etsy seller Archives - Attention Getting

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

I advise a lot of online businesses – Etsy shops, Amazon sellers, independent e-commerce sites. Now, in terms of Etsy sellers, my Etsy Shop Critique is one of my best selling services. However, there are times when I feel that my advice falls on deaf ears. So, if you thinking of purchasing it (or any of my advice) please note the following situations where neither my advice or anyone else’s will be able to help you.

If you just care about traffic numbers and not whether they are resulting in sales. Let’s pretend for a minute that you are not an online store, but a retail store and one day 1,000 people come into your shop and no one buys anything. Are you still really happy at the end of the day that 1,000 people came in your shop? Then I can’t help you because you are not seeing the big picture. Yes, traffic and sales are linked, but I would rather have 10 people come in the shop and they all bought, then 1,000 people who didn’t. And if you are not interested in why those 1,000 people didn’t buy from you, but are just happy that they came in the store at all, then I can’t help you.

If you can’t see when your business model isn’t working. Labor seems to be something that some Etsy sellers feel they should do for free. For example, if you are making an item and it takes you one hour to make it, and then you want to sell that item for $10, I am going to advise that you raise your prices because this means that you are essentially earning just $10 an hour and this is BEFORE you have even accounted for your costs. If you cannot see that this may not be worth your while, then I can’t help you. READ: How to Factor In Your Labor So You Actually Make Money.

If you are obsessing over a competitive Etsy shop who is way more successful. I can’t tell you how many times an Etsy seller will come to me and ask why they are not as successful as another Etsy shop who sells a similar product. Trust me, they don’t have a magic trick they are doing. Maybe they have more items in their shop so they turn up in more search results. Maybe they are outbidding you on ads. Maybe they have a huge social media following. Maybe they are getting repeat business from their current customer base as opposed to always try to find new customers. Maybe they are not spending time watching what you are doing and are instead spending that time and effort marketing their shop. If you going to obsess over someone else’s shop, I can’t help you.

If you expect immediate results. Starting a new business takes time. Marketing a business takes time. The old marketing rule is that people need to see your marketing message 7 times before they take action. If you expect overnight success, or are desperate for overnight success, then I can’t help you.

If you are a panicker. If you make changes to your Etsy SEO and your traffic goes down a bit, guess what, this is normal and temporary and may actually have nothing to do with the changes you made. SEO is complicated, the Etsy search algorithm is constantly changing and it can take time for your listing to move up in results for the more popular search phrases if you are competing against listings with more overall sales, more recent sales and more favorites. But if you panic and change all your listings back, guess what, you are still back to the poor performance you were having. I always advise Etsy sellers never to touch the titles or tags of listings that are pulling good traffic for you because you don’t want to fix what isn’t broken, but on your weak listings, it is obvious that you have to make changes. But I can’t help you if you don’t want to take the time to see the changes take effect.

If you just want SEO to bring all of your traffic. So many people just want to rely on Etsy SEO and none of the other amazing tactics that effectively drive traffic to your shop, and this is such a mistake. For example, right now on Etsy there are 855,292 listings for “gold necklace”. Of those 855,292 listings, 60 will make the first page of results, but 12 will be advertisers, so that now brings us down to 45 out of 855,292 will make the first page of results or .005%. In other words, you have a .005% chance of your listing making the first page of Etsy search results for the phrase, “gold necklace”. Let’s say you are in the .005% and get on the first page. Now a buyer has to click on your listing, and this is typically a 1% to 8% chance that they do. Then, once they have clicked on your listing, they have to actually purchase your item, and this again is another 1% to 8% chance that they do. Still want to rely solely on Etsy SEO for sales? If you do, then I can’t help you. READ: The Biggest Mistake Etsy Shops Make.

Etsy Shop Written Critique

If you are an Etsy seller and want honest, proven business and marketing advice about your Etsy shop and are willing to try all the tactics, do the work and be somewhat patient, then my Etsy Shop Critique is for you!

Phone Consultations

A lot of Etsy shops ask why I do not sell phone consultations in my Etsy shop. This is because it is not allowed on Etsy. However, I do sell phone consultations on my blog. Please click here to learn more.