Joined Feb 1. Sold 1 item mid-Feb. 5000 views March, nothing sold. Trying not to get discouraged.

[Former_Member]

Anyone else in a similar boat? Sandra

[MountainGoth]

Wow, your shop is all over the place...Have you considered opening 2 more shops to split up your items. You have jewelry, you have crocheted items and you have the zentangle items. I can see each of these being a seperate shop, having too much unrelated stuff in one shop can confuse buyers.

[Former_Member]

I think you have some lovely items but your branding is off. There's not really much flow and like above, you have such a varied selection it can come across quite confusing.

Maybe invest in having a small business rebrand and simplify your product images. They are lovely enough that they can stand out alone. For me your most recent items seem to be lost in the product display set up.

[Former_Member]

Thanks! I'm in the process of creating a 2nd called My Fairy Godmother's Wand. I'll sell my rings there and keep My Creekside Studio all about crochet and knitting! THANKS! Sandra

[Former_Member]

I don't always think its necessary to create multiple shops, as long as you can get the photography and branding consistent. But separating the items wont hurt you either, it's just twice as much work! Goodluck either way!

[EasySpecials123]

In the future I will be selling handmade and re purposed items. My problem is I didn't think ahead when naming my shop. So I will be setting up another shop.
I can't see selling handmade and re purpose items with my existing shop name.

You could set up more shops or like Ariana said separate items so they can be close together in your existing shop.

Good Luck !!

[PiecesOfMePaperCraft]

Just a friendly FYI, the Disney brand name is copyrighted. Using the word Disney to sell items (even saying "Disney inspired") may get your listings pulled if Disney sees them. Someone on this team just recently reported that Etsy closed her shop down for selling Hello Kitty inspired items.

[Former_Member]

Don't be discouraged! Etsy is hard work; it requires a lot of patience and constant effort to make your shop grow and be successful. I've got a few pointers for you from things that jumped out at me:

You have no feedback; a lot of people feel WAY more comfortable shopping online if the person they're buying from has positive feedback--not no feedback, not negative feedback. Positive. The best way to do that is to make a purchase on Etsy and wait for the feedback rating to show up from the seller. That'll give your potential buyers more confidence.

I don't have a problem with the fact that your items are vastly different; I don't think opening another shop is necessarily the answer. If you keep your branding and photos consistent it'll all come together. I sell crafted items AND vintage craft supplies with a few sprinklings of general vintage thrown in, and I've found success keeping them all in one shop. My pictures are all the same, my prices aren't all over the place, and my branding matches throughout. That's all that's necessary. A lot of people, however, find better success with having multiple shops; decide what will work best for you and go for it. Either solidify/ universalize your branding, or open up your other shop.

Another thing that needs to be more consistent is your pricing. You have a crocheted ring for $45, and another crocheted ring for $20. I would guess people will see that and wonder why the difference between the two. Make sure you're not pricing yourself out of business; make sure your prices are reasonable, make sure they're competitive, and make sure it's something people will want to pay. In business you either need to be the first, the best, or the cheapest and IMHO your items don't stand out as any of the three.

Your photos also aren't appealing, IMHO. The colors are dark, the backgrounds are cluttered, and they just don't make the items themselves stand out. That's what the purpose of these photos is: make the items stand out. As many others will suggest, try putting your items against a white background. You can do it on a trial basis, even; try changing all of your item photos to a white background for a month and if you don't see any positive changes in your shop, change them back.

I would also recommend working on search engine optimization. Remember that on Etsy the first three words in your title are the most important; it's the prime real estate and the rest is less important (still important, just less so than the first three words).

http://www.etsy.com/listing/125088119/mothers-day-gift-item-decorate-home-or?ref=shop_home_active
I just read the title of this item and I'm not even sure what it is, so why would I want to buy it? It's an... item... and you'll throw in the tea. On the other side of that coin, how am I supposed to find your item in search if I don't know what it is? If it's a crocheted bowl or container, try adding those kind of descriptors to your title. So far the most specific term in that title is "item" and nobody's going to find your product in search by the word "item"!

There's also this listing: https://www.etsy.com/listing/124695350/organic-free-form-crochet-shawl-green?ref=shop_home_active
It's titled: "Organic free form crochet shawl. Green spring and summer feel. Trippy and Whimsy Sandra Glover Clarke My Creekside Studio"

I would drop the "Sandra Glover Clarke My Creekside Studio" entirely, or move it to your item's description. Having your shop name and your name in the title is redundant because it's already all over your shop. If you search Etsy for Agnes and Amy, you'll find my shop even though it's not in my item titles. Take a look at this listing, similar to yours. I typed in "crochet shawl" and this was in the top eight listings: https://www.etsy.com/listing/91108313/cream-wraparound-shawl-crocheted-shawl?ref=shop_home_active

Check out the title of this item and take note of the keywords she used. Crocheted, wraparound, shawl, cream (color descriptor!), clothing, accessories, womens. These are all words that helped this item climb to the top end of the search results ladder! It's all about keywords and relevance so make sure each of your listings has great keywords and is relevant to what your potential customers would be looking for.

Best of luck! Cheers :)

[PiecesOfMePaperCraft]

Amy, that was all excellent advice!

[Former_Member]

Isn't it funny how sometimes another person looking at your shop helps so much.. it's like a teacher stepping back from a board.

[MetalRoosterOrganics]

I'm in the same exact boat! I have not sold one thing this month but I haven't been steadily working on my shop this past month due to worrying about organizing, cleaning for Passover, some medical problems I attended to as well as my mom was here visiting for two weeks. I am working very diligently to make some more soaps these next few weeks as well as I am working on gift sets and really exploding the awesomeness that is my shop in time for Mothers Day, graduation, weddings, the whole nine yards. I hope to have 50 listings by the time summer gets here and double that by the time August gets here.

[Former_Member]

5000 views and 1 sale? How are you being found (check your stats); via Direct Traffic or Search? Clearly you need to figure out how to target your market audience; this is more likely to happen if you are being found in a search, so the advice above about working on your SEO is great.

You also need to really work on your pictures... I don't find that they pull me in and make me want to look more, and if I saw them among the thousands of others in a search I would probably skip over them. Simple backgrounds, lots of color and light and fully visible items with lots of different views are the key. Consistency with the items is also really important, especially when a potential buyer gets to your store, and especially if you plan to sell different types of items. You don't want your buyer to work too hard at figuring out what you are selling.

[Former_Member]

I agree on many of these points being raised. I too sell several different kinds of product (jewelry) in my shop and have often wondered about branding and/or opening a 2nd shop. However, at least for me, I don't feel the need to open a second shop right now because I've been able to improve the appearance of my shop by organizing by color, keeping the backgrounds as simple and consistent as possible (most of my items are photographed on a white wooden table), and using good words in the descriptions. Someone else mentioned that the first 3 words in your description are the most important. I found that when I changed my product name from something like "Super cute Lemon-drop earrings" to "Lemon Yellow Glass Bead Earrings, silver plated earrings, spring jewelry", I got a lot more views. Another tip is to tag your items with full descriptions. When writing tags it's better to type in things like "pale green shawl" instead of typing in green and shawl separately. Does that make sense?

Just my 2 cents. :) Good luck.

[QuiltSewCover]

I think a second shop is ok - I have 2 shops. But I don't think you have enough inventory for two shops. If you can't at least fill one full page at all times, it's not enough, in my opinion.

Also, I notice that you didn't relist the one thing that you sold. Obviously it was liked, so why didn't you do another similar one? By the way, I love Zentangles.

[Former_Member]

Wow! I am so grateful for all the wonderful advise here. I will definitely work on my wording, prices and photos next week. Again, thank you. XOXO Sandra

[Former_Member]

Views, 5400. 2600 are direct traffic. I just changed most of my titles and prices. I'll work on photos next week. Thanks. Sandra