4 of My Favorite Etsy Shops ✽ Goodies From Other Sellers!

Buzz Party Co. I know the sweet lady who runs this shop personally, and I can guarantee you that she puts heart, care, and creativity into each of the items that she makes! And they are just so cute! Perfectly put together party supplies, all full assembled for you? Who doesn't love that! Robots, Adventure themes, party favors, banners, table toppers, cake toppers, and all the goods to set up your own party are all available singly if you need the perfect piece to finish of something you've put together, or you can buy the whole theme for an easy and beautiful party!

The Heritage Card Box. I can't decide if my favorite part about this shop is that it's run by three generations, or because the cards are simple gorgeous!!! I mean, have you tried to design cards before? It takes a whole lot of creativity for them to both be pretty AND unique. And the colors. And the variety. And the paper. I have a thing for stationary, so yeah. And I've talked to Kinslea a couple times, and she's very sweet, so I'm sure any orders from her would end up being a delight!

Charming Treasures Co. I'm not usually one for much food jewelry. While they are cute on little girls, I feel like they are cheap and goofy on me... haha. BUT, I don't think that would be an issue with these! I mean, they are so cute and realistic. The brownies and waffles are my favorite single items...but look at her food friendship necklaces!!! How cute!!!!! And also, she takes pictures on pink sparkly paper. That is an adorable perk to presentation, if you ask me. This is one of those shops I follow on Instagram for eye candy, haha :).

Good Neighbors Candle Shop. This store isn't quite as big as it was when I first found it, but it's still a delightful little stop! She used to have candles in teacups, and a hot chocolate mug candle... I'm kind of hopeful she's just working on her listings right now, because I wanted a hot chocolate mug, haha! But I know personally that these candles smell DELICIOUS and burn really well. She did an adoption fundraiser candle one time (which is how I found her of course... haha! This was before I sold on Etsy myself), and Mama got me the Christmas Cabin scent from her fundraiser option, and literally, it is one of the best smelling Christmas candles I've every smelled, I love it so much! Her candles are done up to be good party props or favors, which is an added bonus :)!

What are your favorite shops on Etsy :)? Did you visit these shops? Which one from my list did you like best :)?!

Behind the Scenes ✽ Filling Out Your Listing Information

I have a few minutes here before I need to run out the door for a special needs respite I'm volunteering at. I thought today we'd do a simple but important post on filling out your product's listing information, with lots of screenshots... haha :).

The first step? Photos. Make sure you have photos of your item before you start! You can save a listing as a draft, as long as it has a picture on it... but if you fill in all the other boxes, expecting to come with pictures tomorrow... it won't save as a draft. Good pictures are best, but no pictures is not allowed! You have up to ten spots to post pictures. Do you HAVE to fill all of them? No. Is it best to show as much as you can to people who can't pick it up? YES!

Title! These are the keywords that fit in your title area. Use multiple keyword phrases, ones you have research either on your own in Etsy's search bar, or using a tool like EtsyRank, to make sure that it will be a keyword that works for you, instead of leaving you to do all the promoting.

Fill in all these little drop boxes. Let people know who made it (you, or a shop partner), what it is (digital, finished product, vintage, etc), and when it was made (vintage? handcrafted this year? will be made after the order is placed?)

Then fill in the category it would be a part of. After you pick the category, another drop box will open, with narrower categories to put it in. Others may then follow, depending on the category you are in. Make sure to use as many of them as you can!

Fill in all the attributes you can; color, the holiday it could be used for, the occasion it would be bought for. This helps for people who are shopping for gifts and want to narrow down the results that come up. Sometimes this won't be possible (like if there isn't a holiday it is good for, or you offer custom colors), but fill in what you can!

Also let Etsy know if they should renew the listing for you when it expires, or if you want to do it yourself.

Is your item a physical product or a digital download? Choose, and then write your description! Draw the buyer into the item's use, let them get a taste of your shop, answer all their questions, make sure they have all the details they need about your shop (do you only ship on Friday?), and don't forget to use your keywords in the beginning of the description! You'll want to keep measurements and names of products you used to make it, near you :).

Also check that box if you allow customer to ask for customizations :).

Put it into one of your shop sections. (You do have some with good keywords, right :)?)

TAGS! These should match your title (well, really, your title should match your tags, actually, but same thing...). If some of the keywords are too long, you can split them in half. As long as the whole phrase is there, it's okay if it's not in the same box. You can't use the same tag twice, and you CAN add all 13 at once, by writing it "keyword, keyword". That makes it easy to just copy and paste your title into this box, and post all of them at once :)!

What is the price? How many do you have? Do you want to give this item a bunch of random numbers? (Hahaha ;)....) Do you offer variations? If so, add them. You can also adjust the price for variations, so you can offer different quantities in an order, or different sizes!

Enter how much shipping should cost, or let Etsy calculate for you (recommended to save you time and money!) Put your zip code in so it can calculate from you to the buyer :).

Let everybody know how long it takes to get it shipped, and whether you'll offer international shipping or not. You can also add the price of shipping materials here, if you like.

Add the weight and size of your packaged product... and you're done! Congratulations!

Do you like filling out your product listings? Do you take all your measurements beforehand and write them down, or do you fill it in as you go?

Using Etsy Rank ✽ Some of the Keywords I Chose

When I first tried out Etsy Rank, I worked only on picking out keywords that had high engagement -and refused to use ones with unknown demand. That first try was rather a discouraging flop... haha :). No matter how good your keywords, you DO still have to stay lower in competition. I was still hoping I could go a little higher if my keywords were a little better... but, it was encouraging to know that the aim I've had for a few months now (2,000-15,000 results of competition) was right where I should have been. So I gave it one more try before I gave up, looking then for the right level competition and then giving highest attention to the ones that had okay results for demand and engagement.

My favorite part of this keyword search feature? It tell you the engagement that that keyword gets when used. The demand interested me at first, and I tried to go no lower than medium demand. But some of these keywords were good in other respects, and I'm getting more results using even low demand keywords than I was before, so I'm mainly focusing on staying under 15,000 competitor listings and a good engagement score (engagement would be views, likes, and purchases similar items have had). This means that buyers are actually interested in this keyword, which means that keyword is helpful in more than keeping my competitors manageable! Definitely the best part of this site!

Here are the stats of my current best seller:

Keep in mind, that is my *best seller* with grade B SEO and 62% visibility. I was pretty sure that I could do better using these tools, and I have had SEVERAL people convo me about changing the font on my canvases, which usually takes an hour or two of consultant time to peg down which one should be used, so I had already decided that I was going to offer a new listing with font customization for an additional fee. So I decided to set up a new listing, and leave my original as it was. This allowed me to compare the two, and also didn't modify my best selling listing. I'll create an identical-to-the-original listing later. It will cost an extra listing fee, rather than just changing the one I have now... but you never want to mess with your best seller too much. If you think something could make it better, just make a duplicate listing, JUST IN CASE you are wrong. You'll thank yourself! Plus, if you were right and the second gets way more attention, you can always just set the original to not automatically relist when it expires, and until it does expire, you have twice the chances of being found :).

Create your EtsyRank account, and the very first thing, at the top of the search bar, is the keyword tool. You type in keywords you are interested in, and all of the stats pop up...

A cloud of keywords used with that keyword, the number of listings with that keyword, the average likes, views, and price of those items, the demand, engagement, and competition level of that keyword. Along the sidebar is an explanation of what exactly those levels mean :).

Using this tool, I chose to use these keywords (results are rounded to the hundred near it)...

Personalized Quote Canvas (3,000 results, unknown demand, high engagement, medium competition)
Custom Canvas Sign (8,400 results, very low demand, high engagement, medium competition)
Personalized Word Canvas (2,100 results, low demand, high engagement, medium competition)
Customized Quote Gift Canvas (2,900 results, unknown demand, high engagement, medium competition)
Custom Gift (50,000+ results, medium demand, very high engagement, very high competition) (confession: I only used this one because no good keywords would fit in the space that I had left for my title... lol! It's really high and might give me no help, but it wasn't a waste since I couldn't use the space for anything more helpful.)
 

While the item itself is just my Custom Quote Canvas with customized font added, using EtsyRank to title and tag it, it is not graded B for SEO and 62% visibility, but grade *A*, and *90%* visibility! And has only been up for a day and a half, and has gotten a few views (this screenshot was taken earlier), which is a big improvement on something I would have posted last July, when even brand new listings didn't get much attention (although I've improved in my own SEO knowledge since then and things haven't been quite as bad... but they are still better using EtsyRank!)

Again, good keywords aren't all that matters. Once I'm done with editing the SEO of my listings, taking and editing photos will be a very big part of my life... haha. And I'm making sure to keep my shop active (updating announcements, editing these listings, occasionally posting or renewing, etc), so I know that has something to do with it. All in all, do I think that there are other shops doing way better than me? Undoubtedly! But I really think that this tool is going to help, and could help you too!

(There is a paid version of a site like this, "Marmalade", but I've not used it and don't really want to spend money on it when this is working... but I just wanted to let you know that :).)

What do you think EtsyRank's best feature is? Have you seen results from using a keyword tool? What quote would you want on a wall canvas ;)?

Etsy Rank ✽ Thoughts of a Newbie User

I told y'all I had found a new tool to use for Etsy, and that I was going to share it with you after I got a better chance to use it and learn how it worked. That site was EtsyRank! You can find it at etsyrank.com.

I had heard a LOT of people in my Etsy group talking about EtsyRank, and what they were saying really intrigued me, so for free I thought it was worth a shot, haha. I'm going to be completely honest here and say that when I first set up my account, I was pretty positive I was going to LOVE it. As I've played around with the features a little more, I still think it's a really neat tool, but I am also a little more confused on how it decides some of the things it does. It will probably stay a constant tool, but I'll probably also do my own research, too, quite often.

My favorite of EtsyRank's features are:

-You can find out where your shop ranks against other sellers, and it will also tell you what percentage your number of sales puts you in. I have sold more than 66% of shops.... I'm going to assume there are a lot of new and abandoned shops on Etsy, because my shop isn't that big yet, haha...

-You can search for keywords here, rather than on Etsy. Why is there a difference? Well, Etsy Rank tells you how high the demand and engagement is for each of your keywords, instead of just how much competition you have. That is a huge plus! Then, it also gives you a list of other keywords those types of listings have, so that you know where to do further research from if some of your original keywords aren't a good idea to use!

-The ranking tool. This isn't my absolute favorite tool, but it is what I use to find my listing to see the listing audits, because I didn't want to give the site permission to have my shop details by connecting them. (Yes, you can get by without that). You type in a keyword (and your shop name, if you want it to show you your listing details first without you having to search for it through all the ones above it), and it shows you the listings that keyword brings up, with their ranking, and supposedly the page they are on on Etsy. The reason I'm not all that crazy about this feature is that it doesn't seem to be right to me. They have told me two of my listings were on the first page when they weren't when I looked on Etsy's official site, and they have told me a few of my listings were on the same page as each other; and it's Etsy policy, now, to keep only one item per shop on a page, I'm pretty sure. So I'm mainly using this feature to make sure I'm in the top 500 listings (if they don't find you there, they don't bother to look further, so I'm going to say that is important), and to get my listings for the listing audits :).

-Listing audits. This is the best feature, if you ask me :)!!! See all those goody spots?!

Using Etsy Rank, I added this listing today that had a grade of *A* for my SEO! Most of my listings are a "B", even the ones I re-did with Etsy rank. I'm *pretty* sure this is because I redid my title and tags, but not my description, so I plan on doing that soon, and then I'll let you know what happens to those "B" listings. It's acceptable until C, though, as far as I can tell, so I'm happy with that for now.

This listing is less than 12 hours old, so there is no way to calculate my visibility and pretty much nothing has happened on it, haha. BUT, it's had two views already. For those big sellers who get 50 views and a sale within an hour of listing something, this is no big deal, but I have posted a few items at a time before and gotten just a view or two for them all combined, so it is promising to me!

The content test lets you know whether you missed regular requirements. Mine are all pretty good... except photos, lol! It's hard for me to get good photos at all, ten of them? I'm still working on that...

And then it takes all of the tags you used, and lets you know whether you used them in all the places you could or not. That's my second favorite feature, after the grading :D.

All in all, I think you still have to do a bit of research yourself, and just watch and see if it gets you results to decide if it works for you. For me, I'll definitely be using the site frequently. I have been working on my listings through it, and it's taken a lot of my "marketing time" away, but I've still been getting about the same amount of views as when I share my listings -and a much wider variety, too! I have had items viewed this week, without advertising them, that haven't had any attention for a month! It's really been encouraging!  Tomorrow I'm going to go into a little more detail about using the keyword tool. Yes, keywords again. This is my life, y'all ;). I told you we were never done learning!

Have you tried Etsy Rank? Will you be trying it now :)?

Keeping Your Shop Active ✽ And Advertising Through Etsy

I hope you all have had a blessed and restful Sunday today! I thought we'd talk about ways to boost our listings and advertise our shop without ever leaving Etsy, today...

One of the ways that you can help your keywords, tags, and titles do their work is to keep your shop "active". If your keywords aren't good, they don't give you much to work with, but if they are, you still want to give them a little help once in a while! If you let your shop get stagnant, or if you don't sell enough items, Etsy may push your perfectly good listing further and further back, just to bring forward shops that are continually "building up".

Some ways to keep your shop active are...
-Post new listings.
-Renew current listings (that will give that listing a boost, as well as helping your shop activity level).
-Rework keywords that may be hurting your sales (I've noticed a definite improvement in my shop views each time I've done this, so this is definitely a good, cheap way to do it!).
-Update your shop announcement section (you never want this out dated!!!)
-Share your listings (you can do this through an Etsy team, so you don't have to leave Etsy :) ).
-Switch out your featured listings, if you have a sale, or new releases, or seasonal items!
-Post a shop update.

These things just kind of keep your shop fresh, help you catch mistakes (like not taking down the "sale sign" yesterday), and let Etsy know that you haven't forgotten about your shop, meaning you probably mean business ;).

There are a few ways that Etsy has given you to advertise through their site:
-Promoted listings. These cost a minimum of $1 a day, but if you are confident you can make an extra $30 or more with them a month, you have nothing to lose! I've never done this, but if I did, I would promote my Custom Quote Canvas or my Music Chalkboard first. While my shop has about a 2% conversion rate (not as good as Etsy's desired 3%, but higher than Etsy's average 1%), those specific listings have a 6% and 3% conversion rate, respectively, so if I decided to spend the money, they would be the most likely to make it worthwhile. It's an option, but one that you do have to pay for, so that is up to discretion.
-Sharing your items with Etsy teams. You can share new listings, renewed listings, sales, coupons, best sellers... there is a team thread for just about everything (also threads for the "like for a like" game, but remember, that can be dangerous for your conversion rates). There are soooo many Etsy teams on Etsy, and you can get in ones just to share sales, just to sell crochet items, just to share Christian items, just for bloggers and Etsians to team up to build up blogs by advertising Etsy stores... it's endless! Pick some to be in, and start sharing just to give your items another place to be seen, but don't try to encourage too many people who don't want to buy to actually click on your item ;). I'm part of C.A.P.S.Team (Christian Artists Promoting Shops), if you want a place to start out on :). They have an Etsy group board, too, which would be great for building a Pinterest following if you use that platform as your social media advertising site!
-Posting shop updates. To do this, you will need a phone that can take and upload pictures, and the free "Sell on Etsy" app (comment: this thing sends you notifications for everything. I didn't know that when I downloaded it to share updates, and those first few "favorites" I got afterwards made me jump, haha! Tori said the noise sounds like a barn theme... lol!) My phone doesn't take great pictures, so I actually usually screenshot my product to get a picture to share... it works ;)! The great thing about shop updates is that they share with anyone who has liked your shop, followed you, or bought from you (if I remember correctly) without them having to sign up for anything, and not in an annoying way. It takes just a couple minutes, and you can tag listings in the update that will let people know where they can find what you are mentioning!

Do you actively update and freshen up your Etsy shop? Have you tried the Sell on Etsy app? And does it's notification jingle scare you at 5:00 in the morning ;)?