WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?!

[Former_Member]

So I've had my shop up and running for about a month now. I've had about 500 listing and shop views and today just made my second sale, however my first sale was to a very good friend of mine and the second as to a cousin. Though I'm SO grateful for their love and support I thought after a month I'd have more sales to those with no relation. Can anyone take a look at my shop and give me some HONEST feedback. I really am working hard to make this work so I really need some outside opinions of what I can do better.

Thanks so much!
Missy Perez

[HopscotchCouture]

Missy Perez,

Your shop has some very lovely items. Your pictures are just great. That is the hard part, getting good pictures. I am favoring your shop and some items. I am also going to add you to my circle. I suggest it is time to get yourself out there. Start looking at other shops and favorite some you like and add the ones you like to your circle. Treasuries are great. I would also check the teams for blogs looking for people to participate in giveaways and interviews. They really help get you exposure. There are so many sites like pinterest , craftstylish and others you can list your items on for more exposure. It is a lot of work, but, it does pay off.

I got most of my help and great information from the teams. Your on the right track. I wish you all the best. I love vintage myself.

[Former_Member]

Not I have tons of sales or anything but here is a suggestion. . .

I have found it really is so much more than opening a shop and listing our items. I am constantly looking to improve every day and tweaking my shop every time I open my shop on etsy . . . listing often is only part of the equation.

Take another look at your tags you want people to be able to find you when they are looking for what you sell.

Two words for each tag is often better than one. Think like a shopper . . . . . for a floral ring and mint green what would you type in a search engine . . .. floral mint green ring for sale??? Try to include those words and variations of those words in your tags

Here is a link to a tag tool that might be helpful for you I use it often

https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000&stylePrefOverride=2#se...

Good luck on your sales.

[Former_Member]

Tweaking is important, daily activity on etsy is important, activity off etsy is important.

Know what the MOST important thing is though??

PATIENCE!! It takes more than just a month for sales to roll in. My first sale was after 6 weeks and it took 3 months before things got steady. And I still have down time. Just be active, constantly work to improve your shop and love what you do!!

[Former_Member]

I can't wait to get a sale, so I thank Barbie Boutique for her words of encouragement!
VictorianSwag, I especially love your seamstress necklace and I think your shop is amazing. I think great things are heading your way- keep at it and good luck!
Sara @
www.etsy.com/people/KoiTextileDesigns

[Former_Member]

it's so hard to be patient and I agonize when I go more than two or three days without a sale... I remember when I started in May and it was soooo hard to not give up... Just keep working to make improvements, read the etsy blogs and be active. They will come.

[Former_Member]

your shop is adorable! It's probably your tags... the people who want to buy your type of product might not be able to find you. your tags are;
Jewelry Necklace Charm Jewelery Necklace Seamstress Sewing Fabric Button Pearl Button Vintage Shabby Chic Rose Women VictorianSwag Antique Bronze pendant
I'm not sure I'd ever Google the words antique bronze... what about antique jewelry, vintage necklace, womens necklace...
I've started Googling word I'd use if I wanted to find myself in google to see what pops up :-). It's increased my views :-) tittles do the same thing :-) Hope this helps. good luck :-)

[MoonlightDesigns2]

Don't give up! It takes time to develop a shop on Etsy or any other site. Most sales come within a few months sometimes sooner. It takes a lot of dedication and hard work for a successful online business with lots & lots of marketing. We have to work on bringing business to our shops it doesn't happen automatically.

I am still re-tweaking tags as I pay attention more and more to what search words are bringing people to my shop, it never ends, just keep working at it.

Good luck and have fun!

[Former_Member]

OK. So, I LOVE your shop and it sounds like plenty of folks do as well. I'm in the same boat as you, so I don't have a ton of experienced advice to give beyond: playing with it all. See what works and what doesn't, but give each little test time to ferment. Also, try expanding on your titles, i.e. what would draw a buyer in? This is something that is so enormously time-consuming but well worth it, I think.

Put yourself out there. The more places you comment, participate, blog, post your process and items; the more views and purchases you'll have. If you don't have a blog or facebook, try it out. Consider posting a tutorial on youtube. and even what you're doing now, this post, has made others aware of your presence here on Etsy. I would have never seen your shop it it weren't for this post and now I'm counting down the minutes to payday so I can pick up one of your necklaces. :]

Your photos are wonderful (the hardest part, I agree), your descriptions are great as well. I would suggest just having some patience and don't lose hope. Keep creating and posting and posting and creating and the shoppers will catch up with you.

[IslandPicnic]

I LOVE the seamstress necklace, too!!! I favorited that right away! You really have beautiful items, and I agree that your pictures are nice as well. Keep adding items to your shop, because the more you have, the more chance a buyer will find you.

And ask your friend and your cousin to leave you feedback. Sellers have a hard time getting sales at first with no feedback, but if you personally know who bought from you, it would be worth asking them to do you a favor and leave you some. It will probably help.

Good luck! You'll do great! :)

[HullStreetStudio]

don't forget to use all of your photo spots, there are five and in most you only use one or two (one - I didn't count the photos of your packaging, which is fine just fill the other four) Your photos are really clean and nice but a few are a bit out of focus (try Macro setting on your camera, there are a lot of tutorials on etsy and the rest of the internet on how to use cameras or you can find one specific to your camera for help :) )

Good luck! It can be hard to get started, I do most of my sales offline at craft shows and such.

[BohemianHollow]

One of the biggest things I've noticed that helps is listing as much as possible.

Yes, tweaking here and there always does help. Seriously if you can list or renew something at least a few times every week it really does help. I used to never believe that when people told me to do the same when I had started out with my other shop, but now I'm a believer! I get the biggest views and sales when I have things to list and am listing or renewing every day, or near enough to every day hehe!

And I concur with whoever said that teams help! Teams really really help! And making treasuries.

Here's a list to make it easier to remember everything:
~ List something new every day
~ Join a team, or two or five!
~ Work on tags. (believe me this is always a work in progress lol)
~ Patience, patience, patience.

You've got great pictures and great work too! I'm sure once people start finding you you'll really take off! :D

Stefan

[Former_Member]

Thank you all so much for your encouragement and your advice! I really needed it this week! You all offered some really good points that I'll try to incorporate in the next couple of days in my shop.
What do you all think of my prices? Do you think they're reasonable? I'm a recent college student and used to living on a shoestring budget so to me they seem a little steep. Do any of you have some sort of formula you use to price things?

[HullStreetStudio]

Here's a great article with tools for figuring out prices.

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2011/08/how-to_price_your_handcrafted.html#more

I think your prices are fine, I think the button earrings could actually be a bit higher, the rest of your prices show quality but the button ones are suddenly so much cheaper you know? I think the 12$ ones are okay but the 9$ definitely need to be raised to at least 12$. are you covering materials and time? are you making profit?

If you don't know, I would start writing down what everything costs to make. You can take something like the cost of a box of ten jump rings is 2$ (I'm just guessing, it might be more or less. I can't remember anymore lol) then each jump ring is 20 cents. then you add on all the other items to make your piece and then lets say it costs you 4$ to make the necklace. and your hourly rate is around 20$ and it took you half an hour to make. then your price is now 14$ but that's not profit and at the least that's only your wholesale price. it's better explained in the article but that's the general idea :D

[Former_Member]

I agree with the listing like crazy thing. I thought my shop had too many items, but the more I list the more views and sales I get. Also, doing promos like coupons helps too.