10 Tips for Etsy Sellers

Enough can't be said about pictures and photographs and even as I'm sitting here telling you this I should be working on some of my own. There is always room for improvement in this area. If you do a search for an item and see five of the same item on Etsy, chances are your eye will draw you to the one that stands out the most and photographs the best, not necessarily the one priced the lowest.

I have literally tested this theory and searched for a vintage item I've listed. There may be three or four on Etsy, but the photos are crappy. I then list my item $1 higher and take a better picture. My item sold first.

So, here are a few suggestions for making your pictures the prettiest. Let me first say, you DO NOT NEED a fancy camera. I use a Nikon P80 but most shops I know with great pictures use a camera that costs $100 or less. For best results use natural light and keep the background basic and simple. Closeups of your item, showing condition and texture are a must. Jewelry should be really closeup and detailed.

Must reads:

This article
here on Handmadeology explains just how to make a professional light box (and look like a professional for a few bucks!)

Here is an .
example of what I did with PICNIK a free program to spice up some photos. Note: As of April 2012, Picnik is closing, but you can use any free photo editor such as FUNKIFY or GOOGLE PLUS CREATIVE TOOLS to fix your photos.

Here is what Etsy says in their.
Guide to Photography

Camera Photograph Courtesy of
WMJR on Etsy

Here is what I did with a quick and free photo editing program. There are a bunch of free photo editing programs you can use. I took my once-crappy snapshot of my globe, and did only two things:

a) Brightened (boosted the color ) - This looks more realistic and how my photo should have came out if I would have learned how to use my flash properly and good lighting.

b) Put a small border on it - I just like the way the border makes it pop.

*This was done using PIcnik, but any free photo editing software will work since Picnik is closing April 2012.

If I could title this #1A ,I would, because tags are JUST as important as your photographs. This was the hardest thing for me to get under my belt and also is the hardest thing to explain to others. The bottom line is you must think like a BUYER, how would the buyer find your item and what words would THEY use to describe your item?

If you are not using all of your tags this is a huge problem. They are there for you to use and not using them is only jeopardizing your listing.

My tags:

COLOR: I learned quick on Etsy people shop by color, so one of my tags is usually the primary color of the item.

MATERIAL or COMPONENTS If the item is a special fabric keywords like "cotton" would be helpful. Same with jewelry, if the stone is a "garnet" or the material is "pewter" these are a must as well.

TEAM TAG One of my tags is always a team tag , (which I will go into more under #5 Etsy Teams section.), which increases the item's exposure in amongst team related searches. When tagging with this, your item will be found when teammates are making treasuries or if customers search the team's items. More treasuries equal more exposure and so on and so forth. I want to caution you if you have a plethora of good tags to use you may wish to decide what would be more beneficial in this case, using the team tag or a regular tag? If you are in a really active team that makes a lot of treasuries of your products, you may opt for the team tag.

GENRE I also include the style of the item, ie: steampunk or mid century modern. Recently Etsy made changes to their tagging system and allowed you to choose from a drop down box as far as the "era" or descriptive words, but I still use one tag anyhow.

THE GLOBE LESSON
When I'm really clueless, I do this: I search for the item on Etsy to see what others may be using on their tags. . Just the other day I listed a globe and decided to use these keywords:

Globe
Sphere
Geography
Maps
Mid century Modern (this was from the 50's in a mod stand)
Oceans

then I was clueless.

I looked up some other globes and they some of these great keywords
CARTOGRAPHY
SCHOOL
EDUCATION
TRAVEL
HISTORY
SCIENCE
and the name of the globe maker which I hadn't thought of.

So if you are clueless, apply the globe theory!

Here is an article on tagging,
which makes you ask yourself questions and the answers will be your tags! It also has a link to the official Etsy Do's and Don'ts of tagging.

Globe photo courtesy of my shop,

As stupid as it may sound and as small of a detail, the title is very important to your listing. Your first couple words are very important. Good keywords in your title will increase your search rankings and exposure overall. This applies in SEO theory when items are included in product searches or if someone is looking for an item on Google. Placement of your title words impacts your placement in search rankings. You don't really have to know all about SEO but you do need to know what to do and not to do when making your titles.

The mistake people make in titles are wastes of space like this:

BAD TITLE EXAMPLES:

Cute and adorable pink puffy sleeve sweater

Pink retro fun and fuzzy sweater retro power oh yeah baby

Unsure of Maker size small sweater vintage 80's

Love me some pink sweater flower power

Vintage sweater - cute and cuddly

GOOD TITLE EXAMPLES:

Pink 1950's Cardigan Sweater Cotton - Vintage
Vintage 1950's Pink Cardigan Sweater cotton

In the above example this sweater will show up for someone searching for a vintage cardigan, a vintage sweater, any cardigan or sweater in PINK, and the material cotton, but also appeal to those searching for 1950's. This small but useful title is appealing to people who may call it a cardigan, or those who may call it a sweater. The title is to the point, and contains the necessary words.

GOAL
Your goal for today is to go back and check out your titles and ask yourself, are you as specific as possible? Can you make a small improvement?

TIP: When I relist and item I ALWAYS make changes to the title.


This is Etsy's take on Titles, Descriptions and Tags


FunRetro provided the lovely pink sweater photo, make sure to visit her cool shop!.

This really matters. The first few words of your description will have placement in a Google search, so the first few words or 100 characters or so should really reiterate about your item. If you get into this habit you are taking all the necessary steps to being more successful with SEO placement. For instance, in the case of this vintage porcelain glove mold that I painted red that you see here, I would perhaps have this:

TITLE : Vintage Porcelain Glove Mold Small Red

DESCRIPTION: Red Small Vintage Porcelain Glove Mold Hand Ceramic from New Jersey | stop here |

Essentially I just repeated my title in a way, but added the location and material and the word "hand". Not only does this reiterate keywords but helps give ranking to the item.

DO NOT do this type of description::

DESCRIPTION: This lovely one of a kind painted red adorable retro vintage | stop here |

Why not? it's a waste of space and who is going to search for the first few words you have listed there? Descriptions should also contain measurements, materials condition of item, and any history of the item. Refer to the article highlighted in #3 as it covers descriptions also!

TIP:Sometimes, less is more. Being too wordy is just a waste of your time and the buyer's.

Photo of glove mold Courtesy of Retro Chalet

Teams are so very important for many reasons. First off, you can find answers to questions and get support with fellow team members. Secondly, by tagging your items with a team tag, you can easily get your items added to lots of treasuries. Members share treasuries all over the web on their Facebook, Blogs or Twitter pages and so the more your item gets out there the more you have a real chance of selling it! Another option are customers who believe in the goal of your team will search the team tag to try to buy items from the team. Some teams require certain levels of participation wherein other teams do not. Some teams heavily promote each other wherein others do not.

Know there is no commitment when joining a team, if you feel it's not your cup of tea or not for you then you can easily leave the team at any time. I had to try out a few teams before I found the ones I really liked. Some teams require some participation and have requirements. Other teams have no requirements.

As for me, I sell a lot of vintage so I am on the Vestiesteam. I also belong to the Handmadeology team to catch up on the latest handmade news. I am in Etsy Success, ran by Etsy and has a lot of great hints and tips and tricks! Now, I used to be Captain of the Etsy Recyclers Guild, but now I simply am a member there. My time is limited so all the teams don't require much participation but I do participate in team discussions, writing a blog post for the team site once in awhile and making a few treasuries. In a nutshell when I make a treasury and tell the people in it, I usually get them making a treasury back. It's almost as if I give out one treasury and get four back. What a win-win.

Some teams require you to do things and participate, others do not. Choose the team that best suits you. The whole reason you SHOULD find a team is for support and talking to others who can guide you if you have questions or problems. This is one of the things I love about Etsy, you get support from your peers.

Some people choose to get on teams based on religion, chartiy events, location, or other preferences. Search Etsy teams for keywords that mean most to you and that would be most beneficial. I hear a lot of people who love treasuries are on a treasury making team. Other teams are twitter focuses. Some teams are all about business and promotions. Others join together for Pets, Organizations, Gay Pride, Religious Beliefs, or perhaps a craft they share in common. It's amazing that out of 3000 teams there is literally something for everyone, and if not, you can make your own Team!.

There are global teams meaning people from all over can join, then some that are simply local based, meaning you can find something in your local area which would be a great way for you to acquire some new crafting buddies or make friends--not to mention split that costly table at an upcoming craft show!

Currently there are over 3100 teams on Etsy. Search them and.
see them here.

Here are some team ideas:


Etsy Success This team has over 10000 members and is growing. It's for Etsy, by Etsy. It is a place for small business advice and not for personal promotions. No adding of fan pages, sales or listings unless you are asking advice. You can learn a lot here and some of the top sellers on Etsy share their secrets.


Handmadeology Four thousand members and counting, a must for the handmade community, a large group that focuses on networking and cross promotions. Members cross promote one another, list fan pages, twitter, treasuries and more. If you are looking to join forces with another member of the handmade community this is the place. This group is run by Tim Adams, editor of Handmadeology website which focuses on social networking and assisting the Etsy sellers.


Vintage Etsy Society Street Team Aka : VESTIES!!! The Vintage Etsy Society Street Team welcomes all vintage sellers and focuses on cross promoting on blogs, facebook and twitter! A very friendly community!


Etsy Recyclers Guild Open to anyone who sells recycled, upcycled items in their work, offers eco friendlier solutions or sells vintage as a way to keep items out of the landfill. Green, eco conscious group of sellers.


Eco Etsy One of the larger Eco friendly teams, whose goal is to reduce the carbon footprint when conducting business--however membership is limited and you will have to check to see when applications are being accepted.

As silly as it may seem, a banner and attractive shop appearance is key. Think of the front page of your shop as a first impression. A person whose shop has photos taken from a mile away won't make a good first impression. I mean really you only have a 2" box to make a good first impression to an onlooker. Your goal is to get them to click on that product box. If your photos are grainy, trust and believe, customers aren't staying long.

If your shop has a great banner, a bunch of pretty photos, perhaps people may feel more up to staying around and shopping. Nothing like browsing a few listings.

This goes back to banners and avatars. They should be representative of what your shop has to offer. Many people decide to use generic avatars or shop banners but if you follow the majority, how will you ever stand out among the competition?

The banner above I made for American China on Etsy. It shows her work in it (a mosaic magnet made of American china shards) and I think really represents her work. You can use a photo editing program to crop one of your items, add text, and a border. Simple and cute. Or you can pay someone to make a banner for you. It may be worth the $5-$15 you spend!

ASK YOURSELF:
Could your banner or avatar be better representative of your product?
Is your banner dull and boring?
Is your banner bad quality, low resolution or fuzzy?
Do you want to brand your shop and start a branding campaign with an image or logo?

If you answered "yes" to these questions, move on.

Finding the right banner can be difficult. When I make banners for my clients I try to encase what it is about their store.

FREE BANNERS
While you are shopping around for a banner., grab a free banner here on my design blog!

MAKE YOUR OWN
You can make your own banner with a photo editing program. Take something that represents YOU, your product or your shop, and resize it to standard Etsy sizing, which is 760x100 pixels. Add some text and a border and voila!

HIRE SOMEONE
Don't want to do all that? Hire someone to make your banner! Etsy is loaded with banners for sale, and I offer a few too
here in my Etsy shop! This photo shows actual samples of the work I've done. If you buy from me use SQUIDOO10 coupon code to get 10% off !

If you are serious about growing your Etsy business you will need two key traits, organization and dedication.

GET ORGANIZED!
You must be organized with your records, and how you keep your stock. Not only that, but your studio should be straight if you are making crafts, art or jewelry. I often think jewelry sellers must have it made with storing items in small boxes since I deal in big bulky antiques! Often times I am looking in large boxes for things. (This is where an inventory sheet would sure come in handy.)

Here is where I admit I am in need of some organization. I often make the mistake of using the "COPY" function to get a similar listing on Etsy, when I have a like item. This would be great except for I forget to change the box that the inventory is in. When the item sells I'm looking all over the storage unit which costs valuable time I could be working in my Etsy shop!

Don't be disorganized like me, start an inventory sheet. Organize your stuff. Get a game plan. Keep good records.


Check out HandmadeologyBiz etsy shop for bookkeeping help and inventory sheets!

DEDICATION
Dedication is even more important. You should update your shop at least once per day even if it's just a quick relist, putting an item on sale, revising a title or changing something small in your shop announcement. Why is this important? Etsy does "higher placement of recently updated" shops . If your shop is always updated it's always in the highest placement it can be.

Once you get into the motions of going into your shop every day, move to the next level and add one item a day. Once you maneuver that task, do three items a a day and before you know it your shop will be loaded and applying all these principals you should be selling more!

I also want to indicate that I am easily distracted when working from home. I am currently remodeling my studio so now I am on the couch with the TV on trying to work and it's not working. I'm writing this instead of working in my Etsy store. Geesh. If you work full time and do Etsy at night set aside a window several nights per week . If you stay at home you should get into work mode when dealing with your Etsy shop. If the dog has to go out, the baby is crying and the soaps are on, it's a bit hard to concentrate.

So, make time and take time to go to your special place in the house and concentrate. Divide and Conquer! I like to jam the tunes and take some photos, crop them at night and start listing the next few days. Batch by batch, I get things done. Rome wasn't built in a day, neither was my Etsy shop.

Retro Babs provided the photo and I made her the avatar. It's a cute purse isn't it?

Did you know that your shop sections are searchable, rankable terms to the world wide web when it pertains to SEO and placement of items in sites such as Google? Without going into too much tech stuff, every word in your section title can only HELP your shop if you are using your sections with good, strong keywords.

People who don't have shop sections may be missing out.

If your sections say "Cute Things"" or "Red Stuff" or "Pets" you are really missing out.

It is my opinion that "sale" and "clearance" shop sections in my opinion are a waste of a section, wherein you can tell people in your shop announcement to search your shop for Sale or Clearance items.

For example:
If you sell jewelry, your items should be ranked by earrings, bracelets, pendants and or/necklaces. Unless you use different materials, you could rank by materials: Gold, Silver, Copper, Pewter

Are you selling Pet Clothing, Pet Treats, Pet Leashes, what? Make the section COUNT!

Supply sellers should have categories Paper Ephemera, Mixed Media, etc or clear phrases as to what they are selling ie: Charms, Findings, Found Objects, etc.

Vintage sellers should have theme categories or clear sections pertaining to their item, trend, or genre.

Most people don't give much thought to this but it can only help you. Here are some great reading tips all about shop sections!

Read this from Etsy on Shop Sections

Handmadeology's SEO Manual

Lovely Grain Sack by Niftic on Etsy

I wrote an article about something that helped me get to where i am today, that is technically bonding with ie: marrying another Etsy shop.

Together you and the other shop can:

a) Social network one another
b) Share links about each other's listings
c) Make treasuries featuring one another's items.
d) Cross promote your partner all the time!

It is important to pick the right partner when "Marrying another Etsy Seller." Read it here.

Crazy thing is,this idea really took off when I wrote about it, and now some fans have even made a TEAM just for Etsy marriage! find it here. How about that!

TIP: Get a good plan before proposing to your partner. If you are a strong blogger but lack in tweeting, do some research first and if you find someone with a huge twitter following but not so good at blogging, this could work like peanut butter and jelly!

Sorry everyone, I have several Etsy wives :( so I'm off the market.

Doll photo by Ira Mency.

This is so very important. I do all three but I am strongest in Blogging. I have several blogs in fact I've got it down to a science . My blogs are connected to my facebook page for Retro Chalet and My Twitter thanks to the Networked Blogs applications so that I can somehow conquer three in one. I had to have this free help because I don't keep up on Tweeting and Facebooking as life does not award me enough time to do so.

Before you say you can't do it, say yes, YOU can!
Now if you would have asked me just one and a half years ago did I have a blog, Facebook or Twitter I would have laughed at you and asked you what a blog was? I literally holed up one winter and read tutorials and taught myself the basics. I then asked other Etsy sellers for help and advice. I practiced and with all things I suppose practice makes perfect.

I used to set aside twenty minutes at night or in the early morning during coffee cups to read up on Social Networking and SEO. Now, if I can do it (an Italian* who can't cook) that means you can do it too!

So remember when you see my examples below, that this is what you can accomplish if you try only but a year and a half later. Not only do I have blogs and followers and all that jazz, but one has made it to a page rank three (three is on the map) and I'm selling advertising. It's amazing thing things you can do if you put your mind to it. I'd really like your thoughts and comments on my blogs and your candid opinions.

1. Vintage Chalet Blog This talks about all Etsy vintage finds and highlights Etsy sellers and vintage trends. By the way if you are a VINTAGE seller and want to submit a blog post I'll post it up about your shop.

2. Retro Chalet Blog This is a history of melmac and melamine dinnerware and plastics and a bunch of related Etsy finds.

3. My Personal Blog This is my own personal site where I blab about everything and have some pictures of my artwork and books.

What I'm getting at is it may seem overwhelming at first but focus on ONE and force yourself to learn it or have someone teach you. For this is the future and the here and now. Etsy gives you the platform, shop and storefront but you must promote your own wares!

This is so important that Etsy has even added "SHARE" buttons on your shop, individual listings and more so that items can easily be shared to Facebook and Twitter.

Blogs are free on Blogspot and easy to start and learn.

Here are a few tips:

BLOGS
These can be about anything and each post you send into cyberspace has it's own web address. Over time sending all these posts into cyberspace (with key title words) will get your blog found and build "followers". Make sure that your shop is strategically placed on your blog with a small avatar or the "Etsy Mini" or the Craftcult Pocketshop Widget so that users can easily jump over to your Etsy store.

When blogging remember what we discussed about Etsy shop titles and keywords and apply these same principals in your Blog post Title and keyword indicators. Each word is important! There are a bazillion sites (DIRECTORIES) you can submit your blog to after you have some good content, to have it included . The more you are on the web the more likely someone will find you. It is also a good idea to advertise your blog in your Etsy shop announcement or profile ***BUT ONLY IF YOU ARE NOT DIRECT SELLING ON IT. You don't want to violate any of Etsy's TOS (Terms of Service.)

TWEETS
Items tweeted help exposure. Using hashtags with appropriate genre like #vintage or #handmade or #etsy including your team tags will drive more traffic back to your shop.

Pose a question like "Love or hate this old #vintage dart board? (attach URL in tweet) for optimum results. Or another option would be "Did I use the right stone for this necklace #handmade #etsy #necklace (attach URL in tweet). Get creative and advertise your Twitter ID in your shop announcement and Etsy profile.

FACEBOOK FAN PAGE
This idea for your shop is a good way to connect and promote yourself and treasuries. Some people I talked to felt strange about connecting this to their regular page in fear of what their family or friends say. Well, most of my family and friends shop on Etsy so they have been some of my greatest assets in sharing my links. Those who don't know I am an artist so they help throw my work into cyberspace.

They share the links to their friends and those friends I don't know nor have ever met share the links to their friends, and before you know it someone clear across the globe thanks to social networking just checked out my Etsy shop and purchased something all because Aunt Linda sent it to that kid's mom who sent it to her cousin whose mother wanted it. Go figure.

TIP:: Notice in the photograph of my blog above, I have strategically placed my shop icon as one of the first things you see. Proper Placement of your Etsy shop in your blog is KEY. I wrote more about that HERE.

If you need additional in depth help , search google for most topics or questions you can read up on for free. I really say you should try the Timothy Adams book I have shown below which goes more into Social Networking!