New seller tips

Hi All,
Just opened my first shop with just a handful of items!!..any tips on how to get started welcome. Still working my way round the site, and just created my Facebook page eek - please visit and like / share. I will return the favour :grinning: https://facebook.com/profile.php?id=426910354161345

Info on what works best for you to get people to your site e.g Facebook, Twitter, craft fair exposure etc. Thanks everyone :slight_smile:

Hi there and welcome to Folksy and the forums

Just popped over to look at your shop and heres what I would suggest might help

Folksy crops photos square on the shop front so some of your photos appear to be missing bits - its a good idea to either take photos with a sufficient border so that when cropped they donā€™t lose bits or do the editing yourself and upload photos in a square format. Your photos also seem to have quite a blue tinge to them - there are various editing packages out there that allow you to set the white balance although I try to do it using as much natural light as possible and the white balance settings on my camera. The background in some of you shots appears a little ruffled and creased which detracts from the item.

Try and add a few more tags, we can add 15 and the more you have the more likely you are to be picked up in searches.

I know you have only just opened your shop but if possible try and get some more items in your shop so that visitors have plenty to look at before they go elsewhere.

As far as driving traffic to your shop - thats a hard one! Did you know you can add a ā€œshop nowā€ button to your FB page which you can link to your shop. I struggle with social media generally - Iā€™m not terribly good at communicating with my friends let alone trying to engage with the general public but there are many that swear by it, twitter and instagram seem to be popular but there are many others - I find craft juice quite good.

There are quite a few threads on this forum about tips - this is just one - If you could share one tip with new sellers, what would it be? and also lots on the folksy blog to read.
http://blog.folksy.com

Hope that helps - good luck
Roz

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Hi Roz,
Thanks so much for taking the time to look at my shop and give me feedback.
Iā€™m trying to build up my products gradually, trying to fit it in around other work commitments!
I visited your shop, which looks gorgeousā€¦I love your scarves, theyā€™re beautiful.
I have a lot to learn and a long way to go.
Thanks again for all your tips x :blush:

Not sure how this works x love some one to check my site and tell me what I do to inprove it x and do some thing in return x

Hi @BodkinCreates Iā€™d suggest you head over to the folksy blog and read the articles on how to write a good title/ description/ tags to get your work found in both internal and external searches. As an artist you want to give your works a title but the ones youā€™ve used arenā€™t search engine friendly - have a watch of the product listing review videos to see what I mean. Hereā€™s the link to the blog

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Really kind thank you for talking time to do this x am @bodkincreates on ig x
Many thanks will inprove tiles x

Thank you will take on board and make changes just watching video x gratefull

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Hi i have started changing the titles x this kind you will be to.busy but should you get another look now Iā€™ve seen video grateful of any little nuggets I can do to inprove it x can I do any thing in return will give a folksy shout on my feed if helps

The first thing I would do is change your tags. Youā€™ve written them like hashtags on instagram, but here you donā€™t need the # symbol and you donā€™t need to run your words together, so instead of ā€œ#acrylicpaintingā€ it should be ā€œacrylic paintingā€. Also make sure you hit enter after each tag, as it seems occasionally you have 2 or 3 tags in one.

Some of your items donā€™t have any tags, so make sure you add these as it helps items get found in search. Itā€™s best to use all 15 if you can, but if you canā€™t think of that many, at least make sure you have some.

Next, a lot of your items donā€™t make any mention of size. If Iā€™m buying a painting, at a minimum I want to know the height and width (and for your paintings, is that the height and width of the painted area or of the frame?). For your dolls I would want to see the height in either cm or inches, not just compared to a pencil as then I would have to search around my house to see if I have an unused pencil and measure how big it is. Itā€™s great as a scale photo, which I see you have, but Iā€™d also want to see an accurate measurement in the description.

Which brings me to the next improvement Iā€™d do - photos. On some of your items youā€™ve showed plenty of different angles and used up all your photo slots, which is great, but on your paintings youā€™ve only got one photo. If Iā€™m buying something online I generally feel more comfortable if I can see more than one photo, as it helps show itā€™s a quality item and that it looks good from all different anglesā€¦ not just one. Iā€™d definitely feel a bit wary about spending Ā£95 on something if Iā€™ve only seen one photo.
You might think a painting is a flat thing so one photo is all you need, but itā€™s nice to see the painting as a whole straight on, the painting from an angle so you can see how the edges look (particularly if on stretched canvas or framed), the painting close up so you can the detail, the painting from afar so you can get some scale for how big it is and the back of the painting so you know how it hangs.
You donā€™t have to do all those views, but itā€™d be nice to see a couple more.

Brilliant lovely lots to work.on now you star x

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I will really take on board what you have said and work through my listing thank you for the hand of helpfull crafter x

I know it might take a while to get through all the changes (writing listings can be awfully dull), but hopefully itā€™ll help you get more views and sales.

Any pointers would be appreciated. I am just starting to stock my shop but quite at a loss on how to move forward and generate sales

This is something I did badly myself when I first started, so please donā€™t think Iā€™m getting at anyone, I just want to pass on a tip that helped me:

If you make fabric items or use a fabric background then IRON IT!

It doesnā€™t take long and can make a huge difference. Even little tiny creases that you donā€™t notice in real life seem to become huge distractions on a photo. It can appear that you donā€™t care enough about the item to present it nicely, and that puts people off from buying.

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