I've decided to begin an "All Out Attack" to create additional views and visitors for my Etsy shop... as for about the first 2 years, I really did nothing to maximize my shop presence on Etsy (I was involved in promoting and selling my products using other methods that I outlined in a previous post).
1. I started with my "Stat Report" and began over 40+ hours of tweaking and changing around every aspect of my Etsy Shop using the valuable statistics available to me.
2. There are so many relationships between the statistics available in the Stats pull-down selection (to create a stat report) such as:
Today, Yesterday, Last 7 Days, Last 30 days, This Month, Last Month, Last 12 Months, This Year, Last Year, All Time, Specific Dates, etc.
3. By looking at the numbers, you can find out what is right with your shop and what is wrong with your shop.
4. For instance: Looking at This Year vs. Last Year, you can see the Shop Views and Listing Views. If the Listing Views have increased substantially, you have been found more often due to many reasons. You can then look at your traffic sources and see how your shop has been found. If the search has increased substantially, you have better titles, keywords, etc. for your products as the visitors have found you easier on search (higher ranking). If you have slipped, you have to find the reasons by looking at relationships between all the statistics.
5. I started initially by using the Stats pull-down selection to view all the choices: Today, Yesterday, etc. to do an analysis of the keywords that visitors used to find my shop. I had written down all the keywords that I was trying to obtain a high ranking in search. Then I looked for those keywords in all the selection reports to see if there was a pattern of increasing or decreasing due my chosen keywords for each product that was in my Etsy Shop. I also looked in the reports for new keywords that I never thought about. It was a very slow and time consuming task to tweak each product that was in my shop. I did it each day. Every day I went to search and typed in each and every one of the keywords that I wanted to have a high ranking. If it didn't meet my expectations, I changed the titles, the keywords, etc. for each any every product in my shop.
By increasing your shop views and your item views, you have a much better chance of having orders. I also did an evaluation (using all the Stat selection choices) to find out how many views and visitors I needed to obtain an order for my shop. Then I knew what my target goal was and I tried to lower the target goal. For instance, if 100 visitors and 150 views were the target goal for 1 sale, I tried to lower it to 90 visitors or 125 views. I also started to rearrange my shop as maybe that could lower my views and visitors needed to obtain an order. What you can't experience is what reaction a first time visitor has to your products and the layout of your shop. You have to use statistics to help you determine what you need to be doing.
Obviously, what I mentioned above is 1% of everything I did as I couldn't possibly write down every step. I will add a new idea with additional posts in the future.
The results have been terrific (but I started with really low views and sales), so it was easier for me to increase my shop (as views and sales have increased). I am very optimistic about this approach, but it takes a lot of continuous effort as every day there is more competition with additional products available on Etsy.
There is also one other element that I am trying to do now. Just because I like one of my products, doesn't mean that anyone else will like one of my products, so I have to promote what the public likes vs. what I like (and that has been a change in my strategy, too).
If you have any comments, questions or strategies that you use, please post as many of you have been quite successful on Etsy.
Mel
