how can i get a successful store?

[Millennialgirlboss]

i recently just made my first sale on etsy and i was wondering how i could improve it to get more views and sales. should i post more items? or work on tags, photography? im not sure were to start and my newest items don't seem to get many views.

[FenderGemsNCrystals]

Congratulations on your first sale. It takes constant work. Read up on SEO, tags and photography. Particularly review the item you sold and see what you did right on that listing and replicate it

For SEO there is a great team:

http://www.etsy.com/teams/12360/friendly-seo

Also search in teams for newbie teams as there is a lot of great information out there

Google sassy critiques as they have great shop start up checklists.

I still constantly revamp photos, my about page, my policies, my shop welcome.
Create a checklist and pursue it

One specific thing to do is your tags. Instead of saying pink say pink blouse. Instead of saying blue say blue bow. Try to make your tags phrases where possible.

Pretty clothing, you should do well with a little work

[Former_Member]

I'm in the same boat! My sells are slow also but sometimes you can critique another persons shop and see things that they cant. Your pics are pretty good, the lighting is nice and the details are clear.
I did notice on your item titled "royal blue button scarf" The earrings look like they are part of the scarf which can be confusing. Maybe take a pic without the earrings or add another view. Put like items together, like all of the jewelry together, clothes etc. It will make your shop look uniform. Other than that it looks great to me!

[TagsForTails]

Congrats on your first sale! Very exciting :)

There are many things that I wish I knew when I first started.

1) Every time you post something, its put on page 1 of a customer search, so posting one item a day keeps your shop from getting lost in the back pages of searches.

2) Your photograph is the only way you can really grab your customers attention. Neutral backgrounds or simple props (ie. neutral dog collar for my pet tags) are the way to go in my opinion. Its fun to have bright colorful scrapbook paper prints, but if it distracts from the item you are selling, ditch it.

3) Look at other more successful shops which carry similar items. Look through their sales history and see what their photos/descriptions looked like when they started out as compared to now. You can do this by clicking "#__sale" on their shop home page.

4) When you are creeping on other peoples sales, click a specific item and scroll to the bottom. Click "item details"- you can see what keywords they tagged, and get ideas for your items.

You really need to accomplish: 1) get ahead of the line in customer searches 2) draw them in with fantastic photos-edit them with photoshop or Gimp (its free, similar to photoshop, what I use). 3) stay on top of your competition by using what they have already learned.

I hope at least some of this has helped, happy selling!

-Richinda
TagsForTails

[Millennialgirlboss]

thank you so much everyone! this advise is very helpful!

[Former_Member]

@Richinda B. Although it wasn't intended specifically for me: thanks for the insights, as I am fairly new myself.