Crochet Stripes Tutorial – The Easy Way

Posted on January 28, 2019 by Rhinestone Mumma

Making stripes in crochet must be one of the simplest things you can do to introduce colour into your next crochet project. Whether you want an even stripe using 2 colours or a thinner stripe using 3 different colours, I am going to show you how easy it is to change colour without breaking the yarn each time and make for a neater finish.

This technique works particularly well with basic crochet stitches like single crochet, half double crochet and double crochet.

Stay tuned for some really easy crochet patterns you can make and try out your newly acquired skill.

For this tutorial I will be using a simple HDC (half double crochet) stitch and working in an even stripe of 2 HDC rows for each block of striping.

Joining Yarn For The First Time

Weaving in and fastening off yarn ends is something that is time consuming and doesn’t always leave a neat finish. You will also notice that a bit of the old colour shows in the new row. To stop this from happening you need to do the following.

STEP 1: Crochet to the very end of the row leaving the last stitch, for this tutorial it is a HDC.

STEP 2: Start the first step of the HDC stitch into the last HDC but only pull the yarn through the first 2 loops leaving 2 loops on the hook.

STEP 3: Join in new coloured yarn and complete the HDC through the 2 loops on the hook.

STEP 4: Make 2 chains and turn to begin the next row. You have joined your first colour.

Working Stripes Without Breaking Your Yarn

After you have joined the second yarn (above) and worked another 2 HDC rows, you are ready to change of colour to start forming the stripes. Pick up the yarn for the new colour, bring it up the side of your work and crochet it into the next row with the same technique as before when joining the yarn in for the first time. Continue changing colours with this technique and bringing the new coloured yarn up the side until the end.

This technique also works well when you use 3 colours and alternate each colour at the end of each row (1 x HDC row for each colour). As long as the yarn colour you want to change to is at the end of that row, you shouldn’t have any problems. You will have lots options for your stipes.

Wider Stripes

When you have wider stripes, whenever both colours of yarn are on the same side of your work, you can twist them which “catches” the yarn of contrasting colour behind the colour you are working with.

In the case of a very wide stripe, it can be difficult to keep the tension of the yarn even along the side of your work. Often it gets too tight or too loose. If this is the case it is probably best to break the yarn.

Here is a quick and easy crochet pattern you can download to try out your newly found skill. I have made this halter top in an even stripe using 2 colours, an even smaller stripe using 3 colours and an uneven stripe using 3 colours.

Easy Crochet Halter Top Pattern

example 2 — EASY CROCHET HALTER TOP PATTERN

To download the PDF crochet pattern, click the link here Easy Crochet Halter Top Pattern

Type in the code MYDISCOUNT to receive a 40% discount on your order.

You can visit my Etsy Store at Rhinestone Mumma

If you are interested, here are some additional guides and tutorials worth a read.

Instagram Product Tagging! What’s It All About?

Pinterest! What’s It All About?

Etsy SEO! What’s It All About?

How To Get More Etsy Sales

Etsy Hyperlinks! What’s It All About?

If you want to join our community on Facebook Extreme Etsy Sellers Promote and Help we would love to have you on board. We are always discussing ways to improve our Etsy experience and grow our sales.

Have a great day 🙂

Etsy Shop Policies! What’s It All About?

Posted on January 13, 2019 by Rhinestone Mumma

Something that many sellers overlook when setting up their Etsy shop is filling in their shop policies. This is a great way to connect to your existing and potential customers and let them know what to expect from you. Include information about your shipping policies, your returns, exchanges and payment policies to name a few. If you haven’t filled in your shop policies, this is costing you sales. Customers look at your store policies and make a judgement of what kind of customer service you offer and what to expect if they purchase from you.

To edit or complete your shop policies;

ON DESKTOP: Go to your shop and click edit shop. Scroll down to your shop policies and add or update there.

ON MOBILE: In the seller app, click on More bottom right and then settings. You can add or update in Shop Settings.

Here are some things to consider when adding or updating your shop policies.

About

This is a great place to tell the world about you and what you do. This is your time to shine, convey and share your passion for what you do and adds that personal touch to your shop.

Around The Web

Take this opportunity to add the links to your social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter.

Shipping

Add information about processing times.
Include shipping estimate times for your country of origin and different regions around the world as this varies dramatically. Etsy have made this easy as you can add individual countries with your own estimates.
Do you ship Internationally?
If you do International shipping include information on customs and import taxes which varies for different regions around the world. I simply say “Buyers are responsible for any customs and import taxes that may apply. I am not responsible for delays due to customs”.
Add information about how your items are packaged and if you offer gift wrapping.
Let your customers know what shipping company you use and the options you have made available with regards to insurance or faster shipping.

Payment Options

State what methods of payment you will take (PayPal, cheque etc).
If you offer PayPal as a method of payment, add a brief description of how to pay with PayPal. Lots of people don’t realise they can use this method to pay with their credit or debit card without having to sign up for a PayPal account. It helps to explain how they can do this.
State that you will not send packages until payments have cleared.
Encourage buyers to contact you if they are having any problems with making their payment.

Refunds and Exchanges

If you don’t want to do refunds and exchanges then put it politely. Something like “I’m sorry but at this time [insert shop name here] I cannot accept refunds or exchanges, please purchase carefully” comes across a lot better than “No exchanges or refunds accepted”.
If you are going to offer refunds and/or exchanges then put your terms and conditions here. How long after receiving an item can people ask you for an exchange or refund? Will you refund only the cost of the item or the shipping as well? If a buyer returns an item to you who is responsible for the return postal costs?
Etsy have set up some information you can click and turn on easily in this section and customise it to suit your terms.

Privacy Policy

As a business owner that collects personal information on name, address, email etc we are obligated to keep their information protected. If you want to find out more about a privacy policy and how to write one and include it in your shop policies then this is a good article to read How to Write On-Point Privacy Policies

Frequently Asked Questions

Etsy have provided some extra available space to add frequently asked questions that may apply specifically to your shop and the type of items you sell. If you find yourself being asked the same questions over and over again think about adding this to your FAQ section. Some things you could add are:

The process you take to complete custom orders.
An estimate of how long orders may take.
For custom orders when do you require payment, do you need payment up front or is a 50% deposit the green light to begin work.
Do you provide gift wrapping and what is included.
Special discounts you might have running at the moment.
What happens if my item is damaged in transit.

I hope this information has been helpful to you. I think it is best to have something in your shop policies then not at all so make a start on it, you can always add to it as time goes on and new ideas or issues arise that you can address in your policies.

As I am an Etsy Seller, most of my posts are geared to Etsy Success although any of my guides and tutorials will be useful for if you use other platforms to sell your products. You can visit my Etsy Store at Rhinestone Mumma

If you are interested, here are some additional guides and tutorials worth a read.

Instagram Product Tagging! What’s It All About?

Pinterest! What’s It All About?

Etsy SEO! What’s It All About?

How To Get More Etsy Sales

Etsy Hyperlinks! What’s It All About?

If you want to join our community on Facebook Etsy Sellers Promote & Help we would love to have you on board. We are always discussing ways to improve our Etsy experience and grow our sales.

Have a great day 🙂

Etsy Hyperlinks! What’s It All About?

Posted on October 8, 2018 by Rhinestone Mumma

So what’s a hyperlink, what does it have to do with me an how can I use it to get more sales? A hyperlink is basically text with a link that a reader can activate by directly clicking on a highlighted word, phrase or image which sends them to another location.

If you don’t have links in your product descriptions, you are missing out on an opportunity for longer customer engagement. It’s a no brainer and such an easy thing to implement into our Etsy product descriptions.

So what are the benefits?

A customer is engaged and keeps them in your shop for longer.
Encourages them to look at products they may not have normally searched for.
Answers their questions without them even knowing that had any questions they needed an answer to.
Directs them to other items in your shop that are part of a set or collection.

We need to start thinking about our Etsy shops as virtual shop fronts where buyers can come and go, explore, buy and visit again. The longer a customer stays in your shop, the more likely they are to make a purchase. It’s all about making suggestions, giving them a direction and making them feel comfortable in making a purchase.

Here are just a few creative ways you can use a hyperlink in your product description.

1. SHOP SECTIONS

Add a hyperlink at the end of your description showing the other shop categories in your store;

“For Bracelets, click here __________________”

“For Crochet Patterns, click here__________________”

“For T-Shirts, click here__________________”

“For Earrings, click here__________________”

You can also use a hyperlink to direct buyers to other like products. If they are already looking at an item and liking what they see, they may also like other similar items in your store;

“For more Bracelets, click here __________________”

“For more Crochet Patterns, click here__________________”

“For more T-Shirts, click here__________________”

“For more Earrings, click here__________________”

2. RELATED PRODUCTS

If you have products that are related or a part of a set or collection, let your buyer know.

“If you like these earrings, here is the matching necklace__________________”

“If you like these invitations, don’t forget to purchase the matching thank you cards__________________”

“If you like this cushion cover, you might like other cushion covers in the same collection__________________”

3. UNRELATED PRODUCTS

If you have a shop that sells different types of products, you could create interest with a buyer and suggest they have a look around;

“If you like my bracelets, I have a wide range of handmade crochet bags in my shop as well__________________”

4. SHOP HOMEPAGE

I have this hyperlink in all my item descriptions. It encourages a buyer to go to your home page where they can get an overall feel for your brand and all the products you sell. They can also Favourite your shop so they will see future products listed and shop updates;

“To see the full range of products in my shop, click here__________________”

5. FEEDBACK PAGE

If you are proud of your customer feedback, then let a potential customer know how much past customers value your products and services by sharing your review page;

“See what other customers are saying about their purchases__________________”

6. MORE THAN ONE SHOP

Let your customers know about other shops you manage on Etsy.

“I also sell craft supplies at my other shop__________________. I would be more than happy to ship purchases from both shops together.”

7. SHOP POLICIES

Most buyers will not automatically read through your detailed shop policies. You can make sure they read through your policies before they make a purchase if this is important to you. This will hopefully solve potential problems that may arise or give them customer important information when purchasing from you.

“Please read through the policies before purchasing this item__________________”

8. SOCIAL MEDIA

There are already links to the more popular social media platforms provided by Etsy on all your listings if you have set up the links. You could also provide additional links to your Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Blog, Newsletter directly in your description as well.

“Let’s get social. Follow me on__________________”

“Sign up for my newsletter to receive future coupons and promotions__________________”

So how do I create a Hyperlink?

You can copy URL’s (the web address that appears in the search bar at the top of a web page) for any link you want to create. If you want to create a link to your Etsy Home Page, go to your Etsy Store and copy the URL which you can paste into your description.

If you want to copy a particular item, follow the same process by going to the specific item you want to create a link for.

If you want to create a link to a store category, once again, follow the same process by going to your Etsy Store, selecting the category you want to create a link for, like a customer would when searching, and copy the URL.

The same process can be applied to social media platforms, blogs and newsletters. If you can search for it, you can copy the URL and paste it wherever you want in your detailed descriptions.

But don’t just stop there. You have probably noticed that some links when copied are long and unsightly and take up a lot of space. But never fear, there is a free website Bitly.com where you can copy the long URL and it will give you a shortened version which you can copy and paste into your description giving your descriptions an air of professionalism and neatness.

Now, let’s not get too carried away!

I have given you some great ideas on how you can use hyperlinks in your descriptions to create engagement and interest. But just remember, too many links may only confuse and overwhelm a buyer and you may actually lose them altogether. Choose the hyperlinks that would best enhance the shopping experience for your customer and are more likely to convert sales. You could ask yourself, is there a question you get asked over and over by customers or is there a section, product or upgrade that you want a potential customer to see?

And Finally

I hope I have given you some new inspiration to adding some additional resources to your descriptions and maximising your sales potential by capturing a customers attention and keeping them engaged.

If you are interested, here are some additional guides and tutorials worth a read.

Here are some of my recent blog posts you might be interested in;

Psst…these are hyperlinks!

How To Get More Etsy Sales

Etsy SEO! What’s It All About?

Pinterest! What’s It All About?

Instagram Product Tagging! What’s It All About?

Etsy Shop Policies! What’s It All About?

If you want to join our community on Facebook Etsy Sellers Promote & Help we would love to have you on board. We are always discussing ways to improve our Etsy experience and grow our sales.

Have a great day 🙂

Pinterest! What’s It All About?

Posted on September 21, 2018 by Rhinestone Mumma

You are hearing it all the time. Pinterest is fantastic, it’s amazing, I just love it, it has increased traffic to my blog, online store and products. And here you are left shaking your head and saying, I haven’t got a clue. So if you are wondering how Pinterest works or have an idea about how it works but want to know more? Well, I am going to let you in on a little secret, Pinterest has been one of the most successful ways I have been able to generate traffic and sales to my Etsy products and store and I am going to share with you what I have learnt and how you can do it too.

SO WHAT IS PINTEREST?

With over 175 million active users there must be something to this Pinterest thing. Basically Pinterest is a giant web based visual search engine where pinners come together to share their interests, ideas, products, blogs, recipes, DIY projects and the list goes on. Think of it as a big vision or pin board to create a visual display. A bit like the old fashioned mood board.

Not only is Pinterest a great medium for everyday people, Pinterest is also a fantastic tool for business owners to promote their ideas and products. If you want to get your products, business and blog in front of a potential audience of millions of people and drive tons of traffic to your shop, website or products without spending a cent, then read on.

When you pin something to one of your boards your pin is immediately viewable by your followers and people searching on Pinterest. When someone else pins your pin to one of their boards that’s called a repin and then their followers will see that pin and so on and so on. This can create a ripple affect where your pin can be discovered by many people.

BUT WHERE DO I START?

If you want to use Pinterest as part of your online marketing strategy, I would strongly recommend you sign up for a business account. It’s completely free. Even if you already have a personal account, you can convert it to a business account without too much fuss.

With a business account you have access to analytics, can create rich pins and you can also have the ability to create ads with promoted pins, not that I have ever paid to promote any of my pins but I will never say never.

Use the “about you” field to let people know about your business. Remember, these words will not only tell people what you do when visiting your profile page, they can also help people find you by using terms that people might search for. Upload your business logo as your profile image and you can have your website, online store or blog URL as a clickable link from your profile page. All of these things can be set up in your profile.

Here is a link to getting started Create A Pinterest Business Account

WHY DO I NEED TO CREATE SEPARATE BOARDS?

You will need to create one board before you can get started. As you add boards, think about your niche products and what topics would best fit your business and brand personality. I also try to name my boards using keywords and phrases that might show up in searches. If your name your board by your business name, unless you are a well known brand, you probably won’t get much traffic. Try thinking of each individual board as ways of grouping together your products and ideas.

As a marketing strategy, add the URL link, email address and any other information you want to tell people about in the description part of the board. You can do this by editing the board and adding these details. Be sure to use keywords and phrases in the board description. This will also help people looking for items like yours to find you.

LET’S PIN IT!

Pins are visual ideas, recipes, products, DIY inspiration people find and save to Pinterest from all around the web.

Each pin has a clickable link which will take you back to the origin of the website it was saved from. If you click through the pin you can learn more about it, how to make it or where to buy it.

The ideal pin size for your images are. Drum role please….

Profile images: 165 x 165 pixels.
Pins in feed: 238 pixels x adjusted to height.
Expanded pin size: 735 pixels x adjusted to height.
Pin boards complete size: 238 x 284 pixels.
Cover image: 217 x 146 pixels.
Tiny thumbnails: 51 x 51 pixels.

Of course you can use any image to make a pin. You can even pin directly from your Etsy or Ebay listings on your computer or by clicking the Pinterest logo on the actual listing. It will open a new window where you have the opportunity to select (or create) a board to pin to. That’s it. The main image and description comes across, and the link is automatically created.

You can also use the Etsy selling app to pin items by going to your active listings, selecting a product, clicking on the share tab bottom right, and then the share tab top right. From there you can share to your social media platforms like Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook.

The pictorial tutorials below will take you through how you can create pins directly from your Etsy listings and how you can create a manual pin from the Pinterest home page or your profile page.

CREATING A PIN DIRECTLY FROM YOUR ETSY LISTING

Click the Pinterest icon from your Etsy listing

Go to your actual listing on Etsy, the view that a potential buyer will see when looking at your item, and click on the Pinterest social share button at the top as shown below.

Select the board you want to pin to

This window will open after you click the Pinterest icon as shown in the graphic above. Select the board you want to pin to and that’s it.

CREATING A MANUAL PIN ON PINTEREST

Click on the red circle with the WHITE cross

You can create a manual pin directly from Pinterest. Just go to either the Pinterest home page or your profile page and click on the red circle with a cross in it on the top right hand side of the page and select create pin. See image below.

Click on Create Pin in the drop down box

This is the drop down box that will appear after clicking on the red circle with white cross button on the home or your profile page.

Create Pin window

This window will open once you click on the Create Pin button above. Click on the image icon box to upload your image. Copy and paste the URL from your listing into the Website section and add your description to the description section.

Just a little tip. To add the website or product URL, go to the item you want to pin, open the listing and copy the URL at the top of the page in the search bar and paste into the website section. Voila. You have created a pin with a direct link and that’s how you can drive traffic to your products.

TAKING YOUR PIN IMAGES TO THE NEXT LEVEL

You can keep it that easy but if you want to take your pins to the next level, I use a photo editor like Ipiccy or Canva to make my pin images stand out and get noticed. It is a known fact that the most clicked on image size are the long skinny pins. They drive traffic because you need to click on them to see the full size, they just look better, they are more noticeable and look more professional. I will give you an example below of the standard image with the listing and the created image using a photo editor.

Standard Image

No photo editing or adjustments.

Created Collage Image

This image was created using a collage tool with addition of graphics in Ipiccy

Have a play around with it. Find out which ones drive the most traffic which you will be able to monitor in your analytics. If you can adapt your pins, try out the longer, skinnier type.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING!

One of the downsides of Pinterest is your pin has a very short shelf life. Once you post a pin it is immediately available to view by your followers and from searches on Pinterest. I have even heard your pin is most visible and has the best chance of being discovered in the first 20-30 minutes but I am not 100% sure about this as I have had people repining my pins from months ago. Having said that, your pin is always visible in searches and people looking through your boards so don’t despair too much.

You need to think strategically about when you post your pins and pin when there is the greatest number of people who will see them, which is usually between 6am and 6pm.

KEEP IT FRESH

People love new and original content and so does Pinterest, just like other social media platforms.

If you are pinning new, interesting and engaging content to Pinterest every day, you will get new followers and in turn your Pinterest platform will grow. Why is this important, the bigger your Pinterest platform, more people will click on your links to your website, products and ideas and most importantly, the more traffic you will get from Pinterest.

SHARING IS CARING!

If you begin your Pinterest journey with the thought that you will create boards for your content and products only, think again. Unfortunately you will not be a successful pinner and your pins will probably not be seen. This is the reason why many people who try Pinterest who adopt this strategy don’t see any increase in traffic and ultimately give up.

It is really important to pin not only your own product pins but other pins to your boards. This is called repining. Like everything else in social media marketing, it is driven by popularity and algorithms. Pinterest rewards pinners that continually repin popular pins that other people like and repin to their boards. It is a bit like a ripple affect. The more people repining your pins, the more your pins and boards show up in searches and the more chance someone has to discover you and click on the link in your profile.

You can use pinning tools like Tailwind (sign up for a free trial), but for me I like to do manual pinning. In my opinion it is important to know exactly the type of pins that are being pinned to my boards and the time they are being pinned. It doesn’t take too long. Each time I list a new item in my Etsy or Ebay store I pin it. I also spend a few times a day visiting Pinterest to discover other popular pins to repin to my boards. Each time I visit Pinterest I would probably repin 5 pins at a time.

BUILD YOUR PROFILE

If you want to create lots of traffic from Pinterest you need to have followers. You can attract followers by pining a little bit every day, preferably at peak traffic times. Find other interesting people to follow by going to the “Popular” or “Everything” tab on your Pinterest navigation bar. Don’t just pin things that relate to your niche or products. Start thinking outside of the box and pin things that are interesting to you or things you like. Chances are if you find them interesting, other pinners will find them interesting as well. If you visit my profile I have boards not only for my business niche but my interests and loves.

Check out my Pinterest profile here Rhinestone Mumma Pinterest Profile

IT PAYS TO BE A GROUPIE!

A group board works the same as a regular board, the only difference is that along with the board creator, other invited collaborators can also contribute pins and add categories. Group boards are a great way of getting your product recognised among other like minded pinners. Usually these boards have a lot of followers and contributors and your pin will have a much better chance of being noticed and getting traffic from that pin.

If you want to find Group Boards to join, you can simply type in what you are looking for in the Pinterest search bar and a see what drops down. The first part will be search terms, then People/Profiles and then Boards. Just click on the boards you are interested in, follow the board or if it is a group or collaborative board just follow the instructions on the board. Usually you only need to follow the board and send a message to the admin or creator of the board so they can send you an invitation to join.

Here’s your personal invite to join my group board Etsy Sellers Promote.

There is also a great website where you can discover group boards to join called Pingroupie. A bit like a online directory for group boards on Pinterest.

This is also a great list for finding group boards to join.

WHAT’S A RICH PIN?

There are four types of Rich Pins, app, product, recipe and article. Rich pins have more context about an idea, product, recipe or article because they show extra information about your pin.

When you set up Rich Pins (using the link below), your items will have real time pricing, availability and where to buy your product.

When you add Rich Pins to your account, all your future pins will be enabled. That means you only need to do it once.

If this is something you would like to do, here is a link to Create Rich Pins

SHOULD I DELETE PINS?

In my opinion you should absolutely delete underperforming pins and pins with links that go nowhere. As we discussed before, pins can have a very short shelf life so if it’s under performing get rid of it. You may have pinned something a while back that has now sold out or been relisted with a different URL. Delete the old pin and pin the new pin with the fresh URL. It brings me back to the social media machine favouring the popular pins as well as other forms of social media like Instagram and Facebook. Like everything, you need to work at it, tweaking and adjusting.

When I started deleting underperforming pins my unique monthly visitors shot up by 50,000. I am guilty of looking at pins before I repin them to my boards to see how many times they have been repined.

So yes, deleting pins helps you to get noticed on Pinterest.

THAT’S A WRAP!

I hope I have been able to shed some light on how Pinterest works and how you can use it effectively to create traffic to your online store or blog.

If you have any questions or would like to add anything you think is relevant please don’t be shy and leave a comment.

As I am an avid Etsy Seller, most of my posts are geared to Etsy Success although many of my guides and tutorials will be useful for if you use other platforms to sell your products. You can visit my Etsy Store at Rhinestone Mumma

Here are some of my recent blog posts you might be interested in;

How To Get More Etsy Sales

Etsy SEO! What’s It All About?

Instagram Product Tagging! What’s It All About?

Etsy Hyperlinks! What’s It All About?

Etsy Shop Policies! What’s It All About?

If you want to join our community on Facebook Etsy Sellers Promote & Help we would love to have you on board. We are always discussing ways to improve our Etsy experience and grow our sales.

Have a great day 🙂

Etsy SEO! What’s It All About?

Posted on September 11, 2018 by Rhinestone Mumma

Everyone is talking about it but just exactly what is it and what do I need to know to improve it. Well, that is the question.

I am going to list some key points of simple strategies you can use to understand what Etsy SEO is all about and how you can implement them into your listings to increase views and ultimately sales.

So, why does it matter?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is basically how potential buyers find you in Etsy searches and off Etsy searches like Google. It is really important to have top notch Etsy SEO. Etsy will reward shops and listings with a boost in searches with good SEO optimisation and unfortunately will leave you behind if you don’t.

The keywords and phrases in your tags, title, categories and attributes all play a part in getting your items in front of potential buyers. Simply, Etsy will look at all of these things in determining whether your item is listed in searches for a particular buyers query.

So let’s start at the very beginning.

Keywords

You can have the best product ever created on Etsy but without good keywords in your titles and tags, nobody is going to find you and guess what, no cha-chings. So what do they mean when they say keywords? Keywords are a one to three word phrases that describe your product.

You firstly need to stand back from your product and start thinking like a buyer. What would buyers search for when looking for my item? As a strategy, I right down a list of keywords and short two to three word phrases that best describes my item. This gives me a basis to start using some tools to test if they would be good keywords and what words might be useful.

So here we go….

Etsy Rank – my personal favourite. It not only gives you brilliant tools to discover keywords and phrases in real time of what is being searched for on Etsy, it can check for spelling mistakes and give you detailed analysis on your listings and spot issues and opportunities that can improve your SEO.
Marmalead – gives you the tools to help you find the keywords real shoppers on Etsy are using to find listings like yours. It is also super easy to use and understand.
Google Keyword Planner – gives you the tools to research the current industry standard for keywords not just for Etsy but for off Etsy searches like Google and Bing.
Pinterest – this is probably not one you would associate with when looking for keywords. It’s a bit like using the Etsy search bar method by typing in keywords and phrases that you think a buyer might use to find products like yours and the words and phrases that drop down ARE the words and phrases people are searching for to find items. Why is Pinterest important? In my opinion, the good utilisation of Pinterest to promote your Etsy products is a game changer. I literally generate 1000’s and 1000′ of views through my pins.
Etsy – This is another good way of finding keywords and phrases that potential buyers are using right now to find products like yours. I can’t stress this enough the right now bit, Etsy and algorithms are a funny thing. They are constantly changing and evolving. If you use this method it is always a good idea to give your listings a check up and see if there is anything you can change on a regular basis.

Titles

So you have done your research and have great keywords and phrases ready to go, so what now? There are 140 characters available to you in your title, but that doesn’t mean you need to use them all. Contrary to popular belief, and as reported in the Etsy Seller handbook, when writing titles, use your most descriptive keywords and keep a buyer in mind, not a computer. The first 40 characters are the most important for your SEO optimisation for Etsy search. Focus on writing short, clear and descriptive titles getting your message across using the best keywords in this space but at the same time constructing a sentence that is easy for a buyer to read. Lead with the keywords that best describe your item and don’t just jam pack your title full of the same keyword phrases as your tags. I can hear you ask why;

Buyers only get a sneak peak of what you have to offer when they search for products so it’s a good idea to get your message out on what you are selling at this crucial stage especially on mobile devices.
The first 40 characters are more relevant as they are at the beginning of your title. So basically if you want to get found in searches for a particular keyword phrase, put this in the first 40 characters.
If you want to appear in searches on Etsy and in Google/Bing searches, keep your title simple, easy to read and understand.

You should also try to use general keyword phrases and targeted keyword phrases. Not sure what that means. Here is an example of a general keyword phrase crochet pattern and a targeted keyword phrase could be crochet beach bag pattern. Include spaces/separators (/ , | – ~) if you like between your keywords and phrases but as mentioned before, try to make a sentence that makes sense the flows without too much punctuation. Let me state right up front, punctuation does not affect your Etsy SEO in a negative way, in fact it makes no difference. What is does do is break down your title into to easy to read phrases that actually makes sense. Just for the record I prefer the vertical bar | as my separator.

Listing Consistency

So there is truth in the theory list more items and the sales will come but, I don’t think there is a magic number of listings that turns on a switch to more sales. What is true, when you list a new item or an item is sold and renews Etsy rewards you with a boost in your search ranking.

You can trick Etsy into ranking you higher by renewing your listings manually before the 4 months is up which will give it a boost but of course this will cost you 20 cents. If you do plan to try this method make sure you are renewing at peak traffic times, times your target audience is online and shopping which can be hard to pinpoint if you sell your products all around the world. I am in Australia and I get most of my Etsy sales in the early morning, when it is evening in the United States. You just have to work out what’s best for you.

The Etsy algorithm rewards listings that get sales and will show these listings to more buyers in search. As a general rule, if your listing has been renewed on more than 2 occasions without a sale, it’s time to look at why you are not getting any sales and either fix the problems or remove it.

Set and Forget?

I think as a general rule it always good to check in with your listings every 4-6 months to see how they are going. Things are constantly changing and it’s a good idea to keep up with those changes. I would also keep an eye on under performing listings and listings that have had an unexpected drop in views and sales and see what might be the issue.

Let’s Get Social

OK. So you have put in the hard yards and optimised your listings for SEO so now what? This is not a time to sit back and wait for the sales. You need to be spreading your wings and promoting your listings all over social media platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter using all those keywords and hashtags. In a future blog I will tackle strategies and tips to use on different social media platforms so watch this space.

Here are some more in depth resources you can use to improve your social media visibility;

Pinterest – What’s It All About

Updating Your Titles and Tags

There are a few ways you can make quick updates and changes to your listings. You can add or remove a tag from multiple listings at once by checking the box on those listings in your Shop Manager, click Editing Option and select Edit Tags from the drop down. You can also edit your titles, tags, price and shipping profiles in the Quick Edit Tool without having to open up each listing one at a time.

Be Patient

All of the strategies listed above are not a quick fix although you may see a rise in search ranking in a few minutes, chances are that you’re going to have to wait for a couple of days for a more established shop with high views and lots of sales or a few weeks for newer shops with less views and sales. In off Etsy searches it can take anywhere up to 30 days.

Have a great day and any feedback, comments or questions are welcomed.

If you wanted to download my Etsy SEO Workbook & Planner you can work through my step by step guide on the strategies and resources I use when listing an item. This workbook and planner can be used again and again.

Once you have your SEO rocking, I also have a great Etsy Social Media Planner Kit that covers Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter that you can use again and again, track your posts and identify trends of what is working and what is not.

Here are some of my recent blog posts you might be interested in;

How To Get More Etsy Sales

Pinterest! What’s It All About?

Etsy Hyperlinks! What’s It All About?

Etsy Shop Policies! What’s It All About?

If you want to join our community on Facebook Etsy Sellers Promote & Help we would love to have you on board. We are always discussing ways to improve our Etsy experience and grow our sales.

Have a great day 🙂

How To Get More eBay Sales

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Rhinestone Mumma

Things You Can Do Right Now For Free To Get More Sales On eBay!

So you want to start selling on eBay. Well why not. It is a great platform for beginners , serious sellers and large companies to sell their product in the one market place. It’s easy to list something to sell on eBay but are you getting the most out of all of your listings?Now I’m no expert but I am a Top Rated Power Seller on eBay and I have learnt a few things you can do right now to improve your sales.

Read on to discover simple, free and plain English no nonsense ways to make more sales on eBay today.

Let’s Start At The Beginning With Your Title

This would be one of the most important things to do to get more eBay sales. Keywords in your titles are going to help people looking for what you sell to find you as well as being found on eBay off searches like Google.

The first thing I do when listing a new product is write down the words and phrases that best describe what I am selling. Also look at your competition on eBay and see what words they are using in their titles. Think like a buyer, what would they type in to search for what you are selling.

You can use the eBay Search bar to find phrases that naturally drop down that potential buyers generally use to search for products like yours. Start typing the item you are searching for and see what keywords and phrases drop down. It can give you some great ideas for keywords to use in your title.

Another must look at is the Google Adwords Keyword Planner to find keywords that people are searching for on the products you are selling. You can also get some ideas using Title Builder. Both of these websites are free to use so what have you got to lose.

Even when you list your item you can still revise your title at a later date. Just like online selling, things are constantly changing so I am always looking of ways to improve my titles and listings and this is the first place I start.

Get the Category Right

Every item that is listed on eBay needs to have a relevant category selected for the item you are selling. Your choice of category and whether you choose a secondary category can help you reach the right buyers.

When you first list an item the category is pre-populated based on your listing title. You can always manually re-select a category if you don’t agree with what’s selected by selecting Search Categories or Browse Categories to make a new selection.

It is important to select the right category as eBay can penalise you if you list your item in an incorrect category.

How Much?

Obviously there are many factors that go into the price you list your item for. The cost of the item to you, how much it’s going to cost to ship your item to the buyer and what’s your profit margin. You also need to have a sticky beak at what the competition is doing and are you going to be competitive.

Whether you are a seasoned seller or just selling as a hobby to make some extra money all of these factors will come in to play. The biggest mistake a seller might make is the shipping costs. Make sure you do your homework on how much it’s going to cost to send.

A Picture Says A Thousand Words

Think of your photos as the window to your listing inviting buyers to come on in and have a look.

You have 12 photo spaces to use so use as many of the spaces provided you can to show buyers what you are selling. eBay recommend you use 3 so at least aim for this.

I like using a plain white background for my main photo but that’s just more personal preference as I like a clean uniform look in my store. Google search is also moving towards a clean background where you can search similar items just on image alone. Pinterest is already utilising this type of search. Ever noticed the clickable little square on an image? Click on that and it will take you to similar items. You can jazz up your photos with backgrounds and scene, perspective and situation shots with the other 9 photo spaces.

I use an inexpensive light-box that came with lights and I bought a piece of white gloss Perspex to place items on as the direct background. You could also set up your own photo studio using white cardboard or a white sheet as a backdrop.

If you want to buy a Light Box in Australia Click Here

If you want to buy a Light Box in the United States Click Here

To give your photos that professional edge use a photo editor. There are many options available. Some are easy, some are not so easy. Some cost money, some are free to use. I personally like free. One of the best sites to do this is Canva. I also like and use a program called Ipiccy. You can edit photos and save them to your computer. You can make collages to promote your products on Social Media and there is simple design tools to add text and other images.

eBay also have an easy to use photo editor available to use when listings items.

Finally and most importantly you should always name your photos with keyword phrases of what you are selling. This will help in your SEO on search engines like Google to find your products.

Let’s Get Down To The Specifics

When searching for items on eBay there are a number of ways buyers can “drill down” the search criteria for a more specific search. When listing an item make sure you use all the Item Specifics you possibly can that apply to your listing category.

Beware though, eBay does not really care about your own created item specifics. They don’t even crawl them in indexing. Your custom created item specifics have zero value. Of course, they can help once you have a buyer already interested in your item but the aim of the game here is to attract as many buyers in the first place.

Let me give you an example, the shirt you are selling is a sky blue colour but eBay only offer the colour blue. You should select the main colour as blue. In short, select the values that eBay have pre-populated for the category your item appears in.

It doesn’t hurt to take the extra time to fill in this additional information. It all helps.

Descriptions and Keywords

You can also provide links to other items in your store that relate to a product. For example, you may be selling bracelets and you could direct buyers to other bracelets you are selling in your store they might be interested in. Remember, once somebody is interested enough to click through to see your detailed description you want to keep them there.

However, having said that, more than 60% of shoppers will be searching for items on their mobile devices and tablets and you need to click through to another page to see the detailed description where that fancy schmancy template you had designed is. I for one think that the HTML template will be a thing of the past and eBay will move towards a simpler format for the description section a little bit like Etsy and Amazon already do. The keywords I still believe are important though.

Offer Free Shipping and Quick Handling

If possible why not offer free shipping on your items. Obviously there will be a cost to you for shipping but if you can incorporate the cost into your pricing to cover the costs. People love something for free and it’s just another way to attract buyers to your items.

You can also consider offering a 1 day handling time by going to Shop Manager > Settings> Shipping Settings and create shipping rules here.

Auctions v’s Buy It Now

Gone are the glory days of the eBay Auction. When eBay started back in 1996 the only format available were auctions. The site has evolved over time, and today auctions are not the best way to sell items on eBay in my opinion. As time goes on, eBay is moving more towards a retail type format, competing heavily with Amazon for business. eBay is mostly a “buy it now” platform these days but it also depends on what you are selling and how many of them you have to sell.

If you are selling a rare one off item then maybe the Auction style format is something you would consider. We do however live in a “I want it now” society and we don’t want to wait the 5, 7 or 10 days for the auction to finish.

Another disadvantage of an Auction is that it can take up to 30 days for Google to index your item. if you are running your eBay store like a bricks and mortar store than listing for less time than this can do more damage than good.

Some advantages of Offering Buy It Now (BIN) listings, as well as what we have already mentioned above, your items can be purchased immediately, shipped quickly and there is no price haggling, although you can implement Best Offer where buyers can send you an offer lower than the listed price. You can set up limits for this that automatically accept or reject offers based on your criteria.

You have the ability to run sales and promotions with your BIN listings offering you more flexibility and attractiveness to buy. You can also ask for immediate payment which stops those annoying non-paying auction buyers in their tracks.

Open A Store

When you can, you should consider opening a store to showcase all your listings and products. Opening an eBay store not only gives you discounted final value fees and a number of free buy it now listings a month, you also get access to additional selling tools to manage and promote your business.

Before you can open a store you are going to have an eBay Selling Account and a verified PayPal account. You can find out more about opening an eBay store and how to go about it here in the eBay Seller Centre.

Once you have selected the right subscription you can now go ahead and personalise your store by adding your logo, creating categories for your products and create sales and promotions to attract more buyers to your products.

Store Categories

It’s good to group what you are selling in your store together to make it easier for buyers to find what they are looking for. This can also help with adding another layer of using keywords in your store.

You can decide what you call your store categories and how you group your products together. I find this is also a good way of directing people back to specific pages with easily created URL links. You can also create links in your listings descriptions to direct buyers back to your store to see similar items you are selling and encourage more sales. You can also select to have your store categories show on your listing template with each item which are easily clickable and can help to promote additional sales.

You can create new store categories by going to your Dash Board > Selling Tools > Manager Store > Store Categories. You can create new categories here, rename categories and change the order of how you would like them to appear in your store. Once you have created your categories you can add your products when you are listing your items.

Keywords and Your Profile Page

Tell the world a little bit about yourself on your profile page. You can access this page by clicking on your eBay user ID name from your eBay summary or Dash Board pages or directly from a listing on the right hand side.

This page is a snapshot about your life on eBay as a buyer and a seller where the world can see items for sale. You can write a small description about you or your shop, upload your logo and a cover image to keep with your branding. Some of the other items members can discover on this page are your collections, although I believe Collections will be a thing of the past soon, but you can still use them to showcase your style or organise your favourite finds, the members you are following and members that are following you.

There are also links you can access through this page to items you have listed and to your store. People love to read about other members and it makes us that little bit more human. I don’t think it hurts to add keywords and phrases in your profile that can help eBay shoppers and Google searchers find you.

For more information on your feedback click on the physical feedback score on your profile page and you can view your feedback profile with ratings for the last 12 months, view feedback left as a buyer, as a seller and feedback you have left for others.

Are You Being Served?

Just because you are running an online business doesn’t mean you can’t offer excellent customer service. Always answer any questions quickly and thoroughly. Show your customers that they are valuable to you. If you do get any unsavoury feedback (and hopefully there are not too many of them), I go out of my way to contact the customer to see what I can do to rectify the problem to ensure their experience is the best it can be.

Make your customers experience one that they will remember and want to come back and shop with you again and again.

Build A Reputation

We all have to start somewhere and eBay is no different. A buyer on eBay is probably going to trust a seasoned seller with an excellent feedback score and volume of sales than someone just starting out. Don’t be disheartened though, over time you will build up your own feedback ranking that other sellers will aspire to.

Treat every sale as a stepping stone to reach your ultimate goal. It won’t happen overnight but it will happen!

Research, Research, Research

I cant’ say this enough….research. It is so important to have a look at the competition. How are they doing it. Ask yourself….what keywords and tags are they using. What do their photos look like. What are they saying about their product in their description? You can learn a wealth of information from what other people are doing and hey, people might just start looking at you for inspiration.

Add More Listings

What more can I say, eBay gets a warm fuzzy feeling when you add more listings to your store. You will also get an initial boost in searches so you item will show to buyers higher up than it might normally appear when a listing has been hanging around for a while.

Quite simply, the more items you have out there, the more chance someone will discover you and buy something from you and come back for more.

Happy listing.

To Promote Or Not To Promote (Advertising)

We should by now all know about eBay Best Match algorithm and how it works to place your listings in eBay search results. There are a number of factors involved in the calculation of Best Match.

Relevant title.
Item specifics – helps define your item more clearly in a way that eBay understands.
Sales history – this can work for you or against depending on sales.
Seller rating and performance – your feedback DSR score and overall performance plays a factor.

Promoted listings (or Sponsored listings) can also be used to get your items noticed. You pick the items you want to promote and assign a percentage ranging from 1% – 20% that you are prepared and comfortable to pay if your Sponsored listings is clicked on and a purchase is made within 30 days.

This form of promotion works well, in my opinion, if you are competing with a high volume category and your items are not appearing anywhere near the top of the search results. As you get sales you can adjust the percentage rate and find a happy medium of where your items sit naturally in search. eBay also have a handy “set trending ad rate” button which is probably a good place to start.

eBay lists the amount of fees that will be paid based on the percentage you selected if your item sells and gives you an overall summary on the home page of campaigns, number of listings, clicks, sold, ad fees and total sales.

A lot of sellers get confused between Promoted Listings and Promotions. They are two different things. Look at Promoted Listings as your personal advertising space for your listings and Promotions are the sales and discounts you offer, a bit like the old Markdown Manager.

Promotions – Sales and Mark Downs (Marketing)

We all love a bit of a sale or promotion so eBay have revamped the old Markdown Manager and created Promotions making it easy to run many different types of sales and promotions for your products.

You can use Promotions Manager to apply order size discounts and buy a certain quantity and receive a percentage off as well as offering codeless vouchers and promotional postage offers. You could also run a ‘sale’ event Storewide, or across specific categories that you choose.

Promotions can benefit you by;

Attracting more buyers
Increase your order size by offering percentage discounts on multiple item purchases you pre-select.
Clear old stock.
Lower postage costs while increasing margins by bundling orders.
Codeless Vouchers you can offer to individual buyers or use to promote in your Social Media promotions.

Thank you

Include a thank you card with every order. These are great because you are giving your customers something tangible they can keep. It will make it easier to find you again when they want to order next time and they can share with their friends and family.

You could include information like your Etsy Shop URL and Social Media pages like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. You could also encourage buyers to leave you a review. This is the message I print on my thank you cards;

Take a look at some of the inspiring designs available to purchase on Thank You Cards on Etsy right now.

Let’s Get Social

This is a whole can of worms and really deserves its’ own blog post which I will tackle at a later date. Watch this space.

Social Media promotion is where it’s at. Set aside some time every day to get social. If you haven’t already, set up Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Etsy have made it a lot easier with their new Social Media interface found under marketing. They provide some great tools to share shop milestones, products, sales and promotions. It’s all at your fingertips. My personal favourite is Pinterest. Whenever I list a new product, I Pin it.

Branding

Having a logo and a memorable header/banner image in your Etsy Shop looks professional and will stay in someone’s mind over a shop with limited branding.

It’s not hard to incorporate a logo (come on, you’re creative) and a header image on your shop. Just as an idea for your header/banner image, you cowuld use 4 or 5 images of your best selling products and place them together in one long image. The size to work towards for your Etsy banner is 760 pixels x 100 pixels. If you want something a little more professional, there are some great resources available online to help you.

Once you have your signature brand you can use these on your Social Media platforms, your business and thank you cards, anywhere you want to promote yourself.

Build A Blog Around Your Brand

This can be daunting, it was for me. Where to start, what to write about, how to do it. All I can say is, just start. You have nothing to lose.

To give you an example of how to go about writing a blog post encompassing your brand, my first blog post was about Chakra Healing. Not only is this one of my passions but I sell Chakra Healing Bracelets in my Etsy Shop. Some of the topics I discussed in the blog are the Chakra Meanings, what the Chakra colours mean and issues in your body and how it might relate to your Chakras. At the end of the blog I provided a link to my Etsy Shop section where I sell Chakra Beaded Bracelets. Now, you might think this is a shameless plug but I believe in what I am selling and I believe my bracelets if worn can help you. It all works hand in hand.

When you realise how you can blog about your niche products you will have so much to blog about, you won’t know where to stop.

Last But Not Least….

Why not have a look at my eBay Store

I am always looking for ways to improve and “tweak” things in my listings. If you have a great tip why not share it with the rest of the world.

If you have an Etsy Shop and want more sales click on the link to find out more here How To Get More Etsy Sales

How To Get More Etsy Sales

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Rhinestone Mumma

Things You Can Do Right Now For Free To Get More Sales On Etsy!

Have an Etsy Shop and want more sales? Silly question really. We all want more sales and anything we can do to improve those sales we want to know.

Read on to discover simple, free and plain English no nonsense easy ways to make more sales in your Etsy Shop and make your sales go through the roof.

PLEASE NOTE: This article is constantly updated to keep in line with Etsy policies and the changing algorithms.

Keywords

So here we go….

Etsy Rank – my personal favourite. It not only gives you brilliant tools to discover keywords and phrases in real time of what is being searched for on Etsy, it can check for spelling mistakes and give you detailed analysis on your listings and spot issues and opportunities that can improve your SEO.
Marmalead – gives you the tools to help you find the keywords real shoppers on Etsy are using to find listings like yours. It is also super easy to use and understand.
Google Keyword Planner – gives you the tools to research the current industry standard for keywords not just for Etsy but for off Etsy searches like Google and Bing.
Pinterest – this is probably not one you would associate with when looking for keywords. It’s a bit like using the Etsy search bar method by typing in keywords and phrases that you think a buyer might use to find products like yours and the words and phrases that drop down ARE the words and phrases people are searching for to find items. Why is Pinterest important? In my opinion, the good utilisation of Pinterest to promote your Etsy products is a game changer. I literally generate 1000’s and 1000′ of views through my pins.
Etsy – This is another good way of finding keywords and phrases that potential buyers are using right now to find products like yours. I can’t stress this enough the right now bit, Etsy and algorithms are a funny thing. They are constantly changing and evolving. If you use this method it is always a good idea to give your listings a check up and see if there is anything you can change on a regular basis.

It’s All In A Title

So you have done your research and have great keywords and phrases ready to go, so what now? There are 140 characters available to you in your title, but that doesn’t mean you need to use them all. Contrary to popular belief, and as reported in the Etsy KEYWORDS 101: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW, when writing titles, use your most descriptive keywords and keep a buyer in mind, not a computer. The first 40 characters are the most important for your SEO optimisation for Etsy search anyway, so focus on getting your message across using the best keywords in this space but at the same time constructing a sentence that makes sense. I can hear you ask why.

Buyers only get a sneak peak of what you have to offer when they search for products so it’s a good idea to get your message out on what you are selling at this crucial should I click or scroll on by stage.
But really, the most important reason is, Etsy ranks the first 40 characters as the most relevant as they are at the beginning of your title. So basically if you want to get found in searches for a particular keyword phrase, put these keywords in the first 40 characters.

You should also try to use general keyword phrases and targeted keyword phrases in the first 40 characters. Not sure what that means. Here is an example of a general keyword phrase crochet pattern and a targeted keyword phrase could be crochet beach bag pattern. Include spaces/separators (/ , | – ~) if you like between your keywords and phrases but as mentioned before, try to make a sentence that makes sense that flows without too much punctuation. Let me state right up front, punctuation does not affect your Etsy SEO in a negative way, in fact it makes no difference. What it does do is break down your title into easy to read phrases that actually makes sense. Just for the record I prefer the vertical bar | as my separator.

Tag That

Here is a little run down on good and bad tag choices;

Use all 13 tag spaces.
Check your spelling. Incorrect spelling will not get your items in front of anyone. You can use tools like erank that will alert you of any spelling mistakes so you can correct.
Tags can be up to 20 characters long. Use phrases and avoid using one word tags if you can.
Have a look at shop stats to discover keyword phrases buyers are using to find your items and add these to your tags. Alternately, you can remove tags that are not very popular.
Use the Etsy search bar to see what naturally drops down when you start typing in a keyword. These are the keyword phrases buyers are using to find items like yours. Alternately, you can also use Pinterest in the same way.
Your tags should be as unique as possible and repeating the same words throughout is just a wasted opportunity. The more unique tags you use, the more chances your item has to show up in many searches.
Don’t repeat words you have selected in your category and attributes, they act like tags in a search as well. If an exact term appears in your category or attributes you don’t need to repeat it. For example colour.
Don’t add tags in multiple languages. Your tags should be in the language you set your shop up in.
No need to worry about plurals. Etsy looks at the root words and your listing will still be considered for a buyers query with or without.

Going Going Gone

Only you know the time, effort and cost that goes into creating your pieces. Sit down with yourself and work out your time, materials, expenses, shipping costs (if you are offering free shipping), packaging and fees to come up with a realistic price structure.

Take the time to compare your prices with other sellers in your niche. How do you compare? If you find your price is slightly higher you can offer things like free shipping, multiple item purchase discounts and gift wrapping to entice the sale.

A Picture Tells A Thousand Words

Think of your photos as the window of your shop front inviting buyers to come on in and have a look.

You have 10 photo spaces to use so use as many of the photo spaces provided you can to show buyers what you are selling. I like using a plain white or pale background for my main photo but that’s just my personal preference as I like a clean uniform look in my shop. Google search is also moving towards a clean background where you can search similar items just on image alone. Pinterest is already utilising this type of search. Ever noticed the little square top right of an image? Click on that and it will take you to similar items. You can jazz up your photos with backgrounds and scenes, perspective and situation shots with the other 9 photo spaces.

I use an inexpensive lightbox that came with lights and I bought a piece of white gloss Perspex to place items on as the direct background. You could also set up your own photo studio using white cardboard or a white sheet as a backdrop.

If you want to buy a Light Box in Australia Click Here

If you want to buy a Light Box in the United States Click Here

Item Categories and Specifics

When searching for items on Etsy there are a number of ways buyers can “drill down” the search criteria for a more specific search. When listing an item make sure you use the best category for your listing so you will be found by a potential buyer.

Depending on what category your items appear in there are also other options you can select to increase the chance of somebody finding your item like colour, occasion, style, recipient, theme, material etc.

It doesn’t hurt to take the extra time to fill in this additional information. It all helps.

Product Descriptions

Store Sections – Get Your Ducks In A Row

It’s good to group what you are selling in your store. This can also help with another boost of using keywords in your shop.

Be specific and general in what you are selling in your store and group together like minded products. I find this is also a good way of directing people back to specific pages with easily created URL links. You can use these in your descriptions to encourage more sales.

You can create sections by going to your Shop Manager > Listings and on the right hand side find Sections and click on Manage. You can create new sections here and change the order of how you would like them to appear in your store. Once you have created your sections you can add your products when you are listing your items.

Keywords and Your Profile

As well as telling the World about you and your passion, use your profile page to add keywords. People love to read about sellers and why not add in keywords and phrases in your profile that will help Etsy shoppers and Google searchers find you.

You can also add a link to your store and your Social Media pages.

Try adding keywords to your Shop Announcements and Updates as well. Just like your own little blog letting people know when you list new products or lines or just to let people know about what you do and how you do it.

I know I have had trouble accessing Updates before which can only be accessed through the mobile Etsy Shopping App by clicking on More > Social Media > Shop Updates.

PSST….if you’re planning to open an Etsy Store, click on this link and get 40 free listings to get you started!

Offer Free Shipping and Quick Handling

If possible why not offer free shipping on your items. Obviously there will be a cost to you for shipping but if you incorporate the cost into your pricing you should be fine. People love something for free and it’s just another way to attract buyers to your items.

If you items are ready made and waiting to be shipped, consider selecting 1 day handling time by going to Shop Manager > Settings > Shipping Settings and create shipping rules here.

Etsy also offer an option of selecting items that have free shipping and have either 1 or 3 day handling times on the left hand side when searching, so you may as well be amongst them.

Sales and Coupons

Everybody loves a sale. Create a sale or a special coupon offer for your customers. Whether you want a buy a certain quantity and receive a percentage off or buy a certain dollar amount and receive a discount. You are in control.

Sales you create show up on the Etsy search pages in green below your item and encourages buyers to have a look. You can also create special coupon offers to send to certain customers, use on your Social Media platforms and include in your invoices that you send to customers.

Buyers can also select as a search option items on sale (visible to click on the left hand side when searching Etsy) so you definitely want to be part of this.

To access sales and coupons go to your Shop Manager > Marketing > Sales and Coupons and follow the preferred method of promotion from there.

Are You Being Served?

Just because you are running an online business doesn’t mean you can’t offer excellent customer service. Answer any questions quickly and thoroughly. Show your customers that they are valuable to you. Try to respond to any reviews that are left to let the customer know that you have read their review and appreciate that they have taken the time to respond. God forbid if you do get an unsavoury review (and hopefully there are not too many of them), I go out of my way to contact the customer to see what I can do to rectify the problem to ensure their experience is the best it can be.

Do You Want Wrapping With That?

As you are already the creative type, why not create a unique way of wrapping everything with love. I think this is just as important as the actual item. Customers get the feeling that you care and will probably remember you. It could be as simple as wrapping items in tissue paper and sealing with a heart shaped sticker or you could source or design packaging to suit your products.

Etsy sellers are a creative bunch so why not check out what’s on offer in Etsy Packaging Products to see what you might find to suit your products.

Research, Research, Research

Add More Listings

What can I say but Etsy gets a warm fuzzy feeling when you add more listings to your shop.

Quite simply, the more items you have out there, the more chance someone will discover you and buy something from your shop and come back for more.

If you have a well-stocked shop it’s more likely that you will get multiple sales in one transaction and people are more likely to follow your shop to get updates on new arrivals. Throw in a buy a certain amount and get a percentage off sale then the sky is the limit.

Happy listing.

Thank you

Take a look at some of the inspiring designs available to purchase on Thank You Cards on Etsy right now.

Let’s Get Social

This is a whole can of worms and really deserves its’ own blog post which I will tackle at a later date. Watch this space.

Here’s your personal invite to come and collaborate on my Pinterest group board Etsy Sellers Promote

If you want to find out how Pinterest can generate more traffic to your Etsy items read more here Pinterest – What’s It All About

Branding

Having a logo and a memorable header/banner image in your Etsy Shop looks professional and will stay in someone’s mind over a shop with limited branding.

It’s not hard to incorporate a logo (come on, you’re creative) and a header image on your shop. Just as an idea for your header/banner image, you could use 4 or 5 images of your best selling products and place them together in one long image. The size to work towards for your Etsy banner is 760 pixels x 100 pixels. If you want something a little more professional, there are some great resources available online to help you.

Once you have your signature brand you can use these on your Social Media platforms, your business and thank you cards, anywhere you want to promote yourself.

Build A Blog Around Your Brand

This can be daunting, it was for me. Where to start, what to write about, how to do it. All I can say is, just start. You have nothing to lose.

When you realise how you can blog about your niche products you will have so much to blog about, you won’t know when to stop.

Last But Not Least….

If you want to download my Etsy SEO Workbook & Planner you can work through my step by step guide on the strategies and resources I use when listing an item. This workbook and planner can be used by you again and again.

If you want to check out my Etsy Shop you can have a look here Rhinestone Mumma

I am always looking for ways to improve and “tweak” things in my Shop and in my listings.

Some more resources you might be interested in;

Etsy SEO! What’s It All About?

Pinterest! What’s It All About?

Etsy Hyperlinks! What’s It All About?

Etsy Shop Policies! What’s It All About?

If you want to join our community on Facebook Etsy Sellers Promote & Help we would love to have you on board. We are always discussing ways to improve our Etsy experience and grow our sales.

Have a great day 🙂

Joining Yarn For The First Time

Working Stripes Without Breaking Your Yarn

Wider Stripes

Easy Crochet Halter Top Pattern

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About

Around The Web

Shipping

Payment Options

Refunds and Exchanges

Privacy Policy

Frequently Asked Questions

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So what are the benefits?

Here are just a few creative ways you can use a hyperlink in your product description.

1. SHOP SECTIONS

2. RELATED PRODUCTS

3. UNRELATED PRODUCTS

4. SHOP HOMEPAGE

5. FEEDBACK PAGE

6. MORE THAN ONE SHOP

7. SHOP POLICIES

8. SOCIAL MEDIA

So how do I create a Hyperlink?

Now, let’s not get too carried away!

And Finally

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SO WHAT IS PINTEREST?

BUT WHERE DO I START?

WHY DO I NEED TO CREATE SEPARATE BOARDS?

LET’S PIN IT!

CREATING A PIN DIRECTLY FROM YOUR ETSY LISTING

Click the Pinterest icon from your Etsy listing

Select the board you want to pin to

CREATING A MANUAL PIN ON PINTEREST

Click on the red circle with the WHITE cross

Click on Create Pin in the drop down box

Create Pin window

TAKING YOUR PIN IMAGES TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Standard Image

Created Collage Image

TIMING IS EVERYTHING!

KEEP IT FRESH

SHARING IS CARING!

BUILD YOUR PROFILE

IT PAYS TO BE A GROUPIE!

WHAT’S A RICH PIN?

SHOULD I DELETE PINS?

THAT’S A WRAP!

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So, why does it matter?

Keywords

Titles

Tags

Listing Consistency

Set and Forget?

Let’s Get Social

Be Patient

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Things You Can Do Right Now For Free To Get More Sales On eBay!

Let’s Start At The Beginning With Your Title

Get the Category Right

How Much?

A Picture Says A Thousand Words

Let’s Get Down To The Specifics

Descriptions and Keywords

Offer Free Shipping and Quick Handling

Auctions v’s Buy It Now

Open A Store

Store Categories

Keywords and Your Profile Page

Are You Being Served?

Build A Reputation

Research, Research, Research

Add More Listings

To Promote Or Not To Promote (Advertising)

Promotions – Sales and Mark Downs (Marketing)

Thank you

Let’s Get Social

Branding