ImaginE

After using one of the tools which helps to pick strong keywords to match my listings to what buyers are searching for, I realized that if everyone used these tools, the playing field would eventually be a level playing field. One of the features allows you to view all the strong keywords of any competitor that you interested in. For instance, if I did an evaluation of ABC Company and a product that I was competing with had a strong keyword of XYZ Keyword, I could then enter that keyword into my products, too. If I hadn't thought of the keyword XYZ Keyword, then I just added another competition to that keyword. I can also look at the probability of the keyword XYZ Keyword. For instance: How many products are competing with the keyword XYZ Keyword? How many searches are being done each month for the keyword XYZ Keyword? The obvious choice of a keyword is low amount of competition and a high number of searches each month. If my competition was fortunate to think of the keyword XYZ Keyword and enjoyed a lot business because of low competition and high searches, now they had 1 more competitor. What if 500 additional competitive shops with a similar product used the same tools? Eventually, the leveling of the playing field will occur. Fortunately, not all shop owners do that kind of evaluation... not yet! ... View more

I am always looking at my Shop Stats on my iPhone. The first screen displays Views, Favorites and Orders. The second screen displays Listing Views and Shop Views. From those 2 screens, I start my evaluation of what I can possibly do better to convert a visitor to my shop to a buyer. The fist number that I calculate is the number of views per 1 order. I look at that number for Today, Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days, This Month and This Year. Then I try to predict when the next order might be placed. It is the easiest calculation if you receive 1 order per week (or more). If it 2, 3 weeks or more, it takes a little more juggling with the numbers. Whatever that number is, I try to keep beating that number. If it is 1 order per 50 views, I try to lower it to 1 order per 45 views. When I click the number of views, the new screen displays Listing Views and Shop Views. The relationship of those 2 numbers are very important to me. When a visitor clicks on a product that is displayed in a search listing, the visitor sees the product as well as 8 other products (suggested products in the same category as the displayed product). The visitor has 3 choices. Leave my shop, click on 1 of the 8 other items displayed or click on Shop View of my shop home page. I have made a suggestion to Etsy to also include a category link above the 8 displayed products as now the visitor have to click the shop home page and then see that there is a category link of the same type of products that the visitor just viewed. Each additional click creates the possibility that the visitor will leave your shop. So, the important number now is the calculation of How Many Listing Views Per Shop Views. The magic number that I would like to see is less than 1. For every visitor that views a product, that visitor thinks that they might be interested in another product in my shop. The missing number that also figures into the equation is how many visitors are viewing my shop per day. I am able to see that number in Google Analytics. You can interface your shop into Google Analytics and I also use the APP Quicklytics to monitor my shop. If I receive a lot of views for instance of a specific Wildflower Note Card Set and I don't see a lot of other Wildflower Note Card Sets being viewed, then I can assume that my other selections of Wildflower Note Card Sets is not as good as the one being viewed the most (as 8 of the other sets are being shown on the product page). I also use the Page Depth report on Google Analytics in relationship to my Shop Home Page. If a lot of visitors are looking at my Home Page, but don't look any further, then I must rearrange my Home Page as the products being displayed on my home page does not have any interest for the visitors. I will write another post regarding some of the other evaluations and tweaking that I do to help my shop along. Mel ... View more

My husband seems to be always quoting either himself, his father or his grandfather when it comes to business (and my husband started many companies during his business career). One of his favorite quotes come from his father. "It does you no good to have a warehouse full of inventory. For if product does not leave the warehouse, you can't make a profit, no matter how low you paid for any of the items." Comparing that quote to Etsy is a lot more complicated as with Etsy, our products are handmade and with the case of my husband's business, it was inventory purchased (bought for $8.00 and sold for $10.00, etc.). There was no creativity, labor, pride, artist, etc. factored into our products. So if we painted a beach watercolor painting, placed a price of $50.00 on the painting and then viewed other artist's paintings for $30.00, there is a element of competitive pricing and sales brought into view. If we then see that one of the artists has sold 10 beach watercolor paintings and I have sold 1 painting in the same period of time (and I also have 5 paintings available), there could be a temptation to adjust the price? And then my father-in-law's quotes starts to chime in, too. "It does you no good to have a warehouse full of inventory. For if product does not leave the warehouse, you can't make a profit, no matter how low you paid for any of the items." But "STOP" right there. There is much more to the story then price, quality, sales, etc. It has to do with marketing, exposure, value, perception, etc. So, just don't jump to any conclusions when someone else is selling more than you and the prices of their products are much less than yours. We will continue our discussion on this topic in another post. Mel ... View more

To The Rocky Mountain High Team Members: My husband, who was an entrepreneur for his whole life (retired now), just completed an audio podcast series of simple business advice (the website he developed is for our town in Colorado). This advice will pertain to your Etsy business and will give you some helpful ideas. When I started, I had absolutely no business background or business skills. In a matter of just over 1 year, my GUMPcard business is now really booming. I haven't been able to crack a lot of sales in my Etsy shop yet, but I turned Lemons into Lemonades because I thought out of the box (because of disappointing Etsy sales) and developed a whole new concept in cards as well as went down a different sales and marketing road. I now have my cards in 100+ retail shops and my website is doing quite well, too. Next, I hope to figure out how to increase my Etsy sales. Here is the Getting Ahead In Business Podcast link: http://www.estesparkpodcast.com/podcastshows.php?id=992 Thinking and hoping that the next day will bring success with your business just doesn't work. You have to carefully plan a strategy and do something everyday to bring success. I hope you have a chance to listen to some of the podcasts and comment on anything that might help you succeed. I will try to post new and innovative ideas weekly, now that I have a little more free time. Thanks for joining the team. Mel ... View more

Sorry I haven't been keeping the Rocky Mountain Team more current with posts. I have been very busy with my little Outdoor Eyes business with wholesale and also a new launch of a new product. I was approved to make 100th Year Centennial Rocky Mountain Note Cards and also Rocky Mountain National Park Jewelry. Now that the RMNP visitation is starting to wind down this past week, I have more time to devote to Etsy. With the RMNP Cards, I placed them in some of the high end retail stores in my town (along with my own photograph cards) and also in many of the lodges around town. Obviously, the RMNP opportunity opened a lot of doors for my photo note cards and my photo jewelry. I also placed my cards in art galleries with turned out to be a terrific place for my cards (upscale locations seem to work the best for me). Now the reason for my post. I started thinking about restaurants. In a restaurant, they take the food products that they have in inventory to produce entirely new and different food products. That is what I started to do with my note cards and jewelry. By taking what I already have and packaging it into new and exciting products, I don't have to add any additional inventory (although I did make a different printed packaging board for the jewelry). I am excited about the results (as some of the new products I have sold wholesale to retail stores). I still haven't figured out how to make Etsy work to the max yet (as far as sales is concerned), but I haven't given up yet. In fact, I just redid all my descriptions, my titles and all my keywords. I also have started to do Etsy Ads (with a lot of research of the best way to maximize my results). I will post some of my results in my next post when I get some results. Here are links for 2 of my newest Etsy ideas that took the same items that I have in inventory, but created totally new items that a visitor can create their own custom item: Special Nature Collection: https://www.etsy.com/listing/210150354/special-collection-nature-note-card-gift Bird Lover Ultimate Collection: https://www.etsy.com/listing/211256874/bird-lover-ultimate-collection-gift Mel ... View more