In the Beginning - So to Speak

I've been a crafter almost all of my life.  My mum was a crafter, her mum was a dress maker, I guess it's just always seemed normal to have some sort of project on the go.  So if it's a craft, I'll give pretty much anything a go - I'm hopeless at drawing and dressmaking (much to my grandmother's dismay), but knitting, crochet, beading, cross stitch, paper - I love them all. 

Over the course of my adult life I've made all sorts of things.  Each time I completed something, I either gave it away or crammed it in a drawer somewhere, a little voice in my head said, 'You know, maybe you could sell that.'  Though it was a nice thought, it felt silly, and I continually shushed that voice, putting it down to a pipe dream.

But... last year, when a co-worker confessed she was also an avid crafter, and had dreamed of selling her 'wares, I confessed the same, and it .  It gave me the confidence I needed, at least to give it a try.  

But where to start.

I'd heard of Etsy, and opened by shop in April this year.  Don't get me wrong, I'm realistic, my expectations were never high, but I thought I would give it a try.  I confess, I still haven't quite got my head around it.  Whilst I consider myself a somewhat experienced crafter, by no stretch am I a business person. Ideally I think you need to be both.

I posted some items, the number of which have grown as time has gone on.  I made a couple of sales, got a couple of reviews.  I thought things were ticking over nicely, but this weekend, after some internet research to see if I couldn't boost my sales, I'm more confused than ever.  It seems everyone's opinions differ on everything.   I'm totally lost.  What am I trying to do here?  Should I even be on Etsy?  Is Etsy downright rubbish?  Or is it the best thing since sliced bread.  I've seen arguments for
both.

Naysayers seem to be former Etsy sellers who have become disillusioned, believing the site has had its day, gone 'mainstream', that many items are mass produced rather than handmade, and that Etsy have failed to police this.  

Whilst these are very valid objections, for a newbie like me starting out, in many ways Etsy is a good thing.  I've read many success stories, of people with massive sales in the first few months, but that won't be the majority of people who open Etsy shops.  For anyone to make money on Etsy, hard work is required.  I suspect, to make your shop any more than just an extension of your hobbies (and there is nothing wrong with that), will take a lot of time.

The main advantage I can see is cost.  Although the advantage of an online shop is that there are no 'shop costs', a start up online shop still needs to lay out for materials, to build up a decent amount of stock.  It can get expensive.  The great thing about Etsy is that there are no joining fees, no monthly subscriptions.  Their listing fees are low, only 20c per listing, for 4 month.  If your item doesn't sell by the time the listing expires 4 months later, (as a newbie, this was my biggest fear) it won't break the bank to relist it.  Yes, there are additional fees if you sell, but these are also low, but celebrate, you've made a sale.

If you get that far.  There are literally thousands of shops on Etsy.  How do you make yours stand out.  I researched, and this is what I learned (or didn't)

You have to have good SEO

According to some sellers, this is all you need.  If you know what SEO is, you're doing better than me.  It took me a few 'Googles'.  Search Engine Optimization, basically means you have to have good descriptions and hashtags/keywords.  I get that.  If a customer searches you want one your item title, hashtags, or both to match, bringing your product in front of them to click and buy.  Your tags need to be exactly what the potential customer will type into the search bar.  Makes sense, and lots of people will tell you that's all you need to do.  Only what they won't tell you is how you know whether your keywords are any good.  Or how to know what your potential customer is thinking.  You can go to a few sites that will generate these for you, but really, how do you know.

I thought my keywords were pretty good.  I sell mostly Christmas bauble covers, that's pretty specific.  Whilst I do have that description in my title, it's too long to be a tag.  I do have it broken up though, and also tags which are more broad, which I feel more people search, such as Christmas Decoration, Christmas Ornament, and so on.  That's pretty broad, maybe somewhere in the middle.  I suppose I'll keep adjusting them until it works.

Photographs

The other thing you need is good photographs.  Easy enough to understand.  Nice clear photographs are needed to show how fab your item is.  

A light, clear background is better.  I did not want to be that person whose item was photographed in a serving hatch with a packet of sausages defrosting in the background, and neither should you.  I bought a large piece of white poster board, and used it as a background.  I thought it looked pretty good.  Whether that will translate into sales, remains to be seen.

Social Media

To help bring customers to your shop, you need social media, but only certain social media.

Twitter is apparently no good.  I tried it anyway.  I got a few followers, which is good.  I'm not going to write it off just yet.  I quite like it.  What I would say is that as an online seller, the people who will follow you will also likely be sellers.  It's extremely unlikely that this will translate into sales, but it might get you a few favourites, which might boost your ranking in a search, which might translate into sales.

Facebook is also no good.  I don't have Facebook and you need a personal Facebook account to get a business Facebook page.  I don't know the reasons why it's no good, I'll assume it's because you won't reach much further than your Facebook friends.

Blogging is good because you could bring traffic to your site.  Also because blogging brings trust.  Here I am.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Instagram is good because like Etsy it's image based.  I have an Instagram account.  it hasn't brought any traffic to my shop, but I enjoy posting and seeing other people's (again other crafter's) posts.

Pinterest is what you really want. Like Instagram, it's image based.  Pinterest is apparently the social media site which brings the most purchases.  I'd had a Pinterest account before I had a shop, but never really got to grips with how it worked.  I like it though.  It has all sorts of brilliant things to look at, and inspire.  I suppose that's why it's so popular.  

It's difficult to get followers on Pinterest though, and even then, when you're notified about pins pinned by people who follow, it's more about the boards than the individual pins.  I gave it a try though, and I pinned a couple of items, just to see what would happen.  At first, nothing happened.  Gradually though, I started getting traffic to my Etsy shop from Pinterest.  Then I started getting 'you might like these pins' notifications.  Then one day, I realised some of these pins hadn't been pinned by me.  So it wasn't a lot of traffic, and although it's not translated into any sales, it's great.  I think I might be doing something half right at least.