If your Etsy shop has low views and low sales

Beaded detail on

one of the handbags

 in my Etsy shop

I just received my 1,111th feedback review on Etsy and I am honored that so many people felt compelled to say something nice about what I shipped them. They didn't have to. I appreciate that they did. I posted this in the Etsy forums along with the following insights.

Sometimes people come into the Etsy forums and ask, "How can I get customers to leave a review?" My answer to this is, "By providing a good product, shipped on time, with a friendly note of thanks." That's it. I know many of you are tempted to ask customers to leave you a review, but that's awkward, not necessary and could even backfire on you. Just do a good job, ship fast and be friendly. My customers know that I am a cheerful sort. (Okay, maybe more wacky than cheerful, but whatever...) And your customers will pick up the vibe you convey, too

I know many of you are discouraged by sagging views and decreasing sales. And you come to the forums seeking advice. Most of the advice you get will be to improve your SEO and photos or to add more merchandise. The sellers who generously take the time to study your shop and offer this advice are often giving you very good advice. Please listen to them. Don't tell them why you can't do it. They are often telling you what you need to know, even if you don't agree. But please also remember that with 53 million listings on Etsy, you may need to make more ruthless changes than simply modifying the SEO. I will never say the following to your face when you come to the forums begging for help, but getting good sales goes beyond tags and photos. (Deep breath.)

Many jewelry makers are creating a style of jewelry that is allllllll over the site; consider branching out into making lanyards and eyeglass holders and pieces less ubiquitous so that you can be found in more categories. Make jewelry for women, men, children. Branch out. If you want to make hand-stamped metalwork bracelets, make yours different from what is already out there. 


If you are addicted to crocheting scarves, try to make yours a little different from the many solid-color acrylic ones so you can compete with the HALF MILLION scarves that are listed in the fall/winter. I know it's comforting to make what you like, the way you like it, in the cheapest yarn you can find, using a solid color. But you do not stand out when you do this.

Be nice. Don't copy my work!

If you're going to make calligraphy farmhouse signs, try to come up with fresh quotes that other sellers are not using. Choose quotes that have a searchable word in them and aim for specific rather than vague. Target demographic groups: nurses, Capricorns, step-families, soccer moms, fishing enthusiasts. Make sure your sign is legible because many of them are not. (You think that they are. But they're not. I see them all day long and I can't read half of them.) Consider using a different font so that you will stand out.

If you make greeting cards and your sales are screeching to a halt, it might be because some demographics are buying fewer greeting cards than they used to, in part because they believe in sustainability and it feels wrong to them to buy cards when they can simply send an email instead and, in so doing, save a tree. Stop! I see that you want to argue with me. You are wasting your breath. I didn't single handedly change our culture. It is a trend and you must find a way to adapt and face reality. Try making greeting cards that are targeted to a much narrower niche. "Happy Birthday to my favorite teacher." People search on the word teacher. And rock climber. And football. And doctor. And Nevada. Incorporate searchable key words into your work and watch the rock climbers and doctors and people of Nevada flock to you. You may be thinking, "Those take forever to sell." But nobody wants a generic birthday card. Or if they do, you have too much competition already and you will not be found in search. Alternatively, consider making some other sort of paper products.

What was popular in 2010 may not be in demand any more. It isn't a condemnation of your skills. It's a matter of supply and demand.

Fail.

It was a sad but realistic day when I realized that few people want my clever hand-felted coasters. There's nothing wrong with the ones I make. There are just too many coasters on Etsy and the supply exceeds the demand. Coasters appeal to an older audience, eager to protect their valuable wood furniture, whereas Etsy shoppers are skewed towards the under 50. Please don't write to me and say, "Oh, yeah? Well, I'm over 50 and I shop on Etsy!" That may be, but the majority of Etsy shoppers apparently are less concerned about leaving latte rings on their Ikea coffee tables. I have other stories like this. Numerous stories. I tried something; it underperformed; I moved on. I don't just blindly continue making something that isn't selling well. I try to figure out why something isn't selling. But if I can't figure it out, that doesn't mean I stubbornly keep on making it.

Fail

This happens to all of us. Here is a cowl neckwarmer that can also be worn as a hood or dread wrap. What's wrong with that? I don't know. It sells, but slowly. Do I go into the Etsy forums and wail, "What am I doing wrongggggg? Why isn't this selling? Is it my tags?" No. I tried adding accents to them, such as felted leaves. I made them in a variety of colors for men and women. I used a male model for some of the listings. I changed photos. Finally, I faced reality and I quit making them. Do you like it? Go look in my shop. You can get one at a reduced price. You're welcome.


dj runnels

Visit my Etsy

Cheap background for your Etsy, Ebay, Artfire, Zibbet photos

If you sell online but aren't quite ready to invest in an elaborate photography backdrop and light box for your product shots, here's a solution that costs about $10.  You know those white fold-up displays that kids use for science fair projects?  They sell them at Target and similar stores near the school and office supplies.  Here's what the package looks like.

Be careful opening it, because although it is sturdy, the edges chip easily.  It's not a huge deal, since you will crop that part out of your photos.



Once out of the cellophane, the board opens up into a three-panel piece of foam board, about 1/4" thick that you can set up near a window in your home or apartment.  Choose the best window you can, because the light you get will make an enormous difference in your photos.  Natural light gives your product the most natural, accurate color and often alleviates the need for a flash, which can make your product look creepy strange if you don't use it right.  You'll have to experiment regarding the time of day and strength of light available, but soon you'll find the ideal window.  Often a slightly overcast day with a cloudy white sky works best.  Sometimes bright sunlight works if it's indirect, not streaming in directly onto the display board.  If you live in an urban apartment very close to another building or on an immense estate surrounded by trees (I hate you, by the way), you may not be able to find good natural light.  You might try taking the display board outdoors to use in light, overcast conditions.

So here is my closed, folded up display board on my dining table.  Doesn't look very bright in that room, does it?  But it will work fine.  I am laying the board horizontally and I will use the large middle panel for arranging the merchandise I want to photograph.  I will use one of the short panels to hide whatever garbage may be on my dining table.

 

Today I arranged to have an exceptional amount of junk on my table, just for you.  The curtain rod in my dining room fell and I haven't put it back up.  I can't open the other curtain until I do, because if I attempt it, the other rod could fall.  Meanwhile, my husband has a stack of bills he has to pay.  And there's a library book he is reading.  Plus I have a stack of photos in frames that I am going to do something creative with.




So now I open up one of the flaps of the board to hide the aforementioned junk.

I will place my product on the widest section of the board.  If I don't need the other short panel--which is now closest to me--I may simply tilt it up and let it reflect light onto the merchandise.  If the whole reflective thing is too confusing or doesn't work for you, don't worry about it. 

This is my product, a cowl neck scarf, photographed against the main part of the same board, on the same day, using only the light from a window to my right.  I cropped out all the debris and hoopla on the dining table and all we see is my hand knit cowl surrounded by lots of white.

If you sell on Etsy, you know having a white background is uber important.  Etsy.com is loaded with white, so having crisp photos with white backgrounds enhances the Etsy look.  Some people don't like the Etsy look, but I think those who embrace it tend to have better sales. There are exceptions.  But I digress.  Also, if you sell on other online sites, it is still a giant plus to use a stark white background, because it puts focus on your product and makes for a sophisticated photograph.  I truly believe that a photo can make or break a sale.  I have seen what is probably perfectly viable merchandise online that I nevertheless didn't purchase merely because the photo was so dark or blurry that I wasn't confident it was what I wanted.

When I am finished taking the photos I need--and I will take a lot, because another mistake that sellers sometimes make is showing only one photo when they could have shown 5 or 10.  Wait, where was I?  Oh, yes, when I'm through taking photos, I will fold up the board and put it to the side of a shelf in my dining room, where it is unobtrusive and less likely to get kicked or scratched.

Now I need to figure out how to get that pesky curtain rod back up.

Visit Life's an Expedition on Etsy.

dj runnels

Here's what I've been working on today and as I tore up the silk fabric to make this, I suddenly remembered a concerned customer asking me, well...isn't this scarf going to shed?  Or leave lint?  Or (I can't believe she said this) fall apart?

Ah, no.  How do I know this?  Because   I wear black.  Nearly every day, I have on black/dark jeans or black capris--depending on the weather--so that's what I wear when I work on my scarves.   If they were going to create a lint storm, I'd have the evidence on my lap.

Fortunately, my customer was open-minded enough to just go ahead and wear the scarf she bought from me.   She was pleased that (1) it did indeed hold up and (2) it generates many compliments.


The reason I thought of this while working on this particular scarf is because I used a type of silk I have not used before and I cut it in a way I have not cut silk fabric before.  It did leave lint on my cutting board.  I had to shake the fabric out in my front yard before I could continue.  Then I made the scarf and it was fine.  Another thready crisis averted.

I guess the next time I get a concerned customer, I will direct her to this blog post.  But what about the people who drool over my scarves, eye the threadiness cautiously, then don't buy without asking me for reassurance? I suppose that sort of thing happens a lot to any seller.

< Silk Bamboo is the name of this scarf.  There's no bamboo in it.  That's just the name.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition on Etsy.

A wacky way to increase store traffic

This is such a good tip, I'm almost afraid to share it with you. But please read it thoroughly and don't abuse it, okay?

When I began my yarn business on eBay, no one had heard of Life's an Expedition yarn and therefore no one was searching for Life's an Expedition yarn. Since most of my yarn is blended colors and blended fibers, I wasn't even coming up in searches for "cotton yarn" or "red yarn." So I tracked down some wholesales for Noro, Laines du Nord, Sirdar and other famous yarn brands and listed those as supplies. That way, people looking for Noro Kureyon, for example, would wander into my eBay store and see the Life's an Expedition yarn.

This is sort of a circuitous route to increasing traffic, I admit, and it's not as sound as having sought-after merchandise with good key words. But sometimes you have a product or series of products that are not searched-on or do not have great key words. Or maybe the tags are so over-used that they do not benefit you. Then your store sits there without traffic. So I brainstormed some ideas that could apply to these offbeat stores or products. These ideas do not replace using good tags and social media and all the other things we know to do. We're just playing "what if."

• If you sell milk soap, you already know that people will search on that term. But what if you are getting lost in the huge sea of milk soap listings? Perhaps you can come up with some unusual scents to supplement your line and get a little attention. While it's true that more people are going to search for lemon or cucumber or vanilla, that doesn't help you if you are coming up low in Google searches. I know of a soap maker who created a beer soap. Before you shreik, "ew!" hear me out. Granted, most people will not search on beer soap, but when they do, she will be higher in the ranks than her competitors. Can you come up with an offbeat flavor or variation to supplement your normal line of whatever you sell?

• I have struggled for years to sell my odd, peculiar, unconventional handbags. You would think that having something different would make them popular with a smaller segment of people, but it's been tricky. I don't even bother to use unique as a tag. People tag their merchandise as unique all the time and 95% of the time, it isn't unique at all. So for some products--such as my bags--I have found that it is beneficial to tag according to ambience or the character of the piece. For my bags, I use such tags as hippie and bohemian. It helps a little. I know that purse, messenger bag and clutch are practically useless in the vast internet sea of bags. Okay, so I'm still floundering with this concept, but maybe you can apply it to your own shop. Can you come up with a theme to some of your products? Something beyond vintage or retro.
• If you sell jewelry, you know that a tag such as bracelet or necklace is like a drop of water in the ocean. You might try creating a torc or a circlet or something with a name that is unusual. This presumes that the piece you are promoting really IS a torc. If you are thinking, "Who the heck searches for a torc?!" well, you see that woman in the front row wildly waving her hand in the air? Yes, that would be me. I search on torc. I search on whatever offbeat jewelry name I can think of because when I want jewelry, I want something really unusual and often I have trouble finding anything unusual. Again, typing in unique or unusual doesn't work. Most of the pieces tagged with those words are not unusual.

What do you do if your product is a _____? Something that has no name?

• Ah, the great unnamed hard-to-tag gizmo. I've got several of those. They are the kiss of death in Google searches. I make handwoven wall pockets that no one else makes, anywhere. At a craft show, people flock to these things. But I don't even know what to call them. No one searches on wall pockets, but wall decor is too vague. One solution I've tried in the past is to list wall mirrors, coat racks, etc., in the hope that people searching on those will browse my store and see the wall pockets. Can you think of any related items that you could make and sell--items with searchable names--that will bring people to look at your uncategorizable or unnameable items?
• Remember my dilemma with yarn. Can you stock up on supplies of a famous brand name that pertains to your craft? Or you could do a little destash once in a while just to bring people in. Maybe customers will forget they were looking for Grumbacher oil paints when they see the drop-dead amazing painting you did. Maybe a destash of a famous fabric brand will lure someone into looking at those wacky quilted thing-a-ma-jigs you invented.

Some of these ideas will not help you in Google much. For example, there are so many hits for oil paint... eh, forget it. But within your own hosted venue, it might help.
WAIT. Before you run off and ruin the tagging universe, please realize that a targeted search using solid key words that pertain to your product is what shoppers want. Please don't sabotage that ideal by abusing tags. There's a big difference between getting creative and getting abusive with this.

For example, it just isn't right to tag your handknit scarf as a sweater on the off chance that someone looking for a sweater will like your scarf. Instead, you will attract someone looking for a sweater, sees your scarf instead, gets mad and leaves.A more creative and legitimate approach would be to add felted wool leaves to several of your scarves and start a whole nature theme. Or adding leaves in shades of purple and black, instead of the more predictable green or autumn shades. Or using gingko leaf designs--something specific--because although many more people will search on leaves instead of gingko, you will stand out in searches when someone really does type in gingko. Or even coming up with work that incorporates name variations, such as gingko biloba.

Or if you were using maple leaves, you could use...umm...whatever the Latin word for maple might be. Acer? Yes, I realize that people are more likely to search on maple than acer, but the point I'm making is that if you are desperately scrounging for legitimate tags, adding a personal touch to a product and adding an unusual tag might just help. In other words--brace yourself for another tree pun--we are talking about branching out in your product base or tagging. Not cheating with your tagging.

I am afraid that people will misinterpret some of what I have written here, so I feel compelled to add this: Please read Etsy rules about tag abuse before you go out there and create chaos, okay?

And also, if you are going to give funky names to your products, watch out for copyrights. I named a yarn Godzilla without realizing that name is not available and now I have to rename and relabel it. (Hanging my head in shame.) But you know, a yarn named Steve is very unlikely to violate any copyright. I'm not saying a yarn SHOULD be named Carl, but at least it's different.

dj runnels
Visit my shop: Life's an Expedition

Paper mache mannequin heads

People have been asking how to cover a styrofoam mannequin head with papier mache. I have mannequins for sale, so I am guessing these people want to emulate my technique and make their own. I mentioned this to my husband, who is known for his wit, and he instantly replied, "First, take a wire brush and give the styrofoam a good scrubbing. Next, take some battery acid..."

I'm pretty sure you can see why I married him.



I have four left, most of them papier mache, so I am reluctant to impart my techniques just yet. If you can make one, why would you buy one from me? But maybe after all my mannequins are sold, I will write a tutorial. It is a fair amount of work and my papier mache skills have evolved over time, so with the exception of people who have used this craft technique before, I'm not sure this project is for everyone.

I began in papier mache...oh, don't roll your eyes like that! You tell long stories, too! And anyway, my stories are funnier than yours. Nyah. I began making papier mache puppets as a child. My mother had a lengthy magazine article about how to make puppet heads, sew costumes for them, construct a stage and so on. There was even a storyline, a cohesive theme and an actual script to go with these puppets. But mostly I remember the puppets.

OMG. I was going to write a tutorial about how to make puppets but I suddenly realized that I would like to make puppets and sell them. Rats. Jotting this down as idea #572 and I don't know when I will get around to the first 571 on the list. Never mind that I can barely walk through my yarn studio or my inventory room. Gotta go!

Visit Life's an Expedition on Etsy.

dj runnels

Felting fanaticism

Omigosh, I've got the felting bug big time. Mostly, I am making coasters. They are sooooo soft. And they absorb the drips from the drink, instead of dumping them in my lap. That's a plus. Some of these coasters have sold, but we may still have some listed at my Life's an Expedition shop if you want to see them in detail.  -- dj runnels