm sure it's a cultural thing.
But here as an almost 30 year old america...I dont know any friends from 20- to 60 wearing or would wear such.

I do believe in making what you love...but there is a market drive here too. You need to either figure out whom Exactly your target audience IS....or adapt to what the general market wants..or change what the general market wants(this being the hardest of the three)

[ChrisOsCreations]

i believe you should check your titles again

for example
http://www.etsy.com/listing/97278771/womens-hat-womens-crochet-hat-womens
here you have 5 times the word "womens" , three of them are at the url too
that doesn't help at all:(

try this one to find more suitable key words
https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWOR...

[Former_Member]

http://www.etsy.com/listing/93181820/mint-green-headband-turban-headband


This listing has the word headband 7 times just in the title and when I read the title I'm wondering - is it a turban or a headband because you call it both but they're two different things.

And following up on what Breanna said, while I find your stuff really pretty, it's not my personal style - no biggie - but on the other hand I don't think I've ever seen anyone wear this style of bridal wear.

[Former_Member]

Are you the model in these photos? You have very pretty eyes.

[Former_Member]

http://www.etsy.com/listing/99642577/purple-maxi-dress-halter-dress-tank?ref=cat_gallery_12
I absolutly love this dress and although the first picture is lovely, it doesn't show enough of the dree in the thumbnail so I wouldn't have clicked on it. Their are so many features to it which make it special. I think the photo showing the front and back on the manaquin would be best. It might not be as artistic or get on front page but it shows a potential customer exaxtly how amazing it is. I also love your photos with the model holding dress against them! They look kind of whimsical and romantic.
Would it be worth switching the first item on a few listings to see if this helps?
Just an idea. I

[Former_Member]

Love your shop and think you couod do really well!
Good luck!

[Former_Member]

Me too......I increase my inventories and still...........no sales........ :-(

[Former_Member]

Hubpages is a great sources of articles on SEO - so is squiddoo. l have the same issues with SEO as you and l know how you feel. Take a look at these two sites and the articles are written by people who know what they are talking about.
If you would like l could mail you my shop critique that l bought l couple of months ago - there is a section on SEO and titles that is interesting.
Take care and good luck
laura

[mynoush]

Thanks all for the advices, I already joined a SEO team, this is why my views DOUBLED this week, so for the moment I think its pretty more good than before. I still working on tags to see what bring me views. I'm relevant in the categories so that is what I want. Yesterday, somebody searching for a crochet hat, a hat in to crochet, I was on the 1st page. Same thing for womens hats, halter dresses and babydoll dresses. What is on the firsts pages on search is favorited. The category witch I have problems is headbands, because there is much more. I still search keywords, asked in the SEO team and Fashion team, but nobody found more than what I had.

I also though about the photos. If I put the front/back view of dresses on dressform I think its better for the customer, but bad for treasuries. I have tried both styles on many social media. The photos bringing me more more hearts and shared are the dresses and tops on a hanger with the distressed wood piece on background, with the FULL view of the dress or tank. Unfortunatly I can't use that on etsy due to those cropped tumbnails. The photos on the dressforms seems to my eyes more cold and with no feeling like into a catalog. But on some social media this was more appropriate. Its more "customer" oriented.

I really know that it is not everybody who like what I do, I'm really conscient of that. But I know some really really love them. I think I have a very specific audience, those who love vintage, retro....but I haven't found a disctintive tag that would bring them. Some people came with the tag pixie, shabby, retro style, bohemian and gypsy, so I use that and it works

You may want to know also that in february I only had headbands and hatties. I thought to try clothing (afraid of fitting issues) and listing those pieces brought me a bunch of views, much more that headbands because this category has exploded with concurence of baby headband for photos props and wedding headbands took all the place.

When I saw that, I added a couple of headbands for weddings, and I saw in my stats that anything tagged wedding is in top of my tags search. That means there is a good market for that. This is also why I'm planning of adding more in this category, I always did wedding dresses before but never thought to list them on etsy.

Yes yesterday also I changed my crochet hat of categories, to benefit the exposure of both Hat-crochet and Crochet-hat category. It works! Great views and favorites. I also retag properly my fabric hats in "womens" and "cloche" category, and also its good because those hats were almost never seen and now I have one on the 1st page staying and its favorited and for the 1st time into treasuries.

I also worked with google keyword tags to see what is more relevant and to get suggestions. Now I found that I have to adjust that to the keywords suggested on the etsy search bar........I missed a couple, so today I will check that and also redid a couple of combinations.

About headbands, don't ask me if it is a headband, a turban...I don't know, both. It is one of the most searched terms when you ask for Headbands, it suggest turban headbands. So I have both search results into my stats.

I know some of you can't stand those big thing, but when I opened, I sold 5 of the most favorited to a lady who was totally amazed and never seen that. I sold another to a mother to be in france, and two to a retro haired lady that is replacing her pin curls with those headbands for lazy days. I also right at the beginning had a requests for wholesale, but never concluded. People words are: we had never seen that elsewhere, original.

Tagging those dresses and tops has been a head ache. What it is? a tank? a blouse? a top? a shirt? a tunic? I don't know. Do you know? Already tagging them "halter" and "tank" keep me on the top search results, so I'm seen...

Thanks all for your imput.

[mynoush]

Just to let you know that I past the last few days to review my tags AGAIN, working to bring better choosen keywords in a better order and agencement and tralala, it works!

I sold my most beautiful camisole yesterday, and another people ask me to reserved my winter cloak with a matching headband. HOURRA!

[MythOfTheWild]

SEO like everyone else said, but looking through your shop, you seem to have an extremely specific market - that's not my way of telling you to change your style and sell something more mainstream, it's my way of telling you that you're not reaching the right audience. You placed an advert on a blog - was that blog truly relevant, or was it just cheap? Was it their smallest ad, or their biggest? Do you only tweet about your products - you also need to let people know you're a real person. I have a lot of Etsy sellers that I follow on Twitter, and products are rarely mentioned, instead it's all about the people, which I find extremely valuable.

[mynoush]

It would be helpfull to tell me what is my audience, because I don't know Already as I said, tagging helped me to be founded and now I have more buyers adding my items. I asked everywhere to tell me witch style I should use to tag, but nobody replied or seem to know. I'm not the kind of person reading fashion magazines, watching tv, web browsing. Plus, I don't speak english, so my vocabulary in fashion styles, tendancies and trends is close to nothing.

[Former_Member]

Mynoush - I think you should sit down and appreciate just how well you are doing... rather than assume or think that you are doing badly and not selling much.

Your shop is fairly new, and it's well known that it takes a while for an Etsy shop to develop, become known and find a customer base...

Most sellers only sell one or two things, or even nothing in the first 3 or 4 months - so you have, in fact, done incredibly well !

Be patient - give it time - and let it grow organically. Remember, if it grows too fast you will not be able to keep up with it and then things will fall apart. Growing slower is much safer and will give you a very strong footing for a long term business.

And just enjoy what you are doing - dump the frustration out in the woods and appreciate the beauty and enjoyment that running your business should be bringing you :)

Peace and happiness,
Amanda Jane

[mynoush]

Thank you Amanda, I'm pretty satisfied of what I achieved so far. I just wanted to thank everyone for their imput, I asked for. I was "celebrating" my sale, but I have been told my audience from tags is not good. I think its not too bad with the number of views and favorites growing everyday. I will do more research on the web. Devianart has been a great ear for that and pinterest.

[ThePlaidPineconeCo]

You seem to be doing fine to me. You said you have better views by changing your tags/titles, and you''ve listed multiple sales that you've made to many different people. Not sure what advice exactly you're looking for?

[Former_Member]

One thing I have learnt very fast Mynoush, is that views and Favs and treasury appearances do not = sales....

Only thing guarantees sales is to get the right people to see your page/item.

You could have 10 views a day for the whole shop and still sell every day because those 10 people adored your things and were online shopping for exactly that...

Now 100 a day and 10 sales would be cool !!!!!

[ThePlaidPineconeCo]

So true, Amanda. 30 views yesterday and 2 sales for me. 100+ views every other day of the week and nothing.

[mynoush]

I guess with time and sales I will know better witch is my "very specific Market".

[Former_Member]

I think people get really caught up in getting a high number of "views" and thinking that should translate into a high number of sales.

Quality over quantity.

Targeting your search terms and getting 10 very targeted customers looking at your items is much better than having broad search terms and getting hundreds of views from people who really aren't going to be interested in completing a sale.

Just something to keep in mind as you go forward :)

[Miriboheme]

Yay Mynoush! I'm so happy you got some sales and interest. That's awesome. I LOVE your stuff.