Any Etsy sellers want to chat / share tips?

[SinkGirl]

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve restarted my Etsy shop (well it has been up and running for five years, but I was pregnant when I started it then I had twins who are both disabled so I haven’t touched it in four years - I’ve just been selling digital downloads, so it’s just been ticking over with very very few sales (about 40 last year).

I’ve added lots of new items including a kit and have been trying to get back into the swing of social media as my pages had died a death. It’s hard going but feel like I’m getting somewhere (have turned over as much in the last month as I did all of last year).

I have a mammoth to-do list including taking all new photos, and restarting my shop selling finished items to run alongside my templates and kits.

I’ve been out of it for so long that I feel like I’m starting from scratch.

Would be lovely to talk to others about how they are doing, share tips on getting the best results, making listings as effective as possible, share info on things like where to order packaging and stuff like that.

Anyway, I’m here if anyone wants to chat :)

I've signed up for Etsy ads but am still only selling 1 or 2 cards a week so most of my sales get swallowed up in fees. I've bought a light box but I still think my photography could be improved. Any tips would be gratefully received.

Www.rachelcampbellcards/Etsy.com

That link doesn't work. I'll try again.

HTTPS://www.Etsy.com/UK/shop/rachelcampbellcards

For pity's sake! I wish MN had an edit button.

Perhaps my technical inability is why I'm not getting many sales 🙄

I have an Etsy! New to it also. I started selling bits via FB last year and got a good number of sales, opened up Etsy and its been hard, think im at 35 sales now. Tried Shopify but the website costs outweighed the sales I was making so sticking to Etsy it is!

Also Etsy is much more user friendly than my Shopify site was.

You’ve got to be really present on social media too to drive people to your shop. 88% of my visitors come from social media. I use Instagram and have it connected to my FB page so it all transfers over

Love your cards! I've favourited I'll definately buy for birthdays coming up!

@doadeer

Love your cards! I've favourited I'll definately buy for birthdays coming up!

Sorry this was for @Riddo

I think cards very competitive and you probably need to differentiate on tags etc

@doadeer Thank you! I don't understand what you mean about tags. Sorry 😬

@Riddo

For pity's sake! I wish MN had an edit button.

Perhaps my technical inability is why I'm not getting many sales 🙄

You should just need to write: www.RachelCampbellCards.etsy.com

Your cards are so cheap! I feel like you’re under-pricing yourself, by the time you’ve paid for materials and postage and packing and Etsy fees you can’t be making much at all for your time?

I ordered a card from Moonpig recently and that was over £3 and wasn’t made by hand!

Just my thoughts anyway :)

I’m about to reach 200 sales, which is pretty crap given how long my shop has been active, but hardly sold anything until last year so most have been in the last 12 months. At the moment I’m making about the same each month as I made all of last year, not that it’s much but it’s a start :)

Once my twins go back to school I’m planning to list a lot of files for cutting machines, just need to set up my machine and test them first.

Also working on some crochet patterns but have run out of yarn so will have to come back to them. It’s much easier for me to get people to follow me on social media with crochet and knitting as so many more people do them.

I have grand plans of having patterns and kits for several different crafts but so much I need to do to get to that point. Just trying to take it one step at a time and get the cutting machine files up first as once they are done they can just sit there and I don’t have to do anything.

I literally have no idea why that blanket photo posted - I didnt mean to do that 😂 My brain is knackered, need my boys to go back to school, might spend monday sleeping!

@Riddo
Definitely read the seller handbook.
Tags, product attributes, titles are how your items are discovered in search. The more popular your category the more competition. But the handbook explains more.

@SinkGirl
200 sales is still great! Do you play around with the backend much? Is it a competitive category?

I do a bit - my listings actually rank pretty well for the terms I expect people to use, plenty on the front page for the first term, and once people click through they tend to look at multiple listings, but my visits have definitely dropped recently.

Will see what happened when I add some SVGs since that’s a much larger market.

@doadeer Thank you 🙂

@SinkGirl , thank you. I'm not making much at the moment as I was worried about charging too much. It's more of a hobby than a money making scheme but I will definitely think about increasing my prices.

I'm charging an extra £1 for the sensory card as it's a lot more work. Fortunately I have inherited all my Mum's craft supplies and have a lot of my own so I've only really had to buy card blanks so far.

The blanket is beautiful.

Hi, I've just had a quick read through this thread, hoping to gain some useful advice.

I set up my Etsy shop last week 😬
I have hardly any clue what I'm doing. I am in the process of going through all my listings and adding tags to them, as I managed to miss that when setting them up. Had about 50 views of different items but obviously very early days so no sales.
Not sure if this will go anywhere or not but I will keep my fingers crossed. I have had a few sales through my Facebook age, especially before Christmas, and also post on the notonamazon Facebook group, which does help I think.

This is m Etsy shop
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/EmmahArtist

Keep going! Definitely read the handbook as advised above. eRank also has some useful features in their free version.

The thing I found most helpful was looking at shops in the same category that had lots of sales and analysing their listings to see what info they included, what their photos were like etc. I still need to redo all my photos but have taken some interim ones of my most popular listings.

Thank you @SinkGirl I will definitely make sure I look at the handbook and have just got erank.

Spent an hour adding tags while my boys played at the park.

Next job research other sellers.

Just a tip if you scroll to the bottom of another seller page you can see all their tags, let me do a screenshot.

Apologies if you already know this!

@doadeer thanks, I didn't know this.

So the first four in boxes are my categories and the tags are the picture circles and the rest of the grey boxes

JulietMadeChutney, Hi OP, I found you through another thread on Mumsnet, and as you know I fell in love with Harry the Hare (and of course I bought him), then - totally against my self-will - I fell in love with George the Giraffe, I did resist at first, but I soon gave in, so I bought him as well! I am so glad I did. I am amazed that you are self taught, and that you had only just started your shop; it is so professional looking, and your postage and packing is exceptional too. My prints reached me very quickly, and were expertly packaged. I am keeping a look out for my 3rd whimsicle offering from you

Hi sorry OP I don't know why I put OP as I was talking to Juliet (I also wish these posts had edit buttons!), I had just been interrupted by one of my adult children wanting to know where the iron is, and I forgot what I was doing - at least he does his own ironing!
Juliet, the emoji was supposed to be a winking smiley face, Lol

@coffeeandchoc thanks for the 'favourite'! I'm quite new too, have you got an Instagram account? (Happy to follow!) I've found I drive most of my views to Etsy from there. I'm also trying to put some of my work onto cards to sell, as I have nothing below £20 (one of them is a bee on lavender, I saw you had one too 😂)

I'm still trying to link my Facebook to the Etsy for a 'shop now' button, I've done it with the meta-tag but it still won't work, I have no idea what I'm doing wrong!

@treehearts you're welcome. Your work is lovely. My Instagram is www.instagram.com/emmah_artist
What's yours?
I've just added my etsy shop address as the website address on my Facebook page, not added it as a shop at the moment. I'm not being very organised at the moment, I need to create some detailed info of what I have for sale on etsy and what is on my Facebook page, as the prices are different because of the etsy fees etc.

Got to love a bee on some lavender 💜 always a great subject!