Monday, September 28, 2009

How I (accidentally) Had My Best Week of Etsy Sales Ever

I LOVE reading tips for how to sell on etsy on other blogs, the etsy wiki, and especially in the Storque. Right now my favorite is etsy's Quit Your Day Job series. But at a certain point, to be honest, they all start to sound the same.

So I decided to ask in the etsy forums for some "secret" tips. Ones that were unique, special or worked really well. I included my own secret to get the ball rolling, then asked others to join in. The thread (which you can see here) includes some helpful tips from other sellers, with quite a few folks "marking" the thread to read later on.

Then etsy admin daniellexo chose the thread, which I had titled "What's your best etsy sales secret? Here's mine," to be in the etsy success newsletter. Sales started coming in within hours and continued at a high rate for several days. In the end, I had my best week of sales on etsy ever.

Plus (if that wasn't great enough), I've also been asked to host an etsy workshop at the beginning of December on How to Bring in Last-Minute Holiday Sales, which is quite exciting as well.

I admit that my accidental "tip" of getting picked to be in the etsy success newsletter might be a bit of a long-shot. However, in looking through dozens of other threads that have also been highlighted, there seems to a couple of ways to increase your chances of being chosen:

1. Keep all of your helpful information within the body of your forum post. In other words, don't say "hey, I found some great advice which I share here..." and then link to your blog. Many consider this spammy/promotional and it is not taken as seriously.

2. Similarly, this is not the time for self-promotional links to your etsy site, twitter account, or blog. If people want to find you, they will. But again, too many links to your information can be distracting.

3. Pick a great title that both summarizes your topic but also draws people in. Here are a couple of forums threads recently featured in the etsy success newsletter:
4. Strive to have a couple hundred comments on your post. This isn't essential, but will help keep your post toward the top of the forums, and thus more likely to be seen by an etsy admin. You can do this by promoting it outside of etsy (I announced it in my newsletter and twitter). You can also bump your thread up by being an active participant when people ask questions or are looking for follow up.

5. And perhaps it goes without saying that helpful information should be, well, helpful. Spend some time writing up your post. Spell check. Use paragraph breaks. Think about a tip you have that is unique or that has served you well. I'd also suggest subscribing to the Etsy Success newsletter both to get an idea of what is typically covered, but also because there are some great tips shared.

Nope; there's no guarantee that by posting a helpful thread that you'll be picked for the newsletter. But at a minimum, sharing your helpful advice with others will hopefully result in some good karma.

6 comments:

Deb (Two Cheeky Monkeys) said...

Thankyou for your very helpful and insightful post! I find it hard to look through all the forum threads for one that is well written and helpful, so this has helped me.

Carmen Malavé said...

Wow! Great advice and great links :). I want to start an etsy shop (CAYAVI, sounds nice?), I'm a full time student so a few extra dollars sounds great right now, plus I love creating things! I better start reading all of this before I become an etsian!

piddix said...

Thanks Deb. You're right, the forums can be hard to find the "gems," which is why I especially like the etsy newsletter. They find some of the best so I don't have to.

And Carmen, you should totally start a store. Etsy is absolutely perfect for making a little extra money--especially with the holidays coming up.

Unknown said...

Thanks so much for your words of wisdom! I love all the suggestions.

Zu-Li Designs said...

Congrats on your best sales week ever! Thanks for sharing your tips!

piddix said...

Thanks so much Patrice and Zu-Li Designs. Hope you found it helpful.