Am I Invisible on Etsy or WHAT?

[Fridaboatswain]

I know I'm not, btw but I'm feeling the tiniest bit disheartened that no one's even looking at my page after 2 weeks. I've paid £1 per day upon request from Etsy to try to drum up a bit of interest with a 3 second ad every 48 hours or something, but I'm thinking of just gathering up my bits and bobs and just having a car boot sale

I'm a silversmith, sell silver jewellery around the £18 - £30 mark and free P&P. It's nice stuff, according to people I've gifted it too

I'm not linking to the page because I'm not using MN as advertising, but I would genuinely love some seasoned advice!

Btw, I've been on MN 14 years (trying to fend off any forthcoming accusations of spamming) and using a new name tonight to post something sensitive, but just doing this first.

Thanks for any advice.

I want a link though! I love silver and work in a gallery. We sell a lot of beautiful artisan made silver and I'd maybe be able to advise. I do curate.

If it's not selling, it's one of two things.

A - People aren't seeing it because of the algorithm
B - People don't like it enough

I won't be harsh but I will advise. I recently helped a jeweler make some sales by advising her to stop making pendants (she uses a mold process) out of ugly things...and to start making them using leaves and flowers...and she immediately got good sales.

Nobody wants to wear a bloody peanut on a chain...or a cashew....well SOME might but not many and certainly not our audience! Everyone loves a leaf or a berry or a sprig of flowers . Her things were very well made but the problem was in the design.

@FortunesFave

I want a link though! I love silver and work in a gallery. We sell a lot of beautiful artisan made silver and I'd maybe be able to advise. I do curate.

If it's not selling, it's one of two things.

A - People aren't seeing it because of the algorithm
B - People don't like it enough

I won't be harsh but I will advise. I recently helped a jeweler make some sales by advising her to stop making pendants (she uses a mold process) out of ugly things...and to start making them using leaves and flowers...and she immediately got good sales.

Nobody wants to wear a bloody peanut on a chain...or a cashew....well SOME might but not many and certainly not our audience! Everyone loves a leaf or a berry or a sprig of flowers . Her things were very well made but the problem was in the design.

Second this. Need a link :)

Need a link please

Aw, thanks...I would love to link in case it helped, but I genuinely need to post something sensitive after this and linking to my actual name and most of my address probably wouldn't be the most awesome move

I really appreciate the advice. I don't think my stuff is too twee - it's mostly castings I've made from textures in nature and the like. Mismatched pairs of earrings that look like little twigs . It's dainty but a bit unusual too.

I mean, I like it

If you don’t want to share your link here, try joining some of the Etsy seller groups on Facebook. Lots of good advice in there and experienced sellers willing to look through your listings and offer guidance.

A few things to think about…

• are you using all of your tags, and are they things that people would search for?
• have you got plenty of key words / search terms in your title?
• are you photos clear, well lit and consistent?

I co-run a big online craft group, and have done for about 8 years. Some people love Etsy, others hate it. Where else do you sell and how are your products faring there?

As PP have said, without seeing your link it's impossible to say. But either prices are too high (doesn't sound like it), your products aren't appealing/too niche, the photos are naff or - and this is very likely - you're not being seen by enough people.

Jewellery is enormously oversaturated, even though there aren't as many silversmiths as there are "string some shit on a chain" people around. There's also a big crossover with metal stamping and engraving, which is hugely popular.

To make sure you get seen and get sales you need to be using the right tags and keywords. You need to actively promote your link everywhere you can - such as FB groups, Instagram etc. You also need to make sure your Etsy sales pages are well-written, clear and are error-free. People want to buy from professionals and this is the impression you need to convey.

The question is - are you not getting any views? Or are you getting views and no sales? Those are two very different things. If it's not getting views, I think the first port of call is to promote your link more effectively and also improve your SEO (tags and keywords). Look at top-selling competitors to see how they do theirs - obviously I'm not suggesting you copy them, but you will be able to see the tags they're using and how they've laid everything out.

Theres two groups on facebook called
HOMEMADE KIDS UK - 20k users

HANDMADE UK - FOR THE GEOWN UPS
2.6k users

Both are very popular

Just seen your update - I haven't ever looked at the stats on Etsy but I can say that we don't see a lot of requests for earrings come through our craft group. We get a lot of requests for pendants, bracelets and necklaces, and some rings, but very few for earrings.

Do you have a wide spread of different products or just earrings?

@Fridaboatswain

Aw, thanks...I would love to link in case it helped, but I genuinely need to post something sensitive after this and linking to my actual name and most of my address probably wouldn't be the most awesome move

I really appreciate the advice. I don't think my stuff is too twee - it's mostly castings I've made from textures in nature and the like. Mismatched pairs of earrings that look like little twigs . It's dainty but a bit unusual too.

I mean, I like it

Well that's the sort of thing which goes down well in our gallery. So is it possible they're not on the right sort of chains or that they're not photographed well enough?

Are you in Instagram?

Thanks so much all - I'll try to pick up on the questions:

My photography is consistent, bright and simple

In my other job, I'm paid to write, so no errors/decent writing style

I don't do any other social media and I'm aware that I know next to nothing about cross-fertilising with drumming up interest and so on

It's views I'm not getting - 24 in two weeks (and I think most of those are me )

I don't think I even used all of the tags - I was pretty naive and thought people would just happen along if I wrote 'silver bracelet'

Yes, I do pendants, bangles and earrings. I cast my own pieces and set gemstones - very simple settings usually.

I've had a look around and think that my stuff (and definitely my prices) is reasonably competitive, but no one is seeing it

Perhaps post some photos of your products then OP, maybe some of the feedback would be useful?

I do think Etsy is oversaturated for jewellery and indeed jewellery is not something would ever buy for a gift as I think it's too subjective. It's incredibly hard to get going and start a business in a saturated market is all I can say, Etsy makes it seem like everyone does well because you primarily see the bigger accounts when searching. It isn't necessarily a reflection of your hard work or the quality or beauty of what you're making.

Fortunes yes - I am on Instagram and have about 2 followers so far, so that's going super-well too

OK, so based on what you've said - and taking it all as gospel and accurate 😘 - I would say that you really need to focus on changing the tags. Those will get you to pop up in the searches.

You'll need to do research but you need descriptive and events - so for a silver leaf ring (as an example), things like:

silver ring
solid silver ring
gifts for her
birthday gift
dainty rings
leaf ring
nature inspired jewellery
cheap rings
Christmas gifts
anniversary gifts
gifts for mum
statement ring
silver jewellery
adjustable ring (if it is)

Also, just relying on the Etsy searches to direct people to your shop is a hard, hard route. There's so much competition. You need to actively promote your link. Do you have a FB account? A FB page to direct people to your Etsy shop is a good move and you need to join the big craft groups and look for people asking for items. Reply and add the link to your Etsy and FB pages. You can also post directly to the groups to promote your items and again drive people to your Etsy shop.

You need to get your name known, even if people don't buy now they'll remember and will seek you out when they are ready to buy.

Now should be the manically busy time of year for you. Your jewellery sounds absolutely lovely, it's the kind of thing I'd buy for myself. But visibility doesn't occur easily - but once you start getting noticed, it should snowball.

A good book is 'Etsy Empire' - I followed its advice when setting up my shop. The overall look of the shop is very important - Canva has free design tools for excellent shop banners and icons. Use all the tags on your descriptions too. With Etsy, you often have to be patient - it takes time to get noticed and make your first sales.

Thank you, I really appreciate the advice.

I can feel myself backing away from online selling before I've even started . I don't think I'm cut out for it - I'm one of the few people I know with no social media, so I'm already behind the game.

I'll do what you suggest (I haven't been using anything like those tags - that's a huge help) and fingers crossed something will happen soon. If not, I'll get a new user name and post a link on here

I can definitely advise you on increasing your Instagram following which will drive traffic to Etsy. You can link directly from stories and your bio to your shop.

It’s quite a pushy, boring route to gaining followers but it does work. On Insta if you sit and wait for the followers to come through hashtags and so on it will usually not happen. Lots of people bang on about it being better to grow organically but unless you have a profile people are unlikely to seek out your page.

Find accounts with many followers who sell jewellery like yours. Go on to their posts and follow everyone who has liked their latest post, excluding accounts who are obviously influencers. Do about 50 a day at first and build up over a few weeks to 250 a day - be careful not to build up too fast or you get a 1 day ban.

You can follow a maximum of 7500 people so you may want to unfollow people once you get towards that number. Most users do not notice you’ve unfollowed them so will continue to follow you regardless.

If you have plenty of good quality interesting posts on your grid, people will follow you back. Keep your profile up with regular stories - they don’t need to be of your jewellery, just relevant stuff.

Don’t listen to anyone who says this is a bad way to build a following - I’ve built a following of over 10k followers this way for my hobby account and have very good engagement levels of 500-1000 likes per post. I also use it to drive traffic to my blog.

Insta is an easy way of quickly building up followers who will go straight to your shop if they like your stuff.

At 100 and 1000 followers you could do a giveaway where people have to tag a friend which would also build your followers.

Or contact some micro influencers with 1000 plus followers and ask them to give your page and shop a shout out on posts or stories for a free piece of jewellery if you can afford to do that.

Good luck!

Aaah @Fridaboatswain, don't give up too soon! It does feel a bit overwhelming when you start but you'll be surprised at how quickly you get used to it all. I know quite a few folk who don't use FB etc for anything, but just set up a basic account to use to promote their shop.

It is a lot to get your head around. And I would say that it takes a bit of a shift in thinking. Online customers can be difficult, and demanding. Etsy can be amazing, but can also be a pain in the arse sometimes. However, it does open up the potential to reach a huge audience.

I guess the way to look at it is, if you set up a market stall in the corner of the local park, would you sell anything? The chances are that no one would ever know you're there. So you'd have to put up signs so that people who are out walking spot take a detour to find your stall. Arrows to point them in your direction. You'd put up notices, maybe on the local notice board, or in the newspaper. Maybe take out an ad in the local paper. Basically, you'd advertise your whereabouts so that people knew to come and find you.

This is all exactly the same, but just online rather than in the corner of the park.

Would love to see your stuff under a different username if you felt able to share at some point. I adore leaf/nature inspired jewellery and I'd love to see what you make. Maybe post your personal post under a different user name though otherwise people might be able to track back if they remember this post.

Good luck whatever you do - am always happy to help if you ever wanted to pm.

Huge thanks mincepies and to everyone who has got such brilliant advice and is generous enough to share it - I really appreciate it. I'm trying to figure out how to post one pic to give an idea of my stuff, but maybe the thread's moved on now anyway.

I've honestly learned so much here tonight, on a relatively short thread - thanks again.

Thanks so much spiders you've been so brilliant, you've all helped me so much.

I'm really happy that I posted now

I search Etsy entirely by keywords. For what you are selling (and it sounds very nice), I’d use “contemporary silver jewellery, nature, gemstone, bracelet, necklace, earrings”.. are your listings well tagged?

Try advertising on the Facebook group “not on Amazon”.

@Mincepiepoptarts that’s good advice.

@Fridaboatswain there is a book that might help you, it’s called ‘The Etsy Formula’.

www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Etsy-Formula-Audiobook/B09GCJCTSS

silver bracelet as a search term on Etsy gives 965,560 results.
You might be on page 57

Mismatched twigs only has 34 returns all earrings. You'd be on page one and we'd find your lovely sounding stuff.