Former_Member
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Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

Hi, I've been on etsy for over two months now and only had two sales so far......any advice on how I can increase my sales would be gratefully appreciated! Thank you :)
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

Apparently social media is the key but I can't work out how we can get any work done if so much time is spent trying to bond with strangers! I have wasted a lot of time looking into it and feel more and more that it is just weird. Good luck.
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Former_Member
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

One word of advice I always give is feedback. Work with family, friends and fellow Etsians(trades) for your first sales. Why? Because you need positive feedback. When people shop online the only thing they have to judge you by is your positive feedback. Have the people you know that you sell your items to, do it through your Etsy shop so they can leave feedback. Other than that your work is great, well put together shop and great tags.
I hope that is helpful. Good luck!
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

wow marvinart. I have just been looking at your art. You are very talented and I don't think it will be long before your shop takes off. Try this, when you talk to anyone AND I do mean anyone tell them about your shop on etsy.But to be honest you are so going to make it anywhere you show your lovely paintings. You have the kids so true and natural. Good luck ,Pam.
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Former_Member
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

Thanks for the advice guys! Much appreciated :)
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Former_Member
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

Feedback - can previous customers of mine leave positive feedback or is it only if they've purchased an item through etsy?!
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

And thank you for your lovely comments too :)
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

Ive only been on here for a month and only 2 sales also. I'll admit I do get discouraged by how well some shops are doing. But I still continue to create and post new items like Im selling fast.
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Former_Member
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

I've heard from others that this time of year is usually slower...and if it helps I've been on here since before the Holidays and I've only had 2 sales...both custom orders too! Give it time...I've been toying with a blog and twitter, I had a fbook but the only people on it were friends and I felt like I was just posting the same things on my personal page and my boopatch page. SO I took it down...Figured I'd open a twitter account for the shop since I don't have a personal twitter page...
anyways just venting...off to check out your page now :-)
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Former_Member
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

wow....you won't be hurting for sales for long!!!!
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

when i began selling jewelry, i was on 3 months with no sales....then a few came slowly....you can let it discourage you, it just means that people don't know you are there....when i went to the etsy success conference several months ago, a speaker said, if you had a real physical store, imagine that you did everything to make the store look beautiful, put many great items in it, but then no one knew where the store was located...that's what's happening online...nobody knows you're there! or very few people....making treasuries and having other people make treasuries helps alot because you feature someone and they feature you and you never know when someone you feature has a lot of great connections, so when they feature you, a great number of people might see it! also, when i got on the front page of etsy the first time (out of two times total) my sales jumped incredibly...i went from making maybe 30 dollars a month to over 300 dollars the month that i was featured on the front page...and i was on the front page because i was in someone's treasury which was popular enough, with enough comments and views that etsy chose it ....all things that weren't completely within my control but it worked out....thats my 2 cents!
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

Social networking is really the ONLY way to get noticed on an internet shop among so many others. You can't do it all (twitter, etc.), so pick what you are comfortable with and dedicate so much time to it a day. I hate to pull myself away from making the art to do it too, but as you get to know others it starts being more fun! I stepped it up about a week ago on facebook and my blog and am definitely getting more attention with convos, treasuries, likes on facebook and one sale. Hopefully in another week it will translate to more sales- we'll see.....
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Former_Member
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

Wow, your paintings really are good. If I were you I'd try asking around local galleries or doing up some postcards of one or two of your paintings and handing them out with your store details printed down one side on the back. Here in Melbourne there are a few organisations that help artists who distribute those kinds of things, or you can print them off yourself and have friendly shops have them for free on counters.

Paintings are a harder thing to sell online. They cost so much upfront plus there's shipping and a chance of it being damaged. You may do alot better selling your paintings online if you associate some of them with real paintings people can see and go 'Ooooooh' at. :)
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

Looking at the number of transactions a seller has in a given time can be deceptive. It may take 50 transactions for some shops to make $100 and only 2 transactions for another seller to make the same thing. Looks to me like you fall into the second category with your wonderful paintings. I think you are doing pretty well for a start.
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

fbessentials says

One word of advice I always give is feedback. Work with family, friends and fellow Etsians(trades) for your first sales. Why? Because you need positive feedback. When people shop online the only thing they have to judge you by is your positive feedback. Have the people you know that you sell your items to, do it through your Etsy shop so they can leave feedback. Other than that your work is great, well put together shop and great tags.
I hope that is helpful. Good luck!

Posted at 6:22 am, May 19, 2011 EDT - Report this post
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Funnily enough, I started a thread a few days ago about my excitement at finally getting 5 feedback and I got told by many different people that feedback is not that important.

I think it depends on your price point. My items are on the high end, and google analytics told me that people have looked at lot at my feedback, so I think it does matter the more pricey your items are.
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Former_Member
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

have you tried tumblr.com? I really like it, It saves a little time, you can upload pictures and links on tumblr and it posts to facebook and twitter for you. Saves some time, which we all can use! As far as getting discouraged, as long as I love what I do, it's all good!
I've stopped looking at other peoples sales, it's a real downer. Your shop is great and hang in there.
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

MarvinArt says

Hi, I've been on etsy for over two months now and only had two sales so far......any advice on how I can increase my sales would be gratefully appreciated! Thank you :)
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I have never been a fan of the # of sales metrics. If you only sell two $200 paintings you are doing a lot better than if you sold 10, $10 items...
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Former_Member
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

Thanks for all the encouragement and advice! :)
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

I also have only been on etsy a few months with a few sales. It can be discouraging, but I try to keep hanging in there. Your art is beautiful and I am sure you will do great. I agree with the "social networking". It does take a lot of time to keep them up and I am not into social networking so it is hard for me and I agree that it takes you away from creating merchandise. I have been told that social networking is critical so I keep at it. I have started to do treasuries and I noticed the days I do those my views go up. I just try to keep my face out there in front of people and hope for the day that my shop takes off.

You will do great. Just hang in there! :)
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

I've also been on here a couple of months and have just one sale to my name :( ...and that was to a friend who I asked to purchase through here to kickstart things and leave feedback.

BUT - I've been quite pro-active - I have created a FB page for the jewellery which has started getting people other than just my friends 'liking' it. I also asked all my FB friends to post a link to their favourite item from my shop on their pages which many of them did and that saw item views creep up.

I've been creating Treasuries too which I love doing and they do get some views via a team (Treasury Punks) but nothing high league!

Another thing I've done is add a link to the shop to my email autograph which is easy to do and may generate more interest.

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that all this starts to pay off soon!

I'd also welcome any pointers from other Etsians please! One thing I am going to do is re-take some of my photos to bring out the colours of the pieces a bit more.

Thanks!
Helen :o)
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

It takes time.. I had m first sale after 4 months. And during that 4th month I had a total of 2 sales. And now I'm going on 2 years and almost 40 sales..
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Re: Over 2 months on Etsy and only 2 sales!

it takes a time much longer than 2 months for most of us:)
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