New and Existing Seller Questions & Advice

[#1]

The holiday season is fast approaching and with that comes a slew of questions about running a successful business during this busy time.

We will be hosting a live Q&A session in the Online Labs on September 24th at 12:00pm (ET) with a special guest, Claire Comfort.

Claire, who works on the Seller Education team here at Etsy, spends most of her time working with veteran Etsy sellers. She will be with us live to answer some questions from those of you who have a little more experience with selling online.

Whether you're a new or established seller, this is the place to share your questions as we enter the holiday season on Etsy. Some of your questions and advice could be featured in this upcoming Online Labs Q&A session on the 24th! - www.etsy.com/community/online-labs

[HandmadeByEvaRose]

It is not etsy. Google has removed the option of exact match from adwords-and the PLA format has changed completely. That means your keywords in the tags need to be changed to long tail, otherwise your rank will tank.

[IsThatPizza]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking forward to chatting with you all in the Online Labs on Wednesday.

Here's the link to the Seller Handbook (https://blog.etsy.com/en/category/seller-handbook/)

and the Seller Handbook Archive (https://blog.etsy.com/en/2013/the-seller-handbook-archive/)

Lots of great information about SEO under "Getting Found in Search" in the Archive.

Best,
Claire

[Former_Member]

This may have already been asked and I missed it but, if I make something for a friend and they want to leave a review but I am not wanting to charge them, how is this handled?

Thanks
Laurie

[Former_Member]

Those of us who have 'tanked', look at the calendar. End of summer holidays, home from vacation, back to work, start of school. Do-Dads on Etsy are low priority. Wait, people will soon see what we see; holidays coming, more home time, cooler / colder days.

[Former_Member]

I have decided if you are in a crowded field like I am (wood turning) forget SEO on GOOGLE. You can move from page 97 to page 63 with a lot of effort. It is not worth it. BUT, even if you do not easily manage another language try key words in it. I am geographically sandwiched between Germany & Austria. I put holz / holz schale (wood / wood bowl) in every group of key words and I get results. We do business in English but they search in German. Germany is third after US & UK for customers. For those of you in NE USA, I would try keywords in French. Get some one to help you. In spite of what Americans think most of the world is not English speaking!!!!!

[Former_Member]

Hi Friends,
I am very new here and need advice on how to sell better.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ChakraStyle?ref=pr_shop_more

Thanks

[Former_Member]

Hello! I was really surprised at how low my traffic is, I followed a lot of advice, not sure other ways to get out there?

[CocomotionalDesigns]

how can i tell is the visits to my shop are me..checking in and tweaking..do my visits to my shop get counted ?? I can't tell..but really need to know this. thanks

[Former_Member]

For anyone wondering about their lack of views and/or SEO and tags, I suggest checking out the SEO & Relevancy team. I particularly recommend this thread on using the Google Keyword Planner:

https://www.etsy.com/teams/11352/relevancy-and-seo-for-all-etsy-shops/discuss/13988472/

The first rule of SEO: Don't think like a seller/creator. Think like a buyer. For example, Shefali, you're using keywords like "plastic", "laminate" and "aluminum." Those are the elements of your item ... but not one potential clock buyer in the entire world is looking for "laminate."

Your potential buyers of your very cool clocks are searching for clocks! I also sell clocks so I've done a ton of research on keywords, and I can tell you that the very best keywords I've found are "cool wall clocks" and "unusual wall clocks." There are lots of other ones, and for anyone interested in my particular and very scientific method of SEO research, you can read my blog post that explains it here:

http://cleverruthie.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/a-sweet-secret-to-seo-and-etsy-happiness/

My method is aimed at Google. Of course most of us won't actually rank on Google, but I know from much experience that people are people, and search behavior is search behavior wherever it happens, so if people are searching for "cool wall clocks" on Google, so are people on Etsy.

Also, although there is no Etsy equivalent of the Keyword Planner to tell us how many people search for each phrase on Etsy, I always do a search here for phrases I'm thinking of using to see what the competition is. "Cool wall clocks" right now has only 314 total items using that phrase. (And my clock is #1 after the ads...) According to the Google Keyword planner, there are 19,200 Google searches every year on that phrase, yet here on Etsy, very few clock sellers are using it! That's what I call a sweet spot. :-)

Finally, when you do a search here on Etsy, type slowly to allow Etsy to suggest phrases. That's the closest thing you'll get to the Keyword Planner to find out what phrases are popular here.

SEO is not hard once you get the hang of it. And though it seems like a lot of work, once you have great keywords, they'll be driving traffic to your shop while you sleep!

[FloralXchange]

Thank you for letting me know, I have been
working on them! I appreciate your feedback.

[Former_Member]

I see that some people have similar questions, but have the new promotions negatively affected views on people's shops? I've seen a significant decline in my views and sales since the new promo started.

Also, how can I regulate the way/times my shop is promoted? I cannot afford to pay $10 a day ($280 a month!) just to get views from 12 am up until 12 pm and then have no more money left in the daily budget to get promo the rest of the day- the part of the day where most people are awake and shopping.. Maybe I'm doing it wrong? Please help!

Thanks!
Aja
ABAjewels

[TremoughGlass]

There are so many variables which govern our views and sales, time of year, state of economy, quality of SEOs etc but here's one that isn't often mentioned. As we approach the holidays I see established and successful sellers in the area that I sell in increasing their inventory massively. There are a couple of my fellow dichroic glass jewelry sellers who work their socks off to increase their inventory to over 1000 pieces. Hopefully, by the end of the month I will have increased mine by 50% of my existing inventory. The effect of all of this is undoubtedly to water down the search results, meaning if you maintain the same volume of inventory you are going to be less visible. Hope that makes sense :)

[NorthShoreShells]

I am wondering where the "All Time" category went under Shop Stats???

[Former_Member]

Will Etsy ever have a "make me an offer" button for sellers?

[Former_Member]

I really would like to see before the holiday rush hits, the ability for us multi shop owner to have a second etsy app to log in for the second shop. I love the sound of the cash register every time I get an order in, would love to hear the one from my second shop.... This of course would mean that I could log into both of my shops at the same time..
I'm sure you Etsy is already working on this matter..

[PaperCreationsbyDeb]

This is the busiest time of year for supply sellers and, yet, we are hidden in search.
Why has no one answered ANY of our questions in this thread:

https://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/discussions/discuss/15308242/page/30

We are buried here.

[Simpleboutique1]

I am new on etsy i gust opened my shop on 19th Sep 2014 i will be great full if any one can see my listing and advise me what i am doing wrong.

[aunaturelle]

How do I get credited for an order that I listed that didn`t need to be put on since the customer already had the original order processed?

[Former_Member]

Anybody on here ship internationally via USPS First Class Mail in a large envelope? I'm trying to figure out rates, but I'm having trouble finding listings for anything aside from packages and flat-rate envelopes. My stuff is small & light.

Thanks in advance for the help. :)

[CreativeLaserArt4U]

I am new this year to Etsy and have been really excited to see how quickly my business has grown. I have noticed in the past two weeks that I have not had any international sales at all where before I was having several every week but now none. Did Etsy make changes to international viewing? Just curious, could just be an odd fluke but thought I would ask.

[CBanningAccessories]

As an Etsy seller I have been spending a lot of time learning how to navigate the new landing Front page. I am worried that members who come only to shop will be lost give up. Are non-shop owners now seeing the new layout and has anything been done give them tips on how to navigate the changes?
thanks,
Cinne

[maydaylabels]

Katie, we ship small items internationally USPS first class. how much do yours weigh?

[Former_Member]

Hi... I am pretty new to Etsy as you can see my establish date. But I have a question regarding some status I have notice for the pass couple of weeks. I do a search on the keyword "Bridal Garter" occasionally, and at one point my items would show up in pages 20 or so. But after last week where the Promotion Ads started; all my items were down to page 50 +... I am gettin less and less from generic searches. anyone know why it would drop down like that?

[HangingMemories4ever]

I have had several people that I have sent to etsy to buy items, ask me how to find anything on etsy. They say they go to etsy.com and can not even figure out how to look in say the wedding items. I am assuming this is due to the new homepage of etsy. Is there anyway to explain to someone how to get to the sections on etsy just to do some browsing? I know there is a little drop down that says browse etsy..... but that is not very noticeable. I am very concerned that etsy is not as user friendly as it use to be. Please help. This is a bad time of year to be making all of these changes. I know I have seen a HUGE drop in sells and views.

[Former_Member]

Hey, Matthew & Sara,

A typical order is less than 2 oz. :)