What am I doing wrong ?

[Former_Member]

Or, am I doing nothing wrong, and its too soon for me to expect anything ?

I opened my shop about 2 months ago, and got only 4 sales so far. Apart from hours and hours I spend on creating and designing my products (which I LOVE), I spend hours optimizing my SEO and taking + editing my photos.

My SEO is pretty good, as most of my products come pretty high in their targeted search phrases. Still, my daily views are around 10-20 (on average), which makes me feel so bad I end up playing the Etsy favourite games :/

I get plenty of good words about the photography (didn't get a complaint yet, I really want to hear them :)). But I never see burlap background in Etsy's Front page, which makes me think that maybe this kind of background does not really convert to clicks. My products might come up high on searches, but viewers won't click because of their photography ?

I am kind of lost here, would love to get your ideas here ... I don't want to start panic just yet, as I am only 2 months old, but still, I do not see real improvement in views.

What do you think ? What would be your top recommendations for me ?

Crochet is what I love to do, its what I've been doing for more than a decade, but it was never something I thought to make a living from - Etsy provided me this opportunity (and dream (and excitement)), which is why I end up refreshing the stats page every few hours crossing my fingers for a change, that has yet to come.

Thank you for your thoughts and time! :)

[Former_Member]

Hi Happy Patty! I just saw this and took a look at your shop. I don't have the HIGHEST sales in my store but am getting fairly regular sales.
First of all - yes, your photos are GREAT! I'm not surprised you haven't had any bad feedback on that yet :)

The one thing that I can see straight off that you could play around with changing are your titles. Your title should clearly state what that item is. For example, from just looking at the blue daisy, I wasn't sure what it was for. In your description you said:

"Well, it is a Daisy, which means it looks great an anything. Ideal for a bag, as a brooch or table decoration."

Those ideas should be reflected in your title! So "Daisy Crochet, Blue Daisy Brooch, Table Decoration, Bag Accessories", etc etc. A helpful tip I was given was to think 'what would my future customer type into the search bar if they wanted something like this?' And use those keywords in your title.

Try that?! Let us know if it helps!

[Former_Member]

Thank you, Debbi! I really like your idea - and it makes so much sense :) 'redoing titles' added to the todo list!

I'll keep track of the changes, will definitely post here if it works, could be useful information to some.

[tamarakraft]

Patty,

Your backgrounds are just fine - and don't worry about the front page. I sprinkled some hearts in your shop to get you active in my activity feed.

Your work is lovely. I see that you belong to a couple of crochet teams - have you considered a promotion team? They can be a great asset to getting your work seen by more people. I will include a link to one I am on that is participating in a "Heart Blitz" tomorrow. We help each other out by giving each other more exposure.

Keep up the beautiful work!

Tamara Kraft

https://www.etsy.com/teams/20702/simply-keep-it-real-team

[SpangGangDesigns]

Forgive me for being ignorant, but I am going to throw out a couple of ideas that come to mind from an unseasoned potential buyer.

How would I attach you beautiful flowers to my bag? Many people are looking for a finished product, so does your flower clip? Pin? Maybe this is something that you could offer as an option.

These would be adorable as children's headwear...bows, headbands, etc. Have you considered offering them with a clip or barrett?

Think about who your target market is. Who would buy your product? What would she use it for? Is there any modification that you could do to accomodate this? (clips, pins, etc).

Just a couple of ideas, Erica

[SpangGangDesigns]

oh, and your photos are gorgeous! Don't waste your time aiming for front-page-white-background photos. Even a blip on the front page equals a big fat nothing for soooo many people. Photograph what works for your items and I think they are perfect as is :) The only other though would be to show them in use - show them as a pin, embellishment, headband, etc

[tamarakraft]

I totally agree with Erica! Helping the customer visualize the end result makes them more eager to buy!

[Former_Member]

Tamara, Thank you for your tip!

The Crochet teams seems to be focused more on favorites games (although I might be wrong, but most of the posts there are of that kind).

I will check the Team you suggested, I don't really know what Promotion team is - I'll start studying this. Thanks :)

Erica, I slowly starts to get the perspective of 'people wants to buy a finished product', its a bit of a shift from how I first saw tings, but its a good shift :) I'll offer more options for buyers, so they can get a finished product (as, clips, pins - as you suggested).

Thank you for taking the time and for the great ideas!

[SpangGangDesigns]

If you want to offer the option of adding a clip, pin, barrett, offer it as a small upgraded cost ($2,etc) and use the Etsy listing variation to offer such. Make sure to include a photo of the options (such as your last photo showing the options labeled)

[Former_Member]

Hello Again, Promised I keep you updated - so here goes ... well, nothing changed :(

Its been a month and still almost no traffic, I on the verge of giving up. I have updated the descriptions and tags, added options to add to the flowers (clip), added more 'finished products', took more photos ... Still no traffic, not to mention sales.

Most of the traffic and favorites I get are from within the Etsy teams.

Any last advices ?

Thank you so much,
Patty

[Former_Member]

Patty- you are probably not being found in search because you don't have matching phrases in tags and title. Your title should be a series of 2-3 word phrases that people would use to search for your item. That EXACT phrase should be in a single tag where possible.

For instance, if you have "flower hair clip" in your title it should also have a tag with "flower hair clip". For longer phrases you can split into two tags. Every phrase in your title should have a matching tag/s.

Without doing that you will be invisible in most searches.

[Former_Member]

I only had about 6 says in my first 7 months. So don't worry! you just need to keep pushing on :o)

[Former_Member]

Felisa, I understand. Thanks. Although I tend to spend a lot of time on SEO, I might have missed some, thanks!

Sam, I love your shop!! so colorful! I haven't had so much fun visiting a shop in quite some time, good job! Thanks for the kind words!

[BerkshireCollections]

Hi Patti - First off 10 sales in a heavily saturated field, in 3 months is good. Jewelry, bags and purses and any type of Women/Girl accessory is a heavy market on Etsy. Great b/c many people search and use these products, harder to make a sale b/c there are many shops to choose from.

Having said all of that ....I resisted this for a long time, but finally invested in myself and my shop, spent the $15 and learned a ton about SEO and how I should be coordinating my title, description and tags.

So here is my suggestion, join the SEO and Relevancy team and read and read and read through the threads. If you want to go further, go to Mary's shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/SEOWebDesign, and check that out. The guidance is this program has helped me a ton.

Your photography is beautiful!

[BerkshireCollections]

And... one more thing, take a look at other shops with similar items and see who they are doing in sales. If there sales are high see who they are describing, tagging and titling.

Use the shop above you Sam, Sweetystuff, great use of title, repeated exactly in the description, and then combined in the tags.

[Former_Member]

I have some followers, but none result in sales. You all have so much to share. That is one of the reasons I love Etsy.

Would you look at my shop and let me know what I can do to make some exciting in my shop.
Thanks.

[Former_Member]

have you tried using the search relevancy tool?
I did a quick search for one of the items listed in your shop - Lollipop Hair Clip" and got search info - both of your items showed up, but take a look at the link below and view other users and how they are ranking and the difference in how they are listing the item (description and tags).
Perhaps letting a few filters go will pull these items into other like items....crochet clips might not be what the majority search for when looking for a lollipop clip - they wont know they want it....until they see it listed within the other lollipop clips... make sense?

http://tools4etsy.com/Wall-e/Relevancy/Keyword/Lollipop%20Hair%20Clip/HappyPattyCrochet/Relevancy/5

[CozyDetailz]

Hello, i'm from Portugal and really struggling to have my site with some sales. so far got only 10...
i'm now back from vacations and would really like to have some further sales.
What can i do?
What am i not doing correctly?

THANKS in advance for all the help, tips and hints...
Cheers
Isabel

[Former_Member]

Nancy, thank you for the SEO tip, I'll try to spend more time to learn this field and see what I can implement - I have looked recently at other shop, like you recommended, I am still trying to figure out whats key phrases I should aim for - thanks again!

N Alley, thats a wonderful tool! and your tip completely makes sense, If I would look for a candy themed (maybe lollipop) hair clip - I wouldn't run a search for almost half of my tags :) Thanks. I will go through my products and improve my tags.

I think the lesson of today is : SEO SEO and more SEO.

[Shaleilee]

Can you guys take a look at my page and give me some feed back? I know my photos need work. I am in the process of re - doing them. I love all the positive feed back here.

[LivAndCompanyShop]

Hi!

First, I'd like to say that your items are adorable. Your SEO for your titles stand to be improved, however. You need to add terms that people are actually searching for. For instance, I don't believe there are a lot of people searching for "Mixed Sizes Crochet Flowers" or "P003".... That is just taking up space that valuable words could be inserted. For instance, I'd be using words that customers will be searching for. Such as, people on here are looking for gifts, wedding favors, party favors, home décor, hair accessories, etc. I guarantee should you change your keywords and titles to some of these descriptions you'll notice a big change. I started out like you trying to be descriptive as a maker rather than a buyer. You have to think of what the buyer is searching for. Your pictures are excellent and so are your products so I'd say the only other place you may be lacking in is advertising. I always tell people - DO NOT EVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF PINTEREST. Pinterest is insane how much business it has given me & it is completely free! I get 8x the views from Pinterest than I do Google & 5x the business. I've joined group pinning boards & you should be pinning daily. You don't want to pin your pins to your own boards daily, but to the big boards- you do because there are so many people on them. For instance, I have a group board called the ETSY SELLER BOARD & another one for Small Businesses. I have over 180 people pinning to the Etsy board currently and it continues to grow. Now, all those people see my pins, most of them re-pin my pins & I have items being repinned on an average of every 2 minutes now. You can check out my boards if you'd like at Pinterest.com/LivAndCo and see all the group boards I'm a part of. If you follow me and message me once you have- I'll follow you back and invite you to pin. Instagram has also been another huge factor to my success. Hash tags rock! LOL. I had no idea. I thought Facebook and Twitter were where it was at and Facebook you generally have to pay to be seen or dedicate hours a day to posting whereas Instagram and Pinterest are free & you do not need to do all that ;) Anyhow, I have an appointment to get to. Hope this helps!

[Former_Member]

Hey Livia! I came to report the results of my changes and saw that I missed your post! Sorry - such great input, thanks! :)

So, I've refined my tags and titles according to the recommendations given to me here - and I do start to notice an improvement.in views that comes from searches (about 70% increase compared to the 3 weeks before I did the changes). Which is huge, as there is still a lot of improvements for me to make :)

I've also participated in more treasury games, which increases views as well (and more followers, which appears on more activity walls, which is crucial I think with the new front page).

My next step is Pinterest, So, thanks Livia for the great tips :) I'm heading to your pinterest now! :)

I'll keep you updated (don't know if anybody is interested :)).

Thanks to everybody for the awesome tips!
Patty

[Former_Member]

hi patty
you´ve come a long way since your first post but there´s yet room for improvement e.gg in this listing:
https://www.etsy.com/de/listing/196872167/sonnenblume-ohrringe-gehakelt-hakeln
i think you don´t need the JE077 in your title, if it´s some code for you you can add it to the description and you have a lot more space in your title to add infos and search terms like:
crochet earrings with beads - fashion jewelry - sunflower dangle earrings - flower jewelry - etc.
i know it´s a long way but we all had to go it and i know that you´ll make it because your items are really great.

[Former_Member]

Hello Barbara, sorry for the late thank you but its better late then never, I guess :) thank you very much for taking the time to comment and give feedback - even tho its almost two months since you answered, your answer is still very relevant. I still have plenty to do with my Titles and Tags ...

I've been focusing mostly on increasing exposure to relevant visitors (or, potential buyers), which means, less clicking games and more treasuries and pinterest (I still have long way until I mater Instagram, or even facebook promotions :/).

I have to say that I am seeing an increase in sales (I'm still not where I want to be, but at least I'm heading in the right direction :)), but not a big increase in views. which means that my conversion rate is higher (MUCH higher actually), and its almost entirely due to pinterest promotions.

Even tho I'm light years from understanding Pinterest as a marketing tool, I still managed to increase exposure and sales, just by promoting single pins on a daily basis.

So, yeah, for what its worth - I would like to repeat what Livia said before, if any one of you is struggling and haven't paid attention to Pinterest - do it now, or soon.

And with this lesson, I move on to improve my title/tags, while keep promoting in pinterest. I more and more think that team promotions does not convert, and is a bit of a waste of time (by team promotions I mean the circle clicking, post 2 fav 10, view all the item of the shop above you and the similar posts).

Thank you all for the great help, I'll share whenever I find anything new (by 'new' I mean new to me, which i probably old news to most of you here :).

Happy sales!
Patty

[Former_Member]

Just want to say that I love your photography and your items! Congrats on the improvements!