UA-59651954-28 Crafty Allie: The Biggest Way to Increase Traffic

Monday, February 24, 2014

The Biggest Way to Increase Traffic




Hello Everyone! Happy Monday, hope it's not too manic for you!

Today's post is from not one but two guest bloggers.

Please Welcome Julie from Etsy Stalkers,

and Kim from


etsystalkers.com, kimbloomberg.com, pinteres


You have an Etsy shop. Yay! You have awesome products that you've worked tirelessly on. Double yay! But are you still wondering how to get actually people to look at your shop? Probably. 

Don't worry, we're here to help. So who exactly are we? Julie is a Blogger over at Etsy Stalkers and Kim is a Jewelry Designer at 
Kim Bloomberg Designs. We have spent years promoting our businesses, and while we have failed here and there, we've a ton and used our failures to build successful business. And most importantly, we can't wait to share everything we've learned with you. We're excited to introduce you to our first newsletter of a series on how to get traffic to your Etsy shop.This week we'll focus on (drum roll please ....)


PINTEREST
Seriously people, this is huge. Gingantoid.

Pinterest is a giant pinboard that allows users and companies to create and manage theme-based collections (i.e. events, interests, and hobbies). And it just happens to be the #1 traffic driver for Etsy Stalkers and Kim Bloomberg Designs. Why you ask? Pinterest is visually driven and catches people when they're 'wasting' time. How
many times have you been searching a website simply because you're bored? Probably about a zillion. And then how many times do you end up finding something that you
absolutely need to buy? It happens to us pretty much all of the time. OK great, you know what it is, but how do you really use it to drive more business your way? 


(1) Join Group Boards for increased visibility. We cannot emphasize this enough. Why Group Boards? Because once you've been accepted to one (or started one of yourown), it will automatically increase the visibility of your pins. There are two different ways to go about this: 

Start your own Group Board and invite others to join. To add contributors to one of your boards, go to it and click the Edit button. You'll then be able to type in the names of other people you would like to add as contributors. You must follow at least one board belonging to the Pinner you want to invite in order to add him/her as a contributor. So let's say I want to add 
"Kim Bloomberg Designs" to my Valentine's Day board. I would go to "Who can pin?" as shown below, type in her name and then hit "Invite". Done and done. 







  • Join an already established Group Board. Find group boards you're interested in and email the administrator and ask to become a member. Just remember that you 
  • MUST follow their Pinterest page before you can be added.


  • (2) Let's talk photography. As we mentioned earlier, Pinterest is a visual pinboard, so great photos can make or break your shop. If you're up for taking them yourself (and you really don't need a professional camera to take good pictures) be sure to
  • Photograph in natural light, but not direct sunlight.
  • Buy an inexpensive light tent.

CowboyStudio 17-Inch Photo Soft Box Light Tent Cube with Red, White, Blue and Black Background 


List Price:$22.00
Price:$17.00



  • Try holding your camera upside down and at different angles. Keep it interesting.
  • Using pictures on an actual person (for jewelry and clothing) are helpful because it gives your customers perspective.
  • Photograph your packaging and pin it. Cute wrapping can go a really long way.


  • If you're using a smart phone, invest in a good app like Camera+.  It costs 99 cents and you can do a lot of easy editing with it. Our favorite editing feature is backlight because it brightens and lightens the picture and eliminates shadows. Depth of field is another good one because it blurs the background (nobody needs to see your morning coffee cup in the background...ummmmm coffee).
  • When you pin images, you'll want to make sure they are at least 750 pixels wide so they don't turn up looking teeny tiny when your followers click on them. 
  • Etsy gives you FIVE spots for photos, use at least two to provide different angles of your work. Be sure that one shows your item in a real situation (for example,show clothing and jewelry on a person, coffee table books on a handmade tray, etc.) It's also helpful to show how big a piece is, shooting it next to a ruler or a coin will give the customer good perspective. But, only do this if it doesn't compromise your work. 
  • Extra credit (AKA for extra traffic): Film a how-to video for grand results. Host it on YouTube and connect it back to your Etsy Shop with branding. You don't need to give away your secrets, just demonstrate how to uniquely wrap a gift or set up a jewelry display. 


(3) Pin daily, but don't over pin. When you're on social media sites like Pinterest, you tend to only see what's in your feed during the five minutes you're on the site (or 45 minutes if you tend to get sucked in like us). This means it's OK to re-pin your own
material throughout the day. But don't go overboard because you'll seem like you're just on Pinterest to promote yourself. Just like in real life, no one likes to have something shoved in her face over and over again.

  • The best times to Pin are Saturday mornings, 2-4PM and 8-11PM on other days.
  • The worst times to Pin are 5-7PM and 1-7AM.
  • The average Pinterest visitor spends 16 minutes on the site. This is way higher than other social media sites.*
  • Post your own stuff but also become a "style maker" and pin a variety of related links. 
  • Support people whose style you admire and those running successful small businesses. What are they doing right? Study them!! By re-pinning interesting or useful content, you can build your account to become a resource of information for all of your followers. Keep them coming back for more! 
  • The rule to follow is you should only be pinning 30% of your own content and re-pinning 70% of other content. It shocked us at first, too. 
Remember that one solution doesn't fit all. Play around with posting at different times of day. Find what works for your brand and stick with it. 
(4) Tag every picture.
What are tags (or #hashtags) you ask? They serve as a shortcut to search for specific content. You can either choose to add the # before your keyword or simply use commas to separate your keywords. 

  • The only place you need to place your tags are in an individual pin's description. For example, if you click on #weddingjewelry (or wedding jewelry) in one of Kim Bloomberg Designs, you will then see all other #weddingjewelry (or wedding jewelry) pins. 

  • Always use #etsy (or etsy) as one of your tags (well not always, but when it applies). 
  • Use seasonal tags two weeks or more before big events or holidays (ie Valentine's Day posts should be posted in January, Mother's Day in April, etc).
  • Use tags that are specific to the picture you're promoting. Instead of #jewelry, a vague term, use #kim bloomberg wedding earrings. Terms like #jewelry are going to produce thousands of results. The more specific you can get, the better. 
  • Be sure the description tells what the pin is and always, always link it back to your shop. And don't be afraid to add text to your images. Remember that viewers are sifting through thousands of images. You'll want to make yours stand out as much as possible. 

Enable the Pin It button on your product pages. Pins link back to your website and
increase the spread of your content across Pinterest.

  • The Pin It button is super easy to add and a great tool for your customers. Just copy and paste a few lines of HTML and JavaScript and voila, you're done. 
Below you'll see an example of a rich pin: 
 Website

Since everyone loves a Top 10 list, I’ve searched far and wide to bring you Etsy…

Etsy Stalkers
Step into the handmade community of Etsy with a side of humor.


Etsy Stalkers
Etsy Stalkers • 6 weeks ago

Since everyone loves a Top 10 list, I’ve searched far and wide to bring you Etsy Stalker’s Top 10 Valentine’s gifts.





(5) Don't get sucked into Pinterest every time you're on there. We know this from experience. You should be able to accomplish all of your goals in 15 minutes per day or go on for 5 minutes in the morning, 5 in the afternoon and 5 again in the evening. Set your alarm if you need to.
EtsyStalkersJulieSpano
Etsy Stalkers
Julie Spano is freelance writer, mother of
two, wife, carpooler, and short-order cook
from Atlanta, GA who loves to drink hot
coffee in the heat of the summer. She had
her ears pierced at 36, hates wearing
shoes and writes the blog Etsy Stalkers

Kim Bloomberg lives in Chicago, IL with
 her husband and two children. She
works diligently to achieve harmony
of scale and color. Every piece of her 
jewelry is handcrafted using intricate 
wire wrapping techniques with extensive 
chain work. Kim embraces the variations
and organic nuances of natural materials.
She takes great pride in finding the highest
quality gemstones, each individually cut to 
create unique, highly personal expressions of
wearable art!

                                

Thank you both very much for being my guests today!
These were some superb ideas, that I intend on using for my own Etsy shop!

You can follow their Etsy tips on Etsy Stalkers

If you would like to be a guest blogger too, please contact me

Thanks for tuning in! Until next time...









10 comments:

  1. This is such a great guide. Totally helpful for navigating the seemingly complex world of self promotion!! Can't wait to try out your tips!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such great suggestions! Thanks so much, I agree with Carolyn it's so complicated and overwhelming to launch into self promotion when I have a habit of modesty in real life. This is so great. Thanks so much!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lots of great info in this post! Especially for using pinterest.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for all the great information. I did not know how important tags were, or that there were even group boards. Got my work cut out for me. I am a pinterest addict, when I get on there I get side tracked. I'm on there longer then 15 minutes. But I am pinning others things mostly. I don't have an Etsy shop anymore. Wonder if I can put a pin on Handmade Artists Shop. Thank you for sharing! Pinning! ;-D

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