So… it’s already been a week since my first “update” and 2 weeks since I posted my first listing on Etsy.
I have to be honest with you, this week, maybe 2-3 days after I posted (Re)Starting Etsy. Week 1 out of 10 I had a little bit of a meltdown if I can even call it like that. I’ve been through some phases and felt the need to give everything up. For a second I felt that I don’t even know why I am doing this, felt disappointed because my Etsy shop didn’t boom in the first week. I knew from the beginning that I should not be expecting 1000 visits and 100 sales, I knew that, but I lost myself. Now I’m ok and thanks to this blog I’ll keep doing this. To be honest, like I said last week, I’m only documenting this on my blog to force me to keep ongoing. Didn’t want someone to visit my blog and see just 2-3 posts about this journey and that’s it, where’s the rest of it? No, if someone will visit this blog, he/she should be able to see all 10 posts that I’ll suppose to have at the end of this challenge.
So, the main goal for these 10 weeks was:
- Post weekly a listing on Etsy
- Create at least 3 digital products for listing every week
- Document everything for 10 weeks.
Check
Check
Check
Checked all these 3 requirements/goals. Except number 3, still working on that ( I should be done with this goal on the 4th of July).
So, let’s get to business and see how was this last week.
Week 2, 8 weeks left.
On the 2nd of May, I’ve posted my second listing on my Etsy shop, (haha, second listing on the second of the month). It looks pretty similar to the first one, I know this wasn’t a really smart move… but in my defense, I liked it way too much. Why this wasn’t such a good idea? Well, you’ll find out a bit later, just keep reading.
So, this is how everything went since the last week. Last time I told you that I wanted to get 50% more visits, so I was expecting to have somewhere around 53 visits, which means that 78 visits are a pretty good number. I know that 78 doesn’t seem a big number (because it’s not), but, keeping in mind that in these 2 weeks I’ve posted 2 digital products and got 78 visits, imagine when I’ll have even more listings. I’ve been reading so much these past days about Etsy and starting your shop and what to do and what to avoid, about mistakes, about things that you’re actually doing wrong. This is exactly why I wasn’t expecting for more, for bigger things and to see my inbox exploding with new orders.
Almost every blog post that I’ve read said the same thing “have enough listings”. We’ll get to that, pretty soon, but since this is some sort of experiment/challenge we’re going slow so we can grow big. So, if right now we have 2 listings on Etsy and 78 visits, this is supposed to seem that if I’ll have 10 listings I should be expecting to have 390 visits. I guess right now we have a target for the end of this challenge, right?
Even though everywhere says that you should have at least 10 items when you start your shop, the fact that I’m posting one a week it actually helps me to see what is working and what’s not working on Etsy. I’ll probably think that I’ve created something amazing, and my shop will make thousands of sales, but guess what, that might not be right.
Thru this process, I’ll be able to analyze how everything is going, what people like, what people are searching for, and so on. Let me show you why I’m saying that.
As you can see, my first digital product, posted 2 weeks ago got 69 views, comparing with the one posted last week which got only 22 views. The first one, which I’ve shown you right here seem to go pretty well. This time, as my 3rd digital product I want to try to post something else, something a little bit different, it will also be printable because this is what all this is about, but it will be something for a planner (physical and digital). Posting different things will help me analyze everything better and see what people actually like and search for.
I know that having an online business should be about being your own boss, and you’ll be when you actually hit a certain level with everything you’re trying to do, but… to get there you have to listen to the crowd first. Having a business online or not is not always about you, most of the times is about your customers. You can try to create and sell what you like, but at the same time shape everything around your customer’s needs.
I feel that I’m rambling a little here. Yup, I actually am. I guess that I’ll have to write another post about listening to your customers.
How’s Pinterest going? Well… even if on Etsy my last digital product didn’t go as well as planned, somehow on Pinterest it got the most impressions.
Even if I pinned this on Pinterest only one week ago, it went much better than my last listing, which after 2 weeks only got 76 impressions and no link clicks.
See… you have to go slowly to have enough time to analyze what goes well and what doesn’t.
This being said, my goals for the next week are:
- Get 50% more visits on Etsy, this means that this time next week I’m supposed to have 117 visits.
- Create a few more digital products(preferably not wreaths).
- Work a little more on the Pinterest side, since it seems a good and free way to get a little more traffic/visits to my shop.
- Give better (longer) descriptions to my Etsy listings.