Time Spent on Etsy/FB

[Former_Member]

I am wondering how much time should you or do you spend on Etsy to be successful do you think?

I find myself refreshing my Etsy app to see how many views I have every hour. Or looking at my threads and seeing if anyone responded. I am just wondering maybe I spend too much time looking at that and obsessing over it?

Any input :))

[Former_Member]

I'm realising you have to spend a fair amount of time sitting in front of a computer promoting and being 'active' online. When I do I get many views and some favourites. So I just have to keep at it. This year I'm trying hard to focus on Etsy.

My thoughts are, if you have the time, yes.. refresh that page, type a comment. It's all going to help your shop in the long run.. hopefully.

[Former_Member]

That's what I am begining to realize as well. I really want to push my 2013 and for this first month I am fixing my shop up but I have realized I spend more time on here than I do at my work haha.
I am hoping that the more time I spend then the more it will pay off :)

[Former_Member]

I've noticed a huge different these last few days when I've been active. As soon as I slack off pretty much nothing happens as opposed to when I write on forums, list, change tags and titles, etc. So I do believe I have to spend a minimum of two or three hours doing just that to actually get anywhere with Etsy at all.

[Former_Member]

I've found I make more sales the day I don't spend as much time on etsy and let my items work for themselves, but last night I made a sale when I listed about 15 new items. So it's half and half for me.

If you're not actively networking via teams or fb or pintrest etc., or working on new listings, fixing tags, etc., than refreshing pages won't help. Watched toasters never pop!

[Former_Member]

I find that I spend a lot of my time reading other's posts haha. I should set a time for myself when I can look at other shops, and read their posts. and set a time where I just spend time working on my own shop.

Maybe that will help with time management :)

[Former_Member]

There have been times when I barely checked my etsy or any other network in days and I have still made a sale. There are also days that I update a lot and I make a sale. I do feel like it's good to keep my shop updated with new items a few times a week, and sometimes daily if I can swing it! I update my facebook once a day and keep my twitter stream pretty active. I also update my blog at least 3 times a week and hoping to get around to doing that more frequently. I have a steady stream of followers on fb and twitter. My blog is just starting out so not too many there, but I usually get a follower or two with every post. All of this can definitely turn into sales... so it's good to stay active.

I try not to obsess, although stats can be tempting, but I have found that it just eats into my crafting time and into my personal life too! I now use hootsuite.com to schedule all my tweets which helps a lot. I only check my facebook twice a day. And I've decided that everytime I log on to etsy I will spend time with my SEO and adding listings, rather than just browsing the forums and gawking at my stats! I've done pretty well and I'm making more sales recently than ever before!

[Former_Member]

thank you desiree for your feedback. I definitley try to keep up my facebook posts ( I love sharing what I do with family/friends) but I need to leave time for creating. Because I work full time and have 2 little ones at home I feel like every spare moment I get I need to be doing something with my shop. And most of the time I look at other's shops haha
I will definitely look into hootsuite thanks!

[Former_Member]

Checking my shop and renewing items has been my main activity.
I'm an ETSY dinosaur.
FB, twitter, blogging...it's all way beyond me.
Fortunately, I built a customer base and when they fade away, i may fade as well.
I've heard from many sellers it's essential to bring buyers into your ETSY shop from some external link.

OH. iPad and iPhone are essential for this compulsive shop checker :)

[Former_Member]

Hi there :)

I think one of the easiest ways to not get carried away with time is work ahead with your social media postings (make a weekly/monthly list on what to post on what day) you could easily knock that out in an hour or two depending on if you want to share articles or blogs. Maybe also limit yourself to a certain amount of time per day to go through the teams. I think the more structure you have in your business, the better off you'll be :)

you could also keep track of this via Hootsuite.com. I haven't looked into it a ton, but I know it's a productive dashboard.

Obviously, you need to be connected with what's going on in the here and now, so taking maybe 45 minutes a day to read etsy news, mashable.com and maybe even entrep could really help as well :)

best,
Kelly