Helpful Tips for Your Etsy Business - Etsy Search

Have your sales seemed to have slowed down this year?  Maybe even the views to your shop?  I know mine have.  So I decided to look into why this might be happening.

Etsy is flooded with sellers right now: new and long time ones, retail and wholesale, handmade and not handmade.  Things have really changed since I started on Etsy almost 10 years ago.  And competition is stiff.   And so, once again, Etsy has changed it search algorithm, I believe it was earlier this year.  I came across this post, I believe in the Etsy forums, and thought it was good advice to help your listings be seen, and possibly move your listings to Etsy's first page of a search for products similar to your own.

I have been implementing these changes myself, and I have to honestly tell you, I am seeing good results. In the first 3 pages of search on Etsy, using my strongest keywords, my listings show up once.  But by page 4 in search, I have many listings showing up in search.  So I am seeing results. 


This post was written by someone named Sharna R., I believe in the Etsy forums, on Mary 17, 2016.  (I have edited and added clarifying information where I felt it may be helpful.) 

"I have found great success (in a matter of just a few minutes) in updating 4 things:

1.  Title - Put your top hit search terms as the first 3 words in your title. Go to your Etsy stats page, and see what the top three search terms are for your business.  Use them in your titles.

2.  Materials - Etsy uses this information when customers search for specific things.  In my leather pacifier clips rather than just having "leather' in my materials, I added "metal pacifier clip" since my top search hit is "leather pacifier clip." 

3.  Tags - This is HUGE!  Use phrases for your tags rather than just individual words.  You will find a lot more success if you are selling earrings to use the tag "geometric stud earrings" rather than "geometric", "stud", "earrings" separately.

4.  Description - Similar to Google, Etsy seems to have it's algorithm look for "interesting pages" so adding bullet point lists, links or quotes show Etsy that there's a variety of information on your listing rather than just a brief description of what the item is. 

My best advice is to search for your listings as if you were a customer to see where they come up (which page you're on) and try a few things to improve your listings to get on the first page of your top hits search terms.  Also, learning from those listings that are on the first page has been very valuable to me as well.  Even copying the tags and titles they use has given me good success."

Hope you find this information helpful for your business. 

Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites

As creative entrepreneurs, I believe we all have a limited amount of time to devote to marketing and social media outreach.  Because of this, I thought it would be helpful to let you know what I have found to be the most popular social media sites, currently.

eBizMBA.com, an online business guide that helps people find the web's best resources to grow an online business, ranked each of the following website's Alexa Global Traffic Rank, and U.S. Traffic Rank and came up with these results:

1.  Facebook

2. Twitter

3. Linked In

4. Pinterest

5. Google Plus+

6. Tumblr

7. Instagram

8. VK

9. Flickr

10.  Vine

11. Meetup

12. Tagged

13. Ask.fm

14. MeetMe

15. Classmates

Of course, if you are an Etsy seller, I would also recommend being active in the Forums and Teams.  I have found both places helpful for information, sharing, and letting other people know within the Etsy community about your business.

This has been updated to reflect the most current ranking as of March 2015.

Hope this information is helpful for you with your business marketing.

Marketing Tips for Online Sellers -The Importance of a Good Avatar

An avatar is a graphic image that represents your store on the Internet.  If you sell handmade items or supplies on Etsy or Artfire, your avatar shows up right by your name on the homepage of your store.  You can also see your avatar right near your comment if you post a question or answer in the forums.  Also if you send a convo or message to a buyer or seller within Etsy or Artfire, your avatar will show.

Something I haven't heard anyone mention in all of my marketing reading is the importance of a good avatar.  And since this is the photo people come to recognize as you and your store, what makes for a good avatar?

If you go to the forums on Etsy or Artfire,  you will see people use photos of themselves, photos of one of their items, or a photo that is irrelevant to what they are selling as their avatar, such as their child or pet.  As a buyer, what draws me to click on a shop is not the shop name, but if I can see what it is that is being sold in that shop.  A clear, colorful photo is a lot more interesting and it grabs my attention better than any other image.  It gives me a good idea about what the seller is selling, and if it is something I am interested in seeing more of.  And believe me, I have made purchases, and I am probably not alone, by being directed to a shop because of their avatar. 

In addition to a good photo of something you sell, if your avatar has your shop name on it, that also makes it, and consequently your shop, more recognizable. And you really do want name recognition. Repetition, repetition, repetition is what my husband reminds me is needed for a buyer to feel comfortable with you as a seller.

I hope this is helpful advice for some of my readers. As with all advice, use what feels helpful and disregard the rest.