How to get more views AND get clients to buy?

[Former_Member]

Hi everyone!

I opened my shop in May of this year and I had a large quantity of views and HEARTS at the beginning but now its so much harder. I don't know what I am doing wrong all of a sudden. I post on my blog, FB, Twitter and are in the forums as much as I can, but I seem to be getting fewer views and only 1 or 2 HEART every several days, but before I was getting 5-6 a day....

Also, any advice as to how to turn hearts into sales? How can I get people to purchase and not JUST favorite everything. I always do well when I sell my work face-to-face with clients at festivals or conventions etc..., but I feel like I am missing a major ingredient to get the ball moving. PLEASE HELP ME! I would trully appreciate any feedback.

Thank you! :)

[Former_Member]

Please help?

[Former_Member]

Have you joined this team? They will critique your shop. http://www.etsy.com/teams/7702/sassy-critiques

Sometimes our items don't translate as well on the page as they do in life. My bouquets are like that.

Unfortunately, when someone hearts you, you cannot contact them to turn it into a sale. One quick thing I see is that not all of your titles are not in keeping with the new relevancy search. Not many people will look for an 11x14 print. But they may look for a print with the words "red death" "skeleton" or something similar.

Hope that helps!

[Former_Member]

Thank you. I was worried no one would reply. I will edit the item titles like you suggest and look at the etsy team you mentioned. Thank you!!!

[Former_Member]

I see you have beautiful items, but only 34.
Me for example, I had around 40 and posting daily, having strong activity, but no sales. One weekend before december I decided to make more promotional items for holidays, print sets with different sizes etc, and I posted 40 items in 2 days to fill my shop before holidays. and my first sales just came after 2 days.
It's good to have more different items, so you can use different tags, titles and descriptions. I always think about how would I search for that item, and use those words.

[EbonyShaeDesigns]

I have read in the forums that you are more likely to come up in google searches if you have 100 items in your shop (Don't ask me how to do that - I am REALLY slow at adding inventory to my store!).

I do love your items and they seem unique, which is a bit of a clue here on etsy. I often say that there are 101 people selling 5 fingered gloves here, but very few selling 6 fingered gloves, and if they were, there would probably be a market!

I like how you have changed your item titles, I hope that helps for you too. Best of luck with it all.

[Former_Member]

http://www.etsy.com/listing/73674294/fantasy-self-portrait-print

just wanna say I LOVE this!!

[fluidinkletterpress]

I only recently discovered 'renewing' seemed to make a difference to views when I renew an item. Also USE CIRCLES and communicate with people. like their shops, circle them, when you make treasuries, send everyone in the treasury a message to let them know, pretty soon you will be under many people's noses.

[BeachFleaMarket]

I am so tempted to ask the people who favorite an item why they did not purchase it. I really want an honest answer. Would this be an okay thing to do? It seems like most people on ETSY want to help each other.

[Former_Member]

That's not okay Anne. I know that people like my items, but aren't ready to jump the boat, best is to get critiques in teams on how to improve shop and increase sales i guess.

[Former_Member]

Sometimes people favorite items to buy later or comparison shop - I've seen that where someone who favorited an item of mine bought it a few days or weeks later. But sometimes its just an, awe that is so cool. I will favorite an item I have no need for but I think is amazing. For example - I have all boys, but I can't help admiring stuff for little girls.

[2forksdesign]

Love your work, NAHRIN!

This is just a wild guess because I've been wondering about the same thing too: Sometimes people appreciate beautiful art work but they have a hard time picturing it in their own home. My guess is, most people who buy art from Etsy want to display them on their wall. If the art doesn't go with their home decor, even though they admire it they probably won't buy. Etsy is a little different from art galleries. Probably not a lot of viewers are real art collectors.

You have some pictures of your art displayed in a frame and in a very cool surrounding. They are absolutely beautiful but I wonder if Etsy viewers are having a hard time relating to your art because the surroundings are so very different from their own home.

Just a thought.

[Former_Member]

Sorry for the late reply, I'm in the middle of moving to a new Apt. so I'm probably running around like a chicken with no head as they say hahaha. Thanks a lot everyone! I was planning on adding more inventory, so I'll get on it asap! I just hope I can fill enough to make 100 soon... (crossing fingers :)


Also, Tiffany, Thanks for the kind words!

Susie, I understand what you mean. I put the artwork framed in that setting because that's how it will look as a presentation portfolio on my website which will be going up soon. But I agree, I'll try to add another photo of the artwork in a regular, everyday home setting. Btw.. I LOVE your artwork its awesome!

Again thank you so much everyone. I TRULY appreciate your feedback!

[2forksdesign]

By the way, I'm posting a link to your Gothic Noir Print ( http://www.etsy.com/listing/73760221/gothic-noir-print) on my facebook and Twitter. I hope you don't mind. It's such a beautiful piece. Very "300" like. :-)

[JillianDesigns4u]

To me a like or heart or favorite is the same as folding over the corner of a catalog. You mark it because you like it....you may go back and buy it or you may not. If I bought all the things I earmark in catalogs I'd be BROKE.

[ConcertinaPress]

Try this experiment:

For one week, change your etsy avatar to be a closeup of an item from your shop -maybe crop this one so it's mostly her face?

http://www.etsy.com/listing/73674294/dark-portrait-print

THEN do your usual forum posting in etsy, and see if you don't get a bunch of new hearts! I personally have found that having a photo in my avatar of something that I make really boosts traffic from the forums, because people will know right away if they like what you make!

[Former_Member]

To be found on search, learning RELEVANCY is very important. In short, the first 3 words of your description should be repeated in a tag. Tags should be in multiple words to mimic how people search. Also, adding a combination of your tags in the first 2 lines of your description will improve search. Test if you can search and find a couple of your items. If your most recent items do not show up, tweak the titles and tags.

The last section of your policy statement could be moved to Info & Appearance where viewers learn up front about your jewelry and care of it.

Also, there are people like me who don't know what is 'statement' jewelry. So you might want to politely educate us, also in the info & appearance or individual items.

Do you think people will search on your section using your section titles?

Don't take this wrong, but if a seller stated that I should not leave a negative or neutral feedback, I would go somewhere else. Emphasizing that you should be contacted if there are issues is to me much more attractive.

Here's a good link for a shop checklist: http://etsymentors.blogspot.com/p/critique-your-own-shop.html

Good luck

[Former_Member]

I think you should definitely use one of the striking prints as your avatar. People will definite want to see more and click on your shop.

[Former_Member]

I just opened my shop yesterday...
http://www.etsy.com/people/dBberk

[Former_Member]

I have different issues than this team member, but i found the suggestion of changing the avatar to be very useful..so off I go to change mine : )
Thanks

[2forksdesign]

NAHRIN,

I went to a Shop Critique chat with Michelle the other day and I was lucky enough to be picked to have my shop critiqued. She said something similar--people on Etsy are buying art to display on their walls. They're not hard-core collectors. Anyways, she recommended that I view the video of the critique she did on a shop that sells artwork like ours. Here's the link to the video if you're interested:

Nov 4th Etsy Success Shop Critique about artwork— livestre.am/1750C Around the 32:30 mark.

[2forksdesign]

Oops, here's the proper link: http://www.livestream.com/etsy/video?clipId=pla_7b506895-9295-4d1e-b31e-cded6f45c9ce

[StarJewels]

Nahrin, You need to change some of your tags and titles. Titles are very important to be found in relevancy. So for example, you have a pair of earrings titled Earrings- Emma Frost. I don't know who Emma Frost is or why aanyone would search that who wants to buy earrings. Titles should be secriptive, and much longer than yours. So these for example mught be titled Swarovski Crystal earrings, grey faux pearl dangle earrings wire wrapped with clear crystals and silver beads

Your taggi ng needs work too. Tags like Birthday gift and Mother's Day when are against Etsy policy and very vague, and likely a waste of a tag anyway. Your tags should be directly related and descriptive of what your item is, not what it could be used for. Any item on Etsy could be a birthday gift. And people looking for a birthday gift don't search for "birthday gift" anyway. You need more 2-3 word tags to be found in relevancy search, as they look for exact phrase matches. So you might have Swarovski AND Swarovski crystal AND Swarovski earrings as tags. You might have grey pearl and pearl earrings and faux pearl. Good luck and hope this helps.

[KriyaDesign]

To make sales you've got to be found. To be found your titles, tags and body descriptions must have the phrase folks are searching for. Take for example this earrings:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/74253694/earrings-viola-amethyst

Personally I would search - "purple amethyst earrings". However not everyone could spell amethyst correctly. So she might type in "purple earrings" or "gemstone earrings" in her searches. Your items are not coming on the top search pages if she uses those 3 phrases. Maybe you can start making changes on this.

Personally the keywords I'd use in titles, tags and descriptions:
purple amethyst earrings
amethyst gold earrings
purple earrings
dangle earrings
drop earrings
amethyst earrings
freshwater pearl earrings
pearl earrings
pearl jewelry ------- folks love pearl
gold filled earrings
gold jewelry
gold earrings
long dangle earrings
gemstone earrings

Hope this helps. All the very best

[Former_Member]

Thanks a lot kriyadesign and Sarah Stettler!
Yeah the Emma Frost name was just something I kind of gave up on. I was so tired and just got desperate to post my listings. I have been retagging like a mad woman but I will definitely give them another round. I had no idea the birthday tags were against policy. I added those after reading an article about a featured seller in one of the etsy newsletters and they had used those "gift" type tags. It was one of those moments where I thought "hey that seller is successful and got featured so why don't I try doing what they did for a bit." There's a lot to take in and though I started in May of this year I still think there's always more to learn ;)

Thanks Susie! I'm watching it right now ;)