Review Your Etsy Shop: a Challenge

Last year I was invited to be part of a group launching a new etsy team, the Blogging Business Artisans.  We all have shops on etsy and we all have blogs.   The team gives us opportunities to share our experiences and business information, and has been a wonderful support personally as well as professionally.  Although I have never met any in the "real" world, I count my teammates among my friends.

One of our team requirements is to participate in 6 of the 12 monthly Challenges each year.  These Challenges are meant to be fun as well as to grow our skills.

That leads to the Challenge for December presented to us by  Deb of storybeader.   Deb asks us to review our etsy shops.
"The December Challenge is all about looking back over the year and reviewing your Etsy Shop.  Can you think of one thing to do that will help improve your shop? There's a whole list of things available to do:  re-shooting photographs, coupons, having a sale, removing/adding products, changing sections/shipping requirements, or merging two shops. Write a post and share with your teammates what might help you!  And if you see results, tell us!"

My shop is Splendid Little Stars.   I opened it in late 2008.  I must admit that up until the start of the BBA team I had not put lots of effort into it.  Being part of this team has re-energized me.  This past year has been a difficult and busy one for me, but I was still able to grow my shop and make some important changes.  I'm hoping next year I will have more time to put into implementing good ideas and plans.

Besides some basic tweaking like photos, descriptions, sections, and perhaps pricing, I know I need to be more active in promoting my shop.

Here are a few of my thoughts:
1.  Read more/participate more in the Etsy Success team's discussions.  One thing I learned this year is that the title of a product is not necessarily the name of the product.  It's important to get as many descriptive words in the title as possible in order to optimize searching. 
An example is my blue and white silk scrunchie.  It's title now reads:  SILK Scrunchie, hand dyed, soft for hair, ponytail, silk, scrunchie, scrunchies, indigo, royal blue, navy, creamy white

I learned it's important to put the descriptive title words in the tags as well.   And while we are on this subject, do search for your own products using various search words.

2.  Continue to post in threads in these 3 teams
     Shops 
     Leaders of Handmade 
     Pure Handmade    
Doing so this past year has resulted in more views, favorites, treasury lists, and one would suppose, sales.

3.  Being in treasuries definitely helps views, favorites, and sales.  One of our BBA requirements is to make one treasury per month including at least six BBA members' items.  I think my teammates would agree that these treasuries have definitely increased visibility.
Perhaps I will join  Avid Treasurers--a team to which I've been invited.  They even play promotional treasury games. 

 4.  Read topics about shop promotion and selling.  I am looking foward to the upcoming topics planned for our team blog.

5.  This year I began a notebook in a 3 ring binder that has pages for my blog, my shop, and the BBA team.  These are all further divided into more sections.  Here I can keep my ideas, plans, and record my results.  This notebook has helped me keep organized and stay on track  (at least most of the time!) .


LINKS to my past BBA Challenges: 
New Mittens, Old Sweater! a challenge! 
LOVE: a Challenge! 
Turquoise and Red: a Challenge! 
Spring is in the Air! 
Spring Blossoms: a Challenge 
Under the Sea 
Miniature Garden: a Challenge 


all photos © by me and BBA team