How to sell on ETSY

It's hard to get noticed online with the amount of products for sale.  My stores have been online  for two years,  supporting me as a full time job.  Etsy is my main site of choice,  with three stores open.   

The Storque  section is full of useful information on the how-tos of selling successfully.  Too many people are opening stores without  doing the homework of selling.   I have spent literally hundreds of hours reading everything I can about selling and marketing. Look at other successful sites to see what makes them unique and standout.  It is probably the most important part of my success.   

Every week I get emails  asking why I'm getting sales and they have none.  The hours I've logged into the details of my business are equal to and sometimes more than the hours I spend creating.  There is so much information out there, you just need to commit to the time to read it and use it.  

The Storque on Etsy has a new handbook up with a condensed list of things to do.   My shop is listed in the treasury of related items that follows the article.  Here's the link: http://www.etsy.com//storque/how-to/the-etsy-seller-handbook-all-our-how-tos-about-selling-2383/   

Anyone opening a store or already has a store should take a moment to read the short article.  There are so many things you can do to increase your sales.  Here's a short list of some things I've done that have helped mine. 

1.  I list or re-list an item in all of my stores EVERYDAY.  This keeps your product out in front for people to see.

2.  Try to re-list something that is a real eye grabber.  It may not be the thing someone will buy, but it's the bait to draw them into your store.  Once they're in they may buy something else.

3.  You need lots of traffic to sell one thing.  Probably twenty people stop at one of my stores before someone buys something so I have to keep a steady stream of people coming.

4.  This is obvious,  take great pictures.

5. Go to stores in the top etsy sellers list and study what makes their store stand out.  

 a.  what brought you to their store?

 b.  how do they tag their items?

 c.  what is in the first picture of each item?  how is it cropped,  how was it staged for the photo?

 d.  how often do they list or relist?

 e.  how do they draw you into their site, making you want to go on to the next page?

6. start a blog, a facebook, myspace,twitter, flicker page.  You'd be surprised how many people show up from these sites.

7.  join an online social group with people of the same interest as you.  

8.  Link to your store from everywhere online that you can.  

9.  Be social.  If you had a brick and mortar store you'd become friendly with your customers, the same goes with online.  

10.  Always promptly answer questions.  So many people leave convo questions that go ignored by the store owner. There are plenty of other sellers out there willing to talk to them if you don't.

11.  Keep your store neat.  If you have some old listings that don't fit in with the new ones, edit them with new pictures, better wording and tags.  Keep items in the correct sections to make shopping easier.  

12.  Obvious but needs to be said:  be polite!  Read everything you write before sending it.  Your facial expression or voice intonation is not being sent, make  sure your words do not come off with the wrong tone when read by a buyer.  

These are just a few of my tips for a better store.  I'm going to be working on store sales in future blog posts so stop back.  If you have any you would like to add to my list please leave a comment.