Welcome to this week’s post in our current ten week series on blogging for your online business:

{B.L.O.G.} – Blogging Leads to Online Greatness (new to the series? start here)

We’ve talked about how to set up a WordPress blog, how to use social media, and how to create great blog content.  What we haven’t talked about is how any of that can actually help you sell on Etsy.

Let’s look at that.

Five Ways to Use Your Blog To Promote Your Etsy Shop

Etsy Mini – I use this method extensively.  If you look at the lower right side of this very blog, you’ll see three huge Etsy Minis for my three shops.  I get hundreds of clicks each month to my shops from those alone.

If you sell on Etsy and you have a blog, then you really need to be using an Etsy Mini.  Combined with the use of good photography of your items, this tool can catch the eye of visitors and result in direct sales.  It also reminds regular visitors to your blog that you actually have something to sell.  You want them to keep that in mind!

Posts – Write posts about your items!  These posts have great value in a number of ways.

• Show off your work
• Good photography enhances your blog
• Link-building to your Etsy shop or item
• Keeps your blog relevant to your target audience
• These are the most effective SEO tools you have

Posts about your items can be just "show-off" posts, they can be informative posts, and they can be educational.  Lots of great posts that support Etsy items actually teach people how to make it themselves.  Mix up various ways of writing about your items and see what you like best.

SEO – If you’re planning on staying in online sales for a long time, time that’s measured in years not weeks or months, then SEO will eventually be of great importance to you.

Your blog is a potential SEO goldmine.  All of the things we teach about Etsy Shop SEO apply in just the same way to your blog.  Post titles, keywords, and link-building are all important components of building a search-engine friendly blog.

The beauty of search traffic to your blog is that once you start ranking for keywords relevant to your niche, you can direct that traffic to your Etsy shop, using the other methods in this post.

Pages -

One of the advantages of a self-hosted WordPress blog is the ability to create pages.  Pages are different than posts in that they don’t appear in the "timeline" of your blog.  pages are subject related and are usually not time-sensitive in any way.

You can create all kind of pages on your blog that transform your site from a regular every day blog, to a "resource" {very key word to remember} for your target audience.  If there is nothing else you learn from the whole {B.L.O.G.} series, remember that you want to create a resource.

Useful page types:

• Lists of links to relevant resources in your niche
• Photo galleries of beautiful and inspiring items related to your niche
• Commonly used tutorials and step-by-step instructions
• Contact forms and contact info for customers and readers to reach you
• About You pages {they say that long about pages help people get to know you}

If your blog software allows pages, use them liberally!  You won’t regret it.

Relationships -

Try to imagine it this way:  Every time someone visits your blog, it’s the same thing as if you were talking to that person face-to-face.

Of course we know it’s not exactly the same, but the more we look at it that way the better the blog will be.  This idea encourages the use of words like "you" and "we".  It helps you to apply the social etiquette you know so well to your blog.

This keeps you from talking all about yourself, but it also reminds you to do the online equivalent of giving the visitor a business card, or offering a coupon to your shop.

Ways to build relationships with your blog:

• Ask for comments and engage in conversation
• Invite your new friend {reader} to other places you like to hang out such as Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. {video on using social media}
• Pay attention to what your friend likes and try to provide that {tracking analytics and site use patterns}
• Go visit your friend at their place. {comment on other blogs}
• Learn your friends goals and try to help
• Share real insight into your life without forgetting it’s a website {be quick about it}

Real-life friendships are started this way and this is probably the most effective use of your blog for promoting your Etsy shop.  Your blog is the same as attending a social function every night, but you don’t have to get dressed up and you can still feed the kids while you’re at it!

Once you get into the groove of blogging you’ll love it!

~Kim & Tim

You’ve probably heard by now that starting next Tuesday, September 27th, there will be paid ads showing up in the Etsy search results. These ads are open to all Etsy sellers to promote their items at a relatively good price. Considering that buyers are already looking for what you’re selling, the “conversion rate” from clicks on these ads is bound to be great!

Kim and Tim Ready to Podcast! Hershey sleeping...

But We Had Questions!

We had a few questions and I bet you do too! We were lucky enough to get Frank Harris and Natalie Schwartz on a Skype call straight from Etsy HQ! Tim and I had a list of questions and they graciously answered them in-depth for more than a half-hour. If you’re looking to maximize your Etsy sales, this information is a must! Questions cover topics such as:

• Does the cost of ads vary?
• Will there be any more recent listings shown?
• How do you decide what ads to show?
• How do you determine top search results and what can we do to get on page one!???

It’s worth the time to listen to this straight from the real people at Etsy who make this stuff work. I think you’ll be pleased to hear a genuine concern for the needs of sellers like you and me! Tim and I both left the conversation feeling excited about the future of Etsy and our role as Etsy sellers by extension.

Enjoy the podcast:
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If you prefer to read, rather than to listen, we’ll be posting a written summary of the questions and conversation soon. But there’s something to be said about hearing it directly. So I hope you give it a listen.

You might be interested in reading some of these:

• Behind the Curtain:  The Strategy of Search Ads
• Etsy Relevancy Search Tips
• Putting Your Shop on Top {Relevancy}

Don’t forget to join us each week for our 10-week series, Blogging Leads to Online Greatness {B.L.O.G.}.  Learn how to set up and use a blog to promote your shop!

Keep up with the the latest Etsy news subscribe to Everything Etsy!

What are your thoughts on the new search ads on Etsy? Have you signed-up yet? Are there questions we didn’t ask?

~Kim

Have you ever tried to make everyone happy at the same time? The kids and the husband; the boss and the customer; the shoe collection and the bank balance!

Etsy Shop SEO is just like that, except that it’s actually possible and not all that hard to do.

Please the Robot and the Human

SEO is all about pleasing the “bots” that search engines send out to crawl and index the Internet. These are completely emotionless strings of computer code. Nothing more than a program and no more human than my toaster. What goes in, is what comes out, just not always exactly the way you want it.

Key considerations in pleasing bots:

• Title Text – the first few words of your item/listing title are key to good results in SEO – they should clearly describe your item and match potential (or target) search terms very closely (or exactly).
• Item Description – From a bot perspective, this is where you answer the “are you sure that’s what you’re selling?” question. The title says what you’re selling and the item description reinforces that you didn’t get confused when writing the title. It also gives you a chance to target a few more keywords.
• Image Information – For now, Etsy changes the name of your pictures to a computer generated number, but you should get into the habit of naming your image files with SEO in mind. If you use your pictures on blogs, in forums, or dozens of other places online, the image name is indexed by search engines and should describe the item.
• Inbound Links and Anchor Text – When you really want to get serious about building your listings up in terms of SEO, you need to focus on getting links pointing to those listings that reinforce the nature of the item and indicate that it is (or might be) popular.

For a good introduction, see our Basic Etsy Shop SEO Video (click here)

People Pleasing

It’s smart business to please the bots, because they have the power to send lots of people to your shop. Read that again… lots of people to your shop.

People do the buying so it’s really not a good idea to forget them when doing your listings. Believe it or not, it’s really not that tough to please the people, without confusing the bots.

Here are a six simple tips:

1. Use words that invoke emotions in your titles – Words like love, excitement, happy, luxurious, refreshing… you get the idea.
2. Don’t shy away from catchy names for your items – Good SEO doesn’t mean you can’t put your own personality in your item titles. Your title is the first impression to a buyer, show some originality!
3. Be descriptive and use more than one keyword phrase in your title, but keep it easy to scan (read super-quickly).
4. Consider Including Your Shop Name – If you have room after including keywords, emotions, and personality, consider including your shop name at the end. The more it’s out there, the more recognizable it will become over time and the stronger your brand will be.
5. If you offer free shipping, put it in the title. People search for this and even if they didn’t, it will get you more clicks to your shop because they want to see what else you’ll ship to them for free.
6. BEST KEYWORDS FIRST – The key to all of this is to include the most relevant keywords first, then work backwards, but include as much as you can. There is no penalty for a long title.

The bottom line is to remember that you have two “customers” to please when you’re writing your item title and descriptions. The bots, which are only interested in keywords and non-emotional stuff, and people who care about things like feelings and free shipping!

The easiest way to remember this is to write your title in the same order you envision the sale really happening. Make the bots happy first and they will send people. Then be a people pleaser!

We come across so much great SEO information for Etsy Sellers that we thought we should start trying to keep it organized so you can find it. We have a new category called Etsy Shop SEO.

Encourage Reviews in The Directory

As the web grows, people get more and more savvy. Look in the mirror, you’re reading a post about SEO right now! Did you expect that?

One of the tricks savvy web shoppers often use is the “review” search. This is where you search for the item or business you’re considering with the word “review” on the end of the search.

We designed the review system at the Everything Etsy Directory with this search practice in-mind. And it works! See the below Google Search for Verdant Violet Reviews. (Verdant Violet has the most reviews so far)

You see that the very top result is her directory listing and it shows the number of reviews.

All of the biggest retailers out there are using reviews to help people know what others are saying about a product or seller. We’ve grown to count on feedback from real people to help us in our buying decisions.

How To Get Reviews

1. Ask for them!

Verdant Violet has quite a few reviews and she got them quickly, so it appears that she simply asked a few customers if they would mind coming over and sharing their thoughts on her products.

2. Link to them!

If you would rather not ask directly for reviews, here is a great way to do it:

• Do your best to get customers to your website or blog. Maybe have a “customer appreciation page” that offers customers a coupon code or current special. (you would mention that page to every purchaser)
• On your website or blog, include a very prominent graphic or text link that says “Leave a Review” or something like that which lets customers know that you have this option. Link that to your Directory Listing. (you get the URL to your directory listing by clicking on the shop name and getting to a page with only your listing)

There’s plenty of ways to get your customers to write a review for you. And they can be good for business long-term. Just be careful to address bad ones, because they can backfire! (to be sure you don’t miss any reviews on your listing, you can subscribe to the reviews for your listing in the “leave a review” area.)

Directory.EverythingEtsy.com

The directory has over 1100 shops listed! Search for shops (and suppliers!) you’ve bought from. Maybe you can help someone get started with a great review. If your shop isn’t listed yet, add your listing today!

Update: Gena from Verdant Violet shares great info on how she got those reviews in the comments below… (if they aren’t visible in this view, click on the word “comments”) – Thanks, Gena!

We added a cool new feature to the Everything Etsy Directory yesterday. Enhanced listings can now use HTML to create great looking listing profiles that used to be very plain.

But lots of us don’t know much HTML, so Tim and I made this five minute video and created a PDF download cheat sheet that will help you learn the basics of HTML.

PDF DOWNLOAD – Basic HTML Cheat sheet

We’ve started a page here on the site for videos: EverythingEtsy.com/videos

Did you know that blog commenting overall has reduced over the last couple of years?

It’s not that people aren’t talking anymore, it’s just that they have more places to talk, and they don’t have more time, so something has to give. More activity on Facebook, or Twitter = Fewer comments on blogs. Generally speaking.

Did you think it was just you? Maybe people don’t like your writing anymore? Nope. It’s an across the board shift. It’s also an opportunity in disguise.

Fewer Comments Could Mean More Clicks

If you’re like me, you often read the comments when you read a blog post. Especially a post that has particular interest to you. I do, and when I do, I often click through on interesting comments or commenters. Call me nosey.

That’s how information spreads online. That’s the beauty of the community and the beauty of links.

So, if a post had 100 comments, and you left one then using simple math you have 1 in 100 chance of getting a click on that. (not totally true, because the first comments get the most clicks) If a post has 10 comments and you’re one of those, then your chances just went up ten-fold. Right? Sorta?

That’s it. Just thinking out loud. Just thinking that it’s a bigger opportunity than it looks like (maybe than it feels like) to go out there and comment on lots of blogs.

Plus, I’ve been told that bloggers are exceptionally needy emotionally. You’re doing a good thing when you say hello. I’m just sayin’.

~ Kim

Other posts you might be interested in for your Etsy business…

• Easy Shipping for Etsy Sellers

Our first etsy shop seo video now has close to 1500 views and we’ve had dozens of viewers share that it was helpful to them! We were so glad to hear that and Tim and I have created a second video on the next most important part of Etsy Shop SEO, which is building links to your shop all over the place online.

This video goes through all of the most important basics of what “good” links are and how you can build them. Just like the first Everything Etsy University Video, this one is about 20 minutes of detailed information that will help you be successful. We’re offering it for free with no strings attached. You don’t even have to give us an email address. But if you want to learn more about success on etsy, sign up to get EverythingEtsy posts by email.

Enjoy the video and feel free to continue the discussion here in the comments section!

~Kim

Have you seen the Everything Etsy Directory lately?

There are now over 550 listings! Enhanced listings now include a spot on the home page slider at the directory.

You might enjoy checking out some of these great shops! (you can click on the image or title to visit that listing)
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Well my goodness!  It’s a week of new things here at Everything Etsy!  First the Everything Etsy Directory which has had close to 400 Etsy Shops submitted in four days! Now our first in-depth video tutorial.

I have to admit, it was fun to make!  It was kind of like Tim and I playing “radio show” as he handles most of the techy side of things while I try and pry out the things that he thinks are obvious and push him past the things that make normal people slip into a coma.

This is an in-depth demonstration and the video lasts 22 minutes.  But the tips could prove to be very valuable to you in the long-run, so if you have questions about how to optimize your site for search engines, you’ll love it.

For more information, check out the post from last year that spells out the details of keyword research.

We hope it was helpful!  Feel free to embed the video on your blog if you would like to share it, and if you’re left with questions or have any comments, leave them here!

~Kim

If you operate a business online, you need to know about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). For the average Etsy seller, an advanced degree isn’t required. A working knowledge is.

With a basic understanding of SEO, you can make your products available through a search engine to someone who is looking for them.

Just don’t get too excited when your items show up in a Google search. For most Etsy sellers, search is a small part of the puzzle.

I ran across a forum thread on the Etsy Forums today. The thread is hot with hundreds of sellers responding to a call to deactivate your shop pages and then reactivate them, thus supposedly instigating a Google “crawl” of your whole shop.

One of the “triggers” for a search engine robot to crawl your shop is new activity, so I suppose it could make sense for the tactic to instigate some action. But the pages and pages of excitement the idea generated is a bit over-the-top because it isn’t going to equal sales for most people.

Search Rank Doesn’t Equal Sales

Our “The Lavender Road” shop on Etsy ranks right behind Martha Stewart on the front page of Google for “Lavender Sachet” and “Lavender Sachets”. That’s great and all since the shop does, in fact, sell beautiful handmade lavender-filled sachets.

But being on the front page for that term only brings in about four or five visitors a day on average, and those visitors rarely buy. When we don’t promote the shop in other ways, we don’t get many sales.

Now, if there happens to be a worldwide explosion in the popularity of lavender sachets things might change, but for now we have to do more to get sales.

If we decided to try and push for some sales this week, we would do these things:

1. Make a plan to list new items and re-list old items, a few at a time, periodically over the next few days. We would try our best to time the listings to peak hours, though it is a bit of a guessing game.
2. Provide a more aggressive free shipping incentive. Buyers love free shipping.
3. Promote a new item using Facebook, Twitter, and our blogs.
4. Contact a few frequent repeat customers via email announcing the shipping special.
5. Increase our advertising presence online (various methods).

We won’t be doing these things because we’re not pushing this week, but that’s the short formula for you if you are pushing this week!

When it comes to getting sales on Etsy, know SEO, use SEO, secretly hope for Google to send thousands of visitors to your shop, but don’t count on it! There are plenty of ways to build those sales and search is only a part of it!

For that basic knowledge of SEO, a good place to start is a short list of the top five things you can do to improve your Etsy Shop SEO. I put that list on the Everything Etsy Facebook Page a little while ago. If you’ve not joined us on Facebook yet, please do!