Saturday, January 2, 2010

Year in Review: Part 2, Daily Listing or Renewal on Etsy


I'm a sucker for anything where secrets are revealed. I think marketers know that but most of the time once you get to the magical unfurling, its information you already knew! My curiosity still ends up making me click though and during this year my inquisitiveness has led me to some activities that helped sales in my shop.

This installment of my Year in Review covers daily listings or renewals on Etsy.

When I started my Etsy shop in March I used to list everything I had made all at one time. What I would notice would be a rush of traffic for the next day or so and then nothing until I put up more listings. Since your new listings start at the top of the area (in my case jewelry) and then go further back in the pages, that visitor behavior only makes sense.

Some folks keep their product higher in the pages by daily renewal which at a twenty cent fee is the same as a new listing. Since I tend to create in multiples I prefer to do new listings but have sometimes done a renewal especially if I have products that are expiring.

When I started to do a daily listing not only did I decrease the amount of stress of photographing and writing descriptions for my jewelry but I noticed a change in my traffic and where it was coming from. My Google analytics switched from top traffic as Twitter and Facebook (primarily from me posting links) to being direct within Etsy or from keyword searches in search engines.

I break up the week by days into “creating” and “marketing” with the middle of the week for the actual doing i.e. crafting whatever pops into my head (and taking photos right then is possible) and the weekend for promoting. By having a stash of ready to go photographs I can easily do my daily listing when I have time typically very early in the morning or right when I get home from work.

Whether you set a renewal budget or have the type of product that will benefit from new listings, I recommend you try doing something daily and see if it helps your views and sales. Try different times of the day on different days as well. This also makes a difference with Twitter traffic especially.

More on search engine optimization, product photography and social marketing in the next few days!

5 comments:

Susiem (Lynwood Jewellery) said...

Its great to have this type of advise (especially for me as i seem to be lost on Etsy) - it is MUCH appreciated

Susie (suzedablooze from HAF) xxx

theothermagdalene said...

Yep - I do a spurt of creating, then I use one of my weekend days to take pictures. All of that is usually good for a week and a half of posting 2 things a day, which brings in pretty steady traffic from Twitter as well as Etsy. I renew when the time comes along to do so, but I try to keep everything new.

Sharon Paradiso said...

I was trying to do everything everyday and it just wears you out and you lose track of what you enjoy!

Unknown said...

I really like the idea of splittng up the week, this day for creating that day for promoting.Thanks!

Amievoltaire said...

Interesting to hear how your traffic changed from facebook and twitter to direct. Makes sense. Thank you :<)