How much would you list...

[Former_Member]

...without getting any sales?
Do you set a certain amount of money for listings each month or does it depend on how many sales you get? I am thinking if I really should keep on listing the way I do (2-5 items every day) when I still haven't gotten one sale? What are your thoughts and tips concerning this?

[WilliamsGiftshop]

Listing 2-5 items a day (does that include renewing?) is a lot.
I have 180+ listings in my shop, but I don't reach that number.
Of course: the more listings in your shop, the more chances of being found and of making sales.

I think the main question here is: what (besided listing) are you doing to attract buyers?
(SEO, marketing, promoting)

[BlueSparrowVintage]

Hi Linda! I think it is sooo important to have a nice variety for customers to choose from. Both here and in the brick and mortar stores.

I guess it would depend on if it was a hobby, or if I really wanted to make money- or even just a little bit of both.

Last year when I did my photography and jewelry as more of a hobby or art expression, I really didn't care about having a large selection. I just kind of wanted to get my work out there.
Then- as I shifted to more of an objective business sense I realized that if I went into a store and there was only two or three kinds of similiar things there and they weren't selling, Well, I would have to change things up.

Now in ceruleanplume I offer hair accessories, soft/romantic looking pieces, some fun and almost quirky items etc. But I am going to try and tie them all together in the next year.

In my shop viesereine, I branched out and started offering more size options, custom cards, even iphone cases with my art!

So again- work in progress. But I would always say if your stagnant for awhile, to do a little shifting. Usually with just a tweak or two you can offer your art or craft in slightly different ways and styles to cater toward items your customers might want right now, and maybe later.
Anyway, wish you the success!

And yes! Try to list tems when you canbut don't go crazy and keep up the good work!

[Former_Member]

I only have 52 items in my shop so I need to list several every day to every reach a number which is acceptable for a shop to make it look serious (at least that's what I've been told).

I work like crazy in my shop all the time since day one this year. I change around titles and tags all the time to improve, I market my items on facebook, twitter, instagram and by handing out business cards, I take new photos when I feel something needs improving and I list several items each day. I've done this very very actively for seven days now (since the beginning of January) but still have barely gotten anywhere at all. My views are really low for this type of work that I put in and for as many listings as I put up every day (between 50-80 views/day) and my favorites are only between 7-15 every day.

The amount of time and effort I put in my shop (lots of hours every day at the moment) is not paying off at all, that's why I was wondering how you go about listings. I need more than 52 items in my shop, thus the listing, but I'm not making any sales at all, so should I just stop listing?

[Pininkie]

I have a rough limit of $10 - although I'm nowhere near spending that much as I can't create that quickly! But if I sold more, I could increase it in theory.

[WilliamsGiftshop]

You mean you are promoting on those social networking sites, not marketing.
Marketing = finding (or creating) your target market (outside of Etsy) and promoting directly to them.
It is THE most important thing to do, after SEO.

[Former_Member]

You shouldn't need to be tweaking your titles and tags every day for a week. THat's not giving them time enough to actually see whether the new variation is working!

Additionally, you say you've been working hard for one full week. That's great, but not nearly enough time to judge whether you're successful or not.

[LaurasPaperCreations]

Tanya makes a good point - ultimately, how much can you afford to list, especially in a lean month that may not get any sales.

[BlueSparrowVintage]

I like what Gena said too. My outward vision had 1-4 years before I would be calling my Etsy operations a success or not (- and of course, your business plans/outlooks can change as well)

But at 7 days- you are limited to only knowing 7 days of said stuff <3
It takes time to take time!

[Former_Member]

When I say I've worked on SEO, tags and titles every day this week, I mean by improving the "bad" ones. I've had this shop for a while so all the "old" things are getting new tags and titles, which takes up a massive time to change. Since I've had them in my shop for six months or so I know they haven't been working properly, thus making it possible to change it all to see what works. I haven't been active in my shop until now, and even being this active has given me nothing more than when I didn't do anything at all in my shop beside having some listings. At least not what I can see.

And like you've mentioned, I can't see results right away, but what I can track is how I am doing week by week, and in order to improve week by week I want to think about what I am doing wrong and why my views and favorites aren't improving.

I know it's not possible to have a successful business in seven days, my question was if I should keep listing, not if I would be successful right away.
I think this discussion kinda went beyond my original question a little bit. I am in no way believing things are supposed to be really good right away, I know there takes a lot of work.

BeaG, yes, I meant promoting, my bad :P

You guys are giving me some awesome advice in here for sure. I am quite certain I know what I'm doing, so I was just thinking, should I stop listing over all for a few weeks?

[Former_Member]

It costs 20 cents to list something. Even at 5 listings a day, that's only $1. List away! People can't buy it if it's not listed for sale.

[Former_Member]

I agree with all of the above...I have 102 items in my shop and got orders at Christmas, but I don't really know how much money to spend on advertising each week. I feel like I spent a lot at Christmas - $84 a wk...and yet never saw my items featured on Etsy (looking up to page 12) in the sections featured. I am spending $20 a wk now...I know it is January, but still I don't see any of my items and have had No orders at all. ??? I have chosen 12 items to use in my advertising....is that too many??

[Former_Member]

@Marlena - the general consensus is that search ads are a waste of money.

[PiecesOfMePaperCraft]

I wouldn't quit listing for a few weeks but you can probably get away with listing one item every day or every two days. You sell jewelry, which I'm sure you know is the most saturated category on Etsy. You're going to have to work twice as hard to be seen among the 3,510,951 listings out there (kind of daunting, huh?). I noticed a lot of your listings look the same with only slight differences (for example, an earring listing, a charm listing, then both those items listed as a set). Try mixing things up a little. When I look at your front page my eyes see repeats, which makes me think there's not much variety.

[JoArtyJo]

When I started this shop I promised myself that I would not give up unless I got to 100 listings without success. I said that if that happened I would reassess the situation and see what was going wrong.

That goal kept me going thought the first couple of months, and when I hit around 75 items my sales started getting regular! I figured 100 items is only $20, which is a minuscule startup cost for a business!

Set yourself a goal of a minimum number of listings you would like to have in your shop. And keep on creating, not worrying about sales. I saw it as the opening up process. Imagine a bricks and mortar store opening their doors before they were "ready"- ie, they were still stocking the shelves, making a sign for out front etc. I doubt they would be expecting sales lol!

[AuraRosesTreasures]

Anyone successful out there want to post how many listings they recommend we keep as one of the keys to success.
I think it's around 200 items.
Everyone's ideas are great.
Of course, you MUST do lots of other things besides listing to insure success.
And you need to wait a couple of years in order to examine stats that help you understand what needs to be done.

[JoArtyJo]

I don't think there is a magic number. There are plenty of successful shops with not that many items.

I think what helped me is that by adding over 100 items I managed to try so many new things that I found what worked for my shop. I believe it's all about perseverance, and so many people give up because they get disheartened early on, when really we just need to keep on working :-)

[spacefem]

I would list as many per day as you want until you're at about 25 items, then I wouldn't list more than one a day until I get some sales.

If you list too fast, you're not taking the time to research and learn anything from the listings you're posting.

Listing 100 items does teach you some very good things if you do it slowly, carefully, and start posting more of what's popular and less of what's not as you go along. Once you've done that you can slow down... I have less than 50 items in my shop but sales are clipping along because I've been around about 1.5 years.

[Former_Member]

I hardly list! lol I think it is because my jewellery takes me a while to make, (wooden pieces) I list them once I completed them. I make more than one at the same time, 2 -5 pieces. And list them all on one day, tends to be a wednesday.

I renew once my item as expired.

It takes awhile to figure out that is selling and what isn't in your shop. Once you figured that stuff out then go go go go!!

Currently at the moment I do not have a budget, as I don't make regular sales (yet). But once I do, I am sure I will have a monthly budget for supplies etc.

And on a side note, I wouldn't bother with the search ads. Waste of money.

[WilliamsGiftshop]

That's the fun part about people helping you in the forums.
They not only try to answer your question, but give you extra advice too.

[Former_Member]

I found that the more listings that I have the more I sell. Keep up the good work!

[Former_Member]

Can you sell your items off site and in person to help offset the cost of listing on etsy?

My first six months I sold way more off site than on. I had an open house that helped a lot. I know my shop didn't start having weekly sales until I had over 200 items. It doesn't happen overnight. Remember a lot of folks had and will have smaller paychecks this month than last due to SS taxes being raised. Sounds like you are on the right path of looking over your old listings. This is a great time to get that done.

[cyberwezz]

BeaGfromWilliamsGiftshop says

You mean you are promoting on those social networking sites, not marketing.
Marketing = finding (or creating) your target market (outside of Etsy) and promoting directly to them.
It is THE most important thing to do, after SEO.

-------

I would love to know more about how to actually go about this.
My shop could do way better than it is right now, even though I'm promoting it.
That's obviously not enough. Finding my target market would definitely help!

[Former_Member]

People keep telling me my shop isn't versatile enough, so maybe that's just reason enough to keep listing. Since there are only 53 items in the shop it is hard to show how versatile my shop is. My memory wire bracelets for example, they come in a great variety of colors, mix of pearls, etc that is extremely hard to tell when there are so few of them so far.

I'll keep listing and will list until I have at least 100 items listing, when I do I will take a good look through my shop and see what I can do. I am of course extremely aware that jewelry is a very saturated category, but that doesn't mean I can't succeed. Even if I have huuuuge competition I believe I still have great chances. I want to offer all round quality on items as well as service, so that keeps me going :D

You guys are being so helpful, THANK YOU SO MUCH. Lots of <3 <3 <3

[Former_Member]

As a real newbie, I'm really appreciating all the advice on this thread, and in the team generally.
Joanne, I think I'm going to copy and print out your post about how you kept motivated - very inspiring!