Etsy Seller Success Tips The key to create a professional shop

First and foremost you must be willing to invest your time into your Etsy shop. This involves quite a lot. The appearance of ones shop is key. I will point out many more things later in the article but lets start with appearance. Your shop needs to be a unique and wonderful shopping experience for your customer. So your avatar and shop greeting are very important! They must be professional and represent your shop adequately. If you are selling fly-fishing gear and your avatar is a quilt you are misleading your customers.

Use descriptive keywords. Words that you think buyers might enter into to search for your items. Try to use as many keywords that they may be searching for, and keep repeating the most important ones in your shop title. Also use these same words to in your item titles, tags, and descriptions where relevant.

When preparing your description Think like a buyer!!! Does it answer ALL of the questions you would want answered if you were to purchase this item...? Remember you are selling online now so your competition is stiff!! There are millions of sites out there selling goods why should they buy from you???

Your pictures! Are they crisp and appealing? If not change them. A picture is worth a thousand words, I will say it again... A picture is worth a thousand words!!! Include at least one GREAT picture of each item! Though please try to go the extra mile and make all of your pictures beautiful and catching! Make your products stand out... and they will if you have great pictures. Good lighting is essential. I prefer natural light, however if this is not possible, make a light box...this diffuses the light when using artificial lighting and does not give you any harsh shadows.

just slice and dice an image into 4 or 5 separate images, to give your potential customer's a chance to view different portions of the product close up. Always make sure your photos are crisp and not blurry!! Use a tripod if you have one. Your photos are so important, remember you need to put yourself in your customers position. If you are looking at an item online and see something similar at a shop you can walk into and actually look at live and in person...touch it feel it and then you have an item you think you will really love but the pictures are not great which item are you going to buy? Think about that, because it is key to your success.

Now let's get into the Etsy part of being an Etsy seller. My recommendation is after you have gotten your shop into tip top shape Get involved! Teams are a wonderful way to do this. You are not only helping to promote other sellers but by doing so you are promoting yourself as well, and let's face it teams are fun! If you are not having fun you are not on the right team, or you have not participated enough to make it fun. One of the things most teams do for each other and I highly suggest wether you are on a team or not is to start creating treasuries! Include no more then one of your own items and you will expose your shop to a lot of Etsy sellers and buyers. Some sellers because they saw an item of yours in a treasury may add it to their favorite items. And if you are fortunate or very good at these you may even be on the front page either from one of the treasuries you made or a treasury one of your items is in.. Fantastic exposure! Purchaing as many of your supplies and goods from other Etsy sellers is excellent for you and for them.

You are part of the Etsy community now. Promote and purchase as much as you can from Etsy! This helps keep our community strong and is a way for you to get and to give excellent feedback. We as sellers and buyers need that. So lets help each other and ourselves with getting good feedback it helps in letting non Etsy buyers gain confidence in purchasing from you! Again though you must be consistent and prompt when you send your items. Your packaging should be unique and beautiful, worthy of letting your customers know you do care about your products and you care enough about them to do this. This is the first thing they will see when opening your item(s) let it be special with an added touch.

Tags on your item with your www.etsy.com/shop/******** name is an extra added touch. As now they will not forget where they purchased your item. Sew on or hand write this in beautiful writing on items where this is possible. Also include a few business cards for them to hand out. Always where possible get your name out there to your new customer and keep their contact information so you may contact them again after a few weeks and make sure they love their item! Also this is a wonderful way to let them know of upcoming events your shop may be having. Perhaps send them a Happy Holidays Card this will remind them of your shop while shopping during the holiday season! Keep your customer happy by giving the best in customer service!! Also answer those Etsy conversations quickly!! If you do not you are very likely to lose a sale! Or create a bad relationship with another Etsy seller.

As I mentioned before and will mention again "Treat this as a business and be professional!!" So onto advertising your shop. Very key to your selling! You need to do some things that may seem scary but truly are not. Adverting can be broken into 3 categories: Your online presence, in person advertising, and Twitter. Let's begin with your online presence. Facebook, if you do not already have an account get one and build a company page as well for your shop and add the Etsy tab. Facebook is huge and it's online presence is undeniably one of the largest. You also may join several very wonderful Etsy teams that promote each other through Etsy and Facebook and you are required to have both. I personally love what Facebook has to offer Etsy sellers. You may promote your items and treasuries directly from your shop to Facebook with just a click from your Etsy shop. I cannot stress this enough BLOG!!! Create and customize your own blog easily and for free through www.blogger.com It takes only minutes and is well worth it! List it in your shop's profile and blog about your your items and what inspired you to make them? Etc... Do not let your blog sit stale! Keep it updated with interesting topics and rich photographs. Twitter... I can't tell you how many sellers are terrified of Twitter. It is nothing to be afraid of you just need to wipe out any preconceived notions you have of Twitter and go for it. There are many Twitter tips available so I won't get into it too much, however get an account as close to your shops name as possible and start tweeting. There are many tips in google twitter tips alone. I suggest whatever avatar you use you use for your shop use on twitter as well so that you are recognized. Be consistent!

Finally, SUBMITTING YOUR SITES AND CREATING A SQUIDOO ACCOUNT AND MAKING AT LEAST ONE REALLY GOOD SQUIDOO LENS: This is also so very important in search engine optimization. Submit to: DIGG AND STUMBLE at
www.digg.com and
www.stumbleupon
Also submit to: www.directory-link.info/
www.beginnersworld.com/
www.businessseek.biz/
www.somuch.com/
www.businesspagesupdate.co.uk/
www.seekmojo.com/
www.mitash.com/
www.addyoururl.org/
Squidoo is www.squidoo.com/
This is a platform that google loves!!! Take advantage of it. Look at other squidoo lenses that are highly rated and create ones that talk about things that relate to your products! If you incorporate all of these things you are sure to have a higher Etsy selling success rate! I wish you luck and get busy!!!