Understanding how views lead to sales and other Etsy stuff

[Former_Member]

Every once in a while, I like to post a reminder to people about how Etsy works. I see and hear so many sellers who are disappointed because they don't make sales, or think that the views are fluff or phony for the shop. I just want to help people feel better about selling on Etsy. If you are successful,we all are.

1. Make no mistake; Etsy WANTS you to make sales! If you don't make any money...they still make money. BUT they don't make as much as they would if you were making sales. It's not a conspiracy, trust me.

2. Views do not necessarily lead directly to sales. What views do is boost the popularity of your shop so that Etsy features you in the ranking more prominently. When buyers know you are out there, they buy from you. But not if they don't know who you are!! So it is important to be consistently active on Etsy through teams, treasuries, new listings, correct SEO, etc (that is, if you WANT to make sales :) ) There are 8,000,000,000 people on the planet; if you only reach 10% of them...do the math (pssst! 800,000,000).

3. The statistics of Etsy tell you a lot about your competition. For starters, it's mostly women. 88% of the sellers on Etsy are female. Think about that for a second; I won't draw any conclusions for you.

Second, sellers who sell everyday on a consistent annual basis have complete shops, strong policies, reviews, favorites, treasuries, etc. BE ACTIVE.

Third, Etsy more or less functions like a real business; if you don't make something that's cheap and crappy, then you better be making something that's quality and worth the money. If you don't show up for work everyday, don't expect to
have a job.

Finally (for now, anyway) PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE!!! Look at the world around you; from celebrities to small businesses. It takes an average of two years to become successful (Bruno Mars has been performing in front of an audience since he was four, but has only been 'famous' since 2009!). If you really want it, then keep at it. If something doesn't work, then try something new. If you keep trying, there is no other choice but to be successful.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

[Former_Member]

great post, This make me feel confident and because I want to be successful in etsy Ill keep trying

[TalfourdJones]

Really great post. I keep editing my seo's, titles and descriptions, sometimes my views are up (Saturday I got over 400, but that was I think due to treasuries), could do with a few more sales.

My question is if you are extremely active on Etsy (promoting your items, making treasuries, looking through info on teams), where on earth do you find the time to create your items ?

[Former_Member]

Excellent post and reminder to us all... Being a newer shop on Etsy, I don't stress about low sales, for now... I just use the time to focus on improving my shop, seo, as well as increase my product line...

[Former_Member]

Extremely active on Etsy honestly doesn't have to be more than an hour or two a day. You can even create listings for new items and save them as drafts, then load them a few at a time. Try to pick one thing from the following list to do everyday:

Create a Treasury
Post/Get views in teams
List a new item
post your items on other free sites (wanelo.com, pinterest, weheartit, Facebook, whatever).
Blog
Change your tags
Favorite other items and show support to your community
Improve your photos if needed

At first, I would get a few views a day. Seriously, like 3 views. In my new shop, I'm up to 30, and in my other one, I average about 60-100.

[Former_Member]

Thank you, Kisha!

[Former_Member]

Kisha,

Can you please explain HOW views boost the popularity of your shop?

The one thing that I've found has worked extremely well for me over the past 6 years on Etsy is to have titles that actually make some sense when read aloud.

I've also found that, unless fellow Etsy sellers are your target customer, that posting in promotional teams is pretty much a waste of time.

If you have titles that contain phrases that people use when searching for what you are selling as well as fairly reasonable photos, then you can have a fairly successful shop.

[Former_Member]

Henrietta Talfourd-Jones from TalfourdJones says

My question is if you are extremely active on Etsy (promoting your items, making treasuries, looking through info on teams), where on earth do you find the time to create your items ?

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If you are spending all that amount of time promoting on Etsy, then your target customer should be the Etsy seller. If that isn't your target customer, then why waste your time?

I'm a member of a number of teams and I will post on the chat threads each day but that's it.

On the teams that I'm a leader on I will check in a couple of times each day if necessary.

As for any other promotion on Etsy, I don't really bother other than on occasion I'll post in some of the promo threads.

I subscribe to the digest for many teams and will spend a half hour each evening reading through them to keep up to date.

Once I'm satisfied with my item titles and tags I don't change them. Why? Because if they are working, why should I?

I run this business full time and Etsy is a portion of the business.

just my 2 cents

[Former_Member]

Thanks so much for this post, very comforting to a semi-new shop owner like myself!

[WilliamsGiftshop]

I think it is amazing how you share all of these wonderful insights with us!
Even though you haven't made a single sale yet.
Or could it be that you just forgot to follow Etsy rules and disclose your other account(s)?

PS: I second Crochetgal and Ida.

[Former_Member]

Unfortunately this is not correct. The only views that enhance your position in search results are views that come directly from search. (Ie views from a search for peridot earrings will usually improve your position in search for that phrase).

The algorithms can vary by search so even the amount of weight that search views carry can vary between different searches. General views though do not increase the relevancy of an item in search.

There are definitely ways to be successful on Etsy. But accumulating a lot of views or fellow Etsy seller favorites is not usually one of them unless Etsy sellers are your target market. Don't just work hard. Work smart.

[Former_Member]

Thank you so much "crochetgal" and Ida!

[Former_Member]

It's about the "right" views.

[WaterStreetDesign]

Very inspirational and helpful! Thank you and good luck to you and your shop!

[Orchiada]

Awesome post and reminders Kisha!! All sooo very true. For me, my handmade jewelry business is not only a biz but a love and a passion. Though slow growing............. i haven't had a the quality time that I would prefer to devote to it lately, so that isappoints me, but one thing is for sure patience is definitely key and never giving up. BTW, love your example of Bruno Mars, excellent example of this and look where he is now!! 2nd BTW TOTALLY LOVE HIM :)) thanks again for the reminders!