Etsy Write-up On Pricing Your Work..

[kmmcrafts]

Something I think everyone struggles with is pricing.. Since there are a number of folks going to online selling after their craft shows have been canceled out due to Covid19 I thought I would share this.. I wish there had been write ups like this back when I first started.. 

Back in the beginning I was selling ornaments for $5 each.. and at the end of the season found I did put a little money in my pocket but more of it went out to unseen expenses... I then jumped price to $6.. then $8, $10, $13 and now $16 - 20 depending on ornament detail etc.. I've thought about raising them again but may run with it as is this year.. 

In evaluating a price of your item you don't factor in what the going price is at what others are selling it for.. though that is a starting point and then run with it for 3-6 months or a year etc.. and see how that product makes you money.. Factor in "ALL" your cost and time.. for instance for my business.. the lumber supply shop where I get BBply and some of my limber is 70- 80 mile round trip.. and a 40 minute drive each way.. for a different person it might be across the street.. so they "could" have a better pricing structure than I do to make a profit.. Also each person has a different idea of how much money they need to make to live on...

An example of this is the Puzzles that everyone likes to make and sell.. Most of you are selling them at what Scott ( Iggy) sells them at.. Not because it's making money for you... but because the Puzzle Master is setting the bar.. You have to remember that he has a farmers market right up the street that sells a good portion of his business sales every year and is in a tourist area.. He claims to make a decent amount of money each year from them at $25 each.. I recently ( last fall ) started making puzzles and selling them at that $26 and $31 for more detailed ones.. They sell pretty well for me but I'm not making hardly any money from them.. You can't really production cut them and for me having to answer emails and package orders etc.. I'm lucky to get 5-6 of them made per day.. Ornament for instance I can stack cut.. and make at least 50-60 a day and they sell for $16- 20.. Not everything will make as good of a profit as other things will.. However everything should bring a + to the wallet.. I get a lot of traffic to my site from the puzzles but sometimes they buy a puzzle and 2-3 ornaments.. so having the puzzles there are helping with sales and traffic.. I will be upping the price on the puzzles before too long though.. we'll see if that hinders sales or not.. If so I may find something to make that is more profitable "for me"  

The clocks I make are around $75.. can make 5-6  day.. 5 years ago I was in a place where I needed to raise my price or find a cheaper faster way to make them.. So I came up with the idea to make the bases with the table saw instead of scrolling them.. (Speed up times on the bases ) also I started buying clock inserts factory direct in bulk.. and went from $8 each to $1.50 each.. bigger up front cost but in the end giving myself a big raise without raising the price of the finished clocks.. 

My point to all of this is... every business is going to have different expenses.. two of the same business's in the same location run by two different people are going to not have the same expenses.. price your stuff higher than everyone else if that's what it takes to turn a profit.. and if you can't turn a profit on a certain item.. drop it and make something that is profitable.. Raise the bar and be yourself with pricing.. don't follow another person's pricing structure as your business will be different.. You can use their price points as a starting point.. and evaluate and adjust if / when needed.. I'll be raising my puzzle prices in a few weeks and raising the bar above what others sell them at.. We'll see if I continue making them next year..  

Here is the link to the Etsy pricing write up.. 

https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/creating-a-small-business-budget/745293633907

 

   

  

[teachnlearn]

I'm thinking of making a advanced puzzle by putting a sheet of newspaper through a shredder and selling the bag for 5 dollars. Figure I can produce a hundred an hour and make a decent profit. Should give puzzlers hours of enjoyment at an inexpensive price.

Also thinking of making basic puzzle shapes out of wood, then put them in a wood chipper and bag it. Someone will have to recreate the shape along with the thickness of the wood, a fast way to make a 3D puzzle. Will save hours of scrolling. Guess I could price those at 10 dollars a puzzle.

Have done a business that could be shop based or done on the road. The dual expenses and taxes kept me going on a spread sheet to adjust pricing. Where one flat price for the shop made me money, the extensive travel from city to city, food, time, put a entire twist to pricing.RJF

[kmmcrafts]

3 hours ago, teachnlearn said:

I'm thinking of making a advanced puzzle by putting a sheet of newspaper through a shredder and selling the bag for 5 dollars. Figure I can produce a hundred an hour and make a decent profit. Should give puzzlers hours of enjoyment at an inexpensive price.

Also thinking of making basic puzzle shapes out of wood, then put them in a wood chipper and bag it. Someone will have to recreate the shape along with the thickness of the wood, a fast way to make a 3D puzzle. Will save hours of scrolling. Guess I could price those at 10 dollars a puzzle.

Have done a business that could be shop based or done on the road. The dual expenses and taxes kept me going on a spread sheet to adjust pricing. Where one flat price for the shop made me money, the extensive travel from city to city, food, time, put a entire twist to pricing.RJF

 

 

Just take your scroll saw dust and label it as " worlds hardest puzzle " sell at $5 a bag as gag gifts.. good way to get rid of sawdust.. Every piece of the wood is sellable.. you just have to be creative enough to market it right..

[kywoodmaster]

Don't laugh. My ex would take my Cedar planer chips and wrap them in a frilly cloth tied with a bow and sell them as air fresheners.

Think she got like 5 or 6 bucks each 15 years ago.

[new2woodwrk]

1 hour ago, kmmcrafts said:

 

 

Just take your scroll saw dust and label it as " worlds hardest puzzle " sell at $5 a bag as gag gifts.. good way to get rid of sawdust.. Every piece of the wood is sellable.. you just have to be creative enough to market it right..

It's almost Xmas, sell it as Santa's workshop toy dust

 

[John B]

I had a good thing going at the markets years ago selling little bags of shavings and saw dust with a nice "Rocking Horse ****" label for a dollar.
Novelty sells.

[BadBob]

Don't forget to factor in the real cost of transportation. For my truck, using numbers I got from AAA, the cost to operate works out to $0.75 per mile. I used to go to the post office with all my packages when I had a day job. It was no big deal, a left turn into the parking lot on the way home. There was rarely a line; I was in and out in less than five minutes. After I retired from my day job, I still went to the post office until I calculated the real cost. It took me up to an hour and cost about $4.00. I don't go to the post office now unless I have to. I stopped there yesterday because I had to go to the dentist and the post office was on the way. I had three packages to ship, and one of them would not fit my mailbox. Usually, I just put a note on the box when this happens and they come to the house to get it.

 

I have a spreadsheet I use for calculating my sale price. It factors in all of these:

 

• Part Count
• Length
• Width
• Thickness
• Finish
• Transportation
• Uniqueness
• Insurance
• Wood Type
• Internal Cuts
• Packing Materials
• Consumables
• Hardware
• Gift Box

 

It calculates these pricings:

 

• Base Price
• $35 Free Shipping Price
• Etsy Advertising
• Advertising & Free Shipping
• Special Order Fee
• Special Order Total

 

I run everything through this and then decide what price I want to sell for. It gets tweaked every time I open it. I just changed something again.

 

I'm currently in the top 17% of Etsy sellers and I'm not making money.

 

 

[teachnlearn]

3 hours ago, BadBob said:

Don't forget to factor in the real cost of transportation. For my truck, using numbers I got from AAA, the cost to operate works out to $0.75 per mile. I used to go to the post office with all my packages when I had a day job. It was no big deal, a left turn into the parking lot on the way home. There was rarely a line; I was in and out in less than five minutes. After I retired from my day job, I still went to the post office until I calculated the real cost. It took me up to an hour and cost about $4.00. I don't go to the post office now unless I have to. I stopped there yesterday because I had to go to the dentist and the post office was on the way. I had three packages to ship, and one of them would not fit my mailbox. Usually, I just put a note on the box when this happens and they come to the house to get it.

 

I have a spreadsheet I use for calculating my sale price. It factors in all of these:

 

• Part Count
• Length
• Width
• Thickness
• Finish
• Transportation
• Uniqueness
• Insurance
• Wood Type
• Internal Cuts
• Packing Materials
• Consumables
• Hardware
• Gift Box

 

It calculates these pricings:

 

• Base Price
• $35 Free Shipping Price
• Etsy Advertising
• Advertising & Free Shipping
• Special Order Fee
• Special Order Total

 

I run everything through this and then decide what price I want to sell for. It gets tweaked every time I open it. I just changed something again.

 

I'm currently in the top 17% of Etsy sellers and I'm not making money.

 

 

Sounds like a lot of work for giving it away. Corporations would be having meeting to either create profit or close. Sounds like you could donate at leisure and end up with the same results. I wonder are the others, mass producing at an industrial level?RJF

Edited October 2, 2020 by teachnlearn

[kmmcrafts]

5 hours ago, BadBob said:

Don't forget to factor in the real cost of transportation. For my truck, using numbers I got from AAA, the cost to operate works out to $0.75 per mile. I used to go to the post office with all my packages when I had a day job. It was no big deal, a left turn into the parking lot on the way home. There was rarely a line; I was in and out in less than five minutes. After I retired from my day job, I still went to the post office until I calculated the real cost. It took me up to an hour and cost about $4.00. I don't go to the post office now unless I have to. I stopped there yesterday because I had to go to the dentist and the post office was on the way. I had three packages to ship, and one of them would not fit my mailbox. Usually, I just put a note on the box when this happens and they come to the house to get it.

 

I have a spreadsheet I use for calculating my sale price. It factors in all of these:

 

• Part Count
• Length
• Width
• Thickness
• Finish
• Transportation
• Uniqueness
• Insurance
• Wood Type
• Internal Cuts
• Packing Materials
• Consumables
• Hardware
• Gift Box

 

It calculates these pricings:

 

• Base Price
• $35 Free Shipping Price
• Etsy Advertising
• Advertising & Free Shipping
• Special Order Fee
• Special Order Total

 

I run everything through this and then decide what price I want to sell for. It gets tweaked every time I open it. I just changed something again.

 

I'm currently in the top 17% of Etsy sellers and I'm not making money.

 

 

Where do you see where you're the top 17% ?? On a site called etsyrank it tells me that I sell 98% more than the other sellers in my category ("home and garden")...  But that particular category consist of a very wide range of items.. There are very few etsy sellers that actually do it as a full time job.. There are a lot of sellers there just as a hobbyist.. Etsy has like 2.5 million sellers.. and only around 2% are actually full time sellers.. that doesn't surprise me that I sell more than 98% of others.. LOL

I stopped spending money to advertise last year on etsy.. I want shoppers to go to my website... not etsy.. Maybe many others did the same because now etsy pushes your products to google, FB and other places and advertises for you.. and if your in my case and made $10,000 or more in sales you can't opt out of that.. so on top of the 5% FVF if the item was purchase through the ads they put out there I get whopped with another 12% advertising fee.. at least being I made enough money it's 12% for me while it's 15% for those that willingly opt into that.. If you make less than $10,000  a year you can fully opt out of advertising..  Lot's of those top % sellers are leaving because of this.. 

On etsy when you print your labels ( if you do so through etsy) you can request mail pick-up.. I don't make trips to the P/O at all.. You do get a $0.58 per mile tax credit on mileage though.. but that's not enough if your driving a truck for sure.. barely enough for a small gas saving car..

Also, I use a larger mailbox and can fit several boxes and bubble mailers in it... something that might be worth the effort in getting if you're going to continue pursuing as a business... https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Architectural-Mailboxes-Centennial-Extra-Large-Capacity-Post-Mount-Parcel-Mailbox-in-Black-with-Premium-Silver-Handle-and-Flag-950020B-10/300118173?cm_mmc=Shopping-BA-F_Test-G-D25H-25_4_BUILDERS_HARDWARE-Multi-NA-Feed-LIA-NA-NA-BuildersHardware_LIA_GMT-71700000069206234-58700006141909129-92700055508967727&g_store=2771&gclid=CjwKCAjwn9v7BRBqEiwAbq1Ey2hGIeDqNgDvcqGC9cILKKmvZ7Io4FmBYf3VjPveI_Ps-yZvXFqLeBoCDsoQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&locale=en-US&mtc=Shopping-BA-F_Test-G-D25H-25_4_BUILDERS_HARDWARE-Multi-NA-Feed-LIA-NA-NA-BuildersHardware_LIA_GMT&source=shoppingads

Can fit a 12 x 12 x 6 box and a 10 x 8 x 4 box and a few smaller bubble mailers in on top of the boxes.. Just a thought.. 

[BadBob]

If you subtract you 98% from 100% you are in the top 2%.

eRank doesn't mention anything about the category. Quote: "Did you know that you have sold more items than 83% of other shops on Etsy?" 100-83=17.

The only ads I am using are the offsite adds. I wanted to see if it worked. I sold one thing with the adds. If I keep them, I will adjust prices to cover the advertising cost. I do not make $10,000, not even close, so this is optional for me.

I saw the mail pickup. When purchasing labels on Etsy, I've never done it that way because USPS tells me that the request needs to be sent the day before. Most of my sales are late at night or early morning and do not get packed until morning. Too late to request the pickup that way. It's a rare thing for me to need a pickup.  

I have a large mailbox, but not that large. I can get a 7x6 box in it. I'm sure I'm going to replace it at some point.

I brought up the transportation cost because most people I know only count the gas, not the true cost. I don't track mileage any more because what little deduction I get isn't worth the effort. I order most things online and they get dropped on my front porch. The only thing I travel for is wood and the stores are five miles away. The last year I tracked mileage I had less than 100 miles to deduct. It's not worth the effort for me.

[kmmcrafts]

1 hour ago, BadBob said:

If you subtract you 98% from 100% you are in the top 2%.

eRank doesn't mention anything about the category. Quote: "Did you know that you have sold more items than 83% of other shops on Etsy?" 100-83=17.

The only ads I am using are the offsite adds. I wanted to see if it worked. I sold one thing with the adds. If I keep them, I will adjust prices to cover the advertising cost. I do not make $10,000, not even close, so this is optional for me.

I saw the mail pickup. When purchasing labels on Etsy, I've never done it that way because USPS tells me that the request needs to be sent the day before. Most of my sales are late at night or early morning and do not get packed until morning. Too late to request the pickup that way. It's a rare thing for me to need a pickup.  

I have a large mailbox, but not that large. I can get a 7x6 box in it. I'm sure I'm going to replace it at some point.

I brought up the transportation cost because most people I know only count the gas, not the true cost. I don't track mileage any more because what little deduction I get isn't worth the effort. I order most things online and they get dropped on my front porch. The only thing I travel for is wood and the stores are five miles away. The last year I tracked mileage I had less than 100 miles to deduct. It's not worth the effort for me.

Yeah I haven't even looked at eRank in several years.. so at the moment I have no clue where I stand against others.. honestly don't care about that.. I care more about where I stand from the previous year.. and I don't even use etsy for that.. well actually I do pay attention but.. I sell on Amazon as well as several other sites... so I look at my main bookkeeping that covers all the sites combined.. The last couple years etsy sales have gone down some... Mainly because I don't really work the promotion for etsy like I used to.. because I'm working to bring my own site up with more traffic so my efforts don't bring traffic to etsy where they can drift off to some competitors shop to buy something from them off of my efforts.. but Amazon has more than picked up that slack.. Ideally I'd like to see my own site going in the upward trend faster than it is, LOL

If you keep watching the eRank.. and comparing your position it may help you push harder to rank higher.. sort of a competition game, LOL Keep working at it and you'll get to that $10,000 mark.. takes lots of time..

[teachnlearn]

When I was a kid I bought properties, built houses and hotels and rented them for profit. Sometimes I made a lot of money and other days I lost severely. It was a cheap franchise operation that came in a box. I think the business model was called Monopoly. RJF

Edited October 3, 2020 by teachnlearn

[BadBob]

I like eRank because it checks my listings for errors and missing parts and tests key words. The more experience I get, the less I use it.

I track a lot of things in spreadsheets, but I let Etsy keep track of the sales.

 

[ike]

I have an easy way for pdriceing I ask my wife how much she quotes me a price and I add $5 to it and thats my price. I add $5 because she is cheep. you might say that you can't make any money like that . but as long as I pay for my hobby that's all that coune.\IKE

[kmmcrafts]

1 hour ago, ike said:

I have an easy way for pdriceing I ask my wife how much she quotes me a price and I add $5 to it and thats my price. I add $5 because she is cheep. you might say that you can't make any money like that . but as long as I pay for my hobby that's all that coune.\IKE

That method works so long as you already have food on your table and you're not trying to support it as your income.. Nothing wrong with making just enough to buy more lumber etc.. there are a few ( very few ) of us doing this for a living and or trying to or wanting to.. that's where making a good pricing strategy a must.. there is a fine line between pricing just right where you don't scare off customers and making a "Real" profit off of it... especially when you have hobbyist that could care less about making any money selling on the same websites or same craft shows selling stuff dirt cheap because they aren't in it for the money.. Hurts the guy that is trying.. as we have more overhead, pay our taxes and insurances.. 

 

[BadBob]

I don't expect to get rich, but I would like to make a profit. Enough to offset my reduced income and pay for itself.

It is easy to find toys for sale that I know took days sold for crazy low prices. I know because I have made the same toy many times.

I also see lots of toys offered for sale that I would toss into the kindling bucket. I don't consider these sellers as competition.

I make the highest quality items I possibly can for people who care about the quality. If I were batching out 100 toys a day, I would not be happy doing this. It seems to be working. My sales keep going up.

[rjweb]

I agree quality is much better than quantity, RJ 

[kmmcrafts]

6 hours ago, BadBob said:

I don't expect to get rich, but I would like to make a profit. Enough to offset my reduced income and pay for itself.

It is easy to find toys for sale that I know took days sold for crazy low prices. I know because I have made the same toy many times.

I also see lots of toys offered for sale that I would toss into the kindling bucket. I don't consider these sellers as competition.

I make the highest quality items I possibly can for people who care about the quality. If I were batching out 100 toys a day, I would not be happy doing this. It seems to be working. My sales keep going up.

 

25 minutes ago, rjweb said:

I agree quality is much better than quantity, RJ 

I agree too.. that's why I custom order my clocks inserts with the metal case and the high end Seiko motors.. you can't buy these clocks like I custom order.. unless you get them from me,  LOL  Actually there are now a couple places selling these clocks... but most aren't going to be paying $15 - 20 per insert either.. not when you can get the cheap plastic one for $7-8.. That's where some of the other clock makers go wrong.. 

So with that said.. I don't have any competition with the clocks.. some of the ornaments there are others selling the exact same designs as I offer.. BUT their pictures and descriptions are not in a position to be picked up by searches all that well.. 

That said and what I mean by competition is when selling on  eBay, etsy, amazon, or another venue type sites. is.. When you go to a item page and scroll way down.. some of these sites show you "OTHER" related products.. thus possibly taking your customer that YOU worked hard to bring in.. ( sometimes through PAID ads ) by your hard work promoting only to have these sites show the customer " Other Similar Items" with a lowball price on it.. NOW... You make a quality product that is much better than those other "Like" items.. BUT.. will your potential customer see that quality or will they buy that "similar item" at a lower price???? What Do You Do When Online Shopping??? Since you all say quality over quantity... do you buy that higher end higher price items or do you say.. let me try this cheaper one.. it looks the same...  That's what I mean by competition.. and when you have 90% of the sellers on there that just don't care if they "make money" so long as they can get enough to buy some more lumber.. That hurts sellers that do care about making money.. 

I have had a few customers buy from me.. after purchasing from other scrollers in the past and then come back and say they want me to custom make something because I do great work and pay attention to details.. and they was willing to wait for my work even if the item is a gift and it'll end up being a late gift... Those few make me feel reassured that I'm putting out Quality.. It COULD be easy to just fly through orders cutting corners etc... But that's not who I am or what I want to turn into..

[kmmcrafts]

On 10/3/2020 at 7:39 AM, BadBob said:

If you subtract you 98% from 100% you are in the top 2%.

eRank doesn't mention anything about the category. Quote: "Did you know that you have sold more items than 83% of other shops on Etsy?" 100-83=17.

The only ads I am using are the offsite adds. I wanted to see if it worked. I sold one thing with the adds. If I keep them, I will adjust prices to cover the advertising cost. I do not make $10,000, not even close, so this is optional for me.

I saw the mail pickup. When purchasing labels on Etsy, I've never done it that way because USPS tells me that the request needs to be sent the day before. Most of my sales are late at night or early morning and do not get packed until morning. Too late to request the pickup that way. It's a rare thing for me to need a pickup.  

I have a large mailbox, but not that large. I can get a 7x6 box in it. I'm sure I'm going to replace it at some point.

I brought up the transportation cost because most people I know only count the gas, not the true cost. I don't track mileage any more because what little deduction I get isn't worth the effort. I order most things online and they get dropped on my front porch. The only thing I travel for is wood and the stores are five miles away. The last year I tracked mileage I had less than 100 miles to deduct. It's not worth the effort for me.

I just re-signed up on erank.. guess it didn't remember me so I had to resign up, LOL.. more like I couldn't remember the email and password, LOL.. Anyway.. it is a helpful tool that I should use more.. I found about 8 mispelled words.. though it showed me I had 55 of them.. but they was spelled correctly.. must be Camaro isn't in their dictionary  as well as many other car names and models.. 

I knew sales had dropped some on etsy.. seems I've dropped 1% and now sell more than 97% of other sellers.. 

Years ago there was a lot of talk about how reliable erank really is.. and many of the what I call pro sellers on there said it was not real accurate and not to rely on it.. I've already somewhat seen it's unreliability.. last night when i looked it said I had $XX,XXX amount of inventory value.. nothing changed from last night until this morning.. not added any inventory.. this morning I had about $850 more in inventory than I had last night, LOL.. If anything.. that inventory should have been less with the three orders I got overnight made my inventory deplete some.. Though I like the idea of gaining inventory in my sleep.. I wonder how I can do that in real life, LOL

Also the listing rank thing.. it's geared more for etsy's internal search rather than googles or other search engines.. Years ago etsy used to suggest adding tags etc at the end or your titles.. I went against all of etsy's internal search guidelines for about 40% of my listings and went for what google recommended.. because google has more users than etsy does.. my sales went way up when I did that.. so be careful who you try to please.. Now days etsy is more in line of google requirements.. Those tags at the end of the titles actually hurt you for offsite searching.. 

The way shopping has changed over the last few years has dramatically changed the way searches happen.. 5-7 years ago shopping from a cell phone or other mobile device was almost unheard of.. A lot will be changing in the next 5-8 years.. I think a lot of things will be switching to voice rather than typing out a search term.. People like convenience and their time.. While cooking dinner your kid says they need socks for school tomorrow you could say " siri / alexa buy me black socks size 10  shipped by tomorrow morning.. " Seams far fetched.. but remember 7-10 years ago a lot of folks was using flip phones.. This virus thing might be speeding this kind of thing up.. more people scared to go out.. more and more online shoppers.. The shipt program here is booming with people paying shoppers to go grocery shopping for them.. after all... who likes to go grocery shopping anyway?  I think there is going to be some massive changes to the way we shop in the next 5-10 years..

Anyway, as I said.. it is a good tool to use for basic " rough " info about your shop and helping improve SEO etc.. But like everything.. it's not 100% accurate.. most likely not even 80% so use with caution.. 

 

    

[rjweb]

Kevin, I just seen an article that flip phones are coming back but with just the screen, RJ 

[kmmcrafts]

1 hour ago, rjweb said:

Kevin, I just seen an article that flip phones are coming back but with just the screen, RJ 

Yeah, I've seen that too.. probably only way to text or use it is by voice activation.. Not sure if any of you tried texting in a flip phone back in the day where they only had the phone buttons.. if you needed a letter C you had to push the number 1 three times,  etc etc.. we've come a long way.. The new flip phone might have a touch screen with a keyboard for typing.. but I think things will be heading toward voice at some point..

[teachnlearn]

What do you mean flip phones are coming back? I still use one. T mobile has a old plan of paying for minutes and rolling them over each year for 10 dollars. We are both disabled, so we take the phone for the car. Been rolling over minutes for 10 dollars since 1996. RJF

[BadBob]

I've been on eRank since the beginning and pay for the pro version. I have not found it to be inaccurate. I would not belive anyone pro or amateur stating this claim unless they could provide me with real data.

Inventory Value on eRank is slow to update. This might be Etsy. When I used to work with web servers, we did not allow updates to the real database. Applications used a copy that was synced periodically. I can't speak for accuracy since I have never totaled mine. Personally, I consider this as trivia. If they dropped it I might not notice.

The keyword tool has all of these: Search Trend, Character Count, Average Searches (US), Average Clicks (US), Average CTR (US), Etsy Competition, Google Shopping Searches, Google Searches, Google CPC, Google Competition, Long Tail Keyword, SERP Analysis, Search Trend, Google Competition, and Google Trends. There may be more.  I just took a quick look.

You can also look at search trends for Etsy, Google, eBay, Pinterest, and Amazon.

Some of this stuff you may not see if you are only using the free version.

Are your Etsy sales down 1% or are others just selling more?

Yes, the ranking is done on the Etsy search. Most of my views come from off Etsy social media and direct. The items that I sell the most of are all coming from Etsy search. I find the ranking somewhat useful. Sometimes I'll add a new listing and the first person that sees it buys it. So how did that one rank?

I use listing scores for new things, but ignore it once the listing is established. The scores help me to find things I missed.

I love the spell checker since I can't type worth a damn due to some nerve issues in my hands and for some reason, my spell-check doesn't work in all the fields.

eRank support I find lacking. It used to be very good. If I had an issue I communicated directly with the developer. Some of the things in eRank were my ideas. Since they have got bigger and hire minions to help. The support has gone downhill. Most of the time the support people don't understand what I am talking about. I was in IT for 40 years and this is what always happens.

[amazingkevin]

I don,t like headaches!!!

[kmmcrafts]

On 10/7/2020 at 10:41 AM, BadBob said:

I've been on eRank since the beginning and pay for the pro version. I have not found it to be inaccurate. I would not belive anyone pro or amateur stating this claim unless they could provide me with real data.

Inventory Value on eRank is slow to update. This might be Etsy. When I used to work with web servers, we did not allow updates to the real database. Applications used a copy that was synced periodically. I can't speak for accuracy since I have never totaled mine. Personally, I consider this as trivia. If they dropped it I might not notice.

The keyword tool has all of these: Search Trend, Character Count, Average Searches (US), Average Clicks (US), Average CTR (US), Etsy Competition, Google Shopping Searches, Google Searches, Google CPC, Google Competition, Long Tail Keyword, SERP Analysis, Search Trend, Google Competition, and Google Trends. There may be more.  I just took a quick look.

You can also look at search trends for Etsy, Google, eBay, Pinterest, and Amazon.

Some of this stuff you may not see if you are only using the free version.

Are your Etsy sales down 1% or are others just selling more?

Yes, the ranking is done on the Etsy search. Most of my views come from off Etsy social media and direct. The items that I sell the most of are all coming from Etsy search. I find the ranking somewhat useful. Sometimes I'll add a new listing and the first person that sees it buys it. So how did that one rank?

I use listing scores for new things, but ignore it once the listing is established. The scores help me to find things I missed.

I love the spell checker since I can't type worth a damn due to some nerve issues in my hands and for some reason, my spell-check doesn't work in all the fields.

eRank support I find lacking. It used to be very good. If I had an issue I communicated directly with the developer. Some of the things in eRank were my ideas. Since they have got bigger and hire minions to help. The support has gone downhill. Most of the time the support people don't understand what I am talking about. I was in IT for 40 years and this is what always happens.

Thought I replied to this, LOL

My etsy sales are down some and have been slowly downward trend.. But.. revenue is up because more shoppers are buying more than one item at a time.. so income is up but sales are down some.. 

My website sales are way up this year.. nearly 60% up and revenue is up on there as well.. I stopped promoting anything on etsy about 4 years ago.. as I said I want my shoppers to buy from my site.. as it's cheaper for me to sell there than etsy or any other site I'm on at the moment.. I find that yes.. Pinterest does bring you shoppers.. but it's rarely worth the effort to do as the ROI on it is minimal.. For me.. video works best and that is on apps such as TicTok, Clapper, Likee etc.. is where I get a lot of ROI on my promoting efforts.. 

This one video here has been up a week and a half and has 29.6K likes 314 comments and has been viewed 145.3K times and has been shared 906 times.. I have received 25 orders of the item in the video and also have 6 custom order puzzles in the works ( waiting on Iggy and Harvey for the design work ).. this one video also netted 6 custom order desk clocks.. Now.. not all videos do well.. but almost every video nets me at least 5+ orders.. After putting this video here up.. I have over 100 emails from my website with custom inquiries the very next day..etc.. Still getting messages from videos I posted 6 months ago on TicTok..  So far this one video has netted me just shy of $2000 in sales to my website.. in the last two weeks. You can play the Pinterest games and the paid advertising all day long and not reap the ROI of being a content creator on a social site.. preferably not FB, Instagram and twitter.. they also have "okay" ROI but you have to be where the hot app is.. and pay attention to other growing apps.. get in on them early and grow a following while the app is also growing.. They slow up and fizzle out after a couple years.. still create content for them but not at 100% rate.. I focus about 80% of my content on TicTok and about 10% on new upcoming social apps and 10% on sites that once was hot but have sort of died out.. 

Takes time to learn to do video and edit if needed.. I rarely edit my videos.. you get the real deal bloopers and all, LOL.. the most editing I do is speeding up the videos.. adding music to the video within the app's music library..  

Link to my video mentioned above, 

 

 

This is my tictok page.. https://www.tiktok.com/@kevskrafts.com?source=h5_m Play through some of the videos and listed to the themed music / sounds.. look through my comments on the videos.. People like watching me just put a puzzle together.. many people go through every video and have messaged saying my content is cool and uniquely interesting..  It's what's working for me right now.. maybe it too will fizzle out.. I have fun doing them and so far my followers love it so I'll ride it out until it's not fun for me and the others anymore..

Doing this.. people remember me and my sites address.. and they pass on the info to friends.. such as.. where did you buy that? they say KevsKrafts.com.. they are not saying Etsy or eBay or Amazon etc.. A paid ad brings you a buyer or two.. but they bring it to your etsy page.. when someone ask where they got that at.. they say etsy.. 

Anyway, my point about etsy sales being down is that.. I used to direct my efforts of creating content to these social sites to my etsy shop..  Those promotions are now going to my website.. so of coarse etsy sales are going to be down.. and my website sales going up..  because I switch where I send the customer last year.. 

If you're content with the amount of orders etsy brings you and what you get from your pinterest efforts and whatnot.. keep doing it.. but if you're serious about making money then you need to be a content creator and gain a following on many different social platforms.. OR... pay out a boatload of $$ for advertising.. I don't make my videos into commercials.. I just create content and roll with it.. I don't mention that I sell the puzzles unless someone ask..  

 

 

Edited October 28, 2020 by kmmcrafts