Etsy for Everyone

Meet my fellow Europeans I

I will try and feature some of my fellow Etsians here from time to time as well - and I want to start with that group that is most dearest to me: my fellow Europeans.

We are organized in a street team, and I really haven't met a more supportive group in a long time.

One of the girls is Inger Maaike - an amazingly talented felt artist.

I just received one of her brooches in the mail, for my mom's birthday, and seriously, I am stunned how well it is done. Inger felts pretty much anything, from gorgeous flowers to scarfs to slippers to brooches and jewelry.

Stop by her shop - she really is worth a visit.

My visitors

 I do like Google Analytics, and I am ecstatic that Etsy has included the script to enable GA. What usually drives me mad is that it's not real-time. When I made the frontpage, I would have loved to see those stats right afterwards, not waiting 24 hours.

That graph? It's my shop stats - the spike is the frontpage day. I usually average 50-120 visits a day, frontpage kicked me up to 350. Nice, eh?

What I also found out through Google Analytics - visitors are coming in from pretty much everywhere. I haven't had visitors from Africa (except for South Africa), none from Belarus, none from Greenland, plus some other obscure Eastern European countries - other than that, they are from all over the world.

Which again underscores the importance of
a) adding sizes in inch AND centimeter
b) offering international shipping.

Making the frontpage... priceless

Sure you can spend money on relisting, renewing, showcases, outside ads. But nothing, absolutely nothing compares to being featured on the frontpage.

28 new item hearts (21 for the featured critter), 20 new shop hearts... and just because one of my critters made it to that frontpage.

Ultimately, this means that your time and money might be better spent on improving your pictures, working on your tags - and getting noticed.

And unfortunately, I have no sure-fire recipe either. Great products and pictures usually make me choose items for my treasuries.

Second shop, yes or no?

Most of us have more than one passion when it comes to crafting. Some make jewelry and paint, others do clothing and bags. In my case, I make sock critters - and have recently started glass fusing. Some products go well together in one shop, others less so.

While opening a second shop on Etsy requires nothing but a second e-mail address and a disclosure of the overlapping shops in your profile, it does take time, money and energy to run more than one venue.

The main advantage of having everything in one shop: efficient listing. When you list something new, you usually don't get views only on that items, but people start browsing the rest of your shop as well.

In theory, this means that if I eventually start listing fused glass pendants, people who click on that item will possibly also fall in love with my sock critters.

In my case, this only works in theory. I am certain that stuffed toys and jewelry in one shop will confuse buyers - and to be honest, it will also annoy the heck out of me, since I do prefer a uniform look in my listings.

The main disadvantage: I can't compete with established jewelry sellers and glass artists. I cannot list x times a day, which means I will get buried fast in jewelry. But I will give it a try - expect to see the first pendants show up at ArtFusing sometime next week, as soon as I have gotten the hang of photographing those tiny little buggers.

Nevertheless, there is a chance that YOUR different creative projects do complement each other. Dresses and handbags? Sounds like a great combination to me. In addition, your image might just be "everything that is pretty" or "great gift ideas".

Look at your own projects, at your own crafting and see what works best. Two separate shops might be just the ticket, but it will also cost you more in listing fees and promotions and time to get the same results.

Are sales slow? What to do about it?

The general consent seems to be that sales have slowed down. I suspect that total revenue is still up, but possibly spread over more shops and some super sellers. You get lost more easily within the stormy sea that is Etsy.

So what to do?

Finding other promotional outlets as well as possible sales venues might be the way to go. Here are the things I would do if I really needed to stimulate sales right now:

Google AdWords
With Google AdWords, you only actually pay if someone clicks on your ad, which is a model I highly prefer to the "just show my ad and hope for the best" approach.

Set yourself a daily budget you can handle. $2 might look like nothing, but it still adds up to $60 a month. Go for low cost per click; I currently have a limit of 5 cents, I think. Means my ad is displayed lower on the page, but I also get more clicks out of my daily budget.

Try and link to your website with integrated Etsy Mini, not your Etsy shop directly. Getting people into Etsy is great, but you also lose them more quickly. I still have to change that, but my website is not up to scratch right now - needs to be redesigned this weekend.

Project Wonderful
When you choose to place ads through Project Wonderful, go for your target market. Analyze your CPC (cost per click), because those can easily end up more expensive than Google Adwords clicks. Find more about my take on PW here.

Local press
Get in touch with the local newspaper, your church newsletter, anything that your town is affiliated with. Make it a home story, a glimpse into your workspace, anything that is of interest to them - and mentions your shop and your great handmade products.

Decorate a shop window
Have an office nearby that doesn't utilize its display windows? A pet barber that could use some plushies? Offer to place your products in a nice display, with a sign directing people to your website - give them merchandise or a cut if things are sold directly from that window.

Social Networking
Are you doing all you can out there? Do you blog, do you link to Etsy on Facebook, do you twitter, do you place your photos on Flicks? There are so many venuews where you can cross-promote your shop.

More tipps and ideas?
You can read back on some previous ideas of mine and the Virtual Labs right here.

Sometimes, you need change

What worked 6 months ago might not work today. You have evolved, your products have evolved, and in many respects, your competition has gotten better as well.

It is always wise to take a long hard look at your shop from time to time, and see if it is time for major overhaul.

In my case, I had already started with changing my banner around after my 6-month hiatus. But somehow, my original critters on a stark white background didn't do it for me, anymore.

So what did I do? Add a line of text to each and every one of my new critters. I am hoping to make them pop more in search results, and really give more of a feel for the inherent cuteness in each and every one of them.

Will it work? Time will tell. Most specifically, sales and treasuries will tell.

For now, I am liking it. Next big overhaul: the website.

Meet my direct competition

Officially, anyone making sock critters should be my nemesis, since we are in direct competition, right?

But sometimes you just come across anpother sock critter maker that has her own style, does something completely different, and doesn't just copy one of the successful plush makers... and happens to be n extremely nice person to boot.

So please meet Swiedebie - located in the Netherlands, but American, I think... definitely not Dutch.

Twitter - I cave in

Okay, I cave in... I am twittering now. Let's see how that goes - more time to waste doing nothing useful! :)

I hope that Twitter is fun to show spontaneously what cool stuff I come across, without having an extra blog post that doesn't really have anything to do with Etsy for Everyone and how it initially was meant to be.

Then again, I might *occasionally* also show some of my own new listings... Relax, I never list more than once a day, so it will be easy to ignore. :)

Starting a Street Team...

Here's the deal. I used to be a member of Etsy Baby, but then I took my looooong break, so I am not really in there anymore.

Before my break, I got kicked out of the PlushTeam for having an embroidered circle on ONE SINGLE ONE of my critters, which supposedly was the "signature style" of another member. Which in itself is ridiculous, since I can show you numerous books where that kind of face is done - and we weren't even working with the same style or materials.

Since then, I have been kind of cured of Street Teams, to be honest.

I obviously post in the European Street Team threads, but those are mainly self-promotion. Actual questions are hardly ever answered, it's a lot of feel-good, soft small talk and loads of "I have listed this" posts.

Now I am considering starting a new street team... and unsure if I can actually find the time. There isn't a German EST yet, and having an active group to actually promote Etsy in Germany, Switzerland and Austria (which we call D-A-CH) would be kick-ass.

But can I make the commitment? If I am honest, my forum activity, blogging, and other stuff is usually done during my day job. So this would be another thing that needs to be done during working hours, or at least close to working hours. Evenings, I need for crafting. can get away with doing some online stuff during my day job, but will be hard pushed to sit down sewing while working. :)

And I want an active street team. A group of people that actually does something on Etsy, is willing to pay an annual fee, and participate in promotional activities to get our shops (and Etsy) visible. Do I have the energy to actually manage and motivate such a group of people?

No need to be alarmed!

I will now start changing the whole layout around, so expect to see weird things, possibly.

Okay, the worst is over - though it ain't perfect yet. But let me know what you think? I was in the mood for something new, I am afraid to say. Next project: my own website.