Tips to get views and start selling items

[Former_Member]

Hello to all!

I am an artist who as been struggling with selling my art, I first started on another site but couldn't even find my items in the search or anywhere! :s so I research and found Etsy, I like it a lot because I feel is a very unique, artsy kinda site, but I have had my store for a couple of months already and have just sold one item and have very few views I have been trying to upload one artwork per day to have the store active since a week or so, because I have been organizing my studio again because just moved, but still i'm in the same place!, I would love to hear advice or comments about how can I improve my store selling artwork, I really want 2013 the year I can start selling my artwork online and make a business out of it :D

Thank you so much!
Leslie Pinto

[Purl1VintageToo]

Hi, Leslie. The standard answers for getting found and maybe selling your items include some of these:
1. Work on your titles. The advice is usually to be sure your first three or four words say exactly what the item is, like "colorful art print" or "watercolor landscape scene" for example.. It's not likely anyone would be searching for "Primavera" which is the first word of one of your listings, so using that as the first word in your title might not help you get found in searches.
2. Maybe consider adding more pics of your work. Maybe you could show a few of your prints in a frame or hanging on the wall.
3. Tags, tags, tags. Make sure you think about what people might be searching for and tagging your art spit shows up.
Keep the faith, and good luck!

[Former_Member]

I agree with Tammy. I think your tags are keeping you from getting seen in Etsy and on Google. If you were looking for your artwork online and didn't know the "title", what would you search it under? You can place your artwork title after the first few words to get it seen.

Also, find a way to photograph this with a white background and natural light.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/116552040/acrylic-on-wood-artwork-it-has-a-little?

[CaseyHPerez]

Hey Leslie,

Lovely art, I just love your banner.

Selling on Etsy is really its own art form. It takes many stores a couple months to sell their first item on Etsy.

Obviously, the more items you have, the more likely your item will get pick up in a search and the more options someone has in your shop to fall in love with a painting and buy it. It was around 75 paintings in our shop that we started to get more regular sales (for us was 5-9 sales a month)

Learning as much about SEO is important for your shop to get found in searches, both Etsy and google. Making the most out of your tags is important. I am looking at one of your listings, and I see you have painting listed twice. Thats a waste of a tag. To make the most from your tags, use multiple words like "acrylic painting" as one tag instead of two. Use words you think people might search when looking for a painting. I would work on the titles also. Titles are important for SEO and help you show up on search engines. There are tons of blogs and even etsy teams to help you learn how to optimize your SEO.

I see you have a facebook and a twitter linked to your shop. I get a large percentage of views from twitter. Using outside promotion to your shop can really be important to your success. (pinterest, wanelo, twitter, facebook, tumblr etc.) Also getting featured on someones blog is a great way to get traffic to your shop. Sometimes someone will just do it without you even knowing, which is always great. But sometimes you can look for people who are looking to feature an artist etc..

Selling art as well, I have noticed that having a wide range of different priced items has helped. Having both originals and prints is nice because someone might like your work but it might not be in their price range. All the little print sales help keep you going until you get that next original sale.

Being active in the Etsy community helps. The more you talk in forums, the more other sellers see your shop, favorite things, which then shows up on their feed for all their followers to see. Making treasury can help get other sellers looking at your shop too.

Good luck!

[Former_Member]

Thank you so much for all the good advice Tammy, Jackie Fiedler and Cassi Jo and Casey Perez!, I'm going to work in my titles and tags, you are all right, I should think of how would I search for something similar to my art works, and better pictures. Also do a research on the SEO. Really really thank you all!. I will work on this for my etsy store, FB page, twitter and website.

I guess non of them have really been very active because of those mistakes or basically most important things I wasn't really managing very well.

Then again thank you for your advice and luck! I will keep on trying and improving any way I can! :)

[PithAndRootStudio]

I thought I would add one more thing, Leslie. Google keeps a record of your shop page (just like all other pages on the web). Using keywords in your shop description and shop sections is another way you can increase your views, through search engines outside of Etsy. Good section titles for artists include: "portraits," "nursery art," "landscapes," etc.

Also, on your tags, you might want to think hard about the type of work you make and try to identify words people would use to look for a specific style of art, such as "surreal," "fold art," "whimsical," "graphic," etc. I think some of your descriptors are too general, like "funny" or "beautiful." Not very many people are going to use those words to search for art. I mean, of course it's beautiful. It's art! :)

Good luck. It's a constant learning process, I've found.

[Former_Member]

Thank you Heather!, Yea today I have been thinking on names and tags thinking on the people who could be interested on my work, but I have one other question regarding the name of the item, I should describe it? better than focus on the actual painting you think? like " unframed 20x16 original acrylic and mixed media, portrait painting" <-- you think this could be a good title? better than describing the story in the picture right?

Looking at my store all over again I think I have to rewrite all the text from store description, tags and titles. :) and take better pictures.

[Former_Member]

Woooww I was looking at your stores and you all have amazing stuff! congratulations!

Heather you marbles are amazing!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/98297155/blue-orange-marble-painting-glass-still?ref=pr_shop

Cassi Jo and Casey Perez I felt in love with this one specially!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/120183960/female-figure-painting-original-acrylic?ref=correlated_feature...

Jackie Fiedler, loved your scarfs!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/119708254/crochet-pink-scarf-extra-long-scarf-with?

and Tammy loved your earrings! and the little porch you take the pictures looks amazing you must live in a beautiful place!!!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/122698733/vintage-earrings-mad-men-white-flower?