Tips for Getting Traffic to Your Etsy Site

Many, many times I've heard the question "How do I get people to come to my Etsy website?". Well, I decided to put together a list of some ideas.

1) Spend some time in the forums but NOT just promoting. Answer questions. Ask questions. make friends. Most promotions go ignored but helping others gives you a good name.

2) Comment in the Storque and in treasuries. And by comment I mean relevant comments. No spamming!

3) Join a team. There's a whole list of teams on Etsy. Find one that you think would be a good fit for you and email the leader asking to join. (I'll do another post later on the benefits of teams)

4) Add a link to your website as your email signature.

5) Start a blog. Talk about your new products, current sales, post some tutorials, etc.

6) Wear/carry your product everywhere you go. I can't wear my soap but I do carry my Soap-To-Go and Lip Balm in my purse at all times!

7) Carry business cards and tell people about your site! Place some business cards on public bulletin boards.

8) Try sending samples to some sampler boxes. These are a great way to get your products in the hands of customers. Try to find a sampler that has the same target market as you to make the most of it.

Good luck!

Etsy-versary Sale!

July 26th is my one year anniversary of selling on Etsy. I'm so excited! To count down to the big day I'm having a 20% off sale in my shop!

This year has been great! Considering I started this as a hobby with no client basis whatsoever, I'd say I've done pretty well. I currently have 205 sales from my site. A lot of them were multiple items and a few were bulk orders of 25 or more.

I've learned a lot in the past year and I'm still learning more. I've learned a lot about soapmaking as well as business.

Here are a few things I've learned along the way:

~Take good pics that show off your product well.

~Don't put the date on your pics. Some of mine still need to be retaken because of this. I use the same pic over and over so I have some pics that still say 2007 even though the soap is freshly made.

~Use good titles that state what your product is. Some customers get annoyed when they have to click on the item to find out exactly what it is.

~Use the tags. They are there for a reason. Come up with as many words as you can to describe your product so it comes up in as many searches as possible. Don't use words that have nothing to do with it though. I hate searching for something and a completely different product comes up because someone tagged it wrong just to give it more exposure.

~Have a good variety of items and learn what customers like.

~Add new items and/or relist often.

~Spend time in the forums and chat rooms. Promote yourself, answer a few questions, make some new friends, but NEVER be negative.

~Use free online ads. It doesn't always help, but it certainly doesn't hurt either.

~Advertise offline too. I'm always looking for new ways to do this. If you have any tips, leave me a comment. A few ideas I've heard are:

• Hand out/hang up business cards.
• When taking your items to the post office carry a bag with your biz name on it.
• Put stickers with your biz name on your packages.
• Use your product in public. If you make clothing or jewelry, wear it. If you make handbags, carry one. I use my soap-to-go in public restrooms.
• Give your products as gifts.

I'm sure there are many things that I still need to learn. Feel free to share some tips that you have picked up. I'd love some new ideas!