SOS!!! Could you PLEASE tell me what you think!??

[Former_Member]

Hi Everyone!

My name is Tanya! I am new to etsy- opened my shop about three months ago and I am looking for support and feedback!

I read this great article http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/how-to-beat-the-etsy-sale-addiction-and-make-more-money/

Couldn't stop thinking:"It is ME ME ME" I feel really discouraged that I don't have sales. I am trying to understand what am i doing wrong?

I know I just have to stay focused, work hard, and believe in my dream,but what else can I do?

I would really appreciate if you guys could stop by at my shop and tell me what you think!

Would you buy from me?And if not, why?

Thank you!

[WolfandFirefly]

I think your shop and items are adorable. :) It takes a while for most people to start getting a lot of sales. Are you doing anything to promote your items and shop? Maybe think about some promotional teams here on etsy, and some outside places like facebook, pinterest and wanelo. :)
All the best!
Ari

[Former_Member]

Thank you Ari! I will look into promotional teams!

[CCreativeVisions]

I love it, I like to crochet too. I agree with the other post. Promte,promote,promote. I am learning this myself.

[Former_Member]

Your items are adorable! What I am starting to do is when friends and family want an item to have them buy it off etsy and leave reviews. I haven't sold much either but I'm wondering if people are looking for reviews to see how reliable the store is.

Look at my store is their anything you see we could be doing differently?

Rebecca

[DaliaShamirJewelry]

Your shop is beautiful! It took me half a year to start getting regular sales, the first 6 month I had something like 3 sales!
One advice I have: you have to work on your tags, you should use as many word combination as you can. For for instance: instead of those single word tags:
baby - hat - crochet - unique, use:
baby hat - crochet hat - unique hat
Think of what people might use in a seach if they want a baby hat. They wouldn't just write the word "baby" in the search box, they will write "baby hat"

[OutoftheBeaker]

Hi Tanya!

First off, your items are lovely! And your pictures are clear, bright, and show good detail of your work (something I personally need to work on).

I don't pretend to fully know what I'm doing yet, but here's some tips I've learned the past few months and my thoughts on your shop.

From reading a lot of forums since I opened up shop earlier this summer, I think one of the hard things about your shop is that you're selling jewelry and baby items. Popular, yes. Reaches a wide range of buyers, yes. Overloaded categories, yes. If you're going to compete in those categories, you'll need to have photos that are above-and-beyond the "norm" for the category and have a ton of listings to be in the first few pages of searches.

Also, you start every title with "Handmade". My understanding is that the first few words in your title are the most important for search engines. Perhaps rephrasing some of your titles. http://www.etsy.com/listing/108134939/handmade-crochet-beaded-earrings
For instance, this one might be better titled "Metalic Rose Earrings, beaded crochet with glass beads and metalic yarn, handmade". Most people aren't going to know they want crochet earrings but they will know that they want rose-colored earrings or earrings with a metalic feel.

I would also take a good look at your prices. This is something I struggle with too - underpricing! Looking at them and the detail that goes into them (and knowing how long crocheted items can take), I don't think you've got them priced high enough to make a reasonable hourly wage. Maybe I'm wrong (and then kudos to you for making it seem a high-quality bargain) but I would price them higher.

As for the last question - honestly, I probably wouldn't buy from your shop. But that's not because you're stuff isn't beautiful or creative. It's mostly because, as a fellow crochet-er, I would look at your items for inspiration and then go make my own version. :)

Good luck in your selling!

[Former_Member]

I would also recommend looking closer at your tags. The tags can be more than one word. Think of things you might search on google if you were looking for one of your products. Would you search "crochet" or would you search "crocheted baby hat"? Just a thought, I looked at one of your listings and noticed you had single word tags. Use a few phrases!

If you're stumped on tags, I LOVE the google keywords tool. It gives you a whole bunch of similar phrases/words when you type one word in. It also gives you an idea of which one is better to use. (Example: if a keyword has LOTS of local monthly searches, but it says that the competition is "high," then it's not as good. Look for keywords with "low" competition and a high number of local monthly searches.)

Good luck and hang in there! You have ADORABLE stuff! :-)

[Former_Member]

Your shop looks great! You are very talented! Several people on here say, "do not lower your prices", I noticed that you had a sale item. Have you made treasury lists? Evidently the more items you have in your shop means the more people will find you. Some say the magic number is 100. I am a newbie also and I see by your stats that you are doing better than me lol!!! I am working on adding more items and just learned how to take better pics. It is amazing to me that for most people they were averaging a sale per 100 to 300 views! Good luck and I bet you get busier the closer we get to Christmas.

[EleanorsVintage]

Tanya, your items are beautiful and, if anything, under-priced. You opened your shop during the slowest time of year, so that has something to do with it.
But your views are very low, so you are not being found. Apart from promotion, which other people know a lot more about than me, you can work on your shop to improve things.
I noticed you don't have a shop announcement. That is one way how to be found in google. The first 2-3 sentences are essential. You can look at mine here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/EleanorsVintage

You also don't have featured items. They showcase either your best/more popular work, or a good representation of the different things you do. Having now 5 pages of items in my shop, I always make sure the featured items are NOT on my first page -that people land on anyway- but that's just something I do.
Your first page looks a little jumbled. Do you know how to rearrange your shop? That is an important tool to just make the shop look better by putting similar item next to each other.

This item is gorgeous, but the thumbprint doesn't even show it:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/105285041/handmade-crochet-newborn-hat-with-poppy
You have to make people want to click on your item with your 1st photo! Your photo is actually great, but you don't see that without actually clicking on it first. Experiment with how to crop your images, so they show up right in the thumbprint! All it takes is a little experience. Cropping them to squares has really helped me.

I am sure other people will weigh in, and you will have a lot suggestions as to what to work on. Don't get overwhelmed! Do it one thing at a time, and feel free to ask specific questions along the way. This team is incredibly helpful.

Best of luck, and a happy, successful holiday season!

[Former_Member]

Hi, Tanya,

I hope I don't come off as too harsh--I do think you have a good start. How attached are you to the name Karapooz? I don't know where my mind is half the time, but when I looked at your banner I saw kaka poo. Just for the merest split second, but something to consider.

THe first four items that I see are black or white. Try featuring some of your more colorful items so that the immediate feeling is more cheerful since the overall look and feeling of your shop is a cheerful one.

The biggest thing that I think will help is better pictures. You have a good start with that too. Take some photos of someone wearing the items. Capture the head and face in there and make the pictures interesting and appealing. That way, potential buyers can better imagine themselves wearing the earrings or bracelets or what have you. Looking at some of them I imagine myself holding a pair of earrings in my hand. And I find the headless photos a little off-putting for some reason.

Then there is the doll. It is too realistic and it kinda creeps me out. Can you get your hands on a real baby? Or maybe something more stylized to display the items on would work too.

I also agree with the folks who say you are underpricing. I think you could go $30 for the fancier hats (29.95 if you prefer) and $18-$20 for the smaller earrings, and so on. I think your lowest prices could be just under $20 at the very lowest.

Good luck with everything. You have some very sweet and creative items in your shop.

[Former_Member]

You have an adorable shop! I love the hat and diaper cover sets. I would consider buying if I had the money- but my kids are too big for your baby stuff, and (ironically,) I don't wear a lot of jewelry. :)

Promo teams are usually post-and-run, people post their own items but rarely look at anybody else's things. I have yet to see any real benefit from any of the promo teams I joined, they haven't increased my views or sales a whole lot. I'd look for active teams that are in your craft, based in your area or have a shared interest with you instead. Teams like these help you to gain exposure on Etsy as long as you're an active in them. A couple of these teams or an SEO team would be a much better investment of your time and effort than a promo team.

I'd suggest that you focus more on expanding your inventory and making your shop even better. The more items you post gives people more opportunities to find you, and new items generally result in a surge of traffic to your shop. Titles and tags can always use tweaking, or you can rearrange the items in your shop to keep it looking cohesive and fresh. The best thing you can do though is to be patient. Sometimes it takes awhile for a sale to roll in, but if you continue to work on your shop you will be successful.

[Former_Member]

Thanks everyone! As soon as my little monkey will go to sleep, I start working on my shop!!