Why you are not getting found newbies

[#1]

Things are tough when your category has 2,000,000 items, and you have 40.
You must do everything possible to give yourself a chance to be found. I dont see that in threads compalining about low views.
And, it isnt that hard, nor does it take much time to have good tags and titles. Ignore all that constant "tweaking" noise you read about. Do it right the first time, and you can spend the tweaking time making things.

I have learned the following from the Queen of SEO:

1.Your title is not the name of your item. It is a 70 character string whose goal is to get your item found by etsy search.

2. If you cant tell exactly what the item is by reading your tags, your tags stink. Those words are what people search on. If I had a dime for every purple necklace that had neither purple nor necklace in the tags, I would have a lot of dimes.

3. Words in your title must show up in your tags. If Blue scarf is in your title, blue scarf needs to be in your tags.

4. Use as many of the 20 characters in your tags as possible. Blue scarf as one tag is better than blue, then scarf as two tags.

5.Read about SEO at cindys seo group. she is very wise. http://www.etsy.com/teams/10713/cindylouwho-team/discuss/10196168/

the end

[glassbead]

Oh my- you are doing a great job of checking shops out. Hope you'll have time to look my way. I do get found- I think, much of the time. But sales are a bit rocky right now.

[Former_Member]

Alex,

You missed my shop, does that mean you don't like it?

.................

sweetheart, it means I havent got to you yet

and where the hell is hillsgrove??

[designsbydkd]

hillsgrove is 1/2 hour from williamsport, pa

[Former_Member]

Alex,

I want to thank you for taking the time to review my shop in its entirety. Sorry I am a bit late to respond to your critique, this week has been absolutely mad! The taxing-by-destination is definately...a challenge, haha. I didn't realize that people might not know that my prints are of handmade digital paintings that I draw and color using my tablet pen. I will be sure to add this information to my process :)

As for the watermark, I had read some horror stories about people who create 2D art having their images ripped off, so I tried my best to combat that. I do agree they are distracting however, so I will see what I can do about that.

I have also had a hard time tagging my abstract pieces! I usually try to go by color, or even by the emotion I feel the piece invokes (this is totally subjective of course).

This weekend I am going to get into my photos and try and make the watermark less in-your-face, as well as fix tags with combining some more terms together.

Many thanks again for the great advice!

[Former_Member]

I will gladly accept any critique, advice or suggestion you have to offer, Alex. I've read almost every suggestion you've given thus far. Righto. Agree with everything completely. It's nice, however, to have someone who is clearly on their game take a look and spill everything back at you from their point of view. I hope you'll have the time to take a look at mine.

I do want to mention that I opened my store 2 years ago, but did ABSOLUTELY nothing with it until this summer when I closed my tailoring shop. Do you think that the opening date versus sales is hurting me? That's always something I ponder over.

Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to do this for everyone. Very nice thing to do indeed.

[AHoleyMoleyLyfe]

I am going to work on my titles and tags and see if that increases my views. If you have a moment I would love your feedback as well. Thanks Alex for sharing the info

[Former_Member]

Alex, I really appreciate your advice. It's great to have someone from "the outside looking in" to set you straight. Your message and delivery is spot on.

If you have a moment, could you take a look at my shop and give me some pointers? Even though I have some crafts that I'm selling, I'm really selling supplies. I think my target buyers are other shell crafters and jewelry artists and I'd like to tap into that market somehow, but I'm not sure the best way to go about it.

Again, any advice would be greatly appreciated. I do have a thick skin.

Thanks!

Ellen

[MagicMoonPottery]

I'm reluctant to ask....... Maybe after you have sorted through all of your requests from adoring fans, you might have time to appraise my humble little pottery storefront. Don't worry.....I have plenty of wine on hand to soften the blow ;)

Michele (from Delaware) and I'm NOT an Eagles/Phillies/Flyers fan :/

[DoggieStylz]

Me too please! I have only been selling since may even tho I set up my shop last year. I know my pictures are not so good. Any critique you have is greatly appreciated!

Please and thank you!
Marietta

[Former_Member]

Hi Alex,
How do you get through all this!
Anychance you can check mine out..... I feel clueless!
Thanks, Lex

[Former_Member]

I will gladly accept any critique, advice or suggestion you have to offer, Alex. I've read almost every suggestion you've given thus far. Righto. Agree with everything completely. It's nice, however, to have someone who is clearly on their game take a look and spill everything back at you from their point of view. I hope you'll have the time to take a look at mine.

I do want to mention that I opened my store 2 years ago, but did ABSOLUTELY nothing with it until this summer when I closed my tailoring shop. Do you think that the opening date versus sales is hurting me? That's always something I ponder over.
.....................
no
in my first 4.5 years, I had 30 sales
I like to pace myself

[WebAndRock]

Alex, Kappa Kappa Gamma, who knew. Thanks to you, got a search hit from that term just today. Appreciate it!

[Former_Member]

tammi from nocal

jewelry
in your shop title, stick some keywords about what you sell
the google likes that

your pics are flat
aspire to this

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ChatterBlossom

jewlelry people have to do everything right

your tags are awful
you have some good keywords in your materials, use them

You will get Your most views from the least popular keywords

chew on that

read this:
http://www.etsy.com/teams/10713/cindylouwho-team/discuss/9227373/page/1

just do the basics first and see how that works

show your pics to your kids and ask them to describe the object to a blind man
I bet they will use good keywords.

for the blue crystal earrings, all those tags have to go or be combined

stick rhodium in there
if someone is looking for rhodium, you will be first page

your titles are only a little better
hostess, stocking stuffer, drop, fashion
not helpful

so implement cindys stuff first

[Former_Member]

Alex, Kappa Kappa Gamma, who knew. Thanks to you, got a search hit from that term just today. Appreciate it!
.................

nice

other sororities have colors too

just watch the trademarked stuff

when I was in college, all those chicks had money

[IntuessaJewelryCo]

Alex, will you please take a look at my shop as well? I know I have to add more items and I am working on that. Thank you very much for an informative and funny post.
Thank you,
Ruxi

[Former_Member]

Okay Alex, I have a different request. When you write a review...would you put a link to that shop in the review? That way we can learn by looking at their shop and comparing to your opinion. Currently, have to read through every post and try to match their shop with your review.

Thanks. You are donating a lot of you time and blessing many people...kinda seems selfish for me to ask you to do one more thing.

[HiTeaShop]

awesome info, will do

[loveofdrawing]

Yikes! Wonderful post and good advice!

Sad to say on average I get about 5-20 views a day. I thought my tags and titles were good but I guess I need to work on them more.

[Former_Member]

vicky cheesehead

asking me about shop name advice
have you seen mine??

omg

total cheeshead

I bet you wont sit down and be quiet when the pack is on. I wont have that when the game is on. No sireebob

I am not a lawyer, and the law is unclear about the selling of trademarked fabric ( my patent lawyer bud say, "do you really want to test the NFL ? Your opinions may differ.")
so, mull on that
Ya know, the pack dont have it this year. Dont let one game make ya giddy.


many pictures are dull and out of focus
you have four good ones
all the packers
I do like marketing to them, make sure youre legal

your dresses look too cheap. isnt 15 low?
i would put the size in the title and flowers
tags are fair
you dont use all your pix
cant see all the apron
what are those little threads?

i like the table runner idea
how big?
need to know that
20,000 wall quilts
2250 table runners
gotta go with tablerunner in the tags and titles

holy crap!

someone has 1500 items for sale!
she does supplies too and tablerunners
6000 sales
from minnesota
she still has over 300 handmade items
when does she sleep?
her tags and titles are horrid!
bleh

anywho, you have work to do.

i bet tablerunners will sell. seasonal ones, because chicks put them out when company is coming. If legal, a packer tablerunner would k-i-l-l .

go read the cindylou who stuff






debora wants a link to your shop

http://www.etsy.com/shop/vw53

so, I am being critiqued??

that has to be annoying the way I jump around
we need a secretary

[LeLaStudio]

Hi Alex, I guess you forgot about me..(I'm sad...oh well, just a little ;) Anyhow, I have been working on my SEO after I read your post ( thank you so much) , tweak here and there, and still don't know if it will turn Into views and sales. We will see on that.
But I do have a more specific question for you, what do you think about my photo's background? I use a painted background for some of my lunch bags, the thing is that a lot of etsian saying white background is better because you get picked on treasury easier. Then I tried some lunch bags with white background but now I don't know which is better? Am I just confusing myself? Or is it ok to have both? Does it look cohesive? Could you please take a look and answer my " little" question.... Thanks, many many thanks! :)

Lisu

[Former_Member]

Hello, I've been opened over a year but am concentrating more on it now- i would also love a critique if you get a chance.

[NakedRatDestash]

Alex, when you have time, please scan my shop. How are my tags and titles???

[ColoursandTextures]

HI Alex. I have just been looking at your work and admiring the mosaics and their combo of pastel colours.
Thanks for all the tips.
I've done some tweaking and I am listing up yo 3 items a day but my views are still only single figures or early double figures. any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[Former_Member]

Hello Alex,

I would appreciate your opinion on my small shop.
I've just recently started working on it although it is long time open.
I know I have very little things to sell, but they take so much time to make and I am working on it.
I have just recently found about tags and the meaning of them and worked through all my tags and titles.
I also have this one question sitting in my head for some days, I wonder if I add more items and they are all dolls for example no matter how many items I have if they are similar the tags would be similar and they would not attract so many more views to my shop.
Thanks for taking the time to write here!

[wolflady]

Alex thank you for the information. If you have time please take a look at my shop.

Thank you
Linda