@WholesaleTed would.love to have a convo about nz as I wana do tshirt around it.. the tshirt u say to use.. u got any specific nz related advice.. and u too was lovely hearing abit of home.in ur voice
Excuse my daughter's name and pic lol, we use the same account. With that out of the way I just want to say a big Thank you! As a new Shop on Etsy, I am struggling hard, learning everything as I go. The learning part takes a lot of time, but I am learning. I have learned more information from you than anyone else. You are so informative. You are my go-to person when I need to know something now. So yeah... just a big Thank you from me. I don't think you know how much difference you are making in some people's lives, but you are. So please keep doing what you are doing. You are full of wisdom to those...like me... who truly need it. You are my inspiration.
As soon as I saw your drawing I thought "Hey that looks like Nate's drawing on Channel Makers" then you said it lol. Your videos are fantastic btw. Thank you so much for taking the time to provide so much quality information, and such high quality video and audio itself. :)
Considering how wrong Esty's algorithm is with shutting down legitimate new shops, I don't have a lo of faith in their marketing algorithm. Thank you so much for an incredible explanation. This is such a great video!
Except for closing shops of new users that it's fraud algorithm has deemed to be too risky, any non-new store that gets shut down has, in my experience, always been shut down for a legitimate reason. Some examples recently of people having their stores shut down are: 1) Using mockups that don't reflect the products the customers are actually buying 2) People using trademarked phrases on products 3) People using celebrities All of these things are explicitly not allowed. But when people get banned for them, they blame Etsy 🙏 I also know that it's pretty easy to make these mistakes, but from Etsy's perspective, all of these things can get them into legal trouble.
@@WholesaleTed no, I completely agree with all of that. IP is a big deal for good reason. I'm talking about brand new stores that are shut down before they even post their second product. I've seen dozens of RU-vidrs, literally every single "how to start an Etsy store" video says that it happens all the time to new shops and many explain that it's probably just an algorithm that is designed to protect against bots starting fake stores.
Thanks Sarah for the video. I’ve had my store on Etsy for a year now and I kind of stopped posting listings after a few months of not seeing sales. I’m going to follow your steps from your ebook to boost it and optimize it. Thanks again!
your channel is the best. you are super intelligent and tactical about it, you have the technical explanation that I like (coming from data analytical background) that supports WHY i can or cannot succeed. I hate the whole ' oh it works, look at all these other stores' angle.
Honestly I feel so sad Etsy does not operate in my country, pushing me to think of relocation because I have soooooo many product ideas and have studied Etsy over the past, hope it gets better. Otherwise, hey Sarah, your videos are so much informative and insightful, followed from 100k subscribers, now a mil+ kudos for the progress.
Thank you! Etsy is expanding out it's countries that can sell in it. I'm not sure where you're based, but they've recently expanded into Ukraine, India, Japan, Thailand, Argentina, Chile and Peru.
@@WholesaleTed My beautiful country Kenya in East Africa, hope Etsy will expand even as early as next year because we POD sellers are increasing in number.
@@jerrytarusAfrica should have its own Etsy-like website. Why wait for the first world economies to push and milk? Lets build a better version of Etsy for Africa
Hello wholesale ted, I’m based in the U.K. and sell to the USA market. I find it a minefield in terms of how best to set up store, I set it up in usd but I think I’m charged exchange rate by Etsy and I worry that I’m at a disadvantage as I’m not local …do you have any advice for selling internationally like this or videos? Would I be more successful switching to pounds and selling to the U.K. do you think? I have about 500 sales and have managed to get to an average of daily sales but I have 1300 listings so it’s been a slog! Thank you Emma
@@Iloveeatsy Etsy does convert the currency into the user's local currency for them so if you do want to sell in pounds, it is not the end of the world! I am targeting Americans so I just have the base store prices set to USD to make it pretty for Americans. For me, I'm used to the exchange rate living in New Zealand, lol! That is a good amount of sales, but you've also got a lot of listings to achieve that. I suspect you could probably audit your sales and find which niches are performing the best, and then home-in on them. You might also have a lot of opportunities to change your store aesthetic & profile to appeal better to them too.
Been on Etsy since 2007 - I am forrrrever trying to get people to niche down. So many POD sellers come into the forum and their store is a jumble of low-quality listings targeting any audience they saw a bestseller in. Niche stores get better SEO return, better customers, better social media and look like professional businesses. The only time you should ever consider being 'bit of everything' is right at the start if you have no clue/cares as to where you focus. But you need to niche as soon as you find something that does well and branch off that. And that'll probably take a few months longer than if you just pick one right out of the gate and stick at it.. Anyway good video - not enough people talk about how to rank well. 90% keywords, 10% luck.
Thank you! Adding into keywords + luck would be branding and aesthetic. I don't know how I'd break it down percentage wise. But Etsy builds a customer profile for your products and a big part on that customer profile is your branding & presentation. And as such... nicheing down, I agree, makes things MUCH easier!
Completely agree. Relevancy is the top factor for Etsy in determining who to show your products to - and the most important places they look for keyword clues as to relevancy for searchers are your title and tags. So if your product fizzles as Sarah says, changing up your title and tags is a great next step. Erank is really helpful for finding alternative keywords you might not have otherwise thought of.
So, if you were misled by an "expert" and went too broad from the start, can you resurrect a shop by focusing on the top sellers and deleting everything else? I have several categories of somewhat unrelated items and one of items for immigrants. Almost all of my sales are from the immigrant category. If I remove the other categories and expand the immigrant category would that be sufficiently niching down? Should I make a category for each country? I have experience with Web development and traditional SEO, but none of this matters there because Google ranks each page individually, not the site as a whole as Etsy appears to do.
Removing them isn't necessarily the issue. You can choose to remove them, but keeping them there and existing in your store isn't hurting you, it's probably just not helping is all. The key is to, from here-on-out, now that you've established a niche, start going deeper into this. Etsy has established a customer base for these products, and so now has data on who wants them. So if you release more products in this niche, Etsy can keep building up data and a customer base.
@QuixoticEnt have you tried using a keyword tool such as Erank and to determine what terms people are actually searching for? If you find relevant keywords with high volume and low competition and put them in your titles and tags, this will help buyers find your products. Etsy ranking relies on your quality score, and positive interaction with your listings from customers will help you get a good one.
sarah could you please make a complete tutorial on etsy like setting up a store till the description to shipping part cuz like me there are many who don't know what you just explained like targeting American audience or other basic things. I'd be extremely grateful if you'd do that.
Thankyou! Its good to know I am on the right track with my designs. Interesting about the more specific niches requiring less luck. I will keep that in mind. From across the ditch, an Aussie.
Hello Sarah. I started my Etsy shop back in February thanks to your video of how to make an Etsy T-Shirt business step by step. I wouldn't have even known about the world of print on demand if i didn't have that video in my recommended. I didn't want my shop to be niche specific, to immediately grab the attention of as many customers as possible, since it was a new store. So i started uploading T-Shirts, they didn't sell, i started uploading mugs too, they didn't sell, i deleted them all, started uploading home decor, accessories, and whatever i find on Printify, to see what will sell already. I'm at 200 products now 8 months later, no specific niche, no specific product, because i was desperate, since nothing was seling and i decided to just throw in just about anything and my shop doesn't look so good anymore. But now i hope that the customer will buy the product because they like the product and not my store. I only have 5 sales in all this time. It seems every single of my products has been "unlucky" as you say, Sarah. Which if we compare it to the 60.000.000 products that Etsy has, it's really one in a million to make a lucky product. Way too much competition.
Hello 👋 because I can't see your store, I can't give specific feedback, but I can say that generally, the biggest mistakes I see are: 1) No niche, which is something that you mention. The algorithm works by pairing the right products/store with the right customers. If you have no niche, you make it very different for the algorithm to do that. 2) Products that aren't clickable. If your products aren't good looking, or they look generic, then they won't get clicks. It doesn't matter if a store adds 5 products, or 500 products - if they aren't clickable, it won't make a difference, if that makes sense. That's not being unlucky, that is having the test fizzle because the customers just didn't click on it. 3) The store itself might not be branded to an aesthetic/particular type of customer which will make it difficult for the algorithm to pair you with the right customers, and it also hurts the conversions of products too, which then hurts the store performance with the algorithm. I recently made a video where I started a new store a few months ago and got it making money fast. Since making that video, the store has drastically scaled it's sales. Yes, there are millions of products, but my products still have done well because they are clickable and I am niched down 🙏
@@WholesaleTed Just watched it. Well, what can i say? Now i'm between deleting all the products in my shop and starting over with a specific niche, or keeping it and just making a second, niche specific store, to see how it will go compared to the first one.
From what I've heard from an Etsy coach, this is the opposite of how you're supposed to start a store. General stores do terrible on Etsy nowadays. (If you see a successful general store, that's probably because it's much older and got started when Etsy wasn't so concerned with nicheing, or because they spent a lot of money on ads to drive traffic to their store when it was new; once the sales start rolling in, then Etsy doesn't mind generality.) The coach I listen to would recommend that you scrap that store and start over again with a clear niche. (Yes, scrap the store itself, not scrap all your items and put in new ones, because Etsy's likely already flagged your store as non-viable, so it will be hard to pull it out of the ditch. A fresh store = a fresh start.) Don't upload more than one product per day to take advantage of the new product boost (Etsy also seems to disfavor stores that spam products). Also, I've found out myself that it's best to stay active in your Etsy store, rather than uploading some stuff and sitting back; Etsy demotes you if you don't seem to be active.
Hi Sarah! Do you have any videos on warnings about Etsy shutting down shops for no reason? I've seen some talk about this, where people have had a profitable shop suddenly shut down, making them lose their bread & butter, and then never being able to get back up where they were. This was concerning and made me wonder if I should even invest my time/energy in Etsy. Please advise! And thank you for all your amazing content - have been folloiwng you for years and always appreciate the work you put out to help us!
Thank you for tis information. I am hoping either you or someone else who has experience can answer my questions: 1. How soon does the algorithm work for brand new shop owners with new entries? 2. If a listing fizzles, if it is modified for appearance, can the new revision spark new interest in the algorithm?
So to reduce etsy testing a new product against the wrong audience, im assuming your listing SEO should be as targeted for the intended audience right out of the gate. Instead of using broad tags like house warming, gift for her, etc you would use new dachshund mug, daschund mom sweater, etc? Then maybe after some time, if that products sees activity you could try to reoptimize to hit a broader audience?
I actually would do the opposite, I would include those keywords, because that helps them build a profile of what type of customer might be interested in it, but it goes deeper than that, it is a holistic experience that starts from your store profile. Etsy doesn't just look at the keywords in your listing. It tries to figure out based on that who your target customer is. So you want your whole store aesthetic & profile to be on point with the types of products you sell 🙏
@WholesaleTed interesting. I suppose I need to get a better handle on etsy analytics then since I'll assume that if I go the broad tag approach, it would help me understand the type of customer that is interested in my product via what they search for when they click on one of my listings? My store is niche based so I'm aware of the audience I'm trying to target. I just need to keep refining to nail down the typical products and aesthetics they prefer to increase my conversion. I have some idea but I definitely could get better at it.
Would it be wise to advertise on different social media platforms BEFORE putting a new product up on Etsy? Would that boost in engagement do anything positive in regards to how Etsy rates your product? (Am I making any sense?🤪)
That makes perfect sense and it is a great question. It would be a great idea to advertise your products on other platforms, if the traffic is relevant & interested in your product, and it would absolutely give it a leg-up in the algorithm. Viral algorithms work by gathering data on the target audience. If you can provide that data/information to the algorithm, that helps it a lot!
Hello Sarah, thank you so much for this amazing video, and for sharing your knowledge with us 🙏🏼 I opened an Etsy shop last week and have so far 2 shirts targeting different audiences. (And in my list of ideas I have ideas for many other categories). My shop has no description yet either. None of my listings got any views. Does this mean the algorithm didn’t even put them to the test, or that the test failed? I think about niching down like you suggest, and also “dedicate” my shop to that niche in the description. But does it mean that I should start anew? Should I add new listings to the existing ones, or delete them? Should I open a new shop? Thank you so much 🙏🏼
Yes - it was a brilliant graph that represented pretty much any viral algorithm. I have the link to his video in the description if you want to give that a, re-watch!
Thank you Sarah, a lot of great clarifications and well presented as usual, one question : if the test fails, what to do with the listing? Change the SEO? Change the main photo? or copy it to have the boost for new products? what if It already has one or two good reviews and we don't want to lose them by copying it?
If it already has reviews, then it's already been successfully pushed by Etsy and it found customers for it (otherwise it wouldn't have reviews!) so I don't quite understand that part of the question, sorry! However, if I wanted to revive a dead listing that I think has more potential than what it's achieved, I would: 1) Change the photo - clearly the photo isn't working, hence the listing is dead. 2) Advertise it with Etsy ads.
I made a video on it recently, but I am personally more interested in physical products, because they earn more money, which is why I make videos on them. Although this same algorithm also applies to digital products!
Hi Sarah, awesome video, Thankyou! I have a question around selling in multiple countries with Printify- I’m in Australia and want to sell here and in the US but am unsure how to set up shipping profiles so that customers see accurate pricing for shipping wherever they are. The only answer I’ve found is to create multiples of the same listing with different shipping profiles? Is there a better way?! I know Gelato does this, but the margins are so much worse than Printify. Thankyou!
Love your intelligent videos. Sadly, I was perm suspended from Etsy after 1 month. Still uncertain why. No transparency on their part. So… I moved to Shopify… but I’m lousy at marketing. Are you able to address these types of situations? Older videos don’t seem to be relevant to 2023-2024.
I am sorry to hear that! I will be discussing Shopify soon, a lot of my videos on it are still absolutely relevant, but the style of my videos is older, haha, my videos from 3 years ago aren't edited as sharply as they are today!
I've been binge watching your videos! Quick question, if using print on demand products, how many do you recommend having to start an Etsy shop? 10, 20, 30?
You can literally start with just 1, then add however many per day/week is sustainable for you. In my opinion, business is not a sprint - it's a marathon!
In my experience it works for each new product posted. However, if you overtime build a very unfocused store, it will become harder & harder for the algorithm to pair your products with the right customers, and so the testing phase becomes increasingly likely to fizzle.
Thanks for sharing the video with everyone . I am trying to start to sell only Digital downs with AI ART since I have never sold anything online before Question should I open up a store and just place one AI ART image up there to see if it passes or fizzles if it does not pass then I just take that one down and try another and just repeat until it passes?
I want to change my shipping on some items I sell but not sure how to do so. Some items like shirts work well with including shipping in initial cost so as to offer free shipping but other small items adding shipping costs to initial price makes them seem very expensive especially if more than one item is likely to be purchased at a time but the second item can be included in shipping for a fraction of the cost of the first item.
Offer it as a separate charge. I get comments all the time from people saying things like "I want to sell on Etsy but can't because I need to offer free shipping" and I'll be honest, I get confused! I am not sure where the free shipping myth has come from. You don't need to offer free shipping, customers do not expect free shipping, and they expect to pay it as a separate charge. When you add an item in via a POD app, let them set the shipping rates for you, and that is it - you don't need to stress about offering free shipping :)
When does this testing happen?? As soon as we release a new product or at some other time?? Wondering if its imperative to have everything correct before releasing the product??
From my experience, there is no specific time frame, other than: "When the algorithm has gathered enough data to pick a test audience, and a test audience has become available." I think it is absolutely imperative to have everything correct before releasing a product, you should assume it could be tested at anytime.
@@WholesaleTed Thank you for the reply!! Ive got a new shop & Ive been putting things up without having the listing completed. Ill definitely change that moving forward!!!
Thanks for this information! Do you have a video on how to take those photos and make them usable on mugs, tshirts, etc? You wouldn't take a full photo and use it on your product.
Thank you. And I've got several videos on this channel that discuss turning photos into products, you can check out one here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IC1GFXiJK7A.html
Hi, I was wondering if I set up an Etsy account and try to sell something unique and different like interactive color by number wall art, would it work? Because the Etsy algorithm pushes your products out to people who have bought things similar to yours, so if you make a unique wall art different from all the rest would they try to promote it?
Well, Im still homeless and spunky super store only has 2 sales 😅. Been listening to RU-vidrs bout the Etsy.. but is it possible that we are being misled so they may stay ahead? Or, would they then change the algorithm once discovered? Seems like everything is designed to keep people down these days.. I know from experience- misled into a bad job, misled into thinking disability insurance would help me back on my feet.. and misled directly into homelessness 😢 but hopefully create my RU-vid Channel soon (saving up for starlink via etsy). Have these tips worked for anyone? Interested in living again!
Hi Sarah, your videos are always awesome. Just a question on creating websites for different niches. Is it okay to upload T-Shirt designs for multiple niches on the one website? Or is it better to create a different website for each niche? Cheers Michael
Can you have several stores (niches) in one account? Or… Do you have to make a separate account for each store (niche)?@@WholesaleTed . I have created several t-shirt designs, but they don't all fit in the same niche.
Also, how many days does it take for Etsy to test its product on people? And how many days does it take it to fizzle? If I sent a link to friends and they looked at my products, did that keep them from fizzling? Sorry I’m so late!
Hi Sarah I'm in Australia, I wanted to know if I should sell in U.S currency or Aus?I have linked my printify account to ebay.Which currency do you sell in?
I sell in USD because my target customers are USA based and I want to have clean prices for them, but because Etsy does convert it into a customers local currency for them, I have considered making the switch to selling in NZD, but I haven't yet confirmed whether the customer would be charged a currency conversion fee or not. If they are, I would never make the switch and would always sell in USD.
Question, my 2 month old shop already failed with 70 listings and just 1 sale, i want to completely rebrand with a much better plan, should i just open a new shop ore delete all listings on this one and start listing my new ones? (reason for this question is because the shop name is just fine, shame to go for e new one)
No harm in using the current one if you like the name imo. The Etsy algorithm doesn't sound like it has accumulated any on-going useful data for your store, so it's still effectively a clean slate for you to craft into what you'd like it to be 🌞
Thank you for this video. It gave me an idea and want to share For my products, If I ask to chat GPT about what kind of people use X products, it gives me some kind of people. (for ex:families, Home Decor Enthusiasts, Artists and Designers,History Enthusiast...) What happens if I use these word with # in description? (#historyenthusiasts) Can my product reach them directly? What do you say?
That's a great use for ChatGPT and yes, it would be great to include them. But remember it's not just your keywords in your description, title etc. It is also about creating an overall aesthetic for both your product listing and your store as a whole.
hey i get your fREE book and then want to get offer of subscribtio but i cant complete payment because my card was not accepted . i m from india , i dint have international card so , how i can pay u . please guide
🙏 My ebook is free, you don't have to buy anything! When you register for my ebook, it is immediately emailed to you (it can take up to 15 minutes to show in your emails, however). This is completely free. However, because of your email settings, the email may have landed in an email inbox you weren't expecting (such as Promotions, or Spam). Because of this, everyone that registers for my ebook is sent to a thank-you page, with an instruction video I kindly ask everyone to watch. It's at the very top of the page. If you watch the video, you'll see 2 things: 1) That it starts with a 30-second tutorial showing how to locate my ebook in your emails, if it didn't land in your inbox. The video reiterates the ebook was immediately sent, for free, once you submitted your email, and that it does not cost anything - including $1. I also show a support email to message, if you are still having trouble finding the email that contains the free ebook. You can also email us if you'd like, you can email ted@wholesaleted.com to get a copy of the ebook personally sent to you again, for free 🙏 2) Everyone is then offered an optional $1 7-day trial as a thank-you to my video course not my ebook, my *video course*, The Ecomm Clubhouse. This is NOT my ebook and it is reiterated multiple times that it is NOT my ebook, it is OPTIONAL, you DON'T need to register for it to get my ebook (as it's already been sent to you). 🙏 I kindly ask everyone who registers to please watch the video on the thank-you page. The ebook is free and if everyone watches the first 30-seconds of that video, they will see how to find the email with their free ebook if the email was filtered to a different email folder 🙏
They haven't gone anywhere? Not many people have commented on this video. My tutorial/educational videos don't get anywhere near as many comments as my news videos. Which I understand, haha
I must be in the twilight zone! I commented on this video and you replied, which I appreciate, thank you 🙏🏻 But, I could not find it, left the, " Where did all your comments go...? ". So I searched my comments, and my question is in the "How I made money fast..." Video which I have not watched yet? It's so strange? 🤓 I'm so confused. My question was about the algorithm and vintage sellers. I can literally hear the twilight zone music do do do do... Bizarre!
Oh, you did comment on a different video about vintage items and the algorithm. You posted that question on the video about making sales fast as a new seller 🙏
Yes 😂 but the bizarre thing is I haven't watched that video. I watched this one about the algorithm, your chart, niche down etc and asked how it can be applied etc to vintage items? Very odd 😂😂 but... I am very grateful and appreciative for all your responses to my comments even my confused and I don't know what's happening, black mirror ones too 🤓
@Wholesale Ted Greetings from thousands of miles away! You are clearly brilliant, and also a wonderful and *natural* teacher. I never skip through your videos, as they are so dense with how-to steps, pointers, etc. @CEODRIVEHER and your channel introduced me to Canva. I am still learning the ropes. Thank you for this very interesting information. 💡💻📚
Etsy doesn't just ban accounts for no reason. That is a myth and it's a common myth caused by a lot of rumors that have spread about Etsy. The most common reasons accounts get banned are: 1) They break Etsy's TOS. For example, people recently got banned for showcasing product mockups featuring t-shirt colors that did NOT match the t-shirt color the customer was receiving. This started a myth that Etsy just bans people for using mockups when, in reality, people were using mockups that were not accurate which is against their TOS. But the myth still stands. 2) They break copyright infringements. I see people breaking them all the time on Etsy. They will then post that they got "banned" for "no reason" but when you dig deeper, you find that they were infringing on copyrights & trademarks. 3) They got a new-account suspension. The majority of new account signups to Etsy are spam & scam accounts. They therefore have very strong fraudulent filters on for new accounts. This is necessary, to protect their userbase. Etsy therefore often suspends new stores as a precaution, and will place a banner on the store dashboard asking the suspension to be appealed if it error. For 99% of people that appeal this, their account gets reinstated. It is a myth that Etsy bans people for no reason. I understand why it's widely believed. But it's not true.
@WholesaleTed I started a shop, listed nothing, deleted the original listing and got banned before I could list anything. This happened twice in a row.
Did you appeal the first ban? Starting a second store after your first store received a new-store suspension is explicitly against Etsy's rules. You cannot start a second store if you've already got a ban from another store. That is standard practice with most marketplaces 🙏
@WholesaleTed appealed both. Both got denied with zero explanation. Canned AI response with zero possibility of any communication or reconsideration. This was after I set up all the social media accounts and website I was going to use.
No, this video shows it's the opposite of that. The algorithm can only work with the data it is given. If you give it broad data, then without any audience data to pair it with, it will struggle to place your, products with the right customers. If you niche down and give it a lot of data to work with, it can have a much higher rate of success. You can then use that success to build an audience data set for the algorithm, which it can then use for other products you release. It is the opposite of a crap shoot!
