I Did It!

I hit 300 sales this morning :)
It's actually 301 now!

Yay!

Ok, so Deborah of deboraheburrow.etsy.com, requested that I share some selling tips, so that's what I am going to write about today...some of the things that I have learned over the last year that I feel has improved my shop, as well as gotten some sales....

Ok. So the very first thing that I learned about was that photos are THE most important thing in your shop. Having awesome photos is KEY on Etsy. Photos are also the thing that I have the most trouble with. I have learned a lot about taking photos, and I have learned a lot about tweaking photos in photoshop, and I think that my photos have improved a lot since I first started...but I feel like they still don't do most of my work justice. But, the important thing here is that I have learned to take better photos.
I use natural light always. Cloudy days are best for taking photos of paintings!
When it comes to work on paper I try to have fun with them. Hanging them on a clothes line, or using a cute clip to hang them on a wall works well too.
I think having a really good scanner would work wonders as well, but the one we have isn't really that great. So if you have a scanner, or buying an awesome scanner is in your budget, I would also recommend using that.

The second important thing that I have learned is promoting!
I do this primarily in the forums.
This is a really great way for people to become more familiar with your shop!
Get in there and tell people what you have for sale. Let people know who you are. Make some friends. Share tips on shipping. Share your blog! Show people pictures of your pet! Anything! Just get yourself out there.
The first time I posted in the forum was actaully really funny when I think about it...
I posted in promotions about a new painting that I listed. I remember copying the link for it, pasting it in the little box, and hitting post. I got out of that thread as quickly as I could because I was afraid of what people would say about it...haha...that's really funny to me.

Anyway...the other really important thing I learned was to re-new or post a new item everyday! Again, this has to do with getting your name out there. Every time you list a new item, or re-new an item, it goes to the top of the page in that category. So the more often you do this, more exposure you get, and the more exposure you get, the more people become familiar with your shop....all really great things...

Tags are also a very important tool when selling on Etsy. Try to use all the tags possible for tagging your work, but remember not to abuse this system. I try to go through all the steps of how I made my work to tag. For example, a painting would look like this:

art
collage
original collage
mixed media
mixed media original
painting
original painting
encaustic
oil
red
typewriter
assemblage
michele maule

Like that!

I also read everything and anything that had to do with selling on Etsy.
I found a lot of this information in Etsy's Storque articles as well as in the Forums.
Etsy sellers are some of the nicest people you will ever meet, and they love sharing tips and tricks on how to sell.

Alright, well, I hope this helps a little bit. :)
Selling on Etsy is a full time job...between promoting, listing, blogging, getting orders filled, answering e-mails, and actually making things, it is something that takes a lot of time.
But I love it.
Hope you all had a great weekend!
Have a good Monday.