Undiscovered Tips for New Etsy Sellers by The Merriweather Council

Danielle, aka merriweathercouncil, runs a very successful shop on Etsy full of modern, chic embroidery and fabric patchwork wall art.  She is also a member of Team Discovery and enjoys sharing her knowledge and insights with new (and not so new!) Etsy sellers and handmade artists through The Merriweather Council blog. Today she's sharing some of her favorite lesser-known tips for Etsy sellers - take it away Danielle!

This is My Happy Place, Hand Embroidery by merriweathercouncil

1. Use Google Analytics to Find out When your Shop is Getting the Most Traffic

Ever wonder when your shop is getting the most views? Or wonder when the best time to list an item is? Firstly, set up Google Analytics on your shop. (Links to Meagan Visser's video tutorial.)

If you already have it set up, log in and look over to the lefthand side of the screen, do you see this?

Click on "Visitors", then "Visitor Trending", then "visits"

Now you can pick what you want to see, by hour, day, etc...

Let's go to "Hour" (It's the little clock icon over more toward the right side of the screen)

This is where you will be able to see quite clearly when your shop is getting the most traffic! Simple!

2. Don't List Everything at Once

Make the most of your listings and post 2-3 at a time. Why 2-3? If your photos are cohesive and look like they go together (ie, similarly styled) and you post 2-3 products in the same category at the same time, your little grouping will attract more attention, and stand out better in the search results than just one listing would! But don't be obnoxious and post 17 things at once, because then people just glaze over and that is not what you want!

3. Save Your Listings to Post Later

This little trick allows you to create you listings when you have time, but post them when you actually want to, possibly based on what you have learned by looking at your analytics. 

All you have to do is go through the process as you normally would... and go through to the very last step where you would normally click finish.

Now, highlight, and copy the address in the address bar (^^^)

Take this, and paste it into an email to yourself, and send it.

Now you have an active link back to this page, and anywhere you can check your email, you can click this link and get back to this final page and post your listing! This is great to use when you are out of town, or having a busy week!

4. Lower Bounce Rate

Now that you know when people are looking at your shop and leveraging that info by being more aware of when you post things, you want to keep them around as long as possible! 

Most browsers (potential buyers not their internet surfing application) are going to land on ONE of your listings, not your main shop page - makes sense, there are a lot more opportunities for them to get to one product rather than your main shop home page. And many people might not be familiar with Etsy or understand how to see more of your work. Make it more obvious to them and link back to your main shop page in each listing.

This lowers what is known as your "bounce rate" - you simply lead people back to your listings over and over again to keep them in your shop and help them find more of what you are offering. You can link to a specific section, you policy page, your main shop page, whatever you like. You could link to all these places but I would suggest either your main shop page or a specific section. You don't want to be annoying...

Adding these links also builds your back link count, which is helpful for google rankings - basically, the more links there are on the internet to you shop, the better.

Thanks Danielle!
If this information was helpful, head on over to Danielle's blog to see more tutorials on topics like making beautiful treasuries, using props in your photos, finding your target market, and much more.  Also don't forget to stop by her shop on Etsy to see her latest listings!