Etsy Seller's Tips: How does your Info + Appearance Look?

it's taken me a little while to gather my thoughts for where i should start at as far as offering my little 2 cents on how to start AND operate a successful Etsy shop; topics like how to open, picking a name, photos,  or if i just do a little of everything. i decided much like my life...it'll be a little of everything.

no matter how methodical or how planned i think i can be with my Etsy tips posts they simply will be a little collection of misc tips that i happened to think about that week. simply what seems to be the most common question for help i am receiving that week.

so today i'll start from the top, literally.

{first i will like to put in a disclaimer that all of my thoughts, posts and findings included in my posts on Etsy success are MY tips, so they may or may not align with what Etsy or other experts will advise, but so far it's worked for me ;)}

take a peek at your shops "info & appearance" screen. you find it under the Your Shop (top right of your screen)

what do you see when you look at yours? is it complete? here is a screen shot of mine

1. since you have already opened your shop and have a shop name, that will be listed at the top {we'll go over names on a later post}.

2. what do you see for your shop's title? do you even have one listed? this should basically be your shop's tag line, something that speaks to your overall product offerings, but has a twist that is uniquely your own. carry it throughout your brand. i see SO SO many shops that just put their shop name or leave it blank!! NO, you are wasting valuable keywords! 

for three bird nest my tag is {charming + girly headbands and accessories} 

that's my shop and my tag line

NOTICE how Google reads the titles and shop names? if i simply put in Three Bird Nest again it would say three bird nest by ThreeBirdNest...nobody would know what that was if they were not already familiar with my shop

3. banner - make sure that your banner captures the essence of your shop. how do you want your customers to feel when they first look at your shop page? the banner may be what makes them look and shop further = a sale!!! you can find tons of designers on Etsy that will make a banner and avatar for you for cheap, of just do it yourself! it's easy and takes just a few minutes. KEEP it CLEAN and simple.

{disclosure- i am not a huge fan of my current banner because it has tons of text that isn't relevant to my overall shop BUT since we are doing a promo for 10K fans on Facebook it is what it is for the next week or so}

4. link up your twitter and facebook pages to your shop. don't have them? you should!!

5. shop announcement....MANY will argue with me here but i do not use this as an "announcement" for the most part. this is the descriptive text that Google will show as what's your shop all about. think of this section as your 2 sentences to tell the world what you sell/make/offer.
see..if you don't believe me take a peek. notice how my "announcement" appears in the search engines?

6. your message to buyers is the text that appears on your receipt (invoice that you print for the order) and also in the email that Etsy sends the buyers when they purchase from your shop. keep it simple and short. if it's too long people don't want to ready it anyways AND it makes your receipt go to 2 pages which is a waste of paper.

SOOO I hope for at least some of you this is a start to being helpful. I'll try my best to get something up each week!!!

xo

alicia