How to Get Crazy Traffic to My Etsy Store

If you're an artist who works hard at your craft and who doesn't have much time for networking, please, you need to read this:

I have been reading about this for some time now and it seems as though some spend much time with Social Networking and Tweeting in order to gain crazy traffic to their etsy shops and it's working great for them!  Being in business for seven years now, I understand that you need to bring people through your shop and therefore you need a way to build a client base, but my goodness, when you make everything by hand, it doesn't leave much time to spend networking.  I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that I can't believe it's the only way to success.  There must be other ways; less time- consuming ways.

As an artist, I often find myself in what I like to call "creative mode."  Once I'm in the creative mode, I'm inspired and I'm psyched to bring to life whatever I mustered up in my imagination.  Once I get going, I don't like to break the rhythm.  Because once I break the rhythm, it might take me a while to get it back again.  This is the dilemma I have:  How can I succeed in business and keep my "creative mode" going simultaneously??   I'm sure I am not the only one that feels this way.  It comes down to this:  If I spend all of my time networking and I lose my creative rhythm, I will be driving people to an empty and mediocre etsy shop... and that's no good.  I need to find a middle, a balance.  A method that will help me in all areas without hindering my creativity.

So, I'm on a quest:  I'm looking for different ways to make my etsy shop a great success without spending all my time networking.  If you have any hints and tricks on how you drive traffic to your etsy store, please share them here. I would love to build a resource page with a list of things to do so that I can do better and also help others who are finding it difficult as well.  Everyone on etsy deserves a chance to be seen and to make a bit of money.  So please, help me build a resource page.  Add your suggestions and share what you do for success.  I want to hear them all (even if they have to do with networking), or even if you think it's an insignificant little thing... I want to hear that one too.  Looking forward to your information.

From all of the artists who work hard at creating and whom don't have much time for networking, etc...,
Thank You!

Success with Etsy

I'm a newbie with the whole Etsy store, and I must say that it can be overwhelming to see how fierce the competition is on Etsy.  I really thought I had no chance at all.  I've decided to give it a year.  I would do everything I could, find the tricks of the trade and put them into practice. 

As any type of business, I realize success does not come overnight and does not happen by accident.  It takes time and lots of hard work and I'm ready to do these.

First of all, after registering my etsy store, I immediately intergrated google analytics into my backstore - this enabled me to monitor what's really going on with my store; who was visiting, where are they visiting from, how long are they staying and so forth.  This little tool is a MUST if you're want to have any kind of success with Etsy or any other website for that matter.

After monitoring my website for a while, I had to do something about my bounce rate.  What is a bounce rate?  Bouncing is when a person goes into your store and bounces right back out unto someone elses website.  My bouce rate was high.  I mean really high.  I was in the mid 80's to high 70's.  I needed to do something to keep these potential clients in my store longer.  So, what did I do?  I googled, of course.  And I found tips and tricks to lower your bounce rate.  I applied them and I'm now down to low 60's, which is considered good.  How did I do it?  This is so easy and it's quite ingenious as well, I placed internal links into my descriptions.  Each description has a link to another item in my store.  It's easy and it works.  The goal is to keep your visitors interested.  This method has worked for me and I know it will work for you.

Another thing that I'm doing is working harder on my pictures.  It's difficult to get an interesting picture that'll entice people to click.  So, before I begin clicking away with my camera, I look around the house, even my closet, for interesting textures and neutral backgrounds.  The combination colors and background of your photograph are very important because people choose treasury items based on these photographs and if your photos are blah, chances are you might loose out on being featured in a treasury, thus losing potential sales. 

So, these are the things I've been working on and so far, I've been seeing some success.  I will be adding more details on what I do to succeed with Etsy.